State of Israel

Not to be confused with the historic region, the Land of Israel

State of Israel ‎دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל
Flag Coat of arms
Capital (claimed)	Jerusalem
Official languages	Hebrew
Recognized languages	Arabic English
Dominant mode of production	Capitalism
Government	Unitary ethnocratic republic
History
• Declaration	14 May 1948

Israel, officially known as the State of Israel, is a settler-colonial state with limited recognition occupying most of Palestine.

The modern State of Israel has its roots in the Zionist movement, a political ideology centered around the creation of a Jewish state to replace Palestine. While many Zionists may be Jewish, most Zionists are Christians. Of the 100 million evangelical Christians in the United States of America, Zionists constitute more than 72%. This number of evangelical Zionists, in the USA alone, outnumbers the number of Jewish people worldwide, which is no more than 20 million.

Geopolitically, Israel exists as a forward operating base for the U.S. empire. As a senator, Joe Biden admitted "if Israel didn't exist, the US would have to invent [an Israel] to protect US interests."

In the spirit of national self-determination, proposals for a Jewish State have been made by socialists such as Joseph Stalin, but the British Empire's plan to settle the already-populous region of Palestine has been likened to settler colonialism, especially considering the apartheid-like conditions under which the Palestinians live.

Today, most communists see Israel as a settler ethnostate with aims to eliminate the Palestinian population (see below). Other minorities are also targeted, such as non-white Jews (notably from Ethiopia or Morocco), who are forcefully sterilised or forced to emigrate from Israel. These populations were originally brought in to give Zionists legitimacy over Palestine but since this has been achieved, they are now the targets of genocide as well.

Economy

Despite being a small state, Israel is the eighth largest arms exporter in the world. In 2019, it exported $9 million worth of military equipment and software. It has provided military aid to the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army and the Islamic State.

International recognition

Green: Recognize Israel, Brown: Recognition withdrawn, Red: Suspended relations, Grey: Never recognized Israel

As of December 2020, Israel has received international recognition by 164 of the other 192 UN member states. Besides not having diplomatic relations, Israel's sovereignty is disputed by some countries.

Israeli ethnostate

According to whistleblower Eran Efrati (with many other ex-IDF soldiers saying the same), Israeli children are exposed to supremacist propaganda since kindergarten. IDF soldiers visit children in schools at all ages throughout the year to talk to them about the greatness of Israel and Israelis, and how they are justified in seizing land from the Palestinians. These visits also serve another purpose: they reinforce the legitimacy of the IDF, so that children grow up to see it positively and, when conscripted, are proud to join and obey orders.

History of genocide against Palestine

20th century

Nakba

The United Nations accepted Resolution 194 on 29 November 1947, which divided British Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state, with Jerusalem administered directly by the UN. Zionist forces soon began an ethnic cleansing campaign and forced almost a million Palestinians off their land. During and after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, over 750,000 Palestinians (75% of the population) were dispossessed and became homeless in an event known as the Nakba.

In March 1948, more than 95% of Palestinians still lived on their original land. As part of Plan Dalet, implemented by Israeli leader David Ben-Gurion, Zionist forces and their allies attacked peaceful Palestinian villages. On 9 April 1948, the Irgun militia killed almost the entire population of the Deir Yassin village near Jerusalem. Between December 1947 and January 1949, the Israeli military and Zionist militias committed at least 29 massacres of Palestinians.

After the withdrawal of British troops from the city of Haifa on 21 April 1948, the Haganah, Israel's military, rolled barrel bombs filled with dynamite and gasoline into the city and shelled it with mortars. The army played screaming noises on loudspeakers and only 4,000 Palestinians out of the original 65,000 remained in the city.

By the early 1950s, 80% of Palestine was occupied by settlers and the rest was divided into the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Six Day War

In 1967, Israel attacked Palestine, Syria, and Egypt and occupied the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai Peninsula, and Golan Heights within five days. Due to the Six Day War, Israel drove 300,000 more Palestinians off their land and occupied East Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine.

21st century

• In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights council mandated a report delving into the situation between Gaza and Israel. It found many crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinians, including:
  • that the blockade does not exonerate Israel from providing humanitarian aid to Gaza (which they don't do),
  • inadequate warnings against bomb strikes, including the use of white phosphorus weapons against hospitals which are not military targets,
  • indiscriminate bombing in Gaza in retaliation for pinpointed strikes from Hamas (Hamas gives advance warning of their rocket fires which gives ample time for Israel to evacuate the population in shelters, most of which will be caught by the Iron Dome, both of which Gaza does not have),
  • violent, degrading, and arbitrary detentions of Palestinian civilians,
  • deliberate military disproportion used in retaliation.
• Over the course of seven weeks 2014, Israel killed over 500 Palestinian children and 850 adults in Gaza. Four boys playing at a beach in Gaza were killed by navy precision missiles, although Israel claimed this was an "honest mistake."
• In October 2015, the Institute for Middle East Understanding shared quotes from senior Israeli government officials depicting supremacist and racist statements against the Palestinian people in particular.
• The Israeli Defense Force, Israel's military branch, receives and executes orders to shoot children with live ammunition. It was made most apparent during the 2018 Great March of Return, during which Palestinians peacefully marched towards the fence isolating Gaza, and were fired at with live ammunition including an as-of-yet unidentified chemical agent. Children also participated in this protest, of which 46 were killed by the IDF, many of them shot by snipers. As whistleblower Eran Efrati explained, soldiers do not decide by themselves to fire live ammunition—the order has to be decided, then given out to the soldier who executes it, then relayed back to command. Therefore, these can not be the acts of lone soldiers
• In 2019, Israel began an extensive facial recognition program in the West Bank. One former Israeli soldier described it as the IDF's "secret 'Facebook for Palestinians.'"
• In 2020, Israel used the spyware Pegasus against six Palestinian activists. Three of them were working with human rights groups designated as terrorist organizations by Israel.
• In August 2022, Israel attacked Gaza, killing at least 43 people and injuring over 300.

Politics

The Israeli Communist Party, part of the Hadash coalition, is the only left-wing anti-Zionist force in Israeli politics. It founded the Joint List in 2015 with other pro-Palestinian parties and won 15 Knesset seats in the 2020 election. The Islamic Ra'am party left the coalition in 2021 when it supported the ruling coalition waging war against Gaza. Center-left Zionist parties like Meretz and the Israeli Labor Party, which founded the State of Israel, are decreasing in popularity. Far-right Zionist parties include the Religious Zionist Party, the third largest party in the Knesset, and the Jewish Power party.