[Benham 2024] “A haunting question that weighs heavily is why another Holocaust—this one televised—has been tolerated in Gaza when the world declared after the Second World War, “Never Again?” The answer rests partly with Israel’s extensive and perpetual propaganda offensive begun in 1948, whose intensity level increases whenever Israel confronts infrequent criticism. Tel Aviv has tactically exploited Jewish pain and Western guilt over one of history’s most defining events to obscure its racism, and apartheid occupation and to render powerless challenges to and criticism of its settler-colonial project and genocide. Claiming to speak for all Jews, Zionist propagandists have successfully made Israel fundamental to Jewish identity, especially in the United States. They have been effective in creating an emotional connection between the Holocaust and the Israeli state among diaspora Jews, as well as non-Jews. Israel has portrayed itself as the only safe place for Jews, and that only the Jewish state can protect them from another genocide. Hence, they are enticed to believe that they are duty-bound to defend it.

     [Nog steeds Behnam 2024] Israeli dogma has also made certain to connect Zionism and Judaism—nationalism with religion—making criticism almost impossible. As evidenced today, even the mildest criticism of Israel is pilloried as an attack on Jews or declared antisemitic. Tragically, the apocalypse the Netanyahu regime has created in Gaza has made Jews less secure. It is worth noting that the European Holocaust has become deeply ingrained in the consciousness of Americans. It is widely taught in schools, and countless movies and documentaries have aired, while the Holocausts of Black and American Indians in US history have been marginalized. [Een situatie die in Nederland is weerspiegeld in de overmatige nadruk op antisemitisme ten koste van de aandacht voor systemisch racisme en moslimhaat]

      [Nog steeds Behnam 2024] Although Israel’s apartheid policies toward Palestinians are unquestionably racist, it has falsely propagated the idea that Palestinian resistance is rooted in hatred of Jews. That Jews and Arabs lived together fairly peacefully for centuries, before European Zionists began moving to British Mandate Palestine in the early 20th century, has been willfully left out of the Israeli narrative.

     [Nog steeds Behnam 2024] It is important to acknowledge, that the Palestinian liberation struggle has been against apartheid Zionism, not hatred of Jews. Then Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, the late Yasser Arafat (1969-2004), made the goal of the Palestine national movement explicit when he addressed the U.N. General Assembly in 1974; stating: “Its target has never been the Jew, as a person, but racist Zionism and undisguised aggression.” He went on to say, “We do distinguish between Judaism and Zionism. While we maintain our opposition to the colonialist Zionist movement, we respect the Jewish faith.”

[Nog steeds Behnam 2024] It is also significant, that in 2017, the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, released its “Document of General Principles and Policies,” in which it moved away from its original 1988 charter. In addition to accepting the 1967 boundary as the basis for establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, Hamas stated that in its struggle to liberate Palestine, the conflict was with the Zionist occupiers, not with the Jews because of their religion. They also observed that it is the Zionists who continuously identify Judaism and the Jews with Israel and its colonial project.”

(Dr. M. Reza Behnam, “Palestinians in Occupied Palestine: Defying Zionism and Imperialism”, The Palestine Chronicle 19 september 2024) (https://www.palestinechronicle.com/palestinians-in…/)

(PS. I hope I will be forgiven for the use of the lengthy quote from this article in The Palestine Chronicle. The argument is simply too important and, given the dire developments in The Netherlands today, most urgent. I highly recommend people to also read and possibly support The Palestine Chronicle.)