Hostages or settlers? The language of the Zionist occupation

On Sept. 1, Zionist occupation forces announced that six “hostages” were found dead near the Rafah border crossing. The announcement sparked all sorts of outrage among the “Israeli” fascist masses. 

Demonstrations numbering in the hundreds of thousands of people rocked cities across “Israel.” Further, occupied Palestine’s largest labor union, Histadrut, has called a general strike that will last until the “hostages” are brought back within the 1967 borders. 

The central demands of the demonstrations and Histadrut revolved around Zionist captives currently held in Gaza. Zionist society and Western media frame these captives as “hostages” to garner sympathy and rally mass fascist support against Palestine.

The phrase “Bring Them Home” has become a rallying cry for the forces behind the current demonstrations. While these protests are anti-Netanyahu, they should not be misconstrued as progressive. This movement’s main gripe against Netanyahu stems from a belief that these six dead captives could have been saved if Netanyahu had not hijacked ceasefire/prisoner exchange talks. The demands of these current “Israeli” protests and strikes are entirely centered around the “hostages.” There is zero language around Palestine. 

First things first, these six individuals who died were not hostages. They were Zionists and settlers. For an occupying force to brutally enforce genocide and apartheid against a people and then shame the occupied for their resistance is nothing more than pearl-clutching and political theater. 

The blood of every single person, Palestinian or Zionist captive, killed in Gaza covers the hands of the Zionist regime and its imperialist backers. If there was no Zionist occupation, there would be no war. There would be no genocide. There would be no need for Palestinian forces to take prisoners of war, let alone for fascist stormtroopers to launch retrieval missions into Gaza. 

Second, the biggest threat to the lives of Zionist captives in Gaza is not any Palestinian resistance organization. The biggest killer of Zionist captives in Gaza is their own Zionist government. “Israeli” air strikes alone have killed dozens of Zionist captives inside Gaza. This does not even account for all those who have died and are currently dying of starvation and disease due to the generally abhorrent conditions inside the world’s largest open-air concentration camp. The Zionist regime does not care about these people’s lives. To Netanyahu and the Israeli Occupation Force, the “hostages” need to stay exactly where they are to continue justifying the war. 

Third, these current demonstrations against Netanyahu around the hostages are not progressive, nor are they anti-Zionist in nature, not even close. For the largest “Israeli” labor union to call a general strike over the deaths of six Zionist settlers but remain silent while the Zionist regime murders tens of thousands of Palestinians in cold blood is laughable. What real labor union fundamentally values one ethnicity of workers over another? The answer is, none. Like so many institutions inside the 1948 borders, Histadrut has become just another mouthpiece for genocide. 

If “Israel” wants its “hostages” back so badly, then it should end the siege on Gaza. 

Lev Koufax is an anti-Zionist Jewish activist.