Monday, December 4, 2023

What Churchill Thought About the Palestinians and Jews


 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vU5O9zfH9fE

[Nov 21 2023 ]

0:00

in this video I want to discuss Winston Churchill uh Palestine and the

0:05

Palestinians and the Jews now Winston Churchill is a fascinating character

0:11

historically uh a few years ago the BBC did a poll uh called 100 greatest

0:18

Britain and in this TV poll um Winston Churchill came top uh of all of Britains

0:25

throughout time he beat Shakespeare and Darwin and Isaac Newton Elizabeth first

0:30

uh Oliver Cromwell he was number one of course he was Britain's uh prime minister during the second world war

0:36

he's actually prime minister twice and uh is a hero uh to many many people but

0:41

uh to other people uh he is a much more darker figure and just recently I I got

0:47

up hold of this uh interesting book Winston Churchill his times his Crimes

0:54

by TK Ali who's a British writer and he's very critical and there's awful lot

1:00

of dirt unfortunately uh about Winston Churchill is not very widely known and

1:06

um he says on the back cover I think summing up very well the way many people see him the modern Churchill cult is out

1:14

of control closing down historical debate and encouraging support for 21st

1:20

century Wars the man has become a houseold God for many preserving an

1:26

Antiquated vision of Britain tck Ali audits Churchill's crimes both globally

1:34

and at home and shows the celebrated wartime leader to be Britain's most

1:39

Shameless imperialist and uh this book covers many many of his crimes and some of them T

1:48

Ramadan calls them war crimes and indeed it seems to be entirely appropriate description and I'm just going to read

1:55

though from a section of the book uh subtitled Churchill Palestine and the Jews now some of what I'm going to read

2:02

is to Modern ears indeed to many people in the past highly offensive so U just

2:08

there a health warning before uh you listen any further and one of the things

2:13

he doesn't cover in too much detail in the book I think um is the bombing raids

2:18

on Germany in the second world war where Churchill as the Prime Minister uh

2:23

authorized indeed directed uh that bomber Harris you know the head of the RAF Target Civ Ians civilian cities

2:31

Berlin Hamburg dresen Etc uh for bombing and over a million uh Germans were uh

2:39

men women children civilians were obliterated burnt to death they were

2:44

bombed uh and this was uh a war crime obviously and actually the Britain did

2:50

it to Germany first Germany didn't do it to us despite what most people seem to think uh but the historical evidence

2:56

suggests otherwise and there's interesting uh book also the bomb ing War Europe 1939-45 by Professor Richard ovaries

3:04

professor of history at exitor University who meticulously documents

3:09

how Britain came to decide fairly early on in the war that it would bomb um

3:15

German cities targeting civilians and Britain did this first and then Germany

3:22

reciprocated and bombed London Birmingham Manchester Liverpool Etc uh but most people don't know this now of

3:28

course Churchill made decision so that's one of his most famous or inFAMOUS war

3:34

crimes but there were others and I'm not going to go through them all because there's quite a lot of them uh but I

3:39

just want to focus on his attitudes to the Palestinians to non-white people

3:45

this is a really key Point uh and to the Jews and to Israel and Palestine because

3:51

what church said what he stood for still matters today he's he was cited Winston

3:56

Churchill was mentioned in a recent TV interview you might might uh well have seen it where the interviewer Piers

4:02

Morgan I think cited him as one of the great if not the greatest British Heroes

4:08

uh and this uncritical uh what Ty Ramadan will call you know um Cult of

4:13

Churchill is why he wrote this book and the evidence is uh to put it mildly

4:20

horrific anyway this uh this book is still published last year I think uh and

4:25

is still useful background reading to the current attack on the Gaza because

4:31

Churchill's name is still used by many people to justify this anyway I'm just going to read the section then church of

4:38

Palestine and the Jews starting on page 357 it gives a bit of background to

4:45

Churchill uh historical context um and then we will move on to his views about

4:51

non-white people and why he thought it was perfectly justifiable to remove

4:57

Arabs blacks and so on from their land for reasons which will become quite

5:04

clear uh shortly so uh T Ramadan uh sorry T Ramadan tarck ali uh writes as

5:11

follows in the in the post first world war period no this after

5:17

1918 the states to be carved out of former German Ottoman and austr

5:23

Hungarian possessions were characterized by the newly created League of Nations

5:29

like the UN of the day as being either Advanced Nations brackets white

5:36

populations or nations that could not yet stand up for themselves in other

5:41

words nonwhite populations and so required imperialist Tage they had to be

5:48

looked after like children in other words within the latter category a further distinction was made between

