I always believed that the right of Jewish national self-determination was synonymous with peace. But now I hear it equated with racism and even Nazism. When did Zionism become a dirty word?
The image of colonialism or imperialism that many wrongly associate with the Zionist movement ignores the reality of Jewish oppression and the origins of this misunderstood movement. Jewish settlers who immigrated to Palestine in the 19th century were reacting against increasingly violent anti-Semitism in Eastern Europe. Both Arabs and Jews were and still are victims of oppression and racism, but it was not a racist or oppressive impulse that caused early Jewish settlers to buy up Palestinian land. And it was certainly not a desire for colonial power that resulted in the creation of the State of Israel.
Critics of Zionism believe that the Jewish state was born out of guilt over the Holocaust, and that the Palestinians shouldn’t have to pay for the Nazis’ crimes. Among this argument’s many faults is the disregard for Arab complicity in and support for the Holocaust. As European hostility towards Jews increased in the early 20th century, countries around the world closed their doors to Jews trying to escape persecution. Palestine was no exception. Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Palestinian leader during the Holocaust, even shared Hitler’s zeal for ridding the world of Jews. He instructed his followers to “slaughter Jews wherever you find them.” He also recorded in his diary that the Arabs were “prepared to cooperate with Germany with all their hearts.”
Critics of Israel argue that Palestinian violence towards Israel is a result of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians. This is partly true, but ignores an anti-Semitic attitude that is symptomatic of a historic anti-Semitism within the Arab world. This is not to deny an anti-Arab sentiment amongst Jewish settlers; undoubtedly it exists. But to ignore the history of Arab oppression of the Jews feeds into the myth that the Palestinians have always been innocent bystanders.
While the creation of Israel was not simply a land grab or an attempt to stifle the Arab population of Palestine, it is not hard to see why Israel’s establishment angered so many in the Arab world. Just as hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced out of their Arab homelands, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced by the creation of Israel. But Arab expulsion was never the goal of establishing a Jewish state. In fact, it could have been easily avoided.
In 1947, the UN came up with a partition plan that granted both Arabs and Jews in Palestine their own state. This plan, accepted by the Jews, was rejected by the Palestinian leadership. From 1937 to 1947 to 2000, this has been an ongoing pattern.
Zionism is fully compatible with the establishment of a Palestinian state, and is just as legitimate as the Palestinian liberation movement. But one way to ensure further hatred and violence is the continual equation of Zionism with racism. Zionism is a response to the world’s historic complicity in oppressing or allowing others to oppress the Jews. Given the history of violence towards Jews, a history that extends much further back than 1939, it is not hard to understand why Jews felt the need to create a safe haven in a world that has systematically denied them the most basic human rights. Any criticism of the founding of the State of Israel has to take into account this undeniable feature of Jewish history and identity.
