Zionism

Hanan Ashrawi speaks out against extreme Zionism and the myth propagated by early Zionists about Palestine, that it was “a land without a people for a people without a land.” For indeed there were people in this land - the Palestinians. She believes Zionism is a plan to get rid of the Palestinian identity: she states that right-wing Zionists are “not just dismantling the infrastructure, the structures of a Palestinian statehood, but dismantling an identity: not just preventing formation of available Palestinian state but eliminating a nation and a people.” She testifies that Ariel Sharon, Israel's current Prime Minister, is trying to put down and keep down the Palestinian people in reviving the right-wing Zionists.

 

In her opinion fundamentalist Zionism is the cause of increasing settlements that are taking over Palestinian lands and in this respect Zionism has become in some ways synonymous with colonization. She also believes that Zionism is racist in that it is trying to “purify” a land, Palestine, that has historically been home to many people - Jews, Christians and Arabs - and that this land should not be racially or ethically divided.

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Zionism and the ideals and mythology behind it are disputed among every group involved in the conflict. Many Israeli political parties' views on the future of Israel and Palestine stem from Zionism, which has developed and branched in numerous directions. Some argue that Zionism is not racist; that at its core it is merely a pursuit for a Jewish state so that this oppressed people will have a homeland where they do not need to fear persecution. Most Jews are in favor of having a homeland, which is the original Zionist ideal. However over years Zionism has been dominated by conservatives who have placed the emphasis on taking the Palestinian land area as the Jewish homeland. Some religious Zionist Jews believe that a secular state is a process of redemption and a place for nationwide religious education. Some anti-Zionist Jews are orthodox, for they believe that they will only regain the holy land “miraculously.”

 

Jerome Slater, a university research professor at SUNY Buffalo, believes the argument of Zionism is essential to the being of Israel and even the peace in this portion of the Middle East. In order for this to be the case however he believes that Zionism mythology needs to be discarded, the mythology that Jews rightly own Palestine as this is not the idea of Zionism. He also stresses that the argument over whether or not the Jews should or could have settled elsewhere is irrelevant because now they are where they are; people should instead focus on Zionism as the need of a contemporary Israel, a place where Jews can have a haven from the historical and present threat of anti-Semitism and persecution.