Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl ' onMouseout='HidePop("45870")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Der_Judenstaat">ideology
Der Judenstaat is a book written by Theodor Herzl and published in 1896 in Leipzig and Vienna by M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung...
and practical urgency, leading to the
first congressThe First Zionist Congress is the name given to the congress held in Basel , Switzerland, from August 29 to August 31 1897. It was the first congress of the Zionist Organization . It was called forand chaired by Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism...
at
BaselBasel is Switzerland's third most populous city . With 830000 inhabitants in the tri-national metropolitan area , Basel is Switzerland's second-largest urban area....
in 1897, which created the
World Zionist OrganizationThe World Zionist Organization , or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization , or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland; it changed its name to World Zionist Organization in January 1960.The ZO served as an umbrella organization for...
(WZO).
[Zionism & The British In Palestine, by Sethi, Arjun (University of Maryland) January 2007, accessed May 20, 2007.] Herzl's aim was to initiate necessary preparatory steps for the attainment of a Jewish state. Herzl’s attempts to reach a political agreement with the
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
rulers of Palestine were unsuccessful and other governmental support was sought. The WZO supported small-scale settlement in Palestine and 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 ("
pogromA pogrom is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers...
s") was widely regarded as the historic enemy of the Jewish people. As much of its leadership were German speakers, the Zionist movement's headquarters were located in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
. At the start of the First World War, most Jews (and Zionists) supported Germany in its war with Russia.
Lobbying by a Russian Jewish immigrant,
Chaim WeizmannChaim Azriel Weizmann, , was a Zionist leader, President of the World Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952. Weizmann was also a chemist who developed a new process of producing acetone through...
and fear that American Jews would encourage the USA to support Germany culminated in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 by the British government. This endorsed the creation of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine. In addition, a Zionist military corps led by Jabotinsky were recruited to fight on behalf of Britain in Palestine. In 1922, the
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
adopted the declaration in the Mandate it gave to Britain:
Weizmann's role in obtaining the Balfour Declaration led to his election as the movement's leader. He remained in that role until 1948.
The British Mandate caused greater Jewish migration to Palestine and massive Jewish land purchases from feudal landlords, which created landlessness and fueled unrest (often led by the same landlords who sold the land). There were riots in 1920, 1921 and 1929, sometimes accompanied by massacres of Jews . The victims were usually local non-Zionist orthodox Jewish communities. Britain supported Jewish immigration in principle, but in reaction to Arab violence imposed restrictions on Jewish immigration.
In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany, and in 1935 the
Nuremberg LawsThe Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany which were introduced at the annual Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg. The laws classified people as German if all four of their grandparents were of "German or kindred blood", while people were classified as Jews if they descended from...
made German Jews (and later
AustrianThe ' , also known as the ', was the 1938 de facto annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime....
and Czech Jews) stateless refugees. Similar rules were applied by
Nazi alliesThe Axis powers comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers...
in Europe. The subsequent growth in Jewish migration and impact of
Nazi propagandaPropaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the Nazi party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
aimed at the Arab world led to the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. Britain established the
Peel CommissionThe Peel Commission of 1936-1937, formally known as the Palestine Royal Commission, was a British Royal Commission of Inquiry set out to propose changes to the British Mandate of Palestine following the outbreak of the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine...
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 populationsPopulation transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion...
. But Britain rejected this solution and instead implemented
White Paper of 1939The White Paper of 1939, also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary who presided over it, was a policy paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain in which the idea of partitioning the Mandate for Palestine, as recommended in...
. This planned to end Jewish immigration by 1944 and to allow no more than 75,000 further Jewish migrants. The British maintained this policy until the end of the Mandate.
Growth of the Jewish community in Palestine and 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, DC including via the highly effective America Palestine Committee.
After WWII and
the HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as The Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany,...
, a massive wave of
stateless JewsSh'erit ha-Pletah is a biblical term used by Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust to refer to themselves and the communities they formed following their liberation in the spring of 1945...
, mainly Holocaust survivors, began migrating to Palestine in small boats in defiance of British rules. The British either
imprisoned these Jews in CyprusCyprus internment camps were operated by the British for internment of Jewish immigrants who attempted to immigrate to the Mandatory Palestine during the 1940s in violation of immigration quotas set for Jews...
(including many orphaned children) or
sent themExodus 1947 was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants, that left France on July 11, 1947, with the intent of taking its passengers to Palestine, now known as Israel, then controlled by the British. Most of the emigrants were Holocaust survivor refugees, who had no legal immigration certificates to...
to the British-controlled
Allied Occupation Zones in GermanyThe Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during the period 1945–1949. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, American forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed...
. This resulted in universal Jewish support for Zionism and the refusal of the U.S. Congress to grant economic aid to Britain. In addition, Zionist groups
attacked the British in PalestineBetween 1945 and 1948, the decision of the British government to halt Jewish immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine led to an increasingly bitter conflict between Britain and Palestinian Jews. In particular it resulted in large scale illegal Jewish immigration, "boat people", and Zionist...
and, with its empire facing bankruptcy, Britain was forced to refer the issue to the newly created
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
.
In 1947, the
United Nations Special Committee on PalestineThe United Nations Special Committee on Palestine was formed in May, 1947 in response to a British Government request that the General Assembly 'make recommendations under article 10 of the Charter, concerning the future government of Palestine.' The British government had also recommended the...
(UNSCOP) recommended that western Palestine should be partitioned into a Jewish state, an Arab state and a UN-controlled territory (
Corpus separatumCorpus separatum is Latin for "separated body". The 1947 UN Partition Plan used this term to refer to a proposed internationally administered zone to include Jerusalem and some nearby towns such as Bethlehem and Ein Karim, that was, "in view of its association with three world religions" to be...
) around
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
.
[United Nations Special Committee on Palestine; report to the General Assembly, A/364, 3 September 1947] 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.
[Three minutes, 2000 years, Video from the Jewish Agency for Israel, via YouTube]YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
The Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states rejected the UN decision, demanding a single state and removal of Jewish migrants. On 14 May 1948, at the end of the British mandate, the Jewish Agency, led by Ben-Gurion, declared the creation of the State of Israel, and the same day the armies of seven
Arab countries invaded IsraelThe 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known by Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict.The war...
. The conflict led to an exodus of about
711,000 Arab PalestiniansThe 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as al Nakba , meaning the "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm", occurred when between 650,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes by Jewish or Israeli forces, during the creation of the state of Israel and the civil war...
[General Progress Report and Supplementary Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Covering the period from 11 December 1949 to 23 October 1950, GA A/1367/Rev.1 23 October 1950] and the
exodus of 850,000 JewsThe Jewish exodus from Arab lands refers to the 20th century expulsion or mass departure of Jews, primarily of Sephardi and Mizrahi background, from Arab and Islamic countries...
from the Arab world, mostly to Israel.
Since the creation of the State of Israel, the WZO 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.
Opposition to and criticism of Zionism
Zionism was opposed by a wide variety of organizations and individuals, particularly after 1948. The
Arab LeagueThe Arab League , officially called the League of Arab States , is a regional organization of Arab states in Southwest Asia, and North and Northeast Africa. It was formed in Cairo on March 22, 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria...
and
Arab Higher CommitteeThe Arab Higher Committee was the central political organ of the Arab community of Mandate Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936, on the initiative of Hajj Amin al-Husayni, the mufti of Jerusalem, and comprised the leaders of Palestinian Arab clans under the mufti's chairmanship. The...
rejected the UN Partition Plan (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) approving the creation of a Jewish and Arab state in
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
,
[Bregman, Ahron]Ahron Bregman is a British-Israeli political scientist, as well as a writer and journalist, specialising on the Arab-Israeli conflict.-Biography:...
(2002), A History of Israel, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0333676319, pp. 40-41. and viewed Israel as occupying "Arab land".
[El-Nawawy, Mohammed (2002). The Israeli-Egyptian Peace Process in the reporting of western Journalists. Ablex/Greenwood, pg. 19 ISBN 1567505449 "It is a barrier that has been created by years and years of antagonism with Israelis; a barrier that was strengthened by the Egyptian and Arab news media at large which have enforced the Arabs' stereotypes about the Israelis as invaders of Arab land."][Khalidi, Rashid (2006). The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood. Beacon Press, pg. 19. ] Arab states continue to reject the Zionist philosophy which underwrote the creation of Israel and in particular maintain that the displacement of some 700,000 Arab
refugeesPalestinian refugees or Palestine refugees are the people and their descendants, predominantly Arabs, who fled or were expelled from their homes during and after the 1948 Palestine War, within that part of the British Mandate of Palestine that after that war became the territory of the State of...
in the
1948 Palestinian exodusThe 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as al Nakba , meaning the "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm", occurred when between 650,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes by Jewish or Israeli forces, during the creation of the state of Israel and the civil war...
[The U.N.'s final estimate of the total number of Palestinian Refugees was 711,000 according to the General Progress Report and Supplementary Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Covering the Period from 11 December 1949 to 23 October 1950, published by the United Nations Conciliation Commission]The United Nations Conciliation Commission was created by UN General Assembly Resolution 194, in order to conclude the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.On December 11, 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the proposal to set up the committee with delegates of three nations. France, Turkey and the United...
, October 23, 1950. (U.N. General Assembly Official Records, 5th Session, Supplement No. 18, Document A/1367/Rev.1) and the subsequent conflict is the inevitable consequence of the concept of a
Jewish Statesee also Proposals for a Jewish stateThe terms "Jewish state" and "homeland of the Jewish people" are used to describe the Zionist movement and the State of Israel and refer to its status as a nation-state established in Palestine for Jews.-History:...
.
HarediHaredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism, sometimes referred to as Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, though the term is considered pejorative by some, is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism...
Jewish communities are non-Zionist but willing to participate in Israeli coalitions. A minority, (the Satmar Hasidim and the small
Neturei KartaNeturei Karta , also self-identifying by the English name Jews United Against Zionism, is a small Haredi Jewish group formally created in 1935, that opposes Zionism and calls for a dismantling of the State of Israel, in the belief that Jews are forbidden to have their own state until the coming of...
group) are strongly anti-Zionist.
Before Hitler, Jews seeking to assimilate in Europe feared that Zionism would undermine their claims to citizenship since anti-semites claim that Jews are disloyal to their "host" societies.
[Social and political history of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939 By Joseph Marcus page 421 published 1983 see also http://www.adl.org/main_Anti_Semitism_Domestic/Year_in_Anti-Semitism_2008.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_2] These Jews sought to define themselves as loyal citizens of a different faith, sometimes styling themselves "of the Mosaic persuasion" . This movement was particularly prevalent in Germany, where most Jews supported German nationalism.
Non-Zionist Israeli movements, such as the Canaanite movement led by poet
Yonatan RatoshYonatan Ratosh , was the pen name of Israeli poet Uriel Shelach .-Biography:Born Uriel Heilperin in the Russian Empire in 1908 to a Zionist family. His father, Yechiel, was a Hebraist educator and raised Ratosh and his siblings in Hebrew...
in the 1930s and 1940s, have argued that "Israeli" should be a new pan-ethnic
nationalityNationality is the relationship between a person and their state of origin, culture, association, affiliation and/or loyalty. Nationality affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state....
. A related modern movement is known as
post-ZionismPost-Zionism refers to the opinions of some Israeli, diaspora Jews and others, particularly in academia, that Zionism has fulfilled its ideological mission with the creation of modern State of Israel in 1948 and that Zionist ideology should therefore be considered to be at an end...
, which asserts that Israel should abandon the concept of a "state of the Jewish people" and instead strive to be a state of all its citizens.
[Can Israel Survive Post-Zionism? by Meyrav Wurmser. Middle East Quarterly, March 1999] Another opinion favors a
binational stateThe one-state solution, also known as the binational solution, is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Though increasingly debated in academic circles, especially outside the United States, this approach remains outside the range of alternatives in official efforts to...
in which Arabs and Jews live together while enjoying some type of autonomy.
During the last quarter of 20th century, classic nationalism in Israel declined. This led to the rise of two antagonistic movements:
neo-ZionismNeo-Zionism is a right-wing, nationalistic and religious movement that appeared in Israel following the Six Days War and capture of the occupied territories, which they consider the Land of Israel. It evolved parallel with, and in opposition to Post-Zionism...
and
post-ZionismPost-Zionism refers to the opinions of some Israeli, diaspora Jews and others, particularly in academia, that Zionism has fulfilled its ideological mission with the creation of modern State of Israel in 1948 and that Zionist ideology should therefore be considered to be at an end...
. Both movements mark the Israeli version of a worldwide phenomenon:
- the emergence of globalization, a market society and liberal culture
- a local backlash.
[Uri Ram, The Future of the Past in Israel - A Sociology of Knowledge Approach, in Benny Morris]Benny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel. He is a key member of a group of Israeli historians known as the 'New Historians', because they are rewriting the history of Israel since its...
, Making Israel, p.224.
Neo-Zionism and post-Zionism share traits with "classical" Zionism but differ by accentuating antagonist and diametrically opposed poles already present in Zionism. "Neo Zionism accentuates the messianic and particularistic dimensions of Zionist nationalism, while post-Zionism accentuates its normalising and universalistic dimensions".
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
In 1903, following the
Kishinev PogromThe Kishinev pogrom was an anti-Jewish riot that took place in Chişinău, then the capital of the Bessarabia province of the Russian Empire on April 6-7, 1903.-First pogrom:...
a variety of Russian antisemities, including the Black Hundreds and the Tzarist Secret Police began combining earlier works alleging a Jewish plot to take control of the world into new formats.
[Norman Cohn]Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA was a British academic, historian and writer who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.-Life:...
, Warrant for GenocideWarrant for Genocide, by Norman Cohn, is a critical work about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.This scholarly book explores the history, origin, and world-wide dissemination of this notorious, antisemitic plagiarism, literary forgery, and hoax....
, Serif 2001 chapter 3 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") arranged by
Sergei NilusSergei Alexandrovich Nilus was a Russian religious writer and self-described mystic....
achieved global notability. In 1903 the editor claimed that the protocols revealed the menace of Zionism,
The book contains fictional minutes of an imaginary meeting in which alleged Jewish leaders plotted to take over the world. Nilus later claimed they were presented to the elders by Herzl (the "Prince of Exile") at the first Zionist congress. A Polish edition claimed they were taken from Herzl's flat in Austria and a 1920 German version renamed them "The Zionist Protocols".
