Zionism and the State of Israel
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Israel is a state created as a homeland for a specific religious group. Zionism: movement formerly for re-establishing, now for supporting, the Jewish national state of Israel.

Note: Zion = Kingdom of God / Heaven.

• result of the work of Theodore Herzl (1860-1904 / Austrian Jew) who was convinced that there would always be persecution of Jews whilst they remained as minorities.

‘The Balfour Declaration’: (1917)

• Letter from British foreign secretary to Zionist leader.
• Promise of help in establishing a ‘national home for Jews’ in Palestine.

Different opinions within the Zionist Movement:

1. Messianic: believed the faith could only be preserved through a return to the land of Israel.
2. Spiritual Zionism: very liberal, wanted co-operation w/ the Arab population / believed that salvation for the Jewish people would come through spiritual revival.
3. Labor Zionism: developed as part of a widespread advance in socialism in Europe after 1870: focused on people rather than land or faith.
4. Greater Israel ideology: believe in the Jewish right to the whole biblical Israel including Gaza, West Bank, and beyond.

Events leading to the establishment of the state of Israel:

• After WWII, British policy in Palestine (based upon notion that Arab and Jewish nationalism could be reconciled) was doomed to fail.
• Britain invited the UN to propose a settlement.
• UN proposed that Palestine be partitioned into a Jewish and an Arab state w/ Jerusalem as an international zone.
• Britain opposed this and announced withdrawal of troops for May 1948.
• Violence had started as British troops withdrew / Jewish leaders accepted the UN settlement but Arabs rejected the plan.
• When fighting stopped Jewish forces controlled 82% of Palestine.

The impact of Zionist beliefs and the war of 1948-49 on the new state:

In 1947-48 the different Zionist groups reached a compromise as to the nature of the soon to be created state of Israel:

1. Existing political status quo would be maintained after independence through the adoption of a system of proportional representation.
2. New state would keep the Sabbath, maintain Orthodox control over laws concerning personal status (i.e.: marriage, divorce, etc.) and allow different educational streams including Orthodox.
3. No definition of the nature of the state and no fixing of its boundaries.

Israel did not have any constitution, bill of rights or boundaries, a situation which continues today.

Note: many Zionists believed that Israel could be created only through struggle "We fight, therefore we are".

The Jewish nature of the state:

From the Declaration of Independence of 14^th May 1948:

• "Open for Jewish immigration"
• "Based upon freedom, justice and peace"
• "ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex"
• "will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture"
• "faithful to the principles of the Charter of the UN"

How has this been put into practice?

Law of Return: any Jew had the right to ‘return’ to Israel.

à presupposes the existence of a definition of a Jew.

1970: Knesset passed a law that "…a Jew was one born of a Jewish mother or a convert…"

The Nationality Law:

Anyone who is not Jewish and is applying for citizenship must:

• Be born in Israel
• Have lived in Israeli occupied territory for threes years out of the five preceding application.
• Have good knowledge of Hebrew.

It was this distinction between Jews and non-Jews that influenced the UN to condemn Zionism as a form of racial discrimination. (1975)

The ownership of land:

• 75% state, 20% Jewish national fund/private owners, 5% Palestinian Arabs.

Arabs, who make up 16% of the pop., own 5% of the land.

Why?

• Many Arabs fled from their homes during the war of 1948-49.
• In 1950, Israeli Gov. passed the Absentees Property Law by which property of any owner having left the country could be confiscated.
• Defence Regulations Act allowed military to designate areas ‘closed’ to Arabs (i.e.: eviction of Arab landowners from areas close to the pre-1967 frontiers)
• Agricultural Settlement Law (1967) prevents non-Jews from leasing Gov.-owned land.

The expansion of Israel:

• War of 1948-49: conquered 82% of Palestine
• 1967, Six Day War, conquered the West Bank and Gaza (only remaining Arab parts of Palestine), Golan Heights (Syria) and the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt)
• 1977: began a policy of establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
• 1980: Annexed Golan and Arab Jerusalem (not recognized by UN)
• 1982: Returned the Sinai to Egypt.

To What extent is this part of a policy based upon Zionist claims that the whole of biblical Israel (Yretz Yisreal) is Jewish? To what extent is it simply a question of security until the Arab states recognize Israel?

The Security Argument:

• Frontiers proposed by the UN in 1947 left Israel exposed.
• Arab states refused to recognize Israel under any circumstances.
• PLO dedicated to violent overthrow of Israel
• Power of combined Arab states presented a real threat.
• Golan Heights used by Syria to bombard Israeli settlements in the region.

However, the is evidence that Israeli Gov. intended to expand the country’s frontiers b/c of the Zionist belief in the right of the Jewish people to the whole of Eretz Yisrael.

• 1954: USA offered a security pact to give US guarantee of Israeli frontiers: Israel refused!
• 1972: Zionist Congress stated that the Jews had the right to the whole of Eretz Yisrael.
• 1977: Prime Minister Begin stated that the West Bank was "an integral part of [Israeli] sovereignty"

Restrictions on non-Jewish Israelis:

1. Excluded from service in the army.
2. Arab political parties are banned.
3. Purely Arab professional organisation are not allowed.
4. In education curriculum controlled by Gov., teaching of aspects of Palestinian culture is discouraged.
5. Arabs had tended to occupy the lowest status jobs.

Some major developments:

1. Population shift in Israel: shifted towards Oriental Jews whe were far more conservative, less well educated, and far more religiously observant than European Jews. The effects were:

• Decline in influence of the Labor Party (rise to power of the Likud)
• Population of Israel less representative of world Jewish community.
• Majority of young Israelis tend to be more to the right then previous generations.

1. Rise of militarism: belief that by military force Israel can achieve the goal of a Greater Israel / associated w/ the belief that Arabs would never be reconciled to the loss of land to Israel.
2. The Occupied Territories:

• Growing international criticism of living conditions for Palestinians.
• Settlement policy in West Bank was of international concern.
• Uprisings amongst the Palestinian population: ‘Intifadeh’ (1987)
• Very repressive Israeli action (destruction of homes, closing of schools and universities, deporting of Palestinian leaders)
• Increasing Brutality by Israeli forces

1. Negotiations with the PLO: support for Israel has reduced w/ even the US opening contacts w/ the PLO à opinion in the West that Israel doesn’t wish to negotiate w/ Palestinians.
2. Internal Israeli politics: in order to be able to rule it has become necessary to have the support of the small political parties (very right wing and orthodox) à support bought at price of a ‘hard-line’ stance against PLO negotiations, support for settlements in West Bank and attempts to enforce orthodoxy.

Other Notes in this Category

1. Apartheid and the Dutch Reformed Church
2. Catholic Church in Latin America
3. Catholic Church in the 1990's
4. Christian Democracy : From Fascism to the CDU
5. Christianity in Politics
6. Islam and the state
7. Islam in Iran
8. Islam in Saudi Arabia
9. Orthodox Church in the USSR
10. Political Christ
11. The Position of Women in Islamic Society
12. Zionism and the State of Israel

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