Zionism & racism

Zionism is a political movement which maintains that the Jewish people constitute a nation and are entitled to a national homeland. Its focus is on reclaiming the region of Zion (a synecdoche for the Land of Israel, also known as the region of Palestine), where ancient Jewish kingdoms existed between roughly 1300 BCE and 135 CE, until the Jews were expelled by the Romans. The Jewish diaspora and those who stayed continued to see the area as their spiritual home and as the Promised Land. By the time the modern Zionist movement took off in the mid-19th century, however, this area had a longstanding Palestinian Arab majority (though a few cities, such as Jerusalem, had Jewish majorities); in order to establish the desired Jewish state, Zionists successfully made efforts to change the demographic balance. Critics of Zionism see the changes in demographic balance in order to create a Jewish state in the area and the methods used to cause it as discriminatory against Palestinians; some critics who regard Jews and Palestinians as racially distinct thus condemn Zionism as racist.

Both the League of Nations's 1922 Palestine Mandate and the 1947 UN Partition Plan supported the aim of Zionism, but in November 1975, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 voiced that "Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination." In December 1991, the General Assembly rescinded this resolution through Resolution 4686. At the time, the Soviet Union, a major sponsor of the "Zionism is racism" doctrine (see Zionology), had completed its rapid collapse.

Some disagree with the identification of Zionism with racism on the basis that the charge is too vague: the views of Zionist groups differ widely from each other. Others disagree on the basis that Palestinians and Jews are not racially distinct from each other, and thus that, even if Zionism discriminates against Palestinians, such discrimination cannot accurately be termed racist.

History

The demographic change

Despite of its violent history, there is no evidence of any interruption in the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel for more than three millennia. In addition to traditional religious Jewish communities known as the old yishuv, the second half of the 19th century saw a new kind of Jewish immigrants, prevalently left-wing socialists who aimed to reclaim their land by working on it. Mikveh Israel was founded in 1870 by Alliance Israelite Universelle, followed by Petah Tikva (1878), Rishon LeZion (1882), and other agricultural communities founded by the members of Bilu and Hovevei Zion. In 1897, the First Zionist Congress proclaimed the decision to restore ancient Jewish homeland in Eretz Yisrael.
At that time, Palestine was a part of the large Ottoman Empire. This decision made Zionism different from most other nationalisms, as its proponents claimed territory for an ethnicity, the vast majority of whom lived far away from it at the time Zionism was founded. Two millennia earlier, under the Kingdom of Judah and Kingdom of Israel, it had had a Jewish majority, and Jews had never ceased to yearn for it (see Importance of Jerusalem in Judaism.)

In the Balfour Declaration, Britain expressed its support for the Zionist ideal of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine, and put this into practice after capturing Palestine from the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Jewish immigration increased substantially, despite later widespread opposition from the existing inhabitants, profoundly changing the demographic balance of the area: over two decades; the Jewish population went from 11% in 1922 to 31% in 1945.

By 1947, the British were preparing to leave, amid attacks on their government from both sides and mutual violence and discontent. The 1947 UN Partition Plan had proposed a division of the area between Jewish and Arab states, granting 55% of the land (most of it Negev desert) to a Jewish state which would have had a 60% Jewish population. The Jewish Agency accepted the plan; however, the Arabs had rejected it as unjust, and heated fighting between Zionist and Arab guerrillas broke out. (See 1948 Arab-Israeli War.) On May 14 1948, the British Mandate of Palestine expired and Israel declared independence. The next day, six Arab states attacked, substantially augmenting the Palestinian guerrillas' forces, with the ambition of destroying Israel at its inception.

Since Palestinian Arabs constituted a majority of the population of the British Mandate of Palestine at the time, many have seen Israel's declaration of independence as denying the right of self-determination to the Palestinians; they note also that it had been made possible by the Balfour Declaration, an explicit contravention of the idea of self-determination insofar as it was decided entirely without Palestinian consent. Detractors of this argument note that by 1947 the Jews had come to constitute a majority in the areas designated to the Jewish state by the UN partition they accepted, and view the Arab leadership's refusal to negotiate, as well as their rejection of any partition as attempts to deny the Jews their right of self-determination. Some also claim that "Palestinians" as a unified people or culture did not exist until very recently, and that the term "Palestinian" was geographical in nature. [1] Others claim that since Jordan's Palestinian population outnumber by a "wide margin" the Hashemite "East Bankers", this establishes Jordan a de facto Palestinian state. [1]

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

Zionism and Israel

Though the modern incarnation of the Zionist ideology is the state of Israel, this itself is a source of debate among some Zionists about the nature of the Jewish state. Some Zionist intellectuals still make a careful distinction between advocacy for a Jewish ethnic homeland and a Jewish state, which is perhaps similar to the difference between patriotism and nationalism.

