The linked article “How we got to Gaza 2024”, is a compendium put together by retired Adelaide historian CL Parkes. The source material is the work of such writers as Ilan Pappe., Robert Fisk, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, Shlomo Sand and Edward Said. Of course, there are others, and behind them all is the Holy Bible.
The article is some 30 pages, but it is an easy, and wholly interesting, read. It is commended. It covers the concepts of racism, anti-Semitism, and the weaponisation of the Holocaust.
Historically, the story commences with the growth of Zionism from early 19th century Christian Zionism. The Zionist campaign to establish a Jewish homeland dismissed as irrelevant any claims that indigenous Palestinians had. Racism and colonialism were adopted. The 19th century saw the struggle for self-determination in Russia, eastern and central Europe, and west Asia, and this resulted in the rejection of Jewish people giving rise to their emigration to mainly, North America.
Zionist enthusiasts fixed upon God’s promise to Moses of the Land of Israel and the necessary extermination of the inhabitants of Canaan. At the end of the 19th century, a significant movement of eastern European Jews to Palestine occurred. Herzl sought British governmental support for a Zionist colony in Palestine, with indigenous Palestinians removed. The Jewish state would be a wall of defence for Europe, “an outpost of civilisation against barbarism”. The Bible was adopted to justify the narrative.
Uprisings in Russia in the early 20th century resulted in many Jews heading for London, necessitating Britain seeking to restrict such and needing somewhere for the Jews to go. 1909 to 1912 saw some 40,000 Zionist immigrants go to Palestine.
The story passes from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 through the end of WWI, the League of Nations and Palestine becoming a British Mandate, to promote a home for the Jews. Jews commenced to steal the land, and destroy the olive groves. The 1930s saw right wing governments rise to power in Europe and mass movement of refugees. The US closed its borders in the late 1930s.
Today, Israeli government spokespeople refer to Palestinians as ‘animals’, interspersed with the word ‘Amalekites’ – an ancient nomadic people. The Torah calls for the annihilation of Amalek – i.e. “the killing and annihilation of children and infants from generation to generation. Do not spare them, but kill men and women, baby and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey”.
The end of WWII sees the Jewish challenge to the British Mandate. In 1947, Britain abandons Palestine, leaving the problem of partition to the United Nations. The UN was based in the US and in New York, being the largest Jewish city then in the world. The new State of Israel received the total support of Christian Zionists, based principally in the US. What followed was the UN Partition Resolution 181, Jews being given 51% of the land with only 3% of the population, ethnic cleansing, the Nakba, and Jews in fact taking 79% of the land.
The 1950s saw fundamentalist Christian churches in the US, believing the Bible to be the word of God, most strongly support the right of the Jews to ethnically cleanse the Holy Land. P&I readers of my vintage will recall Pastors such as Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell. They led the way.
And so we arrive at 2024. I end with this quote from Robert Fisk (extracted from the article): “The Zionist project to establish a Jewish homeland in the Middle East was sold to the world as a European bulwark against barbarism. The indigenous people of Palestine were unquestionably savages, because they were/are indigenous. Terrorists. Amaleks. Animals. The Israelis, on the other hand, are civilised, just like us?”
I hope that I have attracted your interest with this short synopsis.
Read the full document:
Paul Heywood-Smith is an Adelaide SC of some 20 years. He was the initial chairperson of the Australian Friends of Palestine Association, an incorporated association registered in South Australia in 2004. He is the author of The Case for Palestine, The Perspective of an Australian Observer published by Wakefield Press in 2014.
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