Zionism (Hebrew: צִיּוֹנוּת‬ Tsiyyonut
[t͡sijo̞ˈnut] after Zion) is the national
movement of the Jewish people that supports
the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland
in the territory defined as the historic Land
of Israel (roughly corresponding to Canaan,
the Holy Land, or the region of Palestine).
Modern Zionism emerged in the late 19th century
in Central and Eastern Europe as a national
revival movement, both in reaction to newer
waves of antisemitism and as an imitative
response to other nationalist movements. Soon
after this, most leaders of the movement associated
the main goal with creating the desired state
in Palestine, then an area controlled by the
Ottoman Empire.Until 1948, the primary goals
of Zionism were the re-establishment of Jewish
sovereignty in the Land of Israel, ingathering
of the exiles, and liberation of Jews from
the antisemitic discrimination and persecution
that they experienced during their diaspora.
Since the establishment of the State of Israel
in 1948, Zionism continues primarily to advocate
on behalf of Israel and to address threats
to its continued existence and security.
A religious variety of Zionism supports Jews
upholding their Jewish identity defined as
adherence to religious Judaism, opposes the
assimilation of Jews into other societies,
and has advocated the return of Jews to Israel
as a means for Jews to be a majority nation
in their own state. A variety of Zionism,
called cultural Zionism, founded and represented
most prominently by Ahad Ha'am, fostered a
secular vision of a Jewish "spiritual center"
in Israel. Unlike Herzl, the founder of political
Zionism, Ahad Ha'am strived for Israel to
be "a Jewish state and not merely a state
of Jews".Advocates of Zionism view it as a
national liberation movement for the repatriation
of a persecuted people residing as minorities
in a variety of nations to their ancestral
homeland. Critics of Zionism view it as a
colonialist, racist and exceptionalist ideology
that led advocates to violence during Mandatory
Palestine, followed by the exodus of Palestinians,
and the subsequent denial of their right to
return to property lost during the 1948 war.
== Terminology ==
The term "Zionism" is derived from the word
Zion (Hebrew: ציון‎ ,Tzi-yon), referring
to Jerusalem. Throughout eastern Europe in
the late 19th century, numerous grassroots
groups were promoting the national resettlement
of the Jews in their homeland, as well as
the revitalization and cultivation of the
Hebrew language. These groups were collectively
called the "Lovers of Zion" and were seen
to encounter a growing Jewish movement toward
assimilation. The first use of the term is
attributed to the Austrian Nathan Birnbaum,
founder of the Kadimah nationalist Jewish
students' movement; he used the term in 1890
in his journal Selbstemanzipation! (Self-Emancipation),
itself named almost identically to Leon Pinsker's
1882 book Auto-Emancipation.
== Overview ==
The common denominator among all Zionists
is the claim to Eretz Israel as the national
homeland of the Jews and as the legitimate
focus for Jewish national self-determination.
It is based on historical ties and religious
traditions linking the Jewish people to the
Land of Israel. Zionism does not have a uniform
ideology, but has evolved in a dialogue among
a plethora of ideologies: General Zionism,
Religious Zionism, Labor Zionism, Revisionist
Zionism, Green Zionism, etc.
After almost two millennia of the Jewish diaspora
residing in various countries without a national
state, the Zionist movement was founded in
the late 19th century by secular Jews, largely
as a response by Ashkenazi Jews to rising
antisemitism in Europe, exemplified by the
Dreyfus affair in France and the anti-Jewish
pogroms in the Russian Empire. The political
movement was formally established by the Austro-Hungarian
journalist Theodor Herzl in 1897 following
the publication of his book Der Judenstaat
(The Jewish State). At that time, the movement
sought to encourage Jewish migration to Ottoman
Palestine.
Although initially one of several Jewish political
movements offering alternative responses to
assimilation and antisemitism, Zionism expanded
rapidly. In its early stages, supporters considered
setting up a Jewish state in the historic
territory of Palestine. After World War II
and the destruction of Jewish life in Central
and Eastern Europe where these alternative
movements were rooted, it became dominant
in the thinking about a Jewish national state.
Creating an alliance with Great Britain and
securing support for some years for Jewish
emigration to Palestine, Zionists also recruited
European Jews to immigrate there, especially
Jews who lived in areas of the Russian Empire
where anti-semitism was raging. The alliance
with Britain was strained as the latter realized
the implications of the Jewish movement for
Arabs in Palestine, but the Zionists persisted.
The movement was eventually successful in
establishing Israel on May 14, 1948 (5 Iyyar
5708 in the Hebrew calendar), as the homeland
for the Jewish people. The proportion of the
world's Jews living in Israel has steadily
grown since the movement emerged. By the early
21st century, more than 40% of the world's
Jews lived in Israel, more than in any other
country. These two outcomes represent the
historical success of Zionism, and are unmatched
by any other Jewish political movement in
the past 2,000 years. In some academic studies,
Zionism has been analyzed both within the
larger context of diaspora politics and as
an example of modern national liberation movements.Zionism
also sought assimilation of Jews into the
modern world. As a result of the diaspora,
many of the Jewish people remained outsiders
within their adopted countries and became
detached from modern ideas. So-called "assimilationist"
Jews desired complete integration into European
society. They were willing to downplay their
Jewish identity and in some cases to abandon
traditional views and opinions in an attempt
at modernization and assimilation into the
modern world. A less extreme form of assimilation
was called cultural synthesis. Those in favor
of cultural synthesis desired continuity and
only moderate evolution, and were concerned
that Jews should not lose their identity as
a people. "Cultural synthesists" emphasized
both a need to maintain traditional Jewish
values and faith, and a need to conform to
a modernist society, for instance, in complying
with work days and rules.In 1975, the United
Nations General Assembly passed Resolution
3379, which designated Zionism as "a form
of racism and racial discrimination". The
resolution was repealed in 1991 by replacing
Resolution 3379 with Resolution 46/86. Opposition
to Zionism in principle has also sometimes
been called racist and has been characterized
as fostering the segregation of peoples that
should seek peaceful coexistence.
== Beliefs ==
Zionism was established with the political
goal of creating a Jewish state in order to
create a nation where Jews could be the majority,
rather than the minority which they were in
a variety of nations in the diaspora. Theodor
Herzl, the ideological father of Zionism,
considered Antisemitism to be an eternal feature
of all societies in which Jews lived as minorities,
and that only a separation could allow Jews
to escape eternal persecution. "Let them give
us sovereignty over a piece of the Earth's
surface, just sufficient for the needs of
our people, then we will do the rest!" he
proclaimed exposing his plan. Herzl proposed
two possible destinations to colonize, Argentina
and Palestine. He preferred Argentina for
its vast and sparsely populated territory
and temperate climate, but conceded that Palestine
would have greater attraction because of the
historic ties of Jews with that area. He also
accepted to evaluate Joseph Chamberlain's
proposal for possible Jewish settlement in
Great Britain's East African colonies.Aliyah
(migration, literally "ascent") to the Land
of Israel is a recurring theme in Jewish prayers.
