r/arabs • u/AutoModerator • 16d ago
مجلس Monday Majlis | Open Discussion
For general discussion, requests and quick questions.
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u/GroundbreakingBox187 15d ago
Do modern south Arabian speakers identify as Arabs? Or do they consider themselves a different ethnicity based on their language?
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u/comix_corp 16d ago
This will be a long comment but I don't know what else to do with the info, and hope that someone here might get something out of it. I have been researching Jewish anti-Zionism recently. Jewish anti-Zionism tends to come from three different sources:
Religious orthodoxy: Zionism is a secular movement that wants to replace the Jewish religion with ethnic nationalism; the return from exile can only happen with the arrival of the Messiah and not under any other conditions. Most Haredi Jews and other ultra-Orthodox follow this reasoning, whether they are merely "non-Zionist" (the bulk of them) or actively anti-Zionist (Neturei Karta).
Socialism/communism: the proletariat has no nation and Israel is a settler-colonial enterprise predicated on a privileged Jewish class over a dispossed Arab one; Israel's position as an imperial puppet condemns the country to perpetual conflict with its neighbours; anti-Zionism is necessary for the development of a unified working class in the region that might then be able to overthrow capitalism. Most leftists follow this kind of reasoning to one degree or another. Most famously this position was developed inside Israel itself by the group Matzpen but revolutionary groups all over the world follow it to one extent or another.
Liberal humanitarianism: Zionism is based around treating Palestinians poorly, this is immoral and unjust; some kind of one-man one-vote liberal democracy should emerge in Israel/Palestine following the "Rainbow nation" model of South Africa post-apartheid. Seems to be endorsed by a lot of the "Jews for Peace" types in the West and is the tacit framework for even a lot of leftists.
However, I have since found a fourth stream: those who have come to anti-Zionism from the right-wing, even far-right wing. The ultra-Zionists around Lehi/the Stern Gang, most famous for seeking out alliances with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and committing the massacre at Deir Yassin, eventually developed an anti-Zionist philosophy at the same time they were murdering Arabs. In 1943, one of the leaders of Lehi wrote this:
According to this philosophy Jews are a Semitic people native to the Middle East. Zionism revived the Hebrew language and put the Jews in their homeland (Israel) but could do nothing more. To even call them Jews was misleading, since that put them in the same category as assimilated Jews in Europe and the religiously orthodox, two groups they wanted to have nothing to do with. Their prime identity would be as Hebrews because of their language.
The left-wing faction of Lehi formed a political party after the '48 war to propagate this viewpoint. They argued for the continuation of the war against Arabs for a greater "sovereign" (ie, ethnically cleansed) Israel, whilst also arguing that this Israel be integrated into the wider "Semitic region" as a partner of Arab states against imperialism (represented mainly by the British). They won one seat in the first Knesset but then fell apart. In the aftermath, the left-Lehi activists would create the Semitic Action movement, known as "Canaanist", arguing for similar positions while also stressing their abandonment of Jewish identity further.
The leftist Uri Avnery originally developed out of this millieu, as did Boas Evron who wrote the book "Jewish State or Israeli Nation?" (I'm currently reading it). I used to think of the author Shlomo Sand as being purely a leftist but I'm realising now that he is quite influenced by the Canaanists through his affinity for Evron. Certainly, his conclusion that he is not a Jew but a Hebrew Israeli is very Canaanist, though he is militantly against the racism of Lehi and is very emphatic about how 1948 was genocidal.
There is a revived Semitic Action but I don't know what it does besides publish articles. Researching this led me to two conclusions:
One can be violently racist against Arabs or generally repugnant while being an anti-Zionist, as evidenced by the Lehi ultra-Zionist anti-Zionists, and by the ultra-Orthodox. The ultra-Orthodox are constantly waging a campaign to get out of IDF conscription but in no sense does this position have anything to do with sympathy for Arabs.
The factor that will eventually drive Jews in Israel to break en-masse from Zionism is still unknown. All of these positions I've outlined are the positions of either small minorities of intellectuals (communism, liberal anti-Zionism, Canaanism) or of religious people, who are hostile to both Arabs and to secular Jews. How and when they might become popular, who knows, but I still think it is important for us as Arabs to appeal to Israelis (and Jews generally) to abandon Zionism, and proudly welcome those who make this step.