Zionism: Difference between revisions

[[File:Theodor Herzl.jpg|thumb|right|[[Theodor Herzl]] was the founder of the modern Zionist movement. In his 1896 pamphlet {{Lang|de|[[Der Judenstaat]]}}, he envisioned the founding of a future independent Jewish state during the 20th century.]]

 

 

Zionism initially emerged in [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] as a [[national revival]] movement in the late 19th century, in reaction to newer waves of [[antisemitism]] and as a consequence of the [[Haskalah]], or Jewish Enlightenment.<ref name="Conforti 2024"/><ref name="Shillony2012">{{cite book|author=Ben-Ami Shillony|author-link=Ben-Ami Shillony|title=Jews & the Japanese: The Successful Outsiders|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OvzPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88|year=2012|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|isbn=978-1-4629-0396-2|page=88|quote=(Zionism) arose in response to and in imitation of the current national movements of Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe|access-date=November 21, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181225204640/https://books.google.com/books?id=OvzPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA88|archive-date=December 25, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="LeVineMossberg2014">{{cite book|last1=LeVine|first1=Mark|last2=Mossberg|first2=Mathias|title=One Land, Two States: Israel and Palestine as Parallel States|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vnVAAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA211|year=2014|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-95840-1|page=211|quote=The parents of Zionism were not Judaism and tradition, but anti-Semitism and nationalism. The ideals of the [[French Revolution]] spread slowly across Europe, finally reaching the [[Pale of Settlement]] in the [[Russian Empire]] and helping to set off the [[Haskalah]], or Jewish Enlightenment. This engendered a permanent split in the Jewish world, between those who held to a halachic or religious-centric vision of their identity and those who adopted in part the racial rhetoric of the time and made the Jewish people into a nation. This was helped along by the wave of [[pogrom]]s in [[Eastern Europe]] that set two million Jews to flight; most wound up in [[United States|America]], but some chose Palestine. A driving force behind this was the [[Hovevei Zion]] movement, which worked from 1882 to develop a Hebrew identity that was distinct from [[Judaism]] as a religion.|access-date=March 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117165546/https://books.google.com/books?id=vnVAAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA211|archive-date=November 17, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Gelvin2014">{{cite book|last=Gelvin|first=James L.|title=The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GDaZAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA93|year=2014|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-47077-4|page=93|quote=The fact that [[Palestinian nationalism]] developed later than Zionism and indeed in response to it does not in any way diminish the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or make it less valid than Zionism. All nationalisms arise in opposition to some "other". Why else would there be the need to specify who you are? And all nationalisms are defined by what they oppose. As we have seen, Zionism itself arose in reaction to anti-Semitic and exclusionary nationalist movements in Europe. It would be perverse to judge Zionism as somehow less valid than European anti-Semitism or those nationalisms. Furthermore, Zionism itself was also defined by its opposition to the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants of the region. Both the "conquest of land" and the "conquest of labor" slogans that became central to the dominant strain of Zionism in the [[Yishuv]] originated as a result of the Zionist confrontation with the Palestinian "other".|access-date=March 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117183517/https://books.google.com/books?id=GDaZAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA93|archive-date=November 17, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> During this period, Palestine [[Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem|was part]] of the [[Ottoman Empire]].<ref name="RCohen">{{cite book |last=Cohen |first=Robin |url=https://archive.org/details/cambridgesurveyo00robi |title=The Cambridge Survey of World Migration |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-521-44405-7 |page=[https://archive.org/details/cambridgesurveyo00robi/page/504 504] |quote=Zionism Colonize palestine. |url-access=registration}}</ref><ref name="JGelvin">{{cite book |last=Gelvin |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5FwAT5fx03IC&q=the%20Basel%20program%20colonisation%20of%20Palestine&pg=PA52 |title=The Israel–Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-521-88835-6 |edition=2nd |page=51 |access-date=February 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170220003633/https://books.google.com/books?id=5FwAT5fx03IC&lpg=PA52&dq=the%20Basel%20program%20colonisation%20of%20Palestine&pg=PA52 |archive-date=February 20, 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Ilan Pappe, ''The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine'', 2006, pp. 10–11</ref> The arrival of Zionist settlers to Palestine during this period is widely seen as the start of the [[Israeli–Palestinian conflict]]. Throughout the first decade of the Zionist movement, some Zionist figures, including [[Theodor Herzl]], supported alternative options to Palestine in several places such as "[[Uganda Scheme|Uganda]]" (actually parts of [[British East Africa]] today in [[Kenya]]), [[Argentina]], [[Cyprus]], [[Mesopotamia]], [[Mozambique]], and the [[Sinai Peninsula]],<ref name="Rovner2014" /> but this was rejected by most of the movement. This process was seen by the emerging Zionist movement as an "[[Gathering of Israel|ingathering of exiles]]" (''kibbutz galuyot''), an effort to put a stop to the exoduses and persecutions that have marked [[Jewish history]] by bringing the Jewish people back to their [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|historic homeland]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Gamlen|first=Alan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1iCWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA57|title=Human Geopolitics: States, Emigrants, and the Rise of Diaspora Institutions|year=2019|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-883349-9|language=en|access-date=March 2, 2021|archive-date=January 11, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111180739/https://books.google.com/books?id=1iCWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA57#v=onepage&q&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

