against the motion Ilan pappé is an
Israeli historian an anti Zionist
activist
a professor at the University
of Exeter he has challenged traditional
versions of Israeli history Elam puppy
you have the fool for ten minutes
the equation that is being put in front
of you tonight is both outrageous and
ridiculous if only because it makes
every Palestinian in the world almost
everyone who lives in the Arab and
Muslim world anyone who regard
themselves as liberal or on the left it
turns all these people into anti-semites
whereas quite a few people who regard
themselves as Zionists like the
Christian Zionists are actually
anti-semites themselves but it is
important to challenge it because it was
used with some effect to stifle the
debate on Palestine in the West this
allegation is used in order to prevent
the promotion for positions of power of
politicians known for the long term
support for Palestine by defaming these
politicians anti-semitic official Israel
and its supporters worldwide hope to
bring down them down as in the case of
Jeremy Corbyn or delete item eyes them
as in the case of Ilhan omar in the
american congress so this is a good
opportunity in an appropriate venue to
say loud and clear that if you are
against an ism or if you define yourself
as I do and anti Zionist you are not
anti-semite or in my case a self-hating
Jew which my doctors told me is an
incurable disease and I would have to
live with for the rest of my life I will
make five points one long one and four
or five short ones anti-semitism is an
old ugly attitude the demonizes Jews
because of who they are and led in the
past too horrendous policies of
discrimination and genocide it still
prevails today and despite the passing
of years it's basically not changed much
its origins are deeply rooted in the
Christian faith and were adopted by more
in more recent years by right-wing
supremacists and some extreme Islamic
groups and he's an ism on the other hand
is a new phenomenon as a Zionism and
dates back to the 1820s when as you know
Zionism began as a Christian project
before it was a Jewish project and then
it was part of an internal debate within
evangelical Christianity anti-zionism
then was a moral position against roe
Mantic nationalism and Christian
fundamentalism that today we call
Christian Zionism Christian Zionism is
an evangelical belief that the return of
reduced to Palestine would precipitate
the second coming of the Messiah the
resurrection of the Dead and the
conversion of the Jews to Christianity
or their barbecuing in hell
now these barbecuing Christians who are
very important anti-semites who want to
get rid of all the Jews they don't like
and get in return the only true they
want Jesus Christ it's a double bill
they are today the most important base
of president Trump and his ilk and there
are the most important Zionists in the
u.s. providing immunity for Israeli
policies on the ground when Jewish
activists and intellectuals adopted
Zionism in response to anti-semitism in
the late 19th century their antagonists
were mainly other Jews they were either
also dogs you saw a premature return to
Palestine as tampering with the will of
God and regarded as a heresy the
substitution of rich moon of the istic
religion with the ideologically poor
modern idea of romantic nationalism so
there were definitely not anti-semites
other Jews believed that supporting
Universal ideologies such as liberalism
of socialism would be the answer and if
they had to move geographically from
anti-semitic environment environments
they prefer to go somewhere else
mainly to the US but not only to the US
they were also not anti-semites when
Zionism became a settler colonial
movement on the ground with a building
of Jewish colonies in late autumn on
Palestine and during the British Mandate
the Palestinian national movement the
seeds an ism is existential threat to
the indigenous people of Palestine a
fear returned to be valid as transpired
with the nineteen eight 1948 ethnic
cleansing of the people of Palestine
during the Nakba opposing the Jewish
settlers and the plans for the
Palestinians homeland was not
anti-semitic but anti-colonialist very
much as the Algerians objected to the
colonization of Algeria a small group of
the Jewish settlers became anti Zionist
themselves when they consented to live
within our Palestine
as guests but not as colonizer it was
advocated to them by Mahatma Gandhi in
the 1930s and because of that position
there is not
he was never honored with a street named
after him in Israel not even a small
pathway or a staircase after the
creation of the State of Israel in 1948
anti-zionism is an anti-colonialist
ideology continued to inform the
palestinian national movements vision
and strategy as is manifested in the PLO
national charter the call for the
establishment of a democratic secular
state in Palestine that would respect
all three religions in Israel itself the
Communist Party supported - almost
exclusively by the Palestinian minority
inside Israel not because of the
communist ideology but because it was
the only anti Zionist party Israel
allowed to exist they regarded Zionism
as an ideology of discrimination in
apartheid most scholars today look again
Israel then and today agree that this is
