FREE PALESTINE





Below is my own kind of Journal log on educating myself on SWANA's history (as it pertains to Israel and Palestine in particular). I feel it is a good exercise to show on here because so many kids my age don't understand how easy it is to learn--myself included. I hope my logged experience makes it feel more approachable.



EDIT: I also intend to add more after the fact, addressing just how many resources Israel has at its disposal (spyware, Western influence, etc).



My stance to begin with (which should be a no brainer for.. everybody) is, nobody deserves to die or suffer just for being alive. So even without knowing what I do now after my research, I was always an Anti-Zionist; no matter what came before, Israel is committing a genocide against Palestinians now.



If you need help finding examples of Israel's crimes and inhumanity, click the first button below or feel free to look through my instagram highlights which I dedicate to this exact reason:





Contextualizing myself



Zionism - Jewish nationalist movement with the goal of the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine, the ancient homeland of the Jews (Hebrew: Eretz Yisraʾel, “the Land of Israel”).

In the section of the article above labeled "The establishment of a Jewish State" I understand that by World War I, there was a large population of Russian Jews who took refuge in Palestine following the Russian Revolt. Russian Jews residing in England, Chaim Weizman and Nahum Sokolow, procured the Balfour Declaration (formed in 1917) from the British Government, promising Great Britain's support in creating a Jewish national home in Palestine. The Israeli rightists' Revisionist strand of Zionism pushed for "self-determination through armed force," resulting in the Zionist military organization, Haganah, to be established in 1920; it would later be the foundation of the IDF's formation.



Jewish organizations, businesses, and life developed in Palestine--Jews taking up 20% of Palestine's population by 1933. However, because the Palestinians opposed their country being declared a Jewish state, they revolted. Needing the Palestinian Arabs' support against Germany and Italy in WWII, Great Britain placed restrictions on Jewish immigration into Palestine in 1939. Revisionist Zionist groups, like Stern Gang and Irgun Zvai Leumi, violently opposed these restrictions by terrorizing and assassinating the British; Jews continued to illegally immigrate to Palestine.



Following the Holocaust, even more Jews took refuge in Palestine. Amongst rising tensions between Palestinian natives and the Zionists, the United Nations decided to part the country into both an Arab and Jewish state, internationalizing the city of Jerusalem. Native Palestinians and neighboring Arabs revolted against The State of Israel's creation in 1948 by launching a failed invasion of the state, the first of the Israeli-Arab wars. By 1949, Israel took more land than decided by the UN, forcing 800,000 Palestinians from their homes in the process; this event is known as the Nakba, or "the Catastrophe." In solidarity with Palestine and out of intimidation by their own Jewish populations, other West Asian (Arab) countries expelled their Jews--driving 850,000 Jews to the State of Israel.



In order to understand the Six-Day War of 1967, I had to use another source which went more in depth,

Ever since Zionists displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, neighboring Arab countries such as Egypt, Syria, and Jordan have retaliated in separate conflicts to provoke the Israeli border. However, it was when the Soviet Union leaked misinformation that the IDF were planning a full invasion into Syria that truly prompted the war, as Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser sent his Egyptian forces to the Sinai Peninsula--killing a United Nations peacekeeping force on Israel's border.



Nasser banned Israeli shipping from the Straits to Tiran on May 22nd, and signed a defense pact with King Hussein of Jordan a week later. Afraid of giving the Arab military time to recuperate, Israel responded by launching a preemptive strike in Egypt. On June 5th, not only did Israel eliminate 90% of Egyptian air forces, but then turned their attention towards annihilating air forces of Jordan, Syria, and Iraq as well.



Israel continued their fight on the ground; Israeli tanks and soldiers infiltrated the Gaza Strip and into the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt). Though Field Marshal Abdel Hakim Amer ordered for the Egyptian army's retreat, Israeli forces continued to kill routed soldiers in the following days.



The same day, false reports of Egypt's victory (and Israel's defeat) made its way to Jordan, prompting Jordan to attack Israeli installations in Jerusalem. Israel countered, devastating East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The last event of the war was Israel's capturing of the Golan Heights of Syria in response to Syria's aerial attacks. With the UN's declared ceasefire, the war ended in 800 Israeli deaths, 20,000 Arab deaths, and Israel's colonization of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights.



Though Israel colonized the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by their war with Egypt and Jordan, it was the Palestinians caught in the crossfire. More than a million Palestinians and other Arabs were now under Israeli rule. Offer of Israeli citizenship was given to residents of the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not of the Gaza Strip or West Bank. Britannica states,



"Zionism after Israel’s establishment was also forced to grapple with the question of balancing Jewish self-determination with democracy, particularly as concerns arose over the ability of Israel to maintain a demographic Jewish majority" (Britannica).