Rejection of life in the Diaspora is a central
assumption in Zionism. Supporters of Zionism
believed that Jews in the Diaspora were prevented
from their full growth in Jewish individual
and national life.Zionists generally preferred
to speak Hebrew, a Semitic language that developed
under conditions of freedom in ancient Judah,
and worked to modernize and adapt it for everyday
use. Zionists sometimes refused to speak Yiddish,
a language they thought had developed in the
context of European persecution. Once they
moved to Israel, many Zionists refused to
speak their (diasporic) mother tongues and
adopted new, Hebrew names. Hebrew was preferred
not only for ideological reasons, but also
because it allowed all citizens of the new
state to have a common language, thus furthering
the political and cultural bonds among Zionists.Major
aspects of the Zionist idea are represented
in the Israeli Declaration of Independence:
The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the
Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious
and political identity was shaped. Here they
first attained to statehood, created cultural
values of national and universal significance
and gave to the world the eternal Book of
Books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land,
the people kept faith with it throughout their
Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope
for their return to it and for the restoration
in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional
attachment, Jews strove in every successive
generation to re-establish themselves in their
ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned
in their masses.
== History ==
Since the first centuries of the CE, most
Jews have lived outside the Land of Israel
(Eretz Israel, better known as Palestine),
although there has been a constant minority
presence of Jews. According to Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam, Eretz Israel is a land promised
to the Jews by God according to the Hebrew
and Greek Bibles and the Quran, respectively.
The Diaspora began in 586 BCE during the Babylonian
occupation of Israel. The Babylonians destroyed
the First Temple, which was central to Jewish
culture at the time. After the 1st century
Great Revolt and the 2nd century Bar Kokhba
revolt, the Roman Empire expelled the Jews
from Judea, changing the name to Syria Palaestina.
The Bar Kokhba revolt caused a spike in anti-Semitism
and Jewish persecution. The ensuing exile
from Judea greatly increased the percent of
Jews who were dispersed throughout the Diaspora
instead of living in their original home.Zion
is a hill near Jerusalem (now in the city),
widely symbolizing the Land of Israel.In the
middle of the 16th century, Joseph Nasi, with
the support of the Ottoman Empire, tried to
gather the Portuguese Jews, first to migrate
to Cyprus, then owned by the Republic of Venice,
and later to resettle in Tiberias. Nasi – who
never converted to Islam – eventually obtained
the highest medical position in the empire,
and actively participated in court life. He
convinced Suleiman I to intervene with the
Pope on behalf of Ottoman-subject Portuguese
Jews imprisoned in Ancona. Between the 4th
and 19th centuries, Nasi's was the only practical
attempt to establish some sort of Jewish political
center in Palestine.In the 17th century Sabbatai
Zevi (1626–1676) announced himself as the
Messiah and gained many Jews to his side,
forming a base in Salonika. He first tried
to establish a settlement in Gaza, but moved
later to Smyrna. After deposing the old rabbi
Aaron Lapapa in the spring of 1666, the Jewish
community of Avignon, France prepared to emigrate
to the new kingdom. The readiness of the Jews
of the time to believe the messianic claims
of Sabbatai Zevi may be largely explained
by the desperate state of Central European
Jewry in the mid-17th century. The bloody
pogroms of Bohdan Khmelnytsky had wiped out
one-third of the Jewish population and destroyed
many centers of Jewish learning and communal
life.In the 19th century, a current in Judaism
supporting a return to Zion grew in popularity,
particularly in Europe, where antisemitism
and hostility toward Jews were growing. The
idea of returning to Palestine was rejected
by the conferences of rabbis held in that
epoch. Individual efforts supported the emigration
of groups of Jews to Palestine, pre-Zionist
Aliyah, even before 1897, the year considered
as the start of practical Zionism.The Reformed
Jews rejected this idea of a return to Zion.
The conference of rabbis, at Frankfurt am
Main, July 15–28, 1845, deleted from the
ritual all prayers for a return to Zion and
a restoration of a Jewish state. The Philadelphia
Conference, 1869, followed the lead of the
German rabbis and decreed that the Messianic
hope of Israel is "the union of all the children
of God in the confession of the unity of God".
The Pittsburgh Conference, 1885, reiterated
this Messianic idea of reformed Judaism, expressing
in a resolution that "we consider ourselves
no longer a nation, but a religious community;
and we therefore expect neither a return to
Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under
the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of
any of the laws concerning a Jewish state".Jewish
settlements were established in the upper
Mississippi region by W.D. Robinson in 1819.
Others were developed near Jerusalem in 1850,
by the American Consul Warder Cresson, a convert
to Judaism. Cresson was tried and condemned
for lunacy in a suit filed by his wife and
son. They asserted that only a lunatic would
convert to Judaism from Christianity. After
a second trial, based on the centrality of
American 'freedom of faith' issues and antisemitism,
Cresson won the bitterly contested suit. He
emigrated to Ottoman Palestine and established
an agricultural colony in the Valley of Rephaim
of Jerusalem. He hoped to "prevent any attempts
being made to take advantage of the necessities
of our poor brethren ... (that would) ... FORCE
them into a pretended conversion."Moral but
not practical efforts were made in Prague
to organize a Jewish emigration, by Abraham
Benisch and Moritz Steinschneider in 1835.
In the United States, Mordecai Noah attempted
to establish a Jewish refuge opposite Buffalo,
New York on Grand Isle, 1825. These early
Jewish nation building efforts of Cresson,
Benisch, Steinschneider and Noah failed.
Sir Moses Montefiore, famous for his intervention
in favor of Jews around the world, including
the attempt to rescue Edgardo Mortara, established
a colony for Jews in Palestine. In 1854, his
friend Judah Touro bequeathed money to fund
Jewish residential settlement in Palestine.
Montefiore was appointed executor of his will,
and used the funds for a variety of projects,
including building in 1860 the first Jewish
residential settlement and almshouse outside
of the old walled city of Jerusalem—today
known as Mishkenot Sha'ananim. Laurence Oliphant
failed in a like attempt to bring to Palestine
the Jewish proletariat of Poland, Lithuania,
Romania, and the Turkish Empire (1879 and
1882).
The official beginning of the construction
of the New Yishuv in Palestine is usually
dated to the arrival of the Bilu group in
1882, who commenced the First Aliyah. In the
following years, Jewish immigration to Palestine
started in earnest. Most immigrants came from
the Russian Empire, escaping the frequent
pogroms and state-led persecution in what
are now Ukraine and Poland. They founded a
number of agricultural settlements with financial
support from Jewish philanthropists in Western
Europe. Additional Aliyahs followed the Russian
Revolution and its eruption of violent pogroms,
as well as the Nazi persecution of the 1930s.
At the end of the 19th century, Jews were
a small minority in Palestine.In the 1890s,
Theodor Herzl infused Zionism with a new ideology
and practical urgency, leading to the First
Zionist Congress at Basel in 1897, which created
the World Zionist Organization (WZO). Herzl's
aim was to initiate necessary preparatory
steps for the development of a Jewish state.
Herzl's attempts to reach a political agreement
with the Ottoman rulers of Palestine were
unsuccessful and he sought the support of
other governments. The WZO supported small-scale
settlement in Palestine; it focused on strengthening
Jewish feeling and consciousness and on building
a worldwide federation.The Russian Empire,
with its long record of state-organized genocide
and ethnic cleansing ("pogroms"), was widely
regarded as the historic enemy of the Jewish
people. The Zionist movement's headquarters
were located in Berlin, as many of its leaders
were German Jews who spoke German. Given Russia's
anti-semitism, at the start of World War I,
most Jews (and Zionists) supported Germany
in its war with Russia.
=== Territories considered ===
Throughout the first decade of the Zionist
movement, there were several instances where
Zionist figures supported a Jewish state in
places outside Palestine, such as Uganda and
Argentina. Even Theodor Herzl, the founder
of political Zionism was initially content
with any Jewish self-governed state. However,
other Zionists emphasized the memory, emotion
and myth linking Jews to the Land of Israel.
