#Frances Balfour

[droitsdesfemmes]

Manifestation féministe à Londres le 13 juin 1908, devant la bannière de Bath, Frances Balfour et Millicent Fawcett. Agence Rol.

[tenth-sentence]

John Balfour of Colinton had imbibed notions prevalent in France not consistent with morality and propriety.*

* Homosexuality.

"Killing for Country: A Family History" - David Marr

[immaculatasknight]

Getting your head clear

[alfedena]

People do not realize that when we say Israel is a settler-colonial state, we mean it was literally devised in junction with European imperialism around the turn of the century.

Political Zionism was founded by Theodore Herzl. Originally, Zionists were not specifically interested in the land of Palestine as a colonial project. In fact, Herzl was debating making Argentina the focus of mass Zionist migration, which is quite ironic considering Argentina's colonial and Aryanist past. British-controlled Uganda was also offered as a possibility by Joseph Chamberlain, a Conservative imperialist.

To encourage mass Jewish migration to Palestine, he worked with the British, who had recently drove the Ottoman Empire out of the Levant, and now boasted political dominance in the region, thanks to the Sykes–Picot Agreement between the UK, France, Italy, and Russia which covertly authorized British influence in Palestine, which had become a target of colonial expansion. He specifically wished to collaborate with Cecil Rhodes, a British imperialist who played a lead role in colonizing Zimbabwe and Zambia, and later took inspiration from his time spent extracting wealth from Africa as the founder of mining conglomerate the British South Africa Company.

Herzl’s personal goals for Zionism were colonial. He said in a letter to Rhodes:

“You are being invited to help make history. It doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor; not Englishmen but Jews […] How, then, do I happen to turn to you since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial […] I […] have examined this plan and found it correct and practicable. It is a plan full of culture, excellent for the group of people for whom it is directly designed, and quite good for England, for Greater Britain [...]”

At that time, Palestine was predominately populated with Arab Muslims and Christians, as well as Arab Jews (Old Yishuv) and Druze. Jews made up around 6% of the population. The Ottoman government specifically released a manifesto at the start of Zionist migration condemning the colonization, stating:

“[Jews] among us […] who have been living in our province since before the war; they are as we are, and their loyalties are our own.”

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 on behalf of parliament, officially established the British Mandate of Palestine, sowing the seeds for the modern state of Israel, by means of the UK's ongoing occupation of the region.

Zionism was never about promoting Jewish culture or safety; it has always been tied up in Western (settler-)colonial expansion. !من النهر إلى البحر

[zemoiii]

Before Palestine and Israel conflict.

I just love the fact that so many people seem to intentionally ignore the events before this whole conflict, that the Arab countries had suffered under, Including Palestine. They went from 400 years of being colonized under the former Turkish empire (Ottoman empire) to being betrayed by Britain after signing up a contract that guaranteed Arabs an independent nation if they fought against the Ottomans alongside the Allied power in WW1, they succeeded but Britain and France have secretly signed up a contract (Sykes-Picot) behind Arabs' backs; that is both colonizers will share the Arab countries, which means no independence for them.

Then Balfour Declaration (an independent Jewish country in Palestine, that was already habited by thousands of Arabs and other ethnicities) happened, which was an insult to the already colonized Arab countries; after years of suffering under colorization and generational trauma, why would they accept such a contract? why would they accept a country that is supported by the very same colonizers that betrayed them? and why the fuck would they even accept the reality that this potential country will be definitely treated much better than them?

Hope y'all were bothered to read this as so many people always ignore this very important history that played a huge role.

[makethatelevenrings]

I mean this with ZERO disrespect, I'm simply trying to educate myself on this matter because it impacts us all.

All I can find about the Israel-Palestine conflicts is the fighting. What I want to know is why.

Whats the backstory? Why are they fighting? Why is everyone persecuting one another and who in the government is responsible?

I heard Hamas bombed Gaza and has taken hostages. What brought on this violence? Do all the Palestinians agree with this?

(More personal opinion questions, you don't need to answer these)

Do you agree with Hamas? Do you think that violence was a last resort to free Palestine? Do you think it's justified?

One thing I do hate is people saying "I hate *this group of people*, they are bad." They can't all be bad. So I don't like the titles of Anti-Israel/Anti-Palestine because you're assuming everyone there is on the same side.

In conclusion, people are stupid. The government is messed up. Citizens and families want to live so why won't the government let them?

I’m genuinely grateful that you’re asking because educating ourselves is one of the greatest tools we have. I’ll break it up into sections.

1. What’s the backstory?

In 1918, the Ottoman Empire conceded land they controlled to Britain (this is still an ongoing problem regarding many, many things because the Ottoman Empire controlled many nations that weren’t theirs to control if you catch my drift. Look up the Elgin marbles for a fun wormhole of WTF Britain). The Arab Revolt was backed by France and Britain with the promise that if the Arab fighters could force the Ottomans out of the area of the Levant, they would be granted independence (McMahon-Hussein Correspondence) but, plot twist, France and the UK instead split the region (Sykes-Picot Agreement). The Balfour Declaration of 1917 expressed Britain’s support of the creation of Israel. After they gained control of the region, they established Israel and systematically began to take the land of Palestinians.

Note: Zionism began as a belief in the mid-18th century. Many, MANY Jewish people do not subscribe, encourage, or promote the idea of a Jewish state. I do not view Israel = Jewish because it is antisemitic to imply that the Jewish diaspora all exist under the state of Israel. Especially when many Jewish people disagree with Israel.

Note note: Zionism was created as a response to the numerous pogroms and other antisemitic hate crimes affecting Jewish people. the Holocaust was fucking awful. No ifs ands or buts. Genocide doesn’t justify genocide, however.

Continuing on. So, clearly, the Palestinians are pissed. They were promised independence and instead now have their land taken by a global superpower who has historically fucked over hundreds of countries (another wormhole for you: India under British rule, Ireland and literally all of its history with England, the transatlantic slave trade under Britain, Africa under British rule, Australia and the treatment of Aboriginals under British rule, America and the British, it goes on). Palestinians revolted from 1936-1939 because, again, their home and promise of independence was being stolen. They lost against the British army but then 1939 was a bit of an important year for everyone and they world was sucked into another world war.

With WWII saw the birth of the United Nations, an organization that might sound important but has the moral backbone with the equivalence of a chocolate eclair. The UN said “hey, why don’t we split Palestine and Israel into two different states so maybe they’ll stop fighting” (United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine) and, as a result, the 1948 Palestine-Israel war began. Hundreds died. 700k+ people were forced from Palestine and spread across the world in what is called the Nakba. Israeli colonizers quite literally moved into homes that had been occupied by Palestinians only days before. In 1918, the Jewish population of the region was 8.1%. In 1948, when Israel was recognized as a nation by the UN, the Jewish population of the region was 82.1%.

2. There’s plenty of infographics and videos explaining the next few decades but I’m already writing an essay basically so the gist is: Palestinians keep losing their homes and Israel keeps taking them. Israel forces the Palestinians into smaller and smaller parcels of land until the control virtually everything but a small strip of land (Gaza) and the West Bank. That brings us to 2006.

Hamas was elected in 2006 over rivaling Fatah, gaining majority amount of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council under the promise that they would help end the corruption many Palestinians were frustrated with. Instead they took military control over Gaza and established an autocratic state over millions of people who were already suffering under barbaric policies and practices from Israel. Politicians.

This is where things get a little…messy morally. Do I agree with Hamas? Fuck no. I couldn’t care less about Hamas because they don’t care about Palestinians. Do all Palestinians agree with Hamas? Firstly, you will rarely find a group of people where all agree with some. Secondly, I don’t think they appreciate being bombed by Israel while Hamas leaders chill somewhere else. The people of Palestine are the victims of Hamas and Israel.

Did some Palestinians celebrate Hamas’ actions? Yes. Do I think violence is a last resort? Yes and no. Do I think it’s justified? Yes and no.

Lemme expand on those last two points. I want to be an international human rights attorney someday. The loss of innocent life is always a fucking tragedy that I hope to help prevent or to bring justice for them. I understand violence. I understand why people are so angry. I understand the rage and grief Palestinians feel. 75 years of having their rights stripped away, their homes quite literally occupied, their land and culture chipped away piece by piece, and their children bombed and shot at.

“But how on earth can you think violence is justified if people get hurt!” The American Revolution was an act of violence that got numerous people killed yet you will rarely find someone who won’t justify it. Ukraine defending themselves against Russia wanting their land with no regard to how many Ukrainians they kill is considered justified.

