AGENDA REPORT
Meeting Date: March 4, 2026
Item Number:
To: Honorable Mayor & City Council
From: Nancy Hunt-Coffey, City Manager
Subject: RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BEVERLY HILLS EXPRESSING CONCERNS WITH WIKIPEDIA’S OBJECTIVITY AND
CREDIBILITY SPECIFICALLY ON SUBJECTS SUCH AS ISRAEL,
HISTORY AND JEWISH IDENTITY, AND REQUIRING THE POSTING
OF NOTICES AT THE BEVERLY HILLS LIBRARY REGARDING
WIKIPEDIA’S CREDIBILITY AS A SOURCE OF INFORMATION
Attachments: 1. Proposed Resolution
2. Article by Councilmember Mirisch
3. Evaluating Wikipedia: Tracing the evolution and evaluating the quality of articles
4. Wikipedia article for the term “Zionism”, February 26, 2026
5. First 200 pages of comparison of edits to the Wikipedia article for the term “Zionism” between June 20, 2025 at 9:25 am to current version
6. Entry for “Zionism” on Encyclopedia Britannica
7. Sample guide for evaluating internet resources
8. Material Selection Policy
9. Policy for Public Use of the Internet
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends that the City Council discuss the adoption of a resolution expressing concerns with Wikipedia’s objectivity and credibility of information specifically on subjects such as Israel, Jewish history, and Jewish identity and requiring the posting of notices at the Beverly Hills Public Library regarding Wikipedia’s credibility as a source of information. (Attachment 1).
INTRODUCTION
Councilmember Mirisch, with the concurrence of Mayor Nazarian, requested the introduction of this resolution. The proposed resolution expresses concern with Wikipedia’s protocols that allow for anonymous editors to publish content on the Wikipedia website with little restriction on biased entries. The resolution calls for transparency and Meeting Date: March 4, 2026
credibility of the information published and for the posting of notices at the Beverly Hills Library regarding the credibility of Wikipedia.
DISCUSSION
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia, created and edited by users from around the world, and is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco, California. Launched in January 2001, Wikipedia now attracts over a billion visitors each month. Additionally, Wikipedia generated information frequently informs AI search results on platforms such as Gemini.
Wikipedia states that its purpose is to benefit readers by presenting information on all branches of knowledge. The content is published in online articles that usually contain numerous links guiding readers to additional information. Most Wikipedia articles can be edited by anyone with Internet access.
Wikipedia has generally been considered a reliable and comprehensive source for general information. The accuracy of information is often compared to traditional, professionally edited encyclopedias. However, because its articles may be edited by anyone, Wikipedia is not considered a credible, authoritative source for academic, legal, or professional research. The Wikimedia Foundation itself has published a guide for its users on judging the veracity of the information contained on Wikipedia. (Attachment 3) Although Wikipedia has policies related to the publication of content, the website indicates that editors do not need to be familiar with its guidelines and policies. Scholars such as Dr. Schlomit Lir indicate that this open and generally unrestricted approach to content generation has resulted in the publication of disinformation and misinformation, specifically around subjects such as Israel, Jewish history, and Jewish identity. Furthermore, certain Wikipedia articles, such as “Zionism” have been “protected” by Wikipedia due to “disruptive editing on controversial pages.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&action=edit). These “protected” pages can only be edited by “extended confirmed users” and “administrators.” Extended confirmed users are those who have made at least 500 edits and whose account has existed for at least 30 days. However, even with the “protected” status, questionable content appears to remain. Even with the protected status in place, the article on “Zionism” has been edited well over 500 times since June 2025. Attachments 4-6 demonstrate the changes that have been made to the Wikipedia article on “Zionism” between June 2025 and the present, as well as the entry for “Zionism” from Encyclopedia Britannica.
Other Wikipedia articles, such as “Arab-Israeli conflict” have been flagged as a “contentious topic” by Wikipedia. According to Wikipedia, “These are specially designated topics that have attracted more persistent disruptive editing than the rest of the project and have been designated as contentious topics by the Arbitration Committee.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contentious_topics) In the case of a “contentious topic”, the Wikipedia administrators are allowed to “impose editing restrictions on editors who do not follow project expectations within contentious topics. Administrators are also allowed to set special rules on pages within a contentious topic to prevent inappropriate editing.” Administrators may ban editors from changing a specific topic or may ban the editor from the entire site. For example, in January 2025, eight Wikipedia editors were barred from making changes to articles on the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict” by the Wikipedia Arbitration Committee. (https://www.jpost.com/international/article-839030) It should be noted that Wikipedia is not the only online resource that has been accused of sharing biased content against Jews. For example, in 2025 Grok, the AI-powered chatbot created by xAI was found to be sharing anti-Semitic content.
Meeting Date: March 4, 2026
The proposed resolution condemns Wikipedia’s lack of objectivity and credibility of information specifically on subjects such as Israel, Jewish history, and Jewish identity and urges the Internal Revenue Service and California Franchise Tax Board to review and suspend Wikimedia’s tax-exempt status until it addresses the issues regarding bias. The resolution also encourages support for the public’s use of more reliable sources of knowledge and information and requires the Beverly Hills Public Library to post information promoting the library’s extensive list of resources.
Another or additional approach that City Council could consider is directing the Library staff to prepare a comprehensive user guide which educates library patrons on judging the veracity of information encountered online. Please see Attachment 7 for a sample guide. Wikipedia, Grok and other online resources could be used in this guide to demonstrate and highlight the importance of using reliable online sources.
For the Council’s reference, relevant Library policies (Material Selection Policy and Policy for Public Use of the Internet) regarding source material, including material on the internet, are contained in attachments 8 and 9.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact anticipated at this time.
Nancy Hunt-Coffey,
City Manager
Approved By
B0785-0001\3220940v3.doc 1
RESOLUTION NO. 26-R-______
RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BEVERLY
HILLS EXPRESSING CONCERNS WITH WIKIPEDIA’S
OBJECTIVITY AND CREDIBILITY SPECIFICALLY ON SUBJECTS
SUCH AS ISRAEL, HISTORY AND JEWISH IDENTITY, AND
REQUIRING THE POSTING OF NOTICES AT THE BEVERLY HILLS
LIBRARY REGARDING WIKIPEDIA’S CREDIBILITY AS A
SOURCE OF INFORMATION
WHEREAS, Wikipedia.org (“Wikipedia”) is a free online encyclopedia written and edited by internet users, and monitored by a decentralized network of volunteer contributors and automated web tools; and
WHEREAS, according to Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia was founded in 2001 in "an effort to create and distribute a free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single person on the planet in their own language"; and WHEREAS, since 2003, Wikipedia has been operated by The Wikimedia Foundation (“Wikimedia”), a tax-exempt nonprofit organizations based in San Francisco, California; and
WHEREAS, Wikipedia is among the most visited websites globally, with an estimated 1.9 trillion page views over the past decade, according to the Pew Research Center; and
WHEREAS, Wikimedia has reported that web crawlers, AI bots and other nonhuman agents increasingly rely on Wikipedia content as source material, accounting for more than 88 billion page views in 2025 alone; and
WHEREAS, scholars and civil rights groups have identified extensive issues with misinformation and bias in Wikipedia entries, including racist, antisemitic and anti-Israel bias in multiple languages; and
Docusign Envelope ID: 3E930E9A-AAC2-4097-8C75-4F66100A4195 B0785-0001\3220940v3.doc 2
WHEREAS, Wikimedia allows any internet user to write and edit Wikipedia encyclopedia entries anonymously, without prior registration, identity verification, or credential vetting; and
WHEREAS, Wikimedia uses a system whereby its content when managed, is done so by anonymous editors and as such, it is not possible to uncover the hidden motives of those that attempt to use Wikipedia to promote false narratives and/or ideological agendas; and WHEREAS, because of the increased reliance on Wikipedia by web crawlers, AI bots and other nonhuman agents to disburse information, these false narratives, biased information and ideological agendas are continually perpetuated into mainstream as credible; and WHEREAS, Wikimedia is facing growing demand and pressure to take aggressive action to stop the spread of biased and false misinformation online; WHEREAS, in August 2025, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform launched an investigation into organized efforts that are being undertaken in violation of Wikipedia platform rules, to influence public opinion on important and sensitive topics by manipulating Wikipedia articles, in particular content involving Israel; and WHEREAS, the City supports access to objective and reliable information and desires to warn patrons of the Beverly Hills Library of the risks in using Wikipedia as a source of fact;
NOW, THEREFORE, the Council of the City of Beverly Hills resolves as follows:
Section 1. The City of Beverly Hills expresses its concern with Wikipedia’s objectivity and credibility of information, specifically on subjects such as Israel, history and Jewish identity.
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Section 2. The City of Beverly Hills calls on Wikimedia to act immediately to prevent the spread of biased and inaccurate information, including by addressing protocols allowing anonymous editors to publish content on Wikipedia without restrictions on the inclusion of biased entries.
Section 3. The City of Beverly Hills urges the United States Internal Revenue Service and California Franchise Tax Board to review and suspend Wikimedia’s tax-exempt status until Wikimedia presents a detailed plan to address and permanently fix documented instances of racist and antisemitic bias on the Wikipedia platform.
Section 4. The City of Beverly Hills shall prominently post notices at the Beverly Hills Public Library informing patrons of: (i) the adoption of this Resolution; (ii) warning the public of the extensive issues with misinformation and bias in Wikipedia’s entries and that Wikipedia should not be viewed as a reliable source of information; and (iii) encourage and promote the use of the Library’s extensive list of research resources.
Section 5. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this resolution and shall cause this resolution and her certification to be entered in the Book of Resolution of the Council of this City.
Adopted:
SHARONA R. NAZARIAN, PSYD
Mayor of the City of
Beverly Hills, California
ATTEST:
(SEAL)
HUMA AHMED
City Clerk
[Signatures continue on following page.]
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APPROVED AS TO FORM: APPROVED AS CONTENT:
LAURENCE S. WIENER NANCY HUNT-COFFEY
City Attorney City Manager
Docusign Envelope ID: 3E930E9A-AAC2-4097-8C75-4F66100A4195 Certificate Of Completion
Envelope Id: 3E930E9A-AAC2-4097-8C75-4F66100A4195 Status: Completed Subject: Wikipedia Report - Reso
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Certificate Pages: 1 Initials: 0 Dorina Mohan
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455 N. Rexford Drive
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
[email protected]
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Record Tracking
Status: Original
2/26/2026 2:36:18 PM
Holder: Dorina Mohan
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(Feb. 12, 2026 / JNS)
Taking action against Wikipedia: Why
#WikiSux
It’s time for us to call out the dangers of using such an unreliable source of “knowledge,” which has become a repository of half-truths, disinformation, innuendo and anti-Jewish propaganda.
Almost a year ago, I started using the hashtag #WikiSux on social media.
The Wikipedia logo on the wall of the Wikimedia Foundation office in San Francisco. Credit: HaeB via Wikimedia Commons.
JOHN MIRISCH
READ FULL BIO +
2/26/26, 1:08 PM Taking action against Wikipedia: Why #WikiSux - JNS.org https://www.jns.org/taking-action-against-wikipedia-why-wikisux/ 1/4 It’s shorthand for a problem that has gotten out of control with Wikipedia, which describes itself as a “free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers.” According to Merriam-Webster, an encyclopedia is “a work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or treats comprehensively a particular branch of knowledge usually in articles arranged alphabetically, often by subject.”
The etymology of “encyclopedia” can be traced back to the Greek enkyklios paideia, which means “general education.”
When Wikipedia was founded in 2001, the intent may have been the idealistic creation of a free online source of objective, readily available information with the goal of “general education” to democratize the concept of an encyclopedia and help spread knowledge in the world.
Sadly, a quarter of a century later, Wikipedia has strayed far from these high-falutin’ ideals. Like 180 degrees.
If it ever was a trusted source of objective information and knowledge, Wikipedia has since devolved into a cesspit of disinformation, misinformation, agitprop and pseudointellectual (and unintellectual) anti-Jewish racism.
Journalists like Aaron Bandler and Ashley Rindsberg, along with X/Twitter accounts like WikiBias have meticulously documented and exposed Wikipedia’s utter lack of objectivity and credibility when it comes to certain subjects like Israel, Jewish history (and to an extent, history in general) and Jewish identity, among others.
There are a number of reasons for Wikipedia’s descent into the realm of hate propaganda, including internal rules and protocols that lead to manipulation and biased entries.
Unfortunately, Wikipedia’s governance board and rules authorities refuse to address these issues in any meaningful fashion. Some of the problems are structural: Wikipedia uses a system whereby content is managed by anonymous editors. Sunshine, as they say, is the best disinfectant, and unless the veil of anonymity is pierced, it is virtually impossible to uncover the hidden motives of bad actors who attempt to use Wikipedia to promote false narratives and/or ideological agendas.
For example, it was recently exposed that public-relations firms were paid by Qatar to “edit” Wikipedia pages and downplay Qatari human-rights abuses. For all the violations of Wikipedia’s own policies that have been uncovered, just imagine how many have not been exposed, especially considering the policy of author and editor anonymity. There’s a reason that serious journalistic outlets make sure their reporters use bylines. It’s a simple matter of transparency and credibility. Wikipedia has neither now. 2/26/26, 1:08 PM Taking action against Wikipedia: Why #WikiSux - JNS.org https://www.jns.org/taking-action-against-wikipedia-why-wikisux/ 2/4 Clearly, pay-to-play Wiki-laundering means that users have no idea about the motives of article authors and editors, and are unable to separate fact from fiction, propaganda from reality.
Wikipedia’s lack of trustworthiness is complicated by how widespread the site has become, frequently appearing at the top of Google searches. It is used by AI engines when creating AI texts, with massive problems resulting from the simple principle of “garbage in, garbage out.” As suggested, much of Wikipedia’s credibility problem may be structural. Ultimately, there might not be any realistic fixes, especially if the governing authority insists on maintaining author and editor anonymity. It’s not only democracy that dies in darkness. So does journalism and academic integrity.
Until and unless these systemic problems are addressed and fixed, the Wikimedia Foundation, which owns the rights to Wikipedia, should be stripped of its tax-exempt status. There is no reason for American taxpayers to be subsidizing an unreliable, racist propaganda machine.
I am going to propose that the Beverly Hills City Council in Southern California adopt a resolution condemning Wikipedia’s lack of objectivity, its non-existent credibility, while highlighting the dangers of using Wikipedia as a source of fact or general knowledge. The resolution should also urge the U.S.
Treasury Department to immediately strip the Wikimedia Foundation of its tax-exempt status, demanding a detailed plan to address and permanently fix the documented abuses of the platform.
Furthermore, I will urge the council to prominently post public warnings about Wikipedia at our public library. Wikipedia does not deserve to be a trusted source of information by anyone interested in actual facts, and the widespread frequency of Wikipedia in search engines means that our library users should be warned about the site’s lack of credibility and reliability.
Such a warning might read:
“To all library users, please be advised that the Beverly Hills City Council has issued a resolution condemning Wikipedia’s lack of credibility. While attempting to give the appearance of objectivity, Wikipedia is unreliable, filled with propaganda and inflammatory bias, and should not be looked at as a trustworthy source of information.
Please use the Beverly Hills Public Library’s extensive resources to access more reliable, real sources of knowledge and information than Wikipedia.”
Our kids, in particular, are susceptible to relying on Wikipedia. To that end, I have also initiated discussions with school-board members on the recommendation that the school district ban the use of Wikipedia on campuses and as a reference source for any school-related projects. 2/26/26, 1:08 PM Taking action against Wikipedia: Why #WikiSux - JNS.org https://www.jns.org/taking-action-against-wikipedia-why-wikisux/ 3/4 Wikipedia does not deserve the trust of our residents, library users or students. And it’s time for us to call out the dangers of using such an unreliable source of “knowledge,” which has become a repository of half-truths, disinformation, innuendo and anti-Jewish propaganda. Wikipedia’s bias and its erasure of Jewish history and identity make our community less safe.
A little bit of knowledge may indeed be a dangerous thing, but a lot of disinformation most certainly is a dangerous thing.
As a result, Wikipedia in its current form is a very dangerous thing, and it deserves more scrutiny, more countermeasures and more collective action in opposition, not to mention more hashtags.
The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
2/26/26, 1:08 PM Taking action against Wikipedia: Why #WikiSux - JNS.org https://www.jns.org/taking-action-against-wikipedia-why-wikisux/ 4/4
1 Evaluating Wikipedia:
Tracing the evolution
and evaluating the
quality of articles
Wikimedia Foundation
wikipedia globe vector [no layers]
2 It exists in hundreds of languages. Unlike a traditional encyclopedia, however, Wikipedia uses an open editing model. Anyone may contribute by writing or editing articles directly, which means articles can vary in quality. It is important for readers like you to recognize whether an article is good or poor.
What is Wikipedia?
Wikipedia is not a primary source, like a direct interview, or a secondary source, like an academic paper or a news story. Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. It is a collection of information from primary and secondary sources, assembled into articles that provide a general overview. Like other encyclopedias, Wikipedia should be used as a starting point. It can provide a broad overview of a subject and help you find high-quality primary and secondary sources.
Wikipedia can help you to:
• Get an overview of a subject
• Get a list of recommended works about a subject
• Discover related topics
How are Wikipedia articles created?
A typical Wikipedia article is not created all at once. Articles grow, edit by edit, often by many different authors in collaboration. One contributor may start the article, another may add more text, and yet another may reorganize it to make it easier to read. No one person “owns” the article, but many people care deeply about articles in which they have invested lots of time.
Wikipedia is the biggest encyclopedia
ever created.
3 Observing the evolution of a Wikipedia article
You can look at how each article
evolved by clicking the View
history link at the top. Every
previous version of the article can
be found there.
On the View history page, each row represents one version of the article.
Click on the date to see that version. You can see that each version is associated with the user who made that edit.
You can also compare two versions of the article by choosing the radio buttons that correspond to the versions you want to compare and clicking Compare selected revisions. You will see two columns: The left is the earlier version and the right is the more recent. Any differences are highlighted. You can use this feature to determine what has happened – what information was added or removed in the time between the two versions.
Previous version
Compare with current
or previous version
Time and date
of edit
Username or IP address
of contributor
Editorial
comment
New version
4 How contributors improve Wikipedia
Most people think of Wikipedia as only encyclopedia articles, but a great deal of work takes place behind the scenes, as well: about half of the edits made to Wikipedia are made to pages other than the articles.
Contributors discuss how articles should evolve, evaluate the quality of sources, and set out editorial policies. These pages and discussions are open for public scrutiny, just like the articles themselves, if you know where to look.
Each article has its own Talk page. At the
top of each article is a tab labeled Talk.
Click on it and you will see how much
deliberation has gone into creating the
article. Maybe some aspect that you are wondering about has already been discussed. If you have doubts about the quality of an article and cannot improve it yourself, write your questions on the talk page.
Many questions are answered
within a few days, but if your
questions have not received any
attention in one week, it may be
a good idea to ask the article’s contributors directly, or seek a more general discussion forum. Click on View history and find a user who has made several edits to the article and click on the link that leads to his or her personal talk page. You can ask questions of the individual contributor on that page.
Evaluating article quality
The quality of Wikipedia articles varies widely;
many are very good, but some lack depth and
clarity, or contain bias, or are out of date.
On the English language Wikipedia, there are
formal processes for the best articles to be
identified as “good articles” or “featured articles,”
but the vast majority of articles on the site –
even though some of them are quite
good – have not attained these designations.
So, how can you quickly assess the general quality of an article? There are two main ways:
• Check for elements of quality articles
• Look for common signs of bad quality
Distinctive icons to
celebrate good
and featured articles
5 Elements of quality articles
In general, high-quality articles have five elements:
• a lead section that gives an easy-to-understand overview, • a clear structure,
• balanced coverage,
• neutral content, and
• reliable sources.
The lead section is understandable and summarizes the article’s key points. The lead in a biography should, for instance, mention why the person is known and where she lived, but need not cover details about her childhood that may be more appropriate to a subsequent section. The structure is clear. There are several headings and subheadings, images and diagrams at appropriate places, and appendices and footnotes at the end. For most articles, the content is chronological or arranged by theme.
The various aspects of the topic are balanced well. No aspect takes over the article, and all significant aspects are covered. More important viewpoints receive more space in the article. For example, an article about a cat breed that contains a long description of the breed’s temperament, but little or no information about its physical characteristics, is not well balanced.
Coverage is neutral. Articles must be written without bias; where there is disagreement among scholars of the subject, the different views should be covered with appropriate balance. Both positive and negative elements should be included, in proportion to their coverage in reliable sources. Good articles also use neutral language and emphasize facts. Articles should not read like persuasive essays, but instead like encyclopedia articles.
References to reliable sources are important. Good articles have plenty of footnotes at the bottom. If you see numerous links to authoritative publications, that’s a good sign that you’re reading a high-quality article. The article about the Moon should have links to NASA’s website, but not to an amateur astronomer’s blog. 6 Signs of bad quality
The article has a warning banner at the top. Most warning banners are only information or requests, such as asking you to help expand the article if it is very short. But warning banners can also represent an unresolved dispute about the article’s neutrality or the quality of its sources.
Several language problems are in the lead section of the article.
Problems in the lead usually indicate problems with the whole article.
A very short lead section may indicate an article that has grown up piece-by-piece, without much attention to the overall work.
The language contains unsourced opinions and value statements, which are not neutral and should be removed. For example, instead of saying: “She was the best singer,” the text should say: “She had 14 number one hits, more than any other singer.”
The article refers to “some,” “many,” or other unnamed groups of people. These statements are too general and should be replaced with facts.
There seem to be aspects of the topic that are missing from the table of contents and the article. For instance, a biography that skips an entire period of its subject’s life may be missing important facts.
Some sections seem overly long in proportion to their importance. For example, a big “criticism” section in an otherwise short article about a company suggests that the article is biased against the company.
The article has very few references, or substantial parts of the article lack footnotes. If an article is based on too few sources, it may have been written without complete information about the subject.
The Talk page is filled with hostile dialogue. If the editors working on the article are not finding common ground, the article may be heavily biased in one direction, or may reflect too much detail about the controversial aspect of its subject without sufficient attention to less controversial aspects.
7 What to do with articles of poor quality
If you have the time or the knowledge, please consider correcting the problems yourself by clicking Edit at the top of the article. 1) Check if the problem is temporary, such as somebody trying to remove a section that is unflattering about their hero. Click View history and look through the last few edits.
2) If the problem lies in the last edits you can click undo and instantly repair the damage. If the problem has been around for a longer period or if you do not possess the knowledge to fix it, leave a comment on the Talk page, describing the problem.
3) If the problem is serious, such as libelous statements against a living person, feel free to cut out the problematic parts. Be thoughtful about your own biases, though, especially if you are working on an article about yourself, your nation, or your organization. Critical sections in an article are often appropriate, especially when they are well sourced. You may want to explain your deletion on the article’s Talk page.
For more information about what you can do when you find a poorly written article, type Wikipedia:Writing better articles in the search box.
Can you trust the accuracy of
Wikipedia?
Reliability is important.
For many, using Wikipedia has become more or less standard, but how can you make sure you get quality information?
“Evaluating Wikipedia: Tracing the evolution and evaluating the quality of articles” is a reference guide with specific steps you can take to get the most out of Wikipedia.
More materials:
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produced using renewable power
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Design format by David Peters, Exbrook SF
Theodor Herzl was the founder of the
modern Zionist movement. In his 1896
pamphlet Der Judenstaat, he envisioned
the founding of a future independent
Jewish state during the 20th century.
Zionism
Zionism[a]is an ethnocultural nationalist[1] movement that emerged in late 19th-century Europe to establish and support a Jewish homeland through colonization in the region of Palestine,
[2] which roughly corresponds to the Land of Israel
in Judaism—itself central to Jewish history.
[3] Zionists
wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as
possible.[4][5]
Zionism initially emerged in Central and Eastern Europe as a secular nationalist movement in the late 19th century, in reaction to new waves of antisemitism and in response to the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment.[6][7] Soon after this, most leaders of the movement associated the main goal with
creating the desired homeland in Palestine, then an area controlled by the Ottoman Empire.
[8][9] This process was seen
by the Zionist Movement as an "ingathering of exiles" (kibbutz galuyot), an effort to put a stop to the exoduses and
persecutions that have marked Jewish history by bringing the Jewish people back to their historic homeland.[10] The arrival of Zionist settlers to Palestine during this period is widely seen as the start of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
[11][12][13]
In 1917, the Balfour Declaration established Britain's support for the movement. In 1922, the Mandate for Palestine,
governed by Britain, explicitly privileged Jewish settlers over the local population. In 1948, after the end of the British Mandate, the State of Israel declared its independence and war broke out. During the war, Israel expanded its territory to control over 78% of former Mandatory Palestine. As a result of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, an estimated 160,000 of 870,000 Palestinians in the territory remained, forming a Palestinian minority in Israel.
[14]
Zionist views have varied over time and are not uniform, resulting in a variety of types of Zionism. [15]
The Zionist mainstream has historically included Liberal, Labor, Revisionist, and Cultural Zionism, while groups like Brit Shalom and Ihud have been dissident factions within the movement.[16] Religious Zionism is a variant of Zionist ideology that brings together secular nationalism and religious conservatism. Advocates of Zionism have viewed it as a national liberation movement for the repatriation of an indigenous people (who were subject to persecution and share a national identity 2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism 1/90
through national consciousness), to the homeland of their ancestors. [17][18][19] Opponents of Zionism
often characterize it as a supremacist,
[20][21][22] colonialist,[23] or racist ideology,[24] or as a settler colonialist movement.[25][26]
The word Zion itself derives from Mount Zion, which is a hill in Jerusalem and a term used in the Hebrew Bible.
[27][28]
It has been used poetically as a synecdoche to refer to the Land of Israel since the period of the Babylonian Exile, with particular importance in Jewish messianic belief.[29][30] The term also appeared in political contexts in antiquity, including on coinage issued during the First Jewish Revolt against Roman rule.[31] The messianic conception of "Zion" was utilized by the Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer, who wrote Seeking Zion in 1862, a proto-Zionist text which was the first written work to demand that the Jews migrate en-masse to Palestine.[32][33] The first time the term "Zion" was associated with a mass movement was with the Hovevei Zion (lit. 'Lovers of Zion'), also known as the Hibbat Zion (lit. 'Love of Zion'), who came together at the 1884 Katowice Conference, inspired by Leon Pinsker's pamphlet Auto-Emancipation. The first use of the term as an -ism is attributed to the Austrian Nathan Birnbaum, in an 1890 article in his periodical Selbst-Emancipation, itself named after Pinsker's pamphlet.[34] Birnbaum used the term "Zionism" in reference to the activities of the Lovers of Zion.[35][36]In 1893, Birnbaum published The National Rebirth of The Jewish People in its Own Land, which advocated for the Jews to migrate to Palestine.
In the same year, Birnbaum founded "Zion: Union of Austrian Societies for the Colonization of Palestine and Syria", to carry out his proposals.[37][38][39] The paramount Zionist leader Theodor Herzl was unaware of Birnbaum's original usage of the term before popularizing the term "Zionism" himself. In Herzl's diary entries between 1895 and early 1896, he originally used the term "Zionist" to describe others, and not himself. Herzl used the term "Zionist" to describe those in the Lovers of Zion, who Herzl saw as fellow Jewish nationalists, but without a concrete plan. When Herzl published Der Judenstaat in 1896, he used the term "Zionist" in the text, often in a critical light, to describe emigration advocates like the Lovers of Zion.[40][41]In Der Judenstaat, Herzl called for the creation of a Jewish state, an idea which he claimed was "an ancient one" that he did not "discover".[42] After the publication of Der Judenstaat, Birnbaum wrote a review of the book, attributing its success to the author proudly embracing Zionism, but also criticized the cultural proposals of Herzl. Birnbaum quickly struck up a correspondence with Herzl, and gave him a copy of The National Rebirth of The Jewish People in its Own Land, as a sort of Zionist education.[43] Herzl did not begin self-identifying as a "Zionist" until months after the publication of Der Judenstaat.
[41] Herzl's usage of "Zionism" was later popularized when convening the 1897 First Zionist Congress and the Zionist Organization founded there.[44] Etymology and terminology
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Fundamental to Zionism is the belief that Jews constitute a nation, and have a moral and historic right and need for self-determination. In contrast to the Zionist notion of nationhood the Judaic sense of being a nation was rooted in religious beliefs of unique chosenness and divine providence, rather than in ethnicity. Specifically, prayers emphasized distinctiveness from other nations where a connection to Eretz Israel and the anticipation of restoration were based on messianic beliefs and religious practices, not modern nationalist conceptions.[45][46] Early Zionism was ambiguous about the form self-determination might take. While some texts spoke of a "Jewish state", others spoke only of a "Jewish homeland" (as in the Zionist movement's Basel declaration) or "national home for the Jewish people" (the term used in the Balfour Declaration), usually under the sovereignty of the Ottoman and, later, the British Empire. According to Shlomo Avineri, it was only in the 1930s that a sovereign state rather than home became the fully articulated goal.[47]
Similarly, some early Zionists, including Herzl, considered possibilities for a Jewish national home or state outside Palestine, for example in the Americas or Africa. In 1905 (after Herzl's death), a majority of the Zionist Congress voted against the proposal to settle in East Africa, and the supporters of this proposal, led by Israel Zangwill, split from the movement to form the Jewish Territorial Organization.
[48][49]
Over time, the belief that Jews have a moral and historic right and need for self-determination in Palestine became the dominant Zionist view.
[b] Zionists believed that the Jewish claim to Palestine outweighed that of the local Arabs.[51] After suffering as a minority in Europe and the Middle East, establishing a Jewish state, with a Jewish majority, became a focus of the Zionist movement. Zionist organizations encouraged immigration to Palestine, and antisemitism produced a strong push factor.[52]
The establishment of a Jewish demographic majority was an essential aspect of Zionism.[53]Israeli historian Yosef Gorny argues that this demographic change required annulling the majority status of the Arabs.[54] Gorny argues that the Zionist movement regarded Arab motives in Palestine as lacking both moral and historical significance.[55] According to Israeli historian Simha Flapan, the view expressed in Golda Meir's 1969 interview comment that "there was no such thing as Palestinians" is a cornerstone of Zionist policy.[56] After the Holocaust, even those on the far-left of the Zionist movement, including Martin Buber and other members of Brit Shalom, did not see the Arabs as having an equally weighty claim to nationhood in Palestine,[57] and sought demographic parity.[c] Beliefs
National self-determination
A Jewish home and state in Palestine
Claim to a Jewish demographic majority
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Judah Magnes, even after the Holocaust, continued to support a binational state, even one imposed by the Great Powers, but was unable to find any Arab interlocutors.[59] British officials supporting the Zionist effort also held similar beliefs.[d][e][62]
Unlike other forms of nationalism, the Zionist claim to Palestine was aspirational and required a mechanism by which the claim could be realized.[63] The territorial concentration of Jews in Palestine and the subsequent goal of establishing a Jewish majority there was the main mechanism by which Zionist groups sought to realize this claim.[64] By the time of the 1936 Arab Revolt, the political differences between the various Zionist groups had shrunk further, with almost all Zionist groups seeking a Jewish state in Palestine.[65][66] While not every Zionist group openly called for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, every group in the Zionist mainstream was wedded to the idea of establishing a Jewish demographic majority there.[67] In pursuing a Jewish demographic majority, the Zionist movement encountered the demographic problem posed by the presence of the local Arab population, which was predominantly non-Jewish.
The practical issue of establishing a Jewish state in a majority non-Jewish region was an issue of fundamental importance for the Zionist movement.[68][69] Many Zionist activists intended to establish a Jewish majority through Jewish immigration to the region.[70] Zionists used the term "transfer" as a euphemism for the removal, or what would now be called ethnic cleansing, of the Palestinian population.[71] According to Benny Morris, the idea of transfer played a large role in Zionist ideology from the inception of the movement and was seen as the main method of maintaining the "Jewishness" of the Zionist's state.[72] He argues that "transfer" was "inevitable and inbuilt into Zionism" and that a land that was primarily Arab could not be transformed into a Jewish state without displacing the Arab population.[73] Further, the stability of the Jewish state could not be ensured given the Arab population's fear of displacement. He argues that this would be the primary source of conflict between the Zionist movement and the Arab population.[74] The concept of "transfer" had a long pedigree in Zionist thought, as it was considered both moral and practical, as a way to deal with the Palestinian problem, create a Jewish homeland and avoid ethnic conflict.[75][76][77] The concept of removing the non-Jewish population from Palestine garnered support across the entire spectrum of Zionist groups, eventually including its farthest left factions, who, after realizing the extent of the destruction of European Jewry, viewed it as a lesser evil.[f][78] Transfer thought began early in the movement's development in various forms.[79] "Transfer" was seen not only as desirable but also as an ideal solution by some in the Zionist leadership, but it remained controversial.[80]
From the perspective of some early Zionist thinkers, Jews living amongst non-Jews suffer from impediments that can be addressed only by rejecting the Jewish identity that developed while living amongst non-Jews.
[81] Accordingly, the early Zionists sought to develop a nationalist Jewish political life in a territory where Jews constitute a demographic majority.[82][83][84] The early Zionist thinkers saw the integration of Jews into non-Jewish society as both unrealistic (or insufficient to address the deficiencies associated with demographic minority status) and undesirable, since assimilation was accompanied by the dilution of Jewish cultural distinctiveness.[85] The Zionist solution to the Perceived deficiencies of assimilation, negation of diasporic life 2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
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perceived deficiencies of diasporic life (or the "Jewish Question") was dependent on the territorial concentration of Jews in Palestine, with the longer-term goal of establishing a Jewish demographic majority there.[86][69][85]
Negation of the Diaspora is a concept that asserts that Jews living in the Diaspora—that is, outside of the Land of Israel—are in an environment that is inherently harmful and so must be fixed to ensure the survival and the cohesion of the Jews as a people, often to the extent that the Jewish people have no future without amassing at their "spiritual centre" in the Land of Israel.[87] Zionism sought to reconfigure Jewish identity and culture in nationalist and secular terms.[88][89] According to Yaacov Yadgar, Zionism rejected traditional Judaic definitions of what it means to be Jewish, but struggled to offer a new interpretation of Jewish identity independent of rabbinical tradition. Yagdar argues that Jewish religion is viewed as an essentially negative factor in Zionism, even in religious Zionist ideology, and as responsible for the diminishing status of Jews living as a minority.[90] Responding to the challenges of modernity, Zionism sought to replace religious and community institutions with secular-nationalistic ones.[91]Indeed, Zionism maintained primarily the outward symbols of Jewish tradition, redefining them in a nationalistic context.[45][92] Zionism saw itself as bringing Jews into the modern world by redefining what it means to be Jewish in terms of identification with a sovereign state, rather than Judaic faith and tradition.[93] This new identity would be based on a rejection of the life of exile. Zionism portrayed the Diaspora Jew as mentally unstable, physically frail, and prone to engaging in transient businesses. They were seen as detached from nature, purely materialistic, and focused solely on their personal gains. In contrast, the vision for the new Jew was radically different: an individual of strong moral and aesthetic values, not shackled by religion, driven by ideals and willing to challenge degrading circumstances; a liberated, dignified person eager to defend both personal and national pride.[94] This was the "New Jew" posited by Nordau's Muscular Judaism and later the pioneering "Sabra" celebrated in Israeli nationalism - not the feminine, over-intellectual, degenerate Luftmenschen (people of air) of the diaspora, as Nordau characterised them.[95][96][97] According to Yadgar, the Zionist goal of reframing of Jewish identity in secular-nationalist terms meant primarily the decline of the status of religion in the Jewish community.[98] Prominent Zionist thinkers frame the development of secular identity as nationalism functionally serving the same role as religion.[99] Zionism sought to make Jewish ethnic-nationalism the distinctive trait of Jews rather than their commitment to Judaism.[100] According to Yadgar, Zionism instead adopted a racial understanding of Jewish identity.[101] According to Yadgar, framed this way (for instance by A. B.
Yehoshua), Jewish identity is only secondarily a matter of tradition or culture.[102] Nur Masalha says Zionist thinkers view the movement as a "revolt against a tradition of many centuries" of living parasitically at the margins of Western society. Indeed, he says, Zionism was uncomfortable with the term "Jewish," associating it with passivity, spirituality and the stain of "galut". Instead, Zionist thinkers preferred the term "Hebrew" to describe their identity. Zionism linked the term "Jewish" with negative characteristics prevalent in European anti-Semitic stereotypes, which Zionists believed could be remedied only through sovereignty.[77]
Zionism and secular Jewish identity
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Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858–1922),
founder and leader of the movement to
revive the Hebrew language, is
considered the father of Modern
Hebrew.
[103]
The revival of the Hebrew language in Eastern Europe as a secular literary medium marked a significant cultural shift among Jews, who per Judaic tradition used Hebrew only for religious purposes.[104] The primary motivator for
establishing modern Hebrew as a national language was the sense of legitimacy it gave the movement, by suggesting a connection between the Jews of ancient Israel and the Jews of the Zionist movement.[105] These developments are seen in Zionist historiography as a revolt against tradition, with the development of Modern Hebrew providing the basis on which a Jewish cultural renaissance might develop.[82]
The revival of the Hebrew language and the establishment of Modern Hebrew is most closely associated with the linguist Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and the Committee of the Hebrew
Language (later replaced by the Academy of the Hebrew
Language).[106][107]
In the early 20th century a more ideologically motivated wave of Zionist immigrants arrived in Palestine. With them, the Zionist movement began to emphasize the so-called "conquest of labor", the belief that the employment of exclusively Jewish labor was the pre-condition for the development of an independent Jewish society in Palestine.[86] The goal was to build a "pure Jewish settlement" in Palestine on the basis of "100 per cent Jewish labor" and the claim to an exclusively Jewish, highly productive economy.[108][109] The Zionist leadership aimed to establish a fully autonomous and independent Jewish economic sector to create a new type of Jewish society. This new society was intended to reverse the traditional economic structure seen in the Jewish Diaspora, characterized by a high number of middlemen and a scarcity of productive workers. By developing fundamental sectors such as industry, agriculture, and mining, the goal was to "normalize" Jewish life that had grown "abnormal" as a result of living amongst non-Jews.[110] Most of the Zionist leadership saw it as imperative to employ strictly Jewish workers in order to ensure the Jewish character of the colonies.
Another factor, according to Benny Morris, was the worry that "employment of Arabs would lead to 'Arab values' being passed on to Zionist youth and nourish the colonists' tendency to exploit and abuse their workers", as well as security concerns.[111]
The employment of exclusively Jewish labor was also intended to avoid the development of a national conflict in conjunction with a class-based conflict.[112] The Zionist leadership believed that by excluding Arab workers they would stimulate class conflict only within Arab society and prevent the Jewish-Arab national conflict from attaining a class dimension.[113] While the Zionist settlers of the First Aliyah had ventured to create a "pure Jewish settlement," they did grow to rely on Arab labor due to the lack of availability of Jewish laborers during this period.[114] With the arrival of the more Revival of the Hebrew language
Conquest of labor
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ideologically driven settlers of the second aliyah, the idea of "avoda ivrit" would become more central.
The future leaders of the Zionist movement saw an existential threat in the employment of Arab labor, motivating the movement to work towards a society based on purely Jewish labor.[115][116][117] In the late 19th century, amid attempts to apply science to notions of race, some of the founders of Zionism (such as Max Nordau) sought to reformulate conceptions of Jewishness in terms of racial identity and the "race science" of the time. They believed that this concept would allow them to build a new framework for collective Jewish identity,[118] and thought that biology might provide "proof" for the "ethnonational myth of common descent" from the biblical land of Israel. [119][120] Countering
antisemitic claims that Jews were both aliens and a racially inferior people, these Zionists drew on and appropriated elements from various race theories,[121][122][g]to argue that only a home for the Jewish people could enable the physical regeneration of the Jewish people and a renaissance of pride in their ancient cultural traditions.[123] According to Nur Masalha, Zionist nationalism embraced panGermanic ideologies, which stressed the concept of das Volk: people of shared ancestry should pursue separation and establish a unified state.[77]
The contrasting assimilationist viewpoint was that Jewishness consisted in an attachment to Judaism as a religion and culture. Both the orthodox and liberal establishments often rejected this idea.[124][125][126] Subsequently, Zionist and non-Zionist Jews vigorously debated aspects of this proposition in terms of the merits or otherwise of diaspora life. While Zionism embarked on its project of social engineering in Mandatory Palestine, ethnonationalist politics on the European continent strengthened and, by the 1930s, some German Jews, acting defensively, asserted Jewish collective rights by redefining Jews as a race after Nazism rose to power.[127] With the establishment of Israel in 1948, the "ingathering of the exiles", and the Law of Return, the question of Jewish origins and biological unity came to assume particular importance during early nation building. Conscious of this, Israeli medical researchers and geneticists were careful to avoid any language that might resonate with racial ideas. Themes of "blood logic" or "race" have nevertheless been described as a recurrent feature of modern Jewish thought in both scholarship and popular belief.[h] Despite this, many aspects of the role of race in the formation of Zionist concepts of a Jewish identity were rarely addressed until recently.[128] The concept of the "return" was a powerful symbol within religious Jewish belief,[129][130][131][132] traditionally emphasizing that their return should be determined by Divine Providence rather than human action.[133] The cultural memory of Jews in the diaspora revered the Land of Israel. Religious tradition held that a future messianic age would usher in their return as a people,[134] a 'return to Zion' commemorated particularly at Passover and in Yom Kippur prayers.[i] The biblical prophecy of Kibbutz Galuyot, the ingathering of exiles in the Land of Israel as foretold by the Prophets, became a central idea in Zionism.[135][136][137] The transformation of this religious, and primarily passive connection between Jews and Palestine, into an active, secular, nationalist movement arose in the Racial conceptions of Jewish identity
Historical and religious background
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Coin bearing the inscription "Freedom of
Zion," minted by Jewish rebels during the
Great Jewish Revolt (66–73 CE), whose
use of Zion as a rallying symbol has been
compared to modern Zionism
context of ideological developments within modern European nations in the 19th century. According to Gideon Shimoni, the religious Judaic notion of being a nation was distinct from the modern European notion of nationalism.[100]
Multiple scholars have argued that Jewish identity in antiquity exhibited national or proto-national characteristics. Political scientist Tom Garvin described ancient Jewish identity as "something strangely like modern nationalism."[138] Anthony D. Smith wrote that Jews during the late Second Temple period closely approximated the modern concept of a nation.[139] Similarly, Adrian Hastings referred to the Jews as the "true proto-nation."[140]
Historians have identified elements within the Jewish–Roman wars that they describe as expressions of ancient nationalism, and some have drawn analogies with modern Zionism. The Great Jewish Revolt against Roman rule (66–73 CE) is frequently cited as a major example of ancient Jewish nationalism.[141] Historian David Goodblatt draws parallels between the revolt and modern national liberation movements, citing the adoption of coins inscribed with "Israel" and the use of a dating system based on the "freedom of Israel" era.[142] According to historian Doron Mendels, the rebels' nationalist sentiment was reinforced by collective memory of the earlier Maccabean revolt, which had resulted in a period of Jewish sovereignty under the Hasmonean kingdom—a time during which Jewish national consciousness expanded.[143] Goodblatt also compares the rebels' use of the term "Zion" to rally popular support on their coins has been compared to modern Zionism.[144] The later Diaspora Revolt (115–117 CE) is believed to have been motivated, in part, by aspirations among Jewish communities to return to Judaea and rebuild Jerusalem and the Temple,[145] an impulse that historian E. Mary Smallwood likened to an ancient form of Zionism.[146] The final large-scale Jewish uprising against Roman rule, the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE), temporarily restored Jewish control over parts of Judaea but was ultimately crushed by the Romans, resulting in extensive casualties, enslavement, and widespread displacement of Jews. Following the Jewish–
Roman wars, active expressions of Jewish nationalism (such as armed resistance and attempts to restore political
sovereignty) largely ceased. However, scholars argue that Jewish national identity persisted in a more passive form, surviving in collective memory and religious tradition. Jewish law, language, and cultural practices continued to reinforce a sense of peoplehood, preserving national consciousness in exile and dispersion.[147] According to Adrian Hastings, the persistence of Jewish national awareness (rather than merely an ethnic identity) made it possible for modern Zionism to emerge when new political conditions arose.[140]
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The forerunners of Zionism, rather than being causally connected to the later development of Zionism, are thinkers and activists who expressed some notion of Jewish national consciousness or advocated for the migration of Jews to Palestine. These attempts were not continuous as national movements typically are.[148][149] The most notable proto-Zionists were rabbis such as Judah Alkalai and Zvi Hirsch Kalischer.
[150] Their idea of Jews as a collective was strongly tied to religious notions distinct from the secular movement referred to as Zionism that developed at the end of the century.[151]
In contrast, Moses Hess, who is regarded as the first modern Jewish nationalist, advocated for the establishment of an independent Jewish state in pursuit of the economic and social normalization of the Jewish people.[152] Hess believed that emancipation alone was not a sufficient solution to the problems faced by European Jewry.[149]
Christian restorationist ideas promoting the migration of Jews to Palestine contributed to the ideological and historical context that gave a sense of credibility to these pre-Zionist initiatives.[149] Restorationist ideas were a prerequisite for the success of Zionism, since although it was created by Jews, Zionism was dependent on support from Christians, although it is unclear how much Christian ideas influenced the early Zionists. Zionism was also dependent on the thinkers of the Haskalah or Jewish enlightenment, such as Peretz Smolenskin in 1872, although it often depicted it as its opponent.[153]
Ideas of Jewish cultural unity developed a specifically political expression in the 1860s as Jewish intellectuals began promoting the idea of Jewish nationalism. This emerged amid the late 19th century European trend of national revivals.
[154][155]
Zionism emerged towards the end of the "best century"[93]for Jews who for the first time were allowed as equals into European society and gained access to schools, universities, and professions that were previously closed to them.
[93] By the 1870s, Jews had achieved almost complete civic emancipation in all the states of western and central Europe.[100] By 1914, Jews had moved from the margins to the forefront of European society. In the urban centers of Europe and America, Jews played an influential role in professional and intellectual life.[93] During this period, as Jewish assimilation was still progressing most promisingly, some Jewish intellectuals and religious traditionalists framed assimilation as a humiliating negation of Jewish cultural distinctiveness.[156] The development of Zionism and other Jewish nationalist movements grew out of these sentiments.[157]In this sense, Zionism can be read as a response to the Haskala and the challenges of modernity and liberalism, rather than purely a response to antisemitism.[93] Forerunners of Zionism
History
Jewish nationalism and emancipation
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"Memorandum to the Protestant Powers
of the North of Europe and America",
published in the Colonial Times (Hobart,
Tasmania, Australia), in 1841
Emancipation in Eastern Europe progressed more slowly,[158] to the point that Deickoff writes "social conditions were such that they made the idea of individual assimilation pointless".
Antisemitism, pogroms and official policies in Tsarist Russia led to the emigration of three million Jews in the years between 1882 and 1914, only 1% of which went to Palestine.
Those who went to Palestine were driven primarily by ideas of self-determination and Jewish identity, rather than just in response to pogroms or economic insecurity.[93] Zionism's emergence in the late 19th century was among assimilated Central European Jews who, despite their formal
emancipation, still felt excluded from high society. Many of these Jews had moved away from traditional religious
observances and were largely secular, mirroring a broader trend of secularization in Europe. Despite their efforts to integrate, the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe were
frustrated by continued lack of acceptance by the local national movements that tended toward intolerance and
exclusivity.[159] For the early Zionists, if nationalism posed a challenge to European Jewry, it also proposed a solution.[160] In the wake of the 1881 Russian pogroms, Leo Pinsker, who was previously an assimilationist, came to the conclusion that the root of the Jewish problem was that Jews formed a distinctive element that could not be assimilated.[100] For Pinsker, emancipation could not resolve the problems of the Jewish people.[161]In Pinsker's analysis, Judeophobia was the cause of antisemitism and was primiarily driven by Jews' lack of a homeland. The solution Pinsker proposed in his pamphlet Autoemancipation (1882) was for Jews to become a "normal" nation and acquire a homeland over which Jews would have sovereignty.[93][152] Pinsker primarily viewed Jewish emigration a solution for dealing with the "surplus of Jews, the inassimilable residue" from Eastern Europe who had arrived in Germany in response to the pogroms.[162][j]
The pogroms motivated a small number of Jews to establish various groups in the Pale of Settlement (a region in western Russia) and in Poland, aimed at supporting Jewish emigration to Palestine. The publication of Autoemancipation provided these groups with an ideological charter around which they would be confederated into Hibbat Zion ("Lovers of Zion") in 1887 where Pinsker would take a leading role.[164] The settlements established by Hibbat Zion lacked sufficient funds and were ultimately not very successful but are seen as the first of several aliyahs, or waves of settlement, that led to the eventual establishment of the state of Israel.[165] The conditions in Eastern Europe would eventually provide Zionism with a base of Jews seeking to overcome the challenges of external ostracism, from the Tsarist regime, and internal changes within the Jewish communities there.[166] The groups that formed Hibbat Zion included the Bilu group, which established its first settlement in 1882.[167] Anita Shapira describes the Bilu as serving the role of a prototype for the settlement groups that followed.[168] At the end of the 19th century, Jews remained a small minority in Palestine.[169] Leon Pinsker, Theodor Herzl and the birth of modern political Zionism 2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
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Front page of The Jewish Chronicle, January
17, 1896, showing an article by Theodor Herzl,
a month prior to the publication of his pamphlet
Der Judenstaat
A key event that put the modern Zionist movement in motion was the Dreyfus affair, which erupted in France in 1894.[170][171][172] The case had a profound impact on Central and Western European Jews.[173] Among those who witnessed the event was Herzl.[171][172] At this point, Zionism remained a scattered movement. In the 1890s, Herzl infused Zionism with a practical urgency and worked to unify the various strands of the movement.[174] The title of Herzl's 1896 manifesto providing the ideological basis for Zionism, Der Judenstaat, is typically translated as The Jewish State. Herzl sought to establish a state where Jews would be the majority and as a result, politically dominant.[175] Ahad Ha'am, the founder of cultural Zionism, criticized the lack of Jewish cultural activity and creativity in Herzl's envisioned state, which Ha'am referred to as "the state of the Jews". He pointed to the envisioned European and German culture of the state where Jews were simply the transmitters of imperialist culture rather than producers or creators of culture.[77] Like Pinsker, Herzl saw antisemitism as a reality that could only be addressed by the territorial concentration of Jews in a Jewish state.[176]
Herzl's project was purely secular; the selection of Palestine, after considering other locations, was motivated by the credibility the name would give to the movement.[176] From early on, Herzl recognized that Zionism could not succeed without the support of a great power. [177] He hoped that
his state would support the great powers' interests and would "form part of a defensive wall for Europe in Asia, an outpost of civilization against barbarism."[178] Herzl's efforts led to the First Zionist Congress at Basel in 1897, which created the Zionist Organization (ZO), renamed in 1960 as World Zionist Organization (WZO),[179] and adopted the Basel Program, which codified the official objective of establishing a legally recognized home for the Jewish people in Palestine.[174] The Zionist Organization was to be the main administrative body of the movement and would go on to establish the Jewish Colonial Trust, whose objectives were to encourage European Jewish emigration to Palestine and to assist with the economic development of the colonies.
Throughout the first decade of the Zionist movement,
Herzl and other Zionist figures considered locations for a Jewish state outside of the Land of Israel, such as
"Uganda" (actually parts of British East Africa that are today in Kenya), Argentina, Cyprus, Mesopotamia,
Mozambique, and the Sinai Peninsula.
[180] Herzl was
initially content with any Jewish self-governed state.[181] Jewish settlement of Argentina was the project of
Maurice de Hirsch.
[182]
It is unclear if Herzl seriously
considered this alternative plan;[183] however, he later affirmed that only Palestine could gain enough Jewish
support because of the historic ties of Jews with that
area.[184][185] A major concern and driving reason for
Territories considered
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The delegates at the First Zionist Congress, held in
Basel, Switzerland (1897)
considering other territories was the Russian
pogroms, in particular the Kishinev massacre,
and the resulting need for quick resettlement in a
safer place.[186]
In the early twentieth century, Zionism advanced
by establishing towns, colonies, and an
independent monetary system in Palestine. Due
to the unstable local economy and fluctuating
currency values under Ottoman rule, Zionists
created their own financial institutions. Despite
their small numbers, the Zionists instilled a fear
of territorial displacement in the local population,[187] which led to Palestinian resistance and the settlers' eventual use of military force.[188]Initially, the impact on rural Palestinians was minimal, with only a few villages encountering Jewish colonies. However, after World War I and as Zionist land purchases increased, the rural population began to experience dramatic changes. From almost the beginning of Zionist settlement, Palestinians viewed Zionism as an expansionist endeavor. According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, Zionism was inherently expansionist and always had the goal of turning the entirety of Palestine into a Jewish state. In addition, Morris describes the Zionists as intent on politically and physically dispossessing the Arabs.[189] Early warnings from local leaders in the 1880s about the destabilizing effects of Jewish immigration went largely unheeded until these later developments.[190] By the early 20th century, there were fourteen Zionist settlements in Palestine, established through land purchases from both local and external landowners.[190] From the outset, the Zionist leadership saw land acquisition as essential to achieving their goal of establishing a Jewish state. This acquisition was strategic, aiming to create a continuous area of Jewish land. The WZO established the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in 1901, with the stated goal "to redeem the land of Palestine as the inalienable possession of the Jewish people." The notion of land "redemption" entailed that the land could not be sold and could not be leased to a non-Jew nor should the land be worked by Arabs,[191]though most Zionists continued to employ fellaheen to perform labor on their lands.[192] The land purchased was primarily from absentee landlords, and upon purchase of the land, the tenant farmers who traditionally had rights of usufruct were often expelled.[193] Herzl publicly opposed this dispossession, but wrote privately in his diary: "We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our country... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."[194] The arrival of Zionist settlers to Palestine in the late 19th century is widely seen as the start of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.
