Zionism

For other meanings, please see Zionism (disambiguation)

Anti-Zionism and Post-Zionism

More than 50 years after the founding of the State of Israel, and after more than 80 years of Arab-Jewish conflict over the territory now known as Israel, West Bank and Gaza Strip, many have misgivings about current Israeli policies. Some liberal or socialist Jews, as well as some Orthodox Jewish communities (the most vocal and visible being the small Neturei Karta group), still oppose Zionism as a matter of principle. Well-known Jewish scholars and statesmen who have opposed Zionism include Bruno Kreisky, Hans Fromm and Michael Selzer. In the United States a small number of Jewish intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein have continued to oppose modern Zionism, although few argue that the entire Jewish settlement of Palestine should actually be reversed. Chomsky says he supports a Jewish homeland, but not a Jewish state, and claims that this view is consistent with the original meaning of Zionism.

Related Topics:
Neturei Karta - Bruno Kreisky - Noam Chomsky - Norman Finkelstein

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Criticism of Israeli policies in the territories has become sharper since Ariel Sharon became Prime Minister of Israel. Some elements of Orthodox Judaism remain anti-Zionist, although mainstream Orthodox groups such as the Agudat Israel have changed their positions since 1948 and now actively support Israel, often assuming right-wing stances regarding important political questions such as the peace process. Today, the overwhelming majority of Jewish organisations and denominations are strongly pro-Zionist.

Related Topics:
Ariel Sharon - Agudat Israel - 1948

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Among the important minority threads within Zionism is one that holds Israelis to be a new nationality, not merely the representatives of world Jewry. The "Canaanite" or "Hebrew Renaissance" movement led by poet Yonatan Ratosh in the 1930s and 1940s was built on this idea. A modern movement which is partly based on the same idea is known as Post-Zionism. There is no agreement on how this movement is defined, nor even of which persons belong to it, but the most common idea is that Israel should leave behind the concept of a "state of the Jewish people" and instead strive to be a state of all its citizens according to pluralistic democratic values. Many Israeli historians hold "Caananism" or "Pan-Semitism" as an aberration outside the bounds of Zionism. Self-identified Post-Zionists differ on many important details, such as the status of the Law of Return. Critics tend to associate Post-Zionism with anti-Zionism or postmodernism, both charges which are strenuously denied by proponents.

Related Topics:
Nationality - Yonatan Ratosh - Post-Zionism - Anti-Zionism - Postmodernism

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Another persistent opinion favors a binational state in which Arabs and Jews live together while enjoying some type of autonomy. Variants of the idea were proposed by Chaim Weizmann in the 1930s and by the Ichud (Unity) group in the 1940s, which included such prominent figures as Judah Magnes (first dean of The Hebrew University) and Martin Buber. The emergence of Israel as a Jewish state with a small Arab minority made the idea irrelevant, but it was revived after the 1967 war left Israel in control of a large Arab population. Never more than the opinion of a small minority, the idea is nevertheless supported by a few prominent intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky, the late Edward Said, and (since 2003) Meron Benvenisti. Opponents of a binational state argue that since Arabs (whose population growth rates are much higher than among Jews) would form the majority of the population in such a state, the Jewish character on which the state was founded would be lost and the Jewish population's existence threatened, as it was threatened under other Turkish and Arab regimes in the past. They also suggest that such a state is unlikely to remain a democracy for long, as most Arab countries today have autocratic governments.

Related Topics:
Binational state - Chaim Weizmann - Judah Magnes - The Hebrew University - Martin Buber - Edward Said - 2003 - Meron Benvenisti - Autocratic

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Critics of Zionism see the changes in demographic balance which created a Jewish state and displaced over 700,000 Arab refugees (not including descendants),{{ref|UNest}} and the methods used to cause this, as an inevitable consequence of Zionism. Critics also point to current inequities between Jews and Arabs in Israel, similarly viewing them as attributable to Zionist beliefs and ideologies. Many consider this ethnic and cultural discrimination to be a form of racism.

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Defenders of Zionism disagree with the identification of Zionism with racism on a number of grounds; they state that the basis of the charge is too vague, as the views of Zionist groups differ widely from each other. They also disagree on the basis that Palestinians and Jews are not racially distinct from each other, and that Israeli Jews themselves are racially "mixed" (nearly half of Israel's Jews come from Arab countries, and there are also almost 100,000 black Jews from Ethiopia); thus even if Zionism discriminates against Arabs, such discrimination cannot accurately be termed racist, but rather ethnic and/or cultural. As well, they argue that discrimination based on culture or ethnicity is a fact in almost all countries in the world, and that any discrimination in Israel (including discrimination between Jewish groups) is similarly based on such differences, and not inherent in Zionism itself.

Related Topics:
Palestinians - Jews - Come from Arab countries - Black Jews from Ethiopia

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See also Zionism and racism and Anti-Zionism.

Related Topics:
Zionism and racism - Anti-Zionism

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