- Here is a powerful statement written by an Anti-Zionist
Israeli Jew, Henri Lowi, on the subject "Why Israeli Anti-Zionists
do NOT "recognize the right of the State of Israel to exist as a Jewish
state." The writer Henry Lowi lived in Israel from 1971 to 1988. He
is an IDF veteran, and a veteran of the peace movement, and of Palestine
solidarity. His is also a lawyer and a friend. This speech was given in
Toronto at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) on March
15, 2007. Other participants in the panel of Jewish Canadians who spoke
out against Israel's wars and occupations included:
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- http://www.nion.ca/public-forum-abigail.htm
- Abbie Bakan,
- http://www.nion.ca/public-forum-smadar.htm
- Smadar Carmon,
- http://www.nion.ca/public-forum-deutsch.htm
- Judy Deutsch,
- http://www.nion.ca/public-forum-guettel.htm
- Charnie Guettel, Henry Lowi,
- http://www.nion.ca/public-forum-clare.htm
- Clare O'Connor,
- http://www.nion.ca/public-forum-noble.htm
- David Noble, Herman Rosenfeld,
- http://www.nion.ca/public-forum-weiss.htm
- Suzanne Weiss and bh Yael. "Not in Our Name"
or NION's web site is
- http://www.nion.ca/
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- These Jews consider themselves Nionists and not Zionists.
It is a shame that the mainstream media generally refuses to acknowledge
the existence of anti-Zionist Jews and Canadian Jews who oppose Israel's
policies toward the Palestinians. If you click the above link's you can
read some of their presentations. NION is organizing "A Wondering
Forum" to provide speakers to visit other organizations to create
discussion around Israel's wars and apartheid. If you would like to invite
a NION speaker or want more information please write to them at: <mailto:info@nion.ca>info@nion.ca.
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- Ed Corrigan
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- NOT IN OUR NAME JEWISH VOICES OISE
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- Speech By Henri Lowi
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- I want to thank "NOT IN OUR NAME" for inviting
me to speak this evening. I also want to thank all of you for coming to
this meeting.
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- My topic is: Why Israeli Anti-Zionists do NOT "recognize
the right of the State of Israel to exist as a Jewish state."
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- In recent times, the demand has been raised, by representatives
of the State of Israel, and by its supporters abroad, to recognize the
State of Israel's "right to exist as a Jewish state". I am told
that this demand is a debater's trick that was invented by Henry Kissinger
several years ago.
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- Be that as it may, what, if anything, is wrong with this
demand?
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- Let me start with an example: In Canada, the aboriginal
First Nations have never been asked to recognize the legitimacy of the
Government of Canada, or the "right to exist" of the Canadian
state, and, in fact, in general, they deny that legitimacy. The First Nations
say repeatedly that they are the ongoing victims of colonialism, and genocide.
Representatives of First Nations negotiate as de facto parties to contract,
and they sign treaties, and then they demand that the treaties be performed
in good faith.
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- Unlike the First Nations of North America, the Palestinian
people are asked to recognize the legitimacy, the "right to exist"
of the State of Israel, "as a Jewish State".
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- If the goal is a negotiated peace agreement, or treaty,
there is no need for recognition of "the right of the State of Israel
to exist as a Jewish state". If the goal is to sabotage the possibility
of a negotiated agreement, this demand has been placed front and center.
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- A couple of other examples, just to illustrate the preposterous
nature of the demand:
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- Has anyone ever asked the Catholics of Ireland to recognize
the right of Ulster, or Northern Ireland, to exist as a "Protestant
state"?
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- Would we recognize the right of any state to exist as
a "Hindu state"? As a "Muslim state"?
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- Just to pose the question is to expose its nature.
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- But, maybe we are not talking about "Jewish state"
as a state affiliated to the Jewish religion. Maybe we are talking about
a state that is defined by the dominant ethnicity. In that case, the position
does not get any better.
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- Michael Neumann said it well in his article on the "Case
against Zionism" (Counterpunch):
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- "When a state is described in relation to the territory
it controls, its ethnic character is open. The French state is not necessarily
a state for some ethnic group called Frenchmen, just as the Belgian or
Yugoslav or Jamaican state weren't states for ethnic groups of that name.
But a Catholic state would be a state run by Catholics; a black state would
be a state run by blacks; a heterosexual state would be run by heterosexuals.
This could hardly be clearer: what would be Catholic or black or heterosexual
about a state not run by at least some members of those groups?"
- "A Jewish state would, therefore, be a state run
by and for Jews. In such a state, Jews would be sovereign. The state would
be run in their interests."
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- So far Michael Neumann.
