Posts tagged ‘Zionism’

Sep 20

Shoot and cry: Liberal Zionism’s dilemma

Howard Jacobson is one of the most high-profile Jewish authors in Britain, having written numerous critically-acclaimed and successful comic novels. He also writes a weekly column in the liberal-leaning The Independent and in recent times has used it to vociferously attack the growing boycott of Israel. His column on 1 September, “There seems to be a pecking order among the dispossessed, and Jews come last,” was a fine example of the twin track approach of the liberal Zionist, combining moral remorse with unhampered support for ethnic cleansing.[1] Read more

Aug 2

The Nakba in Israeli textbooks and official discourse

The contents of school textbooks in Palestine/Israel have often been the cause of controversy, normally when a report is published purporting to reveal “shocking revelations” about the alleged indoctrination of Palestinian schoolchildren. Last week, however, it was Israeli textbooks in the spotlight, as the Ministry of Education approved a new textbook with a difference. As the BBC reported, “for the first time” the “Palestinian denunciation of the creation of Israel in 1948″ had been included. This incident afforded a perfect opportunity for seeing how the Nakba — what Palestinians called their expulsion by Zionist forces from their homes and villages in what is now Israel during 1947-48 — is viewed by “official” discourse in the West (through the filter of the mainstream media), and within Israel itself. Read more

Jan 29

Some uncomfortable questions

There is no doubt that to witness the Hamas-Fatah confrontations is a discomforting experience for those working for justice for the Palestinians. On the most basic level, it is distressing to see a colonized people expend energies not resisting occupation but in kidnapping and killing each other. There is also the knowledge that all of this plays right into Israeli hands, serving as both a justification for occupation (‘look what happens when we give them territory’), as well as a distraction for a media that does not exactly need an incentive to avoid discussing the conflict’s roots. However, there are other, more profound reasons why Palestinian domestic politics of the last year should produce discomfort, as the PLC elections and subsequent events have thrown into sharper relief some questions that are unpleasant – yet necessary – to face. Read more

Mar 1

Dispossession, Soil, and Identity in Palestinian and Native American Literature

The parallels between the historical experiences of dispossession and colonization of the Palestinian and Native American peoples, and the similarities in the discourses of land and belonging of the two peoples, proved strong enough to once move Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish to write the poem “Speech of the Red Indian.” Darwish, assuming the voice of a Native American faced with the brutal reality of violent conquest, yokes the Native Americans and Palestinians together, with the poem’s narrator urging a Columbus-type figure, “Then go back, stranger/Search for India once more!”1 The plea is a plaintive and hopeless desire for the return of an irrecoverable past, indicative of much of the post-dispossession literature of both Palestinians and Native Americans. Darwish’s eloquent rendition of the Native American voice, as a comparison to the Palestinian narrative, is just one example of contemporary Palestinian literature reaching for an understanding of the exile’s relationship with the land through metaphor or analogy. Read more

Feb 20

“This House believes that Zionism is a danger to the Jewish people”

In a full chamber, the Cambridge Union last Thursday hosted the motion ‘This House believes that Zionism is a danger to the Jewish people”, an event labelled a “Jewish blood sport” by participant Ned Temko. The motion, which was carried by a small margin, was a good chance for Zionist apologists and their critics to showcase the best of their arguments.

Brian Klug, speaking in favour of the motion alongside Israeli journalist Daphna Baram and Chair of Jews for Justice for Palestinians Richard Kuper, opened the proceedings. One of the recurrent themes of the evening were the repeated attempts to specify what this debate was not, with Klug pointing out that specific historical narratives, or potential future solutions, were not on the agenda. Later, Baram went further, stressing that the motion was not about the ‘right’ of Israel to exist as a state – but rather about the character of the state. Read more

Oct 24

Crumbs from the master’s table

July 20

The withdrawal of the Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip has led to many ironies. This week we had the sight of anti-disengagement Israelis complaining at how inconvenient the checkpoints were to their desire to reach the Gush Katif colony. Another irony – Israeli military officials suggesting that soldiers need psychological training to evict Jews from their homes, because it is such a traumatic experience for the evictors and evictees. Read more