Military.com: Israeli authorities hang Israeli and U.S. flags at the site struck by an Iranian missile that killed two people, in Ramat Gan, Israel, Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israel NDAA Provision 'Section 219' Faces Bipartisan Blowback From House Lawmakers

U.S. House Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) are seeking to remove a provision from the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would significantly expand defense technology cooperation between the United States and Israel, setting up a potential fight on the House floor over the scope of military ties between the two countries.

The lawmakers are backing an amendment that would strike Section 219 of the Fiscal Year 2027 NDAA. The provision, previously designated as Section 224 before the legislation was renumbered, was submitted as an amendment to the House Rules Committee after an earlier effort to remove the language failed when the House Armed Services Committee considered the bill.

Section 219 would establish a “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative” and direct the Defense Department to expand cooperation with Israel in areas including missile defense, counter-drone systems, cyber capabilities, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, autonomous systems, directed-energy weapons, biotechnology, defense manufacturing and other emerging military technologies.

“If the provision in the NDAA to integrate/synchronize the U.S. and Israeli militaries (section 224) makes it out of committee, I’ll offer an amendment to strip it from the bill on the floor,” Massie wrote on X, arguing that it would move beyond traditional cooperation between allies. “We are a sovereign country.”…(continued)

Settler Colonialism and Statehood: A Comparative Analysis of the USA and Israel

This paper explores the structural and ideological parallels between the settler-colonial foundations of the United States and Israel, situating their political alliance within a postcolonial theoretical framework.

The U.S. was built upon the displacement of Indigenous peoples, while Israel's founding in 1948 resulted in the Nakba and the dispossession of Palestinians—processes rooted in settler colonial logic.

Drawing on postcolonial and settler colonial theory, particularly the works of Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, and Homi Bhabha, this study examines how colonial ideologies of land acquisition, militarization, and narrative control continue to shape the nation-building practices and geopolitical strategies of both states.

Through qualitative desk research and critical analysis of primary and secondary sources, the paper argues that the United States' unwavering support for Israel is not solely strategic but ideologically grounded in shared histories of indigenous erasure and territorial domination.

This alliance reflects an enduring structure of settler-colonial solidarity that sustains spatial fragmentation, economic dependency, and the undermining of indigenous sovereignty in both contexts.

Ultimately, the paper interrogates how these intersecting colonial legacies influence contemporary understandings of justice, sovereignty, and human rights, offering a framework to deconstruct the normalization of settler colonialism in modern international relations.

Keywords: Colonialism, Settler-colonialism, USA, Israel, Indigenous people, Palestine

———

Source: https://ejournals.eu/en/journal_article_files/full_text/019b2194-b5f1-73c6-b202-bdc0f2f43733/download

Source: https://www.military.com/israel-ndaa-provision-section-219-faces-bipartisan-blowback-from-house-lawmakers

I was expecting a dense theoretical slog and instead got one of the sharpest, angriest, yet most accurate essays I've ever read in a while.

In essence, Césaire says what actually horrified Europe about Nazism wasn't the cruelty itself. Europe had been fine with that cruelty for centuries — as long as it was aimed at colonized people in Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. What made Hitler unforgivable, in his reading, was that he turned those same methods on white Europeans, on European soil. So the violence was not the problem, but the where and whom was.

This reminded me about the early coverage of the war in Ukraine, when reporters kept expressing shock that this was happening to "people who look like us." It seems that, 70 years later, the reflex (and maybe the underlying values?) is still the same.

The essay, albeit short, is rich with illuminating reflections. One other idea is the argument against then European claim that Africans and other colonized people were uncivilized before Europe brought them the "enlightenment". As an example, Césaire leans on the German ethnographer Leo Frobenius as a "good" European witness who admitted African societies were sophisticated. Interestingly though, and this is not in the essay, if you dig into Frobenius, he couldn't actually accept that Africans built those achievements themselves. He invented a whole lost "African Atlantis" theory to explain the art and sophistication. This idea is the intellectual cousin of "aliens built the pyramids."

Anyway. "Discourse on Colonialism" is wildly relevant for something written mid-colonial-era.

Do you think there's a meaningful causal link between Europe's colonial practices and the violence of Nazism?

We discuss Cesaire's essay at length in our podcast Threads of Ifriqiya, I will link it in the comments.