Despite using Zion as the name of the movement
(a name after the Jebusite fortress in Jerusalem,
which became synonymous with Jerusalem), Palestine
only became Herzl's main focus after his Zionist
manifesto 'Judenstaat' was published in 1896,
but even then he was hesitant.In 1903, British
Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain offered
Herzl 5,000 square miles in the Uganda Protectorate
for Jewish settlement. Called the Uganda Scheme,
it was introduced the same year to the World
Zionist Organization's Congress at its sixth
meeting, where a fierce debate ensued. Some
groups felt that accepting the scheme would
make it more difficult to establish a Jewish
state in Palestine, the African land was described
as an "ante-chamber to the Holy Land". It
was decided to send a commission to investigate
the proposed land by 295 to 177 votes, with
132 abstaining. The following year, congress
sent a delegation to inspect the plateau.
A temperate climate due to its high elevation,
was thought to be suitable for European settlement.
However, the area was populated by a large
number of Maasai, who did not seem to favour
an influx of Europeans. Furthermore, the delegation
found it to be filled with lions and other
animals.
After Herzl died in 1904, the Congress decided
on the fourth day of its seventh session in
July 1905 to decline the British offer and,
according to Adam Rovner, "direct all future
settlement efforts solely to Palestine". Israel
Zangwill's Jewish Territorialist Organization
aimed for a Jewish state anywhere, having
been established in 1903 in response to the
Uganda Scheme, was supported by a number of
the Congress's delegates. Following the vote,
which had been proposed by Max Nordau, Zangwill
charged Nordau that he “will be charged
before the bar of history,” and his supporters
blamed the Russian voting bloc of Menachem
Ussishkin for the outcome of the vote.The
subsequent departure of the JTO from the Zionist
Organization had little impact. The Zionist
Socialist Workers Party was also an organization
that favored the idea of a Jewish territorial
autonomy outside of Palestine.As an alternative
to Zionism, Soviet authorities established
a Jewish Autonomous Oblast in 1934, which
remains extant as the only autonomous oblast
of Russia.
=== Balfour Declaration and the Palestine
Mandate ===
Lobbying by Russian Jewish immigrant Chaim
Weizmann together with fear that American
Jews would encourage the USA to support Germany
in the war against communist Russia, culminated
in the British government's Balfour Declaration
of 1917.
It endorsed the creation of a Jewish homeland
in Palestine, as follows:
His Majesty's government view with favour
the establishment in Palestine of a national
home for the Jewish people, and will use their
best endeavours to facilitate the achievement
of this object, it being clearly understood
that nothing shall be done which may prejudice
the civil and religious rights of existing
non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the
rights and political status enjoyed by Jews
in any other country.
In 1922, the League of Nations adopted the
declaration, and granted to Britain the Palestine
Mandate:
The Mandate will secure the establishment
of the Jewish national home ... and the development
of self-governing institutions, and also safeguard
the civil and religious rights of all the
inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of
race and religion.
Weizmann's role in obtaining the Balfour Declaration
led to his election as the Zionist movement's
leader. He remained in that role until 1948,
and then was elected as the first President
of Israel after the nation gained independence.
A number of high-level representatives of
the international Jewish women's community
participated in the First World Congress of
Jewish Women, which was held in Vienna, Austria,
in May 1923. One of the main resolutions was:
"It appears ... to be the duty of all Jews
to co-operate in the social-economic reconstruction
of Palestine and to assist in the settlement
of Jews in that country."Jewish migration
to Palestine and widespread Jewish land purchases
from feudal landlords contributed to landlessness
among Palestinian Arabs, fueling unrest. Riots
erupted in Palestine in 1920, 1921 and 1929,
in which both Jews and Arabs were killed.
Britain was responsible for the Palestinian
mandate and, after the Balfour Declaration,
it supported Jewish immigration in principle.
But, in response to the violent events noted
above, the Peel Commission published a report
proposing new provisions and restrictions
in Palestine.In 1927, Ukrainian Jew Yitzhak
Lamdan, wrote an epic poem titled Masada to
reflect the plight of the Jews, calling for
a "last stand". Upon the German adoption of
the swastika, Theodore Newman Kaufman, bent
on provoking a race war and eliminating his
perception of "inbred Germanism", published
Germany Must Perish! Anti-German articles,
such as the Daily Express calling for an "Anti-Nazi
boycott", in response to German antisemitism
were published prior to Adolf Hitler's rise,
as well. This has given birth to the conspiracy
theory that Jews started the holocaust, although
the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels
was largely responsible for ignoring the patriotic
Jew, and for instead promoting anti-German
materials as "evidence" that the Jews needed
to be eradicated.
=== Rise of Hitler ===
In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany,
and in 1935 the Nuremberg Laws made German
Jews (and later Austrian and Czech Jews) stateless
refugees. Similar rules were applied by the
many Nazi allies in Europe. The subsequent
growth in Jewish migration and the impact
of Nazi propaganda aimed at the Arab world
led to the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.
Britain established the Peel Commission to
investigate the situation. The commission
did not consider the situation of Jews in
Europe, but called for a two-state solution
and compulsory transfer of populations. Britain
rejected this solution and instead implemented
the White Paper of 1939. This planned to end
Jewish immigration by 1944 and to allow no
more than 75,000 additional Jewish migrants.
This was disastrous to European Jews already
being gravely discriminated against and in
need of a place to seek refuge. The British
maintained this policy until the end of the
Mandate.The growth of the Jewish community
in Palestine and the devastation of European
Jewish life sidelined the World Zionist Organization.
The Jewish Agency for Palestine under the
leadership of David Ben-Gurion increasingly
dictated policy with support from American
Zionists who provided funding and influence
in Washington, D.C., including via the highly
effective American Palestine Committee.
During World War II, as the horrors of the
Holocaust became known, the Zionist leadership
formulated the One Million Plan, a reduction
from Ben-Gurion's previous target of two million
immigrants. Following the end of the war,
a massive wave of stateless Jews, mainly Holocaust
survivors, began migrating to Palestine in
small boats in defiance of British rules.
The Holocaust united much of the rest of world
Jewry behind the Zionist project. The British
either imprisoned these Jews in Cyprus or
sent them to the British-controlled Allied
Occupation Zones in Germany. The British,
having faced the 1936–1939 Arab revolt against
mass Jewish immigration into Palestine, were
now facing opposition by Zionist groups in
Palestine for subsequent restrictions. In
January 1946 the Anglo-American Committee
of Inquiry was a joint British and American
committee set up to examine the political,
economic and social conditions in Palestine
as they bore upon the problem of Jewish immigration
and settlement and the well-being of the peoples
living there; to consult representatives of
Arabs and Jews, and to make other recommendations
'as necessary' for ad interim handling of
these problems as well as for their eventual
solution. Ultimately the Committee's plans
were rejected by both Arabs and Jews; and
Britain decided to refer the problem to the
United Nations.
=== Post-WWII ===
With the German invasion of Russia in 1941,
Stalin reversed his long-standing opposition
to Zionism, and tried to mobilize worldwide
Jewish support for the Soviet war effort.
A Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee was set up
in Moscow. Many thousands of Jewish refugees
fled the Nazis and entered the Soviet Union
during the war, where they reinvigorated Jewish
religious activities and opened new synagogues.
