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Why Anti-Zionists Are Racists

(Jewish Chronicle-UK) Geoffrey Alderman - Last week marked the 95th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, in which the British Foreign Secretary stated that the government viewed "with favor" the establishment in Palestine of "a national home for the Jewish people." The idea has been floated that the Declaration was a way of thanking the chemist Chaim Weizmann for his wartime work assisting in the manufacture of explosives. This is fanciful nonsense. The Balfour Declaration was born out of religious sentiment. Arthur Balfour was a Christian mystic who believed in restoring the Jews to their ancient homeland. At the 1919 peace conference after World War I, the principle of national self-determination was endorsed by the victorious allies. Among the ethnic groups that benefited were the Jews. The Declaration was approved by the League of Nations and again by its successor, the United Nations. We cannot argue that the Jews - alone amongst the nationalities - are not entitled to a state, without inviting the description, "racist," to apply to us. A racist is someone who privileges some ethnic groups above others purely on the grounds of race, or racial or ethnic origins. Apologists for anti-Zionist racism argue that they support the right of Jewish self-determination, but not in "Palestine." But that's precisely where the international community has decreed that the state of the Jews shall be located, and where it is located.
2012-11-16 00:00:00
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