Loyalty to Capitalism Means Support for ‘Israel’

‘Israel’ has been in the news a lot lately; with the reports focused on the attacks against Muslims and on Masjid ul Aqsa. As an Ummah, we are angered by the attacks, and by the pain that the Muslims in Palestine feel on a constant basis. But we need to understand that while the international community ‘condemns’ ‘Israel’s’ actions; bringing our attention to their oppression through statistics and reports, they are allowing ‘Israel’ to oppress our Muslim brothers and sisters and they are accepting the desecration of Masjid Ul Aqsa. They are doing so through their inaction and through their loyalty to the current Capitalist system. Because we need to understand that ‘Israel’, as a nation state, is a product of this system. And by accepting the system, they are accepting ‘Israel’.

‘Israel’ – a nation state

One of the core tenants of the current international system is that every nation has the right to a state. It led to a wave of independence movements across the world around the mid 1900’s, and led to the ‘founding’ of many new countries as ‘nations’ fought for their right of self-determination after being directly colonialized by one of the Imperial powers.

It was this idea of nation-states that allowed ‘Israel,’ the Jewish entity, to come into being, as ‘Israel’ claimed that they had the right to the land that the Palestinian Muslims lived on. The idea of this division had been propagated by the United Kingdom, who had been keen to divide up Muslim land after the fall of the Ottoman State, and were unable to directly colonies the area as they began to withdraw from their former mandate.

And it was supported by the USA. In 1946, US President Truman announced his approval of a recommendation to admit 100,000 displaced persons into Palestine and in October publicly declared his support for the creation of a Jewish state.
The existence state of ‘Israel’ was given legitimacy in 1947, when the UN passed the Resolution (181) that divided the land into a Jewish state and an Arab state. And in 1948, ‘Israel’ was officially founded as a ‘Jewish state’.

‘Israel’ - its nationhood to Judaism

It is a Jewish state so the diaspora Jews, as well as their children and grandchildren, have a right to relocate to ‘Israel’ and acquire ‘Israeli’ citizenship on the basis of connecting to their Jewish identity (Under the Law of Return, 1950), and its expansion into Palestinian lands is a “supreme value for the state.” This is why neither of the ‘solutions’ to the Palestinian issue have worked – the Zionists are unwilling to live in a state where they are the minority, and they believe that they have a right to the land that the Palestinians live on. So, when the international community supported ‘Israel’ as a Jewish State, they allowed the mass killing, eviction and oppression of the Palestinian and Arab Muslims living on the land.

“It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonialization, or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands.” Quote by Ariel Sharon

‘Israel’s’ stance was reiterated in the 2018 ‘Basic Law’; which states that “the Land of ‘Israel’ is the historical homeland of the Jewish people; the State of ‘Israel’ is the nation state of the Jewish People, in which it realizes its natural, cultural, religious and historical right to self-determination; and exercising the right to national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish People.”

Their Basic Laws are the closest thing that ‘Israel’ has to a constitution and it doesn’t explicitly enshrine equality within it. This is an embodiment of the discrimination that exists against the non-Jews living within ‘Israel’ who they are cast as second class citizens, with fewer rights.

Statistics from IDI show that Arab citizens of ‘Israel’ continue to face structural disadvantages. For example, poorly funded schools in their localities contribute to their attaining lower levels of education and their reduced employment prospects and earning power compared to Israeli Jews. More than half of the country’s Arab families were considered poor in 2020, compared to 40 percent of Jewish families. Socioeconomic disparities between Israel’s Jewish and Arab citizens are less pronounced in mixed cities, though a government audit in July 2022 found Arabs had less access to municipal services in those cities. (Source)

One of the key ways that this is displayed is through the fact that Arab citizens, unlike the Jewish ‘Israelis’, do not have to serve is the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). They are allowed to enlist, but they are not treated as well.

This is a significant issue, if you look at it from the angle of equality of the citizens, because joining the IDF gives the soldiers social and economic advantages. Many ‘Israelis’ make important and lasting personal connections with their fellow citizens through the IDF, and they also receive many financial benefits, such as education assistance and discounted permits for building homes and owning land.

And it impacts the types of jobs that they can avail. An example of this can be found in a recent government move to provide jobs in ‘Israel’s’ high-tech industry, jobs that included an arbitrary military requirement. This requirement excludes Arabs, who are exempt from military service and avoid volunteering.

“Military service is kind of a tool that is being used more and more in order to exclude the Arabs, because they don’t do military service,” explained Sawsan Zaher, director of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Department at Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel.”

While some citizens within the new generation of Arabs are choosing to enter the IDF, this does not take away from the fact that the discrimination exists within the society.

“(It) can get easier when you hold an Israeli soldier or reservist ID card...To be a soldier in the army, it’s actually an identity certificate of Israeli-ness, which can help integration.” Source: (Reuters)

This isn’t something that the rest of the international community openly protests, because let’s face it- discrimination against minorities exists across the world. It is a dominant characteristic of the current system, no matter how much they propagate democracy. We find examples of it across the world, from the institutional racism that exists against the African Americans and other minorities in America to the horrific treatment of the Uyghur Muslims in China.