5:54

those closest to self-rule and those furthest away way in the Middle East the

6:02

top category included Palestine Syria Lebanon and Iraq hence these were listed

6:08

as states that would ultimately be granted self-rule very kind of the West

6:13

to grant them self-rule of course Palestine on this description was not

6:19

empty land but a functioning Province until self-rule was granted these states

6:26

would be governed by mandates from the leag of Nations awarded to Britain and

6:32

France so these vast areas were awarded to European imperial's powers the

6:38

British had already created Iraq because many people don't realize that the modern Iraq is is created by Britain

6:45

itself it didn't exist before to this day Lebanon remains what it was at the

6:51

time of its birth the artificial creation of French colonialism a coastal

6:58

band of greater Syria sliced off from its Hinterland by Paris once it became

7:04

clear that Syrian Independence was inevitable the French wanted a colony of

7:11

their own everyone has to have a colony in Europe it seems a regional client dominated by a Marite minority that had

7:19

long been France's catspa catp in the Eastern Mediterranean uh T Ali here's

7:26

language is very poetic actually lebanon's confessional checker board has

7:32

never been permitted an accurate census in other words an an accurate census of

7:38

the population of Lebanon has never really happened he says for fear of revealing that a substantial Muslim

7:46

majority is denied due representation in the political system sectarian tensions

7:52

have never disappeared the British demanded and got a division of the Palestinian mandate into two two parts

8:01

the new Jewish Home Inver commers the new Jewish Home and

8:06

Palestine here was the first example of a colonial partition via an influx of

8:13

white settlers in Brackets ashkanazi Jews the war of independence used by

8:20

most official Israeli historians to describe the 1947 to 49 conflict is a

8:28

misn at best it could be applied to the three years 46 to 48 when Zionist interest

8:37

clashed with the Strategic needs of the British Empire in the region Jewish

8:43

terrorist attacks on the King David hotel and the British casualties brought

8:49

Churchill close to a break with Zionism but he hung on the official Declarations

8:56

of Independence were the bow for declaration famously in

9:01

19177 and the Mandate of the League of Nations in 1919 without the consistent political

9:08

economic and ideological support of the British Empire for a Zionist Jewish homeland for over 50 years it is

9:17

unlikely that the foundations of Israel would have been laid and a state as it

9:23

exists at present would have come into existence regardless of the judeo side

9:28

judeo I think he means the Holocaust so in other words he he's arguing that for 50 years the British Empire's support

9:36

for this Zionist project was absolutely essential so Britain's role was that key

9:41

and Churchill's role was that key Churchill was strongly in favor of a Jewish homeland but even before he was

9:49

born the seventh Earl of Shaftsbury and Evangelical Christian was a Tory MP as

9:55

well had in 1838 take taking it upon himself to

10:00

Kickstart the process of sending European Jews off to

10:06

Palestine this is happened that early 1838 and suggested as much to paliston

10:12

the then foreign secretary asking him to ensure great Power Protection Old

10:20

Testament pities were mixed in with Britain's own strategic needs addressing

10:25

Parliament a few decades later shury helping to create the myth that the

10:31

lands were depopulated explained in further detail why a new British colony was almost a

10:39

necessity for the Empire so this is seen as a British colony this Jewish presence in Palestine and he said as a short

10:46

quote from his speech Syria and Palestine will before long become very

10:53

important the country needs capital and population the Jews can give it both

11:00

and has not England a special interest in promoting such

11:05

restoration it will be a blow to England if either of her two Rivals should get

11:11

hold of Syria does not policy there exort England to Foster the nationality

11:18

of the Jews and Aid them to return to England then naturally belongs the role

11:26

of favoring the settlement of Jews in Palestine end quote so the British

11:33

interest is to populate that part of the world and tar Ali continues as early as

11:38

1891 there's a particularly interesting paragraph this and I'm I'm glad T Ali has mentioned it as early as