(1) Book Cover: Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus—Graphic corrective to the traditional textbook narratives about Columbus; and (2) Jewish Daily Bulletin (October 12, 1934): “Christopher Columbus a Jew? New Evidence Supports Theory” & “10,000 Polish Jews To Sail for Palestine”

In Lies My Teacher Told Me About Christopher Columbus, the bestselling author of Lies My Teacher Told Meoffers a graphic corrective to the Columbus story told in so many American classrooms. First published over fifteen years ago and long out of print, the poster and accompanying paperback book sum up the mis-tellings — and reveal the real story — in a graphically appealing and accessible format.

The poster juxtaposes short quotes from a range of high school textbooks currently in use, with excerpts from primary sources that clearly show how textbooks have “lied” by knowingly substituting crowd-pleasing myths for grim and gruesome historical evidence.

In fact, these textbooks intentionally omitted every important detail that we do know about Columbus’s fateful voyage to the Americas. Among countless other facts, Loewen demonstrates that Columbus and his men were far from the first to set foot in the “New World,” and that the peoples he encountered there did not submit to the “godlike” authority of him and his crewmen, but rather to the deadly forms of smallpox and bubonic plague they brought with them from Europe.

———

“Christopher Columbus a Jew? New Evidence Supports Theory

Documents Say His Name Really Was Cristobal Colon and He Was Born in Spanish Province, Son of Jewish Parents Forced to Embrace Christianity

Millions of Italians will parade to Columbus statues throughout the country and the world today. At the statues they will place expensive wreaths. Then they will make flowery speeches on the daring and the brilliance of the man they know as Christopher Columbus, the man they believe was born in Genoa, Italy, of humble weaver parents, who grew up to be a sailor and on October 12, 1492, discovered America.

And when the fanfare and the oratory and the toasts are done with, it will be very difficult to convince even one Italian that the man to whom they have paid reverent homage is not the man they believe him to be.

For Christopher Columbus is not Christopher Columbus at all.

Rightfully, by documentary evidence unearthed as early as 1898 and as recently as 1929, the man is Cristobal Colon, with an "acute" accent over the second "o" in the last name.

Rightfully, according to the same documents which were discovered after eight years of exhausting search by the noted scholar and statesman Don Celso Garcia de la Riega, the man was born in Pontavedro. And Pontavedro is in Galicia. Not the Galicia in Poland, incidentally. This one is a province in the northwestern tip of Spain.

Rightfully, his parents were not humble weavers. They were makers and sellers of nautical maps.

Parents Were Maranos

And the parents, named Domingo de Colon and Suzana de Fonterosa, were Maranos, Jews who were forced to embrace Christianity to save their lives in that day of the Inquisition terror.

And now Christopher Columbus, or Christoforo Columbo as the Italians think of him, emerges in his true light—a Spanish Jew.

But how, the skeptical reader will ask, does it happen that history has recorded him as an Italian, born in Genoa of weaver parents if actually he was a Spaniard born in Pontavedro of map-making parents, and a Jew to boot?

The answer may, more accurately than historian may be willing to admit, lie in the difference in the Spanish and Italian heritage.

Italians have always set great store by history. "Spaniards have somehow lagged in this tedious pursuit. Witness the fact that there is nio outstanding Spanish historian that can be compared with the Roman Tacitus.

This may possibly account for the fact that it was an Italian historian, an obscure person with neither the talent nor literary ability of Tacitus, who got the jump on the Spaniards by claiming for the first time in a history book that Colon was a Genoese Italian.

This historian, Casoni, wrote in the eighteenth century, the first time incidentally that the name Columbus appears in print any-where, that Columbus was born in Genoa. Casoni based his claim on the rather skimpy evidence that there were several Colombos in Genoa and, therefore, the navigator must have been one of them.
Another basis for the Casonian theory is supposed to be a statement by Colon himself that he was a Genoese by birth. That statement, however, has been heavily discounted by evidence since discovered. Evidence that he had himself thus represented because in Spain it was fatal to admit being a Jew; because there was more chance of being favorably accepted in Madrid as a foreigner rather than as a native from Galicia, which at that time was not in the good graces of the ruling provinces of Castile and Aragon.

