Jews, Zionism and the European Right of Blood Part VI
David Kessel
February 19, 2006
The British law, as the American law, treats people born in their country as their own.
If you are an American, a Canadian or a British citizen reading this, you are probably used to the fact that 'national' and 'citizen' mean the same thing in your countries. In America, actually, the word "national" even denotes something less than a citizen. Kind of like the people from Samoa or the Marianas. These are territories administered by the US but people there cannot vote in Federal elections and they do not have exactly the same rights as full US citizens living on the mainland. In Britain, it is also similar, in a way. Colonial passports of Hong Kong Chinese were not equal in value to the "full British passports". In a way these were nationals but not full citizens.
People born and raised in Britain are a totally different story. When, for example, other European countries kicked their Gypsies out in the latter part of this past millennium , the British would often only deport those Gypsies who were not born in Britain. The ones who were born there were considered British. Sure, we all hear of hooligans that shout "Paki go home!" to British citizens of South Asian descent, but that is not the official line of the British government. 'Born in Britain' usually makes you British. 100%.
When the British distributed "Wanted" posters on Menahem Begin in Palestine during his terrorist activities against the British rule- they wrote "Nationality: Polish" on them. You see, according to the Brits, his nationality was Polish, but the British stubbornly refuse to realize that who is Polish and who is not Polish is not decided by them since Poland does not have the same nationality laws as the UK. It is decided by the Poles who is a Pole. And while to Brits 'nationality' and 'citizenship' were closely related, and a very Semitic-looking Begin was "Polish", to the tens of millions of Poles he was just a "Zhid"- a Jew who happened to be born in Poland. Not a "Pole" by a long shot. And that was pretty official, too.
Unlike in Britain, in Poland, Germany, Russia, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, etc. the ethnic "nationality" 'overrides' your citizenship. Having, say, a Russian nationality means that you have a certain face, a certain color of hair, a certain name and a certain pedigree from certain 'tribes' that goes way back- millennia perhaps. Nationality basically indicates your "human breed". Polish people also have certain faces and bodies and skin and eye color. So do Germans. So do the Romanians. What’s more, they can usually tell just by looking at your face if you are one of them or not. And the Jew can never be one of them, or be a 'national' of those countries. Menahem Begin was in Palestine because he was ' not' Polish, but an ethnic Jew. And according to many anti-Semitic Poles, Palestine is the place where they should all be living.
The Jews were treated as a "non- indigenous nationality" in the Soviet Union, which further forced millions of them to emigrate, many to Israel.
While the English-language media used the words "U.S.S.R", "Soviet Union", and "Russia" interchangeably, as if it was one and the same, it was not. If you do not believe me, check any encyclopedia. Check the CIA World Fact book. Russia was only one of the republics (read: non independent countries) that composed USSR. There were fifteen of them- Georgia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, etc. In the U.S.S.R, they had an internal classification of nationalities, and an internal passport system to designate them- kind of like an ID booklet that all citizens had to carry from the time they turned 16. The Jews, of whom there were some several millions in the country, had those, too.
Now, what was that "nationality" system? Aren't they all "Russians"?
In Hollywood movies they are, and in the English-language popular media they are. In British and American novels about the Cold War (by writers who have never even been to that country, and do not speak the language) they are. However, to themselves, and to the countries around them, they are not. They are all 'Soviets' but not all "Russians".
What is the difference?
The same difference as between "British" and "English". "British" can be Scottish, English, (Northern Irish- arguably) and Welsh. The English are the most numerous of the four (or three, some will say) and, arguably, the most powerful, but they are only one of the several ethno-cultural groups that compose the country. The French and the Belgians loosely call them all "Anglais", but it is a simplification and, culturally, and even politically, it is very wrong.
