A few DEFINITIONS to support a correct and accurate use of words, 

an essential condition to understand a complex issue like the present one.

Antisemitism - Antizionism - Arab -  Intifadah - Israel - Jerusalem - Jew/Jewish/Judaism - Nakba - Occupation/Occupied Territories -  Palestine – Palestinians - Return - Settlement/Settlers - Zionism 

Antisemitism: racist ideology which fosters prejudice, persecution, discrimination or hatred of the Jews.

It is under this definition that the word was coined in 1879 by German journalist Wilhelm Marr and it is in this sense that it has been used and understood eversince although a strict semantic approach to the word would mean hatred of Semitic peoples - and thus target Arabs, Amazighs,... of all creeds - Muslim, Jewish, Christian - and spare European-origin Askhenazim Jews.  

Antisemitism is a particular form of racism in the sense that it targets the Jews alone and points at an alleged Jewish plot to dominate the world as described in the Protocol of the Elders of Zion, a Czarist police forgery.

It is said sometimes that Palestinians and other Arabs cannot be anti-semitic since they are Semitic themselves. This is confusing because History records that antisemitism may  manifest itself among any ethnic category  or confessional denomination - including Arabs or Muslims. The more recent and lesser used neologism “judeophobia” is more satisfactory to describe this form of racism specifically targeting the Jews. 

Opposition to Zionism or even only to Israeli policies is often slandered as antisemitism, which is equally confusing.

Zionism shares with antisemitism the belief that Jews cannot be integrated into the majoritarily non-Jewish societies and that they should settle in Israel. This ideological convergence explains why Zionists colluded with Czarist Russia and nazi Germany antisemites.

Antizionism: ideology opposing zionism in defence of the Palestinian people's sovereign rights on their native soil and advocating the dismantlement of the state of Israel. Although there is a tendency from some antisemitic groups or individuals to introduce themselves as “antizionists” to disguise their true identity, the equation between antisemitism and antizionism is abusive. Read more at  no, anti-zionism is not anti-semitism.

Arab: Semitic people originated from Arabia who expanded to the Middle East, Northern Africa and up to the Iberian peninsula during the 7th and 8th centuries propagating the Muslim faith, of which Arabic is the holy language. Arabs and Muslims are frequently confused while:

flag of the Arab League

not all Arabs are Muslims: most Arab countries are also home to Christians, Jews who share most aspects of their fellow-countrypeople's culture;

not all Muslims are Arabs. Islam has reached much further than the Arab ethnic expansion: far into Black Africa, Middle East - Turkey, Iran, Kurdistan, Pakistan - and Asia - Philipines, Indonesia etc...;

Intifadah (Arabic: shaking off) civil uprising.

The first Intifadah started in Dec. 1987. It was characterised by:

the spontaneous revolt of the Palestinian people in the post '67 occupied territories, involving riots and strikes;

the emergence of a new leadership independent from the PLO headquarters in exile in Tunisia at that time;

a first breakthrough of political Islam.

The ruthless Israeli repression involving heavy weaponry and torture against a mostly defenceless population channeled the international sympathy towards the Palestinians and forced the international community to realise the need for a political settlement. This led to the Oslo Accords signed in 1993 and the end of the uprising.

The second Intifadah started in Dec. 2000 after war criminal Ariel Sharon's visit to the Al Aqsa Mosque area - this is why it is also called Al Aqsa Intifadah. It was in fact caused by the failure of the peace process and the Palestinians' obvious conclusion that Israel was unwilling to yield on the conditions of a fair peace. The second Intifadah has been characterised by:

the predominance of Islam politics throught the role of preexisting organisation such as Hamas - Islamic Resistance Organisation - in contrast with the more spontaneous first Intifadah; 

armed attacks against Israeli civilians especially by suicide bombers;

the uncomfortable role of Arafat PLO-led Palestinian National Authority pressured by USA/Israel to quell its own people.

In a strict historian perspective the 1936-1939 revolt - under British Mandate rule, years before the state of Israel came into being - could also be called Intifadah. It broke out when the Palestinians rose against the seizure of their land and the evidence that the British administration was preparing the country for Jewish domination in denial of their rights. It involved tax rebelliousness, riots and armed uprising. 

