Is Israel a rogue state 1 ?
As a crucial component of its continuous propaganda, Israel, together with its ardent followers and numerous paid and anonymous operatives, fervently reiterates and circulates—through media, university campuses, blogs, comment sections, conferences, and beyond—the same outdated Zionist myths.
Propaganda manuals and toolkits, like the "global language dictionary," provide pre-formulated arguments and counterarguments to promote Israel to journalists and critics. These talking points provide guidance on appropriate tone and rhetorical strategies, what words and formulas "work," as well as methods for addressing "sensitive" topics, such as Israel's unlawful colonization and annexation of Palestinian land, Jewish colonial settlements, and civilian casualties.
The situation is poised to deteriorate further after previous US President Donald Trump has both rewarded and strengthened Israel by recognizing its unlawful and violent colonization efforts, referred to as "settlements." Similarly, he has provided another striking illustration of the United States' utter disregard for international law.
Establishing such a precedent will convey to despots, autocrats, and tyrants worldwide that it is permissible to steal, colonize, and oppress weak and defenseless populations, and that the West may even reward those who embrace the "law of the jungle."
The media floods with positive reports about Israel's economic miracle, prosperity, high living standards, and flourishing startup and high-tech sectors. However, have you ever encountered a prominent Western media outlet or politician reporting that one-fifth of Israelis live below the poverty line, that people scavenge among trash for food to avoid starvation, or that Israel has the highest poverty rate among all developed nations?
The answer is probably negative, and we ought to consider the reasons behind it. Additional falsehoods disseminated by Israel’s misinformation apparatus encompass origin myths, the most notable being the romantic notion of Palestine as “a land without a people for a people without a land,” which oddly endures despite its historical ridiculousness. Israel heavily depends on ignorance and naivety.
This remarkable interactive photographic collection of pre-1948 Palestine effectively dismantles the revisionist falsehood that aims to negate the existence of Palestinians on their own ancestral land prior to colonization by Western colonial powers for the benefit of Jewish settlers from Europe and other regions. Europe forced Palestinians to bear the consequences of a Holocaust in which they had no involvement.
In addition to the deplorable character of such public relations efforts to address criticism and enhance Israel's unfavorable global reputation, their efficacy remains extremely dubious.
When reports and visuals of Israel's brutality against Palestinian children, intentional bombardment of schools, and indiscriminate usage of white phosphorus on entire communities disseminate globally, it is challenging to credibly depict such a predatory, violent, and terrorist rogue state as moral, democratic, peaceful, or kind.
The prevalent Zionist myth is the claim that Israel is the "only democracy" in the Middle East, with some characterizing it as a liberal, egalitarian, Western-style democracy. This repugnant self-serving myth fosters the misconception of analogous regimes, a shared fate, and an inherent connection between Israel and Western nations. Racist propaganda frequently contrasts this with the purportedly "barbaric," regressive, and undemocratic Arab states and Muslim-majority civilizations.
This deceptive characterization reflects the broader, more nefarious, yet similarly erroneous, Huntingtonian "clash of civilizations" narrative, which is a cultural reformulation of outdated notions concerning racial disparities.
Repeating a lie numerous times doesn't make it the truth, despite the apparent belief of Israel's agents to the contrary. Israel is not a democracy, nor is it a “liberal, egalitarian” state. Two indisputable facts can effectively refute this notion.
First, religious affiliation can lead to the acquisition of Israeli nationality and citizenship. The Law of Return permits any Jew in the world to settle in Israel and acquire full Israeli citizenship, regardless of whether they have ever set foot there or have relatives in the country. A special, royal route to citizenship is solely granted to Jews, while access is restricted to adherents of other faiths. This entrenches religious prejudice as formal policy.
Consider how "democratic" nations like France, Germany, Britain, or the United States would function if they permitted unrestricted immigration and settlement exclusively for Christians worldwide, granting them automatic citizenship upon arrival, in contrast to individuals of other faiths or atheists.
This would entail the abandonment of their foundational democratic ideals, especially their valued secularism; nonetheless, this institutionalized religious discrimination is precisely what Israel enacts.
Secondly, the question of marriage arises. Due to the extensive pro-Israeli propaganda apparatus and the tacit partnership of Western media and governments, many individuals may be oblivious to the fact that in Israel, only religious authorities are permitted to officiate marriages.Civil, non-religious marriages are not allowed.
Moreover, inter-religious, mixed marriages are legally prohibited, compelling inter-religious couples to wed elsewhere. Upon their return, the non-Jewish partner is frequently treated like a second-class citizen by the state.
Once more, let us contemplate the consequences for French, British, German, or US democracy if we were to implement such primitive beliefs. Surprisingly, for those of us residing in genuine democracies, the Israeli state exacerbates already regressive behaviors by imposing a two-year prison sentence on couples who marry through a religious authority not sanctioned by the state.
Notwithstanding this, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his public relations minions persistently claim—with a straight face—that the state of Israel has consistently been democratic, egalitarian, tolerant, open, and enlightened, and how it grants all of its citizens equal rights.
