[ Modiya > Anti-Semitism > Anti-Zionism ]
Topic: Anti-Zionism
Zion BinAnti-Zionism is understood as the opposition to the establishment, existence and maintenance of a Jewish national home, i.e. Israel.
Criticism of Israel and its politics is not an expression of anti-Semitism, as long as the judgement is based on the same yardstick as for other States. However, it often happens that the actions of the Israeli Government lead to a global and definite condemnation of Israel, or that the term "Zionist" becomes a substitute "Jew", thus camouflaging anti-Semitic arguments behind an anti-Zionist façade.
For twenty years after the creation of the State of Israel (1948), anti-Zionism remained a phenomenon limited to Arab countries, stemming from the Israeli-Arab conflict, as well as to Russia and the Eastern block, which supported the Arabs.
From the end of the sixties, anti-Zionism became international. It first erupted in universities after the Six-Day War when the New Left, in support of Arab Students' associations, attacked Zionism. United Nations Resolution 3379 of November 10, 1975, condemning Zionism as "racist and as a form of racial discrimination" further internationalised anti-Zionism. The Resolution was eventually annulled 1995.
Anti-Zionism has many contemporary incarnations, from Holocaust deniers– who claim that the Holocaust was a hoax invented by the Jews in order to obtain the creation of a Jewish State– to calls for a “bi-national State” with one citizenship for Israelis and Palestinians, thus marking the end of the State of Israel. Anti-Zionism finds strong support within international organizations, and thrives within anti-globalization movements. It embraces a vast variety of genres, from political speeches to oral slogans, from cartoons to legal documents, from songs to web-based petitions.