11:45

1891 the Zionist Pioneer Asher Ginsburg is a Jewish Pioneer visiting Jerusalem

11:53

at a time when Jewish people as individuals owned less than 1% of the

11:58

land can you imagine that in 1891 Jews ear less than 1% of the land reported

12:05

that quote throughout the country it is difficult to find fields that are not

12:11

sewed only sandunes and stonely mountains that are not fit to grow

12:16

anything but fruit trees and this only after hard labor and great expense of

12:21

clearing and Reclamation only these are not cultivated so there's a picture of a

12:28

Palestinian land that is heavily farmed all of it virtually all of it as much as

12:33

humanly possible this is the Zionist Pioneer Asher Ginsburg in 1891 Ginsburg provided a vivid

12:41

description of settler racism and was farsighted in predicting its likely

12:47

outcome so now we have a description in 1891 by a Jew himself of Jewish settler

12:54

racism and of course literally as as we watch this now at this moment we have that going on in the West Bank actively

13:01

going on we've seen this on countless news programs Ginsburg said they treat

13:08

the Arabs with hostility and cruelty unscrupulously deprive them of their

13:15

rights insult them without cause and even boast of such deeds and none

13:21

opposes this despicable and dangerous inclination we who live abroad in other

13:28

words Europe in this case are accustomed to believe that almost all erat Israel

13:34

that's a Hebrew way of saying the land of Israel is now uninhabited desert and

13:40

whoever wishes can buy land there as he pleases but this is not true he says it

13:49

is very difficult to find in the land cultivated fields that are not used for

13:55

planting the Arab like all seites is sharp-minded and shrewd for now they do

14:02

not consider our actions as presenting a future danger to them isn't it

14:08

interesting Palestinians didn't think that this was a threat to them for now they do the Palestinians do not consider

14:15

our actions the Jews as presenting a further danger to them but if the time

14:23

comes that our people's life in erat Israel the land of Israel will develop

14:29

to a point where we are taking their place either slightly or

14:36

significantly the natives are not going to just step aside so easily end quote W

14:44

so this was an incredibly farsighted prediction of the likely outcome of

14:50

Jewish settler uh settling in the land of Palestine and he accurately predicted

14:56

this in 1891 what would happen in the next Century in the 20th century how

15:02

amazingly prophetic that was and then T Ali goes on compare this to Theodore

15:09

herzl's diary entry four years later now Theodore Herzel of course was an Ostro

15:16

Hungarian Jewish journalist and political activist who was the father of

15:21

modern political Zionism and he formed the Zionist organization and actively

15:27

promoted Jewish immigration into Palestine in other words to form uh a

15:32

Jewish state so he he he is absolutely key figure in Zionism and in Theodore

15:38

herz's diary entry just four years later in June 1895 we read where he fantasizes on how

15:46

the future Zionist state will be created so this is the father of Zionism this is

15:51

what he said we shall have to Spirit the penulis population across the border by

15:57

procuring employment for it in the transit countries while denying it any

16:03

employment in our own country both the process of

16:09

expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and

16:16

circumspectly so right at the beginning even before Israel existed

16:23

Zionism envisaged the ethnic cleansing of the inhabitants of that that land the

16:30

Palestinians quite explicitly in 1895 Theodore Herzel fantasized the Jewish

16:35

state would have to do that both the process of expropriation and the removal

16:41

of the poor must be carried out see in other words don't let it be seen very openly try and do it a little bit

16:48

secretly but get rid of them get these people out of their land we want to live there instead and that is from uh the

16:54

complete Diaries of Theodore Herzel volume 1 page 88 to continue at a cabinet meeting in

17:01

1919 balfor this is the British F secretary informed his colleagues that

17:06

the that in implementing the Declaration that bore his name the Bal for declaration there was no need to waste

17:14

too much time bford said in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the

17:21

form of Consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants end quote let me

17:26

read that again this is B who the author of the B the famous B declaration said

17:33

in Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of Consulting in

17:40

other words you know the formality of talking to the Palestinians getting their views getting their input talking

17:47

to them we do not propose to go through this formality we do not to consult the wishes of the present the present

17:53

inhabitants so slightly contingent there it's just the present inhabitants not the future inhabitants there was no need

