(1) Early Zionist Leaders & Yusuf Khalidi’s Letter
Reference the following quotes and discuss: What do you think of the colonizing rhetoric of early Zionist leaders and Yusuf Khalidi’s call to avoid dividing Palestine?
- Theodor Herzl, The Jewish State, 1895: “Palestine is our ever-memorable historic home. … We should there form a portion of a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization, as opposed to barbarism. … We should form a guard of honor about these sanctuaries [of Christian Europe] … the great symbol of the solution of the Jewish Question after eighteen centuries of Jewish suffering.”
- Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Zionist leader & a founder of the Irgun militia, 1925: “If you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living, you must find a garrison for the land, or find a benefactor who will provide a garrison on your behalf. … Zionism is a colonizing venture and, therefore, it stands or falls on the question of armed forces.”
- Leo Motzkin, liberal Zionist thinker, 1917: “Our thought is that the colonization of Palestine has to go in two directions: Jewish settlement in Eretz [the land of] Israel and the resettlement of the Arabs of Eretz Israel in areas outside the country. … It does not require too much money to resettle a Palestinian village on another land.”
- Jabotinsky, The Iron Wall, 1923: “Culturally [the Palestinian Arabs] are 500 years behind us … but they understand as well as we what is not good for them. They look upon Palestine with the same instinctive love and true fervor that any Aztec looked upon his Mexico or any Sioux looked upon his prairie. To think that the Arabs will voluntarily consent to the realization of Zionism … comes from some kind of contempt for the Arab people, of some kind of unfounded view of this race as a rabble ready to be bribed in order to sell out their homeland for a railroad network.”
- David Ben Gurion: “The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war.” (1937) “I am for compulsory transfer; I do not see anything immoral in it.” (June 1938)
- Yusuf Khalidi — mayor of Jerusalem at the time and the great-great uncle of the author (Rashid Khalidi) — wrote to Zionist ideologue Theodor Herzl in 1899. Khalidi declared his respect for Judaism and Jews, whom he described as “our cousins.” He deplored the persecution of Jews in Europe. In a famous line (often taken out of context) he exclaimed: “who could contest the rights of the Jews in Palestine!” Reading closely, Khalidi is affirming the centrality of Palestine to Jews and Judaism, as well as the belonging of the Jews of Palestine to Palestine. He was clearly not in favor of a Jewish takeover of Palestine. In fact, he warned Herzl that Zionism would divide the people of Palestine and endanger Christians, Muslims & Jews — a rather prescient prediction. Khalidi also described the Zionist project to take over Palestine and create a Jewish state as “pure folly” because Palestine “is inhabited by others.” He pleaded: “In the name of God, let Palestine be left alone.”
(2) King-Crane Public Opinion Survey
Read the below findings from the August 1919 American-led “King-Crane” public opinion survey of Palestinians, and discuss this query with your small group: Which King-Crane finding do you find most revealing, and why?
- “The people of the area declared themselves almost unanimously for United Syria [including Palestine], for its complete independence, and against any help from France, and against the Zionist program.”
- “The fact that the Arabic-speaking portion of the Turkish Empire has been the birthplace of the three great religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and that Palestine contains places sacred to all three, makes inevitably a center of interest and concern for the whole civilized world. No solution which is merely local or has only a single people in mind can avail.”
- “No British officer, consulted by the Commissioners, believed that the Zionist program could be carried out except by force of arms. The officers generally thought that a force of not less than 50,000 soldiers would be required even to initiate the program. That of itself is evidence of a strong sense of the injustice of the Zionist program, on the part of the non-Jewish populations of Palestine and Syria.”
- “Decisions, requiring armies to carry out, are sometimes necessary, but they are surely not gratuitously to be taken in the interests of a serious injustice. For the initial claim, often submitted by Zionist representatives, that they have a ‘right’ to Palestine, based on an occupation of 2,000 years ago, can hardly be seriously considered.”
- “if the American government decided to support the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, they are committing the American people to the use of force in that area, since only by force can a Jewish state in Palestine be established or maintained.”
