On Ture's goal:
"Of course, you know I'm a revolutionary. Our primary objective is to raise the consciousness of the people until they become self-conscious. If the Zionists want to protest against us, that's fine. It will make them turn against Zionism."
On separatism:
"I'm not a separatist, I'm for independence. I'm like Malcolm X. I'm for the independence of African people."
On his previous comments about Zionism:
Ture said it's true that he's said the only good Zionists are dead Zionists and his reason is a political one. "If you were to ask any Jew, `Do you believe the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi?' They'd agree."
On Iraq President Saddam Hussein:
"They say I call Saddam Hussein a comrade. He is a comrade, of course - anyone who the United States would attack is a comrade of mine."
On responsibilities of Jews:
"If you're a Jew, you're supposed to accept the suffering heaped upon you and know it's your responsibility and you chose it."
Ture said that since the 1960s, he has read at least one Zionist text each month.
On Zionist arguments:
"If God promised them that land and you don't believe in God, you're making a mockery out of everybody, but you're not making a mockery out of me,"
"Zionists have no right to the land legally because Zionism is an illegal movement. They have no right to the land ethically because Zionism is an unethical movement. They have no right to the land morally because Zionism is an unjust movement." On violence:
"Peace can only come where there is justice ... We're not concerned with the peace process. We're concerned with the just movement."
On the oppression of African-Americans:
"There are Jews born in America who become indoctrinated and intoxicated with Zionism. They're educated at Oberlin and they'll go to Israel when they graduate," he said.
Ture said African-Americans should also want to leave the U.S. to fight for political causes, "but the oppression is so bad, they want to stay. They're worse than a dog. If a dog is oppressed, he leaves."
In response to junior Eric Mendlow's statement, "You mentioned that there's such a thing as Zionism indoctrination. What you've done here today is a pretty sick showing of indoctrination," Mendlow said. "I think black students today who don't question what you're saying have been bought and had:"
"To make it appear I'm stupid because I don't agree with you is really a Zionist tactic."
In response to Mendlow's question about the possibility of Jews and Palestinians sharing Israel as a religious state:
"There's a question of sharing. It's just like a plantation owner telling me he wants to share the land and I did all the work."
On accusations that he is anti-Semitic:
"I say I'm anti-Zionist, yet every Zionist who gets up and speaks calls me anti-Semitic. This is not true. At least say that Kwame Ture says he's anti-Zionist."
In response to a student question about the United States' role as a melting pot society:
"The system is nothing but lies to us. They say in America, you're supposed to get rich by the seat on your brow. If that's true, Africans would own America lock, stock and barrel."
"Everything Africans have gotten in this country, they have gotten by their blood."
In response to a student question on how racial, ethnic, religious and political groups on campus can communicate better:
"They way you come together is to fight a common enemy ... Otherwise, it's just talking and there ain't nothing going on."
At Wednesday's teach-in on anti-Semitism, speaker Zohar Raviv, said a definition of Zionism is hard to build because there are a variety of opinions on what the terms mean, even among Jews.
Worldwide, he said, there are between 7 million and 12 million Jews, depending on the definition of Judaism.
"Let's say we could bring 5 million Jewish people and put them in one room and you could ask them `What does being Jewish mean to you?' You'd get 5 million different answers," Raviv said; the same variety of opinions exist on Zionism.
Zionism, he said, was rediscovered late last century by as a movement to reclaim Israel as a homeland for Jews. Israel, for Zionists, is a place with a special spiritual connection.
Kwame Ture, however, said that Zionism's reasoning is invalid and that Jews have no right to establish a religious state in Israel. Ture said he is anti-Zionist but not anti-Semitic, meaning he supports Judaism for its religious convictions but not the Zionist movement to claim Israel.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review. Contact Review webmaster with suggestions or comments at ocreview@www.oberlin.edu.Definitions of Zionism
Volume 124, Number 18; March 15, 1996
Contact Review editorial staff at oreview@oberlin.edu.