[11][12][13] Zionists wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible.[4][5]
In 1903, 'the Eretz Israel assembly' was held by Menachem Ussishkin. This assembly marked the beginning of a more formalized Zionist colonization effort. Under his leadership, both professional and political organizations were established, paving the way for a sustained Zionist presence in the region.[190] Ussishkin delineated three methods for the Zionist movement to acquire land: by force Early Zionist settlement
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Palestine as claimed by the World Zionist
Organization in 1919 at the Paris Peace
Conference
and conquest, by expropriation via governmental authority, and by purchase. The only option available to the movement at the moment in his perspective was the last one, "until at some point we become rulers".[195]
The second wave of Zionist settlement came with the Second Aliyah starting in 1904. The settlers of this period laid the foundational elements for the Jewish society in Palestine envisioned by the Zionist movement. They established the first two political parties, the socialist Po'alei Zion and the nonsocialist Ha-Po'el Ha-Tza'ir and initiated the first collective agricultural settlements known as kibbutzim, which were fundamental in the formation of the Israeli state.[162] They also formed the first underground military group, Ha-Shomer, which later evolved into the Haganah and eventually became the core of the Israeli army. Many leaders of the Zionist national movement were products of the Second Aliyah.[196] The Zionists of the second aliyah were also more ideologically motivated than those of the first aliyah. In particular, they sought the "conquest of labor", which entailed the exclusion of Arabs from the labor market.[197]
While there were 85,000 Jews living in Palestine in 1914, that number went down to 56,000 by 1917. The Arab population also suffered greatly during this time.[198] When the Ottoman Empire entered the war on Germany's side in October 1914, tens of thousands of Russian Jews became enemy citizens, and many opted to leave rather than become Ottoman citizens and be subject to conscription.[198] This gave the Ottomans an opportunity to suppress the Zionist movement.[198] The war also had a negative effect on trade in Yishuv.[199] On January 17, 1914, the Ottomans announced, with no prior warning, that all foreign nationals must immediately board a ship in Jaffa to be taken to Alexandria.[200]In April 1917, the Ottomans orders all Jews to leave Jaffa.[200]In October 1917, after the Ottomans discovered that Nili had been giving intelligence to the British, they arrested people at random and imposed a curfew as collective punishment.[201] Most Zionists came to the conclusion that there was no hope of change under the Ottomans and therefore supported the British
conquest of Palestine, and they viewed the British as
redeemers.[202]
At the start of World War I, the Zionist leadership attempted to persuade the British government of the benefits of sponsoring a Jewish colony in Palestine. Their main initial success was in establishing a lobbying group centered around the Rothschild family, largely driven by Chaim Weizmann. [203]
In
Second Aliyah
The Balfour Declaration and World War I
World War I period
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the 1917 Balfour Declaration, Britain declared its support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". The declaration was largely motivated by war-time considerations and antisemitic preconceptions about the putative influence Jews had on the Tsarist government and in the shaping of American policy.[204][205] Though his decision was also motivated by religious convictions,[k] Balfour himself had passed the Aliens Act 1905, which aimed to keep Eastern European Jews out of Britain.[l] More decisive were Britain's colonial and imperial geopolitical goals in the region, specifically in retaining control over the Suez Canal by establishing a pro-British state in the region.[208][209] Weizmann's role in obtaining the Balfour Declaration led to his election as the Zionist movement's leader. He remained in that role until 1948, and then was elected as the first President of Israel after the nation gained independence.
For Weizmann, Palestine was a Jewish and not an Arab country. The state he sought at that period would stretch to the east of the Jordan River and extend to the Litani River (a river in Lebanon, then part of the Ottoman Empire). Weizmann's strategy involved incrementally approaching this goal over a long period, in the form of settlement and land acquisition.[210][211] Weizmann was open to the idea of Arabs and Jews jointly running Palestine through an elected council with equal representation, but he did not view the Arabs as equal partners in negotiations about the country's future. In particular, he was steadfast in his view of the "moral superiority" of the Jewish claim to Palestine over the Arab claim and believed these negotiations should be conducted solely between Britain and the Jews.[203] According to Zionist Israeli historian Simha Flapan, the essential assumptions of Weizmann's strategy were later adopted by David Ben-Gurion and subsequent Zionist leaders.[212] In 1919, the US-based King–Crane Commission started with a strongly sympathetic disposition towards Zionism but concluded that the maximum Zionist demands implied subjection of Palestinians to Jewish rule and that this was a violation of the principle of self-determination, given the anti-Zionist sentiment of the non-Jewish population.[213] The report stated that "The initial claim, often submitted by Zionist representatives, that they have a 'right' to Palestine based on occupation of two thousand years ago, can barely be seriously considered."[214][215] Consequently, it recommended a considerably "modified" or "reduced" version of the Zionist programme, with Palestine as a Jewish national home but not a Jewish state.[215]
Ze'ev Jabotinsky founded the Revisionist Party in 1925, which took on a more militant ethos and openly maximalist agenda than Weizmann and Ben-Gurion. Jabotinsky rejected Weizmann's strategy of incremental state building, instead preferring to immediately declare sovereignty over the entire region, which extended to both the East and West bank of the Jordan river.[203] Like Weizmann and Herzl, Jabotinsky also believed that the support of a Great Power was essential to the success of Zionism. From early on, Jabotinksy openly rejected the possibility of a "voluntary agreement" with the Arabs of Palestine. He instead believed in building an "iron wall" of Jewish military force to break Arab resistance to Zionism, at which point an agreement could be established.[203] Jabotinsky's "iron wall" strategy would have a lasting effect on the Zionist perspective towards the demographic problem King–Crane Commission
Beginning of Revisionist Zionism
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During the 1919 Paris Peace
Conference, an Inter-Allied Commission
was sent to Palestine to assess the views
of the local population; the report
summarized the arguments received from
petitioners for and against Zionism.
posed by the presence of the local Palestinian
population.[216][217] Both the left and right factions of Zionism would rely on this strategy of leveraging military strength in pursuit of political aspirations.[218]
After the war, the plan for a greater Arab kingdom under the Hashemite family was abandoned when King Faisal was
expelled from Damascus by the French in 1920. In parallel, the Zionist demand for a clear British acknowledgment of the entirety of Palestine as the Jewish national home was rejected.
Instead, Britain committed only to establishing a Jewish national home "in Palestine" and promised to facilitate this without prejudicing the rights of existing "non-Jewish
communities"—these qualifying statements aroused the
concern of Zionist leaders at the time.[219]
The British mandate over Palestine, established in 1922, was based on the Balfour Declaration, explicitly privileging the Jewish minority over the Arab majority.[220]In addition to declaring British support for the establishment of a "Jewish national home" in Palestine, the mandate included provisions facilitating Jewish immigration, and granting the Zionist movement the status of representing Jewish national
interests.[219]In particular, the Jewish Agency, the
embodiment of the Zionist movement in Palestine, was made a partner of the mandatory government, acquiring
international diplomatic status and representing Zionist interests before the League of Nations and other international venues.[221]
The British mandate effectively established a Jewish quasi-state in Palestine, lacking only full sovereignty. This lack of sovereignty was crucial for Zionism at this early stage, as the Jewish population was too small to defend itself against the Arabs of Palestine. The British presence provided a necessary safeguard for Jewish nationalism. To achieve political independence, Jews needed Britain's support, particularly in land purchase and immigration.[222] Following the Balfour Declaration, Jewish immigration to Palestine grew from 9,149 immigrants in 1921 to 33,801 in 1925— by the end of the mandate period, the Jewish population in Palestine nearly tripled, eventually reaching one third of the country's population.[223]
The mandatory administration implemented policies that favored the development of the capitalist sector, predominantly associated with the Jewish community, while disadvantaging the Arab noncapitalist sector. Between 1933 and 1937, government spending was concentrated in two main areas— development and economic services, and defense—with the former focusing on infrastructural improvements (such as railways, roads, bridges, and other public works) that were particularly British Mandate and development of the Zionist
quasi-state
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beneficial for capitalist production.[224]
In contrast to the Jewish population, the Arabs did not benefit from any government protections such as social security, employment benefits, trade union protection, job security and training opportunities. Arab wages were one third of their Jewish counterparts (including when paid by the same employer).[225] The mandate also included an article describing self-governing institutions intended only for the Jewish population of Palestine. No similar support or recognition was provided to the Arab majority during the time of the mandate.[221] By enabling the Zionist institutions to serve as a parallel government to the Mandate, the British facilitated the separation of the economy and legitimized their quasi-state status. Accordingly, these institutions, which purported to act in the interests of Jews everywhere, were able to funnel resources into the Jewish sector in Palestine, heavily subsidizing the dominant Jewish economy.[225] The nucleus of the Jewish quasi-state was the Histadrut, established in 1920 as an independent social, political and economic institution.[226][m] The Histadrut also exercised significant control over the Haganah, a Jewish defense force formed in 1920 in reaction to Arab riots. Originally created to defend the community, Haganah evolved into a permanent underground reserve army fully integrated into the Jewish political structure. Although the British authorities disapproved of the Haganah, particularly its method of stealing arms from British bases, they did not disband it.[228] The Histadrut operated as a completely independent entity, without interference from the British mandate authorities. Ben-Gurion saw the Histadrut's detachment from socialist ideology to be one of its key strengths; indeed it was the General Organization of Workers in Israel. In particular, the Histadrut worked towards national unity and aimed to dominate the capitalist system en route to gaining political power, not to create a socialist utopia.[229] As secretary general of the Histadrut and leader of the Zionist labor movement, Ben-Gurion adopted similar strategies and objectives as Weizmann during this period, disagreeing primarily on issues of specific tactical moves up until 1939.[230] The middle class grew dramatically in size with the arrival of the fourth aliyah in 1924, motivating a political shift within the labor movement.[231]It was during this period that the political strategy of the labor movement would solidify.[232] The founding of the Mapai party unified the labor movement, making it the dominant force. The party saw economic control as essential to facilitating Zionist settlement and achieving political power: "the economic question is not one of class; it is a national question".[233] For Ben-Gurion, the transformation from "working class to nation" was intertwined with his rejection of diaspora life, as he would declare: the "weak, unproductive, parasitical Jewish masses" must be converted "to productive labor" in service of the nation.[234]
For the Zionist movement, economic development and policies were a mechanism by which political aims could be achieved.[233] A new economic sector exclusively for Jews, controlled by the Labor Zionist movement, was established with support from the Jewish National Fund and the agricultural workers' Histadrut. Despite the universalist ideals of Zionist pioneering, this new Jewish economic sector was fundamentally based on exclusionary practices.[162] The goal of achieving "100 percent of Hebrew labour" was the primary driver of the territorial, economic and social separation between Jews and Arabs.[110]
Zionist policies and the 1936–1939 Arab Revolt
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The Zionist economic platform was partially based on the assumption (eventually demonstrated incorrect[235]) that economic benefits to the Arabs of Palestine would pacify opposition to the movement. For the Zionist leadership, the economic status and development of the Arabs of Palestine should be compared with Arabs of other countries, rather than with the Jews of Palestine.
Accordingly, disproportionate gains in Jewish development were acceptable as long as the status of the Arab sector did not worsen. While British support for Zionist aspirations in Palestine established the parameters within which the Arab economy could develop, Zionist policies reinforced these limitations. Most notable are the exclusion of Arab labor from Jewish enterprise and the expulsion of Arab peasants from Jewish-owned land. Both of these had limited impact in scope but reinforced the structural limitations put in place by British policies.[236] With the rise to power of the Nazis in 1933, the Jewish community was increasingly persecuted and driven out. The discriminatory immigration laws of the US, UK and other countries preferable to German Jews, led to in 1935 alone more than 60,000 Jews arriving in Palestine (more than the total number of Jews in Palestine as of the establishment of the Balfour declaration in 1917). Ben-Gurion would subsequently declare that immigration at this rate would allow for the maximalist Zionist goal of a Jewish state in all of Palestine.[237] The Arab community openly pressured the mandatory government to restrict Jewish immigration and land purchases.[238] Sporadic attacks in the countryside (described by Zionists and the British as "banditry") reflected widespread anger over the Zionist land purchases that displaced local peasants. Meanwhile, in urban areas, protests against British rule and the increasing influence of the Zionist movement intensified and became more militant in the early 1930s.[239]
The outbreak of violence in the course of the 1936 Arab Revolt was a turning point in Jewish-Arab relations, unifying previously divided factions within the Zionist movement and leading them to view the use of force as a necessary means of defense and deterrence.[240] During the revolt, the Irgun Zvai Leumi engaged in the use of terror attacks against the Arabs of Palestine. Similarly, for the labor Zionist Palmah, the lines delineating what was acceptable and unacceptable while dealing with Arab villagers were "vague and intentionally blurred". These ambiguous limits practically did not differ from those of the self-described "terrorist" group, Irgun.
According to Anita Shapira, beginning in this period, Labor Zionism's use of violence against Palestinians for political means was essentially the same as that of radical conservative Zionist groups.[241]
In response to the revolt, the British appointed in 1937 a commission of inquiry that eventually recommended the partition of the land. The proposal included creating a small Jewish state occupying 17 percent of Mandatory Palestine's territory,[242] while Jerusalem and a corridor to the sea would remain under British control, and the remaining 75 percent of the territory would form a Palestinian state connected to Transjordan under King Abdullah's rule.[243][244] At this point, Jews owned 5.6% of the land in Palestine; the land allocated to the Jewish state would contain 40 percent of the country's fertile land.[238] The commission also proposed a population transfer of the Palestinian Arabs from the areas designated for the Jewish state, based on the precedent of the 1923 GreekThe Peel Commission partition proposal 2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
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Provisional frontiers of the Palestine
partition from the Peel Commission
Turkish population exchange.
[245][246] For Ben-Gurion, the
transfer proposal was the most appealing recommendation put forward by the commission.[247]Indeed, this sentiment was deeply ingrained to the extent that Ben Gurion's
acceptance of partition was contingent upon the removal of the Palestinian population.[248]
The Zionist leadership viewed the mass transfer of the Arabs as morally permissible, but were unsure of its political effectiveness.[249] Much of the Zionist leadership spoke in strong support of the transfer plan, asserting that there is nothing immoral about it.[n] Within the Zionist movement, two perspectives developed with respect to the partition proposal; the first was a complete rejection of partition, the second was acceptance of the idea of partition on the basis that it would eventually allow for expansion to all territories within "the boundaries of Zionist aspirations."[251]It was the right wing of the Zionist movement that put forward the main arguments against transfer, with Jabotinsky strongly
objecting it on moral grounds,[252] and others mainly focusing on its impracticality.[253] However, in his last book "The Jewish War Front" published in 1940, after the outbreak of WWII, Jabotinsky no longer ruled out the possibility of voluntary population transfer, though he still didn't view it as a necessary solution.[254][255][256][257] Some leaders, such as Ruppin, Motzkin, and writers such as Israel Zangwill, also referred to transfer as a "voluntary" action that would include some form of compensation.[258] However, "Palestine's Arabs did not wish to evacuate the land of their ancestors... The matter raised ethical questions that troubled the Yishuv".[259] The revolt was inflamed by the partition proposal and
continued until 1939 when it was forcefully suppressed by the British.[221]
Later, Vladimir Jabotinsky, the right-wing Zionist leader, drew inspiration from the Nazi demographic policies that resulted in the expulsion of 1.5 million Poles and Jews, in whose place Germans resettled.[260] In Jabotinsky's assessment:
The world has become accustomed to the idea of mass migrations and has almost become fond of them. Hitler—as odious as he is to us—has given this idea a good name in the world.[260]
By the time of the 1936 Arab revolt, almost all groups within the Zionist movement wanted a Jewish state in Palestine, "whether they declared their intent or preferred to camouflage it, whether or not they perceived it as a political instrument, whether they saw sovereign independence as the prime 2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
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aim, or accorded priority to the task of social construction".[261] The main debates within the movement at this time were concerning partition of Palestine and the nature of the relationship with the British. The intensity of the revolt, Britain's ambiguous support for the movement and the increasing threat against European Jewry during this period motivated the Zionist leadership to prioritize immediate considerations. The movement ultimately favored the notion of partition, primarily out of practical considerations and partially out of a belief that establishing a Jewish state over all of Palestine would remain an option.[262] At the 1937 Zionist congress, the Zionist leadership adopted the stance that the land allocated to the Jewish state by the partition plan was inadequate— effectively rejecting the partition plan that faded away in the face of both Arab and Zionist opposition.[263]
In response to Ben-Gurion's 1938 quote that "politically we are the aggressors and they [the Palestinians] defend themselves", Israeli historian Benny Morris says, "Ben-Gurion, of course, was right. Zionism was a colonizing and expansionist ideology and movement", and that "Zionist ideology and practice were necessarily and elementally expansionist." Morris describes the Zionist goal of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine as necessarily displacing and dispossessing the Arab population.[264]
In 1939, a British White Paper recommended limiting Jewish immigration and land purchase with the objective of maintaining the status quo while the threat of war loomed in Europe.[265][266] The immigration was to be limited to no more than 75,000 people over the next five years. With Nazi expansionism in Europe, the limits on immigration prompted further militarization, land takeover and illegal immigration efforts by the Zionist movement. World War II broke out as the Zionists were developing their campaign against the White Paper—unable to accept the White Paper or to side against the British, the Zionist movement would ultimately support the British war effort while working to upend the White Paper.
[263][o] From the start of the second world war, the Zionists pressured the British to organize and train a Jewish "army", culminating in the establishment of a Jewish Brigade and accompanying blue and white flag.[267][268] The development of this force would further train and enable the already substantial Zionist military capacity.[221][267][237] The Haganah was allowed by the British to openly acquire weapons and worked with the British to prepare for a possible Axis invasion.[269]
Despite the White Paper, Zionist immigration and settlement efforts continued during the war period.
While immigration had previously been selective, once the details of the Holocaust reached Palestine in 1942, selectivity was abandoned. The official Zionist movement's war effort focused on the survival and development of the Yishuv; Pappe argues that scarce Zionist energy was deployed in support of European Jews.[270] Many of those fleeing Nazi terror in Europe preferred to leave for the United States, however, strict American immigration policies and Zionist efforts led to 10% of the 3 million Jews leaving Europe to settle in Palestine.[271]
In the Biltmore Program of 1942, the Zionist movement would openly declare for the first time its goal of establishing a Jewish state in all of Palestine.[272][273] At this point, the United States, with its growing economy and unprecedented military force, became a focal point of Zionist political activity Nazism, World War II and the Holocaust
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Population of Palestine by ethno-religious groups, excluding nomads, from the 1946 Survey of Palestine
[275]
Year Muslims Jews Christians Others
Total
Settled
1922
486,177
(74.9%)
83,790
(12.9%)
71,464
(11.0%)
7,617
(1.2%)
649,048
1931
693,147
(71.7%)
174,606
(18.1%)
88,907
(9.2%)
10,101
(1.0%)
966,761
1941
906,551
(59.7%)
474,102
(31.2%)
125,413
(8.3%)
12,881
(0.8%)
1,518,947
1946
1,076,783
(58.3%)
608,225
(33.0%)
145,063
(7.9%)
15,488
(0.8%)
1,845,559
that engaged with the American electorate and politicians. American President Truman supported the Biltmore program for the duration of his time in office, largely motivated by humanitarian concerns and the growing influence of the Zionist lobby.[274]
During World War II, as the
horrors of the Holocaust became
known, the Zionist leadership
formulated the One Million Plan, a
reduction from Ben-Gurion's
previous target of two million
immigrants. Following the end of
the war, many stateless refugees,
mainly Holocaust survivors, began
migrating to Palestine in small
boats in defiance of British rules.
The Holocaust united much of the
rest of world Jewry behind the
Zionist project.[276] The British
either imprisoned these Jews in Cyprus or sent them to the British-controlled Allied Occupation Zones in Germany. The British, having faced Arab revolts, were now facing opposition by Zionist groups in Palestine for subsequent restrictions on Jewish immigration. In January 1946 the AngloAmerican Committee of Inquiry, a joint British and American committee, was tasked to examine political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine and the well-being of the peoples now living there; to consult representatives of Arabs and Jews, and to make other recommendations 'as necessary' for an interim handling of these problems as well as for their eventual solution.[277] Following the failure of the 1946–47 London Conference on Palestine, at which the United States refused to support the British, leading to both the Morrison–Grady Plan and the Bevin Plan being rejected by all parties, the British decided to refer the question to the UN on February 14, 1947.[278][p] Towards the end of the war, the Zionist leadership was motivated more than ever to establish a Jewish state. Since the British were no longer sponsoring its development, many Zionists considered it would be necessary to establish the state by force by upending the British position in Palestine. In this the IRA's tactics against Britain in the Irish War of Independence served as a both a model and source of inspiration.[q] The Irgun, the military arm of the revisionist Zionists, and Lehi, who at one point sought an alliance with the Nazis,[280] would lead a series of terrorist attacks against the British starting in 1944. This included the King David Hotel bombing, British immigration and tax offices and police stations. It was only by the war's end that the Haganah joined in the sabotage against the British. The combined impact of US opinion and the attacks on British presence eventually led the British to refer the situation to the United Nations in 1947.[269]In response to a United Kingdom government request that the General Assembly "make recommendations under article 10 of the Charter, concerning the future government of Palestine", the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was created on May 15, 1947.[281]
End of the Mandate and expulsion of the Palestinians
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The urgency of the condition of the Jewish refugees in Europe motivated the committee to unanimously vote in favor of terminating the British mandate in Palestine. The disagreement came with regards to whether Palestine should be partitioned or if it should constitute a federal state.
American lobbying efforts, pressuring UN delegates with the threat of withdrawal of US aid, eventually secured the General Assembly votes in favor of the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, which was passed November 29, 1947.[269] Outbursts of violence slowly grew into a wider civil war between the Arabs and Zionist militias.[282] By mid-December, the Haganah had shifted to a more "aggressive defense",[283] abandoning notions of restraint it had espoused from 1936 to 1939. The Haganah reprisal raids were often disproportionate to the initial Arab offenses,[284] which led to the spread of violence to previously unaffected areas. The Zionist militias, employed terror attacks against Arab civilian and militia centers and many Palestinians were evicted from their houses. In response, Arabs planted bombs in Jewish civilian areas, particularly in Jerusalem.[284][285] The first expulsion of Palestinians began 12 days after the adoption of the UN resolution, and the first Palestinian village was eliminated a month later, in retaliation for Palestinian attacks on convoys and Jewish settlements.[286]In March 1948, Zionist forces began implementing Plan D, an ethnic cleansing operation that involved the expulsion of civilians and the destruction of Arab towns and villages in pursuit of eliminating Palestinians seen as potentially hostile, resulting in the loss of Palestine to much of its indigenous population.[287][160][288] According to Benny Morris Zionist forces committed 24 massacres of Palestinians in the ensuing war,[289]in part as a form of psychological warfare,[290]the most notorious of which is the Deir Yassin massacre. The United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine estimated that between 1948 and 1949, 710,000 Palestinians were driven out of the country and another 40,000 were internally displaced, primarily as a result of these expulsions and massacres.[14][237]
The British left Palestine (having done little to maintain order) on May 14 as planned. The British did not facilitate a formal transfer of power;[274] a fully functioning Jewish quasi-state had already been operating under the British for the past several decades.[291] The same day, Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the state of Israel.[292] The Declaration of Independence of Israel described a democracy with equality of social and political rights for all citizens, and extended a peace offering to neighboring states and their Arab citizens.[293] Masalha notes that the declaration states equality on the basis of citizenship but not nationality.[r]
The ensuing war led to the State of Israel establishing control over 78% of Mandatory Palestine, instead of the 55% outlined in the UN partition plan, and resulted in the destruction of much of Palestinian society and the Arab landscape.[294] This war, led by the Zionist Yishuv was framed by its leaders in biblical and messianic terms as a 'miraculous clearing of the land,' akin to the biblical War of Joshua. Masalha writes that it is not clear who the Yishuv was declaring independence from, as it was neither from the British colonial rule, which facilitated Jewish settlement against Palestinian wishes, nor from the land's indigenous inhabitants, who had long cultivated and owned it.[77] After the 1949 Armistice Agreements, a series of laws passed by the first Israeli government prevented displaced Palestinians from claiming private property or returning on the state's territories. They and many of their descendants remain refugees supported by UNRWA. [295][296][297]
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Arab offensive at the beginning of the
1948 Arab–Israeli war
As part of the effort to consolidate its new ownership over the land it had taken over in the 1948 war, the Israeli state worked towards "erasing all traces of its former owners".[298] The project of "Hebraization" of the map, for which the JNF Naming Committee was established,[299] aimed to replace what remained of the Arab towns and villages with newly named Israeli settlements. These names were often based on the Arab names but with a "Hebrew pronunciation" or based on old Hebrew biblical names.[298] This effort also sought to demonstrate continuous Jewish ownership over the land to ancient times.[298]
Prior to 1948, the Zionist movement had limited authority over the use of place names in Palestine.
After 1948, the name "Palestine" was removed from Zionist organizations; for example, the Jewish Agency for Palestine, which played a critical role in the founding of the Israeli state in 1948 was renamed to the "Jewish Agency for Israel".[300]
Since the creation of the State of Israel, the World Zionist Organization 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 Jewish migrants and refugees 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, and the exodus of 850,000 Jews from the Arab world, mostly to Israel. In 1944–45, BenGurion described the One Million Plan to foreign officials as being the "primary goal and top priority of the Zionist movement."[301] The immigration restrictions of the British White Paper of 1939 meant that such a plan could not be put into large scale effect until the Israeli Declaration of Independence in May 1948. The new country's immigration policy had some opposition within the new Israeli government, such as those who argued that there was "no justification for organizing large-scale emigration among Jews whose lives were not in danger, particularly when the desire and motivation were not their own"[302] as well as those who argued that the absorption process caused "undue hardship".[303] However, the force of Ben-Gurion's influence and insistence ensured that his immigration policy was carried out.[304][305] Prior to the 1967 Six-Day War, religious Zionism mostly described support for political Zionism among Orthodox Jews.[306] However, the war and the Israeli conquest of the West Bank, invigorated and popularized a religious Zionist ideology associated with the Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and the Mercaz HaRav yeshiva, which believes that Zionism is a part of the historical process that will bring about the messianic age.
[307][308] This ideology considered secular Zionism and secular state policies Hebraization of names
Post-World War II
Religious Zionism and the Six-Day War
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David Ben-Gurion proclaiming Israel's
establishment beneath a large portrait of
Theodor Herzl
Yemenite Jews on their way to Israel
during Operation Magic Carpet
to be holy and part God's divine plan: "The spirit of Israel... is so closely linked to the spirit of God that a Jewish nationalist, no matter how secularist his intention may be, is, despite himself, imbued with the divine spirit even against his own will."[309]
According to followers of the Mercaz HaRav ideology, the Six Day War was a demonstration of the work of the Divine Hand and the "beginning of redemption".[310] Proponents of this ideology venerate the land as sacred, and consider its sanctity a core principle of religious Zionism. Religious Zionists view the settlement of the West Bank as a commandment of God, necessary for the redemption of the Jewish people.[58] Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook, a major religious Zionist leader and thinker, would declare in 1967 following the Six Day War in the
presence of Israeli leadership including the president, ministers, members of the Knesset, judges, chief rabbis and senior civil servants:
I tell you explicitly... that there is a prohibition in the Torah against giving up even an inch of our
liberated land. There are no conquests here and we
are not occupying foreign land; we are returning to
our home, to the inheritance of our forefathers.
There is no Arab land here, only the inheritance of
our God—the more the world gets used to this
thought the better it will be for it and for all of
us.[311]
In the 1970s, religious Zionists, such as Shlomo Aviner and Hanan Porat, campaigned against Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank and Sinai Peninsula.
[310] Religious Zionist ideology motivated the
assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, who ceded some territory to the PLO as a part of the Oslo Accords, and several religious Zionist rabbis reacted to the assassination with approval.[203] From the turn of the century until the Arab revolt of 1936, there was room for political flexibility within the Zionist movement, many scholars argue that different currents of Zionism have had a shared core framework.[196][312] Most mainstream histories of the movement delineate a few key strains, many following a taxonomy introduced during the period starting in the late 19th century and continuing into the 1930s: political, practical, socialist, cultural and revisionist.[313][314] Some scholars emphasise the heterogeneity of these strains of Zionism.[315][316][317] Types of Zionism
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Dov Ber Borochov,
one of the leaders
of Labor Zionism
Early Zionism consisted of two dominant types, Political Zionism and Practical Zionism, which faded after World War I and the Balfour Declaration.
[318]
Political Zionism was led by Theodor Herzl and Max Nordau. This approach was espoused at the Zionist Organization's First Zionist Congress. It focused on a Jewish home as a solution to the "Jewish question" and antisemitism in Europe, centered on gaining Jewish sovereignty (probably within the Ottoman or later British or French empire), and was opposed to mass migration until after sovereignty was granted. It initially considered locations other than Palestine (e.g., in Africa) and did not foresee migration by many Western Jews to the new homeland.[319][314] Known in Hebrew as Tzionut Ma'asit, Practical Zionism was led by Moshe Leib Lilienblum and Leon Pinsker and molded by the Hovevei Zion organization. It became dominant after Herzl's death, and differed from Political Zionism in not seeing Zionism as justified primarily by the Jewish Question but rather as an end in itself; it "aspired to the establishment of an elite utopian community in Palestine" through Aliyah.
[319]
It also differed from Political Zionism in "distrust[ing] grand political actions" and preferring "an evolutionary incremental process toward the establishment of the national home".[319][314]
Led by socialists Nachman Syrkin, Haim Arlosoroff, Berl Katznelson, and Marxist Ber Borochov,
[320][162] Labor or Socialist Zionism was a form of Zionism that combined messianic tendencies and socialist or social democratic politics.[321][162] The labor Zionists promoted immigration and settlement, establishing "facts on the ground" as the main path towards state-building.[322] Labor Zionism became a mass movement with the founding of Poale Zion ("Workers of Zion") groups in Eastern and Western Europe and North America in the 1900s.[323] Poale Zion split between Left and Right after 1917. In 1919, the Right Poale Zion in Palestine disbanded to form the nationalist socialist Ahdut HaAvoda, led by David Ben Gurion;
[324][325][326]
in 1930, it merged with Hapoel
Hatzair, founded by A. D. Gordon, to form Mapai.[327][325] Labor Zionism, represented by Mapai, became the dominant force in the political and economic life of the Yishuv during the British Mandate of Palestine. It was the dominant ideology of the political establishment in Israel until the 1977 election, when the Israeli Labor Party was defeated.[321] During the early twentieth century, the left wing of this tradition was represented by Hashomer Hatzair, followed by Mapam in the late twentieth century, and Meretz until 2022.
In Labor Zionist thought, a revolution of the Jewish soul and society was believed necessary and achievable in part by Jews moving to Israel and becoming farmers, workers, and soldiers in a country of their own. Labor Zionists established rural communes in Israel called "kibbutzim",[328] a form of cooperative agriculture in which the Jewish National Fund hired Jewish workers under trained supervision. The kibbutzim were a symbol of the Second Aliyah in that they put great emphasis on communalism and egalitarianism, representing Utopian socialism to a certain extent. Furthermore, they stressed self-sufficiency, which became an essential aspect of Labor Zionism.[329][330] Early Zionism
Labor Zionism
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Kibbutznikiyot (female Kibbutz members)
in Mishmar HaEmek, during the 1948
Arab–Israeli War. The Kibbutz is the
historical heartland of Labor Zionism.
Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of
Revisionist Zionism
Synthetic Zionism, led by Chaim Weizmann, Leo Motzkin and Nahum Sokolow, was an approach that advocated a
combination of practical and political Zionism[331] and distanced themselves from the growing Labour, Religious and Revisionist Zionist groups as the movement became polarised between those.[332][333] General Zionists identified with the liberal European middle class to which many Zionist leaders such as Herzl and Chaim Weizmann aspired. As head of the World Zionist Organization, Weizmann's policies had a
sustained impact on the Zionist movement, with Abba Eban describing him as a dominant figure in Jewish life during the interwar period.
Revisionist Zionism, developed by Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s, was a right-wing strain of Zionism. It initially believed that a Jewish state must expand to both sides of the Jordan River, i.e. taking Transjordan in addition to all of Palestine.[334][335]It broke with the WZO in 1935 because of the latter's refusal to declare the establishment of a Jewish state as its immediate aim,[335] and had its own paramilitary organisation, Irgun, from 1931 to 1948.
Followers of Revisionist Zionism developed the Likud Party in Israel, which has dominated most governments since 1977. It advocates Israel's maintaining control of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and takes a hard-line approach in the Arab–Israeli conflict.[336]
Initially led by Yitzchak Yaacov Reines and by Abraham Isaac Kook, Religious Zionism is a variant of Zionist ideology that combines religious conservatism and secular nationalism into a theology with patriotism as its basis.[337] One of the core ideas in Religious Zionism is the belief that the ingathering of exiles in the Land of Israel and the establishment of Israel is the beginning of the redemption, the initial stage of the geula.
[338]
After the Six-Day War and the capture of the West Bank, a territory referred to by the movement as Judea and Samaria, the movement turned right as it integrated revanchist and irredentist forms of nationalism; this right-wing form of religious Zionism, powerful within the settlement movement, is represented today by Gush Emunim (founded by students of Abraham Kook's son Zvi Yehuda Kook in 1974), Jewish Home (HaBayit HaYehudi, formed in 2009), Tkuma, and Meimad.
Synthetic and General Zionism
Revisionist Zionism
Religious Zionism
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Kahanism, a radical branch of religious Zionism, was founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose party, Kach, was eventually banned from the Knesset, but has been increasingly influential on Israeli politics.
Today, the liberal Zionist perspective criticizes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory since 1967 while also promoting the idea of a Jewish state as a necessity. In this vein, liberal Zionism sees Zionist and Israeli activity before 1967, such as the military conquest of Palestine and the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948, as a necessity.[339][340]
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.
Philosopher Carlo Strenger describes a modern-day version of Liberal Zionism, rooted in the original ideology of Herzl and Ahad Ha'am. It is marked by a concern for democratic values and human rights, freedom to criticize government policies without accusations of disloyalty, and rejection of excessive religious influence in public life.[341][342] Liberal Zionists see that "Jewish history shows that Jews need and are entitled to a nation-state of their own. But they also think that this state must be a liberal democracy, which means that there must be strict equality before the law independent of religion, ethnicity or gender."[343]
Cultural Zionism or Spiritual Zionism is a strain of Zionism that focused on creating a center in historic Palestine with its own secular Jewish culture and national history, including language and historical roots, rather than on mass migration or state-building. The founder of Cultural Zionism was Asher Ginsberg, better known as Ahad Ha'am. Like Hibbat Zion and unlike Herzl, Ha'am saw Palestine as the spiritual centre of Jewish life. Ha'am inaugurated the movement in his 1880 essay "This is not the way", which called for the cultivation of a qualitative Jewish presence in the land over [the] quantitative one" pursued by Hibbat Zion.[344] Ha'am was also a sharp critic of Herzl; spiritual Zionism believed that the realpolitik engaged in by Political Zionism corrupted Jewry, and opposed any political solutions that victimised non-Jewish people in the land.[319] Brit Shalom, which promoted Arab-Jewish cooperation, was established in 1925 by supporters of Ahad Ha'am's Spiritual Zionism, including Martin Buber, Gershom Scholem, Hans Kohn, "and other important figures of the intellectual elite of the pre-independence yishuv, [319] Gorny describes it as an
ultimately marginal group.[196]
Liberal Zionism
Cultural Zionism
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Zionism has depended on support from Christians since its inception.[345] Christian Zionism, also known as the Christian restorationist movement, has held the belief that the "return" of Jews to Palestine will result in the second coming of Jesus, universal resurrection of the dead, and the conversion of the Jews to Christianity.
[346]
In this sense, according to Penslar, Christian ideas of "restoration" were a prerequisite for the success of Zionism.[347] Christian Zionism is primarily driven by the belief that the return of Jews to the Holy Land will either lead to their conversion to Christianity or their destruction. This belief is criticized by Gershom Gorenberg in his book "The End of Days," where he highlights the troubling aspect of this messianic scenario—the disappearance of Jews. Evangelical figures such as Jerry Falwell believe the establishment of Israel is a pivotal event signaling the Second Coming of Christ and the eventual End times. As a result, Christian Zionists have significantly contributed politically and financially to Israeli nationalist forces, with the understanding that Israel's role is to facilitate the Second Coming of Christ and the elimination of Judaism.[348]
One of the principal Protestant teachers who promoted the biblical doctrine that the Jews would return to their national homeland was John Nelson Darby. His doctrine of dispensationalism is credited with promoting Zionism, following his 11 lectures on the hopes of the church, the Jew and the gentile given in Geneva in 1840.[349][350][351] However, others like C H Spurgeon, [352] both
Horatius[353] and Andrew Bonar, Robert Murray M'Chyene, [354] and J C Ryle[355] were among a
number of prominent proponents of both the importance and significance of a Jewish return, who were not dispensationalist. Pro-Zionist views were embraced by many evangelicals and also affected international foreign policy.
The largest Zionist organisation is Christians United for Israel, which has 10 million members and is led by John Hagee.
[356][357][358]
While most Israeli Druze identify as ethnically Arab,
[360]
today, tens of thousands of Israeli Druze
belong to "Druze Zionist" movements.[359] A survey conducted in 2008 by Dr. Yusuf Hassan of Tel Aviv University found that out of 764 Druze participants, more than 94% identify as "Druze-Israelis" in the religious and national context.[361]In 1973, Amal Nasser el-Din founded the Zionist Druze Circle, a group whose aim was to encourage the Druze to support the state of Israel.[362] The Druze have aligned themselves more with the Zionist ethos and have distanced themselves from other Arab and Islamic nationalist causes in Israeli society.[363]Israeli Druze citizens serve in the Israel Defense Forces.
[364] The Jewish-Druze partnership was often referred to as "a covenant of blood" (Hebrew: דמים ברית (in recognition of the shared responsibility of defending Israel.[365][366][367] Non-Jewish support
Christian support
Druze support
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Israeli Druze Scouts march to Jethro's
tomb. Today, thousands of Israeli Druze
belong to 'Druze Zionist' movements.
[359]
The Palestinian Arab Christian-owned Falastin
newspaper featuring a caricature on its June 18, 1936,
edition showing Zionism as a crocodile under the
protection of a British officer telling Palestinian Arabs:
"Don't be afraid!!! I will swallow you peacefully...".
[374]
Before and after Israel's creation in 1948, the Indian National Congress and the Indian government initially opposed
Zionism.[368][369]
Zionism, seen as a national liberation movement for the repatriation of the Jewish people to their homeland then under British colonial rule, appealed to many Hindu
nationalists, who viewed their struggle for independence from British rule and the Partition of India as national liberation for long-oppressed Hindus.
[370] Jawaharlal Nehru, the first
Prime Minister of India, drew a connection between the
conflict in Palestine and Hindu-Muslim relations in India, calling it a British "imperialist diversion."[370]
In more current times, conservative Indian parties and organizations tend to support Zionism.[371] A 2012 international opinion survey found that India was the most pro-Israel country in the world.[372] This has invited attacks on the Hindutva movement by parts of the Indian left opposed to Zionism, and allegations that Hindus are conspiring with the "Jewish Lobby."[373] Zionism has been criticized and opposed by a
wide variety of organizations and individuals.
Until World War II, anti-Zionism was
widespread among Jews for varying
reasons.[375][376] Orthodox Jews opposed
Zionism on religious grounds, as preempting the
Messiah.
[s] Many secular or assimilationist
Jewish anti-Zionists identified more with ideals
of the Enlightenment and saw Zionism as a
reactionary ideology,[377][378] while left-wing
Jews (including in the Bund) believed that the
Jewish question was best solved in the diaspora
through building a socialist society.[379][380]
Opposition to Zionism in the Jewish diaspora
was surmounted only from the 1930s onward, as
conditions for Jews deteriorated radically in
Europe and, with the Second World War, the
sheer scale of the Holocaust was felt.[381][382]
Thereafter, Jewish anti-Zionist groups generally
either disintegrated or transformed into pro-Zionist organizations, though many small groups, and bodies like the American Council for Judaism, conserved an earlier Reform tradition of rejection of Zionism.
Hindu support
Anti-Zionism
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Those war crimes are being committed in the name of
my security, and my safety, and my religion. And that
really offends me because it's antithetical to everything I have ever known Judaism to be.
— Jewish anti-Zionist Hanna Stolzer
[392]
There was a shift in the meaning of anti-Zionism after the events of the 1940s. Whereas pre-1948 antiZionism was against the hypothetical establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, post-1948 antiZionism had to contend with the existence of the State of Israel. This often meant taking a retaliatory position to the new reality of Jewish sovereignty in the Middle East. The overriding impulse of post1948 anti-Zionism is to dismantle the current State of Israel and replace it with something else.
Opposition to Zionism was overwhelmingly common among the non-Jewish communities of Palestine from the 1880s onwards. Palestinian nationalism, the national movement of the Palestinians that espouses self-determination and sovereignty over the region of Palestine, [383] cohered in the early
20th century, along with broader Arab nationalism and the ideology of Greater Syria. [384] Palestinian
nationalism later internationalized and attached itself to other ideologies, in particular Third World socialism and Islamism,
[385] and was embodied in particular by the broadly secular Palestinian Liberation Organisation, and later also by the socialist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Islamist Hamas.
[386]
Although the left was initially mostly supportive of Zionism,[387] Soviet anti-Zionism was influential in spreading anti-Zionism on the global left,[388] and much of the New Left of the 1960s took on antiZionism as a key tenet.[389][390] Today, opponents include Palestinian nationalists, several states of the Arab League and in the Muslim world, many on the political left, and some secular Jews (such as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow in the US),[391][392]
as well as the Satmar[393][394][395] and Neturei Karta Jewish sects.[396] Many Jewish anti-Zionist groups
operate both in Israel and the United
States, most notably Jewish Voice for
Peace, whose thousands of members
opposes Israeli occupation of
Palestinian territories. These groups
outwardly reject an inherent union
between Judaism and Zionism and, as
a result, face animosity and marginalization from Zionist Jews in their community.[392] The fascist far-right have also generally espoused anti-Zionism, for antisemitic reasons.[397][398] Reasons for opposing Zionism have been varied, and they include: fundamental disagreement that foreign born Jews have rights of resettlement, the perception that land confiscations are unfair; expulsions of Palestinians; violence against Palestinians; and alleged racism and supremacism. [399]
Arab states in particular have historically strongly opposed Zionism.[400] The preamble of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, which has been ratified by 53 African countries as of 2014, includes an undertaking to eliminate Zionism together with other practices including colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, "aggressive foreign military bases" and all forms of discrimination.
[401][402]
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Pro-Palestinian protest with placards demanding the US
to stop funding of "Israeli apartheid" in Washington, DC, 2017
In December 1973, the UN passed a series of
resolutions condemning South Africa and
included a reference to an "unholy alliance
between Portuguese colonialism, Apartheid and
Zionism."[403] At the time there was little
cooperation between Israel and South Africa,
[404]
although the two countries developed a close
relationship during the late 1970s.[405] Parallels
have also been drawn between aspects of South
Africa's apartheid regime and certain Israeli
policies toward the Palestinians, which are seen
as manifestations of racism in Zionist
thinking.[406]
In 1975 the UN General Assembly passed Resolution 3379, which determined that "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination". The resolution quotes from the 1963 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, "any doctrine of racial differentiation or superiority is scientifically false, morally condemnable, socially unjust, and dangerous". The resolution named the occupied territory of Palestine, Zimbabwe, and South Africa as examples of racist regimes. Resolution 3379 was pioneered by the Soviet Union and passed with numerical support from Arab and African states amidst accusations that Israel was supportive of the apartheid regime in South Africa.[407]In 1991 the resolution was repealed with UN General Assembly Resolution 46/86,
[408] after Israel declared that it would only participate in the Madrid Conference of 1991 if the resolution were revoked.[409]
Arab countries sought to associate Zionism with racism in connection with a 2001 UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, which caused the United States and Israel to walk away from the conference. The final text of the conference did not connect Zionism with racism. A human rights forum arranged in connection with the conference, on the other hand, did equate Zionism with racism and censured Israel for what it called "racist crimes, including acts of genocide and ethnic cleansing".[410][411]
Haredi Jews number some 2,100,000 world-wide, constituting 14% of the total Jewish population in the world.[412] Most accept though do not support the secular Israeli state.[413] A small number of Orthodox organizations among these Haredi reject Zionism as they view it as a secular movement and reject nationalism as a doctrine. in Jerusalem, certain Hasidic groups, most famously the Satmar Hasidim, as well as the larger movement they are part of, the Edah HaChareidis, are opposed to its ideology for religious reasons. Despite having his life saved by a leader of the Zionist movement in 1944, one of the best known Hasidic opponents of political Zionism was Hungarian rebbe and Talmudic scholar Joel Teitelbaum.
[394] Although this group of ultra-observant Jews do not support or Characterization as racist
Haredi Judaism and Zionism
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identify with Zionism as a movement or ideology, in a poll taken in February 2024, 83% said they have a "very strong emotional connection" to Israel, only a small percentage less than the 87% of Modern Orthodox Jews who reported having those same feelings.[414] Critics of anti-Zionism have argued that opposition to Zionism can be hard to distinguish from antisemitism,[415][416] and that criticism of Israel may be used as an excuse to express viewpoints that might otherwise be considered antisemitic.[417][418]
Anti-Zionist writers such as Norman Finkelstein,
[419] Noam Chomsky, Michael Marder, and Tariq Ali
have argued that the characterization of anti-Zionism as antisemitic obscures legitimate criticism of Israel's policies and actions, and that it is used to stifle legitimate criticism of Israel.
Zionism has been characterized as a form of colonialism or settler colonialism by various scholars.
Joseph Massad argues that Zionism was intrinsically linked to European colonial thought from its inception, shaped by antisemitism and European imperial interests.[420] Edward Said similarly described the movement as following the European colonial model, particularly in its patronizing view of the native Palestinian population, which it regarded as backward.[421] Zeev Sternhell describes Zionism as a movement of "conquest", but disagrees that Jews arriving in Palestine had a colonial mindset.[422] Anita Shapira and Shlomo Ben-Ami also emphasize the importance of the "ethos" of the movement, framing Zionism as a national liberation movement that was "destined" or "forced" to use colonial methods.[423][t][425] Conversely, Nur Masalha argues that Zionism cannot be understood as a national liberation movement because it relied on British colonial support, asserting that "the State of Israel owes its very existence to the British colonial power in Palestine".[311] Various proponents of Zionism have characterized Zionism as colonial or settler-colonial.[426][427] Joseph Massad wrote that, for political and ideological reasons, starting in the 1930s, some Zionist thinkers proposed that the Zionist movement should avoid using terms related to colonialism.[u] Rashid Khalidi describes this move as an attempted rebranding of Zionism as an anticolonial movement.[428]
Benny Morris dismisses the charge that Zionism is a "classic nineteenth-century European colonial venture," due to the fact that it existed as a movement not to exploit the populace or resources, but to provide a safe haven for a native population experiencing oppression internationally.[429] Gershon Shafir describes the use of violence by a colonial metropole as essential to settler colonization. Shafir defines settler-colonialism as the creation of a permanent home in which settlers benefit from privileges withheld from the indigenous population. He describes colonization, the Anti-Zionism and antisemitism
Zionism and colonialism
European colonialism
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establishment of settlements against the wishes of the indigenous people, as the distinctive characteristic of settler colonialism.[430]
Shafir distinguishes between the pre-1948 era and the post-1967 era in the sense that after 1967, the Israeli state became the sponsor of the Zionist movement's colonial efforts, a role that had previously been played by the British.[431] For Shafir, Jerome Slater and Shlomo Ben-Ami, after the Israeli conquest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967, the Zionist movement more closely resembled other colonial movements.[432][433][425] Similarly, Avi Shlaim describes 1967 as a milestone in the development of the "Zionist colonial project" rather than as a qualitative shift in its nature.[434]Israeli historian Yitzhak Sternberg cites Sivan, Halamish and Efrat as similarly describing 1967 as a turning point in which Zionism became involved in colonial efforts.[435] Shafir and Morris both further distinguish between Zionist colonialism during the First Aliyah and following the arrival of the Second Aliyah. Shafir describes the First Aliyah as following the ethnic plantation colony model, exploiting low wage Palestinian workers.[436][437] Morris describes this relationship:
These Jews were not colonists in the usual sense of sons or agents of an imperial mother country, projecting its power beyond the seas and exploiting Third World natural resources. But the settlements of the First Aliyah were still colonial, with white Europeans living amid and employing a mass of relatively impoverished natives.[438] Sternberg argues that it is important to clearly distinguish between colonization and colonialism as concepts.[439] For Shafir and Peled, "colonization, namely territorial dispossession and the settlement of immigrant populations",[440] cannot happen without colonialism and "the means of violence of a colonial metropole".[430]In contrast, Sternberg considers classical definitions of colonization as broad enough to include cases that did not require the dispossession of the native population.[439] Tuvia Friling depicts the Zionist movement as operating differently from colonial movements in terms of land acquisition. Specifically, the Zionist movement acquired land in the early years by purchasing it.[441] Sternberg in contrast explains that it was not unique for colonial movements to purchase land as part of land acquisition, pointing to similarities in North American colonialism.[442] Friling argues that in contrast to European colonial projects, the early Zionist leadership was dominated by the labor movement with a socialist ethos.[443] Shafir points to ideological drives in American and Rhodesian settler colonies that developed in service of the colonial project. Similarly, Shafir says, the Zionist labor movement used socialist ideals largely in service of the national movement.[444] In response to the argument that Zionism could not be a colonial project, but should instead be described as a project of immigration, Shafir quotes Lorenzo Veracini's statement that settlers sometimes hide "behind the persecuted, the migrant, even the refugee... behind his labor and hardship." Shafir goes on to characterize Zionism as not unique, in the sense that "[t]he ruthless ethnic cleanser is commonly hidden behind the peaceful settler who arrived in an 'empty land' to start a new life."[444]
Colonization and colonialism
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Alan Dowty describes the debate over the relationship between Zionism and colonialism as essentially a discussion of "semantics". He defines colonialism as the imposition of control by a "mother country" on another people, for economic gain or for the spreading of culture or religion. Dowty argues that Zionism does not fit this definition on the basis that "there was... no mother country" and that Zionism did not consider the local population in its plans.[445] Efraim Karsh adopts a similar definition and similarly concludes that Zionism is not colonialism.[446] Dowty elaborates that Zionism did not control the local population since it ultimately failed to remove the native people from Palestine.[447]In his assessment of whether Zionism is colonialism, Penslar works with a broader definition of colonialism than Dowty, which allows for the country sponsoring the colonial enterprise to be different from the country of origin of the settlers.[448] Beyond characterizing it as a colonial movement, Zionism has been more recently described as a form of settler colonialism, with scholarly proponents of this paradigm including Edward Said, Rashid Khalidi, Noam Chomsky, Ilan Pappe, Fayez Sayegh, Maxime Rodinson, George Jabbour, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Baha Abu-Laban, Jamil Hilal, Rosemary Sayigh[449][450] and Nur Masalha.
