Is Zionism racism? The making of the Palestinian tragedy

Zionism takes its name from Mount Zion in Jerusalem (Al Quds). Modern political Zionism took shape in 1896, when a Hungarian-born Jewish journalist, Theodor Herzl, wrote a book titled The Jewish State. In it, he posited that Jews were not just a religious community but also a nationality. They were minorities wherever they lived and were often persecuted and sometimes massacred.

They would only be secure if they had a land to call their own. He envisaged working in concert with the Palestinian Arabs to improve their land and win their trust and amity. Palestine was then part of the Ottoman Empire. The Jews had suffered persecution and displacement under Roman rule, particularly following the Jewish revolts of the first and second centuries AD.

However, Jewish communities had continued to exist in Palestine throughout the centuries. Before the beginning of large-scale modern Zionist immigration, Jews constituted a small minority of the population.

Jews celebrate Passover, one of their most important religious festivals, in the spring and traditionally conclude the Passover Seder with the words, ‘Next year in Jerusalem.’ Some Jews historically referred to themselves as Israelites rather than using the modern national term Israelis. Israel is also a Hebrew name traditionally understood to mean ‘he who struggles with God’.

Herzl died long before his dream was realised. Zionists were not always certain that Palestine was the only place where they might establish a Jewish homeland. They even considered Uganda. In 1903, the British Government proposed a territory in British East Africa, in what is now Kenya, as a possible Jewish refuge. The proposal became known as the Uganda Scheme, although the territory was not actually in Uganda. It was eventually rejected by the Zionist movement.

Zionism emerged just after the Scramble for Africa. In the white world of that era, it was taken as axiomatic that whites were fit for self-government and other races were not. The Great Powers annexed territory as they pleased. Zionism was very much a white European project in its origins. Many Zionists were unembarrassed to describe it as a colonial endeavour. But what about the people of Palestine?

Some Zionists used the expression ‘a land without a people for a people without a land’. It is true that Palestine was relatively poor and had a far lower population density than today. But the slogan suggested that Palestinians were not a people. There was also the argument that, while Palestinians were human beings, they were not a nation.

It is true that Palestine was part of the wider Ottoman geographical and administrative region of Syria, but this did not mean that Palestinians were simply Syrians or lacked a distinct national identity.

Some Zionists spoke to the Ottoman authorities about permitting more Jewish immigration into Palestine. The Ottomans allowed some Jewish immigration and settlement before 1914, although they also imposed restrictions, particularly on land purchases and immigration.

Some Palestinians welcomed individual Jewish immigrants who brought investment, new agricultural methods and technology. But welcoming immigrants and accepting the political project of establishing a Jewish national home were two different things.

The early Zionist movement contained a significant socialist element. Some of its members were atheists. Others were religious, and Zionism developed into several different ideological strands.

Jews in countries with relatively little antisemitism were often hostile to Zionism. They feared that Zionism would lead them to be accused of divided loyalties. In countries such as the USA and UK, many Jews liked to emphasise that they bore exclusive allegiance to their own country. Well-established Jewish communities did not wish to upset their position by creating a new country that might cast doubt on their national loyalty.

In poorer Eastern European countries, where there was severe antisemitism, Zionism seemed more alluring. Jews sought safety because of the pogroms, particularly in the Russian Empire and other parts of Eastern Europe.

Some members of the British elite were convinced by Zionism. The UK was only about 1% Jewish, but some of the wealthiest men in the country were Jews. There were Jewish MPs in all three major political parties. Winston Churchill became a strong supporter of Zionism. In 1937, while giving evidence before the Peel Commission, he defended Jewish settlement in Palestine by comparing it with European settlement in America and Australia.

He argued that Indigenous populations had no right to prevent a stronger and supposedly more advanced race from taking their place. His remarks reflected the colonial and racial assumptions of the time. They were not, however, the specific statement about Palestinians that is sometimes attributed to him.

In 1917, the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration. Arthur James Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, wrote to Lord Rothschild: ‘His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.’

This did not say that Palestine would become independent, nor did it explicitly promise the creation of a Jewish state. The British had made a commitment to support the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine while supposedly protecting the rights of the existing non-Jewish population. The declaration left considerable ambiguity about the future political arrangements of the country. After the First World War, Britain took control of Palestine under a League of Nations Mandate, formally approved in 1922.

Jewish immigration increased sharply after the First World War. This time, Palestinians began to feel menaced. They thought far too many people were immigrating into the country. They feared becoming a minority in their own homeland. They lobbied the British to reduce the Jewish influx.