People just seem to focus on the “violence is bad” aspect of things once POC are involved. Yeah, I said it. Americans tired of taxation, of British rule, and of not having their independence causes property damage, argues with soldiers in the streets, and starts a war is okay but when Palestinians do it, it’s a problem? When Black Americans ask to stop being brutalized by the police, it’s a problem? When Black South Africans ask to end an apartheid state, it’s a problem? When Central Americans ask for western nations to stop causing coups that destabilizes their nations, it’s a problem? I could go on.

Yeah, violence is bad. Violence is also the way that a lot of countries are where they are today. Violence is sometimes the only reason why things changed. Violence is enacted on the oppressed everyday yet people only seem to really care once the oppressed fight back.

3. I’m anti-Israel because I don’t agree with the government and the state of Israel. I don’t agree with their 75 years of violent oppression of Palestinians. I don’t agree with their current or past actions. I’m anti-Hamas. I think they’re a vacuous organization that is more focused on getting what they want than considering the consequences of innocent Palestinians.

I’m also really fucking furious at Joe Biden’s insistence that we send aid to Israel. We have given Israel $260 BILLION since 1948. BILLION. And yet we have people dying because they can’t afford healthcare. Students leaving school because they can’t afford tuition. We have 8 year olds in debt because they can’t afford school lunches. The unhoused population is growing rapidly due to the housing crisis. I can sense the unemployment rate creeping higher. I know many people who have lost their jobs this past month alone. We’re days away from another government shutdown and they can’t vote on a speaker.

American politicians would rather send Israel billions more to bomb innocent people than to feed their own citizens. That, in my opinion, is a sort of violence that can never be justified.

[psychologeek]

Jewish History and Zionism.

Or: why you gotta be so difficult about that tiny piece of land?

Ft. Britain, Ottoman empire, the Age of Enlightenment, and helll lot of racism.

(But like. That was obvious.)

ToC:

Britain, shortly (or: the problem with "but they created Israel!!")

Indigenous

Jews in the 19th century

The ottoman empire (pt.1 - geography and maps)

Bibliography (cited articles)

Edit: I changed/removed things that were spesificly for the person I had this discussion with, as they show understanding of what was problematic with their og comment, and regrets it.

~

A. This was not about you personally. It was about the way Jewish pain is constantly generalized and turn into something for "the world". Somehow, Jewish tragedies are either ignored or "a lesson for the world".

B. My problem with the term was that by saying "as a FELLOW JEW" you claim relationship to the community and kinship which you later use to dismiss cultural and community issues. You are Jewish (as your mother). My issue is that the only usage you seem to have is to make claims. This is... disturbing, seeing claimed made while ignoring the historical background. (AKA 2,000 years of exile, enslavement, oppressions and murders).

~

1. Britain:

The British were involved in the creation of The Jewish State, Israel by the “Balfour Declaration”. The League of Nations is a predecessor to the United Nations.

Yes, the British were involved in the creation of the Jewish state. As well as the Emirate of Trans-Jordan (1921-1946) - later became "Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" (est. 1946). Also in the creation of India, Pakistan, and many other countries no one seem to have an issue with.

Also the france were involved in the creation of Lebanon, Algeria, Lybia, etc.

(The world was mostly controlled by EMPIRES. So yes. When an empire fall apart, sometimes there is an involvement in what happens next.)

Focusing on a certain group and judging them and their actions by different standards then others is. Uh. Pretty racist view, you know?

Britanica:

Alarmed by the extent of Arab opposition, the British government issued a White Paper in June 1922 declaring that Great Britain did “not contemplate that Palestine as a whole should be converted into a Jewish National Home, but that such a Home should be founded in Palestine.” Immigration would not exceed the economic absorptive capacity of the country, and steps would be taken to set up a legislative council. These proposals were rejected by the Arabs, both because they constituted a large majority of the total mandate population and therefore wished to dominate the instruments of government and rapidly gain independence and because, they argued, the proposals allowed Jewish immigration, which had a political objective, to be regulated by an economic criterion.

This is the area of the "British Mandate of Palestine". Brits had separated it and gave 2/3 and claimed it a different reign.

As for governing - The Hashemite emir Abdullah, elder son of Britain's wartime Arab ally Hussein bin Ali, was placed on the throne of Transjordan. 

Yet, for some reason, no one ever said anything like "from the river to Iraq, all the land will be back."

Hi, guess what is it called when there are laws that forbid and heavily reduce members of a spesific group from living in certain areas?

(Strangely, no such boundary was set on the immigration of Muslims, Christians, or any other kind of people. Only jews.)

Source: Israel embassy

In 1920, the Council of the League of Nations appointed Britain as the Mandatory entrusted with the administration of the Land of Israel. The borders of the land, as a separate country, were defined for the first time in many centuries. Until then, under the Ottoman Empire, the land's boundaries had not been defined because it was part of other large Ottoman districts like the district of Damascus and was not a distinct political unit. The term name "Palestine" that was chosen for this Mandate was based on the term name "Palestina" that was given to the country by the Roman Empire in the second century CE. The territory of the British Mandate included land on both sides of the Jordan River, encompassing the present-day countries of Israel and Jordan. About 77% of this Mandate was east of the river Jordan River, and in 1921, Great Britain created there a separate administrative entity called Transjordan. The changed mandate took effect in 1923

2. Indigenous

Here's another part I want to dig in deeper:

"(the arabs) constituted a large majority of the total mandate population" -

The Arabs. Notice the name? I wonder how they got there. A true mystery. Green: Arab Peninsula. Red: area in question.

Hebrew was spoken in the area long before Muhammad and the Muslim empire.

I grew up near a 2,000 year old burial cave. The stories I learnt about my heritage happened in places I knew, with names I understood the meaning of.

This is the equivalent of calling for land back in Pennsylvania in the name of  Pennsylvania Dutch.

3. Jews in the 19th century

Part of the reason for low Jewish population in the area was that unlike any other people, Jews were legally prohibited from living in the area. Now, some background: in general, the Ottoman empire was a pretty descent place for Jews, comparing to other places. Sure, had to pay extra taxes and not allowed to live in places, but you can mostly know you won't be exiled once the authorities felt like (looking at you Britain, Yemen, Spain, Morocco, and more). The 19th century had marked a rise in nationalism (results to the Fall of Empires in the 20th century). It also saw the coin of a new term: "antisemism".

This came to describe Jew-hatred that isn't focused on the religious part ("they killed Jesus"/"They kept faith for themselves"), but seem to have a more "neutral" reason. Even scientific, as "they are naturally inferior" (see "the race theory", Eugenics, and more.) If you see similarities with Romanis in Europe and Black people in America - yes. This wasn't just about Jews - it was a general trend due to the so called "Age of Enlightenment" in Europe.

Part of the things that happened to/in the Jewish Community in the 19th century including:

1860: Foundation of "Alliance Israélite Universelle" an international Jewish (charity) organization.

First mass Aliya (immigration to Israel) of Yemeni jews in 1882/Jewish year of תרמ"ב (aka "אעלה בתמר")

1827 (Russia): the "cantonists' Decree"

The "okaz" (regulation, instruction) of the emperor from the end of August 1827, which imposed an obligation on the communities to provide the monarchy with a fixed quota of rookie soldiers, stunned the Jewish population. The terrible tragedy of the kidnapping of Israeli children (from the age of twelve according to the law, but actually even from the age of eight) for military training is known in the history of Russian Jews, and has even been commemorated in literature. The service in the Nikolai army, which lasted twenty-five years, was counted from the age of eighteen, and the years of "education" of the minor abductees, the "cantonists", were not included in it, as these years were out of the calculation. The purpose of the government in this decree was to convert the Jews to their religion and to mix them with the Pravoslav Christian Russian population.

(translated from: Maor, Y., 1981)

1881-2: Sufot Banegev - mass Pogroms of jews in south-east Russia (Ukraine, Poland) after Tzar Nikolai's murder. The Jews were accused of the murder. I was unable to find any information in English, but here's one in Hebrew ("today in history"). (I might be able to get one in Russian if you know that.)

May Laws (link to online version of the Jewish Encyclopedia.)

During the 1880s - founding of multiple "Lovers of Zion" organisations in Russia.

The assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 ushered in a painful new era. The pogroms after his death were followed by the notorious 'May Laws' of 1882 which stepped up economic discrimination against the Jews. The stirring among the Jewish community, both physical and intellectual, was heightened. Many more of them started to leave, mainly for America, and not a few began to think seriously about Jewish nationalism, with the result that the 'Lovers of Zion' Movement gained momentum. Some of them, whether for reasons of sheer physical safety or nationalism or a combination of both, thought of finding a home in the Ottoman Empire. (Mandel, 1974)

1894 (France): The Dreyfus affair

Theodore Herzl, a Jewish Journalist, was there as a reporter. He said this was the moment he realised jews As a journalist in France, Herzl became extremely upset during the Dreyfus affair, in which a Jewish army officer was falsely accused and convicted of espionage. The only solution to the problem of the Jews, he decided, was to create a Jewish state. Although Dreyfus was ultimately pardoned (in 1906), the episode revealed that emancipation would be an incomplete and ongoing process.

1896 (Vienna): Theodore Herzl published his book "Der Judenstaat: Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage" (The Jews’ State: An Attempt at a Modern Solution to the Jewish Question)

Herzl published this work, Der Judenstaat, to galvanize his fellow Jews into action. He asserts that emancipation itself caused antisemitism, since it failed as a movement. He concludes that Jews cannot continue to live among other nations since their presence inevitably gives rise to hostility. Herzl’s answer was for Jews to organize a mass migration to a territory of their own.

1897: the First Zionist Congress of the Zionist Organization. The official goal of Zionism (Basel Program) read: "Zionism seeks to establish a home in Palestine for the Jewish people, secured under public law."

As we can see, the 19 century wasn't good to jews, especially in Russia (and I mean Russia of that time - which included the area of Ukraine, and parts of Poland). Starting with a legal forced children-kidnapping. During the 80s, massive pogroms, on long time and area, had spread terror among the Jewish communities. The authorities' refusal to assist and victim blaming weren't uncommon, but not in those masses. 2.4 million jews had left Russia during those years, mostly to the USA, Canada, and Argentina (115.000 ppl). 3% (~73,000 ppl) had immigrated to Israel.

Also a worldwide rise in nationalism*, that was also used as a reason for jew-hatred (bc what bring ppl together better than having the same enemy?). In France, the Dreyfus affair made Herzl realise that the emancipation (jewish semi-autonomous areas, a-la Reservations in usa) wouldn't work. It won't help to prevent the systematic and cultural discrimination. Eventually inventing *modern day* Zionism - secular consept. (not to be confused with Hibat Ztiyon/"Zion Loving" - which was an old Jewish consept since the first exile, 6th century BCE.

*Nationalism, as itself, wasn't a bad thing. It was a big part of decolonisation (as different groups in the empire demanded to have their own autonomy.)

4. Ottoman empire (Geography and MAPS)

Let's skip a few thousand miles away, to the Ottoman empire.

First thing we need to know is - how the map looked like, back then?

The empire was divided into different areas, that all had sub-areas, et al. For better understanding, think about it like USA's country vs. state. Vs. reign.

The empire was divided into different EYALETS (aka beylerbeyiliks. after 1860s- Vilayet), that contained several Sanjcks, that contained several Kazas.

This is a map of the empire in 1875, as it already started to fade:

Two more maps for better understanding of spesific areas

The Damascus Eyalet in 1795 (red):

(the north-west (top-left) is Sidon/Beirut/Sefad Eyalet. Do you see the Sea of the Galilee? It's the little dot in the middle).

1896:

Authority areas kept changing. This is another map, showing Vilayets (Syria, Beirut, Aleppo) and their Sanjaks (+independent Sanjak of Jerusalem).

I'm pretty sure that this one is the simplified version:

Why do I show it?

Well, first of all - definitions. Making sure we all know what area we're talking about. During the years, "Filistin"/"Palestine"/"Paleshet" used to refer to many areas: from almost all the southern levant to a coast reign, about the size of modern-day Gaza Strip.

Secondly? Our next part, about the Jews and the empire. Especially the 1881 declaration by the Council of Ministers that

"[Jewish] immigrants [would] be able to settle as scattered groups throughout Turkey, excluding Palestine".

(Mandel, 1974)

I wonder why..

~

I've been working on it for days, so I'll post this now and add the second part, in which I'll explain this last bit and continue, later.

Next part: immigration, Zionism, and the breaking point in the Jewish-Arab relationship (no, not 1948. It was 1929.)

Bibliography:

Mandel, Neville J. ( 1974). "Ottoman Policy and Restrictions on Jewish Settlement in Palestine: 1881-1908: Part I" (PDF). Middle Eastern Studies. 10 (3). Taylor & Francis, Ltd.: 312–332. Retrieved 29 March 2024.

Maor, Y. (1981). The “Sufot Banegev” as a Factor in the Rise of Nationalism among the Jewish Intelligentsia / ה"סופות בנגב" כגורם להתעוררות התודעה הלאומית בקרב המשכילים היהודיים. Proceedings of the World Congress of Jewish Studies / דברי הקונגרס העולמי למדעי היהדות, ח, 1–12. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23526296)

[lazaefair]

Read up on the history of European imperialism and Zionism in World War I. I mean it. You have to get it clear in your head that Israel would not exist without Christian European (and later, American) imperialism. Here's a short 5 Facts article, with links to longer lectures (with full transcripts):

Jewish Zionists were just some guys, and would have remained just some guys if the European powers with imperial military might hadn't decided that Zionism conveniently dovetailed with their agenda of maintaining/expanding their colonial empires. That's why (some of) the Jewish Zionists were lobbying for British patronage in the first place.

Excerpt from this lecture (that's also linked in the above 5 Facts article and has a full transcript):

Beginning around the 31 minute mark:

"Now, the saga of 1917 had one final, important chapter. On November 2nd, as British and Australian forces were engaging the Ottomans at the third battle of Gaza, Britain made yet another advance booking for the political arrangement of the postwar Middle East. The Balfour Declaration, which promised Zionists that Britain would sponsor the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Now the proximate origins of the Balfour Declaration traced back to the spring of 1917, when Lloyd George set Sykes the task of working for the addition of Palestine to the British area designated by the Sykes-Picot Accord. Sykes jumped at the chance to revise this accord, and by then Sykes had come to know about Zionism, an ideology at that time, barely 40 or 50 years old, which defined the Jews as a singular nation deserving of political sovereignty - the goal Zionists considered pressing given the incidents of anti-Semitism in the world, especially in the Russian Empire, where most European Jews lived.

In Zionism, Sykes saw an opportunity to nullify France's portion in an internationalized Palestine. He saw that a Jewish enclave in Palestine could function as a buffer protecting British, Egypt and the canal from imperial competitors. Sykes was encouraged when he learned that, for their part, the Zionists were interested in British patronage, without which they would be powerless to fulfill their dream.

But like the Hashemites, the Zionists didn't know anything about the Sykes-Picot Agreement. They had assumed that there would not be any type of conflict with any power.

There were, of course, other motives that prompted Sykes and British statesmen to support Zionism. One of these had to do with the belief among many British backing - who backed the Jewish territory, that the Jewish territorial nationalism might encourage Jews in the wavering countries of the United States and Russia to fully engage in the war until total victory. At the time, Russia was in a state of unrest and it wasn't certain to what extent the United States would sort of engage in the war.

There was this idea among the British that, you know, backing a Jewish homeland in Palestine would mobilize the power of Jewish financiers in the United States. But, of course, the idea that world Jewry acted as a bloc was an exaggeration of its unity and its ability to influence opinion. There are actually very few Zionists among the Jewish population in Europe or America.

Yet the idea of international Jewry was a common one, and it reflected the genteel and sometimes vociferous anti-Semitism that was current among the British upper class. But I must say that this was not an idea that the Zionists’ lobbyists in London made efforts to nullify. They saw that there is utility in this idea of a Jewish bloc, you know, heavily in favor of Zionism.

Yet another factor leading to British support for Zionism had to do with the visceral, romantic and religious sensibilities of these same British statesmen. Despite this defense advisory note that I was just talking about that dissuaded the media from religious pronouncements, men like Sykes, Lloyd George, Leo Emery and Foreign Secretary Balfour - whose name was appended to the declaration - shared with the people of Britain a pietistic instinct and were attracted to the idea of having a hand in the return of a people of the Bible to its ancestral homeland.

Lloyd George, the former chapel boy from North Wales, famously quipped that he knew the map of the Holy Land better than he did that of France. During his 1904 trip to Jerusalem, Sykes wrote, quote, 'Imagine how picturesque and interesting a walk in the city would be if the children of Israel retained their ancient and handsome dress.'

