When Starmer said ‘I support Zionism without qualification” what he meant was that he
supports Jewish Racial Supremacy in Israel
‘I said it
loud and clear — and meant it — that I support Zionism without qualification.”
We should take Starmer at his word.
Zionism is universally understood as the ideology of a settler colonial
movement whose aim was to remove the Palestinians, first from the economy and
then from Palestine altogether. That was the only way a Jewish majority state
could be formed. Ethnic cleansing was integral to Zionism from its very
beginning. It was summed up in the Christian Zionist slogan that Palestine was ‘a land without a people for a people
without a land.’
Today Zionism describes itself as a
‘national liberation movement’ although it never says what it liberated Jews
from. However when it began it described itself as a colonising movement. On 11th
January 1902 Theodor Herzl, the founder of Political Zionism, wrote in his
Diaries describing a letter he had sent to Cecil Rhodes, the White Supremacist
founder of Rhodesia:
‘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.’ (Diaries p. 1194)
In the eyes of Christian
Restorationists like the 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (who opposed Jewish Emancipation in
Britain) and the Zionist movement, the Palestinians were simply invisible. It
is a tradition that Keir Starmer is intent on continuing. Since his election as
leader of the Labour Party, Starmer hasn’t once mentioned or even acknowledged
the existence of the Palestinians.
When Benjamin Netanyahu threatened at
the beginning of July to annex 30% of the West Bank even Boris Johnson condemned the proposals. Starmer remained silent.
In view of Starmer’s declaration
that he is a Zionist ‘without
qualification’ I felt it right to try and explore with him exactly what he
meant. I have therefore drawn up the following questions and look forward to an
interesting conversation!
21 Questions to Sir Keir Starmer
1.
Why when you announced
on accepting the leadership that you would ‘tear
the poison of anti-Semitism out of Labour by its roots’ did you not mention
the poison of any other form of racism? Or do you believe that only
anti-Semitism matters?
It would seem that
racism is particularly entrenched amongst the very same people who were so
vociferous about ‘anti-Semitism’ when Jeremy Corbyn was leader.
For example (Lord) John Mann, the
‘anti-Semitism Czar’, produced a pamphlet The
Bassetlaw anti-social behaviour handbook which listed
Travellers as an example of anti-social behaviour. Characterising Gypsies and
Travellers as asocial was precisely what the Nazis did. Up to half a million Gypsies died in the
Holocaust. Why has John Mann not been suspended or expelled from the Labour
Party? Or are we to assume that racism against Gypsies and Travellers is of no
importance?
Another example is Tom
Watson who as Campaign Manager in the Hodge Hill by-election in 2004 put
out a leaflet demonising asylum seekers:
The Lib Dems want to keep giving welfare benefits to
failed asylum seekers. They voted for this in parliament on 1 March 2004. They
want your money, and mine, to go to failed asylum seekers.”
Targeting refugees,
the most vulnerable and oppressed, is a classic example of ‘divide and rule’. Scapegoating
minority groups is precisely what occurred in Nazi Germany. This is the same
Tom Watson who was committed
to removing every last anti-Semite in the Labour Party. Unfortunately Watson made no commitment
about removing every last racist in the party as he would have had to remove
himself.
In 2010 the High Court
removed racist Labour MP Phil Woolas from Parliament. Woolas had run a racist
campaign demonising Muslims in his Oldham East and Saddleworth constituency. In
the words
of one email from his election agent, his strategy was to "galvanise the white Sun vote and make the white folk angry".
‘I’ve lost sleep thinking about poor old Phil
Woolas and his leaflets.... it feels like a piano has been dropped on my head.’
Unfortunately a piano wasn’t
dropped onto Watson’s head since it might have knocked some sense into him. Do
you therefore pledge to remove all
racists from the Labour Party?
2.
Israel’s Law
of Return, which is integral to Zionism, allows me to settle, as of right,
in Israel and claim citizenship even though I was born in Britain, because of
the spurious racial myth that Jews are ‘returning’ to Israel. Perhaps you could
explain why Palestinians who were born in Palestine have no such right? Do you
not agree that this is racist?
3.
In 2018 Israel’s Knesset passed the Jewish
Nation State Law, a Basic Law which has constitutional status. According to
this law only Jews have the right of self-determination in Israel. The Law
formalised the existing situation of Israel as a Jewish state. The result of this is that Israel is now
officially a state, not of all its citizens but its Jewish citizens only.