Israel: the state established in 1948 on parts of Palestine and a parliamentary republic. In contrast to other states it bears the below peculiarities:

It  not defined as a state of all its citizens but as a Jewish state in fulfilment of the Zionist ideology;

Its purpose is not to allow the native people of its territory - in this case the Palestinian Arabs - to exercise its right to self-determination but quite the opposite, to put alien newcomers in control of the country.

Followers of Zionism view it as the rebirth of the ancient Hebrew Kingdom wich ruled in this region from 10th century BC to 721BC.

Its borders have been at the centre of continued controversy and conflicts:

the early Zionists preyed on a much larger territory: from the Nile to the Euphrates rivers in modern day Egypt and Iraq respectively. The demographic inability to colonise this large extension of land has been instrumental in the Zionists' acceptance of a much slimer territory in 1947, viewed as a hard step to plan further expansion;

a Jewish state was proposed by the United Nations General Assembly in 1947 in slimmer boundaries and in the conflict that broke out the next year  the Zionists forces gained control of more territory;

Israel conquered the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Syrian Golan Heights in the 1967 Six Day War - see "Occupied Territories".

Jerusalem (Arabic Al Qods): Holy City to the three largest monotheistic religions and it is to this day one of the hottest and most delicate issues of the conflict.

Under the United Nations General Assembly resolution 181 Jerusalem area was expressly meant to be a corpus separatum under direct international administration and not belonging to any of the proposed Arab and Jewish states.

the wailing wall

Yet Israel conquered the Western part of the city in 1948 and declared Jerusalem its capital in defiance of the international ruling.

The rest of the city fell into Israeli hands after the 1967 war and a central Israeli policy has been eversince to alter its ethnic line-up through stepping up Jewish settlement within and around the city and hindering the growth of its Arab population in order to secure its status as the "united and eternal" capital of the Jewish state.

A focus of Palestinian diplomatic efforts in the '90ies peace process was to claim East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state that was supposed to become established in the post '67 Occupied Territories.

Jew/Jewish/Judaism: observant of the Judaic religion, in continuity of the ancient Hebrew people's faith. However, the Jews have developed through their minority condition a community spirit that reaches far outwith religion itself. Zionism goes further and rejects the integration of Jews in the countries where they live and professes the theory of a “Jewish nation” scattered around the world related to the ancient Hebrew people and holding exclusive historical  rights on Palestine.

Nakba: Arabic word for "catastrophe”. Eviction of 800,000 Palestinians from their villages and towns when Israel was created in 1948. The recognition and reversal of this ethnic cleansing operation is at the core of the conflict and the UN proclaims the refugees' right of return. Zionism belittles or denies the “Nakba” and claims it was a  spontaneous transfer movement of people who rejected the prospect to live in a Jewish state or fled following Arab leaders' instructions.

Occupation/occupied territories: referred to the territories that Israel invaded in the 1967 Six Day war.

the desert of Sinai fully returned to Egyptian sovereignty through the 1979 US sponsored Camp David I agreement;

the Syrian Heights of Golan annexed by law to Israel in 1981;

the Gaza Strip: Israel dismantled its settlements in 2005. However a long set of conditions remain standing that still make the Strip an occupied territory under international law.

the West Bank: where the Apartheid wall is under construction and more Jewish-only settlements are being expanded and built;

The only borders recognised under international are those of the 1949 cease fire line also known as the Green Line. United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 emphasized on "the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war” and demanded the “withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict”. Israel has ignored international law in this regard as in most others.

Abundant proof that this territory expansion was plotted long beforehand is confirmed by the ongoing settlement policy.

As these areas host the biggest Palestinian concentrations, it is comprehensible that they should be where the biggest unrest like the Intifadah take place and be the focus of interest. 

It is also on these territories alone that Israel claims to be willing to make some concessions - to trade land for peace - and their status was the core issue of the '90s peace process.

It is also where the Palestinians suffer the harshest oppression and ordeals and it is where they require the most urgent support.

However a reliable approach to the conflict should never leave aside its other dimensions: refugees outside Palestine and Palestinians in pre 1967 Israel. 

Palestine: at the same time the land of a native Arab people and the territory that Zionism claims as the place for  the “national homeland” for the “Jewish people”.

(Historic) Palestine is the stretch of land between the Mediterranean sea and Jordan River bordering with modern day Lebanon and Syria in the North and the Egyptian desert of Sinai in the Southeast.

