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Zionism
Zi·on·ism Z0018600 (zī′ə-nĭz′əm)n. A political movement that supports the maintenance and preservation of the state of Israel as a Jewish homeland, originally arising in the late 1800s with the goal of reestablishing a Jewish homeland in the region of Palestine. Zi′on·ist adj. & n.Zi′on·is′tic adj.Zionism (ˈzaɪəˌnɪzəm) n1. (Judaism) a political movement for the establishment and support of a national homeland for Jews in Palestine, now concerned chiefly with the development of the modern state of Israel2. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a political movement for the establishment and support of a national homeland for Jews in Palestine, now concerned chiefly with the development of the modern state of Israel3. (Judaism) a policy or movement for Jews to return to Palestine from the Diaspora4. (Government, Politics & Diplomacy) a policy or movement for Jews to return to Palestine from the Diaspora ˈZionist n, adj ˌZionˈistic adjZi•on•ism (ˈzaɪ əˌnɪz əm) n. a worldwide Jewish movement for the establishment and development of the state of Israel. [1895–1900] Zi′on•ist, n., adj. Zi`on•is′tic, adj. Zionisma worldwide Jewish movement for the establishment in Palestine of a national homeland for Jews. — Zionist, Zionite, n. — Zionist, Zionistic, adj.See also: JudaismThesaurusNoun | 1. | Zionism - a policy for establishing and developing a national homeland for Jews in Palestinepolicy - a line of argument rationalizing the course of action of a government; "they debated the policy or impolicy of the proposed legislation" | | 2. | Zionism - a movement of world Jewry that arose late in the 19th century with the aim of creating a Jewish state in PalestineZionist movementsocial movement, movement, front - a group of people with a common ideology who try together to achieve certain general goals; "he was a charter member of the movement"; "politicians have to respect a mass movement"; "he led the national liberation front" | TranslationsZionism
Zionism, modern political movement for reconstituting a Jewish national state in Palestine. Early Years The rise of the Zionist movement in the late 19th cent. was influenced by nationalist currents in Europe, as well as by the secularization of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, which led many assimilated Jewish intellectuals to seek a new basis for a Jewish national life. One such individual was Theodor HerzlHerzl, Theodor , 1860–1904, Hungarian Jew, founder of modern Zionism. Sent to Paris as a correspondent for the Vienna Neue Frei Presse, he reported on the Dreyfus affair. ..... Click the link for more information. , a Viennese journalist who wrote The Jewish State (1896), calling for the formation of a Jewish nation state as a solution to the Diaspora and to anti-Semitismanti-Semitism , form of prejudice against Jews, ranging from antipathy to violent hatred. Before the 19th cent., anti-Semitism was largely religious and was expressed in the later Middle Ages by sporadic persecutions and expulsions—notably the expulsion from Spain under ..... Click the link for more information. . In 1897 Herzl called the first World Zionist Congress at Basel, which brought together diverse proto-Zionist groups into one movement. The meeting helped found Zionist organizations in most countries with large Jewish populations. The first issue to split the Zionist movement was whether Palestine was essential to a Jewish state. A majority of the delegates to the 1903 congress felt that it was essential and rejected the British offer of a homeland in Uganda. The opposition, the Territorialists led by Israel Zangwill, withdrew on the grounds that an immediate refuge for persecuted Jews was needed. Within the Zionist movement a broad range of perspectives developed, ranging from a synthesis of nationalism with traditional Jewish Orthodoxy (in the Mizrahi movement, founded 1902) to various combinations of Zionism with utopian and Marxist socialism. The Balfour Declaration and Settlement in Palestine After Herzl's death, the Zionist movement came under the leadership of Chaim WeizmannWeizmann, Chaim , 1874–1952, scientist and Zionist leader, first president (1948–52) of Israel, b. Russia, grad. Univ. of Freiburg, 1899. He lectured in chemistry at the Univ. of Geneva (1901–3) and later taught at the Univ. of Manchester. ..... Click the link for more information. , who sought to reconcile the "practical" wing of the movement, which sought to further Jewish settlement in Palestine, and its "political" wing, which stressed the establishment of a Jewish state. Weizmann obtained few concessions from the Turkish sultan, who ruled Palestine; however, in 1917, Great Britain, then at war with Turkey, issued the Balfour Declaration (see Balfour, Arthur JamesBalfour, Arthur James Balfour, 1st earl of , 1848–1930, British statesman; nephew of the 3d marquess of Salisbury. ..... Click the link for more information. ), which promised to help establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. Great Britain was given a mandate of Palestine in 1920 by the League of Nations, in