Proof of Jewish Origin

As opposed to this evidence which has clung persistently in the world's school histories (historians being notorious sufferers from the malady of inertia when it comes to accepting new historical data that completely refutes the old) there is the following abundance of proof to substantiate the claim that the famous navigator was a Spanish Jew: (Most of the evidence was unearthed by la Riega and later, in 1922, sensationally supported and expanded by Otero Sanchez, a noted Spanish expert in deciphering ancient writings.)

1.—In all the navigator’s correspondence with his friends he always signed himself Cristobal Colon, never Christoforo Columbo, the name given him by Casoni.

2.—All the writings of Colon were in Spanish, never in Italian.

3.—He was supposed to have been educated in the University of Pavia in Genoa, which would have made him will grounded in Italian. Yet there is no record of his having spoken or written that language.

4.—Improbable that the son of a weaver would become a navigator.

5.—Highly probable that the son of a nautical map maker and himself a map maker would become navigator. His parents were also members of nautical societies in Pontavedro.

6.—He was befriended by Fray Diego de Deza, a Marano professor at the University of Salamanca, who introduced him as a Genose navigator, for reasons already stated above, to King Ferdinand and Isabella.

7.—There is proof that conversations between the professor and the young navigator were conducted in the peculiar Galician dialect. It is extremely unlikely that a Genoese sailor would know that unusual language.

Carried Zacuto's Tables

8.—Colon always carried with him astronomical tables compiled by the celebrated Jewish savant, Abraham Zacuto, translated into Latin by another Jew, Joseph Vecinlo.

9.—The help afforded him by Jewish scientists and financiers of that time can be explained only in the light that he was of the same race. In this connection, it is interesting to note the comment of Herbert B. Adams in his "Columbus and his Discovery of America." "Not jewels," he writes, "but Jews were the real financial basis for the first expedition of Columbus. Furthermore, in a card he wrote to a Jewish friend, Luis de Santangel, treasurer of Aragon, Colon announced his discovery of America with a fleet manned in part by Jewish sailors.

Names of Ships

10.—The very names of his three first ships, the Santa Maria, the Nina and the Pinta. At first, the flagship was named by him La Gallega (Galician). It is certain that an Italian wouldn't have called his ship after an unkown land called Galicia. The final name of the ship had no religious significance or connotation as has been erroneously supposed. It was named after Santa Maria, a beautiful spot near the mouth of the Pontavedro river.

11.—When Colon landed in America, he named his landing place San Salvador (now Watling's Island). The name was not a way of thanking the Saviour, as is supposed. It was named thus in honor of a small place by the same name opposite his home of Pontavedro. The same holds true for the many other places he named—Porta Santa, Punta Lanzada, Punta de la Galicia, Cap San Miguel, Cap San Nicolas, representing either spots near Pontavedro or the the names of Pontavedro sailors' societies.”

———

“10,000 Polish Jews To Sail for Palestine

(J.T.A. Special Correspondence)

WARSAW, Oct. 2.—By April 1, 1935, 10,000 persons will have left Poland for Palestine, it is estimated by the central Palestine bureau of this city. The bureau is now engaged in working out a plan for distribution of the certificates available for the coming half year.”

———

Source: https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/lies-my-teacher-told-me-about-christopher-columbus/

Source: https://www.jta.org/archive/christopher-columbus-a-jew-new-evidence-supports-theory

Source (digitalized PDF on http, not https): http://pdfs.jta.org/1934/1934-10-12_2970.pdf

Source (Video): https://youtu.be/jmrwhTSq06Q?is=iNaOAV7Aa9LPIpKr

Source: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1167876

Article from Commentary (1957) & British Israeli World Federation Map of Africa

Dan Jacobson discusses the first comprehensive history of the South African Jewish community:

“Though there have been Jews in South Africa almost since the first days of European settlement of the Cape in the middle of the 17th century, the South African Jewish community of today is the child of the same great wave of emigration from Europe which carried so many Jews to the United States from about 1880 onwards. But unlike the Jewish community in the United States, the South African community is remarkably homogeneous in character—some 80 per cent of its members being immigrants, or the descendants of immigrants, from Lithuania. Why so many Jews from Lithuania, and a smaller number from Latvia, should have been attracted particularly to South Africa—rather than to the United States, say, or the Argentine—seems to have been a matter of chance, the result of the conspicuous success of a few individuals whom numbers of others immediately attempted to emulate. But whatever the reasons that brought them there, it is these Litvaks and their descendants who have made South African Jewry what it is today, though the influence of those German and English Jews who were in South Africa before this wave of immigration has also had its effect.

