(Jewish Group) Anti-Zionism Has No Place in the Progressive Movement [View all]

[Behind the Aegis]

Anti-Zionism ghettoizes Jews from the rest of the justice movement, putting a wall around us that separates us from other marginalized people. It cannot be reconciled with any movement striving for inclusivity. It denies us access to solidarity-based movements which should be fighting for equality, for historically oppressed peoples. As American Jewish students return to campus, they should prepare to be challenged academically and intellectually, and should also prepare to challenge movements that don’t respect Zionism and their Jewish heritage.

Self-determination is a human right, and one that for over 2,000 years Jews longed and prayed for. Jews suffered greatly, often catastrophically, while living with the vulnerability of statelessness. We faced violence, discrimination, disenfranchisement, denaturalization, and genocide. The longing for statehood and a return to our indigenous homeland is present throughout our liturgy and texts.

The global Jewish community has long embraced Zionism as central to our liberation, and continues to do so. Eighty-one percent of American Jews between the ages of 18 and 29 consider “caring about Israel” to be “essential or important” to being Jewish. Sixty-six percent of American Jews consider Israelis to be part of their extended family. The demand that Jews discard a key element of our liberation, culture, and identity to join a social justice movement is anything but progressive. It is a radical silencing and rejection of core parts of our history and identity as an oppressed people.

Just as advocates for justice demand a better America for everyone, they can demand a better Israel. American Jews and Israelis of all ethnic backgrounds criticize Israeli policies regularly, including those that impact Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Criticism of Israeli policy is not in and of itself anti-Semitic. Debates over specific Israeli policies, and fierce criticism of the Netanyahu government, has a place on American campuses.

But the notion that Jewish self-determination is a form of racism is purely anti-Semitic. If you do not believe that self-determination is a human right, or are an anarchist anti-nation-state radical, I’ll accept that there is no anti-Semitism in your anti-nationalism. That said, if you believe in the right of South Sudan, Kurdistan, and Kosovo—and France, and Sweden, and Japan, and Ghana—to exist, you should embrace self-determination for Jews. Academic rhetoric that applauds ethnic cleansing, terrorism, forced relocation, and the dismantling of the Jewish state should be challenged at every opportunity. Attempts to intimidate and silence Jewish students who are Zionists are civil rights violations.

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