Zionism and racism

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Zionism is a political movement which maintains that the Jewish people constitute a nation and are entitled to a national homeland. The extent of the homeland Zionists believe the Jewish people are entitled to varies, typically from the Green Line borders of Israel on the low end to that plus the West Bank and Gaza Strip on the high end; both cases either had or continue to have a Palestinian majority, which was or would have to be turned into a minority to make this homeland a Jewish state. For this reason, and more generally because they see it as having caused great suffering to Palestinians, many critics of Zionism condemn Zionism as racist. Reflecting this latter view, the UN labelled 'Zionism' as racism between 1975 and 1991 in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379.

Some supporters of Zionism regard it as a combination of nationalism and democratic plurality.

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The State of Israel

Israel is a state with a predominately Jewish ethnicity. Although the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence [1] (http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/israel.htm) guarantees equality of political and social rights for all its citizens, irrespective of their race, religion or sex, the Declaration also contains multiple references to the Jewish nature of the state, resulting in some laws treating Jews and non-Jews differently. [2] (http://www.adalah.org/eng/backgroundlegalsystem.php) In particularly the jus sanguinis law of the right of return which, despite Israel's in other circumstances very restricted immigration policies, grant every Jew in the world the right to settle in Israel. This is especially agitating for the many Palestinian refugees, who used to live in the territory that is today's Israel, but are denied their wish to return, which they deem as a right.

Furthermore, the "Nationality and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Order), 5763 – 2003", passed in July 2003 by the Knesset, excludes Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip from the right to apply for and obtain Israeli citizenship or residency, even if they are married to Israeli citizens. [Source: BBC News, Jul. 31, 2003[3] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3111727.stm) ]. Nearly all Israelis who marry Palestinians are Arabs. The effect of this law is twofold: first, to ensure that no non-Israeli Palestinian can move to Israel (let alone vote), second, to force Israeli Palestinians to choose between family life and their right to reside in Israel. The law does not apply to other people (such as non-Palestinian foreign workers for example)

Many Arabs believe that Zionism is racist, and compare its continuation to the reform of Germany's former 'Blood Laws', which had allowed ethnic Germans to claim citizenship, even if they were nationals of another country.

Zionism is now, despite its pre-Israel origins as a "homeland movement," essentially synonymous with Jewish nationalism, since the Jewish identity of Israel is already established. The ideology has similar characteristics to many other European nationalisms developed at the same time, such as German nationalism and Irish nationalism.

Many Zionists dispute this, saying that it still is the same "homeland movement" that started Zionism. Others say that, in a sense, all nationalisms are racist because all privilege one ethnicity above all others.

Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, wanted a Jewish homeland but he did not specify where. Soon thereafter, in the beginning of the 20th century, the decision was made that a Jewish homeland should be re-established in the Middle East. At this time, Palestine was part of the large Ottoman Empire. This decision made Zionism different from most other nationalisms, as its proponents claimed territory for an ethnicity the vast majority of whom lived far away from it at the time Zionism was founded, although many centuries earlier, under the Kingdom of Judah and Kingdom of Israel, it had had a Jewish majority, and Jews had never ceased to yearn for it.

In 1948 Israel declared independence. Since Palestinians constituted a majority of the population of the British Mandate of Palestine at the time, many have seen this as denying the right of self-determination to the Palestinians; they note also that it had been made possible by the Balfour Declaration, an explicit contravention of the idea of self-determination insofar as it was decided entirely without Palestinian consent.

After the declaration of Israel and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War or Nakba, the vast majority of the Palestinians who had lived in what became Israel fled and had their property and land redistributed to Jewish immigrants. This was invaluable in making Israel a Jewish state, and was heartily welcomed by most of Israel's leadership. Many historians, including anti-Zionists, argue that this was a forced relocation of an indigenous population - the Palestinians - and replacement by another. Anti-Zionists consider this to have constituted ethnic cleansing. Some historians, including Zionists, argue that in many circumstances, the indigenous emigres left because they did not want to live in a Jewish state and were expecting Israel's imminent destruction, and that as such they were not "compelled" to leave. Much violence was being committed by both sides. Those who remained gained Israeli citizenship with equal rights to voting, and in many cases kept their land.

Though the modern incarnation of the Zionist ideology is the state of Israel, this itself is a source of debate among some Zionists, who believe in Israel as a conceptual homeland, not as a state - though now the distinction is largely academic. Some Zionist intellectuals still make a careful distinction between advocacy for a Jewish ethic homeland and a Jewish state, which is perhaps similar to the difference between patriotism and nationalism.