part to implement the Balfour Declaration. Jewish colonization vastly increased in the early years of the mandate (see PalestinePalestine , historic region on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, at various times comprising parts of modern Israel, the West Bank and Gaza (recognized internationally by nations as independent Palestine), Jordan, and Egypt; also known as the Holy Land. ..... Click the link for more information. for the period up to 1948), but soon the British limited their interpretation of the declaration in the face of Arab pressure. There were disputes in the Zionist movement on how to counter the British position. The right-wing Revisionists, led by Vladimir JabotinskyJabotinsky, Vladimir , 1880–1940, Jewish Zionist leader, b. Russia. A fiery orator and an accomplished writer in several languages, he was a militant Zionist and a persistent advocate of Jewish self-defense against pogroms in Russia. ..... Click the link for more information. , favored large-scale immigration to Palestine to force the creation of a Jewish state. The most conciliatory faction was the General Zionists (representing the original national organizations), who generally remained friendly to Great Britain. Since the Holocaust and Founding of Israel After World War II the Zionist movement intensified its activities. The sufferings of the European Jews at the hands of the Germans demanded the opening of a refuge; the stiffening opposition of the Arabs increased the urgency. At this time the World Zionist Congress was divided, the Revisionists demanding all Palestine and the General Zionists reluctantly accepting the United Nations plan to partition Palestine (see IsraelIsrael , officially State of Israel, republic (2015 est. pop. 8,065,000, including Israelis in occupied Arab territories), 7,992 sq mi (20,700 sq km), SW Asia, on the Mediterranean Sea. ..... Click the link for more information. ). After the Jewish state was proclaimed (May 14, 1948), the Zionist movement was forced to reevaluate its goals. Against those who argued that the simple expression of support for Israel was sufficient for affiliation, the movement's 1968 Jerusalem Program defined the goal of personal migration to Israel as a requirement for membership. However, most Jews in the United States and other Western democracies seemed content to support the Zionist movement as a means of supporting Israel, without any personal commitment to living there. The Zionist movement today facilitates migration to Israel and supports Jewish cultural and educational activities in the diaspora. Bibliography See C. Weizmann, Trial and Error (1949, repr. 1972); I. Cohen, A Short History of Zionism (1951); B. Halpern, The Idea of the Jewish State (2d ed. 1969); W. Laqueur, A History of Zionism (1972); S. Avineri, The Making of Modern Zionism (1984); D. Vital, The Origins of Zionism (1980), Zionism: The Formative Years (1982), and Zionism: The Crucial Phase (1987); B. Morris, Righteous Victims (rev. ed. 2001); J. Schneer, The Balfour Declaration (2010). Zionism the political movement for the establishment and support of a natural homeland for the Jews in Palestine.Zionism (religion, spiritualism, and occult)The word "Zionism" was coined by Jewish nationalist Nathan Birnbaum (1864-1937) in 1893. Jews in Eastern Europe, having experienced centuries of persecution and suspecting more was coming, began to take literally the words spoken at every Seder meal, "Next year in Jerusalem!" Zion is the traditional name for one of the hills in the city that was to become known as Jerusalem, the "City of Peace." It is the spiritual center of the Jewish universe, the Holy Land given to Abraham and his descendants forever. Ever since the destruction of their beloved Temple in 70 CE, Jews had longed to return, to establish Eretz Yisrael, the "Land of Israel." But in the late nineteenth century the Holy Land was still known as Palestine. Jews had migrated there to live, work, and study. It was the destination of many a pilgrimage. But it wasn't home. The first Zionist Congress was held in 1897, convened by the man who has come to be known as the "father" of political Zionism, Theodore Herzl (1860-1904). That first congress adopted the Basel Program, named after the town in which the representatives met. Their purpose was to establish in Palestine, then under Turkish rule, a permanent home for Jewish people. They formed the World Zionist Organization, the mission of which was to win approval for their cause by appealing to the leading world powers. It was an uphill battle all the way. The Balfour Declaration, passed by the British government in 1917, began the process. The next year, after Britain received a League of Nations mandate to settle the area, saw an influx of Jewish migration. By the time World War II broke out, Jewish residents in Palestine numbered about 500,000. No one knows what might have happened had the aftermath of the war not brought to the attention of the world the atrocities committed by the Nazis. But with the news of the Holocaust fresh in the public mind, in 1947 the newly formed United Nations overwhelmingly