[207]
The settler colonial framework on the conflict emerged in the 1960s during the decolonization of Africa and the Middle East, and re-emerged in Israeli academia in the 1990s led by Israeli and Palestinian scholars, who challenged some of Israel's foundational myths.[451][v]It built on the work of Patrick Wolfe, an influential theorist of settler colonial studies who has defined settler colonialism as an ongoing "structure, not an event" aimed at replacing a native population rather than exploiting it.[452][453][454]
Many Palestinian scholars have argued that Zionism is inseparable from the Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in and around 1948, and the ongoing Nakba, the ongoing conditions created by the Nakba, including instances of apartheid, occupation, and genocide. [455]
Back to Africa – Political movement in the United States during the 19th and 20th centuries Golus nationalism – Form of Jewish nationalism that takes pride in the diaspora over Zionism Hardal – Haredi portion of the religious Zionist Jewish community in Israel History of Zionism
Jewish Autonomism – Non-Zionist Jewish political movement List of Zionists
Palestinian nationalism – Movement for self-determination and sovereignty of Palestine Palestinianism – Pro-Palestinian sentiment
Yehud Medinata – Province of the Achaemenid Empire
Zionist as a pejorative
Zionist lobby
Zionism as settler colonialism
Palestinian experiences of Zionism
See also
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Zionist political violence – Violence or terrorism motivated by Zionism a. /ˈzaɪ.ənɪzəm/ ZY-ə-niz-əm; Hebrew: תּונֹוּיִצ, romanized: Ṣīyyonūt, IPA: [tsijoˈnut] b. "The basic assumption regarding the right of Jews to Palestine—a right that required no proof— was a fundamental component of all Zionist programs. In contrast with other prospective areas for Jewish settlement, such as Argentina or East Africa, it was generally believed that no one could deny the right of the Jews to their ancestral land. Even Ahad Ha-Am, the eternal skeptic, commented that this was 'a land to which our historical right is beyond doubt and has no need for farfetched proofs.' Others, such as Lilienblum, did not even think it necessary to dwell on this matter."[50]
c. "When faced with the apocalyptic dimensions of the Jewish catastrophe, the Holocaust, even BritShalom Ihud moved to endorse first the necessity of demographic parity between Jews and Arabs in Palestine, and then, as 'a necessary evil', the idea of a Jewish independent state, that is the partition of Palestine. It was no longer the time for moral scruples or guilt feelings towards the dispossessed Arab population.'"
[58]
d. Lord Balfour would write, "Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, in future hopes, of far greater import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land."[60] e. While Secretary of State for the Colonies, Winston Churchill spoke to the Peel Commission: "I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, or, at any rate, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."[61]
f. On this topic, Ben-Ami writes: "This is how a Brit-Shalom Ihud, non-Zionist member of the Jewish Agency, Werner Senator, put it: 'If I weigh the catastrophe of five million Jews against the transfer of one million Arabs, then with a clean and easy conscience I can state that even more drastic acts are permissible.'"
[58]
g. "If anything, the first decades of Zionism bear out an affinity with some of the more unsavoury 'regenerative' discourses of the late nineteenth century, particularly Social Darwinism, eugenics, nationalism, and colonialism, precisely because Zionism – partly as a project of self-legitimacy – was both a Jewish response to and extension of these very same discourses." Presner 2007, p. 4 h. "throughout all of the de-racializing stages of twentieth-century social thought, Jews have continued to invoke blood logic as a way of defining and maintaining group identity...'race' is a significant component not only of scholarly or academic modern Jewish thought, but also of popular or everyday Jewish thought. It is one of the building blocks of contemporary Jewish identity construction, even if there are many who would dispute the applicability of biological or racial categories to Jews." (Hart 2011, pp. xxxiv–xxxv) i. In late medieval times, there arose among the Ashkenazi an augury—"Next year in Jerusalem— that was then included in the thrice-daily Amidah (Standing prayer). "Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the banner to gather our exiles and gather us together from the four corners of the earth (Isaiah 11:12) Blessed are you, O Lord, Who gathers in the dispersed of His people Israel."
Notes
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j. Pinsker wrote: "The fact that, as it seems, we can mix with the nations only in the smallest proportions, presents a further obstacle to the establishment of amicable relations. Therefore, we must see to it that the surplus of Jews, the inassimilable residue, is removed and provided for elsewhere. This duty can be incumbent upon no one but ourselves," Leo Pinsker, "AutoEmancipation," in Hertzberg, 1959, p. 193. And Nordau wrote, in a otherwise sympathetic presentation of the Ostjuden, that: "'the contempt created by the impudent, crawling beggar in dirty caftan... falls back on all of us,'" quoted in Aschheim, 1982, p. 88.[163] k. "The irony here is in the now well-documented understanding that Lord Balfour was himself deeply religious and that his thinking on the projected post-World War 1 fate of Palestine was influenced by his expectations of the fulfullment of biblical prophecy. What disappointed Balfour, Hechler and Kook was that the secular Jewish settlers of British Mandate Palestine did not see divine Providence at work in international affairs."[206] l. Brian Klug states that "Keeping Jews out of Britain and packing them off to Palestine were just two sides of the same antisemitic coin"[207]
m. "The Histadrut is not a trade union, not a political party, not acooperative society, nor is it a mutual aid association, although it doesengage in trade union activity, in politics, cooperative organizationand mutual aid. But it is much more than that. The Histadrut is a covenant of builders of a homeland, founders of a state, renewers of anation, builders of an economy, creators of culture, reformers of a society."[227]
n. Various leaders spoke strongly in favor of transfer. Ussishkin said, "We cannot start the Jewish state with ... half the population being Arab ... Such a state cannot survive even half an hour." There was nothing immoral about transferring sixty thousand Arab families: "It is most moral.... I am ready to come and defend ... it before the Almighty." Ruppin said: "I do not believe in the transfer of individuals. I believe in the transfer of entire villages." Berl Katznelson, coleader with Ben-Gurion of Mapai, said the transfer would have to be by agreement with Britain and the Arab states: "But the principle should be that there must be a large agreed transfer." Ben-Gurion summed up: "With compulsory transfer we [would] have a vast area [for settlement] .... I support compulsory transfer. I don't see anything immoral in it."[250] o. David Ben Gurion famously would say: we shall "fight the White Paper as if there were no Hitler and fight Hitler as if there were no White Paper."
p. The reasons for this decision were explained by His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in a speech to the House of Commons on February 18, 1947, in which he said:
"His Majesty's Government have been faced with an irreconcilable conflict of principles. There are in Palestine about 1,200,000 Arabs and 600,000 Jews. For the Jews the essential point of principle is the creation of a sovereign Jewish State. For the Arabs, the essential point of principle is to resist to the last establishment of Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine. The discussions of the last month have quite clearly shown that there is no prospect of resolving this conflict by any settlement negotiated between the parties. But if the conflict has to be resolved by an arbitrary decision, that is not a decision that His Majesty's Government are empowered, as Mandatory, to take. His Majesty's Government have of themselves no power, under the terms of the Mandate, to award the country either to the Arabs or to the Jews, or even to partition it between them."
q. "that a small, determined group of revolutionaries representing a minority view within the wider population could achieve some success against the British Empire helped to convince Zionist radicals that they could be successful. Members of Jewish underground groups . .studied Irish rebels' victory over the superior might of Britain. Ze'ev Jabotinsky, leader of the Irgun, had travelled to ireland, meeting Irish Volunteer and IRA gunrunner Robert Briscoe, to discuss drilling, training and strategy in fighting the British and to 'learn all he could in order to form a physical force movement in Palestine on the same lines as the IRA'."[279] 2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
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r. "In Israel, '"nationality" (Hebrew: "le'um") and "citizenship" (Hebrew: "ezrahut") are two separate, distinct statuses, conveying different rights and responsibilities'. Palestinians in Israel, as nonJews, can be citizens, but never nationals, and are thus denied 'rights and privileges' enjoyed by those 'who would qualify for Israeli citizenship under the 1950 Law of Return'." White 2012, Spot the Difference
s. "Though a little religious support for Zionism existed, 'the majority of Orthodox leaders condemned Zionism from its very outset,' particularly the rabbis of Eastern Europe. Their concerns were twofold: they feared that Zionists were overidealistic and were misleading the Jewish people about what was possible; they were also concerned that the Zionist millennial vision was an attempt to preempt the Messiah."
t. Notably, Shapira also states that studying Zionism as a colonial movement is "both legitimate and desirable", though she notes that the reluctance to use these concepts is understandable, since they were associated with propaganda that vilified Zionism and Israel and presented them as enemies of the progressive, anti-colonial movement. She argues that the settler-colonial framing may help "clarify the relations between the settling nation and the native one", but adds that it needs to be complemented by what she refers to as perspective "from within" – the conceptual framework though which the Zionist movement viewed itself.[424] u. Massad depicts the transition in the choice of terminology within the Zionist movement in the mid20th century, as "colonialism" began to more broadly develop a negative association.[420] v. "The settler colonial paradigm, linked to Israeli critical sociology, post-Zionism, and postcolonialism, reemerged following changes in the political landscape from the mid-1990s that reframed the history of the Nakba as enduring, challenged the Jewish definition of the state, and legitimated Palestinians as agents of history. Palestinian scholars in Israel lead the paradigm's reformulation.Sabbagh-Khoury 2022, first section
1. Gans 2008, p. 3: "Zionism belongs to the category of ethnocultural nationalism, according to which groups sharing a common history and culture have fundamental and morally significant interests in adhering to their culture and in sustaining it for generations. Cultural nationalism holds that such interests warrant political recognition and support, primarily by the means of granting the groups in question the right to national self-determination or self-rule." References
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2. Aaronson 1996, p. 223: "On the other hand, our study has revealed that Jewish colonization resembled in many respects the model of pure "settlement of population" ("colonization de peuplement"), in the sense of involving colonization without colonialism." Cohen 2011, p. 128:"In February 1928, Weizmann submitted an official request to the government for a loan guarantee. He explained that the Zionist Loan was needed to promote further Jewish colonization in Palestine. [...] He advised that both the Zionists and the government should initiate a new period of Zionist colonizing activity as soon as possible." Murphy 2005: "The first forty years of the twentieth century witnessed the transformation of Zionism from a philosophical discourse to a practical programme for the colonisation of Palestine."
Yadgar 2017, p. 207:"At the foundation of the Zionist outlook stood the aspiration to establish a state. And absolute sovereignty is needed for Zionism more than for any other nation, because Zionism demanded the right of unrestricted immigration and unrestricted colonization, which can be brought about only by complete sovereignty." Penslar 1993, p. 1302: "In many respects, Zionism was unique as a national movement. One of its (presumably singular) characteristic features stemmed from the fact that it was a national liberation movement that was destined to function as a movement promoting settlement in a country of colonization. [...] Zionist psychology was molded by the conflicting parameters of a national liberation movement and a movement of European colonization in a Middle Eastern country. [...] The Zionist movement (in particular, it socialist variant) viewed itself as belonging to the forces striving for a better world and could not accept the fact that the framework of its activity was determined by the contours of a country of colonization." Elazari-Volcani 1932
Gelvin 2021, pp. 49–80
Collins 2011, pp. 169–185: "... and as subsequent work (Finkelstein 1995; Massad 2005; Pappe 2006; Said 1992; Shafir 1989) has definitively established, the architects of Zionism were conscious and often unapologetic about their status as colonizers." Bloom 2011, pp. 2, 13, 49, 132: "Dr. Arthur Ruppin was sent to Palestine for the first time in 1907 by the heads of the German [World] Zionist Organization in order to make a pilot study of the possibilities for colonization. ... Oppenheimer was a German sociologist and political economist. As a worldwide expert on colonization he became Herzl's advisor and formulated the first program for Zionist colonization, which he presented at the 6th Zionist Congress (Basel 1903) . ... Daniel Boyarin wrote that the group of Zionists who imagined themselves colonialists inclined to that persona "because such a representation was pivotal to the entire project of becoming 'white men'." Colonization was seen as a sign of belonging to western and modern culture;"
Robinson 2013, p. 18: "'Never before', wrote Berl Katznelson, founding editor of the Histadrut daily, Davar, 'has the white man undertaken colonization with that sense of justice and social progress which fills the Jew who comes to Palestine.'" Berl Katznelson Alroey 2011, p. 5: "Herzl further sharpened the issue when he tried to make diplomacy precede settlement, precluding any possibility of preemptive and unplanned settlement in the Land of Israel: "Should the powers show themselves willing to grant us sovereignty over a neutral land, then the Society will enter into negotiations for the possession of this land. Here two regions come to mind: Palestine and Argentina. Significant experiments in colonization have been made in both countries, though on the mistaken principle of gradual infiltration of Jews. Infiltration is bound to end badly."
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Jabotinsky 1923: "Colonisation can have only one aim, and Palestine Arabs cannot accept this aim. It lies in the very nature of things, and in this particular regard nature cannot be changed .. . Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population." Ze'ev Jabotinsky quoted in Alan Balfour, The Walls of Jerusalem: Preserving the Past, Controlling the Future (https://books.google.com/books?id=D7p9DwAAQBAJ), Wiley, 2019, p. 59, ISBN 978-1-119-18229-0.
Piterberg 2010: "It is within the typology of settler colonialisms that I place the Zionist colonization of Palestine and the state of Israel—a move which surely should have put to rest the tedious contention that Zionism could not be termed a colonial venture because it lacked the features of metropole colonialism; as if anyone were suggesting otherwise. What its apologists fail to confront is the settler-colonial paradigm."
3. Safrai 2018, p. 76: "The preoccupation of rabbinic literature in all its forms with the Land of Israel is without question intensive and constant. It is no wonder that this literature offers historians of the Land of Israel a wealth of information for the clarification of a wide variety of topics."
Biger 2004, pp. 58–63: "Unlike the earlier literature that dealt with Palestine's delimitation, the boundaries were not presented according to their historical traditional meaning, but according to the boundaries of the Jewish Eretz Israel that was about to be established there. This approach characterizes all the Zionist publications at the time ... when they came to indicate borders, they preferred the realistic condition and strategic economic needs over an unrealistic dream based on the historic past.' This meant that planners envisaged a future Palestine that controlled all the Jordan's sources, the southern part of the Litanni river in Lebanon, the large cultivatable area east of the Jordan, including the Houran and Gil'ad wheat zone, Mt Hermon, the Yarmuk and Yabok rivers, the Hijaz Railway ... ."
Motyl 2001, p. 604
Herzl, Theodor (1988) [1896]. "Biography, by Alex Bein" (https://books.google.com/books?id=3 f4RFWkMeWoC&pg=PA40). Der Judenstaat (https://books.google.com/books?id=3f4RFWkMe WoC) [The Jewish state]. Translated by Sylvie d'Avigdor (republication ed.). New York: Courier Dover. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-486-25849-2. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2014010119570 1/http://books.google.com/books?id=3f4RFWkMeWoC) from the original on January 1, 2014.
Retrieved September 28, 2010.
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4. Manna 2022, pp. 2 ("the principal objective of the Zionist leadership to keep as few Arabs as possible in the Jewish state"), 4 ("in the 1948 war, when it became clear that the objective that enjoyed the unanimous support of Zionists of all inclinations was to establish a Jewish state with the smallest possible number of Palestinians"), and 33 ("The Zionists had two cherished objectives: fewer Arabs in the country and more land in the hands of the settlers.") Khalidi 2020, p. 76: "The Nakba represented a watershed in the history of Palestine and the Middle East. It transformed most of Palestine from what it had been for well over a millennium —a majority Arab country—into a new state that had a substantial Jewish majority. This transformation was the result of two processes: the systematic ethnic cleansing of the Arabinhabited areas of the country seized during the war; and the theft of Palestinian land and property left behind by the refugees as well as much of that owned by those Arabs who remained in Israel. There would have been no other way to achieve a Jewish majority, the explicit aim of political Zionism from its inception. Nor would it have been possible to dominate the country without the seizures of land."
Slater 2020, pp. 49 ("There were three arguments for the moral acceptability of some form of transfer. The main one—certainly for the Zionists but not only for them—was the alleged necessity of establishing a secure and stable Jewish state in as much of Palestine as was feasible, which was understood to require a large Jewish majority."), 81 ("From the outset of the Zionist movement all the major leaders wanted as few Arabs as possible in a Jewish state"), 87 ("The Zionist movement in general and David Ben-Gurion in particular had long sought to establish a Jewish state in all of "Palestine," which in their view included the West Bank, Gaza, and parts of Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria."), and 92 ("As Israeli historian Shlomo Sand wrote: 'During every round of the national conflict over Palestine, which is the longest running conflict of its kind in the modern era, Zionism has tried to appropriate additional territory.'")
Segev 2019, p. 418, "the Zionist dream from the start—maximum territory, minimum Arabs" Cohen 2017, p. 78, "As was suggested by Masalha (1992), Morris (1987), and other scholars, many preferred a state without Arabs or with as small a minority as possible, and plans for population transfers were considered by Zionist leaders and activists for years." Lustick & Berkman 2017, pp. 47–48, "As Ben-Gurion told one Palestinian leader in the early 1930s, 'Our final goal is the independence of the Jewish people in Palestine, on both sides of the Jordan River, not as a minority, but as a community numbering millions" (Teveth 1985:130). Ipso facto, this meant Zionism's success would produce an Arab minority in Palestine, no matter what its geographical dimensions." Stanislawski 2017, p. 65, "The upper classes of Palestinian society quickly fled the fight to places of safety within the Arab world and outside of it; the lower classes were caught between the Israeli desire to have as few Arabs as possible remaining in their new state and the Palestinians' desire to remain on the lands they regarded as their ancient national patrimony." Finkelstein 2016, Ch. 1 ("Justifying the Zionist Enterprise"), "Zionism's claim to the whole of Palestine not only precluded a modus vivendi based on partition with the indigenous Arab population, it called into question any Arab presence in Palestine." Rouhana & Sabbagh-Khoury 2015, p. 6, "It was obvious to most approaches within the Zionist movement—certainly to the mainstream as represented by Labor Zionism and its leadership headed by Ben Gurion, that a Jewish state would entail getting rid of as many of the Palestinian inhabitants of the land as possible ... Following Wolfe, we argue that the logic of demographic elimination is an inherent component of the Zionist project as a settler-colonial project, although it has taken different manifestations since the founding of the Zionist movement."
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5. Engel 2013, pp. 96 ("From the outset Zionism had been the activity of a loose coalition of individuals and groups united by a common desire to increase the Jewish population of Palestine ..."), 121 ("... the ZO sought ways to expand the territory a partitioned Jewish state might eventually receive ... Haganah undertook to ensconce small groups of Jews in parts of Palestine formerly beyond their sights ... their leaders had hoped for more expansive borders ..."), and 138 ("The prospect that Israel would have only the barest Jewish majority thus loomed large in the imagination of the state's leaders. To be sure, until the late 1930s most Zionists would have been delighted with any majority, no matter how slim; the thought that Jews in Palestine would ever be more numerous than Arabs appeared a distant vision. But in 1937 the Peel Commission had suggested ... to leave both the Jewish state and Arab Palestine with the smallest possible minorities. That suggestion had fired Zionist imaginations; now it was possible to think of a future state as 'Jewish' not only by international recognition of the right of Jews to dominate its government but by the inclinations of virtually all of its inhabitants. Such was how the bulk of the Zionist leadership understood the optimal 'Jewish state' in 1948: non-Jews (especially Arabs) might live in it and enjoy all rights of citizenship, but their numbers should be small enough compared to the Jewish population that their impact on public life would be minimal. Israel's leaders were thus not sad at all to see so many Arabs leave its borders during the fighting in 1947–48 ... the 150,000 who remained on Israeli territory seemed to many to constitute an unacceptably high proportion relative to the 650,000 Jews in the country when the state came into being. This perception not only dictated Israel's adamant opposition to the return of Arab refugees, it reinforced the imperative to bring as many new Jewish immigrants into the country as possible, as quickly as possible, no matter how great or small their prospects for becoming the sort of 'new Jews' the state esteemed most.")
Masalha 2012, p. 38, "From the late nineteenth century and throughout the Mandatory period the demographic and land policies of the Zionist Yishuv in Palestine continued to evolve. But its demographic and land battles with the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine were always a battle for 'maximum land and minimum Arabs' (Masalha 1992, 1997, 2000)." Lentin 2010, p. 7, "'the Zionist leadership was always determined to increase the Jewish space ... Both land purchases in and around the villages, and military preparations, were all designed to dispossess the Palestinians from the area of the future Jewish state' (Pappe 2008: 94)." Shlaim 2009, p. 56, "That most Zionist leaders wanted the largest possible Jewish state in Palestine with as few Arabs inside it as possible is hardly open to question." Ben-Ami 2007, p. 50, "The ethos of Zionism was twofold; it was about demography– ingathering the exiles in a viable Jewish state with as small an Arab minority as possible–and land."
Pappé 2006, p. 250, "In other words, hitkansut is the core of Zionism in a slightly different garb: to take over as much of Palestine as possible with as few Palestinians as possible." Morris 2004, p. 588, "But the displacement of Arabs from Palestine or from the areas of Palestine that would become the Jewish State was inherent in Zionist ideology and, in microcosm, in Zionist praxis from the start of the enterprise. The piecemeal eviction of tenant farmers, albeit in relatively small numbers, during the first five decades of Zionist land purchase and settlement naturally stemmed from, and in a sense hinted at, the underlying thrust of the ideology, which was to turn an Arab-populated land into a State with an overwhelming Jewish majority."
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Morris 2001, pp. 676–682, "Zionism was a colonizing and expansionist ideology and movement ... Zionist ideology and practice were necessarily and elementally expansionist ...
Zionism was politically expansionist in the sense that from the start, its aim was to turn all of Palestine (and in the movement's pre-1921 maps, the East Bank of the Jordan and the area south of the Litani River as well) into a Jewish state ... The Zionists were intent on politically, or even physically, dispossessing and supplanting the Arabs; their enterprise, however justified in terms of Jewish suffering and desperation, was tainted by a measure of moral dubiousness ...
Zionism had always looked to the day when a Jewish majority would enable the movement to gain control over the country ... Palestine would not be transformed into a Jewish state unless all or much of the Arab population was expelled."
6. Conforti 2024, p. 485: "The crisis in the Enlightenment movement in the late nineteenth century gave way to the rise of alternative ideologies, such as Jewish nationalism and socialism. Early Zionist thinkers, such as Peretz Smolenskin (1842–1885), sharply criticized the Enlightenment scholars and their universalist approach." Shillony 2012, p. 88: "[Zionism] arose in response to and in imitation of the current national movements of Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe"
LeVine & Mossberg 2014, p. 211: "The parents of Zionism were not Judaism and tradition, but anti-Semitism and nationalism. The ideals of the French Revolution spread slowly across Europe, finally reaching the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire and helping to set off the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment. This engendered a permanent split in the Jewish world, between those who held to a halachic or religious-centric vision of their identity and those who adopted in part the racial rhetoric of the time and made the Jewish people into a nation. This was helped along by the wave of pogroms in Eastern Europe that set two million Jews to flight; most wound up in America, but some chose Palestine. A driving force behind this was the Hovevei Zion movement, which worked from 1882 to develop a Hebrew identity that was distinct from Judaism as a religion."
Gelvin 2014, p. 93: "The fact that Palestinian nationalism developed later than Zionism and indeed in response to it does not in any way diminish the legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or make it less valid than Zionism. All nationalisms arise in opposition to some 'other'. Why else would there be the need to specify who you are? And all nationalisms are defined by what they oppose. As we have seen, Zionism itself arose in reaction to anti-Semitic and exclusionary nationalist movements in Europe. It would be perverse to judge Zionism as somehow less valid than European anti-Semitism or those nationalisms. Furthermore, Zionism itself was also defined by its opposition to the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants of the region.
Both the 'conquest of land' and the 'conquest of labor' slogans that became central to the dominant strain of Zionism in the Yishuv originated as a result of the Zionist confrontation with the Palestinian 'other'."
7. Cohen 1995, p. 504 (https://archive.org/details/cambridgesurveyo00robi/page/504): "Zionism Colonize palestine."
Gelvin 2007, p. 51 (https://books.google.com/books?id=5FwAT5fx03IC&q=the%20Basel%20pr ogram%20colonisation%20of%20Palestine&pg=PA52)
Pappé 2006, pp. 10–11
8. Cohen 1995, p. 504 (https://archive.org/details/cambridgesurveyo00robi/page/504); Gelvin 2007, p. 51.
9. Pappé 2006, pp. 10–11.
10. Gamlen, Alan (2019). Human Geopolitics: States, Emigrants, and the Rise of Diaspora Institutions (https://books.google.com/books?id=1iCWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA57). Oxford University Press. pp. 57–58. ISBN 978-0-19-883349-9.
11. Masalha 2012, p. 70.
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12. Karsh 2009, p. 12.
13. Morris 2008, p. 1.
14. "A/1367/Rev.1 of 23 October 1950" (https://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/b792301807650d6685256c ef0073cb80/93037e3b939746de8525610200567883?OpenDocument) (OpenDocument). unispal.un.org. United Nations. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20211229161519/https://uni spal.un.org/unispal.nsf/b792301807650d6685256cef0073cb80/93037e3b939746de85256102005 67883?OpenDocument) from the original on December 29, 2021. Retrieved January 28, 2026.
15. Dubnov 2011: "Relatively recent examples of the search for this "core" idea in Zionism (which tends to label ideological diversity as "heresy" or "deviation") can be found in Gorny and Netzer, "'Avodat ha-hoveh ha-murhevet'"; Halpern and Reinharz, Zionism and the Creation of a New Society; and Shimoni, The Zionist Ideology. Older studies that are based on a similar presupposition include Heller, The Zionist Idea, and most famously Hertzberg, The Zionist Idea."
Gorny 1987
Yadgar 2017, pp. 119–160, "Main Zionist Streams and Jewish Traditions" Stanislawski 2017
Penslar 2023, p. 36
Seidler 2012, p. 176 "conflicting founding designs...express the formative ideological background underlying the very idea of the State of Israel." Boyarin 2025, pp. 137–160}: "What we call Zionism, despite the existence of a World Zionist Organization and then a Zionist state, is in fact a catchall for numerous, often contradictory currents of thought."
Shoham 2013
Shindler 2015: "Zionism was never a monolithic movement. It would be more correct to speak of a range of different varieties of Zionism. Herzl's General Zionism immediately began to flow into different ideological streams."
16. Gorny 1987, p. .
17. Troen 2007, pp. 873–875.
18. Aaronson 1996, pp. 215, 224.
19. Cohen 2011, pp. 118, 120, 128.
20. Sabbagh-Khoury 2023, Conclusion.
21. Beinart 2025.
22. Jamal 2019, pp. 193–220.
23. Shafir & Peled 2002, pp. 37–38
Bareli 2003, pp. 99–116
Pappé 2004, pp. 72–121
Prior 1997, pp. 106–215
Shafir 1999
Lustick, Ian, For the Land and the Lord ...
Zuriek 1979
Penslar 2003, pp. 85–98
Pappé 2006
Masalha 2007, p. 16
Prior 1999, p. 240
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24. Kayyali 1979
Gerson 1987, p. 68
Hadawi 1991, p. 183
Beker, Avi (2008). Chosen: the history of an idea, the anatomy of an obsession. Macmillan. pp. 131, 139, 151.
Quoting Mr. Abouchaer of Syria, on p. 31: Carey, John; Carey, Henry F. (1987). Dinstein, Yoram; Tabory, Mala (eds.). "Hostility in United Nations Bodies to Judaism, as the Jewish People and Jews as Such". Israel Yearbook on Human Rights. Vol. 17. The Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University / Martinus Nijhoff Publishers / Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 29–40.
ISBN 90-247-3646-3. ISSN 0333-5925 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0333-5925).
LCCN 72-955544 (https://lccn.loc.gov/72-955544). HeinOnline isryhr0017 (https://heinonline-or g.proxy-um.researchport.umd.edu/HOL/Page?collection=intyb&handle=hein.intyb/isryhr0017&i d=31&men_tab=srchresults).
Citing Soviet ideology, on p. 136: Korey, William (1987). Dinstein, Yoram; Tabory, Mala (eds.). "The Kremlin and the UN Zionism Equals Racism Resolution". Israel Yearbook on Human Rights. Vol. 17. The Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv University / Martinus Nijhoff Publishers / Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 133–148. ISBN 90-247-3646-3. ISSN 0333-5925 (https://search.worl dcat.org/issn/0333-5925). LCCN 72-955544 (https://lccn.loc.gov/72-955544). HeinOnline isryhr0017 (https://heinonline-org.proxy-um.researchport.umd.edu/HOL/Page?collection=intyb &handle=hein.intyb/isryhr0017&id=136&men_tab=srchresults).
Harkabi, Yehoshafat, Arab attitudes to Israel, pp. 247–248
25. See for example: Alam 2009, or Gould-Wartofsky 2010
26. Masalha 2007, p. 314
Curthoys & Ganguly 2007, p. 315 (https://books.google.com/books?id=crIxjc564_AC&pg=PA3 15)
Kīfūrkiyān 2009, p. 9 (https://books.google.com/books?id=_ka2AmZw3YIC&pg=PA9) Scham, Salem & Pogrund 2005, p. 87– (https://books.google.com/books?id=c-cviX0c63YC&p g=PA87)
27. Pixner 2010, pp. 320–322.
28. Neusner 1991, p. 469.
29. Harel 1977, pp. 194–195.
30. Davidi et al. 2010.
31. Goodblatt 2006, pp. 202–203: "Nevertheless, it appears to me at least possible that the Judean rebels of 66–70, with their emphasis on Jerusalem and its temple, created the first Zionist movement. That is, they used the name "Zion" to express and invoke Jewish nationalism...
Perhaps it wa the widely circulating "small change" that was intended to carry the goal of the rebels to the masses. That goal was the freedom of Zion. Better yet, perhaps both the silver and the bronze coinage carrid the message of the rebel leaders. If so, their attempt to mobilize the masses to fight for what the Zionist anthem Hatiqvah calls "the land of Zion and Jerusalem," justifies our characterizing the ideology of the rebels as ancient Zionism – or Zion nationalism."
32. Laqueur 2009, pp. 54.
33. Bloomberg 2004, p. 161.
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34. Shindler 2015, p. 55
Fishman 1985
Kühntopf-Gentz 1990, p. 39: "Nathan Birnbaum wird immer wieder als derjenige erwähnt, der die Begriffe "Zionismus" und "zionistisch" eingeführt habe, auch sieht er es selbst so, obwohl er es später bereut und Bedauern darüber äußert, wie die von ihm geprägten Begriffe verwendet werden. Das Wort "zionistisch" erscheint bei Birnbaum zuerst in einem Artikel der "Selbst-Emancipation" vom 1 April 1890: "Es ist zu hoffen, dass die Erkenntnis der Richtigkeit und Durchführbarkeit der zionistischen Idee stets weitere Kreise ziehen und in der Assimilationsepoche anerzogene Vorurteile beseitigen wird"" ["Nathan Birnbaum is repeatedly mentioned as the person who introduced the terms "Zionism" and "Zionist", and he himself sees it that way, although he later regrets it and expresses regret about how the terms he coined are used. The word "Zionist" first appears in Birnbaum's article in "SelbstEmancipation" on April 1, 1890: "It is to be hoped that the recognition of the correctness and feasibility of the Zionist idea will continue to spread and eliminate prejudices acquired during the assimilation era.""]
Selbst-Emancipation: Zeitschrift für die nationalen, socialen und politischen Interessen des jüdischen Stammes; Organ der Zionisten: (1.4.1890). 1890 Heft 1 (1.4.1890). Wien (http://sam mlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/3092765) [Self-Emancipation: Journal for the national, social and political interests of the Jewish tribe; Organ of the Zionists: (1.4.1890). 1890 Issue 1 (1.4.1890). Vienna] (in German). August 13, 1890. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2023 0708090145/https://sammlungen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/cm/3092765) from the original on July 8, 2023. Retrieved July 7, 2023 – via Digitale Sammlungen.
35. Perez 2023, p. 25.
36. The Zionist Ideas Visions for the Jewish Homeland—Then, Now, Tomorrow (https://books.google. com/books?id=5VtPDwAAQBAJ&dq=Nathan+Birnbaum+1890+%22zionism%22&pg=PR38).
Jewish Publication Society. 2018. p. xxxviii. ISBN 9780827612556.
37. Wilkinson 2008, p. 7.
38. Robertson 2001, p. 479.
39. Pauley 2000, p. 54.
40. Penslar 2023, pp. 37–38.
41. Penslar 2020, p. 93.
42. Laqueur 2009, pp. 84.
43. Olson 2013, pp. 70–75.
44. Historical Section of the Foreign Office 1920, p. 21.
45. Rabkin 2006, A New Identity.
46. Shimoni 1995, p. 53.
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47. Avineri, Shlomo (April 30, 2025). "Self-Determination and Israel's Declaration of Independence" (h ttps://jcpa.org/article/israels-decaration-of-independence/). Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs. Retrieved August 20, 2025. "The history of the Zionist movement is fraught with paradoxes and ambiguities regarding its ultimate political aim. Theodor Herzl's foundational document Der Judenstaat (1896) referred explicitly to statehood, yet the Basel Declaration issued at the First Zionist Congress in 1897 judiciously avoided such explicit language: after much discussion it settled on stating that "Zionism aims at achieving in Palestine a Jewish homeland, secured by public law." And in Herzl's utopian novel Altneuland (1902), which described how a Jewish society in the Land of Israel would look in 1923, its precise status within and vis-a-vis the Ottoman Empire is left somewhat nebulous – though Herzl's clarion call in Basel ("We are a nation") clearly suggested where Zionism was ultimately heading. The reasons for this ambiguity were obvious: while the fundamental subtext of Zionism was to aim at a Jewish state, the geopolitics of the period and the region called for a careful approach. Herzl's aim, despite numerous disappointments, was to try to obtain from the Ottoman Sultan a charter for Jewish immigration, settlement, and practical self-government. The diplomatic contacts of the Zionist movement – not only with the Sublime Porte in Constantinople but also with the German Kaiser, the British government, Russian ministers, and numerous other statesmen – were aimed at achieving such a de facto control of Palestine, regardless of the exact legal formula – a chartered company, autonomy or the like. This ambiguity continued also when Britain became the hegemonic power in the region. The Balfour Declaration was the first major international victory for Zionism, but its careful language spoke merely of "establishing in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people," hedging this with an assurance that this would "not prejudice the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities" in the country. These formulations were incorporated in 1922 into the text of the League of Nations Mandate to Great Britain, and consequently were naturally interpreted in different ways by Zionists, various British administrations, and of course the Arabs in Palestine."
48. Almagor, Laura (December 15, 2023). "The Movement That Imagined a Jewish Homeland Without the State of Israel" (https://newlinesmag.com/essays/the-movement-that-imagined-a-jewish-homel and-without-the-state-of-israel/). New Lines Magazine. Retrieved August 27, 2025.
49. Almagor, Laura (May 8, 2024). "Jewish Territorialism and 'Other Zions' ". Routledge Handbook on Zionism (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781003312352/chapters/10.4324/9781003312352- 23). London: Routledge. pp. 225–236. doi:10.4324/9781003312352-23 (https://doi.org/10.4324%2 F9781003312352-23). ISBN 978-1-003-31235-2. Retrieved August 27, 2025.
50. Shapira 1992, p. 41.
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51. Gorny 1987, p. 210: "This set of assumptions was intended to stress the equal status of the Jews vis-à-vis the rest of the world, and to provide the basis for their superior right to Palestine."
Shapira 1992, pp. 41–42: "The basic assumption regarding the right of Jews to Palestine—a right that required no proof—was a fundamental component of all Zionist programs. In contrast with other prospective areas for Jewish settlement, such as Argentina or East Africa, it was generally believed that no one could deny the right of the Jews to their ancestral land... The slogan 'A land without a people for a people without a land' was common among Zionists at the end of the nineteenth, and the beginning of the twentieth, century. It contained a legitimation of the Jewish claim to the land and did away with any sense of uneasiness that a competitor to this claim might appear."
Slater 2020: "According to the standard Zionist and then the Israeli narrative, for a number of reasons the land of Palestine rightfully belongs to the Jewish people—and no others, including today's Palestinians."
Khalidi 2006: "[T]he Zionist claim to Palestine, which since even before the establishment of the state of Israel had depended in some measure on arguing that there was no legitimacy to the competing Arab claim"
Alam 2009: "Zionism was a messianic movement to restore Palestine to its divinely appointed Jewish owners... Conversely, the Palestinian, whether his ancestors were the ancient Canaanites or Hebrews, would forfeit all rights to his lands; he had become a usurper." Sternhell 1999: "Like all Zionists, Gordon did not recognize the principle of majority rule, and he refused to acknowledge the right of the majority to 'take from us what we have acquired through our work and creativity.' Moreover, he had confidence in the spiritual vitality of the Yishuv, its energy and motivation, and believed it was supported by the entire Jewish people.
In 1921, he spoke in much stronger terms than he had between 1909 and 1918: 'For Eretz Israel, we have a charter that has been valid until now and that will always be valid, and that is the Bible, and not only the Bible.'... And now came the decisive argument: 'And what did the Arabs produce in all the years they lived in the country? Such creations, or even the creation of the Bible alone, give us a perpetual right over the land in which we were so creative, especially since the people that came after us did not create such works in this country, or did not create anything at all.' The founders accepted this point of view. This was the ultimate Zionist argument."
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52. Morris 2001, p. 14: "The reality of Jewish life, when most of the world's Jews lived in the European part of the Russian Empire known as the 'Pale of Settlement,' running from Memel in the north to Crimea on the Black Sea, was one of continuous discrimination and insecurity and occasional oppression and violence. The historian Elie Kedourie once spoke of the "deep insult of diaspora life." Basic freedoms—of movement, place of residence, language, occupation, and worship—were severely curtailed or regulated by the state. The restrictions, including prohibition of landownership, assured the impoverishment and socioeconomic immobility of most Jews in the Pale. During the mid-nineteenth century, Jews were subjected to a brutal system of twenty-five-year military conscription, which occasionally entailed the virtual kidnapping of their children at the age of twelve, or even some-times at eight or nine, and their attempted conversion to Christianity by the authorities in special preparatory military schools. Indeed, an official Rus-sian government commission in 1888 defined the Jews' condition as one of "repression and disenfranchisement, discrimination and persecution." The impulse to Zionism arose out of and was a product of this reality." Meir-Glitzenstein 2004, p. 11 "The bloodshed [of the Farhud] prompted many of [the Jewish youth] to turn their backs on traditional leadership and its conservative policy and to seek a radical solution to the Jewish problem in Iraq. The revolutionary fervour of youth led in two different directions: the Jewish national direction, which took them to the Zionist movement; and the socialist direction, which brought them to the Communist Party." Laskier 1994, pp. 85–86: "The Vichy period did stimulate a growing segment of pro-Zionist youths and young adults in Morocco and the rest of the Maghrib to engage in active Zionism (tsīyonut magshīma) leading to ʿaliya. [...]
"The decision in the Yishuv to dispatch the special emissaries to North Africa and to other Arabic-speaking countries from 1943 onward in order to organize youth ʿaliya as well as selfdefense, was supported by these and several other leaders in the Maghrib. The latter felt that the experience of 1940–42, the German occupation of Tunisia, the farhūd (pogrom) in Iraq of June 1941—in which 179 Jews were slaughtered by pro-Nazi Muslim groups—necessitated the formation of self-defense units to guard the communities." Miccoli 2015, p. 149 "With the Arab revolt in Palestine in 1936 and the radicalisation in an antiJewish sense of part of the Egyptian sociopolitical arena, a more significant number of Jews started to become interested in Zionism and to worry about the situation of Jews in Palestine and – because of the dramatic news that arrived and thanks to the activities of a group like the Ligue contre l'Antisémitisme Allemand – in Europe as well."
53. Ben-Ami 2007, p. 22: "Zionism is both a struggle for land and a demographic race; in essence, the aspiration for a territory with a Jewish majority." Gorny 1987, p. 176: "For the three large groups [of the Zionist movement: The Revsionists, Weitzmanists and Labourites], the constant struggle for a Jewish majority in Palestine as the condition for the realization of Zionism and the sole guarantee of the national character of Jewish society in Palestine, remained the supreme objective." Morris 2001, p. 947:"Zionism had always looked to the day when a Jewish majority would enable the movement to gain control over the country: The Zionist leadership had never posited Jewish statehood with a minority of Jews ruling over a majority of Arabs, apartheidstyle."
Pappé 2006: "Already in the late nineteenth century Zionism had identified the 'population problem' as the major obstacle for the fulfillment of its dream." 2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
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54. Gorny 1987: "This was potentially a much more dangerous situation than the struggle of two peoples maintaining a constant balance of forces between them for the same territory. The logical, and even inevitable, corollary of the aspiration towards territorial concentration was the desire to create a Jewish majority in Palestine. Without it, Zionism would forfeit its meaning, since the history of Exile had demonstrated the danger inherent in perpetual minority status. Thus, the desire for a Jewish majority was the key issue in the implementation of Zionism, implying a basic change in the international standing of the Jewish people and marking a turning-point in their history. The significance of this demand, and of the untiring endeavour to realize it in various ways, lay in the annulling of the majority standing of the Arabs of Palestine. The roots of the Jewish-Arab confrontation, therefore, are embedded in the incessant process of disturbance of the status quo ante as regards national status in Palestine."
55. Gorny 1987, p. 251.
56. Flapan 1979, p. 12.
57. Jacobs 2017, p. 274: "In fact Buber also shared the common European Orientalist perspective, by which the local Arabs did not really have a national concern and may be appeased by the cultural and economic benefits that will accrue from Jewish immigration to Palestine."
58. Ben-Ami 2007.
59. Morris 2013, pp. 51–52: "The problem with binationalism, however—apart from main-stream Zionist opposition—was that Brit Shalom and Magnes could find no Arab partners, or even interlocutors, who shared the binational vision or hope. As Magnes succinctly put it as early as 1932: "Arabs will not sit on any committee with Jews [...] [Arab] teachers [...] teach children more and more Jew-hatred." In this sense, things only got worse with the passage of time, the deepening of the Arabs' political consciousness, and the increase in Jewish immigration." Morris 2013, p. 55: "By mid-World War II Magnes realized that an open-ended international mandate was no longer feasible. He had despaired of ever reaching substantive Jewish-Arab negotiations or agreement and decided that the only solution would be an externally imposed "union between the Jews and the Arabs within a binational Palestine." Further, he determined, this union would need to be subsumed or incorporated in a wider economic and political "union of Palestine, Transjordan, Syria and Lebanon" and linked to and guaranteed by an "AngloAmerican union." And the binational state would have to be "imposed [on the Jews and Arabs] over their opposition" by the United States and Britain. The binational state would need to be based on "parity," in terms of political power, between the two constituent groups, in order to guarantee the rights of whichever group was in the minority. "By mid-1948, with the first Arab–Israeli war in full swing, Magnes was deeply pessimistic. He feared an Arab victory: "there are millions upon millions of Muslims in the world [...] They have time. The timelessness of the desert." An Arab ambush on 13 April 1948 of a Jewish convoy bearing doctors and nurses traveling through East Jerusalem to the Hebrew University– Hadassah Medical School campus on Mount Scopus—in which seventy-eight were slaughtered—was in effect the final nail in the coffin of Magnes's binationalism. It was not that he publicly recanted. But he understood that it was a lost cause—and that his own standing in the Yishuv had been irreparably shattered."
60. Khalidi 2006, p. 252.
61. White 2012, Introduction.
62. White 2012, Introduction
Jacobs 2017, Does the Left have a Zionist Problem?
Khalidi 2006, pp. 145–150
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63. Penslar 2023, pp. 1–2, "Zionism, in turn, is the belief that Jews constitute a nation that has a right and need to pursue collective self-determination within historic Palestine ... Unlike other nationalisms, however, pre-1948 Zionism's claim on territory was aspirational, based in ancient memories and future hopes. Until well into the twentieth century, a negligible number of Jews lived in the Land of Israel ... It is a belief that Jews have a moral right and historic need for selfdetermination within historic Palestine."
64. Morris 1999, p. 682: "Zionism had always looked to the day when a Jewish majority would enable the movement to gain control over the country: The Zionist leadership had never posited Jewish statehood with a minority of Jews ruling over a majority of Arabs, apartheid style."
65. Gorny 1987, pp. Introduction, Chapter 8.
66. Ben-Ami 2007, pp. 22–23: "Zionism is both a struggle for land and a demographic race; in essence, the aspiration for a territory with a Jewish majority...Zionist democratic diversity did not mean that there was no commonground between the major segments of the movement. Initially, Ben-Gurion preferred an 'iron wall of workers', namely settlements and Jewish infrastructure, on Jabotinsky's call for an iron wall of military might and deterrence... he even lashed out against what he defined as Jabotinsky's 'perverted national fanaticism', and against the Revisionists 'worthless prattle of sham heroes, whose lips becloud the moral purity of our national movement. . .' Eventually, however, under the growing chal-lenge of Arab nationalism and especially with the growth in the Yishuv of a collective mood of sacred Jewish nationalism following the Holocaust, the Labour Zionists, chief among them David Ben-Gurion, accepted forall practical purposes Jabotinsky's iron-wall strategy. The Jewish State could only emerge, and force the Arabs to accept it, if it erected around it an impregnable wall of Jewish might and deterrence."
67. Finkelstein 2003, Chapter 1: "Within the Zionist ideological consensus there coexisted three relatively distinct tendencies—political Zionism, labor Zionism and cultural Zionism. Each was wedded to the demand for a Jewish majority, but not for entirely the same reasons."
68. Gorny 1987, p. 2: "Thus, the desire for a Jewish majority was the key issue in the implementation of Zionism, implying a basic change in the international standing of the Jewish people and marking a turning-point in their history. The significance of this demand, and of the untiring endeavour to realize it in various ways, lay in the annulling of the majority standing of the Arabs of Palestine."
69. Finkelstein 2016, Chapter 1.
70. Nahum Sokolow in 1918 quoted in Sanders 1984, pp. 641–642: "A Jewish government would be established once the Jews formed a majority, which would transpire through steady, largescale immigration." Morris 2001, p. 72: "Herbert Samuel favored gradual but steady immigration; eventually a Jewish majority would form and, then, a state would naturally follow." Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, quoted in Morris 2001, p. 49: "The goal is to revive our nation on its land [...] if only we succeed in increasing our numbers here until we are the majority [Emphasis in original]"
71. Masalha 2014: "In the 1930s and 1940s the Zionist leadership found it expedient to euphemize, using the term "transfer" or "ha'avara" – the Hebrew euphemism for ethnic cleansing – one of most enduring themes of Zionist settler-colonization (see below). Other themes included demographic transformation of the land and physical separation between the immigrant-settlers and the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine. All these colonizing themes were central to Zionist muscular nationalism, with its rejection of both liberal forms of universalism and Marxism, along with individual rights and class struggle. Instead, Zionism gave precedence to the realization of its ethnocratic völkisch project: the establishment of a biblically ordained state."
72. Morris 2001: "The idea of transferring the Arabs out of the Jewish State area to the Arab state area or to other Arab states was seen as the chief means of assuring the stability of the 'Jewishness' of the proposed Jewish State"
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73. Morris 2004: "transfer was inevitable and inbuilt into Zionism—because it sought to transform a land which was 'Arab' into a 'Jewish' state and a Jewish state could not have arisen without a major displacement of Arab population; and because this aim automatically produced resistance among the Arabs which, in turn, persuaded the Yishuv's leaders that a hostile Arab majority or large minority could not remain in place if a Jewish state was to arise or safely endure."
74. & Morris 1999, p. 37.
75. Morris 1999, p. 139: "The transfer idea did not originate with the Peel Commission. It goes back to the fathers of modern Zionism and, while rarely given a public airing before 1937, was one of the main currents in Zionist ideology from the movement's inception. It was always clear to the Zionists that a Jewish state would be impossible without a Jewish majority; this could theoretically be achieved through massive immigration, but even then the Arabs would still be a large, threatening minority."
Morris 1999, p. 140: "Moreover, transfer was seen as a highly moral solution. The Zionist leaders felt that the Jews' need for a country with empty spaces able to absorb future immigrants morally outweighed the rights of the indigenous Arabs—who were no different than their brothers across the Jordan or Litani and could relocate there with relative ease if the transfer was well compensated and well organized. The Arab states—principally Transjordan, Syria, and Iraq—had vast uninhabited areas and required additional inhabitants for their own development. In any event, separation was preferable to an intermingling, which could only end in a bloodbath."
76. Ben-Ami 2007, p. 25–26.
77. Masalha 2012, Chapter 1.
78. Masalha 2014, pp. 129–130: "The archival and documentary evidence shows that in the pre-1948 period, "transfer"/ethnic cleansing was embraced by the highest levels of Zionist leadership, representing almost the entire political spectrum. Nearly all the founding fathers of the Israeli state advocated transfer in one form or another, including Theodor Herzl, Leon Motzkin, Nahman Syrkin, Menahem Ussishkin, Chaim Weizmann, David Ben-Gurion, Yitzhak Tabenkin, Avraham Granovsky, Israel Zangwill, Yitzhak Ben-Tzvi, Pinhas Rutenberg, Aaron Aaronson, Vladmir Jabotinsky and Berl Katznelson (Masalha, 1992). Supporters of "voluntary" removal included Arthur Ruppin, a co-founder of Brit Shalom, a movement advocating bi-nationalism and equal rights for Arabs and Jews; moderate leaders of Mapai (later the Labour party) such as Moshe Shertok and Eli'ezer Kaplan, Israel's first finance minister; and leaders of the Histadrut (Hebrew Labour Federation) such as Golda Meyerson (later Meir) and David Remez (Masalha, 1992)." 2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
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79. Ben-Ami 2007, pp. 25–26
Slater 2020, Transfer
Masalha 1992, p. 2: "It should not be imagined that the concept of transfer was held only by maximalists or extremists within the Zionist movement. On the contrary, it was embraced by almost all shades of opinion, from the Revisionist right to the Labor left. Virtually every member of the Zionist pantheon of founding fathers and important leaders supported it and advocated it in one form or another, from Chaim Weizmann and Vladimir Jabotinsky to David Ben-Gurion and Menahem Ussishkin. Supporters of transfer included such moderates as the "Arab appeaser" Moshe Shertok and the socialist Arthur Ruppin, founder of Brit Shalom, a movement advocating equal rights for Arabs and Jews. More importantly, transfer proposals were put forward by the Jewish Agency itself, in effect the government of the Yishuv." Morris 2001, p. 139: "For many Zionists, beginning with Herzl, the only realistic solution lay in transfer. From 1880 to 1920, some entertained the prospect of Jews and Arabs coexisting in peace. But increasingly after 1920, and more emphatically after 1929, for the vast majority a denouement of conflict appeared inescapable. Following the outbreak of 1936, no mainstream leader was able to conceive of future coexistence and peace without a clear physical separation between the two peoples—achievable only by way of transfer and expulsion.
Publicly they all continued to speak of coexistence and to attribute the violence to a small minority of zealots and agitators. But this was merely a public pose, designed to calm the worried inhabitants and the troubled British: To speak out loud of inevitable bloodshed and expulsion could only have undermined both internal self-confidence and external support for their cause."
Segev 2001, pp. 404–405
Finkelstein 2016, Introduction
80. Finkelstein 2016, Chapter 1
Shapira 1992, The Shift to an Offensive Ethos
Gorny 1987, The Decisive Years, 1939–948
Ben-Ami 2007, pp. 25–26
Morris 2001, pp. 682–683
81. Engel 2021.
82. Rabkin 2006.
83. Yadgar 2017, pp. 180, 221.
84. Avineri 2017, Chapter 7: "Unsatisfactory and simplistic as Pinsker's quasi-medical diagnosis may be, it does try to address itself to the exceptional conditions of Jewish existence. If Jews are a nation and they continue to exist as a nation despite the lack of the effective attributes of national life, this is an obvious anomaly, and an explanation has to be found. Krochmal and Graetz tried to explain this deviation from the norms of universal historical development by rearranging the conventional norms of universal history itself. Pinsker lacks this philosophical dimension of history, and he therefore limits himself to stating what he conceives as an anomaly and attempting to suggest a clinical diagnosis for it. Pinsker's diagnosis may appear irrelevant, but his cure is radical. If the nations of the world see the Jew as a soul without a body, a shadowless Ahasver, an eternal Wandering Jew, lacking real, corporeal existence, the cure surely has to be radical. If the Jews are hated because they have no homeland, normalization will become possible only if they acquire one. Were this to happen, then the nations of the world would view the Jews as normal human beings and would consequently lose their inordinate fear of them. No concrete, real attribute of the Jews causes Judeophobia; it is the abnormality of the Jews being somewhere between a national existence and a lack of a real foundation for that existence. For the Jews to appear like any other people they need a homeland, Pinsker argues: then everybody will relate to them as normal people and Judeophobia will wither away." 2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
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85. Shimoni 1995, Chapter 1.
86. Gorny 1987, Introduction.
87. Schweid 1996, p. 133.
88. Shimoni 1995, Zionism as Secular Jewish Identity.
89. Yadgar 2017, p. 2: "Indeed, Zionism has celebrated itself as the modernization of the Jews, manifested in the dual revolution of allegedly secularizing Jewish identity and nationalizing, or politicizing it."
90. Yadgar 2017, Zionism, Jewish "Religion," and Secularism.
91. Avineri, cited in Yadgar 2017, p. 72
92. Penslar 2023, pp. 18–23.
93. Avineri 2017, Introduction.
94. Shapira 2014: "This poem, published in Warsaw, epitomizes the youth rebellion that was part of the Zionist experience. Old Judaism seemed aged and ailing, lacking relevance to the new world dawning in the wake of World War One. The old Jew, the Jew of the Diaspora, was depicted as psychologically flawed, physically weak, inclined toward luftgesheftn (lit., "air business", meaning peddling, acting as middlemen, and engaging in other ephemeral trades), a stranger to nature and anything natural and spontaneous, materialistic and incapable of acting on anything but his or her own immediate interests. The new Jew was to be the complete opposite: an ethical, aesthetic person guided by ideals who rebels against a debasing reality; a free, proud individual ready to fight for his or her own and the nation's honor. Yearning for freedom and equality among peoples, admiring nature, beauty, and open spaces, the new Jew relinquished the pleasures of a hypocritical, bourgeois world shackled by outdated conventions and sought the challenge of a life in which dedication to the collective was congruent with maintaining inner truth and a life of simplicity, honesty, and self-realization. The new Jew aspired to equality, justice, and truth in human relations, and was prepared to die for them."