People who disagree with the identification of Zionism with racism point out that there is no one Zionist ideology that all Zionists agree on. The views of one Zionist group can differ widely from another such group. As such, some believe accusations that "Zionism" is racist to be as inaccurate as an accusation that "socialism" is racist. Furthermore, Zionism as an ideology existed before the existence of the State of Israel, and would most likely continue to exist even if the State of Israel ceased to exist.

Many Israelis, both Jewish and non-Jewish, think that Israel should not differentiate between its Jewish and non-Jewish ethnicities. Paradoxically many Jews do not, however, want Israel to drop its "Jewishness" and thus in effect become a non-Zionist state.

History

According to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Jews were at one time the "Chosen people" of God; in Judaism, this is still believed to be the case. Some have argued that this means Jews believe themselves superior to all other peoples, and thus that Judaism is racist; this belief was one facet of a variety of competing conspiracy theories believed by varying numbers of Europeans and Russians since the 1700s and 1800s, according to which Jews had the power and desire to control the world.

Hostility to Zionism in the Soviet Union took on a strong form during the reign of Joseph Stalin. Stalin was initially supportive of Zionism, but when Stalin realized that Israel would not become a communist nation, he became staunchly anti-Zionist. By the 1950s the Soviet Union was funding the publication of many anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. By the 1960s the official position of the Soviet Union and its satellite states was that Zionism was a tool used by the Jews and Americans for racist imperialism. It was only with the death of Stalin in 1953 that anti-Zionist propaganda went into a temporary eclipse.

In the 1967 Six Day War, Israel emerged victorious and the Soviet Union's Arab allies lost. In response, the Soviet Union exhumed its anti-Zionist campaign. Soviet television stations, radio stations and newspapers ran hundreds of editorials and articles stating that "Zionism is racism". These ideas were pushed in all Soviet client states, including many third world nations and Arab nations, and even the United Nations (see below).

Viewed as anti-Semitism

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), describes the assertion that Zionism is racism as "discredited," saying that "This divisive, offensive equation is based on hatred and misunderstanding" and is "anti-Jewish." An American long active in issues of race relations, Pennsylania State Rep. Mark B. Cohen, said "Racism claims superiority, while Zionism merely claims difference. Racism seeks the persecution of long powerless groups, while Zionism seeks to protect the members of a group long persecuted. Racism seeks to degrade its victims, while Zionism seeks to protect those who have been victims. The U.N. was right to repeal its discredited resolution."

UN Resolution 3379

Main article: United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379

The Soviet Union began the "Zionism is racism" campaign in the United Nations in response to United States proposals for UN resolutions against bigotry, which criticised the Soviet Union.

On November 10, 1975 the United Nations General Assembly adopted, by a vote of 72 to 35 (with 32 abstentions), Resolution 3379, which stated that "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination." The resolution was revoked on 16 December 1991, with a vote of 111 to 25 (with 13 abstentions).

Projects that fight discrimination

There are many projects that work to create a peaceful and productive co-existence between Israelis and Arabs. These projects include:

  • Neve Shalom Humanitarian Aid Project
  • The Hamidrasha Jewish-Arab Beit Midrash
  • The Ir Shalem co-existence program
  • Seeds of Peace
  • Givat Haviva's Jewish-Arab Center for Peace
  • OneVoice, a project of the Peaceworks Foundation

These projects are discussed in the article on Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs.

See also: Anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism, Zionology, Anti-Arab, Arabs and anti-Semitism, Religious pluralism, Peace process

External links

Further reading

  • Arie Dayan: The Debate over Zionism and Racism: An Israeli View; Haaretz, 27 December 1991; translated in Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 22, No. 3. (Spring, 1993), pp. 96-105.
  • Michael Adams: Israel's Treatment of the Arabs in the Occupied Territories; Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2. (Winter, 1977), pp. 19-40.
  • Janice J. Terry: Zionist Attitudes toward Arabs; Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 6, No. 1. (Autumn, 1976), pp. 67-78.
  • Michael Suleiman: National Stereotypes As Weapons in the Arab-Israeli Conflict; Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 3, No. 3. (Spring, 1974), pp. 109-121.
  • Roselle Tekiner: Race and the Issue of National Identity in Israel; International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 23, No. 1. (Feb., 1991), pp. 39-55.


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