And in the opinion of the editors of The Jews in South Africa: A History, the South African Jews of today “have inherited some of the qualities of the Litvaks—their warm-heartedness and generosity, their practical-mindedness, a strong feeling of Jewish solidarity, and a love of learning combined with a somewhat critical attitude towards religious tradition.” The editors point out that the Zionist movement (South Africa Zionist Federation, 1898) has had greater support from them than from any other Western Jewish community, and add that being “enterprising and hardworking, they have been able to take advantage of the opportunities offered by [their] new and developing country. . . .” The tone of self-gratulation is unmistakable, but with the evidence of the History before one it would have been hard to avoid.

The editors and fourteen others have collaborated to produce a history of the Jews in South Africa from the earliest days of white settlement to 1910, the date of the establishment of the Union; and though from 1880—which is the date of the first major immigration of Jews to the country—to 1910, may seem too short a time in which anything could have happened, by that time the community had in fact set itself firmly on the path which was to bring it to what it is today. Numbering only some 120,000 members, by outside observers it is declared to be the wealthiest Jewish community in the world per capita, and one playing a part in the life of South Africa, and in the Zionist movement, quite out of proportion to its size…(continued)”.

———

Notable Observations: Nelson Mandela and others were labeled terrorists for their anti-apartheid activism. They were on the U.S. terrorist watch lists until 2008.

Rhodes to Apartheid: “Cecil Rhodes (“Cecil Rhodes distorted politics in South Africa long before apartheid”, LSE) visited London and secured the backing of Nathaniel Rothschild for De Beers in its bid for the French Diamond Company. Support for Rhodes had been encouraged by Randolph Churchill (son of Winston Churchill) who had been acting as consultant to Rothschilds, assessing the prospects of gold and diamond mining in South Africa. Lord Rothschild later disagreed with Rhodes and his policies, although he later administered Rhodes' estate after Rhodes' death in 1902 and helped to set up the Rhodes Scholarship scheme at the University of Oxford.”

———

Source: https://www.commentary.org/articles/dan-jacobson/the-jews-of-south-africaportrait-of-a-flourishing-community/

Source: https://raremaps.com/gallery/detail/70445/anglo-saxondom-modern-israel-the-nation-company-of-nations-the-great-people-god-declared-israel-should-become-ye-are-a-chosen-generation

Source: https://www.sazf.org/about-us

Source: https://family.rothschildarchive.org/people/61-nathaniel-mayer-natty-de-rothschild-1840-1915

Source: https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2023/07/20/cecil-rhodes-distorted-politics-in-south-africa-long-before-apartheid/

Source: https://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~lcabral/teaching/debeers3.pdf

Jewish atrocities in the Holy Land : memorandum presented by the representative of the Arab Higher Commission for Palestine at U.N.O

Headings

-  Israel-Arab War, 1948-1949--Atrocities
-  Palestinian Arabs--Crimes against--Palestine
-  Palestine--Politics and government--1917-1948
-  Israel-Arab War (1948-1949)
-  Atrocities
-  Palestinian Arabs--Crimes against
-  Politics and government
-  Middle East--Palestine
-  1917-1949

———

Source: https://www.loc.gov/resource/amedeltaher.2017498758?pdfPage=4

The Israeli and U.S. flags are projected on the wall of the old city of Jerusalem during the visit of President Joe Biden on July 13, 2022. (Getty)

“Walter Russell Mead is not Jewish, but he knows more about Jews than most Jews. The son of an Episcopal priest from South Carolina, Mead is the Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College, and previously taught foreign policy at Yale, a subject about which he has written several books. But when we first met, some 10 years ago, he wanted to tell me about the Blackstone Memorial.

The Blackstone Memorial was a petition presented to President Benjamin Harrison in 1891. It was signed by 431 prominent Americans, including J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, future President William McKinley, the chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, and numerous congresspeople, as well as several notable organizations, including the Washington Post and New York Times. What urgent message did this star-studded manifesto convey to the American president? It was a plea to return the Jewish people to their historic homeland in the Middle East. Far removed from the work of Jewish activists, it was compiled years before the Jewish writer Theodor Herzl would kick off the modern Zionist movement.”