95. Haynie 2009.
96. Berg 2017.
97. Mosse 1992.
98. Yadgar 2017, p. 68: "This secularization means primarily the "decline of the status of religion in the Jewish community"7 and a gradual "liberation" from the shackles of "religious tradition"."
99. Avineri 2017, Introduction, Notes: "Zionism was the most fundamental revolution in Jewish life. It substituted a secular self-identity of the Jews as a nation for the traditional and Orthodox selfidentity in religious terms. It changed a passive, quietistic, and pious hope of the Return to Zion into an effective social force, moving millions of people to Israel. It transformed a language relegated to mere religious usage into a modern, secular mode of intercourse of a nation-state...
This does not mean that Israel is a substitute for Jewish religion, only that functionally it plays a role similar to that of religion in pre-Emancipation days. For Jews today who are still religious in the traditional sense, religion has a deep collective existential meaning. But since not all Jews can identify today with the religious symbols, religion is merely a partial focus of identity, and Israel, more than any other factor, now plays this unifying role." 100. Shimoni 1995.
101. Yadgar 2017, p. 4: "Failing (or neglecting) to offer a fully-fledged national identity that would be independent from rabbinical readings of Jewish identity, yet zealously rebelling against rabbinical authority and "religion" in general, Zionism was left with a racial notion of Jewish identity:
Tautologically, echoing antisemitic notions of Jewishness, it would argue that a Jew, simply, is a Jew; that Jewishness is something some-one is born with. One does not choose it, nor can one rid oneself of his Jewishness; it is in one's "blood"." 2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
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102. Yadgar 2017, pp. 192–193, 202: "The author, essayist, and public intellectual A. B. Yehoshua is one of the more committed and outspoken spokespersons of the State of Israel's political theology. As such, Yehoshua also functions as an influential formulator of the ideological bed upon which statist Jewishness is founded... Yehoshua's reply to this criticism repeats the claim that Jewish political sovereignty renders assimilation impossible and guarantees, no matter what, that meaningful Jewish content is to be produced. For him, "the cultural matter" is secondary, and as such not deserving of judgment. Political sovereignty, on the other hand, is primary and absolute:
Jewishness is not only culture and not only religion."
103. Mandel 2005, pp. 85.
104. Rabkin 2006: "The political movement of Zionism was preceded in Eastern Europe by a revival of the Hebrew language as a nonreligious, literary medium. Jews always used Hebrew in their prayers and religious writings, but this was a revival of Hebrew as a language of novels and poems, polemical articles, and journalistic feuilletons. This development was an anathema to the rabbis who saw in it a desecration of the Holy Tongue. The origins of this movement are found in ethnically mixed Lithuania and later in Galicia, where the German Kultursprache of the Austrian rulers contended with both Polish and Ukrainian (Ruthenian) nationalism. Secularized, modern Jews began to ask for the origins of their culture, for the roots of their history; to extol the glories of Jerusalem; to ask whether they should not look into their own past just as members of other groups were doing."
105. Dieckhoff 2003, pp. 104.
106. Fellman 2011, p. 7.
107. Blau 1981, p. 33.
108. Flapan 1979, Jewish and Arab Labour.
109. Shafir 1996, Conclusion.
110. Flapan 1979, The Policy of Economic and Social Separation. 111. Morris 1999, p. 51: "Continued employment of Arabs would lead to "Arab values" being passed on to Zionist youth and nourish the colonists' tendency to exploit and abuse their workers. Moreover, Arabs living in or on the periphery of colonies were suspected of pilfering and of passing information to hostile villagers and officials."
112. Almog 1983, p. 5.
113. Flapan 1979, p. 201.
114. Shafir 1996, pp. 196–200.
115. Shapira 1992, p. 60.
116. Shapira 2014, p. 45-50.
117. Morris 1999, Chapter 2.
118. Avraham 2017, p. 357.
119. Hirsch 2009, p. 592.
120. Doron 1980, p. 404.
121. Hart 1999, p. 271.
122. Avraham 2013, pp. 355–357.
123. Vogt 2015, pp. 85–86.
124. Efron 1994, pp. 4, 144–146.
125. Avraham 2013, p. 358.
126. Falk 2017, pp. 35–36.
127. Avraham 2013, pp. 354–374.
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128. Doron 1983, pp. 170–171
Morris-Reich 2006, pp. 1–2, 4–5
Gelber 2000, p. 133
Nicosia 2010, pp. 1–2, 6–8
Hart 2011, p. xxxiv
Avraham 2017, pp. 172–173
Avraham 2013, p. 356
129. Shapira 2004.
130. Greenspoon, Leonard J. (2019). Next Year in Jerusalem: Exile and Return in Jewish History (http s://books.google.com/books?id=yw2yDwAAQBAJ&dq=next+year+in+jerusalem&pg=PT9). Purdue University Press. ISBN 978-1-61249-604-7.
131. Lind, Dara (August 5, 2014). "Why are you supposed to say "next year in Jerusalem"?" (https://ww w.vox.com/2014/8/5/18002034/why-are-you-supposed-to-say-next-year-in-jerusalem). Vox.
Retrieved November 19, 2023.
132. Johnson, George E. (August 4, 2022). "Jewish Word | Why We Say 'Next Year in Jerusalem' " (htt ps://momentmag.com/next-year-in-jerusalem/). Moment Magazine. Retrieved November 19, 2023. 133. Avineri 2017.
134. Taylor 1971, pp. 10, 11.
135. Halamish 2008: "A number of factors motivated Israel's open immigration policy. First of all, open immigration—the ingathering of the exiles in the historic Jewish homeland—had always been a central component of Zionist ideology and constituted the raison d'etre of the State of Israel. The ingathering of the exiles (kibbutz galuyot) was nurtured by the government and other agents as a national ethos, the consensual and prime focus that united Jewish Israeli society after the War of Independence"
136. Shohat 2003: "Central to Zionist thinking was the concept of Kibbutz Galuiot—the "ingathering of the exiles". Following two millennia of homelessness and living presumably "outside of history", Jews could once again "enter history" as subjects, as "normal" actors on the world stage by returning to their ancient birth place, Eretz Israel"
137. Russell, Gordon & America 1917.
138. Garvin 1993, p. 67.
139. Smith 1993, pp. 48–50.
140. Hastings 1997, pp. 186–187.
141. Goodblatt 2006, pp. 3, 87–88.
142. Goodblatt 2006, p. 88.
143. Mendels 1992, p. 26.
144. Goodblatt 2006, p. 203.
145. Barclay 1998, p. 241; Horbury 2014, p. 276; Smallwood 2001, p. 397 146. Smallwood 2001, p. 397: "The movement may have been (to use a modern term) Zionist, with the return of the Jewish exiles from N. Africa to Palestine as its objective. The march of the Cyrenaican Jews into Egypt leaving a trail of devastation behind them could have been the first step in such a mass migration."
147. Mendels 1992, pp. 6, 386, 391; Goodblatt 2006, pp. 204–205; Hastings 1997, pp. 186–187 148. Penslar 2023, p. 25.
149. Shimoni 1995, Chapter 2.
150. Dieckhoff 2003, Political Beginnings of Zionism.
151. Penslar 2023, pp. 27–29.
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152. Sela 2002, Zionism.
153. Penslar 2023, p. 27, "The Zionist movement was created by Jews, but from the start it was dependent on support from the Christian world. Restorationism was therefore a prerequisite for the success of Zionism. It is harder to establish, however, whether Christian ideas influenced the nineteenth-century Jews who championed a return to the Land of Israel. It is difficult indeed to trace any such external influences...it may be that direct influence was scant or nonexistent but that the men were all influenced by the dynamic spirit of the age..." 154. Beinin & Stein 2006, p. 157.
155. Kagarlitsky 2014, p. 294 (https://books.google.com/books?id=cf3pAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA294). 156. Shimoni 1995: "While assimilation was still progressing most promisingly, and also quite independently of antisemitism when it later arose, not only religious traditionalists but also part of the Jewish intelligentsia decried the humiliating self-negation that assimilation exacted and rose to the defense of Jewish cultural distinctiveness."
157. Shimoni 1995, Ethnicity and Nationalism.
158. Goldberg 2009, p. 20.
159. Rabkin 2006, Orientations.
160. Shlaim 2001, Introduction.
161. Sela 2002.
162. Shafir 1996.
163. Shafir 1996, p. 243-244.
164. Morris 1999, Palestine on the Eve.
165. Gorny 1987, The Overt Question, 1882–1917.
166. Dieckhoff 2003, p. 50.
167. Shapira 2012, p. 29.
168. Shapira 2014, p. 32-33.
169. Morris 2001, p. 47.
170. "Alfred Dreyfus and the "Dreyfus Affair" " (https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/alfred -dreyfus-and-the-dreyfus-affair). Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20250929110640/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.or g/content/en/article/alfred-dreyfus-and-the-dreyfus-affair) from the original on September 29, 2025. Retrieved November 27, 2025.
171. Cohn, Henry J. (1970). "Theodor Herzl's Conversion to Zionism" (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4466 575). Jewish Social Studies. 32 (2): 101–110. ISSN 0021-6704 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0 021-6704). JSTOR 4466575 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/4466575). 172. Mayorek, Yoram (March 1994). "Herzl and the Dreyfus affair". Journal of Israeli History. 15 (1):
83–89. doi:10.1080/13531049408576028 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F13531049408576028). 173. Morris 2001, pp. 20–21.
174. Masalha 2018.
175. Dieckhoff 2003, p. 39 (https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Invention_of_a_Nation/1m_w5J 0X7lUC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA39&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Der%20Judenstaat%22). 176. Masalha 2014, Introduction.
177. Cleveland 2010, Chapter 13: "Notwithstanding the growing participation of East European Jewry in Zionist activities, Herzl recognized that the movement would not succeed until it secured the diplomatic support of a Great Power and the financial assistance of members of the Western Jewish community."
178. Morris 1999, p. 23.
179. Sethi 2007.
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180. Rovner 2014, p. 45: "European Jews swayed and prayed for Zion for nearly two millennia, and by the end of the nineteenth century their descendants had transformed liturgical longing into a political movement to create a Jewish national entity somewhere in the world. Zionism's prophet, Theodor Herzl, considered Argentina, Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Mozambique, and the Sinai Peninsula as potential Jewish homelands. It took nearly a decade for Zionism to exclusively concentrate its spiritual yearning on the spatial coordinates of Ottoman Palestine." 181. Aviv & Shneer 2005, p. 10 (https://books.google.com/books?id=kdBtob8RWEMC&q=zionism+uga nda+argentina&pg=PA10).
182. Hazony 2000, p. 150: "Recalling his views when he had written "The Jewish State" eight years earlier, he [Herzl] pointed out that at the time, he had openly been willing to consider building on Baron de Hirsch's beginning and establishing the Jewish state in Argentina. But those days were long gone."
183. Friedman 2021, pp. 239–240.
184. Herzl 1896, p. 29 (31).
185. Shapira 2012, p. 23.
186. Hazony 2000, p. 369: "Herzl decided to explore the East Africa proposal in the wake of the pogrom, writing to Nordau: "We must give an answer to Kishinev, and this is the only one...We must, in a word, play the politics of the hour.""
187. Pappé 2004, Chapter 2.
188. Morris 1999, p. 37: "The fear of territorial displacement and dispossession was to be the chief motor of Arab antagonism to Zionism down to 1948 (and indeed after 1967 as well)." 189. Morris 1999, Conclusions.
190. Pappé 2004, The Arrival of Zionism.
191. Quigley 2005, pp. 4–7.
192. Anderson 2013, p. 84.
193. Khalidi 2010, p. 102.
194. Morris 1999, pp. 20–24.
195. Morris 1999, p. 35-40.
196. Gorny 1987.
197. Shafir 1996, "Conquest of Labor".
198. Shapira 2012, p. 67.
199. Shapira 2012, p. 67-68.
200. Shapira 2012, p. 68.
201. Shapira 2012, p. 69.
202. Shapira 2012, p. 69-70.
203. Shlaim 2001.
204. Shapira 2014, The Balfour Declaration.
205. Pappé 2004, Palestine in the First World War.
206. Goldman 2009, p. 133.
207. Masalha 2018, Chapter 10.
208. Shapira 2014, p. 70-71.
209. Roy 2016, p. 33-35.
210. Flapan 1979, p. 18 (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Zionism_and_the_Palestinians/cJRtAA AAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22Greater%20Israel%22).
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211. Avi Shlaim 2014, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (Updated and Expanded). Quotation:
"In the period 1918–20 the Zionists put forward their own maximalist interpretation of the Balfour Declaration. They wanted international recognition of the Jewish claim to Palestine, and they wanted the Jewish national home to stretch across both banks of the river Jordan. When Weizmann was asked at the Paris peace conference what was meant by a Jewish national home, he famously replied, "To make Palestine as Jewish as England is English." He was careful, however, not to speak openly in terms of a state, so as not to give substance to the charge that the Jewish minority planned to make itself master over the Arab majority. Although a Jewish state with a Jewish majority was his ultimate and unchanging aim, he believed in working toward this goal in a gradual, evolutionary, and nonprovocative fashion." 212. Flapan 1979, p. 20 (https://www.google.com/books/edition/Zionism_and_the_Palestinians/cJRtAA AAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22The%20importance%20of%20analysing%22): "The importance of analysing Weizmann's strategy derives from the fact that the assumptions on which they were based were, with slight modifications, adopted by Ben-Gurion and his successors. If one substitutes 'United States' for 'Great Britain' and the 'Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan' for the 'Arab National Movement', Weizmann's basic strategic concepts might be taken as descriptive of Israel's present foreign policy."
213. Ovendale 2015, pp. 51– (https://books.google.com/books?id=XM_MCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA51). 214. Quigley 2021, p. 181.
215. Report of the American Section of the International Commission on Mandates in Turkey (https://w eb.archive.org/web/20231216002528/https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv 12/d380) (Report). King-Crane Commission. August 28, 1919. p. 794. Archived from the original (h ttps://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1919Parisv12/d380) on December 16, 2023. 216. Slater 2020: "In short, the Iron Wall concept—together with the premises, values, and historical myths that underlie it—has been and still is the dominant political and military strategy of Zionism.
Summarizing its consequences, Flapan wrote that Jabotinsky "left an indelible mark on the Zionist attitudes towards the Arab question""
217. Cohen 2017: "Combined with the justification for using force to impose Zionism's minimum requirements, Jabotinsky's practical proposal for coercive pedagogy quickly filled the void that was Zionism's official policy on the Arab question."
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218. Shlaim 2001: "Jabotinsky never wavered in his conviction that Jewish military power was the key factor in the struggle for a state. It was the Labor Zionists who gradually came around to his point of view without openly admitting it. So in the final analysis the gap was not all that great: Labor leaders, too, came to rely increasingly on the strategy of the iron wall... all Israeli governments, regardless of their political color, have adopted the first stage of the strategy of the iron wall—to impose their presence unilaterally on their neighbors... Despair was expected to promote pragmatism on the other side and thus to prepare the ground for the second stage of the strategy: negotiations with the local Arabs about their status and national rights in Palestine. In other words, Jewish military strength was to pave the way to a political settlement with the Palestinian national movement..."
Gorny 1987: "From the outset, Zionism sought to employ Jewish force in order to realize national aspirations. This force consisted primarily of the collective ability to rebuild a national home in Palestine. It also included the organization and education of the people and recruitment of Jewish funds and military means of defending the Yishuv. The ha-Shomer organization fulfilled this last task in the Second Aliyah and its continuation was the Hagana set up by Ahdut ha-'Avodah in 1919 and adopted by the Histadrut a year later. Thus, Revisionism's campaign for a Jewish military force in Palestine was innovative only in that it viewed the implementation of Zionism as conditional on the existence of such a force." Morris 2001: "The Revisionists found support for their belief that Zionism would win through only with military force. The binationalists saw in the violence "proof" that conciliation had to be achieved quickly, before the Arab majority overwhelmed the Yishuv. The socialist mainstream —now represented by Mapai (Mifleget Poalei Eretz Yisrael—the Land of Israel Workers Party), established in 1930 with the amalgamation of Achdut HaAvodah and HaPoel HaZair—was obliged at last to admit that there existed a Palestinian-Arab nationalist movement, and that the Yishuv was not merely confronting a group of bloodthirsty fanatics or incited hooligans.42 The natural consequence was the growing appreciation, expounded by Chaim Arlosoroff, the director of the Jewish Agency's Political Department from 1931 until 1933, that Zionism would have to use force to achieve its aims.43 After Arlosoroff was murdered by unknown assailants in Tel Aviv in 1933, Ben-Gurion met repeatedly with Musa al-Alami, a PAE member, and argued that Zionism would develop the country to the benefit of both peoples. Al-Alami replied that he would rather have the country remain desolate for a hundred years than see Zionism succeed.44 These contacts came to naught, and the stage was set for the outbreak of the Arab revolt."
Shapira 1992: "The romanticism of the use of force, a feature that had characterized Zionism in its early period, gave way to a down-to-earth political attitude: Force was conceptualized, coolheadedly and soberly, as one of a gamut of means utilized by a political movement seriously intent on realizing its objectives... Up until World War II, the Zionist leadership had viewed physical power as a tool designed to provide an answer to the challenge of Arab militancy. They regarded it as a means to curb and prevent Arab action but not as a way to advance Jewish initiatives or to create new facts. There was already a certain ambivalence in this matter at the time of the Arab Rebellion. The ascent to Hanita and its settlement could not have taken place without the threat of force by the Jews. In other words, in this instance, force also created facts on the ground."
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Finkelstein 2016: "The 'defensive ethos' was never the operative ideology of mainstream Zionism. From beginning to end, Zionism was a conquest movement. The subtitle of Shapira's study is 'The Zionist Resort to Force'. Yet, Zionism did not 'resort' to force. Force was – to use Shapira's apt phrase in her conclusion – 'inherent in the situation' (p. 357). Gripped by messianism after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the Zionist movement sought to conquer Palestine with a Jewish Legion under the slogan 'In blood and fire shall Judea rise again' (pp. 83–98). When these apocalyptic hopes were dispelled and displaced by the mundane reality of the British Mandate, mainstream Zionism made a virtue of necessity and exalted labor as it proceeded to conquer Palestine 'dunum by dunum, goat by goat'. Force had not been abandoned, however. Shapira falsely counterposes settlement ('by virtue of labor') to force ('by dint of conquest'). Yet, settlement was force by other means. Its purpose, in Shapira's words, was to build a 'Jewish infrastructure in Palestine' so that 'the balance of power between Jews and Arabs had shifted in favor of the former' (pp. 121, 133; cf. p. 211). To the call of a Zionist leader on the morrow of Tel Hai that 'we must be a force in the land', Shapira adds the caveat: 'He was not referring to military might but, rather, to power in the sense of demography and colonization' (p. 113). Yet, Shapira willfully misses the basic point that 'demography and colonization' were equally force. Moreover, without the 'foreign bayonets' of the British Mandate, the Zionist movement could not have established even a toehold, let alone struck deep roots, in Palestine.51 Toward the end of the 1930s and especially after World War II, a concatenation of events – Britain's waning commitment to the Balfour Declaration, the escalation of Arab resistance, the strengthening of the Yishuv, etc. – caused a consensus to crystallize within the Zionist movement that the time was ripe to return to the original strategy of conquering Palestine 'by blood and fire'." 219. Gorny 1987, Historical Background.
220. Khalidi 2020, pp. 37–40.
221. Khalidi 2020, Chapter 1.
222. Dieckhoff 2003, pp. 7–8, 42.
223. Roy 2016, Political Background to the British Mandate Period (1917–1948). 224. Roy 2016, p. 38: "The Mandate administration further exacerbated the problems of the Arab producer by pursuing fiscal policies that, in effect, promoted the development of the Jewish capitalist sector at the expense of the Arab noncapitalist sector. First, government expenditure in the five years between 1933 and 1937 was greatest for two single sectors: development and economic services, and defense. The former referred to the development of infrastructural services and public works—the improvement and construction of railways, roads, bridges, communications, telegraphs, harbors, and airports—which were far more important for capitalist (as opposed to noncapitalist) production, largely the domain of the Jewish sector." 225. Roy 2016, British Government Policies.
226. Sternhell 1999, Introduction.
227. Shimoni 1995, p. 201.
228. Cleveland 2010, p. 252.
229. Sternhell 1999, Ends and Means: The Labor Ideology and the Histadrut. 230. Flapan 1979, p. 131.
231. Dieckhoff 2003, p. 91.
232. Sternhell 1999, p. 219.
233. Sternhell 1999.
234. Dieckhoff 2003, pp. 89–95.
235. Flapan 1979, pp. 19.
236. Roy 2016, The Economic Transformation of Palestine: Key British and Zionst Policies. 237. Pappé 2004.
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238. Roy 2016, p. 33.
239. Khalidi 2020, p. 44.
240. Gorny 1987, pp. 243, 251.
241. Shapira 1992, pp. 247, 249, 251–252, 350, 365.
242. Khalidi 2006, p. 45.
243. "The Road to 1948, and the Roots of a Perpetual Conflict" (https://web.archive.org/web/20250207 025354/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/01/magazine/israel-founding-palestinian-con flict.html). The New York Times. February 1, 2024. ISSN 0362-4331 (https://search.worldcat.org/is sn/0362-4331). Archived from the original (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/02/01/magaz ine/israel-founding-palestinian-conflict.html) on February 7, 2025. Retrieved January 7, 2025. 244. Morris, Benny (April 3, 2020). "The War on History" (https://web.archive.org/web/2024122911484 4/https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/7210/the-war-on-history/). Jewish Review of Books.
Archived from the original (https://jewishreviewofbooks.com/articles/7210/the-war-on-history/) on December 29, 2024. Retrieved January 7, 2025.
245. Robson, Laura (2017). States of Separation: Transfer, Partition, and the Making of the Modern Middle East (https://books.google.com/books?id=c0InDgAAQBAJ). University of California Press. pp. 115–116. ISBN 978-0-520-29215-4. "The members cited the Greek-Turkish exchange as a model for population exchange: "The courage of the Greek and Turkish statesmen has been justified by the result. Before the operation the Greek and Turkish minorities had been a constant irritant. Now Greco-Turkish relations are friendlier than they have ever been before." " 246. Katz 1992, p. 59: "The Commission, however, believed that a secure peace could not be achieved solely by partition and the establishment of a boundary between the two countries. In its opinion, the attainment of peace would necessitate the implementation of population exchanges and land transfers between the Jewish and Arab states on the model of the Greco-Turkish precedent" 247. Ben-Ami 2007, p. 25.
248. Flapan 1979, p. 261: "Ben-Gurion declared unequivocally that sovereignty of the Jewish state, especially in matters of immigration and transfer of Arabs, were the two conditions sine qua non for his agreement to partition."
249. Gorny 1987, p. 305: "In any event, the idea of a mass transfer did not strike them as morally deplorable at any time, and their hesitations related only to 'its political effectiveness." 250. Morris 1999, p. 144.
251. Chomsky 1982.
252. Rubin 2019, p. 12: "...Jabotinsky also rejected the [partition] plan on moral grounds, fiercely opposing the idea of transferring the Arab population from Palestine. Jabotinsky underscored this point in several letters and speeches from 1937, and expanded on it in an article published in the Revisionist Zionist publication Hayarden...
Jabotinsky could not have been more clear about his opposition to transferring a single Arab from Palestine. He also argued that the Peel Commission drew the wrong lesson from the Greek– Turkish case. It was not a 'great precedent', as the commission noted in its report, but a tragedy that involved the expulsion of one million Greeks from Turkey." 253. Flapan 1979, p. 264.
254. Rubin 2019, p. 15: "...in early 1940...Jabotinsky for the first time publicly proposed expelling Arabs from Palestine, even as he still noted that population transfers was by no means a necessary solution and repeated his promise for minority rights in the future Jewish state." 255. Schechtman 1956: "In his last book... he fully endorsed the idea of a voluntary Arab transfer from Palestine, though still insisting that it was not mandatory since, objectively, "Palestine, astride the Jordan, has room for the million of Arabs, room for another million of their eventual progeny, for several million Jews, and for peace.""
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256. Shilon 2021: "...in his last book, The Jewish War Front, Jabotinsky did not rule out the possibility of population transfer—that is, expulsion of Arabs. The book was published in 1940, shortly before his death, and was written in the gloomy context of World War II:
'I see no need for this exodus, and it would be undesirable from many perspectives. But if it becomes clear that the Arabs prefer to emigrate, this may be discussed without a trace of sorrow in the heart.'"
257. Segev 2001, pp. 406–407.
258. Morris 2009, pp. 349–360.
259. Morris 2001, p. 140.
260. Finkelstein 2016.
261. Gorny 1987, p. 243-245.
262. Gorny 1987, p. 323: "In the end, all of them accepted partition, less out of inner conviction than because of international pressure and force of national discipline, and in some cases were comforted by the thought that the path to a greater Palestine was still open." 263. Cleveland 2010, Communal Conflict and the British Response. 264. Morris 2001, Conclusions.
265. Morris 1999, p. 162.
266. Pappé 2004: "A British White Paper of 1939 tried to make provision for Palestinian sensibilities. It repeated the promises made in 1930 of withdrawal from the Balfour Declaration and limits to Jewish immigration and land purchase. The objective was to maintain the status quo until the situation in Europe was clear. The limitation on immigration came at a time when Nazi expansion in Europe was making life for Jews there unbearable and impossible. The Yishuv now waged its own kind of rebellion, a clandestine operation of illegal immigration, land takeover, and formation of a paramilitary organization, helped by sympathetic British officers such as the legendary Orde Wingate."
267. Morris 1999, p. 167.
268. Gorny 1987, p. 277.
269. Cleveland 2010, World War II and the Birth of the State of Israel. 270. Pappé 2004, Palestine in World War II: "This was selective, in which the physically fit and those with the right ideological bent were given priority and, at times, exclusivity. This mode of selection was abandoned for a while when the horrific news of Nazi exterminations reached Palestine around 1942. The news even prompted the symbolic act of sending Zionist parachutists into Nazi Europe as a gesture of support to the Jews dying in the death camps rather than as a real attempt to save them. Little Zionist energy was invested in saving Jews, as the priority in those difficult days remained the survival of the Jewish community in Palestine." 271. Pappé 2004, Palestine in World War II.
272. Morris 1999, p. 169.
273. Shlaim 2001: "With this resolution the Zionist movement for the first time openly staked a claim to the whole of mandatory Palestine."
274. Cleveland 2010.
275. "VI". Survey of Palestine (Report). Vol. I. 1946. p. 141. and Supplement to Survey of Palestine (Report). 1947. p. 10.
276. Johnson 1998, pp. 21–28.
277. "Avalon Project – Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry – Preface" (https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20t h_century/angpre.asp). avalon.law.yale.edu. Yale Law School. Archived (https://web.archive.org/w eb/20180807185116/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/angpre.asp) from the original on August 7, 2018. Retrieved March 10, 2023.
278. Ravndal 2010.
279. McConaghy 2021, p. 482.
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280. Morris 1999, p. 174.
281. "Establishment of UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP)" (https://web.archive.org/web/2 0240527151638/https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-183472/). United Nations. May 15, 1947. Archived from the original (https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-183472/) on May 27, 2024. Retrieved February 18, 2025.
282. Pappé 2004, p. 118-119.
283. Morris 1999, p. 148.
284. Morris 1999, pp. 196–197.
285. Pappé 2004, p. 127.
286. Pappé 2004, pp. 118–119.
287. Pappé 2004, p. 120.
288. Morris 2004: "The prospect and need to prepare for the invasion gave birth to Plan D, prepared in early March. It gave the Haganah brigade and battalion-level commanders carte blanche to completely clear vital areas; it allowed the expulsion of hostile or potentially hostile Arab villages.
Many villages were bases for bands of irregulars; most villages had armed militias and could serve as bases for hostile bands. During April and May, the local Haganah units, sometimes with specific instruction from the Haganah General Staff, carried out elements of Plan D, each interpreting and implementing the plan in his area as he saw fit and in relation to the prevailing local circumstances. In general, the commanders saw fit to completely clear the vital roads and border areas of Arab communities -Allon in Eastern Galilee, Carmel around Haifa and Western Galilee, Avidan in the south. Most of the villagers fled before or during the fighting. Those who stayed put were almost invariably expelled."
289. Morris 2008, pp. 404–406.
290. Morris 2004: "Jewish tactics in the battle were designed to stun and quickly overpower opposition.
Demoralisation of the enemy was a primary aim; it was seen to be as important to the outcome of the battle as the physical destruction of the armed Arab units. The mortar barrages and the psychological warfare broadcasts and announcements, and the tactics employed by the Haganah infantry companies, advancing from house to house, were all geared to this goal. The 22nd Battalion (Carmeli Brigade) orders to its troops were "to kill every [adult male] Arab encountered" and to set alight with firebombs "all objectives that can be set alight. I am sending you posters in Arabic; disperse on route.""
291. Khalidi 2020, Chapter 1: "When the British left Palestine in 1948, there was no need to create the apparatus of a Jewish state ab novo. That apparatus had in fact been functioning under the British aegis for decades. All that remained to make Herzl's prescient dream a reality was for this existing para-state to flex its military muscle against the weakened Palestinians while obtaining formal sovereignty, which it did in May 1948. The fate of Palestine had thus been decided thirty years earlier, although the denouement did not come until the very end of the Mandate, when its Arab majority was finally dispossessed by force."
292. Cleveland 2010, Terror and Intercommunal War.
293. Shapira 2012, p. 180.
294. Masalha 2012: "The 'War of Liberation', which led to the creation of the State of Israel on 78 per cent of historic Palestine (not the 55 per cent according to the UN partition resolution), resulted not in 'equality for all citizens' 'as taught by the Hebrew prophets' but in the destruction of much of Palestinian society, and much of the Arab landscape, in the name of the Bible, by the Zionist Yishuv, a European settler community that emigrated to Palestine in the period between 1882 and 1948."
295. Kodmani-Darwish, p. 126
296. Féron, Féron, p. 94.
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297. "United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East" (https://www.u nrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=87). UNRWA. January 7, 2015. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/ 20130906121016/http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=87) from the original on September 6, 2013. Retrieved January 22, 2016.
298. Shapira 2014, p. 248.
299. Masalha 2012, The Zionist Superimposing of Hebrew Toponymy. 300. Masalha 2012.
301. Hacohen 1991, p. 262 #2:"In meetings with foreign officials at the end of 1944 and during 1945, Ben-Gurion cited the plan to enable one million refugees to enter Palestine immediately as the primary goal and top priority of the Zionist movement.
302. Hakohen 2003, p. 46: "After independence, the government presented the Knesset with a plan to double the Jewish population within four years. This meant bringing in 600,000 immigrants in a four-year period. or 150,000 per year. Absorbing 150,000 newcomers annually under the trying conditions facing the new state was a heavy burden indeed. Opponents in the Jewish Agency and the government of mass immigration argued that there was no justification for organizing largescale emigration among Jews whose lives were not in danger, particularly when the desire and motivation were not their own."
303. Hakohen 2003, p. 246–247: "Both the immigrants' dependence and the circumstances of their arrival shaped the attitude of the host society. The great wave of immigration in 1948 did not occur spontaneously: it was the result of a clear-cut foreign policy decision that taxed the country financially and necessitated a major organizational effort. Many absorption activists, Jewish Agency executives, and government officials opposed unlimited, nonselective immigration; they favored a gradual process geared to the country's absorptive capacity. Throughout this period, two charges resurfaced at every public debate: one, that the absorption process caused undue hardship; two, that Israel's immigration policy was misguided." 304. Hakohen 2003, p. 47: "But as head of the government, entrusted with choosing the cabinet and steering its activities, Ben-Gurion had tremendous power over the country's social development.
His prestige soared to new heights after the founding of the state and the impressive victory of the IDF in the War of Independence. As prime minister and minister of defense in Israel's first administration, as well as the uncontested leader of the country's largest political party, his opinions carried enormous weight. Thus, despite resistance from some of his cabinet members, he remained unflagging in his enthusiasm for unrestricted mass immigration and resolved to put this policy into effect."
305. Hakohen 2003, p. 247: "On several occasions, resolutions were passed to limit immigration from European and Arab countries alike. However, these limits were never put into practice, mainly due to the opposition of Ben-Gurion. As a driving force in the emergency of the state, Ben-Gurion— both prime minister and minister of defense—carried enormous weight with his veto. His insistence on the right of every Jew to immigrate proved victorious. He would not allow himself to be swayed by financial or other considerations. It was he who orchestrated the large-scale action that enabled the Jews to leave Eastern Europe and Islamic countries, and it was he who effectively forged Israel's foreign policy. Through a series of clandestine activities carried out overseas by the Foreign Office, the Jewish Agency, the Mossad le-Aliyah, and the Joint Distribution Committee, the road was paved for mass immigration." 306. Ravitzky 1996, pp. 32–34.
307. Ravitzky 1996, pp. 102–109, 122–131.
308. Shlaim 2001, Chapter 14.
309. Goldberg 2009.
310. Ravitzky 1996, Chapter 3.
311. Masalha 2014.
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312. Dubnov 2011: "Relatively recent examples of the search for this "core" idea in Zionism (which tends to label ideological diversity as "heresy" or "deviation") can be found in Gorny and Netzer, "'Avodat ha-hoveh ha-murhevet'"; Halpern and Reinharz, Zionism and the Creation of a New Society; and Shimoni, The Zionist Ideology. Older studies that are based on a similar presupposition include Heller, The Zionist Idea, and most famously Hertzberg, The Zionist Idea." 313. Yadgar 2017, pp. 119–160, "Main Zionist Streams and Jewish Traditions" Stanislawski 2017
Penslar 2023, p. 36
314. Shoham 2013, p. 31: "practical Zionism. This designation referred to those who supported the redemption of Palestine by small-sized, but ideologically-driven, aliya and settlement, which would progress gradually and steadily, if slowly. Political Zionism, its ideological rival, disagreed. Its most prominent spokesman, Theodor Herzl, feared that this unorganized colonization of Palestine would jeopardize his diplomatic negotiations with the great powers; and in his address to the first Zionist congress in 1897 he defined this method as "infiltration"." 315. Seidler 2012, p. 176: "conflicting founding designs...express the formative ideological background underlying the very idea of the State of Israel."
316. Boyarin 2025, pp. 137–160}: "What we call Zionism, despite the existence of a World Zionist Organization and then a Zionist state, is in fact a catchall for numerous, often contradictory currents of thought."
317. Shindler 2015: "Zionism was never a monolithic movement. It would be more correct to speak of a range of different varieties of Zionism. Herzl's General Zionism immediately began to flow into different ideological streams."
318. Penslar 2023, pp. 36–39.
319. Berent 2019.
320. Schulman 1998
Sternhell 1999, p. 35
Cohen 1984
321. Perlmutter 1969: "The Socialist-Zionist movement played a key role in Zionist colonization of Palestine. Its ideology became the most influential and persistent in the Jewish community in Palestine (the Yishuv) before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Socialist-Zionism has been associated with most of the pioneer and colonizing efforts, institutions and procedures since the second Zionist immigration wave (hadAliya ha-Shnia) to Palestine in 1904–05, and became the chief force in the nation-building of Israel. It dominated Zionist immigration, consolidated the nationalist movement, and diffused the principles of an egalitarian social system into the Yishuv in Palestine... Socialist-Zionist ideology was not a unitary, totalitarian, and single ideology. It was iconoclastic-as all ideologies are. It blended messianic with programmist tendencies and integrated a variety of trends, doctrines and formulations of socialism and Zionism. It contained elements of the Russian Social Democratic variety of Marxism, Bundism, the Austrian and German Social Democracy, Russian Anarchism, Bolshevism and even of utopian pre-Marxian socialism."
322. Kimmerling 2006: "The tactics that Labor Zionists used to build the Jewish community in Palestine were completely different. They believed less in "rights" and more in incrementally established facts on the ground".
323. Keßler 2019.
324. Teveth 1985, pp. 66–70.
325. Getzoff 2019.
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326. Sternhell 1999: "The formal decision to found Ahdut Ha'avoda was made at the Convention of Agricultural Workers, held in February 1919. This was the first country-wide gathering of all regional agricultural workers' organizations. The elections took place according to the system of proportional representation, with 1 representative for every 25 people; small settlements were allowed to send 1 representative for every 12 people. Altogether, 58 representatives were elected to the convention, 28 of whom were nonparty, 11 from Hapo'el Hatza'ir, and 19 from Po'alei Tzion.
Thus, a clear majority supported non-socialist, if not antisocialist, principles. Prior to this agricultural gathering, the two political parties also held conventions, and at the Po'alei Tzion convention in Jaffa on 21–23 February, the party disbanded in order to clear the way for the founding of Ahdut Ha'avoda."
327. Laqueur 2009: "The two largest of them, Ahdut Ha'avoda and Hapoel Hatzair, merged in January 1930 to form Mapai."
328. Near 1986.
329. Sternhell & Maisel 1998.
330. "Israel – Labor Zionism" (https://countrystudies.us/israel/11.htm). countrystudies.us. Archived (http s://web.archive.org/web/20231123184510/https://countrystudies.us/israel/11.htm) from the original on November 23, 2023. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
331. Friesel, Evyatar. "Weizmann, Chaim". The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (https:// web.archive.org/web/20250122044638/https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/2150). Archived from the original (https://encyclopedia.yivo.org/article/2150) on January 22, 2025. Retrieved January 3, 2025.
332. Goldstein 2018.
333. Divine 1993, pp. 316–318.
334. Zouplna 2008.
335. Shlaim 1996.
336. Vause, Raz & Medding 2005.
337. Yadgar 2017, Main Zionist Streams and Jewish Traditions. 338. Asscher 2021: "Highlighting and infusing the unsolved tension between religion and nationality rooted in Israeli Jewish identity, the father of religious Zionism Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865– 1935), and his son and most influential interpreter Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook (1891–1982), assigned primary religious significance to settling the (Greater) Land of Israel, sacralising Israel's national symbols, and, more generally, perceiving the contemporary historical period of statehood as Atchalta De'Geulah [the beginning of the redemption]"
339. Slater 2020: "'liberal Zionist,' widely defined to mean someone who is a strong critic of Israel's policies and treatment of the Palestinians since 1967 but who accepts the need for a Jewish state and regards Israel's early policies as a tragic necessity." 340. Masalha 2012: "Sternhell — like other liberal Zionist intellectuals and authors, Martin Buber, Amos Oz, Amos Elon, S. Yizhar and A.B. Yehoshua included — embodies the liberal coloniser who promotes the myth of 'the clash of two rights and two justices', of (Buber's idea) the 'land of two people',37 and of the fallacy of balance and false symmetry between the colonised and the coloniser, between the indigenous and the European settler, between the ethnically cleansed and the ethnic cleanser. The conscientious liberal Zionist, represented in S. Yizhar's Khirbet Khiz'ah (1949) and A.B. Yehoshua's 'Facing the Forests' (1968) and Between Right and Right (Bein Zechut Le-Zechut) (1980, 1981) — whose narrative found strong echoes in the enthusiastic reception accorded in the West to the 'heroic new historians' — is always torn by the demands of Zionist patriotism and the need for human decency. At the Paris conference, expressing a view that is typical of the Israeli liberal narrative, Sternhell acknowledged the colonising aspects of Zionism and recognised the great injustice done to Palestinians. But he insisted that, in view of the European Jewish catastrophe, the Zionist military conquest of Palestine and the expulsion of the Palestinians was dictated by necessity."
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341. Strenger 2010.
342. Strenger 2010b.
343. Strenger 2014.
344. Katz 2024.
345. Penslar 2023, p. 27: "The Zionist movement was created by Jews, but from the start it was dependent on support from the Christian world."
346. Pappé 2004: "Zionism in many ways began as a Christian project, as part of a restorationist movement believing that the 'return' of the Jews to Palestine would precipitate the second coming of the Messiah, the resurrection of the dead and eventually the conversion of the Jews to Christianity. These ideas influenced Jews looking for a haven when it was clear that anti-Semitic Europe will not allow them to be assimilated or integrate." 347. Penslar 2023, p. 27: "Restorationism was therefore a prerequisite for the success of Zionism." 348. Rabkin 2006: "The massive support extended to the State of Israel by the millions of Christian supporters of Zionism is overtly motivated by a single consideration: that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land will be a prelude to their acceptance of Christ or, for those who fail to do so, to their physical destruction. In his book, The End of Days, Gershom Gorenberg, a religious Jewish author, deplores the messianic scenario dear to many Christian Zionists, which includes the conversion to Christianity of great numbers of Jews and the destruction of those who refuse. In his view, "the evangelical scenario is a drama in five acts, where the Jews disappear in the fourth" (Cypel).For the evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell, the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 has been the most crucial event in history since the ascension of Jesus to heaven, and "proof that the second coming of Jesus Christ is nigh.... Without a State of Israel in the Holy Land, there cannot be the second coming of Jesus Christ, nor can there be a Last Judgement, nor the End of the World" (Tremblay, 118).These groups have provided massive political and financial assistance to the most resolute nationalist forces in Israeli society. In their view, the principal function of the State of Israel is to prepare for the Second Coming of Christ and to eliminate Judaism and those who profess it. This would explain why Christian Zionists have come to play an increasingly significant role in the financial and political support of the State of Israel." 349. Spector 2009, p. 15: "The timing was propitious. Liberal theologians in America and Higher Criticism scholars in Europe were challenging the idea that the Bible is the literal word of God, causing great distress to Bible-believing Christians. Embattled American evangelicals welcomed Darby's emphasis on biblical literalism and prophecy. Darby's focus on the Jews' return to Palestine, their centrality in the unfolding of divine history, and their expected final acceptance of their messiah has had a profound impact on generations of devout Protestants, particularly in the United States."
350. Wilkinson 2013, p. 2: "In a 2003 article for the Internet magazine, the Globalist, Michael Lind introduced readers to John Nelson Darby, claiming that "Mr Darby's peculiar version of Christianity has shaped the American South for generations. And now, through conservative Southern Republicans like George W. Bush, it is shaping the Middle East and the world." Darby has been described by one critic as "the most influential figure in the development of Christian Zionism," and "its greatest apostle and missionary." John Nelson Darby, the founder of Plymouth Brethrenism, did indeed make a pivotal contribution to the development of Christian Zionism, but I will demonstrate how his doctrines have been misrepresented and misused by Brethren and nonBrethren scholars alike." 351. Goldman 2018, p. 4: "Mearsheimer and Walt join a considerable number of scholars who derive Christian Zionism from the theological movement known as premillennial dispensationalism. The basic idea of premillennial dispensationalism is that history is composed of stages that culminate in the return of Jesus Christ to establish the millennium—the thousand-year reign of peace described by the Book of Revelation. This idea was systematized in the mid-nineteenth century by the Anglo-Irish theologian John Nelson Darby and promoted in the United States by evangelists including Dwight Moody and Cyrus I. Scofield."
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352. Sermon preached in June 1864 to the British Society for the Propagation of the Gospel among the Jews
353. 'The Jew', July 1870, The Quarterly Journal of Prophecy 354. Sermon preached November 17, 1839, after returning from a "Mission of Inquiry into the State of the Jewish People"
355. Sermon preached June 1864 to London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews 356. Rubin 2010.
357. Savage 2021.
358. Kornbluh 2022.
359. Ashkenazi 2005.
360. "5 facts about Israeli Christians" (https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/10/5-facts-aboutisraeli-christians/). Pew Research. May 10, 2016. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20181111 043948/http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/10/5-facts-about-israeli-christians/) from the original on November 11, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2018. 361. Shtern 2008.
362. Landau 1993, p. 46.
363. Nisan 2010.
364. Stern 2005.
365. Firro 2006.
366. Rogan 2011, p. 73.
367. Nisan 2015, p. 284: "This Jewish-Druze partnership was often referred to as a "covenant of blood," in recognition of the common military yoke carried by the two peoples for the security of the country."
368. Siddiqui 2018.
369. Vardhan 2021.
370. Osuri 2023.
371. "RSS slams Left for opposing Sharon's visit: Rediff.com India News" (https://web.archive.org/web/ 20100617073538/http://us.rediff.com/news/2003/sep/10sharon11.htm). Us.rediff.com. September 10, 2003. Archived from the original (http://us.rediff.com/news/2003/sep/10sharon11.htm) on June 17, 2010. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
372. Eichner 2012.
373. "Ghadar. 2004" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160421115747/http://ghadar.insaf.net/June2004/M ainPages/zionism.htm). Ghadar.insaf.net. Archived from the original (http://ghadar.insaf.net/June2 004/MainPages/zionism.htm) on April 21, 2016. Retrieved June 3, 2010. 374. Sufian 2008.
375. Grill 2021.
376. Kolsky 2009, p. 337 (https://books.google.com/books?id=NoPZu79hqaEC&pg=PA337). 377. Cohen 1987–1988.
378. Laqueur 1971.
379. Balthaser 2020.
380. Slucki 2009.
381. Kolsky 2009, p. 333.
382. Penkower 1985.
383. de Waart, 1994, p. 223 (https://books.google.com/books?id=FMxKEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22armed+st ruggle%22+%22self-determination%22+palestinian&pg=PA223). Referencing Article 9 of The Palestinian_National_Charter of 1968. The Avalon_Project has a copy here [1] (http://avalon.law.y ale.edu/20th_century/plocov.asp)
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384. Khalidi 2020, p. 88.
385. Joffe 2017.
386. Khalidi 2006, p. 39.
387. Shindler 2011, p. 45 (https://books.google.com/books?id=NcaN0eYh7ckC&pg=PT45). 388. Korey 1972.
389. Améry 2021, pp. 41–45.
390. Linfield 2019.
391. Sunshine, Spencer (July 8, 2019). "Get ready for the new wave: Young, passionately Jewish" (http s://www.jta.org/2019/07/08/ideas/get-ready-for-the-new-wave-young-passionately-jewish-and-antizionist). Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved July 16, 2025. 392. Iqbal, Zainab (February 8, 2024). "Why so many young Jewish Americans are anti-Zionist" (https:// www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/why-so-many-young-jewish-americans-are-anti-zionist). Middle East Eye. Retrieved May 24, 2025.
393. Nadler 2010.
394. Kaplan 2004.
395. Keren-Kratz 2017.
396. Fink 2024.
397. Penslar 2006.
398. Bland 2019.
399. LaBelle 2024
Imseis 1999, pp. 9–10, 19, 27–28, 30–31
Sabbagh-Khoury 2023, Conclusion
Beinart 2025
Jamal 2019, pp. 193–220
400. Renton 2013.
401. "African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights / Legal Instruments / ACHPR" (http://www.achpr.o rg/instruments/achpr/). achpr.org. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20130119013007/http://w ww.achpr.org/instruments/achpr/) from the original on January 19, 2013. Retrieved March 12, 2018.
402. "Ratification Table: African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights" (https://web.archive.org/web/2 0180119010517/http://www.achpr.org/instruments/achpr/ratification/). African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. 2014. Archived from the original (http://www.achpr.org/instruments/ac hpr/ratification/) on January 19, 2018.
403. Resolution 3151 G (XXVIII) of December 14, 1973, by the UN General Assembly 404. Nadelmann 1981.
405. McGreal 2006.
406. Johnston 2007.
407. "UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, Racial Discrimination (Council on Foreign Relations, November 10, 1975)" (https://web.archive.org/web/20120130141738/http://www.cfr.org/un/un-gen eral-assembly-resolution-3379-racial-discrimination/p11284). Council on Foreign Relations.
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408. "260 General Assembly Resolution 46–86 – Revocation of Resolution 3379 – 16 December 1991 and statement by President Herzog" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090324051151/http://www.mf a.gov.il/MFA/Foreign%20Relations/Israels%20Foreign%20Relations%20since%201947/1988-199 2/260%20General%20Assembly%20Resolution%2046-86-%20Revocation). www.mfa.gov.il.
Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Archived from the original (http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign%2 520Relations/Israels%2520Foreign%2520Relations%2520since%25201947/1988-1992/260%252 0General%2520Assembly%2520Resolution%252046-86-%2520Revocation) on March 24, 2009.
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409. Frum 2000, p. 320.
410. "Anger over Zionism debate" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1484002.stm). BBC News.
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411. "US abandons racism summit" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1523600.stm). BBC News.
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413. Fox 2023.
414. Kornbluh 2024.
415. "Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism" (https://web.archive.org/web/20121115102337/http://jcpa.org/ph as/phas-wistrich-f04.htm). Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. Fall 2004. Archived from the original (http://jcpa.org/phas/phas-wistrich-f04.htm) on November 15, 2012. Retrieved November 17, 2012.
416. Marcus, Kenneth L. (2007). "Anti-Zionism as Racism: Campus Anti-Semitism and the Civil Rights Act of 1964". William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal. 15 (3): 837–891. 417. Temko 2006.
418. Kaplan & Small 2006.
419. "ZNet – Beyond Chutzpah" (https://web.archive.org/web/20090625165331/http://www.zmag.org/zn et/viewArticle/5104). Archived from the original (http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/5104) on June 25, 2009. Retrieved June 25, 2009.
420. Massad 2006, pp. 14–18.
421. Said 1979.
422. Sternhell 2010: "Berl Katznelson, the labour-movement ideologist, never thought there could be any doubt about it: 'The Zionist enterprise is an enterprise of conquest', he said in 1929. And in the same breath: 'It is not by chance that I use military terms when speaking of settlement.' In 1922 Ben-Gurion had already said the same: 'We are conquerors of the land facing an iron wall, and we have to break through it.'... [B]ut to claim that the arrivals were white settlers driven by a colonialist mind-set does not correspond to historical reality." 423. Shapira 1992, p. 355.
424. Shapira 2016, p. 898: "Use of that model is both legitimate and desirable, just as an understanding of the problems of new immigrants to Israel would be furthered by applying a conceptual framework developed in relation to immigrants to the United States, for instance.
Reluctance to use such concepts stemmed from the fact that they were part of the propaganda that stigmatized Zionism and Israel as belonging to the camp of the forces of evil as opposed to the progressive, anti-colonial world...
Defining a movement as settlement-colonialism may well help to clarify the relations between the settling nation and the native one. Nonetheless, it does not say much about other aspects of the settler nation. To complete the picture we need the perspective "from within" as well: how and in what conceptual framework did the society see itself and explain its situation?" 425. Ben-Ami 2007, p. 3.
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426. Masalha 2012, p. 2: "... for decades Zionists themselves used terms such as 'colonisation' (hityashvut) to describe their project in Palestine."
Morris 2008, p. 3: "But once there, the settlers could not avoid noticing the majority native population. It was from them, as two of the first settlers put it, that 'we shall... take away the country... through stratagems, without drawing upon us their hostility before we become the strong and populous ones.'"
Jabotinsky 1923, pp. 6–7: "It does not matter at all which phraseology we employ in explaining our colonising aims, Herzl's or Sir Herbert Samuel's. Colonisation carries its own explanation, the only possible explanation, unalterable and as clear as daylight to every ordinary Jew and every ordinary Arab... Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population."
Finkelstein 2003, p. 109: "The 'defensive ethos' was never the operative ideology of mainstream Zionism. From beginning to end, Zionism was a conquest movement. The subtitle of Shapira's study is 'The Zionist Resort to Force'. Yet, Zionism did not 'resort' to force. Force was—to use Shapira's apt phrase in her conclusion—'inherent in the situation' (p. 357).
Gripped by messianism after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration, the Zionist movement sought to conquer Palestine with a Jewish Legion under the slogan 'In blood and fire shall Judea rise again' (pp. 83–98). When these apocalyptic hopes were dispelled and displaced by the mundane reality of the British Mandate, mainstream Zionism made a virtue of necessity and exalted labor as it proceeded to conquer Palestine 'dunum by dunum, goat by goat'. Force had not been abandoned, however. Shapira falsely counterposes settlement ('by virtue of labor') to force ('by dint of conquest'). Yet, settlement was force by other means. Its purpose, in Shapira's words, was to build a 'Jewish infrastructure in Palestine' so that 'the balance of power between Jews and Arabs had shifted in favor of the former' (pp. 121, 133; cf. p. 211). To the call of a Zionist leader on the morrow of Tel Hai that 'we must be a force in the land', Shapira adds the caveat: 'He was not referring to military might but, rather, to power in the sense of demography and colonization' (p. 113). Yet, Shapira willfully misses the basic point that 'demography and colonization' were equally force. Moreover, without the 'foreign bayonets' of the British Mandate, the Zionist movement could not have established even a toehold, let alone struck deep roots, in Palestine. Toward the end of the 1930s and especially after World War II, a concatenation of events—Britain's waning commitment to the Balfour Declaration, the escalation of Arab resistance, the strengthening of the Yishuv, etc.—caused a consensus to crystallize within the Zionist movement that the time was ripe to return to the original strategy of conquering Palestine 'by blood and fire'." Liu 2022, p. 190: "Jabotinsky was a territorial maximalist who wanted mass Jewish immigration resulting in the creation of a state of Israel encompassing all Biblical lands: 'If you wish to colonize a land in which a people are already living, you must provide a garrison on your behalf. Or else – or else, give up your colonization, for without an armed force which will render physically any attempts to destroy or prevent this colonization, colonization is impossible ... Zionism is a colonizing adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force.'"