Recently and especially since the Palestinian Liberation Organisation admitted to Israel existence in 1993 – there is a tendency only to name as “Palestine” the post '67 Occupied Territories” - West Bank and Gaza strip - where it is hoped to establish a Palestinian state side by side with Israel. Meanwhile others do not give up the aim of a state on the whole of “historic Palestine ”.

Palestinians: Arab people from Palestine, made up of a Muslim majority and Christian, Samaritan and Jewish religious minorities and Druze and Bedouin minorities. 

The word is presently used in opposition to the Jewish newcomers immigrated in fulfilment of the Zionist project. Zionism denies the existence of the Palestinian people through two beliefs:

The myth of a “land without a people for a people without a land” i.e. that Palestine was not inhabited or only visited by nomadic tribes before the Zionist colonisation. There is no foundation in history to this propaganda and on the contrary, abundant evidence of a farming economy and thus a sedentary population in Palestine;

To deny a “Palestinian” specificity to the native people arguing that they never had a state of their own, nor cultural traits to make them distinct from the neighbouring Arab peoples. Oddly enough, this theory is intended to bolster the claim to “recreate” a state disappeared more than 2,000 years ago, destinated to people from very different cultures. The scope is to dismiss the indigenous people as generic "Arab" to deny their rights to their historical territory, minimise the impact of their eviction and demand they should be dissolved in other Arab countries.

The Palestinian people is made up with:

1,100,000 oficially referred to as “Israeli Arabs” survivors of the 1948 ethnic cleansing and their descent. They account for a growing 19% of Israel where they are third-class citizens;

4,082,300 refugees scattered in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan;

600,000 native of the post '67 occupied territories, i.e. Gaza strip, West Bank;

The diaspora Palestinians away from the Middle East.

Return: both Palestinians and Zionists consider they have a "right of return" to the land they call Palestine and Israel respectively, although from much differing perspectives:

The Palestinian right of return (Arabic: Al Awdah) refers to the Palestinian refugees who were expelled from their homes during the 1948 Nakba. This right is harboured by international law and sanctioned by United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 and its implementation is a key issue to solve the conflict;

The Zionist "return" (New-Hebrew Aliyah) has been is a cornerstone of Zionism since this ideology was born. Considering that the Jews have sovereign rights on Palestine, it has been endeavoured to attract Jews from all over the world to change the demographic balance of this land and achieve a Jewish majority. This immigration was first fostered during the British Administration 1922-1947 and since the establishment of Israel as a state, the "law of return" grants automatic Israeli citizenship to any newcomer who applies to it and can prove Jewish descent or conversion.

A paradoxical situation here: the Jews can "return" to where they never used to be while the Palestinians are denied the right to return to their homes.

Settlements/settlers: the name most commonly used for the Jewish-only dwellings in the post '67 occupied territories. The development of these colonies has been a central policy of all the Israeli governments. Some 380,000 live in these territories, a rough 8% of the Israeli population.

The colonisation of these lands is encouraged by official subsidies, low-rent and below-market credit rates.

This is another blatant breach of international law which expressly forbids the occupying power to make any attempt to alter the demographic make-up of the occupied territory.

The settlers are best known for their most violent and extremist elements as shown in the picture beside who harass their Palestinian neighbours in impunity and more often then not with the support of the Israeli armed forces. This is particularly true in areas such as Al Khalil/Hebron whereas many Israeli dwellers in the West Bank especially those living close to the Green Line hold the more moderate views of mainstream Israelis inside pre 1967 Israel.

Zionism: political movement formed in the late 19th century advocating for the settlement and support to a “national home” for the “Jewish people” in Palestine.

Zionists are those individuals or entities who – regardless of confessional criteria - support this ideology which grants a prior right to the Jews on the land of  Palestine at the expense of the native Arab Palestinian people. Zionism is today chiefly concerned with the development, strengthening, expansion of Israel and its continuity as a Jewish State.

Zionism is:

hardline Zionism

a success, achieved through the present state of Israel. The prospect of a “Jewish state” had all the looks of a pipe dream a hundred years ago;

a failure if this state was supposed to be sovereign: Israel utterly depends on the US as regards to economic, military or diplomacy matters. The prospect of a self-supporting state of Israel seems largely remote as for now;

a failure if this state was supposed to be a safe haven for the Jews to flee persecutions: Israel is now the most dangerous place for the Jews to live in since 1945. 

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