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   Anarcho Doggo (anarchodoggo@kolektiva.social)'s status on Monday, 16-Oct-2023 00:21:28 JST Anarcho Doggo

   in reply to

   My meaning here is in no way to speak negatively of immigration (I am a fierce advocate for the rights of migrants and asylum seekers); and of course Jews fleeing Russian pogroms or immigrating due to the horrors of the holocaust is infinitely understandable.

   But when Herzl speaks of "immigration" in this 1899 letter, he of course means the deliberate project of displacing Palestinians to establish a Jewish state.

   I assume this distinction is obvious but it is well worth stating directly. It is precisely this distinction that renders a two-state "solution" untenable according to Khalidi. The ethnic cleansing and domination cannot be undone. Israel is not a neighbor; it is an oppressor.

   Migration: moving to a new place and establishing a home

   Settler colonialism: moving to a new place and taking someone else's home

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     Anarcho Doggo (anarchodoggo@kolektiva.social)'s status on Monday, 16-Oct-2023 00:21:29 JST Anarcho Doggo

     Reading The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi and in the introduction he cites a letter written by Theodor Herzl (considered the founder of the modern Zionist movement) to one of Khalidi's ancestors:

     [Glossing over the fact that Zionism was ultimately meant to lead to Jewish domination of Palestine, Herzl employed a justification that has been a touchstone for colonialists at all times and in all places and that would become a staple argument of the Zionist movement: Jewish immigration would benefit the indigenous people of Palestine... "In allowing immigration to a number of Jews bringing their intelligence, their financial acumen and their means of enterprise to the country, no one can doubt that the well-being of the entire country would be the happy result."]

     Beyond colonialism, this reasoning was also applied as a rationalization for chattel slavery. John C. Calhoun (the 7th US vice president) said: "Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually."

     HistoPol (#HP) 🏴 🇺🇸 🏴 repeated this.