Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The Nation State of the Jewish People

The following news reminds me of the old biblical injunction: 'There is nothing new under the sun':

"A controversial bill that officially defines Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people has been approved by cabinet despite warnings that the move risks undermining the country's democratic character. Opponents, including some cabinet ministers, said the new legislation defined reserved 'national rights' for Jews only and not for its minorities, and rights groups condemned it as racist. The bill, which is intended to become part of Israel's basic laws, would recognise Israel's Jewish character, institutionalise Jewish law as an inspiration for legislation and delist Arabic as a second official language. Arab Muslims and Christians make up 20% of Israel's population." (Israeli cabinet approves legislation defining nation-state of Jewish people, Peter Beaumont, theguardian.com, 24/11/14)

What we have here seems to be yet another piece of Israeli apartheid legislation (ranking alongside Israel's Law of Return (1950), Absentees' Property Law (1950), and Development Authority Law (1950), to name but 3 of the pack) which will operate to further entrench the divide between Jewish and non-Jewish (Palestinian) Israelis, enhancing the first class citizen status of the former while exacerbating the second class citizen status of the latter.

(Before proceeding further, however, that talk about the bill "undermining the country's democratic character," cannot be allowed to pass without comment. As I've pointed out many times in this blog: Any state that has most of its indigenous population living outside its borders, unable to return (Palestinian refugees), and the rest living either under a draconian military occupation (occupied Palestinians) or as second-class citizens within its borders (Palestinian Israelis), simply cannot be described, no matter how it is spun, as a democracy in good standing. An ethnocracy, yes. An apartheid state, yes. But emphatically, not a democracy.)

It's the 'Jewish people' concept that bears closer examination. This feature of Zionist ideology dates back to the very beginnings of the political Zionist movement. The concept rests on the false premise that Israel is 'the State of the Jews' - that is, all Jews, no matter where in the world they reside, or whether they embrace or reject an alleged connection to said 'State of the Jews'. According to the 'Jewish people' concept, Israel is not, therefore, simply the state of its citizens. The concept thus has important implications for Jews who are citizens of countries other than Israel.

The following excerpts on the subject are taken from an essay by W.T. Mallison, Jr., The Legal Problems Concerning the Juridical Status & Political Activities of the Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency, published in the William & Mary Law Review, Spring 1968:

"Zionism and its 'Jewish State' act upon the postulate that anti-Semitism is fundamental and ineradicable. Upon this postulate the Zionist juridical objectives that 'the Jewish people' be constituted as an additional nationality entity, membership in which is to be conferred upon all Jews, are based. The 'Jewish people' concept is used to recruit Jewish immigration to Israel and to achieve other Zionist political objectives. The Zionist 'solution' to anti-Semitism is to 'ingather' all Jews into the State of Israel...

"The 'Jewish people' concept is consistently advanced as a juridical claim in international law decision-making contexts. A particularly well known example involved the exploitation of the claim in the Eichmann Trial Judgment... 'The connection between the State  of Israel and the Jewish people needs no explanation'...

"The United States Department of State has commented upon the 'Jewish people' concept as follows: 'The Department of State recognizes the State of Israel as a sovereign State and citizenship of the State of Israel. It recocognizes no other sovereignty or citizenship in connection therewith. It does not recognize a legal-political relationship based upon the religious identification of American citizens. It does not in any way discriminate among American citizens upon the basis of their religion. Accordingly, it should be clear that the Department of State does not regard the 'Jewish people' concept as a concept of international law'...

"At the outset it should be recognized that the enunciation of the 'Jewish people' concept or claim in public law-making contexts involves an assertion of jurisdiction over Jews in the United States. The enunciation, consequently, involves implementation as well...

"The double loyalty issue is... recognized by some of the Zionist elite and dealt with in apparent double talk. For example, Mr Berl Locker, speaking as chairman of the Zionist Executive at a Session of the Zionist General Council, stated as one of 'the basic doctrines of Zionism in the present day': 'The State of Israel lays no claim to the political loyalty of Jews resident in other countries. Jews are good citizens in all countries of their domicile and especially in the countries in which they enjoy equal rights. But Jews as a community do possess a collective loyalty to the State of Israel, as Israel is the national home of the entire Jewish people.'

"On its face this statement is simply double talk since it can be interpreted textually as meaning either single or double loyalty. A Zionist statement, however, must usually be interpreted in greater depth than 'on its face'. The italics in the original indicate, of course, the relatively greater significance of the italicized statement concerning the loyalty of Jews to the State of Israel. Further analysis requires a basic understanding of Zionist public law. Such law is concerned almost exclusively with collective rights and duties consistent with the collective 'Jewish people' concept. From this perspective the statements which are not in italics have no Zionist significance since they are only concerned with individual  Jews ('good citizens'). The italicized statement concerns the Zionist concept of the 'entire Jewish people as well as the lower level concept of 'Jews as a community.' Since Zionism is concerned with collective rights and duties this is the only part of the quotation which has meaning to Zionists.

"The contemporary implementation of the 'Jewish people' concept continues to emphasize the immigration of Jews living in 'exile' or in the 'diaspora' (the Zionist terms for Jews who are nationals of any state other than the State of Israel) to Israel. In view of the substantial failure of Zionist recruitment of Jewish immigrants in the United States, Zionism has developed other major political objectives within this country which are conducted in spite of the provisions of the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation Between the United States and Israel which deny authority to conduct such activities. Each of these objectives is documented in the 1963 Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing concerning the 'Activities of Nondiplomatic Representatives of Foreign Principals in the United States.' Perhaps the most important and comprehensive one is to conduct Zionist political activities in the United States as if they were genuine American activities. A related objective includes the domination of the mass media of communications with Zionist-Israel political viewpoints presented to make them appear to be American ones."

Most interesting those last two sentences.

2 comments:

Grappler said...

Picked up 5 minutes of some American (accent) being interviewed by (I think) the fawning Geraldine Doozie today on ABC RN. He talked about the people calling out for genocide of Jews (who would they be?), about the brutality going on in Syria (by Assad btw), by Boko Haram, by ISIS, in South Sudan, and how it was important that the US remain in the Middle East. Not one mention of Gaza! Palestinian lives do not count!

Oh for a Jon Snow!

MERC said...

Speaking of Doogue, there was a little hatchet job on RN in Monday's Herald by Louise Evans, described as a "former manager at ABC's Radio National and former managing editor at The Australian." It contained this sentence: "The executive would pander to the whims of celebrity presenters, yet would take for granted journalistic giants like Fran Kelly and Geraldine Doogue who present world class programs." Journalistic giants FFS!