In the public discourse of mainstream Western media, Israel is referred to as the “first vegan country” and the “paradise of vegetarians,” and social media sites are filled with clips depicting the IDF celebrating the vegan lifestyle and vegan soldiers among its ranks;
Reflecting a propaganda image of tolerance and progress.
While the vegetarian movement in Israel is presented as an integral part of the "struggle for justice for all and against all forms of oppression";
This image of Israeli tolerance, openness and progressiveness collides with the reality described by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories as amounting to a crime of apartheid.
The idea of veganism in Israel also collides with the philosophy of that tendency, which is based in its core on radical sympathy with all living creatures, peaceful coexistence with them and avoiding violence against them. The “progressive” philosophy of veganism appears to be excessively peaceful and non-violent;
The story of Israel is full of internal and external wars, in addition to displacement and the prevention of millions of Palestinians abroad from returning to their country and their original villages from which they were displaced.
In addition, Israel uses the promotion of “progressive” vegetarian ideas to cover up the damage it causes to the natural and plant life of Palestinian communities, as well as the theft of cultural heritage, including traditional Palestinian cuisine with its vegetarian ingredients, such as falafel, hummus, Baba Ghanoush and grape leaves. Meat-free cabbage and others.
washing "dirty clothes"
In her study titled “Washing Dirty Vegan Clothes in Israel? Animal and National Politics in Palestine and Israel,” University of New South Wales academic Esther Allon says that the issue of veganism has been included in the structure of Israel’s national narrative;
National myths of Zionist exceptionalism became a normative framework for the Israeli vegan reform narrative by embracing the “first vegetarian nation” narrative, using that narrative to shape public opinion and obscure the violence and occupation of colonial settlers.
The researcher believes that animal welfare and veganism have been included as a tool for the narrative of the Israeli nation within the conditions of Israeli Jewish sovereignty over the land, to reinforce the exclusionary myths against Palestinians, and to promote unique victim claims, pioneering achievements and moral rectitude, which further entrenches Jewish-Israeli belonging while depriving Palestinians of belonging.
As the Israeli institutions chose the image of “vegetarian/animal friendly” as an important moral and modern symbol for those who are described as the founders of the Israeli people;
The researcher believes that through field work with Israeli activists, the practices of "vegetarian face whitening" overlook the nuances and contradictions in Israeli plant and animal policies.
The study believes that promoting vegetarian ideas contributes to “whitewashing the original sin” of settlement and expropriation of Palestinians, and to legitimize the sovereignty of settlers, and Israel invests in this to build a moral legitimacy that contributes to self-strengthening, as it is based on a sense of extreme insecurity, as the Palestinians continue to Claiming national land and space.
In this way, the Palestinians are portrayed - in that narrative - as "the cursed others" who pose an existential threat, and appear as an enemy in Israeli national myths, and the Israeli "vegetarian revolution" - as some call it - provided rich food for shaping the national narrative of Israel and its image as an exceptional vegetarian state. Animal friendly.
The “revolution” swept Israel in 2011-2012 thanks to activists such as Gary Yurovsky, an American animal activist of Jewish descent, whose YouTube lecture translated into Hebrew spread botanical philosophy in almost all sectors of Israeli society, and built his popularity on the activism of the animal defense movement. The local Israeli originated in left/anarchist circles.
Moral exceptionalism
According to the researcher, the popularity of veganism and animal activism in Israel has been repeatedly framed around notions of exceptional excellence, unique accomplishments, and Israeli moral leadership, ideas that appear to be rooted in the biblical doctrine of divine choice woven into the literature and myths of the Zionist movement, which framed Israel’s historical mission as “ Moral brilliance and a beacon to the world.” These concepts are essential to Jewish-Israeli national identity.
According to that Israeli image, while the Arabs lag behind in this regard, the Israeli research and development in the farmed meat sector - where the country leads the way in the production of "cruelty-free protein" and "clean meat" - is an ethical, exceptional and pioneering act that can save the world from hunger;
This image of patriotism and moral superiority can be found in early Zionist colonial myths that considered their civilizing mission to bring modernity and progress to a barren, "backward" land.
In the early days of the Zionist project, working in the land and “making the desert bloom” was a means to normalize Jewish affiliation in Palestine and the exclusion and exclusion of Palestinians. After many decades, the promotion of these ideas now obscures Palestinian “land claims” and justifies “retroactively” the expropriation of Palestinians "inferior" by "superior" Jews;
Which feeds the policies of exclusion, displacement and violence and justifies settlement.
Thus, Israel's claim that it is the first state to emerge as a vegetarian nation further normalizes the relationship of Israeli Jews to the place, and legitimizes the settlers' attachment to the colonial land.
The politicization of vegetarianism
The study concludes that the vegetarian popular discourses in Israel activate and expand the existing national myths that have shaped the image of "Israel's Judaism" and its national identity.
Despite the attempts of Israeli vegetarian activists to assert that their activism is neutral and apolitical, the general framework of their activity lies at the heart of the national settler-colonial structure and is used to obscure colonial backgrounds and whiten the face of racial oppression by projecting a modern, progressive and exceptional image.
In this way, the state's "dirty washing" and the violence of its settler colonial policies are obscured;
In Israel - which cares more about animals than its indigenous people - you can be vegetarian or go to fight against the "enemies" with a skin-free coat and vegan rations, but you cannot support the rights of Palestinians who are being denied the rights of "living creatures".