polymathic-polyphony:

3tznius5this:

off the back of a discussion that happened on facebook I wanted to compile some examples of different Jewish perspectives I knew on how they relate to ‘zionism’. Mainly to highlight that 1. this is a Jewish word the precludes any aspect of the modern state of Israel. 2. Jews are not monolith, and thus just because you know one accepted way a Jew relates to it, doesn’t mean you have the whole picture. & 3. (probably the most important one) that there is a systematic cross purposes happening when you have groups of activists who have only come across the word ‘zionism’ or ‘zionist’ inside the strict paradigm of acceptable I/P conflict discourse. (By which I mean, where pro-Palestine western discourse has dominated the definition of this word by unilaterally equating it with complicity, support & tolerance of violence against Palestinians). 

“I’m a Zionist..” what it could mean when a Jewish person says this:

1. I’m saying this because I support the state of Israel, including its policy and sanctions against the Palestinians, and believe that the modern state of Israel should expand and control all territories.

2. I’m saying this because even though I do not support the modern state of Israel, and I abhor what is happening to the Palestinians, I believe that the Jews who currently live there should not be forced to leave. 

3. I believe in the Jewish right for self determination, that is my end goal but I truly wish it could be established in a way that brings solace to both the Palestinians and the Jews who currently live there. I am open to a one state or two state solution as long as the end goal is a homeland for the Jewish people and the end of mistreatment against Palestinians.

4. I’m saying this because my family were forced out of Egypt/Yemen/another mena country, and to suggest that we have to go back to the people who mistreated us is violent, and thus the treatment of Palestinians can only get better when mena countries end their own antisemitism.

5. I don’t support the modern state of Israel, or the politics, however I’m a religious Jew who believes in the commandment of not ‘insulting’ Israel, and using the term zionism best encapsulates that for me. 

6. This word represents revolutionary unity between Jews in the face of antisemitism as codified by Herzl (& others), even though I reject most ways in which it is used now by the modern state of Israel, it is an important and historic word to my people in a political manner and I refuse to give it up. 

7. I am very critical of the Israeli government, and I wish (although I don’t always know how) for peace and better living standards for Palestinians, simultaneously however Israel is the epicentre of the Jewish world (even if I’ve never been there) and I don’t think modern politics can detract from that.

8. I never use to use the word zionist but ever since the UN ruled antisemitic and ahistorical statements denying the Jewish history in Israel I realised that anti-zionism is in fact often antisemitic, for me it is only by working with other zionists that we can change the future of Israel to a more peaceful one.

9. I plan to make aliyah one day, this doesn’t mean I agree with everything the government is doing or that it is fair that the Palestinians have had to suffer. I still plan to join the Jewish nation and be able to live religiously near our ancient sites.

10. There are pogroms/riots against Jews/”anti-Israel” demonstrations that chant things like “gas the Jews” where I live right now. I never planned to go to Israel but I am now. It is sad that me & my community are giving up our diaspora community, I am glad Israel exist for us to flee to.

11. Since the diaspora community in [x] (for example, Yemen) has been completely obliterated in the face of violence and forced conversion to Islam, even though I don’t live in Israel I believe it’d be wrong to not support it as that is the only place where my family’s culture still exists through no fault of their own. To me the Jews didn’t create Israel, they were forced there & thus it’s insulting that we are treated as the ‘one true oppressors’ in this discourse.

12. I have family in Israel, to not be a zionist would be saying I want them to be harmed/that if they were murdered that would be just. 

13. Because so many Jews were forced to flee their countries into Israel, to not be a zionist would be saying I think they deserve to be made into refugees/sent back to countries that seek to enact violence on them. That doesn’t mean I support the government of Israel however.

14. I am a convert and part of my conversion meant joining a community that sees Israel as their ancestral homeland. Calling myself a zionist helps me feel close to me (new) identity and is my personal tie to this history. 

15. I am Israeli, no matter what I believe politically this inherently makes me a zionist because I live here & do not wish to be murdered here. 

“I’m Not a Zionist…” this could mean any of the following:

1. I do not support the state of Israel, although I of course don’t want the Jews living there to be ethnically cleansed, the most important thing is to focus on the plight of Palestinians right now.

2. I love Israel, and I fully support the state of Israel including its sanctions against the Palestinians because I believe that’s the only way to keep hamas at bay – who themselves enact violence against Palestinians – I’m not a zionist though as I never plan to make aliyah.

3. I have visited Israel/plan to visit Israel & I see it as a Jewish historical place, I don’t feel like I know enough about politics to have an informed opinion on it though, and I am sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. For this reason I just tend to say I’m not a zionist.