[Norman Cohn]Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA was a British academic, historian and writer who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.-Life:...
, Warrant for GenocideWarrant for Genocide, by Norman Cohn, is a critical work about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.This scholarly book explores the history, origin, and world-wide dissemination of this notorious, antisemitic plagiarism, literary forgery, and hoax....
, Serif 2001 page 75-76 The "protocols were one of the earliest, and possibly the most important example of the many cases in which anti-semitism has manifested as anti-Zionism or vice versa and were extensively used by the Nazis. They remain relatively widely distributed in the Arab world and are also referred to in the 1988 Hamas charter (article 32):
Resolutions condemning Zionism
Ideological opposition to Zionism later combined with the anti-Israel cold-war politics of the Soviet Union and the Arab antagonism to Israel, as well as with anti-Semitism. Communist states declared Zionism to be a colonialist ideology bent on exploiting and dispossessing the native inhabitants of Palestine, and creating an apartheid colonialist fascist Jewish state.
The Organization for African Unity and the
Non-Aligned MovementThe Non-Aligned Movement is an international organisation of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The movement is largely the brainchild of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former president of Egypt Gamal Abdul Nasser and Yugoslav...
passed resolutions condemning Zionism and equating it with
racismRacism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or get preferential treatment...
and apartheid during the early 1970s. The
United Nations General AssemblyFor two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:*General Assembly members*General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
passed Resolution 3151 72 to 36, with 32 abstentions, in December 1973, stating that there was an "unholy alliance between South African racism and Zionism." Resolution 3379 passed in November 1975, supported by Arab, African and Soviet bloc states, declaring that "Zionism is a form of racism."
[http://www.mideastweb.org/3379.htm]
As the war in Iraq began and the South Africa's apartheid government and the Soviet Union collapsed, the resolution was repealed
in 1991 with Resolution 4686, after Israel declared that it would only participate in the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 if the resolution were revoked.
[Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 320. ISBN 0465041957.]
[http://www.cfr.org/publication/11284/]
At the session revoking the motion, U.S. President
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
declared that 3379 mocked the founding principles of the United Nations and its charter's pledge "to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors."
[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=20012] The revocation motion was co-sponsored by 90 nations and supported by 111, and opposed by 26.
Marcus Garvey and Black Zionism
Zionist success in winning British support for formation of a Jewish National Home in Palestine helped to inspire the
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n nationalist
Marcus GarveyMarcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH , was a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, and orator...
to form a movement dedicated to returning Americans of African origin to Africa. During a speech in
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
in 1920, Garvey stated: "other races were engaged in seeing their cause through—the Jews through their Zionist movement and the
IrishThe Irish people are a Western European ethnic group who originate in Ireland, in north western Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians 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."
[Negro World]Negro World was a weekly newspaper, established in January 1918 in New York City, which served as the voice of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, an organization founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914...
6 March 1920, cited in http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/lifeintr.asp (accessed 29/11/2007).
Garvey established a shipping company, the
Black Star LineThe Black Star Line was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey, who organized the UNIA . The Black Star Line derived its name from the White Star Line, a line whose success Garvey felt he could duplicate, which would become a standard of his Back-to-Africa movement...
, to allow Black Americans to emigrate to Africa, but for various reasons failed in his endeavour.
Garvey helped inspire the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica, the
Black JewsThe Jewish people have had a long history in Africa, dating to the Biblical era. As the African diaspora grew, because of the movement of Africans and their descendants throughout the world, African Jews were part of that diaspora. In addition, Judaism has spread through the African diaspora,...
[BlackJews.org - A Project of the International Board of Rabbis] and The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem who initially moved to Liberia before settling in Israel.
Non-Jewish support for Zionism
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 LandChristian Restorationism, the Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land was a nineteenth-century, Christian movement with both political and religious motivations....
were called Restorationists. The return of the Jews to the Holy Land was widely supported by such eminent figures as Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, President
John AdamsJohn Adams was an American politician and the second President of the United States , after being the first Vice President for two terms. He is regarded as one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States.Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution...
of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
General SmutsField Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, PC, ED, KC, FRS, GCTE was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from...
of
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
,
President MasarykTomáš Garrigue Masaryk , sometimes called Thomas Masaryk in English, was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak statesman, sociologist and philosopher, who as the keenest advocate of Czechoslovak independence during World War I became the first President and founder of Czechoslovakia...
of
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, philosopher and historian
Benedetto CroceBenedetto Croce was an Italian critic, idealist philosopher, and occasionally also a politician. He wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, methodolgy of history writing and aesthetics, and was a prominent liberal, although he opposed laissez-faire free trade...
from
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
,
Henry DunantJean Henri Dunant , aka Henry Dunant or Henri Dunant, was a Swiss businessman and social activist. During a business trip in 1859, he was witness to the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in modern day Italy...
(founder of the Red Cross and author of the
Geneva ConventionsThe Geneva Conventions consist of four treaties and three additional protocols that set the standards in international law for humanitarian treatment of the victims of war. The singular term Geneva Convention refers to the agreements of 1949, negotiated in the aftermath of World War II, updating...
), and scientist and humanitarian
Fridtjof NansenFridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist and diplomat. Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work as a League of Nations High Commissioner....
from
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
.
The
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
government through Minister M.
Cambon Cambon is a town and commune of the Tarn department of southern France....
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
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, top figures of the
Nationalist governmentThe Kuomintang of China , translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is a political party of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan since the 1970s. It is the founding and the ruling political party of the ROC...
, including
Sun Yat-SenSun Yat-sen was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Republican China, Sun is frequently referred to as the Father of the Nation. Sun played an instrumental role in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in October 1911, the last imperial dynasty of China...
, expressed their sympathy with the aspirations of the Jewish people for a National Home.
Christians supporting Zionism
Christians have a long history of supporting the return of Jews to the Holy Land prior to Zionism. One of the principal Protestant teachers who promoted the biblical doctrine that the Jews would return to their national homeland was
John Nelson DarbyJohn Nelson Darby was an Anglo-Irish evangelist, and an influential figure among the original Plymouth Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism. He produced a translation of the Bible based on the Hebrew and Greek texts called The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation...
. He is credited with being the major promoter of the idea following his 11 lectures on the hopes of the church, the Jew and the gentile given in Geneva in 1840. His views were embraced by many evangelicals and also affected international foreign policy. Notable early supporters of Zionism include British Prime Ministers
David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British statesman and the only Welsh Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; he is also the only one to have spoken English as a second language, Welsh having been his first.During a long tenure of office, mainly as Chancellor of the...
and
Arthur BalfourArthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
, American President
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
and 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 WarThe Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967 was a war between the Israel army and the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the...
of 1967, and many
dispensationalistDispensationalism is a Protestant evangelical tradition and theology based on a biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants. As a system...
Christians, especially in the United States, now strongly support Zionism.
The founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church),
Joseph SmithJoseph Smith may refer to:The founder of the Latter Day Saint movement and his relatives:* Joseph Smith, Jr. , founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints* Joseph Smith, Sr. , father of Joseph Smith, Jr....
, in his last years alive, declared "the time for Jews to return to the land of Israel is now." In 1842, Smith sent
Orson HydeOrson Hyde was a leader in the early Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles...
, 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 Christian Arabs publicly supporting Israel include US author
Nonie DarwishNonie Darwish is an Egyptian-American human rights activist, writer, scholar of Islame and founder of Arabs For Israel. She is the author of two books: Now They Call Me Infidel; Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror and Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global...
, creator of the
Arabs for Israel Web site, and former Muslim
Magdi AllamMagdi Allam, as a Catholic Magdi Cristiano Allam , is an Egyptian-born Italian journalist, noted for his criticism of Islamic Extremism and his articles on the relations between Western culture and the Islamic world...
, author of
Viva Israele,
[ISBN 9788804567776] both born in Egypt.
Brigitte GabrielBrigitte Gabriel is a Lebanese American journalist, author, activist and speaker on Islam and the Middle East.Gabriel says Islam keeps Arab countries backward, and teaches terrorism...
, a Lebanese-born Christian US journalist and founder of the
American Congress For TruthAmerican Congress for Truth is a non-profit organization that focuses on threats to the US, Israel, and the West from Islamic fundamentalism...
, urges Americans to "fearlessly speak out in defense of America, Israel and Western civilization".
A small sect of Christian Zionists, Nazarenes and Nazarene Jews are part of a movement to return Christianity to Judaism.
Muslims supporting Zionism
In 1873,
Shah of PersiaThe Qajar dynasty ) was a Turco-Persian Qajar royal family who ruled Persia from 1794 to 1925....
Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar met with British Jewish leaders, including Sir
Moses MontefioreSir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, Kt was one of the most famous British Jews of the 19th century. Montefiore was a financier, banker, philanthropist and Sheriff of London.- Biography:...
, during his journey to Europe. At that time, the Persian king suggested that the Jews buy land and establish a state for the Jewish people.
Zionism is the international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
. The area was the
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish Biblical homeland, called the
Land of IsraelThe Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants...
(Hebrew:
Eretz Yisra'el). Since the creation of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily as support for the modern
state of IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
.
Zionism is based on the foundation of historical ties and
religious traditionsJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
linking the Jewish people to the
Land of IsraelThe Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants...
, where the concept of Jewish nationhood first evolved somewhere between 1200
BCECommon Era, abbreviated as CE, is a designation for the calendar system most commonly used world-wide for numbering the year part of the date...
and the late
Second TempleThe Second Temple was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem which stood between 516 BCE and 70 CE. During this time, it was the center of Jewish worship, which focused on the sacrifices known as the korbanot...
era (i.e. up to 70
CECommon Era, abbreviated as CE, is a designation for the calendar system most commonly used world-wide for numbering the year part of the date...
).
["...from Zion, where King David fashioned the first Jewish nation" (Friedland, Roger and Hecht, Richard To Rule Jerusalem, p. 27).]["By the late Second Temple times, when widely held Messianic beliefs were so politically powerful in their implications and repercussions, and when the significance of political authority, territorial sovereignty, and religious belief for the fate of the Jews as a people was so widely and vehemently contested, it seems clear that Jewish nationhood was a social and cultural reality". (Roshwald, Aviel. "Jewish Identity and the Paradox of Nationalism", in Berkowitz, Michael (ed.). Nationalism, Zionism and Ethnic Mobilization of the Jews in 1900 and Beyond, p. 15).] Two millennia after the
Jewish diasporaThe Jewish diaspora , the presence of Jews outside of the Land of Israel, is a result of the expulsion or emigration of Jews from Israel...
, the modern Zionist movement, beginning in the late 19th century, was mainly founded by
secular JewsFor religious Jewish culture, see Judaism and Yiddishkeit.Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the culture of secular communities of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews, or even those of...
, largely as a response by
European JewryAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland valley and northern France...
to antisemitism across
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, especially in
RussiaAnti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire, in particular, those of the late 19th century in what today is Ukraine and Poland, gave rise to the international loanword pogrom as a reference to large-scale, targeted, and repeated antisemitic rioting...
.
[Wylen, Stephen M. Settings of Silver: An Introduction to Judaism, Second Edition, Paulist Press, 2000, p. 392). Calaprice, Alice. The Einstein Almanac, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, p. xvi.] The re-creation of a Jewish national homeland was also strongly advocated by American scholars, such as
Louis BrandeisLouis D. Brandeis was a United States Supreme Court Justice from 1916 to 1939. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky to Jewish parents who had immigrated from Europe...
, as a solution to this "Jewish problem" and a way to "revive the Jewish spirit."
It is a type of the broader phenomenon of modern
nationalismNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
.
[A.R. Taylor, 'Vision and intent in Zionist Thought', in 'The transformation of Palestine', ed. by I. Abu-Lughod, 1971, ISBN 0-8101-0345-1, p. 10] Initially one of several
Jewish political movementsJewish political movements refer to the organized efforts of Jews to build their own political parties or otherwise represent their interest in politics outside of the Jewish community...
offering alternative responses to
assimilationThe term Jewish Assimilation refers to a movement that began among Ashkenazi Jews in 18th century Europe, which encompasses outward social, cultural and genetic processes, as well as internal religious processes and events. It fostered assimilation and integration of the previously segregated...
and the position of Jews in
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, Zionism grew rapidly and after
the HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as The Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany,...
became the dominant power among Jewish political movements.
The political movement was formally established by the
Austro-HungarianAustria–Hungary, also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the k.u.k. Monarchy, or Dual State, was a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe...
journalist
Theodor HerzlTheodor Herzl Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl ' onMouseout='HidePop("88237")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Der_Judenstaat">Der Judenstaat
Der Judenstaat is a book written by Theodor Herzl and published in 1896 in Leipzig and Vienna by M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung...
.
[Walter Laqueur (2003) The History of Zionism Tauris Parke Paperbacks, ISBN 1860649327 p 40] The movement seeks to encourage
Jewish migrationAliyah is the immigration of Jews to Eretz Israel. It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology, and a value in almost all movements of Judaism...
to the "
Land of IsraelThe Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants...
" and was eventually successful in establishing Israel in 1948, as the homeland for the Jewish people. Its proponents regard its aim as
self-determinationSelf-determination is defined as free choice of one’s own acts without external compulsion; and especially as the freedom of the people of a given territory to determine their own political status. In other words, it is the right of the people of a nation to decide how they want to be governed...
for the Jewish people.
[A national liberation movement: Rockaway, Robert. Zionism: The National Liberation Movement of The Jewish People, World Zionist Organization]The World Zionist Organization , or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization , or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland; it changed its name to World Zionist Organization in January 1960.The ZO served as an umbrella organization for...
, January 21, 1975, accessed August 17, 2006). Shlomo AvineriShlomo Avineri is an Israeli political scientist. He is Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem...
.
Neuberger, Binyamin. Zionism - an Introduction, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, August 20, 2001, accessed August 17, 2006).
The proportion of world Jewry living in Israel has steadily grown since the movement came into existence. Today roughly 40% of the world's Jews live in Israel. A similar number live in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(see
American JewsAmerican Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are American citizens or resident aliens of the Jewish faith and/or Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and their U.S.-born descendants...
).
Terminology
The word "Zionism" itself is derived from the word
ZionZion is a term that most often designates the Land of Israel and its capital, Jerusalem. The word is found in texts dating back almost three millennia...
. This name originally referred to
Mount ZionMount Zion is an elevation west of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Israel. Jewish scriptures apply the term "Mount Zion" to the Temple Mount or the City of David, both located on this elevation...
