Post-Zionism

Anthology of the pioneers of the Jewish Anti-Zionist Opposition
1989

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An Anthology of articles from diverse Jewish dissidents in opposition to the ideology and/or practice of the Zionist movement and its State of Israel.
Introductions provide a contextual underpinning for each contribution.

The Annex carried the first publication of the JPLO Declaration (Jewish People's Liberation Organization)
The JPLO is an initial chapter in the regeneration of the Jewish Bund as the heritage of the 1897 foundation
which heralded the political, cultural and labour interests of the East European Jewish masses before the Holocaust.

(from the Introduction)
Being the final product of his doctoral studies, Paul Wilkinson’s book, For Zion’s Sake, intends to reveal how John Nelson Darby’s detractors have distorted Christian Zionism while directly challenging academics who believe dispensationalism has little theological or historical value.  The purpose of this review is not to critique dispensationalism directly but to summarize and evaluate Wilkinson’s research and conclusions. In the end, Wilkinson’s ideological agenda and prejudicial research presents a thoroughly one-sided and indefensible case for Christian Zionism. In addition to his shameful demonization tactics against anyone who disagrees, Wilkinson’s research capabilities demonstrate a deliberate bias with little intention of conducting a fair and honest assessment of the subject. His style of writing amounts to nothing more than inflammatory claptrap, engaging in a puerile smear campaign against nondispensationalists that panders to the rhetoric of pseudo-intellectual prophecy pundits and apocalyptic hysteria. His research and conclusions are elementary at best, if not outright disgraceful.

A work in political philosophy differentiating civil society from the State to arrive at a constitutional model for the Federation of a bi-national society.

For the attention of Palestinian and international colleagues;

here attached is the pdf copy of the recently published book
‘The Federation of Palestinian and Hebrew Nations’.

            I am soliciting your interest in this most recent work and would ask for your review of this book’s content, methodology and conclusions.

            This transitional constitutional procedure culminating in a ‘No-State Solution’ is also a format that carries through a critique of the Nation-State itself. Accordingly, I suggest that it would be appropriate to ask the local library to secure a copy for other readers. The ISBN codes registering the book are:
(10): 1-5275-1313-0
(13): 978-1-5275-1313-6

The writer, Dr abraham Weizfeld PhD, is concerned by the political philosophy and the constitutional transformation of the contradiction between two major Nations in the body of one Land – Palestine-Israel. While the notion of the Nation-State has permeated the Levant since the 1917 British Crusade into Jerusalem, the organic demographic actuality of the country’s population is incompatible with the dominance of one Nation in one Land and the subsequent degeneration into the series of war crimes beginning in 1947. The exit from this conception of a Zionist State requires another methodology that offers an alternative to the domination of one Nation by another and that is rationalised by the myths of nation-building, that are promoted by the Nationalist school of thought. With an approach that is inter-national, in the root meaning of the term, the writer fuses the Jewish Bundist concept of National-Cultural Autonomy with the process of Constituent Assemblies, as an expression of the parallel Civil Societies that become an organic social construction codified in a Federal Constitution.
A work in political philosophy differentiating civil society from the State to arrive at a constitutional model for the Federation of a bi-national society. This transitional constitutional procedure, culminating in a ‘No-State Solution’, is also a format that carries through to a critique of the Nation-State itself. By avoiding the notion of the Nation-State, entitled a Republic, by either one Nation or the other, this exit from the impasse perpetuated by the Nation-State may then be named ‘The No-State Solution’.


