Jewish Criticism of Zionism
Jewish Criticism of Zionism
Jewish Criticism of Zionism
Edward C. Corrigan
Mr. Corrigan has a law degree from the University of Windsor and a
Master's in political science from the University of Western Ontario. He
advises the reader: "This article is not intended to be a comprehensive
study of Jewish criticism of Zionism but only an introductory survey. The
author owes a debt to many people in the Jewish community for assistance
and would like to thank David Finkel and especially Harriet Karchmer for
her help with the material on Orthodox Jews. The writer, of course, bears
all responsibility for the material and any errors or omissions."
The statement also discussed past discrimination against the Jews and the
horrors of the Nazi Holocaust adding:
How tragic that in our own time the very state established by Jews in the
aftermath of this evil has become a place where racialism, religious
discrimination, militarism and injustice prevail; and that Israel itself has
become a pariah state within the world community. Events taking place
today are all too reminiscent of the pogroms from which our own
forefathers fled two and three generations ago -- but this time those in
authority are Jews and the victims are Moslems and Christian Palestinians.
Those endorsing The Nation statement included Professor Yigal Arens, the
son of Moshe Arens; Mark Bruzonsky, former Washington Associate,
World Jewish Congress, who now serves as chairperson for the
organization; Professor Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor MIT; Rabbi
Susan Einbinder, Colgate University; Jane Hunter, publisher of Israeli
Foreign Affairs; Jeremy Levin, former CNN Beirut Bureau Chief and
former hostage in Lebanon; Professor Don Peretz, Department of Political
Science, SUNY; and Henry Schwarzschild, of the American Civil Liberties
Union. The subsequent organization they formed, the Jewish Committee on
the Middle East (JCOME), has, in the short time that it has existed,
attracted well over a thousand signatures endorsing their statement. These
include academics at 125 U.S. universities.2
It is clear that the ideology of Zionism has had a profound impact on Jews.
Today most Western Jews support its objective of establishing and securing
a Jewish state in the territory formerly known as Palestine, even though the
majority do not follow its precepts and immigrate to Israel. Historically
Zionism was the subject of intense debate. Zionism has always meant
different things to different people. It could be interpreted in a religious,
political, national or racial light depending upon the circumstances. For
some, Zionism was a solution for the age-old problem of anti-Semitism,
while for others merely an excuse for getting rid of the Jews. As Hannah
Arendt explained, "The Zionist Organization had developed a genius for not
answering, or answering ambiguously, all questions of political
consequence. Everyone was free to interpret Zionism as he pleased . . . ."4
Zionist leaders have put off indefinitely the attempt to resolve the resulting
conflicts and even contradictions generated by different interpretations of
Zionism. This explains why the "Jewish state" has no constitution and why
many fundamental questions about the nature of Israel remain undefined.
The avoidance of a battle over conflicting definitions of what is a Jewish
state is one of the reasons why Israel has a vested interest in maintaining the
state of war in the Middle East. This interest has been openly acknowledged
by a former president of the World Jewish Congress, Nahum Goldmann:
On the day when peace comes, the leftist movement will undoubtedly be
very strong in Israel, and it will be anti-Orthodox. A great cultural battle
will then break out which, like Ben Gurion, I want to avoid at this moment:
as long as war prevails, that kind of internal struggle would be terribly
dangerous. But after the hostilities the first thing to do will be to separate
religion and state. Today we confine ourselves to telling the leftists: "Don't
make a fuss on this question, you will be obstructing our defence policy,
which requires national unity" -- and the leftists, being good patriots, give
way. But after the peace they will resume the debate.5
Prior to World War II the majority of Jews were non-Zionist, and a large
number were openly hostile to Zionism. As Nahum Goldmann wrote,
"When Zionism first appeared on the world scene most Jews opposed it and
scoffed at it. Herzl was only supported by a small minority."6 It was not
until the full horror of the Holocaust was realized that the great bulk of the
Jewish community came to support Zionism.