For more info, see full King-Crane Report.
(3) 1948 Narratives We Grew Up With vs. What We Know
Reference the following bullet points we discussed as a group regarding military capability, and discuss this query with your small group: What narratives about 1948 did you grow up with or learn about in school? Why do you think that was the narrative?
Palestinians were out-done by Zionist forces:
- Out-organized: British mandate authorities promoted Jewish Agency (para-state), while banning Arab political organizations
- Out-gunned: British mandate authorities permitted the formation of Zionist paramilitaries & incorporated a Jewish unit into the British military during WWII
- Out-spent: Arab National Fund raises a mere $700k by 1947, compared with Jewish Nat’l Fund’s $3.5m per year by 1930s
- Out-led: Arab leadership deported during Arab Revolt; elites divided; elites-grassroots division
- Out-maneuvered: Jewish Agency & Jordanian King agree to carve up Palestine – Jordan to absorb West Bank/E. Jerus.
- Out-sponsored: by not only UK, but also both U.S. (Truman sees Zionism as a domestic political issue) & U.S.S.R. (who see leftist Israel as a counterweight to UK-allied Arab states)
After Israel declared statehood on 5/15/1948, the Arab-Israeli War began:
- Arab states belatedly send troops as Palestinian refugees flood their countries & public opinion rages
- Arab forces were uncoordinated, ineffective.
- Lebanon never even crossed the border.
- Jordan was colluding/coordinating with Israel.
- Iraq/Jordan were forbidden by their imperial British sponsors to cross what would ultimately become the partition boundary.
- Israel outnumbered & outgunned all the Arab armies combined
(4) AFSC Statement on UN Request to Serve Palestinian Refugees in Gaza
Read the below statement from November 1948 when the UN asked AFSC to provide humanitarian services to Palestinian refugees displaced to Gaza from their homes in what became Israel. Discuss this query with your small group: What do you think of AFSC’s descision, and is it in alignment with Quaker Testimonies?
“The United Nations enquiry whether the Quakers would undertake a large-scale relief program in the Palestine area bring the AFSC face to face with a challenge larger and more fraught with political implications than it has yet had to face. Acceptance will strain our resources of personnel and administrative capacity to the utmost. We take the risk of failure which will be a public failure, and even if we have some success we shall certainly not satisfy everyone. We cannot avoid censure from some quarters in a scene where ‘sweet reasonableness’ is utterly lacking. We shall be in a world limelight, and we will have to face some compromises away from our traditional ways of working. On the other hand, refusal would be a grave decision. Success in Palestine is a vital necessity for the future of the UN. The opportunity to demonstrate the power of the non-violent approach is enormous. The political people have turned to us because they believe we have something more to offer than merely a politically neutral position.”
For more info, see PYM history of AFSC statement.
(5) Law of Occupation: Fourth Geneva Convention
Read the below bullets summarizing the law of occupation in the Fourth Geneva Convention, and discuss this query with your small group: What do you think of the law of occupation in light of what has been happening in Israel/Palestine since 1967?
- Occupier does not acquire sovereignty over occupied territory.
- Occupier must ensure sufficient food & medicine to the people.
- Occupier cannot forcibly transfer the people out.
- Nor transfer its civilian population in.
- No collective punishment.
- No hostage taking.
- No confiscation of private property.
For more info, see Fourth Geneva Convention Part III, Section III.
(6) U.S. Public Opinion
Reference recent polling indicating:
- Less than half of Americans (46%) are sympathetic towards Israelis, whereas 33% are sympathetic towards Palestinians (up 6% from last year)
- A majority of Americans want to stop using U.S. tax dollars to arm Israel
- 6 million fewer people voted for Kamala Harris than for Joe Biden, citing U.S. support for Israeli violence against Palestinians as the reason.
Discuss: Do you think U.S. public opinion has shifted recently? If so, why the shift?
