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Cake day: June 26th, 2024

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  • They had a nation there 2000 years ago

    They had a kingdom 2000 years ago which wasn’t Israel but Judea. Israel was destroyed much earlier. Nation states are a recent phenomenon.

    after the Kingdom of Israel got conquered, most Israelites remained

    True. Most descends of the ancient Israelites and Judahites stayed and later converted to Christianity and eventually to Islam. They still live there, at least before 1948. On the other hand, Judaism spread through Europe mainly through convertion.

    They started being “a wondering nation” after persecution got ramped up to 11

    Half of them already lived outside Israel in the first century (hence the Septuagint for Jews who didn’t speak Hebrew) which isn’t too surprising in a world without nations and boarders.

    Palestine existed… well, never

    National identities developed in Europe during in 19th century. Before that, neither Germany nor France or Italy existed. Palestine identity started to form at the end of the 19th century. As Zionism did. Before that, Jewish was a religious identity. They didn’t identity as a wondering nation because there were no nations.

    I think it’s a fair assumption that both of these peoples should be able to have a nation of their own, with their own borders

    What about no nations no boarders? Or a binational state? Einstein advocated for the latter by the way.


  • It’s still a different order of magnitude. Sorry or oversimplifying in a relatively short comment.

    Not all Jewish immigrants were Zionist, history suggests most were not.

    True. The first aliyah had the goal to integrate into society (which included learning Arabic). Only after the Belfort Declaration 1917, Zionist movements began. This isn’t to blame all individual immigrants though. They have their reasons as in other settler colonial states as well.

    Ilan Pappe describes that diaries of early settlers were surprised that there were people at all (because they were promised “a land without people for a people without a land”) and they were welcomed. Your list starts 1920 which is already during Zionist settlement. I didn’t mean to imply that Zionism started 1948.



  • Deborah Feldman once said how she realized how short the ancient Israelites lived there compared to the overall history. Yet they feel entitled to a land that before and after them belonged to others like Canaanites, Romans, Ottomans …

    Even if true, how is having ancestry 2000 years ago any legitimation to expel people who live there for centuries? I have a lot of ancestry when I go 2000 years back. That doesn’t give me the right to do shit.

    Anyway, I think it’s good to admit that you aren’t educated on the topic. Maybe it’s time to change that. The afore mentioned Ten Myths About Israel is a good start. It’s by a historian who writes against his national interests (and is therefore as unbiased as possible) and is scientific but still easy to read.


  • A two state solution still contradicts the right to return. Shortly before the foundation of the state Israel in 1948, the Nakba happened. Meaning Zionist settlers killed and expelled thousands of Palestinians from their homelands. Gaza is overpopulated because of that. They are not allowed to return. Some do it over Google Street View because there is no other way. I recently saw a short film about that.

    And it’s not like Nakba is long ago and now the genocide in Gaza is unrelated but there is continuity in expansion, domination and dehumanization. On the other hand, Palestinians were very welcoming to the first Jewish immigrants. Their violence started long after the colonial violence of the Zionists. If you want to learn more, I recommend Ten Myths about Israel by Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historic an who says he loves his people but also every other people.

    The solution must be a one state solution, maybe binational. Acknowledging the state of Palestine is a step in the right direction. (The best solution in my eyes would be democratic confederation and no state but let’s keep it realistic.) A liberal Israel that gives all citizens the same rights would be as far removed from the Israel state since 1948 as Apartheid South Africa is from today’s South Africa or Nazi Germany from the FRG. It would be a different state in any meaningful sense.



  • So you think the Hamas would exist without Israel? Not only is Hamas anti-colonial resistance against Israel, but Israel actively supported Hama’s to weaken secular Palestinian groups and make Palestinian resistance less relatable and less credible. Palestinian resistance in the 70s or 80s was led by educated women. Dehumanizing Hamas is easier. Being anti Hamas is being against the system and the state that created it, which is colonialism and the state of Israel.


  • If you are a Zionist, you think Israel should exist.

    What do you think is implied in the right to exist of a state? Looking at other states that don’t exist anymore like the Third Reich (and the first two while we’re at it), the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia, the Ottoman Empire, Czechoslovakia: When a state ceases to exist, it can have different implications but not what Zionists seam to think. Israel is a settler colonial project that suppresses the indigenous Palestinian population. If you prefer that over a peaceful coexistence, you might be wrong on an anarchist instance.