Letâs Talk About Zionism
off the back of a discussion that happened on facebook I wanted to compile some examples of different Jewish perspectives I knew on how they relate to âzionismâ. Mainly to highlight that 1. this is a Jewish word the precludes any aspect of the modern state of Israel. 2. Jews are not monolith, and thus just because you know one accepted way a Jew relates to it, doesnât mean you have the whole picture. & 3. (probably the most important one) that there is a systematic cross purposes happening when you have groups of activists who have only come across the word âzionismâ or âzionistâ inside the strict paradigm of acceptable I/P conflict discourse. (By which I mean, where pro-Palestine western discourse has dominated the definition of this word by unilaterally equating it with complicity, support & tolerance of violence against Palestinians).Â
âIâm a Zionist..â what it could mean when a Jewish person says this:
1. Iâm saying this because I support the state of Israel, including its policy and sanctions against the Palestinians, and believe that the modern state of Israel should expand and control all territories.
2. Iâm saying this because even though I do not support the modern state of Israel, and I abhor what is happening to the Palestinians, I believe that the Jews who currently live there should not be forced to leave.Â
3. I believe in the Jewish right for self determination, that is my end goal but I truly wish it could be established in a way that brings solace to both the Palestinians and the Jews who currently live there. I am open to a one state or two state solution as long as the end goal is a homeland for the Jewish people and the end of mistreatment against Palestinians.
4. Iâm saying this because my family were forced out of Egypt/Yemen/another mena country, and to suggest that we have to go back to the people who mistreated us is violent, and thus the treatment of Palestinians can only get better when mena countries end their own antisemitism.
5. I donât support the modern state of Israel, or the politics, however Iâm a religious Jew who believes in the commandment of not âinsultingâ Israel, and using the term zionism best encapsulates that for me.Â
6. This word represents revolutionary unity between Jews in the face of antisemitism as codified by Herzl (& others), even though I reject most ways in which it is used now by the modern state of Israel, it is an important and historic word to my people in a political manner and I refuse to give it up.Â
7. I am very critical of the Israeli government, and I wish (although I donât always know how) for peace and better living standards for Palestinians, simultaneously however Israel is the epicentre of the Jewish world (even if Iâve never been there) and I donât think modern politics can detract from that.
8. I never use to use the word zionist but ever since the UN ruled antisemitic and ahistorical statements denying the Jewish history in Israel I realised that anti-zionism is in fact often antisemitic, for me it is only by working with other zionists that we can change the future of Israel to a more peaceful one.
9. I plan to make aliyah one day, this doesnât mean I agree with everything the government is doing or that it is fair that the Palestinians have had to suffer. I still plan to join the Jewish nation and be able to live religiously near our ancient sites.
10. There are pogroms/riots against Jews/âanti-Israelâ demonstrations that chant things like âgas the Jewsâ where I live right now. I never planned to go to Israel but I am now. It is sad that me & my community are giving up our diaspora community, I am glad Israel exist for us to flee to.
11. Since the diaspora community in [x] (for example, Yemen) has been completed obliterated in the face of violence and forced conversion to Islam, even though I donât live in Israel I believe itâd be wrong to not support it as that is the only place where my familyâs culture still exists through no fault of their own. To me the Jews didnât create Israel, they were forced there & thus itâs insulting that we are treated as the âone true oppressorsâ in this discourse.
12. I have family in Israel, to not be a zionist would be saying I want them to be harmed/that if they were murdered that would be just.Â
13. Because so many Jews were forced to flee their countries into Israel, to not be a zionist would be saying I think they deserve to be made into refugees/sent back to countries that seek to enact violence on them. That doesnât mean I support the government of Israel however.
14. I am a convert and part of my conversion meant joining a community that sees Israel as their ancestral homeland. Calling myself a zionist helps me feel close to me (new) identity and is my personal tie to this history.Â
15. I am Israeli, no matter what I believe politically this inherently makes me a zionist because I live here & do not wish to be murdered here.Â
âIâm Not a ZionistâŚâ this could mean any of the following:
1. I do not support the state of Israel, although I of course donât want the Jews living there to be ethnically cleansed, the most important thing is to focus on the plight of Palestinians right now.
2. I love Israel, and I fully support the state of Israel including its sanctions against the Palestinians because I believe thatâs the only way to keep hamas at bay - who themselves enact violence against Palestinians - Iâm not a zionist though as I never plan to make aliyah.
3. I have visited Israel/plan to visit Israel & I see it as a Jewish historical place, I donât feel like I know enough about politics though to have an informed opinion on it though, and I am sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. For this reason I just tend to say Iâm not a zionist.