Bar-Yosef 2012, pp. 100–101: "The most disturbing manifestation of Herzl's infatuation with British imperialism can be found in his ardent determination to meet Cecil Rhodes. [...] 'How, then, do I happen to turn to you, since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial, and because it presupposes understanding of a development which will take twenty or thirty years.'"
Nordau & Gottheil 1905, p. 30: "They take care that the existing and promising beginnings of a Jewish colonization shall be looked after and maintained till the movement will be possible on a large scale."
Pessah 2020: "Yet Herzl's Zionism was indeed rooted in his wish to imitate the European colonialism of his period."
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427. Judt 2003: "As the prominent Labor politician Avraham Burg recently wrote, "After two thousand years of struggle for survival, the reality of Israel is a colonial state, run by a corrupt clique which scorns and mocks law and civic morality.""
428. Khalidi 2020: "Unremarkably, once colonialism took on a bad odor in the post–World War II era of decolonization, the colonial origins and practice of Zionism and Israel were whitewashed and conveniently forgotten in Israel and the West. In fact, Zionism—for two decades the coddled stepchild of British colonialism—rebranded itself as an anticolonial movement. The occasion for this drastic makeover was a campaign of sabotage and terrorism launched against Great Britain after it drastically limited its support of Jewish immigration with the 1939 White Paper on the eve of World War II. This falling-out between erstwhile allies (to help them fight the Palestinians in the late 1930s, Britain had armed and trained the Jewish settlers it allowed to enter the country) encouraged the outlandish idea that the Zionist movement was itself anticolonial." 429. Morris 2020: "Colonialism is commonly defined as the policy and practice of an imperial power acquiring political control over another country, settling it with its sons, and exploiting it economically. By any objective standard, Zionism fails to fit this definition. Zionism was a movement of desperate, idealistic Jews from Eastern and Central Europe bent on immigrating to a country that had once been populated and ruled by Jews, not "another" country, and regaining sovereignty over it. The settlers were not the sons of an imperial power, and the settlement enterprise was never designed to politically or strategically serve an imperial mother country or economically exploit it on behalf of any empire. The land was known to lack natural resources.
And most Zionists, rather than wanting to exploit the natives, were indifferent to their fate or wanted to simply see them leave"
430. Shafir 2016, p. 794.
431. Shafir 2016, p. 795.
432. Shafir 2016, pp. 799–805.
433. Slater 2020, Zionism Reconsidered.
434. Shlaim 2023, Epilogue.
435. Sternberg 2016, p. 836.
436. Shafir 1996, p. xii: "The colonialism of the First Aliya was based on sparse settlement and exploitation and the employment of low-paid Palestinian workers on Jewish-owned farms." 437. Shafir 2016, p. 797.
438. Morris 1999, p. 38-39.
439. Sternberg 2016, The Colonialism/Colonization Perspective on Zionism/Israel. 440. Shafir & Peled 2002, p. 37.
441. Friling 2016, p. 852.
442. Sternberg 2016, p. 837.
443. Friling 2016, p. 855.
444. Shafir 2016, p. 799.
445. Dowty 2022: "They did not recognize the Arab population of Palestine as another people with their own collective claims..."
446. Karsh 2000.
447. Dowty 2022.
448. Penslar 2023, pp. 70–71, 82–83, and 95–96.
449. Sabbagh-Khoury 2022, first section.
450. Tawil-Souri 2016 "Calling Israel a settler colonial regime is an argument increasingly gaining purchase in activist and, to a lesser extent, academic circles." 451. Sabbagh-Khoury 2022, Conclusion.
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Sufian, Sandy (January 1, 2008). "Anatomy of the 1936–39 Revolt: Images of the Body in Political Cartoons of Mandatory Palestine" (https://www.academia.edu/13805989). Journal of Palestine Studies. 37 (2): 23–42. doi:10.1525/jps.2008.37.2.23 (https://doi.org/10.1525%2Fjps.2008.37.2.2 3). Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20220620080011/https://www.academia.edu/13805989) from the original on June 20, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2008.
Tawil-Souri, Helga (2016). "Response to Elia Zureik's Israel's Colonial Project in Palestine: Brutal Pursuit" (https://doi.org/10.13169%2Farabstudquar.38.4.0683). Arab Studies Quarterly. 38 (4):
683–687. doi:10.13169/arabstudquar.38.4.0683 (https://doi.org/10.13169%2Farabstudquar.38.4.0 683). ISSN 0271-3519 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0271-3519).
JSTOR 10.13169/arabstudquar.38.4.0683 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13169/arabstudquar.38.
4.0683).
Taylor, A. R. (1971). "Vision and intent in Zionist Thought". In Abu-Lughod, I. (ed.). The Transformation of Palestine. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0-8101-0345-
0. Temko, Ned (October 17, 2006). "Critics of Israel 'fuelling hatred of British Jews' " (https://www.the guardian.com/uk/2006/sep/03/religion.immigrationpolicy). The Guardian. London. Archived (http s://web.archive.org/web/20170202042852/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2006/sep/03/religion.i mmigrationpolicy) from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2016.
Teveth, Shabtai (1985). Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs: From Peace to War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-503562-9.
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Troen, S. Ilan (2007). "De-Judaizing the Homeland: Academic Politics in Rewriting the History of Palestine". Israel Affairs. 13 (4: Postcolonial Theory and the Arab–Israel Conflict): 872–884. doi:10.1080/13537120701445372 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F13537120701445372).
Vardhan, Anand (May 24, 2021). "From pre-Independence to 1990s: India's stand on IsraelPalestine has been tightrope walk" (https://www.newslaundry.com/2021/05/24/from-pre-independe nce-to-1990s-indias-stand-on-israel-palestine-has-been-tightrope-walk). NewsLaundry.
Vause, John; Raz, Guy; Medding, Shira (November 22, 2005). "Sharon shakes up Israeli politics" (http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/21/israel.politics/). CNN. Archived (https://web.archiv e.org/web/20170331162557/http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/21/israel.politics/) from the original on March 31, 2017. Retrieved August 31, 2017.
Vogt, Stefan (2015). "Between Decay and Doom: Zionist Discourses of 'Untergang' in Germany, 1890 to 1933". The German-Jewish Experience Revisited. pp. 75–102. doi:10.1515/9783110367195-006 (https://doi.org/10.1515%2F9783110367195-006). ISBN 978-3- 11-037293-9.
White, Ben (2012). Palestinians in Israel. London: Pluto Press. ISBN 978-0-7453-3228-4.
OCLC 748328849 (https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/748328849).
Wilkinson, Paul (2008). For Zion's Sake Christian Zionism and the Role of John Nelson Darby (htt ps://books.google.com/books?id=wj5KAwAAQBAJ&dq=birnbaum+1893+%22national+rebirth%22 &pg=PA7). Wipf & Stock Publishers. ISBN 9781556358074.
——— (2013). Understanding Christian Zionism: Israel's Place in the Purposes of God. The Berean Call.
Wolfe, Patrick (2006). "Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native" (https://doi.org/10.108 0%2F14623520601056240). Journal of Genocide Research. 8 (4): 387–409. doi:10.1080/14623520601056240 (https://doi.org/10.1080%2F14623520601056240).
S2CID 143873621 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:143873621).
Yadgar, Yaacov (2017). Sovereign Jews (https://books.google.com/books?id=LOJcDgAAQBAJ).
State University of New York Press. doi:10.1515/9781438465357-008 (https://doi.org/10.1515%2F 9781438465357-008). ISBN 978-1-4384-6535-7.
Zouplna, Jan (2008). "Revisionist Zionism: Image, Reality and the Quest for Historical Narrative".
Middle Eastern Studies. 44 (1): 3–27. doi:10.1080/00263200701711754 (https://doi.org/10.1080% 2F00263200701711754). S2CID 144049644 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:14404964 4).
Zuriek, Elia (1979). The Palestinians in Israel: A Study in Internal Colonialism. Routledge & K.
Paul.
Primary sources
Herzl, Theodor. A Jewish state: an attempt at a modern solution of the Jewish question (1896) full text online (https://archive.org/details/ajewishstateana00aviggoog) Herzl, Theodor. Theodor Herzl: Excerpts from His Diaries (2006) excerpt and text search (https://b ooks.google.com/books?id=2RhB8hgyK4UC) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20140708150 713/http://books.google.com/books?id=2RhB8hgyK4UC&dq=inauthor:herzl&lr=&as_drrb_is=q&as _minm_is=0&as_miny_is=&as_maxm_is=0&as_maxy_is=&num=30&as_brr=3) July 8, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
Secondary sources
Further reading
2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism 89/90
Armborst-Weihs, Kerstin: The Formation of the Jewish National Movement Through Transnational Exchange: Zionism in Europe up to the First World War (http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-2 010092115), European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2011, retrieved:
August 17, 2011.
A. B. Masilamani, Zionism in Melu Kolupu (Telugu), Navajeevana Publications, Vijayanagar Colony, Hyderabad, 1984, pp. 121–126.
Beller, Steven. Herzl (2004)
Brenner, Michael (2003). Zionism: A Brief History. Eurospan Group. ISBN 978-1-55876-301-2.
Butler, Judith: Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism. Columbia University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-231-14611-1
Cohen, Naomi. The Americanization of Zionism, 1897–1948 (2003). 304 pp. essays on specialized topics
Friedman, Isaiah. "Theodor Herzl: Political Activity and Achievements," Israel Studies 2004 9(3):
46–79, online in EBSCO
David Hazony, Yoram Hazony, and Michael B. Oren, eds., New Essays on Zionism, Shalem Press, 2007.
Idels, Ofer (2024). Zionism. doi:10.1017/9781009442947 (https://doi.org/10.1017%2F9781009442 947). ISBN 978-1-009-44294-7.
Kloke, Martin: The Development of Zionism Until the Founding of the State of Israel (http://nbn-res olving.de/urn:nbn:de:0159-2011081801), European History Online, Mainz: Institute of European History, 2010, retrieved: June 13, 2012.
Sachar, Howard M. (2007). A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-375-71132-9.
Simon, Leon (1922). "Zionism" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1922_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britan nica/Zionism). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 32 (12th ed.).
Pawel, Ernst (1989). The Labyrinth of Exile: A Life of Theodor Herzl. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-374- 52351-0.
Taub, Gadi. The Settlers and the Struggle over the Meaning of Zionism (2010, Hebrew, English) Urofsky, Melvin I. American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust (1995), a standard history Wigoder, Geoffrey, ed. New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel (2nd ed. 2 vol. 1994); 1521 pp Zionism (https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/657475) at the Encyclopædia Britannica Zionism (https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/israel/zionism) at the National Library of Israel Official website (http://www.zionistarchives.org.il/en) of the Central Zionist Archives Official website (https://www.wzo.org.il/en) of the World Zionist Organization Newspaper clippings about Zionism (http://purl.org/pressemappe20/folder/sh/141115,160377) in the 20th Century Press Archives of the ZBW
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&oldid=1340608433" External links
2/26/26, 1:10 PM Zionism - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zionism 90/90
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−
{{Short description|Movement supporting a
Jewish state in Palestine}} +
{{Short description|Ethnocultural movement
supporting a Jewish state in Palestine}}
− {{other uses}} + {{Other uses}}
{{pp-vandalism|small=yes}} {{pp-vandalism|small=yes}}
− {{use American English|date=January 2014}} + {{use American English|date=January 2026}} − {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2021}} + {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} −
[[File:PORTRAIT OF THEODOR HERZL IN 1898.
443-Dפורטרט של תיאודור הרצל - 1898
015.jpg|thumb|right|[[Theodor Herzl]] was
the founder of the modern Zionist movement.
In his 1896 pamphlet {{Lang|de|[[Der
Judenstaat]]}}, he envisioned the founding
of a future independent Jewish state during
the 20th century.]]
+
[[File:Theodor Herzl.jpg|thumb|[[Theodor
Herzl]] was the founder of the modern
Zionist movement. In his 1896 pamphlet
{{Lang|de|[[Der Judenstaat]]}}, he
envisioned the founding of a future
independent Jewish state during the 20th
century.]]
+ {{Zionism sidebar}}
{{Jews and Judaism sidebar
|expanded=politics}}
{{Jews and Judaism sidebar
|expanded=politics}}
+ '''Zionism'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|z|aɪ|.|ə|n|
ɪ|z|əm}} {{respell|ZY|ə|niz|əm}};
{{langx|he|תּונֹוּיִצ|Ṣīyyonūt}}, {{IPA|he|tsijo
ˈnut|IPA}}}} is an [[Ethnic
nationalism|ethnocultural nationalist]]<ref>
{{harvnb|Gans|2008|p=3}}: "Zionism belongs
VisualWikitext
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 1/341 to the category of ethnocultural
nationalism, according to which groups
sharing a common history and culture have
fundamental and morally significant
interests in adhering to their culture and
in sustaining it for generations. Cultural
nationalism holds that such interests
warrant political recognition and support,
primarily by the means of granting the
groups in question the right to national
self-determination or self-rule."</ref>
movement that emerged in late 19th-century
[[History of Europe#From revolution to
imperialism (1789–1914)|Europe]] to
establish and support a [[Jewish homeland]]
through [[colonization]] in the [[Palestine
(region)|region of Palestine]],<ref>
{{bulleted list||
{{harvnb|Aaronson|1996|p=223|ps=: "On the
other hand, our study has revealed that
Jewish colonization resembled in many
respects the model of pure "settlement of
population" ("colonization de peuplement"),
in the sense of involving colonization
without colonialism."}}|
{{harvnb|Cohen|2011|p=128|ps=:"In February
1928, Weizmann submitted an official
request to the government for a loan
guarantee. He explained that the Zionist
Loan was needed to promote further Jewish
colonization in Palestine. [...] He advised
that both the Zionists and the government
should initiate a new period of Zionist
colonizing activity as soon as possible."}}|
{{harvnb|Murphy|2005|p=}}:{{page
needed|date=August 2025}} "The first forty
years of the twentieth century witnessed
the transformation of Zionism from a
philosophical discourse to a practical
programme for the colonisation of
Palestine."|
{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|p=207|ps=:"At the
foundation of the Zionist outlook stood the
aspiration to establish a state. And
absolute sovereignty is needed for Zionism
more than for any other nation, because
Zionism demanded the right of unrestricted
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 2/341 immigration and unrestricted colonization,
which can be brought about only by complete
sovereignty."}}|
{{harvnb|Penslar|1993|p=1302}}: "In many
respects, Zionism was unique as a national
movement. One of its (presumably singular)
characteristic features stemmed from the
fact that it was a national liberation
movement that was destined to function as a
movement promoting settlement in a country
of colonization. [...] Zionist psychology
was molded by the conflicting parameters of
a national liberation movement and a
movement of European colonization in a
Middle Eastern country. [...] The Zionist
movement (in particular, it socialist
variant) viewed itself as belonging to the
forces striving for a better world and
could not accept the fact that the
framework of its activity was determined by
the contours of a country of colonization."|
{{harvnb|Elazari-Volcani|1932|p=}}
{{pn|date=February 2026}}|
{{harvnb|Gelvin|2021|pp=49–80}}|
{{harvnb|Collins|2011|pp=169–185|ps=: "...
and as subsequent work (Finkelstein 1995;
Massad 2005; Pappe 2006; Said 1992; Shafir
1989) has definitively established, the
architects of Zionism were conscious and
often unapologetic about their status as
colonizers."}}|{{harvnb|Bloom|2011|pp=2,
13, 49, 132|ps=: "Dr. [[Arthur Ruppin]] was
sent to Palestine for the first time in
1907 by the heads of the German [World]
Zionist Organization in order to make a
pilot study of the possibilities for
colonization. ... [[Franz
Oppenheimer|Oppenheimer]] was a German
sociologist and political economist. As a
worldwide expert on colonization he became
Herzl's advisor and formulated the first
program for Zionist colonization, which he
presented at the 6th Zionist Congress
(Basel 1903) . ... [[Daniel Boyarin]] wrote
that the group of Zionists who imagined
themselves colonialists inclined to that
persona "because such a representation was
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 3/341 pivotal to the entire project of becoming
'white men'." Colonization was seen as a
sign of belonging to western and modern
culture;"}}|
{{harvnb|Robinson|2013|p=18|ps=: {{"
'}}Never before', wrote Berl Katznelson,
founding editor of the Histadrut daily,
''Davar'', 'has the white man undertaken
colonization with that sense of justice and
social progress which fills the Jew who
comes to Palestine.{{' "}} [[Berl
Katznelson]]}}|
{{harvnb|Alroey|2011|p=5|ps=: "[[Theodor
Herzl|Herzl]] further sharpened the issue
when he tried to make diplomacy precede
settlement, precluding any possibility of
preemptive and unplanned settlement in the
Land of Israel: "Should the powers show
themselves willing to grant us sovereignty
over a neutral land, then the Society will
enter into negotiations for the possession
of this land. Here two regions come to
mind: Palestine and Argentina. Significant
experiments in colonization have been made
in both countries, though on the mistaken
principle of gradual infiltration of Jews.
Infiltration is bound to end badly."}}|
{{harvnb|Jabotinsky|1923|ps=: "Colonisation
can have only one aim, and Palestine Arabs
cannot accept this aim. It lies in the very
nature of things, and in this particular
regard nature cannot be changed .. .
Zionist colonisation must either stop, or
else proceed regardless of the native
population." [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] quoted in
Alan Balfour,
[https://books.google.com/books?
id=D7p9DwAAQBAJ ''The Walls of Jerusalem:
Preserving the Past, Controlling the
Future''], [[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]],
2019, p. 59, {{isbn|978-1-119-18229-0}}.}}|
{{harvnb|Piterberg|2010|p=}}:
{{pn|date=February 2026}} "It is within the
typology of settler colonialisms that I
place the Zionist colonization of Palestine
and the state of Israel—a move which surely
should have put to rest the tedious
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 4/341 contention that Zionism could not be termed
a colonial venture because it lacked the
features of metropole colonialism; as if
anyone were suggesting otherwise. What its
apologists fail to confront is the settlercolonial paradigm."}}</ref> which roughly corresponds to the [[Land of Israel]] in
[[Judaism]]—itself central to [[Jewish
history]].<ref>{{bulleted list||
{{harvnb|Safrai|2018|p=76|ps=: "The
preoccupation of [[rabbinic literature]] in
all its forms with the [[Land of Israel]]
is without question intensive and constant.
It is no wonder that this literature offers
historians of the Land of Israel a wealth
of information for the clarification of a
wide variety of topics."}}|
{{harvnb|Biger|2004|pp=58–63|ps=: "Unlike
the earlier literature that dealt with
Palestine's delimitation, the boundaries
were not presented according to their
historical traditional meaning, but
according to the boundaries of the Jewish
Eretz Israel that was about to be
established there. This approach
characterizes all the Zionist publications
at the time ... when they came to indicate
borders, they preferred the realistic
condition and strategic economic needs over
an unrealistic dream based on the historic
past.' This meant that planners envisaged a
future Palestine that controlled all [[the
Jordan]]'s sources, the southern part of
the [[Litani River|Litanni river]] in
Lebanon, the large cultivatable area east
of the Jordan, including the Houran and
Gil'ad wheat zone, Mt Hermon, the [[Yarmouk
River|Yarmuk]] and [[Zarqa River#Biblical
Jabbok|Yabok]] rivers, the [[Hijaz
Railway]] ... ."}}|
{{harvnb|Motyl|2001|p=604}}|{{cite book
|last1=Herzl |first1=Theodor |authorlink1=Theodor Herzl |url=https://books.google.com/books?
id=3f4RFWkMeWoC |title=Der Judenstaat
|publisher=[[Courier Dover]] |year=1988
|isbn=978-0-486-25849-2
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 5/341 |edition=republication |location=New York
|page=40 |translator=[[Sylvie d'Avigdor]]
|trans-title=The Jewish state
|chapter=Biography, by Alex Bein |accessdate=September 28, 2010 |chapterurl=https://books.google.com/books? id=3f4RFWkMeWoC&pg=PA40 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/201401011957 01/http://books.google.com/books?
id=3f4RFWkMeWoC |archive-date=January 1,
2014 |url-status=live |orig-date=1896}}
{{page needed|date=October 2024}}}}</ref>
<!-- The following text is the result of
consensus on the talk page. Changes to the
text have been challenged and any further
edits to the sentence should be discussed
on the talk page and consensus obtained to
change. -->Zionists wanted to create a
[[Jewish state]] in Palestine with as much
land, as many [[Jews]], and as few
[[Palestinian Arabs]] as possible.<ref
name="ZionistLandJewsArabs1" /><ref
name="ZionistLandJewsArabs2" />
+
Zionism initially emerged in [[Central
Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] as
a [[secular]] nationalist movement in the
late 19th century, in reaction to new waves
of [[antisemitism]] and in response to the
[[Haskalah]], or Jewish Enlightenment.<ref>
{{bulleted list|
{{harvnb|Conforti|2024|p=485|ps=: "The
crisis in the Enlightenment movement in the
late nineteenth century gave way to the
rise of alternative ideologies, such as
Jewish nationalism and socialism. Early
Zionist thinkers, such as Peretz Smolenskin
(1842–1885), sharply criticized the
Enlightenment scholars and their
universalist approach."}}
− ==Definition==
−
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 6/341 −
The definition as stated in Brittanica:
"Jewish nationalist movement with the goal
of the creation and support of a Jewish
national state in Palestine, the ancient
homeland of the Jews (Hebrew: Eretz
Yisraʾel, “the Land of Israel”). Though
Zionism originated in eastern and central
Europe in the latter part of the 19th
century, it is in many ways a continuation
of the ancient attachment of the Jews and
of the Jewish religion to the historical
region of Palestine. According to Judaism,
Zion, one of the hills of ancient
Jerusalem, is the place where God dwells."
<ref>https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionis
m</ref>
−
−
'''Zionism'''{{efn|{{IPAc-en|ˈ|z|aɪ|.|ə|n|
ɪ|z|əm}} {{respell|ZY|ə|niz|əm}};
{{langx|he|תּונֹוּיִצ|Ṣīyyonūt}}, {{IPA|he|tsijo
ˈnut|IPA}}}} is an [[Ethnic
nationalism|ethnocultural nationalist]]
{{efn|"Zionism belongs to the category of
ethnocultural nationalism, according to
which groups sharing a common history and
culture have fundamental and morally
significant interests in adhering to their
culture and in sustaining it for
generations. Cultural nationalism holds
that such interests warrant political
recognition and support, primarily by the
means of granting the groups in question
the right to national self-determination or
self-rule."{{sfn|Gans|2008|p=3}}}} movement
that emerged in late 19th-century [[History
of Europe#From revolution to imperialism
(1789–1914)|Europe]] to establish and
maintain a national home for the
[[Jews|Jewish people]] through the
[[colonization]] of [[Palestine
(region)|Palestine]],<ref>{{multiref|
− | {{harvnb|Collins|2011|pp=169–185|ps=:
"... and as subsequent work (Finkelstein
1995; Massad 2005; Pappe 2006; Said 1992;
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 7/341 Shafir 1989) has definitively established,
the architects of Zionism were conscious
and often unapologetic about their status
as colonizers."}}|{{harvnb|Bloom|2011|pp=2,
13, 49, 132|ps=: "Dr. [[Arthur Ruppin]] was
sent to Palestine for the first time in
1907 by the heads of the German [World]
Zionist Organization in order to make a
pilot study of the possibilities for
colonization. ... [[Franz
Oppenheimer|Oppenheimer]] was a German
sociologist and political economist. As a
worldwide expert on colonization he became
Herzl's advisor and formulated the first
program for Zionist colonization, which he
presented at the 6th Zionist Congress
(Basel 1903) . ... [[Daniel Boyarin]] wrote
that the group of Zionists who imagined
themselves colonialists inclined to that
persona "because such a representation was
pivotal to the entire project of becoming
'white men'." Colonization was seen as a
sign of belonging to western and modern
culture;"}}
−
| {{harvnb|Robinson|2013|p=18|ps=: {{"
'}}Never before', wrote Berl Katznelson,
founding editor of the Histadrut daily,
''Davar'', 'has the white man undertaken
colonization with that sense of justice and
social progress which fills the Jew who
comes to Palestine.{{' "}} [[Berl
Katznelson]]}}
− | {{harvnb|Alroey|2011|p=5|ps=: "[[Theodor
Herzl|Herzl]] further sharpened the issue
when he tried to make diplomacy precede
settlement, precluding any possibility of
preemptive and unplanned settlement in the
Land of Israel: "Should the powers show
themselves willing to grant us sovereignty
over a neutral land, then the Society will
enter into negotiations for the possession
of this land. Here two regions come to
mind: Palestine and Argentina. Significant
experiments in colonization have been made
in both countries, though on the mistaken
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 8/341 principle of gradual infiltration of Jews.
Infiltration is bound to end badly."}}
−
| {{harvnb|Jabotinsky|1923|ps=:
"Colonisation can have only one aim, and
Palestine Arabs cannot accept this aim. It
lies in the very nature of things, and in
this particular regard nature cannot be
changed .. . Zionist colonisation must
either stop, or else proceed regardless of
the native population." [[Ze'ev
Jabotinsky]] quoted in Alan Balfour,
[https://books.google.com/books?
id=D7p9DwAAQBAJ ''The Walls of Jerusalem:
Preserving the Past, Controlling the
Future''], [[Wiley (publisher)|Wiley]],
2019, p. 59, {{isbn|978-1-119-18229-0}}.}}
−
}}</ref> a region roughly corresponding to
the [[Land of Israel]] in [[Judaism]]<ref>
{{multiref|
−
| {{harvnb|Safrai|2018|p=76|ps=: "The
preoccupation of [[rabbinic literature]] in
all its forms with the [[Land of Israel]]
is without question intensive and constant.
It is no wonder that this literature offers
historians of the Land of Israel a wealth
of information for the clarification of a
wide variety of topics."}}
− | {{harvnb|Biger|2004|pp=58–63|ps=: "Unlike
the earlier literature that dealt with
Palestine's delimitation, the boundaries
were not presented according to their
historical traditional meaning, but
according to the boundaries of the Jewish
Eretz Israel that was about to be
established there. This approach
characterizes all the Zionist publications
at the time ... when they came to indicate
borders, they preferred the realistic
condition and strategic economic needs over
an unrealistic dream based on the historic
past.' This meant that planners envisaged a
future Palestine that controlled all
[[River Jordan|the Jordan]]'s sources, the
southern part of the [[Litani River|Litanni
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 9/341 river]] in Lebanon, the large cultivatable
area east of the Jordan, including the
Houran and Gil'ad wheat zone, Mt Hermon,
the [[Yarmouk River|Yarmuk]] and [[Zarqa
River#Biblical Jabbok|Yabok]] rivers, the
[[Hijaz Railway]] ... ."}}
− | {{harvnb|Motyl|2001|p=604}}
−
| {{cite book |last1=Herzl |first1=Theodor
|author-link1=Theodor Herzl
|url=https://books.google.com/books?
id=3f4RFWkMeWoC |title=Der Judenstaat
|publisher=[[Dover Publications|Courier
Dover]] |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-486-25849-2
|edition=republication |location=New York
|page=40 |translator=Sylvie d'Avigdor
|trans-title=The Jewish state
|chapter=Biography, by Alex Bein |accessdate=September 28, 2010 |chapterurl=https://books.google.com/books? id=3f4RFWkMeWoC&pg=PA40 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/201401011957 01/http://books.google.com/books?
id=3f4RFWkMeWoC |archive-date=January 1,
2014 |url-status=live |orig-date=1896}}
{{page needed|date=October 2024}}
−
}}</ref> and central to [[Jewish history]].
<!-- The following text is the result of
consensus on the talk page. Changes to the
text have been challenged and any further
edits to the sentence should be discussed
on the talk page and consensus obtained to
change. --> Zionists wanted to create a
[[Jewish state]] in Palestine with as much
land, as many [[Jews]], and as few
[[Palestinian people|Palestinian Arabs]] as
possible.<ref name="ZionistLandJewsArabs" />
−
− Zionism initially emerged in [[Central
Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] as
a [[secular]] nationalist movement in the
late 19th century, in reaction to newer
waves of [[antisemitism]] and in response
to the [[Haskalah]], or Jewish
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 10/341 Enlightenment.<ref>{{multiref|
{{harvnb|Conforti|2024|p=485|ps=: "The
crisis in the Enlightenment movement in the
late nineteenth century gave way to the
rise of alternative ideologies, such as
Jewish nationalism and socialism. Early
Zionist thinkers, such as Peretz Smolenskin
(1842–1885), sharply criticized the
Enlightenment scholars and their
universalist approach."}}
| {{harvnb|Shillony|2012|p=88|ps=: "
[Zionism] arose in response to and in
imitation of the current national movements
of Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe"}}
| {{harvnb|Shillony|2012|p=88|ps=: "
[Zionism] arose in response to and in
imitation of the current national movements
of Central, Southern, and Eastern Europe"}}
−
| {{harvnb|LeVine|Mossberg|2014|p=211|ps=:
"The parents of Zionism were not Judaism
and tradition, but anti-Semitism and
nationalism. The ideals of the [[French
Revolution]] spread slowly across Europe,
finally reaching the [[Pale of Settlement]]
in the [[Russian Empire]] and helping to
set off the [[Haskalah]], or Jewish
Enlightenment. This engendered a permanent
split in the Jewish world, between those
who held to a halachic or religious-centric
vision of their identity and those who
adopted in part the racial rhetoric of the
time and made the Jewish people into a
nation. This was helped along by the wave
of [[pogrom]]s in [[Eastern Europe]] that
set two million Jews to flight; most wound
up in [[United States|America]], but some
chose Palestine. A driving force behind
this was the [[Hovevei Zion]] movement,
which worked from 1882 to develop a Hebrew
identity that was distinct from [[Judaism]]
as a religion."}}
+
| {{harvnb|LeVine|Mossberg|2014|p=211|ps=:
"The parents of Zionism were not Judaism
and tradition, but anti-Semitism and
nationalism. The ideals of the [[French
Revolution]] spread slowly across Europe,
finally reaching the [[Pale of Settlement]]
in the [[Russian Empire]] and helping to
set off the [[Haskalah]], or Jewish
Enlightenment. This engendered a permanent
split in the Jewish world, between those
who held to a halachic or religious-centric
vision of their identity and those who
adopted in part the racial rhetoric of the
time and made the Jewish people into a
nation. This was helped along by the wave
of [[pogrom]]s in [[Eastern Europe]] that
set two million Jews to flight; most wound
up in [[America]], but some chose
Palestine. A driving force behind this was
the [[Hovevei Zion]] movement, which worked
from 1882 to develop a Hebrew identity that
was distinct from [[Judaism]] as a
religion."}}
| {{harvnb|Gelvin|2014|p=93 |ps=: "The fact
that [[Palestinian nationalism]] developed
later than Zionism and indeed in response
to it does not in any way diminish the
legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or
make it less valid than Zionism. All
nationalisms arise in opposition to some
'other'. Why else would there be the need
| {{harvnb|Gelvin|2014|p=93 |ps=: "The fact
that [[Palestinian nationalism]] developed
later than Zionism and indeed in response
to it does not in any way diminish the
legitimacy of Palestinian nationalism or
make it less valid than Zionism. All
nationalisms arise in opposition to some
'other'. Why else would there be the need
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 11/341 to specify who you are? And all
nationalisms are defined by what they
oppose. As we have seen, Zionism itself
arose in reaction to anti-Semitic and
exclusionary nationalist movements in
Europe. It would be perverse to judge
Zionism as somehow less valid than European
anti-Semitism or those nationalisms.
Furthermore, Zionism itself was also
defined by its opposition to the indigenous
Palestinian inhabitants of the region. Both
the 'conquest of land' and the 'conquest of
labor' slogans that became central to the
dominant strain of Zionism in the
[[Yishuv]] originated as a result of the
Zionist confrontation with the Palestinian
'other'."}}
to specify who you are? And all
nationalisms are defined by what they
oppose. As we have seen, Zionism itself
arose in reaction to anti-Semitic and
exclusionary nationalist movements in
Europe. It would be perverse to judge
Zionism as somehow less valid than European
anti-Semitism or those nationalisms.
Furthermore, Zionism itself was also
defined by its opposition to the indigenous
Palestinian inhabitants of the region. Both
the 'conquest of land' and the 'conquest of
labor' slogans that became central to the
dominant strain of Zionism in the
[[Yishuv]] originated as a result of the
Zionist confrontation with the Palestinian
'other'."}}
}}</ref><ref>{{bulleted list| }}</ref><ref>{{bulleted list| Line 31: Line 17:
| {{harvnb|Gelvin|2007|p=
[https://books.google.com/books?
id=5FwAT5fx03IC&q=the%20Basel%20program%20co
lonisation%20of%20Palestine&pg=PA52 51]}}
| {{harvnb|Gelvin|2007|p=
[https://books.google.com/books?
id=5FwAT5fx03IC&q=the%20Basel%20program%20co
lonisation%20of%20Palestine&pg=PA52 51]}}
| {{harvnb|Pappé|2006|pp=10–11}} | {{harvnb|Pappé|2006|pp=10–11}} + }}</ref> Soon after this, most leaders of
the movement associated the main goal with
creating the desired homeland in Palestine,
then an area controlled by the [[Ottoman
Empire]].{{sfnm|Cohen|1995|1p=
[https://archive.org/details/cambridgesurvey
o00robi/page/504 504]|Gelvin|2007|2p=51}}
{{sfn|Pappé|2006|pp=10–11}} This process
was seen by the Zionist Movement as an "
[[Gathering of Israel|ingathering of
exiles]]" ({{lang|he-latn|kibbutz
galuyot}}), an effort to put a stop to the
exoduses and persecutions that have marked
Jewish history by bringing the Jewish
people back to their historic homeland.<ref>
{{Cite book |last=Gamlen |first=Alan |pp=57-
58 |url=https://books.google.com/books?
id=1iCWDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA57 |title=Human
Geopolitics: States, Emigrants, and the
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 12/341 Rise of Diaspora Institutions |year=2019
|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]
|isbn=978-0-19-883349-9 |language=en}}
</ref> [[Aliyah|The arrival of Zionist
settlers]] to Palestine during this period
is widely seen as the start of the
[[Israeli–Palestinian conflict]].
{{sfn|Masalha|2012|p=70}}
{{sfn|Karsh|2009|p=12}}
{{sfn|Morris|2008|p=1}}
−
}}</ref> The arrival of Zionist settlers to
Palestine during this period is widely seen
as the start of the [[Israeli–Palestinian
conflict]]. The Zionist claim to Palestine
was based on the notion that the Jews'
historical right to the land outweighed
that of the Arabs.
− In 1917, the [[Balfour Declaration]]
established Britain's support for the
movement. In 1922, the [[Mandate for
Palestine]], governed by Britain,
explicitly privileged Jewish settlers over
the local Palestinian population. In 1948,
the [[Israeli Declaration of
Independence|State of Israel was
established]] and the [[1948 Arab-Israeli
War|first Arab-Israeli war]] broke out.
During the war, Israel expanded its
territory to control over 78% of Mandatory
Palestine. As a result of the [[1948
Palestinian expulsion and flight]], an
estimated 160,000 of 870,000 Palestinians
in the territory remained, forming a
Palestinian minority in Israel.<ref
name="unccp">{{cite web |author=United
Nations General Assembly |date=August 23,
1951
|url=https://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/b792
301807650d6685256cef0073cb80/93037e3b939746d
e8525610200567883?OpenDocument
|title=General Progress Report and
Supplementary Report of the United Nations
Conciliation Commission for Palestine
|format=OpenDocument |access-date=May 3,
+ In 1917, the [[Balfour Declaration]]
established Britain's support for the
movement. In 1922, the [[Mandate for
Palestine]], governed by Britain,
explicitly privileged Jewish settlers over
the local population. In 1948, after the
end of the British Mandate, the [[State of
Israel]] [[Israeli Declaration of
Independence|declared its independence]]
and [[1948 Arab–Israeli War|war]] broke
out. During the war, Israel expanded its
territory to control over 78% of former
Mandatory Palestine. As a result of the
[[1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight]],
an estimated 160,000 of 870,000
Palestinians in the territory remained,
forming a [[Arab citizens of
Israel|Palestinian minority in Israel]].
<ref name="unccp">{{Cite web
|title=A/1367/Rev.1 of 23 October 1950
|format=OpenDocument
|url=https://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/b792
301807650d6685256cef0073cb80/93037e3b939746d
e8525610200567883?OpenDocument |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/202112291615 19/https://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/b79230
1807650d6685256cef0073cb80/93037e3b939746de8
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 13/341 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/201108221238 36/http://unispal.un.org/unispal.nsf/b792301
807650d6685256cef0073cb80/93037e3b939746de85
25610200567883?OpenDocument |archivedate=August 22, 2011}}</ref> 525610200567883?OpenDocument |archivedate=December 29, 2021 |access-date=January 28, 2026 |website=unispal.un.org |publisher=
[[United Nations]] |url-status=live }}
</ref>
− The Zionist mainstream has historically
included [[Liberal Zionism|Liberal]],
[[Labor Zionism|Labor]], [[Revisionist
Zionism|Revisionist]], and [[Cultural
Zionism]], while groups like [[Brit Shalom
(political organization)|Brit Shalom]] and
[[Ihud]] have been dissident factions
within the movement.{{sfn|Gorny|1987|p=
{{page needed|date=October 2024}}}}
[[Religious Zionism]] is a variant of
Zionist ideology that brings together
secular nationalism and religious
conservatism. Advocates of Zionism have
viewed it as a national [[liberation
movement]] for the [[repatriation]] of an
[[Indigenous peoples|indigenous people]]
(who were subject to [[Persecution of
Jews|persecution]] and share a [[national
identity]] through [[National
identity#National consciousness|national
consciousness]]), to the [[homeland]] of
their [[History of ancient Israel and
Judah|ancestor]]s.{{sfn|Troen|2007|p=}}
{{pn|date=March 2025}}
{{sfn|Aaronson|1996|p=}}{{pn|date=March
2025}}{{sfn|Cohen|2011|p=}}{{pn|date=March
2025}} Criticism of Zionism often
characterizes it as a [[supremacist]],
{{sfn|Sabbagh-Khoury|2023|loc=Conclusion}}
{{sfn|Beinart|2025}}{{sfn|Jamal|2019|pp=193–
220}} [[colonialist]],<ref name="CHARCOL">
{{bulleted list|
+ Zionist views have varied over time and are
not uniform, resulting in a variety of
[[types of Zionism]].<ref>{{bulleted list|
{{harvnb|Dubnov|2011|p=}}:{{page
needed|date=March 2025}} "Relatively recent
examples of the search for this "core" idea
in Zionism (which tends to label
ideological diversity as "heresy" or
"deviation") can be found in Gorny and
Netzer, "'Avodat ha-hoveh ha-murhevet'";
Halpern and Reinharz, ''Zionism and the
Creation of a New Society''; and Shimoni,
''The Zionist Ideology''. Older studies
that are based on a similar presupposition
include Heller, ''The Zionist Idea'', and
most famously Hertzberg, ''The Zionist
Idea''."|{{harvnb|Gorny|1987}}|
{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|loc="Main Zionist
Streams and Jewish Traditions"|pp=119–160}}|
{{harvnb|Stanislawski|2017}}{{page
needed|date=January 2025}}|
{{harvnb|Penslar|2023|p=36}}|
{{harvnb|Seidler|2012|p=176}} "conflicting
founding designs...express the formative
ideological background underlying the very
idea of the State of Israel."|
{{harvnb|Boyarin|2025|pp=137–160}}}: "What
we call Zionism, despite the existence of a
World Zionist Organization and then a
Zionist state, is in fact a catchall for
numerous, often contradictory currents of
thought."|{{harvnb|Shoham|2013}}|
{{harvnb|Shindler|2015|p=}}:{{page
needed|date=January 2025}} "Zionism was
never a monolithic movement. It would be
more correct to speak of a range of
different varieties of Zionism. Herzl's
General Zionism immediately began to flow
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 14/341 into different ideological streams."}}
</ref> The Zionist mainstream has
historically included [[Liberal
Zionism|Liberal]], [[Labor Zionism|Labor]],
[[Revisionist Zionism|Revisionist]], and
[[Cultural Zionism]], while groups like
[[Brit Shalom (political organization)|Brit
Shalom]] and [[Ihud]] have been dissident
factions within the movement.
{{sfn|Gorny|1987|p={{page
needed|date=October 2024}}}} [[Religious
Zionism]] is a variant of Zionist ideology
that brings together secular nationalism
and religious conservatism. Advocates of
Zionism have viewed it as a national
[[liberation movement]] for the
[[repatriation]] of an [[indigenous
people]] (who were subject to [[Persecution
of Jews|persecution]] and share a
[[national identity]] through [[national
consciousness]]), to the [[homeland]] of
their [[History of ancient Israel and
Judah|ancestor]]s.{{sfn|Troen|2007|pp=873–
875}}{{sfn|Aaronson|1996|pp=215, 224}}
{{sfn|Cohen|2011|pp=118, 120, 128}} [[AntiZionism|Opponents of Zionism]] often characterize it as a [[supremacist]],
{{sfn|Sabbagh-Khoury|2023|loc=Conclusion}}
{{sfn|Beinart|2025}}{{sfn|Jamal|2019|pp=193–
220}} [[colonialist]],<ref name="CHARCOL">
{{bulleted list|
| {{harvnb|Shafir|Peled|2002|pp=37–38}} | {{harvnb|Shafir|Peled|2002|pp=37–38}} | {{harvnb|Bareli|2003|pp=99–116}} | {{harvnb|Bareli|2003|pp=99–116}} | {{harvnb|Pappé|2004|pp=72–121}} | {{harvnb|Pappé|2004|pp=72–121}} | {{harvnb|Prior|1997|pp=106–215}} | {{harvnb|Prior|1997|pp=106–215}} −
| {{harvnb|Shafir|1999|pp=}}{{pn|date=March
2025}} +
| {{harvnb|Shafir|1999|pp=}}{{page
needed|date=March 2025}}
| Lustick, Ian, ''For the Land and the
Lord'' ...{{full citation
needed|date=January 2025}}
| Lustick, Ian, ''For the Land and the
Lord'' ...{{full citation
needed|date=January 2025}}
| {{harvnb|Zuriek|1979|p=}}{{page
needed|date=January 2025}}
| {{harvnb|Zuriek|1979|p=}}{{page
needed|date=January 2025}}
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 15/341 Line 46: Line 32:
| {{harvnb|Pappé|2006|pp=}}{{page
needed|date=January 2025}}
| {{harvnb|Pappé|2006|pp=}}{{page
needed|date=January 2025}}
| {{harvnb|Masalha|2007|p=16}} | {{harvnb|Masalha|2007|p=16}} − | {{harvnb|Thomas|2011|p=4}}
| {{harvnb|Prior|1999|p=240}} | {{harvnb|Prior|1999|p=240}} −
}}</ref> [[Zionist racism|racist]],<ref
name=CHARRAS>
+
}}</ref> or [[Zionist racism|racist]]
ideology,<ref name=CHARRAS>{{bulleted list|
+
| {{harvnb|Kayyali|1979|p=}}{{page
needed|date=July 2025}}
−
* ''Zionism, imperialism, and race'', Abdul
Wahhab Kayyali, ʻAbd al-Wahhāb Kayyālī
(Eds), [[Croom Helm]], 1979
+ | {{harvnb|Gerson|1987|p=68}}
−
* Gerson, Allan, "The United Nations and
Racism: the Case of Zionism and Racism", in
''Israel Yearbook on Human Rights 1987,
Volume 17; Volume 1987, Yoram Dinstein,
Mala Tabory (Eds)'', Martinus Nijhoff
Publishers, 1988, p. 68
+ | {{harvnb|Hadawi|1991|p=183}}
−
* Hadawi, Sami, ''Bitter harvest: a modern
history of Palestine'', Interlink Books,
1991, p. 183
−
* Beker, Avi, ''Chosen: the history of an
idea, the anatomy of an obsession'',
Macmillan, 2008, pp. 131, 139, 151
+
| {{cite book |last=Beker |first=Avi
|date=2008|title=Chosen: the history of an
idea, the anatomy of an obsession
|publisher=Macmillan |pages=131, 139, 151}}
+ | Quoting Mr. Abouchaer of Syria, on p. 31:
{{Cite periodical |last1=Carey |first1=John
|last2=Carey |first2=Henry F.
|title=Hostility in United Nations Bodies
to Judaism, as the Jewish People and Jews
as Such |journal=Israel Yearbook on Human
Rights |date=1987 |volume=17 |editor1-
first=Yoram |editor1-last=Dinstein |editor2-
first=Mala |editor2-last=Tabory
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 16/341 |publisher=The Faculty of Law, Tel Aviv
University / Martinus Nijhoff Publishers /
Kluwer Academic Publishers |pages=29–40
|lccn=72-955544 |issn=0333-5925 |isbn=90-
247-3646-3 |id=[[HeinOnline]]
[https://heinonline-org.proxyum.researchport.umd.edu/HOL/Page? collection=intyb&handle=hein.intyb/isryhr001
7&id=31&men_tab=srchresults isryhr0017].}}
−
* Dinstein, Yoram, ''Israel Yearbook on
Human Rights 1987, Volume 17; Volume
1987'', pp. 31, 136
+
| Citing Soviet ideology, on p. 136: {{Cite
periodical |last=Korey |first=William
|title=The Kremlin and the UN Zionism
Equals Racism Resolution |journal=Israel
Yearbook on Human Rights |date=1987
|volume=17 |editor1-first=Yoram |editor1-
last=Dinstein |editor2-first=Mala |editor2-
last=Tabory |publisher=The Faculty of Law,
Tel Aviv University / Martinus Nijhoff
Publishers / Kluwer Academic Publishers
|pages=133–148 |lccn=72-955544 |issn=0333-
5925 |isbn=90-247-3646-3 |id=[[HeinOnline]]
[https://heinonline-org.proxyum.researchport.umd.edu/HOL/Page? collection=intyb&handle=hein.intyb/isryhr001
7&id=136&men_tab=srchresults isryhr0017].}}
−
* Harkabi, Yehoshafat, ''Arab attitudes to
Israel'', pp. 247–248</ref> or
[[exceptionalist]] ideology or as a
[[Zionism as settler colonialism|settler
colonialist]] movement.<ref>See for
example: {{harvnb|Alam|2009}}, or
{{harvnb|Gould-Wartofsky|2010}}</ref><ref>
{{bulleted list|
+
| Harkabi, Yehoshafat, ''Arab attitudes to
Israel'', pp. 247–248{{full citation
needed|date=July 2025}}
+ }}</ref> or as a [[Zionism as settler
colonialism|settler colonialist]] movement.
<ref>See for example: {{harvnb|Alam|2009}},
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 17/341 or {{harvnb|Gould-Wartofsky|2010}}</ref>
<ref>{{bulleted list|
| {{harvnb|Masalha|2007|p=314}} | {{harvnb|Masalha|2007|p=314}} | {{harvnb|Curthoys|Ganguly|2007|p=
[https://books.google.com/books?
id=crIxjc564_AC&pg=PA315 315]}}
| {{harvnb|Curthoys|Ganguly|2007|p=
[https://books.google.com/books?
id=crIxjc564_AC&pg=PA315 315]}}
Line 61: Line 48:
}}</ref> }}</ref>
+ == Etymology and terminology ==
− == Terminology ==
+ The word ''[[Zion]]'' itself derives from
[[Mount Zion]], which is a hill in
[[Jerusalem]] and a term used in the
[[Hebrew Bible]].{{sfn|Pixner|2010|pp=320–
322}}{{sfn|Neusner|1991|p=469}} It has been
used poetically as a [[synecdoche]] to
refer to the Land of Israel since the
period of the [[Babylonian Exile]], with
particular importance in Jewish messianic
belief.{{sfn|Harel|1977|pp=194–195}}
{{sfn|Davidi|Stillman|Landau|Yehuda|2010}}
The term also appeared in political
contexts in antiquity, including on [[First
Jewish–Roman War|coinage]] issued during
the [[First Jewish Revolt]] against Roman
rule.{{sfn|Goodblatt|2006|pp=202–203|ps=:
"Nevertheless, it appears to me at least
possible that the Judean rebels of 66–70,
with their emphasis on Jerusalem and its
temple, created the first Zionist movement.
That is, they used the name "Zion" to
express and invoke Jewish nationalism...
Perhaps it wa the widely circulating "small
change" that was intended to carry the goal
of the rebels to the masses. That goal was
the freedom of Zion. Better yet, perhaps
both the silver and the bronze coinage
carrid the message of the rebel leaders. If
so, their attempt to mobilize the masses to
fight for what the Zionist anthem Hatiqvah
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 18/341 calls "the land of Zion and Jerusalem,"
justifies our characterizing the ideology
of the rebels as ancient Zionism – or Zion
nationalism."}} The messianic conception of
"Zion" was utilized by the Rabbi [[Zvi
Hirsch Kalischer]], who wrote ''Seeking
Zion'' in 1862, a [[proto-Zionist]] text
which was the first written work to demand
that the Jews migrate en-masse to Palestine.
{{sfn|Laqueur|2009|pp=54}}
{{sfn|Bloomberg|2004|p=161}}
−
The first time the term "[[Zion]]" was
associated with a mass movement was as the
{{lang|he-latn|[[Lovers of Zion|Hovevei
Zion]]}} (lit. 'Lovers of Zion'), also
known as the {{lang|he-latn|Hibbat Zion}}
(lit. 'Love of Zion'), came together at the
1884 [[Katowice Conference]], inspired by
[[Leon Pinsker]]'s pamphlet ''[[AutoEmancipation]]''. The first use of the term as an [[-ism]] is attributed to the
Austrian [[Nathan Birnbaum]], in an 1890
article in his periodical {{lang|de|SelbstEmancipation}}, itself named after Pinsker's pamphlet.<ref>{{bulleted list|
+
+
The first time the term "Zion" was
associated with a mass movement was with
the {{lang|he-latn|[[Hovevei Zion]]}} (lit.
'Lovers of Zion'), also known as the
{{lang|he-latn|Hibbat Zion}} (lit. 'Love of
Zion'), who came together at the 1884
[[Katowice Conference]], inspired by [[Leon
Pinsker]]'s pamphlet ''[[AutoEmancipation]]''. The first use of the term as an [[-ism]] is attributed to the
Austrian [[Nathan Birnbaum]], in an 1890
article in his periodical {{lang|de|SelbstEmancipation}}, itself named after Pinsker's pamphlet.<ref>{{bulleted list|
| {{harvnb|Shindler|2015|p=55}} | {{harvnb|Shindler|2015|p=55}} −
| {{harvnb|Fishman|1985|p=}}{{pn|date=March
2025}} +
| {{harvnb|Fishman|1985|p=}}{{page
needed|date=March 2025}}
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 19/341 | {{harvnb|Kühntopf-Gentz|1990|p=39}}:
{{lang|de|"Nathan Birnbaum wird immer
wieder als derjenige erwähnt, der die
Begriffe "Zionismus" und "zionistisch"
eingeführt habe, auch sieht er es selbst
so, obwohl er es später bereut und Bedauern
darüber äußert, wie die von ihm geprägten
Begriffe verwendet werden. Das Wort
"zionistisch" erscheint bei Birnbaum zuerst
in einem Artikel der "Selbst-Emancipation"
vom 1 April 1890: "Es ist zu hoffen, dass
die Erkenntnis der Richtigkeit und
Durchführbarkeit der zionistischen Idee
stets weitere Kreise ziehen und in der
Assimilationsepoche anerzogene Vorurteile
beseitigen wird""}} ["Nathan Birnbaum is
repeatedly mentioned as the person who
introduced the terms "Zionism" and
"Zionist", and he himself sees it that way,
although he later regrets it and expresses
regret about how the terms he coined are
used. The word "Zionist" first appears in
Birnbaum's article in "Selbst-Emancipation"
on April 1, 1890: "It is to be hoped that
the recognition of the correctness and
feasibility of the Zionist idea will
continue to spread and eliminate prejudices
acquired during the assimilation era.""]
| {{harvnb|Kühntopf-Gentz|1990|p=39}}:
{{lang|de|"Nathan Birnbaum wird immer
wieder als derjenige erwähnt, der die
Begriffe "Zionismus" und "zionistisch"
eingeführt habe, auch sieht er es selbst
so, obwohl er es später bereut und Bedauern
darüber äußert, wie die von ihm geprägten
Begriffe verwendet werden. Das Wort
"zionistisch" erscheint bei Birnbaum zuerst
in einem Artikel der "Selbst-Emancipation"
vom 1 April 1890: "Es ist zu hoffen, dass
die Erkenntnis der Richtigkeit und
Durchführbarkeit der zionistischen Idee
stets weitere Kreise ziehen und in der
Assimilationsepoche anerzogene Vorurteile
beseitigen wird""}} ["Nathan Birnbaum is
repeatedly mentioned as the person who
introduced the terms "Zionism" and
"Zionist", and he himself sees it that way,
although he later regrets it and expresses
regret about how the terms he coined are
used. The word "Zionist" first appears in
Birnbaum's article in "Selbst-Emancipation"
on April 1, 1890: "It is to be hoped that
the recognition of the correctness and
feasibility of the Zionist idea will
continue to spread and eliminate prejudices
acquired during the assimilation era.""]