a valid point which again has nothing to
do with anti-semitism - in our century
our anti-zionism is a moral position
against the Israeli structural violence
directed at the Palestinians which is
attributed by anti Zionist such as
myself to an ideology that is not only
endangering the very existence of the
Palestinians but is also very bad for
the Jews who live outside or inside
Israel this ideology generates
anti-semitism opposing it might bring it
down in our century anti-zionism is a
scholarly position a moral stance and a
vision for the future as a scholarly
position its frame Zionism as settler
colonialism
similar to European settlers movement
who went to the Americas South Africa
and Australia encountering indigenous
people and removing them in order to
create new homeland for themselves it's
a moral stance that rejects an ideology
that imposes an apartheid system inside
Israel and military occupation in the
West Bank and siege on the Gaza ghetto
it's a vision for the future of a
democratic state for all by restoring
justice to the land by respecting United
Nations resolution 194 calling for the
unconditional return of the Palestinian
refugees expelled in 1948
and since the network this may be a
utopian view but it's not an undesired
s1 anti-semitic 1/3 for those who claim
that anti-zionism is a refusal to
recognize the right of Israel to exist
which would say that states do not exist
by right they're fucked they are founded
by historical processes and they become
a fetter complete the debate is about
the nature of the state and the regime
we are all entitled to wish for and work
for a better more just and egalitarian
state for everyone who lives in Israel
in Palestine and for those who were
expelled from there for in 1975 a vast
majority of the United Nation member
states defied Zion define Zionism as a
form of racism and racial discrimination
he was passed with the same majority
that passed the 1947 resolution
recognizing Israel the difference was
that in 1947 the colonized world was not
represented in the United Nations in
1975 it was when he was still trying to
find its way in the post-colonial world
the third world's discos equated Zionism
with continued colonialism alas
neoliberalism corruption in
post-colonial politically in
post-colonial political system a
corruption in the post-colonial
political system an aggressive American
imperialism have cast it to the sideways
of history this impulse and energy but
at its height and within it enthusiasm
was part of the wish of the colonized
people to build a better and more just
world again nothing to do with anti
Zionist with anti-semitism when the 1975
resolution was revoked in 1991 the
debate on Zionism entered a new phase
its present phase after the horrific
events in 9/11 and the so-called war in
terror the Israeli has bara invented the
threat of a new anti-semitism this was
the only way to repel the moral outrage
people around the world felt towards the
policies of incremented genocide in the
Gaza Strip and the brutal oppression of
the West Bank if you watch criticism
against this policy you were depicted as
a new anti-semite and Israeli academia
was recruited to provide scholarly
scaffolding for such an accusation the
Western elites bought over intimidated
into buying this false
but the civil society and in particular
the younger generation reject with
disgust this attempt to silence them
they know enough to call the bluff and
understand the full meaning of
solidarity with the Palestinians they
demonstrates in the streets in the
campuses enjoying the Palestinians on
the ground in the personal cost to show
how outrageous it is to call the pure
struggle for justice anti-semitic if you
are an anti Zionist today you are not
only standing firmly on a sound moral
base in condemning this ideology that
generates all these crimes you are also
expressing your disgust at the hypocrisy
of your government mainstream media and
academia we will not be silenced by
false accusation of anti-semitism
another truth the British Labour Party
be intimidated by cynical media without
a moral backbone or sinister legislation
efforts utilizing a justified struggle
against terror in order to provide
immunity to Palestine colonizers and
oppressors finally the Labour Party is
responsible in many ways for the debate
we have today we all know that the so
called revelation of institutional
racism institutional anti-semitism in
the labour party began not on a day that
problem was elected as a leader but
after two attempts to depose him and
failed then suddenly the campaign
emerged I know the force of this
campaign of intimidation I faced it
myself
it is utterly unfair and destabilizing
but the proud party with historical role
of defeating fascism in this country the
1930s she's not so easily succumbed to
false allegation of anti-semitism
finally we should retake let us like
five five sentences
let us retake the conversation and
prioritize it
let us discuss how to stop the
destruction of Palestine and the
Palestinian which the trams deal of the
century
wants to do let us fight violent
fanaticism wherever we encounter it
approved racism of all kinds without
building a hierarchy of victims and
remove silly and outrageous equations
like the one titling the event tonight
thank you