 

 

The term "Zionism" has been applied to various approaches to addressing issues faced by European Jews in the late 19th century.<ref name="Derek J. Penslar">{{cite book|author=Derek J. Penslar|title=Zionism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PvJnzwEACAAJ&pg=PA|year=2023|publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-7609-1|pages=}}</ref> Modern political Zionism, different from [[Religious Zionism|religious Zionism]], is a movement made up of diverse political groups whose strategies and tactics have changed over time. The common ideology among mainstream Zionist factions is support for territorial concentration and a Jewish demographic majority in Palestine, through [[aliyah]], [[colonization]]<ref>'Should the powers show themselves willing to grant us sovereignty over a neutral land, then the Society will enter into negotiations for the possession of this land. Here two regions come to mind: Palestine and Argentina. Significant experiments in colonization have been made in both countries, though on the mistaken principle of gradual infiltration of Jews. Infiltration is bound to end badly.'(b) 'Only settlement on a grand scale would bring about a solution to the Jewish problem: the Jews must colonize rather than infiltrate and assimilate. This principle was similar to the assertions of Herzl or Zangwill.' [[Theodor Herzl]] cited in Gur Alroey, [ http://www.jstor.com/stable/10.2979/jewisocistud.18.1.1 “Zionism without Zion”? Territorialist Ideology and the Zionist Movement, 1882–1956,'] [[Jewish Social Studies]] , Fall 2011, Vol. 18, No. 1 pp. 1-32, p.5, p.20</ref>, and gaining international acceptance. The Zionist mainstream has historically included [[Liberal Zionism|liberal]], [[Labor Zionism|labor]], [[Revisionist Zionism|revisionist]], and [[Cultural Zionism|cultural Zionism]], while groups like [[Brit Shalom (political organization)|Brit Shalom]] and [[Ihud]] have been dissident factions within the movement.<ref name="Yosef Gorni">{{cite book|author=Yosef Gorni|title=Zionism and the Arabs, 1882-1948: A Study of Ideology|date=1987 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=crHjZnRmWhgC&pg=PA|publisher=Clarendon Press, 1987 |isbn=978-0-19-822721-2|pages=}}</ref> Different Zionist groups adopted similar political strategies and approaches in their interactions with the local Palestinian Arab population and their future in the Jewish state.<ref name="Shlomo Ben-Ami">{{cite book|author=Shlomo Ben-Ami|title=Scars of War, Wounds of Peace|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x72ZEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA3|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-532542-3|pages=3}}</ref><ref name="lap shapira">{{cite book|author=Anita Shapira|title=Land and Power|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EdhtAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA|year=1992|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-506104-8|pages=}}</ref><ref name="ft chomsky">{{cite book|author=Noam Chomsky|title=Fateful Triangle|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aHphMCIkhK0C&pg=PA|year=1999|publisher=Pluto Press |isbn=978-0-7453-1530-0|pages=}}</ref><ref name="pwh Ben-Ami">{{cite book|author=Shlomo Ben-Ami|title=Prophets Without Honor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hnhXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2022|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-006047-3|pages=}}</ref><ref name="Avi Shlaim"/> Advocates of Zionism have viewed it as a national [[liberation movement]] for the [[repatriation]] of an [[Indigenous peoples|indigenous people]] (which were subject to [[persecution]] and share a [[national identity]] through [[National identity#National consciousness|national consciousness]]), to the [[homeland]] of their [[ancestor]]s as noted in [[History of ancient Israel and Judah|ancient history]].