Unlike in the United States, where most people are children of immigrants, in the USSR they are not. Georgians are from Georgia originally. Ukrainians are from Ukraine for tens of millennia. Russians are from Russia originally. These people have been there since the last Ice Age and perhaps even before that. They were there way before recorded history. At least this is how the Soviet people would have seen themselves.
The Soviet government divided people there into the indigenous and non-indigenous populations. The indigenous- or what they in USSR used to call "korennoye naselenie"- literally the "autochthonous population", had the "blood right" to be in the country. The ones that came to the country later- say a few hundred, or even a thousand years ago were not "autochthonous". Some Jews came about a thousand years ago, but most Jews who lived there migrated through Poland and into the future USSR lands only a couple of hundred years ago.
The Gypsies also 'settled' (or rather established their caravan routes) there about 500-1000 years ago. The Germans came 200 years ago, after Catherine the Great invited them to help raise agriculture and improve trade in the country. Does this make them autochthonous populations? If this were the countries of the Americas or even Britain, or even Arab countries, these people would by now be "natives", citizens, nationals and totally assimilated members of society for sure.
However, the rulers of the USSR had other ideas. This is what they decided: " We will support the indigenous population and persecute the non-indigenous ones". So, who would be the autochthonous ones? The Russians were Slavs mixed with Finns- autochthonous, that is- they have been in the country for 10,000 + years? Ukrainians? A mixture of Iranic tribes and Slavs- same thing- autochthonous. The Georgians? Indigenous population. So all these peoples were now members of one great multinational state of USSR. However, there were also "nationalities" that were declared "non-autochthonous" The "Hebrews"- read "Jews", the "Germans", and the "Gypsies". These three were seen as de facto "foreign nationals" residing in the country. The Jews were also referred to as "people of Jewish nationality" in everyday Soviet life.
Again, the Soviet government utilized strict "Jus Sanguinis" laws to define people's nationality. Based on documented ancestry and 'bloodlines', they would write in people's ID cards- Last Name, First name, Patronymic ( the name of the father plus -the OVICH suffix for a man, and -a YEVNA suffix for a woman), Date of Birth, and then "Nationality"- the infamous "pyataya grapha" or "Fifth Paragraph".
Again, who is Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian and a "Hebrew", and who is not, is decided by guess who? The Soviets! Not by Americans; not by Arabs; not by Brits. Soviets decide. It is their country. Lock, stock and barrel!
So, let's see what strange classification system they created there:
A National ID card looked like a passport and it was in fact called a " Passport", but it was an internal one. There would be a picture and an inscription of this nature
(for Jews):
Rosenberg
Abraham
IsaakOVICH
Born: May 19, 1936
Nationality: Yevrey (Hebrew)
This is what information an ID/Internal Passport would have on a Ukrainian citizen of USSR:
Belenko
Oksana
VasilyeVNA
Born: October 9, 1946
Nationality: Ukrainka (Ukrainian)
This is what it would look like for a Russian (who were only 49% of the population of USSR- not 100% as the Hollywood movies and various American Cold War novels would want you to think.)
Ivanov
Ivan
PetrOVICH
Born: January 23, 1955
Nationality: Russki (Russian)
Or a German (who had been in the country for 200+ years)
Mueller
Hans
KarlOVICH
Born: December 11, 1943
Nationality: Nemetz (German)
How would you like to have an ID like this? Whenever you apply for a job, or rent a place, and present it to the police on demand, or show it to train conductors or the post office, you are a "Hebrew" for the whole Soviet world to see. You are not an "autochthonous" citizen and therefore, not a full citizen. For all intents and purposes, you are not even a national of the country. There are quotas on you everywhere, other students can harass your kids at schools, teachers ask you your nationality, and the word "Hebrew" is marked on the student rosters, official papers, job applications, birth and death certificates, etc. You spend your entire life as a "Hebrew" foreigner in a faraway Slavic land.
