What is Zionism?

Zionism is a belief that a Jewish ethno-state should be established in historic Palestine: a land that has at all times since Zionism’s inception had a very substantial non-Jewish population. Zionism is inherently and necessarily racist for that reason, and it is inherently and necessarily settler-colonial in its nature. The racist and colonial logic that sits at the very heart of Zionism necessitates the racist practices that have had, and continue to have, severe consequences for indigenous Palestinians, beginning with the forced expulsion of the majority of the Palestinian population from their homeland in 1948.

How it started

Zionism was founded in 1897 by Moses Hess, Leon Pinsker and Theodor Herzl (aka the “founding father” of Zionism). 

Herzl sought to nationalise Judaism, by establishing a ‘‘Jewish ethno-state” through the mass emigration of European Jewish settlers to Palestine. Herzl presented Zionism as a civilising mission “To Europe we would represent a part of the barrier against Asia; we would serve as the outpost of civilisation against barbarism” (Theodor Herzl, The Jews’ State (first published 1896, tr Henk Overberg, Rowman and Littlefield Publishers 1997), p. 149.)

in 1941, Ben-Gurion said, “It is impossible to imagine general evacuation [of Palestinians from the land] without compulsion, and brutal compulsion”. Nur Masalha (n 17), p. 19. This plan was put into action in 1948 during the Nakba, which resulted in the expulsion of 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland.

The Zionist movement and its leaders, even before the creation of the State of Israel, have been maximalist and extreme in their desire to colonise the entire land of historic Palestine and to transfer the indigenous population out (through brutal practices like ethnic cleansing and apartheid) to make way for Jewish settlers. This reality is recognised by all of the major Israeli historians of the creation of the State of Israel, including Benny Morris, Avi Shlaim and Ilan Pappé.

Zionism requires not only the oppression of Palestinians, but also coercion of non-Palestinians who oppose the racist practices of the State of Israel. 

Zionism has been forced to rebrand itself in order to survive; rather than being a colonial endeavour, it is now emphasised by Zionist thinkers as being a vehicle for self-determination in the same vein as the anti-colonial national liberation movements of the 60s and 70s. Despite this rebrand, Zionism remains a racist, settler-colonial ideology, as is apparent from Israel’s ongoing settlement of Palestinian lands in the West Bank.

Zionism outside of Palestine

The Transnational Zionist movement is a key supporting element of the continued ethnic cleansing in Palestine. This movement, and its allied constellation of organisations, seeks to pressure, censor and suppress critics of Israel.

Israel’s Law of Return, which was passed by the Knesset in 1950, allows Jews from outside of Israel, who have no material or ancestral ties to historic Palestine, to migrate to the State of Israel, at the expense of indigenous Palestinians who were expelled from their homes in the war of 1948 (or since) who are not permitted to return (and whose return was, in fact, prohibited by law in 1952). All of this flows directly from the logic of Zionism.

Zionism is Racist and Islamophobic 

Zionism is an inherently racist movement because of its ideological and practical commitment to settler-colonialism. This necessitates racist practices that have had, and continue to have, severe consequences for indigenous Palestinians.

Parts of the Zionist movement are actively engaged in fomenting Islamophobia. Zionist campaigners often rely on narratives about “Palestinian terrorism”, “Islamism” and the “threat” posed by Muslim political activism as justifications for the State of Israel’s existence.

In April 1905, Zionist leader Israel Zangwill, when referring to Palestine at a talk in Manchester, England said, “[We] must be prepared….to drive out by the sword the [Arab] tribes in possession…or to grapple with the problem of a large alien population, mostly Mohammedan” Nur Masalha, The Politics of Denial: Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Problem (Pluto Press 2003), p. 15. The question of “what to do” with the largely Muslim indigenous Palestinian population became of greater concern to Zionist leaders, and eventually they formed plans to “transfer” them out of Palestine.

Zionism necessitates, as a matter of principle, the forced removal of the indigenous people of Palestine and thus of it’s practically racist character. It necessarily calls for the displacement and disenfranchisement of non-Jews in favour of Jews, and it is therefore ideologically bound to lead to the practices of apartheid,(Al-Haq, ‘Israeli Apartheid: Tool of Zionist Settler Colonialism’ (29 November 2022); Amnesty International, ‘Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity’ (1 February 2022); B’Tselem, ‘A Regime of Jewish Supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This Is Apartheid’ (12 January 2021); Human Rights Watch, ‘A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution’ (27 April 2021).) ethnic cleansing, and genocide (Alicia Cox, ‘Settler Colonialism’ Oxford Bibliographies (26 July 2017) accessed 5 May 2023.) in pursuit of territorial control and expansion.

Zionism remains, today, a colonial project which necessitates the oppression of the Palestinian population that remain within the territory, that formerly comprised the mandate of Palestine (that is, modern-day Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the West Bank and Gaza Strip).

Successive Israeli regimes have engaged in ethnic cleansing against Palestinians with the aim of solidifying the “Jewish ethno-nationalist nature of the Zionist state. The Zionist mission, therefore, has always operated on the basis that Jewish settlers must continue to arrive in historic Palestine to take the place of indigenous Palestinians, expanding Zionist control over Palestinian territory. The fundamental premise of Zionism, which is colonisation of historic Palestine, therefore, is racist in nature.

