https://www.haaretz.com/food/2026-07-18/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/before-1948-hummus-was-an-arab-food-most-european-jews-never-ate-it/0000019f-6ac5-de8e-afff-fbff81000000

In light of recent news of the impending rollout of Israel's concentration camp in Gaza, I thought this would be fitting to repost.

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/2025-07-10/ty-article-opinion/israel-wants-to-build-the-most-moral-concentration-camp-in-the-world/00000197-f0b3-d963-addf-f4b7029a0000

Jacob Israël de Haan was a Dutch lawyer, journalist and poet. A queer man, de Haan published one of the first Dutch novels depicting a homosexual relationship between two men. After becoming interested in Zionism and Jewish nationalism, de Haan emigrated to Palestine in 1918. Not long after he arrived, he disavowed Zionism due to his sympathy with Arabs and his dismay at the conditions the Zionists were creating.

“Two thousand years of exile and unhappiness have taught them [the Zionists] nothing. Instead of making an attempt to understand the innermost causes of our unhappiness they now try to circumvent it, as it were, by building a “national home” on foundations provided by Western power politics: and in the process of building a national home, they are committing the crime of depriving another people of its home.” — Jacob Israel de Haan, in conversation with Mohammed Asad, 1924

De Haan increasingly grew religious, joined the Haredi community of Jerusalem and became their legal representation. As the main representative of the anti-zionist Haredi Jews, he met regularly with Arab leaders and took an important role in the local and regional opposition to Zionism. 

After multiple threats to his life, on June 30, 1924, he was assassinated by Avraham Tehomi of the Haganah, a Zionist militia that would later become the IDF. He was assassinated the morning he was supposed to leave for London to argue for anti-Zionism. This was the first Zionist political assassination in Mandate Palestine.

“I have done what the Haganah decided had to be done. And nothing was done without the order of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (the second president of Israel 1952-1963)... I have no regrets because he (de Haan) wanted to destroy our whole idea of Zionism.” —Avraham Tehomi, the confessed assassin

Despite his homosexuality, he is honored today by Neturei Karta as hero and a martyr.

Sources:

Bush, Lawrence. "June 30: Jacob Israel de Haan” Jewish Currents Magazine, 2014
https://jewishcurrents.org/june-30-jacob-israel-de-haan

Drishya. "The Queer Dissident Zionism Could Not Contain: Jacob Israël de Haan" The Polis Project. April 2026. https://thepolisproject.com/read/jacob-israel-de-haan-queer-anti-zionist/

Giebelas, Ludy. “Jacob Israel de Haan in Mandate Palestine: Was the Victim of the First Zionist Political Assassination a ‘Jewish Lawrence of Arabia’?” Jewish Historical Studies, vol. 46, 2014, pp. 107–29. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43855720

Witt, Nathan. “Jacob Israel de Haan: A Queer and Lapsed Zionist in Mandate Palestine. Jerusalem Quarterly, no. 87, Autumn 2021. Institute for Palestine Studies. https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1651902

Algeria is often cited as the example of decolonisation where the revolution was completed and the settlers were all kicked out. Accordingly, it is proposed that Palestine follow this strategy and aim for the “removal of all settlers”. This is contrasted with alternative examples of “coexistence”, primarily South Africa, where much of the modern economic power is still controlled by “former settlers”.

This fundamentally misunderstands Algeria—it wasn’t “kick out all the French”, it was “become Algerian citizens, reside under Algerian Law, or leave”. This was the agreement proposed to the Pied-Noirs by the FLN in 1954 and agreed on with France in 1962. Most were stuck in their colonial identity, feared retribution or the loss of their economic privileges and left, but many stayed and remain to this day as Algerians.

The Algerian solution is therefore perfectly compatible with the concept of One Democratic State. Equal rights for all on the basis of citizenship, dissolve the settler-native dichotomy. However, each situation is unique and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. For example, Algeria was part of France, a single metropole, of which all settlers (even those who had lived there for generations) were citizens.

This means that after the establishment of a single democratic Palestinian state, ex-Israelis will have to weigh matters related to their practical ability to leave and their readiness to drop colonial privileges, and many will mirror the Pied-Noirs and choose to leave. Meanwhile, matters regarding justice and reparations for Palestinians will have to be addressed as a foundation for liberation and a democratic legitimacy. History can teach lessons about such situations, but every material circumstance is unique and must be treated as such.

