Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Colonialism, Not Antisemitism

Prior to the onslaught of the Israeli-perpetrated genocide in Gaza in October 2023, the term Zionism wasn’t part of the mainstream vernacular in the Australian public sphere. So, when reporting on 2021 attacks upon Palestinian worshippers at al-Aqsa Mosque or when Amnesty declared Israel an apartheid state in 2022, it was common to speak of Israel as a colonising force in historic Palestine.

But in October 2023, as Israel launched an obviously genocidal massive attack upon the captive Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, who were already living in the largest open-air prison on Earth, those previously ignorant to the fact, soon came to learn that what might be deemed heinous settler colonial expansionism was actually the result of something known as Zionism.

Zionism has been mainstreamed in the Australian psyche, which is well acquainted with settler colonialism, during the unbridled violence that was unleashed upon the Palestinians of Gaza in October 2023 and onwards continues until the present day, and this term that is specifically related to Israelis colonising Palestinians is somehow sanctified by God in the Bible.

The 1880s political doctrine of Zionism became synonymous with the Nazi Holocaust against the Jewish people, after World War II, and this has resulted in criticism of Zionism, a brutal settler colonial project, being conflated with criticism of Jewish people, which is antisemitic, and, at times, it is further suggested that such criticism works to invoke a new genocide against Jewish people.

So, as the local population has borne witness to atrocities taking place in Gaza, acts many considered reserved for hell, people have too learnt from local Zionists that to openly speak out against the mass murder and starvation program Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians, leaves one open to attacks from those outraged by this open display of “antisemitism”, or prejudice against Jews.

Colonisation by another name

The establishment of Israel in the 1940s coincided with the onset of the major period of decolonisation in the 20th century. Colonised and occupied peoples of the Global South were rising up against their colonial rulers, and by force and negotiations, they were ridding themselves of an imposed foreign rule that had been undermining their self-determination and robbing their wealth.

Rudyard Kipling’s 1899 declaration of the White Man’s Burden, the idea that it was the duty of white people to manage the affairs of people of colour, which had reigned since the 15th century, was not only rejected in the various countries that were undergoing decolonisation, but the concept of colonisation increasingly fell out of favour in colonising nations until it was officially recognised.

Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist Theodor Herzl first popularised the idea that long-persecuted European Jews should start purchasing land in Palestine to establish a Jewish homeland, via the colonisation of the region, in his 1886 pamphlet The Jewish State, and in the early 1890s, Herzl promoted the project under the term Zionism, which was coined by another proponent.

The term Zionism carries with it Biblical implications. In the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, Zion is mentioned 152 times. It is initially used as the name of the easternmost of two hills in Jerusalem, although most of the time it refers to the ancient city itself. And today, Israelis invoke passages of the Book of Jeremiah to show that God granted the Jewish people the land of Zion, which is Israel.

However, in the Jewish State, Herzl also contemplates whether colonising parts of Argentina to establish a Jewish homeland might be another option, which really throws out the god-given argument.

Despite the 1897 Europe-established Zionist Organisation calling one of its first created institutions in the historic land of Palestine, The Jewish Colonial Trust, in 1898, as it embarked upon its mission of colonising the land of the Palestinians, by the time, the UN General Assembly issued Resolution 181, which sought to create two states, Israel and Palestine, Zionism was a well-established term.

So, while the resolution recognises Jewish and Palestinian spiritual connections to the land, the colonisation by Europeans involved is not mentioned, and hence, the idea that Israel was the latest in a long line of European colonies was suppressed, and this was enhanced by the recent horrors of the genocide against the Jews by the Nazis, who’d just failed in their attempt to colonise Europe itself.

God said this is my place

The colonial project that is Israel is a distinct form of colonisation known as settler colonialism, which involves the displacement and genociding of Indigenous peoples, so the colonisers can inhabit the land themselves.

Renowned US dissident Professor Noam Chomsky wrote in 2015 that the reason the US, Australia and Canada always support Israel at the United Nations is all four nations are settler-colonial in nature.

This country continues to grapple with its once heavily suppressed colonial history, which was justified upon the concept of terra nullius, the idea that the land was devoid of people, despite hundreds of First Peoples nations existing here prior.