Sykes' mission to sabotage the Palestine portion of the French-British Agreement turned out to be rather simple and straightforward. During meetings in London, he convinced Zionism's leading lights Chaim Weizman and Nahum Sokolow to go directly to Georges-Picot and other French officials and argue their case. Sykes, in the meantime, would take care of the introductions and quietly reinforce the Zionist case at functions and over dinner drinks.

In the end, I think, due as much to Weizman and Sokolow's charm as to their arguments of justice and repatriation for the Jewish people, the French were won over agreeing that the plan for Palestine's internationalization should be rescinded. But then again, with no troops in the region, the French would have been powerless to make a contrary case. It's at this point that the Zionists got wind of the Sykes-Picot Agreement.

They got wind of this agreement in April 1917, just prior to the final dotting the I's and crossing of the T's. And they were shocked to see that Palestine, which they assumed was going to be theirs, was, according to the Sykes-Picot agreement, going to be internationalized. And thus they pressed Britain for the Balfour Declaration to make some sort of official pronouncement on the matter.

The declaration itself went through many revisions, every word in it was significant. The authors avoided the word 'state,' choosing the more ambiguous phrase 'national home.' Nor was the extent of this Jewish homeland made clear. It was to be somewhere in Palestine.

And although reference was made to the protection of the civil and religious rights of the indigenous native Arab population, the declaration said nothing about the Arabs’ political rights. In addition, the declaration promised that with the establishment of the homeland, no harm would come to Jews in any other country, meaning the Jews of Great Britain and other Western countries.

And here the intended target of this phrase were Jews belonging to the British establishment who were amongst the declaration's most vociferous opponents. Men like Edwin Montagu, a cabinet minister, feared that Zionism might lead some or even many within British society to call his and others’ patriotism into question, even accuse them of dual allegiance: are you loyal to the Crown or to the Jewish national home? And the declaration takes pains to make the point that this will not happen.

So in 1917 [...] Britain's conflicting agreements were finally exposed to the harsh lights."

[loneberry]

Notes on Palestine

The geopolitical situation right now is extremely unstable. In such moments it always feels like incentive structures are such that all parties are pushed toward war and escalation. I saw how this all unfolded with 9/11; it left an indelible mark on my psyche–to observe the world careening, the hysteria, the march toward endless war. The Iran hawks in the US are out calling for war with Iran (US intelligence and even the IDF have said Iran did not help *plan* the Hamas attacks, though the idea that Iran was behind the attacks is being presented as fact). 

Days before the Hamas attacks, I was in an article + podcast rabbit hole focused on Iranian nuclear politics, Saudi-Israeli relations, and the current situation in the “Middle East” (I prefer the term “South West Asia and North Africa”/SWANA but will use “Middle East” for readability). I had also been reading that the US’s attempts to broker a US-Saudi-Israeli deal would piss off the Palestinians. It filled me with immense grief—nobody, not even Muslim Arabs, seem to care about Palestinians anymore. The international community has failed. Now it seems that the world has consented to a protracted genocide of Palestinians. It used to be the case that Arab countries would not considered normalizing relations with Israel without Israel making concessions to the Palestinians. The sad reality is that since the Arab Spring, the resolution of the Palestinian issue has become a low priority for many countries in the Middle East, many of whom have their own feud with Iran and see pivoting toward Israel as a path toward greater security. Of course I’m talking about the Abraham Accords, the so-called “peace deal” brokered by the Trump administration that enabled the normalization of relations between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain, yet excluded any input from Palestinians. That event had brought me so much grief. It really felt like any hope for the Palestinian cause was dying. There seems to be little political will from any side to put pressure on Israel.

In moments of crisis like these I try to be sober and pedagogical, but such a task feels nearly impossible when it comes to the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict”. People say the conflict is “complicated” and rooted in hundreds of years of religious hatred. It is really not that complicated and only requires basic knowledge of 20th century history. Prior to WWI, the territory of Palestine (and much of the Arab world) was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for over 400 years. The Allied Powers (Britain, France, Russia, and others) were at war with the Central Powers (Germany, Austro-Hungary, the Ottomans, etc). The Brits saw Palestine as a crown jewel and coveted Jerusalem in particular. They recruited Arab assistance in the war by whipping up hundreds of years of resentment against the Ottomans and promising the Arabs that they would break up the Ottoman Empire and help the Arabs create their own nations (see theMcMahon-Hussein correspondence). Yet the Brits were also keen on recruiting Jewish support on the side of the Allied Powers. In 1917 the British government made a declaration (the Balfour Declaration) that announced British support for the creation of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. At the end of WWI (which, as you likely know, ended in Allied success), the European empires on the winning side sought to expand their empires while Woodrow Wilson believed more in self-determination. The compromise was the “mandate” system, where the Europeans on the winning side took administrative control of territories lost by the Central Powers—France and Britain carved up the Middle East. Enter the British mandate for Palestine. The Arabs had been betrayed by the Allied Europeans (no surprise there). One form of colonial rule was swapped for another. 

Prior to the end of WWI, the Zionist movement was gaining momentum, partly as an answer to the perennial problem of European anti-Semitism and partly because of the 19th/early-20th century discourse around nationalism. The idea of creating a Jewish state in Palestine began in the 19th century, but it was really in the 1890s that modern political Zionism began with the figure of Theodor Herzl. European Jews began to immigrate to Palestine to form settlements. Yet when the mandate was established, the Jewish population was still relatively small—around 9%. While the territory was under British rule, the Brits facilitated a dramatic increase in European Jewish immigration to Palestine. Between 1922 and 1935, the portion of the population that was Jewish grew to 27%. It’s hardly surprising that violence broke out between Arabs and Jews, as well as Arabs and the Brits (see the Arab Revolt of 1936-39). 

The Brits promised a territory to an oppressed people (the Jews) that was never theirs to give away in the first place. The Arabs were quickly being displaced from their home. All of this would come to a head in WWII, when Europe’s vile anti-Semitism was on full display with the Holocaust. How would Europe atone for the atrocities committed against the Jews? There was much momentum around creating a physical state for the Jews in Palestine. This was also a convenient solution for deeply anti-Semitic Europe, as they preferred that the Jews leave rather than be integrated into their societies. In 1947 the UN voted to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, with Jerusalem coming under international administration. 13 voted against the partition (basically all the countries in the Middle East, plus India and several others). 55% of the land would be set aside for the Jews. War broke out soon after the UN resolution. The (WWII) battle-hardened Zionist paramilitaries (backed by European countries) undertook a campaign of ethnic cleansing and captured additional territory. Between 1947-49, 750,000 Palestinians became refugees—around 40% of the entire Palestinian population. 78% of historic Palestine was taken by Zionist forces. This is the event of settler violence and ethnic cleansing that Palestinians refer to as the Nakba (or catastrophe). 

There is so much obfuscation about the roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict. What ultimately happened: Europe decided it wanted to create a nation for Jews. It picked the territory of Palestine for this project (other territories were also considered) because the Brits controlled the territory and because of its religious significance. There were already people who lived on the land that was to be used to create a Jewish state. Now Palestinians are stateless and live under a brutal military occupation (the West Bank) and even more punishing blockade (Gaza)—or as refugees. Palestinians were ultimately made to suffer for the sins of European anti-Semitism. 

*

There is a lot more I can say here, about the history of the Cold War and how it relates to the US’s alliance with Israel, about internecine conflicts in Palestinian politics (the split between Hamas and the PLO/Palestinian Authority), about the current geopolitical situation, about contemporary domestic politics in Israel (which currently has the most right-wing govt in Israel’s history) and the Hamas attacks themselves. I see friends gleefully posting about the murder of Israeli civilians. I just can’t get on board with that. Neither can I get on board with Israel bombing hospitals and shelters in Gaza, or calling Palestinians “animals.” All life is sacred, all life is grievable. (People are right to point out that most of the world does not grieve the loss of Palestinian life.)

Events do have a context. Gaza is one of the most unlivable places on the planet. Around 67% of Gaza's population are refugees displaced during the Nakba. It has been under a brutal blockade for 16 years. It’s the 3rd most densely populated place on the planet—over 2.1 million people are crammed into a space half the size of London. The residents have been deprived of electricity, clean drinking water, medical supplies, and food. Nearly half of residents are unemployed and civilians have died by thousands under Israeli bombings (6,407 Palestinians have been killed since 2008). It is referred to as an “open air prison” because the residents are literally hemmed in by a high-tech fence. Given these dire conditions, an eruption of violence did seem almost inevitable. 