approved the establishment of a Jewish state in part of Palestine. The birth of the State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948 (the 5th day of the month of Iyar, in the year 5708 by the Jewish calendar). Seven Arab nations promptly invaded the new state, and the first War of Liberation was soon underway. It continues to this day. Not all Jews are pro-Zionist. A very vocal faction of Orthodox Jews, calling themselves "anti-Zionists," are happy Israel exists. It offers, after all, a safe haven for oppressed Jews to study Torah. But these ultra-Orthodox Jews believe very strongly that God pulls rank even over the United Nations. Israel must be divinely established and protected or it will not last. The ultra-Orthodox point out that the Torah lists three oaths Israel took when it began its second exile back in the first century. Israel would not "go up like a wall." That is, massive force would not be used to restore the nation. God made Israel swear it would not rebel against the nations of the world. God made non-Jews promise not to oppress Israel "too much." Persecution is God's way of strengthening his people. The ultra-Orthodox feel that it's far more productive to study Torah and remain faithful. God will handle the details. In deference to their religious beliefs, many ultra-Orthodox Jews living in Israel today are exempt from serving in the Israeli army; in addition, they receive other social benefits not extended to everyone. Their special status was established when the state of Israel first began and has been guaranteed over the years by their increasing political clout. This status infuriates less religious or secular Jews, many of whom fight for political rather than religious reasons. They wonder why they should fight and perhaps die to protect the ultra-Orthodox. While the religious political parties wield considerable power in Israel, in recent years those who support Zionism and oppose the military exemptions for the ultra-Orthodox have gained many followers. In Israel's 2003 January elections, the number of Knesset seats they won almost doubled their ranks in the government. Numerous questions arise surrounding the issue of Zionism. Should Jews have their own homeland? Must faithful Jews live in Israel? Can you be a Jew without being religious? Are religious Jews hindering political progress and security? These are the kinds of questions Judaism has yet to answer. While the debate continues, war breaks out in the streets. Palestinians rightly claim they are being pushed out of their homes. Israelis justifiably feel grieved and outraged by the numerous suicide bombings carried out by Palestinian extremists. Americans debate which side they should support. And many people around the world wonder whether the Israelis have become the oppressors, rather than the oppressed. A right-wing demonstrator marches in Tel-Aviv, Israel. ZionismZionism is a political and cultural movement supporting a homeland for the Jewish people and their society. Critics of Zionism see it in much more sinister terms. Zionists, they feel, are behind a wide range of plots to assassinate leaders of other nations and religions, and to cause social and political unrest. The spiritual importance of Israel to the Abrahamic religions—Christians, Muslims, and Jews—is obvious to anyone with the most elementary knowledge of world religions. While Jerusalem is a place of pilgrimage for Christians and Muslims, for Jews it is the site of the Temple and the object of the promise of every Passover: “Next year in Jerusalem.” While Christian pilgrims revere the traditional sites in Jerusalem—where Jesus was baptized, gave the sermon on the mount, and was crucified—and Muslims visit such sacred sites as the Dome on the Rock and the place where Muhammed ascended to Heaven, Jews cherish the land that gave them the Hebrew language, the Torah, the laws in the Talmud, the Jewish calendar, and the Jewish holidays and festivals. For Zionist Jews, the land of Israel is the sacred home of their people and the only place on Earth where the Jewish commonwealth might be established. “Zion” is a Hebrew word for Jerusalem. In the view of some conspiracy theorists, Zionists have been behind every major war, assassination, political upheaval, and civil unrest that has taken place nearly everywhere in the world for hundreds of years. Actually, the term “Zionism,” which refers to a movement for the return of the Jewish people to their ancient homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in Israel, was not coined until 1890. At that time, Nathan Birnbaum, an Austrian writer, journalist, and Jewish nationalist, gave expression to the dream of leaving behind the anti-Semitism of the pogroms in Russia and Eastern Europe and emigrating to Palestine. In 1897, at the First Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland, Theodor Herzl founded the Zionist Organization, which is dedicated to a renascence of Jewish culture. From the very beginning of the movement there have always been various interests served by Zionism. Liberal Zionism was the initial emphasis established in 1897 until