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 20/341 | {{cite book |url=http://sammlungen.ub.unifrankfurt.de/cm/3092765 |title=SelbstEmancipation: Zeitschrift für die nationalen, socialen und politischen
Interessen des jüdischen Stammes; Organ der
Zionisten: (1.4.1890). 1890 Heft 1
(1.4.1890). Wien |date=August 13, 1890
|language=de |trans-title=SelfEmancipation: Journal for the national, social and political interests of the
Jewish tribe; Organ of the Zionists:
(1.4.1890). 1890 Issue 1 (1.4.1890). Vienna
|access-date=July 7, 2023 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/202307080901 45/https://sammlungen.ub.unifrankfurt.de/cm/3092765 |archive-date=July 8, 2023 |url-status=live |via=Digitale
Sammlungen}}
| {{cite book |url=http://sammlungen.ub.unifrankfurt.de/cm/3092765 |title=SelbstEmancipation: Zeitschrift für die nationalen, socialen und politischen
Interessen des jüdischen Stammes; Organ der
Zionisten: (1.4.1890). 1890 Heft 1
(1.4.1890). Wien |date=August 13, 1890
|language=de |trans-title=SelfEmancipation: Journal for the national, social and political interests of the
Jewish tribe; Organ of the Zionists:
(1.4.1890). 1890 Issue 1 (1.4.1890). Vienna
|access-date=July 7, 2023 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/202307080901 45/https://sammlungen.ub.unifrankfurt.de/cm/3092765 |archive-date=July 8, 2023 |url-status=live |via=Digitale
Sammlungen}}
+
}}</ref> Birnbaum used the term "Zionism"
in reference to the activities of the
Lovers of Zion.{{sfn|Perez|2023|p=25}}<ref>
{{cite book |author=<!-- not stated -->
|date=2018 |title=The Zionist Ideas Visions
for the Jewish Homeland—Then, Now, Tomorrow
|url=https://books.google.com/books?
id=5VtPDwAAQBAJ&dq=Nathan+Birnbaum+1890+%22z
ionism%22&pg=PR38 |location=
|publisher=Jewish Publication Society
|page=xxxviii |isbn=9780827612556}}</ref>
In 1893, Birnbaum published ''The National
Rebirth of The Jewish People in its Own
Land'', which advocated for the Jews to
migrate to Palestine. In the same year,
Birnbaum founded "Zion: Union of Austrian
Societies for the Colonization of Palestine
and Syria", to carry out his proposals.
{{sfn|Wilkinson|2008|p=7}}
{{sfn|Robertson|2001|p=479}}
{{sfn|Pauley|2000|p=54}}
−
}}</ref> This form was subsequently
popularized by Herzl in convening the 1897
[[First Zionist Congress]] and the [[World
Zionist Organization|Zionist Organization]]
founded there.{{sfn|Historical Section of
the Foreign Office|1920|p=21}}
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 21/341 +
The paramount Zionist leader [[Theodor
Herzl]] was unaware of Birnbaum's original
usage of the term before popularizing the
term "Zionism" himself. In Herzl's diary
entries between 1895 and early 1896, he
originally used the term "Zionist" to
describe others, and not himself. Herzl
used the term "Zionist" to describe those
in the Lovers of Zion, who Herzl saw as
fellow Jewish nationalists, but without a
concrete plan. When Herzl published
{{lang|de|[[Der Judenstaat]]}} in 1896, he
used the term "Zionist" in the text, often
in a critical light, to describe emigration
advocates like the Lovers of Zion.
{{sfn|Penslar|2023|pp=37–38}}
{{sfn|Penslar|2020|p=93}} In {{lang|de|
[[Der Judenstaat]]}}, Herzl called for the
creation of a Jewish state, an idea which
he claimed was "an ancient one" that he did
not "discover".{{sfn|Laqueur|2009|pp=84}}
After the publication of {{lang|de|Der
Judenstaat}}, Birnbaum wrote a review of
the book, attributing its success to the
author proudly embracing Zionism, but also
criticized the cultural proposals of Herzl.
Birnbaum quickly struck up a correspondence
with Herzl, and gave him a copy of ''The
National Rebirth of The Jewish People in
its Own Land'', as a sort of Zionist
education.{{sfn|Olson|2013|pp=70–75}}
− ''Zion'' or [[Mount Zion]] is a hill in
[[Jerusalem]] and a term used in the
[[Hebrew Bible]].{{sfn|Pixner|2010|pp=320–
322}}{{sfn|Neusner|1991|p=469}} It has been
used poetically as a [[synecdoche]] to
refer to the Land of Israel since the
period of the [[Babylonian
captivity|Babylonian Exile]], with
particular importance in Jewish messianic
belief.{{sfn|Harel|1977|pp=194–195}}<ref>
{{Cite encyclopedia |last1=Davidi
|first1=Avi |last2=Stillman |first2=Norman
A. |last3=Landau |first3=Jacob M.
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 22/341 |last4=Yehuda |first4=Zvi |last5=Erbahar
|first5=Aksel |title=Zionism Among
Sephardi/Mizraḥi Jewry |editor-first=Norman
A. |editor-last=Stillman
|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Jews in the
Islamic World |publisher=[[Brill
Publishers|Brill]] |doi=10.1163/1878-
9781_ejiw_com_0022680}}</ref>
+
+
Herzl did not begin self-identifying as a
"Zionist" until months after the
publication of {{lang|de|Der Judenstaat}}.
{{sfn|Penslar|2020|p=93}} Herzl's usage of
"Zionism" was later popularized when
convening the 1897 [[First Zionist
Congress]] and the [[Zionist Organization]]
founded there.{{sfn|Historical Section of
the Foreign Office|1920|p=21}}
== Beliefs == == Beliefs ==
===National self-determination=== ===National self-determination=== {{See also|Nationalism|Rise of nationalism
in Europe|Self-determination}}
{{See also|Nationalism|Rise of nationalism
in Europe|Self-determination}}
− Fundamental to Zionism is the belief that
Jews constitute a nation, and have a moral
and historic right and need for [[national
self-determination|self-determination]] in
[[Palestine (region)|Palestine]].{{efn|"The
basic assumption regarding the right of
Jews to Palestine—a right that required no
proof—was a fundamental component of all
Zionist programs. In contrast with other
prospective areas for Jewish settlement,
such as Argentina or East Africa, it was
generally believed that no one could deny
the right of the Jews to their ancestral
land. Even Ahad Ha-Am, the eternal skeptic,
commented that this was 'a land to which
our historical right is beyond doubt and
has no need for farfetched proofs.' Others,
such as Lilienblum, did not even think it
necessary to dwell on this matter."
+ Fundamental to Zionism is the belief that
Jews constitute a nation, and have a moral
and historic right and need for [[selfdetermination]]. In contrast to the Zionist notion of nationhood the Judaic sense of
being a nation was rooted in religious
beliefs of unique chosenness and divine
providence, rather than in ethnicity.
Specifically, prayers emphasized
distinctiveness from other nations where a
connection to [[Eretz Israel]] and the
anticipation of restoration were based on
messianic beliefs and religious practices,
not modern nationalist conceptions.
{{sfn|Rabkin|2006|loc=A New Identity}}
{{page needed|date=August 2025}}
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|p=53}}
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 23/341 {{sfn|Shapira|1992|p=41}}}} This belief
developed out of the experiences of
European Jewry, which the early Zionists
believed demonstrated the danger inherent
to their status as a minority. In contrast
to the Zionist notion of nationhood, the
Judaic sense of being a nation was rooted
in religious beliefs of unique chosenness
and divine providence, rather than in
ethnicity. Specifically, prayers emphasized
distinctiveness from other nations where a
connection to [[Eretz Israel]] and the
anticipation of restoration were based on
messianic beliefs and religious practices,
not modern nationalist conceptions.
{{sfn|Rabkin|2006|loc=A New Identity}}
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|p=53}}
−
=== Claim to a Jewish demographic majority
and a Jewish state in Palestine === +
=== A Jewish home and state in Palestine ===
+ {{Main|Homeland for the Jewish people}}
−
The Zionist claim to Palestine was based on
the notion that Jews had a historical right
to the land that outweighed the
[[Palestinian nationalism|nationalistic
rights]] of the local Arabs.<ref>{{bulleted
list|
+
+ {{Further|Proposals for a Jewish state}}
+
+ Early Zionism was ambiguous about the form
self-determination might take. While some
texts spoke of a "Jewish state", others
spoke only of a "Jewish homeland" (as in
the Zionist movement's Basel declaration)
or "national home for the Jewish people"
(the term used in the Balfour Declaration),
usually under the sovereignty of the
Ottoman and, later, the British Empire.
According to [[Shlomo Avineri]], it was
only in the 1930s that a sovereign state
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 24/341 rather than home became the fully
articulated goal.<ref>{{cite web
|last=Avineri |first=Shlomo |title=SelfDetermination and Israel's Declaration of Independence |website=Jerusalem Center for
Security and Foreign Affairs |date=April
30, 2025
|url=https://jcpa.org/article/israelsdecaration-of-independence/ |accessdate=August 20, 2025 |quote=The history of the Zionist movement is fraught with
paradoxes and ambiguities regarding its
ultimate political aim. Theodor Herzl's
foundational document Der Judenstaat (1896)
referred explicitly to statehood, yet the
Basel Declaration issued at the First
Zionist Congress in 1897 judiciously
avoided such explicit language: after much
discussion it settled on stating that
"Zionism aims at achieving in Palestine a
Jewish homeland, secured by public law."
And in Herzl's utopian novel Altneuland
(1902), which described how a Jewish
society in the Land of Israel would look in
1923, its precise status within and vis-avis the Ottoman Empire is left somewhat nebulous – though Herzl's clarion call in
Basel ("We are a nation") clearly suggested
where Zionism was ultimately heading. The
reasons for this ambiguity were obvious:
while the fundamental subtext of Zionism
was to aim at a Jewish state, the
geopolitics of the period and the region
called for a careful approach. Herzl's aim,
despite numerous disappointments, was to
try to obtain from the Ottoman Sultan a
charter for Jewish immigration, settlement,
and practical self-government. The
diplomatic contacts of the Zionist movement
– not only with the Sublime Porte in
Constantinople but also with the German
Kaiser, the British government, Russian
ministers, and numerous other statesmen –
were aimed at achieving such a de facto
control of Palestine, regardless of the
exact legal formula – a chartered company,
autonomy or the like. This ambiguity
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 25/341 continued also when Britain became the
hegemonic power in the region. The Balfour
Declaration was the first major
international victory for Zionism, but its
careful language spoke merely of
"establishing in Palestine a national home
for the Jewish people," hedging this with
an assurance that this would "not prejudice
the civil and religious rights of the nonJewish communities" in the country. These formulations were incorporated in 1922 into
the text of the League of Nations Mandate
to Great Britain, and consequently were
naturally interpreted in different ways by
Zionists, various British administrations,
and of course the Arabs in Palestine.}}
</ref>
+
+ Similarly, some early Zionists, including
Herzl, considered [[Sixth Zionist
Congress|possibilities]] for a Jewish
national home or state outside Palestine,
for example in the Americas or Africa. In
1905 (after Herzl's death), a majority of
the Zionist Congress voted against the
proposal to settle in East Africa, and the
supporters of this proposal, led by
[[Israel Zangwill]], split from the
movement to form the [[Jewish Territorial
Organization]].<ref name="h552">{{cite
magazine |last=Almagor |first=Laura
|title=The Movement That Imagined a Jewish
Homeland Without the State of Israel
|magazine=[[New Lines Magazine]]
|date=December 15, 2023
|url=https://newlinesmag.com/essays/themovement-that-imagined-a-jewish-homelandwithout-the-state-of-israel/ |accessdate=August 27, 2025 |archive-url= |archivedate=}}</ref><ref name="m783">{{cite book |last=Almagor |first=Laura |title=Routledge
Handbook on Zionism |chapter=Jewish
Territorialism and 'Other Zions' |publisher=
[[Routledge]] |publication-place=London
|date=May 8, 2024 |isbn=978-1-003-31235-2
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 26/341 |doi=10.4324/9781003312352-23
|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/978
1003312352/chapters/10.4324/9781003312352-
23 |access-date=August 27, 2025 |pages=225–
236}}</ref>
+
+
Over time, the belief that Jews have a
moral and historic right and need for selfdetermination in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] became the dominant
Zionist view.{{efn|"The basic assumption
regarding the right of Jews to Palestine—a
right that required no proof—was a
fundamental component of all Zionist
programs. In contrast with other
prospective areas for Jewish settlement,
such as Argentina or East Africa, it was
generally believed that no one could deny
the right of the Jews to their ancestral
land. Even Ahad Ha-Am, the eternal skeptic,
commented that this was 'a land to which
our historical right is beyond doubt and
has no need for farfetched proofs.' Others,
such as Lilienblum, did not even think it
necessary to dwell on this matter."
{{sfn|Shapira|1992|p=41}}}} Zionists
believed that the Jewish claim to Palestine
outweighed that of the local Arabs.<ref
name="OutweighedArabsBundle">{{bulleted
list|
| {{harvnb|Gorny|1987|p=210}}: "This set of
assumptions was intended to stress the
equal status of the Jews vis-à-vis the rest
of the world, and to provide the basis for
their superior right to Palestine."
| {{harvnb|Gorny|1987|p=210}}: "This set of
assumptions was intended to stress the
equal status of the Jews vis-à-vis the rest
of the world, and to provide the basis for
their superior right to Palestine."
| {{harvnb|Shapira|1992|pp=41–42}}: "The
basic assumption regarding the right of
Jews to Palestine—a right that required no
proof—was a fundamental component of all
Zionist programs. In contrast with other
prospective areas for Jewish settlement,
such as Argentina or East Africa, it was
generally believed that no one could deny
the right of the Jews to their ancestral
| {{harvnb|Shapira|1992|pp=41–42}}: "The
basic assumption regarding the right of
Jews to Palestine—a right that required no
proof—was a fundamental component of all
Zionist programs. In contrast with other
prospective areas for Jewish settlement,
such as Argentina or East Africa, it was
generally believed that no one could deny
the right of the Jews to their ancestral
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 27/341 land... The slogan 'A land without a people
for a people without a land' was common
among Zionists at the end of the
nineteenth, and the beginning of the
twentieth, century. It contained a
legitimation of the Jewish claim to the
land and did away with any sense of
uneasiness that a competitor to this claim
might appear."
land... The slogan 'A land without a people
for a people without a land' was common
among Zionists at the end of the
nineteenth, and the beginning of the
twentieth, century. It contained a
legitimation of the Jewish claim to the
land and did away with any sense of
uneasiness that a competitor to this claim
might appear."
Line 84: Line 83:
| {{harvnb|Alam|2009}}: "Zionism was a
messianic movement to restore Palestine to
its divinely appointed Jewish owners...
Conversely, the Palestinian, whether his
ancestors were the ancient Canaanites or
Hebrews, would forfeit all rights to his
lands; he had become a usurper."
| {{harvnb|Alam|2009}}: "Zionism was a
messianic movement to restore Palestine to
its divinely appointed Jewish owners...
Conversely, the Palestinian, whether his
ancestors were the ancient Canaanites or
Hebrews, would forfeit all rights to his
lands; he had become a usurper."
| {{harvnb|Sternhell|1999}}: "Like all
Zionists, Gordon did not recognize the
principle of majority rule, and he refused
to acknowledge the right of the majority to
'take from us what we have acquired through
our work and creativity.' Moreover, he had
confidence in the spiritual vitality of the
Yishuv, its energy and motivation, and
believed it was supported by the entire
Jewish people. In 1921, he spoke in much
stronger terms than he had between 1909 and
1918: 'For Eretz Israel, we have a charter
that has been valid until now and that will
always be valid, and that is the Bible, and
not only the Bible.'... And now came the
decisive argument: 'And what did the Arabs
produce in all the years they lived in the
country? Such creations, or even the
creation of the Bible alone, give us a
perpetual right over the land in which we
were so creative, especially since the
people that came after us did not create
such works in this country, or did not
create anything at all.' The founders
accepted this point of view. This was the
ultimate Zionist argument."
| {{harvnb|Sternhell|1999}}: "Like all
Zionists, Gordon did not recognize the
principle of majority rule, and he refused
to acknowledge the right of the majority to
'take from us what we have acquired through
our work and creativity.' Moreover, he had
confidence in the spiritual vitality of the
Yishuv, its energy and motivation, and
believed it was supported by the entire
Jewish people. In 1921, he spoke in much
stronger terms than he had between 1909 and
1918: 'For Eretz Israel, we have a charter
that has been valid until now and that will
always be valid, and that is the Bible, and
not only the Bible.'... And now came the
decisive argument: 'And what did the Arabs
produce in all the years they lived in the
country? Such creations, or even the
creation of the Bible alone, give us a
perpetual right over the land in which we
were so creative, especially since the
people that came after us did not create
such works in this country, or did not
create anything at all.' The founders
accepted this point of view. This was the
ultimate Zionist argument."
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 28/341 +
}}</ref> After suffering as a minority in
Europe and the Middle East, establishing a
Jewish state, with a Jewish majority,
became a focus of the Zionist movement.
Zionist organizations encouraged
immigration to Palestine, and antisemitism
produced a strong push factor.<ref
name="majority">{{bulleted list|
−
}}</ref> The establishment of a Jewish
demographic majority was an essential
aspect of Zionism.<ref>{{bulleted list|
+
| {{harvnb|Morris|2001|p=14}}: "The reality
of Jewish life, when most of the world's
Jews lived in the European part of the
Russian Empire known as the 'Pale of
Settlement,' running from Memel in the
north to Crimea on the Black Sea, was one
of continuous discrimination and insecurity
and occasional oppression and violence. The
historian Elie Kedourie once spoke of the
"deep insult of diaspora life." Basic
freedoms—of movement, place of residence,
language, occupation, and worship—were
severely curtailed or regulated by the
state. The restrictions, including
prohibition of landownership, assured the
impoverishment and socioeconomic immobility
of most Jews in the Pale. During the midnineteenth century, Jews were subjected to a brutal system of twenty-five-year
military conscription, which occasionally
entailed the virtual kidnapping of their
children at the age of twelve, or even sometimes at eight or nine, and their attempted conversion to Christianity by the
authorities in special preparatory military
schools. Indeed, an official Rus-sian
government commission in 1888 defined the
Jews' condition as one of "repression and
disenfranchisement, discrimination and
persecution." The impulse to Zionism arose
out of and was a product of this reality."
− | {{harvnb|Ben-Ami|2007|p=22}}: "Zionism is
both a struggle for land and a demographic
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 29/341 race; in essence, the aspiration for a
territory with a Jewish majority."
− | {{harvnb|Gorny|1987}}
−
| {{harvnb|Morris|2001}}: "Zionism had
always looked to the day when a Jewish
majority would enable the movement to gain
control over the country: The Zionist
leadership had never posited Jewish
statehood with a minority of Jews ruling
over a majority of Arabs, apartheidstyle."
−
| {{harvnb|Pappé|2006}}: "Already in the
late nineteenth century Zionism had
identified the 'population problem' as the
major obstacle for the fulfillment of its
dream."
− }}</ref>
−
−
After suffering as a minority in Europe and
the Middle East, establishing a Jewish
state, with a Jewish majority, became a
focus of the Zionist movement.<ref>
{{bulleted list|
− | {{harvnb|Morris|2001|p=14}}: "The reality
of Jewish life, when most of the world's
Jews lived in the European part of the
Russian Empire known as the 'Pale of
Settlement,' running from Memel in the
north to Crimea on the Black Sea, was one
of continuous discrimination and insecurity
and occasional oppression and violence. The
historian Elie Kedourie once spoke of the
"deep insult of diaspora life." Basic
freedoms—of movement, place of residence,
language, occupation, and worship—were
severely curtailed or regulated by the
state. The restrictions, including
prohibition of landownership,assured the
impoverishment and socioeconomic immobility
of most Jews in the Pale. During the midnineteenth century, Jews were subjected to a brutal system of twenty-five-year
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 30/341 military conscription, which occasionally
entailed the virtual kidnapping of their
children at the age of twelve, or even sometimes at eight or nine, and their attempted conversion to Christianity by the
authorities in special preparatory military
schools. Indeed, an official Rus-sian
government commission in 1888 defined the
Jews' condition as one of "repression and
disenfranchisement, discrimination and
persecution." The impulse to Zionism arose
out of and was a product of this reality."
| {{harvnb|Meir-Glitzenstein|2004|p=11}}
"The bloodshed [of the ''[[Farhud]]'']
prompted many of [the Jewish youth] to turn
their backs on traditional leadership and
its conservative policy and to seek a
radical solution to the Jewish problem in
Iraq. The revolutionary fervour of youth
led in two different directions: the Jewish
national direction, which took them to the
Zionist movement; and the socialist
direction, which brought them to the
Communist Party."
| {{harvnb|Meir-Glitzenstein|2004|p=11}}
"The bloodshed [of the ''[[Farhud]]'']
prompted many of [the Jewish youth] to turn
their backs on traditional leadership and
its conservative policy and to seek a
radical solution to the Jewish problem in
Iraq. The revolutionary fervour of youth
led in two different directions: the Jewish
national direction, which took them to the
Zionist movement; and the socialist
direction, which brought them to the
Communist Party."
−
| {{harvnb|Laskier|1994|pp=85–86}}: "The
Vichy period ''did'' stimulate a growing
segment of pro-Zionist youths and young
adults in [[Moroccan Jews|Morocco]] and the
rest of the [[Maghrebi Jews|Maghrib]] to
engage in active Zionism ({{lang|helatn|tsīyonut magshīma}}) leading to ʿaliya. [...]<br/>
+
| {{harvnb|Laskier|1994|pp=85–86}}: "The
Vichy period ''did'' stimulate a growing
segment of pro-Zionist youths and young
adults in [[Moroccan Jews|Morocco]] and the
rest of the [[Maghrebi Jews|Maghrib]] to
engage in active Zionism ({{lang|helatn|tsīyonut magshīma}}) leading to ʿaliya. [...]<br />
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 31/341 "The decision in the Yishuv to dispatch the
special emissaries to North Africa and to
other Arabic-speaking countries from 1943
onward in order to organize youth ʿaliya as
well as self-defense, was supported by
these and several other leaders in the
Maghrib. The latter felt that the
experience of 1940–42, the German
occupation of Tunisia, the ''farhūd''
(pogrom) in Iraq of June 1941—in which 179
Jews were slaughtered by pro-Nazi Muslim
groups—necessitated the formation of selfdefense units to guard the communities." "The decision in the Yishuv to dispatch the
special emissaries to North Africa and to
other Arabic-speaking countries from 1943
onward in order to organize youth ʿaliya as
well as self-defense, was supported by
these and several other leaders in the
Maghrib. The latter felt that the
experience of 1940–42, the German
occupation of Tunisia, the ''farhūd''
(pogrom) in Iraq of June 1941—in which 179
Jews were slaughtered by pro-Nazi Muslim
groups—necessitated the formation of selfdefense units to guard the communities." | {{harvnb|Miccoli|2015|p=149}} "With the
Arab revolt in Palestine in 1936 and the
radicalisation in an anti-Jewish sense of
part of the Egyptian sociopolitical arena,
a more significant number of Jews started
to become interested in Zionism and to
worry about the situation of Jews in
Palestine and – because of the dramatic
news that arrived and thanks to the
activities of a group like the
{{lang|fr|Ligue contre l'Antisémitisme
Allemand}} – in Europe as well."
| {{harvnb|Miccoli|2015|p=149}} "With the
Arab revolt in Palestine in 1936 and the
radicalisation in an anti-Jewish sense of
part of the Egyptian sociopolitical arena,
a more significant number of Jews started
to become interested in Zionism and to
worry about the situation of Jews in
Palestine and – because of the dramatic
news that arrived and thanks to the
activities of a group like the
{{lang|fr|Ligue contre l'Antisémitisme
Allemand}} – in Europe as well."
+ }}</ref>
− }}</ref> Zionist organizations encouraged
immigration to Palestine, and anti-Semitism
produced a strong push factor.{{cn|date=May
2025}} Israeli historian [[Yosef Gorny]]
argues that this demographic change
required annulling the majority status of
the Arabs.<ref>{{harvnb|Gorny|1987}}: "This
was potentially a much more dangerous
situation than the struggle of two peoples
maintaining a constant balance of forces
between them for the same territory.The
logical, and even inevitable, corollary of
the aspiration towards territorial
concentration was the desire to create a
Jewish majority in Palestine. Without it,
Zionism would forfeit its meaning, since
the history of Exile had demonstrated the
danger inherent in perpetual minority
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 32/341 status. Thus, the desire for a Jewish
majority was the key issue in the
implementation of Zionism, implying a basic
change in the international standing of the
Jewish people and marking a turning-point
in their history. The significance of this
demand, and of the untiring endeavour to
realize it in various ways, lay in the
annulling of the majority standing of the
Arabs of Palestine. The roots of the JewishArab confrontation, therefore, are embedded in the incessant process of disturbance of
the status quo ante as regards national
status in Palestine."</ref> Gorny argues
that the Zionist movement regarded Arab
motives in Palestine as lacking both moral
and historical significance.
{{sfn|Gorny|1987|p=251}} According to
Israeli historian Simha Flapan, the view
expressed by the proclamation "[[there was
no such thing as Palestinians]]" is a
cornerstone of Zionist policy.
{{sfn|Flapan|1979|p=12}} This perspective
was also shared by those on the far-left of
the Zionist movement, including [[Martin
Buber]] and other members of Brit Shalom,
after the Holocaust.
{{sfn|Jacobs|2017|p=274|ps=: "In fact Buber
also shared the common European Orientalist
perspective, by which the local Arabs did
not really have a national concern and may
be appeased by the cultural and economic
benefits that will accrue from Jewish
immigration to Palestine."}}{{efn|"When
faced with the apocalyptic dimensions of
the Jewish catastrophe, the Holocaust, even
Brit-Shalom Ihud moved to endorse first the
necessity of demographic parity between
Jews and Arabs in Palestine, and then, as
'a necessary evil', the idea of a Jewish
independent state, that is the partition of
Palestine. It was no longer the time for
moral scruples or guilt feelings towards
the dispossessed Arab population. This is
how a Brit-Shalom Ihud, non-Zionist member
of the Jewish Agency, Werner Senator, put
it: 'If I weigh the catastrophe of five
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 33/341 million Jews against the transfer of one
million Arabs, then with a clean and easy
conscience I can state that even more
drastic acts are permissible.{{' "}}
{{sfn|Ben-Ami|2007}}}} [[Judah Leon
Magnes|Judah Magnes]], even after the
Holocaust, continued to support a
binational state, even one imposed by the
Great Powers, but was unable to find any
Arab interlocutors.<ref>{{bulleted list|
+
−
| {{harvnb|Morris|2013|pp=51–52}}: "The
problem with binationalism, however—apart
from main-stream Zionist opposition—was
that Brit Shalom and Magnes could find no
Arab partners, or even interlocutors, who
shared the binational vision or hope. As
Magnes succinctly put it as early as 1932:
"Arabs will not sit on any committee with
Jews [...] [Arab] teachers [...] teach
children more and more Jew-hatred." In this
sense, things only got worse with the
passage of time, the deepening of the
Arabs’ political consciousness, and the
increase in Jewish immigration."
+
=== Claim to a Jewish demographic majority
===
− | {{harvnb|Morris|2013|p=55}}: "By midWorld War II Magnes realized that an openended international mandate was no longer feasible. He had despaired of ever reaching
substantive Jewish-Arab negotiations or
agreement and decided that the only
solution would be an externally imposed
“union between the Jews and the Arabs
within a binational Palestine.” Further, he
determined, this union would need to be
subsumed or incorporated in a wider
economic and political "union of Palestine,
Transjordan, Syria and Lebanon" and linked
to and guaranteed by an "Anglo-American
union." And the binational state would have
to be "imposed [on the Jews and Arabs] over
their opposition” by the United States and
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 34/341 Britain. The binational state would need to
be based on "parity," in terms of political
power, between the two constituent groups,
in order to guarantee the rights of
whichever group was in the minority.<br/>
+
{{see also|Demographic history of Palestine
(region)}}
−
"By mid-1948, with the first Arab-Israeli
war in full swing, Magnes was deeply
pessimistic. He feared an Arab victory:
"there are millions upon millions of
Muslims in the world [...] They have time.
The timelessness of the desert." An Arab
ambush on 13 April 1948 of a Jewish convoy
bearing doctors and nurses traveling
through East Jerusalem to the Hebrew
University–Hadassah Medical School campus
on Mount Scopus—in which seventy-eight were
slaughtered—was in effect the final nail in
the coffin of Magnes's binationalism. It
was not that he publicly recanted. But he
understood that it was a lost cause—and
that his own standing in the Yishuv had
been irreparably shattered."
+
The establishment of a Jewish demographic
majority was an essential aspect of Zionism.
<ref>{{bulleted list|
+
| {{harvnb|Ben-Ami|2007|p=22}}: "Zionism is
both a struggle for land and a demographic
race; in essence, the aspiration for a
territory with a Jewish majority."
+
| {{harvnb|Gorny|1987|p=176}}: "For the
three large groups [of the Zionist
movement: The Revsionists, Weitzmanists and
Labourites], the constant struggle for a
Jewish majority in Palestine as the
condition for the realization of Zionism
and the sole guarantee of the national
character of Jewish society in Palestine,
remained the supreme objective."
+ | {{harvnb|Morris|2001|p=947}}:"Zionism had
always looked to the day when a Jewish
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 35/341 majority would enable the movement to gain
control over the country: The Zionist
leadership had never posited Jewish
statehood with a minority of Jews ruling
over a majority of Arabs, apartheidstyle."
+
| {{harvnb|Pappé|2006}}:{{page
needed|date=August 2025}} "Already in the
late nineteenth century Zionism had
identified the 'population problem' as the
major obstacle for the fulfillment of its
dream."
+ }}</ref> Israeli historian [[Yosef Gorny]]
argues that this demographic change
required annulling the majority status of
the Arabs.<ref>{{harvnb|Gorny|1987}}:{{page
needed|date=August 2025}} "This was
potentially a much more dangerous situation
than the struggle of two peoples
maintaining a constant balance of forces
between them for the same territory. The
logical, and even inevitable, corollary of
the aspiration towards territorial
concentration was the desire to create a
Jewish majority in Palestine. Without it,
Zionism would forfeit its meaning, since
the history of Exile had demonstrated the
danger inherent in perpetual minority
status. Thus, the desire for a Jewish
majority was the key issue in the
implementation of Zionism, implying a basic
change in the international standing of the
Jewish people and marking a turning-point
in their history. The significance of this
demand, and of the untiring endeavour to
realize it in various ways, lay in the
annulling of the majority standing of the
Arabs of Palestine. The roots of the JewishArab confrontation, therefore, are embedded in the incessant process of disturbance of
the status quo ante as regards national
status in Palestine."</ref> Gorny argues
that the Zionist movement regarded Arab
motives in Palestine as lacking both moral
and historical significance.
{{sfn|Gorny|1987|p=251}} According to
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 36/341 Israeli historian [[Simha Flapan]], the
view expressed in [[Golda Meir]]'s 1969
interview comment that "[[there was no such
thing as Palestinians]]" is a cornerstone
of Zionist policy.{{sfn|Flapan|1979|p=12}}
After the Holocaust, even those on the farleft of the Zionist movement, including [[Martin Buber]] and other members of Brit
Shalom, did not see the Arabs as having an
equally weighty claim to nationhood in
Palestine,{{sfn|Jacobs|2017|p=274|ps=: "In
fact Buber also shared the common European
Orientalist perspective, by which the local
Arabs did not really have a national
concern and may be appeased by the cultural
and economic benefits that will accrue from
Jewish immigration to Palestine."}} and
sought demographic parity.{{efn|"When faced
with the apocalyptic dimensions of the
Jewish catastrophe, the Holocaust, even
Brit-Shalom Ihud moved to endorse first the
necessity of demographic parity between
Jews and Arabs in Palestine, and then, as
'a necessary evil', the idea of a Jewish
independent state, that is the partition of
Palestine. It was no longer the time for
moral scruples or guilt feelings towards
the dispossessed Arab population.{{' "}}
{{sfn|Ben-Ami|2007}}}} [[Judah Magnes]],
even after the Holocaust, continued to
support a binational state, even one
imposed by the Great Powers, but was unable
to find any Arab interlocutors.<ref>
{{bulleted list|
+ | {{harvnb|Morris|2013|pp=51–52}}: "The
problem with binationalism, however—apart
from main-stream Zionist opposition—was
that Brit Shalom and Magnes could find no
Arab partners, or even interlocutors, who
shared the binational vision or hope. As
Magnes succinctly put it as early as 1932:
"Arabs will not sit on any committee with
Jews [...] [Arab] teachers [...] teach
children more and more Jew-hatred." In this
sense, things only got worse with the
passage of time, the deepening of the
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 37/341 Arabs' political consciousness, and the
increase in Jewish immigration."
+
| {{harvnb|Morris|2013|p=55}}: "By midWorld War II Magnes realized that an openended international mandate was no longer feasible. He had despaired of ever reaching
substantive Jewish-Arab negotiations or
agreement and decided that the only
solution would be an externally imposed
"union between the Jews and the Arabs
within a binational Palestine." Further, he
determined, this union would need to be
subsumed or incorporated in a wider
economic and political "union of Palestine,
Transjordan, Syria and Lebanon" and linked
to and guaranteed by an "Anglo-American
union." And the binational state would have
to be "imposed [on the Jews and Arabs] over
their opposition" by the United States and
Britain. The binational state would need to
be based on "parity," in terms of political
power, between the two constituent groups,
in order to guarantee the rights of
whichever group was in the minority.<br />
+
"By mid-1948, with the first Arab–Israeli
war in full swing, Magnes was deeply
pessimistic. He feared an Arab victory:
"there are millions upon millions of
Muslims in the world [...] They have time.
The timelessness of the desert." An Arab
ambush on 13 April 1948 of a Jewish convoy
bearing doctors and nurses traveling
through East Jerusalem to the Hebrew
University–Hadassah Medical School campus
on Mount Scopus—in which seventy-eight were
slaughtered—was in effect the final nail in
the coffin of Magnes's binationalism. It
was not that he publicly recanted. But he
understood that it was a lost cause—and
that his own standing in the Yishuv had
been irreparably shattered."
}}</ref> British officials supporting the
Zionist effort also held similar beliefs.
{{efn|Lord Balfour would write, "Zionism,
be it right or wrong, good or bad, is
}}</ref> British officials supporting the
Zionist effort also held similar beliefs.
{{efn|Lord Balfour would write, "Zionism,
be it right or wrong, good or bad, is
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 38/341 rooted in age-long traditions, in present
needs, in future hopes, of far greater
import than the desires and prejudices of
the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that
ancient land."{{sfn|Khalidi|2006|p=252}}}}
{{efn|While Secretary of State for the
Colonies, Winston Churchill spoke to the
Peel Commission: "I do not admit that the
dog in the manger has the final right to
the manger, even though he may have lain
there for a very long time. I do not admit
that right. I do not admit, for instance,
that a great wrong has been done to the Red
Indians of America, or the black people of
Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has
been done to those people by the fact that
a stronger race, a higher grade race, or,
at any rate, a more worldly-wise race, to
put it that way, has come in and taken
their place."
{{sfn|White|2012|loc=Introduction}}}}<ref>
{{bulleted list|
rooted in age-long traditions, in present
needs, in future hopes, of far greater
import than the desires and prejudices of
the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that
ancient land."{{sfn|Khalidi|2006|p=252}}}}
{{efn|While Secretary of State for the
Colonies, Winston Churchill spoke to the
Peel Commission: "I do not admit that the
dog in the manger has the final right to
the manger, even though he may have lain
there for a very long time. I do not admit
that right. I do not admit, for instance,
that a great wrong has been done to the Red
Indians of America, or the black people of
Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has
been done to those people by the fact that
a stronger race, a higher grade race, or,
at any rate, a more worldly-wise race, to
put it that way, has come in and taken
their place."
{{sfn|White|2012|loc=Introduction}}}}<ref>
{{bulleted list|
| {{harvnb|White|2012|loc=Introduction}} | {{harvnb|White|2012|loc=Introduction}} Line 115: Line 116:
}}</ref> }}</ref>
− Zionists used the term "transfer" as a
euphemism for the removal, or what would
now be called [[ethnic cleansing]], of the
Palestinian population.<ref>
{{harvnb|Masalha|2014}}: "In the 1930s and
1940s the Zionist leadership found it
expedient to euphemize, using the term
"transfer" or "ha'avara" – the Hebrew
euphemism for ethnic cleansing – one of
most enduring themes of Zionist settlercolonization (see below). Other themes included demographic transformation of the
land and physical separation between the
immigrant-settlers and the indigenous
inhabitants of Palestine. All these
colonizing themes were central to Zionist
muscular nationalism, with its rejection of
+ Zionists used the term "transfer" as a
euphemism for the removal, or what would
now be called [[ethnic cleansing]], of the
Palestinian population.<ref>
{{harvnb|Masalha|2014}}: "In the 1930s and
1940s the Zionist leadership found it
expedient to euphemize, using the term
"transfer" or "ha'avara" – the Hebrew
euphemism for ethnic cleansing – one of
most enduring themes of Zionist settlercolonization (see below). Other themes included demographic transformation of the
land and physical separation between the
immigrant-settlers and the indigenous
inhabitants of Palestine. All these
colonizing themes were central to Zionist
muscular nationalism, with its rejection of
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 39/341 both liberal forms of universalism and
Marxism, along with individual rights and
class struggle. Instead, Zionism gave
precedence to the realization of its
ethnocratic völkisch project: the
establishment of a biblically ordained
state."</ref> According to [[Benny
Morris]], the idea of transfer played a
large role in Zionist ideology from the
inception of the movement and was seen as
the main method of maintaining the
"Jewishness" of the Zionist's state.<ref>
{{harvnb|Morris|2001}}: "The idea of
transferring the Arabs out of the Jewish
State area to the Arab state area or to
other Arab states was seen as the chief
means of assuring the stability of the
'Jewishness' of the proposed Jewish State"
</ref> He explains that "transfer" was
"inevitable and inbuilt into Zionism" and
that a land that was primarily Arab could
not be transformed into a Jewish state
without displacing the Arab population.<ref>
{{harvnb|Morris|2004|p=}}: "transfer was
inevitable and inbuilt into Zionism—because
it sought to transform a land which was
'Arab' into a 'Jewish' state and a Jewish
state could not have arisen without a major
displacement of Arab population; and
because this aim automatically produced
resistance among the Arabs which, in turn,
persuaded the Yishuv's leaders that a
hostile Arab majority or large minority
could not remain in place if a Jewish state
was to arise or safely endure."</ref>
Further, the stability of the Jewish state
could not be ensured given the Arab
population's fear of displacement. He
explains that this would be the primary
source of conflict between the Zionist
movement and the Arab population.
{{sfn|Finkelstein|2012|pp=259–260}}
both liberal forms of universalism and
Marxism, along with individual rights and
class struggle. Instead, Zionism gave
precedence to the realization of its
ethnocratic völkisch project: the
establishment of a biblically ordained
state."</ref> According to [[Benny
Morris]], the idea of transfer played a
large role in Zionist ideology from the
inception of the movement and was seen as
the main method of maintaining the
"Jewishness" of the Zionist's state.<ref>
{{harvnb|Morris|2001}}: "The idea of
transferring the Arabs out of the Jewish
State area to the Arab state area or to
other Arab states was seen as the chief
means of assuring the stability of the
'Jewishness' of the proposed Jewish State"
</ref> He argues that "transfer" was
"inevitable and inbuilt into Zionism" and
that a land that was primarily Arab could
not be transformed into a Jewish state
without displacing the Arab population.<ref>
{{harvnb|Morris|2004|p=}}: "transfer was
inevitable and inbuilt into Zionism—because
it sought to transform a land which was
'Arab' into a 'Jewish' state and a Jewish
state could not have arisen without a major
displacement of Arab population; and
because this aim automatically produced
resistance among the Arabs which, in turn,
persuaded the Yishuv's leaders that a
hostile Arab majority or large minority
could not remain in place if a Jewish state
was to arise or safely endure."</ref>
Further, the stability of the Jewish state
could not be ensured given the Arab
population's fear of displacement. He
argues that this would be the primary
source of conflict between the Zionist
movement and the Arab population.
{{sfn||Morris|1999|p=37}}
The concept of "transfer" had a long
pedigree in Zionist thought, as it was
The concept of "transfer" had a long
pedigree in Zionist thought, as it was
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 40/341 considered both moral and practical, as a
way to deal with the Palestinian problem,
create a Jewish homeland and avoid ethnic
conflict.<ref>{{bulleted list|
considered both moral and practical, as a
way to deal with the Palestinian problem,
create a Jewish homeland and avoid ethnic
conflict.<ref>{{bulleted list|
Line 121: Line 122:
|{{harvnb|Morris|1999|p=140}}: "Moreover,
transfer was seen as a highly moral
solution. The Zionist leaders felt that the
Jews' need for a country with empty spaces
able to absorb future immigrants morally
outweighed the rights of the indigenous
Arabs—who were no different than their
brothers across the Jordan or Litani and
could relocate there with relative ease if
the transfer was well compensated and well
organized. The Arab states—principally
Transjordan, Syria, and Iraq—had vast
uninhabited areas and required additional
inhabitants for their own development. In
any event, separation was preferable to an
intermingling, which could only end in a
bloodbath."
|{{harvnb|Morris|1999|p=140}}: "Moreover,
transfer was seen as a highly moral
solution. The Zionist leaders felt that the
Jews' need for a country with empty spaces
able to absorb future immigrants morally
outweighed the rights of the indigenous
Arabs—who were no different than their
brothers across the Jordan or Litani and
could relocate there with relative ease if
the transfer was well compensated and well
organized. The Arab states—principally
Transjordan, Syria, and Iraq—had vast
uninhabited areas and required additional
inhabitants for their own development. In
any event, separation was preferable to an
intermingling, which could only end in a
bloodbath."
}} }}
− </ref>{{sfn|Ben-Ami|2007|p=25-26}}
{{sfn|Masalha|2012|loc=Chapter 1}} The
concept of removing the non-Jewish
population from Palestine garnered support
across the entire spectrum of Zionist
groups, eventually including its farthest
left factions, who, after realizing the
extent of the destruction of European
Jewry, viewed it as a lesser evil.
{{efn|group=fn|On this topic, Ben-Ami
writes: "This is how a Brit-Shalom Ihud,
non-Zionist member of the Jewish Agency,
Werner Senator, put it: 'If I weigh the
catastrophe of five million Jews against
the transfer of one million Arabs, then
with a clean and easy conscience I can
state that even more drastic acts are
permissible.{{' "}}{{sfn|BenAmi|2007|pp=}}}}<ref>
{{harvnb|Masalha|2014|loc=Chapter 2}}: "The
archival and documentary evidence shows
+ </ref>{{sfn|Ben-Ami|2007|p=25–26}}
{{sfn|Masalha|2012|loc=Chapter 1}} The
concept of removing the non-Jewish
population from Palestine garnered support
across the entire spectrum of Zionist
groups, eventually including its farthest
left factions, who, after realizing the
extent of the destruction of European
Jewry, viewed it as a lesser evil.
{{efn|group=fn|On this topic, Ben-Ami
writes: "This is how a Brit-Shalom Ihud,
non-Zionist member of the Jewish Agency,
Werner Senator, put it: 'If I weigh the
catastrophe of five million Jews against
the transfer of one million Arabs, then
with a clean and easy conscience I can
state that even more drastic acts are
permissible.{{' "}}{{sfn|Ben-Ami|2007|pp=}}
{{pn|date=January 2026}}}}<ref>
{{harvnb|Masalha|2014|pp=129–130}}: "The
archival and documentary evidence shows
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 41/341 that in the pre-1948 period,
"transfer"/ethnic cleansing was embraced by
the highest levels of Zionist leadership,
representing almost the entire political
spectrum. Nearly all the founding fathers
of the Israeli state advocated transfer in
one form or another, including Theodor
Herzl, Leon Motzkin, Nahman Syrkin, Menahem
Ussishkin, Chaim Weizmann, David BenGurion, Yitzhak Tabenkin, Avraham Granovsky, Israel Zangwill, Yitzhak BenTzvi, Pinhas Rutenberg, Aaron Aaronson, Vladmir Jabotinsky and Berl Katznelson
(Masalha, 1992). Supporters of "voluntary"
removal included Arthur Ruppin, a cofounder of Brit Shalom, a movement advocating bi-nationalism and equal rights
for Arabs and Jews; moderate leaders of
Mapai (later the Labour party) such as
Moshe Shertok and Eli'ezer Kaplan, Israel's
first finance minister; and leaders of the
Histadrut (Hebrew Labour Federation) such
as Golda Meyerson (later Meir) and David
Remez (Masalha, 1992)."</ref> Transfer
thought began early in the movement's
development in various forms.<ref>
{{bulleted list|
that in the pre-1948 period,
"transfer"/ethnic cleansing was embraced by
the highest levels of Zionist leadership,
representing almost the entire political
spectrum. Nearly all the founding fathers
of the Israeli state advocated transfer in
one form or another, including Theodor
Herzl, Leon Motzkin, Nahman Syrkin, Menahem
Ussishkin, Chaim Weizmann, David BenGurion, Yitzhak Tabenkin, Avraham Granovsky, Israel Zangwill, Yitzhak BenTzvi, Pinhas Rutenberg, Aaron Aaronson, Vladmir Jabotinsky and Berl Katznelson
(Masalha, 1992). Supporters of "voluntary"
removal included Arthur Ruppin, a cofounder of Brit Shalom, a movement advocating bi-nationalism and equal rights
for Arabs and Jews; moderate leaders of
Mapai (later the Labour party) such as
Moshe Shertok and Eli'ezer Kaplan, Israel's
first finance minister; and leaders of the
Histadrut (Hebrew Labour Federation) such
as Golda Meyerson (later Meir) and David
Remez (Masalha, 1992)."</ref> Transfer
thought began early in the movement's
development in various forms.<ref>
{{bulleted list|
| {{harvnb|Ben-Ami|2007|pp=25–26}} | {{harvnb|Ben-Ami|2007|pp=25–26}} | {{harvnb|Slater|2020|loc=''Transfer''}} | {{harvnb|Slater|2020|loc=''Transfer''}} Line 128: Line 129:
| {{harvnb|Segev|2001|pp=404–405}} | {{harvnb|Segev|2001|pp=404–405}} |
{{harvnb|Finkelstein|2016|loc=Introduction}}
|
{{harvnb|Finkelstein|2016|loc=Introduction}}
−
}}</ref> "Transfer" was not only seen as
desirable but also as an ideal solution by
some in the Zionist leadership, but it
remained controversial.<ref>{{bulleted list|
+
}}</ref> "Transfer" was seen not only as
desirable but also as an ideal solution by
some in the Zionist leadership, but it
remained controversial.<ref>{{bulleted list|
| {{harvnb|Finkelstein|2016|loc=Chapter 1}} | {{harvnb|Finkelstein|2016|loc=Chapter 1}} | {{harvnb|Shapira|1992|loc=The Shift to an
Offensive Ethos}}
| {{harvnb|Shapira|1992|loc=The Shift to an
Offensive Ethos}}
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}}</ref> }}</ref>
+
=== Perceived deficiencies of assimilation,
negation of diasporic life ===
−
=== Zionism, antisemitism and an
"existential need" for self-determination
===
+
{{further|Jewish assimilation|Negation of
the Diaspora}}
− From the perspective of some early Zionist
thinkers, Jews living amongst non-Jews
suffer from impediments that can be
addressed only by rejecting the Jewish
identity that developed [[Negation of the
Diaspora|while living amongst non-Jews]].
{{sfn|Engel|2021|p=}} Accordingly, the
early Zionists sought to develop a
nationalist Jewish political life in a
territory where Jews constitute a
demographic majority.{{sfn|Rabkin|2006}}
{{page needed|date=November 2024}}
{{sfn|Yadgar|2017}}{{page
needed|date=November 2024}}
{{efn|"Unsatisfactory and simplistic as
Pinsker's quasi-medical diagnosis may be,
it does try to address itself to the
exceptional conditions of Jewish existence.
If Jews are a nation and they continue to
exist as a nation despite the lack of the
effective attributes of national life, this
is an obvious anomaly, and an explanation
has to be found. Krochmal and Graetz tried
to explain this deviation from the norms of
universal historical development by
rearranging the conventional norms of
universal history itself. Pinsker lacks
this philosophical dimension of history,
and he therefore limits himself to stating
what he conceives as an anomaly and
attempting to suggest a clinical diagnosis
for it. Pinsker's diagnosis may appear
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 43/341 irrelevant, but his cure is radical. If the
nations of the world see the Jew as a soul
without a body, a shadowless Ahasver, an
eternal Wandering Jew, lacking real,
corporeal existence, the cure surely has to
be radical. If the Jews are hated because
they have no homeland, normalization will
become possible only if they acquire one.
Were this to happen, then the nations of
the world would view the Jews as normal
human beings and would consequently lose
their inordinate fear of them. No concrete,
real attribute of the Jews causes
Judeophobia; it is the abnormality of the
Jews being somewhere between a national
existence and a lack of a real foundation
for that existence. For the Jews to appear
like any other people they need a homeland,
Pinsker argues: then everybody will relate
to them as normal people and Judeophobia
will wither away."
{{harvnb|Avineri|2017|loc=Chapter 7}}}} The
early Zionist thinkers saw the integration
of Jews into non-Jewish society as both
unrealistic (or insufficient to address the
deficiencies associated with demographic
minority status) and undesirable, since
assimilation was accompanied by the
dilution of Jewish cultural distinctiveness.
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Chapter 1}} The
Zionist solution to the perceived
deficiencies of diasporic life (or the "
[[Jewish Question]]") was dependent on the
territorial concentration of Jews in
Palestine, with the longer-term goal of
establishing a Jewish demographic majority
there.{{sfn|Gorny|1987|loc=Introduction}}
{{sfn|Finkelstein|2016|loc=Chapter 1}}
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Chapter 1}}
+
+ From the perspective of some early Zionist
thinkers, Jews living amongst non-Jews
suffer from impediments that can be
addressed only by rejecting the Jewish
identity that developed [[Negation of the
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 44/341 Diaspora|while living amongst non-Jews]].
{{sfn|Engel|2021|p=}} Accordingly, the
early Zionists sought to develop a
nationalist Jewish political life in a
territory where Jews constitute a
demographic majority.{{sfn|Rabkin|2006}}
{{page needed|date=November 2024}}
{{sfn|Yadgar|2017|pp=180, 221}}<ref>
{{harvnb|Avineri|2017|loc=Chapter 7}}:
"Unsatisfactory and simplistic as Pinsker's
quasi-medical diagnosis may be, it does try
to address itself to the exceptional
conditions of Jewish existence. If Jews are
a nation and they continue to exist as a
nation despite the lack of the effective
attributes of national life, this is an
obvious anomaly, and an explanation has to
be found. Krochmal and Graetz tried to
explain this deviation from the norms of
universal historical development by
rearranging the conventional norms of
universal history itself. Pinsker lacks
this philosophical dimension of history,
and he therefore limits himself to stating
what he conceives as an anomaly and
attempting to suggest a clinical diagnosis
for it. Pinsker's diagnosis may appear
irrelevant, but his cure is radical. If the
nations of the world see the Jew as a soul
without a body, a shadowless Ahasver, an
eternal Wandering Jew, lacking real,
corporeal existence, the cure surely has to
be radical. If the Jews are hated because
they have no homeland, normalization will
become possible only if they acquire one.
Were this to happen, then the nations of
the world would view the Jews as normal
human beings and would consequently lose
their inordinate fear of them. No concrete,
real attribute of the Jews causes
Judeophobia; it is the abnormality of the
Jews being somewhere between a national
existence and a lack of a real foundation
for that existence. For the Jews to appear
like any other people they need a homeland,
Pinsker argues: then everybody will relate
to them as normal people and Judeophobia
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 45/341 will wither away."</ref> The early Zionist
thinkers saw the integration of Jews into
non-Jewish society as both unrealistic (or
insufficient to address the deficiencies
associated with demographic minority
status) and undesirable, since assimilation
was accompanied by the dilution of Jewish
cultural distinctiveness.