The law also removed
the status of Arabic as an official language in Israel and made ‘Jewish
settlement’ a national objective. In the words
of Prime Minister Netanyahu
Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According
to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the
Jewish people – and only it.
Perhaps Sir Keir,
given your forensic skills you could explain why Israel is not a racist state?
4.
At the risk of being accused of
‘anti-Semitism’ under the IHRA
misdefinition of anti-Semitism, do you not agree
that the Jewish Nation State Law bears an uncanny resemblance to the Nazis’
1935 Nuremberg Laws which stripped Germany’s Jews of citizenship? In Israel
Arab citizenship is worth less in terms of access to land, education,
employment, the right to marry who you want and many other rights. Arabs are in
Israel are there on sufferance, which is why, as part of the ‘peace
negotiations’ Israel was eager
to swap areas of Israel with large concentrations of Arabs such as The
Triangle in exchange for the settlement areas of the West Bank.
5.
In Pew Research Centre’s survey Israel’s
Religiously Divided Society in 2016 a plurality of Israeli Jews, 48 %,
supported the physical expulsion of Israeli Arabs as opposed to 46% who were
opposed. In other words, stripping out the don’t knows, a majority of Israeli
Jews support making Israel a purely Jewish ethnic state.
79% of Israeli Jews say
that Jews should be given preferential treatment in comparison with Arabs. Whatever
else you can be accused of Keir Starmer, it is not stupidity. So perhaps you
can explain whether or not you see a connection between the above two figures
and the existence of Israel as a Jewish state as opposed to a state of all its
citizens with equal rights for all. Do you see such deep and ingrained racism
as being inevitable in a religious state that accords its citizens rights
depending on which ethno-religious group they belong to? Since a belief in a
Jewish state is an inherent part of being a Zionist perhaps you could tell us
whether you still describe
yourself as Zionist ‘without
qualification’?
If you do still consider yourself a Zionist is it not
reasonable that we should describe you as a racist ‘without qualification’? If
you disagree perhaps you can explain how a Jewish state, which grants rights to
Jews which it withholds from non-Jews, can be anything other than racist?
6.
As a graduate
of St. Edmond Hall College, Oxford you should be aware that the French
Revolution of 1789 ushered in Jewish Emancipation. France was the first country
to do so. Jewish Emancipation was something which Britain only achieved
in 1858 when Lionel Rothschild took his seat.
“We
must refuse everything to the Jews as a nation and accord everything to the Jew as an individual.”
Separation between Church and State was a precondition for
Jewish equality with non-Jews. How can you support a State explicitly based on
the religion of one section of the population?
7.
Are
you aware that in Israel there is
no such thing as Israeli nationality? There is a Jewish nationality and
there are Arab, Druze and up to 140
other ‘nationalities’ but there is no Israeli nationality. In the words of
Justice Melcer in the Supreme Court case of Uzi
Ornan v State of Israel
it
is important to emphasize that the “constitutional Jewishness” of the state
negates the legal possibility of recognizing an “Israeli nationality... all the
appellants’ arguments concerning the existence of Israeli nationality in fact
relate to Israeli citizenship... citizenship is one thing, and nationality is
another.
This is the source of the constitutional discrimination in
Israel against non-Jews. One’s rights and duties depend on whether or not one
is a Jewish national. Please can you explain why this is not racist?
In Israel 93% of the land is reserved for the sole use of its Jewish citizens. It is
administered jointly by the Jewish National Fund
and the Israeli Lands Administration.
Just 2% of Israel’s land is occupied by its Arab minority, which is 20% of the
population. The JNF, which administers the allocation of Israeli land was
founded in 1901 and is the oldest Zionist organisation.
In 2000 on the application of Kadan, the High Court ruled that
the state could not discriminate on the basis of religion or nationality when
allocating state land to citizens. In 2011 the Knesset passed the Reception Committee Law
which effectively overturned this ruling, thus
allowing Admission Committees in Jewish-only communities such as Mitzpe
Aviv to reject applications from Israeli Arabs. As a
result hundreds of communities in the Negev and Galilee are Jewish
only.
By way of comparison, although Britain is a Christian state
this does not affect the rights of its Jewish citizens. What would you say if a
Christian National Fund owned 93% of British land and Jewish citizens were
barred from accessing that land? Would
you describe that as anti-Semitic? If not why not?
The Redemption
of the Land of Israel is one of the
fundamental tenets of Zionism. It means that land, once bought, will never
again pass into the hands of non-Jews. In the light of the fact that racism in
land allocation is fundamental to Zionism would you still describe yourself as
an ‘unqualified Zionist’?