A month ago, I launched a small initiative in Gaza called Catchup.

The idea was simple: provide university students with free access to a workspace, electricity, and internet so they could continue studying and working.

Today, the first group of 26 students completed their first month.

In a place where electricity, internet, and even a quiet place to sit cannot be taken for granted, seeing students show up every day, work on their courses, attend online classes, and continue moving forward has been one of the most meaningful things I have experienced.

These photos are from the space over the past few weeks.

I wanted to share them because amid everything happening in Gaza, there are still people trying to build something, learn something, and keep going.

I understand a lot of people feel he doesn’t go far enough and I get that line of thinking. However I cannot emphasize enough how important it is that a Holocaust scholar, and not only one but a very famous one, is decrying Zionism as a dead ideology. Most Holocaust institutions are forcing their employees to either support Israel and do Never Again is Now events and decry pro-Palestinian protesters as evil, or at the very least, say nothing and have no public opinion. It may not be far enough but it’s huge. And huge that he’s using the g-word publicly.

Having tenure and being a dean means he can kind of do what he likes, which many people don’t have that luxury.

(Peter Beinart talk to Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, U.S. sanctioning ICC over Benjamin Netanyahu warrant, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, Gaza, West Bank, Ariel Sharon, Illegal settlements, empowering settler violence, Salam Fayyad 2013, October 7 2023, Hamas)

Link to full documentary here: https://youtu.be/ezh2Hwn5dt0

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/13/it-is-a-time-of-witch-hunts-in-israel-teacher-held-in-solitary-confinement-for-posting-concern-about-gaza-deaths

Someone recently said to me that "there are literally Palestinian Jews". When I asked for clarification, they said they are "Palestinians who happen to be Jews".

That didn't help, so I asked where these Palestinian Jews are and what they're talking about. I said there aren't Palestinian Jews. They refused to tell me and became deeply offended. They are a self-described communist and said that me saying that was reactionary, Zionist and deeply bigoted. I became so confused. I said, well there are some Samaritans in Nablus whose beliefs are similar to Judaism, but they don't identify as Jews and aren't Jewish.

I said that Jews in Mandate Palestine stopped identifying as Palestinian and became Israeli Jews after the state was created. They didn't even have a choice. I said there may be some very old Jews born in Mandate Palestine who still identify as Palestinian, but they'd be very rare and not a meaningful enough number to say there is such a thing as "Palestinian Jews". I said, it would be like saying there are Palestinian Hindus because there may be a few converts somewhere.

And there certainly aren't Arab Palestinians who are Jews in Gaza and the West Bank. There have been a few who have converted over the years who try to live in Israel, but again, it's not a meaningful number and these stories stood out because of how extremely unusual they were. The latest guy who tried this got killed by Israel. There have been a few Israeli Jews who voluntarily identified as "Palestinian Hebrews" or "Palestinian Jews" in solidarity, but they weren't Palestinian.

I said I hope one day there is a free Palestine and Jews there identify as and are Palestinians again. I asked if that's what they meant. Maybe they thought it was offensive because they thought I was denying there should be Palestinian sovereignty (I wasn't). I know it's a stretch, but I was literally trying to figure out any explanation for why what I said was bad.

I can't figure out what the hell was wrong with what I said. It's just a factual statement: there aren't Palestinians who happen to be Jews anywhere from the River to the Sea. No such community exists. It's bizarre to claim otherwise. Now, I'm starting to think they were just mad at me for something else, and it had nothing to do with me saying "There aren't Palestinian Jews. What are you talking about?" The only answer they ever gave me was "Yeah no I’m not going to justify this."

Am I missing something? I would appreciate a suggestion on what was offensive about what I said. Someone I told said maybe they thought you were saying all Jews there are Zionists, but that's way far off what I said.

UPDATE: For those asking for the context and what else the person said, this is everything.

The post was called "Israel now fully controls 92% of Palestine." It had a map with all the areas under full Israeli control in a certain color and the areas supposedly under Palestinian control in a different color. The post was also linked to a tweet which said the following "Maps produced by J Street Policy Fellow Frank Lowenstein and Policy Assistant Liam Hamama – recently featured in The New Yorker – show how Israel today fully controls approximately 92% of Israel-Palestine, while the population of Jews and non-Jews is split 50/50. 1/3".

