Zionism and racism: Encyclopedia - Zionism and racism

Zionism and racism

Zionism maintains that the Jewish people constitute a nation and are entitled to a national homeland. Its focus is on governing the Land of Israel or Zion (a synecdoche for the Land of Israel). Jewish people have historically understood themselves to be part of a nation distinct from the non-Jewish nations. Like most nations, offspring of members are likewise considered members. However, common ancestry is not required and new members are admitted based upon prescribed criteria. None of the criteria include race: for example, many Ethiopian Jews live in Israel

Racism refers to beliefs and practices that assume inherent and significant differences exist between the genetics of various groups of human beings; that assume these differences can be measured on a scale of "superior" to "inferior"; and that result in the social, political and economic advantage of one group in relation to others.

Jews, Judaism, Jewish Law, and Jewish Zionists hold that any person may choose to become a Jew and enjoy all the benefits and responsibilities of membership. Jewish Zionism is therefore, by definition, non racial. One of the benefits of membership, according to the Zionists, is the right to live freely without fear of persecution, as a Jew, in the national homeland.

The Land of Israel, also known as the region of Palestine), where ancient Jewish kingdoms existed between roughly 1300 BCE and 135 CE, until most of the Jews were expelled by the Romans. The Jewish diaspora and those who stayed continued to see the area as their homeland and as the Promised Land. By the time the modern Zionist movement emerged in the mid-19th century, however, this area had a longstanding Muslim 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, which culminated in hundreds of thousands of Arabs being made refugees, and the methods used to cause this, as an inevitable consequence of Zionism. Critics also point to current inequities between Jews and Arabs in Israel, similarly viewing them as attributable to Zionist beliefs and ideologies.

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 declared 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. Israel made revocation of resolution 3379 a condition of Israel's participation in the Madrid Peace Conference.

Defenders of Zionism disagree with the identification of Zionism with racism on a number of grounds:

• The charge is too vague, as the views of Zionist groups differ widely from each other
• Both Palestinians and Jews are not racially distinct from each other and both claim mixed ancestry (see The ancestry of the Palestinians, Jewish ethnic divisions). Israeli Jews are racially mixed (nearly half of Israel's Jews come from Arab countries, and there are also almost 100,000 black Jews from Ethiopia)
• Even if Israel discriminates against Arabs, such discrimination cannot accurately be termed racist, but rather ethnic and/or cultural. Discrimination based on culture or ethnicity is a fact in almost all countries in the world, and that any discrimination in Israel (including discrimination between Jewish groups) is similarly based on such differences, and not inherent in Zionism itself.

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.

Zionism and racism - 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 since the 1700s and 1800s, according to which Jews had the power and desire to control the world.

According to mainstream Judaism[7], Jews were chosen to act in a responsible and caring way to other people, whether Jews or Gentiles, and to follow the rules set down in the Torah. Therefore the chosenness is for a series of responsibilities.

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."

Zionists point to the fact that Jewish people have historically understood themselves to be part of a nation distinct from the non-Jewish nations. Like most nations, offspring of members are likewise considered members. However, common ancestry is not required and new members are admitted based upon prescribed criteria. None of the criteria include race.

The association of Zionism with racism is seen by critics as a modern form of the traditional blood libel claimed against the Jewish people by antisemites wherein the antisemite’s own racist world view is ascribed to the Jew. Critics of this association further assert that this is motivated by the desire to deny the Jewish people the same rights other nations enjoy.

Racism refers to beliefs and practices that assume inherent and significant differences exist between the genetics of various groups of human beings; that assume these differences can be measured on a scale of "superior" to "inferior"; and that result in the social, political and economic advantage of one group in relation to others.

Jews, Judaism, Jewish Law, and Jewish Zionists hold that any person may choose to become a Jew, after meeting the necessary requirements, and enjoy all the benefits and responsibilities of membership. Since anyone can (i.e., regardless of race) both join the Jewish people and equally enjoy the benefits of membership, Zionists conclude that Zionism is anti-Racist. One of the benefits of membership, according to the Zionists, is the right to live freely without fear of persecution, as a Jew, in the national homeland.

Thus, associating Zionism with racism is seen as a canard by its detractors and as merely another case of accusing the Jews of whatever is considered most despicable at the time, whether it’s , deicide, poisoning the wells in medieval Europe, blood libels, racism, colonialism, imperialism or genocide and using this as a pretext to deny Jews the rights that all nations seek to enjoy.

Zionism and racism - 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:

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)

Zionism and racism - 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).

See also

Anti-Zionism, Jewish Anti-Zionism, anti-Semitism, Zionology, Anti-Arab, Arabs and anti-Semitism, Religious pluralism, Peace process, Projects working for peace among Israelis and Arabs.

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