, a mountain near
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
, and to the Fortress of Zion on it. Later, under King David, the term "Zion" became a
synecdocheSynecdoche is a figure of speech in which:* a term denoting a part of something is used to refer to the whole thing , or...
referring to the entire city of
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
and the
Land of IsraelThe Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants...
. In many Biblical verses, the Israelites were called the people, sons or daughters of Zion.
"Zionism" was coined as a term for Jewish
nationalismNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
by
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish publisher
Nathan BirnbaumNathan Birnbaum , was an Austrian writer and journalist, Jewish thinker...
, founder of the first nationalist Jewish students' movement
Kadimah, in his journal
Selbstemanzipation (
Self Emancipation) in 1890. (Birnbaum eventually turned against political Zionism and became the first secretary-general of the
HarediHaredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism, sometimes referred to as Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, though the term is considered pejorative by some, is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism...
movement
Agudat IsraelAgudat Israel began as the original political party representing Haredi Judaism in Israel. It was the umbrella party for almost all Haredi Jews in Israel, and before that in the British Mandate of Palestine...
.)
[De Lange, Nicholas, An Introduction to Judaism, Cambridge University Press (2000), p. 30. ISBN 0-521-46624-5.]
Zionism can be distinguished from
TerritorialismTerritorialism was a Jewish political movement calling for creation of a sufficiently large and compact Jewish territory , not necessarily in the Land of Israel and not necessarily fully autonomous....
, because it is the Jewish nationalist movement willing only to contemplate a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel. During the early history of Zionism, a number of proposals were made for settling Jews outside Europe, but ultimately all of these were rejected or failed. The debate over these proposals helped to define the nature and focus of the Zionist movement.
Organization
Members and delegates at the 1939 Zionist congress, by country/region (Zionism was banned in the Soviet Union). 70,000 Polish Jews supported the Revisionist Zionist movement, which was not represented.[Source: A survey of Palestine, prepared in 1946 for the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry]The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was a joint British and American attempt in 1946 to agree upon a policy as regards the admission of Jews to Palestine. The Committee was tasked to consult representative Arabs and Jews on the problems of Palestine, and to make other recommendations 'as may be...
, Volume II page 907 HMSO 1946.
| Country/Region |
Members |
Delegates |
| Poland |
299,165 |
109 |
| USA |
263,741 |
114 |
| Palestine |
167,562 |
134 |
| Romania |
60,013 |
28 |
| United Kingdom |
23,513 |
15 |
| South Africa |
22,343 |
14 |
| Canada |
15,220 |
8 |
The multi-national, worldwide Zionist movement is structured as a representative democracy. 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 elected a 30-man executive council, which in turn elected the movement's leader. The movement was democratic from its inception and women had the right to vote (before they won the right in Great Britain).
Until 1917, the
ZOThe World Zionist Organization , or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization , or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland; it changed its name to World Zionist Organization in January 1960.The ZO served as an umbrella organization for...
pursued a strategy of building a homeland through persistent small-scale immigration and the founding of such bodies as the Jewish National Fund (1901 - a charity which bought land for Jewish settlement) and the Anglo-Palestine Bank (1903 - provided loans for Jewish businesses and farmers). In 1942, at the
Biltmore ConferenceThe Biltmore Conference, also known by its resolution as the Biltmore Program, was a fundamental departure from traditional Zionist policy with its demand "that Palestine be established as a Jewish Commonwealth." The meeting was held in New York City at the prestigious Biltmore Hotel from May 6...
, Zionists changed their program and demanded the establishment of a Jewish state as the aim of the movement.
The 28th Zionist Congress, meeting in Jerusalem 1968, adopted the five points of the "Jerusalem Program" as the aims of Zionism today. They are:
[http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=497&subject=43]
- The unity of the Jewish People and the centrality of Israel in Jewish life
- The ingathering of the Jewish People in its historic homeland, Eretz Israel, through Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to Eretz Israel. It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology, and a value in almost all movements of Judaism...
from all countries
- The strengthening of the State of Israel which is based on the prophetic vision of justice and peace
- The preservation of the identity of the Jewish People through the fostering of Jewish and Hebrew education and of Jewish spiritual and cultural values
- The protection of Jewish rights everywhere
Since the creation of Israel, the role of the movement has declined and it is now a peripheral factor in Israeli politics although different perceptions of Zionism continue to play a role in Israeli and Jewish political discussion.
Labor Zionism
Labor Zionism originated in Eastern Europe. Socialist Zionists believed that centuries of being oppressed in anti-Semitic societies had reduced Jews to a meek, vulnerable, despairing existence which invited further anti-Semitism, a view originally stipulated by
Theodor HerzlTheodor Herzl Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl ' onMouseout='HidePop("73157")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Diaspora">Diaspora
A diaspora is any movement of a population sharing common ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.Diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from...
mentality" among the Jewish people, and established rural communes in Israel called "kibbutzim". 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 JudaismOrthodox Judaism is a formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim.Orthodox...
.
Labor Zionism became the dominant force in the political and economic life of the
YishuvYishuv or Ha-Yishuv Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv (the Yishuv, , or the full term הישוב היהודי בארץ ישראל Hayishuv Hayehudi b'Eretz Yisrael ("The Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel") is the term used in Hebrew referring to the...
during the British Mandate of Palestine and was the dominant ideology of the political establishment in Israel until the
1977 electionThe Elections for the ninth Knesset were held on 17 May 1977. For the first time in Israeli political history, the right-wing, led by Likud, won the election, ending almost 30 years of rule by the left-wing Alignment and its predecessor, Mapai...
when the Israeli Labor Party was defeated. The Labor Party continues the tradition (although it has weakened) and has in recent years taken to advocating creation of a Palestinian State in the West-Bank and Gaza, however the most popular party in the kibbutzim is Meretz.
Liberal Zionism
General Zionism (or Liberal Zionism) was initially the dominant trend within the Zionist movement from the
First Zionist CongressThe First Zionist Congress is the name given to the congress held in Basel , Switzerland, from August 29 to August 31 1897. It was the first congress of the Zionist Organization . It was called forand chaired by Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism...
in 1897 until after the First World War. General Zionists identified with the liberal European middle class (or bourgeois) to which many Zionist leaders such as Herzl and
Chaim WeizmannChaim Azriel Weizmann, , was a Zionist leader, President of the World Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952. Weizmann was also a chemist who developed a new process of producing acetone through...
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, although
KadimaKadima was founded as a centrist political party in Israel by moderates from Likud soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians. It became the largest party in the Knesset after the 2006 elections, winning 29 of the 120 seats...
does 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.
Nationalist Zionism
Nationalist Zionism originated from the Revisionist Zionists led by Jabotinsky. The Revisionists left the World Zionist Organization in 1935 because it refused to state that the creation of a Jewish state was an objective of Zionism. The revisionists advocated the formation of a Jewish Army in Palestine to force the Arab population to accept mass Jewish migration. Revisionist Zionism evolved into the
LikudLikud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
Party in Israel, which has dominated most governments since 1977. It advocates Israel maintaining control of the West-Bank and East Jerusalem and takes a hard-line approach in the Israeli-Arab conflict. In 2005 the Likud split over the issue of creation of a Palestinian state on the occupied territories and party members advocating peace talks helped form the
KadimaKadima was founded as a centrist political party in Israel by moderates from Likud soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians. It became the largest party in the Knesset after the 2006 elections, winning 29 of the 120 seats...
party.
Religious Zionism
In the 1920s and 1930s Rabbi
Abraham Isaac KookAbraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar...
(the first
Chief Rabbi of PalestineThe Chief Rabbinate of Israel is the supreme Jewish religious governing body in the state of Israel. There are always two active Chief Rabbis in Israel, an Ashkenazi rabbi and a Sephardi rabbi known as the Rishon L'Tzion....
) and his son Rabbi Zevi Judah Kook saw great religious and traditional value in many of Zionism's ideals, while rejecting its anti-religious undertones. They taught that Orthodox (Torah) Judaism embraces and mandates Zionism's positive ideals, such as the ingathering of exiles, and political activity to create and maintain a Jewish political entity in the Land of Israel. In this way, Zionism serves as a bridge between Orthodox and secular Jews.
While other Zionist groups have tended to moderate their nationalism over time, the
gainsThe Israeli-occupied territories are the territories captured by Israel from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria during the Six-Day War of 1967, consisting of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, and, until 1982, the Sinai Peninsula...
from the Six Day War have led religious Zionism to play a significant role in Israeli political life. Now associated with the
National Religious PartyThe National Religious Party was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist movement...
and
Gush EmunimGush Emunim is an Israeli messianic and political movement committed to establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank . The movement sprang out of the conquests of the Six-Day War in 1967, though it was not formally established as an organization until 1974, in the wake of the Yom Kippur War...
, religious Zionists have been at the forefront of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and efforts to assert Jewish control over the Old City of Jerusalem.
Zionism and Ultra-Orthodox Jews
Ultra-Orthodox organizations do not belong to the Zionist movement; they view Zionism as secular, reject nationalism as a doctrine and consider Judaism to be first and foremost a religion. Ultra-Orthodox rabbis do not consider Israel to be a Jewish state because it is secular. However, they generally consider themselves responsible for ensuring that Jews maintain religious ideals and since most Israeli citizens are Jews they pursue this agenda within Israel.
Two Ultra-Orthodox parties run in Israeli elections. They are sometimes associated with views which could be regarded as nationalist or Zionist and have shown a preference for 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
ShasShas is a political party in Israel, primarily representing Haredi Sephardi and Mizrahi Judaism. Following the 2009 elections in which Shas won 11 seats, it joined Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government and holds four cabinet posts...
rejects association with the Zionist movement, however its voters generally regard themselves 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 generally opposes compromise over Jewish Holy sites.
The Ashkenazi
Agudath IsraelAgudath Israel can refer to any of several related organizations, including:*World Agudath Israel, an international movement*Agudath Israel of America, an American organization*Agudat Israel, an Israeli political party...
/
UTJUTJ can be an abbreviation for:*Union for Traditional Judaism *United Torah Judaism...
party 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 does work towards ensuring that Israel and Israeli law are in tune with the halacha.
In recent years the Ashkenazi Lubavitch hassidic movement has adopted an ultra-nationalist agenda and opposed any territorial compromise; however, the movement has never considered itself to be Zionist.
The Satmar Hasidim and the small
Neturei KartaNeturei Karta , also self-identifying by the English name Jews United Against Zionism, is a small Haredi Jewish group formally created in 1935, that opposes Zionism and calls for a dismantling of the State of Israel, in the belief that Jews are forbidden to have their own state until the coming of...
group are strongly anti-Zionist. Satmar members do not live in Israel. The primary
haredi anti-Zionist work is
Vayoel MosheVayoel Moshe is a Hebrew book written by Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, leader of the Satmar Hasidic movement, in the year 1961. It made his case that Judaism is against Zionism....
by Satmar
RebbeRebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the identical Hebrew word Rabbi. It mostly refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
Joel TeitelbaumRabbi Joel Teitelbaum, known as Reb Yoelish or the Satmar Rav , was a prominent...
. This lengthy dissertation rejects Zionism for religious reasons based on an
aggadicAggadah refers to the homiletic and non-legalistic exegetical texts in classical rabbinic literature - particularly as recorded in the Talmud and Midrash...
passage in the
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
, tractate
Ketubot (see the
Three OathsThe Three Oaths is the popular name for a Midrash found in the Talmud, which relates that God adjured three oaths upon the world. Two of the oaths pertain to the Jewish people, and one of the oaths pertains to the nations of the world. The Jews for their part are sworn not to go up from Exile to...
).
Particularities of Zionist beliefs
The idea of Zionism is established on the basis of long and continuous association between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. Mass return, or Aliyah, to the Land of Israel is a recurring theme in Jewish prayers that continued during the period the Jews lived in diaspora, following the Roman occupation and the destruction of the Second Temple at the hands of the Romans in the year 70. Aliyah, however, was associated with the coming of the Jewish Messiah. The core of Zionist ideology is reflected in the principle that the land of Israel is the historical origin of the Jewish people, and in believing that the presence of Jews in any other part of the world is living in exile.
[http://esraten.com/all%20EN/okaia/OK--20.html] The center of the Zionism idea is represented in the Israeli Declaration of Independence:
Zionism is dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism in all its forms. Some Zionists believe that anti-Semitism will never disappear (and that Jews must conduct themselves with this in mind,)
[For an example of this view see The New Anti-Zionism and the Old Antisemitism: Transformations By: Raphael Jospe at http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=2095 accessed 16/11/2008] while others perceive Zionism as a vehicle with which to end anti-Semitism.
Zionists preferred to speak Hebrew, a Semitic language that developed under conditions of freedom in ancient
JudahThe Kingdom of Judah existed at two periods in Jewish history. According to the Hebrew Bible, a kingdom emerged in Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David, who came from the Tribe of Judah, to rule over it. After seven years David became king of a reunited Kingdom of...
, modernizing and adapting it for everyday use. Zionists sometimes refused to speak Yiddish, a language they considered affected by Christian persecution. Once they moved to Israel, many Zionists refused to speak their (diasporic) mother tongues and gave themselves new, Hebrew names.
According to Eliezer Schweid the rejection of life in the Diaspora is a central assumption in Zionism.
[E. Schweid, ‘Rejection of the Diaspora in Zionist Thought’, in ‘’Essential Papers onZionsm, ed. By Reinharz & Shapira, 1996, ISBN 0-8147-7449-0, p.133] Underlying this attitude was the feeling that the Diaspora restricted the full growth of Jewish individual and national life.
History
Since the first century CE most Jews have lived in exile, although there has been a constant presence of Jews in the
Land of IsraelThe Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants...
(Eretz Israel). According to Judaism, Eretz Israel, or
ZionZion is a term that most often designates the Land of Israel and its capital, Jerusalem. The word is found in texts dating back almost three millennia...
, is a land promised to the Jews by God according to the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
. After the 2nd century Bar Kokhba revolt, the
RomansThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
expelled the Jews from
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
, thus forming the
Jewish diasporaThe Jewish diaspora , the presence of Jews outside of the Land of Israel, is a result of the expulsion or emigration of Jews from Israel...
.
In the 19th century, a current in Judaism supporting a return to Palestine grew in popularity.
[http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/0,15478,3900-1,00.html#FlashPluginDetected] Jews began to emigrate to Palestine, pre-Zionist Aliyah, even before 1897, the year considered as the start of practical Zionism.