What I fear: a ground invasion of Gaza. A broader conflagration involving Lebanon and Iran, and potentially the rest of the world. The US going to war with Iran. If the world genuinely wishes to see the end of the “cycle of violence,” Palestinians must be free. Any attempt to bring about “regional security” while ignoring the Palestinian situation is destined to fail.

[justineportraits]

Edward Burne Jones Portrait of Lady Frances Balfour 1880

[partisan-by-default]

The roots of the Nakba stem from the emergence of Zionism as a political ideology in late 19th-century Eastern Europe. The ideology is based on the belief that Jews are a nation or a race that deserve their own state.

From 1882 onwards, thousands of Eastern European and Russian Jews began settling in Palestine; pushed by the anti-Semitic persecution and pogroms they were facing in the Russian Empire, and the appeal of Zionism.

In 1896, Viennese journalist Theodor Herzl published a pamphlet that came to be seen as the ideological basis for political Zionism – Der Judenstaat, or “The Jewish State”. Herzl concluded that the remedy to centuries-old anti-Semitic sentiments and attacks in Europe was the creation of a Jewish state.

Though some of the movement’s pioneers initially supported a Jewish state in places such as Uganda and Argentina, they eventually called for for building a state in Palestine based on the biblical concept that the Holy Land was promised to the Jews by God.

In the 1880s, the community of Palestinian Jews, known as the Yishuv, amounted to three percent of the total population. In contrast to the Zionist Jews who would arrive in Palestine later, the original Yishuv did not aspire to build a modern Jewish state in Palestine.

After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1517-1914), the British occupied Palestine as part of the secret Sykes-Picot treaty of 1916 between Britain and France to divvy up the Middle East for imperial interests.

In 1917, before the start of the British Mandate (1920-1947), the British issued the Balfour Declaration, promising to help the “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”, essentially vowing to give away a country that was not theirs to give.

[vaguelyaperson]

Once more, the Israeli Palestinian conflict is not an ancient ongoing war between Jews and Muslims, but a very modern conflict resulting from European colonialism in Arabic lands.

Prior to that European colonialization, Jews Muslims and Christians were living relatively peacefully in Jerusalem and surrounding areas, under the Ottoman Empire. Historically, the Ottoman Empire already accepted Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in Europe. But after defeating the Ottoman Empire in ww1, France and England took control of Arabic lands.

Britain promised the land to BOTH Zionists and Arabs. British High Commissioner of Egypt promised Meccan ruler Sharif Hussein that if his forces helped defeat the Ottoman Empire, Hussein would be given rule over Palestine. British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour promised the land to Zionists. But all the while, Britain intended to maintain its own control of the region.

Britain promised Palestine would return to the Arabs, but post-ww1, facilitated immigration of Zionists to the region. Predictably, when the Palestinian region regained its independence post ww2, it immediately erupted into a war.

The conflict has only existed for 80 years. It is not ancient. It is not due to some untenable relationship between Jews and Muslims. It is the direct result of Western Imperialism, and the conflict continues to benefit Western Imperialism (though now that torch is carried by the United States.)

[voidami]

Palestine History and resources.

I didn't add absolutely everything I could have because it would of been too much, just a generalization and resources to help anyone needing to learn or give resources to. feel free to discus, critique or add anything you find relevant.

Prior to the 19th century the region of Palestine experienced 401 years of relative peace from 1517-1917. And everything prior to that is largely irrelevant to the modern issue.

Late 19th Century:

In the 1880s, the community of Palestinian Jews, known as the Yishuv, amounted to three percent of the total population. In contrast to the Zionist Jews who would arrive in Palestine later, the original Yishuv did not aspire to build a modern Jewish state in Palestine.

From 1882 onward, thousands of Eastern European and Russian Jews began settling in Palestine; pushed by the anti-Semitic persecution and pogroms they were facing in the Russian Empire, and the appeal of Zionism.

After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire (1517-1914), the British occupied Palestine as part of the secret Sykes-Picot treaty of 1916 between Britain and France to divvy up the Middle East for imperial interests.

1895-onward- Theodor Herzl: Herzl, an Austrian journalist, is considered the father of modern Zionism. He advocated for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Argentina, Uganda or ultimately Palestine, with what he called transfer (ethnic displacement). On the surface he was doing this to address rising anti-Semitism in Europe but with further reading of his intentions it was more a selfish power grab through a colonial settler project with little concern for "the Jewish question" other than what it could do for him. E.G." I could accept a mass request from the little Jews to lead them out only if all the governments concerned asked me to, promised me their sympathetic cooperation, and gave me guarantees for the peaceful completion of the enormous task, just as I would give them guarantees for an exodus without economic ill-effects. (I don’t know whether I should have this printed in Roman type)." -One such example among many.

In his Diary everything is painted out in detail of his attempts to get huge loans and what he plans to do with the power he gains.

Theodor Herzl, wrote: "We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country. The property-owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly. June 12th 1895 Diary Entry"

Herzl was suggesting that two possible Zionist solutions to the problem of a Palestinian majority living in Palestine — separation and transfer — were not necessarily alternatives but rather could be mutually reinforcing. Not only that: he believed, if they were used together, the process of ethnic cleansing could be made to appear voluntary, the choice of the victims. It may be that this was both his most enduring legacy and his major innovation to settler colonialism.

The Complete Diaries Of Theodor Herzl - https://archive.org/stream/TheCompleteDiariesOfTheodorHerzl_201606/TheCompleteDiariesOfTheodorHerzlEngVolume1_OCR_djvu.txt

Early 20th Century: Balfour Declaration (1917): Written in 1917 by then UK foreign secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour, the Declaration signed away the land of Palestine to the Zionist colonial project. By giving their support to Zionist goals in Palestine, the British hoped they could shore up support among the significant Jewish populations in the US and Russia for the Allied effort during WWI. They also believed the Balfour Declaration would secure their control over Palestine after the war.

Between 1922 and 1935, the Jewish population rose from nine percent to nearly 27 percent of the total population, displacing tens of thousands of Palestinian tenants from their lands as Zionists bought land from absentee landlords. Leading Arab and Palestinian intellectuals openly warned against the motifs of the Zionist movement in the press as early as 1908. With the Nazi seizure of power in Germany between 1933 and 1936, 30,000 to 60,000 European Jews arrived on the shores of Palestine.

In 1936, Palestinian Arabs launched a large-scale uprising against the British and their support for Zionist settler-colonialism, known as the Arab Revolt. The British authorities crushed the revolt, which lasted until 1939, violently; they destroyed at least 2,000 Palestinian homes, put 9,000 Palestinians in concentration camps and subjected them to violent interrogation, including torture, and deported 200 Palestinian nationalist leaders. In 1944, several Zionist armed groups declared war on Britain for trying to put limits on Jewish immigration to Palestine at a time when Jews were fleeing the Holocaust. The Zionist paramilitary organizations launched a number of attacks against the British – the most notable of which was the King David Hotel bombing in 1946 where the British administrative headquarters were housed; 91 people were killed in the attack.

In early 1947, the British government announced it would be handing over the disaster it had created in Palestine to the United Nations and ending its colonial project there. On November 29, 1947, the UN adopted Resolution 181, recommending the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.

Quotes: Before May 15, some of the most infamous massacres had already been committed; the Baldat al-Sheikh massacre on December 31, 1947, killing up to 70 Palestinians; the Sa’sa’ massacre on February 14, 1948, when 16 houses were blown up and 60 people lost their lives; and the Deir Yassin massacre on April 9, 1948, when about 110 Palestinian men, women and children were slaughtered.

August 1937, "transfer" was a major subject of discussion at the Twentieth Zionist Congress in Zurich, Switzerland. Alluding to the systematic dispossession of Palestinian peasants (fellahin) that Zionist organizations had been engaged in for years, David Ben-Gurion, who would become Israel's first prime minister in 1948, stated: " You are no doubt aware of the [Jewish National Fund's] activity in this respect. Now a transfer of a completely different scope will have to be carried out. In many parts of the country new settlement will not be possible without transferring the Arab fellahin." He concluded: "Jewish power [in Palestine], which grows steadily, will also increase our possibilities to carry out this transfer on a large scale."

In June 1938, Ben-Gurion told a meeting of the Jewish Agency: "I support compulsory transfer. I don't see anything immoral in it."

In December 1940, Joseph Weitz, director of the Jewish National Fund's Lands Department, which was tasked with acquiring land for the Zionist enterprise in Palestine, wrote in his diary: There is no way besides transferring the Arabs from here to the neighboring countries, and to transfer all of them, save perhaps for [the Arabs of] Bethlehem, Nazareth and Old Jerusalem. Not one village must be left, not one [bedouin] tribe. And only after this transfer will the country be able to absorb millions of our brothers and the Jewish problem will cease to exist. There is no other solution.