In May 1947 Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister
Andrei Gromyko told the United Nations that
the USSR supported the partition of Palestine
into a Jewish and an Arab state. The USSR
formally voted that way in the UN in November
1947. However once Israel was established,
Stalin reversed positions, favoured the Arabs,
arrested the leaders of the Jewish Anti-Fascist
Committee, and launched attacks on Jews in
the USSR.In 1947, the United Nations Special
Committee on Palestine recommended that western
Palestine should be partitioned into a Jewish
state, an Arab state and a UN-controlled territory,
Corpus separatum, around Jerusalem. This partition
plan was adopted on November 29, 1947 with
UN GA Resolution 181, 33 votes in favor, 13
against, and 10 abstentions. The vote led
to celebrations in the streets of Jewish cities.
However, the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab
states rejected the UN decision, demanding
a single state and removal of Jewish migrants,
leading to the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
On May 14, 1948, at the end of the British
mandate, the Jewish Agency, led by David Ben-Gurion,
declared the creation of the State of Israel,
and the same day the armies of seven Arab
countries invaded Israel. The conflict led
to an exodus of about 711,000 Palestinian
Arabs, known in Arabic as al-Nakba ("the Catastrophe").
Later, a series of laws passed by the first
Israeli government prevented Palestinians
from returning to their homes, or claiming
their property. They and many of their descendants
remain refugees. The flight and expulsion
of the Palestinians has since been widely,
and controversially, described as having involved
ethnic cleansing. According to a growing consensus
between Israeli and Palestinian historians,
expulsion and destruction of villages played
a part in the origin of the Palestinian refugees.
Efraim Karsh, however, states that most of
the Arabs who fled left of their own accord
or were pressured to leave by their fellow
Arabs, despite Israeli attempts to convince
them to stay.
Since the creation of the State of Israel,
the World Zionist Organization has functioned
mainly as an organization dedicated to assisting
and encouraging Jews to migrate to Israel.
It has provided political support for Israel
in other countries but plays little role in
internal Israeli politics. The movement's
major success since 1948 was in providing
logistical support for migrating Jews and,
most importantly, in assisting Soviet Jews
in their struggle with the authorities over
the right to leave the USSR and to practice
their religion in freedom, and the exodus
of 850,000 Jews from the Arab world, mostly
to Israel. In 1944–45, Ben-Gurion described
the One Million Plan to foreign officials
as being the "primary goal and top priority
of the Zionist movement." The immigration
restrictions of the British White Paper of
1939 meant that such a plan could not be put
into large scale effect until the Israeli
Declaration of Independence in May 1948. The
new country's immigration policy had some
opposition within the new Israeli government,
such as those who argued that there was "no
justification for organizing large-scale emigration
among Jews whose lives were not in danger,
particularly when the desire and motivation
were not their own" as well as those who argued
that the absorption process caused "undue
hardship". However, the force of Ben-Gurion's
influence and insistence ensured that his
immigration policy was carried out.
== Types ==
The multi-national, worldwide Zionist movement
is structured on representative democratic
principles. Congresses are held every four
years (they were held every two years before
the Second World War) and delegates to the
congress are elected by the membership. Members
are required to pay dues known as a shekel.
At the congress, delegates elect a 30-man
executive council, which in turn elects the
movement's leader. The movement was democratic
from its inception and women had the right
to vote.Until 1917, the World Zionist Organization
pursued a strategy of building a Jewish National
Home through persistent small-scale immigration
and the founding of such bodies as the Jewish
National Fund (1901 – a charity that bought
land for Jewish settlement) and the Anglo-Palestine
Bank (1903 – provided loans for Jewish businesses
and farmers). In 1942, at the Biltmore Conference,
the movement included for the first time an
express objective of the establishment of
a Jewish state in the Land of Israel.The 28th
Zionist Congress, meeting in Jerusalem in
1968, adopted the five points of the "Jerusalem
Program" as the aims of Zionism today. They
are:
Unity of the Jewish People and the centrality
of Israel in Jewish life
Ingathering of the Jewish People in its historic
homeland, Eretz Israel, through Aliyah from
all countries
Strengthening of the State of Israel, based
on the prophetic vision of justice and peace
Preservation of the identity of the Jewish
People through fostering of Jewish and Hebrew
education, and of Jewish spiritual and cultural
values
Protection of Jewish rights everywhereSince
the creation of modern Israel, the role of
the movement has declined. It is now a peripheral
factor in Israeli politics, though different
perceptions of Zionism continue to play roles
in Israeli and Jewish political discussion.
=== Labour Zionism ===
Labor Zionism originated in Eastern Europe.
Socialist Zionists believed that centuries
of oppression in antisemitic societies had
reduced Jews to a meek, vulnerable, despairing
existence that invited further antisemitism,
a view originally stipulated by Theodor Herzl.
They argued that a revolution of the Jewish
soul and society was necessary and achievable
in part by Jews moving to Israel and becoming
farmers, workers, and soldiers in a country
of their own. Most socialist Zionists rejected
the observance of traditional religious Judaism
as perpetuating a "Diaspora mentality" among
the Jewish people, and established rural communes
in Israel called "kibbutzim". The kibbutz
began as a variation on a "national farm"
scheme, a form of cooperative agriculture
where the Jewish National Fund hired Jewish
workers under trained supervision. The kibbutzim
were a symbol of the Second Aliyah in that
they put great emphasis on communalism and
egalitarianism, representing to a certain
extent Utopian socialism. Furthermore, they
stressed self-sufficiency, which became an
important aspect of Labor Zionism. Though
socialist Zionism draws its inspiration and
is philosophically founded on the fundamental
values and spirituality of Judaism, its progressive
expression of that Judaism has often fostered
an antagonistic relationship with Orthodox
Judaism.Labor Zionism became the dominant
force in the political and economic life of
the Yishuv during the British Mandate of Palestine
and was the dominant ideology of the political
establishment in Israel until the 1977 election
when the Israeli Labor Party was defeated.
The Israeli Labor Party continues the tradition,
although the most popular party in the kibbutzim
is Meretz. Labour Zionism's main institution
is the Histadrut (general organisation of
labor unions), which began by providing strikebreakers
against a Palestinian worker's strike in 1920
and until 1970s was the largest employer in
Israel after the Israeli government.
=== Liberal Zionism ===
General Zionism (or Liberal Zionism) was initially
the dominant trend within the Zionist movement
from the First Zionist Congress in 1897 until
after the First World War. General Zionists
identified with the liberal European middle
class to which many Zionist leaders such as
Herzl and Chaim Weizmann aspired. Liberal
Zionism, although not associated with any
single party in modern Israel, remains a strong
trend in Israeli politics advocating free
market principles, democracy and adherence
to human rights. Kadima, the main centrist
party during the 2000s that is now defunct,
however, did identify with many of the fundamental
policies of Liberal Zionist ideology, advocating
among other things the need for Palestinian
statehood in order to form a more democratic
society in Israel, affirming the free market,
and calling for equal rights for Arab citizens
of Israel. In 2013, Ari Shavit suggested that
the success of the then-new Yesh Atid party
(representing secular, middle-class interests)
embodied the success of "the new General Zionists."Dror
Zeigerman writes that the traditional positions
of the General Zionists—"liberal positions
based on social justice, on law and order,
on pluralism in matters of State and Religion,
and on moderation and flexibility in the domain
of foreign policy and security"—are still
favored by important circles and currents
within certain active political parties.Philosopher
Carlo Strenger describes a modern-day version
of Liberal Zionism (supporting his vision
of "Knowledge-Nation Israel"), rooted in the
original ideology of Herzl and Ahad Ha'am,
that stands in contrast to both the romantic
nationalism of the right and the Netzah Yisrael
of the ultra-Orthodox. It is marked by a concern
for democratic values and human rights, freedom
to criticize government policies without accusations
of disloyalty, and rejection of excessive
religious influence in public life. "Liberal
Zionism celebrates the most authentic traits
of the Jewish tradition: the willingness for
incisive debate; the contrarian spirit of
davka; the refusal to bow to authoritarianism."