after World War I. The liberal, or general, Zionists identified with the liberal European middle class and advocated free market principles, democracy, and human rights. Labor Zionism rebelled against centuries of oppression in the anti-Semitic nations of Eastern Europe. Theodor Herzl argued that a true revolution of the Jewish spirit would occur when the Jews returned to Israel and became farmers, merchants, factory workers, and soldiers in their own nation. The kibbutz, a form of cooperative agriculture, stressed self-sufficiency and a kind of Utopian socialism, important aspects of Labor Zionism. In 1929, the Zionist Organization sponsored a conference in Zurich that summoned delegates from non-Zionist Jewish groups as well as Zionists. The Zionists hoped to interest more European Jews in their hopes to return to Palestine or, at least, to help raise funds to enable those who wished to emigrate to the spiritual homeland to do so. The reception for such a massive emigration was cool, for the great majority of Jews considered themselves citizens of the European countries that had been their families’ homes for many generations, and they were not at all comfortable with the thought of leaving their established physical inheritance in Germany, France, or the Netherlands for a spiritual heritage in what was then a very primitive country in comparison to the European nations. The Zionists did, however, find an enthusiastic supporter in the National Socialist government of Adolf Hitler. The Nazis wholeheartedly supported Zionism and the plan of a massive Jewish emigration to Palestine. From 1933 to 1938, the Zionist movement flourished in Germany. The German SS was extremely active in its support of Zionism, urging the government to take an active role in encouraging official support of the party. The ranking officers of the SS were very receptive to a program in which the Jews themselves would assume a large role in dealing with Germany’s “Jewish problem.” In 1934, SS officer Leopold von Mildenstein and Zionist official Kurt Tuchler toured Palestine together for six months in order to assess the most efficient means of making the nation capable of handling large numbers of new arrivals. Von Mildenstein believed that Zionism was beginning to fashion a new kind of Jewish people, who, once in their homeland in Palestine, would soon cure a centuries-long wound on the body of the world that had originally been inflicted by the Jewish people. The Jewish question would be solved by the Jews themselves when they left Europe. From 1933 to 1941, the Nazis heartily supported Zionism and Jewish emigration until World War II interrupted extensive collaboration. It is estimated that in this period, beginning in 1933, approximately 50,000 to 60,000 out of Germany’s 500,000 to 600,000 Jews, roughly 10 percent of the Jewish population in Europe, were routed to Palestine. Nationalist Zionism emerged from the Revisionist Zionists, which left the World Zionist Organization in 1935, when the larger group refused to focus on the creation of the Jewish state of Israel as a primary goal of Zionism. Later, the Revisionists evolved into the Likud Party in Israel, which has controlled most Israeli governments since 1977. A hard-line party, Likud demands that Israel maintain control of the West Bank and East Jerusalem. In 2005, the party split over the creation of a Palestinian state. The Zionist vision of a Jewish homeland was realized when the State of Israel was established on May 14, 1948. There are now more than four million Jews from more than 100 countries in Israel, about forty-two percent of the Jewish world population. Israel is also home to approximately one million Muslim and Christian Arabs, Bahai’s, Druze, and Circassians. In 1975, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution that criticized Zionism as a form of racism. Chaim Herzog, Israel’s ambassador to the UN at that time, stressed the irony of such a vote censuring Zionism exactly thirty-seven years after Kristallnacht, the attacks on Jews throughout Nazi Germany on November 9 and 10, 1938. Zionists responded to UN criticism of racism by pointing to the presence of 42,000 black Jews, who had been brought to Israel by a series of airlifts from the ancient Ethiopian Jewish community. Famed American civil rights attorney Alan Dershowitz argued in The Case for Peace: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Can Be Resolve that to condemn Jewish self-determination was also in itself a form of racism: “A world that closed its doors to Jews who sought escape from Hitler’s ovens lacks the moral standing to complain about Israel’s giving preference to Jews.” During the last decades of the twentieth century, Neo-Zionism and Post-Zionism, two very different movements, emerged in Israel. Neo-Zionists embraced the messianic dimensions of Zionist nationalism, while Post-Zionism envisioned Israel as a state for all its citizens, a place where equally autonomous Jews and Arabs could live together in peace. While it seems unlikely that Zionists are the grand conspirators seeking to enslave the world that some conspiracy theorists