The intellectual foundation of Zionist racism against Jews and Arabs (1 - 4)

Zionism is based on a combination of comprehensive secular ideas that became widespread in Western civilization in the nineteenth century. Perhaps the most important of these ideas is racial or ethnic thought, which views all human beings as material, and therefore the differences among them are material, rooted in their racial and anatomical characteristics. Human beings are a form of matter that can be utilized to be beneficial or may not have any benefit. From here, the importance of racial differences (skin color, head size, etc.) emerges as a criterion for distinguishing between humans. The civilizational characteristics and advancement of a people, as well as their backwardness, are seen as a result of their racial and anatomical traits, and thus the progress or backwardness of a people is an inherited racial issue.

The basic comprehensive Zionist formula stems from this imperial secular ethnic formation; it assumes that there is an organic people that contains within it its ethnic and racial characteristics. This people is deemed unproductive and can be transferred to a land outside of Europe to be utilized for its benefit, transforming it into a productive element. Zionism employed Western racial theories to justify the transfer of the marginalized Jewish organic people from Europe and to justify the extermination of the indigenous population to replace them with members of this people.

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The Western racial theory has expressed itself on two levels:

A-  Within Europe: Racial theorists applied the same theories to the peoples of Europe and its minorities, with the Germans placing the Aryans, particularly the Teutons, at the top of the hierarchy, while the English positioned the Anglo-Saxon element (the American English) at this pinnacle. There were also Slavs who did the same. In any case, the white (blonde) peoples in the north were at the top, while the darker peoples in the south (the Italians and Greeks) were placed in the middle of the hierarchy, and at the base of the pyramid were the Romani and Jews. Racial literature emerged that was anti-Semitic, attempting to prove their lack of belonging to Europe and their cultural or racial separation from it, as well as attempting to demonstrate their inferiority.

B-  Outside of Europe: The colored peoples outside of Europe are considered to be culturally and racially backward, while the white man is seen as advanced and civilized. This imposes a heavy burden on the white person, compelling them to conquer the rest of the world, defeat its peoples, and exterminate many of them in order to introduce civilization to them.

Zionism adopted both sides of the Western racial theory; it used racial theory in its European context to explain the phenomenon of the rejection of the organic Jewish people and the necessity of their transfer, and it used racial theory in its global context to justify the expulsion of Arabs from their lands.

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Zionist racism against Jews

Look: "The Zionist hostility towards Jews," "The Zionist rejection of Judaism," "The invasion of the diaspora," "Forced salvation," "The Zionist transfer of members of Jewish communities," "The terror of the transfer of Iraqi Jews.

The Zionist perception of Arabs

The theory of Zionist rights aims to justify the seizure of Palestinian land by Jews, which requires reaching a vision of the invasive self (the Jews) and a complementary vision of the other subject to the invasion (the Arabs). We have discussed the Zionist view of Jews as a white people or a purely sacred Jewish people or a progressive socialist people (see: "Zionist Racial Apologies and the Theory of Absolute Jewish Rights"), and in this introduction, we will address the Zionist view of Arabs.

It is noted that the way the Zionist vision frames the Arabs is characterized by many features of Zionist discourse, ranging from intentional ambiguity to a commitment to silence. It is also observed that the rates of abstraction increase until we reach the point where the cognitive Zionist model is realized, which is the complete erasure of the Arabs.

1-    The Arab as a member of the colorful Eastern peoples (the reduction of the Arab):

This conception is a supplementary view of seeing Jews as members of the white Western civilization, where the white race is considered sacred while other races fall outside of it, and Arabs are among these backward races.

In this context, the Zionists describe the Arab character as one that is backward, and such a description is common in racist justifications and in European colonial literature. The description here is not characterizing the Arab so much as it is characterizing any Asian or African (or even any Black American). In one of its self-perceptions, Zionist colonialism viewed itself as an integral (subordinate) part of the Western imperialist movement and the military-civilizational assault on the Arab East to bring in civilization, railways, plastic, and bombs.

Weizmann articulated the issue of the Arab-Zionist conflict in the same way that Western civilization justified its colonial project in the Americas, Asia, and Africa. "We still hear people saying: Well, perhaps what you have accomplished is indeed great, but the Arabs in Palestine were accustomed to a life of ease and tranquility, they rode camels, their appearance was magnificent, and their image was harmonious with the scenery of nature. So why shouldn't this image remain as if it were a museum or a public garden? You came to the country from the West carrying your knowledge and your Jewish determination, and thus your image does not harmonize with the landscapes of nature. You are draining swamps and eliminating malaria in a way that causes mosquitoes to move to the Arab villages. You still speak Hebrew with a poor accent and have not yet learned how to use the plow correctly, while you use a car instead of camels. On the other hand, this reminds one of the eternal struggle between stagnation and progress, efficiency, health, and education. It is the desert against civilization.

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In this racial colonial framework, it was not necessary to conduct any precise study of the victim; rather, it sufficed to discuss the extent of the advancement of Western civilization and the progress of the white man, while merely referring to the backwardness of the non-white man (whether black, yellow, or brown). The matters were evident, and hence these descriptions were general, not focusing on the specific traits of the victim. In any case, any racist thinking must necessarily be characterized by this generalization, abstraction, and selection; otherwise, it would find itself confronted with a tangible, perceptible existence that has its own sanctity and defined human and civilizational value, and its own entity, which makes it difficult to accept the justifications that rationalize its exploitation or extermination.

The image of the backward Arab is a significant theme in Zionist literature. The Zionist thinker Ahad Ha'am noted in 1891 that the Zionist settlers treated Arabs with contempt and cruelty, viewing them as wild desert-dwellers and a people akin to donkeys, who see and understand nothing of what happens around them. One of the early Zionist pioneers observed that Zionists treated Arabs as Europeans treated blacks. As for Aharon Aaronson (1876-1919), one of the leaders of the settlers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he warned the early Zionists against living next to the dirty, ignorant Arab peasants who were ruled by superstitions, and affirmed to them that all Arabs were corrupt.

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The source: Book Encyclopedia of Jews, Judaism, and Zionism - Volume Three: Zionist Racism and Terrorism.

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