Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism

There was a woman who I had the occasional discussion with on Twitter. About two years ago she reached out to ask if I agreed that one can be an anti-Zionist and not antisemitic. I said no. She then went on to tell me that her Jewish husband is an anti-Zionist and he is clearly not an antisemitic. I responded that her husband does not speak for the Jewish community and his view is out of sync with the majority of Jews. We never had another conversation. This was just the first of many difficult conversations I’ve had since then.

I have always accepted that a Zionist is someone who supports the creation of a Jewish homeland. It derives from a 19th century movement advocating for the creation of a national homeland for Jewish people. Theodor Herzl is considered to father of modern Zionism and organized the First Zionist Congress in 1897. You don’t have to be Jewish to be a Zionist. You just need to support the existence of a Jewish state.

But there has been considerable confusion regarding what Zionism is. 94% of Canadian Jews support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. But only 51% identify as Zionists (2024 New Israel Fund poll). In the US, 87% of American Jews support Israel but only 58% identify as Zionist (2021 Pew Research poll).

What has happened is that anti-Israel factions have manipulated the term to mean something that it was never meant to be. This has even crept into the Jewish community. Opponents of Israel now try to tie Zionism to Israeli government policy. This is done intentionally to get more people to declare they are anti-Zionists. That would be analogous of calling someone who disagrees with American government policy regarding trade as anti-American. I have many personal disagreements with the policies of the current Israeli government but I am still a Zionist and support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.

This is an ongoing trend where labels are assigned to Israel and Jews that are a distortion of what they were intended to mean or just untrue. As an example, Israelis have been labeled as settlers where the country is made up mostly of refugees from Europe, Jews driven out from Arab countries, and Arabs. There is an ongoing campaign to delegitimize Israel as a justification for replacing it with an Islamic state.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2016 created a non-legal definition of antisemitism. The definition includes the concept of collective antisemitism includes Holocaust denial and a double standard when it comes to Israel. Criticism of Israel is not regarded as antisemitism. It goes without saying that the definition is not without controversy.

So getting back to the question I was asked two years ago, can you be an anti-Zionist and not be antisemitic. No. Because that means you don’t believe Israel has a right to exist and you would make millions of Jews stateless. But you aren’t being antisemitic if you oppose the Israeli government. Likely a majority of Israelis do.