Jewish history is rich in its diversity of ideas and ethical dissent. Many of
the Hebrew prophets were "solitary voices" who criticized their people for
betraying the great principles of their faith. The prophet Amos, for example,
advanced a new interpretation of the "Chosen People" thesis. He wrote:
"From all the families of the earth I have chosen you alone; for that very
reason I will punish you for all your iniquities." Amos' concept of "chosen"
did "not imply the assurance of victory or prosperity" but rather that of "the
burden of more severe punishment for 'normal' unrighteousness."7
One of the most critical moments in ancient Jewish history was when
Jochanan ben Zakkai, the leading representative of Judaism in his day and
the disciple of Hillel, "abandoned the cause of the Jewish state." At the
time, the city of Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans and heroically
defended by the zealots. Zakkai escaped from the city by a ruse, and with
the agreement of the Roman commander, established a Jewish academy at
Jabne. Judaism survived while the Jewish state was destroyed.9
In the more recent period, Ahad Ha-am (Hebrew for "One of the People"
and the pen name for Asher Ginzberg), one of the greatest Jewish thinkers
of this century, was also highly critical of Zionism.10 He drew attention to
the fundamental and neglected ethical dilemma of Zionism, namely the
presence of the Arabs. In his 1891 report, The Truth from Palestine, he
pointed out that "there was little untilled soil in Palestine, except for stony
hills and sand dunes." Ahad Ha-am also warned the Jewish settlers against
arousing the wrath of the large native Arab population:
Yet what do our brethren do in Palestine? Just the very opposite! Serfs they
were in the lands of the diaspora and suddenly they find themselves in
freedom, and this change has awakened in them an inclination to despotism.
They treat the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, deprive them of their rights,
offend them without cause, and even boast of these deeds; and nobody
among us opposes this despicable and dangerous inclination.11
Ahad Ha-am wrote this statement when Zionist settlers formed only a tiny
portion of the population of Palestine. He also gave the following warning:
"We think. . . that the Arabs are all savages who live like animals and do
not understand what is happening around. This is, however, a great error."12
Ahad Ha-am worked tirelessly for an intellectual and spiritual revival of the
Jewish people. His belief in Zion was of a spiritual and prophetic nature. In
1913 he attacked the Zionist labor movement's racial boycott of Arab labor:
Apart from the political danger, I can't put up with the idea that our brethren
are morally capable of behaving in such a way to men of another people;
and unwittingly the thought comes to my mind: if it is so now, what will be
our relation to the others if in truth we shall achieve "at the end of time"
power in Eretz Israel? If this be the "Messiah," I do not wish to see his
coming.13
It was not until 1904 that Zangwill realized that there was a fundamental
problem with the Zionist program. In a speech given in New York in that
year he explained:
There is. . . a difficulty from which the Zionist dares not avert his eyes,
though he rarely likes to face it. Palestine proper has already its inhabitants.
The pashalik of Jerusalem is already twice as thickly populated as the
United States, having 52 souls to every square mile, and not 25 percent of
them Jews; so we must be prepared either to drive out by the sword the
tribes in possession as our forefathers did, or to grapple with the problem of
a large alien population, mostly Mohammedan.. . . This is an infinitely
graver difficulty than the stock anti-Zionist taunt that nobody would go to
Palestine if we got it. . . .15
Zangwill and many other leading Zionists split from the movement in 1905
when the Zionist Organization turned down the British offer to settle Jews
in Uganda. Incidently, this proposal was supported by Herzl. The dissidents
set up the Jewish Territorial Organization to pursue alternative settlement
proposals. Zangwill was elected leader of the new body. The organization
was, however, dissolved in 1925.16
Sir Edwin Montagu, the only Jewish member of Lloyd George's cabinet
when Great Britain first threw its weight behind Zionism in 1917, was also
adamantly opposed to the creation of a Jewish state. He attacked the
Balfour Declaration and Zionism because he believed they were anti-
Semitic. Montagu based his argument on the fact that both Zionism and
anti-Semitism were based on the premise that Jews and non-Jews could not
co-exist. He was also afraid that a Jewish state would undermine the
security of Jews in other countries.17 Montagu's opposition to Zionism was
supported by the leading representative bodies of Anglo-Jewry, the Board
of Deputies and the Anglo-Jewish Association, and in particular, by Claude
Montefibre, David Alexander and Lucien Wolf.18
The State of Israel is a secular state: its law, its legislative assembly (the
Knesset), and the majority of its population are non-religious. This is hardly
surprising as Israel came into existence due to the efforts of a secular
political movement motivated by non-religious nationalism, namely
political Zionism. In its early days Zionism came into fierce conflict with
religious Jewry. The Zionists rejected religious submissiveness; the
religious saw the atheist attempt to create a secular Jewish state as
blasphemy.19
For religious Jews the restoration of Zion could only be brought about by
divine intervention; human attempts to reestablish Israel were heretical.
Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, the religious leader of nineteenth century
German Orthodox Jews stated that it was a sin to promote Jewish
emigration to Palestine.22 Zionists were called by Rabbi Joseph Hayyim
Sonnenfeld of Brisk "ruffians" and "evil men."23 In 1898 Rabbi Sonnenfeld
wrote that Zionists have
asserted view that the whole difference and distinction between Israel and
The Nations lies in nationalism, blood and race, and that the faith and the
religion are superfluous. . . . Dr. Herzl comes not from the Lord, but from
the side of pollution.24
Other leading Jewish religious leaders who opposed Zionism included
Moritz Gudemann, Chief Rabbi of Vienna,25 Dr. Herman Adler, Chief
Rabbi of Great Britain,26 the Lubbavitscher Rebbe, Rabbi Shulem ben
Schneersohn,27 the Holy Gerer Rebbe, the Stas Emes,28 and Rabbi Isaac
Mayer Wise, the leader of the American Reform Movement.29 Many more
Jewish religious leaders were opposed to Zionism.30
It can even be said that the Israeli ultra-orthodox religious parties which
participate in Israeli politics are still anti-Zionist, despite that involvement.
The ultra-Orthodox parties are Shas (the Sephardic religious party), Aguda
(the Hasidic) and Degel Hatorah (the Flag of the Torah or the "Lithuanian
party"). They are supported by between 250,000 and 300,000 Orthodox
Israeli Jews and won 13 Knesset seats in the 1988 election.35
These three religious parties are opposed to the Zionist aim of creating a
secular Jewish homeland, and as such are considered by some as anti-
Zionist. This view is held despite the fact that they support the continued
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza and bargain for financial support
from the state. The National Religious party, which won five seats in the
1988 Israeli election, is considered Zionist and over the years has become
increasingly nationalistic.36
Joel Teitelbaum, the Satmar rebbe, until his death in 1979, at the age of 91,
was also implacably anti-Zionist and "influenced Orthodox Jewry in the
whole of Transylvania." After World War II, and a brief stay in Jerusalem,
he emigrated to New York. Many of his followers congregated there and
new members joined his flock. Rabbi Teitelbaum opposed Zionism not only
on halachic grounds but also because he believed that "Zionism forestalled
the Messiah. . . brought the Holocaust and other calamities on the Jewish
people." In his view the Jewish state "condemned itself through its own
lifestyle and politics." Teitelbaum's 40,000 chassidim are found largely in
Williamsburg, New York, and in Jerusalem.41
Reform Jews in the United States were also opposed to Zionism. Their
Pittsburgh Platform of 1885 stated their opposition to the establishment of a
Jewish state very clearly: "We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a
religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine. . .
nor the restoration of the laws concerning the Jewish state."43
With the emergence of the Zionist movement their position even hardened.
