Add new comment

Anti-Zionism: Analytical Reflections

Anti-Zionism: Analytical Reflections
by Roselle Tekiner
Amana Books
1989

While anti-zionism cannot properly be considered a form of anti-statism, in that it does not question the existence of States as such, but only the legitimacy of one State in particular, I believe that the history and philosophy discussed in this collection of essays may be, and should be, of interest to those anarchists seeking a better understanding of how new States can come into being, and why they do, or do not, prosper.

Political Zionism, when it first became a movement in the 19th century, largely due to the efforts of Theodor Herzl and the World Zionist Organization (still very active in collaboration with the Israeli government), met with a great deal of criticism from other Jews, who were opposed to the concept of Jews as a separate nationality who could never be completely at home in any country where they were not the dominant majority, and would always face the existential threat of anti-semitism. Judaism as a religion was only a secondary consideration for the Zionists - useful only in so far as it helped to establish the basis for determining who could or could not be considered a Jew (this is a very important consideration for controlling immigration to Israel).

The State of Israel considers itself the only legitimate representative of Jews worldwide, and this is reflected in that country's three Basic Laws:

1. The Law of Nationality, which identifies all Jews in the world as a single nation.
2. The Status Law, which allows the World Zionist Organization to function as a quasi-governmental agency administering funds and property in Israel for the exclusive benefit of Jewish citizens
3. The Law of Return, which allows any Jew anywhere in the world to claim automatic Israeli citizenship, provided they can prove their Jewish credentials according to Orthodox custom.

Of course, any non-Jewish resident of Israel is, at best, a second-class citizen, unless they live in the Occupied Territories, in which case they are merely captives.

Jewish criticism of Zionism became much more muted after the Nazis came to power in Germany, but it has never gone away altogether, and the pieces in this book (not all of them by Jews) are evey bit as relevant today as they were when published thirty years ago.