1948 Arab-Israeli War (Plan Dalet & Nakba (Catastrophe) ):Creation of Israel: Israel declared independence, leading to a war with surrounding Arab states. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were expelled, leading to mass displacement and refugee crisis.

Details of Plan Dalet On March 10, 1948, Zionist political and military leaders, including Ben-Gurion, met in Tel Aviv and formally adopted Plan Dalet (or Plan D). The operational military orders specified which Palestinian population centers should be targeted and laid out in detail a blueprint for their forcible depopulation and destruction. It called for: Mounting operations against enemy population centers located inside or near our defensive system in order to prevent them from being used as bases by an active armed force. These operations can be divided into the following categories: Destruction of villages (setting fire to, blowing up, and planting mines in the debris), especially those population centers which are difficult to control continuously Mounting search and control operations according to the following guidelines: encirclement of the village and conducting a search inside it. In the event of resistance, the armed force must be destroyed and the population must be expelled outside the borders of the state. The Haganah (soon to be Israeli army) launched military operations under Plan Dalet at the beginning of April 1948. Although attacks by Zionist forces against Palestinian population centers actually began a few days after the UN Partition Plan was passed on November 29, 1947, with the adoption of Plan Dalet expulsions accelerated and became systematic, marking a new phase in the conflict in which Zionist and then Israeli forces went on "the offensive," in the words of Israeli historian Benny Morris. Following Israel's establishment on May 14, 1948, the new Israeli government set up an unofficial body, the "Transfer Committee," to oversee the destruction of Palestinian towns and villages or their re-population with Jews, and to prevent displaced Palestinians from returning to their homes. In a report presented to Ben-Gurion in June 1948, the three-man committee, which included the JNF's Weitz, called for the "destruction of villages as much as possible during military operations."

Further reading: https://imeu.org/article/plan-dalet

Results-

By the time the state of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948, more than 200 Palestinian villages had already been emptied as people fled in fear or were forcibly expelled by Zionist forces, and approximately 175,000 Palestinians had been made refugees. By 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians had been made refugees, losing their land, homes and other belongings in what became known as the "Nakba" ("catastrophe"). Their flight was accelerated by massacres such as the one that took place on April 9, 1948, at Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, where approximately 100 Palestinian men, women, and children were murdered by Zionist paramilitaries. Today, refugees displaced during Israel's creation and their descendants number approximately 7.1 million people. Some 400 Palestinian towns and villages, including vibrant urban centers, were systematically destroyed or taken over by Israeli. Most of them were demolished to prevent the return of their Palestinian residents, now refugees outside of what would become Israel's internationally recognized borders, or internally displaced inside of them.

Further reading: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948 https://www.aljazeera.com/program/featured-documentaries/2013/5/29/al-nakba/ https://imeu.org/article/the-nakba-and-palestine-refugees-imeu-questions-and-answers https://www.vox.com/videos/2023/5/15/23723947/palestine-nakba-may-15-protests-israel

Post-1948 Period:

Quotes:

“If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?” David Ben-Gurion (the first Israeli Prime Minister): Quoted by Nahum Goldmann in Le Paraddoxe Juif (The Jewish Paradox), pp99

1967- Israel occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and Golan Heights after the 1967 Six-Day War. Jewish settlements were established in these territories, leading to ongoing tensions and disputes.

1973- Yom Kippur War

1987- Hamas formed.

Peace Process and Oslo Accords (1990s):Peace Attempts: Several peace negotiations took place between Israel and Palestine, leading to the Oslo Accords in 1993, which established limited Palestinian self-rule in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Early 21st Century: Second Intifada (2000-2005): A period of intensified Israeli-Palestinian violence and unrest, leading to significant loss of life on both sides.

In 2004, Giaora Eiland, who still is, incidentally, in the inner circle of Benjamin Netanyahu right now as I speak. He described Gaza as, quote, “a huge concentration camp.” That's Gaza.

September 2005- Israel completed implementation of its Disengagement Plan from the Gaza Strip, which included dismantling all the settlements there, evacuating the settlers to Israel and withdrawing the military. After the plan was fully implemented, Israel issued an order declaring the end of its military rule in the Gaza Strip, indicating it was no longer responsible for the safety and well-being of the population in Gaza. But the territory remained under blockade, leading to economic hardship and conflict.

2006-

Here was an election in the West Bank in Gaza, parliamentary elections. Those elections were urged on the Palestinian people by the US administration was that now forgotten moment in the Bush administration called “democracy promotion.” And part of this package called “democracy promotion” was the Palestinians were supposed to participate in those wonderful democratic experiences. And Hamas was urged to participate in those elections, and it reversed itself. Hitherto, it opposed participating in any elections in the occupied territories, because those elections were a consequence of the Oslo Accord. And since Hamas opposed the Oslo Accord, it opposed participating in the elections. But it reversed itself. It ran in a civilian political party. And, much to the surprise of Hamas and everybody else, it won the election. Those were, according to former US President Jimmy Carter, “completely fair and honest elections,” and Hamas won. What did the US and Israel do? It immediately imposed a brutal blockade on Gaza, which brought economic life in Gaza to a standstill. - Norman Finkelstein

*When Hamas was elected, it repeatedly sent out peace feelers to try and resolve the conflict with Israel. It presented on its own, or as speaking for itself, the terms of the international consensus for resolving a conflict, namely two states on the June 1967 border.

June 2007- After Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip, Israel further tightened its control of the crossings and rarely allowed Palestinians to enter or leave Gaza, or to import or export goods. Three months after the Hamas takeover, in response to the continued firing of Qassam rockets at Israel, Israel’s security cabinet declared the Gaza Strip a hostile entity and adopted collective punitive measures, including cutting back electricity and fuel supply to Gaza

2008-

June 2008 there was a ceasefire arranged between Israel and Hamas. The ceasefire held, it held in June, it held in July, it held in August, it held in September, it held in October, and it held the first four days in November. And then November 4th came along, that was election day. when everybody's attention was riveted on the presidential election and the first black president being elected in our country's history. And Israel used that moment -- when all the cameras were diverted from it -- it used that moment to attack Hamas in Gaza and broke the ceasefire. Go and read what Amnesty International said.

Operation Cast Lead- Dec 27, 2008 – Jan 18, 2009 https://imeu.org/article/operation-cast-lead

2012-

Operation Pillar of Defense- Nov 13, 2012 – Nov 21, 2012

After Operation Cast Lead, there was a slight relaxing of the brutal blockade of Gaza. The Gaza economy did show some signs of recovery. And there was also money starting to pour in from Qatar. The head of state of Turkey, Erdoğan, was planning on a visit to Gaza. And this annoyed Israel because Gaza was not supposed to prosper. So what did they do? The record is clear. They assassinated a senior Hamas official Ahmad Jabari and six others. Shortly afterwards, Israel pounded the Gaza Strip with another 20 air strikes, killing five more people, two of them children, Hamas health minister Mufid Mukhalalati said in a televised press conference at Gaza City’s Shifa hospital.

2014-

Operation Protective Edge-

2,200 Palestinians killed, of whom 550 were children. They demolished 18,000 homes.

2018- Gaza March to return Massacre May 14th

On May 14th 2018 The Palestinian people of Gaza were in continuing peaceful marches Up to the walls imprisoning them with hopes that the apartheid regime of Israel would have some humanity and hear their plea with a right to return, to be given basic human rights as they had been doing since March 30th 2018. Instead of being shown humanity IDF soldiers began an especially discriminatory attack on the peaceful protestors. The causalities for that day alone stood at 2700 injured, including 1,359 from live ammunition and 235 Children. The dead included six children under the age of 18, among them a 15-year-old girl, and a medic and at least 52 adults. The toll increased exponentially through the course of the multiple week protest with numbers in 12,000 plus victims range 1000 of which children and hundreds of medics and journalists in appropriate identifying garb.

Many IDF soldiers have gone on record to brag about their statistics in competition with each other It is callous and bitter but I'll provide a link to some accounts of this .