In 1897, the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) declared:
It was not until 1937, and after the rise of Hitler, that the CCAR changed its
position on the question of Zionism. This reversal, however, also spawned
another anti-Zionist Jewish organization.45
Even after the establishment of the state of Israel in 1947 the American
Council for Judaism continued to oppose Zionism vocally. The magazine,
Issues, was their principal vehicle of communication.47 Issues was joined in
its opposition to Zionism by The Menorah Journal edited by Dr. Henry
Hurwitz48 and William Zukerman's Jewish Newsletter.49
One of the most articulate and vocal critics in Canada today of Israel's
policies towards the Palestinians is Rabbi Reuben Slonim. He is a spiritual
Zionist in the tradition of Ahad Ha-am. His criticisms of Israel's policies
eventually led to a break with his congregation in Toronto. However, he
does have a small, but devoted, following among the Canadian Jewish
community.52 In 1983 he wrote:
Today we Jews are losing [the] humanism and universalism of Judaism, all
for the sake of Jewish statehood. We love Israel, and so we should, but we
are so blinded by that love that we are willing to pay a prohibitive price for
it. We condone acts we would declare unconscionable anywhere else in the
world: nuclear weapons are wrong but necessary for Israel; apartheid is
wrong, but for the sake of Israel's survival we will tolerate it; human rights
are critical, but not for the Palestinians; we have a right to a state but
Palestinians do not. Our racism towards Arabs would be regarded as anti-
Semitism if others spoke of us in the same light. In all things we need to
remember that the Jewish people and the Jewish state are but instruments,
not ends in themselves; that what is good for the world is good for the Jews,
not what is good for the Jews is good for the world; that the ultimate goal of
the Jew, if he be truly Jewish, is to serve humanity.53
. . . we protest against the political segregation of the Jews and the re-
establishment in Palestine of a distinctively Jewish State as utterly opposed
to the principles of democracy which it is the avowed purpose of the
World's Peace Conference to establish.
Whether the Jews be regarded as a "race" or as a "religion," it is contrary to
the democratic principles for which the world war was waged to found a
nation on either or both of these bases.55
For most Western Jews and many other people, the connection of Zionism
to fascism and racism is odious and inappropriate. However, this theme is a
recurrent motif in the debate on Zionism within the Jewish community.
Even David Ben-Gurion, Israel's founding father and first prime minister,
wrote an article in 1933 entitled, "Jabotinsky in the Footsteps of Hitler."60
Vladimir Jabotinsky was the founder of Revisionist Zionism and the mentor
of Menachem Begin.
Professor Richard Arens, the late brother of Moshe Arens, the Israeli
defense minister and leading figure in the Likud party, has also equated
Israeli policies towards the Palestinians with the Nazi persecution of the
Jews.61 Hannah Arendt, when writing about the trial of Adolph Eichmann,
pointed out the irony of attacking the Nazis' Nuremberg Laws of 1935 when
certain laws in Israel regarding the personal status of Jews were identical to
the infamous Nazi code.62 Morris Raphael Cohen, the distinguished
philosopher, went so far as to argue that "Zionists fundamentally accept the
racial ideology of anti-Semites, but draw different conclusions. Instead of
the Teuton, it is the Jew that is the pure or superior race."63
Erich Fromm, the eminent scholar, also was critical of Zionism. He stated
that the Arabs in Israel had a much more legitimate claim to citizenship
than the Jews. Fromm also wrote:
The claim of the Jews to the Land of Israel cannot be a realistic political
claim. If all nations would suddenly claim territories in which their
forefathers lived two thousand years ago, this world would be a
madhouse.66
Bruno Kreisky, the former chancellor of Austria, who died in July 1990,
was well known for his attempts to bring about reconciliation between
Israelis and Palestinians. ln a 1974 interview with an Israeli paper he stated:
"There is no Jewish race; there are only Jewish religious groups. Israel was
only the ancient, religious fatherland of Jews, but not their true
fatherland."67 In another interview, conducted in 1985, Kreisky said, "In the
struggle between Israel and the Palestinians I am on the side of the
underdog -- the Palestinians."68
Lilienthal's The Zionist Connection II: What Price Peace? is one of the
classic expositions of the Jewish anti-Zionist position, and as a historical
work it is virtually encyclopedic. Lilienthal, who also edited the newsletter
Middle East Perspective (1968-1985), Rabbi Elmer Berger and Noam
Chomsky have to be considered the three preeminent American Jewish
critics of Zionism.69
Many Jews have opposed Zionism because they believe that there is a
moral contradiction in trying to create an exclusionist Jewish nation-state
out of a universal religious ethic. They have also opposed Zionism because
of what it has done to the Palestinians and how they believed this violence
would transform Judaism.
A large number of Socialist and Marxist Jewish scholars are also opposed
to Zionism. These include Peter Buch, (Zionism and the Arab Revolution,
1967), Steven Goldfield (Garrison State: Israel's Role in U.S. Global
Strategy, 1985), Abraham Leon (The Jewish Question, 1973), the famed
Orientalist Maxime Rodinson (Israel: A Colonial-Settler State? 1973), Jon
Rothschild (editor of Forbidden Agendas: Intolerance and Defiance in the
Middle East, 1984; coauthor, with Nathan Weinstock, of The Truth about
Israel and Zionism, 1970), and Nathan Weinstock (Zionism: False Messiah,
1979). A rising generation of American leftist Jewish thinkers, including
Joel Beinin ("From Land Day to Peace Day.. . and Beyond," in Intifada:
The Palestinian Uprising against Israeli Occupation, edited by Zachary
Lockman and Joel Beinin, 1989), Lenni Brenner (Zionism in the Age of the
Dictators, 1983), David Finkel (editor of the Detroit-based magazine
Against the Current, whose "Occupation and Resistance: A Look Inside the
Israel-Palestine Crisis," appeared in Changes, July-August, 1982), Norman
Finkelstein ("Disinformation and the Palestine Question: The Not-So-
Strange Case of Joan Peters' From Time Immemorial," in Blaming the
Victims: Spurious Scholarship and the Palestinian Question, edited by
Edward W. Said and Christopher Hitchens, 1988), Christopher Hitchens
(writer of a bimonthly column in The Nation),70 Zachary Lockman
("Original Sin," in Intifada, edited by Lockman and Beinin), Joan Mandel71
and Hilton Obenzinger,72 are also highly critical of Zionism.
The Jewish workers' Bund movement was also anti-Zionist. The Bund was
a large and well-organized Jewish socialist, autonomist party that existed in
Lithuania, Poland and Russia between 1907-1948. It favored a secular East
European Jewish nationalism and rejected a world Jewish national
identity.78
For many critics of Zionism the parallels between Israel's treatment of the
Palestinians and South Africa's handling of its black population are striking.
Dennis Goldberg, a white South African and member of the African
National Congress, was released from Pretoria prison in 1985 to immigrate
to Israel when he agreed to fore-swear violent opposition to apartheid.79 He
was also highly critical of Israel's close military and economic ties with the
white-supremacist state. Goldberg later emigrated from Israel to Great
Britain. Mark A. Bruzonsky80 and Micah L. Sifry81 have made similar
comparisons. Israel: An Apartheid State, by expatriate Israeli Uri Davis,
also equates Israel with South Africa.82
OPPOSITION IN ISRAEL
It may surprise some, but much of the opposition to Zionism today is
centered in Israel. It is there that the realities of Zionism's confrontation
with the Palestinians are most painfully apparent. Local Jewish opposition
to Zionism also has a long history.
