Zionism is a political movement whose objective was to create a new Jewish State in Palestine. A recent article in the Canadian Jewish News explores an interesting phenomenon – Canadian Jews who believe in a Jewish State, but don’t want to be called Zionists. Read more.
When sociologist Robert Brym published his research paper on Canadian Jewry in November 2024, his findings made headlines – barely half of Canadian Jews said they called themselves Zionists!!
Anti-Zionists took heart. They were encouraged to learn that rejection of Zionism had become widespread in the Jewish community. It appeared to indicate a massive swing in the Canadian Jewish population against Israel – horrified by its ongoing genocide in Gaza, and reports about further ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.
Whoops – not so fast! It appears that 94% of Canadian Jews also say they support Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. and nearly that many had a strong or somewhat strong emotional attachment to Israel.
The common understanding of Zionism is support for the creation and continued existence of a Jewish State in or on land known as “Mandate Palestine” before the creation of Israel. How can so many Jews support Israel but don’t want to be called Zionists?
What is Zionism?
Not all Zionists agree on what the borders of the Jewish State should be.
- Some Zionists think that having 3/4 of Mandate Palestine is enough and that Palestinians should be allowed to create a state on the remaining 25% in the West Bank and Gaza. This view is called “liberal zionism”. This view is very marginal in Israel but is quite popular among Canadian Jews. This is the basis of the “Two State Solution”.
- Other Zionists think ALL of what was Palestine belong to Israel. They are in favour of resettling Gaza and annexing the West Bank too. This is the majority opinion amongst Israeli Jews. No Jewish member of the Israeli Knesset supports the idea of a Palestinian state. This is a minority opinion among Canadian Jews, however.
- Finally, some Zionist extremists advocate a “greater Israel” which would go even further to include parts of surrounding countries such as Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt.” Prime Minister Netanyahu and many members of his cabinet hold this view.
But they all agree with the fundamental Zionist idea of a Jewish State in Palestine.
“Liberal Zionists shy away from the word Zionist”
Most Canadian Jews are in the “liberal zionist” camp – supporting the Zionist idea of a Jewish State but willing to allow Palestinians some land for a state of their own. So, how can they say they reject “Zionism” but still support its goals?
Why are they uncomfortable with being known as “Zionists”?
“The main reason that 49% of Jews were saying that they’re not prepared to call themselves Zionist is because the word Zionism has (… ) become, among a very wide circle of people, including Jews, a pejorative term”, argues Professor Brym in a recent interview in the Canadian Jewish News.
“The meaning of Zionism has changed over time,” continues Brym. “It’s now a negative for many, people. Jews don’t want to be part of the negative. They don’t want to call themselves Zionists. But they are Zionists by the dictionary or encyclopedia definition of the term.”
It seems that the word “Zionism” has become toxic even to many Jews. Whence a new category of Zionist – the “secret Zionist”.
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There has been a long running campaign to defame Zionism, of which CTIP has been an enthusiastic supporter. When Ali Abumineh came to Ottawa he spent the evening explaining what Zionism is. According to him, Zionism is a project to impose Apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide on the Palestinians.
I told him that night that his definition of Zionism bears no resemblance to the Zionism that I have adhered to for my entire life. He mocked me at the time, but I am still a supporter of what you define explain here to be Liberal zionism.
Part of why Jews don’t want to be called Zionists, is that some of them have been misled into thinking Zionism is what Ali Abumineh told us it is.
In fact, as you admit in this article, Zionism is the belief that Jews have a right to sovereignty in part of historic Palestine. Although the word Zionism may have been made toxic, the support of Zionism in its real meaning among Jews is strong. The Zionist movement today is defined by adherence to the Jerusalem program.
It should come as not surprise that if you tell people that a movement is genocidal or apartheid, that people will say that they don’t support that. I’m a Zionist and I don’t support Apartheid or genocide.
It’s a kind of verbal sleight of hand to redefine a word in toxic terms and then use it to smear people who adhere to the non-toxic original meaning of the word.
For those who may be interested in understanding the real meaning of Zionism the Jerusalem platform is pasted below, taken from the web site of the World Zionist Organization:
THE JERUSALEM PROGRAM IS THE OFFICIAL PLATFORM OF THE WORLD ZIONIST ORGANIZATION AND THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT
Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, brought about the establishment of the State of Israel and views a Jewish, Zionist, democratic, and secure State of Israel to be the expression of the common responsibility of the Jewish people for its continuity and future.
The foundations of Zionism are:
The unity of the Jewish people, its bond to its historic homeland Eretz Yisrael, and the centrality of the State of Israel and Jerusalem, its capital, in the life of the nation.
Aliyah to Israel from all countries and the effective integration of all immigrants into Israeli society.
Strengthening Israel as a Jewish, Zionist, and democratic state and shaping it as an exemplary society with a unique moral and spiritual character, marked by mutual respect for the multi-faceted Jewish people, rooted in the vision of the prophets, striving for peace and contributing to the betterment of the world.