Further, Shireen Abu Akleh an American-Palestinian journalist was wearing full reporter protective gear and was intentionally sniped in the neck killing her, they then lied about it and admitted to it a significant amount of time later. At her funeral the procession was subject to pogroms by Israeli police not even giving her peace in death.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/gaza-protests-take-off-ahead-of-new-us-embassy-inauguration-in-jerusalem/2018/05/14/eb6396ae-56e4-11e8-9889-07bcc1327f4b_story.html

https://www.unrwa.org/campaign/gaza-great-march-returnhttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/5/16/palestinians-great-march-of-return-the-human-costhttps://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-snipers-brag-about-deliberately-crippling-gaza-protestershttps://www.cnn.com/2022/09/05/middleeast/idf-shireen-abu-akleh-investigation-intl/index.htmlhttps://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/14/israeli-police-attack-on-shireen-abu-akleh-mourners-sparks-outcry

Recent Events:

The amount of atrocities are too numerous to list them all here but i would like to list some from September of 2023 at least.

September 2023-

September 5th- Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including one child, in two operations that involved the exchange of fire in Tulkarm and Jericho. September 9th-Israeli forces killed a Palestinian child in Hebron. September 13th- Five Palestinian were killed in the Gaza Strip as an explosive device went off near Israel’s perimeter fence. On 16 and 17 September, large groups of Israelis, including settlers, entered the Old City of Jerusalem during the Jewish New Year. Israeli authorities deployed police officers and restricted Palestinian movement in and out of the Old City, during which they physically assaulted and injured an elderly Palestinian man and arrested at least two others. On 17 September, Israeli forces restricted Palestinian access to the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, allowing entry only to those over the age of 50 for the dawn prayers. That morning, about 400 Israelis, including settlers, accessed the compound accompanied by Israeli police, who evacuated Palestinian worshipers to secure the entry of Israelis. On 16 September, settlers stabbed a Palestinian man in the back and threw stones and bottles at Palestinian houses in Tel Rumeida neighborhood of Hebron city, in the Israeli-controlled H2 area.

Prior to October for 2023 Israeli forces killed 181 Palestinians in the West Bank or Israel, exceeding the yearly death toll by Israeli forces in the West Bank since 2005. During the reporting period in September, 173 Palestinians, including at least 58 children, were injured by Israeli forces across the West Bank, including 11 who were hit by live ammunition. Since the beginning of the year, 769 Palestinians have been injured by live ammunition by Israeli forces in the West Bank, nearing the double of the number in the equivalent period in 2022 (460). Over 1,100 Palestinian herders from 28 communities have been displaced since 2022, citing settler violence and shrinking access to grazing land.

More here: https://www.ochaopt.org/poc/5-18-september-2023

October 2023-

October 1st- injury of several Palestinians in a number of attacks by Israeli occupation forces and settlers across the occupied West Bank.

October 4th- Israeli troops killed three Palestinian in West Bank. One of which the IDF said it opened fire at a man who threw a block at an Israeli vehicle. Palestinian health officials said a 19 year old Palestinian man was shot in the chest and killed. The army said Israeli settlers also vandalized Palestinian property. No further details were immediately released. October 5th- Israeli forces killed two Palestinians and wounded dozens more while suffering five injuries as they raided several areas in the occupied West Bank October 6th- Labib Dumaidi, 19, was shot in the heart by an Israeli settler in west bank. October 7th- Hamas launches an attack 1,400 Israelis were killed in the assault, and more than 240 were taken hostage. Israel's immediate response before even tending to the attack is to start bombing Gaza indiscriminately. Multiple survivors and hostage testimony tell Israeli solders opened fire on Israeli citizens and Hamas in hannibal directive. Israel claims 40 babies beheaded and the claim gets parroted all the way up to the president of the united states without a substantiated evidence, another addition in an ocean of lies. Due to the fog of war I'm only writing about statistics here on out.

After math.

Week one- 7,473 U.S. bombs were dropped on Afghanistan in 2019. 6,000 Israeli bombs have been dropped on Gaza in 6 days. 2,383 Palestinians killed half children 9,714 wounded, while in the West Bank, 54 were recorded dead and 1,100 wounded 1.1 Million Displaced.

One Month-

10,000 Palestinians killed 70% children. 25,000 injuries. 1.5 Million Displaced.

War Crimes- Numerous including Genocide, collective punishment, Use of white phosphorus during the offensive and many more…

The UN Genocide Convention lists five acts that fall under the definition of Genocide. Israel is currently perpetrating three of these in Gaza: “1. Killing members of the group. 2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group. 3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated with intent to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

Recent Quotes-

Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav “We are imposing a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no fuel. Everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we will act accordingly.” Isaac Herzog - "It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. This rhetoric about civilians supposedly not being involved is absolutely untrue" Benjamin Natanyahu - "We will turn Gaza into an island of ruins." Daniel Hagari - "We are dropping hundreds of tons of bombs on Gaza. The focus is on destruction, not accuracy." Ariel Kallner - "Now there is only one goal: Nakba. A Nakba in Gaza that will dwarf the Nakba of 1948." Benjamin Nantanyahu - “They are committed to completely eliminating this evil from the world,” Netanyahu said in Hebrew. He then added: “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.” In the Hebrew Bible, particularly in the Book of 1 Samuel, there is a command attributed to God that King Saul is supposed to destroy the Amalekites entirely, sparing nothing and no one. The exact verse, from 1 Samuel 15:3 (New International Version), states:

"Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys."

This command, often referred to as the "ban" or "herem" in biblical studies, was a severe form of religious sanction where everything associated with the enemy was devoted to destruction.

Further reading:

The Gun And The Olive Branch- David Hirst https://archive.org/stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.131536/2015.131536.The-Gun-And-The-Olive-Branch_djvu.txt The Question of Palestine-Edward Said https://archive.org/details/questionofpalest0000said Ten Myths About Israel By Ilan Pappe https://archive.org/details/ten-myths-about-israel-by-ilan-pappe-2017

Documentaries, Films, and Video Essays:

Jenin, Jenin (2002) https://vimeo.com/499672067 Born in Gaza https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZpp8JLkwBw Edward Said - Reflections on Exile and Other Essays https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EvoZ7vgu0A Norman Finkelstein on Israel's BRUTAL Assault On Gaza https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m36CUGA1Ucw&list=PLG9vw8QqgiV86CdFlCcHiSmfKwDytOATJ&index=10 Jews Against Zionism: Rabbi Speaking the Truth About Palestine & Israel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSEtuckDbpk&list=PLG9vw8QqgiV86CdFlCcHiSmfKwDytOATJ&index=16 Norman Finkelstein RESPONDS to Bernie Sanders statement OPPOSING GAZA CEASEFIRE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R49v3K29mM&list=FLUORSml2RTXRf2S9zsXpbOw

[david-goldrock]

Hello! I'm pro palestine - in the sense that I do think that Israel is founded on colonialism (no, i don't blame the jews. just was how it was) and I hope for a two state solution where Israel genuinely leaves the West bank and Gaza alone entirely.

Israel was founded largely thanks to British aid. The Brits Lied to Al Hussein (McMahon-Hussein Correspondence) claiming that if they fought of the Ottomans, they'd help them set up Palestine. They had promised to the Jews in the Balfour declaration in 1917. But all that was a lie, they'd already arranged a split with France (Sykes-Picot agreement), and both these entities would ultimately be under foreign rule. Anyway, this got them Mesopotamia, Jordan, and the Palestine region, and they split Palestine up 20% 80% in the 1937 Peel Commission.

You know, at the time where jews made up 6% of the population in the region. This was deeply disrespectful to the Arab population at the time, and while most countries have black roots nowadays, that should be acknowledged. There's a reason Arabs kept initiating the wars - and it's not because Arabs have less moral fiber than Jews.

It's because they were there first, and Jews came because their great great great great great grandmother was there. Also, there's writings at the time to imply that the British support of Israel's creation was largely a result of not wanting to deal with living with Jewish people.

Arthur James Balfour literally wrote that he hoped that the creation of Israel would mean British people wouldn't have to deal with an "alien body" anymore.

The foundation of Israel is not only built on a lot of violence (that the jews did not directly start but was unavoidable by virtue of them seeking to take over the area, and the british lies that were deeply disrespectful), but also on British colonialism and anti-semitism. It has resulted in the displacement of Palestinians all over the middle east, because they were uprooted from their homes because of Zionism.

In other words - I don't think Zionism is a solution to anti-semitism nor do I think it has done good to the world. It wasn't peaceful, and it never could have been. Colonialism is never a peaceful endeavor.

I understand the 12 israeli tribes/Kingdom of Israel were forced into a diaspora, and I am truly sorry about how the jewish people have suffered. I understand the desire for a jewish state - even if I think it was wrong to take something where people were already living, even if that was once where your great great great great great great grandmothers and grandfathers lived.