When Israel was established in 1948, all those who had "nationality: "Hebrew” and as a result felt like 'Hebrews' in were automatically treated as potential traitors and foreign citizens while at the same time, not allowed to leave "the host country". They became a fifth column; many considered them enemies of the state and they were caught in a limbo- they are neither from here, nor from there. Life became so hard for them that emigration became the only choice. People would scream at them- "Go back to your country! Back to Israel! This is not your country! Get out!"
Eventually, these "Hebrews", who often did not speak a word of Hebrew, were allowed to emigrate back to "their country" and they left in millions. And would you blame them?
When these Russian-speaking "Hebrews" arrived in Israel in such numbers, the Arab population was up in arms- there is a million of them coming. Why? They are all 'Khawajas!' What are they doing coming into our country? Where are we going to live now?
Thank you, leaders of the mighty U.S.S.R for pushing over a million Jews into the Palestinian lands and then duplicitiously supporting the Palestinian struggle which resulted from a demographic catastrophe which you yourselves helped to create! How very hypocritical of you to do that!
The Hypocritical Soviets.
By then, many more Palestinian Arabs had already been displaced to make room for more immigrants coming from the USSR. A terrible thing to happen! All of a sudden you are told to leave your homes. Why? What did you do? You've never hurt those Jews.
But again, whose fault is it? Why couldn't the Soviet government treat those "Hebrew" people like their own, like they would treat a Georgian or a Ukrainian? Why couldn't they just call all people "Soviets"? Why was there the fifth paragraph? Why did they have to have those internal "nationality" ID cards? Why create the 'non-autochthonous' nationality concept? Why couldn't they thoroughly naturalize people who had been in the country for centuries? And why did so many Soviets scream at these Jews," Go back to your country!" "Go back to Israel!" Why were so many Jews harassed there and told to 'go back to Israel'?
In a very hypocritical way, the Soviets always blamed Israel for taking away Palestinian lands but, at the same time, it was the Soviets that proclaimed that the Jews were Semites and Hebrews and not Russians. It was them who practiced such a severe anti-Semitism against the Jews, that they practically left no alternative for them but to emigrate 'back home'.
If you are an American, a Canadian or a British citizen reading this, you are probably used to the fact that 'national' and 'citizen' mean the same thing in your countries. In America, actually, the word "national" even denotes something less than a citizen. Kind of like the people from Samoa or the Marianas. These are territories administered by the US but people there cannot vote in Federal elections and they do not have exactly the same rights as full US citizens living on the mainland. In Britain, it is also similar, in a way. Colonial passports of Hong Kong Chinese were not equal in value to the "full British passports". In a way these were nationals but not full citizens.
People born and raised in Britain are a totally different story. When, for example, other European countries kicked their Gypsies out in the latter part of this past millennium , the British would often only deport those Gypsies who were not born in Britain. The ones who were born there were considered British. Sure, we all hear of hooligans that shout "Paki go home!" to British citizens of South Asian descent, but that is not the official line of the British government. 'Born in Britain' usually makes you British. 100%.
When the British distributed "Wanted" posters on Menahem Begin in Palestine during his terrorist activities against the British rule- they wrote "Nationality: Polish" on them. You see, according to the Brits, his nationality was Polish, but the British stubbornly refuse to realize that who is Polish and who is not Polish is not decided by them since Poland does not have the same nationality laws as the UK. It is decided by the Poles who is a Pole. And while to Brits 'nationality' and 'citizenship' were closely related, and a very Semitic-looking Begin was "Polish", to the tens of millions of Poles he was just a "Zhid"- a Jew who happened to be born in Poland. Not a "Pole" by a long shot. And that was pretty official, too.