<ref name="Volume13">''Israel Affairs''. Volume 13, Issue 4, 2007 – Special Issue: ''Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israel Conflict – De-Judaizing the Homeland: Academic Politics in Rewriting the History of Palestine''. S. Ilan Troen</ref><ref name="RanA">{{cite journal|first1=Ran|last1=Aaronson|year=1996|title=Settlement in Eretz Israel – A Colonialist Enterprise? "Critical" Scholarship and Historical Geography|journal=Israel Studies|volume=1|issue=2|pages=214–229|publisher=Indiana University Press|url=https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:8aPWE9P5iBoJ:130.102.44.246/journals/israel_studies/v001/1.2aaronsohn.pdf+&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiwmLNEhH3wwj1Tc0SKIwNXDI7Vn61MevIJkvxNF7UjJdGkVHTlf7yJcPdkujhi-GXEoUsSGjB8Y-cNtoc3AbqZP6uxc2NHFe9R1__kxvACSBMsGtcH4nYZmB5e8gSAdgbH_QT6&sig=AHIEtbSHallbycXdF9sWjGjOU4lvf4a6Og |access-date=July 30, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131221012913/https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache%3A8aPWE9P5iBoJ%3A130.102.44.246%2Fjournals%2Fisrael_studies%2Fv001%2F1.2aaronsohn.pdf+&hl=en&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiwmLNEhH3wwj1Tc0SKIwNXDI7Vn61MevIJkvxNF7UjJdGkVHTlf7yJcPdkujhi-GXEoUsSGjB8Y-cNtoc3AbqZP6uxc2NHFe9R1__kxvACSBMsGtcH4nYZmB5e8gSAdgbH_QT6&sig=AHIEtbSHallbycXdF9sWjGjOU4lvf4a6Og |archive-date=December 21, 2013 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ZiBri">"Zionism and British imperialism II: Imperial financing in Palestine", ''Journal of Israeli History: Politics, Society, Culture''. Volume 30, Issue 2, 2011. pp. 115–139. Michael J. Cohen</ref> Similarly, anti-Zionism has many aspects, which include criticism of Zionism as a [[colonialist]],<ref name="CHARCOL" /> [[Zionist racism|racist]],<ref name="CHARRAS" /> or [[exceptionalist]] ideology or as a [[settler colonialism|settler colonialist]] movement.<ref>See for example: M. Shahid Alam (2010), ''Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism Paperback'', or [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-gouldwartofsky/through-the-looking-glass_b_596704.html? "Through the Looking Glass: The Myth of Israeli Exceptionalism"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921234330/http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-gouldwartofsky/through-the-looking-glass_b_596704.html |date=September 21, 2017 }}, ''Huffington Post''</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Nur Masalha|title=The Bible and Zionism: Invented Traditions, Archaeology and Post-Colonialism in Palestine- Israel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LAUeWo8NDK4C&pg=PA314|year=2007|publisher=Zed Books|isbn=978-1-84277-761-9|page=314|access-date=February 19, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170112015208/https://books.google.com/books?id=LAUeWo8NDK4C&pg=PA314|archive-date=January 12, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="CurthoysGanguly2007">{{cite book|author1=Ned Curthoys|author2=Debjani Ganguly|title=Edward Said: The Legacy of a Public Intellectual|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=crIxjc564_AC&pg=PA315|access-date=May 12, 2013|year=2007|publisher=Academic Monographs|isbn=978-0-522-85357-5|page=315|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170112033221/https://books.google.com/books?id=crIxjc564_AC&pg=PA315|archive-date=January 12, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Kīfūrkiyān2009">{{cite book|author=Nādira Shalhūb Kīfūrkiyān|title=Militarization and Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East: A Palestinian Case-Study |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ka2AmZw3YIC&pg=PA9 |access-date=May 12, 2013|year=2009|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-88222-4|page=9 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140502223201/http://books.google.com/books?id=_ka2AmZw3YIC&pg=PA9 |archive-date=May 2, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="SchamSalem2005">{{cite book|author1=Paul Scham|author2=Walid Salem|author3=Benjamin Pogrund |title=Shared Histories: A Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c-cviX0c63YC&pg=PA87|access-date=May 12, 2013 |date=2005|publisher=Left Coast Press|isbn=978-1-59874-013-4|pages=87–|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140107235523/http://books.google.com/books?id=c-cviX0c63YC&pg=PA87|archive-date=January 7, 2014|url-status=live}}</ref> Proponents of Zionism do not necessarily reject the characterization of Zionism as settler-colonial or exceptionalist.