portray them to be, there is the matter of a people seeking to establish a national home in a country that is already occupied by others. To its many critics, Zionism is, plain and simple, an effort to colonize and to take possession of a nation in which a native population was bound to resist. By its single-minded mission to obtain control of Palestine, the Zionists never sought the consent of the Arab inhabitants whose lands and whose homes they wished to supplant. Zionism is opposed by many in Israel, where the majority of the population describe themselves as secular Jews. Those who describe themselves as traditional or religious Jews say that Zionism will never become a democratic movement because its beliefs are based on a doctrine of the divine right of a people. Zionism, they argue, is rooted in blood, mysticism, and a return to the past. Haredi, the ultra-Orthodox Jews, consider Judaism to be foremost a religion, and they reject the nationalism of Zionism. In addition, they see the concept of a Jewish state to be completely forbidden by Jewish law. Although the Sephardi-Orthodox Shas party joined the World Zionist Organization in 2010, it supported territorial compromise with the Arabs and Palestinians. Most Hasidic groups are strongly anti-Zionist, maintaining that Israel is in violation of Jewish tradition, which firmly states that Jews must wait for the Messiah before they return to form a state in the Holy Land. The Neturei Karta, an orthodox Haredi movement, considers Zionism racist. Apart from the Zionists, they state, Hitler and the Nazis were the only ones who considered the Jews to be a race. Zionism the most reactionary variety of Jewish bourgeois nationalism. Zionism became widespread during the 20th century among the Jews in the capitalist countries. Today it is a nationalistic ideology, represented by a ramified system of organizations and a policy expressing the interests of the Jewish big bourgeoisie, which is closely linked with the monopolistic bourgeoisie of the imperialist states. Modern Zionism is militantly chauvinist, racist, anticommunist, and anti-Soviet. Zionism emerged as a political trend in the late 19th century. Its function was to distract the Jewish toiling masses from the revolutionary struggle and to maintain bourgeois dominance over them. To attain these aims, the Zionist ideologists advanced plans for solving the “Jewish question” by creating a “Jew state” with the aid of the great powers. This idea was set forth in Der Judenstaat (The Jew State; 1896), published by the Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl, a Zionist ideologist. At the first Zionist Congress, held in Basel in 1897, the World Zionist Organization (WZO) was founded. It proclaimed that the official goal of Zionism was to “create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law.” The ideology of Zionism is highly eclectic. It utilizes many dogmas of Judaism but also includes theories of bourgeois nationalism and social chauvinism, transformed by Zionist ideologists. Zionist ideology maintains that the Jews in various countries constitute an extraterritorial “single worldwide Jewish nation.” The Jews are a “distinctive,” “unique” people, a people “chosen by god.” All peoples among whom the Jews live are in one way or another anti-Semites. Anti-Semitism is a “permanent” phenomenon, and assimilation, or the merging of Jews with the surrounding population, is “unnatural and sinful.” The Jews have “historical rights” to the “lands of their Biblical ancestors” (Palestine and its adjoining regions, where they must gather and build a “purely Jewish” and “egalitarian state.” Zionist ideologists seek to prove the “unbreakable bond of Jews throughout the world” with Zionism, to which they must subordinate their own interests, wherever they may be. The politicized dogmas of Judaism state that the Jews are “chosen by god” and have a messianic task to fulfill. These dogmas, and Judaism’s mythical thesis of the Jews’ “uniqueness,” are constituents of the extreme nationalism, chauvinism, and racism inherent in Zionist ideology and practice. The ideologists of Zionism maintain that the “Jewish question” is “eternal,” “unique,” and beyond class considerations. Zionists utilize every means to propagandize the false idea of class peace between toiling Jews and the Jewish bourgeoisie (“all Jews are brothers”). All forms of class struggle among Jews are proclaimed to be national treason. The Zionists have always made use of demagogy and tactical maneuvers in their efforts to conceal the antipopular, reactionary essence of Zionism, alleging that Zionism is the “national liberation movement of Jews throughout the world.” After the state of Israel was formed in 1948 on part of Palestine’s territory by a resolution of the United Nations, Zionism became Israel’s official ideology. Its main goals are to secure the unconditional support of Israel by the world’s Jews, to gather the world’s Jews in Israel, and to inculcate a Zionist spirit among Jews in various countries. Zionism seeks to expand Israel to the boundaries of the “Greater Land of Israel.” To this end, Zionists