A Brief history of Zionism

A Brief history of Zionism

“ A land without people, for a people without land”

Israel Zangwill, Zionist slogan with context to Palestine

Zionism is essentially the Israeli’s nationalist ideology that derives its beliefs from Judaism. According to the religious texts, the Four Holy cities of Jerusalem, Tiberias, Hebron and Safed were the Jewish centers and therefore the Israelis had the historical right to reconstitute the then Palestine ( under the ottoman empire) into a Jewish Homeland.

The First wave of Zionist colonists have been said to reach Palestine around 1881-82. This mass exodus of the Israelis from Eastern Europe to the city of Jaffa earmarked an important time as it was the first inflow of a christian bloc into an Arab dominated area. The populace was termed as ‘Lovers of Zion’ who then started building Jewish towns and settlements in Palestine. As a result, the city, Rishon Le-Zion came up in 1882 and comprised 50 jewish settlements.

However, soon enough the Zionists began to establish Israeli hegemony and claimed Palestine to be the ‘Land of Israel’. Due to the spiritual bond the Zions had with Palestine and the covenant between the Jews and the Gods, they soon started expanding their area of influence. Given that Palestine was a Backward empire which was largely uninhabited with only 70, 000 Arabs, they soon found it easier to spread the movement.

Furthermore, the movement received support from all the four great Powers ( France, Russia, USA and Britain) as any contrary view was accepted as anti-semitic. The United States and UK supporting the Zionist movement came to be seen as the key to countering the influence of Islam in the Middle East. Later the US leveraged its ties with the Israelis to counter the influence of communism and the Soviet Union.

However, on the other hand, the Palestinians soon began to be viewed as non-existent and, despite being the natives , came to be seen as not ‘real’ citizens causing them to lose any right they had over the land. To put it simply, in relocating the Zionists the Arab voices and demands were suppressed and largely ignored by the world powers.

Since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, the movement has decreased. The State of Palestine was recognized nearly 40 years later, in 1988 resulting from the Palestinian Declaration of independence. While Zionism as a concept is less influential now, it is important to note that it played a pivotal role in uprooting the original inhabitants of Palestine and establishing their control over the area. Furthermore, it was influential in shaping up the cultural attitude towards Palestinians who following the colonization came to be viewed as extremists by the Western masses.