The British came under very strong Zionist pressure not to do so. Palestinians who were willing to collaborate with Jewish immigrants or Zionist organisations sometimes faced punishment from their own communities and, in some cases, death. European Jews arriving in Palestine also sometimes shared the white supremacist assumptions that were widespread in European society. Many of these immigrants came from Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Ukraine and other Eastern European countries.

A situation arose in which significant intercommunal violence began in the 1920s. The British authorities in Mandatory Palestine had trouble containing the situation. Violence increased considerably during the Arab Revolt of 1936–39. Some Zionists began to say that they wanted the whole of Palestine and that this could only be achieved if the Palestinians were driven out.

Others supported partition or different arrangements for sharing the territory. The Zionist movement was not united on the question. But back then, Jews were still too few to establish control over the whole country. By the outbreak of the Second World War, Jews constituted about 30% of the population of Mandatory Palestine, rather than 20%.

Some Zionist underground organisations began a campaign of violence in the 1930s against Palestinian civilians and, increasingly, against the British authorities. The organisations involved included the Irgun, which carried out attacks against Arab civilians and British targets, while the Haganah generally followed a different strategy, although its activities also changed over time.

The more extreme Lehi, also known as the Stern Gang, was established in 1940. Its leader, Avraham Stern, explored the possibility of an alliance with Nazi Germany against Britain. He hoped that such an arrangement might help remove British control over Palestine and facilitate the establishment of a Jewish state.

This was an extremist initiative and did not represent the position of the Zionist movement as a whole. Most Zionists opposed Nazi Germany, and many Jews actively supported the Allied war effort.

The rise of Nazism and the persecution of European Jews strengthened the argument that Jews needed a secure homeland. After the Second World War, many displaced Jews sought refuge in Palestine, arriving both legally and illegally. The Palestinians were desperate to save their country, seeing that they might lose it. The British tried to limit Jewish immigration, particularly under the restrictions imposed by the 1939 White Paper.

There was enormous international sympathy for Jews after the Holocaust. The US Government put considerable pressure on Britain to admit more Jewish refugees. The UK was financially wrecked after the war and urgently needed American assistance. The British resisted American pressure only up to a point. Zionist organisations strongly criticised British immigration restrictions, and relations between Zionist underground groups and the British authorities deteriorated considerably.

In 1947, the United Nations proposed partitioning Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under an international regime. The Jewish leadership accepted the partition plan, although not without reservations. The Arab leadership rejected it, arguing that it unfairly allocated much of the territory to the Jewish state despite the Arab population being the majority. Civil war broke out between Jewish and Arab communities following the UN vote.

In May 1948, Israel declared independence as the British Mandate came to an end. War followed between the new state of Israel and neighbouring Arab countries. During the 1947–49 conflict, approximately 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes. Many villages were destroyed or depopulated.

Palestinians refer to this catastrophe as the Nakba, meaning ‘catastrophe’. The circumstances varied from place to place. Some Palestinians fled fighting and fear of attacks; others were directly expelled by Jewish forces. The causes and extent of deliberate expulsion remain subjects of historical debate, but the mass displacement itself is beyond dispute.

There are viciously racist elements within Zionism. They dehumanise Palestinians and invoke biblical claims to justify exclusive Jewish control over the land. Certain passages in the Bible describe commands to kill entire enemy populations, including men, women and children.

Some contemporary religious-nationalist extremists have invoked such passages to justify violence against Palestinians. However, Zionists do not all share these beliefs, and Jewish religious traditions contain a wide range of interpretations of these texts.

What else were Jews to do after 1945? Many could not imagine remaining in Europe after the Holocaust, fearing that such a catastrophe might happen again. At the same time, Jewish communities in Arab and other Middle Eastern and North African countries experienced growing insecurity, persecution, and, in some cases, expulsion.

The establishment of Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict contributed to this hostility. In several countries, Jewish property was confiscated, and Jewish citizens faced discriminatory measures. In other cases, political instability, Zionist immigration campaigns, economic considerations, and the desire to move to Israel also played a part. The circumstances differed from country to country. Large numbers of these Jews eventually settled in Israel.

At its worst, Zionism can manifest itself as racism. There is also an aspect of it which represents a legitimate national aspiration: the desire of a people who have experienced centuries of persecution to have a secure homeland.

Zionism is a form of nationalism. All nationalisms are to some extent exclusionary, inasmuch as most people in the world do not belong to a particular nation. Most countries offer citizenship to people of different racial and religious backgrounds. Israel also grants citizenship to non-Jews, including its Arab citizens.

However, its Law of Return gives Jews around the world a special right to immigrate to Israel and acquire citizenship, a privilege not automatically extended to non-Jews. This distinction lies at the heart of the argument over whether Zionism, as expressed through the Israeli state, gives equal consideration to the national rights of Palestinians and Jews.