Opinion
February 25
In 1894, a French-Jewish officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was unjustly accused of treason, eventually convicted and sentenced to life in prison. A young journalist from Vienna, Theodore Herzl, covered the events, witnessing boisterous rallies in the streets, hearing crowds chant Death to Jews! a reflection of the increasingly vicious anti-Semitism that characterized Europe at the time. Three years later, in 1897, Herzl organized the first Zionist Congress, a meeting of 200 delegates from 17 countries, to discuss the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people. It was a bold project, one that would be the salvation for a population soon to face near annihilation at the hands of Nazi-controlled Europe and one that would face constant internal and external challenges. Ultimately though, Zionism would transform the identity of a people tied together by religious tradition and history into a unified nation.This, however, is not how Zionism might be described today. Rather, you might hear the words racism, expansionism, imperialism and settler colonialism associated with the movement. As Israeli Apartheid Week prepares to sweep campus once again, I wanted to take this opportunity to address an issue that is too often misrepresented.The false portrayal of Zionism in much of the media today, and by leaders in the Arab and Muslim world, stands in stark contrast with the goals and values of the movement. Whether its in a tweet by Irans Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, written out on a sign at an anti-Israel protest or codified via a United Nations General Assembly resolution (later overturned), Zionism has been consistently maligned and berated for its so-called racist ideology. But this is not the true philosophy of Zionism, nor the spirit of the movement, and both Israels detractors and its supporters need to be reminded of that.The Zionist movement is neither simple nor monolithic. Its important to note that not every Jew is a Zionist, and not every Zionist is a Jew, even within Israel today. Many different strains of the ideology emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and they continue to shape Israeli society and politics. But Zionism, at its core, is the simple desire for a homeland for the Jewish nation and the desire of the Jewish people to freely determine their own fate after centuries of persecution and helpless wandering. And it is based on this fundamentally just philosophy that I comfortably and proudly call myself a Zionist.The troubling perception that Zionism is akin to racism and settler colonialism, or that Zionism exists to deprive the Palestinians of a state, continues to pervade the current discourse in international media and in anti-Israel rhetoric. This is not the Zionism I know. To equate Zionism to racism is to unjustly single out Jewish nationalism and to maliciously twist the history and purpose of the movement. Similarly, comparisons of Zionism to settler colonialism misunderstand its historical context and goals. European colonialism sought to conquer land in the name of an empire and to rob that land of its resources. Zionism, while initially supported by the British Empire, sought refuge for a homeless people, themselves victims of Europe. Early Zionists had foreseen that the walls of the ghetto would soon begin to rise and understood that the Jewish reality in the Diaspora was untenable. They saw that general disunity and assimilation had weakened Jewish identity and culture. And so they sought a new beginning and prosperous future in a desert historically inhabited by Jews for 3,000 years.Still, I believe that a true Zionist should empathize with other nations seeking independence and the right to self-determination. After all, Zionism intended to liberate a people, not to occupy another. Like the Jewish nation, the Palestinian nation deserves the right to a state and is granted such under international law. Zionists acknowledged this right in their acceptance of the 1947 U.N. partition plan, which proposed a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian state, a plan the Arab states vehemently rejected. Israel has since acknowledged this right through several rounds of negotiations, starting with the Oslo Accords of the early 90s. While many are skeptical about the progress of current negotiations, and while I do not agree with many of the current Israeli governments policies in the West Bank, I continue to believe that there is a space for both nations to thrive. It is as a Zionist that I support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the majority of Israelis agree on this point.In the spring of 2013, I had the privilege of studying abroad at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Living in the heart of East Jerusalem continuously shaped and reshaped my understanding of the often-difficult realities on the ground and my own identity as a Zionist.As I took in each new experience, my Zionism appeared in a myriad of unexpected places. At a Purim fair on Ben Yehuda Street where I saw children in all forms of costume running around happily, I was reminded that the Zionist dream saw a prospering nation espousing the family values so evident on this most joyful of days. While visiting Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, I was confronted with the hatred and loss that inspired Herzl in France over a century ago. Even when witnessing instances of discrimination or racism decades of conflict between cultures have almost ensured its existence I was reminded that there is still much work to be done. Israel was meant to be a light among nations, and there are areas that it shines as brightly as ever despite constant challenges, but other areas which need attention and reform to truly reflect the values of freedom, justice and peace as stated in Israels Declaration of Independence.12
