Born in Terror and Genocide
People like to say Israel is an illegitimate country because it was created by terrorism and ethnic cleansing. They’re not referring to the massive campaign of terrorism and ethnic cleansing that drove a million Jews out of Middle Eastern and North African countries in the second half of 20th century. Not the far greater campaign of terrorism and ethnic cleansing which made Europe unlivable for most Jews in the first half of the 20th century.
Rather, they’re referring to the fairly small number of terrorist attacks by Zionist militant groups during the Mandate era, and the mass flight of Arabs from Palestine in 1948.
Now, it’s true that some Jewish groups practiced what is today called terrorism and that the civil war in Palestine led to the mass flight of hundreds of thousands of Arabs.
However, to quote Jesus, “why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”
If such actions during render a nation illegitimate, then the vast majority of nations on earth are illegitimate as well. Yet somehow, we never see this rule applied to them. In fact, I challenge you to think of a single other sovereign state on the planet that millions of people call “illegitimate.” There are none.
If a “rule” is only applied in one case, then it’s not really a rule is it? It’s bigotry.
The actual rule is that almost every country on the planet won its indepdence by doing some bloody deeds. Most of the nations attacking Israel have done far worse than Israel, making them, based on their own “rule” far more illegitimate than the Jewish state.
So let’s make a short review of those who’re trying to cancel Israel for winning its freedom with bombs and guns, and see how they compare, shall we?
The scale of militancy leading to the independence of Ireland is similar to Zionist terrorism in Mandatory Palestine. Both groups practiced highly targeted urban warfare that was meant more to sow chaos rather than to kill people. In both cases, decades of resistance resulted in hundreds of British fatalities and dozens of civilian deaths. Less than a few hours of Hamas butchery during the Nova festival.
In fact, the two movements were deeply interlinked because they fought the same enemy: the British Empire.
Zionist militants who fought the British in Palestine were inspired by the IRA. Éamon de Valera described Zionism as a national movement seeking self-determination under conditions not unlike those of Ireland. The phrase “Palestine is England’s second Ireland” was repeated often in Irish nationalist press in the 30s and 20s.
In almost every way, early Jewish nationalism and early Irish nationalism are sister movement.
Oh boy, this is the big one. Modern Turkey was born through the worst genocides in Middle Eastern history. Yes, not genocide but genocides.
Between 1915 and 1923, the Turks murdered:
1,200,000 million Armenians
250,000–300,000 Assyrians
Beyond these specific groups, there was a broader policy aimed at removing Christians from Anatolia to create a Turkish Muslim nation-state. A few years after this, the Turks expelled 1.5 million Greeks from Anatolia to Greece.
In many ways, Turkey is the paragon of ethnic cleansing.
Before the creation of the Turkish Republic, roughly 1 in 4 people in Asia minor were non-Turkish and non-Muslim. Afterwards, 99% were Turkish.
It’s important to note that Greeks and Armenians have lived in Anatolia for thousands of years before the Turks arrived there in 1071. So this is literally a settler-colonizer movement exterminating the native population.
Mind you, this isn’t a matter of ancient history. Even as I write these lines, the Turks are ethnically cleansing native Kurds from Syria and native Greeks from Cyprus and replacing them with Turkish and Arab settlers. Ironically, thousands of them are Palestinians.
For the last 100 years, Turkey has been the worst settler-colonizer and genocider in all of Asia and arguably the world. Amazingly, none of its victims have the right of return to the homes their families were expelled from. I wonder why?
If such actions make a nation illegitimate than Turkey is the most illegitimate state on the planet.
Greek and Armenian population in Turkey before and after the genocides.
Spain is the result of centuries of wars against the Muslim rule, culminating in a total ethnic cleansing of both both Jews and Muslims from Spain, which became 99% Christian after this massive ethnic cleansing. While not as bloody as the Turkish genocide, it was no less thorough.
Both Israel and Spain are countries created through the liberation of territories conquered by Muslims. The claim Arabs have to Israel is the same as their claim to Spain. You cannot support Palestine “from the river to the sea” without supporting Al-Andalus “from the Pillars to the Pyrenees.”
So why is one legitimate and the other is not? Where is the right of return of the Muslim refugees to Spain? After all, according to the UN, Muslims who fled from Israel pass their refugee status to their descendants forever. Why is Spain different?
The Muslims colonized Israel and Spain at about the same time. They were decolonized from Spain 414 years ago and from Israel 76 years ago.
Where does the threshold pass?
The USA was the result of an armed rebellion against the British. An armed rebellion that enjoyed extensive foreign support. While the term “terrorists” didn’t exist at the time, it would certainly would have been applied today to the militant movements resisting British rule with French aid. In fact, the world proxy might have been thrown into the air a time or two…
I’ll not touch here on the violence between settler communities and native American communities.
However, I’ll do this with Canada.
The word Canada literally means “settlement.”
Between 1755 and 1764, the British authorities expelled the French-speaking Acadian population from Nova Scotia to other colonies. 20–25% died from disease, exposure, or shipwrecks.
About a century later, native nations were pushed off their traditional lands by settler expansion backed by military force. Does this make Canada and illegitimate state?
Now, in the late 19th century, hundreds of people were killed or injured from Métis and Indigenous resistance. Their rebellion was not successful. But imagine if they won and formed an independent state, let’s say Manitoba.
Would it have been an illegitimate state because it was created by violence?
