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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 and controlled) | Tel Aviv |
| Official languages | Hebrew |
| Recognized languages | Arabic English |
| Dominant mode of production | Capitalism |
| Government | Unitary ethnocratic republic |
• President | Isaac Herzog |
• Prime Minister | Benjamin Netanyahu |
| History | |
• Declaration | 14 May 1948 |
"Israel", officially named the "State of Israel", referred to as Occupied Palestine or the Zionist Entity by the Palestinian resistance and its allies, is a settler-colonial state and genocidal regime occupying 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%.[1] 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. Then-senator Joe Biden admitted that "if Israel didn't exist, the US would have to invent [an Israel] to protect US interests."[2] The USA is the Zionist Entity's main backer and sends it $3.8 billion of funding every year.[3]
Today, most communists and Palestinians classify "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 sterilized[4] 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, the Zionist Entity is the eighth largest arms exporter in the world. In 2019, it exported $9 million worth of military equipment and software.[5] It has provided military aid to the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army[6] and the Islamic State.
International recognition
As of December 2020, the Zionist Entity has received international recognition by 164 of the other 192 UN member states. Besides not having diplomatic relations, the Zionist Entity's sovereignty is disputed by some countries (notably, the socialist states of Cuba and People's Korea do not recognize the Zionist Entity).
Zionist ethnostate
According to whistleblower Eran Efrati (with many other ex-IOF soldiers saying the same), Zionist Entity's children are exposed to supremacist propaganda since kindergarten. IOF 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 IOF, so that children grow up to see it positively and, when conscripted, are proud to join and obey orders.
History of genocide against Palestine
See also: Palestinian genocide
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.[7] During and after the 1948 Arab–"Israeli" War, over 750,000 Palestinians (75% of the population)[8] were dispossessed and became homeless in an event known as the Nakba.[9]
In March 1948, more than 95% of Palestinians still lived on their original land. As part of Plan Dalet, implemented by the Zionist Entity's 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.[10]
After the withdrawal of British troops from the city of Haifa on 21 April 1948, the Haganah, the Zionist Entity'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.[10]
By the early 1950s, 80% of Palestine was occupied by settlers and the rest was divided into the West Bank and Gaza Strip.[7]
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, the Zionist Entity drove 300,000 more Palestinians off their land[10] and occupied East Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine.[11]
21st century
- In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights council mandated a report delving into the situation between Gaza and "Israel".[12] It found many crimes committed by the Zionist Entity against the Palestinians, including:
- that the blockade does not exonerate the Zionist Entity 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 attacks from Hamas,
- 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 the Zionist Entity claimed this was an "honest mistake."[13]
- In October 2015, the Institute for Middle East Understanding shared quotes from senior Zionist Entity government officials[14] depicting supremacist and racist statements against the Palestinian people in particular.
- The "Israeli" Defense (or Occupation) Force, the Zionist Entity'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[15], many of them shot by snipers. As whistleblower Eran Efrati explained,[16] 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 soldier of the Zionist Entity described it as the IDF's "secret 'Facebook for Palestinians.'"[17]
- 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 the Zionist Entity.[18]
- In August 2022, "Israel" attacked Gaza, killing at least 43 people and injuring over 300.[19]
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 seats in the occupation's Parliament 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 Zionist Entity, 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.[20]
In the 2022 elections, a far-right religious fundamentalist coalition won 64 out of 120 seats in the Knesset. The coalition includes Netanyahu's Likud party, two right-wing religious parties in the Likud government (Shas and United Torah Judaism), the Religious Zionist Party led by Belazel Smotrich, and the Jewish Power party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir. The new "government" is very racist, sexist, and homophobic.[21]
Controversies
Aftonbladet, a Swedish tabloid, published an article on August 17, 2009, reporting that during the late 1980s and early 1990s, numerous young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip were taken by IOF forces, and “brought back after five days, at night, under tremendous secrecy, stitched back together after having been cut from abdomen to chin.” In the article, the families expressed fears that body parts were taken during unauthorized autopsies. Donald Boström, the articles author, tried to establish a link between these unauthorized autopsies in the 90s to a group of Jews in New Jersey who had been arrested in 2009 for money-laundering and trading in body parts.[22]
Although this article was the first investigation into this matter by a western journalist it was also widely criticized for it's lack of evidence.[23]
A few months later in December 2009, an interview surfaced from 2000 with Yehuda Hiss, the chief pathologist at the L. Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine, revealing his admission of extracting organs from the bodies of "Israelis", Palestinians, and foreign workers without consent from their families. The Zionist Entity's health authorities corroborated Hiss's confession but alleged that such practices ceased in the 1990s, and Hiss was subsequently removed from his position but still worked at the Forensic Institute.[24]
On December 26, 2023, the Gaza Media Office concluded that the Zionist Entity stole organs after an investigation into 80 Palestinian bodies that were handed over to Palestinian authorities in Gaza at the Karam Abu Salem border crossing. Gaza Media Office further noted that this was not the first time the Zionist Entity committed these crimes. They cited previous instances where the IOF had desecrated graves in Jabalia, stole corpses, and had retained and continue to retain numerous bodies taken from the Gaza Strip.[25]
In addition to these reports, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor cited remarks by medical professionals in Gaza, “who found that vital organs, such as livers, kidneys, hearts, cochleas and corneas were missing in the bodies released by [the Zionist Entity].” Medical staff further noted that the Zionist Entity dug up and seized bodies from a mass grave located in the courtyard of al-Shifa hospital.[26]
Gaza Media Office along with Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is calling for an independent international investigation into this issue.[27][28]
Further reading
References
- ↑ Pew Research (2014) Strong support for Israel in U.S. cuts across religious lines
- ↑ "Joe Biden says if Israel didn't exist, the US would have to invent one to protect US interests" (2019-04-03).
