thewhole world to cry out in protest. The Israeli Army entered Lebanon
in a sudden attack, and moved forward destroying every target that
appeared before it. The Israelis surrounded the refugee camps, where
Palestinians lived who had fled the Israeli occupation years
before,and for two days used Lebanese Christian militias to slaughter
innocent civilians. Within a few days, thousands of innocent people
had been massacred.
This terrible Israeli terrorism outraged the whole world. The
interesting thing, however, is that some ofthe protests came from
Jews, even Israeli Jews. Professor Benjamin Cohen of Tel Aviv
University penned a statement on June 6, 1982, saying:
I am writing to you while listening to a transistor that has just
announced that 'we' are in the process of 'realizing our objectives'in
Lebanon: to insure 'peace' for the residents of Galilee. These lies
worthy of Goebbels make me mad. It is clear that this savage war, more
barbaric than any of those preceding it, has nothing to do with the
attempt in London or the security of Galilee... Jews, sons of
Abraham... Jews, victims themselves of so much cruelty, how can they
become so cruel? ... The greatest success of Zionism is the
'dejudaisation' of the Jews. 1
Benjamin Cohen was notthe only Israeli to oppose the Israeli
occupation of Lebanon. Many Jewish intellectualsliving in Israel
condemned the savagery carried out by their own state.
This attitude was not restricted to the occupation of Lebanon.
Israel's oppression of thePalestinians, its insistence on its policy
ofoccupation, and its links with the semi-fascist administrations in
the former racist regime in South Africa had been criticized for many
years by many prominent intellectuals in Israel. This Jewish criticism
wasaimed not just at the policies of Israel, but also at atheist
Zionism, its official ideology.
This situation is the expression of a very important truth: Israel's
policy of occupation andstate terrorism from 1967 up to the present
stems from the ideology of atheist Zionism, and many Jews in the world
are opposed to it.
For Muslims, therefore, the concepts that should be criticized are not
Judaism or the Jewish race, but Godless Zionism. In the same way that
an anti-Nazi can have no hatred for the German people, so he can have
none for theJewish race because he opposes atheist Zionism.
The Racist Roots of Atheist Zionism
After the Jews were expelled from Jerusalem in 70 AD, they began to
spread to different parts of the world. During this period of the
'diaspora,' which lasted up to the 19 th century, the vast majority of
Jews saw themselves as a religiousgroup. Over time, most Jews adopted
the religion of the countries they lived in. Jews in Germany, for
example, began to speak German, and those in Britain, English. Hebrew
was left as a sacred language used only in prayers and religious
texts. When certain social restrictionson Jews in European countries
were lifted in the 19th century, Jews began to assimilate withthe
societies they were living in. Most Jews saw themselves as a
'religious community,' not as a 'race' or 'nation.' They described
themselves as 'Jewish Germans,' 'Jewish Britons,' or 'Jewish
Americans.'
However, there was a huge rise in racism all over the world in the
19th century. Racist ideas, influenced in particular by Darwin's
theory of evolution, grew enormously and found many supporters
particularly in Western societies. Atheist Zionismwas the effect this
racist storm had among the Jews.
There are two varieties of Zionism today. The first of these is the
Zionist conception of thedevout Jewish people, who wish to live in
peace and security in Israel alongside Muslims,seeking peace and
wishing to worship in the lands of their forefathers and engage in
business. In that sense, Muslims support Zionism. We would fully back
the devout Jewish people living in peace and security in their own
lands, remembering God, worshipping in their synagogues and engaging
in science and trade in their own land.
