"What is Zionism? - It means diff’ things to diff’ people, (an) almost meaningless term of abuse."
Was what I read on a message board recently.
What complete and utter nonsense.
Zionism is not a term of abuse, (although Zionism is an abusive ideology). Zionism is a policy for establishing and developing a national homeland for Jews in Palestine; a movement of world Jewry that arose in the late 19th century with the aim of creating a Jewish only state in Palestine.
The formulation for this grotesque equation could be qualified thusly: One group of people (Jews), are given someone else's land (Palestinians), on behalf of a third group of people (UN) because of what a fourth group of people (white Christian European NAZIS) did to the first group of people; (with God acting as the estate agent).
It really is quite simple and to try and underplay the role of British capitalism, in this case M&S's, as supporters of an apartheid, naturally racist, Jewish only client statelet to a general term of abuse is offensive in and of itself.
"A state becomes apartheid when it has official policies of racial segregation involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against another race of people."
Apartheid policies against Israeli Arabs include: Not having the right to buy land; no equal access to social services and assistance despite paying the same taxes as all Jewish Israeli's and Jews only job adverts.
In the occupied Palestinian Territories: Collective punishment (particularly of the Gaza Ghetto - a NAZI tactic); house demolitions and destruction of property; removal and relocation of people or "transfer" away from their homes ; mass torture and internment of family members; closures of entire villages and towns and check points, (this can also happen in Israel).
Some make sweeping statements that claim the rest of the high street buy goods from Israel and that therefore it is wrong to solely target M&S for it's support of Israeli apartheid. As far as I am aware, not all stores on the high street do buy goods from Israel and I have never seen any evidence to support that kind of sweeping statement.
I myself try and boycott any goods or produce bought from Israel; I never knowingly buy anything from the Zionist, apartheid statelet and I also encourage others not to financially or academically support the rogue terrorist statelet of Israel.
However, why does the fact that other capitalists buy from Israel mean we can't focus on encouraging others to stop buying goods from one of them? That doesn't make sense to me.
Other apologists for Israel, Zionism, capitalism, imperialism and racism claim that M&S now actually have a more ethical policy than other retailers and that to attack M&S's role is simply ignorant.
Shell Oil claims to have an ethical policy, many capitalists do. Just because M&S claim to like flora and fauna it does not mean that they do not support the wiping of Palestine off the map.
Although some people, "... whole heartedly condemn the actions of Israel not just in recent times but since the early 1960s when military hostilities against ethnic Palestinians began."
Hostilities with Palestinians began as far back as the 1920's and more specifically in 1948 with the genocidal ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their towns and villages, what Palestinians and their comrades refer to as “The Nakba“. Remember the Deir Yassin massacre where Jewish Zionist terrorists (Irgun and Lehi) butchered an entire village between 9 April and 11 April 1948. An initial estimate of 254 were murdered.
The size of that figure had a considerable impact on the conflict in creating panic and became a major cause of the 1948 Palestinian diaspora as the fear of further genocidal ethnic cleansing by Jews began to spread.
Although of course it is not just about religion and of course not all Zionists are Jewish - many are bible thumping bigots from Africa, Europe and America and it these lunatics that welcome destruction in the middle east - seeing it as fulfilment of prophecy in Christian biblical scripture.
The tragedy of the Palestinian people is about economics and relegating the conflict down to the level of religion is what the imperialists do in order to side step the economic arguments about capitalism, imperialism and Zionism - at the same time this makes it easier to terrorise Muslim communities in England in order to turn the wider population against them, convince them that it is indeed about religion, play in to the hands of racists and terrorise the Islamic community from becoming more militant.
Some support British trade union motions on Israel. A group like the AWL and their supporters can support the role of trade unions in this country as much as they like - these are the same trade unions that are affiliated the capitalist, imperialist, Zionist and racist Labour party - A Labour party has been a Zionist party since its 1944 conference called for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.
Listening to their analysis you'd think that only the employed are capable of forging a working class, anti-imperialist movement; what about the unemployed, asylum seekers, refugees, students and those in the lower working-class that are not in unions or who the larger unions could not give an opportunist damn about?
The AWL et al in their slavish support for the old Labour myth and the unions STILL affiliated to "new" Labour don't recognise the split in the working class and the opportunist role that Labour affiliated unions play, Labour leftists and they them selves play. Maybe some do recognise the analysis but are simply brazen opportunists.
Do the same so-called socialists that desire a two-state solution call for the right to return if the Palestinian diaspora? In the case of the AWL, the answer is “no”. Something I've noticed in the trade union motions I've read that the AWL support have also not called for.
Israel is a rogue terrorists state that will never accept Palestinian democracy; they drowned Fatah in blood when Arafat was the elected representative of the Palestinian people. Now Hamas are being terrorised as the elected representatives of the Palestinian people as Fatah are now corrupted, Israel and its allies bathe in the corpses of Palestinian children.
