Monday, 21 November 2022
As part of the ‘Mapping (Un)Solidarities’ exhibition, the A.M. Qattan Foundation invites you to a panel titled ‘Colonial Solidarity’. The panel will take place in the Solidarity Salon located within the exhibition space (floor -1), on Monday, 21 November 2022, at 5:00 pm.
The concept of solidarity is usually associated with the idea of supporting oppressed peoples in their fair fight against injustice, subjugation, colonial domination and imperialism. But how do colonial endeavours unite and support one another? How does colonialism, in its wider sense, function as a system of hegemony, domination and land appropriation? How does it function as a system for the subjugation and, often ultimately, the extermination of Indigenous people? How does it become an incubator that reproduces new colonial systems that are later nurtured and supported to stand on their own and sustain themselves? In other words, what does solidarity look like among colonizers?
Colonial efforts have united to support the Zionist movement since its establishment as a settler-colonial movement which aimed to seize the land of Palestine for the establishment of a Jewish national homeland. Support from colonial regimes was crucial for the development and promotion of propaganda for Zionist aims and for providing needed funds and assistance.
This panel aims to present models of different forms of solidarity with the Zionist movement and Israel as a settler-colonial state – support that started as early as the emergence of the movement itself, and still continues today.
The panel will include four presentations:
1. Chronicling the Zionist Military History of WWI and the Recruitment of Colonial Solidarity with “Israel”
Khaled Odallah
With the evolution of imperial military operations in Palestine during WWI from a war over control of the Suez Canal to an aggression targeting Jerusalem and Damascus, the process of realizing the Zionist project in Palestine accelerated as it was turned into a functional British imperialist project.
One hundred years after the end of the WWI battles in Palestine, ‘The Organization for Legacy of WWI in Israel’ is writing a history of the military operations from an imperialist perspective. The organization is holds seminars and arranges study tours in the locations of battles and military routes. The organization does not limit its work to knowledge creation and education; it is also active in organizing memorialization events. Descendants of the British Empire’s soldiers and diplomatic representatives from former British colonies whose citizens fought during WWI in Palestine with the British Empire attend these events. Today I will present an analysis of the work of the “Organization for Legacy of WWI in Israel” as a Zionist colonialist organization that uses WWI military history in Palestine to generate solidarity with the Israeli state from those with a relationship to its imperialist nurturer.
Khaled Odallah is a lecturer and researcher in colonial studies, military history and the historical geography of Palestine.
2. Creating Solidarity with Zionism through Delusion, Deception, Realism and Inspiration – the Role of the Jewish National Fund
Omar al-Ghabari
Since its establishment in 1901, the Jewish National Fund has been working as the executive arm for the Zionist movement. The fund sought in the name of the Jewish people to ‘liberate the land of the Jews’ from ‘foreigners’, repossess it and turn it into property that only belongs to Jews.
The Jewish National Fund engaged the Jewish communities in Europe and North America by provoking their religious sentiments in order to raise the funds needed to ‘buy’ land in Palestine and Judaize it. The Fund chose as its name. Keren Kayemeth, a Hebrew religious term from the Old Testament. In English, the name Jewish National Fund was inspired from the burgeoning nationalistic spirit of the colonial political-economic era that dominated Europe in the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth century.
One hundred and twenty years after its establishment, the Jewish National Fund is still one of the richest and most powerful Zionist institutions. It expanded its activities to include strengthening and sustaining colonialism, and implements up-to-date programs on environment, education and settlement supporting Zionism. It continues to promote the notion that Palestine is an ‘empty desert’, and that people’s donations contribute to ‘the cultivation of the desert and turning it green’ – that is, ‘making the desert bloom’.
Omar al Ghabari is a Palestinian lecturer that specializes in Nakba, identity and the right of return. He also guides tours in the destroyed Palestinian towns and villages.
3. Visiting Apartheid, Israeli-Style
Sam Bahour
If the immigration of Jews to Israel does not keep pace with the growth in the population of non-Jews in Israel, the character of the state, and possibly the state itself, faces an existential threat. Add to this the growing numbers of lawmakers around the world who are questioning Israeli actions toward Palestinians, and Israel finds itself in a bind like never before.
To counter these threats, the Jewish mainstream establishment and the State of Israel have put their hands and resources together to make Israel more appealing to emerging generations of Jews around the world, as well as to align lawmakers in continuing Western support of Israel. A key pillar of their strategy is the use of trips to Israel.
This presentation will explore the emergence of such trips in the service of instilling solidarity with Israel. It will also touch on how these trips are backfiring concerning their intended goals.
Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American business consultant and frequent independent political commentator from Ramallah/al-Bireh in Occupied Palestine. He blogs at ePalestine.ps. @SamBahour
4. Christians United for Israel
Alissa Wise
The U.S.’s support for Israel, while often associated with the American Jewish community, actually gets the lion’s share of its support from Evangelical Christian Zionists. Christians United for Israel, the largest pro-Israel organization in the U.S., boasts more members than the entire population of Jewish people in the United States. This support for Israel is based on a set of political and theological beliefs, including that Jews returning to Historic Palestine is a necessary prerequisite for the second coming of Jesus. Their belief is that at that point Jews must convert or burn in Hell. There is hardly a more anti-Semitic idea than that, but American Jews, blinded by their support for Israel, are willing to make common cause with Christian Zionists to meet their own political goals. Because 25 percent of the U.S. population are evangelical Christians, this amounts to a huge voting block and lobbying force in the U.S. to defend Israel from criticism and ensure a blank check to Israel’s military. This kind of solidarity between Evangelical Christian Zionists and Jewish Zionists with the State of Israel is of course primarily and immediately threatening for Palestinians, but also poses grave dangers to Jews.
Alissa Wise is a community organizer, and organizational steward with over two decades of movement-building experience. She was a staff leader at Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) from 2011–2021, serving as Co-Director of Organizing, interim Executive Director, and Deputy Director.
Panel Moderator: Antoine Shallahat
Antoine Shallahat is a researcher and analyst in Israeli studies, author of several books of literary criticism, and translator of Hebrew books.