In July 1949 Rabbi Amram Blau and Rabbi Aaron Katzenellenbogen sent a
memorandum to the Secretary General of the United Nations on behalf of
the Neturei Karta in Jerusalem. They called for the internationalization of
Jerusalem and asked for U.N. passports and protection for their
community.84
Shortly before the creation of Israel, Judah Magnes and Martin Buber, on
the behalf of the Ihud Association, made the following statement before the
Anglo-American Palestine Commission Inquiry: "We do not favor Palestine
as a Jewish country or Palestine as an Arab country, but a bi-national
Palestine as the common country of two peoples."87 The Ihud, however,
abandoned the idea in 1948 after Magnes' death, and after war had broken
out in Palestine.88
Mordechai Avi Shaul was one of these early Jewish humanists who
continued to oppose the Jewish state after its creation. In 1935 he helped to
establish the League of Civil and Human Rights in Palestine, "whose
original purpose was to oppose British oppression of Jews and Arabs under
the Mandate." He continued to work for equal rights for Arabs in the Jewish
state.89
Another old Jewish settler, Nathan Chofshi, who also witnessed the birth of
the Jewish state, did not like what he saw. In 1959, in a reply to a rabbi who
"parroted" the official version of the Palestinian exodus from Israel, he bore
witness to the campaign to expel the Palestinian population. Chofshi also
stated the following:
We came and turned the Arabs into tragic refugees. And still we dare
slander and malign them, to besmirch their name; instead of being deeply
ashamed of what we did, and trying to undo some of the evil we committed,
we justify our terrible acts and even attempt to glorify them.91
In 1962 Moshe Machover founded the Israeli Socialist Organization
(known as Matzpen after its publication) with other Israeli leftists. He
described Zionism as "the equivalent of what in other places is known as
white supremacy. Here [in Israel] there are exact parallels in terms of
Jewish supremacy."92 Matzpen, however, splintered into several political
factions and together with other small left-wing anti-Zionist Israeli groups
the divisions greatly diminished the strength of non-Zionist Jewish forces
within Israel. All of these "radical" groups came under political attack from
state authorities.93
Ehud Adiv, Dan Vered, Yehezkel Cohen, David Cooper and Rami Livneh
are five Jewish Israelis who have been sent to prison for working against
the Jewish state. Livneh was sentenced to ten years in prison for meeting
with a Fatah member near Nazareth to discuss political issues. His case was
adopted by Amnesty International.95
I would say the only human response to Holocaust is to try not to be like
Nazis, in word or in deed. What brought the Holocaust was the racist
attitude towards Jews, the division of German society into Jews and non-
Jews on grounds of race. This is exactly the same thing that is happening in
Israel.101
Many view this type of comparison as inappropriate, but other Israeli Jews
have drawn the same parallel. Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz, the
renowned scholar of Judaism and philosophy and the editor of several
volumes of the Encyclopedia Hebraica, has expressed similar concerns:
The big crisis of the Jewish people is that the overwhelming majority of the
Jews genuinely desire to be Jewish -- but they have no content for their
Judaism other than a piece of colored rag attached to the end of a pole and a
military uniform. The consciousness and the desire to be Jewish did not
vanish, rather they are transformed today into a Judeo-Nazi mentality.102
Other leading Israeli critics of Zionism and of Israel's policies towards the
Palestinians include Professor Danny Amit ("There is a basis for an Israeli-
Palestinian strategy of joint struggle," MERIP Reports, May 1983), Uri
Avnery (Israel without Zionists, 1968), Yoram Binur (My Enemy, My Self,
1989), Uri Davis ("Journey Out of Zionism," in Journal of Palestine
Studies, summer 1970), Boaz Evron ("Holocaust: The Uses of Disaster," in
Radical America, fall 1983), the late Simha Flapan (The Birth of Israel,
1987), Isaac Hasson ("Can Israel Be a Democratic State?" in The
International Humanist, December 1987), Amnon Kapeliouk (Sabra and
Shatilla, 1984), Peretz Kidron ("Truth Whereby Nations Live," in Blaming
the Victims, edited by Hitchens and Said), Felicia Langer (With My Own
Eyes, 1975), the late Livia Rokach (editor of Israel's Sacred Terrorism,
1980), Ur Shlansky ("Eyewitness in Gaza," in Radical America, fall, 1983),
Professor Jacob Talmon ("Self-Determination for Palestinian Arabs: An
Open Letter," in Jewish Liberation Journal, November-December 1969),
Georges Tamarin (The Israeli Dilemma: Essays on a Warfare State, 1973),
and Lea Tsemel ("The Political Prisoners," Arab Studies Quarterly,
spring/summer 1985). This list is by no means complete.