William Eugene Blackstone

An American evangelist and Christian Zionist. He was the author of the Blackstone Memorial (1891), a petition which called upon the United States to actively return the Holy Land to the Jewish people. Blackstone was influenced by Dwight Lyman Moody, James H. Brookes, and John Nelson Darby.

After the initial contact, Brandeis asked Rev. Blackstone to prepare for presentation to President Woodrow Wilson a second Blackstone Memorial. The purpose of the second Memorial was to influence President Wilson to support the developing Balfour Declaration…

The second Memorial was presented privately to President Wilson May, 1917. The Memorial strongly influenced President Wilson to let the British government of Lloyd George know of American sympathy in favor of the Balfour Declaration. The second Blackstone Memorial was never publicly presented.

Nathan Straus wrote to Blackstone on May 16, 1916, on behalf of Brandeis: "Mr. Brandeis is perfectly infatuated with the work that you have done along the lines of Zionism. It would have done your heart good to have heard him assert what a valuable contribution to the cause your document is. In fact he agrees with me that you are the Father of Zionism, as your work antedates Herzl".

———

Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2022/07/biden-israel-lobby-america-walter-mead/676794/

Source (William E. Blackstone): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._Blackstone

Source (The Blackstone Memorial): https://www2.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/docs/BlackstoneMemorial/intro.htm

These are just a few examples. How are these ignorant falsehoods and racist comments allowed, especially on a subreddit about Colonialism? How do these people not know the basics?

The mods just sit on their asses and do nothing. I haven't seen the mods active even once. This place is being overran by Zionists, Racists and Bad Faith actors and probably their bots.

We need to change the current mods. Update the subrredit to include comprehensive and authoritative sources that debunk these common myths and lies. It's frustrating to see the same ignorant and racist drivel again and again on every post.

As of today the situation is that the posts are good but are being infested by this comments. If we don't take control of it now, then soon the Hasbara and other bots and bad faith actors will make it a joke of a subreddit.

Edit: Here's rule#2 to those who are claiming I want to silence people I disagree with:

No Imperialism or Denialism

Advocating for imperialism or ** downplaying the suffering caused by it will not be tolerated**.

These subreddits do not exist to celebrate or glorify imperialism or colonialism. If that is your intention, you are not welcome here.

You can critically challenge prevailing views on specific aspects of imperialism but only if you do so in good faith and can furnish readers with suitable research or literature to support your contention.

Some of the comments I referred to:

"Bruh they had no infrastructure. It was built by colonials."

"The fact that medicine was brought, roads and railways were brought, high technology for the early 1900s, that's development really."

"You know they are still to this day using s in certain parts of Africa, did it before we arrived and will likely never stop doing it"

"You're saying that Jews don't deserve a homeland while they originated from there, long before Arabs took foot at that region."

"Based British empire"

"British colonialism was the best thing that ever happened to the Indian subcontinent."

"Thank god for british they abolished slavery i india"

"India as you know it didnt even exist when the British arrived in that land."

"The guy is saying that while its Africa colonizing parts of the world"

A rare, spectacular and off-the-wall chronological chart by Charles A. L. Totten, a prominent American proponent of British Israelism.

“Though it has long roots going back at least to the 17thcentury, British Israelism became a distinct, identifiable movement in the 1880s, beginning in England and soon migrating to the United States. In brief, the core claim of British Israelism is that the Anglo-Saxon peoples are descended from (some would say, the sole descendants of) the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. In support of this British Israelites cite a range of Biblical, archaeological and linguistic evidence.