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Chapter 1}} The
Zionist solution to the perceived
deficiencies of diasporic life (or the "
[[Jewish Question]]") was dependent on the
territorial concentration of Jews in
Palestine, with the longer-term goal of
establishing a Jewish demographic majority
there.{{sfn|Gorny|1987|loc=Introduction}}
{{sfn|Finkelstein|2016|loc=Chapter 1}}
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Chapter 1}}
+
+
[[Negation of the Diaspora]] is a concept
that asserts that Jews living in [[Jewish
diaspora|the Diaspora]]—that is, outside of
the [[Land of Israel]]—are in an
environment that is inherently harmful and
so must be fixed to ensure the survival and
the cohesion of the [[Jewish
peoplehood|Jews as a people]], often to the
extent that the Jewish people have no
future without amassing at their "spiritual
centre" in the Land of Israel.
{{sfn|Schweid|1996|p=133}}
+
+
==== Zionism and secular Jewish identity
====
+ Zionism sought to reconfigure Jewish
identity and culture in nationalist and
secular terms.
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Zionism as Secular
Jewish Identity}}<ref>
{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|p=2}}: "Indeed,
Zionism has celebrated itself as the
modernization of the Jews, manifested in
the dual revolution of allegedly
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 46/341 secularizing Jewish identity and
nationalizing, or politicizing it."</ref>
According to [[Yaacov Yadgar]], Zionism
rejected traditional Judaic definitions of
what it means to be Jewish, but struggled
to offer a new interpretation of Jewish
identity independent of rabbinical
tradition. Yagdar argues that Jewish
religion is viewed as an essentially
negative factor in Zionism, even in
religious Zionist ideology, and as
responsible for the diminishing status of
Jews living as a minority.
{{sfn|Yadgar|2017|loc=Zionism, Jewish
"Religion," and Secularism}} Responding to
the challenges of modernity, Zionism sought
to replace religious and community
institutions with secular-nationalistic
ones.<ref>Avineri, cited in
{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|p=72}}</ref> Indeed,
Zionism maintained primarily the outward
symbols of Jewish tradition, redefining
them in a nationalistic context.
{{sfn|Rabkin|2006|loc=A New Identity}}
{{sfn|Penslar|2023|pp=18–23}} Zionism saw
itself as bringing Jews into the modern
world by redefining what it means to be
Jewish in terms of identification with a
sovereign state, rather than Judaic faith
and tradition.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
+
+ This new identity would be based on a
rejection of the life of exile. Zionism
portrayed the Diaspora Jew as mentally
unstable, physically frail, and prone to
engaging in transient businesses. They were
seen as detached from nature, purely
materialistic, and focused solely on their
personal gains. In contrast, the vision for
the new Jew was radically different: an
individual of strong moral and aesthetic
values, not shackled by religion, driven by
ideals and willing to challenge degrading
circumstances; a liberated, dignified
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 47/341 person eager to defend both personal and
national pride.<ref>
{{harvnb|Shapira|2014}}: "This poem,
published in Warsaw, epitomizes the youth
rebellion that was part of the Zionist
experience. Old Judaism seemed aged and
ailing, lacking relevance to the new world
dawning in the wake of World War One. The
old Jew, the Jew of the Diaspora, was
depicted as psychologically flawed,
physically weak, inclined toward
luftgesheftn (lit., "air business", meaning
peddling, acting as middlemen, and engaging
in other ephemeral trades), a stranger to
nature and anything natural and
spontaneous, materialistic and incapable of
acting on anything but his or her own
immediate interests. The new Jew was to be
the complete opposite: an ethical,
aesthetic person guided by ideals who
rebels against a debasing reality; a free,
proud individual ready to fight for his or
her own and the nation's honor. Yearning
for freedom and equality among peoples,
admiring nature, beauty, and open spaces,
the new Jew relinquished the pleasures of a
hypocritical, bourgeois world shackled by
outdated conventions and sought the
challenge of a life in which dedication to
the collective was congruent with
maintaining inner truth and a life of
simplicity, honesty, and self-realization.
The new Jew aspired to equality, justice,
and truth in human relations, and was
prepared to die for them."</ref> This was
the "New Jew" posited by Nordau's
[[Muscular Judaism]] and later the
pioneering "[[Sabra (person)|Sabra]]"
celebrated in Israeli nationalism - not the
feminine, over-intellectual, [[Social
degeneration|degenerate]] ''Luftmenschen''
(people of air) of the diaspora, as Nordau
characterised them.{{sfn|Haynie|2009}}
{{sfn|Berg|2017}}{{sfn|Mosse|1992|p=}}
{{page needed|date=August 2025}}
+
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 48/341 + According to Yadgar, the Zionist goal of
reframing of Jewish identity in secularnationalist terms meant primarily the decline of the status of religion in the
Jewish community.<ref>
{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|p=68}}: "This
secularization means primarily the "decline
of the status of religion in the Jewish
community"7 and a gradual "liberation" from
the shackles of "religious tradition"."
</ref> Prominent Zionist
thinkers{{who|date=July 2025}} frame the
development of secular identity as
nationalism functionally serving the same
role as religion.<ref>
{{harvnb|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction,
Notes}}: "Zionism was the most fundamental
revolution in Jewish life. It substituted a
secular self-identity of the Jews as a
nation for the traditional and Orthodox
self-identity in religious terms. It
changed a passive, quietistic, and pious
hope of the Return to Zion into an
effective social force, moving millions of
people to Israel. It transformed a language
relegated to mere religious usage into a
modern, secular mode of intercourse of a
nation-state... This does not mean that
Israel is a substitute for Jewish religion,
only that functionally it plays a role
similar to that of religion in preEmancipation days. For Jews today who are still religious in the traditional sense,
religion has a deep collective existential
meaning. But since not all Jews can
identify today with the religious symbols,
religion is merely a partial focus of
identity, and Israel, more than any other
factor, now plays this unifying role."
</ref> Zionism sought to make Jewish
[[Ethnic nationalism|ethnic-nationalism]]
the distinctive trait of Jews rather than
their commitment to Judaism.
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995}}{{page
needed|date=November 2024}} According to
Yadgar, Zionism instead adopted a racial
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 49/341 understanding of Jewish identity.<ref>
{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|p=4}}: "Failing (or
neglecting) to offer a fully-fledged
national identity that would be independent
from rabbinical readings of Jewish
identity, yet zealously rebelling against
rabbinical authority and "religion" in
general, Zionism was left with a racial
notion of Jewish identity: Tautologically,
echoing antisemitic notions of Jewishness,
it would argue that a Jew, simply, is a
Jew; that Jewishness is something some-one
is born with. One does not choose it, nor
can one rid oneself of his Jewishness; it
is in one's "blood"."</ref>{{page
needed|date=November 2024}} According to
Yadgar, framed this way (for instance by
[[A. B. Yehoshua]]), Jewish identity is
only secondarily a matter of tradition or
culture.<ref>{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|pp=192–
193, 202}}: "The author, essayist, and
public intellectual A. B. Yehoshua is one
of the more committed and outspoken
spokespersons of the State of Israel's
political theology. As such, Yehoshua also
functions as an influential formulator of
the ideological bed upon which statist
Jewishness is founded... Yehoshua's reply
to this criticism repeats the claim that
Jewish political sovereignty renders
assimilation impossible and guarantees, no
matter what, that meaningful Jewish content
is to be produced. For him, "the cultural
matter" is secondary, and as such not
deserving of judgment. Political
sovereignty, on the other hand, is primary
and absolute: Jewishness is not only
culture and not only religion."</ref> Nur
Masalha says Zionist thinkers view the
movement as a "revolt against a tradition
of many centuries" of living parasitically
at the margins of Western society. Indeed,
he says, Zionism{{when|date=July 2025}} was
uncomfortable with the term "Jewish,"
associating it with passivity, spirituality
and the stain of "galut". Instead, Zionist
thinkers preferred the term "Hebrew" to
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 50/341 describe their identity. Zionism linked the
term "Jewish" with negative characteristics
prevalent in European anti-Semitic
stereotypes, which Zionists believed could
be remedied only through sovereignty.
{{sfn|Masalha|2012|loc=Chapter 1}}
+
+ === Revival of the Hebrew language ===
+ {{Main|Revival of the Hebrew language}}
+
+ {{See also|Modern Hebrew}}
+
[[File:Portrait of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
(cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Eliezer Ben-Yehuda]]
(1858–1922), founder and leader of the
movement to [[Revival of the Hebrew
language|revive the Hebrew language]], is
considered the father of [[Modern Hebrew]].
{{sfn|Mandel|2005|pp=85}}]]
+ The revival of the Hebrew language in
Eastern Europe as a secular literary medium
marked a significant cultural shift among
Jews, who per Judaic tradition used Hebrew
only for religious purposes.<ref>
{{harvnb|Rabkin|2006}}: "The political
movement of Zionism was preceded in Eastern
Europe by a revival of the Hebrew language
as a nonreligious, literary medium. Jews
always used Hebrew in their prayers and
religious writings, but this was a revival
of Hebrew as a language of novels and
poems, polemical articles, and journalistic
feuilletons. This development was an
anathema to the rabbis who saw in it a
desecration of the Holy Tongue. The origins
of this movement are found in ethnically
mixed Lithuania and later in Galicia, where
the German Kultursprache of the Austrian
rulers contended with both Polish and
Ukrainian (Ruthenian) nationalism.
Secularized, modern Jews began to ask for
the origins of their culture, for the roots
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 51/341 of their history; to extol the glories of
Jerusalem; to ask whether they should not
look into their own past just as members of
other groups were doing."</ref> The primary
motivator for establishing modern Hebrew as
a national language was the sense of
legitimacy it gave the movement, by
suggesting a connection between the Jews of
ancient Israel and the Jews of the Zionist
movement.{{sfn|Dieckhoff|2003|pp=104}}
These developments are seen in Zionist
historiography as a revolt against
tradition, with the development of Modern
Hebrew providing the basis on which a
Jewish cultural renaissance might develop.
{{sfn|Rabkin|2006}}
+
+
The [[revival of the Hebrew language]] and
the establishment of [[Modern Hebrew]] is
most closely associated with the linguist
[[Eliezer Ben-Yehuda]] and the Committee of
the Hebrew Language (later replaced by the
[[Academy of the Hebrew Language]]).
{{sfn|Fellman|2011|p=7}}
{{sfn|Blau|1981|p=33}}
+
+ === Conquest of labor ===
+ {{main|Hebrew labor}}
+
+ In the early 20th century a more
ideologically motivated wave of Zionist
immigrants arrived in Palestine. With them,
the Zionist movement began to emphasize the
so-called "conquest of labor", the belief
that the employment of exclusively Jewish
labor was the pre-condition for the
development of an independent Jewish
society in Palestine.
{{sfn|Gorny|1987|loc=Introduction}} The
goal was to build a "pure Jewish
settlement" in Palestine on the basis of
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 52/341 "100 per cent Jewish labor" and the claim
to an exclusively Jewish, highly productive
economy.{{sfn|Flapan|1979|loc=Jewish and
Arab Labour}}
{{sfn|Shafir|1996|loc=Conclusion}} The
Zionist leadership aimed to establish a
fully autonomous and independent Jewish
economic sector to create a new type of
Jewish society. This new society was
intended to reverse the traditional
economic structure seen in the Jewish
Diaspora, characterized by a high number of
middlemen and a scarcity of productive
workers. By developing fundamental sectors
such as industry, agriculture, and mining,
the goal was to "normalize" Jewish life
that had grown "abnormal" as a result of
living amongst non-Jews.
{{sfn|Flapan|1979|loc=The Policy of
Economic and Social Separation}} Most of
the Zionist leadership saw it as imperative
to employ strictly Jewish workers in order
to ensure the Jewish character of the
colonies. Another factor, according to
[[Benny Morris]], was the worry that
"employment of Arabs would lead to 'Arab
values' being passed on to Zionist youth
and nourish the colonists' tendency to
exploit and abuse their workers", as well
as security concerns.
{{sfn|Morris|1999|p=51|ps=: "Continued
employment of Arabs would lead to "Arab
values" being passed on to Zionist youth
and nourish the colonists' tendency to
exploit and abuse their workers. Moreover,
Arabs living in or on the periphery of
colonies were suspected of pilfering and of
passing information to hostile villagers
and officials."}}
+
+ The employment of exclusively Jewish labor
was also intended to avoid the development
of a national conflict in conjunction with
a class-based conflict.
{{sfn|Almog|1983|p=5}} The Zionist
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 53/341 leadership believed that by excluding Arab
workers they would stimulate class conflict
only within Arab society and prevent the
Jewish-Arab national conflict from
attaining a class dimension.
{{sfn|Flapan|1979|p=201}} While the Zionist
settlers of the [[First Aliyah]] had
ventured to create a "pure Jewish
settlement," they did grow to rely on Arab
labor due to the lack of availability of
Jewish laborers during this period.
{{sfn|Shafir|1996|pp=196–200}} With the
arrival of the more ideologically driven
settlers of the second aliyah, the idea of
"avoda ivrit" would become more central.
The future leaders of the Zionist movement
saw an existential threat in the employment
of Arab labor, motivating the movement to
work towards a society based on purely
Jewish labor.{{sfn|Shapira|1992|p=60}}
{{sfn|Shapira|2014|p=45-50}}
{{sfn|Morris|1999|loc=Chapter 2}}
=== Racial conceptions of Jewish identity
===
=== Racial conceptions of Jewish identity
===
{{main|Racial conceptions of Jewish
identity in Zionism}}
{{main|Racial conceptions of Jewish
identity in Zionism}}
− In the late 19th century, amid attempts to
apply science to notions of [[Race (human
categorization)|race]], the founders of
Zionism ([[Theodor Herzl]] and [[Max
Nordau]], among others) sought to
reformulate conceptions of [[Jewish
identity|Jewishness]] in terms of [[racial
identity]] and the [[scientific
racism|"race science" of the time]]. They
believed that this concept would allow them
to build a new framework for collective
Jewish identity,{{sfn|Avraham|2017|p=357}}
and thought that biology might provide
"proof" for the "ethnonational myth of
common descent" from the biblical [[land of
Israel]].{{sfn|Hirsch|2009|p=592}}
{{sfn|Doron|1980|p=404}} Countering
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 54/341 [[Antisemitism|antisemitic]] claims that
Jews were both aliens and a racially
inferior people, these Zionists drew on and
appropriated elements from various race
theories,{{sfn|Hart|1999|p=271}}
{{sfn|Avraham|2013|pp=355–357}}{{efn|"If
anything, the first decades of Zionism bear
out an affinity with some of the more
unsavoury 'regenerative' discourses of the
late nineteenth century, particularly
Social Darwinism, eugenics, nationalism,
and colonialism, precisely because Zionism
– partly as a project of self-legitimacy –
was both a Jewish response to and extension
of these very same discourses."
{{harv|Presner|2007|pp=1–23,4}}}} to argue
that only a [[First Zionist Congress#Basel
Program|home for the Jewish people]] could
enable the physical regeneration of the
Jewish people and a renaissance of pride in
their ancient cultural traditions.
{{sfn|Vogt|2015|pp=85–86}}
+ In the late 19th century, amid attempts to
apply science to notions of [[Race (human
categorization)|race]], some of the
founders of Zionism (such as [[Max
Nordau]]) sought to reformulate conceptions
of [[Jewishness]] in terms of [[racial
identity]] and the [[scientific
racism|"race science" of the time]]. They
believed that this concept would allow them
to build a new framework for collective
Jewish identity,{{sfn|Avraham|2017|p=357}}
and thought that biology might provide
"proof" for the "ethnonational myth of
common descent" from the biblical [[land of
Israel]].{{sfn|Hirsch|2009|p=592}}
{{sfn|Doron|1980|p=404}} Countering
[[antisemitic]] claims that Jews were both
aliens and a racially inferior people,
these Zionists drew on and appropriated
elements from various race theories,
{{sfn|Hart|1999|p=271}}
{{sfn|Avraham|2013|pp=355–357}}{{efn|"If
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 55/341 anything, the first decades of Zionism bear
out an affinity with some of the more
unsavoury 'regenerative' discourses of the
late nineteenth century, particularly
Social Darwinism, eugenics, nationalism,
and colonialism, precisely because Zionism
– partly as a project of self-legitimacy –
was both a Jewish response to and extension
of these very same discourses."
{{harvnb|Presner|2007|p=4}}}} to argue that
only a [[First Zionist Congress#Basel
Program|home for the Jewish people]] could
enable the physical regeneration of the
Jewish people and a renaissance of pride in
their ancient cultural traditions.
{{sfn|Vogt|2015|pp=85–86}} According to Nur
Masalha, Zionist nationalism embraced [[panGermanic]] ideologies, which stressed the concept of {{lang|de|das
[[Volkish|Volk]]}}: people of shared
ancestry should pursue separation and
establish a unified state.
{{sfn|Masalha|2012|loc=Chapter 1}}
− The contrasting [[Jewish
assimilation|assimilationist viewpoint]]
was that Jewishness consisted in an
attachment to [[Judaism]] as a religion and
culture. Both the [[Orthodox
Judaism|orthodox]] and [[Reform
Judaism|liberal]] establishments often
rejected this idea.
{{sfn|Efron|1994|pp=4,144–146}}
{{sfn|Avraham|2013|p=358}}
{{sfn|Falk|2017|pp=35–36}} Subsequently,
Zionist and non-Zionist Jews vigorously
debated aspects of this proposition in
terms of the merits or otherwise of
[[Jewish diaspora|diaspora life]]. While
Zionism embarked on its project of social
engineering in [[Mandatory Palestine]],
[[Ethnic nationalism|ethnonationalist]]
politics on the European continent
strengthened and, by the 1930s, some
[[History of the Jews in Germany|German
Jews]], acting defensively, asserted Jewish
collective rights by redefining Jews as a
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 56/341 race after [[Nazism]] rose to power.
{{sfn|Avraham|2013|pp=354–374}}.
+
The contrasting [[Jewish
assimilation|assimilationist viewpoint]]
was that Jewishness consisted in an
attachment to [[Judaism]] as a religion and
culture. Both the [[Orthodox
Judaism|orthodox]] and [[Reform
Judaism|liberal]] establishments often
rejected this idea.
{{sfn|Efron|1994|pp=4,144–146}}
{{sfn|Avraham|2013|p=358}}
{{sfn|Falk|2017|pp=35–36}} Subsequently,
Zionist and non-Zionist Jews vigorously
debated aspects of this proposition in
terms of the merits or otherwise of
[[Jewish diaspora|diaspora life]]. While
Zionism embarked on its project of social
engineering in [[Mandatory Palestine]],
[[ethnonationalist]] politics on the
European continent strengthened and, by the
1930s, some [[German Jews]], acting
defensively, asserted Jewish collective
rights by redefining Jews as a race after
[[Nazism]] rose to power.
{{sfn|Avraham|2013|pp=354–374}}
− With the [[Israeli Declaration of
Independence|establishment of Israel]] in
1948, the [[Gathering of
Israel|"ingathering of the exiles"]], and
the [[Law of Return]], the question of
Jewish origins and biological unity came to
assume particular importance during early
nation building. Conscious of this, Israeli
medical researchers and geneticists were
careful to avoid any language that might
resonate with racial ideas. Themes of
"blood logic" or "race" have nevertheless
been described as a recurrent feature of
modern Jewish thought in both scholarship
and popular belief.{{efn|"throughout all of
the de-racializing stages of twentiethcentury social thought, Jews have continued to invoke blood logic as a way of defining
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 57/341 and maintaining group identity...'race' is
a significant component not only of
scholarly or academic modern Jewish
thought, but also of popular or everyday
Jewish thought. It is one of the building
blocks of contemporary Jewish identity
construction, even if there are many who
would dispute the applicability of
biological or racial categories to Jews."
{{harv|Hart|2011|pp=xxxiv-xxxv}}}} Despite
this, many aspects of the role of race in
the formation of Zionist concepts of a
Jewish identity were rarely addressed until
recently.<ref>{{bulleted list|
+
+ With the [[establishment of Israel]] in
1948, the [[Gathering of
Israel|"ingathering of the exiles"]], and
the [[Law of Return]], the question of
Jewish origins and biological unity came to
assume particular importance during early
nation building. Conscious of this, Israeli
medical researchers and geneticists were
careful to avoid any language that might
resonate with racial ideas. Themes of
"blood logic" or "race" have nevertheless
been described as a recurrent feature of
modern Jewish thought in both scholarship
and popular belief.{{efn|"throughout all of
the de-racializing stages of twentiethcentury social thought, Jews have continued to invoke blood logic as a way of defining
and maintaining group identity...'race' is
a significant component not only of
scholarly or academic modern Jewish
thought, but also of popular or everyday
Jewish thought. It is one of the building
blocks of contemporary Jewish identity
construction, even if there are many who
would dispute the applicability of
biological or racial categories to Jews."
{{harv|Hart|2011|pp=xxxiv–xxxv}}}} Despite
this, many aspects of the role of race in
the formation of Zionist concepts of a
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 58/341 Jewish identity were rarely addressed until
recently.<ref>{{bulleted list|
| {{harvnb|Doron|1983|pp=170–171}} | {{harvnb|Doron|1983|pp=170–171}} | {{harvnb|Morris-Reich|2006|pp=1–2,4–5}} | {{harvnb|Morris-Reich|2006|pp=1–2,4–5}} Line 155: Line 184:
}}</ref> }}</ref>
+ == Historical and religious background ==
− Questions of how political narratives
impact the work of population genetics, and
its connection to race, have a particular
significance in [[Jewish history]] and
[[Jewish culture|culture]].{{efn|"To be
sure, 'Jewish genetics' is only one of many
examples for the search of origins of
today's population groups with the help of
DNA analysis. Whether it is 'the origin of
modern Japanese populations' ... the
'genetics of ancient Romans' ... or an
analysis of the genomes from 'Bronze Age
Bulgaria' ... to give only a few examples,
ancient forefathers and -mothers are a
fascinating topic for scientists as well as
for the general public. In the case of
'Jewish genetics', however, scientific work
can get easily politicized ... But rather
than dealing with politicians and their use
of scientific papers for populistic ends,
this essay highlights, delineates, and
contextualizes the ongoing debate between
various geneticists and social scientists
on two main points. One is whether or how
narratives impact the work of the
researchers. In our case, it is the
association of modern Jews as the
(biological) descendants of the biblical
Hebrews or today's Cohanim as descendants
of the biblical priestly caste. As the
debate on the Khazars exemplifies, genetic
research can be politically loaded.
Scientific theories or research results
about the origin of Ashkenazi Jews are used
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 59/341 for political purposes – but interest in
the topic also places the researchers into
a context of ideology and identity
politics, which is closely linked to real
or perceived national interests ... The
other point is the discussion about the
danger that genetic studies on population
groups reify race. Neither of these
questions applies only to genetic research
on Jews, but for Jews they have a special
meaning that is rooted in Jewish history
and culture." {{harv|Kohler|2022|pp=1–
2}}.}} Genetic studies on the origins of
modern Jews have been criticized as "being
designed or interpreted in the framework of
a 'Zionist narrative{{' "}} and as an
[[Essentialism#Racial, cultural and
strategic essentialism|essentialist
approach]] to
biology{{efn|name=Kohler8|"The extent to
which today's human population genetics are
compared to past theories of race varies
greatly, and thus the emphasis on an
inherent danger of racism. In the Jewish
context, the genetic studies on collective
Jewish ancestry are mainly criticized as
being designed or interpreted in the
framework of a 'Zionist narrative', as
essentializing biology, or both"
{{harv|Kohler|2022|p=8}}.}} in a manner
similar to criticism of the [[Politics of
archaeology in Israel and
Palestine|interpretation of archaeology in
the region]].{{efn|name=Weitz310|"A second
critique of genetics research is one that
has been made about archaeological evidence
as well. Here too the evidence does not
speak for itself: it has to be interpreted;
and geneticists do not realize the extent
to which their interpretations read into
the evidence more than is really there."
{{harv|Weitzman|2019|p=310}}}} According to
Israeli historian of science Nurit Kirsh
and Israeli geneticist [[Raphael Falk
(geneticist)|Raphael Falk]], the
interpretation of the genetic data has been
unconsciously influenced by Zionism and
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 60/341 [[anti-Zionism]].{{efn|name=Prainsack|"The
biological dimension of Judaism, namely the
debate about whether Judaism is 'only' a
religion, or Jews are a 'people', a
'nation' or a 'race', has become central to
both how Jews were thought of and to the
ways in which they thought about themselves
during modern times, as modern genetics was
expected to both establish the determinants
of 'Jewishness' and to find out whether
particular individuals or groups fit into
this category... As has been argued
elsewhere (Prainsack 2007; Falk 2006; Kirsh
2003), the interpretation of the data on
different Jewish 'ethnic' groups and their
relatedness to one another as well as to
non-Jewish neighbouring/hosting populations
has always been influenced by political
ideologies. While many Zionists favour a
view of Jews as a distinct, non-European
"ethnicity" that has remained relatively
homogenous throughout history (see, for
example, Cochran et al. 2006), during the
1950s and early 1960s Israeli geneticists
found many genetic differences between the
diverse Jewish groups gathering in Israel.
Yet Kirsh (2003) argues that an unconscious
internalisation of Zionist ideology by the
Israeli geneticists of the time led them to
emphasise points of similarity rather than
points of difference between the studied
groups, thereby in turn reinforcing Zionist
convictions." {{harv|Prainsack|HashiloniDolev|2009|p=410}}}} Falk wrote that every generation has witnessed efforts by both
Zionist and non-Zionist Jews to seek a link
between national and biological aspects of
Jewish identity.{{efn|"In every generation
there are still Zionists as well as nonZionists who are not satisfied with the mental and social notions that bind Jews
together, and who seek to find the link
between the national and the biological
aspects of being Jews." Footnote: An
interesting aspect is that of orthodoxreligious circles that seek support of the "biological" argument for the Jewishness
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 61/341 (or for membership in the Ten Lost Tribes)
of tribes and congregations all over the
world. Rabbi Eliyahu Avichail, the founder
of the "Amishav" (Hebrew for "My People
Return") organization and the author of the
book Israel's Tribes, followed on his
journeys "the footprints of forgotten
Jewish communities, who lost their contact
with the Jewish world... at the same time
he also located tribes that have no
biological relationship to the people of
Israel but who want very much to join them"
(Yair Sheleg, "All want to be Jewish",
Haaretz, 17 September 1999, p. 27). In
recent years, Rabbi Avichail "discovered"
the tribe of Menasheh among the Koki, Mizo
and Chin in the Manipur mountains at the
border between India and Burma. In a TV
program on "the search after the lost
tribes", Hillel Halkin, a demographer of
cultures, claimed that whereas the Jews of
Ethiopia converted to Judaism during the
Middle Ages and are not of ancient Jewish
stock, the Koki, Mizo and Chin people are
direct progeny of the Biblical tribe of
Menasheh {{harv|Falk|2017|p=16}}.}}
+
{{See also|Jewish history|History of
Israel|History of Palestine|History of the
Jews and Judaism in the Land of
Israel|Jewish peoplehood}}
−
{{undue weight inline|How significant is
this last paragraph for a page about
Zionism in general?|date=January 2025}}
−
− === Conquest of labor ===
− {{main|Hebrew labor}}
− In the early 20th century a more
ideologically motivated wave of Zionist
immigrants arrived in Palestine. With them,
the Zionist movement began to emphasize the
so-called "conquest of labor", the belief
that the employment of exclusively Jewish
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 62/341 labor was the pre-condition for the
development of an independent Jewish
society in Palestine.
{{sfn|Gorny|1987|loc=Introduction}} The
goal was to build a "pure Jewish
settlement" in Palestine on the basis of
"100 per cent Jewish labor" and the claim
to an exclusively Jewish, highly productive
economy.{{sfn|Flapan|1979|loc=Jewish and
Arab Labour}}
{{sfn|Shafir|1996|loc=Conclusion}} The
Zionist leadership aimed to establish a
fully autonomous and independent Jewish
economic sector to create a new type of
Jewish society. This new society was
intended to reverse the traditional
economic structure seen in the Jewish
Diaspora, characterized by a high number of
middlemen and a scarcity of productive
workers. By developing fundamental sectors
such as industry, agriculture, and mining,
the goal was to "normalize" Jewish life
that had grown "abnormal" as a result of
living amongst non-Jews.
{{sfn|Flapan|1979|loc=The Policy of
Economic and Social Separation}} Most of
the Zionist leadership saw it as imperative
to employ strictly Jewish workers in order
to ensure the Jewish character of the
colonies. Another factor, according to
[[Benny Morris]], was the worry that that
"employment of Arabs would lead to 'Arab
values' being passed on to Zionist youth
and nourish the colonists' tendency to
exploit and abuse their workers", as well
as security concerns.
{{sfn|Morris|1999|p=51|ps=: "Continued
employment of Arabs would lead to "Arab
values" being passed on to Zionist youth
and nourish the colonists' tendency to
exploit and abuse their workers. Moreover,
Arabs living in or on the periphery of
colonies were suspected of pilfering and of
passing information to hostile villagers
and officials."}}
−
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 63/341 −
The employment of exclusively Jewish labor
was also intended to avoid the development
of a national conflict in conjunction with
a class-based conflict.
{{sfn|Almog|1983|p=5}} The Zionist
leadership believed that by excluding Arab
workers they would stimulate class conflict
only within Arab society and prevent the
Jewish-Arab national conflict from
attaining a class dimension.
{{sfn|Flapan|1979|p=201}} While the Zionist
settlers of the [[First Aliyah]] had
ventured to create a "pure Jewish
settlement," they did grow to rely on Arab
labor due to the lack of availability of
Jewish laborers during this period.
{{sfn|Shafir|1996|pp=196–200}} With the
arrival of the more ideologically driven
settlers of the second aliyah, the idea of
"avoda ivrit" would become more central.
The future leaders of the Zionist movement
saw an existential threat in the employment
of Arab labor, motivating the movement to
work towards a society based on purely
Jewish labor.{{sfn|Shapira|1992|p=60}}
{{sfn|Shapira|2014|p=45-50}}
{{sfn|Morris|1999|loc=Chapter 2}}
+ The [[Return to Zion|concept of the
"return"]] was a powerful symbol within
religious Jewish belief,
{{sfn|Shapira|2004|p=}}{{page
needed|date=August 2025}}<ref>{{Cite book
|last=Greenspoon |first=Leonard J.
|url=https://books.google.com/books?
id=yw2yDwAAQBAJ&dq=next+year+in+jerusalem&pg
=PT9 |title=Next Year in Jerusalem: Exile
and Return in Jewish History |year=2019
|publisher=[[Purdue University Press]]
|isbn=978-1-61249-604-7 |language=en}}</ref>
<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lind |first=Dara
|date=August 5, 2014 |title=Why are you
supposed to say "next year in Jerusalem"?
|url=https://www.vox.com/2014/8/5/18002034/w
hy-are-you-supposed-to-say-next-year-in2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 64/341 jerusalem |access-date=November 19, 2023
|website=[[Vox (website)|Vox]] |language=en
|archive-url= |archive-date=}}</ref><ref>
{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=George E.
|date=August 4, 2022 |title=Jewish Word
{{!}} Why We Say 'Next Year in Jerusalem'
|url=https://momentmag.com/next-year-injerusalem/ |access-date=November 19, 2023 |website=Moment Magazine |language=en-US}}
</ref> traditionally emphasizing that their
return should be determined by Divine
Providence rather than human action.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017}} The cultural memory of
Jews in the diaspora revered the Land of
Israel. Religious tradition held that a
future [[Messianic Age#Judaism|messianic
age]] would usher in their return as a
people,{{sfn|Taylor|1971|pp=10, 11}} a
'return to Zion' commemorated particularly
at [[Passover]] and in [[Yom Kippur]]
prayers.{{efn|In late medieval times, there
arose among the [[Ashkenazi]] an augury—"
[[Next year in Jerusalem]]—that was then
included in the thrice-daily [[Amidah]]
(Standing prayer). "Sound the great shofar
for our freedom, raise the banner to gather
our exiles and gather us together from the
four corners of the earth (Isaiah 11:12)
Blessed are you, O Lord, Who gathers in the
dispersed of His people Israel."
{{cn|date=January 2026}}}} The biblical
prophecy of [[Gathering of Israel|''Kibbutz
Galuyot'']], the ingathering of exiles in
the Land of Israel as foretold by the
[[Nevi'im|Prophets]], became a central idea
in Zionism.<ref>
{{harvnb|Halamish|2008|p=}}: "A number of
factors motivated Israel's open immigration
policy. First of all, open immigration—the
ingathering of the exiles in the historic
Jewish homeland—had always been a central
component of Zionist ideology and
constituted the raison d'etre of the State
of Israel. The ingathering of the exiles
(kibbutz galuyot) was nurtured by the
government and other agents as a national
ethos, the consensual and prime focus that
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 65/341 united Jewish Israeli society after the War
of Independence"</ref>{{pn|date=January
2026}}<ref>{{harvnb|Shohat|2003|p=}}:
"Central to Zionist thinking was the
concept of Kibbutz Galuiot—the "ingathering
of the exiles". Following two millennia of
homelessness and living presumably "outside
of history", Jews could once again "enter
history" as subjects, as "normal" actors on
the world stage by returning to their
ancient birth place, Eretz Israel"</ref>
{{pn|date=January 2026}}
{{sfn|Russell|Gordon|America|1917}} The
transformation of this religious, and
primarily passive connection between Jews
and Palestine, into an active, secular,
nationalist movement arose in the context
of ideological developments within modern
European nations in the 19th century.
According to [[Gideon Shimoni]], the
religious Judaic notion of being a nation
was distinct from the modern European
notion of nationalism.{{sfn|Shimoni|1995}}
− === Negation of the life in the Diaspora ===
− {{main|Negation of the Diaspora}}
− Zionism rejected traditional Judaic
definitions of what it means to be Jewish,
but struggled to offer a new interpretation
of Jewish identity independent of
rabbinical tradition. Jewish religion is
viewed as an essentially negative factor,
even in religious Zionist ideology, and as
responsible for the diminishing status of
Jews living as a minority.
{{sfn|Yadgar|2017|loc=Zionism, Jewish
"Religion," and Secularism}} Responding to
the challenges of modernity, Zionism sought
to replace religious and community
institutions with secular-nationalistic
ones.<ref>Avineri, cited in
{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|p=72}}</ref> Indeed,
Zionism maintained primarily the outward
symbols of Jewish tradition, redefining
them in a nationalistic context.
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 66/341 {{sfn|Rabkin|2006|loc=A New Identity}}
{{sfn|Penslar|2023|pp=18–23}} Zionism saw
itself as bringing Jews into the modern
world by redefining what it means to be
Jewish in terms of identification with a
sovereign state, rather than Judaic faith
and tradition.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
−
==== Zionism and secular Jewish identity
==== +
=== Proto-national characteristics in
ancient Jewish identity ===
+
Multiple scholars have argued that Jewish
identity in antiquity exhibited national or
[[Proto-nationalism|proto-national]]
characteristics. Political scientist [[Tom
Garvin]] described ancient Jewish identity
as "something strangely like modern
nationalism."{{sfn|Garvin|1993|p=67}}
[[Anthony D. Smith]] wrote that Jews during
the late Second Temple period closely
approximated the modern concept of a nation.
{{sfn|Smith|1993|pp=48–50}} Similarly,
[[Adrian Hastings]] referred to the Jews as
the "true proto-nation."
{{sfn|Hastings|1997|pp=186–187}}
− Zionism sought to reconfigure Jewish
identity and culture in nationalist and
secular terms.
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Zionism as Secular
Jewish Identity}}<ref>
{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|p=2}}: "Indeed,
Zionism has celebrated itself as the
modernization of the Jews, manifested in
the dual revolution of allegedly
secularizing Jewish identity and
nationalizing, or politicizing it."</ref>
This new identity would be based on a
rejection of the life of exile. Zionism
portrayed the Diaspora Jew as mentally
unstable, physically frail, and prone to
engaging in transient businesses. They were
seen as detached from nature, purely
materialistic, and focused solely on their
personal gains. In contrast, the vision for
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 67/341 the new Jew was radically different: an
individual of strong moral and aesthetic
values, not shackled by religion, driven by
ideals and willing to challenge degrading
circumstances; a liberated, dignified
person eager to defend both personal and
national pride.<ref>
{{harvnb|Shapira|2014}}: "This poem,
published in Warsaw, epitomizes the youth
rebellion that was part of the Zionist
experience. Old Judaism seemed aged and
ailing, lacking relevance to the new world
dawning in the wake of World War One. The
old Jew, the Jew of the Diaspora, was
depicted as psychologically flawed,
physically weak, inclined toward
luftgesheftn (lit., "air business", meaning
peddling, acting as middlemen, and engaging
in other ephemeral trades), a stranger to
nature and anything natural and
spontaneous, materialistic and incapable of
acting on anything but his or her own
immediate interests. The new Jew was to be
the complete opposite: an ethical,
aesthetic person guided by ideals who
rebels against a debasing reality; a free,
proud individual ready to fight for his or
her own and the nation's honor. Yearning
for freedom and equality among peoples,
admiring nature, beauty, and open spaces,
the new Jew relinquished the pleasures of a
hypocritical, bourgeois world shackled by
outdated conventions and sought the
challenge of a life in which dedication to
the collective was congruent with
maintaining inner truth and a life of
simplicity, honesty, and self-realization.
The new Jew aspired to equality, justice,
and truth in human relations, and was
prepared to die for them."</ref>
+ Historians have identified elements within
the [[Jewish–Roman wars]] that they
describe as expressions of ancient
nationalism, and some have drawn analogies
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 68/341 with modern Zionism. The [[Great Jewish
Revolt]] against Roman rule (66–73 CE) is
frequently cited as a major example of
ancient Jewish nationalism.
{{sfn|Goodblatt|2006|pp=3, 87–88}}
Historian David Goodblatt draws parallels
between the revolt and modern national
liberation movements, citing the adoption
of coins inscribed with "Israel" and the
use of a dating system based on the
"freedom of Israel" era.
{{sfn|Goodblatt|2006|p=88}} According to
historian [[Doron Mendels]], the rebels'
nationalist sentiment was reinforced by
collective memory of the earlier
[[Maccabean revolt]], which had resulted in
a period of Jewish sovereignty under the
[[Hasmonean kingdom]]—a time during which
Jewish national consciousness expanded.
{{sfn|Mendels|1992|p=26}} Goodblatt also
compares the rebels' use of the term "Zion"
to rally popular support on their coins has
been compared to modern Zionism.
{{sfn|Goodblatt|2006|p=203}} The later
[[Diaspora Revolt]] (115–117 CE) is
believed to have been motivated, in part,
by aspirations among Jewish communities to
return to Judaea and rebuild Jerusalem and
the Temple,<ref name="EC">
{{harvnb|Barclay|1998|p=241}};
{{harvnb|Horbury|2014|p=276}};
{{harvnb|Smallwood|2001|p=397}}</ref> an
impulse that historian [[E. Mary
Smallwood]] likened to an ancient form of
Zionism.{{sfn|Smallwood|2001|p=397|ps=:
"The movement may have been (to use a
modern term) Zionist, with the return of
the Jewish exiles from N. Africa to
Palestine as its objective. The march of
the Cyrenaican Jews into Egypt leaving a
trail of devastation behind them could have
been the first step in such a mass
migration."}}
− The Zionist goal of reframing of Jewish
identity in secular-nationalist terms meant
primarily the decline of the status of
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 69/341 religion in the Jewish community.<ref>
{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|p=68}}: "This
secularization means primarily the "decline
of the status of religion in the Jewish
community"7 and a gradual "liberation" from
the shackles of "religious tradition"."
</ref> Prominent Zionist thinkers frame
this development as nationalism serving the
same role as religion, functionally
replacing it.<ref>
{{harvnb|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction,
Notes}}: "Zionism was the most fundamental
revolution in Jewish life. It substituted a
secular self-identity of the Jews as a
nation for the traditional and Orthodox
self-identity in religious terms. It
changed a passive, quietistic, and pious
hope of the Return to Zion into an
effective social force, moving millions of
people to Israel. It transformed a language
relegated to mere religious usage into a
modern, secular mode of intercourse of a
nation-state... This does not mean that
Israel is a substitute for Jewish religion,
only that functionally it plays a role
similar to that of religion in preEmancipation days. For Jews today who are still religious in the traditional sense,
religion has a deep collective existential
meaning. But since not all Jews can
identify today with the religious symbols,
religion is merely a partial focus of
identity, and Israel, more than any other
factor, now plays this unifying role."
</ref> Zionism sought to make Jewish
[[Ethnic nationalism|ethnic-nationalism]]
the distinctive trait of Jews rather than
their commitment to Judaism.
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995}}{{page
needed|date=November 2024}} Zionism instead
adopted a racial understanding of Jewish
identity.<ref>{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|p=4}}:
"Failing (or neglecting) to offer a fullyfledged national identity that would be independent from rabbinical readings of
Jewish iden-tity, yet zealously rebelling
against rabbinical authority and "religion"
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 70/341 in general, Zionism was left with a racial
notion of Jewish identity: Tautologically,
echoing anti-Semitic notions of Jewishness,
it would argue that a Jew, simply, is a
Jew; that Jewishness is something some-one
is born with. One does not choose it, nor
can one rid oneself of his Jewishness; it
is in one's "blood"."</ref> Framed this
way, Jewish identity is only secondarily a
matter of tradition or culture.<ref>
{{harvnb|Yadgar|2017|pp=192–193, 202}}:
"The author, essayist, and public
intellectual A. B. Yehoshua is one of the
more committed and outspoken spokespersons
of the State of Israel's political
theology. As such, Yehoshua also functions
as an influential formulator of the
ideological bed upon which statist
Jewishness is founded... Yehoshua's reply
to this criticism repeats the claim that
Jewish political sovereignty renders
assimilation impossible and guarantees, no
matter what, that meaningful Jewish content
is to be produced. For him, "the cultural
matter" is secondary, and as such not
deserving of judgment. Political
sovereignty, on the other hand, is primary
and absolute: Jewishness is not only
culture and not only religion."</ref>
Zionist nationalism embraced pan-Germanic
ideologies, which stressed the concept of
das [[Volkish|völk]]: people of shared
ancestry should pursue separation and
establish a unified state. Zionist thinkers
view the movement as a "revolt against a
tradition of many centuries" of living
parasitically at the margins of Western
society. Indeed, Zionism was uncomfortable
with the term "Jewish," associating it with
passivity, spirituality and the stain of
"galut". Instead, Zionist thinkers
preferred the term "Hebrew" to describe
their identity. In Zionist thought, the new
Jew would be productive and work the land,
in contrast to the diaspora Jew. Zionism
linked the term "Jewish" with negative
characteristics prevalent in European anti2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 71/341 Semitic stereotypes, which Zionists
believed could be remedied only through
sovereignty.{{sfn|Masalha|2012|loc=Chapter
1}}
+
[[File:Monnaie_-
_Prutah,_bronze,_Jérusalem,_Judée,_première_
guerre_judéo-romaine_-
_btv1b11318591v_(2_of_2).jpg|thumb|Coin
bearing the inscription "Freedom of Zion,"
minted by Jewish rebels during the [[Great
Jewish Revolt]] (66–73 CE), whose use of
Zion as a rallying symbol has been compared
to modern Zionism]]
−
+
The final large-scale Jewish uprising
against Roman rule, the [[Bar Kokhba
revolt]] (132–135 CE), temporarily restored
Jewish control over parts of Judaea but was
ultimately crushed by the Romans, resulting
in extensive casualties, enslavement, and
widespread displacement of Jews. Following
the Jewish–Roman wars, active expressions
of Jewish nationalism (such as armed
resistance and attempts to restore
political sovereignty) largely ceased.
However, scholars argue that Jewish
national identity persisted in a more
passive form, surviving in collective
memory and religious tradition. Jewish law,
language, and cultural practices continued
to reinforce a sense of peoplehood,
preserving national consciousness in exile
and dispersion.<ref name="EC1">
{{harvnb|Mendels|1992|pp=6, 386, 391}};
{{harvnb|Goodblatt|2006|pp=204–205}};
{{harvnb|Hastings|1997|pp=186–187}}</ref>
According to Adrian Hastings, the
persistence of Jewish national awareness
(rather than merely an ethnic identity)
made it possible for modern Zionism to
emerge when new political conditions arose.
{{sfn|Hastings|1997|pp=186–187}}
− === Revival of the Hebrew language ===
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 72/341 −
{{Main|Revival of the Hebrew language}}
{{See also|Modern Hebrew|Hebraization of
surnames|Hebraization of Palestinian place
names}}
−
[[File:Portrait of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda
(cropped).jpg|thumb|[[Eliezer Ben-Yehuda]]
(1858–1922), founder and leader of the
movement to [[Revival of the Hebrew
language|revive the Hebrew language]], is
considered the father of [[Modern Hebrew]].
{{sfn|Mandel|2005|pp=85}}]]
− The revival of the Hebrew language in
Eastern Europe as a secular literary medium
marked a significant cultural shift among
Jews, who per Judaic tradition used Hebrew
only for religious purposes.<ref>
{{harvnb|Rabkin|2006}}: "The political
movement of Zionism was preceded in Eastern
Europe by a revival of the Hebrew language
as a nonreligious, literary medium. Jews
always used Hebrew in their prayers and
religious writings, but this was a revival
of Hebrew as a language of novels and
poems, polemical articles, and journalistic
feuilletons. This development was an
anathema to the rabbis who saw in it a
desecration of the Holy Tongue. The origins
of this movement are found in ethnically
mixed Lithuania and later in Galicia, where
the German Kultursprache of the Austrian
rulers contended with both Polish and
Ukrainian (Ruthenian) nationalism.
Secularized, modern Jews began to ask for
the origins of their culture, for the roots
of their history; to extol the glories of
Jerusalem; to ask whether they should not
look into their own past just as members of
other groups were doing."</ref> The primary
motivator for establishing modern Hebrew as
a national language was the sense of
legitimacy it gave the movement, by
suggesting a connection between the Jews of
ancient Israel and the Jews of the Zionist
movement.{{sfn|Dieckhoff|2003|pp=104}}
These developments are seen in Zionist
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 73/341 historiography as a revolt against
tradition, with the development of Modern
Hebrew providing the basis on which a
Jewish cultural renaissance might develop.
{{sfn|Rabkin|2006}}
−
−
The [[revival of the Hebrew language]] and
the establishment of [[Modern Hebrew]] is
most closely associated with the linguist
[[Eliezer Ben-Yehuda]] and the Committee of
the Hebrew Language (later replaced by the
[[Academy of the Hebrew Language]]).
{{sfn|Fellman|2011|p=7}}
{{sfn|Blau|1981|p=33}}
−
− == History ==
− {{Main|History of Zionism}}
− {{For timeline|Timeline of Zionism}}
−
− === Historical and religious background ===
−
{{See also|Jewish history|History of
Israel|History of Palestine|History of the
Jews and Judaism in the Land of
Israel|Jewish peoplehood}}
−
− The transformation of a religious and
primarily passive connection between Jews
and Palestine into an active, secular,
nationalist movement arose in the context
of ideological developments within modern
European nations in the 19th century. The
[[Return to Zion|concept of the "return"]]
remained a powerful symbol within religious
Jewish belief, emphasizing that their
return should be determined by Divine
Providence rather than human action.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017}} The religious Judaic
notion of being a nation was distinct from
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 74/341 the modern European notion of nationalism.
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995}} Ultra-Orthodox and
[[Reform Judaism|Reform]]<ref>{{Cite web
|title=Zionism
|url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/arti
cles/15268-zionism |access-date=March 10,
2023 |website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com
|archive-date=March 10, 2023 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/202303100456 30/https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articl
es/15268-zionism |url-status=live}}</ref>
Some Jewish groups and authorities opposed
collective Jewish settlement in Palestine.
{{efn|"The Talmud does take up the right of
individuals to settle in Israel, but there
is a consensus against collective
settlement.", "Several rabbinical sources
through the centuries have interpreted
these oaths to assert that even if all the
nations were to encourage the Jews to
settle in the Land of Israel, it would
still be necessary to abstain from doing
so, for fear of committing yet other sins
and of being punished by an exile even
cruder still." " Traditional Jewish culture
discourages political and military activism
of any variety, particularly in the Land of
Israel... In the traditional view,
settlement in the Land of Israel will be
brought, about by the universal effect of
good deeds rather than by military force or
diplomacy... The Talmud (BT Ketubot, 111a)
relates the three oaths sworn on the eve of
the dispersal of what remained of the
people of Israel to the four corners of the
earth: not to return en masse and in an
organized fashion to the Land of Israel;
not to rebel against the nations; and that
the nations do not subjugate Israel
exceedingly... The idea of return to the
Land of Israel achieved by political means
is alien to the idea of salvation in Jewish
tradition."{{harvnb|Rabkin|2006}}}} Ultraorthodox Jews viewed it as a violation of the three oaths sworn to God: not to force
their way into the homeland, not to hasten
the [[Eschatology|end times]], and not to
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 75/341 [[Judaism and peace|rebel against other
nations]]. They believed that any attempt
to achieve redemption through human
actions, rather than divine intervention
and the coming of the [[Messiah]],
constituted a rebellion against divine will
and a dangerous heresy.{{efn|"To ultraOrthodox Jews, on the other hand, the idea of Jews returning to their homeland flew in
the face of the fate decreed for them. To
them such an act ran counter to the three
oaths the Jewish people swore to the
Almighty: not to storm the wall, not to
rush the End, and not to rebel against the
nations of the world, while the Almighty
adjured the nations of the world not to
destroy the Jewish people. They saw an
attempt to bring about redemption by
natural, man-made means as rebelling
against divine decrees, as Jews taking
their fate into their own hands and not
waiting for the coming of the Messiah.
Consequently ultra-Orthodox Jews vehemently
opposed this perilous heresy"
{{harvnb|Shapira|2014|p=5}}}}
−
− The cultural memory of Jews in the diaspora
revered the Land of Israel. Religious
tradition held that a future [[Messianic
Age#Judaism|messianic age]] would usher in
their return as a people,
{{sfn|Taylor|1971|pp=10, 11}} a 'return to
Zion' commemorated particularly at
[[Passover]] and in [[Yom Kippur]] prayers.
{{efn|In late medieval times, there arose
among the [[Ashkenazi]] an augury—"
[[L'Shana Haba'ah|Next year in Jerusalem]]—
that was then included in the thrice-daily
[[Amidah]] (Standing prayer).<ref>"Sound
the great shofar for our freedom, raise the
banner to gather our exiles and gather us
together from the four corners of the earth
(Isaiah 11:12) Blessed are you, O Lord, Who
gathers in the dispersed of His people
Israel."</ref>}} The biblical prophecy of
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 76/341 [[Gathering of Israel|''Kibbutz
Galuyot'']], the ingathering of exiles in
the Land of Israel as foretold by the
[[Nevi'im|Prophets]], became a central idea
in Zionism.<ref>
{{harvnb|Halamish|2008|p=}}: "A number of
factors motivated Israel's open immigration
policy. First of all, open immigration—the
ingathering of the exiles in the historic
Jewish homeland—had always been a central
component of Zionist ideology and
constituted the raison d'etre of the State
of Israel. The ingathering of the exiles
(kibbutz galuyot) was nurtured by the
government and other agents as a national
ethos, the consensual and prime focus that
united Jewish Israeli society after the War
of Independence"}}</ref><ref>
{{harvnb|Shohat|2003|p=}}: "Central to
Zionist thinking was the concept of Kibbutz
Galuiot—the "ingathering of the exiles".
Following two millennia of homelessness and
living presumably "outside of history",
Jews could once again "enter history" as
subjects, as "normal" actors on the world
stage by returning to their ancient birth
place, Eretz Israel"</ref>
{{sfn|Russell|Gordon|America|1917}}
=== Forerunners of Zionism === === Forerunners of Zionism === {{See also|Aliyah#Middle Ages}} {{See also|Aliyah#Middle Ages}} − The forerunners of Zionism, rather than
being causally connected to the later
development of Zionism, are thinkers and
activists who expressed some notion of
Jewish national consciousness or advocated
for the migration of Jews to Palestine.
These attempts were not continuous as
national movements typically are.
{{sfn|Penslar|2023|p=25}}
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Chapter 2}} The most
notable [[Proto-Zionist]]s were thinkers
such as [[Judah Alkalai]] and [[Zvi Hirsch
Kalischer]] (who were both rabbinical
+ The forerunners of Zionism, rather than
being causally connected to the later
development of Zionism, are thinkers and
activists who expressed some notion of
Jewish national consciousness or advocated
for the migration of Jews to Palestine.
These attempts were not continuous as
national movements typically are.
{{sfn|Penslar|2023|p=25}}
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Chapter 2}} The most
notable proto-Zionists were [[rabbi]]s such
as [[Judah Alkalai]] and [[Zvi Hirsch
Kalischer]].
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 77/341 figures).{{sfn|Dieckhoff|2003|loc=Political
Beginnings of Zionism}} Their idea of Jews
as a collective was strongly tied to
religious notions distinct from the secular
movement referred to as Zionism that
developed at the end of the century.