Many Israelis have also refused to serve in the army on political grounds.
These include Marius Shattner, Irith Yacobi and Reuben Lassman.103 In
1973 Giora Neumann was sentenced to eight months imprisonment for
refusing military duty. At his trial Neumann said that he had to be loyal to
his values, and that the Israeli military had become a "persecuting army" of
occupation which "uproots and exiles people."104
Over 2,000 Israeli reserve soldiers signed a petition requesting not to serve
in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. The opposition to war among Israeli
reserve soldiers formalized itself into an organization called Yesh Gvul
("There is a limit").105 Gideon Spiro, one of its founders, wrote:
It was the first time in Israel's history that Israeli reserve soldiers said to the
government: We are not going to a war which violates all democratic and
humanistic norms; which violates all international charters to which Israel
is a signatory, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; which
contradicts the essence and spirit of the Israeli Declaration of
Independence; and which involves the criminal bombing of civilian
populations.106
Yesh Gvul is not a pacifist organization and does not question the need for
an army for Israel's defense. However, its members argued that they were
not prepared to support a war they viewed as illegal, and they were not
prepared to hide behind the defense of "we acted under orders" in an
attempt to justify that illegality. One hundred and fifty Israelis were court
martialed for refusing to serve in Lebanon.107
Yesh Gvul has also been active in opposing Israeli policies towards the
Palestinians. Over 600 Israeli reserve soldiers have signed a petition
indicating their refusal to serve in the Occupied Territories. At least 37
"refuseniks" have been sent to prison and approximately 100 reservists have
been released from service after refusing to help crush Palestinian
resistance to the occupation of the territories.108
The 23 years of occupation that has been imposed on the Palestinians in the
West Bank and Gaza has also left its mark on Israeli society. The
occupation has been opposed by many Jews.112 Professor Leibowitz, for
example, made the following comment:
It is both understandable and natural that an enslaved people will fight for
its freedom against an occupying power with all the means at its disposal,
and without regard for their propriety; this phenomenon is recognized to be
part and parcel of the wars of liberation of all peoples. We use the term
"terrorism" to describe the acts of the Palestinian people, and call their
fighters "terrorists." But our rule over a resistant people could not persist
were it not for the use of means which are considered to constitute war
crimes throughout the world -- and even plain criminal acts. We do not
view these acts as terrorism; they are considered to be policy because they
are being implemented by a legal government and a state arm. "Aberrant
acts" by necessity become the norm because, far from being a side effect of
an occupation regime, they are its essence.113
It is also interesting to note that the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta religious sect
has asked for affiliation with the Palestine National Council. Rabbi Moshe
Hirsch has even offered to serve as minister for Jewish Affairs in a
Palestinian government-in-exile.122 Rabbi Hirsch argues:
We are as Palestinian as Yasser Arafat. There are Jewish Palestinians, and
there are Muslim Palestinians and Christian Palestinians. In regard to issues
relating to the Palestinian people, we also have our interests. If a state is
established we would like to have our representation in the government.123
Two little-known facts are that the PLO helped protect the Beirut Jewish
community (and also the American embassy) during the Lebanese Civil
War,124 and it was the Israelis who destroyed their synagogue during the
siege of Beirtut.125 Nor has it been widely publicized that nine Palestinian
Jews were among the victims of the Sabra and Shatila massacre.126
There are also a small number of Palestinian Jews still living within
Palestinian society. Esther Ramahi is one such individual. She prefers to
live in the squalor of the Jelazoun refugee camp, a few kilometers from
Ramallah, with her Moslem Palestinian family rather than with her Jewish
daughter and all the comforts of modern Israel.127
