Anonymous #6 2w

But like if you don’t wanna hear me talk about the history and how Zionism has been harmful I’m not gonna put in the effort y’know

1

Anonymous #6 2w

yes im actually asking bc everyone claims that this celebrity is a zionist and i shouldn't support them but based on the definitions i've seen and read i can't figure why its all that bad.

1

Anonymous #4 2w

im still confused on what that has to do with Palestine

1

Anonymous #3 2w

Happy Hanukkah!

10

Anonymous OP 2w

Because Israel was “founded” by pushing the Palestinians off the land where their country is now and Israel has continued to oppress and kill them ever since. Think of it as like the Middle East version of the US and native Americans

10

Anonymous #4 2w

ahhh i see, palestine was there first

1

Anonymous OP 2w

Thank you 😊

11

Anonymous OP 2w

It’s getting late where I am so I will explain tomorrow. Always happy to talk with someone who is genuinely in good faith

8

Anonymous OP 2w

Okay so #4 summarized this a little bit but I might be able to provide a bit more detail. So Zionism emerged in the late 1800s as a result of two distinct ideological movement.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

The first was religious Zionists, people moving to Ottoman-controlled Palestine (the British took control after WW1) for religious reasons. Some thought that by resettling Jews into the holy land would bring the Messiah. This was often allied with the secular political branches of Zionism and sometimes wasn’t.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

And the more secular branch of Zionism emerged out of a movement called Jewish Territorialism. Jewish territorialism was the movement advocating for the settling of Jews into a majority-Jewish territory, which would then provide greater protections than when they were a minority in Europe.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

Palestine was always the location most favored, but there were also an effort to settle many Jews in Argentina, and there were smaller projects in Cyprus, Turkey, Canada, and proposals for Angola, Uganda, and Australia. Plus there’s Russia’s Jewish Autonomous Oblast made by the Soviet government.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

Zionism (and Jewish territorialism more broadly) makes sense within the context of the time. Historically it has been very common for ethnic or religious groups persecuted in Europe to go and colonize another location for safety. The Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites, French Huguenots, and Volga Germans are all good examples.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

But this comes at a cost. While it makes sense for Jewish people to want to escape the persecution of Europe, whoever already lives wherever would be selected for colonization would be harmed. Had it been Uganda it would have been the native Ugandans who would be either displaced or politically marginalized. But instead it was Palestinians.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

Now remember that during the start of Zionism, Palestine was controlled by the Ottoman empire, and then after that Britain. Initially, Jewish colonists were settling in land controlled by another country. Jewish organizations began buying land in the local area. Some was from local Palestinians, but others were from wealthy landowners like the Lebanese Sursock family, and as a result many Arab tenant farmers were evicted.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

As Jewish land purchased and settlement increased into the early 1900s, you could see how local Arab communities would become increasingly uncomfortable with Jewish settlement. The land purchases were continuing and expanding. Zionists now wanted to avoid employing Arabs. Arab guardsmen for Jewish settlements were now being replaced by Jewish ones. If a Jewish state was for Jews only, what would happen to them?

1

Anonymous #6 2w

In the 1920s there were a number of riots by Arabs against Jews. Many Jews were killed by Arab rioters, and many Arabs were shot by British security forces. These riots facilitated the formation of organized Jewish paramilitaries like the Lehi, Irgun, and Haganah. They were initially for defense of Jewish communities, but soon began attacking Arab and British targets with the goal of a British withdrawal and establishment of a Jewish state.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

I think that’s enough detailed background so the rest will be shortened. In 1947 the UN proposes partitioning Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. Arabs considered this unacceptable (I mean how would you feel if your homeland was now declared as being “for” another group). This then led to a war declared by surrounding Arab states which the newly created Israel won, expanding its territory and expelling hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, as well as massacring a number of villages.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

Zionism had now been successful. Israel was now majority-Jewish through the expulsion of many Arabs during war, and the Jewish population was increased by Jews fleeing Arab nations that blamed them for what Israel had done. Zionism would shift in aims, for example Jordan was no longer a place targeted for eventual settlement.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

Arabs still in Israel would be granted Israeli citizenship and voting rights, but would remain marginalized and never considered to truly “belong” in a Jewish state. Many were displaced from their villages and remained within Israel but never allowed to return home. Others were expelled to Egypt-controlled Gaza, the Jordan-controlled West Bank, or surrounding nations.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

Destroyed Palestinian villages were given Hebrew names and replaced with Jewish ones. Some Palestinian villages were turned into national parks. Given Israel’s origins in a war, its government would remain highly militarized.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

In the 1967 six-day war, Israel seized control of the West Bank, Golan heights, Sinai, and Gaza. Israel then began a process of annexation and settlement in these occupied territories (the Sinai was later returned to Egypt and Israeli settlers evacuated, the settlers in Gaza were removed in the early 2000s). The Golan have now been annexed by Israel (all non-Druze Arabs were expelled). And settlement efforts continue in the West Bank (considered illegal under international law)

1

Anonymous #6 2w

And now we have today, where Israel is controlled by a far right government which is radical even by Israeli standards. Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995 for attempting to make peace with the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and the politicians now in power are the people who encouraged the assassination.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

The current government encourages more and more settlement in the West Bank (even encouraging settlers who violate Israeli law). In 2018, the right passed a law declaring Israel a Jewish nation-state. Netanyahu said the bill would make Israel "The nation-state of the Jewish people, and the Jewish people alone.” Arabic was no longer an official language, and many Druze, Muslims, and Christians feel they are now second class citizens. Arab Israeli lawmakers called it apartheid.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

So, when people say they oppose Zionists, what does that mean? It could mean opposition to the ideology as a whole, which has a complex history and while it comes from understandable origins it has had a lot of harm. But in the modern day when someone says they “oppose Zionists” that would often simply mean opposing the expansionist actions of the current Israeli government: mass murder in Gaza, settler colonialism in the West Bank, bombings of Lebanon and Syria, and marginalization of Arabs.

1

Anonymous #6 2w

Okay that was very long winded sorry for the text wall but hope I explained well

1