[C.D. Smith, 2001, 'Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict', 4th ed., ISBN 0-312-20828-6, p. 1-12, 33-38]
Population of Palestine by religions
| year |
Muslims |
Jews |
Christians |
Others |
| 1922 |
486,177 |
83,790 |
71,464 |
7,617 |
| 1931 |
493,147 |
174,606 |
88,907 |
10,101 |
| 1941 |
906,551 |
474,102 |
125,413 |
12,881 |
| 1946 |
1,076,783 |
608,225 |
145,063 |
15,488 |
Jewish immigration to Palestine started in earnest in 1882. Most
immigrantsIn the course of history, Jewish populations have been expelled or ostracised by various local authorities and have sought asylum from antisemitism numerous times...
came from Russia, escaping the frequent pogroms and state-led persecution. They founded a number of agricultural settlements with financial support from Jewish philanthropists in Western Europe. Further
AliyahAliyah is the immigration of Jews to Eretz Israel. It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology, and a value in almost all movements of Judaism...
s followed the Russian Revolution and Nazi persecution.
In the 1890s,
Theodor HerzlTheodor Herzl Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl ' onMouseout='HidePop("97393")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Der_Judenstaat">ideology
Der Judenstaat is a book written by Theodor Herzl and published in 1896 in Leipzig and Vienna by M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung...
and practical urgency, leading to the
first congressThe First Zionist Congress is the name given to the congress held in Basel , Switzerland, from August 29 to August 31 1897. It was the first congress of the Zionist Organization . It was called forand chaired by Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism...
at
BaselBasel is Switzerland's third most populous city . With 830000 inhabitants in the tri-national metropolitan area , Basel is Switzerland's second-largest urban area....
in 1897, which created the
World Zionist OrganizationThe World Zionist Organization , or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization , or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland; it changed its name to World Zionist Organization in January 1960.The ZO served as an umbrella organization for...
(WZO).
[Zionism & The British In Palestine, by Sethi, Arjun (University of Maryland) January 2007, accessed May 20, 2007.] Herzl's aim was to initiate necessary preparatory steps for the attainment of a Jewish state. Herzl’s attempts to reach a political agreement with the
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
rulers of Palestine were unsuccessful and other governmental support was sought. The WZO supported small-scale settlement in Palestine and 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 ("
pogromA pogrom is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers...
s") was widely regarded as the historic enemy of the Jewish people. As much of its leadership were German speakers, the Zionist movement's headquarters were located in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
. At the start of the First World War, most Jews (and Zionists) supported Germany in its war with Russia.
Lobbying by a Russian Jewish immigrant,
Chaim WeizmannChaim Azriel Weizmann, , was a Zionist leader, President of the World Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952. Weizmann was also a chemist who developed a new process of producing acetone through...
and fear that American Jews would encourage the USA to support Germany culminated in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 by the British government. This endorsed the creation of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine. In addition, a Zionist military corps led by Jabotinsky were recruited to fight on behalf of Britain in Palestine. In 1922, the
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
adopted the declaration in the Mandate it gave to Britain:
Weizmann's role in obtaining the Balfour Declaration led to his election as the movement's leader. He remained in that role until 1948.
The British Mandate caused greater Jewish migration to Palestine and massive Jewish land purchases from feudal landlords, which created landlessness and fueled unrest (often led by the same landlords who sold the land). There were riots in 1920, 1921 and 1929, sometimes accompanied by massacres of Jews . The victims were usually local non-Zionist orthodox Jewish communities. Britain supported Jewish immigration in principle, but in reaction to Arab violence imposed restrictions on Jewish immigration.
In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany, and in 1935 the
Nuremberg LawsThe Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany which were introduced at the annual Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg. The laws classified people as German if all four of their grandparents were of "German or kindred blood", while people were classified as Jews if they descended from...
made German Jews (and later
AustrianThe ' , also known as the ', was the 1938 de facto annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime....
and Czech Jews) stateless refugees. Similar rules were applied by
Nazi alliesThe Axis powers comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers...
in Europe. The subsequent growth in Jewish migration and impact of
Nazi propagandaPropaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the Nazi party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
aimed at the Arab world led to the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. Britain established the
Peel CommissionThe Peel Commission of 1936-1937, formally known as the Palestine Royal Commission, was a British Royal Commission of Inquiry set out to propose changes to the British Mandate of Palestine following the outbreak of the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine...
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 populationsPopulation transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion...
. But Britain rejected this solution and instead implemented
White Paper of 1939The White Paper of 1939, also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary who presided over it, was a policy paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain in which the idea of partitioning the Mandate for Palestine, as recommended in...
. This planned to end Jewish immigration by 1944 and to allow no more than 75,000 further Jewish migrants. The British maintained this policy until the end of the Mandate.
Growth of the Jewish community in Palestine and 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, DC including via the highly effective America Palestine Committee.
After WWII and
the HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as The Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany,...
, a massive wave of
stateless JewsSh'erit ha-Pletah is a biblical term used by Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust to refer to themselves and the communities they formed following their liberation in the spring of 1945...
, mainly Holocaust survivors, began migrating to Palestine in small boats in defiance of British rules. The British either
imprisoned these Jews in CyprusCyprus internment camps were operated by the British for internment of Jewish immigrants who attempted to immigrate to the Mandatory Palestine during the 1940s in violation of immigration quotas set for Jews...
(including many orphaned children) or
sent themExodus 1947 was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants, that left France on July 11, 1947, with the intent of taking its passengers to Palestine, now known as Israel, then controlled by the British. Most of the emigrants were Holocaust survivor refugees, who had no legal immigration certificates to...
to the British-controlled
Allied Occupation Zones in GermanyThe Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during the period 1945–1949. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, American forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed...
. This resulted in universal Jewish support for Zionism and the refusal of the U.S. Congress to grant economic aid to Britain. In addition, Zionist groups
attacked the British in PalestineBetween 1945 and 1948, the decision of the British government to halt Jewish immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine led to an increasingly bitter conflict between Britain and Palestinian Jews. In particular it resulted in large scale illegal Jewish immigration, "boat people", and Zionist...
and, with its empire facing bankruptcy, Britain was forced to refer the issue to the newly created
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
.
In 1947, the
United Nations Special Committee on PalestineThe United Nations Special Committee on Palestine was formed in May, 1947 in response to a British Government request that the General Assembly 'make recommendations under article 10 of the Charter, concerning the future government of Palestine.' The British government had also recommended the...
(UNSCOP) recommended that western Palestine should be partitioned into a Jewish state, an Arab state and a UN-controlled territory (
Corpus separatumCorpus separatum is Latin for "separated body". The 1947 UN Partition Plan used this term to refer to a proposed internationally administered zone to include Jerusalem and some nearby towns such as Bethlehem and Ein Karim, that was, "in view of its association with three world religions" to be...
) around
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
.
[United Nations Special Committee on Palestine; report to the General Assembly, A/364, 3 September 1947] 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.
[Three minutes, 2000 years, Video from the Jewish Agency for Israel, via YouTube]YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
The Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states rejected the UN decision, demanding a single state and removal of Jewish migrants. On 14 May 1948, at the end of the British mandate, the Jewish Agency, led by Ben-Gurion, declared the creation of the State of Israel, and the same day the armies of seven
Arab countries invaded IsraelThe 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known by Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict.The war...
. The conflict led to an exodus of about
711,000 Arab PalestiniansThe 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as al Nakba , meaning the "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm", occurred when between 650,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes by Jewish or Israeli forces, during the creation of the state of Israel and the civil war...
[General Progress Report and Supplementary Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Covering the period from 11 December 1949 to 23 October 1950, GA A/1367/Rev.1 23 October 1950] and the
exodus of 850,000 JewsThe Jewish exodus from Arab lands refers to the 20th century expulsion or mass departure of Jews, primarily of Sephardi and Mizrahi background, from Arab and Islamic countries...
from the Arab world, mostly to Israel.
Since the creation of the State of Israel, the WZO 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.
Opposition to and criticism of Zionism
Zionism was opposed by a wide variety of organizations and individuals, particularly after 1948. The
Arab LeagueThe Arab League , officially called the League of Arab States , is a regional organization of Arab states in Southwest Asia, and North and Northeast Africa. It was formed in Cairo on March 22, 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria...
and
Arab Higher CommitteeThe Arab Higher Committee was the central political organ of the Arab community of Mandate Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936, on the initiative of Hajj Amin al-Husayni, the mufti of Jerusalem, and comprised the leaders of Palestinian Arab clans under the mufti's chairmanship. The...
rejected the UN Partition Plan (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) approving the creation of a Jewish and Arab state in
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
,
[Bregman, Ahron]Ahron Bregman is a British-Israeli political scientist, as well as a writer and journalist, specialising on the Arab-Israeli conflict.-Biography:...
(2002), A History of Israel, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0333676319, pp. 40-41. and viewed Israel as occupying "Arab land".
[El-Nawawy, Mohammed (2002). The Israeli-Egyptian Peace Process in the reporting of western Journalists. Ablex/Greenwood, pg. 19 ISBN 1567505449 "It is a barrier that has been created by years and years of antagonism with Israelis; a barrier that was strengthened by the Egyptian and Arab news media at large which have enforced the Arabs' stereotypes about the Israelis as invaders of Arab land."][Khalidi, Rashid (2006). The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood. Beacon Press, pg. 19. ] Arab states continue to reject the Zionist philosophy which underwrote the creation of Israel and in particular maintain that the displacement of some 700,000 Arab
refugeesPalestinian refugees or Palestine refugees are the people and their descendants, predominantly Arabs, who fled or were expelled from their homes during and after the 1948 Palestine War, within that part of the British Mandate of Palestine that after that war became the territory of the State of...
in the
1948 Palestinian exodusThe 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as al Nakba , meaning the "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm", occurred when between 650,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes by Jewish or Israeli forces, during the creation of the state of Israel and the civil war...
[The U.N.'s final estimate of the total number of Palestinian Refugees was 711,000 according to the General Progress Report and Supplementary Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Covering the Period from 11 December 1949 to 23 October 1950, published by the United Nations Conciliation Commission]The United Nations Conciliation Commission was created by UN General Assembly Resolution 194, in order to conclude the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.On December 11, 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the proposal to set up the committee with delegates of three nations. France, Turkey and the United...
, October 23, 1950. (U.N. General Assembly Official Records, 5th Session, Supplement No. 18, Document A/1367/Rev.1) and the subsequent conflict is the inevitable consequence of the concept of a
Jewish Statesee also Proposals for a Jewish stateThe terms "Jewish state" and "homeland of the Jewish people" are used to describe the Zionist movement and the State of Israel and refer to its status as a nation-state established in Palestine for Jews.-History:...
.
HarediHaredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism, sometimes referred to as Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, though the term is considered pejorative by some, is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism...
Jewish communities are non-Zionist but willing to participate in Israeli coalitions. A minority, (the Satmar Hasidim and the small
Neturei KartaNeturei Karta , also self-identifying by the English name Jews United Against Zionism, is a small Haredi Jewish group formally created in 1935, that opposes Zionism and calls for a dismantling of the State of Israel, in the belief that Jews are forbidden to have their own state until the coming of...
group) are strongly anti-Zionist.
Before Hitler, Jews seeking to assimilate in Europe feared that Zionism would undermine their claims to citizenship since anti-semites claim that Jews are disloyal to their "host" societies.
[Social and political history of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939 By Joseph Marcus page 421 published 1983 see also http://www.adl.org/main_Anti_Semitism_Domestic/Year_in_Anti-Semitism_2008.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_2] These Jews sought to define themselves as loyal citizens of a different faith, sometimes styling themselves "of the Mosaic persuasion" . This movement was particularly prevalent in Germany, where most Jews supported German nationalism.
Non-Zionist Israeli movements, such as the Canaanite movement led by poet
Yonatan RatoshYonatan Ratosh , was the pen name of Israeli poet Uriel Shelach .-Biography:Born Uriel Heilperin in the Russian Empire in 1908 to a Zionist family. His father, Yechiel, was a Hebraist educator and raised Ratosh and his siblings in Hebrew...
in the 1930s and 1940s, have argued that "Israeli" should be a new pan-ethnic
nationalityNationality is the relationship between a person and their state of origin, culture, association, affiliation and/or loyalty. Nationality affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state....
. A related modern movement is known as
post-ZionismPost-Zionism refers to the opinions of some Israeli, diaspora Jews and others, particularly in academia, that Zionism has fulfilled its ideological mission with the creation of modern State of Israel in 1948 and that Zionist ideology should therefore be considered to be at an end...
, which asserts that Israel should abandon the concept of a "state of the Jewish people" and instead strive to be a state of all its citizens.
[Can Israel Survive Post-Zionism? by Meyrav Wurmser. Middle East Quarterly, March 1999] Another opinion favors a
binational stateThe one-state solution, also known as the binational solution, is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Though increasingly debated in academic circles, especially outside the United States, this approach remains outside the range of alternatives in official efforts to...
in which Arabs and Jews live together while enjoying some type of autonomy.
During the last quarter of 20th century, classic nationalism in Israel declined. This led to the rise of two antagonistic movements:
neo-ZionismNeo-Zionism is a right-wing, nationalistic and religious movement that appeared in Israel following the Six Days War and capture of the occupied territories, which they consider the Land of Israel. It evolved parallel with, and in opposition to Post-Zionism...
and
post-ZionismPost-Zionism refers to the opinions of some Israeli, diaspora Jews and others, particularly in academia, that Zionism has fulfilled its ideological mission with the creation of modern State of Israel in 1948 and that Zionist ideology should therefore be considered to be at an end...
. Both movements mark the Israeli version of a worldwide phenomenon:
- the emergence of globalization, a market society and liberal culture
- a local backlash.
[Uri Ram, The Future of the Past in Israel - A Sociology of Knowledge Approach, in Benny Morris]Benny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel. He is a key member of a group of Israeli historians known as the 'New Historians', because they are rewriting the history of Israel since its...
, Making Israel, p.224.
Neo-Zionism and post-Zionism share traits with "classical" Zionism but differ by accentuating antagonist and diametrically opposed poles already present in Zionism. "Neo Zionism accentuates the messianic and particularistic dimensions of Zionist nationalism, while post-Zionism accentuates its normalising and universalistic dimensions".