evoke the thesis of “eternal anti-Semitism,” a situation which they often deliberately instigate. Zionism is the basis of Israel’s government policy. Zionists have proclaimed the state of Israel to be the homeland of all Jews, wherever they live and whatever their attitude toward Zionism. The Twenty-eighth World Zionist Congress, held in Jerusalem in 1972, adopted, in violation of international law, a resolution on the collective obligation of all national [Zionist and pro-Zionist] organizations to aid the Jewish state under any circumstances and conditions, even if this means opposing the respective authorities of the countries with a Jewish population. Zionism’s main policy has always been one of struggle, both open and covert, against socialism, the international communist and national liberation movements, and the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. Immediately after the victory of the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, Zionism unleashed an active struggle against the new Soviet state. After World War II (1939–45), amid a further intensification of the overall crisis of capitalism, the anticommunism and anti-Sovietism of international Zionism assumed still broader dimensions. The shift in the alignment of forces in the world in favor of socialism, the successful resolution of the national question (including the Jewish question) in the USSR, and the Soviet Union’s consistent support of the national liberation struggle of the Arab peoples have given rise to intensified anti-Soviet and anti-communist Zionist propaganda and activity. International Zionism strives to undermine the moral and political unity of the peoples of the socialist countries and to prevent citizens of Jewish nationality from participation in building socialism and communism. Zionism seeks to subvert the relaxation of international tension and in particular the incipient normalization of Soviet-American relations. As a shock detachment of imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism, international Zionism opposes the national liberation movement of the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the Near East, the Zionist ruling circles of Israel conduct a policy of aggression and of continuous territorial expansion at the expense of the Arab peoples, particularly the Arab people of Palestine. This policy made Israel an imperialist gendarme in the Near East and was the main cause of the Arab-Israeli military conflicts of 1948–49, 1956, 1967, and 1973. Zionism became one of imperialism’s chief allies in its global struggle against the world liberation movement. Zionism’s ideological concepts and political plans are implemented by a far-flung, highly centralized system of Zionist and pro-Zionist organizations, directed by centers in the USA and Israel. The administrating and coordinating center of international Zionism—the WZO system—is the Jewish Agency for Israel. The Jewish Agency deals mainly with the immigration of Jews into Israel and acts as the representative of the WZO to the Israeli government. The World Zionist Congress is the de jure highest body of the WZO, which is directed by a group of leaders with close ties to certain imperialist circles in the USA. The executive committee of the WZO has two branches, one in New York and one in Jerusalem. The WZO directs and controls Zionist organizations in more than 60 capitalist countries. The largest are the Women’s International Zionist Organization, the World Confederation of United Zionists, the World Labor Zionist Movement, and the Zionist Organization of America. The formally non-Zionist World Jewish Congress (founded 1936), with organizations in 67 capitalist countries, is under the de facto control of the WZO. Directly or indirectly affiliated with these major organizations is a multitude of local Zionist and pro-Zionist organizations, societies, and committees, which constitute a unified system of international Zionism. The WZO possesses large financial resources, mainly contributed by Jewish monopolists; some funds are collected by levying substantial dues, which are sometimes compulsory, on the Jewish population. Many means of mass information are controlled or influenced by Zionist organizations, including many publishing houses and radio, television, and film companies in the USA, Western Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Australia. International Zionism has always included a variety of ideological currents, political factions, and groups: Zionist socialists, political Zionists, spiritual Zionists, religious Zionists, general Zionists, and revisionist Zionists (today’s fascist Herut Party and kindred groups). This variety merely reflects the interests of different strata of the Jewish bourgeoisie and does not alter but only masks Zionism’s basically imperialist nature. Essentially, the differences among the various orientations of Zionism do not go beyond disputes over tactics and often reflect the struggle within the Zionist elite for positions of influence. Marxists have always repudiated the theory and practice of Zionism. V. I. Lenin revealed the