Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
4 January
CHRISTIAN ZIONISTS - PIONEERS IN THE SERVICE OF EMPIRE
On January 4th, 1839, Lord Shaftesbury wrote: “The Jews must be encouraged to return in yet greater numbers and become once more the husbandman of Judea and Galilee…though admittedly a stiff-necked, dark hearted people, and sunk in moral degradation, obduracy, and ignorance of the Gospel … [they are] vital to Christianity’s hope of salvation” and would benefit the British Empire. “The soil and climate of Palestine are singularly adapted to the growth of produce required for the exigencies of Great Britain.”4 يناير 2021م
في هذا اليوم من العام 1839م، كتب اللورد شافتزبيري: "يجب تشجيع اليهود على العودة وبأكبر أعداد ممكنة ويصبحون مرة أخرى فلاح يهودا والجليل... بالرغم وبإعتراف الجميع من أنهم شعب متصلب، وذوي قلوب سوداء، ومنغمسون في الإنحطاط الأخلاقي، والعناد، والجهل بالإنجيل.... إلا أنهم أساسيون بالنسبة لأمل المسيحية في الخلاص" وسيفيدون الإمبراطورية البريطانية. "‘إن أرض ومناخ فلسطين يتم تطويعهما بشكل خاص لنمو المنتجات اللازمة لضرورات بريطانيا العظمي".
Shaftsbury's contempt for Jews combined with a sense of their use as instruments of the British Empire was a view common among pro-Zionist British politicians, including Balfour
Steven Sizer in Broken Promises: The Road to Balfour
"Lord Shaftesbury (1801-1885) became convinced that the restoration of the Jews to Palestine was not only predicted in the Bible,[9] but also coincided with the strategic interests of British foreign policy. Others who shared this perspective, in varying degrees and for different reasons, included Lord Palmerston, David Lloyd George and Lord Balfour. Ironically, this conviction was precipitated by the actions of Napoleon, in the spring of 1799. The European Powers became increasingly preoccupied with the ‘Eastern Question’. Britain and Prussia sided with the Sultan of Turkey against Napoleon and his vassal, Mehemet Ali. The necessity of preventing French control had led not only to the battles of the Nile and Acre, but also to a British military expedition in Palestine. With the defeat of Napoleon, Britain’s main concern was how to restrain Russia. The race was on to control Palestine.Stirred by memories of the Napoleonic expedition, Lord Shaftesbury argued for a greater British presence in Palestine and saw this could be achieved by the sponsorship of a Jewish homeland on both religious and political grounds. British protection of the Jews would give a colonial advantage over France for the control of the Middle East; provide better access to India via a direct land route; and open up new commercial markets for British products."
Noam Chomsky 7-minute video on roots and power of Christian Zionism as one of the forces driving settler colonialism.
https://youtu.be/lUQ_0MubbcM