4. I used to call myself an anti-zionist but have since realised that anti-zionism is a movement entrenched in antisemitism and after being systematically abused and belittled for merely being a Jew - even when I openly said Iâm anti-zionist - I have given up the title & now say non-zionist.
5. I believe in the Jewish homeland, and that it should be Israel. One part because it is our ancestral home, another part because thatâs where Jews live now. I donât support the actions of the government however, so I choose not to call myself a zionist in light of that.Â
6. I am really tired of being dragged into the I/P debate just because Iâm a Jew, so I say this to try and get goyim to leave me alone.Â
7. I think the time of the usefulness of the word âzionismâ is over, and instead we should be looking at the viability of a bi-national state.Â
8. I support the right for Jewish self determination, and that Israel is our ancestral homeland, furthermore I think that modern pro-Palestinian activism is often antisemitic and ignores the fact that destabilising Israel will lead to a genocide of the Jewish people who live there. However, many people who use the term zionist are racist/believe things I donât believe in, so I donât associate with that word.
9. Iâm frum* and to me zionism is a secular word and movement that I donât associate with, this doesnât really tell you anything about my politics however. (**note to goyim: frum means âreligiousâ in yiddish, but is better translated as part of a community that strictly observes religious law.)
10. I am Israeli, I donât need to be zionist as I just have political opinions about my country. Zionism is more for people in diaspora.
âIâm anti-ZionismâŚâ this could mean:
1. I do not support the modern state of Israel, I donât support people who do, I actively fight the political movement of zionism & would be happy to see âIsraelâ dismantled and Palestine returned.
2. I believe in the Jewish history and ties to Israel, and I also understand why it was created, but for me Zionism stands for enacting violence on Palestinians and thus I will actively fight against it.Â
3. Although I am not wholly comfortable with the term, I use anti-Zionist as goyishe activists would probably throw me out of left wing movements if I donât constantly prove that Iâm not a zionist.Â
4. I am Israeli, thus when I say Iâm anti-Zionist I obviously am not saying I want Israel to be dismantled, or for Israelis to be harmed, I am instead saying something about the political rights of Palestinians.
5. I think Zionism has come to dominate too much of the Jewish identity, for that sake I distance myself from it. This doesnât say very much about my political opinions.
6. I donât want Israel to be destroyed, and I fear for the lives of Jews who live in diaspora and may not be able to flee there if Israel were to change, I am also fearful for the lives of Israelis as Israelâs neighbours have often promised death upon them and hamasâ charter has been one of wishing genocide upon Jews. However, I donât ever want to go to Israel myself, I donât agree with the government, and in any way I can I support the pro-Palestinian activism.Â
7. Everything about Israel makes me really embarrassed and angry, I wish Israel would stop its violent actions as in the long run it is Jews like me in diaspora that face the brunt of it.Â
8. It makes me really angry that right wing politicians and bigots can be antisemitic and even enact/incite violence against Jews, but just because they âsupport Israelâ Jewish safety is ignored by the left, and many Jewish institutions will ignore them in hopes of not rocking the boat.Â
9. To me it is a simple binary: do you accept what the modern state of Israel is doing now? If yes: youâre a zionist. If no, youâre an anti-zionist. I fall on the latter, but that doesnât actually tell you about the other layers of opinion I may have.Â
To write this I genuinely just ran through all my Jewish friends and tried to summarise their position and sort it into the three headings. As you can see, from just one British Jew in London, I rub shoulders with a multitude of opinions, feelings & perspectives on Israel. And none of these are even supposed to adequately sum up even one Jewâs feelings on the place Israel or the word zionism.Â
Hopefully those reading will see why I get so frustrated when they assume that Jews are either sharing the same opinion on the word zionism, or that they are talking about the same thing Jews are when we use it.Â
Finally I will say: zionism is a Jewish word, for my own sake I have a complicated and not particularly happy relationship with it. However, I donât believe any non-Jew have the right to take away the Jewish control over its definitions. This is especially the case as âzionistâ is more easily used as a placeholder for Jew, to the extent that the stormfront created âzioâ was in fact common place in âanti-zionistâ spaces for a long time & used even by âwokeâ leftists. Asking goyim to stop using zionism as a catch all term to rile against in regards to Israel doesnât detract anything from pro-Palestinian activism, the activism itself is still there unless your support for Palestinians was just preformative, to show off your âwokenessâ or worse: because youâre explicitly or latently antisemitic and donât want to give up the âacceptableâ means of manifesting that.Â
