Raji Mohrez: “Nazis moved, abandoned Europe and went to Israel”
From Fuerteventura, Palestinian doctor Raji Mohrez denounces that what is happening in Gaza is not a punctual conflict, but the culmination of a historic process of colonisation. In his documentary “Free Palestine: From Colonialism to Genocide” he argues that Israel occupies 100 % of Palestinian territory after having systematically violated international agreements since 1947.
The Palestinian‑Israeli conflict did not begin in October 2023 or in recent years. It is documented for millennia. “Palestine appears in historical documents 17 centuries BC, in Egyptian papyri 12 centuries BC,” recalls the ophthalmologist of the General Hospital of Fuerteventura, Raji Mohrez, in his film. The work, created with audiovisual material produced together with his son Juancho, shows how Israel has systematically occupied Palestinian land while breaching the international accords established from 1947 onward.
For centuries, Catholics, Muslims and Palestinian Jews lived together in peace on that land. “Citizens moved freely, entered, left and practiced their respective faiths in total harmony for many centuries,” he explains in an interview on La Voz de Fuerteventura on Radio Insular.
The Zionist Movement and the Choice of Palestine
Born in the international city of Jerusalem, Mohrez places the origin of the conflict in the creation of the Zionist movement at the end of the 19th century, a response to centuries of persecution of Jews in Europe. “There was not a single European country that did not expel its Jews,” he notes. That diaspora spurred a political project of reunification—a national Jewish home. “A national home exclusive to Jews is supremacist and racist,” he emphasises.
The Zionist movement coincided with European colonial interests after the Industrial Revolution, he explains. Various destinations were considered for gathering Jews—Uganda, Argentina, Madagascar, Australia—before finally settling on Palestine. “The idea was most supported by Britain. Palestine links Asia, Africa and Europe; its geostrategic position is crucial for any world power.”
Thus, colonial ambitions and Zionist aspirations intersected, prompting Mohrez to reflect on the interference of great powers in the development of a prosperous nation at the beginning of the last century. “I ask myself: if all the Jews who went to Palestine were Europeans, why not create that home in Europe? Why choose foreign lands? The destiny of peoples has always been decided in distant offices,” he laments.
The Unfair 1947 Partition…Never Respected
Jewish immigrants began arriving in Palestine without resistance from the native population, which was accustomed to hospitality. In 1947 the United Nations partitioned the territory between the newcomers and the existing inhabitants. In Palestine, there were then two million residents, of whom 600,000 were newly arrived European Jews. The Zionist movement had acquired only 2.6 % of the land, yet the UN granted them 56 % of the country. On what right? he denounces.
Shortly after, on 14 May 1948, David Ben‑Gurion (born David Yosef Grün in Poland) unilaterally declared the independence of the State of Israel. From that point onward, expansion was relentless. “By 1949 they already controlled 78 % of the territory and in 1967 they seized the entirety of Palestine, plus southern Lebanon and the Golan Heights,” he notes.
Occupation and Discrimination
Mohrez’s documentary shows that occupation is not only territorial but permeates every aspect of Palestinian life. “In the 12 km stretch between Bethlehem and Jerusalem there can be five or six checkpoints. It is a control system that treats people like livestock. Women have died giving birth at a checkpoint,” he stresses. These checkpoints affect Palestinians, who must pass under gunfire and security forces, while the Jewish population moves freely.
Israeli laws provide further examples of discrimination. “Palestinians are prohibited from collecting rainwater. The ‘absentee law’ allows that if my parents fled to save their lives, their house and land automatically pass into the hands of settlers.”
The Narrative and the Term “Antisemitic”
One goal of “Free Palestine: From Colonialism to Genocide” is to break the hegemonic narrative. “Whenever someone criticises the State of Israel they are called antisemitic. But Semites are Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Iraqis. How can a Pole or a Ukrainian who went to Palestine be called a Semite?”
He also condemns the current political jargon that obscures the reality: the genocide Israel is carrying out in Gaza cannot be denied. The figures are chilling: “Today in Palestine more than 20,000 children are dead. International agencies estimate that there could be over 600,000 dead and thousands missing. Israeli prisons hold six‑year‑old children without any trial,” he says with sorrow.
Comparing Netanyahu’s regime to the Holocaust, he declares, “I have always said that the Nazis moved sites, abandoned Europe and went to Israel.”
When asked about Hamas’s October 2023 attack on a kibbutz, Mohrez explained that such communities were instruments of colonisation and Palestinian expulsion through violence and land seizure. The territory recognised for Israel in 1947 was 56 %; today they occupy 100 %. International law allows an occupied people to defend themselves by all means, including armed struggle,” he defends.
The Role of Europe and the West
Europe and the West have played a key role in tilting the balance clearly toward Israel, which today, he warns, represents “the greatest danger to humanity.” It is the only nuclear power in the Middle East, “with more than 600 nuclear warheads according to Jimmy Carter.”
During the 80th UN General Assembly, focused on the situation in Gaza, more than 160 countries recognised the Palestinian State—a recognition that comes too late, Mohrez insists, urging a solution that must restore historic coexistence.
He questions what a future Palestinian state would look like: would it revert to the 1947 partition? Would Israel accept it? “For centuries a synagogue, a church and a mosque coexisted in harmony in Palestine. That is the only path, but first there must be justice.”
To conclude, Raji invites readers to watch his documentary “Free Palestine: From Colonialism to Genocide.” An audiovisual work that seeks to give voice to a silenced history. “It is the only thing we can do: speak, explain and not let people be manipulated.”