I attempted to post a comment in response to the article Never Again? on the website of the Zionist Council of Victoria. Please read that article before reading the rest of this diary.
I considered it likely at the time that site management would not publish my comment, since it is a direct criticism of Zionism. Unfortunately, it seems that my concern was warranted. I am reproducing my comment here as a diary, despite my misgivings about how it will be received.
I hope that I can state my beliefs in what I believe to be a respectful manner, and that others will respond in what they believe to be a respectful manner, without anger or hostility.
I do not mean to criticize any person because of their place of birth, language, culture, ancestry, private religious beliefs, or citizenship. I do not mean to malign or demean anyone simply for being who they are. I do not wish to exacerbate the rifts that already exist between people who hold differing beliefs on this complex issue.
I certainly do not mean this as a comprehensive political manifesto, an absolute declaration of irreconcilable differences, or a condemnation of any group for the actions of some of its members.
I do mean to criticize bigotry. I do mean to criticize ideologies that divide people into "us" and "them". I do mean to criticize xenophobia. I do mean to criticize violence. I do mean to criticize the use of bigotry, divisiveness, xenophobia and/or violence to gain or maintain political, social, economic, and/or religious power. And I mean to criticize ethnic/national/religious double standards as just another kind of bigotry.
What I also mean to do is to clearly state my beliefs on this issue. I believe that past or present victims of oppression are not entitled to oppress others in turn. I believe that the differences between groups of human beings who have arbitrarily divided themselves or been divided into tribes, nations, ethnicities, parties, classes, castes, and religions are trivial compared to our common humanity. I believe that in even the most emotionally charged conflicts no one is free from the responsibility to respect that common humanity.
The text of my comment, as originally submitted, follows.
What enabled the Holocaust was bigoted Europeans who dehumanized Jews, Roma, political dissidents, homosexuals, and many more groups. They declared them to be inferior. Subhuman. Disposable.
What enables the crimes of Muslim extremists against Jews is Muslims dehumanizing Jews. What enables the crimes of Jewish extremists against Muslims is Jews dehumanizing Muslims.
Surely, the people of Israel have the right to a sovereign state, secure in its borders. Just as surely, the people of Palestine have the right to a sovereign state, secure in its borders.
Just as nobody has a monopoly on the truth, nobody has a monopoly on the lie that other people are lesser because they have a different religion, different language, different culture, different DNA.
Zionism is, unfortunately, a manifestation of that lie.
Zionism is the principle that Jews are inherently superior to Palestinians, more deserving of land than Palestinians, more deserving of political recognition than Palestinians, more deserving of human rights than Palestinians, more deserving of life itself than Palestinians.
As long as the state of Israel remains committed to the destruction of the Palestinian people, it is no better than Syria, North Korea, or Iran. The difference is that Israel is supposedly a free state. Israel is supposedly committed to freedom and human rights. Israel is supposedly a great ally of the United States.
But what distinguishes the apartheid state of Israel from the apartheid state of South Africa? What distinguishes the ethnic cleansing committed by the state of Israel from the ethnic cleansing committed by any other state?
The answer is as clear as it is mortifying: The state of Israel is different because of the collective guilt that the West feels for allowing the Holocaust to take place. In their guilt, Western nations have allowed, even encouraged Israel to become that which it claims to be a refuge against: A nation committed to the destruction of one of its religious and ethnic minorities.
To allow Zionism to triumph is to "let it happen" again. To allow one group of people to destroy another group of people that they consider inferior. Subhuman. Disposable.