reactionary essence of Zionism, emphasizing that its dogmas are reactionary, false, and contrary to the interests of the Jewish proletariat. He criticized the Zionists’ theses concerning the unique nature of the Jewish people, the alleged absence of class differences among the Jews, and the imaginary communality of their interests, explaining that such assertions aimed to distract the Jewish toiling masses from the proletariat’s common class struggle. The international communist movement denounces the anti-popular, reactionary character of Zionism and Zionist activity in all countries. The document adopted by the International Conference of Communist and Workers’ Parties in 1969 appealed for “the launching of the broadest movement of protest … against racial and national discrimination, Zionism, and anti-Semitism, which are incited by capitalist reactionary forces and exploited by them to disorient the masses politically.” A consistent struggle against Zionism is waged in particular by the Communist Party of Israel (CPI). The CPI proves convincingly that Zionism has always been exploited by the forces of extreme reaction and imperialism and that the ideology and practices of Zionism are contrary to the interests of Jewish toilers throughout the world and the national interests of the people of Israel. The CPI has shown that the struggle against Zionism is a vital necessity for the people of Israel and for all progressive forces. Denouncing the allegedly classless approach of the Zionists to the “Jewish question” the CPI proves that this question can be resolved only with the victory of democracy and socialism, as evidenced by the experience of the USSR and the other socialist countries. The CPI advocates the brotherhood and friendship of the toilers of all countries and opposes the anti-Soviet slanderous propaganda and subversive activity of the Zionist leaders and rulers of Israel. As the overall crisis of capitalism intensifies, the crisis of Zionist ideology and the untenability of all its concepts become increasingly obvious: the overwhelming majority of Jews reject Zionist dogmas. With rare exceptions, the Jewish population of the USSR, like all the peoples of the Soviet Union and the world’s progressive forces, resolutely condemns the aggressive political course of the Zionist ruling clique of Israel. The 30th session of the UN General Assembly (November 1975) classified Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination. The natural and objective process of the assimilation of the Jews is gaining strength throughout the world. In the Jewish communities of the countries of the West and among the population of Israel there is an increasing comprehension that the Zionist policies of Israel’s ruling circles may lead the population oflsrael to a real national catastrophe. REFERENCESLenin, V. I. Poln. sobr. sock, 5th ed., vol. 7, p. 121; vol. 8, p. 72. V. I. Lenin, KPSS o proletarskom internatsionalizme: Sb. dokumentov i materialov, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1974. Mezhdunarodnoe Soveshchanie kommunisticheskikh i rabochikh partii: Dokumenty i malerialy. Moscow, 1969. XVII s”ezd Kommunisticheskoi partii Izrailia. [Materials.] Moscow, 1973. Ivanov, Iu. Ostorozhno: sionizm! Moscow, 1972. Sionizm: teoriia i praktika. Moscow, 1973. Braginskii, I. “Klassovaia sushchnost’ sionizma.” Kommunist, 1970, no. 9. Erlich, W. “Bankrotstvo reaktsionnoi idei.” Problemy mira i sotsializma, 1973, no. 3. Dadiani, L. “Protiv ideologii i politiki sionizma.” Kommunist, 1975, no. 18. Vilner, Meir. “Bor’ba protiv sionizma—bor’ba klassovaia.” Problemy mira i sotsializma, 1976, no. 1.L. DROZDOV Zionism1. a political movement for the establishment and support of a national homeland for Jews in Palestine, now concerned chiefly with the development of the modern state of Israel 2. a policy or movement for Jews to return to Palestine from the Diaspora Zionism
ZionismThe political view that Jews have a right to national homeland in Palestine roughly corresponding to the borders of Biblical Israel. Zionism emerged as a nationalist movement in 19th-century Europe as secular and assimilated Jews did not find wide acceptance in European society. Many, though not all, early Zionists were socialists; this led to the establishment of communal farms in Palestine. Religious Zionism was initially a minor part of the movement, but has grown in importance since the 1960s. After the establishment of the States of Israel in 1948, the Zionist movement has concentrated on maintaining or expanding Israel's borders and/or influence. Proponents of Zionism believe a Jewish homeland is the only place Jews can be perfectly safe from persecution, while critics contend that Palestinian Arabs have been displaced and discriminated against since the early 20th century.Zionism
Synonyms for Zionismnoun a policy for establishing and developing a national homeland for Jews in PalestineRelated Wordsnoun a movement of world Jewry that arose late in the 19th century with the aim of creating a Jewish state in PalestineSynonymsRelated Words- social movement
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