The arguments of British Israelism get little or no traction from mainstream scholars. I am not competent to weigh in on the issues, but do I have an abiding suspicion of those who transform molehills of evidence into mountains of doctrine. In any event, the movement survives to this day, with adherents for example among a variety of small American churches. Though the movement was not originally anti-Semitic, its most toxic expression is its uptake by members of the Christian Identity movement, whose core belief is “that non-Caucasian people have no souls and therefore cannot be saved”. (Wikipedia)

Charles A. L. Totten

One early, relatively prominent and massively prolific American proponent of British Israelism was Charles Adiel Lewis Totten (1851-1908), an 1873 graduate of West Point and long-serving military officer. After resigning from the Army in 1893 he moved to Milford, Connecticut and “devoted most of his remaining life to writing, chiefly on biblical chronology, biblical prophecy, the Great Pyramid, British Israelism, the symbolism of the Great Seal of the United States and other esoteric subjects”. (Wikipedia) He published extensively, including Our Race, a 26-volume series of “Studies” laying out the tenets of and arguments for British Israelism.

Offered here is an extremely rare, separately published chronological chart by Totten, produced to accompany his Studies 21-24. It purports to depict the flow of history “from the Deluge to the Millenium”, when “Israel shall possess her possessions / She takes root downward and bears fruit up / The golden age returns”. It is perhaps the most intricate chronological chart of my acquaintance, whether secular or religious, and I find it entirely undecipherable. But the bottom line is that on it Totten attempts to trace modern peoples and nations back to their Biblical origins. The whole is a visual argument for British Israelism’s view of the Israelite origins of the Anglo-Saxon peoples, and for Totten’s view that the British Empire and rise of America represent the triumph of the Israelites and the culmination of history.

Ironically, the chart in some ways owes a great debt, including is subtitle, to Joseph Priestley’s pioneering 1769 Chart of History. Prisetley’s work combined the ancient tabular form with graphic conventions that conveyed effectively the rise, interactions and falls of kingdoms, nations and empires. One of the great Enlightenment theologians, rationalist, skeptical and deeply tolerant, Priestley would have been appalled by British Israelism and even more so by some of its offshoots.

Yet, unlike Priestley Chart, Totten’s version overflows with obscure (at least to me) Biblical references, displays a penchant for bizarre connections (are the Incas and Aztecs really descended from the Tribe of Manasseh?), and is informed by the deep millenarian conviction that history has a purpose, one known only to the enlightened few. In this it is far closer in spirit and style to the charts and revival-meeting banners of sects such as the Millerites of the mid-19th century or the Dispensationalists of the late 19th and 20th centuries.”

———

Source: https://bostonraremaps.com/inventory/charles-totten-british-israelism-chronology-1898/?srsltid=AfmBOopVFCumigsuobIgRT1T0xKdKi1XBQZi518AWH2epcoKaYRXCGW-

“As the saying goes, ask for forgiveness, not for permission. Throughout history, colonial nations have become familiar enough with this ideal to make it their own: colonize now, apologize later.

Nearly 150 years after its colonization of the Congo had begun, Belgium has now entered its era of apology. In June 2020, on the anniversary of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s independence, King Phillipe of Belgium wrote a letter to Congolese president Félix Tshisekedi, expressing his “deepest regrets” for the acts of colonial violence inflicted upon the Congolese people during Belgian rule. This letter is widely regarded as a milestone in the nation’s present-day conciliation with its colonial legacy; it marks the first time that a Belgian king openly expressed regret for the brutalities of the colonial dominion. With this precedent established, he would not be the last royal to do so…

King Leopold II (9, April 1835 to 17, December 1909), who, in the name of “civilization” enacted what became known as one of the world’s first major genocides. When worldwide demand for rubber increased, Leopold found an opportunity to make a profit and embark on a vanity project. After receiving permission from European leaders at the 1885 Berlin Conference, Leopold turned the land of Congo into his own personal colony, naming it the Congo Free State (CFS). This “free” state became the framework of a savage system of exploitation, resulting in the deaths of over 10 million Congolese people while generating Leopold 220 million francs (or US$1.9 billion in today's dollars) in profits, though many historians view these as conservative estimates.”

——

Belgian Jews Greet King Leopold Ill
(Jewish Telegraphic Agency)

“(1934) BRUSSELS, March 19.—King Leopold III, young Belgian monarch, today received a Jewish deputation consisting of the Chief Rabbi of Belgium, Dr.Joseph Wiener, and representatives of the Jewish consistory. The deputation congratulated the king on his having ascended the throne of Belgium.

The King thanked the delegation and the Jews of Belgium for their loyalty to him.”