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
In 1903, following the
Kishinev PogromThe Kishinev pogrom was an anti-Jewish riot that took place in Chişinău, then the capital of the Bessarabia province of the Russian Empire on April 6-7, 1903.-First pogrom:...
a variety of Russian antisemities, including the Black Hundreds and the Tzarist Secret Police began combining earlier works alleging a Jewish plot to take control of the world into new formats.
[Norman Cohn]Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA was a British academic, historian and writer who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.-Life:...
, Warrant for GenocideWarrant for Genocide, by Norman Cohn, is a critical work about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.This scholarly book explores the history, origin, and world-wide dissemination of this notorious, antisemitic plagiarism, literary forgery, and hoax....
, Serif 2001 chapter 3 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") arranged by
Sergei NilusSergei Alexandrovich Nilus was a Russian religious writer and self-described mystic....
achieved global notability. In 1903 the editor claimed that the protocols revealed the menace of Zionism,
The book contains fictional minutes of an imaginary meeting in which alleged Jewish leaders plotted to take over the world. Nilus later claimed they were presented to the elders by Herzl (the "Prince of Exile") at the first Zionist congress. A Polish edition claimed they were taken from Herzl's flat in Austria and a 1920 German version renamed them "The Zionist Protocols".
[Norman Cohn]Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA was a British academic, historian and writer who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.-Life:...
, Warrant for GenocideWarrant for Genocide, by Norman Cohn, is a critical work about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.This scholarly book explores the history, origin, and world-wide dissemination of this notorious, antisemitic plagiarism, literary forgery, and hoax....
, Serif 2001 page 75-76 The "protocols were one of the earliest, and possibly the most important example of the many cases in which anti-semitism has manifested as anti-Zionism or vice versa and were extensively used by the Nazis. They remain relatively widely distributed in the Arab world and are also referred to in the 1988 Hamas charter (article 32):
Resolutions condemning Zionism
Ideological opposition to Zionism later combined with the anti-Israel cold-war politics of the Soviet Union and the Arab antagonism to Israel, as well as with anti-Semitism. Communist states declared Zionism to be a colonialist ideology bent on exploiting and dispossessing the native inhabitants of Palestine, and creating an apartheid colonialist fascist Jewish state.
The Organization for African Unity and the
Non-Aligned MovementThe Non-Aligned Movement is an international organisation of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The movement is largely the brainchild of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former president of Egypt Gamal Abdul Nasser and Yugoslav...
passed resolutions condemning Zionism and equating it with
racismRacism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or get preferential treatment...
and apartheid during the early 1970s. The
United Nations General AssemblyFor two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:*General Assembly members*General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
passed Resolution 3151 72 to 36, with 32 abstentions, in December 1973, stating that there was an "unholy alliance between South African racism and Zionism." Resolution 3379 passed in November 1975, supported by Arab, African and Soviet bloc states, declaring that "Zionism is a form of racism."
[http://www.mideastweb.org/3379.htm]
As the war in Iraq began and the South Africa's apartheid government and the Soviet Union collapsed, the resolution was repealed
in 1991 with Resolution 4686, after Israel declared that it would only participate in the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 if the resolution were revoked.
[Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 320. ISBN 0465041957.]
[http://www.cfr.org/publication/11284/]
At the session revoking the motion, U.S. President
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
declared that 3379 mocked the founding principles of the United Nations and its charter's pledge "to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors."
[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=20012] The revocation motion was co-sponsored by 90 nations and supported by 111, and opposed by 26.
Marcus Garvey and Black Zionism
Zionist success in winning British support for formation of a Jewish National Home in Palestine helped to inspire the
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n nationalist
Marcus GarveyMarcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH , was a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, and orator...
to form a movement dedicated to returning Americans of African origin to Africa. During a speech in
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
in 1920, Garvey stated: "other races were engaged in seeing their cause through—the Jews through their Zionist movement and the
IrishThe Irish people are a Western European ethnic group who originate in Ireland, in north western Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians 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."
[Negro World]Negro World was a weekly newspaper, established in January 1918 in New York City, which served as the voice of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, an organization founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914...
6 March 1920, cited in http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/lifeintr.asp (accessed 29/11/2007).
Garvey established a shipping company, the
Black Star LineThe Black Star Line was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey, who organized the UNIA . The Black Star Line derived its name from the White Star Line, a line whose success Garvey felt he could duplicate, which would become a standard of his Back-to-Africa movement...
, to allow Black Americans to emigrate to Africa, but for various reasons failed in his endeavour.
Garvey helped inspire the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica, the
Black JewsThe Jewish people have had a long history in Africa, dating to the Biblical era. As the African diaspora grew, because of the movement of Africans and their descendants throughout the world, African Jews were part of that diaspora. In addition, Judaism has spread through the African diaspora,...
[BlackJews.org - A Project of the International Board of Rabbis] and The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem who initially moved to Liberia before settling in Israel.
Non-Jewish support for Zionism
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 LandChristian Restorationism, the Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land was a nineteenth-century, Christian movement with both political and religious motivations....
were called Restorationists. The return of the Jews to the Holy Land was widely supported by such eminent figures as Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, President
John AdamsJohn Adams was an American politician and the second President of the United States , after being the first Vice President for two terms. He is regarded as one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States.Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution...
of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
General SmutsField Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, PC, ED, KC, FRS, GCTE was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from...
of
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
,
President MasarykTomáš Garrigue Masaryk , sometimes called Thomas Masaryk in English, was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak statesman, sociologist and philosopher, who as the keenest advocate of Czechoslovak independence during World War I became the first President and founder of Czechoslovakia...
of
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, philosopher and historian
Benedetto CroceBenedetto Croce was an Italian critic, idealist philosopher, and occasionally also a politician. He wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, methodolgy of history writing and aesthetics, and was a prominent liberal, although he opposed laissez-faire free trade...
from
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
,
Henry DunantJean Henri Dunant , aka Henry Dunant or Henri Dunant, was a Swiss businessman and social activist. During a business trip in 1859, he was witness to the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in modern day Italy...
(founder of the Red Cross and author of the
Geneva ConventionsThe Geneva Conventions consist of four treaties and three additional protocols that set the standards in international law for humanitarian treatment of the victims of war. The singular term Geneva Convention refers to the agreements of 1949, negotiated in the aftermath of World War II, updating...
), and scientist and humanitarian
Fridtjof NansenFridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist and diplomat. Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work as a League of Nations High Commissioner....
from
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
.
The
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
government through Minister M.
Cambon Cambon is a town and commune of the Tarn department of southern France....
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
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, top figures of the
Nationalist governmentThe Kuomintang of China , translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is a political party of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan since the 1970s. It is the founding and the ruling political party of the ROC...
, including
Sun Yat-SenSun Yat-sen was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Republican China, Sun is frequently referred to as the Father of the Nation. Sun played an instrumental role in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in October 1911, the last imperial dynasty of China...
, expressed their sympathy with the aspirations of the Jewish people for a National Home.
Christians supporting Zionism
Christians have a long history of supporting the return of Jews to the Holy Land prior to Zionism. One of the principal Protestant teachers who promoted the biblical doctrine that the Jews would return to their national homeland was
John Nelson DarbyJohn Nelson Darby was an Anglo-Irish evangelist, and an influential figure among the original Plymouth Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism. He produced a translation of the Bible based on the Hebrew and Greek texts called The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation...
. He is credited with being the major promoter of the idea following his 11 lectures on the hopes of the church, the Jew and the gentile given in Geneva in 1840. His views were embraced by many evangelicals and also affected international foreign policy. Notable early supporters of Zionism include British Prime Ministers
David Lloyd GeorgeDavid Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor OM, PC was a British statesman and the only Welsh Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; he is also the only one to have spoken English as a second language, Welsh having been his first.During a long tenure of office, mainly as Chancellor of the...
and
Arthur BalfourArthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
, American President
Woodrow WilsonThomas Woodrow Wilson was the 28th President of the United States. A leading intellectual of the Progressive Era, he served as President of Princeton University from 1902 to 1910, and then as the Governor of New Jersey from 1911 to 1913...
and 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 WarThe Six-Day War of June 5-10, 1967 was a war between the Israel army and the armies of the neighboring states of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. The Arab states of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria also contributed troops and arms. At the war's end, Israel had gained control of the...
of 1967, and many
dispensationalistDispensationalism is a Protestant evangelical tradition and theology based on a biblical hermeneutic that sees a series of chronologically successive "dispensations" or periods in history in which God relates to human beings in different ways under different Biblical covenants. As a system...
Christians, especially in the United States, now strongly support Zionism.
The founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church),
Joseph SmithJoseph Smith may refer to:The founder of the Latter Day Saint movement and his relatives:* Joseph Smith, Jr. , founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints* Joseph Smith, Sr. , father of Joseph Smith, Jr....
, in his last years alive, declared "the time for Jews to return to the land of Israel is now." In 1842, Smith sent
Orson HydeOrson Hyde was a leader in the early Latter Day Saint movement and an original member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles...
, 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 Christian Arabs publicly supporting Israel include US author
Nonie DarwishNonie Darwish is an Egyptian-American human rights activist, writer, scholar of Islame and founder of Arabs For Israel. She is the author of two books: Now They Call Me Infidel; Why I Renounced Jihad for America, Israel and the War on Terror and Cruel and Usual Punishment: The Terrifying Global...
, creator of the
Arabs for Israel Web site, and former Muslim
Magdi AllamMagdi Allam, as a Catholic Magdi Cristiano Allam , is an Egyptian-born Italian journalist, noted for his criticism of Islamic Extremism and his articles on the relations between Western culture and the Islamic world...
, author of
Viva Israele,
[ISBN 9788804567776] both born in Egypt.
Brigitte GabrielBrigitte Gabriel is a Lebanese American journalist, author, activist and speaker on Islam and the Middle East.Gabriel says Islam keeps Arab countries backward, and teaches terrorism...
, a Lebanese-born Christian US journalist and founder of the
American Congress For TruthAmerican Congress for Truth is a non-profit organization that focuses on threats to the US, Israel, and the West from Islamic fundamentalism...
, urges Americans to "fearlessly speak out in defense of America, Israel and Western civilization".
A small sect of Christian Zionists, Nazarenes and Nazarene Jews are part of a movement to return Christianity to Judaism.
Muslims supporting Zionism
In 1873,
Shah of PersiaThe Qajar dynasty ) was a Turco-Persian Qajar royal family who ruled Persia from 1794 to 1925....
Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar met with British Jewish leaders, including Sir
Moses MontefioreSir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, Kt was one of the most famous British Jews of the 19th century. Montefiore was a financier, banker, philanthropist and Sheriff of London.- Biography:...
, during his journey to Europe. At that time, the Persian king suggested that the Jews buy land and establish a state for the Jewish people.
[http://www.worldjewishcongress.org/communities/mideast/comm_iran.htmlWorld Jewish Congress]
Zionism is the international political movement that originally supported the reestablishment of a homeland for the Jewish People in PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
. The area was the JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish Biblical homeland, called the Land of IsraelThe Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants...
(Hebrew: Eretz Yisra'el). Since the creation of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily as support for the modern state of IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
.
Zionism is based on the foundation of historical ties and religious traditionsJudaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts...
linking the Jewish people to the Land of IsraelThe Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants...
, where the concept of Jewish nationhood first evolved somewhere between 1200 BCECommon Era, abbreviated as CE, is a designation for the calendar system most commonly used world-wide for numbering the year part of the date...
and the late Second TempleThe Second Temple was the reconstructed Temple in Jerusalem which stood between 516 BCE and 70 CE. During this time, it was the center of Jewish worship, which focused on the sacrifices known as the korbanot...
era (i.e. up to 70 CECommon Era, abbreviated as CE, is a designation for the calendar system most commonly used world-wide for numbering the year part of the date...
).["...from Zion, where King David fashioned the first Jewish nation" (Friedland, Roger and Hecht, Richard To Rule Jerusalem, p. 27).]["By the late Second Temple times, when widely held Messianic beliefs were so politically powerful in their implications and repercussions, and when the significance of political authority, territorial sovereignty, and religious belief for the fate of the Jews as a people was so widely and vehemently contested, it seems clear that Jewish nationhood was a social and cultural reality". (Roshwald, Aviel. "Jewish Identity and the Paradox of Nationalism", in Berkowitz, Michael (ed.). Nationalism, Zionism and Ethnic Mobilization of the Jews in 1900 and Beyond, p. 15).] Two millennia after the Jewish diasporaThe Jewish diaspora , the presence of Jews outside of the Land of Israel, is a result of the expulsion or emigration of Jews from Israel...
, the modern Zionist movement, beginning in the late 19th century, was mainly founded by secular JewsFor religious Jewish culture, see Judaism and Yiddishkeit.Secular Jewish culture embraces several related phenomena; above all, it is the culture of secular communities of Jewish people, but it can also include the cultural contributions of individuals who identify as secular Jews, or even those of...
, largely as a response by European JewryAshkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland valley and northern France...
to antisemitism across EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, especially in RussiaAnti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire, in particular, those of the late 19th century in what today is Ukraine and Poland, gave rise to the international loanword pogrom as a reference to large-scale, targeted, and repeated antisemitic rioting...
.[Wylen, Stephen M. Settings of Silver: An Introduction to Judaism, Second Edition, Paulist Press, 2000, p. 392). Calaprice, Alice. The Einstein Almanac, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, p. xvi.] The re-creation of a Jewish national homeland was also strongly advocated by American scholars, such as Louis BrandeisLouis D. Brandeis was a United States Supreme Court Justice from 1916 to 1939. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky to Jewish parents who had immigrated from Europe...
, as a solution to this "Jewish problem" and a way to "revive the Jewish spirit."
It is a type of the broader phenomenon of modern nationalismNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
.[A.R. Taylor, 'Vision and intent in Zionist Thought', in 'The transformation of Palestine', ed. by I. Abu-Lughod, 1971, ISBN 0-8101-0345-1, p. 10] Initially one of several Jewish political movementsJewish political movements refer to the organized efforts of Jews to build their own political parties or otherwise represent their interest in politics outside of the Jewish community...
offering alternative responses to assimilationThe term Jewish Assimilation refers to a movement that began among Ashkenazi Jews in 18th century Europe, which encompasses outward social, cultural and genetic processes, as well as internal religious processes and events. It fostered assimilation and integration of the previously segregated...
and the position of Jews in EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
, Zionism grew rapidly and after the HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as The Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany,...
became the dominant power among Jewish political movements.