Even before the 2018 approval of the nation-state law, Israel was always a deeply discriminatory, unequal, undemocratic, and ethno-religious state since its inception. Now, It has just gotten worse.
Like other countries that perceived themselves as "white states" (e.g., South Africa and the segregationist US), Israel swiftly established a system akin to apartheid due to its initial conception as an ethno-religious "Jewish state"—a description it has now publicly recognized through the nation-state law.
The media, major human rights organizations, UN-mandated independent teams, activists (both Israeli and Palestinian), academics, and NGOs have all provided ample documentation of this reality for decades, and it is simple for anyone on the ground to see it for themselves. They explain how the apartheid regime in Israel is always coming up with new, creative ways to perpetuate and consolidate itself.
Jewish Holocaust survivors and their descendants have spoken out against Israel, saying that the state is apartheid and fascist in nature. Someone who has experienced Auschwitz, like Professor Hajo Meyer, can easily identify fascism, especially in one's own country.
Veteran African National Congress (ANC) members who fought apartheid in South Africa for most of their lives say Israel was worse than home. US President Jimmy Carter dedicated a full book to the topic of Israel's apartheid, detailing the plight of the Palestinians and their imprisonment in an outdoor prison, which was even harsher than what the South Africans endured.
The discrimination faced by Israel's Palestinian Arab population, among others, transcends mere societal, economic, or cultural phenomena. Every nation experiences some form of discrimination. In Israel, discrimination is institutionalized and embedded within its judicial system.
Palestinian professor and politician Yousef Jabareen makes the following observation:
“Israeli law includes numerous provisions that explicitly assert and institutionalise a principle of inequality between Jews and Arabs,”
“To cite only one example, the Israeli flag, with its Star of David, represents only the Jewish majority of the country. But this differential treatment is certainly not limited to the realm of the symbolic. It exists in all domains of life: the definition of the state and its symbols, but also immigration laws, citizenship, political participation, access to land, culture, religion, budgetary policies, etc.”
Similar to the Law of Return, Jews are the only residents allowed in the "colonial settlements" in the occupied West Bank, which frequently directly violate Israeli law and particularly violate international law.
Israel allocates substantial resources to infrastructure and social services in the colonies; nonetheless, non-Jews are prohibited from residing in the settlements, which are frequently constructed on privately owned land stolen from Palestinian natives.
These settlers reside among a native populace exceeding three million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, who endure a widespread and harsh military occupation. Additionally, two million Palestinians reside under siege and are now experiencing a continuous genocide in Gaza. None of them possesses the right to vote in Israeli elections.
Imagine the outrage if Britain or the United States began conquering nations beyond their internationally recognized borders, unlawfully acquired land and resources, and then created settlements exclusively for Christians in those regions.
A multitude of Israeli laws that overtly discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel and Palestinians in the occupied territories are thoroughly documented. The Adalah searchable discriminatory laws database provides access to information pertinent to all facets of Palestinian life, including citizenship, education, political and economic rights, residency, language, culture, and religion.
Access to water, the most essential and life-sustaining resource, is subject to differential treatment by Israel, which has consistently appropriated and used it as a weapon of war to collectively punish the entire Palestinian population.
Following the adoption of the nation-state law, Israel's pre-existing systematic discrimination has intensified, accompanied by the enactment of additional legislation that further solidifies and amplifies inequality.
Moreover, Israel's global notoriety for relentless, unlawful, supremacist, and excessively violent colonialism, its forcible annexation of territory, its militaristic terrorism, and its legions of extremist Jewish "settlers," who are essentially international outlaws and land usurpers, compound the evidence that it is not a democracy.
Throughout its fifty years of unlawful occupation and annexation, which is likely to deteriorate further, Israel has deliberately and knowingly violated nearly every significant international legal convention, treaty, and UN resolution, including the Geneva Conventions, the UN Charter, the 1947 Partition Plan, the Camp David and Oslo accords, among others.
All major human rights organizations, including the United Nations, have consistently condemned Israel for decades due to this unlawful conduct.
Identifying a more egregious rogue state than Israel is difficult. Since its inception, Israel has been characterized by ethnic cleansing, the collective punishment of defenseless civilian populations, the extermination of entire families, systemic rape , the intentional mutilation of children, the bombardment of schools and hospitals, and other outrageous atrocities, all of which are as distinctly identifiable as Israeli as challah, hamin, and gefilte fish.
A minority of Israeli troops, including elite members associated with veteran organizations like Breaking the Silence, are revealing and documenting Israel's systematic and intentional killing of defenseless Palestinians. Just as ANC veterans comprehend apartheid and Holocaust survivors understand Nazism, these troops, having once participated in it, undoubtedly recognize what they are talking about.
However, they too are labeled as "antisemites" or "self-hating Jews"; perhaps we should instead trust individuals such as Netanyahu, who persistently claims that Israel is the sole ‘’democracy’’ in the region?