8.
The
JNF , which was established by the 1953 JNF Law as a
subcontractor for the Israeli state, responded to a Petition seeking to enforce the ruling in Kadan thus:
The JNF is not the trustee of the
general public in Israel. Its loyalty is given to the Jewish people in the
Diaspora and in the state of Israel... The JNF, in relation to being an owner
of land, is not a public body that works for the benefit of all citizens of the
state. The loyalty of the JNF is given to the Jewish people and only to them is
the JNF obligated. The JNF, as the owner of the JNF land, does not have a duty
to practice equality towards all citizens of the state.
A survey commissioned by KKL-JNF reveals that over
70% of the Jewish population in Israel opposes allocating KKL-JNF land to
non-Jews, while over 80% prefer the definition of Israel as a Jewish state,
rather than as the state of all its citizens.
The
racism of the JNF couldn’t be clearer yet it is the approved land agent for the
Israeli state? Do you still consider yourself a Zionist Keir Starmer and if so
how is that compatible with your claim to oppose racism?
Despite its declaration that it doesn’t treat Israel’s
citizens equally, the JNF has 10 out of 22 seats on the
Council of the Israeli Land Authority. Would you consider a similar arrangement
in Britain, whereby an organisation committed to excluding Jews from the
majority was put in charge of allocating state land, as racist?
9.
Nearly 50%
of Arab-Israelis fall below the poverty line, compared to
13% of Jews. That is because of the systematic
discrimination that Israeli Arabs experience in every field of society such as housing,
education and employment. Do you see any connection between these figures and
Israel being a Jewish state, i.e. Zionism, or it all coincidental?
10.
In Israel all
education bar higher education is segregated into a Jewish and Arab education
system. There are a handful of private mixed
Arab-Jewish schools in Israel. In the words of a Ha’aretz article, Schools
for Jews and Arabs: Separate but Definitely Not Equal.
A report
from the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah) states
that public investment per Jewish student is NIS 1,778 per student, three times
higher than investment per Arab student, NIS 534. Do you agree that just as in
South Africa under Apartheid this is not accidental but a consequence of Zionism and a Jewish state?
11. Employment is another major area of discrimination in
Israel. Job opportunities for educated
Palestinian Arabs in Israel are limited due to the fact that certain labour
markets, such as the military-industrial complex and most government
and civil service jobs, are closed to them. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was
the Labour Zionist Histadrut which refused
to locate factories or invest in Arab areas. Coupled with discrimination in
education this results in disproportionate poverty. Do you agree that job segregation, which is
fundamental to Zionism, is the sign of an apartheid economy and therefore
racist?
12.
In Israel four of the
major hospitals segregate Arab and Jewish women in separate maternity wards. Prof.
Alon Klement, the supervisor of Tel Aviv University’s Class Action Clinic
stated that
‘the subject of segregation in
maternity wards has been in the headlines for a long time; it was in the
Knesset, it was in the press, it’s not something new,”
Perhaps
Sir Keir you can enlighten us whether you consider racial segregation of
patients in hospital, which is another example of Zionism in action, is something
you consider racist? If not would you
advocate separating White and Black women in British maternity wards?
13. Afula is a city of about 30,00 people in the north of
Israel. As such it is unable to take ‘advantage’
of the Reception
Committee Law and exclude Arabs. It therefore has to rely on Jewish social
solidarity among its inhabitants. Unfortunately last summer one of its
residents decided to sell their house to an Arab which prompted a demonstration
by hundreds of its citizens including the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and members of
its Council.
Council member Itai Cohen told the Army
Radio the municipality would continue to “ensure
that Afula preserves its Jewish character.” and that “Anyone looking for a mixed city — Afula is not the address,” This
is, after all, what a Jewish state and
Zionism means. There were also similar
demonstrations in 2016 and 2018. Deputy Mayor Shlomo Malihi told
Ha’aretz that
“The
residents of Afula don’t want a mixed city, but rather a Jewish city, and it’s
their right. This is not racism.”
This is how Zionism and a Jewish State is
interpreted in practice? Do you still call yourself an ‘unqualified Zionist’?
14. In another Jewish city in the Galilee, Safed, the Chief
Rabbi, Shmuel Eliyahu, a paid employee of the state i.e. a civil servant,
together with 17 other rabbis, issued
an edict forbidding its inhabitants from renting or leasing apartments to
Arabs. When the edict ran into the inevitable criticism dozens of
Israel's municipal chief rabbis signed a religious
ruling forbidding the rental of homes to non-Jews. Like the demonstration in
Afula, this is part and parcel of what it means to live in a Jewish state.
