So, I spent a lot of time talking about Palestine and the establishment of Israel. This post isn't created to be balanced or show me unbiased as my stands remain the same, however, in pursuit of fairness we should look at how Israel came to be as its origin story is definitely not just a supervillain backstory.

The Zionist Project

I have talked previously about how the term Zionism came to be, this part isn't about the term itself but about the Zionist Project led by Theodor Herzl, the Father of Zionism.

It's important to note that while Herzl may have exaggerated some events, Jews, not as a monolith, were definitely suffering from random attacks on the street that got to the level of killing, robbing, and burning their homes. This wasn't happening everywhere, but was definitely enough to warrant the project a look of consideration.

This is not something I shied away from in my series, as I did point out in part 4 that Jews were suffering from what is called "Pogrom", here's a line from the part mentioned

So much so that the term "Pogrom" appeared which meant killing Jews, destroying their properties, and burning their homes.

If falling under race oppression was a world sport Olympic, Jewish people take the first prize. This doesn't come from Jews opposing or even aiming at political gains from ruling entities, in fact, many Jewish communities, despite getting oppressed on a daily basis, still tried to create a fabric of society.

Happy Merchant

If you've been enough online, you must be aware of certain types of cartoon images depicting Jewish people as greedy merchants with big noses. The origin of this depiction in itself is a tragic story because it didn't originate from "Jews controlling the world", but rather from Jewish communities attempting to survive.

By choice or by force, many Jewish communities, especially in Europe, were excluded into certain corners of a country called "Ghettos". The story of the Happy Merchant depiction came as a reaction to Jewish people increasing prices of goods, be it different products or financial services. However, those price increases were the result of targeted oppression.

As we established before, Jewish communities lived in Ghettos, and many establishments often targeted those communities with the ruling power and increased their tax demands. You could be living 1 kilometre away from a Jewish corner at the time, and you would be paying a quarter of what they pay in taxes.

If you know very little about the economy then you probably know what those Jewish people resorted to in order to pay those taxes, that's right, increasing prices. So, Jewish people were forced to pay more taxes, the only way to do that was through making more money, and the only way to do that was through increasing their fees, the result of that was a dehumanizing depiction. It's a literal case of "damned if you do and damned if you don't"

This depiction, coupled with a high level of intolerance that existed in that era, Jews were hated for what they are in more ways than one.

The Holocaust

It's important to talk about the Holocaust not only in the sense of the number of Jews killed during it but also the consequential events that happened during and after. It was at best a traumatic event, the slogan "Never Again" expresses the anger, sadness, and trauma from such an event.

However, it should also be noted, that the rest of Europe wasn't so kind to Jews either. Yes, Britain among other countries did stand up to the Nazis but it should be noted that it wasn't done exactly to save the Jews. It was a political and colonialism war as Germany's influence was increasing and the Allies sought to stop it.

The reason the distinction above is important is because lots of Europe countries either limited or completely prohibited Jewish immigration. There are arguments that this approach might have had to be the result of the influence of the Zionist project, and that's true, however, it was also happening as Britain had limited Jewish immigration to Palestine to 15,000 annually. This point matters as it relates to a point I will add soon.

Everybody Loves Nazis

If you're a Jewish person then the last thing you'd want to see is people around you dealing with Nazis, however, that's what was happening. Arabic leaders, mainly Palestinians did warm up to Hitler's Germany, including a visit and an expression of support. That can be the result of Arabs hating Jews or having the need to find an ally to rid them of the Zionist threat, but either way, Jews, especially in Palestine at the time, saw that.

Another aspect doesn't even come from outside the Zionist project as Zionists gangs like Irgun did have meetings with Nazis as they believed in the project so much, they didn't mind sacrificing a few, either through Nazis or actual physical attack on ships that brought in Jews but were rejected by Britain as it exceeded the limit of allowed annual immigration.

The Rise of Nationalism

This simply happened everywhere, in Europe where surrounding communities didn't want Jews in their countries, or in the Arab world where a mixture of Arab Nationalists and actual Israeli influence, more the first than the latter, instigated riots and Pogroms against the Jews. Egypt, Morroco, and many Arabic countries got into action by killing Jewish citizens in their own countries. The most famous of these is Iraq's "Farhoud" The death toll reports range, but it may actually go over 1,000 Jews.

This coupled with the third part of this post, one might rightfully wonder where can the Jews even go. Remember, Europe limited immigration for political or financial reasons, and Africa was under British influence so that's not an option either. There may have been other options, but even as you read and can access Google and do research, can you name places Jewish people can go to?

Bear in mind, that Jewish people in Arab countries didn't have Google or even time to think. So, at any moment you could be attacked and killed, you have basically nowhere to go, and you get an invitation from a newly established country (Israel) that not only offers you safety, but also helps to get your life started there, what do you do?

Israel Was the Only Path For Many

While Zionists definitely beautified their operations in Palestine with slogans like "A land without a people", the actual knowledge of them wouldn't make much of a difference for Jewish people escaping literal death. Because again, those people were in survival mode. You and your family are about to be killed in the most ugly way probably, there's only one place you can go to in order to be safe, do you go there?

The Truth is Complicated

My series was written with the intention of challenging and exposing the main narrative on Israel by pointing out the missing truths about it, the above is only a little bit of the opposite. Jews didn't come from heaven and decided to take over Palestine, they were escaping hell.

Don't get me wrong, the means Zionists and Israel took to expand through ethnical cleansing were war crimes. But, I am here simply speaking about the people, not politicians, warmongers, and people whose ambition went from finding a small place to live peacefully into a full-on colonial project. However, it's very important to speak on a human level about this topic.

My pursuit of truth in this series would be a farce and inhumane if I go about it forgetting that these are people as well, Zionists are people, Israelis are people and they deserve a peaceful life just like Palestinians do. I will not attempt to make my pursuit easier by overlooking facts that make it harder to stick to my convictions.

I still believe Israel to have a crooked foundation, but I don't believe in ignoring millions of innocent Jewish people just to say it is. The truth is complicated and I honestly believe that if your principles don't hold innocent people, peace, and justice as its main pillars regardless of race, ethnicity and nationality, then your principle is broken. Innocent people are dying at a rabid race, let's not resort to tribalism.

Previous Parts

Follow-up parts

School Lessons From Gaza

The Tragic Story of Israel