Magdi Omar Yatraid Abdel Majeed responds to criticism in the controversy over Zionism.
A few weeks ago I wrote the column “Jewish. Israelis. Zionist. Don't mix the cards.”
This was a criticism of the leadership of the Mousawi Faith Group (DMT) and their support for the Israeli war in Gaza. I have attached sources for all the exciting statements I referred to, but no response, whether from DMT or others, has commented on these statements or responded to this part of the criticism.
The discussion later revolved around only the word “Zionism,” and the cards are still being shuffled.
I think this is a big problem.
My point is succinctly that we must distinguish between the Jew, the Israeli and the Zionist. Jew refers to a religion or ethnic group. Israelis refer to citizenship. Zionism is politics. I think this distinction is important to point out now that anti-Semitism has increased, even though I feel like it opens the floodgates.
Norwegian Jews are never mentioned
If only a Norwegian Jew had written a history titled “Muslim.” Iranians.
Islami. Don't shuffle the cards.” Everyone understood and clapped, including me.
On the other hand, Nils August Andersen, editor-in-chief of the liberal-conservative magazine Minerva, responded with a “The Good Jews of Magdy” column and claimed that I blamed “Norwegian Jews for anti-Semitism.”
In fact, I never mentioned Norwegian Jews
This is a mistake. I have been quite precise about who I criticized, namely Irvin Cohen and his followers statement 99% of the Jews in the world are Zionists. To me, this is clearly a problematic statement. To say that every Jew in the world is anything (except Jews, or people, or whatever else they certainly are in reality) not only leads to anti-Semitism. the He is Anti-Semitism. At least when no single source is cited that can support the claim. The same applies to Muslims and Christians
Or the Norwegians.
The blame for anti-Semitism does not lie, as Anderson falsely claims, with Norwegian Jews. In fact, I never mentioned Norwegian Jews. I refer specifically to Cohen's statement,
Precisely because it is a classification.
Furthermore, I criticize the concrete statements made by the leadership of the Mosufite faith community in which they support Israel's war.
Strange clues
Andersen defends Ervin Cohen, and as curious evidence of the existence of a relatively small minority among Norwegian Jews who are not Zionists, he points out article Which will prove his claim.
I don't know if Andersen actually read the article he refers to. Because it is true that it deals with how Jews view Israel, but the main point of the article is that (on the basis of population surveys that have been conducted) we cannot say how many American Jews are actually Zionists.
I don't know if Andersen actually read the article he refers to
If this article proves anything, it is that we do not know how many Jews call themselves Zionists, or what they mean by this word. Not in Norway, not in the United States, not in the rest of the world.
But what Anderson is right about is that there are many definitions of Zionism, but it is clear that the examples he cited are carefully selected.
“Resistance to Zionism is the essence of the Hamas movement,” he writes, devoting several paragraphs to the extremists’ relationship with Israel. Thus, Andersen jumps over an entire world that distances himself both of them From Hamas And Zionism. Like the rest of the Palestinians. As Jewish Voice for Peace, the largest Jewish organization in the United States working for Palestinian rights (and which explicitly calls itself anti-Zionist).
And like all of us here at home who demonstrate for basic human rights.
What kind of country?
Zionism as an ideology arose in the 1880s with the idea of building a Jewish state in historic Palestine, a region where only 8 percent of Jews lived. The United Nations itself calls it “Zionism.” “Part of European settler colonialism”.
In 1948, Israel established itself (without borders), and after the war it provoked, 750,000 Palestinians were displaced from their homes. 77% of the area remained for Israel.
If Anderson wants to understand opposition to Zionism, he must begin by considering the scope of the historical injustices to which Zionism has been subjected.
Andersen talks about 75 years as if they were an eternity. There are still people living in Gaza (and in the rest of the world) who remember being expelled from their homes in 1948. I have spoken to many of them myself. In fact, 78% of Gaza's population are refugees or descendants of refugees from the 1948 war.
If Anderson wants to understand opposition to Zionism, he must begin by examining the scope of Zionism's historical injustices.
If Zionism today means only “supporting the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East,” then it must do so
The follow-up question in this case is:
What kind of country?
A state with equal rights for Jews, Christians and Muslims? A state that does not occupy Palestinian lands? A country without illegal settlements? A state in which Palestinian refugees and their descendants who were displaced are allowed to return? A country where automatic citizenship is not a special right for Jews around the world? A state that can live side by side with free Palestine?
If so, then I am a Zionist too.
But until now that state had never existed.
Previous posts in this discussion:
February 28: Magdy Omar Yateredi Abdel Majeed: “The Jew. The Israelis. The Zionist. Don't confuse the cards.”
March 12: Six representatives of DMT and DJST: Magdy writes ahistorically about Jews and Zionism
March 12: Niels August Andersen: The good Jews of Majdi
March 14: Turkle Breaky: When Zionism became Nazism
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