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Renouncing Israel on Principle

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

By Steven Salaita | December 9, 2019

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.

“Do you recognize Israel’s right to exist?” pretends to honor the downtrodden, but it is an altogether different proposition, transforming sophisticated ideas of liberation into a crude test of political respectability. Prioritizing the state as worthy of relief, as something to which we automatically owe deference, subsumes life to the imperatives of capital.

The fundamental goal of the question is to attribute a sinister position to dissidents. It accomplishes that goal even when the dissidents haven’t promoted destruction. Mere defense of Palestinian life is enough to evoke the settler’s existential fear. For people socialized into orthodoxy, Israel is synonymous with progress, technology, and production. Affirming its existence is an endorsement of the status quo; no matter how ludicrous as a moral premise, in capitalist spaces it is a perfectly sensible demand.

There are plenty of reasons to eschew the demand. The first reason is practical:  we don’t advocate for the destruction of human communities, but of ideologies conducive to racism and inequality. It’s both insidious and unethical to conflate Jewish people (of any national origin) with the existence of a violent, rapacious polity. That sort of conflation is a grave disservice to activists and intellectuals devoted to a better world—and to the communities for whom a better world is a necessity of survival. Nobody has ever asked me to affirm another nation-state’s existence, a demand I would likewise decline. Zionists constantly single out Israel for special treatment.

Moreover, it is remarkably impudent for champions of a state founded on the destruction of Palestine and now in its eighth decade of ethnic cleansing to ask the victims of its malevolence for recognition. Even worse, recognition is only the tip of the demand. We’re also being asked to legitimize apartheid and ignore the routine commission of war crimes. The upshot is to validate Israel as a militarized object of Western imperialism—in other words, to affirm the existence of a deeply antihuman entity.

Let’s consider the demand in context of North America, where it’s most frequently issued. Those of us operating in this geography haven’t the authority to abdicate nearly 80 (and arguably 100) percent of historical Palestine. It’s not any Westerner’s prerogative to relinquish Palestine under the pressure of a spuriously humanistic insistence by Zionists that their perfidy be excused because it will somehow make us more responsible citizens.

I am happy, eager even, to affirm the right of Jewish people to live in peace and security, wherever that may be, a right all humans deserve in no particular order of worthiness. But I won’t ratify Israel’s bloody founding or its devotion to racial supremacy. Ultimately, when Zionists demand that you affirm Israel’s right to exist, what they really seek is affirmation of Palestinian nonexistence.

Beyond these philosophical, political, and practical factors, there’s a worthy psychological reason to refuse the demand. Zionists are the bully in this supposed conflict and enjoy nearly universal support in centers of political and economic power. They have more funds, access to corporate media, and the backing of the US military. Palestinians, however, hold one form of power that doesn’t require money, platforms, or weaponry:  the ability to withhold legitimacy from Israel. It is a small power, without a material apparatus, but it is power, nevertheless, one that only a fool or opportunist would relinquish.  When an oppressor makes submission the basis of civic responsibility, insolence is the only dignified response.

April 21, 2020 - Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , ,

7 Comments »

  1. So well put as to elevate the rational, simple, factual of the whole history and structured presentation as the Zionist state and its partisans into an irrefutable declaration.

    That declaration might be denied, provoke the usual anger and militant challenge, attempt to intimidate by veiled threat, always brought by the Zionist state and its world-wide partisans, but to any other than those fanatically committed, it will hold in place.

    Those who continue to align and contribute to the continued Zionist brutality and murderous action, are complicit.

    That complicity will bring ruin, as it already has, perhaps unknown or certainly unacknowledged by the willingly complicit.

    Liked by 2 people

    michael's avatar Comment by michael | April 21, 2020 | Reply

  2. along with affirming a ghoul’s right to exist,
    also affirm its right to kill olive trees, explode knee caps,
    poison the air, make water toxic, take human organs.

    many obligations accompany a monster’s right to exist.

    Liked by 2 people

    5 dancing shlomos's avatar Comment by 5 dancing shlomos | April 21, 2020 | Reply

  3. Glad you’re still well and fighting, Steven. The Zios can’t keep a good man down.

    Liked by 1 person

    traducteur's avatar Comment by traducteur | April 22, 2020 | Reply

  4. Very helpful. States have no legal right to exist. That’s standard Zionist neuro-linguistic programming – invent a right that has no legal meaning, and demand it. The term itself is human rights distortion, a breach of customary international law (specifically, the non-intervention principle.) The way this Talmudic casuistry works, soon the Zionazis will be demanding their right to wipe out subhuman Arab cockroaches.

    Here is what Israel faces in international forums consonant with UN Charter Article 100. The peoples of Israel have a right to self-determination. The state of Israel bears duties. Israel is sovereign only to the extent that it bears its duties in good faith. The Human Rights Committee has adjured Israel to interpret its commitments in good faith. Israel has forfeited its sovereignty with its duplicity in acceding to the ICCPR, fingers-crossed, and derogating Palestinians’ non-derogable rights. The GOI’s crime against humanity of extermination gives the outside world erga omnes responsibility under the Responsibility to Protect and under state responsibility for internationally wrongful acts in breach of jus cogens.

