A response to my Israeli colleagues and friends of Zionism!

I would like to briefly outline my position in relation to Israel and Zionism and then mention a few of the books that have helped me develop that position.

First of all I want to say that those who are anti-Zionist are not anti-Israel. The aim is to change the present Jewish state to a truly democratic one with equal rights to all its citizens.

It also asserts that Zionism as it has developed within Palestine territory is, and has always been aggressive towards those indigenous Palestinians who’s land was needed to create the Jewish state.

(A very interesting book is written by Rabi David Goldberg: ’To the Promised land’, a history of Zionist Thought from its Origins to the Modern State of Israel’)

Benny Morris (2004) has clearly exposed some of this tragedy, but as Ian Pappe (2006) has stated in his book, Morris’ resources have limited themselves to the Israeli military archives.

I would urge anybody interested in this debate to read the book by Rashid Khalidi (2020) ‘The Hundred Years War on Palestine’. It is extensive in its research together with testimonies by the author and his family members who were involved and active in much of the history as it has evolved.

Another book often quoted by Israeli colleagues is the one by Joan Peters (1984) ‘From Time Immemorial’, claiming that Palestine had been virtually empty on the eve of Zionist colonisation.

Again, Norman Finkelstein in his book ‘ Beyond Chutzpah’(2005) is demonstrating that this was not the case. He is the son of parents who survived Concentration camp, and what he has learned through his parents is that, if we have learned anything from Nazi history, we need to stand up to  wrongdoing and evil.

A real insight into Zionist thinking I got from reading the book by Ari Shavit (2013)  ‘My Promised Land, The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel’. This book attends  to the tragic fate of indigenous Palestinians, the ignorance of his grandfathers to see that this land was inhabited, and it includes  the authors witnessing of the concentration camp in Gaza, where he had to endure hearing the screaming  of very young people enduring  torture by Israeli military. His relief when this stopped after 1993. Again, a lot of Israelis believe that the Oslo agreement was a step towards peace. This is not how Palestinian have seen and experienced it. In their understanding, the Oslo agreement has given legitimacy to the occupation of the West Bank, and enabled the enclavements  of so called Palestinian territory. More and more Settlements are build, diminishing much of Palestinian land. (read :’Palestinian Walks’ by Raja Shehadeh, 2008)

Ari Shavit believes that all of this is worth it for the creation of Israel as a Jewish state.

Maybe this is the difference between Zionists and anti-Zionists, the belief that this continuing brutality is not worth it, and that in the long run it will not benefit the survival of the state of Israel.

Bibliography

Finkelstein, Norman G. , (2005) Beyond Chutzpah. Verso.

Goldberg, David J., (1996) To the Promised Land: A History of Zionism, Thought from its Origins to the Modern State of Israel. Faber and Faber Ltd.

Khalidi, Rashid, (2020) The Hundred Years War on Palestine: A history of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017. Picador.

Morris, Benny, (2004) The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem. Cambridge University Press, second edition.

Pappe, Ilan, (2006) The Ethnic  Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld Publications Ltd.

Peters, Joan, (1984) From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine. Harper and Row.

Shavit, Ari, (2013) My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel. Spiegel & Grau.

Shehadeh, Raja, (2008) Palestinian Walks: Notes on a Vanishing Landscape. Profile Books.

Angelika Golz
angelika@devonpsychotherapy.org.uk