Unlike in Britain, in Poland, Germany, Russia, Romania, Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, etc. the ethnic "nationality" 'overrides' your citizenship. Having, say, a Russian nationality means that you have a certain face, a certain color of hair, a certain name and a certain pedigree from certain 'tribes' that goes way back- millennia perhaps. Nationality basically indicates your "human breed". Polish people also have certain faces and bodies and skin and eye color. So do Germans. So do the Romanians. What’s more, they can usually tell just by looking at your face if you are one of them or not. And the Jew can never be one of them, or be a 'national' of those countries. Menahem Begin was in Palestine because he was ' not' Polish, but an ethnic Jew. And according to many anti-Semitic Poles, Palestine is the place where they should all be living.
The Jews were treated as a "non- indigenous nationality" in the Soviet Union, which further forced millions of them to emigrate, many to Israel.
While the English-language media used the words "U.S.S.R", "Soviet Union", and "Russia" interchangeably, as if it was one and the same, it was not. If you do not believe me, check any encyclopedia. Check the CIA World Fact book. Russia was only one of the republics (read: non independent countries) that composed USSR. There were fifteen of them- Georgia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, etc. In the U.S.S.R, they had an internal classification of nationalities, and an internal passport system to designate them- kind of like an ID booklet that all citizens had to carry from the time they turned 16. The Jews, of whom there were some several millions in the country, had those, too.
Now, what was that "nationality" system? Aren't they all "Russians"?
In Hollywood movies they are, and in the English-language popular media they are. In British and American novels about the Cold War (by writers who have never even been to that country, and do not speak the language) they are. However, to themselves, and to the countries around them, they are not. They are all 'Soviets' but not all "Russians".
What is the difference?
The same difference as between "British" and "English". "British" can be Scottish, English, (Northern Irish- arguably) and Welsh. The English are the most numerous of the four (or three, some will say) and, arguably, the most powerful, but they are only one of the several ethno-cultural groups that compose the country. The French and the Belgians loosely call them all "Anglais", but it is a simplification and, culturally, and even politically, it is very wrong.
Unlike in the United States, where most people are children of immigrants, in the USSR they are not. Georgians are from Georgia originally. Ukrainians are from Ukraine for tens of millennia. Russians are from Russia originally. These people have been there since the last Ice Age and perhaps even before that. They were there way before recorded history. At least this is how the Soviet people would have seen themselves.
The Soviet government divided people there into the indigenous and non-indigenous populations. The indigenous- or what they in USSR used to call "korennoye naselenie"- literally the "autochthonous population", had the "blood right" to be in the country. The ones that came to the country later- say a few hundred, or even a thousand years ago were not "autochthonous". Some Jews came about a thousand years ago, but most Jews who lived there migrated through Poland and into the future USSR lands only a couple of hundred years ago.
The Gypsies also 'settled' (or rather established their caravan routes) there about 500-1000 years ago. The Germans came 200 years ago, after Catherine the Great invited them to help raise agriculture and improve trade in the country. Does this make them autochthonous populations? If this were the countries of the Americas or even Britain, or even Arab countries, these people would by now be "natives", citizens, nationals and totally assimilated members of society for sure.
However, the rulers of the USSR had other ideas. This is what they decided: " We will support the indigenous population and persecute the non-indigenous ones". So, who would be the autochthonous ones? The Russians were Slavs mixed with Finns- autochthonous, that is- they have been in the country for 10,000 + years? Ukrainians? A mixture of Iranic tribes and Slavs- same thing- autochthonous. The Georgians? Indigenous population. So all these peoples were now members of one great multinational state of USSR. However, there were also "nationalities" that were declared "non-autochthonous" The "Hebrews"- read "Jews", the "Germans", and the "Gypsies". These three were seen as de facto "foreign nationals" residing in the country. The Jews were also referred to as "people of Jewish nationality" in everyday Soviet life.
Again, the Soviet government utilized strict "Jus Sanguinis" laws to define people's nationality. Based on documented ancestry and 'bloodlines', they would write in people's ID cards- Last Name, First name, Patronymic ( the name of the father plus -the OVICH suffix for a man, and -a YEVNA suffix for a woman), Date of Birth, and then "Nationality"- the infamous "pyataya grapha" or "Fifth Paragraph".
