Zionism and racism: Encyclopedia II - Zionism and racism - History

Zionism and racism - History

Zionism and racism - The demographic change

Despite the history of violence against the Jews, 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 immigrant, the generally left-wing socialist 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, the same land had had a Jewish majority, and Jews had never ceased to yearn for it (see Importance of Jerusalem in Judaism.)

In the Balfour Declaration, 1917, Britain "view[ed] with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," 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, as the British were preparing to leave, the 1947 UN Partition Plan 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 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. To survive, the Jewish side launched the Plan Dalet, which according to some Palestinian sources had as a purpose to conquer as much of Palestine as possible.

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. [2]

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 both Zionists and anti-Zionists, argue that this was a forced relocation of an indigenous population - the Palestinians - and replacement by another. Anti-Zionists consider this to have constituted "ethnic cleansing". Some Zionists and their supporters, argue that it is incorrect to label what happened "ethnic cleansing," since they say that 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. 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 racism - 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.

Zionism and racism - Discrimination

Israel is a state with a predominantly Jewish majority; the Arab minority constitues about 20% of its population. Although the 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence [3] 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. [4] 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 (or whose ancestors) 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 maintain 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. [5] The Article 11 of the UNGA Resolution 194, upon which the Palestinian refugees usually base their claim of a "right of return," "[r]esolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property..." without naming Israel and specifying either Palestinian or Jewish refugees.

Many opponents of Zionism declare 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.

According to the 2004 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for Israel and the occupied territories, the Israeli government "did little to reduce institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against the country's Arab citizens."[6] It based this finding on studies by Haifa University, reports from Human Rights Watch, Israeli government reports to the UN, and rulings of the Supreme Court of Israel, among other sources. See Israeli Arabs for details.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki