
I consider myself against Zionism, but I’m realizing that means something completely different than what other people say. I think the creation of ethnostates is bad and inevitably leads to discrimination. Other people seem to think Zionism refers only to modern right wing revisionist Zionism. If you know about the history of Zionism, socialism isn’t surprising. The dominant form of Zionism historically was socialist.
It’s a term that can accurately be used to compare to the West Bank. Under both systems, one group of people in an occupied territory (for South Africa this was Namibia) are considered citizens on an ethnic basis while another group are considered citizens of another country. The non-citizens are subject to discriminatory laws and restrictions on their freedom of movement.
The Zionist movement did begin as a socialist movement, but as conflict with Arab populations in the Middle East developed the movement moved further and further to the right. One could even make the argument the original Zionist movement was “national socialism” but that is over a century old history now. Most people analyze Zionism in its modern context, that being a genocidal ethnostate that is actively partaking in an ethnic cleansing of the remaining Palestinian population in Israel
Israel’s socialist political parties also did expansion and did ethnic cleansing. Their socialism did not conflict with that. Labor Zionism is more open to a two state solution, but it was under labor Zionism that Israel gained the vast majority of its occupied and annexed territory. The right wing movement that took over is known as Revisionist Zionism. But labor Zionism still exists.