Targeting Hamas as some on the left do as being conservative, clerical, homophobic etc is of no use to the heroic people of Palestine. There is only one state and that is Israel, let's fight for the recognition of a Palestinian state first - In Palestine at the moment those fighting for Palestine are Hamas and their resistance fighters - legitimately elected - as well as the Palestinian people, many of whom voted for them. Some would argue that the NAZIS were legitimately elected but this ignores political historical materialism. The Palestinians are not NAZIS, the NAZIS were not being ethnically cleaned from their land - they were the ones doing the ethnic cleansing. Any analysis of the conflict must start with the rights and safety of the Palestinians first, not the rights and the safety of the Israelis. Israel is a nation state - it is not as nation - and it is a nation state built by the fascist and racist conquest of another nation.
Ironically this must be seen in the context that Israel and the west supported the founding of Hamas in order to split the Palestinian vote and help ferment fundamentalism.
Hamas are the democratically elected government of the Palestinian people. The US, UK, EU and others simply do not recognise that fact - and neither do certain groups on the left. What right have people got - in the safety of England's cosy suburbs, thousands of miles away from the horror of a Jewish only state terror machine - to tell the people of Palestine that they got it wrong? The people of Palestine voted for Hamas because they saw Fattah for the corrupt traitors that they are.
Hamas represent a concrete challenge to imperialism in Palestine - that is why we should be supporting them. "No" to Hamas is what the imperialists say. Saying "No" to Hamas because they are conservative, clerical, sexists and homophobic is the excuse the imperialists use; when the AWL et al start attacking the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people and their resistance fighters they sound like the BBC that insists on referring to them as "Militants" or the right wing media that suddenly develop a progressive political analysis and hijack the 'moral high ground' by belligerently parroting that the west must intervene in Afghanistan for the sake of Muslim women and referring to all the resistance fighters in Afghanistan as 'the Taliban'; they will not or do not accept that they are a resistance force.
The Palestinian people voted for Hamas, they saw them as the only organised political and military option available in order to combat imperialism. The imperialist/Zionist "NO" to Hamas and its murder of the Palestinian people represents not just double standards but multiple standards; they only want Palestinian leaders that will capitulate as opportunistically as the corrupt kings and puppet presidents throughout the client regime Arab world - which is what Fatah did. Is that what the AWL want? How can an organisation with close ties to the Labour Party self righteously lecture anybody about the wrongs of Hamas?
Of course, while groups like the AWL are affiliated to the Labour Party, they play in to the hands of the fascist BNP that tell the white working-class that Labour has deserted them in favour of the middle class and/or asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants. While groups like the AWL spin the old/new labour myth they fail to point out Labours historic role in protecting British imperialism and it's opportunistic role within the working class - dividing the English working class with the international working class by simultaneously waging war on lower working-class people in this country and those abroad. That is why making the connection between racism abroad and racism in this country is important. It is right to make the link between attacks on Muslim people in oil rich lands with racism against Muslims in Britain - indeed all asylum seekers’ just like it was correct to make the link between South African Apartheid racism and attacks against black people in Britain in the 1970‘s and 1980‘s; we must also do the same with Apartheid Israel and attacks on Muslims in Britain today.
In August 2008 two members left the AWL. Their resignations were part of a wave of discussion triggered by an article by Sean Matgamna which argued that, "The harsh truth is that there is good reason for Israel to make a precipitate strike at Iranian nuclear capacity" from an Israeli ruling-class point of view..." The AWL National Committee has expressed that is "against" albeit not "opposed" to such an attack. "Against" but not "opposed"? I am not even sure what that means, that reads like a labrynth of contradictory nonsense.
Let's not have anymore blabber about the targeting of M&S being tactically inept. It is a ZIONIST company, "Aiding the economic development of Israel is one of our main objectives" Said lord Sieff, Long time Chairman of M&S. M&S is not just interested in trading with Israel for profit like other companies, it is, and has always been an unequivocal supporter of Zionism - it supports Israel politically - it is not just interested in trade. By explaining that in response to slander about being anti-Semitic - when engaging with people - the message can be communicated clearly - not by running away from the argument because some might accuse you of being anti-emetic or because ant-Semites might join the campaign, (I would have thought they'd have their own campaign’s anyway).
Some on the left trumpet the role of the so-called Israeli "refusniks" because they believe is good to recognise that there are Israeli's that refuse to fly helicopter gun ships and murder Palestinians - but let's not have anymore piffle about forging links with the Israeli working-class - a working class than benefit from Israel's war crimes. What do these people want the Palestinians to do, sit around and wait for the Israeli working-class to get its act together? Don't be so insulting.
The British ruling class, its multinational companies and its Labour government support Israel because Britain is an imperialist country. Britain depends on the exploitation of other countries for its massive wealth. Israel plays a crucial role in maintaining this exploitation, by acting as the attack-dog of Britain and the US in their attempts to dominate the middle east. It is the duty of all of us in Britain to stand alongside the Palestinian people in their heroic opposition to imperialism.
Resistance is not terrorism.
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