The Zionist belief held bya devout Jew and based on the Torah does not
inany way conflict with the Qur'an. The Jews' living in that region is
indicated in the Qur'an, in which it is revealed that God has settled
the Children of Israel on it:
Remember when Moses said to his people, "My people! Remember
God'sblessing to you when He appointed prophets among you and
appointed kings for you,and gave you what He had not given to
anyoneelse in all the worlds! My people! Enter the Holy Land which God
has ordained for you. Do notturn back in your tracks and so become
transformed into losers."(Surat al-Ma'ida: 20-21)
It is the "irreligious, Godless Zionism" that weas Muslims condemn
andregard as a threat. TheseGodless Zionists, who do not defend the
existenceand oneness of God, but,on the contrary, encourage a
Darwinist, materialist perspective and thus engage in irreligious
propaganda, are also a threat to devout Jews. Godless Zionism is today
engaged in a struggle against peace, security and moral virtue, and
constantly produces strife and chaos and the shedding of blood.
Muslims and devout Jewsmust join forces to oppose this Godless Zionism
and encourage belief in God.
Judaism Is Not the Origin of Atheist Zionism
T he Jews who propagated the idea of Godless Zionism were people with
very weak religious beliefs, most of whom were atheists. They saw
Judaism as the name of a race, not as a community of belief. They
suggested that the Jews were a separate race from European nations,
that it was impossible for them to live together and that it was
essential they establish their own homeland. They did not rely on
religious thinking when deciding where that homeland should be.
Theodor Herzl, the founder of irreligious Zionism, oncethought of
Uganda, and this became known as the 'Uganda Plan.' The Zionists later
decided on Palestine. The reason forthis was Palestine was regarded as
'the Jews' historic homeland' rather than for any religious
significance it had for them.
The atheist Zionists made great efforts to get other Jews to accept
these non-religious ideas. In fact, the World Zionist Organization
thatwas set up for this purpose undertook vast propaganda work in all
countries with Jewish populations, and suggested that Jews could not
live peacefully with other nations and that they were a separate
'race,' for which reason they had to go and settle in Palestine. Most
Jewish communities ignored these calls.
In this way, atheist Zionism entered world politics as a racist
ideology which maintained that Jews should not live with other
nations. First of all,this mistaken idea created grave problems for
and pressure on Jewsliving in the diaspora. Then for the millions of
Muslims in the Middle East, it brought the Israeli policy of
occupation and annexation, together with bloodshed, death, poverty and
terror.
Many Jews today criticize this atheist and radical form of Zionist
ideology. Rabbi Hirsch, one of the foremost Jewish men of religion,
said, 'Zionism wants to define the Jewish peopleas a national entity
... which is a heresy.' 2
The famous French Muslim thinker Roger Garaudy wrote this on the subject:
The worst enemy of the prophetic Jewish faith is the nationalist,
racist and colonialist logic of tribal Zionism, born of the
nationalism, racism and colonialism of 19th century Europe. This logic
…inspired all the colonialisms of the West and all its wars of one
nationalism against another…There is no future or security for Israel
and no peace in the Middle East unless Israel becomes"dezionized" and
returns to the faith of Abraham, which is the spiritual, fraternal and
common heritage of the three revealed religions: Judaism, Christianity
andIslam. 3
For this reason, therefore, we must distinguish between devout Jews
and atheist Zionists. Not every Jew in the world holds such an
understanding of Zionism. In fact, atheist Zionists are a minority
inthe Jewish world. Moreover, there are a great many Jews who oppose
atheist Zionism's crimes against humanity,who want Israel to withdraw
at once from all the territory it has occupied, and say that instead
of being a racist 'Jewish state' Israel should be a free state where
all races and communities can live together in equality.
While Muslims rightfully oppose Israel and atheistZionism, they must
also bear these truths in mind, and remember that it is not the devout
Jews who are the problem, but atheist Zionism.
1 "Professor Leibowitz calls Israeli politics in Lebanon Judeo-Nazi"
Yediot Aharonoth , July 2, 1982
2 Washington Post , October 3, 1978
3 Roger Garaudy, "Right to Reply: Reply to the Media Lynching of Abbe
Pierre and Roger Garaudy", Samizdat , June 1996
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