Israeli laws treating Jews and non-Jews differently

Israel is a state with a predominantly Jewish majority. Although the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence [1] guarantees equality of political and social rights for all its citizens, irrespective of their race, religion or sex, the Declaration also contains multiple references to the Jewish nature of the state, resulting in some laws treating Jews and non-Jews differently. [1] In particularly the jus sanguinis law of the right of return which, despite Israel's in other circumstances very restricted immigration policies, grant every Jew in the world the right to settle in Israel. This is especially agitating for the many Palestinian refugees, who used to live in the territory that is today's Israel, but are denied their wish to return, which they deem a right. Supporters of the law state that allowing a hostile majority that were adversaries in a war for Israel's independence to return would be tantamount to the political, demographic destruction of the Jewish character of Israel, and would endanger the Jewish population living there. [1]

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

Many opponents of Zionism believe that Zionism is racist, and compare its continuation to the reform of Germany's former 'Blood Laws', which had allowed ethnic Germans to claim citizenship, even if they were nationals of another country. The defenders of the Law of Return point out that it is designed to serve as a safe haven for Jews fleeing persecution, and as an guarantor against possible genocide. They refer to violent history of anti-Semitism and the abundance of anti-Semitic propaganda in the Arab media as an indicator of plausibility of such scenario. They also note that many modern states implement immigration policies favoring certain groups.

Proponents of Zionism disagree with this qualification. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog stated:
: "I can point with pride to the Arab ministers who have served in my government; to the Arab deputy speaker of my Parliament; to Arab officers and men serving of their own volition in our border and police defense forces, frequently commanding Jewish troops; to the hundreds of thousands of Arabs from all over the Middle East crowding the cities of Israel every year; to the thousands of Arabs from all over the Middle East coming for medical treatment to Israel; to the peaceful coexistence which has developed; to the fact that Arabic is an official language in Israel on a par with Hebrew; to the fact that it is as natural for an Arab to serve in public office in Israel as it is incongruous to think of a Jew serving in any public office in an Arab country, indeed being admitted to many of them. Is that racism? It is not! That... is Zionism."

Viewed as anti-Semitism

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

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

In his response to the UN Resolution branding Zionism as racism, the Israeli Ambassador Chaim Herzog pointed out that the resolution is
: "another manifestation of the bitter anti-Semitic, anti-Jewish hatred which animates Arab society. Who would have believed that in this year, 1975, the malicious falsehoods of the "Elders of Zion" would be distributed officially by Arab governments? Who would have believed that we would today contemplate an Arab society which teaches the vilest anti-Jewish hate in the kindergartens?... We are being attacked by a society which is motivated by the most extreme form of racism known in the world today... expressed so succinctly in the words of the leader of the PLO, Yassir Arafat, in his opening address at a symposium in Tripoli, Libya: "There will be no presence in the region other than the Arab presence..."

Soviet influence

Political Zionism was officially stamped out for the entire history of the Soviet Union as a form of bourgeois nationalism. As early as 1918 the Bolsheviks established Yevsektsiya to suppress both Zionism and Judaism. Without changing its official anti-Zionist stance, the Soviet Union briefly supported the establishment of Israel in 1947. Before voting for the 1947 partition, Andrei Gromyko stated:
: "As we know, the aspirations of a considerable part of the Jewish people are linked with the problem of Palestine and of its future administration. This fact scarcely requires proof... The United Nations cannot and must not regard this situation with indifference, since this would be incompatible with the high principles proclaimed in its Charter..."

By the end of 1948, the Soviet leadership realized that Israel had chosen the Western option, and during the course of the Cold War it unequivocally supported Arab regimes against Israel. The Soviet "anti-Zionist" campaign frequently bordered on anti-Semitism, recycling old conspiracy theories. By the end of 1940s, the official position of the Soviet Union and its satellite states and agencies was that Zionism was a tool used by the Jews and Americans for "racist imperialism". The meaning of the term Zionism was misrepresented to conform to a policy of the ruling Communist Party of the Soviet Union: "the main posits of modern Zionism are militant chauvinism, racism, anti-Communism and anti-Sovietism,... overt and covert fight against freedom movements and the USSR" (БСЭ, The Official Soviet Encyclopedia, 1970s Ed).
(See History of the Jews in Russia and Soviet Union, rootless cosmopolitan, Prague Trials, Doctors' plot, Zionology, Anti-Zionist committee of the Soviet public)

UN Resolution 3379

Main article: United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379

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

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