What Zionism Represents:*

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• The continual dismissal and erasure of the existence and natural rights of the indigenous Islamic people of Palestine based on the idea that European Jews of the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries possessed an "inherent right" to the ownership of Palestine on account of (a) an alleged racial inheritance and/or (b) an alleged religious inheritance.

• The idea that it is acceptable to perpetually deprive the Palestinians of either inclusion and assimilation with equal rights and privileges within the State of Israel or the right to establish their own separate and independent state.

• The idea that it is acceptable, through an ongoing process of indigenous displacement and Israeli settlement, to further restrict and diminish the limited territory available to the Palestinians within the Occupied Territories.

• The idea that it is acceptable to isolate and, in a substantial measure, to deprive the Palestinians of individual privacy and freedom of movement, as well as to economic, agricultural, and industrial means of subsistence, and to severely limit their access to transportation (including to medical facilities, to educational institutions, and to family living abroad), to electricity, and to fishing venues and farmlands.  

• The idea that it is acceptable to impose a separate set of laws and police procedures upon the Palestinians—specifically, ones that allow for their prolonged detainment and torture, regardless of age, without their being charged for a crime or having legal representation.

• The idea that the lex talionis or law of retribution, as formulated in Exodus 21:23-27 (popularly referred to as "an eye for an eye"), justly translates into multiple Palestinian casualties for every single Israeli casualty. It is this idea, grounded in a presupposition of Jewish ethnic or "racial" superiority, that has led Zionists into the internationally condemned practice of "collective punishment," whereby whole families or communities are punished—often with lethal force—for the crimes of individuals.

• The exclusion of human rights groups, aid organizations, and journalists from independently and freely working and reporting from within the Occupied Territories. This exclusion is recognized by many as part of a systemic and collaborative cover-up of human rights abuses perpetrated against the Palestinians.

 

 

What Anti-Zionism Is Not:

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• Antisemitism. On the contrary, anti-Zionism opposes all forms of racism. Informed anti-Zionists even oppose the continued use of the social construct of "race" as a simplistic means of categorization and demographic identification typically based on generic phenotypes. However angry anti-Zionists may be in regard to political policies and military actions, they refuse to participate in hate-speech, including the use of racial tropes. Although racism is real, "race" is not.​

• Judeophobia. Anti-Zionism is a political discourse and has no need to engage in comparative religious evaluations, except to challenge such evaluations—whether expressive of Judeophobia or Islamophobia—when they appear as a possible prejudicial foundation for either attitudes influencing government policy or for protections offered by the state to persons guilty of hate-crimes and other reprehensible deeds.

• A refusal to recognize the existence of the State of Israel. Although there are still over two dozen UN member states, in addition to some militant Palestinian organizations, that for various reasons, persist in their refusal to offer Israel this basic recognition, they do so despite obvious present-day realities and, sometimes, in disregard to their own best interests. Whether or not Israel has a "right" to exist is a far more complicated issue, which can only be answered on the basis of political theory and ethical premises that would also impact consideration of other nations. Whatever the position of Zionists and anti-Zionists may be on that issue, they must ultimately face the more pragmatic question, "Where do we go from here?" It is in answer to this question that resolution to the ongoing conflict must be sought, and it is here where anti-Zionists declare that the state of Palestine or Palestine-Israel has a right to exist.

• An opposition to or a blanket condemnation of all Jewish citizens of Israel. Far from it. Anti-Zionists and advocates for Palestinian rights and equality include Jewish individuals and organizations within Israel itself. These courageous and honorable Jewish people and groups frequently place themselves in opposition to Zionist oppression at their own risk and disadvantage. We also extend the hand of camaraderie to Jewish anti-Zionist organizations within the United States.

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Why We Americans Should Oppose Zionism:

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• Because, as Americans, we should represent a high moral standard within the international community, and therefore it is incumbent upon us to confront and condemn Zionist governmental policies and their systemic disregard of the ethical expectations and demands of the United Nations.

• Because our nation, as the supreme representative of democracy in the modern world, should not be politically, financially, or militarily allied with an ethno-religious and apartheid government posturing as a democratic government.

• Because, if we support the equal rights and freedoms of the indigenous people of North America, it would be inconsistent and cruel of us to withhold the same support to the Palestinians.

• Because Zionism relies upon our tax dollars to fund the continued occupation of Palestinian territories, as well as the apartheid system of oppression and war crimes against the Palestinian people.

• Because, as taxpayers in a democratic government, we are made to be complicit through our elected representatives in the criminal offenses and human rights abuses perpetrated without legal culpability against Palestinians.

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*Historically, Zionists have adopted various ideologies in their common desire to acquire a homeland for a Jewish "nation." "What Zionism Represents" is not intended to define what beliefs individual Zionists adhere to, but rather to define the Zionism that can easily be discerned from the coherent and systematic actions of the Zionist political movement as expressed in Israeli policies and behaviors from the period of the Yishuv during the British Mandate to the present.
 

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