4. I used to call myself an anti-zionist but have since realised that anti-zionism is a movement entrenched in antisemitism and after being systematically abused and belittled for merely being a Jew – even when I openly said I’m anti-zionist – I have given up the title & now say non-zionist.

5. I believe in the Jewish homeland, and that it should be Israel. One part because it is our ancestral home, another part because that’s where Jews live now. I don’t support the actions of the government however, so I choose not to call myself a zionist in light of that. 

6. I am really tired of being dragged into the I/P debate just because I’m a Jew, so I say this to try and get goyim to leave me alone. 

7. I think the time of the usefulness of the word ‘zionism’ is over, and instead we should be looking at the viability of a bi-national state. 

8. I support the right for Jewish self determination, and that Israel is our ancestral homeland, furthermore I think that modern pro-Palestinian activism is often antisemitic and ignores the fact that destabilising Israel will lead to a genocide of the Jewish people who live there. However, many people who use the term zionist are racist/believe things I don’t believe in, so I don’t associate with that word.

9. I’m frum* and to me zionism is a secular word and movement that I don’t associate with, this doesn’t really tell you anything about my politics however. (**note to goyim: frum means ‘religious’ in yiddish, but is better translated as part of a community that strictly observes religious law.)

10. I am Israeli, I don’t need to be zionist as I just have political opinions about my country. Zionism is more for people in diaspora.

“I’m anti-Zionist…” this could mean:

1. I do not support the modern state of Israel, I don’t support people who do, I actively fight the political movement of zionism & would be happy to see “Israel” dismantled and Palestine returned.

2. I believe in the Jewish history and ties to Israel, and I also understand why it was created, but for me Zionism stands for enacting violence on Palestinians and thus I will actively fight against it. 

3. Although I am not wholly comfortable with the term, I use anti-Zionist as goyishe activists would probably throw me out of left wing movements if I don’t constantly prove that I’m not a zionist. 

4. I am Israeli, thus when I say I’m anti-Zionist I obviously am not saying I want Israel to be dismantled, or for Israelis to be harmed, I am instead saying something about the political rights of Palestinians.

5. I think Zionism has come to dominate too much of the Jewish identity, for that sake I distance myself from it. This doesn’t say very much about my political opinions.

6. I don’t want Israel to be destroyed, and I fear for the lives of Jews who live in diaspora and may not be able to flee there if Israel were to change, I am also fearful for the lives of Israelis as Israel’s neighbours have often promised death upon them and hamas’ charter has been one of wishing genocide upon Jews. However, I don’t ever want to go to Israel myself, I don’t agree with the government, and in any way I can I support the pro-Palestinian activism. 

7. Everything about Israel makes me really embarrassed and angry, I wish Israel would stop its violent actions as in the long run it is Jews like me in diaspora that face the brunt of it. 

8. It makes me really angry that right wing politicians and bigots can be antisemitic and even enact/incite violence against Jews, but just because they ‘support Israel’ Jewish safety is ignored by the left, and many Jewish institutions will ignore them in hopes of not rocking the boat. 

9. To me it is a simple binary: do you accept what the modern state of Israel is doing now? If yes: you’re a zionist. If no, you’re an anti-zionist. I fall on the latter, but that doesn’t actually tell you about the other layers of opinion I may have. 

To write this I genuinely just ran through all my Jewish friends and tried to summarise their position and sort it into the three headings. As you can see, from just one British Jew in London, I rub shoulders with a multitude of opinions, feelings & perspectives on Israel. And none of these are even supposed to adequately sum up even one Jew’s feelings on the place Israel or the word zionism. 

Hopefully those reading will see why I get so frustrated when they assume that Jews are either sharing the same opinion on the word zionism, or that they are talking about the same thing Jews are when we use it. 

Finally I will say: zionism is a Jewish word, for my own sake I have a complicated and not particularly happy relationship with it. However, I don’t believe any non-Jew have the right to take away the Jewish control over its definitions. This is especially the case as ‘zionist’ is more easily used as a placeholder for Jew, to the extent that the stormfront created ‘zio’ was in fact common place in ‘anti-zionist’ spaces for a long time & used even by ‘woke’ leftists. Asking goyim to stop using zionism as a catch all term to rile against in regards to Israel doesn’t detract anything from pro-Palestinian activism, the activism itself is still there unless your support for Palestinians was just preformative, to show off your ‘wokeness’ or worse: because you’re explicitly or latently antisemitic and don’t want to give up the ‘acceptable’ means of manifesting that. 

@vaspider I don’t know if you’ve seen this yet