Does Israel’s Right to Exist Include Abusing International Activists?
Zionism has nothing to do with Israel’s right to exist. It has to do with how it exists.
There’s something about seeing the Global Sumud Flotilla activists getting sadistic treatment on camera, after being shot at, kidnapped, beaten, sexually assaulted, degraded, dehumanized, and then beaten at the Bilbao airport that sent me packing. It’s not by any means the worst thing I’ve seen in the last three years, but the meaning behind it, and what it portends, is.
I think it finally dawned on me what kind of world we are actually living in. All this time, I subconsciously kept waiting for something to stop so we could return to some version of normal life, one that at the very least didn’t exist under the constant threat of nuclear weapons looming over everyone’s heads, only to realize that nothing will ever feel normal until Palestine is free of the military occupation.
It finally dawned on me. The stage we’re in. I don’t think we even quite realize the extent of what’s been done all around the world for Israel to have “the right to exist.”
Something about Itamar Ben Gvir slamming a woman’s head on camera, smiling, knowing the entire world will see it, not caring about a possible repercussion for his behaviour that won’t come — I don’t know what finally flipped in me, but something did.
Imagining what they do to the Palestinian people, when they can do this to Westerners who will come off those planes and report everything that happened to them. Dungeons, no one to care what happens to them, no one to hear them, an entire world muted to their suffering, an invisible nation, voiceless, muted — not allowed to rage about what is done to them, every single day since 1948.
Sometimes I do something mundane during the day, cook dinner, or run errands, and I think about those dungeons their occupiers locked them in, muted, voiceless people, abused and abused and abused, tormented by their jailers, for no reason at all but existing. It stops me in my tracks, my whole body gets paralyzed; how do you live, knowing all this? And I only have to live with the pain of realization, not the actual wrath of hyenas, walking around, fronting like they’re human.
It dawned on me that 1930s Germany looked like a warm-up act to what’s happening now. History is not scarier than today. We’re just in it to see it.
Consequence.
There are two sides to this frustration we all feel; one is knowing what is being done to the Palestinian and Lebanese people, and the other is realizng just how much damage this tiny country of Israel that’s producing so much violence and grief has done to the entire international community.
The Basque Police beating the very people who had been tortured only hours prior, in Spain, no less, a very pro-Palestinian country, to hide evidence, knowing these people would be medically examined, should send shivers down everyone’s spine. It’s not about brutality; we have seen unimaginably worse — it’s about the masterminding behind it. The calculation. Premeditation.
We are all very well-versed in Israeli depravity, but realizing just how many parts around the world are working to keep that machine of violence going, and at what human price, is astounding. You just cannot recover once you realize it.
I implore you to read this piece by Ahmed Eldin, where he explains the machinery behind the brutality of the Basque Police; the who, the whys, and how.
It’s an ugly, ugly world that Israel has created, so they can “exist.” What is the price of that existence? Is it worth it? It is for them, whilst endangering an entire planet. At what point will the international community decide the price is unattainable?
Kidnapping, torturing, abusing, dehumanizing, and sexually assaulting European citizens is a declaration of war from Israel against Europe. Why isn’t it treated as such?
Right to exist.
A few months ago, when the Knesset passed a death penalty bill that would allow the execution of Palestinian prisoners, a member of Knesset, Limor Son Har-Melech, called the occasion a day where Israel “chose life” and said the decision is an example of “true Jewish morality”. The fact that these psychopaths can pass a death law and call that occasion “choosing life” tells us the Israeli mindset is simply not compatible with humanity.
Also, true Jewish morality?
Look at the pure ecstasy on Itamar Ben-Gvir’s face when that law was passed. What kind of human being gets this excited over the death of another human being? And look at his excitement as he takes us on a tour of the execution chamber for the Palestinian people. The same look of excitement when he taunted and tormented the Global Sumud Flotilla activists this week.
Tell me something. Did apartheid South Africa have a “right to exist?” The world agreed that it didn’t. The world then helped to see its dismantlement. And today, South Africa still exists, but apartheid South Africa doesn’t.
