Image from the cover of Nathi Ngubane’s Malcolm X in Gaza: A Coloring Book.
“The ever-scheming European imperialists wisely placed Israel where she could geographically divide the Arab world…and also divide the Africans against the Asians.”
In September 1964, during an extensive tour of Africa and West Asia, Malcolm X visited the Gaza Strip. Malcolm’s time in Gaza was brief. He arrived there from Egypt on September 5th and left the following day at noon, returning to Cairo. Yet the brevity of Malcolm’s visit to Gaza was countered by the fullness and intensity of his experience there. He visited the Khan Younis refugee camp, created in 1949 to hold Palestinian’s dispossessed from their land following the Nakba. He prayed at the mosque and broke bread with religious leaders, and visited Gaza’s parliamentary building and a local hospital. Malcolm also met with the Palestinian poet and librarian Harun Hashem Rashid, born in the Gaza Strip, whose firsthand accounts of the violence of zionism, and whose poem, “We Must Return,” on Palestinians returning to their lands deeply moved him. Malcolm transcribed Rashid’s poem in his diary and, less than days after his visit, Malcolm's impressions of Gaza took shape in a remarkable essay indicting zionism and defending the Palestinian cause.
Titled “Zionist Logic,” Malcolm’s essay was one of a handful of essays (including “Racism: the cancer that is destroying America” and “The Negro's Fight,”) that he published in the Cairo-based English-language newspaper, the Egyptian Gazette. This essay has been reprinted and cited extensively since it first appeared, including in the Militant and Socialist Viewpoint. For good reason. Malcolm describes the geopolitical and geo-economic rationales for zionism in scathingly precise fashion. He describes “Israeli Zionists” as those who “religiously believe their Jewish God has chosen them to replace the outdated European colonialism with a new form of colonialism.” He also makes the case for a Third World anti-imperialist alliance to defeat zionism.
“Zionist Logic” also demonstrates both Malcolm’s extraordinary intellectual gifts, and the degree to which he was developing an internationalist position near the end of his life. The question can now only be asked: where would that internationalism have led us if Malcolm hadn’t been assassinated on February 28, 1965, just months after his return from Africa and West Asia – and Gaza.
We reprint Malcolm X’s “Zionist Logic” below.
Zionist Logic
Malcolm X, 1964
The Zionist armies that now occupy Palestine claim their ancient Jewish prophets predicted that in the "last days of this world" their own God would raise them up a "messiah" who would lead them to their promised land, and they would set up their own "divine" government in this newly-gained land, this "divine" government would enable them to "rule all other nations with a rod of iron."
If the Israeli Zionists believe their present occupation of Arab Palestine is the fulfillment of predictions made by their Jewish prophets, then they also religiously believe that Israel must fulfill its "divine" mission to rule all other nations with a rod of irons, which only means a different form of iron-like rule, more firmly entrenched even, than that of the former European Colonial Powers.
These Israeli Zionists religiously believe their Jewish God has chosen them to replace the outdated European colonialism with a new form of colonialism, so well disguised that it will enable them to deceive the African masses into submitting willingly to their "divine" authority and guidance, without the African masses being aware that they are still colonized.
Camouflage
The Israeli Zionists are convinced they have successfully camouflaged their new kind of colonialism. Their colonialism appears to be more "benevolent," more "philanthropic," a system with which they rule simply by getting their potential victims to accept their friendly offers of economic "aid," and other tempting gifts, that they dangle in front of the newly-independent African nations, whose economies are experiencing great difficulties. During the 19th century, when the masses here in Africa were largely illiterate, it was easy for European imperialists to rule them with "force and fear," but in this present era of enlightenment, the African masses are awakening, and it is impossible to hold them in check now with the antiquated methods of the 19th century.
The imperialists, therefore, have been compelled to devise new methods. Since they can no longer force or frighten the masses into submission, they must devise modern methods that will enable them to maneuver the African masses into willing submission.
The modern 20th century weapon of neo-imperialism is "dollarism." The Zionists have mastered the science of dollarism: the ability to come posing as a friend and benefactor, bearing gifts and all other forms of economic aid and offers of technical assistance. Thus, the power and influence of Zionist Israel in many of the newly "independent" African nations has fast-become even more unshakeable than that of the 18th-century European colonialists...and this new kind of Zionist colonialism differs only in form and method, but never in motive or objective.
At the close of the 19th century, when European imperialists wisely foresaw that the awakening masses of Africa would not submit to their old method of ruling through force and fear, these ever-scheming imperialists had to create a "new weapon," and to find a "new base" for that weapon.
Dollarism
The number one weapon of 20th-century imperialism is Zionist dollarism, and one of the main bases for this weapon is Zionist Israel. The ever-scheming European imperialists wisely placed Israel where she could geographically divide the Arab world, infiltrate and sow the seed of dissension among African leaders and also divide the Africans against the Asians.
Zionist Israel's occupation of Arab Palestine has forced the Arab world to waste billions of precious dollars on armaments, making it impossible for these newly independent Arab nations to concentrate on strengthening the economies of their countries and elevating the living standard of their people.
And the continued low standard of living in the Arab world has been skillfully used by the Zionist propagandists to make it appear to the Africans that the Arab leaders are not intellectually or technically qualified to lift the living standard of their people...thus, indirectly inducing Africans to turn away from the Arabs and towards the Israelis for teachers and technical assistance.
"They cripple the bird's wing, and then condemn it for not flying as fast as they."
The imperialists always make themselves look good, but it is only because they are competing against economically crippled, newly independent countries whose economies are actually crippled by the Zionist-capitalist conspiracy. They can't stand against fair competition, thus they dread Gamal Abdul Nasser's call for African-Arab Unity under Socialism.
Messiah?
If the "religious" claim of the Zionists is true that they were to be led to the promised land by their messiah, and Israel's present occupation of Arab Palestine is the fulfillment of that prophesy: where is their messiah whom their prophets said would get the credit for leading them there? It was [United Nations mediator] Ralph Bunche who "negotiated" the Zionists into possession of Occupied Palestine! Is Ralph Bunche the messiah of Zionism? If Ralph Bunche is not their messiah, and their messiah has not yet come, then what are they doing in Palestine ahead of their messiah?
Did the Zionists have the legal or moral right to invade Arab Palestine, uproot its Arab citizens from their homes and seize all Arab property for themselves just based on the "religious" claim that their forefathers lived there thousands of years ago? Only a thousand years ago, the Moors lived in Spain. Would this give the Moors of today the legal and moral right to invade the Iberian Peninsula, drive out its Spanish citizens, and then set up a new Moroccan nation...where Spain used to be, as the European Zionists have done to our Arab brothers and sisters in Palestine?
In short, the Zionist argument to justify Israel's present occupation of Arab Palestine has no intelligent or legal basis in history...not even in their own religion. Where is their Messiah?
Malcolm X, “Zionist Logic,” The Egyptian Gazette, Sept. 17, 1964.
Image from the cover of Nathi Ngubane’s Malcolm X in Gaza: A Coloring Book. Order it here.
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