The political movement was formally established by the Austro-HungarianAustria–Hungary, also known as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the k.u.k. Monarchy, or Dual State, was a monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in Central Europe...
journalist Theodor HerzlTheodor Herzl Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl ' onMouseout='HidePop("38505")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Der_Judenstaat">Der Judenstaat
Der Judenstaat is a book written by Theodor Herzl and published in 1896 in Leipzig and Vienna by M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung...
.
[Walter Laqueur (2003) The History of Zionism Tauris Parke Paperbacks, ISBN 1860649327 p 40] The movement seeks to encourage
Jewish migrationAliyah is the immigration of Jews to Eretz Israel. It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology, and a value in almost all movements of Judaism...
to the "
Land of IsraelThe Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants...
" and was eventually successful in establishing Israel in 1948, as the homeland for the Jewish people. Its proponents regard its aim as
self-determinationSelf-determination is defined as free choice of one’s own acts without external compulsion; and especially as the freedom of the people of a given territory to determine their own political status. In other words, it is the right of the people of a nation to decide how they want to be governed...
for the Jewish people.
[A national liberation movement: Rockaway, Robert. Zionism: The National Liberation Movement of The Jewish People, World Zionist Organization]The World Zionist Organization , or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization , or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland; it changed its name to World Zionist Organization in January 1960.The ZO served as an umbrella organization for...
, January 21, 1975, accessed August 17, 2006). Shlomo AvineriShlomo Avineri is an Israeli political scientist. He is Professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem...
.
Neuberger, Binyamin. Zionism - an Introduction, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, August 20, 2001, accessed August 17, 2006).
The proportion of world Jewry living in Israel has steadily grown since the movement came into existence. Today roughly 40% of the world's Jews live in Israel. A similar number live in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
(see
American JewsAmerican Jews, also known as Jewish Americans, are American citizens or resident aliens of the Jewish faith and/or Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish community in the United States is composed predominantly of Ashkenazi Jews who emigrated from Central and Eastern Europe, and their U.S.-born descendants...
).
Terminology
The word "Zionism" itself is derived from the word
ZionZion is a term that most often designates the Land of Israel and its capital, Jerusalem. The word is found in texts dating back almost three millennia...
. This name originally referred to
Mount ZionMount Zion is an elevation west of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, Israel. Jewish scriptures apply the term "Mount Zion" to the Temple Mount or the City of David, both located on this elevation...
, a mountain near
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
, and to the Fortress of Zion on it. Later, under King David, the term "Zion" became a
synecdocheSynecdoche is a figure of speech in which:* a term denoting a part of something is used to refer to the whole thing , or...
referring to the entire city of
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
and the
Land of IsraelThe Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants...
. In many Biblical verses, the Israelites were called the people, sons or daughters of Zion.
"Zionism" was coined as a term for Jewish
nationalismNationalism is an ideology, a sentiment, a form of culture, or a social movement that focuses on the nation. It is a type of collectivism emphasizing the collective of a specific nation...
by
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
n
JewThe Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
ish publisher
Nathan BirnbaumNathan Birnbaum , was an Austrian writer and journalist, Jewish thinker...
, founder of the first nationalist Jewish students' movement
Kadimah, in his journal
Selbstemanzipation (
Self Emancipation) in 1890. (Birnbaum eventually turned against political Zionism and became the first secretary-general of the
HarediHaredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism, sometimes referred to as Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, though the term is considered pejorative by some, is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism...
movement
Agudat IsraelAgudat Israel began as the original political party representing Haredi Judaism in Israel. It was the umbrella party for almost all Haredi Jews in Israel, and before that in the British Mandate of Palestine...
.)
[De Lange, Nicholas, An Introduction to Judaism, Cambridge University Press (2000), p. 30. ISBN 0-521-46624-5.]
Zionism can be distinguished from
TerritorialismTerritorialism was a Jewish political movement calling for creation of a sufficiently large and compact Jewish territory , not necessarily in the Land of Israel and not necessarily fully autonomous....
, because it is the Jewish nationalist movement willing only to contemplate a Jewish homeland in Eretz Israel. During the early history of Zionism, a number of proposals were made for settling Jews outside Europe, but ultimately all of these were rejected or failed. The debate over these proposals helped to define the nature and focus of the Zionist movement.
Organization
Members and delegates at the 1939 Zionist congress, by country/region (Zionism was banned in the Soviet Union). 70,000 Polish Jews supported the Revisionist Zionist movement, which was not represented.[Source: A survey of Palestine, prepared in 1946 for the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry]The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry was a joint British and American attempt in 1946 to agree upon a policy as regards the admission of Jews to Palestine. The Committee was tasked to consult representative Arabs and Jews on the problems of Palestine, and to make other recommendations 'as may be...
, Volume II page 907 HMSO 1946.
| Country/Region |
Members |
Delegates |
| Poland |
299,165 |
109 |
| USA |
263,741 |
114 |
| Palestine |
167,562 |
134 |
| Romania |
60,013 |
28 |
| United Kingdom |
23,513 |
15 |
| South Africa |
22,343 |
14 |
| Canada |
15,220 |
8 |
The multi-national, worldwide Zionist movement is structured as a representative democracy. 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 elected a 30-man executive council, which in turn elected the movement's leader. The movement was democratic from its inception and women had the right to vote (before they won the right in Great Britain).
Until 1917, the
ZOThe World Zionist Organization , or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization , or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland; it changed its name to World Zionist Organization in January 1960.The ZO served as an umbrella organization for...
pursued a strategy of building a homeland through persistent small-scale immigration and the founding of such bodies as the Jewish National Fund (1901 - a charity which bought land for Jewish settlement) and the Anglo-Palestine Bank (1903 - provided loans for Jewish businesses and farmers). In 1942, at the
Biltmore ConferenceThe Biltmore Conference, also known by its resolution as the Biltmore Program, was a fundamental departure from traditional Zionist policy with its demand "that Palestine be established as a Jewish Commonwealth." The meeting was held in New York City at the prestigious Biltmore Hotel from May 6...
, Zionists changed their program and demanded the establishment of a Jewish state as the aim of the movement.
The 28th Zionist Congress, meeting in Jerusalem 1968, adopted the five points of the "Jerusalem Program" as the aims of Zionism today. They are:
[http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=497&subject=43]
- The unity of the Jewish People and the centrality of Israel in Jewish life
- The ingathering of the Jewish People in its historic homeland, Eretz Israel, through Aliyah
Aliyah is the immigration of Jews to Eretz Israel. It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology, and a value in almost all movements of Judaism...
from all countries
- The strengthening of the State of Israel which is based on the prophetic vision of justice and peace
- The preservation of the identity of the Jewish People through the fostering of Jewish and Hebrew education and of Jewish spiritual and cultural values
- The protection of Jewish rights everywhere
Since the creation of Israel, the role of the movement has declined and it is now a peripheral factor in Israeli politics although different perceptions of Zionism continue to play a role in Israeli and Jewish political discussion.
Labor Zionism
Labor Zionism originated in Eastern Europe. Socialist Zionists believed that centuries of being oppressed in anti-Semitic societies had reduced Jews to a meek, vulnerable, despairing existence which invited further anti-Semitism, a view originally stipulated by
Theodor HerzlTheodor Herzl Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl ' onMouseout='HidePop("624")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Diaspora">Diaspora
A diaspora is any movement of a population sharing common ethnic identity. While refugees may or may not ultimately settle in a new geographic location, the term diaspora refers to a permanently displaced and relocated collective.Diasporic cultural development often assumes a different course from...
mentality" among the Jewish people, and established rural communes in Israel called "kibbutzim". 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 JudaismOrthodox Judaism is a formulation of Judaism that adheres to a relatively strict interpretation and application of the laws and ethics first canonized in the Talmudic texts and as subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and Acharonim.Orthodox...
.
Labor Zionism became the dominant force in the political and economic life of the
YishuvYishuv or Ha-Yishuv Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv (the Yishuv, , or the full term הישוב היהודי בארץ ישראל Hayishuv Hayehudi b'Eretz Yisrael ("The Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel") is the term used in Hebrew referring to the...
during the British Mandate of Palestine and was the dominant ideology of the political establishment in Israel until the
1977 electionThe Elections for the ninth Knesset were held on 17 May 1977. For the first time in Israeli political history, the right-wing, led by Likud, won the election, ending almost 30 years of rule by the left-wing Alignment and its predecessor, Mapai...
when the Israeli Labor Party was defeated. The Labor Party continues the tradition (although it has weakened) and has in recent years taken to advocating creation of a Palestinian State in the West-Bank and Gaza, however the most popular party in the kibbutzim is Meretz.
Liberal Zionism
General Zionism (or Liberal Zionism) was initially the dominant trend within the Zionist movement from the
First Zionist CongressThe First Zionist Congress is the name given to the congress held in Basel , Switzerland, from August 29 to August 31 1897. It was the first congress of the Zionist Organization . It was called forand chaired by Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism...
in 1897 until after the First World War. General Zionists identified with the liberal European middle class (or bourgeois) to which many Zionist leaders such as Herzl and
Chaim WeizmannChaim Azriel Weizmann, , was a Zionist leader, President of the World Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952. Weizmann was also a chemist who developed a new process of producing acetone through...
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, although
KadimaKadima was founded as a centrist political party in Israel by moderates from Likud soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians. It became the largest party in the Knesset after the 2006 elections, winning 29 of the 120 seats...
does 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.
Nationalist Zionism
Nationalist Zionism originated from the Revisionist Zionists led by Jabotinsky. The Revisionists left the World Zionist Organization in 1935 because it refused to state that the creation of a Jewish state was an objective of Zionism. The revisionists advocated the formation of a Jewish Army in Palestine to force the Arab population to accept mass Jewish migration. Revisionist Zionism evolved into the
LikudLikud is the major center-right political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin in an alliance with several right-wing and liberal parties. Likud's victory in the 1977 elections was a major turning point in the country's political history, marking the first time the left had...
Party in Israel, which has dominated most governments since 1977. It advocates Israel maintaining control of the West-Bank and East Jerusalem and takes a hard-line approach in the Israeli-Arab conflict. In 2005 the Likud split over the issue of creation of a Palestinian state on the occupied territories and party members advocating peace talks helped form the
KadimaKadima was founded as a centrist political party in Israel by moderates from Likud soon joined by like-minded Labor politicians. It became the largest party in the Knesset after the 2006 elections, winning 29 of the 120 seats...
party.
Religious Zionism
In the 1920s and 1930s Rabbi
Abraham Isaac KookAbraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar...
(the first
Chief Rabbi of PalestineThe Chief Rabbinate of Israel is the supreme Jewish religious governing body in the state of Israel. There are always two active Chief Rabbis in Israel, an Ashkenazi rabbi and a Sephardi rabbi known as the Rishon L'Tzion....
) and his son Rabbi Zevi Judah Kook saw great religious and traditional value in many of Zionism's ideals, while rejecting its anti-religious undertones. They taught that Orthodox (Torah) Judaism embraces and mandates Zionism's positive ideals, such as the ingathering of exiles, and political activity to create and maintain a Jewish political entity in the Land of Israel. In this way, Zionism serves as a bridge between Orthodox and secular Jews.
While other Zionist groups have tended to moderate their nationalism over time, the
gainsThe Israeli-occupied territories are the territories captured by Israel from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria during the Six-Day War of 1967, consisting of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, and, until 1982, the Sinai Peninsula...
from the Six Day War have led religious Zionism to play a significant role in Israeli political life. Now associated with the
National Religious PartyThe National Religious Party was a political party in Israel representing the religious Zionist movement...
and
Gush EmunimGush Emunim is an Israeli messianic and political movement committed to establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank . The movement sprang out of the conquests of the Six-Day War in 1967, though it was not formally established as an organization until 1974, in the wake of the Yom Kippur War...
, religious Zionists have been at the forefront of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and efforts to assert Jewish control over the Old City of Jerusalem.
Zionism and Ultra-Orthodox Jews
Ultra-Orthodox organizations do not belong to the Zionist movement; they view Zionism as secular, reject nationalism as a doctrine and consider Judaism to be first and foremost a religion. Ultra-Orthodox rabbis do not consider Israel to be a Jewish state because it is secular. However, they generally consider themselves responsible for ensuring that Jews maintain religious ideals and since most Israeli citizens are Jews they pursue this agenda within Israel.
Two Ultra-Orthodox parties run in Israeli elections. They are sometimes associated with views which could be regarded as nationalist or Zionist and have shown a preference for 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
ShasShas is a political party in Israel, primarily representing Haredi Sephardi and Mizrahi Judaism. Following the 2009 elections in which Shas won 11 seats, it joined Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government and holds four cabinet posts...
rejects association with the Zionist movement, however its voters generally regard themselves 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 generally opposes compromise over Jewish Holy sites.
The Ashkenazi
Agudath IsraelAgudath Israel can refer to any of several related organizations, including:*World Agudath Israel, an international movement*Agudath Israel of America, an American organization*Agudat Israel, an Israeli political party...
/
UTJUTJ can be an abbreviation for:*Union for Traditional Judaism *United Torah Judaism...
party 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 does work towards ensuring that Israel and Israeli law are in tune with the halacha.
In recent years the Ashkenazi Lubavitch hassidic movement has adopted an ultra-nationalist agenda and opposed any territorial compromise; however, the movement has never considered itself to be Zionist.
The Satmar Hasidim and the small
Neturei KartaNeturei Karta , also self-identifying by the English name Jews United Against Zionism, is a small Haredi Jewish group formally created in 1935, that opposes Zionism and calls for a dismantling of the State of Israel, in the belief that Jews are forbidden to have their own state until the coming of...
group are strongly anti-Zionist. Satmar members do not live in Israel. The primary
haredi anti-Zionist work is
Vayoel MosheVayoel Moshe is a Hebrew book written by Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, leader of the Satmar Hasidic movement, in the year 1961. It made his case that Judaism is against Zionism....
by Satmar
RebbeRebbe , which means master, teacher, or mentor, is a Yiddish word derived from the identical Hebrew word Rabbi. It mostly refers to the leader of a Hasidic Jewish movement...
Joel TeitelbaumRabbi Joel Teitelbaum, known as Reb Yoelish or the Satmar Rav , was a prominent...
. This lengthy dissertation rejects Zionism for religious reasons based on an
aggadicAggadah refers to the homiletic and non-legalistic exegetical texts in classical rabbinic literature - particularly as recorded in the Talmud and Midrash...
passage in the
TalmudThe Talmud is a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs, and history. It is a central text of mainstream Judaism....