It has been
the norm, ever since the beginning of Zionist colonisation, that Arabs and Jews
should live apart. The Kibbutzim, which used to seen as socialist, were
100% all-Jewish communities. This is
what Zionism means in practice. Do you still call yourself an ‘unqualified Zionist’
Sir Keir?
15. Israel has been hard hit by Coronavirus. It has been reluctant
to test its Arab citizens. The Israeli State has been doing its best to protect
its citizens, or at least its Jewish citizens.
At the start of the pandemic it ‘forgot’
to have any testing centres in Arab areas.
 |
| Shmuel Eliyahu - Racist Chief Rabbi of Safed |
On the West Bank the State does not even recognise that it
has any responsibility to protect the inhabitants of the territories despite
its responsibilities as the occupying power under international law. So when
residents of Hebron erected a building to be used as a Coronavirus testing
centre the Civil/Military Administration had no hesitation in demolishing it.
The
Military Administration’s reasons were that the building was erected illegally
for personal purposes. Which is true except that Arabs rarely, unlike Jewish
settlers, receive building permits. The structure stood on land belonging to
Hebron resident Hazem Maswada who had donated the land to the city so that it
could build a coronavirus testing center. The Hebron district has the highest
number of coronavirus cases in the West Bank.
Do
you have any views Sir Keir on a state which, instead of protecting the minorities
who live in it, actively goes out of its way to ensure that they are not
protected during the pandemic? Is this not
another example of why Zionism is racist or is it merely a question of obeying
the law?
16. In 2013 Eli Dahan told a radio interviewer about his opinions of Palestinians: ‘To me, they are like animals, they aren’t human.’
There was nothing exceptional about such opinions in Israel but in 2015 Dahan became Deputy Defence Minister responsible for the Military
Administration of the West Bank, In most western democracies such a man would
have been considered unfit to be a rat catcher let alone a government
minister. Do you not agree?
Such racism is endemic in the ‘Jewish’ State. When Israel’s
Prime Minister Netanyahu announced his intention to “surround all of Israel with a fence” (thus recreating the Jewish ghetto)
he described the surrounding Arabs as “wild
beasts”.
It
would be unfair however just to focus on Likud when the Israeli Labor Party is
also as racist. Its former leader Isaac Herzog is now Chairman of the Jewish
Agency, a Zionist organisation which seeks to keep Israel as demographically
Jewish as possible.
“A false impression exists that
we take the needs of Palestinians into account before the needs of the State of
Israel.”
Herzog reassured
his audience that
‘God forbid, and without giving the impression – from what I have heard
after meeting with the Israel public – that we always like Arabs.”
Herzog later wrote
on Twitter that
“I heard
there are those who are unsatisfied with my Zionist approach.“If they
want the head of the Zionist Union to prefer the interests of the Palestinians,
I have a message for them. Pick a different path.”
The Jewish Labour Movement, which describes
itself as the ‘sister party’ of the racist Israeli Labor Party, has been in
the vanguard of the ‘anti-Semitism’ smear campaign in the Labour Party. It is
obvious, is it not Sir Keir, what their real motivation was for accusing anti-Zionists
as racists.
Do you still consider yourself a Zionist Sir Keir and
if so don’t you feel it is slightly hypocritical ‘taking
the knee’ in support of Black Lives Matter, sorry I meant Black Lives Moment since
anti-racism seems to be just a momentary experience for you.
‘I want to separate from the
Palestinians. I want to maintain a Jewish state with a Jewish majority. I don’t
want 61 Palestinian MKs in Israel’s Knesset. I don’t want a Palestinian prime
minister in Israel. I don’t want them to change my flag and my national
anthem.’
Imagine a British politician saying that they don’t
want a Black or Muslim Prime Minister. The Israeli Labor Party is supposed to
represent the left-wing of Zionism. Do you still support
Zionism without qualification?
17. In recent years Netanyahu has done
his best to deport Israel’s 40,000 Black African refugees. In this he has
been supported by the almost
dead Israeli Labor Party. Ha’aretz stated
in its editorial
‘Under
the leadership of new Labor Party Chairman Avi Gabbay, the MKs of the Zionist
Union gave their support Monday to a disgraceful government bill for the
deportation and imprisonment of asylum-seekers. If the draft law is passed, the
Holot detention center would be shuttered and asylum-seekers given a choice:
deportation to Rwanda or indefinite incarceration in Israel.’