Liberal Zionists see that "Jewish history
shows that Jews need and are entitled to a
nation-state of their own. But they also think
that this state must be a liberal democracy,
which means that there must be strict equality
before the law independent of religion, ethnicity
or gender."
=== 
Revisionist Zionism ===
Revisionist Zionists, led by Ze'ev Jabotinsky,
developed what became known as Nationalist
Zionism, whose guiding principles were outlined
in the 1923 essay Iron Wall. In 1935 the Revisionists
left the World Zionist Organization because
it refused to state that the creation of a
Jewish state was an objective of Zionism.
Jabotinsky believed that,
Zionism is a colonising adventure and it therefore
stands or falls by the question of armed force.
It is important to build, it is important
to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is
even more important to be able to shoot—or
else I am through with playing at colonization.
and that
Although the Jews originated in the East,
they belonged to the West culturally, morally,
and spiritually. Zionism was conceived by
Jabotinsky not as the return of the Jews to
their spiritual homeland but as an offshoot
or implant of Western civilization in the
East. This worldview translated into a geostrategic
conception in which Zionism was to be permanently
allied with European colonialism against all
the Arabs in the eastern Mediterranean. The
revisionists advocated the formation of a
Jewish Army in Palestine to force the Arab
population to accept mass Jewish migration.
Supporters of Revisionist Zionism developed
the Likud Party in Israel, which has dominated
most governments since 1977. It advocates
Israel's maintaining control of the West Bank,
including East Jerusalem, and takes a hard-line
approach in the Arab–Israeli conflict. In
2005, the Likud split over the issue of creation
of a Palestinian state in the occupied territories.
Party members advocating peace talks helped
form the Kadima Party.
=== Religious Zionism ===
Religious Zionism is an ideology that combines
Zionism and observant Judaism. Before the
establishment of the State of Israel, Religious
Zionists were mainly observant Jews who supported
Zionist efforts to build a Jewish state in
the Land of Israel.
After the Six-Day War and the capture of the
West Bank, a territory referred to in Jewish
terms as Judea and Samaria, right-wing components
of the Religious Zionist movement integrated
nationalist revindication and evolved into
Neo-Zionism. Their ideology revolves around
three pillars: the Land of Israel, the People
of Israel and the Torah of Israel.
=== Green Zionism ===
Green Zionism is a branch of Zionism primarily
concerned with the environment of Israel.
The only environmental Zionist party is the
Green Zionist Alliance.
=== Post-Zionism ===
During the last quarter of the 20th century,
classic nationalism in Israel declined. This
led to the rise of post-Zionism. Post-Zionism
asserts that Israel should abandon the concept
of a "state of the Jewish people" and strive
to be a state of all its citizens, or a binational
state where Arabs and Jews live together while
enjoying some type of autonomy.
== Non-Jewish support ==
Political support for the Jewish return to
the Land of Israel predates the formal organization
of Jewish Zionism as a political movement.
In the 19th century, advocates of the restoration
of the Jews to the Holy Land were called Restorationists.
The return of the Jews to the Holy Land was
widely supported by such eminent figures as
Queen Victoria, Napoleon Bonaparte, King Edward
VII, President John Adams of the United States,
General Smuts of South Africa, President Masaryk
of Czechoslovakia, philosopher and historian
Benedetto Croce from Italy, Henry Dunant (founder
of the Red Cross and author of the Geneva
Conventions), and scientist and humanitarian
Fridtjof Nansen from Norway.The French government,
through Minister M. Cambon, formally committed
itself to "... the renaissance of the Jewish
nationality in that Land from which the people
of Israel were exiled so many centuries ago."In
China, top figures of the Nationalist government,
including Sun Yat-sen, expressed their sympathy
with the aspirations of the Jewish people
for a National Home.
=== Christian Zionism ===
Some Christians have actively supported the
return of Jews to Palestine even prior to
the rise of Zionism, as well as subsequently.
Anita Shapira, a history professor emerita
at Tel Aviv University, suggests that evangelical
Christian restorationists of the 1840s 'passed
this notion on to Jewish circles'. Evangelical
Christian anticipation of and political lobbying
within the UK for Restorationism was widespread
in the 1820s and common beforehand. It was
common among the Puritans to anticipate and
frequently to pray for a Jewish return to
their homeland.One of the principal Protestant
teachers who promoted the biblical doctrine
that the Jews would return to their national
homeland was John Nelson Darby. His doctrine
of dispensationalism is credited with promoting
Zionism, following his 11 lectures on the
hopes of the church, the Jew and the gentile
given in Geneva in 1840. However, others like
C H Spurgeon, both Horatius and Andrew Bonar,
Robert Murray M'Chyene, and J C Ryle were
among a number of prominent proponents of
both the importance and significance of a
Jewish return, who were not dispensationalist.
Pro-Zionist views were embraced by many evangelicals
and also affected international foreign policy.
The Russian Orthodox ideologue Hippolytus
Lutostansky, also known as the author of multiple
antisemitic tracts, insisted in 1911 that
Russian Jews should be "helped" to move to
Palestine "as their rightful place is in their
former kingdom of Palestine".Notable early
supporters of Zionism include British Prime
Ministers David Lloyd George and Arthur Balfour,
American President Woodrow Wilson and British
Major-General Orde Wingate, whose activities
in support of Zionism led the British Army
to ban him from ever serving in Palestine.
According to Charles Merkley of Carleton University,
Christian Zionism strengthened significantly
after the Six-Day War of 1967, and many dispensationalist
and non-dispensationalist evangelical Christians,
especially Christians in the United States,
now strongly support Zionism.Martin Luther
King Jr. was a strong supporter of Israel
and Zionism, although the Letter to an Anti-Zionist
Friend is a work falsely attributed to him.
In the last years of his life, the founder
of the Latter Day Saint movement, Joseph Smith,
declared, "the time for Jews to return to
the land of Israel is now." In 1842, Smith
sent Orson Hyde, an Apostle of the Church
of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, to Jerusalem
to dedicate the land for the return of the
Jews.Some Arab Christians publicly supporting
Israel include US author Nonie Darwish, and
former Muslim Magdi Allam, author of Viva
Israele, both born in Egypt. Brigitte Gabriel,
a Lebanese-born Christian US journalist and
founder of the American Congress for Truth,
urges Americans to "fearlessly speak out in
defense of America, Israel and Western civilization".
=== Muslim Zionism ===
Muslims who have publicly defended Zionism
include Dr. Tawfik Hamid, Islamic thinker
and reformer and former member of al-Gama'a
al-Islamiyya, an Islamist militiant group
that is designated as a terrorist organization
by the United States and European Union, Sheikh
Prof. Abdul Hadi Palazzi, Director of the
Cultural Institute of the Italian Islamic
Community, and Tashbih Sayyed, a Pakistani-American
scholar, journalist, and author.On occasion,
some non-Arab Muslims such as some Kurds and
Berbers have also voiced support for Zionism.While
most Israeli Druze identify as ethnically
Arab, today, tens of thousands of Israeli
Druze belong to "Druze Zionist" movements.During
the Palestine Mandate era, As'ad Shukeiri,
a Muslim scholar ('alim) of the Acre area,
and the father of PLO founder Ahmad Shukeiri,
rejected the values of the Palestinian Arab
national movement and was opposed to the anti-Zionist
movement. He met routinely with Zionist officials
and had a part in every pro-Zionist Arab organization
from the beginning of the British Mandate,
publicly rejecting Mohammad Amin al-Husayni's
use of Islam to attack Zionism.Some Indian
Muslims have also expressed opposition to
Islamic anti-Zionism. In August 2007, a delegation
of the All India Organization of Imams and
mosques led by its president Maulana Jamil
Ilyas visited Israel. The meeting led to a
joint statement expressing "peace and goodwill
from Indian Muslims", developing dialogue
between Indian Muslims and Israeli Jews, and
rejecting the perception that the Israeli–Palestinian
conflict is of a religious nature. The visit
was organized by the American Jewish Committee.