Again, who is Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian and a "Hebrew", and who is not, is decided by guess who? The Soviets! Not by Americans; not by Arabs; not by Brits. Soviets decide. It is their country. Lock, stock and barrel!
So, let's see what strange classification system they created there:
A National ID card looked like a passport and it was in fact called a " Passport", but it was an internal one. There would be a picture and an inscription of this nature
(for Jews):
Rosenberg
Abraham
IsaakOVICH
Born: May 19, 1936
Nationality: Yevrey (Hebrew)
This is what information an ID/Internal Passport would have on a Ukrainian citizen of USSR:
Belenko
Oksana
VasilyeVNA
Born: October 9, 1946
Nationality: Ukrainka (Ukrainian)
This is what it would look like for a Russian (who were only 49% of the population of USSR- not 100% as the Hollywood movies and various American Cold War novels would want you to think.)
Ivanov
Ivan
PetrOVICH
Born: January 23, 1955
Nationality: Russki (Russian)
Or a German (who had been in the country for 200+ years)
Mueller
Hans
KarlOVICH
Born: December 11, 1943
Nationality: Nemetz (German)
How would you like to have an ID like this? Whenever you apply for a job, or rent a place, and present it to the police on demand, or show it to train conductors or the post office, you are a "Hebrew" for the whole Soviet world to see. You are not an "autochthonous" citizen and therefore, not a full citizen. For all intents and purposes, you are not even a national of the country. There are quotas on you everywhere, other students can harass your kids at schools, teachers ask you your nationality, and the word "Hebrew" is marked on the student rosters, official papers, job applications, birth and death certificates, etc. You spend your entire life as a "Hebrew" foreigner in a faraway Slavic land.
When Israel was established in 1948, all those who had "nationality: "Hebrew” and as a result felt like 'Hebrews' in were automatically treated as potential traitors and foreign citizens while at the same time, not allowed to leave "the host country". They became a fifth column; many considered them enemies of the state and they were caught in a limbo- they are neither from here, nor from there. Life became so hard for them that emigration became the only choice. People would scream at them- "Go back to your country! Back to Israel! This is not your country! Get out!"
Eventually, these "Hebrews", who often did not speak a word of Hebrew, were allowed to emigrate back to "their country" and they left in millions. And would you blame them?
When these Russian-speaking "Hebrews" arrived in Israel in such numbers, the Arab population was up in arms- there is a million of them coming. Why? They are all 'Khawajas!' What are they doing coming into our country? Where are we going to live now?
Thank you, leaders of the mighty U.S.S.R for pushing over a million Jews into the Palestinian lands and then duplicitiously supporting the Palestinian struggle which resulted from a demographic catastrophe which you yourselves helped to create! How very hypocritical of you to do that!
The Hypocritical Soviets.
By then, many more Palestinian Arabs had already been displaced to make room for more immigrants coming from the USSR. A terrible thing to happen! All of a sudden you are told to leave your homes. Why? What did you do? You've never hurt those Jews.
But again, whose fault is it? Why couldn't the Soviet government treat those "Hebrew" people like their own, like they would treat a Georgian or a Ukrainian? Why couldn't they just call all people "Soviets"? Why was there the fifth paragraph? Why did they have to have those internal "nationality" ID cards? Why create the 'non-autochthonous' nationality concept? Why couldn't they thoroughly naturalize people who had been in the country for centuries? And why did so many Soviets scream at these Jews," Go back to your country!" "Go back to Israel!" Why were so many Jews harassed there and told to 'go back to Israel'?
In a very hypocritical way, the Soviets always blamed Israel for taking away Palestinian lands but, at the same time, it was the Soviets that proclaimed that the Jews were Semites and Hebrews and not Russians. It was them who practiced such a severe anti-Semitism against the Jews, that they practically left no alternative for them but to emigrate 'back home'.