(7) 1982 War on Lebanon vs. 2023-25 War on Gaza
Discuss this query with your small group: What similarities or differences do you see between the 1982 war in Lebanon and the current war on Palestinian life in Gaza in terms of the following aspects?
| Topic | Beirut 1982 | Today in Gaza |
| Israeli War Aims | Israel claimed to be fighting PLO terrorism | |
| U.S. Position | Greenlighting the 1982 war | |
| Violence | 19,000 killed; siege imposed | |
| Israeli Rhetoric | Not refraining from hitting civilian areas in Lebanon in 1982; comparing PLO to Hitler and his henchmen | |
| Palestinian Leadership & Ceasefire | PLO leadership remained in place despite the violence, yet pressured to leave Lebanon in 1982 as condition for ending the war | |
| Ongoing Violence after Ceasefire | Sabra & Shatila Palestinian refugee camp massacres in Lebanon in 1982 | |
| Lack of Accountability for War Crimes | No Israeli official punished for war crimes, despite Kahan Commission findings |
(8) Violent Resistance
Read the below excerpt from Khalidi (p. 180) on the analysis Pakistani intellectual Eqbal Ahmad did on the (f)utility of the use of violence as an anti-colonial strategy in the context of Israeli Palestine. Then discuss this query with your small group: Do you agree with Eqbal Ahmad’s analysis, and what are its implications for non-violent resistance?
… on political rather than moral or legal grounds, [Eqbal Ahmad] questioned whether armed struggle was the right course of action against the PLO’s particular adversary, Israel. He argued that given the course of Jewish history, especially in the twentieth century, the use of force only strengthened a preexisting and pervasive sense of victimhood among Israelis, while it unified Israeli society, reinforced the most militant tendencies in Zionism, and bolstered the support of external actors. This was in distinction to Algeria, where the FLN’s use of violence (including women using “baskets to carry bombs, which have taken so many innocent lives” in the accusatory words of a French interrogator in the 1966 Gillo Pontecorvo film The Battle of Algiers) ultimately succeeded in dividing French society and eroding its support for the colonial project. Ahmad’s critique was profound and devastating, and not welcomed by the PLO’s leaders, who still publicly proclaimed a devotion to armed struggle even as they were moving away from it in practice.
For more info, see Khalidi p. 180.
(9) Apartheid
Apartheid is a crime against humanity. There are 6 inhuman acts that can constitute Apartheid. The purpose of these acts must be the domination and systematic oppression of one racial group over another. Read the following summary of the Apartheid Convention, and discuss: Do you think the Israeli government is imposing an Apartheid regime in Israel/Palestine?
(a) Denial of Life and Liberty through acts like murder, torture, arbitrary arrest, and other forms of bodily or mental harm
(b) Imposing conditions calculated to cause the Physical Destruction of the group, in whole or in part
(c) Legislation Denying Basic Rights to the group, such as the right to work, movement, expression, education, and a nationality
(d) Legislation Dividing people by Race through things like placement of the group in reserves or ghettos, prohibition on mixed marriages, and expropriation of the group’s property
(e) Forced Labor of the group, and
(f) Persecution of people and organizations who Oppose the Apartheid.
(10) Palestinian Liberation as a U.S. National Interest
Khalidi suggests re-framing Palestinian liberation as a U.S. national interest. Discuss this query with your small group: What national interests might the U.S. have in supporting Palestinian liberation, especially among the following categories?
- Moral — living up to our supposed American values
- Legal — avoiding domestic and international legal liability
- Economic — increasing trade; decreasing economic risk; and re-allocating budgets
- National Security — reducing the threats posed by armed groups to U.S. residents’ safety and well-being
- Domestic Political — garnering support of a large base of voters in U.S. elections
- Foreign Relations — promoting good relations with other countries; resolving conflicts
- Immigration — reducing irregular migration flows; resettling refugees safely
For more info, see Khalidi p. 228-231.
(11) Envisioning the Future
Discuss this query with your small group: How do you see the future – continued apartheid, graver mass atrocities, ultimate liberation, or all of the above? What is our role in creating a better world?