18:00

for this since quote all the four Great powers are committed to Zionism he said

18:07

this was of far greater import he said than the desire and prejudices of the

18:15

700,000 Arabs so what really matters was the four Great Powers obviously Britain

18:21

was one of them that's what really mattered they were all committed to Zionism much more important than the

18:28

prejudices the views of 700,000 Arabs their views did not matter

18:34

at all and I would suggest that is based purely or largely on racism the white

18:41

man British Empire versus the the brown Arab this is very white supremacist

18:47

language Churchill Amplified this further comparing the Palestinian Arabs

18:55

to aboriginals in Australia and Native Americans we're going to come here we're going to come in a second to a quote

19:02

directly from Winston Churchill which is shocking to Modern ears indeed shock people in his time by the way not just a

19:09

a modern sensitivity as many say Well church was racism was common place in

19:14

his day and people didn't object it was It was kind of conventional language but some people didn't object but many did

19:22

on historical record many were outraged by what he said then anyway T Ali

19:27

continues the intentions the intentions of Western imperialism were implicitly

19:33

genocidal from the very beginning of the process so T Ali is not forward Theodore

19:39

herz's language is clearly genocidal from the very beginning of the process

19:44

from the conception from the ideological uh thought itself was genocidal it was the Palestinian

19:52

resistance prior to and post the NABA that prevented such and occurrence so

19:58

was actually Palestinian resistance that stopped the complete genocide he says racism was always an integral part of

20:05

Churchill's political makeup he made no bones about it he didn't he was

20:11

completely open and shames about it unlike some of his colleagues in all the three parties who prefer preferred to

20:18

wear a mask so some kind of hid it behind a mask he viewed Arabs as an

20:26

inferior race compared to Europeans of any stripe in the case of Palestine he

20:34

accused the Arabs of behaving like quote a dog in the manger a view he spelled

20:41

out in his evidence to the peel commission set up in

20:46

1936 to report on the Palestinian Uprising then in motion and which had

20:53

paralyzed the country so this is actually a a very famous um paragraph I'm not going to read uh very very

21:00

offensive um then and now but it tells us a lot about the British government's

21:06

attitude Churchill's attitude to Palestine Zionism Israel Arabs other

21:14

races non-whites it tells us a lot and uh this is a this is the dominant view

21:20

in in his in his time he wrote quote I

21:26

do not agree that the in the manger has the final right to the manger even

21:33

though he may have laay there for a very long time so even though to decode it

21:41

even though the Palestinians may have lived there for Millennia they have no right to it just because they've been

21:46

living there just because it's their land they have no right to it in his view I do not admit that right he says I

21:53

do not admit for instance that a great wrong has been done done to the red

21:59

Indians of America or the black people of Australia I do not admit that a wrong

22:05

has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race a higher grade

22:12

race or at any rate a more worldly wise race to put it that way has come in and

22:20

taken their place and quote and T

22:26

Ramadan understandably says this is the voice of white supremacy a view that was

22:33

reiterated interestingly with remarkable Clarity by Israel's foremost revisionist

22:40

historian the former paratrooper Benny Morris over half a century later

22:46

Churchill would have been delighted by such a display of cander which admitted

22:51

this historian admitted that the the long denied crimes and atrocities

22:57

committed against the Palestinians in 1948 during the so-called war of

23:03

independence today this is the common sense of Jewish Israel from top to

23:08

bottom the ultimate logic of the bow for declaration and a distillation of

23:14

Churchill's own views so Churchill's views the BF for's views summed up in

23:20

that quote about the dog in the manger but now permeate that Society from top to bottom this is the ideological

23:28

structure or substructure of the political life of that uh country

23:34

detaching myths from realities in Palestine became more and more difficult after the ball

23:40

declaration the Palestinian Arabs paid an exorbitant price and are continuing

23:46

to do so the myth still persists that Palestine was almost uninhabited that

23:53

vast tracks of the promised land were thirsting for the new Jewish settlers

23:58

the principal propagators of this lie were the Zionist leaders of the Yu and

24:05

their English backers the fact that Palestinian historians continue to

24:11

produce books demonstrating that this was not the case is in itself an indication of how deep Zionist ideology

24:19

remains within Israel and the diaspora Churchill did not write a great deal on

24:25

his own attitudes uh Zionism and Jewish people in general but from what he did

24:31

write it's clear that his views on the creation of Israel were not always

24:37

consistent his reasoning veered from Pure instrumentalism it would be of used to

24:44

the British Empire in the region filled with such enemies I.E the Arabs to

24:50

civilizational racism with anti-bolshevism playing its part as well

24:57

the Jews were an ancient race the chosen people and iof Factor superior to the

25:03

Arabs this view was spelled out in what appears to be Churchill's lengthiest

25:08

pronouncement on the subject an article published on page five of The Illustrated Sunday Herald in

25:16

1920 the title spelled out programmatic priorities enshrined in the text Zionism

25:24

versus bolshevism a struggle for the soul of the Jewish people some people like Jews and some do

25:31

not Church informs the reader but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that

25:38

beyond all question they are the most formidable and most remarkable race

25:43

which has ever appeared in the world end quote on one level this was surprisingly

25:49

generous since he did not add a qualifi that specified after the English of

25:55

course or words to that effect more importantly the notion itself is

26:00

nonsensical and a throwback to Old Testament literalism surely Churchill

26:06

knew English History well enough why then no mention of the fact that the

26:12

worst pograms and persecution of the Jews in Old Europe had begun in England

26:19

German fascists would would be would have been pleased by the fact that in

26:25

1218 Henry III had announced a Royal Decree the Edict of the badge which made

26:34

it compulsory for Jews to wear a marking badge because that reminds us of course

26:39

of the Nazi Germany where Jews had to wear a star of David but they were doing

26:44

they were required to wear something similar in the 13th century in England amazingly 60 years later pograms carried

26:52

out by thieving Barons led to the killing of over a thousand Jews 500 in

26:58

London alone the so-called Edict of expulsion was issued by Edward I in

27:05

1290 all the Jews were rounded up and expelled their property looted and the

27:11

blood liable charge spread with a Zeal that Geral would have envied a classic

27:17

case of what's ped is prologue some of the Jews fled to France others found a

27:26

Haven in Muslim Spain and Del Lucia of course where they were large and free

27:34

where there were large and free Jewish communities participating on every level

27:41

of the state I'm going to end there I could go on there's much fascinating detail historical detail here but that

27:49

last sentence here after the pograms and persecutions of Christian Europe because

27:54

this is the height of the Middle Ages when people were were God-fearing Christian folk and the church had power

28:00

total power in England in the 12th and 13th century Jews were persecuted

28:06

expelled murdered in vast numbers some fled to France but many found a Haven in

28:14

the Muslim world where there were they were large and free Jewish communities

28:21

free in the Muslim World participating on every level of the State isn't that

28:29

interesting the contrast to the way Christian Europe treated the Jews and how the Muslim World treated the Jews

28:36

anti-Semitism in its proper historic definition is I would argue a Christian

28:43

virus we even see it arguably in the New Testament in the Gospel of John for example uh where Jesus speaks about the

28:50

Jews as if there were some kind of your father Satan you your you Jews your

28:55

father is Satan very kind of extreme language which of course was picked up later in the church

29:02

as it became increasingly anti-semitic in the third and fourth centuries the Jewish uh the Muslim world is very

29:07

different and they welcomed uh Jews and Islam saved jewry to quote from the

29:13

title of a very famous and celebrated article which you can Google by an American Professor Jewish Professor who

29:18

acknowledged how vital uh the Islamic world has been to save the Jews over the centuries and I only stress all this

29:25

historical stuff because how different it is since uh 1948 when uh anti-Semitism well the

29:34

relations between Jews and Muslims have taken a very different turn because of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian and

29:41

the continued attacks on Palestinians up to today and it's just getting worse and worse obviously we know all about this

29:47

so I do recommend this book Winston Churchill his times his crimes he was

29:53

guilty it seems of many terrible war crimes crimes against Humanity in fact

29:58

and many of them are listed and gruesome detail in this book and his legacy endures and influences politics today

30:07

attitudes today towards the Arabs towards the Palestinians and towards Zionism so there's really matters that

30:14

we understand what on Earth's going on with this man Winston Churchill anyway enough said for now until next time

No comments: