The New Man: Part 2

The Right of Return as a weapon against Palestinians

Zionism is facing an ideological and demographic crisis in the modern era.

A movement which was defined by a violent displacement of indigenous people and opening their land for settlement could not withstand the changing of the tide after WW2.

After the war, a wave of anti-colonial movements spread throughout the world which would liberate nearly two thirds of all humanity. As an apartheid state the Zionist entity had a desperate need to change it’s image in order to avoid falling victim to the same fate as their comrades in Rhodesia and South Africa. However, they also had to do this while maintaining a Jewish majority in their settler-colonial state.

The leaders of the Zionist movement have always viewed the increased birth rates among Arabs as a sort of demographic time bomb, in order to counteract this and maintain their majority they must open the doors to anyone with even the most tenuous connections to Judaism. One of their most potent weapons in this struggle is the so-called “right of return”, which holds that every Jew is indigenous to Palestine, and so any Jewish immigrants are in fact returning home.

Early on, anyone who claimed to be a Jew was simply accepted as such, even if they did not speak Hebrew or attend the synagogue. Thousands immigrated to the Zionist entity despite having no connection to Judaism whatsoever. However, this created a problem of dilution of the Jewish majority. It was not until 1970 that laws were drafted restricting who the state considered a Jew, and even then the law was intentionally written to be as vague as possible, thereby ensuring a constant flow of new immigrants to the apartheid state.

This has created a schizophrenic movement which on one hand is an overt white nationalist settler-colony in the mold of it’s founders, yet it must be portrayed as a liberal, democratic paradise for it’s backers. Through obfuscation, Zionism seeks to simultaneously be an anti-colonial movement in appearance while also being a colonial movement in reality.

You are being invited to help make history. It doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor; not Englishmen but Jews… How, then, do I happen to turn to you since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial.-Theodor Herzl, in a letter to Cecil Rhodes

A portrait of Herzl at the founding of the Zionist entity in 1948. Source: The Conversation

Of course, Zionism has not changed in substance, only in style. The perception of a liberal democratic paradise is a ploy designed to hide the truth of a brutal, legally entrenched apartheid system which systematically denies the rights of all non-Jews. The clearest example of this is the infamous nation-state law, which defines the Zionist entity as a state of the Jews, rather than a state of it’s citizens.

This creates several problems. First and foremost, it codifies a brutal apartheid into law, proving once for all that the Zionist entity is not a liberal democratic project, but rather a far-right ethnostate which explicitly exists for the benefit of one group of people at the expense of all others. However, this attempt to create an ethnostate without even a real ethnicity creates even more problems. Namely, this grants rights and privileges to all members of a particular religion, regardless of if they are actually live in the Zionist state or not.

All it takes is a few forms and subsidized visit to the apartheid state and anyone with even the vaguest connection to Judaism can claim the rights and benefits that come with being a citizen of the Zionist entity. Many Europeans and Americans have taken advantage of this, and are granted the full rights and privileges (most notably, the ability to vote in elections and free healthcare) of an “Israeli” citizen despite not actually living in the country and having no connection whatsoever to the indigenous people of the holy land. Even if they leave and never return, any Jew can retain their “Israeli” citizenship for their entire life. This is a privilege not granted to even the close family of non-Jewish residents of occupied Palestine.

Of course, the entity will incentivize them to stay. Settlers are given very generous economic incentives such as cheaper mortgages, guaranteed employment, free education and significant tax relief. This same American settler could move to an illegal settlement in the West Bank, a territory outside of the Zionist entity, and receive all these benefits plus the stolen land of the Palestinians they replaced.

Even if you are not Jewish, the religion accepts converts. As of 1970, anyone who has converted to Judaism (which is to say, anyone who can convince any Rabbi that they are a Jew) is accepted as such by the Zionist entity. This shows the ridiculous face of Zionism. Jews cannot simultaneously all be the direct descendants of Abraham and also part of a religion that accepts converts. Anyone, anywhere can convert to Judaism and despite having no connection whatsoever to the people of ancient Judea the Zionist entity will defend their indigeneity to the death.