Allegations are often made that racism was built into the State of Israel from its origins, specifically by Zionism. For example, a 2018 article in the Socialist Worker stated, “racism is built into the foundation of the Israeli state” and “The Zionist dream is an exclusively Jewish state. Early adopters of Zionism claimed Palestine as ‘theirs’ because of its historical and religious importance to Judaism”.¹ In a 2020 video clip, the Arab journalist, Ali Abunimah, says, “Zionism is the belief that Palestinians can and must be expelled from their homeland so that settlers can take their place.”² He also declared, “If for example the Jews returned to their original countries, those countries would be shocked.”³ This completely ignores both the forced displacement of Jews from Arab nations (where returning Jews would not be welcome) and the long historical presence of some in the land! Somewhat earlier, in 2016, the German journalist, Dr. Ludwig Watzal claimed, “Hardly any knowledgeable person doubts that Zionist ideology is the purest form of racism. Zionism is Jewish-disguised racism as a raison d’etat.”⁴

If the media do not thoroughly investigate the claims of activists, they easily become complicit in propaganda.

These perspectives have substantial roots, not least in the fact that from 1975, to 1991, when it was repealed, United Nations Resolution 3379 stated “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.”⁵

Whatever faults Zionism and its foundation may have, such claims as those above are mistaken. Speaking against the resolution in 1975, US Ambassador to the UN, Patrick Moynihan, pointed out the sloppy thinking behind it, as “Zionists defined themselves merely as Jews, and declared to be Jewish anyone born of a Jewish mother or — and this is the absolutely crucial fact — anyone who converted to Judaism”.⁶ This is, therefore, a definition that is virtually regardless of ‘race, colour, descent, or nationality or ethnic origin’ (the internationally-agreed definition of racism). Much more significant, however, are the statements of the early Zionists.

A vision of a model society

According to Michael Brenner, “Herzl’s Judenstaat [1896] (literally: The State of the Jews) was a vision of a cosmopolitan society, in which Jews would constitute the majority of the population and enjoy full political autonomy, but in which Jewish religion, culture, and symbols played only a minor role. Herzl was interested in creating a model society for all humanity and not just a national state of the Jewish people … As he envisioned it, this ‘New Society’ would also spearhead an end to all racial inequalities: ‘I am not ashamed to say, though I be thought ridiculous, now that I have lived to see the restoration of the Jews I should like to pave the way for the restoration of the Negroes’.”⁷ Quoting Herzl’s ‘New Society’, Brenner points out that there were to be “no distinctions between one human being and another. We do not ask to what race or religion a person belongs. If he is a human being, that is enough for us.” In his utopian novel Old New Land, the hero David Littwak proclaims: “You must hold fast to the things that have made us great: to liberality, tolerance, love of mankind. Only then is Zion truly Zion!”

Ze'ev Jabontinsky, Jerusalem Post archiveIn the same article, Michael Brenner also cites the more military figure of Ze’ev Jabotinsky: “In The Jewish War Front, his last book before his premature death in 1940, he describes a state that looks much more like a Jewish-Arab Federation than a Jewish nation-state … [in which he] draws on the draft constitution worked out by the Revisionist Executive in 1934. ... Jabotinsky writes: ‘In every Cabinet where the Prime Minister is a Jew, the vice-premiership shall be offered to an Arab, and vice-versa. Proportional sharing by Jews and Arabs both in the charges and in the benefits of the State shall be the rule with regard to Parliamentary elections, civil and military service, and budgetary grants… Both Hebrew and Arabic shall be used with equal legal effect in Parliament, in the schools, and in general before any office or organ of the State… The Jewish and the Arab ethno-communities shall be recognized as autonomous public bodies of equal status before the law… Each ethno-community shall elect its National Diet with the rights to issue ordinances and levy taxes within the limits of its autonomy, and to appoint a national executive responsible before the Diet.’ And just like Herzl, Jabotinsky states: ‘After all, it is from Jewish sources that the world has learned how ‘the stranger within thy gates’ should be treated.’”

These were the founding principles, explicitly non-racist, and although there are strands within Israel that seek a more stringent form of Zionism, these principles have an abiding influence in the body politic. Matters are not helped by attempts to delegitimise the Jewish presence in the land, and to perpetuate false narratives regarding Palestinian identity. The latter will be the focus of Part 3. Much worse is the constant flow of Islamist hatred and incitement, which we’ll turn to in Part 4.

An enduring Jewish presence in the land

In 2019, the journalist and podcaster, Asa Winstanley, declared, “The movement to create a ‘Jewish state’ in Palestine – a country overwhelmingly non-Jewish – was, from its very inception, an exclusionary, racist project. … The Zionist conception of equality within Palestine, in reality, excludes Palestinian Arabs, the indigenous people of the land.”⁸ The issue of who is, or was, indigenous is extremely contentious for a variety of reasons.The 4th or 5th century synagogue in Capernaum

First of all, we need to recognise that the Jewish yearning for and presence in their ancestral homeland predates Zionism appreciably. Jewish religious practice has kept alive for centuries the idea of return. When Jews pray, they face toward Jerusalem. The seventh benediction of the ancient Shemonah Esreh, a prayer Jews repeat several times daily, reads: “Gather us from the four corners of the earth. Blessed are You, Lord, who gather the dispersed people of your people Israel.” Regardless, we should also appreciate that the widespread notion that Jews were absent from the land for up to 2,000 years is misguided.

