On the Dangers Implied by Punctuation: Israel with Quotation Marks
I do not know who first observed the difference between “Let’s eat, Grandma,” with a comma, and “Let’s eat Grandma,” without. One version expresses a relatively polite invitation to dinner; the other conspires to commit cannibalism and, perhaps, murder.
I want to point out that a similar difference exists between Israel without quotation marks and “Israel” with. Israel without quotation marks names a state, just like other states that typically come without quotation marks.[i] “Israel” with quotation marks indicates that Israel does not exist. The writer feels forced to use the name by convention, but it refers to no real country. According to the writer, Israel does not exist, nor, by rights, should it exist.
The quotation marks suggest, but do not make explicit, what the writer thinks should happen to Israel: Palestine should replace it. Israeli culture should disappear. Israelis should disappear. Maybe Israelis should go “back” to someplace else, or maybe Israelis should just not survive. Maybe Palestine could tolerate a small minority of survivors.
In short, “Israel” in quotation marks hints at the desired outcome: genocide. Only it would not count as genocide. Since, according to the one who writes “Israel,” the people of Israel do not really exist, exiling them, or killing them, would not really count as genocide.
[i] More precisely, states, nations, and governments, do not actually exist. They do not exist the way that physical objects, animals, or people, do. When, for example, the United States of America blows up a boat in the water around Venezuela, the United States of America did not actually do anything; specific human beings fired the weapons that destroyed the boat. These human beings took the action to carry out the orders of other human beings, orders issued in the name of the United States of America. The United States of America, like all other states, nations, and governments, exists in the mind. If people stopped believing in the state (as people stopped believing in Yugoslavia, the Confederate States of America, and the Holy Roman Empire, to pick a few examples), it would simply no longer exist.
Wait, how could it no longer exist if it never existed all along?
Philosophers have an answer to that perplexing question: nations do exist as cultural artifacts, in a way resembling fictional characters. Nations exist because people believe in them, insofar as people do believe in them. That kind of existence, existence in the mind, lasts as long as people believe. Tinkerbelle also exists because people believe in her as a fictional character, as long as they do. (For more information, see Thinking about Stories: An Introduction to Philosophy of Fiction by Samuel Lebens and Tatjana von Solodkoff.)
Oddly enough, people believe in Tinkerbelle though they think she is not real; people believe in the United States of America, but believe it is real.
People put Israel in quotation marks because they hope to destroy it.