The purpose of the visit was to promote meaningful
debate about the status of Israel in the eyes
of Muslims worldwide, and to strengthen the
relationship between India and Israel. It
is suggested that the visit could "open Muslim
minds across the world to understand the democratic
nature of the state of Israel, especially
in the Middle East".
=== Hindu support for Zionism ===
After Israel's creation in 1948, the Indian
National Congress government opposed Zionism.
Some writers have claimed that this was done
in order to get more Muslim votes in India
(where Muslims numbered over 30 million at
the time). However, conservative Hindu nationalists,
led by the Sangh Parivar, openly supported
Zionism, as did Hindu Nationalist intellectuals
like Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and Sita Ram
Goel. Zionism, seen as a national liberation
movement for the repatriation of the Jewish
people to their homeland then under British
colonial rule, appealed to many Hindu Nationalists,
who viewed their struggle for independence
from British rule and the Partition of India
as national liberation for long-oppressed
Hindus.
An international opinion survey has shown
that India is the most pro-Israel country
in the world. In more current times, conservative
Indian parties and organizations tend to support
Zionism. This has invited attacks on the Hindutva
movement by parts of the Indian left opposed
to Zionism, and allegations that Hindus are
conspiring with the "Jewish Lobby."
== Anti-Zionism ==
Zionism is opposed by a wide variety of organizations
and individuals. Among those opposing Zionism
are some secular Jews, some branches of Judaism
(Satmar Hasidim and Neturei Karta), the former
Soviet Union, many in the Muslim world, and
Palestinians. Reasons for opposing Zionism
are varied, and they include: the perception
that land confiscations are unfair; expulsions
of Palestinians; violence against Palestinians;
and alleged racism. Arab states in particular
strongly oppose Zionism, which they believe
is responsible for the 1948 Palestinian exodus.
The preamble of the African Charter on Human
and Peoples' Rights, which has been ratified
by 53 African countries as of 2014, includes
an undertaking to eliminate Zionism together
with other practices including colonialism,
neo-colonialism, apartheid, "aggressive foreign
military bases" and all forms of discrimination.Zionism
was also opposed for other reasons by some
Jews even before the establishment of the
state of Israel because "Zionism constitutes
a danger, both spiritual and physical, to
the existence of our people".In 1945 US President
Franklin D Roosevelt met with king Ibn Saud
of Saudi Arabia. Ibn Saud pointed out that
it was Germany who had committed crimes against
the Jews and so Germany should be punished.
Palestinian Arabs had done no harm to European
Jews and did not deserve to be punished by
losing their land. Roosevelt on return to
the US concluded that Israel 'could only be
established and maintained by force', and
that it would have to be a 'land for Jews
only'.
=== Catholic Church and Zionism ===
The initial response of the Catholic Church
seemed to be one of strong opposition to Zionism.
Shortly after the 1897 Basel Conference, the
semi-official Vatican periodical (edited by
the Jesuits) Civiltà Cattolica gave its biblical-theological
judgement on political Zionism: "1827 years
have passed since the prediction of Jesus
of Nazareth was fulfilled ... that [after
the destruction of Jerusalem] the Jews would
be led away to be slaves among all the nations
and that they would remain in the dispersion
[diaspora, galut] until the end of the world."
The Jews should not be permitted to return
to Palestine with sovereignty: "According
to the Sacred Scriptures, the Jewish people
must always live dispersed and vagabondo [vagrant,
wandering] among the other nations, so that
they may render witness to Christ not only
by the Scriptures ... but by their very existence".
Nonetheless, Theodore Herzl travelled to Rome
in late January 1904, after the sixth Zionist
Congress (August 1903) and six months before
his death, looking for some kind of support.
On January 22, Herzl first met the Papal Secretary
of State, Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val. According
to Herzl's private diary notes, the Cardinal's
interpretation of the history of Israel was
the same as that of the Catholic Church, but
he also asked for the conversion of the Jews
to Catholicism. Three days later, Herzl met
Pope Pius X, who replied to his request of
support for a Jewish return to Israel in the
same terms, saying that "we are unable to
favor this movement. We cannot prevent the
Jews from going to Jerusalem, but we could
never sanction it ... The Jews have not recognized
our Lord, therefore we cannot recognize the
Jewish people." In 1922, the same periodical
published a piece by its Viennese correspondent,
"anti-Semitism is nothing but the absolutely
necessary and natural reaction to the Jews'
arrogance... Catholic anti-Semitism - while
never going beyond the moral law - adopts
all necessary means to emancipate the Christian
people from the abuse they suffer from their
sworn enemy". This initial attitude changed
over the next 50 years, until 1997, when at
the Vatican symposium of that year, Pope John
Paul II rejected the Christian roots of antisemitism,
stating that "... the wrong and unjust interpretations
of the New Testament relating to the Jewish
people and their supposed guilt [in Christ's
death] circulated for too long, engendering
sentiments of hostility toward this people."
=== 
Characterization as colonialism or ethnic
cleansing ===
Zionism has been characterized as colonialism,
and Zionism has been criticized for promoting
unfair confiscation of land, involving the
expulsion of, and causing violence towards,
the Palestinians. The characterization of
Zionism as colonialism has been described
by, among others, Nur Masalha, Gershon Shafir,
Michael Prior, Ilan Pappe, and Baruch Kimmerling.Others,
such as Shlomo Avineri and Mitchell Bard,
view Zionism not as colonialist movement,
but as a national movement that is contending
with the Palestinian one. South African rabbi
David Hoffman rejected the claim that Zionism
is a 'settler-colonial undertaking' and instead
characterized Zionism as a national program
of affirmative action, adding that there is
unbroken Jewish presence in Israel back to
antiquity.Noam Chomsky, John P. Quigly, Nur
Masalha, and Cheryl Rubenberg have criticized
Zionism, saying that it unfairly confiscates
land and expels Palestinians.Isaac Deutscher
has called Israelis the 'Prussians of the
Middle East', who have achieved a 'totsieg',
a 'victorious rush into the grave' as a result
of dispossessing 1.5 million Palestinians.
Israel had become the 'last remaining colonial
power' of the twentieth century.Edward Said
and Michael Prior claim that the notion of
expelling the Palestinians was an early component
of Zionism, citing Herzl's diary from 1895
which states "we shall endeavour to expel
the poor population across the border unnoticed—the
process of expropriation and the removal of
the poor must be carried out discreetly and
circumspectly." This quotation has been critiqued
by Efraim Karsh for misrepresenting Herzl's
purpose. He describes it as "a feature of
Palestinian propaganda", writing that Herzl
was referring to the voluntary resettlement
of squatters living on land purchased by Jews,
and that the full diary entry stated, "It
goes without saying that we shall respectfully
tolerate persons of other faiths and protect
their property, their honor, and their freedom
with the harshest means of coercion. This
is another area in which we shall set the
entire world a wonderful example … Should
there be many such immovable owners in individual
areas [who would not sell their property to
us], we shall simply leave them there and
develop our commerce in the direction of other
areas which belong to us." Derek Penslar says
that Herzl may have been considering either
South America or Palestine when he wrote the
diary entry about expropriation. According
to Walter Lacquer, although many Zionists
proposed transfer, it was never official Zionist
policy and in 1918 Ben-Gurion "emphatically
rejected" it.Ilan Pappe argued that Zionism
results in ethnic cleansing. This view diverges
from other New Historians, such as Benny Morris,
who accept the Palestinian exodus narrative
but place it in the context of war, not ethnic
cleansing. When Benny Morris was asked about
the Expulsion of Palestinians from Lydda and
Ramle, he responded "There are circumstances
in history that justify ethnic cleansing.