Rachel Avraham points out that the remains of 34 synagogues have been found in the Golan Heights “dating from the late Roman era up until the Arab conquest. There was also a strong Jewish presence in En Gedi that continued to flourish until Byzantine persecutions brought that community to an end.”⁹ Evidence of a substantial Jewish presence in the Galilee can be seen in the impressive limestone synagogue in Capernaum, under which are the basalt ruins of the synagogue of Jesus’ days. On a patch of cobbled basalt floor were potsherds from the first to the fourth centuries A.D., dating the more elaborate synagogue to around the late-4th to 5th century AD.* An earlier example, from the 3rd century, can be seen at Chorazin, also elaborate enough to indicate a substantial and wealthy Jewish presence. Similar evidence occurs at Eshtemoa, south of Hebron, where a Byzantine-period synagogue was converted into a mosque after the Muslim conquest in the mid-7th century. What happened to the Jewish community there is unknown. Arabic sources also refer to an accord reached by Muhammad in 630 with several Jewish settlements, indicating a considerable Jewish presence in southern Palestine. They additionally describe the city of Eilat and its environs as having a large Jewish population.^{103rd century Chorazin synagogue - photo by D Longworth}

Centuries of Aliyah

In the Medieval period many waves of Jewish immigrants began making Aliyah in response to recurrent Messianic expectations. Jewish communities were established in places such as Tiberias, Safed and Jerusalem. Historian Arie Morgenstern writes, “Starting with the year 5000 on the Jewish calendar (1240 C.E.), the beginning of each new century signalled for many the possibility of redemption, leading large groups of Jews to make the journey to Palestine as a necessary step in bringing it about.”¹¹ Also in the south, was the ‘Abraham’ synagogue, built in the Jewish quarter of Hebron in 1540, restored in 1738 and enlarged in 1864. This one was abandoned after the 1929 Hebron massacre and destroyed by the Jordanians following the 1948 war. Its ruins were utilised as a pen for goats and donkeys, a final act of desecration.

In the latter part of the 16th century the wealthy Portuguese Jewess, Dona Mendes Nasi, acquired the lease of the Tiberias area and established several Jewish settlements there.¹² The largest Aliyah was in the years leading to 1840. An Israeli historian writes: “Tens of thousands of Jews arrived in Palestine, radically changing the demography of the Jewish community there. By the time the first of the Zionist immigrants began arriving towards the end of the nineteenth century, the land of Israel was already host to its largest and most vibrant Jewish community in many centuries.”¹³ Surprisingly, there are even some Jews living in Israel today who can trace their residency in the Holy Land back to the Dona Mendes Aliyah, known as the Old Yishuv.¹⁴

Surely, media correspondents and commentators with alleged expertise in Middle Eastern affairs cannot be ignorant of at least some of these resources, easily accessible to professionals. How is it that such contextual material is virtually absent from their pronouncements? If the media do not thoroughly investigate the claims of activists, they easily become complicit in propaganda.

This is part of a series, to read Part 1, click here.  Notes

¹Why Israel is a racist state (socialistworker.co.uk) 30 Mar 2018, accessed 1 Oct 2021
²Why Zionism is racism | The Electronic Intifada 15 May 2020, accessed 06 Oct 2021
³Ali Abunimah - Wikipedia
⁴https://countercurrents.org/2016/10/zionism-is-racism/ 19 Oct 2016 accessed 5 Oct 2021
⁵United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 - Wikipedia
⁶Fighting the 'Zionism is Racism' Lie: Moynihan's Historic U.N. Speech - (unwatch.org) 10 Nov 2015, accessed 5 Oct 2021
⁷https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/jabotinsky-weighs-in-on-the-jewish-state-proposal/ 27 Nov 2014, accessed 1 Oct 2021
⁸Why Zionism has always been a racist ideology – Middle East Monitor 20 Apr 2019, accessed 5 Oct 2021
⁹The Jewish Connection to Israel: Sephardic Aliyot, Rachel Avraham, The Jewish Press, 15 Sivan 5773 – May 23, 2013, accessed 6 Oct 2021

¹⁰ An uninterrupted Jewish presence in the land of Israel, Dr. Alex Grobman, Israel National News accessed 6 Oct 2021

¹¹Op. cit.
¹²Gracia Mendes Nasi - Wikipedia accessed 6 Oct 2021
¹³Zionism 101 series | zionismu.com accessed 6 Oct 2021
¹⁴See note 9 above