So you think you're not allowed to speak about Palestine?

Edward Said’s daughter Najla directed the above rules at the blatant misinformation from mainstream news outlets. Someone wrote in response:

So I figured today, Monday December 11, 2023, as part of the global #strikeforgaza we are asked to:

Don’t buy anything, cash or online.

Don’t use your bank account, and don’t make any transaction

Don’t leave your house

Don’t use your social media for anything other than Palestine awareness

Use hashtag #strikeforgaza

So, to help each other out, I’m providing the answers and information to Najla’s questions to the so-called experts. Hopefully, this helps the collective to have a better critical understanding of the fight against propaganda.

1. Define Zionism

It is a nationalist and political movement that supports the settler colonialist nation-state in what was Palestine, with a Western-backed regime called Israel.

Zion is a hill in Jerusalem that is symbolic of Jewish religious scripture and history.

Orthodox Judaism, which is known as Haredi Judaism, particularly within certain Hasidic groups like Satmar Hasidism, has the interpretation of the Talmud and various rabbinical writings that the Jewish people were exiled from the land of Israel by divine decree and are prohibited from returning until the prophesied return of the Messiah, an event that has not yet occurred. As such, it is considered blasphemous for individuals to assert their right to return, as this may be perceived as religious propaganda concealing underlying geopolitical motives.

One of the primary sources for this view is the writings of Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, the founder of the Satmar Hasidic dynasty. In his book "VaYoel Moshe," Rabbi Teitelbaum argues that establishing a Jewish state before the arrival of the Messiah is forbidden according to Jewish law. He bases his argument on three oaths mentioned in the Talmud, Tractate Ketubot 111a. These oaths are interpreted as 1) The Jewish people should not ascend to Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) as a wall (i.e., en masse and forcefully), 2) The Jewish people should not rebel against the nations, and 3) The nations should not oppress Israel excessively.

Zionism gained momentum under the leadership of Theodor Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian journalist and writer. Herzl wrote in 1896 the book Der Judenstaat, the Jewish State, as a solution to the Jewish question of European antisemitism, which advocates for Jewish emigration to Palestine (the book was published in Leipzig and Vienna and was originally titled “Address to the Rothschild” referring to the Rothschild family banking dynasty, as Herzl planned to deliver it as a speech to the Rothschild family. Baron Edmond de Rothschild rejected Herzl’s plan, feeling that it threatened Jews in the Diaspora).

What started out as an emigration project, however, transformed into a colonialization project turned genocide, as they passed on the same antisemitism that pushed the Jews out of Europe in the first place.

Zionism encompasses various ideologies but was pushed forward by the British Mandate of Palestine. Britain defeated the Ottoman Empire, and the territories in the Middle East, including Palestine, were divided among the Allied powers.

In 1917, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, expressing support for establishing a “National Home for the Jewish People” in Palestine, which was then an Ottoman region with a majority Arab population that can be traced back to the 7th century CE with the Arab Conquest following the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 CE, followed by the Ottoman Era, 1517-1917 CE. After World War I, the League of Nations formally granted Britain the mandate over Palestine in 1920, which was confirmed in 1922. The League of Nations was heavily influenced by colonial powers and their interests, with many of the member states' European powers having significant colonial holdings. The League's mandate system, which was intended to administer former German and Ottoman territ...