    Israel is not a sovereign state. The outside world is obligated to intervene and reconstruct it as one or more successor states in full compliance with the UN Charter, the international bill of human rights, and the Rome Statute. That will end apartheid Israel as we know it.

    Liked by 1 person

    Noahideandseek's avatar Comment by Noahideandseek | April 22, 2020 | Reply

  5. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2020/04/tohono-oodham-nation-excavator-arrives.html

    [TOHONO OODHAM NATION–Excavator arrives, desecration of sacred land for Israeli US Spy Towers]

    Like

    Sparrow's avatar Comment by Sparrow | April 22, 2020 | Reply

  6. https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2020/04/tohono-oodham-nation-excavator-arrives.html

    [TOHONO OODHAM NATION–Excavator arrives, desecration of sacred land for Israeli US Spy Towers]

    It’s all about resources and slave labor.

    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228656758_A_repository_of_earth_resource_information_CORONA_satellite_programme#pf2

    [“The CORONA satellite programme was the first series of spy satellites aimed at observing the military strategy and arms power. These satellites captured photographs of the earth’s surface using panoramic cameras during 1960–72. Continuous improvements in design of each mission provided photographs of higher resolution and coverage. Declassification of these photographs in 1995 revolutionized the remote sensing community, as it provided a RICH SOURCE OF EARTH RESOURCE information (emp. mine). These photographs are being used in the areas of geo-logy, land use and archaeology. However, information and facts about the CORONA programme are not readily available. This article is an attempt to compile all scattered information to serve as a comprehensive technical reference. Further, the article surveys the various applications where CORONA data have been used and assesses the potential of these data. Due to low cost, higher resolution and historical data, the CORONA photographs are especially useful for a de-veloping country like India.”]

    [“THE act of spying for gathering pertinent information has been in practice since feudalistic periods. In the context of satellite remote sensing, CORONA was the first suc-cessful space reconnaissance programme. CORONA was run from 1960 to 1972 as a series of spy satellites. During those twelve years, it acquired information from the earth’s surface by collecting numerous photographs. In ad-dition to the CORONA programme, the ARGON and LANYARD programmes were also executed for brief periods. These satellite programmes were coordinated, gov-erned, and managed jointly by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US Air Force (USAF). Out of 105 CORONA satellite missions, 95 were successful. In 1995, declassification of CORONA satellite photographs by the US government unveiled the history, development and progress of spy satellite technology. Although CORONA was intended to capture the precise intelligence information for military purposes, due to high-quality photographic products, it is now being exploited for non-military appli-cations…”]

    The connection to vax, eliminating the populations any way they can, all for resources. Death to these monsters into the fires of hell.

    Like

    Sparrow's avatar Comment by Sparrow | April 22, 2020 | Reply

  7. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228656758_A_repository_of_earth_resource_information_CORONA_satellite_programme#pf2

    [“The CORONA satellite programme was the first series of spy satellites aimed at observing the military strategy and arms power. These satellites captured photographs of the earth’s surface using panoramic cameras during 1960–72. Continuous improvements in design of each mission provided photographs of higher resolution and coverage. Declassification of these photographs in 1995 revolutionized the remote sensing community, as it provided a RICH SOURCE OF EARTH RESOURCE information (emp. mine). These photographs are being used in the areas of geo-logy, land use and archaeology. However, information and facts about the CORONA programme are not readily available. This article is an attempt to compile all scattered information to serve as a comprehensive technical reference. Further, the article surveys the various applications where CORONA data have been used and assesses the potential of these data. Due to low cost, higher resolution and historical data, the CORONA photographs are especially useful for a de-veloping country like India.”]

    [“THE act of spying for gathering pertinent information has been in practice since feudalistic periods. In the context of satellite remote sensing, CORONA was the first suc-cessful space reconnaissance programme. CORONA was run from 1960 to 1972 as a series of spy satellites. During those twelve years, it acquired information from the earth’s surface by collecting numerous photographs. In ad-dition to the CORONA programme, the ARGON and LANYARD programmes were also executed for brief periods. These satellite programmes were coordinated, gov-erned, and managed jointly by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the US Air Force (USAF). Out of 105 CORONA satellite missions, 95 were successful. In 1995, declassification of CORONA satellite photographs by the US government unveiled the history, development and progress of spy satellite technology. Although CORONA was intended to capture the precise intelligence information for military purposes, due to high-quality photographic products, it is now being exploited for non-military appli-cations…”]

    The connection to the vax’s and the removal/death of the populations the world over any way they can all for resources.

    Like

    Sparrow's avatar Comment by Sparrow | April 22, 2020 | Reply


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