Table of contents

General Introduction……………………………………………………………………......................................    8
Programmatic Considerations……………………………………………………….........................…….    12
The Movement of International Solidarity………………………………………...................………..    16

Introductory Preface: World Social Forum 2016-08....................................................    30
Self-determination...............................................................................................................  35

The Transitional Process: The Federation of the Kana’an...........................................  37
            Abstract......................................................................................................................  38
            Introduction….…………………………………………………………………….  39
Context……………………………………………………………………….……  41
Prospects and Resolution..………….…………………………………………......    44
Federation…………………………………………………………………………  49
Democratic Secular Palestine…..………………………………………………….  52
Constitutional Federation……………………………………………………….....  56
Conclusions 2016……………………………………………………………….....  59

In Elaboration of the Transitional Process…..……………………………………………..  66
            Constitutional Principles…………………………………………………………… 67
            The Problematic of Bi-Nationalism in One-State.....................................................  70
            Confederation.............................................................................................................              72
            Federalism..................................................................................................................  74
            Bi-National and Inter-National.…………………………………………………...  78

The Federal Principle……………………………………………………………… 83

National-Cultural Autonomy.……………………………………………………..  89

            Jamahiriya.……………………………………………………………………........ 90

The White Book ………………………………………………………………......  95

Constituent Assemblies.………………………………………………………..…. 98

Federation of Federations ………………………….……………………………...  98

Postscript 2018 …………………………………………………………...…………….... 102


Research sources available ……….…………………………………………………….... 104

מאמר ביקורת על מאמרו של גור אלרואי שהתפרסם בכתב העת 'ציון',  פ
תשע"ה, עמ' 551–581 - אני מודה לאנשי כתב העת 'ציון' והחברה ההיסטורית הישראלית על שיתוף הפעולה הפורה, על עזרתם בניכוש שגגות במאמר והסבת תשומת לבי לסוגיות נוגעות.
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מהדורה ראשונה נובמבר 2018
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תיקוני המהדורה השניה, ראתה אור במאי 2022, כוללים: עימוד, תקלדות כתיב, שיפור הצגת התמונות, תיקון כותרת

This article critically analyzes the quite common notion of a causal relationship between the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. It does so using historiographical tools: the way terms are defined and used, the build-up of chains of causality, chronological beginning points of historical processes and more.

עבודה זו בוחנת את דמותו, כתביו והגותו, של שבתי בן דב על חלקיהם השונים יחדיו.
המבוא לעבודה מציג את מצב המחקר הקיים בנוגע לשבתי בן דב (שב"ד), ומראה כי הזיהוי הקיים עם המחתרת היהודית שגוי ביסודו, מתוך העובדה שבני קבוצה זו כלל לא יכלו להכיר את הגות שב"ד, אשר מצויה בכתבים שראו אור רק שנים אחרי פעולותיהם. זיהוי זה פוגע ביכולת להכיר את הגות שב"ד באופן מלא.
הפרק הראשון מציג בפני הקורא את קורות חייו של שב"ד, תוך שילוב בין זכרונות שב"ד, מחקרים אודות הלח"י, ועיון משווה בקטעי הארכיון של שב"ד.
הפרק השני פורש בפני הקורא את חלקם ההגותי של כתבי שב"ד, תוך חלוקתם לשלוש תקופות, המובחנות ביניהן לפי אירועים משמעותיים. תקופת הכתיבה הראשונה נחתמת עם פרסום ספרו הגדול של שב"ד: גאולת ישראל במשבר המדינה, והשניה נחתמת עם מלחמת ששת הימים, אשר שינתה את פני המדינה. בחלקיו הראשונים של הפרק השני, מוצגים הכתבים המרכזיים מכל תקופה, ומובאים עיקרי רעיונותיהם. רעיונות שב"ד מתאפיינים בביקורת על כל מי שקדם לו, ואת כולם חורז הרעיון המשיחי שנובע להבנתו מייעודו של עם ישראל. שב"ד רואה לנגד עיניו משימה של הנחת יסודות למהפכה-משיחית, שתוביל את עם ישראל לחיים מלאים לאור חוקי התורה. את המהפכה תוביל תנועת גאולה, ששב"ד ראה את עצמו מייסד בכתביו.
בין תקופות הכתיבה השונות ניתן לראות שינויים במאפייני הכתיבה: בנושאים, במטרות, בקהלי היעד ואף ברעיונות. בתקופה השלישית ניתן לראות כי שב"ד נמנע מלפרסם את כתביו, ומשנה בצורה בולטת את יחסו למדינה.
הפרק השלישי של העבודה מציג את תפיסתו ועבודתו המשפטית של שב"ד, אשר היא חלק בלתי נפרד מחזונו המשיחי. שב"ד מציג תפיסה ייחודית את המשפט העברי, כביטוי של הגאולה עצמה בשיאה. שב"ד אף פוסק הלכה במקומות מסוימים, מתוך שלל הנושאים שבהם הוא רואה את המשפט העברי כחסר.