The international community’s acceptance gives ‘Israel’ the confidence to commit atrocities

‘Israel’ is known for the continuous mistreatment of Muslims – whether it’s the institutional racism that exists within their state, or their horrific treatment of Muslims within Gaza and the West Bank.

When an attack happens, such as the recent raids and killings in Jenin, the most you can expect is a verbal condemnation of Israel from the leaders around the world. But what value do their words hold, when their actions show Israel that they are a well-supported member of the international community.

- As of December 2020, ‘Israel’ has 164 of the other 192 UN member states.

- It is a member of the United Nations (UN) and a number of other international organizations.

- While its close friendship with the United States has been a linchpin of its foreign policy since the establishment of the state, ‘Israel’ maintains bilateral ties with all of the Permanent Five.

And the Muslim rulers have also accepted ‘Israel.’
It maintains full diplomatic relations with two of its Arab neighbors, Egypt and Jordan, after signing peace treaties in 1979 and 1994 respectively.

- It signed agreements establishing diplomatic relations with four Arab League countries in 2020 (Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan and Morocco)

- In March 2022, the Negev Forum was established. It consists of Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, the UAE, and the United States, and works towards the advancement of regional integration, cooperation, and development to augment peace, security, and economic prosperity for the wider region.

- ‘Israel’, Jordan, and the UAE signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for Project Prosperity in November 2022. It is a two-part project to supply ‘Israel’ with clean energy (Prosperity Green) and Jordan with desalinated water (Prosperity Blue)

- And now Saudi Arabia is seeking security guarantees from the United States, help with developing a civilian nuclear program and fewer restrictions on U.S. arms sales as its price for normalizing relations with ‘Israel’.

“We are here today because we genuinely, sincerely and deeply believe in peace...Not that kind of passive peace where we turn our backs to each other and peacefully ignore each other...We believe in a thorough, fruitful, paradigm-shaping, and value-creating peace in this region.” Statement made by Nasser Bourita in regards to Morocco’s ties with ‘Israel’

Why does it surprise us that ‘Israel’ is so confident in their power and so blatant in their hatred for the Muslims within Palestine, when they have the support of the Muslim leaders and the benefits that come with that?
“I vow that if I was just an Israeli civilian and I met a Palestinian I would burn him and I would make him suffer before killing him.” Ariel Sharon

This doesn’t mean ‘Israel’ is ‘all powerful’, the USA is very much the hegemon in this situation

Some argue that ‘Israel’ is too powerful to be stopped. That is far from the case. They are useful to the USA, and so they provide them with their unequivocal support for ‘Israel’. They have done so by vetoing any resolutions that would bring ‘Israel’s treatment of Palestinians onto the UN Security Council’s agenda. And they have done so by providing them with both security and economic assistance.

This assistance includes;

- The 10-year $38 billion MOU that was concluded in 2016; under which the United States provides $3.3 billion annually in Foreign Military Financing and an additional $500 million in missile defense funding.

The missile defense funding supports several cooperative missile defense programs, including David’s Sling and Iron Dome, as well as Arrow, Arrow II, and Arrow III, whose life-saving capabilities have proved vital to Israel’s security

- In 2022, the United States provided $1 billion in supplemental funding to replenish Israel’s stock of missile interceptors for the Iron Dome.

- They have a strong economic and commercial relationship anchored by an annual bilateral trade of nearly $50 billion in goods and services.

Their bilateral economic relations are solidified through several treaties and agreements, including the 1985 U.S.- ‘Israel’ Free Trade Agreement (FTA)- as a result of which the United States is ‘Israel’s largest trading partner.

- To facilitate economic cooperation, the USA convenes an annual Joint Economic Development Group (JEDG) to discuss the economic partnership and areas for potential growth.

- The two countries also coordinate scientific and cultural exchanges through the Binational Science Foundation, the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Foundation, Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation, and the U.S.-Israeli Education Foundation. (Source)

When ‘Israel’ acts in a way that the USA is displeased with, they find ways of putting pressure on the government of Israel.

But ‘Israel’ only appears powerful because they have the support of both the USA and the international community – no matter how much they say that they care for Palestine and their right to land.

A rejection of Israel, must mean a rejection of this system.

When we consider the fact that ‘Israel’ is a part of the Capitalist system, that every ruler has given their loyalty, then we understand why there hasn’t been an improvement in the treatment of the Palestinian Muslims.
Under the Capitalist system, Israel will continue to flourish; becoming more entrenched in the land of Palestine and maintaining their control over the non-Jewish citizens in the area. If we want the situation to change, we must reject this system.

Because accepting it means that we are accepting the horrific treatment of our Muslim brothers and sisters.

We are at a time when the so-called rulers across the Muslim lands have even stopped pretending that they have the interests of the Muslim Ummah at heart. They are becoming increasingly blatant in their treachery, signing deals with states like ‘Israel’, and taking part in local wars that spills the blood of the Muslim and Non-Muslim citizens.

If they are allowed to be so blatant in their disloyalty to Allah and His Messenger, why should we accept them as our rulers? Should we not be just as blatant in our call for their removal, and a demand for a system that establishes Allah’s laws over us?

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Fatima Musab
Member of the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir