Zionist entity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Zionist Entity is a pejorative term used to portray Israel as an illegitimate state. Using the proper name for the State of Israel is seen by those people as somehow giving it some legitimacy.
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[edit] Origins of the term
The idea of establishing a Zionist entity as a homeland for the Jewish people was the primary goal of the Zionism movement. Among the suggested geographical locations for this entity were Madagascar, Uganda, and others.
During the Zionist Conference in Basel in 1897 the Palestine suggestion came up and started to gather momentum, culminating in the establishment of Israel in 1948.
[edit] Usage examples
Mostly the term is used in a negative context by Muslims and other opponents of Israel.
When anti-Israel persons use the term "Zionist Entity" rather then using the word Israel, they actually mean that Israel does not have a right to exist. [1]
For example, an anti-Israel web site mentions "support for 'Israel' , the Zionist entity established by force and violence in Palestine on real estate stolen from its owners." [2]
[edit] Related terms
"Zionist Regime" and ZOG are also used to portray Israel as an illegitimate state. [3]
Similarly, opponents of Israel may use Arabic names to poison the well in political discussions. They may use Al-Quds instead of Jerusalem, Al-Haram ash-Sharif instead of Temple Mount, Al-Buraq instead of Western Wall and call the Israeli West Bank barrier an "apartheid wall" rather than a security fence. [4] These are all examples of ad hominem fallacies.
[edit] Quotes
The following sample publications discuss the widespread usage of the Zionist entity pejorative term.
- "This pervasive denigration of Jews has been accompanied by a systematic denial of the Jewish state's legitimacy by both the PA and the PLO. Israel is often referred to by the pejorative phrase, 'the Zionist entity.' Israel is glaringly absent from Palestinian maps, which portray its territory as part of a 'Greater Palestine,' from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean." (Karsh, Efraim. "Arafat's Grand Strategy", Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2004).
- "Nevertheless, no special Jewish sensitivity is required to glean racial hatred from Palestinian suidice bombings of Jewish civilians, bombings and defacings of synagogues in Europe, hostile rhetoric about "the Jews" from such Islamic groups as Hezbollah and Hamas, and decades of Arab-state rhetoric about "the Jews" and the "Zionist entity"." (Tilley, Virginia Q. The One-state Solution, University of Michigan Press, May 24, 2005, ISBN 0472115138, p. 198).
- "...the transmissions of Jordan, Syria, and Egypt. Whenever they referred to Israel, they used the term 'the Zionist entity'. The announcer would say, 'the so-called government of the so-called state', but would stop short of pronouncing the word Israel, as if it were a four letter word." (Oz, Amos. Under this Blazing Light, Cambridge University Press, Jul 13, 1996, ISBN 0521576229, p. 4).
- "In this Arab world where faith and politics are linked, traditionalists and radicals, Saudis and Libyans, can unite in hostility against the state of Israel - whose right to exist they deny, whose very existence they refuse to acknowledge, whose name they refuse to utter, calling Israel instead 'the Zionist entity' or 'the deformed Zionist entity'." (Kirkpatrik, Jeane. Legitimacy and Force: Natural and International Dimensions, Transaction Publishers, Jan 1, 1988, ISBN 0887386474, p. 7).
- "Nations can be ignored by not recognizing their existence. Some Arabs would prefer not to speak of 'Israel', but of the 'Zionist entity'." (Marlin, Randal. Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion, Broadview Press, Aug 1, 2002, ISBN 1551113767, p. 161).
