Nazi Germany and Modern Israel : Two stories of Nationalism

There is a danger in overstating the importance of a nation, and understanding the importance of an individual. This is what happens in extreme Nationalism. The two modern cases of extreme nationalism are Nazi Germany and Modern Israel. The similarities are eerie.

Extreme nationalism identifies one type of person as a “citizen” of the nation and excludes all other nations, ethnic groups and societies as inferior humans. In both Nazi Germany and Modern Israel, these beliefs are strongly rooted in the misconception that their Citizens are smarter, more pure, and chosen by god.

The lines crossed by a culture, when it becomes an extremist nationalistic society are : Occupation, Deprivation, Destruction, and Denial

Occupation is the taking of another sovereign country with the intention of ruling that country as lord and master for eternity. Nazi Germany did this when invading other European countries, and Israel did this in the invasions of Egypt and Palestine.

Deprivation is the act of removing civil, economic, and human rights from all “non-citizens” both in your own country and in the countries you occupy. This is the master / slave mentality of an extreme Nationalistic state.

Destruction is the unlawful and heartless demolition of privately owned property of “non-citizens” under the nationalistic law.

Denial is the act of ignoring public opinion globally. It is the mentality that the world does not understand your master race and any comments made by its leaders are meaningless.

In the comparisons of Nazi Germany to Modern Israel, the following similarities on each of the traits above can be shown historically.

Occupation : Here are the maps of expansionism of Nazi Germany and Modern Israel from their original sovereign land into the lands of other sovereign countries.

Here are the lawful borders of Israel

Here are the borders of Israel as seen by its own nationalistic citizens today.

Here is a map of Nazi Germany before Nationalism:

Here are the borders of Nazi Germany as seen by its own nationalistic citizens at the height of its power:

Deprivation (While the acts are similar, the main difference is that Nazi Germany acted in one night, where Modern Israel has acted over 40 years to conduct sweeping deprivation of non-jews)

Israel:

“admissions committees” to disallow non-jew home ownership.

Imposing fines on Arab towns, local authorities and state-funded organizations that commemorate Nakba Day, which falls near Israel’s Independence Day. Some Arab Israelis refer to the day Israel gained statehood as a nakba, or catastrophe, because it resulted in the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians.

Intermarriage is prohibited by the Jewish Halakha

In the 1956 Kafr Qasim massacre, 48 unarmed Arab citizens, returning to their village, were gunned down by an Israel Border Police platoon; a curfew had been imposed, but the villagers were not informed of it.

The “intifada law” is designed to prevent Palestinians wounded and otherwise affected by the operations of the Israel Defense Forces from taking legal action against the State of Israel. The exception is if damage has occurred due to negligence or an accident, or if a Palestinian is injured in any way while in detention.

Israeli law prohibits the Jewish National Fund to sell or lease land to non-Jews.

These are just the deprivation acts against non-jews in Israel. The acts on the foreign lands they occupy are much more harsh.

Nazi Germany

Nuremberg Laws

Racial laws put into effect by the German parliament in Nuremberg on September 15, 1935. These laws became the legal basis for the racist anti-Jewish policy in Germany. Thirteen additional decrees were added to the Nuremberg Laws over the next eight years; these included the first official definition of who was to be considered a Jew and who an Aryan, and methodically ostracized the Jews from German life. Jews with three or four Jewish grandparents were considered full blooded Jews.

The first of the two Nuremberg Laws was called the “Reich Citizenship Law,” which declared that only Aryans could be citizens of the Reich. This stripped the Jews of their political rights, and reduced them from Reichsburger (citizens of the Reich like the Aryans), to Staatsangehorige (state subjects). The second law, called the “Law for the Protection of German Blood and Honor,” forbade marriages and extramarital sexual relations between Germans and Jews; the employment of German maids under the age of 45 in Jewish homes; and the raising of the German flag by Jews.

Destruction : To Demolish property or simply take the property of another human because they are not part of your Nationalist Society.

Israel

House demolition in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Any home that is considered part of the opposition, or any home that is standing in the way of new Jewish settlements (Jew only), are taken and demolished.

The massive transfer of land inside Israel was executed primarily through two main laws. The first is the Land Acquisition Law (Validation of Acts and Compensation) – 1953, pursuant to which 1.2 – 1.3 million dunams of land were expropriated from the Arab population. The second law is the Absentees’ Property Law – 1950 under which all of the property owned, possessed or used by the Palestinian refugees was transferred to the State of Israel. Assessments by Israel, Palestinian institutions and UN agencies as to the extent of the properties taken pursuant to this law range from around 2 million dunams to 16 million dunams of land.

Nazi Germany

September 29, 1933 – Nazis prohibit Jews from owning land.

Denial

Israel

In today’s news, and the basis for this article, the Israeli Government stated : Storm will pass over settlement announcement This is the official response they gave to the unilateral condemnation of building new “jew only” settlements in occupied Palestine.

Nazi Germany

In the most famous denial efforts of all time, the German Government after WWII denied the Holocaust occurred.

I just find it horrifying and fascinating that the once victim Jews of Israel have turned into the Stormtroopers of Nazi Germany. Classic example of the victim becoming the criminal.

Itia (Abroad)