- ↑ "PSL Editorial – Stop U.S. funding for Israel’s massacres" (2023-01-26). Liberation News. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/feb/28/ethiopian-women-given-contraceptives-israel
- ↑ George Chakma India (2021-11-09). "Israel, the arms industry and global capitalism" The International. Archived from the original on 2021-11-09. Retrieved 2022-05-07.
- ↑ Daniel J. Levy (2019-02-03). "Israel Just Admitted Arming anti-Assad Syrian Rebels. Big Mistake" Haaretz. Archived from the original on 2022-04-30. Retrieved 2022-05-07.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Miko Peled (2022-07-19). "A History of Israeli Destruction of the Two State Settlement" MintPress News. Archived from the original on 2022-07-21. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
- ↑ "What is Nakba?". Palestine Remembered. Archived from the original on 2021-10-06. Retrieved 2022-06-13.
- ↑ Miko Peled (2022-07-19). "A History of Israeli Destruction of the Two State Settlement" MintPress News. Archived from the original on 2022-07-21. Retrieved 2022-07-25.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Richard Becker (2021-05-15). "Massacres were indispensable to creation of the Israeli state" Liberation School. Archived from the original on 2022-01-03. Retrieved 2022-06-21.
- ↑ "On the 72nd Nakba Palestine Faces Its Biggest Threat" (2020-05-15). TeleSur. Archived from the original on 2022-06-01. Retrieved 2022-06-25.
- ↑ https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf
- ↑ Jonathan Cook (2021-11-26). "‘Honest Mistakes’: How US and Israel Justify Targeting and Killing Civilians" Antiwar.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-12. Retrieved 2022-05-07.
- ↑ https://imeu.org/article/extremism-incitement-to-racial-hatred-senior-israeli-officials-in-their-own
- ↑ https://www.un.org/unispal/document/two-years-on-people-injured-and-traumatized-during-the-great-march-of-return-are-still-struggling/
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkxJd88xkBU
- ↑ Brett Wilkins (2021-11-10). "‘Organized State Terrorism’: Palestinians Condemn New Israeli Surveillance Revelations" Antiwar.com. Archived from the original on 2022-04-16. Retrieved 2022-05-07.
- ↑ "Pegasus used to spy on six Palestinian human rights activists, finds investigation" (2021-11-10). Peoples Dispatch. Archived from the original on 2021-11-10. Retrieved 2022-05-07.
- ↑ Arwa Ibrahim (2022-08-07). "Israel-Palestine live news: Gaza death toll reaches 29" Al Jazeera. Archived from the original on 2022-08-07. Retrieved 2022-08-07.
- ↑ Naim Mousa (2022-11-12). "The Communist Party is the only force capable of challenging ultra-nationalism in Israeli society" Mondoweiss. Archived from the original on 2022-11-24. Retrieved 2022-11-24.
- ↑ Richard Becker (2022-12-28). "Undisguised fascists hold balance of power in new Israeli annexationist regime" Liberation News. Archived from the original on 2022-12-30. Retrieved 2022-12-30.
- ↑ Donald Boström (2009-08-26). ""Our sons are plundered of their organs"" Aftonbladet. Archived from the original on 2024-01-04.
- ↑ Jonathan Cook (2009-09-05). "Accountability and the organ theft controversy" The Electronic Intifada. Archived from the original on 2023-09-20.
- ↑ Ian Black (2009-12-21). "Doctor admits Israeli pathologists harvested organs without consent" The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2010-04-12.
- ↑ Leila Warah (2023-12-27). "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 82: Israel accused of harvesting organs from dead Gazans" Mondoweiss. Archived from the original on 2023-12-27.
- ↑ "Israel releases 80 mutilated bodies with stolen organs for burial in Gaza" (2023-12-27). PressTV. Archived from the original on 2023-12-28.
- ↑ "Int’l committee must investigate Israel’s holding of dead bodies in Gaza" (2023-11-26). Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. Archived from the original on 2023-03-06.
- ↑ Joshua Askew (2023-11-27). "Israel 'stealing organs' from bodies in Gaza, alleges human rights group" Euronews. Archived from the original on 2023-11-27.