Does a genocidal apartheid state of Israel have a right to exist? No. In the future, Israel will probably still exist, but genocidal apartheid Israel won’t.
Why do pundits who support Israeli war crimes constantly ask, “Does Israel have a right to exist?” It’s because that’s the same question Zionists ask anybody who questions Israel’s behaviour.
Nobody asks that question about any country, but Zionists are constantly asking it about Israel, as part of their propaganda playbook. Because the question leads to the usual yes or no logistical chain. If you answer no, they’ll call you an antisemite. If you answer yes, it means you have to support their ethnic cleansing, expansionary landgrabs, and genocidal behaviour, because all of those things are necessary to ensure that Israel continues to exist.
Do Native Americans have the right to exist in a state of their own on land to which they have a historic connection?
Zionism has nothing to do with Israel’s right to exist. It has to do with how it exists.
I read a great analysis by Dr. Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui the other day. It came to me while I was scrolling through the reactions of Zionists online, and the people supporting them, to the viral video of international activists being abused by Itamar Ben-Gvir and the Israeli army.
Here they were, mothers, fathers, educated, successful, seemingly serious people who somehow believe this level of abuse and violation of basic human rights is justified. Whatever group you belong to, how can something like this ever be justified? How can the decades-long abuse of the Palestinian and Lebanese people be justified?
What has always stunned me most is how unified they all are across every walk of life — citizens, politicians, influencers, journalists, public figures, regular families — all operating in unison to preserve this operation, make sure it runs smoothly, and ensure Israel continues to exist no matter the human cost.
Dr. Sabreena Ghaffar-Siddiqui nails it:
“Jewish supremacy is not a feeling or individual prejudice; it is an operating system, just like white supremacy. And it can be neatly placed within the same foundational critical race theory and sociological framework of analysis.
Despite Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem being the first to introduce the concept of Jewish supremacy to describe the apartheid system of ‘Israel’, the system of Jewish supremacy is also imbedded within the wider white supremacist colonial system of operation we have in the west.
If white supremacy can be defined as a political, socio-economic, and cultural system where white people enjoy structural advantages over other racial and ethnic groups, then Jewish supremacy can be described as a political, socioeconomic, and cultural system where Jews enjoy structural advantages (and protections) over other racial, religious, ethnic groups - true both in occupied Palestine and in the west.
Institutionalization: like white supremacy, it is a pervasive system embedded in workplaces, school systems, governments, and legal systems - both in occupied Palestine and the West. Think of the way the education system focuses on the Nazi holocaust vs every other holocaust in history, and how many holocaust memorials there are in the the U.S and Canada vs memorials for the genocide of its Indigenous peoples.
Systemic Power: like white supremacy, rather than just individual hateful acts, Jewish supremacy represents a structure that perpetuates “Jewish privilege” and “exceptionalism” and provides unequal access to resources, opportunities, power, and protection to Jews OVER all other marginalised groups - both in occupied Palestine and the West. Think of the crackdown on campus protests, the mass suppression of “freedom of speech”, and people losing their jobs for simply saying children should not to be burned alive in tents and sniped in the head and chest.
Individual vs structural: While individual, conscious racism exists, the “system of Jewish supremacy” refers to the broader, often unconscious, societal and institutional structures that value Jewish safety and feelings OVER the actual material harm and violence experienced by non-Jewish marginalised people - both in occupied Palestine by Muslim and Christian Palestinians and those in the West by those who might oppose the self-proclaimed ‘Jewish state of Israel’.
And so, like white supremacy, we can describe Jewish supremacy not just as “shark” (an actor) but as the “water” (the environment) in which society operates.”
They are all in on it because they all “benefit from structural advantages over other racial and ethnic groups.” Their supremacy and the excusing of the loss of human life to uphold it is a “political, socioeconomic, and cultural system where they enjoy structural advantages (and protections) over other racial, religious, and ethnic groups, both in occupied Palestine and in the West.”
Zionism has nothing to do with Israel’s right to exist. It has to do with how it exists.