This article interrogates the play IchundIch (IandI) as a key work in understanding the exile of German-Jewish writer Else Lasker-Schüler. IchundIch bears witness to the author’s crisis of self after the Nazis revoked her German citizenship and extended her vacation to Jerusalem indefinitely. Written between 1940 and 1941, Lasker-Schüler’s rhyming avant-garde drama uses a Faustian framework to position her thoughts on Jerusalem and Berlin, heaven and hell, the eternal and the ephemeral. Despite the ruthless use of Verfremdungseffekt (alienation effect) that keeps the audience questioning the author’s motives, I argue that space, time, and fractured subjectivity are motifs throughout the play that reveal her antagonistic feelings toward her Jerusalem exile. This work marks a significant turn away from her pre-exilic writings, which pushed the Zionist narrative in their effervescent idealization of the Jewish homeland. Here, rather than writing a play about a triumphant homecoming, Lasker-Schüler condemns Jerusalem to hell.
IchundIch exposes the possibility of Zionist exile in the Land of Israel. The final years of Lasker-Schüler’s life in Jerusalem present a limit case for exile studies – a space where exile meets homecoming. To evaluate this German-Jewish author’s experience, I employ Edward Said and his reading of Dante’s Inferno as the paradigmatic exilic work. Such a reading brings out the complexities, layers, and multiple inversions in Lasker-Schüler’s text, which include her engagement with Jewish modes of representation even while she denounces the Jewish holy city. I situate this lesser-known work in relation to Lasker-Schüler’s pre-exilic and post-exilic writings to demonstrate her radical change of heart. Written into the lines of IchundIch is the author’s pain at the disillusionment she experienced upon realizing her Zionist dream.

הספר מציע אנליזה של הכוחות הפועלים על ההווה הישראלי מתוך המקורות ההיסטוריים והמיתיים של היהדות, ופורש דיון מורכב על הזיקות שבין ההיסטורי לבין שאלות ותובנות מתחום הסוציולוגיה והפסיכואנליזה. מתוך חתירה לפרק ולהבין את יחידת המקום העירומה – המייצגת גאולה עבור הקולקטיב – פדיה מציעה אנליזה המבחינה בין ארבעה ממדי מרחב: הסימבולי, הדמיוני, הממשי והמציאותי. כך היא חוקרת כיצד מוטען המרחב – או המרחב-זמן – על המקום, ומנתחת פערים בין קבוצות שונות הפועלות מתוך תודעה שונה של מרחב וזמן. מחקר זה מפענח בו-בזמן הליכים של הדתה, פונדמנטליזם, כיתתיות וטרור, ואת החילון השקוף המתחולל בתוך הדת גופה.

During the late 1980s and early 1990s Israeli social science went through something of a transformation. Previously, its sociology had been dominated by a conservative neofunctionalism that attributed a high degree of value consensus to Israeli society, but had little to say about internal social conflicts or inequalities, while its history had been strongly informed by nationalist myths about the formation of the Israeli state, its relations with neighbouring Arab states and ...

In the 1980s and 1990s, a group of historians and sociologists revolutionized the study of Israeli history. These scholars, often called collectively the Post-Zionists, sought to undermine "the founding myths of Israel". The Post-Zionist paradigm has made important and lasting contributions to the understanding of Israeli history, but no historiographical trend is permanent. In the last decade, a new generation of scholars, sometimes called "the third wave in Israeli historiography", or "the Post-Post-Zionists", has produced works that differ in many respects from those produced byof the previous generation. This generation studies new subjects, utilizes new types of sources and new writing styles, asks new questions about Israeli society, and its attitude to Zionism is often more empathic than that of the previous generation. The article analyzes some aspects of the new paradigm, which can be seen as a local, Israeli, manifestation of a more general approach – the new cultural history – that appeared outside Israel in the 1970s.

My lecturer wishes to explore the racial formation of Israel’s Eurocentered IP settlers’ regime through the interplay between the Zionist appropriations of Arab-Jewish TK [traditional knowledge] and folklore and the proliferation of  Ashkenazi [European Jewish] academic careers. Critical studies on the structure and meaning of Israeli academe have found out that it is mainly deployed by the Ashkenazi liberal-progressive hegemony as an arm of governance over Mizrahim [Jews who immigrated to Israel mainly from the Arab World] and Palestinians.

Salvaging Mizrahi cultures, the Israeli academe-regime has established a financial monopoly over the materiality of exotic Judaica discourse not only in scholarly knowledge production but also in the expert trade of intellectual, cultural and real properties. When it comes to protecting Mizrahi TK and folklore, WIPO’s 2002 post-TRIPS forum recommendations interrelating IP and TK are yet to arrive to Israel from Oman.  As is Israel’s compliance with the 1886 Berne Convention, or with the Hague 1954 Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property, or with the UNESCO 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property – when these treaties are scrutinized through the optics of collective Mizrahi IP.

My talk will be very preliminary – a collection of ruminations stemming out of my archival research into the Yemeni-Jewish scriptures and ornaments affair of the 1950s, its brief surface into the Israeli public sphere in the mid 1980s, and the possibilities for post-TRIPS Mizrahi activism against the appropriation and commodification of Mizrahi identity in light of the current postcolonial reshapings of the notion of authorship, and the repatriation of cultural properties from the Eurocenter back to communities of color. 

Printed, expanded Hebrew version available here: 2007.
“Cultural Property Rights and the Racial Construction of the Mizrahi as a Trade-Mark: Notes on the Revolving Door of Israel’s Academe-Regime.” In 2007. A Rainbow of Opinions: The Mizrahi Democratic Rainbow’s First Decade. (Keshet Shel De`ot: `Asor LaKeshet HaDemokratit HaMizrahit, Hebrew) Pp. 198-204. Tel Aviv: November Press. REPRINTED IN 2008 Mahbarot Kolno`a Darom  (“South Cinema Notebooks”, Heb. – a Humanities periodical) 2:161-166.

עם אומה או לאום? הביקורת של ישעיהו ליבוביץ על הלאומיות החילונית והשפעתה על עמדות פוסט לאומיות, בתוך: נפתלי רוטנברג ואליעזר שביד, עורכים,  לאום מלאום, עיונים בשאלות של זהות לאומית, עם ולאומיות, ירושלים ותל אביב 2008: הוצאת מכון ון ליר בירושלים והקיבוץ המאוחד, עמ' 106-70.

I explain first a bit about the historical context of past Zionist visions and then tell you how I now formulate my own conception of Zionism for the modern State of Israel - Existentialist Zionism.

The great historians of Zionism tell us about its major forms: political Zionism, socialist Zionism, cultural Zionism, and religious Zionism. I respect and venerate all the past great Zionist thinkers and activists. To some degree the modern state is the successful expression of the four classical forms of Zionism. And to some extent it represents a failed or incomplete implementation of each of them.

In an earlier article titled 'What Egypt needs now – Part I, Sinai', I suggested a series of measures that the Egyptian government must take immediately to make sure that civil order and concord will prevail in the area and nationwide. These measures are expected to thwart an existential threat against Egypt's national integrity. The existing threat is very real and the dangers tremendous. In the present article, I will reveal covert insinuations made by a key Israeli minister, proceeding through textual analysis. These hints do not augur well for Egypt's territorial integrity and must therefore be taken very seriously.
First published on 27th October 2014 here:
https://megalommatis.wordpress.com/2014/10/27/what-egypt-needs-now-part-ii-an-existential-threat-must-be-thwarted/