What has it got to do with us? Britain’s role in Palestine

The Balfour Declaration (“Balfour’s promise” in Arabic) was a public pledge by Britain in 1917 declaring its aim to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. The statement came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead of the British Jewish community.

The Balfour Declaration, which resulted in a significant upheaval in the lives of Palestinians, was issued on November 2, 1917. The declaration turned the Zionist aim of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine into a reality when Britain publicly pledged to establish “a national home for the Jewish people” there.

The pledge is generally viewed as one of the main catalysts of the Nakba– the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948 – and the conflict that ensued with the Zionist State of Israel. (Aljazeera.com)

A Jewish state in Palestine would, Herzl asserted: “create new trade routes – and none will be more interested in this than England with its Asiatic possessions. The shortest route to India lies through Palestine …And so I should think that here in England, the Zionist idea, which is a colonial one, should be easily and quickly understood”. Nora Scholtes (n 12), pp. 2-3.

In 1937, the Peel Commission – a British Royal Commission established in 1936 to investigate unrest in Mandatory Palestine – proposed a partition plan. In the eyes of Zionist leaders David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, this constituted “a stepping stone to some further expansion and the eventual takeover of the whole of Palestine”. Ben-Gurion, who later became the first Prime Minister of the State of Israel, was willing to accept a partitioned state because, “Establishing a [small] state … will serve as a very potent lever in our historical efforts to redeem the whole country”. Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2002 (Vintage Books 2001), p. 138.

Zionism is not Judaism and Judaism not Zionism 

Unfortunately, Zionism has, purposefully, been conflated with Judaism, and anti-Zionism with anti-semitism in an attempt to disable criticism of Israel.

‘The Zionist “logic” in conflating anti-semitism with anti-Zionism is that people criticise Israel, not because of what Israel does but because it is a Jewish state. This is the new anti-semitism.’ (Ref; ‘Israel now the new among the nations, says Abe Foxman,’ JC 26.12.17 https://tinyurl/y6nvoa8j) excerpt from ‘Zionism During The Holocaust’ by Tony Greenstein.

Judaism is a religion and is 3000+ years old. It is one of the 3 Abrahamic faiths, the other 2 being Christianity and Islam. All 3 religions adhere to the 10 commandments, whilst Judaism and Islam have many similarities. No doubt, this was likely the reason so many Jews fleeing persecution from European countries found sanctuary, acceptance and prosperity in many of the Muslim ruled lands over several hundreds years.

Zionism is the nationalisation of the Jewish identity and a political ideology. It is a little over 100 years old. Many zionists are atheists, though some are Jewish, some Christian and Muslim Zionists also exist. They believe in the ‘Jewish State’ and that Israel has a ‘right to exist’.

Some orthodox Jewish groups do not believe in the state of Israel and that this goes against the teachings of Judaism for example Neturei Karta.

Is being Anti-Zionist the same as being anti-Semitic?

No. Anti-Zionism stands as the antithesis of the racist Zionist movement, calling for an end to the practises of apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide against the Palestinian people, and calling for the liberation and decolonisation of Palestine. Settler-colonialism is not a particular practice of Jewish people. Settler-colonialism is an intrinsic aspect of “the” State of Israel, which makes the state a racist endeavour that should be opposed.

Despite (and, probably, because of) the egregious and obvious nature of Israel’s abuses of the Palestinian people, pro-Israel Zionist propagandists have spent an inordinate amount of time and money to seek to delegitimise and discredit anti-Zionism as a belief system, in order to shield their ideology from its deserved ignominy.(Antony Lerman, Whatever Happened to Antisemitism?: Redefinition and the Myth of the ‘Collective Jew’ (Pluto Press 2022), p. 262.)

As a result, today, when Israel advocates say “antisemitism”, they very often mean anti-Zionism rather than the malicious intolerance or hatred of Jews as Jews. As Israeli Professor Avi Shlaim – former Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford – has explained:

“Israeli propagandists deliberately, yes deliberately, conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism in order to discredit, bully, and muzzle critics of Israel; in order to suppress free speech; and in order to divert attention from the real issues: Israeli colonialism; Israel’s apartheid; its systematic violation of the human rights of Palestinians; and its denial of their right to independence and statehood. The propagandists persistently present an anti-racist movement (anti-Zionism) as a racist one (anti-Semitism).” (Shlaim, ‘Anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism in British politics’ Al Jazeera (12 January 2017 accessed 8 May 2023.)

Can you agree with parts of Zionism and still be pro Palestinian?

The idea of a non-racist Zionism is, however, hypothetical: it is outside the realm of actual history and at odds with existing Zionist ideology. Herzl said openly in The Jewish State that the state he wished to conceive was for European colonists and must be created somewhere that is comfortable for their sensibilities rather than a wild expanse of land. He suggested that were a patch of suitable land to be found, for example, “natives” might be put to work draining swamps (During his trip to Palestine in 1898, Herzl said that “large-scale drainage operations and the elimination of swamps … could make [Palestine] habitable [for Europeans]” and that, “Such Arabs as are immune to the fever might be used for the work”. See, Theodor Herzl (n 16), pp. 92-3.) and killing snakes on behalf of these European colonists with promises of future employment in a land to which they would later be deported.