Essentially, Israel wants to be seen as a democratic state but doesn't want Palestinians to legally make up any significant percentage of their population (perhaps out of fear that the Palestinians will do to Israel what Jews did to Palestine).



What I make of this:



Before making this page, I had a rudimentary understanding of the history behind Palestine and the State of Israel. All I knew was that Israel kept claiming terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah were in the schools, homes, and public infrastructure which they bombed--which happen to kill hundreds if not thousands of innocent civilians every time.



From what I have learned from Britannica, it seems that the Palestinians don't catch a break, to put it lightly. It was one thing to let Jews take refuge in Palestine--people immigrate to other countries for safety and a better life every day. But these immigrants didn't just want a better life for themselves, they wanted to take away the lives and homes of the people who lived where they wanted to live.



Zionist Jews demanded Britain secure them their own state in Palestine. When Britain offered African territory which they colonized, Zionists insisted on Palestine. Not that Britain should have ever owned or colonized other countries, but unlike Britain's offer, Palestine was not for Britain to give under any contexts. When Britain realized this in the face of Arab protests and set immigration restrictions into Palestine, it was Zionist Jews who killed British forces and immigrated anyways. The more and more Jews who immigrated or fled into Palestine, the more the narrative that Palestine will become theirs, felt tangible. The Holocaust and its events are terrors in which no group of people or even one singular person should ever have to suffer. Unfortunately, the genocide of the Jewish people only fanned the flames of Zionism, and the Palestinians paid the price of their pain when the UN unrightfully declared Palestinian land as the State of Israel.



There is undeniable injustice here; Britain and the UN toying with Arab lands as if they didn't lead themselves, yes of course the Arabs were going to revolt. And yet, the Israeli forces crushed them! The invasion upon the State of Israel's creation in 1948 was a failure and Israel did in fact defend itself. BUT, that wasn't enough, because it never is just about defending themselves when it comes to Israel--that is just the excuse. That's why Israel committed the Nakba, killing and displacing 800,000 Palestinians from land that the UN didn't even declare as Israel's.



Even when we consider civility and trust between Israel, Britain, and the United Nations--Israel still breaches boundaries and gets away with it. Other Arab countries see that.



They see how Jews decided to move to what they believed to be their holy land, and gradually took as much of it as they wanted without any regard, plan, or empathy for the natives of the land. They saw how Western influences like the UN, Britain, and the U.S. didn't stand up for the Palestinians when Zionists bullied them out of their homes. It would be daft to not acknowledge why these Arab countries felt the need to ensure they did not meet the same fate as Palestine, especially since "Greater Israel" as outlined in the Hebrew Bible does include many of these exact countries. Granted, Zionism is multifaceted and it is only the Revisionist or modern day Extremist Zionists who may want to achieve "Greater Israel," but that is exactly who was in power then, as well as today (Revisionist Zionists' became today's IDF).





Bezalel Smotrich is still Israel's Finance Minister--clearly the mention of this plan does not bother the rest of Israeli's government, not even by saying the quiet part out loud!



To recap, Palestinians have only been ignored, killed, and displaced since Zionism was invented. When other countries fought with Israel, it was Palestine who was completely colonized without a say. Today, Palestine is rubble, and it isn't because Hamas was hiding in every single crevice of each child's home--it is because Israel wants Palestine's land and doesn't want the people who come with it. Maybe this conflict was about something else for some Jews, about being safe. But as soon as Jewish people convinced themselves that they deserved a home more than anybody else did, and as soon as their reasons became nonsecular, that is the poison which kills our sense of humanity.



Britannica went on to explain Anti-Zionism, and claimed that much of the time--intentionally or not--that Anti-Zionism is antisemitic because many Anti-Zionists are only referring to the Israeli government, but by referring to all of Zionism it disregards other fundamental Jewish values.

Even if this were true, not accounting for how concepts and perceptions of them change over time--I still proudly call myself an Anti-Zionist.



It is Zionism of all kinds which stood by while the State of Israel was declared on other people's land, and it is Zionism of all kinds which allow the Palestinian genocide to continue.

Zionism of all kinds manage to fundamentally ignore the welfare or basic value of life of anybody who doesn't want to or at times have no choice but to be in the way of what Zionists want. We don't choose who we are born to be. I could have been born as Hind Rajab, only to be shot 355 times at 5 years old, over an inhumane hatred I would never grow to understand.



The people of Israel and their supporters waste time nitpicking the words in which we identify ourselves because it is "antisemitic" and makes them feel threatened, while they are doing the actual harming, killing, and raping of innocent people. The hypocrisy is unreal.













Sources

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionism

https://www.history.com/articles/six-day-war