That doesn't justify the violence the Palestinians face.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xottY-7m3k

in this video, around 50:35, you can see some videos of IDF soldiers committing several heinous acts, including destroying humanitarian aid. around 52:45, you can see an IDF soldier using a civilian as a human shield.

https://twitter.com/poke_farmer/status/1790718768198361513 https://twitter.com/AnonOpsSE/status/1567233393565306880

some more videos, a residential area bombed, and a group of idf members harassing people holding up a coffin of a journalist.

I've heard claims that Hamas is forcing Israel to commit things that are like war crimes - like bombing hospitals and schools casualties - because of how it works. If Hamas really has underground tunnels in these areas and that's why Israel is bombing them, what's the proof of that being the case? If Hamas is telling Palestinians to stay home even if the IDF sends them texts before bombing them - where's the proof of that?

I will admit - I don't personally follow any IDF or Palestinian social media. You seem like you would be more connected - which is why I'm asking you.

I will admit - I only watched a bit of Memri.tv and that's all I know about palestinian tv. I've seen the Hamas leader who said you can kill a jew for 5 shekels (meaning, with a knife). I know that for sure several palestinians do hate jews.

The same is true of the israelis. A lot of them hate arabs. https://twitter.com/Partisangirl/status/1725391062448087143 https://twitter.com/amalikabeer98/status/1782129171709210724

This is actually more of a reflection of Israelis. Hamas has been unfairly taking a 20 year term, so it's easy to say the Palestinians aren't reflected in the government. Israel is democratic. The country's government largely represents the people.

Everything I've mentioned so far and more can be found in the youtube video I linked by the way - I highly recommend you give it a watch.

People often view support of Palestine as being...entirely unresearched and misunderstood. I can't deny that several people seem to view this issue as another thing on the Leftist Checklist To Support And Also I Can Hate Jewish People Now which I won't lie - it disgusts me as much as it should disgust any sane person.

But I fundamentally cannot agree with how the country Israel operates, and I believe it has gone way too far, even given October 7th. Hamas' attack on October 7th only explains what's going on in Gaza - it explains nothing about the IDF's actions against the West Bank, which is not under Hamas. It's under Palestinian Authority.

I would not consider myself a Zionist for reasons I've stated - but it's not as though I believe the jewish people in Israel who are living there right now deserve eviction. As I said at the start - I support a two state solution where Israel and the West Bank + Gaza become separate entities.

I think that: a) since Israel had the power in this situation, it should be the one to bring about peace. If Hamas puts down its soldiers, it will not turn out well for Gaza at this point.

b) mainly British action and some Israeli action are a large part of why the Palestinians feel wronged, and that should be acknowledged

Imma be honest, I think you are deeply misunderstanding a fuck ton of history. I was prepared to correct you but I cannot find any question in this post

Why'd you send me this? Sorry for the harsh words, but did you feel a need to share your opinion? That it mattered? I don't know who you are, you're on anon, and you came into my askbox spitting half-correct history and opinions with no relevance to me, so I must ask, why?

[scotianostra]

Adam Archibald was born on 14th January 1879 at Leith.

Archibald was awarded the Victoria Croos for an act of bravery during Worlad War One near Ors, France.

Adam was the son of Rennie Archibald,  a Plasterer, and Christina Archibald, of 24 Shaws Street, Edinburgh. He lived at 53 Balfour Street with his wife and four children, and before he joined the Army in 1916 he had been Outside Foreman with Stewart’s Granolithic Co Ltd of Duff Street. In his younger days he had been a keen footballer and had had a trial with StBernard’s FC, an early Football club that rivalled Hibs and Hearts during the Victorian era. Adam aws also a bowler and at the time of his enlistment he had been President of the Eastfield Bowling Club. Another of his hobbies was gardening and he had won prizes at local flower shows. He was a freemason belonging to the Elgin and Bruce Lodge at Limekilns in Fife,

b. 14/01/1879 Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland. d. 10/03/1957 Leith.

Adam Archibald (1879-1957) was born on 14th January 1879 at Leith, Midlothian, Scotland. He was the son of Rennie Archibald,  a Plasterer, and Christina Archibald, of 24 Shaws Street, Edinburgh. He lived at 53 Balfour Street with his wife and four children, and before he joined the Army in 1916 he had been Outside Foreman with Stewart’s Granolithic Co Ltd of Duff Street. In his younger days he had been a keen footballer and had had a trial with StBernard’s FC.  He was also a bowler and at the time of his enlistment he had been President of the Eastfield Bowling Club. Another of his hobbies was gardening and he had won prizes at local flower shows. He was a freemason belonging to the Elgin and Bruce Lodge at Limekilns in Fife.

He enlisted with the 7th Durham Light Infantry before transferring to the 218th Field Company, Royal Engineers during the second battle of the Sambre.  At the age of 39, he was awarded the Victoria Cross for action while his unit was attempting to bridge the Sambre–Oise Canal.  

On 4th November 1918 near Ors, France, Sapper Archibald was with a party building a floating bridge across the canal. He was foremost in the work under a very heavy artillery barrage and machine-gun fire. The latter was directed at him from a few yards distance while he was working on the cork floats. Nevertheless, he persevered in his task and his example and efforts were such that the bridge which was essential to the success of the operations was very quickly completed. Immediately afterwards Sapper Archibald collapsed from gas poisoning.

He received his Victoria Cross from King George V at Buckingham Palace in May 1919. After his discharge he returned to his job with Stuart’s Granolithic Works in Edinburgh, eventually rising to a position as manager of their Duff Street works. He passed away at his home in Leith on 10th Marrch 1957 at the age of 76. He was cremated at Warriston Crematorium, Edinburgh. His name is on the memorial there. His medals are on display with those of Major Waters at the Royal Engineers Museum, Gillingham, Kent.

[khushiiiwrites]

The Israel-Palestine conflict explained in two minutes

The Israel-Palestine conflict traces back its origin to the days of World War 1 when Palestine was a part of the Ottoman Empire mixed with the Arab and Jewish population until Britain took over it. Britain was assigned the task of establishing rule in Palestine by the Allied powers. This decision created a rift between Arabs and Jews. After the Holocaust, Jews fled from European countries seeking Asylum in their homeland. The controversial conflict reached the doorsteps of the United Nations which proposed an establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine as per the Balfour Declaration in 1917. The proposed resolution was shunned by the Arabs. Again in 1947, the United Nations proposed separate states for Jews and Arabs which was accepted by the Jewish leaders but denounced by the Arabs. The subsequent timeline between Israel and Palestine was marked by many catastrophic wars that persisted to impact the dynamics between the two countries.

1. Arabs declared war on Israel following Israel's declaration of statehood on May 14 1948 which resulted in Israel's victory and signing of armistice agreement in 1949 with territorial. Armistice agreements established provisional borders between Israel and neighboring Arab states. The West Bank was governed by Jordan, and Egypt administered the Gaza Strip.

2. In 1956, Israel got into loggerheads with Egypt over the nationalization of the Suez Canal, launching a military campaign against Arab countries with Britain and France alongside. Israel seized the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip which was withdrawn in 1957 due to international pressure.

3. In 1967, Israel gained East Jerusalem, West Bank, Global Heights, Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula as a result of popularly known as the June War or the 6 Days War fought between Israel and the Egypt-Jordan-Syria alliance.

4. In 1973, Syria launched a war on Israel in the month of Yom Kippur. This confrontation resulted in armed clashes, territorial changes, and peaceful negotiations. During the 1978 Camp David Accords, Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt which marked the establishment of Egypt-Israel peace treaty.

The Establishment of Palestine Liberation Organisation

The Palestine Liberation Organisation was founded in 1964 on the occasion of the first National Palestinian Congress. The organization commenced with the aspiration of raising concerns and issues of Palestine and appealing for the recognition and creation of an independent Palestine. The early efforts emphasized international diplomacy, recognition of an independent state, and embodying the aspirations and voices of Palestine which swiftly turned into armed struggles, airplane hijackings, and suicide bombings.

However in 1993 according to the Oslo1 Accord, the PLO recognized Israeli sovereignty. The organization seeks Arab statehood in the Palestinian territories (the West Bank and the Gaza Strip) that have been militarily occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Successive consensus, like the Oslo II Accords in 1995 elucidated administrative zones in the West Bank but also aggravated tensions.

Core issues like border conflict, sporadic violence, and Jerusalem remain unresolved The relationship between Israel and Palestine is scarred by violence, savagery, and skepticism.