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- Let us recall that Theodor Herzl's book was called "Der
Judenstaat" or the "State of the Jews". That might have
sounded not so terrible at the end of the 19th century.
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- But since then, we have had our fill of states whose
raison d'etre is to preserve ethnic superiority and domination. One does
not have to refer to the late unlamented "Aryan state". Within
recent memory, we had white-supremacist Rhodesia and apartheid South Africa.
Whatever limits there are to analogies from and to these white supremacist
regimes, we have learned that states that define themselves with reference
to the domination of one ethnic group cannot claim legitimacy.
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- Now, I would be the first to recognize the undeniable
fact of Jewish religious, cultural, and spiritual ties to the Holy Land
- Eretz Yisrael, or Palestine.
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- And I would have been the first to recognize the undeniable
need to rescue Jewish people from the Holocaust.
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- And I would certainly be the first to recognize the undeniable
right of Jewish people to live anywhere - anywhere on this planet - and
enjoy human rights.
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- But from all of that does not follow recognition of the
"right to exist" of a supremacist regime akin to that in Rhodesia.
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- Israel and its allies insist that the Palestinian victims
of Zionism must "recognize Israel as a Jewish state with a Jewish
majority."
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- No one seems concerned about the fact that this ultimatum
flies in the face of elementary democratic values regarding human equality
and human rights.
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- Israel's backers seek to legitimize a state that defines
itself constitutionally as one in which Jewish people have privileges that
are denied to non-Jews, a state that can constitutionally maintain a demographic
majority of Jewish people, and a state that constitutionally denies the
right of return of the indigenous Palestinian Arab inhabitants.
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- Israel's backers seek to legitimize that which is illegitimate
by any standard of democracy.
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- This dispute is not about borders.
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- In Ilan Pappe's recent book "The Ethnic Cleansing
of Palestine" - he describes the events in a process of "ethnic
cleansing" conducted by the forces under David Ben-Gurion's leadership,
from December 1947 through December 1948.
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- An older book, by Sabri Jiryis - "The Arabs in Israel"
- describes a reality of racist segregation and racist discrimination.
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- I have often said that the Israeli policy of "Judaization
of Galilee" was a continuation of the 1947-48 policy of "ethnic
cleansing." So are the home demolitions policy, the land confiscation
policy, the Wall policy, the family unification policy -- and all the Israeli
policies calculated to harass Palestinians so that they get up and leave,
and open up new room for settler-colonialism.
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- Fundamentally, Zionism would prefer more land and less
Palestinians. Zionism never wanted a Palestinian underclass. But, since
the ethnic cleansing of 1947-48 was incomplete, there is much still to
be done to achieve the goals of Zionism, and therefore much conflict and
much oppression.
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- So, the State of Israel demands a priori recognition
of the irreversibility of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the legitimacy
of a racist regime.
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- To summarize, the State of Israel is characterized by
3 essential features:
- 1. settler-colonialism
- 2. ethnic cleansing; and
- 3. racist discrimination.
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- Anti-Zionist Israelis fight to reverse, to overturn,
those 3 essential features of the State of Israel.
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- Just as Zionism is predicated on taking Jewish people
from our countries of origin, in which our families have lived for generations,
and ingathering us to the Promised Land -- the State of Israel is predicated
on keeping Palestinians out of their country of origin, in which their
families have lived for generations. The essence of a "Jewish state"
in Palestine has always been: Jews in; Palestinians out. This is a central,
permanent feature of the "Jewish State", one that links Herzl's
theories with Israeli practice, and one that cannot be changed by adding
the adjective "democratic" to "Jewish State".
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- Imagine what it would be like to add the adjective "democratic"
to "Aryan state" or "Hindu state" or "Protestant
state" or "Islamic republic"!
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- It just doesn't work that way.
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- So, there can be no "right to exist" of the
State of Israel as a "Jewish state", whether we are referring
to the dominance of a religious group or of an ethnic group.
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- Add to that the fact that the State of Israel is the
main engine of anti-Semitism in the world today, as Lord Montagu predicted
in 1917.
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- And that is why anti-Zionist Israelis do NOT "recognize
the right of the State of Israel to exist as a Jewish State".
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- P.S. There are 2 new websites that are worthy of your
attention:
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- 1. The Israeli left-wing discussion site of "Hagada
Hasmalit", now also in English at www.hagada.org.il/eng
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- 2. The online archive of the Socialist Organization in
Israel Matzpen, that was the first explicitly anti-Zionist formation
in the State of Israel, at www.matzpen.org
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- Thank you!
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- Henry Lowi lived in Israel from 1971 to 1988. He is an
IDF veteran, and a veteran of the peace movement, and of Palestine solidarity.
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