Ensuring the future and the distinctiveness of the Jewish people by furthering Jewish, Hebrew, and Zionist education, fostering spiritual and cultural values, and teaching Hebrew as the national language.
Nurturing mutual Jewish responsibility, defending the rights of Jews as individuals and as a nation, representing the national Zionist interests of the Jewish people, and struggling against all manifestations of anti-Semitism.
Settling the country as an expression of practical Zionism.
Hey David,
thank you for your contribution and for your spirited defense of Zionism.
The creation of the State of Israel, as a Jewish State required the expulsion or elimination of most of the Palestinians. There was no nice way to do that, as Palestinians were bound to resist as Ze’ev Jabotinsky predicted.
If there had been an “empty” place in the world, the creation of a new State for European Jews wouldn’t have been a problem. But in 1947, there was no such place in the world.
Zionists decided that their needs were more important than those of the Palestinians.
To its disgrace, the UN accepted the Zionist view, and approved the project.
So well articulated, as usual. Many thanks. Be well. Alex
“The only time it is right to look down at someone is when we are offering our hand to help them get up.” Pope Francis – “Let Us Dream”
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David, at the outset, Zionism seemed like an admirable project — to provide a homeland for European Jews where they would be safe from persecution and fulfill their national aspirations. However that all changed at the 1897 Basle Zionist conference when Zionists decided to establish their state in historic Palestine. Then it became a destructive settler colonial project. Because Palestine was not a “land without a people for a people without a land,” as Zionist propaganda claimed, but a land populated by the indigenous Palestinians who had deep roots there that went back millenia. The Zionists wanted a state with an overwhelming Jewish majority, “as Jewish as England is English, Chaim Weizman claimed. For that to be realized, the Zionists would have to dispossess and eliminate the Palestinians. That is the “original sin” of Zionism.
The Zionist leaders embraced this reality as they wanted the land without the people on it.
From this point on, the success of the Zionist enterprise depended on the invasion, colonization, and settlement of Palestinian lands and the oppression, disenfranchisement, and expulsion, or disappearance, of the indigenous people. As with all settler-colonial projects, this dispossession has proved to be a bloody, violent process that continues to this day.
That’s the problem with Zionism ,and why, as more and more people learn about the background of the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank, Zionism is increasingly viewed in such a negative light. It can be argued that “anti-Zionism is a duty” of any person of conscience.
Any discussion of the real meaning of “Zionism” will never end because the meaning of the term has changed over time and varies among people who consider themselves Zionists.
We can start with Theodor Herzl who wrote an early (1897) book called Der Judenstaat (The State of Jews). He did not even tie the state to Palestine. He wrote that two places that should be considered were Argentina and Palestine and discussed the relative advantages of each place. In the case of Pallestine he seemed to assume that they would need the permission of the Ottoman Sultan and would buy unocupied land to start the settlement. There is no indication that he thought the state might have to be independent of the Ottoman empire. His main motivation did not seem to be the recapture of ancient Jewish lands but to create a place where Jews would be free of the antrisemitism that was growing in strength in europe
My own father, growing up in Vienna as the Nazis were gaining in strength, belonged to a group that considered itself Zionist and planned to go to Palestine. However, according to my father, they had no plan to take land from the Palestinians. He was advised by the UK embasy that Palestinians (as a whole not just the Jewish minority in Palestine) needed doctors and trained in medicine with the intent of becoming a doctor for Arabs. I believe he thought he would be learning Arabic. After Hitler’s arrival in Vienna, he was refused immigration to Palestine by the UK who said that there were already too many Doctors. Apparently they had given the same advice to many people. When my father (established as a doctor in New York) saw what was actually happening in Palestine he refused to let us support Israel in any way. I think he would have still considered himself a Zionist but thought that the establishment of. Jewish dominated state was very wrong.
In my (relatively brief) working visits in Israel I discussed the situation with many Jews (and some Palestinians). Most of the Jews had immigrated to Israel and considered themselves Zionists. However, their views varied. Where some approved of the way that Palestinian farmers were being separated from their trees, others would meet to pick the fruit from the cut-off trees and deliver it to its Arab owners. While some told me that they would like to coexist with Palestinians as equals and friends, others said that the only solution would be to expel or kill all Palestinians. I concluded that the nice thing about definitions of “Zionism” is that everyone can have one of their own.
I hope that we will stop trying to define the term and start asking how Palestine can become a land where Jews and non-Jews can live together as equal and free citizens, speaking their preferred language, worshiping in their preferred place and free to live where they wish. There were some Jews and Palestinians who told me that that what what they wanted. but doubted that the other side would do it.
Herzl was probably correct that persecuted Jews needed a place where they could be free of persecution but he did not say anything about persecuting others or depriving others of their land. My father was correct in feeling that he and his parental family needed to flee, but where they went did not need to be a Jewish state. Jews will only be free of persecution in Palestine when everyone is free.