Call me a masochist, but I'm returning to this issue, as I feel it has been poorly understood. Please read the whole thread before responding. First, I hope we can agree that the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza and horrific crimes in the West Bank and the wider region. I hope we can also agree that Western governments, including the US, UK and Germany, have been assisting these crimes, through weapons sales, surveillance, diplomatic and media support and arrests of protesters. I hope we can further agree that these great crimes should be prosecuted. Agreed so far? OK. Now let me tell you about my ancestors. They fled across Europe, keeping ahead of a long series of pogroms, persecutions and antisemitic laws. They arrived in England in the mid-19th century. Many, going back a long way, were Zionists: they craved a dedicated homeland, a refuge from persecution. But in the 1920s, some of them changed their views. They became anti-Zionists. Why? Because they believed that if Jews achieved a dedicated homeland, this would give antisemites yet another excuse to expel them from Europe and Russia. In the late 1930s, as the scale and intent of the Holocaust became clear, some of my ancestors and relatives, like many Jews across Europe, changed their minds again. A permanent refuge suddenly looked like a very good idea. Is this because they were racist? No. It's because they were desperate. Now of course there's a problem here, a very big one: a dedicated homeland and self-determination for the Jewish people meant a loss of homeland and of self-determination for the Palestinians. That was the unacknowledged truth, from Balfour onwards, and no serious attempt was made to resolve it. So you could reasonably argue that an *outcome* of Zionism is racism. But that is not the same as stating “Zionism is racism”. Racism is not where it came from. It is not what motivated the deep yearning for safety, for a refuge, whether 80 years ago or 800. You can also rightly note that the Israeli government is both Zionist and racist (as well as murderous and genocidal). But to extend that conjunction to all Zionists is a syllogism - a logical fallacy. It becomes even worse when “Zionist” is used by some people as code for Jew. I don’t identify as Jewish – I have a very mixed ancestry: French, Belgian, Spanish, Swedish, Peruvian and West African as well as Ashkenazi. But I know enough to recognise how ignorant, ahistorical, insulting and threatening this crude compression of a long and complex history feels to many Jews. Many people seem to be passionately attached to the statement “Zionism is racism”. But it seems unnecessary, even gratuitous, to me. We can say all the things we need about successive governments of Israel and their horrific policies without having to make this generalisation. I don't expect to convince many people. I've been stunned by the response those of us who objected to the Green Party motion have received. I've been called a “genocide lover” a “warmonger”, a “colonialist” etc. I'm none of these things. The very opposite in fact. I just recognise that there's a very deep sensitivity here. It can be hard for non-Jews to understand the intergenerational trauma and terror of people who have been subject to centuries of extermination attempts, merely for being who they are. Please try to bear the context in mind. Thank you. The thread on one page: skywriter.blue Thanks
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