This person I'm mentioning wrote this comment: "'50% Jews : 50% Palestinians' is crazy -- there are literally Palestinian Jews"

I replied "Why do people say this? Who exactly are these 'Palestinian Jews'? The category doesn't exist anymore."

They said, "Palestinians that happen to be Jewish. Not all Palestinians are Muslim. 'Jew' is not a nationality -- Israeli is"

I replied, "Who and where are the Palestinians who are Jews? I'm sorry, but this is nonsense. You might as well say 'Palestinians who happen to be Hindu.' Post an article about these 'Palestinian Jews'. If they existed, it would be a big story, right? So where are the articles on it? Post one!

It's truly bizarre that people claim this. This category has not existed since the British Mandate ended. 'Palestinian Jews' became 'Israeli Jews'. There have been a few Israeli Jews who voluntarily identified as 'Palestinian Hebrews' or things like that. They weren't Palestinian. They were just acting in solidarity with them and renouncing their Israeli Jewish identity. This is like two or three people that I know of. So this is really silly.

There is literally no Israeli nationality under their law. Your nationality is Jewish or whatever religion you are." (I said the Israeli government defines it this way. I didn't say I liked or agreed with it!) (This is the comment which got me banned from this supposedly "communist" subreddit)

I learned about this tragedy as I was looking into what the deadliest pre-1940s slaughter of Jews was. When I revisited a (Zionist) synagogue for Tishʻa BʼAv, I was baffled that the Rabbi completely omitted this disaster when going through a list of other anti-Jewish massacres.

It saddens me that more people don’t know about it.

Click here if you have time to learn more (nine-minute read).

Hello group, not sure if this is the right place to ask but as a non-Jew who is anti-zionist and against anti-semitism…I didn’t pay much attention to the plight of what’s happening in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine until Oct 7th…and that’s on me. I’ve been doing my best to research what I can so I know how to talk to people about the situation going on and the issues with it. I can’t imagine how my Jewish homies must feel being promised a safe home for the Jewish people only for it to end up being a militarized colonial state. One thing I can’t find a concrete answer to is if Einstein was Zionist. I’m fishing a lot of mixed information on his history of Zionism. Is there an article anywhere that I can read or several articles? Thanks for listening and helping me out. ❤️.

Jacob Israël de Haan was a Dutch lawyer, journalist and poet. A queer man, de Haan published one of the first Dutch novels depicting a homosexual relationship between two men. After becoming interested in Zionism and Jewish nationalism, de Haan emigrated to Palestine in 1918. Not long after he arrived, he disavowed Zionism due to his sympathy with Arabs and his dismay at the conditions the Zionists were creating.

Two thousand years of exile and unhappiness have taught them [the Zionists] nothing. Instead of making an attempt to understand the innermost causes of our unhappiness they now try to circumvent it, as it were, by building a “national home” on foundations provided by Western power politics: and in the process of building a national home, they are committing the crime of depriving another people of its home. — Jacob Israel de Haan, in conversation with Mohammed Asad, 1924

De Haan increasingly grew religious, joined the Haredi community of Jerusalem and became their legal representation. As the main representative of the anti-zionist Haredi Jews, he met regularly with Arab leaders and took an important role in the local and regional opposition to Zionism. 

After multiple threats to his life, on June 30, 1924, he was assassinated by Avraham Tehomi of the Haganah, a Zionist militia that would later become the IDF. This was the first Zionist political assassination in Mandate Palestine.

“I have done what the Haganah decided had to be done. And nothing was done without the order of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (the second president of Israel 1952-1963)... I have no regrets because he (de Haan) wanted to destroy our whole idea of Zionism.” —Avraham Tehomi, the confessed assassin 

Despite his homosexuality, he is honored today by Neturei Karta as hero and a martyr.

sources:

Bush, Lawrence. "June 30: Jacob Israel de Haan” Jewish Currents Magazine, 2014

Giebels, Ludy. “Jacob Israel de Haan in Mandate Palestine: Was the Victim of the First Zionist Political Assassination a ‘Jewish Lawrence of Arabia’?” Jewish Historical Studies, vol. 46, 2014, pp. 107–29. 

Nathan Witt. “Jacob Israel de Haan: A Queer and Lapsed Zionist in Mandate Palestine. Jerusalem Quarterly, no. 87, Autumn 2021