Like the Palestinian Jews, many Arab Jews (also called Oriental and
Sephardic) were initially opposed to political Zionism. European secular
Zionism was a totally alien ideological concept that was in direct conflict
with their Jewish religious and their Arab cultural background. Kohavi
Shemesh, a former leader of the Black Panthers, an Israeli anti-Zionist
Oriental Jewish organization, has stated that, contrary to popular belief,
"There wasn't any large-scale anti-Semitism in the Arab countries."128
Naim Giladi, an Oriental Jew and one of the founders of the Black Panthers,
has been working on the subject of Mossad operations in the Jewish-Arab
community to "facilitate" Jewish-Arab immigration to Israel.129 One
example of this campaign to "encourage" Zionist immigration were the
bombs set off in Baghdad in 1950 to terrorize the Iraqi-Jewish community
into fleeing their home of 2,500 years.130 This question is also the subject of
Marion Woolfson's Prophets in Babylon where she argues, from an anti-
Zionist Jewish perspective, that the Jewish Arabs were victims of
Zionism.131
RECENT OPPOSITION
One of the more recent manifestations of Jewish anti-Zionism is a public
advertisement that contained over 200 names, including that of Harry
Cohen, a British member of Parliament. The original ad was published in
The Manchester Guardian (October 31, 1987) on the occasion of the 70th
anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. More names were added to a
subsequent version published in the magazine, Jerusalem. The ad stated
that "the state of Israel does not represent all Jewish people, neither legally,
morally nor in any other way." The statement also charged that "the Zionist
structure of the state of Israel is at the heart of the racism and oppression
against the Palestinian people, and should be dismantled."132
In other countries Jews are also expressing concern about Israel's policies
towards the Palestinians and about the direction that Zionism is heading. In
Canada there are several Jewish organizations that are sharply critical of
Israel's policies. One of the most active is Jews for a Just Peace. Yossi
Schwartz, an Israeli, has served as spokesman for the organization. The
group is part of a small but growing number of Canadian Jews who are
voicing their opposition to Israel's treatment of the Palestintans.
At a rally organized by Jews for a Just Peace, held in April 1988 in front of
the Israeli Consulate in Toronto, Schwartz denounced Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Shamir as a "terrorist," a "fascist" and an enemy not only
to the Palestinians, but to the Jewish people too." He said "the real heroes
are Jews who refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories and Lebanon."
"Petition for Palestinian Rights -- Against the Israeli Law of Return -- for
the Palestinian Right to Return," Jerusalem, May 1988, pp. 3 1 -- 33. Their
address do Bradford Resource Centre, 31 Manor Row, Bradford, UK BDI
4PS. The demonstration drew a crowd of "about 300 people, including
Arabs... as well as members of the New Jewish Agenda." The
demonstration was reported to have been "orderly."133
In France, 155 Jews have endorsed an advertisement calling for the French
government to recognize the new Palestinian state declared at the Palestine
National Council meeting in Algiers on November 15, 1988. The ad stated:
"Now that the right of Israel to exist has been recognized by the Palestine
National Council, nothing is against negotiations starting between the
representatives of the Israeli and Palestinian peoples." They also declared
their support for the "peace forces which are fighting bravely in Israel
against those who wish, among other things, to expel the entire Arab
population."134
Support for Israel has virtually become a litmus test for loyalty to the
Jewish community, and the role of religion has clearly diminished. Anti-
Zionist Jews are simply defined outside of the community, and if they
become vocal they are attacked as self-hating Jews, and sometimes even as
"Kapos" (Jews who collaborated with the Nazis in the concentration
camps), for betraying the new belief system.
At the very least, some of the criticisms that I. F. Stone, Albert Einstein and
other Jewish intellectuals and religious leaders have leveled at Zionism and
at the creation of a "Jewish state" seem to have been borne out.