Netanyahu’s
reasons for trying to deport the refugees had nothing to do with whether they
had a genuine fear of persecution. Most of them fled from either Eritrea or
Sudan. The reason
Netanyahu gave for trying to expel
them was that they
‘were
threatening the security and identity of the Jewish state. If we don't stop
their entry, the problem that currently stands at 60,000 could grow to 600,000,
and that threatens our existence as a Jewish and democratic state,"
Netanyahu made
it clear that his real objection to the refugees was that they were non-Jewish.
In a Jewish state you can’t have too many non-Jews. This is what Zionism is
about. Do you still call yourself a Zionist ‘without
qualification’ Sir Keir?
18. Around half of Israel’s Bedouin population, 150,000 people, live in ‘unrecognised’ villages. They are unrecognised because
the land on which they are living and which they have lived on for centuries,
is considered Jewish national land.
They are facing a catastrophe
during the Coronavirus pandemic due to the Israeli
government’s decades-long refusal to grant them legal status. These villages
are denied basic utilities such as running water, a sewage system, or garbage
collection. They face constant battles to resist home demolitions. Israel is
still a settler colonial state at war with its indigenous population.
Attiah al-Aasem,
chair of the Regional Council of Unrecognized Villages in the Naqab, warned
that “the coronavirus will worsen the
day-to-day problems in the villages.”
This Sir Keir is your ‘unqualified
Zionism.’ Israel has a policy of ‘Judaising’ the Naqab which is why it is
only Jewish settlements (which are always ‘recognised’) automatically receive municipal
services. Are you still such an enthusiastic Zionist?
19. You will probably recall the murder of George Floyd back in June. It triggered off the biggest
series of demonstrations in America’s history. Demonstrations which are
still continuing, in its history.
Just 5 days after George Floyd’s murder an autistic
Palestinian man, Iyad Hallak, was gunned
down by Israel’s Border Police in Jerusalem. He was on his way to his day care centre. The Police
stated that they ‘mistook’ the mobile phone he was holding for a gun. A mistake
that they never seem to make with Jews.
His carer screamed ‘He's Disabled. 'I'm With
Her,' Eyad Cried but the
Israeli Pig Opened Fire Anyway. According to the
testimony of his carer, who was by his side he was executed.
Despite
pleading for his life and trying to explain to the police officers, in Hebrew
and in Arabic, that he suffered from a disability, they
shot him three times from close range with a rifle,
directly into the center of his body, as he lay on his back, wounded and
terrified, on the floor of a garbage room.
What
happened next? Were the Police arrested
and charged as in Mineapolis? Not a chance.
In
Israel Police are never arrested or
charged for killing Palestinians. It is unheard of for a policeman to do gaol
time for killing Arabs whom they consider sub-humans. One policeman was
confined to house arrest, for a day, and that was it. Noone has been charged with murder. Sure
there is a Police investigation but in Israel such investigations never result
in prosecution.
Despite
taking place in the centre of East Jerusalem where there is a surplus of CCTV
and cameras, it would appear that none of them were working that day! It seems that in Israel not only the people
but the cameras too are racists!
At
least George Floyd’s murderer, Derek Chauvin was charged
with 2nd degree murder. You see Sir Keir, the murder of natives in a
colonial context was rarely prosecuted under the British Empire so why should
Israel be any different? You probably think that to ‘single out’ Israel when
Britain did the same in its colonies is ‘anti-Semitic’.
As you can
see Sir Keir, Zionism is a living, breathing form of racism. So I will ask you
again Sir Keir. Do you still consider
yourself an ‘unqualified
Zionist’?
20.
Zionism is
a form of Jewish supremacism. The only question
it asks is ‘is this good for Jews?’
That is why Israel armed
and supported Apartheid South Africa. It is why Israel arms
and equips Burma today in its genocide against the Rohinga. It is why Israel
had close
military relationships with Pinochet’s Chile and the Argentinian
Junta that murdered 3,000 Jews for being Jews. It is why there is barely a
single military or fascist dictatorship that Israel has not befriended. This is
Zionism. Do you still consider yourself to
be a Zionist ‘without qualification’?
If so then
we shall have to consider you to be a racist who is unfit to be the rat catcher
at Labour’s HQ, let alone its leader.
Tony
Greenstein
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