Over the last century, and throughout the period of turmoil following October 7, misconceptions and dishonesty about the meaning of Zionism and its origins have fuelled the forces which drive contemporary Jew hatred.
As crowds of young people vow to “dismantle” Zionism, academics equate it with racism and Wikipedia peddles the incoherent lie that Zionism is the colonisation of a land outside Europe, we take great pains to articulate to the world how Israel is a core part of Jewish identity.
We refer to IHRA’s institutionalised, working definition of antisemitism. We invoke international legal terms like “self-determination”. We use postcolonial theories to show that Jews are an indigenous people. Well-meaning community groups even conduct polling so that we have the stats to “prove” how many British Jews “identify” as Zionists. Sometimes it is 80 per cent of British Jews, sometimes it’s 72 per cent.
We search for ways to demonstrate what we know: that by Zionist they mean Jew. But to do this properly, we must reclaim the word Zionism. And to do this we need to be open about its origins in Judaism.
The fundamental problem is that all our efforts are weakened when they are predicated on the false premise, so often espoused by those who hate Israel, that Zionism is a modern, secular movement, distinct from Judaism itself. This is simply wrong.
We often take religion out of Zionism in our advocacy but at the same time insist that it is a core part of being Jewish.
To be honest about Zionism we must turn away from nineteenth century Europe and look closer to home. When we sit around the Seder table at Passover, we read about the original movement that called for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in what is now Israel. When we go to school, we learn about the first Zionist, Abraham. We learn that Zion is synonymous with Jerusalem, just as Israelite is synonymous with Jew. Orthodox Jews pray three times a day, bowing towards Jerusalem. Our centrepiece prayer, recited daily, begins “Hear O Israel.” You cannot remove the Jewish homeland from Judaism.
The question, “are all Jews Zionists?” is thus almost redundant. All Jews observing major holidays will sing “next year in Jerusalem.” When we mourn the death of a family member we are told “May God comfort you among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem”. This is an almost universal experience. It is deeply surreal to see the word ”Zion” torn from its original Jewish context and weaponised on our streets by Western activists who scarcely understand a thing.
Yet too many centre their understanding of Zionism around a secular political and cultural movement originating in nineteenth century Europe. This is a fundamental self-deception. Do we really believe that the idea Israel should exist in its own right originated in the Austro-Hungarian Empire? Will we really allow others to ignore centuries of Sephardi and Mizrahi history? Jewish thinkers from Ramban, Yehuda Halevi, and Yehuda Bibas to figures like Gracia Mendes Nasi and Moses Montefiore were all dedicated to the religious concept of Zion and the practical idea of return.
In a recent Munk debate on anti-Zionism, Mehdi Hasan repeated this wilful misconception of Zionism. He said that Zionism was a “pretty new” modern political ideology founded “less than 150 years ago by an atheist named Theodor Herzl.” He said that while antisemitism is hating Jews and Judaism, anti-Zionism is opposing Israel, the ethno-nationalist ideology. But when we don’t renounce this historical and religious illiteracy, we implicitly sustain it. Hasan’s premise should be rejected on the basis that Zionism is embedded in the Jewish faith and in thousands, rather than 150, of years of Jewish history.
Part of rejecting this narrative means having a clearer framing of modern Zionism. The cultural and political Zionist movement that emerged in the nineteenth century was a modern manifestation of a core tenet of the Jewish religion. It transformed a deeply ancient yearning to return to Zion into a more secular theory; an “ism” that could be understood by the West in a particular historical context. It was a time in which a multitude of causes were transformed into political movements. It was the point at which empires were falling and nation states were rising just as life in Europe became increasingly untenable to its Jewish population.
There was never a question about whether Jews had a legitimate connection to the land, but rather whether they should return. The Zionist idea of a Jewish homeland emerged not from the pains of persecution in Europe but from Judaism itself. It’s in the first sentence of Herzl’s Der Judenstaat: “the idea I have developed in this pamphlet is an ancient one”. And it gave a palpable sense of hope to Jews in their darkest hour.
The truth is that no contemporary concept captures the infinite significance that Israel holds in Judaism and in the depths of Jewish existence - not even the right to self determination, a principle in modern international law which developed around the same time as the emergence of nationalism.
The importance of Israel to Jews is ultimately derived from our religion. No one seeks to undermine the connection Muslims have to Mecca with the same hostility that they do with Jews and Jerusalem, or with the same cover that the deliberate misinterpretation of Zionism provides. A Jewish person, whether or not they are well versed in geopolitics or religiously observant, should be able to say, “Of course I am a Zionist, I am Jewish” without controversy.
People who want to erase Jews also want to erase Jewish history, whether this is done through UNESCO resolutions that undermine Jewish ties to Jerusalem or feverish declarations that “Jesus was Palestinian”, a lie so often repeated. Beyond the obvious response - Jesus was a Jew living in the Roman occupied Kingdom of Judea - one wonders why so many are intent on erasing Jewish history.
It is because denying a Jewish connection to the land is the process by which they legitimise their efforts to erase Jews from the river to the sea, and it begins with corrupting the meaning of Zionism, with repeating the lie that Israel is a product of a European secular nationalist ideology, not of a concept deeply rooted in a Middle Eastern religion.
We must be emphatic in our rejection of hateful attempts to separate Zionism from Jewish religion and tradition. They don’t want Israel to fight back because they don’t believe Jews have a right to be on that land. They didn’t when it was called Palestine, they didn’t when it was the Ottoman Empire, or Jordan, or the British Mandate, and they don’t when it is Israel.
Let us elevate Zionism out of nineteenth century Europe and be honest about its origins in Judaism. It will not only force those who hate Zionists to be honest about their hatred - it can bring about a clarity that unites different groups in the Jewish community. Israel is not just an ancient homeland and Zionism is not a modern invention. They are both an everyday part of being Jewish.
Sonia Zvedeniuk was a Special Adviser to Kemi Badenoch and in 10 Downing Street
