From: Ismail Zayid
To: Globe & Mail

Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2001 11:54 AM

Subject: Zionism and Racism

The Editor
The Globe & Mail

March 8, 2001

Dear Editor:

Stephanie Nolen's report {" Zionism-as-racism controversy..." March 8}, deals with international political considerations and omits the facts on the ground. If we are to judge this issue fairly, let us look at the basic tenets of the Zionist ideology and the laws and practices of the state of Israel:

The essential philosophy of Zionism was formulated on the basis of dispossession of the indigenous Arab population of Palestine, as spelled out by the founding father of this movement, Theodor Herzl, who wrote we must "spirit the penniless population [the Arabs] across the frontier....Both the process of expropriation and the removal must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly" [Herzl's Complete diaries, June 12, 1895 entry]. Joseph Weitz, director of the Jewish National Fund, the Zionist agency, stated in 1940: "The only solution is Eretz Israel...without Arabs. There is no room for compromise on this point... We must not leave a single village, not a single tribe" [Machover, Israca, Jan.5, 1973]. In 1948, this was largely accomplished, over 90% of the Arab population of the land occupied in 1948 were expelled or fled in terror and their land expropriated. Over 400 villages were erased from the face of the earth.

Israel's Law of Return entitles any person of the Jewish faith, from anywhere in the world, to have Israeli citizenship the day he arrives in Israel. The Christians and Muslims, who they and their forefathers were born in this land and lived on it, were not so privileged.

Over 90% of the land in Israel {which is largely expropriated Arab land} belongs to the Jewish National Find and cannot, In accordance with Israeli laws, be sold to or leased or tilled by any non-Jew. If such a law existed in Canada or any country, blatantly discriminating between the state's own citizens on the basis of religion, there would be justly outcries of discrimination.

An Arab's identity card or driving license is distinguished from that of a Jewish person. Arabs cannot buy an apartment in a Jewish settlement.

The catalogue of discrimination in Israel is lengthy. The testimony of leading Jewish intellectuals describes it well. Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and other prominent Jewish Americans wrote in The New York Times, on Dec. 4, 1948, protesting Menachem Begin's visit: " Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our time is the emergence, in the newly created state of Israel, of the Freedom Party { the Herut and now named the Likud, the present governing party of Israel} a political party akin, in its organisation, methods, political philosophy and social appeal, to the Nazi and Fascist parties." Interestingly, one of Mr. Sharon's cabinet ministers, Rehavam Zeevi, is an advocate of 'transfer' of all the Arabs in Israel and the Occupied Territories to surrounding countries. In March, 1945, Denis Goldberg, a Jewish South African sentenced to life imprisonment for "conspiring to overthrow the Apartheid regime" was released and came to Israel. He said that he sees " many similarities in the oppression of blacks in South Africa and of the Palestinians".

Professor Israel Shahak, a Holocaust survivor and Chairman of Israeli League for Civil and Human Rights, summed it up accurately when he wrote :" It is my considered opinion that the State of Israel is a racict state in the full meaning of this term. In this state people are discriminated against, in the most permanent and legal way and in the most important areas of life, only because of their origin. This racist discrimination began in Zionism and is carried out today mainly in cooperation with the institutions of the Zionist movement." That, I think, says it all.

Yours sincerely

Ismail Zayid, MD.