- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
For decades, Joe Biden has proudly declared that he is a Zionist, and he has repeated that claim since Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel. But for the student anti-war protests gripping the US, the words “Zionist” and “Zionism” have become a watchword – pejorative and emblematic of the violent state policies driving the war on Gaza.
On social media and in the streets, critics no longer call out supporters of the state of Israel as “pro-Israel”: they call them Zionist. Some university encampments have posted signs saying: “Zionists not allowed.”
Student protesters say that their criticisms of Zionism are rooted in the state of Israel’s displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Pro-Israel activists have responded by defending the term. “If the last six months on campus have taught us anything, it is that a large and vocal population of the Columbia community does not understand the meaning of Zionism,” a group of more than 500 Columbia University students recently wrote. “We are proud to be Zionists.”
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zionism always was a vile ideology. i am happy that more people are beginning to see it for what it is.
Is it because Zionists engaged in brutality and repression at every step of the project to create Israel?
Yeah, like, “how did it get this was”? Well it wasn’t easy, it took a lot of hard work.
“I am a Zionist,” the New York Times columnist Bret Stephens recently wrote, “because I see Israel as an insurance policy for every Jewish family, including mine, which has endured persecution and exile in the past and understands that we may not be safe forever in our host countries.”
Mark that as another person who doesn’t understand what Zionism is.
Israel could make an arrangement with Christmas Island or some other low population nation to convert it to a safe place for ethnic Jews to live.
Zionism is about claiming that specific land (to the borders established under King David) as a Jewish (in faith and ethnic) nation to prepare it for the coming of the New Jerusalem.
Israel is a secular state led by white people in the middle east.
At this point Zionism is just white nationalism with a mask on.
Chrismas Island is 135km2 (about 50 square miles) and under Australian rule. I don’t think that’s quite what you’re looking for.
Your wider point still stands though and I agree with you.
It always has been.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
But for the student anti-war protests gripping the US, the words “Zionist” and “Zionism” have become a watchword – pejorative and emblematic of the violent state policies driving the war on Gaza.
Though 58% of Jewish Americans describe themselves as Zionist, according to a 2022 survey conducted by Carleton University political scientist Mira Sucharov, the term means vastly different things to different people.
“I am a Zionist,” the New York Times columnist Bret Stephens recently wrote, “because I see Israel as an insurance policy for every Jewish family, including mine, which has endured persecution and exile in the past and understands that we may not be safe forever in our host countries.”
“People have come to the conclusion that reform has not worked and radical action is the solution to make change for a just and peaceful world,” Allie Ryave, a Harvard Law School student protesting in the university’s encampment, said.
But Palestinian scholars say the Zionism that the protest movement has put at the center is simply the state of Israel’s overt ideology, which asserts the dominance of Jews over the land.
At Harvard University’s protest encampment in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sophomore Violet Barron said that she defers to her Palestinian classmates and peers in thinking through these complex issues.
The original article contains 1,575 words, the summary contains 210 words. Saved 87%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
