Zionism Archives - Page 2 of 3

The Muslim Zionists

A generation of compradors has learned that Palestinians are valuable raw material for careerism.

A few days ago, I finally managed to synthesize an observation that has bothered me for decades: “Being an asshole to Palestinians is an excellent way to launch a media career in the United States.” From Martin Peretz to Bari Weiss, the strategy has rarely failed writers seeking bylines in prestigious newspapers.

Does It Matter If Israel Annexes the West Bank?

Annexation is bad news, but we should understand it as a material expression of Zionism.

Annexation of the West Bank isn’t a new idea. Zionists always had their eye on what they call Judea and Samaria, the actual sites of biblical significance as opposed to the coastal and desert areas they conquered in 1948. As soon as Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in 1967, its leaders began discussing annexation.

In fact, Netanyahu’s effort isn’t much different from Yigal Allon’s 1967 proposal (the so-called Allon Plan). It’s still not clear exactly how the Israeli government will proceed—apparently it intends to annex Area C, including the Jordan Valley, although some officials reportedly want to claim the entire West Bank—but the idea is to make a viable Palestinian state impossible, in keeping with Allon’s vision.

To Students and Teachers Targeted by the Israel Lobby

Zionist defamation can be scary, but it needn’t immobilize your commitment to justice.

University students and instructors periodically drop into my inbox with stories of repression and reprisal for having criticized Israel—or merely for having spoken favorably of Palestinians. In some cases, faculty have been demoted or fired, or have been denied tenure. In other cases, they’ve lost funding or opportunities to publish. They’ve been threatened, if only implicitly (plenty of times the threat is explicit). Students have been profiled by websites aiming to destroy their careers (pro-Israel zealots are expert snitches) or subject to some kind of disciplinary action.

How Bernie Sanders Became a Fighter for Palestine

On the importance of mythology to presidential campaigns

With the Democratic primary in full swing, the outlines of public debate are pretty much entrenched. Common wisdom on the left says that all of the candidates are bad on Palestine except for Bernie Sanders. Despite some problems, pundits declare, Sanders is still the best. Is the statement true, though, or is it a convenient truism?

The Magical City of Jerusalem

“Where are you from?” For Palestinians, it can be a devastating question.

The other day I was browsing the July issue of Palestine in America (an excellent magazine) featuring a profile of fashion designer Rami Kashou. Kashou is best known for his appearance on season 4 of Project Runway (2007-08), a design competition in which he placed second. He went on to a successful career in fashion.

Although I didn’t follow Kashou’s career, I remember him well. My wife and I liked Project Runway in its heyday and were watching when Kashou was introduced. His accent, his body language, his facial features—all felt deeply familiar. We glanced at each other. “Gotta be,” she said. The energy in the room got happier. We would have the rare opportunity to cheer on a Palestinian contestant.

Renouncing Israel on Principle

How to answer the question, “Do you affirm Israel’s right to exist?”

When anti-Zionists discuss the Middle East, the topic of Israel’s existence rarely arises. It’s almost exclusively a pro-Israel talking point. We’re focused on national liberation, on surviving repression, on strategies of resistance, on recovering subjugated histories, on the complex (and sometimes touchy) relationships among an Indigenous population disaggregated by decades of aggression. That a colonial state—or any state, really—possesses no ontological rights is an unspoken assumption.

The Inhumanity of Academic Freedom

A transcript of the 2019 TB Davie Memorial Lecture at the University of Cape Town, delivered August 7, 2019.

I begin with a straightforward proposition: academic freedom is inhumane. Its inhumanity isn’t of the physical, legal, or intellectual variety. Even at its best, academic freedom is capable of transforming human beings into instruments of bureaucracy. It is inhumane as an ontological category. It cannot provide the very artifact it promises: freedom. To become practicable, academic freedom requires textual boundaries. Under this sort of regime, freedom is merely academic.

Tulsi Gabbard and the Art of the Half-Sentence

Gabbard’s views on Palestine appear to have evolved, but that doesn’t mean they’re good.

People in the Palestine solidarity community have been debating the merits of Tulsi Gabbard’s presidential campaign. Gabbard has earned the sympathy, or at least the interest, of some activists, while others (including myself) dismiss her as a Zionist.

Gabbard’s supporters point to occasional tweets and comments critical of Israel (most of them actually critical of Netanyahu). The best of them came during the Great March of Return in 2018: “Israel needs to stop using live ammunition in its response to unarmed protesters in Gaza. It has resulted in over 50 dead and thousands seriously wounded.”

It Ain’t Merit

Reactionary pundits are infuriating, but we should reserve much of our anger for the media that generate their fame.

A recent Intercept article about Mohamad Tawhidi, the so-called “imam of peace,” a rightwing, Zionist, Islamophobic Shia cleric (no, seriously), sheds light on his rapid emergence as a media darling:

Tawhidi’s public career began, as he recently told “intellectual dark web” star Dave Rubin, when he “was discovered” by a producer for a tabloid news show on Australia’s Channel 7. “I got a call from Channel 7,” Tawhidi told Rubin, “and apparently they Googled ‘imam,’ ‘Adelaide,’ ‘Muslim,’ just to get a comment.”

He speaks with pride where shame is appropriate:

“So they came in wanting a three-minute comment on a certain issue and I gave them a 30-minute talk about the Muslim community,” Tawhidi continued, “and the director gets in touch with me and [said], ‘We can do a lot with what you’re saying.’”

College Administrators Care About Your Speech Rights–If You’re a Nazi

They disapprove of speech favorable to Palestinians, however.

Discussing free speech in the United States is a losing proposition. Every political demographic screams about hypocrisy, but doing so misses the larger point: it’s impossible to lionize speech as understood in this country without also being hypocritical. That’s because civil liberties are indivisible from the needs of power. In many cases, speech isn’t performed as a freedom; it’s an asset exploited by the shrewdest consumers.