, tractate
Ketubot (see the
Three OathsThe Three Oaths is the popular name for a Midrash found in the Talmud, which relates that God adjured three oaths upon the world. Two of the oaths pertain to the Jewish people, and one of the oaths pertains to the nations of the world. The Jews for their part are sworn not to go up from Exile to...
).
Particularities of Zionist beliefs
The idea of Zionism is established on the basis of long and continuous association between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. Mass return, or Aliyah, to the Land of Israel is a recurring theme in Jewish prayers that continued during the period the Jews lived in diaspora, following the Roman occupation and the destruction of the Second Temple at the hands of the Romans in the year 70. Aliyah, however, was associated with the coming of the Jewish Messiah. The core of Zionist ideology is reflected in the principle that the land of Israel is the historical origin of the Jewish people, and in believing that the presence of Jews in any other part of the world is living in exile.
[http://esraten.com/all%20EN/okaia/OK--20.html] The center of the Zionism idea is represented in the Israeli Declaration of Independence:
Zionism is dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism in all its forms. Some Zionists believe that anti-Semitism will never disappear (and that Jews must conduct themselves with this in mind,)
[For an example of this view see The New Anti-Zionism and the Old Antisemitism: Transformations By: Raphael Jospe at http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=2095 accessed 16/11/2008] while others perceive Zionism as a vehicle with which to end anti-Semitism.
Zionists preferred to speak Hebrew, a Semitic language that developed under conditions of freedom in ancient
JudahThe Kingdom of Judah existed at two periods in Jewish history. According to the Hebrew Bible, a kingdom emerged in Judah after the death of Saul, when the tribe of Judah elevated David, who came from the Tribe of Judah, to rule over it. After seven years David became king of a reunited Kingdom of...
, modernizing and adapting it for everyday use. Zionists sometimes refused to speak Yiddish, a language they considered affected by Christian persecution. Once they moved to Israel, many Zionists refused to speak their (diasporic) mother tongues and gave themselves new, Hebrew names.
According to Eliezer Schweid the rejection of life in the Diaspora is a central assumption in Zionism.
[E. Schweid, ‘Rejection of the Diaspora in Zionist Thought’, in ‘’Essential Papers onZionsm, ed. By Reinharz & Shapira, 1996, ISBN 0-8147-7449-0, p.133] Underlying this attitude was the feeling that the Diaspora restricted the full growth of Jewish individual and national life.
History
Since the first century CE most Jews have lived in exile, although there has been a constant presence of Jews in the
Land of IsraelThe Land of Israel is, according to the Hebrew Bible, the region which was promised by their God to the descendants of Abraham through his son Isaac and to the Israelites, descendants of Jacob, Abraham's grandson. This land forms part of the Abrahamic, Jacob and Israel covenants...
(Eretz Israel). According to Judaism, Eretz Israel, or
ZionZion is a term that most often designates the Land of Israel and its capital, Jerusalem. The word is found in texts dating back almost three millennia...
, is a land promised to the Jews by God according to the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
. After the 2nd century Bar Kokhba revolt, the
RomansThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean. The term is used to describe the Roman state during and after the time of the first emperor,...
expelled the Jews from
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
, thus forming the
Jewish diasporaThe Jewish diaspora , the presence of Jews outside of the Land of Israel, is a result of the expulsion or emigration of Jews from Israel...
.
In the 19th century, a current in Judaism supporting a return to Palestine grew in popularity.
[http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/0,15478,3900-1,00.html#FlashPluginDetected] Jews began to emigrate to Palestine, pre-Zionist Aliyah, even before 1897, the year considered as the start of practical Zionism.
[C.D. Smith, 2001, 'Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict', 4th ed., ISBN 0-312-20828-6, p. 1-12, 33-38]
Population of Palestine by religions
| year |
Muslims |
Jews |
Christians |
Others |
| 1922 |
486,177 |
83,790 |
71,464 |
7,617 |
| 1931 |
493,147 |
174,606 |
88,907 |
10,101 |
| 1941 |
906,551 |
474,102 |
125,413 |
12,881 |
| 1946 |
1,076,783 |
608,225 |
145,063 |
15,488 |
Jewish immigration to Palestine started in earnest in 1882. Most
immigrantsIn the course of history, Jewish populations have been expelled or ostracised by various local authorities and have sought asylum from antisemitism numerous times...
came from Russia, escaping the frequent pogroms and state-led persecution. They founded a number of agricultural settlements with financial support from Jewish philanthropists in Western Europe. Further
AliyahAliyah is the immigration of Jews to Eretz Israel. It is a basic tenet of Zionist ideology, and a value in almost all movements of Judaism...
s followed the Russian Revolution and Nazi persecution.
In the 1890s,
Theodor HerzlTheodor Herzl Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl ' onMouseout='HidePop("48917")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Der_Judenstaat">ideology
Der Judenstaat is a book written by Theodor Herzl and published in 1896 in Leipzig and Vienna by M. Breitenstein's Verlags-Buchhandlung...
and practical urgency, leading to the
first congressThe First Zionist Congress is the name given to the congress held in Basel , Switzerland, from August 29 to August 31 1897. It was the first congress of the Zionist Organization . It was called forand chaired by Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism...
at
BaselBasel is Switzerland's third most populous city . With 830000 inhabitants in the tri-national metropolitan area , Basel is Switzerland's second-largest urban area....
in 1897, which created the
World Zionist OrganizationThe World Zionist Organization , or WZO, was founded as the Zionist Organization , or ZO, in 1897 at the First Zionist Congress, held from August 29 to August 31 in Basel, Switzerland; it changed its name to World Zionist Organization in January 1960.The ZO served as an umbrella organization for...
(WZO).
[Zionism & The British In Palestine, by Sethi, Arjun (University of Maryland) January 2007, accessed May 20, 2007.] Herzl's aim was to initiate necessary preparatory steps for the attainment of a Jewish state. Herzl’s attempts to reach a political agreement with the
OttomanThe Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State , also known by its contemporaries as the Turkish Empire or Turkey , was an empire that lasted from 1299 to November 1, 1922 The Ottoman Empire or Ottoman State (Ottoman Turkish: دَوْلَتِ عَلِیَّهِ عُثْمَانِیَّه Dawlet-il ʿAliyyat-il ʿOs̠māniyye, Modern Turkish:...
rulers of Palestine were unsuccessful and other governmental support was sought. The WZO supported small-scale settlement in Palestine and 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 ("
pogromA pogrom is a form of riot directed against a particular group, whether ethnic, religious, or other, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes, businesses, and religious centers...
s") was widely regarded as the historic enemy of the Jewish people. As much of its leadership were German speakers, the Zionist movement's headquarters were located in
BerlinBerlin is the capital city and one of sixteen states of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city and the eighth most populous urban area in the European Union...
. At the start of the First World War, most Jews (and Zionists) supported Germany in its war with Russia.
Lobbying by a Russian Jewish immigrant,
Chaim WeizmannChaim Azriel Weizmann, , was a Zionist leader, President of the World Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952. Weizmann was also a chemist who developed a new process of producing acetone through...
and fear that American Jews would encourage the USA to support Germany culminated in the Balfour Declaration of 1917 by the British government. This endorsed the creation of a Jewish Homeland in Palestine. In addition, a Zionist military corps led by Jabotinsky were recruited to fight on behalf of Britain in Palestine. In 1922, the
League of NationsThe League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919–1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members...
adopted the declaration in the Mandate it gave to Britain:
Weizmann's role in obtaining the Balfour Declaration led to his election as the movement's leader. He remained in that role until 1948.
The British Mandate caused greater Jewish migration to Palestine and massive Jewish land purchases from feudal landlords, which created landlessness and fueled unrest (often led by the same landlords who sold the land). There were riots in 1920, 1921 and 1929, sometimes accompanied by massacres of Jews . The victims were usually local non-Zionist orthodox Jewish communities. Britain supported Jewish immigration in principle, but in reaction to Arab violence imposed restrictions on Jewish immigration.
In 1933, Hitler came to power in Germany, and in 1935 the
Nuremberg LawsThe Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were antisemitic laws in Nazi Germany which were introduced at the annual Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg. The laws classified people as German if all four of their grandparents were of "German or kindred blood", while people were classified as Jews if they descended from...
made German Jews (and later
AustrianThe ' , also known as the ', was the 1938 de facto annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime....
and Czech Jews) stateless refugees. Similar rules were applied by
Nazi alliesThe Axis powers comprised the countries that were opposed to the Allies during World War II. The three major Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—were part of a military alliance on the signing of the Tripartite Pact in September 1940, which officially founded the Axis powers...
in Europe. The subsequent growth in Jewish migration and impact of
Nazi propagandaPropaganda, the coordinated attempt to influence public opinion through the use of media, was skillfully used by the Nazi party in the years leading up to and during Adolf Hitler's leadership of Germany...
aimed at the Arab world led to the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine. Britain established the
Peel CommissionThe Peel Commission of 1936-1937, formally known as the Palestine Royal Commission, was a British Royal Commission of Inquiry set out to propose changes to the British Mandate of Palestine following the outbreak of the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine...
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 populationsPopulation transfer is the movement of a large group of people from one region to another by state policy or international authority, most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion...
. But Britain rejected this solution and instead implemented
White Paper of 1939The White Paper of 1939, also known as the MacDonald White Paper after Malcolm MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary who presided over it, was a policy paper issued by the British government under Neville Chamberlain in which the idea of partitioning the Mandate for Palestine, as recommended in...
. This planned to end Jewish immigration by 1944 and to allow no more than 75,000 further Jewish migrants. The British maintained this policy until the end of the Mandate.
Growth of the Jewish community in Palestine and 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, DC including via the highly effective America Palestine Committee.
After WWII and
the HolocaustThe Holocaust , also known as The Shoah is the term generally used to describe the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, a program of systematic state-sponsored extermination by Nazi Germany,...
, a massive wave of
stateless JewsSh'erit ha-Pletah is a biblical term used by Jewish survivors of the Nazi Holocaust to refer to themselves and the communities they formed following their liberation in the spring of 1945...
, mainly Holocaust survivors, began migrating to Palestine in small boats in defiance of British rules. The British either
imprisoned these Jews in CyprusCyprus internment camps were operated by the British for internment of Jewish immigrants who attempted to immigrate to the Mandatory Palestine during the 1940s in violation of immigration quotas set for Jews...
(including many orphaned children) or
sent themExodus 1947 was a ship that carried Jewish emigrants, that left France on July 11, 1947, with the intent of taking its passengers to Palestine, now known as Israel, then controlled by the British. Most of the emigrants were Holocaust survivor refugees, who had no legal immigration certificates to...
to the British-controlled
Allied Occupation Zones in GermanyThe Allied powers who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II divided the country west of the Oder-Neisse line into four occupation zones for administrative purposes during the period 1945–1949. In the closing weeks of fighting in Europe, American forces had pushed beyond the previously agreed...
. This resulted in universal Jewish support for Zionism and the refusal of the U.S. Congress to grant economic aid to Britain. In addition, Zionist groups
attacked the British in PalestineBetween 1945 and 1948, the decision of the British government to halt Jewish immigration to the British Mandate of Palestine led to an increasingly bitter conflict between Britain and Palestinian Jews. In particular it resulted in large scale illegal Jewish immigration, "boat people", and Zionist...
and, with its empire facing bankruptcy, Britain was forced to refer the issue to the newly created
United NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
.
In 1947, the
United Nations Special Committee on PalestineThe United Nations Special Committee on Palestine was formed in May, 1947 in response to a British Government request that the General Assembly 'make recommendations under article 10 of the Charter, concerning the future government of Palestine.' The British government had also recommended the...
(UNSCOP) recommended that western Palestine should be partitioned into a Jewish state, an Arab state and a UN-controlled territory (
Corpus separatumCorpus separatum is Latin for "separated body". The 1947 UN Partition Plan used this term to refer to a proposed internationally administered zone to include Jerusalem and some nearby towns such as Bethlehem and Ein Karim, that was, "in view of its association with three world religions" to be...
) around
JerusalemJerusalem is the capital of Israel and its largest city in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if disputed East Jerusalem is included...
.
[United Nations Special Committee on Palestine; report to the General Assembly, A/364, 3 September 1947] 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.
[Three minutes, 2000 years, Video from the Jewish Agency for Israel, via YouTube]YouTube is a video sharing website on which users can upload and share videos. Three former PayPal employees created YouTube in February 2005. In November 2006, YouTube, LLC was bought by Google Inc. for $1.65 billion, and is now operated as a subsidiary of Google...
The Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states rejected the UN decision, demanding a single state and removal of Jewish migrants. On 14 May 1948, at the end of the British mandate, the Jewish Agency, led by Ben-Gurion, declared the creation of the State of Israel, and the same day the armies of seven
Arab countries invaded IsraelThe 1948 Arab–Israeli War, known by Israelis as the War of Independence or War of Liberation and by Palestinians as the Catastrophe , was the first in a series of wars fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its Arab neighbours in the long-running Arab-Israeli conflict.The war...
. The conflict led to an exodus of about
711,000 Arab PalestiniansThe 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as al Nakba , meaning the "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm", occurred when between 650,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes by Jewish or Israeli forces, during the creation of the state of Israel and the civil war...
[General Progress Report and Supplementary Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Covering the period from 11 December 1949 to 23 October 1950, GA A/1367/Rev.1 23 October 1950] and the
exodus of 850,000 JewsThe Jewish exodus from Arab lands refers to the 20th century expulsion or mass departure of Jews, primarily of Sephardi and Mizrahi background, from Arab and Islamic countries...
from the Arab world, mostly to Israel.
Since the creation of the State of Israel, the WZO 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.
Opposition to and criticism of Zionism
Zionism was opposed by a wide variety of organizations and individuals, particularly after 1948. The
Arab LeagueThe Arab League , officially called the League of Arab States , is a regional organization of Arab states in Southwest Asia, and North and Northeast Africa. It was formed in Cairo on March 22, 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria...
and
Arab Higher CommitteeThe Arab Higher Committee was the central political organ of the Arab community of Mandate Palestine. It was established on 25 April 1936, on the initiative of Hajj Amin al-Husayni, the mufti of Jerusalem, and comprised the leaders of Palestinian Arab clans under the mufti's chairmanship. The...
rejected the UN Partition Plan (United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181) approving the creation of a Jewish and Arab state in
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
,
[Bregman, Ahron]Ahron Bregman is a British-Israeli political scientist, as well as a writer and journalist, specialising on the Arab-Israeli conflict.-Biography:...