The early Zionists adopted the same excuse in the phrase “a land without a people for a people without a land”, despite the Palestinians living on the land they were eyeing off.

Another key similarity between Zionism and western colonialism in general is the god-given aspect, as the Catholic pope issued a series of papal bulls, or official orders, between 1452 and 1493, that became known as the Doctrine of Discovery, and served to legitimise the five centuries of the western colonial project.

The Doctrine of Discovery empowered European Christians, white people, to acquire lands deemed empty, or terra nullius, which could include nations or territories inhabited by Indigenous peoples, as the pope’s edits understood non-Christians to be nonhumans. The Doctrine of Discovery was invoked by the British when invading the lands now known as America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

The colonisation of Palestine was a project commenced by European Jewish people in the late 19th century. However, at the behest of British Zionists, UK foreign secretary Arthur James Balfour produced the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which was addressed to Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, and it promised Palestine to the Zionists, as the British were expected to gain control of it post-WWI.

Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism

Not all Jewish people are Zionists. Not all Zionists are Jewish. In the US, there are more Christian Zionists than Jewish Zionists. Christian Zionists, such as Pentecostals and evangelicals, have sought the Jewish people to be located in Israel, as it’s part of their “end of times” prophecies, which involve the second coming of Christ only occurring after a Jewish state is established in the “Holy Land”.

Many political commentators, journalists, politicians, artists, activists and everyday people living in the colonised nation of Australia have been slandered as antisemitic and even taken to court, due to daring to have criticised the wanton barbarism that Israel has unleashed on the Palestinians. Indeed, so heinous has the Gaza genocide been that it’s seen the edifice of international law collapse.

As renowned US professor Judith Butler explained during a 2024 forum in Paris, Zionists began conflating criticism of Israel and Zionism with antisemitism starting in the 1970s, in order to deflect criticism of the Zionist state of Israel and its brutal policies and operations against the Palestinians, as despite Zionists promising to uphold Palestinian rights, they were being oppressed and destroyed.

The reason why being deemed antisemitic carries such weight is due to the horrors of the Holocaust, which saw the Nazis and collaborators committing a mass slaughter of European Jews to the point that 6 million were killed. Many too young to recall the Holocaust understand its barbarity in a more visceral way now, due to Israel currently inflicting the same barbarity upon the Palestinians.

Israel has been snipering Palestinian kids. Israel is starving over 2 million Palestinians. Israel has raped Palestinian prisoners to death using metal rods. Israel has levelled the ancient city of Gaza, destroying a society along with it. Israel is committing mass murder, a holocaust or a genocide upon the Palestinians. And Israel bombed all Gaza’s hospitals with patients inside.

But in the current climate in this country and right across the western world, stating such facts can see an individual labelled an antisemite, or even worse, legal action can be launched against them.

Genocide is what you call it

Israel cut off all humanitarian aid into Gaza on 2 March, which was not the first time. So, not only are the Israelis continuing to bomb and shoot the Palestinians, but they’re starving to death an entire population. Israel also banned and stopped the operations of UNRWA, the UN aid agency that had been providing assistance to the Palestinians of Gaza since 1950, in late January.

In its place, Israel has established, with US assistance, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which began operating in late May. US evangelical leader Johnnie Moore Junior was appointed to run the GHF in early June. The former Trump campaign advisor and Zionist was placed in charge after initial reports about the mass killing of Palestinians turning up to receive food aid caused headlines.

The Israeli military is guarding the aid distribution sites where starving Palestinians can acquire boxes of food. However, Palestinians risk being shot dead in doing so.

Over 600 Palestinians have been shot dead and over 4,000 have been injured whilst attending GHF distribution sites.

Israeli soldiers told Israeli publication Haaretz last week that they are being ordered to purposely shoot unarmed Palestinians turning up and waiting for food aid to be distributed.

However, to dwell on the fact that the Israel’s new aid distribution operation in Gaza is as genocidal as the nation’s government and its military are, has the potential to encourage a Zionist to call one out as an antisemite, so it’s best to keep this understanding on the lowdown.