Flat Fifth

Our world has been blessed with life and cursed with humans. Since the beginning of our existence, we have constantly sought ways to divide ourselves, one of the finest techniques of our making being ‘Religion’. In our world, be it the past or present, the real war has never been between countries or in the borders- it has always been within. Today Israel and Iran stand on opposite sides of what seems like an eternal holy war. However, behind the veil of divine destiny and chosen people lies a grimmer truth- that religion is a tool of subjugation rather than salvation.

God serves as both jailer and judge while the scriptures sanctify inequality. 

Religion has become the universal justification for the entire situation in the middle east. The Israeli state uses a Zionist religious narrative to justify their occupation and expansionism since “God gave us [them] this land”, which the rest of the Middle-East can never accept. The problem lies not with individual states but with the nature of humans- we just cannot coexist. This article will not focus on the International conflict between the two nations, but rather on the Internal troubles both face which are entirely self-inflicted.

Israel has no constitution but only ‘basic laws’ shaped by the Orthodox Jewish authority. Marriage, divorce and burial must all follow the Halakha, the Jewish Religious Law, while LGBTQ+ rights are suppressed in ultra-Orthodox regions of the ‘only Democracy in the Middle East’. Discrimination and internal dissent is at an all time high in Israel today. 

With over 900 ‘unrecognised’ Bedouin villages in the Negev which lack water, electricity and many basic necessities. 20% of Israel is Arab and their towns get substantially less funding for infrastructure, school and healthcare. 

Recent protests against Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul saw thousands arrested, police used water cannons, and blocked major roads. Labelling activists against the occupation of religious coercion as ‘traitors’ or ‘anti-Zionists’ has become a common occurrence. In 2023, Netanyahu’s government weakened judicial independence, consolidating power and enabling far-right religious parties like Otzma Yehudit and Shas to push ethno-religious authoritarianism. While Haredi Jews receive generous subsidies and avoid military service, Mizrahi Jews (of Arab descent) face systemic marginalization. Amid deepening inequality, over 20% of Israelis now live below the poverty line, with a worsening housing and cost-of-living crisis.

On the other side of the border is an even worse and more extremist form of government. Surviving Iran is a very tough challenge not many Iranian citizens succeed in. With over 500 protesters killed and 1000 arrested and 7 protesters being executed for the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests of 2022-23, Iran books its spot as one of the most hostile countries for the media at 177 out of 180 countries.

Ethnic and religious discrimination in Iran with Kurds, Balochis, Baháʼís, and Sunnis facing severe persecution, non-Shia Muslims being barred from high office and the Baháʼí not even being a recognised faith shows how tolerant the country’s government is to its own people. 

However all of this in both Israel and Iran must not come as a surprise to us. Whenever religion interferes with politics and the running of a country, this is bound to happen. As a matter of fact, whenever religion meddles with just about anything, one of the first consequences is the creation of a division. 

Countless thinkers over the course of time have warned and explained this whole cycle of religion and chaos to us, be it Marx, Engels, Lenin, Gramsci, Voltaire or Sartre. The grand castle of religion was built on the soil of fear and ignorance- however it is concerning to know that something so irrational and blinding doesn’t just survive but thrives even in today’s age of science and reason.

Marx called religion the ‘opium of the people’ and saw it as a product of material suffering and as a tool to pacify the working class. Humans are to coexist on this planet with a billion other living organisms, yet we can hardly live with ourselves. There is not one good reason for the war in the Middle East or any reason for either parties to attack or defend each other should religion cease to be an issue. 

Yet this can never be allowed to happen. Religion remains essential to governments—not for spiritual reasons, but as a tool to justify endless wars driven by capitalist motives and profit from global conflict. Marxism and socialism, if enforced in the way it was intended- by removing the concept of countries, abolishing borders, dismantling hierarchies and uniting humanity in a shared global society- is the only way peace can ever truly be achieved in the world. And governments know it, which is the reason it can never be allowed to succeed.

Because ‘Peace’ cannot generate profit and thus must never be allowed to exist.