{{sfn|Penslar|2023|pp=27–29}}
{{sfn|Dieckhoff|2003|loc=Political
Beginnings of Zionism}} Their idea of Jews
as a collective was strongly tied to
religious notions distinct from the secular
movement referred to as Zionism that
developed at the end of the century.
{{sfn|Penslar|2023|pp=27–29}}
In contrast, [[Moses Hess]], who is
regarded as the first modern Jewish
nationalist, advocated for the
establishment of an independent Jewish
state in pursuit of the economic and social
normalization of the Jewish people.
{{sfn|Sela|2002|loc=Zionism}} Hess believed
that emancipation alone was not a
sufficient solution to the problems faced
by European Jewry.
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Chapter 2}}
In contrast, [[Moses Hess]], who is
regarded as the first modern Jewish
nationalist, advocated for the
establishment of an independent Jewish
state in pursuit of the economic and social
normalization of the Jewish people.
{{sfn|Sela|2002|loc=Zionism}} Hess believed
that emancipation alone was not a
sufficient solution to the problems faced
by European Jewry.
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Chapter 2}}
Line 199: Line 204:
Christian restorationist ideas promoting
the migration of Jews to Palestine
contributed to the ideological and
historical context that gave a sense of
credibility to these pre-Zionist
initiatives.{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Chapter
2}} Restorationist ideas were a
prerequisite for the success of Zionism,
since although it was created by Jews,
Zionism was dependent on support from
Christians, although it is unclear how much
Christian ideas influenced the early
Zionists. Zionism was also dependent on the
thinkers of the ''[[Haskalah]]'' or Jewish
enlightenment, such as [[Peretz
Smolenskin]] in 1872, although it often
depicted it as its opponent.
{{sfn|Penslar|2023|p=27|ps=, "The Zionist
movement was created by Jews, but from the
start it was dependent on support from the
Christian world. Restorationism was
therefore a prerequisite for the success of
Zionism. It is harder to establish,
however, whether Christian ideas influenced
Christian restorationist ideas promoting
the migration of Jews to Palestine
contributed to the ideological and
historical context that gave a sense of
credibility to these pre-Zionist
initiatives.{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Chapter
2}} Restorationist ideas were a
prerequisite for the success of Zionism,
since although it was created by Jews,
Zionism was dependent on support from
Christians, although it is unclear how much
Christian ideas influenced the early
Zionists. Zionism was also dependent on the
thinkers of the ''[[Haskalah]]'' or Jewish
enlightenment, such as [[Peretz
Smolenskin]] in 1872, although it often
depicted it as its opponent.
{{sfn|Penslar|2023|p=27|ps=, "The Zionist
movement was created by Jews, but from the
start it was dependent on support from the
Christian world. Restorationism was
therefore a prerequisite for the success of
Zionism. It is harder to establish,
however, whether Christian ideas influenced
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 78/341 the nineteenth-century Jews who championed
a return to the Land of Israel. It is
difficult indeed to trace any such external
influences...it may be that direct
influence was scant or nonexistent but that
the men were all influenced by the dynamic
spirit of the age..."}}
the nineteenth-century Jews who championed
a return to the Land of Israel. It is
difficult indeed to trace any such external
influences...it may be that direct
influence was scant or nonexistent but that
the men were all influenced by the dynamic
spirit of the age..."}}
+ == History ==
−
=== Establishment of the Zionist movement
===
+ {{Main|History of Zionism}}
−
[[File:Memorandum to Protestant Monarchs of
Europe for the restoration of the Jews to
Palestine, Colonial Times
1841.jpg|thumb|"Memorandum to the
Protestant Powers of the North of Europe
and America", published in the ''[[Colonial
Times]]'' (Hobart, Tasmania, Australia), in
1841]]
+
{{For timeline|Timeline of Zionism}}
[[File:Memorandum to Protestant Monarchs of
Europe for the restoration of the Jews to
Palestine, Colonial Times
1841.jpg|thumb|"Memorandum to the
Protestant Powers of the North of Europe
and America", published in the ''[[Colonial
Times]]'' (Hobart, Tasmania, Australia), in
1841]]
−
==== Jewish nationalism and emancipation
====
+
+ === Jewish nationalism and emancipation ===
{{see also|Haskalah}} {{see also|Haskalah}}
Ideas of Jewish cultural unity developed a
specifically political expression in the
1860s as Jewish intellectuals began
Ideas of Jewish cultural unity developed a
specifically political expression in the
1860s as Jewish intellectuals began
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 79/341 promoting the idea of Jewish nationalism.
This emerged amid the late [[Rise of
nationalism in Europe|19th century
European]] trend of [[national revival]]s.
{{sfn|Beinin|Stein|2006|p=157}}
{{sfn|Kagarlitsky|2014|p=
[https://books.google.com/books?
id=cf3pAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA294 294]}}
promoting the idea of Jewish nationalism.
This emerged amid the late [[Rise of
nationalism in Europe|19th century
European]] trend of [[national revival]]s.
{{sfn|Beinin|Stein|2006|p=157}}
{{sfn|Kagarlitsky|2014|p=
[https://books.google.com/books?
id=cf3pAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA294 294]}}
− Zionism emerged towards the end of the
"best century"
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}} for
Jews who for the first time were allowed as
equals into European society and gained
access to schools, universities, and
professions that were previously closed to
them.{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
By the 1870s, Jews had achieved almost
complete [[Jewish emancipation|civic
emancipation]] in all the states of western
and central Europe.{{sfn|Shimoni|1995}} By
1914, Jews had moved from the margins to
the forefront of European society. In the
urban centers of Europe and America, Jews
played an influential role in professional
and intellectual life.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
During this period, as [[Jewish
assimilation]] was still progressing most
promisingly, some Jewish intellectuals and
religious traditionalists framed
assimilation as a humiliating negation of
Jewish cultural distinctiveness.<ref>
{{harvnb|Shimoni|1995}}: "While
assimilation was still progressing most
promisingly, and also quite independently
of antisemitism when it later arose, not
only religious traditionalists but also
part of the Jewish intelligentsia decried
the humiliating self-negation that
assimilation exacted and rose to the
defense of Jewish cultural distinctiveness."
</ref> The development of Zionism and other
Jewish nationalist movements grew out of
these sentiments.
+ Zionism emerged towards the end of the
"best century"
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}} for
Jews who for the first time were allowed as
equals into European society and gained
access to schools, universities, and
professions that were previously closed to
them.{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
By the 1870s, Jews had achieved almost
complete [[Jewish emancipation|civic
emancipation]] in all the states of western
and central Europe.{{sfn|Shimoni|1995}} By
1914, Jews had moved from the margins to
the forefront of European society. In the
urban centers of Europe and America, Jews
played an influential role in professional
and intellectual life.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
During this period, as [[Jewish
assimilation]] was still progressing most
promisingly, some Jewish intellectuals and
religious traditionalists framed
assimilation as a humiliating negation of
Jewish cultural distinctiveness.<ref>
{{harvnb|Shimoni|1995}}: "While
assimilation was still progressing most
promisingly, and also quite independently
of antisemitism when it later arose, not
only religious traditionalists but also
part of the Jewish intelligentsia decried
the humiliating self-negation that
assimilation exacted and rose to the
defense of Jewish cultural distinctiveness."
</ref> The development of Zionism and other
Jewish nationalist movements grew out of
these sentiments.
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 80/341 {{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Ethnicity and
Nationalism}} In this sense, Zionism can be
read as a response to the [[Haskala]] and
the challenges of modernity and liberalism,
rather than purely a response to
antisemitism.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995|loc=Ethnicity and
Nationalism}} In this sense, Zionism can be
read as a response to the Haskala and the
challenges of modernity and liberalism,
rather than purely a response to
antisemitism.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
Emancipation in Eastern Europe progressed
more slowly,{{sfn|Goldberg|2009|p=20}} to
the point that Deickoff writes "social
conditions were such that they made the
idea of individual assimilation pointless".
Antisemitism, pogroms and official policies
in Tsarist Russia led to the emigration of
three million Jews in the years between
1882 and 1914, only 1% of which went to
Palestine. Those who went to Palestine were
driven primarily by ideas of selfdetermination and Jewish identity, rather than just in response to pogroms or
economic insecurity.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
Zionism's emergence in the late 19th
century was among assimilated Central
European Jews who, despite their formal
emancipation, still felt excluded from high
society. Many of these Jews had moved away
from traditional religious observances and
were largely secular, mirroring a broader
trend of secularization in Europe. Despite
their efforts to integrate, the Jews of
Central and Eastern Europe were frustrated
by continued lack of acceptance by the
local national movements that tended toward
intolerance and exclusivity.
{{sfn|Rabkin|2006|loc=Orientations}} For
the early Zionists, if nationalism posed a
challenge to European Jewry, it also
proposed a solution.
{{sfn|Shlaim|2001|loc=Introduction}}
Emancipation in Eastern Europe progressed
more slowly,{{sfn|Goldberg|2009|p=20}} to
the point that Deickoff writes "social
conditions were such that they made the
idea of individual assimilation pointless".
Antisemitism, pogroms and official policies
in Tsarist Russia led to the emigration of
three million Jews in the years between
1882 and 1914, only 1% of which went to
Palestine. Those who went to Palestine were
driven primarily by ideas of selfdetermination and Jewish identity, rather than just in response to pogroms or
economic insecurity.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
Zionism's emergence in the late 19th
century was among assimilated Central
European Jews who, despite their formal
emancipation, still felt excluded from high
society. Many of these Jews had moved away
from traditional religious observances and
were largely secular, mirroring a broader
trend of secularization in Europe. Despite
their efforts to integrate, the Jews of
Central and Eastern Europe were frustrated
by continued lack of acceptance by the
local national movements that tended toward
intolerance and exclusivity.
{{sfn|Rabkin|2006|loc=Orientations}} For
the early Zionists, if nationalism posed a
challenge to European Jewry, it also
proposed a solution.
{{sfn|Shlaim|2001|loc=Introduction}}
−
==== Leon Pinsker, Theodor Herzl and the
birth of modern political Zionism ==== +
=== Leon Pinsker, Theodor Herzl and the
birth of modern political Zionism ===
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 81/341 −
In the wake of the 1881 [[Pogroms in the
Russian Empire|Russian pogroms]], [[Leo
Pinsker]], who was previously an
assimilationist, came to the conclusion
that the root of the Jewish problem was
that Jews formed a distinctive element that
could not be assimilated.
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995}} For Pinsker,
emancipation could not resolve the problems
of the Jewish people.{{sfn|Sela|2002}} In
Pinsker's analysis, Judeophobia was the
cause of antisemitism and was primiarily
driven by Jews' lack of a homeland. The
solution Pinsker proposed in his pamphlet
''[[Autoemancipation]]'' (1882) was for
Jews to become a "normal" nation and
acquire a homeland over which Jews would
have sovereignty.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
{{sfn|Sela|2002|loc=Zionism}} Pinsker
primarily viewed Jewish emigration a
solution for dealing with the "surplus of
Jews, the inassimilable residue" from
Eastern Europe who had arrived in Germany
in response to the pogroms.
{{sfn|Shafir|1996}}{{efn|Pinsker wrote:
"The fact that, as it seems, we can mix
with the nations only in the smallest
proportions, presents a further obstacle to
the establishment of amicable relations.
Therefore, we must see to it that the
surplus of Jews, the inassimilable residue,
is removed and provided for elsewhere. This
duty can be incumbent upon no one but
ourselves," Leo Pinsker, "AutoEmancipation," in Hertzberg, 1959, p. 193.
And Nordau wrote, in a otherwise
sympathetic presentation of the
''[[Ostjuden]]'', that: "'the contempt
created by the impudent, crawling beggar in
dirty caftan... falls back on all of us,'"
quoted in Aschheim, 1982, p. 88.
{{sfn|Shafir|1996|p=243-244}}}}
+
In the wake of the 1881 [[Russian
pogroms]], [[Leo Pinsker]], who was
previously an assimilationist, came to the
conclusion that the root of the Jewish
problem was that Jews formed a distinctive
element that could not be assimilated.
{{sfn|Shimoni|1995}} For Pinsker,
emancipation could not resolve the problems
of the Jewish people.{{sfn|Sela|2002}} In
Pinsker's analysis, Judeophobia was the
cause of antisemitism and was primiarily
driven by Jews' lack of a homeland. The
solution Pinsker proposed in his pamphlet
''[[Autoemancipation]]'' (1882) was for
Jews to become a "normal" nation and
acquire a homeland over which Jews would
have sovereignty.
{{sfn|Avineri|2017|loc=Introduction}}
{{sfn|Sela|2002|loc=Zionism}} Pinsker
primarily viewed Jewish emigration a
solution for dealing with the "surplus of
Jews, the inassimilable residue" from
Eastern Europe who had arrived in Germany
in response to the pogroms.
{{sfn|Shafir|1996}}{{efn|Pinsker wrote:
"The fact that, as it seems, we can mix
with the nations only in the smallest
proportions, presents a further obstacle to
the establishment of amicable relations.
Therefore, we must see to it that the
surplus of Jews, the inassimilable residue,
is removed and provided for elsewhere. This
duty can be incumbent upon no one but
ourselves," Leo Pinsker, "AutoEmancipation," in Hertzberg, 1959, p. 193.
And Nordau wrote, in a otherwise
sympathetic presentation of the
''[[Ostjuden]]'', that: "'the contempt
created by the impudent, crawling beggar in
dirty caftan... falls back on all of us,'"
quoted in Aschheim, 1982, p. 88.
{{sfn|Shafir|1996|p=243-244}}}}
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 82/341 −
The pogroms motivated a small number of
Jews to establish various groups in the
[[Pale of Settlement]] (a region in western
Russia) and in [[Poland]], aimed at
supporting Jewish emigration to Palestine.
The publication of ''Autoemancipation''
provided these groups with an ideological
charter around which they would be
confederated into [[Lovers of Zion|Hibbat
Zion]] ("Lovers of Zion") in 1887 where
Pinsker would take a leading role.
{{sfn|Morris|1999|loc=Palestine on the
Eve}} The settlements established by Hibbat
Zion lacked sufficient funds and were
ultimately not very successful but are seen
as the first of several aliyahs, or waves
of settlement, that led to the eventual
establishment of the state of Israel.
{{sfn|Gorny|1987|loc=The Overt Question,
1882–1917}} The conditions in Eastern
Europe would eventually provide Zionism
with a base of Jews seeking to overcome the
challenges of external ostracism, from the
Tsarist regime, and internal changes within
the Jewish communities there.
{{sfn|Dieckhoff|2003|p=50}} The groups that
formed Hibbat Zion included the [[Bilu
(movement)|Bilu]] group, which began its
settlements in 1882. [[Anita Shapira]]
describes the Bilu as serving the role of a
prototype for the settlement groups that
followed.{{sfn|Shapira|2014|p=32-33}} At
the end of the 19th century, Jews remained
a small minority in Palestine.
{{sfn|Morris|2001|p=47}}
+
The pogroms motivated a small number of
Jews to establish various groups in the
[[Pale of Settlement]] (a region in western
Russia) and in [[Poland]], aimed at
supporting Jewish emigration to Palestine.
The publication of ''Autoemancipation''
provided these groups with an ideological
charter around which they would be
confederated into [[Lovers of Zion|Hibbat
Zion]] ("Lovers of Zion") in 1887 where
Pinsker would take a leading role.
{{sfn|Morris|1999|loc=Palestine on the
Eve}} The settlements established by Hibbat
Zion lacked sufficient funds and were
ultimately not very successful but are seen
as the first of several aliyahs, or waves
of settlement, that led to the eventual
establishment of the state of Israel.
{{sfn|Gorny|1987|loc=The Overt Question,
1882–1917}} The conditions in Eastern
Europe would eventually provide Zionism
with a base of Jews seeking to overcome the
challenges of external ostracism, from the
Tsarist regime, and internal changes within
the Jewish communities there.
{{sfn|Dieckhoff|2003|p=50}} The groups that
formed Hibbat Zion included the [[Bilu
(movement)|Bilu]] group, which established
its first settlement in 1882.
{{sfn|Shapira|2012|p=29}} [[Anita Shapira]]
describes the Bilu as serving the role of a
prototype for the settlement groups that
followed.{{sfn|Shapira|2014|p=32-33}} At
the end of the 19th century, Jews remained
a small minority in Palestine.
{{sfn|Morris|2001|p=47}}
+ A key event that put the modern Zionist
movement in motion was the [[Dreyfus
affair]], which erupted in France in 1894.
<ref>{{Cite news |title=Alfred Dreyfus and
the "Dreyfus Affair"
|url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/
en/article/alfred-dreyfus-and-the-dreyfusaffair |work=Holocaust Encyclopedia 2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 83/341 |publisher=[[United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum]] |access-date=November 27,
2025 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/202509291106 40/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en
/article/alfred-dreyfus-and-the-dreyfusaffair |archive-date=September 29, 2025 |language=en |url-status=live}}</ref><ref
name="Cohn-1970">{{Cite journal
|title=Theodor Herzl's Conversion to
Zionism
|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4466575
|journal=Jewish Social Studies |date=1970
|issn=0021-6704 |pages=101–110 |volume=32
|issue=2 |first=Henry J. |last=Cohn
|jstor=4466575}}</ref><ref name="Mayorek1994">{{cite journal |last1=Mayorek |first1=Yoram |title=Herzl and the Dreyfus
affair |journal=Journal of Israeli History
|date=March 1994 |volume=15 |issue=1
|pages=83–89
|doi=10.1080/13531049408576028}}</ref> The
case had a profound impact on Central and
Western European Jews.
{{sfn|Morris|2001|pp=20–21}} Among those
who witnessed the event was Herzl.<ref
name="Cohn-1970" /><ref name="Mayorek-1994"
/>
− At this point, Zionism remained a scattered
movement. In the 1890s, Theodor Herzl (the
father of political Zionism) infused
Zionism with a practical urgency and worked
to unify the various strands of the
movement.{{sfn|Masalha|2018}} The title of
Herzl's 1896 manifesto providing the
ideological basis for Zionism, {{lang|de|
[[Der Judenstaat]]}}, is typically
translated as The Jewish State.
{{sfn|Dieckhoff|2003}}{{page
needed|date=November 2024}} Herzl sought to
establish a state where Jews would be the
majority and as a result, politically
dominant. [[Ahad Ha'am]], the founder of
cultural Zionism, criticized the lack of
Jewish cultural activity and creativity in
Herzl's envisioned state, which Ahad Ha'am
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 84/341 referred to as "the state of the Jews."
Specifically, he points to the envisioned
European and German culture of the state
where Jews were simply the transmitters of
imperialist culture rather than producers
or creators of culture.
{{sfn|Masalha|2012|loc=Chapter 1}} Like
Pinsker, Herzl saw antisemitism as a
reality that could only be addressed by the
territorial concentration of Jews in a
Jewish state.
{{sfn|Masalha|2014|loc=Introduction}}
+
At this point, Zionism remained a scattered
movement. In the 1890s, Herzl infused
Zionism with a practical urgency and worked
to unify the various strands of the
movement.{{sfn|Masalha|2018}}
{{pn|date=February 2026}} The title of
Herzl's 1896 manifesto providing the
ideological basis for Zionism, {{lang|de|
[[Der Judenstaat]]}}, is typically
translated as The Jewish State. Herzl
sought to establish a state where Jews
would be the majority and as a result,
politically dominant.{{sfn|Dieckhoff|2003|p=
[https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_In
vention_of_a_Nation/1m_w5J0X7lUC?
hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA39&printsec=frontcover&dq=
%22Der%20Judenstaat%22 39]}} [[Ahad
Ha'am]], the founder of cultural Zionism,
criticized the lack of Jewish cultural
activity and creativity in Herzl's
envisioned state, which Ha'am referred to
as "the state of the Jews". He pointed to
the envisioned European and German culture
of the state where Jews were simply the
transmitters of imperialist culture rather
than producers or creators of culture.
{{sfn|Masalha|2012|loc=Chapter 1}} Like
Pinsker, Herzl saw antisemitism as a
reality that could only be addressed by the
territorial concentration of Jews in a
Jewish state.
{{sfn|Masalha|2014|loc=Introduction}}
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 85/341 −
Herzl's project was purely secular; the
selection of Palestine, after considering
other locations, was motivated by the
credibility the name would give to the
movement.
{{sfn|Masalha|2014|loc=Introduction}} From
early on, Herzl recognized that Zionism
could not succeed without the support of a
Great Power.<ref>
{{harvnb|Cleveland|2010|loc=Chapter 13}}:
"Notwithstanding the growing participation
of East European Jewry in Zionist
activities, Herzl recognized that the
movement would not succeed until it secured
the diplomatic support of a Great Power and
the financial assistance of members of the
Western Jewish community."</ref> His view
was that this {{lang|de|Judenstaat}} would
serve the interests of the Great Powers,
and would "form part of a defensive wall
for Europe in Asia, an outpost of
civilization against barbarism."
{{sfn|Morris|1999|p=23}}
+ Herzl's project was purely secular; the
selection of Palestine, after considering
other locations, was motivated by the
credibility the name would give to the
movement.
{{sfn|Masalha|2014|loc=Introduction}} From
early on, Herzl recognized that Zionism
could not succeed without the support of a
[[great power]].<ref>
{{harvnb|Cleveland|2010|loc=Chapter 13}}:
"Notwithstanding the growing participation
of East European Jewry in Zionist
activities, Herzl recognized that the
movement would not succeed until it secured
the diplomatic support of a Great Power and
the financial assistance of members of the
Western Jewish community."</ref> He hoped
that his state would support the great
powers' interests and would "form part of a
defensive wall for Europe in Asia, an
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 86/341 outpost of civilization against barbarism."
{{sfn|Morris|1999|p=23}}
−
Herzl's efforts would lead to the [[First
Zionist Congress]] at [[Basel]] in 1897,
which created the [[World Zionist
Organization|Zionist Organization]] (ZO),
renamed in 1960 as [[World Zionist
Organization]] (WZO),{{sfn|Sethi|2007}} and
adopted the [[Basel Program]], which served
as the formal platform of the movement
until the 1950s, including the official
objective of establishing a legally
recognized home for the Jewish people in
Palestine.{{sfn|Masalha|2018}} The Zionist
Organization was to be the main
administrative body of the movement and
would go on to establish the [[Jewish
Colonial Trust]], whose objectives were to
encourage European Jewish emigration to
Palestine and to assist with the economic
development of the colonies.
+
Herzl's efforts led to the [[First Zionist
Congress]] at [[Basel]] in 1897, which
created the Zionist Organization (ZO),
renamed in 1960 as World Zionist
Organization (WZO),{{sfn|Sethi|2007}} and
adopted the [[Basel Program]], which
codified the official objective of
establishing a legally recognized home for
the Jewish people in Palestine.
{{sfn|Masalha|2018}} The Zionist
Organization was to be the main
administrative body of the movement and
would go on to establish the [[Jewish
Colonial Trust]], whose objectives were to
encourage European Jewish emigration to
Palestine and to assist with the economic
development of the colonies.
{{cn|date=February 2026}}
− ==== Territories considered ====
+
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 87/341 + === Territories considered ===
{{Main|Jewish territorialism|Proposals for
a Jewish state}}
{{Main|Jewish territorialism|Proposals for
a Jewish state}}
+
[[File:JewishChronicle1896.jpg|thumb|upright
=1.15|Front page of ''[[The Jewish
Chronicle]]'', January 17, 1896, showing an
article by Theodor Herzl, a month prior to
the publication of his pamphlet {{Lang|de|
[[Der Judenstaat]]}}]]
[[File:JewishChronicle1896.jpg|thumb|upright
=1.15|Front page of ''[[The Jewish
Chronicle]]'', January 17, 1896, showing an
article by Theodor Herzl, a month prior to
the publication of his pamphlet {{Lang|de|
[[Der Judenstaat]]}}]]
[[File:THEODOR HERZL AT THE FIRST ZIONIST
CONGRESS IN BASEL ON 25.8.1897. הרצל תאודור
בקונגרס הציוני הראשון - 1897.8.25
(cropped).jpg|upright=1.35|right|thumb|The
delegates at the First Zionist Congress,
held in [[Basel]], Switzerland (1897)]]
[[File:THEODOR HERZL AT THE FIRST ZIONIST
CONGRESS IN BASEL ON 25.8.1897. הרצל תאודור
בקונגרס הציוני הראשון - 1897.8.25
(cropped).jpg|upright=1.35|right|thumb|The
delegates at the First Zionist Congress,
held in [[Basel]], Switzerland (1897)]]
− Throughout the first decade of the Zionist
movement, there were several instances
where some Zionist figures, including
Herzl, considered a Jewish state in places
outside Palestine, such as [[Uganda
Scheme|"Uganda"]] (actually parts of
[[British East Africa]] today in
[[Kenya]]), [[Argentina]], [[Cyprus]],
[[Mesopotamia]], [[Mozambique]], and the
[[Sinai Peninsula]].<ref>
{{harvnb|Rovner|2014|p=45}}: "European Jews
swayed and prayed for Zion for nearly two
millennia, and by the end of the nineteenth
century their descendants had transformed
liturgical longing into a political
movement to create a Jewish national entity
somewhere in the world. Zionism's prophet,
Theodor Herzl, considered Argentina,
Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Mozambique, and the
Sinai Peninsula as potential Jewish
homelands. It took nearly a decade for
Zionism to exclusively concentrate its
spiritual yearning on the spatial
coordinates of Ottoman Palestine."</ref>
Herzl, the founder of political Zionism,
was initially content with any Jewish selfgoverned state.{{sfn|Aviv|Shneer|2005|p= + Throughout the first decade of the Zionist
movement, Herzl and other Zionist figures
considered locations for a Jewish state
outside of the Land of Israel, such as
[[Uganda Scheme|"Uganda"]] (actually parts
of [[British East Africa]] that are today
in [[Kenya]]), [[Argentina]], [[Cyprus]],
[[Mesopotamia]], [[Mozambique]], and the
[[Sinai Peninsula]].<ref>
{{harvnb|Rovner|2014|p=45}}: "European Jews
swayed and prayed for Zion for nearly two
millennia, and by the end of the nineteenth
century their descendants had transformed
liturgical longing into a political
movement to create a Jewish national entity
somewhere in the world. Zionism's prophet,
Theodor Herzl, considered Argentina,
Cyprus, Mesopotamia, Mozambique, and the
Sinai Peninsula as potential Jewish
homelands. It took nearly a decade for
Zionism to exclusively concentrate its
spiritual yearning on the spatial
coordinates of Ottoman Palestine."</ref>
Herzl was initially content with any Jewish
self-governed state.
{{sfn|Aviv|Shneer|2005|p=
[https://books.google.com/books?
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 88/341 [https://books.google.com/books?
id=kdBtob8RWEMC&q=zionism+uganda+argentina&p
g=PA10 10]}} Jewish settlement of Argentina
was the project of [[Baron Maurice de
Hirsch|Maurice de Hirsch]].
{{sfn|Hazony|2000|p=150|ps=: "Recalling his
views when he had written "The Jewish
State" eight years earlier, he [Herzl]
pointed out that at the time, he had openly
been willing to consider building on Baron
de Hirsch's beginning and establishing the
Jewish state in Argentina. But those days
were long gone."}} It is unclear if Herzl
seriously considered this alternative plan;
{{sfn|Friedman|2021|pp=239–240}} however,
he later affirmed that Palestine would have
greater attraction because of the historic
ties of Jews with that area.
{{sfn|Herzl|1896|p=29 (31)}}{{primary
source inline|date=November 2024}} A major
concern and driving reason for considering
other territories was the Russian pogroms,
in particular the [[Kishinev
pogrom|Kishinev]] massacre, and the
resulting need for quick resettlement in a
safer place.{{sfn|Hazony|2000|p=369|ps=:
"Herzl decided to explore the East Africa
proposal in the wake of the pogrom, writing
to Nordau: "We must give an answer to
Kishinev, and this is the only one...We
must, in a word, play the politics of the
hour.""}}
id=kdBtob8RWEMC&q=zionism+uganda+argentina&p
g=PA10 10]}} Jewish settlement of Argentina
was the project of [[Maurice de Hirsch]].
{{sfn|Hazony|2000|p=150|ps=: "Recalling his
views when he had written "The Jewish
State" eight years earlier, he [Herzl]
pointed out that at the time, he had openly
been willing to consider building on Baron
de Hirsch's beginning and establishing the
Jewish state in Argentina. But those days
were long gone."}} It is unclear if Herzl
seriously considered this alternative plan;
{{sfn|Friedman|2021|pp=239–240}} however,
he later affirmed that only Palestine could
gain enough Jewish support because of the
historic ties of Jews with that area.
{{sfn|Herzl|1896|p=29 (31)}}
{{sfn|Shapira|2012|p=23}} A major concern
and driving reason for considering other
territories was the Russian pogroms, in
particular the [[Kishinev pogrom|Kishinev]]
massacre, and the resulting need for quick
resettlement in a safer place.
{{sfn|Hazony|2000|p=369|ps=: "Herzl decided
to explore the East Africa proposal in the
wake of the pogrom, writing to Nordau: "We
must give an answer to Kishinev, and this
is the only one...We must, in a word, play
the politics of the hour.""}}
=== Early Zionist settlement === === Early Zionist settlement === {{Main|First Aliyah}} {{Main|First Aliyah}}
− In the early twentieth century, Zionism
advanced by establishing towns, colonies,
and an independent monetary system to
channel Jewish capital into Palestine. Due
to the unstable local economy and
fluctuating currency values under Ottoman
rule, Zionists created their own financial
institutions. Despite their small numbers,
the Zionists instilled a fear of
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 89/341 territorial displacement in the local
Palestinian population.
{{sfn|Pappé|2004|loc=Chapter 2}} This fear
would be the main driver of antagonism from
the Arabs,<ref>{{harvnb|Morris|1999|p=37}}:
"The fear of territorial displacement and
dispossession was to be the chief motor of
Arab antagonism to Zionism down to 1948
(and indeed after 1967 as well)."</ref>
leading to physical resistance and the
eventual use of military force by settlers.
Initially, the impact on rural Palestinians
was minimal, with only a few villages
encountering Jewish colonies. However,
after World War I and as Zionist land
purchases increased, the rural population
began to experience dramatic changes. From
almost the beginning of Zionist settlement,
the Palestinians viewed Zionism as an
expansionist endeavor. According to Israeli
historian Benny Morris, Zionism was
inherently expansionist and always had the
goal of turning the entirety of Palestine
into a Jewish state. In addition, Morris
describes the Zionists as intent on
politically and physically dispossessing
the Arabs.
{{sfn|Morris|1999|loc=Conclusions}} Early
warnings from local leaders in the 1880s
about the destabilizing effects of Jewish
immigration went largely unheeded until
these later developments.
{{sfn|Pappé|2004|loc=The Arrival of
Zionism}} By the early 20th century, there
were fourteen Zionist settlements in
Palestine, established through land
purchases from both local and external
landowners.{{sfn|Pappé|2004|loc=The Arrival
of Zionism}}
+ In the early twentieth century, Zionism
advanced by establishing towns, colonies,
and an independent monetary system in
Palestine. Due to the unstable local
economy and fluctuating currency values
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 90/341 under Ottoman rule, Zionists created their
own financial institutions. Despite their
small numbers, the Zionists instilled a
fear of territorial displacement in the
local population,
{{sfn|Pappé|2004|loc=Chapter 2}} which led
to Palestinian resistance and the settlers'
eventual use of military force.<ref>
{{harvnb|Morris|1999|p=37}}: "The fear of
territorial displacement and dispossession
was to be the chief motor of Arab
antagonism to Zionism down to 1948 (and
indeed after 1967 as well)."</ref>
Initially, the impact on rural Palestinians
was minimal, with only a few villages
encountering Jewish colonies. However,
after [[World War I]] and as Zionist land
purchases increased, the rural population
began to experience dramatic changes. From
almost the beginning of Zionist settlement,
Palestinians viewed Zionism as an
expansionist endeavor. According to Israeli
historian Benny Morris, Zionism was
inherently expansionist and always had the
goal of turning the entirety of Palestine
into a Jewish state. In addition, Morris
describes the Zionists as intent on
politically and physically dispossessing
the Arabs.
{{sfn|Morris|1999|loc=Conclusions}} Early
warnings from local leaders in the 1880s
about the destabilizing effects of Jewish
immigration went largely unheeded until
these later developments.
{{sfn|Pappé|2004|loc=The Arrival of
Zionism}} By the early 20th century, there
were fourteen Zionist settlements in
Palestine, established through land
purchases from both local and external
landowners.{{sfn|Pappé|2004|loc=The Arrival
of Zionism}}
− From the outset, the Zionist leadership saw
land acquisition as essential to achieving
their goal of establishing a Jewish state.
This acquisition was strategic, aiming to
create a continuous area of Jewish land.
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 91/341 The World Zionist Organization established
the [[Jewish National Fund]] (JNF) in 1901,
with the stated goal "to redeem the land of
Palestine as the inalienable possession of
the Jewish people." The notion of land
"redemption" entailed that the land could
not be sold and could not be leased to a
non-Jew nor should the land be worked by
Arabs.{{sfn|Quigley|2005|pp=4–7}} The land
purchased was primarily from absentee
landlords, and upon purchase of the land,
the tenant farmers who traditionally had
rights of usufruct were often expelled.
{{sfn|Khalidi|2010|p=102}} Herzl publicly
opposed this dispossession, but wrote
privately in his diary: "We shall try to
spirit the penniless population across the
border by procuring employment for it in
the transit countries, while denying it any
employment in our country... Both the
process of expropriation and the removal of
the poor must be carried out discreetly and
circumspectly." Support for expulsion of
the Arab population in Palestine was one of
the main currents in Zionist ideology from
the movement's inception.
{{sfn|Morris|1999|pp=20–24}}{{Failed
verification|date=March 2025|reason=The
referenced pages contain only a brief
comment about Herzl's alleged views
regarding expulsion of the Arabs and don't
contain any general claims about it being
"one of the main currents in Zionist
ideology from the movement's inception"}}
+ From the outset, the Zionist leadership saw
land acquisition as essential to achieving
their goal of establishing a Jewish state.
This acquisition was strategic, aiming to
create a continuous area of Jewish land.
The WZO established the [[Jewish National
Fund]] (JNF) in 1901, with the stated goal
"to redeem the land of Palestine as the
inalienable possession of the Jewish
people." The notion of land "redemption"
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 92/341 entailed that the land could not be sold
and could not be leased to a non-Jew nor
should the land be worked by Arabs,
{{sfn|Quigley|2005|pp=4–7}} though most
Zionists continued to employ [[fellaheen]]
to perform labor on their lands.
{{sfn|Anderson|2013|p=84}} The land
purchased was primarily from absentee
landlords, and upon purchase of the land,
the tenant farmers who traditionally had
rights of usufruct were often expelled.
{{sfn|Khalidi|2010|p=102}} Herzl publicly
opposed this dispossession, but wrote
privately in his diary: "We shall try to
spirit the penniless population across the
border by procuring employment for it in
the transit countries, while denying it any
employment in our country... Both the
process of expropriation and the removal of
the poor must be carried out discreetly and
circumspectly."{{sfn|Morris|1999|pp=20–24}}
The arrival of Zionist settlers to
Palestine in the late 19th century is
widely seen as the start of the [[Israeli–
Palestinian conflict]].
{{sfn|Masalha|2012|p=70}}
{{sfn|Karsh|2009|p=12}}
{{sfn|Morris|2008|p=1}} Zionists wanted to
create a Jewish state in Palestine with as
much land, as many Jews, and as few
Palestinian Arabs as possible.<ref
name="ZionistLandJewsArabs1">{{bulleted
list|
−
The arrival of Zionist settlers to
Palestine in the late 19th century is
widely seen as the start of the [[Israeli–
Palestinian conflict]].
{{sfn|Masalha|2012|p=70}}
{{sfn|Karsh|2009|p=12}}
{{sfn|Morris|2008|p=1}}
−
Zionists wanted to create a Jewish state in
Palestine with as much land, as many Jews,
and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible.
<ref name="ZionistLandJewsArabs">{{bulleted
list|
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 93/341 | {{harvnb|Manna|2022|ps=, pp. 2 ("the
principal objective of the Zionist
leadership to keep as few Arabs as possible
in the Jewish state"), 4 ("in the 1948 war,
when it became clear that the objective
that enjoyed the unanimous support of
Zionists of all inclinations was to
establish a Jewish state with the smallest
possible number of Palestinians"), and 33
("The Zionists had two cherished
objectives: fewer Arabs in the country and
more land in the hands of the settlers.")}}
| {{harvnb|Manna|2022|ps=, pp. 2 ("the
principal objective of the Zionist
leadership to keep as few Arabs as possible
in the Jewish state"), 4 ("in the 1948 war,
when it became clear that the objective
that enjoyed the unanimous support of
Zionists of all inclinations was to
establish a Jewish state with the smallest
possible number of Palestinians"), and 33
("The Zionists had two cherished
objectives: fewer Arabs in the country and
more land in the hands of the settlers.")}}
| {{harvnb|Khalidi|2020|p=76|ps=: "The
Nakba represented a watershed in the
history of Palestine and the Middle East.
It transformed most of Palestine from what
it had been for well over a millennium—a
majority Arab country—into a new state that
had a substantial Jewish majority. This
transformation was the result of two
processes: the systematic ethnic cleansing
of the Arab-inhabited areas of the country
seized during the war; and the theft of
Palestinian land and property left behind
by the refugees as well as much of that
owned by those Arabs who remained in
Israel. There would have been no other way
to achieve a Jewish majority, the explicit
aim of political Zionism from its
inception. Nor would it have been possible
to dominate the country without the
seizures of land."}}
| {{harvnb|Khalidi|2020|p=76|ps=: "The
Nakba represented a watershed in the
history of Palestine and the Middle East.
It transformed most of Palestine from what
it had been for well over a millennium—a
majority Arab country—into a new state that
had a substantial Jewish majority. This
transformation was the result of two
processes: the systematic ethnic cleansing
of the Arab-inhabited areas of the country
seized during the war; and the theft of
Palestinian land and property left behind
by the refugees as well as much of that
owned by those Arabs who remained in
Israel. There would have been no other way
to achieve a Jewish majority, the explicit
aim of political Zionism from its
inception. Nor would it have been possible
to dominate the country without the
seizures of land."}}
Line 243: Line 251:
| {{harvnb|Stanislawski|2017|p=65|ps=, "The
upper classes of Palestinian society
quickly fled the fight to places of safety
within the Arab world and outside of it;
the lower classes were caught between the
Israeli desire to have as few Arabs as
possible remaining in their new state and
the Palestinians' desire to remain on the
lands they regarded as their ancient
national patrimony."}}
| {{harvnb|Stanislawski|2017|p=65|ps=, "The
upper classes of Palestinian society
quickly fled the fight to places of safety
within the Arab world and outside of it;
the lower classes were caught between the
Israeli desire to have as few Arabs as
possible remaining in their new state and
the Palestinians' desire to remain on the
lands they regarded as their ancient
national patrimony."}}
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 94/341 | {{harvnb|Finkelstein|2016|loc=Ch. 1
("Justifying the Zionist Enterprise")|ps=,
"Zionism's claim to the whole of Palestine
not only precluded a modus vivendi based on
partition with the indigenous Arab
population, it called into question any
Arab presence in Palestine."}}
| {{harvnb|Finkelstein|2016|loc=Ch. 1
("Justifying the Zionist Enterprise")|ps=,
"Zionism's claim to the whole of Palestine
not only precluded a modus vivendi based on
partition with the indigenous Arab
population, it called into question any
Arab presence in Palestine."}}
−
| {{harvnb|Rouhana|SabbaghKhoury|2014|p=6|ps=, "It was obvious to most approaches within the Zionist movement—
certainly to the mainstream as represented
by Labor Zionism and its leadership headed
by Ben Gurion, that a Jewish state would
entail getting rid of as many of the
Palestinian inhabitants of the land as
possible ... Following Wolfe, we argue that
the logic of demographic elimination is an
inherent component of the Zionist project
as a settler-colonial project, although it
has taken different manifestations since
the founding of the Zionist movement."}}
+
| {{harvnb|Rouhana|SabbaghKhoury|2015|p=6|ps=, "It was obvious to most approaches within the Zionist movement—
certainly to the mainstream as represented
by Labor Zionism and its leadership headed
by Ben Gurion, that a Jewish state would
entail getting rid of as many of the
Palestinian inhabitants of the land as
possible ... Following Wolfe, we argue that
the logic of demographic elimination is an
inherent component of the Zionist project
as a settler-colonial project, although it
has taken different manifestations since
the founding of the Zionist movement."}}
+
}}</ref><ref name="ZionistLandJewsArabs2">
{{bulleted list|
| {{harvnb|Engel|2013|ps=, pp. 96 ("From
the outset Zionism had been the activity of
a loose coalition of individuals and groups
united by a common desire to increase the
Jewish population of Palestine ..."), 121
("... the ZO sought ways to expand the
territory a partitioned Jewish state might
eventually receive ... Haganah undertook to
ensconce small groups of Jews in parts of
Palestine formerly beyond their sights ...
their leaders had hoped for more expansive
borders ..."), and 138 ("The prospect that
Israel would have only the barest Jewish
majority thus loomed large in the
imagination of the state's leaders. To be
sure, until the late 1930s most Zionists
would have been delighted with any
majority, no matter how slim; the thought
that Jews in Palestine would ever be more
numerous than Arabs appeared a distant
vision. But in 1937 the Peel Commission had
| {{harvnb|Engel|2013|ps=, pp. 96 ("From
the outset Zionism had been the activity of
a loose coalition of individuals and groups
united by a common desire to increase the
Jewish population of Palestine ..."), 121
("... the ZO sought ways to expand the
territory a partitioned Jewish state might
eventually receive ... Haganah undertook to
ensconce small groups of Jews in parts of
Palestine formerly beyond their sights ...
their leaders had hoped for more expansive
borders ..."), and 138 ("The prospect that
Israel would have only the barest Jewish
majority thus loomed large in the
imagination of the state's leaders. To be
sure, until the late 1930s most Zionists
would have been delighted with any
majority, no matter how slim; the thought
that Jews in Palestine would ever be more
numerous than Arabs appeared a distant
vision. But in 1937 the Peel Commission had
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 95/341 suggested ... to leave both the Jewish
state and Arab Palestine with the smallest
possible minorities. That suggestion had
fired Zionist imaginations; now it was
possible to think of a future state as
'Jewish' not only by international
recognition of the right of Jews to
dominate its government but by the
inclinations of virtually all of its
inhabitants. Such was how the bulk of the
Zionist leadership understood the optimal
'Jewish state' in 1948: non-Jews
(especially Arabs) might live in it and
enjoy all rights of citizenship, but their
numbers should be small enough compared to
the Jewish population that their impact on
public life would be minimal. Israel's
leaders were thus not sad at all to see so
many Arabs leave its borders during the
fighting in 1947–48 ... the 150,000 who
remained on Israeli territory seemed to
many to constitute an unacceptably high
proportion relative to the 650,000 Jews in
the country when the state came into being.
This perception not only dictated Israel's
adamant opposition to the return of Arab
refugees, it reinforced the imperative to
bring as many new Jewish immigrants into
the country as possible, as quickly as
possible, no matter how great or small
their prospects for becoming the sort of
'new Jews' the state esteemed most.")}}
suggested ... to leave both the Jewish
state and Arab Palestine with the smallest
possible minorities. That suggestion had
fired Zionist imaginations; now it was
possible to think of a future state as
'Jewish' not only by international
recognition of the right of Jews to
dominate its government but by the
inclinations of virtually all of its
inhabitants. Such was how the bulk of the
Zionist leadership understood the optimal
'Jewish state' in 1948: non-Jews
(especially Arabs) might live in it and
enjoy all rights of citizenship, but their
numbers should be small enough compared to
the Jewish population that their impact on
public life would be minimal. Israel's
leaders were thus not sad at all to see so
many Arabs leave its borders during the
fighting in 1947–48 ... the 150,000 who
remained on Israeli territory seemed to
many to constitute an unacceptably high
proportion relative to the 650,000 Jews in
the country when the state came into being.
This perception not only dictated Israel's
adamant opposition to the return of Arab
refugees, it reinforced the imperative to
bring as many new Jewish immigrants into
the country as possible, as quickly as
possible, no matter how great or small
their prospects for becoming the sort of
'new Jews' the state esteemed most.")}}
| {{harvnb|Masalha|2012|p=38|ps=, "From the
late nineteenth century and throughout the
Mandatory period the demographic and land
policies of the Zionist Yishuv in Palestine
continued to evolve. But its demographic
and land battles with the indigenous
inhabitants of Palestine were always a
battle for 'maximum land and minimum Arabs'
(Masalha 1992, 1997, 2000)."}}
| {{harvnb|Masalha|2012|p=38|ps=, "From the
late nineteenth century and throughout the
Mandatory period the demographic and land
policies of the Zionist Yishuv in Palestine
continued to evolve. But its demographic
and land battles with the indigenous
inhabitants of Palestine were always a
battle for 'maximum land and minimum Arabs'
(Masalha 1992, 1997, 2000)."}}
Line 258: Line 267:
==== Second Aliyah ==== ==== Second Aliyah ====
{{Main|Second Aliyah}} {{Main|Second Aliyah}}
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 96/341 +
−
The second wave of Zionist settlement came
with the [[Second Aliyah]] starting in
1904. The settlers of this period laid the
foundational elements for the Jewish
society in Palestine envisioned by the
Zionist movement. They established the
first two political parties, the socialist
[[Po'alei Zion]] and the non-socialist
[[Hapoel Hatzair|Ha-Po'el Ha-Tza'ir]] and
initiated the first collective agricultural
settlements known as [[kibbutzim]], which
were fundamental in the formation of the
Israeli state.{{sfn|Shafir|1996}} They also
formed the first underground military
group, [[Ha-Shomer]], which later evolved
into the Haganah and eventually became the
core of the Israeli army. Many leaders of
the Zionist national movement were products
of the Second Aliyah.{{sfn|Gorny|1987}} The
Zionists of the second aliyah were also
more ideologically motivated than those of
the first aliyah. In particular, they
sought the "[[Hebrew Labor|conquest of
labor]]", which entailed the exclusion of
Arabs from the labor market.
{{sfn|Shafir|1996|loc="Conquest of Labor"}}
+ The second wave of Zionist settlement came
with the [[Second Aliyah]] starting in
1904. The settlers of this period laid the
foundational elements for the Jewish
society in Palestine envisioned by the
Zionist movement. They established the
first two political parties, the socialist
[[Po'alei Zion]] and the non-socialist
[[Hapoel Hatzair|Ha-Po'el Ha-Tza'ir]] and
initiated the first collective agricultural
settlements known as [[kibbutzim]], which
were fundamental in the formation of the
Israeli state.{{sfn|Shafir|1996}} They also
formed the first underground military
group, [[Ha-Shomer]], which later evolved
into the Haganah and eventually became the
core of the Israeli army. Many leaders of
the Zionist national movement were products
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 97/341 of the Second Aliyah.{{sfn|Gorny|1987}} The
Zionists of the second aliyah were also
more ideologically motivated than those of
the first aliyah. In particular, they
sought the "[[conquest of labor]]", which
entailed the exclusion of Arabs from the
labor market.
{{sfn|Shafir|1996|loc="Conquest of Labor"}}
=== The Balfour Declaration and World War I
===
=== The Balfour Declaration and World War I
===
{{main|Balfour Declaration|Mandate for
Palestine|Homeland for the Jewish people}}
{{main|Balfour Declaration|Mandate for
Palestine|Homeland for the Jewish people}}
+
[[File:Palestine claimed by WZO
1919.png|thumb|right|Palestine as claimed
by the World Zionist Organization in 1919
at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris
Peace Conference]]]]
[[File:Palestine claimed by WZO
1919.png|thumb|right|Palestine as claimed
by the World Zionist Organization in 1919
at the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris
Peace Conference]]]]
− At the start of [[World War I]], the
Zionist leadership attempted to persuade
the British government of the benefits of
sponsoring a Jewish colony in Palestine.
Their main initial success was in
establishing a lobbying group centered
around the [[Rothschild family]], largely
driven by [[Chaim Weizmann]].
{{sfn|Shlaim|2001}} In the 1917 [[Balfour
declaration]], Britain declared its support
for "the establishment in Palestine of a
national home for the Jewish people". The
declaration was largely motivated by wartime considerations and antisemitic preconceptions about the putative influence
Jews had on the [[Tsarist autocracy|Tsarist
government]] and in the shaping of American
policy.{{sfn|Shapira|2014|loc=The Balfour
Declaration}}{{sfn|Pappé|2004|loc=Palestine
in the First World War}} Though his
decision was also motivated by religious
convictions,{{efn|"The irony here is in the
now well-documented understanding that Lord
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 98/341 Balfour was himself deeply religious and
that his thinking on the projected postWorld War 1 fate of Palestine was influenced by his expectations of the
fulfullment of biblical prophecy. What
disappointed Balfour, [[William
Hechler|Hechler]] and [[Abraham Isaac
Kook|Kook]] was that the secular Jewish
settlers of British Mandate Palestine did
not see divine Providence at work in
international affairs."
{{sfn|Goldman|2009|p=133}}}} Balfour
himself had passed the [[Aliens Act 1905]],
which aimed to keep Eastern European Jews
out of Britain.{{efn|[[Brian Klug]] states
that "Keeping Jews out of Britain and
packing them off to Palestine were just two
sides of the same antisemitic coin"
{{sfn|Masalha|2018|loc=Chapter 10}}}} More
decisive were Britain's colonial and
imperial geopolitical goals in the region,
specifically in retaining control over the
[[Suez Canal]] by establishing a proBritish state in the region. {{sfn|Shapira|2014|p=70-71}}
{{sfn|Roy|2016|p=33-35}} Weizmann's role in
obtaining the Balfour Declaration led to
his election as the Zionist movement's
leader. He remained in that role until
1948, and then was elected as the first
[[President of Israel]] after the nation
gained independence.
+ ==World War I period==
− Weizmann's ultimate goal was the
establishment of a Jewish state, even
beyond the borders of "Greater Israel." For
Weizmann, Palestine was a Jewish and not an
Arab country. The state he sought would
contain the east bank of the Jordan River
and extend from the Litani River (in
present-day Lebanon). Weizmann's strategy
involved incrementally approaching this
goal over a long period, in the form of
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 99/341 settlement and land acquisition.
{{sfn|Flapan|1979}}{{pn|date=February
2025}} Weizmann was open to the idea of
Arabs and Jews jointly running Palestine
through an elected council with equal
representation, but he did not view the
Arabs as equal partners in negotiations
about the country's future. In particular,
he was steadfast in his view of the "moral
superiority" of the Jewish claim to
Palestine over the Arab claim and believed
these negotiations should be conducted
solely between Britain and the Jews.
{{sfn|Shlaim|2001}} According to Zionist
Israeli historian [[Simha Flapan]], the
essential assumptions of Weizmann's
strategy were later adopted by [[David BenGurion]] and subsequent Zionist leaders. <ref>{{harvnb|Flapan|1979}}: "The
importance of analysing Weizmann's strategy
derives from the fact that the assumptions
on which they were based were, with slight
modifications, adopted by Ben-Gurion and
his successors. If one substitutes 'United
States' for 'Great Britain' and the
'Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan' for the 'Arab
National Movement', Weizmann's basic
strategic concepts might be taken as
descriptive of Israel's present foreign
policy."</ref>{{pn|date=February 2025}}
+ While there were 85,000 Jews living in
Palestine in 1914, that number went down to
56,000 by 1917. The Arab population also
suffered greatly during this time.
{{sfn|Shapira|2012|p=67}} When the Ottoman
Empire entered the war on Germany's side in
October 1914, tens of thousands of Russian
Jews became enemy citizens, and many opted
to leave rather than become Ottoman
citizens and be subject to conscription.
{{sfn|Shapira|2012|p=67}} This gave the
Ottomans an opportunity to suppress the
Zionist movement.{{sfn|Shapira|2012|p=67}}
The war also had a negative effect on trade
in Yishuv.{{sfn|Shapira|2012|p=67-68}} On
January 17, 1914, the Ottomans announced,
2/26/26, 1:04 PM Zionism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zionism&diff=1340608433&oldid=1296492217 100/341 with no prior warning, that all foreign
nationals must immediately board a ship in
Jaffa to be taken to Alexandria.
{{sfn|Shapira|2012|p=68}} In April 1917,
the Ottomans orders all Jews to leave Jaffa.
{{sfn|Shapira|2012|p=68}} In October 1917,
after the Ottomans discovered that [[Nili]]
had been giving intelligence to the
British, they arrested people at random and
imposed a curfew as collective punishment.
{{sfn|Shapira|2012|p=69}} Most Zionists
came to the conclusion that there was no
hope of change under the Ottomans and
therefore supported the British conquest of
Palestine, and they viewed the British as
redeemers.{{sfn|Shapira|2012|p=69-70}}
+
+ At the start of [[World War I]], the
Zionist leadership attempted to persuade
the British government of the benefits of
sponsoring a Jewish colony in Palestine.