In The Defense of the Defenseless
Emile Zola
Emile Zola, a French novelist, playwright, and poet, was born on April 2, 1840, and died on September 28, 1902. He was baptized as a Catholic but later dissociated himself from that religion.
One of the most significant achievements of his life was his defending Alfred Dreyfus, a captain in the General Staff of the French Army who was from a prosperous French Jewish family and accused of espionage for the Germans. Dreyfus was court-martialed and found guilty. He was dishonorably discharged from the army and sent to prison.
Zola’s last effort to help Dreyfus was to write a letter to the French President, Félix Faure, defending the accused and accusing the army’s hierarchy of making the captain a scapegoat for their failure. The letter was printed on the front page of the newspaper L’Aurore on January 13, 1898.
His letter started with: “Sir, Would you allow me to show my concern about maintaining your well-deserved prestige and to point out that your star which, until now, has shone so brightly, risks being dimmed by the most shameful and indelible of stains?”
He describes in detail what he had in mind about the injustices toward Captain Dreyfus and ends his letter by accusing some members of French high-ranking army officials of the most serious criminal acts using phrases of: “J’accuse…”(“I accuse….”[1]). The letter and how it was worded became one of the world’s most popular titles for defending against all forms of tyranny and combating and countering any such action.
Dreyfus was framed as a spy for the Germans based on a piece of paper found in the waste basket of the German military attaché. The paper gave him information about the French military. The embassy maid, a spy for the French government, discovered the paper.
Dreyfus was picked up as the writer of the note based on insufficient handwriting data. He was tried for treason and convicted of espionage. In a most humiliating ceremony, he was dishonorably discharged from the military and sent to Devil’s Island, a penal colony of France off the coast of French Guinea in South America.
After Zola’s letter was published in L’Aurore, the French court tried him for libel and found him guilty. Zola fled to England to avoid imprisonment. However, he continued defending Dreyfus from his exile until the fall of the French government. The new government re-examined the documents and found Dreyfus innocent, and the order for his release was issued. He came back to Paris with full honor restored.
Zola died four years after the publication of his famous letter. Some believed that his death was due to manipulation of the airways of his house chimneys.
I shall give you just a few examples of how others used his writing in describing a similar situation:
1. 1913, Mexican deputy Luis Manuel Rojas[2], in a discourse given to the parliament, used the word “J’accuse” (yo accuso…) toward the American Ambassador Henry Lane Wilson in the assassination of President and Vice President Francisco I. Madero and José Mario Pino Suârez.
2. In 1925, the Palestinian Newspaper, La Palestine, in its editorial, protested the Balfour Declaration with the title “J’accuse.”
3. Regarding the controversy about J. Robert Oppenheimer (Father of the atomic bomb) and the allegation that he posed a security risk, Joseph and Stewart Alsop wrote an article defending Oppenheimer titled “We Accuse.” It was published in Harper’s magazine and delineated the role played by the chairman of AEC, Lewis Straus, who disliked Oppenheimer.
4. On June 9, 2017, New York Times White House Correspondent, Peter Baker, declared that the testimony of the fired FBI Director James Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee was “the most damning J’accuse moment by a senior law enforcement official against a president (Mr. Trump) in a generation.”
5. On June 3, 2020, The Atlantic noted that Trump’s former secretary of defense, retired Marine General Mattis’s comment in an interview, strongly criticizing President Trump on multiple points was nothing but a “J’accuse.”
Now then, I am going to be the next- one, using that famous phrase of Zola, “J’accuse- I accuse”:
– I accuse the Israeli Prime Minister, of being a war criminal,
– I accuse the Israeli Prime Minister, of committing crimes against Humanity,
– I accuse the Israeli Prime Minister, of establishing a new fascist regime in Middle East,
– I accuse the Israeli hardliners of committing criminal act toward the Palestinians.
– I accuse Israeli establishments in the U.S. acting under false pretensions, and of interfering in the nation’s political hierarchy to their benefit; organizations like IAPAC, spending money to elect those favoring the causes of Israeli hardliners, against the welfare of their country.
– I accuse the U.S. governments, more Republicans than Democrats, of unthinkingly following the Israeli government’s demands for systematic destruction of the Palestinians through continuously furnishing Israelis hardliners with war materials and support,
– I accuse the U.S. Congress and the Senate for their services to a foreign government and their gains in acting against their country’s national and international best interests.
– I accuse the U.S. government of unconditional support for Israel in national and international organizations that have turned the United States into a subsidiary of Israel,
Mr. Zola ended his letter to the President of France and wrote:
“As for the people I accuse, I do not know them, I have never seen them, I have no resentment or hatred against them. They are, for me, only entities, spirits of social evil. And the act I am doing here is just a revolutionary way to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. I have only one passion, light, in the name of Humanity, which has suffered so much and has the right to happiness. My fiery protest is only the cry of my soul. So, dare you put me on trial and let the investigation occur! I wait.”
He beautifully explained his thoughts on the injustices he encountered in his country. How difficult was it for him to bear what he witnessed? I can tell you from a similar experiences that it is an excruciating pain to be a witness to such events and notably find that you are impotent to perform what is needed to be done and have no solution except your pen, your mind, and your willingness to go forward, fully aware that the opposition is equipped to crush you with all its might.
Like Zola, those people that I enumerated, I have not seen them and never talked to them. I have nothing personally against any one of them. What caused me to express my words is based on my conviction of justice for all, upholding human integrity, and respect for Humanity and the rights of people, irrespective of their race, creed, religious preferences, and places of birth. Hamas’ action of October 7, 2023, was one of the worst savageries committed by any group. There are no excuses for such a despicable undertaking. I hope the perpetrators are caught, their actions are thoroughly evaluated, and they receive the appropriate punishment prescribed by law.
It is my firm conviction, also, that what was done by those criminals by no means gave the Israeli hardliners the right to massacre innocent Palestinians for crimes that they had no hands on. I am sure of the fact that Khomeini received help from Hamas or similar organizations while coming to power and that those people have killed many of my Iranian compatriots. However, I do not feel justified to kill all Palestinians as revenge.
It is heartbreaking for me to read and hear, almost daily, the increased number of Palestinians killed by Israelis. The latest report indicates that the number now stands at over 40,000. Some ten thousand more are unaccounted for, probably buried under the ruins of buildings. Tens of thousands more are wounded. The non-military Israeli hardliners have been killing Palestinians indiscriminately without being charged by their government!
The peace negotiations involving the U.S. and other countries are a joke. How could there be peace while Israel is fueling the war with the assassination of the enemies’ leaders?
Is there any hope for the Palestinians to be able to live in peace with their Israeli neighbor? The only hope seems to be the commitment of the progressive and liberal nations. We cannot consider the United States, England, France and Germany to lift a finger for helping the situation. Germany is bending backward in trying to eradicate the memories of the Nazi era.
However, as I have alluded in my previous writings, Israel is digging its own grave, slowly but surely. The world populace, contrary to their governments, will not tolerate such atrocities that are being committed by their hardliner government, and that will be a very sad historical moment.
[1] – Source from: Chameleon Translation.
[2] – Deputy of the Congress of the Union of Mexico.
Guils of Guilan 