Israel Does Not Have A Right To Exist
No state does, actually.
Of all the platitudes used to defend Israel, none are more laughable than the cliche “Israel has a right to exist.” Above the others (“The IDF is the world’s most moral army,” “Israel has a right to defend itself,” etc., etc.), the claim that the Zionist entity has an unimpeachable right to its current form is by far the least credible. And yet, it has been repeated for so long that it has become permanently pressed into the frontal lobe of America’s collective psyche.
While there are many reasons Israel should be dissolved, paramount among them its apartheid regime and systematic violation of human rights, the reason this claim is so unserious is because no state has a right to exist.
States Aren’t Real
Modern states are simply a group of people in specific geographical boundaries who consent to be collectively governed. There’s nothing natural about them. States are created, expanded, contracted, and in some cases, dissolved in accordance with the politics of the time. The boundaries of the United States, Canada, and Mexico have grown and shrunk against each other since European colonists first drew borders on a map of the North American continent. Following decades of ethnic conflict, Yugoslavia was partitioned into half a dozen independent states. Since the conception of a modern state was adopted, they have been malleable, changing and disappearing as deemed (or demanded) necessary.
That’s why it’s ludicrous to claim a particular state has a “right” to exist. No state has a right to exist. In fact, they don’t have rights. People have rights, as established in constitutions and internationally recognized treaties, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These individual rights ladder up into society-wide rights, such as a group’s right to self-determination through democratic governance, but this is not the same as saying a state has a right on its own.
When we strip away the flags, anthems, and political aesthetics, a state is simply the structure a group uses to govern itself. To administer civil services and maintain order, states have explicit boundaries, set procedures, and bureaucratic infrastructure, such as courts, legislatures, elections, and government offices. Regardless of whether they are good or bad, these structures have no rights. They only exist to ensure the citizens can go about their daily lives, which will vary greatly depending on the region’s economics and culture. States are nothing more, and nothing less. Given this, it’s fair to say that not only does Israel not have a right to exist, but its abysmal track record warrants dismantling the existing Israeli state and replacing it with one that pursues justice.
Dismantling Israel
When Zionists say “Israel has a right to exist,” what they really mean is that Israel’s structures — its undefined and ever-expanding borders, the second-class status of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, laws preventing Palestinian-Israeli marriages, and Jewish supremacy apartheid — should remain intact. This is ludicrous. Not only are Israel’s policies a threat to basic decency and global security, but they have no rights. The people who they dictate, in this case, Palestinians and Israelis alike, are the ones with rights. As the racist and authoritarian legal structure violates the rights of its subjects, they should be dismantled.
The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people. — Israel’s 2018 Nation State Law, codifying apartheid
As with many facets of Israeli society and policy, the argument that “Israel has a right to exist” is often misrepresented as a claim that “Jews have a right to live in Israel.” Zionists argue that if Israel doesn’t have a right to exist, then every Jewish Israeli will be murdered the day the apartheid laws and segregation walls are brought down. (I’m certain some people will accuse me of advocating for this in the comments of this very article.)
This objective only exists in the minds of batty Zionists and is not the goal of the Palestine liberation movement. When people such as myself advocate for the destruction of Israel, we are calling for the dismantlement of the laws, policies, and behaviors that subjugate Palestinians and violate their human rights. As the sum product of these structures is the state of Israel, destroying the state and replacing it with one of equitable laws and applications is the only way to ensure the territory is a place of justice and liberty for all people, regardless of race or religion.
Just as apartheid South Africa and Jim Crow America had no right to maintain their racist and authoritarian practices, neither does Israel. Given Israel has designed its legal structures to oppress Palestinians and conquer their land, the only logical solution is to dismantle the Zionist state of Israel and replace it with one that prioritizes humanity above all else.
And, if Zionists are adamant that the new state be named “Israel,” they are more than welcome to bring that issue to a referendum. As long as the processes are fair and everyone’s rights are respected, I could give a damn what the new state is called or the colors of its flag.
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The whole "Israel has a right to exist" argument really only works if you view stealing other peoples land based on some vague historical/ancestral claim to it and then committing apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide against the people living there as some neutral, benign action that everyone should accept.
Thank you for this wonderful article! The voice of reason! Which highlights the fundamental right of peoples to exist, and not that of states that are artificial creations that can be remodelled according to the whims of history and the whims of deranged sociopaths…