(2002), A History of Israel, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0333676319, pp. 40-41. and viewed Israel as occupying "Arab land".
[El-Nawawy, Mohammed (2002). The Israeli-Egyptian Peace Process in the reporting of western Journalists. Ablex/Greenwood, pg. 19 ISBN 1567505449 "It is a barrier that has been created by years and years of antagonism with Israelis; a barrier that was strengthened by the Egyptian and Arab news media at large which have enforced the Arabs' stereotypes about the Israelis as invaders of Arab land."][Khalidi, Rashid (2006). The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood. Beacon Press, pg. 19. ] Arab states continue to reject the Zionist philosophy which underwrote the creation of Israel and in particular maintain that the displacement of some 700,000 Arab
refugeesPalestinian refugees or Palestine refugees are the people and their descendants, predominantly Arabs, who fled or were expelled from their homes during and after the 1948 Palestine War, within that part of the British Mandate of Palestine that after that war became the territory of the State of...
in the
1948 Palestinian exodusThe 1948 Palestinian exodus , also known as al Nakba , meaning the "disaster", "catastrophe", or "cataclysm", occurred when between 650,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes by Jewish or Israeli forces, during the creation of the state of Israel and the civil war...
[The U.N.'s final estimate of the total number of Palestinian Refugees was 711,000 according to the General Progress Report and Supplementary Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Covering the Period from 11 December 1949 to 23 October 1950, published by the United Nations Conciliation Commission]The United Nations Conciliation Commission was created by UN General Assembly Resolution 194, in order to conclude the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.On December 11, 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the proposal to set up the committee with delegates of three nations. France, Turkey and the United...
, October 23, 1950. (U.N. General Assembly Official Records, 5th Session, Supplement No. 18, Document A/1367/Rev.1) and the subsequent conflict is the inevitable consequence of the concept of a
Jewish Statesee also Proposals for a Jewish stateThe terms "Jewish state" and "homeland of the Jewish people" are used to describe the Zionist movement and the State of Israel and refer to its status as a nation-state established in Palestine for Jews.-History:...
.
HarediHaredi or Charedi/Chareidi Judaism, sometimes referred to as Ultra-Orthodox Judaism, though the term is considered pejorative by some, is the most theologically conservative form of Orthodox Judaism...
Jewish communities are non-Zionist but willing to participate in Israeli coalitions. A minority, (the Satmar Hasidim and the small
Neturei KartaNeturei Karta , also self-identifying by the English name Jews United Against Zionism, is a small Haredi Jewish group formally created in 1935, that opposes Zionism and calls for a dismantling of the State of Israel, in the belief that Jews are forbidden to have their own state until the coming of...
group) are strongly anti-Zionist.
Before Hitler, Jews seeking to assimilate in Europe feared that Zionism would undermine their claims to citizenship since anti-semites claim that Jews are disloyal to their "host" societies.
[Social and political history of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939 By Joseph Marcus page 421 published 1983 see also http://www.adl.org/main_Anti_Semitism_Domestic/Year_in_Anti-Semitism_2008.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_2] These Jews sought to define themselves as loyal citizens of a different faith, sometimes styling themselves "of the Mosaic persuasion" . This movement was particularly prevalent in Germany, where most Jews supported German nationalism.
Non-Zionist Israeli movements, such as the Canaanite movement led by poet
Yonatan RatoshYonatan Ratosh , was the pen name of Israeli poet Uriel Shelach .-Biography:Born Uriel Heilperin in the Russian Empire in 1908 to a Zionist family. His father, Yechiel, was a Hebraist educator and raised Ratosh and his siblings in Hebrew...
in the 1930s and 1940s, have argued that "Israeli" should be a new pan-ethnic
nationalityNationality is the relationship between a person and their state of origin, culture, association, affiliation and/or loyalty. Nationality affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state....
. A related modern movement is known as
post-ZionismPost-Zionism refers to the opinions of some Israeli, diaspora Jews and others, particularly in academia, that Zionism has fulfilled its ideological mission with the creation of modern State of Israel in 1948 and that Zionist ideology should therefore be considered to be at an end...
, which asserts that Israel should abandon the concept of a "state of the Jewish people" and instead strive to be a state of all its citizens.
[Can Israel Survive Post-Zionism? by Meyrav Wurmser. Middle East Quarterly, March 1999] Another opinion favors a
binational stateThe one-state solution, also known as the binational solution, is a proposed approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Though increasingly debated in academic circles, especially outside the United States, this approach remains outside the range of alternatives in official efforts to...
in which Arabs and Jews live together while enjoying some type of autonomy.
During the last quarter of 20th century, classic nationalism in Israel declined. This led to the rise of two antagonistic movements:
neo-ZionismNeo-Zionism is a right-wing, nationalistic and religious movement that appeared in Israel following the Six Days War and capture of the occupied territories, which they consider the Land of Israel. It evolved parallel with, and in opposition to Post-Zionism...
and
post-ZionismPost-Zionism refers to the opinions of some Israeli, diaspora Jews and others, particularly in academia, that Zionism has fulfilled its ideological mission with the creation of modern State of Israel in 1948 and that Zionist ideology should therefore be considered to be at an end...
. Both movements mark the Israeli version of a worldwide phenomenon:
- the emergence of globalization, a market society and liberal culture
- a local backlash.
[Uri Ram, The Future of the Past in Israel - A Sociology of Knowledge Approach, in Benny Morris]Benny Morris is professor of History in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Be'er Sheva, Israel. He is a key member of a group of Israeli historians known as the 'New Historians', because they are rewriting the history of Israel since its...
, Making Israel, p.224.
Neo-Zionism and post-Zionism share traits with "classical" Zionism but differ by accentuating antagonist and diametrically opposed poles already present in Zionism. "Neo Zionism accentuates the messianic and particularistic dimensions of Zionist nationalism, while post-Zionism accentuates its normalising and universalistic dimensions".
The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
In 1903, following the
Kishinev PogromThe Kishinev pogrom was an anti-Jewish riot that took place in Chişinău, then the capital of the Bessarabia province of the Russian Empire on April 6-7, 1903.-First pogrom:...
a variety of Russian antisemities, including the Black Hundreds and the Tzarist Secret Police began combining earlier works alleging a Jewish plot to take control of the world into new formats.
[Norman Cohn]Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA was a British academic, historian and writer who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.-Life:...
, Warrant for GenocideWarrant for Genocide, by Norman Cohn, is a critical work about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.This scholarly book explores the history, origin, and world-wide dissemination of this notorious, antisemitic plagiarism, literary forgery, and hoax....
, Serif 2001 chapter 3 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") arranged by
Sergei NilusSergei Alexandrovich Nilus was a Russian religious writer and self-described mystic....
achieved global notability. In 1903 the editor claimed that the protocols revealed the menace of Zionism,
The book contains fictional minutes of an imaginary meeting in which alleged Jewish leaders plotted to take over the world. Nilus later claimed they were presented to the elders by Herzl (the "Prince of Exile") at the first Zionist congress. A Polish edition claimed they were taken from Herzl's flat in Austria and a 1920 German version renamed them "The Zionist Protocols".
[Norman Cohn]Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA was a British academic, historian and writer who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.-Life:...
, Warrant for GenocideWarrant for Genocide, by Norman Cohn, is a critical work about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.This scholarly book explores the history, origin, and world-wide dissemination of this notorious, antisemitic plagiarism, literary forgery, and hoax....
, Serif 2001 page 75-76 The "protocols were one of the earliest, and possibly the most important example of the many cases in which anti-semitism has manifested as anti-Zionism or vice versa and were extensively used by the Nazis. They remain relatively widely distributed in the Arab world and are also referred to in the 1988 Hamas charter (article 32):
Resolutions condemning Zionism
Ideological opposition to Zionism later combined with the anti-Israel cold-war politics of the Soviet Union and the Arab antagonism to Israel, as well as with anti-Semitism. Communist states declared Zionism to be a colonialist ideology bent on exploiting and dispossessing the native inhabitants of Palestine, and creating an apartheid colonialist fascist Jewish state.
The Organization for African Unity and the
Non-Aligned MovementThe Non-Aligned Movement is an international organisation of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The movement is largely the brainchild of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former president of Egypt Gamal Abdul Nasser and Yugoslav...
passed resolutions condemning Zionism and equating it with
racismRacism is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In the case of institutional racism, certain racial groups may be denied rights or benefits, or get preferential treatment...
and apartheid during the early 1970s. The
United Nations General AssemblyFor two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:*General Assembly members*General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
passed Resolution 3151 72 to 36, with 32 abstentions, in December 1973, stating that there was an "unholy alliance between South African racism and Zionism." Resolution 3379 passed in November 1975, supported by Arab, African and Soviet bloc states, declaring that "Zionism is a form of racism."
[http://www.mideastweb.org/3379.htm]
As the war in Iraq began and the South Africa's apartheid government and the Soviet Union collapsed, the resolution was repealed
in 1991 with Resolution 4686, after Israel declared that it would only participate in the Madrid Peace Conference of 1991 if the resolution were revoked.
[Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York, New York: Basic Books. p. 320. ISBN 0465041957.]
[http://www.cfr.org/publication/11284/]
At the session revoking the motion, U.S. President
George H. W. BushGeorge Herbert Walker Bush was the 41st President of the United States . He was also Ronald Reagan's Vice President , a congressman, an ambassador, and Director of Central Intelligence....
declared that 3379 mocked the founding principles of the United Nations and its charter's pledge "to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors."
[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=20012] The revocation motion was co-sponsored by 90 nations and supported by 111, and opposed by 26.
Marcus Garvey and Black Zionism
Zionist success in winning British support for formation of a Jewish National Home in Palestine helped to inspire the
JamaicaJamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length and as much as in width, amounting to 11,100 km
2. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harboring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
n nationalist
Marcus GarveyMarcus Mosiah Garvey, Jr., ONH , was a publisher, journalist, entrepreneur, Black Nationalist, Pan-Africanist, and orator...
to form a movement dedicated to returning Americans of African origin to Africa. During a speech in
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
in 1920, Garvey stated: "other races were engaged in seeing their cause through—the Jews through their Zionist movement and the
IrishThe Irish people are a Western European ethnic group who originate in Ireland, in north western Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolgs, Tuatha Dé Danann and the Milesians 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."
[Negro World]Negro World was a weekly newspaper, established in January 1918 in New York City, which served as the voice of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League, an organization founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914...
6 March 1920, cited in http://www.international.ucla.edu/africa/mgpp/lifeintr.asp (accessed 29/11/2007).
Garvey established a shipping company, the
Black Star LineThe Black Star Line was a shipping line incorporated by Marcus Garvey, who organized the UNIA . The Black Star Line derived its name from the White Star Line, a line whose success Garvey felt he could duplicate, which would become a standard of his Back-to-Africa movement...
, to allow Black Americans to emigrate to Africa, but for various reasons failed in his endeavour.
Garvey helped inspire the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica, the
Black JewsThe Jewish people have had a long history in Africa, dating to the Biblical era. As the African diaspora grew, because of the movement of Africans and their descendants throughout the world, African Jews were part of that diaspora. In addition, Judaism has spread through the African diaspora,...
[BlackJews.org - A Project of the International Board of Rabbis] and The African Hebrew Israelites of Jerusalem who initially moved to Liberia before settling in Israel.
Non-Jewish support for Zionism
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 LandChristian Restorationism, the Restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land was a nineteenth-century, Christian movement with both political and religious motivations....
were called Restorationists. The return of the Jews to the Holy Land was widely supported by such eminent figures as Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, President
John AdamsJohn Adams was an American politician and the second President of the United States , after being the first Vice President for two terms. He is regarded as one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States.Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution...
of the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
General SmutsField Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM, CH, PC, ED, KC, FRS, GCTE was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from...
of
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
,
President MasarykTomáš Garrigue Masaryk , sometimes called Thomas Masaryk in English, was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak statesman, sociologist and philosopher, who as the keenest advocate of Czechoslovak independence during World War I became the first President and founder of Czechoslovakia...
of
CzechoslovakiaCzechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, philosopher and historian
Benedetto CroceBenedetto Croce was an Italian critic, idealist philosopher, and occasionally also a politician. He wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, methodolgy of history writing and aesthetics, and was a prominent liberal, although he opposed laissez-faire free trade...
from
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
,
Henry DunantJean Henri Dunant , aka Henry Dunant or Henri Dunant, was a Swiss businessman and social activist. During a business trip in 1859, he was witness to the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino in modern day Italy...
(founder of the Red Cross and author of the
Geneva ConventionsThe Geneva Conventions consist of four treaties and three additional protocols that set the standards in international law for humanitarian treatment of the victims of war. The singular term Geneva Convention refers to the agreements of 1949, negotiated in the aftermath of World War II, updating...
), and scientist and humanitarian
Fridtjof NansenFridtjof Wedel-Jarlsberg Nansen was a Norwegian explorer, scientist and diplomat. Nansen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for his work as a League of Nations High Commissioner....
from
NorwayNorway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a country in Northern Europe occupying the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, as well as Jan Mayen and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard under the Spitsbergen Treaty...
.
The
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
government through Minister M.
Cambon Cambon is a town and commune of the Tarn department of southern France....
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
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, top figures of the
Nationalist governmentThe Kuomintang of China , translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party, is a political party of the Republic of China , commonly known as Taiwan since the 1970s. It is the founding and the ruling political party of the ROC...
, including
Sun Yat-SenSun Yat-sen was a Chinese revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Republican China, Sun is frequently referred to as the Father of the Nation. Sun played an instrumental role in overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in October 1911, the last imperial dynasty of China...
, expressed their sympathy with the aspirations of the Jewish people for a National Home.
Christians supporting Zionism
Christians have a long history of supporting the return of Jews to the Holy Land prior to Zionism. One of the principal Protestant teachers who promoted the biblical doctrine that the Jews would return to their national homeland was
John Nelson DarbyJohn Nelson Darby was an Anglo-Irish evangelist, and an influential figure among the original Plymouth Brethren. He is considered to be the father of modern Dispensationalism. He produced a translation of the Bible based on the Hebrew and Greek texts called The Holy Scriptures: A New Translation...
. He is credited with being the major promoter of the idea following his 11 lectures on the hopes of the church, the Jew and the gentile given in Geneva in 1840. His views were embraced by many evangelicals and also affected international foreign policy. Notable early supporters of Zionism include British Prime Ministers