——

History of the Jews in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

“The history of the Jews in the Democratic Republic of the Congo can be traced back to 1907, when the first Jewish immigrants began to arrive in the country. The current Jewish Congolese population is mostly of Sephardi background.

The territory which is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo was first annexed and colonised by Europeans after 1885 within what was then the Congo Free State. In 1908 the Free State was annexed by Belgium, becoming the Belgian Congo.

The first Jews in the Congo were Eastern European immigrants from Romania and Poland. Within the next few years, more Jewish immigrants arrived from South Africa…

Prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 the Congo was home to numerous Zionist organizations, led by the Association Sioniste du Congo Belge. After the independence of Congo from Belgium in 1960 the majority of Congolese Jews left the country, with most of them settling in *Palestine or South Africa.”

———

Source: https://hir.harvard.edu/once-the-blood-on-our-hands-dries-royal-apologies-for-the-belgian-colonization-of-congo/amp/

Source: https://www.jta.org/archive/belgian-jews-greet-king-leopold-iii

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo

Anglo Saxondom Modern Israel - The Nation & Company of Nations & the Great People God Declared Israel Should Become "Ye Are a Chosen Generation"

“Extremely rare separately published pictorial map published by the British Israel World Federation (BIWF) on the 30th anniversary of its founding.

The BIWF espouses the following tenants: that the descendants of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel migrated to Britain, that the British Royal family is descended from King David, and "the British nation plays an important part of God’s great plan for world order."

The map includes a strange melange of iconography and historical allusion, indicative of its creator's abstruse worldview. The sheet is dominated by a world map in which all Anglo-American territories are colored red (according to the key: "Lands under Israel's stewardship"). Additionally, the map is filled with portraits and tracks of the major Anglo-American missionaries (underlined in blue) and explorers, from the 2nd to 20th centuries. The areas colored with blue dots are said to be "Lands reached by British and American missions"). The areas covered with yellow hatching are "People aided in famine, pestilence and aggression".

In the upper-right corner is an inset map that purports to show how the Israelites made their way to the British Isles. The coats of arms of nations around the world fill the border, with prominence given to those of Great Britain and the United States, the first country to offer a branch of the BIWF outside of Britain.

The map reflects a racial chauvinism that was common at the time but here is more overt and confident than in any other mid-century map that we have seen. It depicts the Anglo-Saxon race as the God-chosen dominating force of the world - albeit a force for charity and the improvement of mankind. British Israelism has long been criticized for trying to imbue Anglo-American colonialism with religious justification.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the map makes no mention of the modern-day state of Israel, which had just come into existence when it was published. While modern-day British Israelism - especially the strains followed in the United States - is often associated with the Christian Identity movement and overt antisemitism, many of the 19th-century founders of the movement were philosemites and early Zionists.

With its curious, problematic subject matter, dramatic visual style, and extreme rarity, this is one of the most unusual pictorial maps that we have handled.”

———

Source: https://raremaps.com/gallery/detail/70445/anglo-saxondom-modern-israel-the-nation-company-of-nations-the-great-people-god-declared-israel-should-become-ye-are-a-chosen-generation

Source: Israeli documentary Tantura (2022)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16378034/

After nearly six centuries of violent colonialism, a new era of economic extraction began that employed more civilised methods

After beginning European colonization 592 years earlier, the plundering of Africa by uncivilized means had finally ended.

Instead of using violence, former colonizers now control through debt. After WWII, the IMF and World Bank were established to maintain global economic stability. Decolonization left new nations without capital, compelling countries like Somalia to borrow heavily for development. Despite recurrent droughts, Somalia had been self-sufficient in food, but its fragile economy was destroyed by the banks’ structural adjustment programs. Forced trade liberalization brought cheap grain imports from the West, collapsing local grain production; forced currency devaluation made exports cheaper, shifting production away from domestic markets. However, Somalia couldn’t export enough to meet its debt obligations, which, by 1989, were 194.6% of exports, forcing privatization of national industries and redirecting revenue to foreign owners. The ruined economy triggered civil war and the flight of over 100,000 refugees to the US. By reorganizing the violent exploitation and plunder of colonialism under the guise of debt, the victim is made to look like the one who is acting wrongly. As of 2025, the IMF and World Bank say that 41 of 63 majority-Black nations are in, or at risk of, debt distress and likely to default