<ref>{{cite book |author=Morris |first=Benny |author-link=Benny Morris |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CC7381HrLqcC&pg=PA |title=1948: A History of the First Arab–Israeli War |date=October 2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-14524-3 |pages=3 |quote=But once there, the settlers could not avoid noticing the majority native population. It was from them, as two of the first settlers put it, that 'we shall... take away the country... through stratagems, without drawing upon us their hostility before we become the strong and populous ones.'}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Jabotinsky |first=Ze'ev |author-link=Ze'ev Jabotinsky |date=4 November 1923 |title=The Iron Wall |url=http://en.jabotinsky.org/media/9747/the-iron-wall.pdf |pages=6–7 |quote=It does not matter at all which phraseology we employ in explaining our colonising aims, Herzl's or Sir Herbert Samuel's. Colonisation carries its own explanation, the only possible explanation, unalterable and as clear as daylight to every ordinary Jew and every ordinary Arab... Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=G. Finkelstein |first=Norman |author-link=Norman Finkelstein |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vNb5VkyxDlYC |title=Image and reality of the Israel-Palestine conflict |publisher=Verso Books |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-85984-442-7 |pages=109 |quote=The ‘defensive ethos’ was never the operative ideology of mainstream Zionism. From beginning to end, Zionism was a conquest movement. The subtitle of Shapira’s study is ‘The Zionist Resort to Force’. Yet, Zionism did not ‘resort’ to force. Force was – to use Shapira’s apt phrase in her conclusion – ‘inherent in the situation’ (p. 357). Gripped by messianism after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the Zionist movement sought to conquer Palestine with a Jewish Legion under the slogan ‘In blood and fire shall Judea rise again’ (pp. 83–98). When these apocalyptic hopes were dispelled and displaced by the mundane reality of the British Mandate, mainstream Zionism made a virtue of necessity and exalted labor as it proceeded to conquer Palestine ‘dunum by dunum, goat by goat’. Force had not been abandoned, however. Shapira falsely counterposes settlement (‘by virtue of labor’) to force (‘by dint of conquest’). Yet, settlement was force by other means. Its purpose, in Shapira’s words, was to build a ‘Jewish infrastructure in Palestine’ so that ‘the balance of power between Jews and Arabs had shifted in favor of the former’ (pp. 121, 133; cf. p. 211). To the call of a Zionist leader on the morrow of Tel Hai that ‘we must be a force in the land’, Shapira adds the caveat: ‘He was not referring to military might but, rather, to power in the sense of demography and colonization’ (p. 113). Yet, Shapira willfully misses the basic point that ‘demography and colonization’ were equally force. Moreover, without the ‘foreign bayonets’ of the British Mandate, the Zionist movement could not have established even a toehold, let alone struck deep roots, in Palestine. Toward the end of the 1930s and especially after World War II, a concatenation of events – Britain’s waning commitment to the Balfour Declaration, the escalation of Arab resistance, the strengthening of the Yishuv, etc. – caused a consensus to crystallize within the Zionist movement that the time was ripe to return to the original strategy of conquering Palestine ‘by blood and fire’.}}</ref>