On Zionism and anti-Zionism
*** I am adding this note because the word ‘zionism’ was not allowed in my article on Gaza: the Jewish Prohibition on the slaughter of Innocents in the phrase ‘gang of Zionist criminals’ describing the Israeli Govt. This was on the grounds that some people might think that using both words together could be read as implying that I think all Zionists are criminals, so one word should be deleted, which I accept. But in my view the word to delete is ‘criminals’ because they haven’t been convicted of any war crimes yet, whereas they are a Zionist government.
So, a definition of Zionism is helpful, and it seems generally accepted to mean the belief that the Jews have a right to live in ‘The Land of Israel’, so-called. The key question is whether this belief is that the right is exclusive for Jews.
This question can be easily answered by referring to the Guiding Principles, which every Israeli Govt must submit before being officially sworn in. The present Govt took over in 2022, and the first of these Principles was published in the Times of Israel on that day, December 28th, declaring:
“The Jewish people have an exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel. The Government will promote and develop the settlement of all parts of the Land of Israel – in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan and Judea and Samaria”. (My bolding)
We can note that Judea and Samaria is the area that is usually referred to as the West Bank, and that Gaza is not included.
The fact that this is an official Government statement means that it necessarily applies in the name of all its members so there is no need to wonder if some of them are not Zionists – for whatever motives, sincere or not, they have signed up for it.
I believe an appropriate description would refer simply to “…the Zionist Israeli Government…”, leaving aside any debate about who is a criminal and who is not, but I cannot change the published article.
Dr. Anne Irfan of the Centre for Palestine Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, says that all Israeli Governments since 1948 have been Zionist, in the ‘exclusive’ sense, and that in many but not all cases this has been declared explicitly, as in the current case.
Here is another useful link, with the assessment that the new government states that it intends to commit crimes under International Law: https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/10770
To be anti-Zionist is not the same as being anti-semitic, because being Zionist is not part of Judaism, as the Orthodox Jews have always pointed out. The British Labour Party unfortunately is too confused to state the facts, and they harassed Jeremy Corbyn for doing so.