I know that this term is completely negative
in the discourse of the 21st century, but
when the choice is between ethnic cleansing
and genocide—the annihilation of your people—I
prefer ethnic cleansing."Saleh Abdel Jawad,
Nur Masalha, Michael Prior, Ian Lustick, and
John Rose have criticized Zionism for having
been responsible for violence against Palestinians,
such as the Deir Yassin massacre, Sabra and
Shatila massacre, and Cave of the Patriarchs
massacre.In 1938, Mahatma Gandhi rejected
Zionism, saying that the establishment of
a Jewish national home in Palestine is a religious
act and therefore must not be performed by
force, comparing it to the Partition of India
into Hindu and Muslim countries. He wrote,
"Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same
sense that England belongs to the English
or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman
to impose the Jews on the Arabs ... Surely
it would be a crime against humanity to reduce
the proud Arabs so that Palestine can be restored
to the Jews partly or wholly as their national
home ... They can settle in Palestine only
by the goodwill of the Arabs. They should
seek to convert the Arab heart." Gandhi later
told American journalist Louis Fischer in
1946 that "Jews have a good case in Palestine.
If the Arabs have a claim to Palestine, the
Jews have a prior claim".
=== Characterization as racist ===
David Ben-Gurion stated that "There will be
no discrimination among citizens of the Jewish
state on the basis of race, religion, sex,
or class." Likewise, Vladimir Jabotinsky avowed
"the minority will not be rendered defenseless...
[the] aim of democracy is to guarantee that
the minority too has influence on matters
of state policy."However, critics of Zionism
consider it a colonialist or racist movement.
According to historian Avi Shlaim, throughout
its history up to present day, Zionism "is
replete with manifestations of deep hostility
and contempt towards the indigenous population."
Shlaim balances this by pointing out that
there have always been individuals within
the Zionist movement that have criticized
such attitudes. He cites the example of Ahad
Ha'am, who after visiting Palestine in 1891,
published a series of articles criticizing
the aggressive behaviour and political ethnocentrism
of Zionist settlers. Ha'am wrote that the
Zionists "behave towards the Arabs with hostility
and cruelty, trespass unjustly upon their
boundaries, beat them shamefully without reason
and even brag about it, and nobody stands
to check this contemptible and dangerous tendency"
and that they believed that "the only language
that the Arabs understand is that of force."
Some criticisms of Zionism claim that Judaism's
notion of the "chosen people" is the source
of racism in Zionism, despite, according to
Gustavo Perednik, that being a religious concept
unrelated to Zionism.In December 1973, the
UN passed a series of resolutions condemning
South Africa and included a reference to an
"unholy alliance between Portuguese colonialism,
Apartheid and Zionism." At the time there
was little cooperation between Israel and
South Africa, although the two countries would
develop a close relationship during the 1970s.
Parallels have also been drawn between aspects
of South Africa's apartheid regime and certain
Israeli policies toward the Palestinians,
which are seen as manifestations of racism
in Zionist thinking.In 1975 the UN General
Assembly passed Resolution 3379, which said
"Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination".
According to the resolution, "any doctrine
of racial differentiation of superiority is
scientifically false, morally condemnable,
socially unjust, and dangerous." The resolution
named the occupied territory of Palestine,
Zimbabwe, and South Africa as examples of
racist regimes. Resolution 3379 was pioneered
by the Soviet Union and passed with numerical
support from Arab and African states amidst
accusations that Israel was supportive of
the apartheid regime in South Africa. The
resolution was robustly criticised by the
US representative, Daniel Patrick Moynihan
as an 'obscenity' and a 'harm ... done to
the United Nations'. 'In 1991 the resolution
was repealed with UN General Assembly Resolution
46/86, after Israel declared that it would
only participate in the Madrid Conference
of 1991 if the resolution were revoked.
The United States ... does not acknowledge,
it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce
in this infamous act… The lie is that Zionism
is a form of racism. The overwhelmingly clear
truth is that it is not.
Arab countries sought to associate Zionism
with racism in connection with a 2001 UN conference
on racism, which took place in Durban, South
Africa, which caused the United States and
Israel to walk away from the conference as
a response. The final text of the conference
did not connect Zionism with racism. A human
rights forum arranged in connection with the
conference, on the other hand, did equate
Zionism with racism and censured Israel for
what it called "racist crimes, including acts
of genocide and ethnic cleansing".Supporters
of Zionism, such as Chaim Herzog, argue that
the movement is non-discriminatory and contains
no racist aspects.
=== Haredi Judaism and Zionism ===
Many Haredi Orthodox organizations oppose
Zionism; they view Zionism as a secular movement.
They reject nationalism as a doctrine and
consider Judaism to be first and foremost
a religion that is not dependent on a state.
However, some Haredi movements (such as Shas
since 2010) do openly affiliate with the Zionist
movement.
Haredi rabbis do not consider Israel to be
a halachic Jewish state because it has secular
government. But they take responsibility for
ensuring that Jews maintain religious ideals
and, since most Israeli citizens are Jews,
they pursue this agenda within Israel. Others
reject any possibility of a Jewish state,
since according to them a Jewish state is
completely forbidden by Jewish religious law.
In their view a Jewish state is considered
an oxymoron.
Two Haredi parties run candidates in Israeli
elections. They are sometimes associated with
views that could be regarded as nationalist
or Zionist. They prefer coalitions with more
nationalist Zionist parties, probably because
these are more interested in enhancing the
Jewish nature of the Israeli state. The Sephardi-Orthodox
party Shas rejected association with the Zionist
movement; however, in 2010 it joined the World
Zionist Organization. Its voters generally
identify as Zionist, and Knesset members frequently
pursue what others might consider a Zionist
agenda. Shas has supported territorial compromise
with the Arabs and Palestinians, but it generally
opposes compromise over Jewish holy sites.
The non-Hasidic or 'Lithuanian' Haredi Ashkenazi
world is represented by the Ashkenazi Agudat
Israel/UTJ party. It has always avoided association
with the Zionist movement and usually avoids
voting on or discussing issues related to
peace, because its members do not serve in
the army. The party works to ensure that Israel
and Israeli law are in tune with the halacha,
on issues such as Shabbat rest. The rabbinical
leaders of the so-called Litvishe world in
current and past generations, such as Rabbi
Elazar Menachem Shach and Rabbi Avigdor Miller,
are strongly opposed to all forms of Zionism,
religious and secular. But they allow members
to participate in Israeli political life,
including both passive and active participation
in elections.
Many other Hasidic groups in Jerusalem, most
famously the Satmar Hasidim, as well as the
larger movement they are part of, the Edah
HaChareidis, are strongly anti-Zionist. One
of the best known Hasidic opponents of all
forms of modern political Zionism was Hungarian
rebbe and Talmudic scholar Joel Teitelbaum.
In his view, the current State of Israel is
contrariwise to Judaism, because it was founded
by people who included some anti-religious
personalities, and were in apparent violation
of the traditional notion that Jews should
wait for the Jewish Messiah.
Teitelbaum referred to core citations from
classical Judaic sources in his arguments
against modern Zionism; specifically a passage
in the Talmud, in which Rabbi Yosi b'Rebbi
Hanina explains (Kesubos 111a) that the Lord
imposed "Three Oaths" on the nation of Israel:
a) Israel should not return to the Land together,
by force; b) Israel should not rebel against
the other nations; and c) The nations should
not subjugate Israel too harshly. According
to Teitelbaum, the second oath is relevant
concerning the subsequent wars fought between
Israel and Arab nations.
Other opponent groups among the Edah HaChareidis
were Dushinsky, Toldos Aharon, Toldos Avrohom
Yitzchok, Spinka, and others. They number
in the tens of thousands in Jerusalem, and
hundreds of thousands worldwide.
The Neturei Karta, an Orthodox Haredi religious
movement, strongly oppose Zionism, considering
Israel a "racist regime". They are viewed
as a cult on the "farthest fringes of Judaism"
by most mainstream Jews; the Jewish Virtual
Library puts their numbers at 5,000, but the
Anti-Defamation League estimates that fewer
than 100 members of the community actually
take part in anti-Israel activism. The movement
equates Zionism to Nazism, believes that Zionist
ideology is contrary to the teachings of the
Torah, and also blames Zionism for increases
in antisemitism. Members of Neturei Karta
have a long history of extremist statements
and support for notable anti-Semites and Islamic
extremists.The Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement
traditionally did not identify as Zionist,
but has adopted a Zionist agenda since the
late 20th century, opposing any territorial
compromise in Israel.
=== Anti-Zionism or antisemitism ===
Some critics of anti-Zionism have argued that
opposition to Zionism can be hard to distinguish
from antisemitism, and that criticism of Israel
may be used as an excuse to express viewpoints
that might otherwise be considered antisemitic.
Martin Luther King Jr. condemned anti-Zionism
as antisemitic. Other scholars argue that
certain forms of opposition to Zionism constitute
antisemitism. A number of scholars have argued
that opposition to Zionism or the State of
Israel's policies at the more extreme fringes
often overlaps with antisemitism. In the Arab
world, the words "Jew" and "Zionist" are often
used interchangeably. To avoid accusations
of antisemitism, the Palestine Liberation
Organization has historically avoided using
the word "Jewish" in favor of using "Zionist,"
though PLO officials have sometimes slipped.Some
antisemites have alleged that Zionism was,
or is, part of a Jewish plot to take control
of the world. One particular version of these
allegations, "The Protocols of the Elders
of Zion" (subtitle "Protocols extracted from
the secret archives of the central chancery
of Zion") achieved global notability. The
protocols are fictional minutes of an imaginary
meeting by Jewish leaders of this plot. Analysis
and proof of their fraudulent origin goes
as far back as 1921. A 1920 German version
renamed them "The Zionist Protocols". The
protocols were extensively used as propaganda
by the Nazis and remain widely distributed
in the Arab world. They are referred to in
the 1988 Hamas charter.There are examples
of anti-Zionists using accusations, slanders,
imagery and tactics previously associated
with antisemites. On October 21, 1973, the
then-Soviet ambassador to the United Nations
Yakov Malik declared: "The Zionists have come
forth with the theory of the Chosen People,
an absurd ideology." Similarly, an exhibit
about Zionism and Israel in the former Museum
of Religion and Atheism in Saint Petersburg
designated the following as Soviet Zionist
material: Jewish prayer shawls, tefillin and
Passover Hagaddahs, even though these are
all religious items used by Jews for thousands
of years.On the other hand, anti-Zionist writers
such as Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein,
Michael Marder, and Tariq Ali have argued
that the characterization of anti-Zionism
as antisemitic is inaccurate, that it sometimes
obscures legitimate criticism of Israel's
policies and actions, and that it is sometimes
used as a political ploy in order to stifle
legitimate criticism of Israel.
Professor Noam Chomsky argues: "There have
long been efforts to identify anti-Semitism
and anti-Zionism in an effort to exploit anti-racist
sentiment for political ends; "one of the
chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile
world is to prove that the distinction between
anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction
at all," Israeli diplomat Abba Eban argued,
in a typical expression of this intellectually
and morally disreputable position (Eban, Congress
Bi-Weekly, March 30, 1973). But that no longer
suffices. It is now necessary to identify
criticism of Israeli policies as anti-Semitism
— or in the case of Jews, as "self-hatred,"
so that all possible cases are covered." — Chomsky,
1989 "Necessary Illusions".
Philosopher Michael Marder argues: "To deconstruct
Zionism is ... to demand justice for its victims
- not only for the Palestinians, who are suffering
from it, but also for the anti-Zionist Jews,
"erased" from the officially consecrated account
of Zionist history. By deconstructing its
ideology, we shed light on the context it
strives to repress and on the violence it
legitimises with a mix of theological or metaphysical
reasoning and affective appeals to historical
guilt for the undeniably horrific persecution
of Jewish people in Europe and elsewhere."
American political scientist Norman Finkelstein
argues that anti-Zionism and often just criticism
of Israeli policies have been conflated with
antisemitism, sometimes called new antisemitism
for political gain: "Whenever Israel faces
a public relations débâcle such as the Intifada
or international pressure to resolve the Israel-Palestine
conflict, American Jewish organizations orchestrate
this extravaganza called the 'new anti-Semitism.'
The purpose is several-fold. First, it is
to discredit any charges by claiming the person
is an anti-Semite. It's to turn Jews into
the victims, so that the victims are not the
Palestinians any longer. As people like Abraham
Foxman of the ADL put it, the Jews are being
threatened by a new holocaust. It's a role
reversal — the Jews are now the victims,
not the Palestinians. So it serves the function
of discrediting the people leveling the charge.
It's no longer Israel that needs to leave
the Occupied Territories; it's the Arabs who
need to free themselves of the anti-Semitism.
—
Tariq Ali, a British-Pakistani historian and
political activist, argues that the concept
of new antisemitism amounts to an attempt
to subvert the language in the interests of
the State of Israel. He writes that the campaign
against "the supposed new 'anti-semitism'"
in modern Europe is a "cynical ploy on the
part of the Israeli Government to seal off
the Zionist state from any criticism of its
regular and consistent brutality against the
Palestinians ... Criticism of Israel can not
and should not be equated with anti-semitism."
He argues that most pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist
groups that emerged after the Six-Day War
were careful to observe the distinction between
anti-Zionism and antisemitism. —
== Marcus Garvey and Black Zionism ==
Zionist success in winning British support
for the formation of a Jewish National Home
in Palestine helped inspire the Jamaican Black
nationalist Marcus Garvey to form a movement
dedicated to returning Americans of African
origin to Africa. During a speech in Harlem
in 1920, Garvey stated: "other races were
engaged in seeing their cause through—the
Jews through their Zionist movement and the
Irish through their Irish movement—and I
decided that, cost what it might, I would
make this a favorable time to see the Negro's
interest through." Garvey established a shipping
company, the Black Star Line, to allow Black
Americans to emigrate to Africa, but for various
reasons he failed in his endeavour.
Garvey helped inspire the Rastafari movement
in Jamaica, the Black Jews and the African
Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem who initially
moved to Liberia before settling in Israel.
== See also ==
American Council for Judaism
Gathering of Israel
List of Zionist figures
Yehud Medinata
Jewish Agency for Israel
