Tribune. Defining anti-Zionism is easy: as its name suggests, it is an opposition to Zionism. This is much simpler to define, for example, than anti-Semitism, because there is no "Semitism" that anti-Semitism would oppose. But what does it mean to be an opponent of Zionism in the political life of the XXIe Century? Is it the same as criticizing the Israeli government? Is this just another form of anti-Semitism?
It seems more intellectually honest to consider these three concepts – anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and "criticism of Israel" – as three radically different phenomena, with affinities, origins and common punctual overlaps.
Right to self-determination
Nothing can account for anti-Zionism without a certain understanding of Zionism itself. Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people which led to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948. It is the principle that the Jewish people have the right to self-determination in their historic homeland, just like any other people.
This notion was not without controversy. The existence of a state uniting the Jewish people is not an easy thing to apprehend because it raises questions, such as the status of Jewish minorities outside Israel and that of non-Jewish minorities in Israel, as well as various others conflicts relating to religion, borders, language, migration and others.
Zionism emerged at the same time as other national liberation movements in Europe and the Mediterranean. When the multinational empires of central and eastern Europe, as well as North Africa and western Asia decomposed into nation-states representative of their majority population, the need for the Jews to be able to have free territorial autonomy was as compelling as that of other peoples. It was even much more pronounced because the Jews were then particularly threatened by centuries-old Christian and Muslim anti-Semitism.
Anti-Zionism uses three classic anti-Semitic schemes: blood, conspiracy and money
However, many Jews opposed the idea of modern Zionism in the early days. Some disapproved of the idea for religious reasons, others for practical reasons. While the Zionists saw the creation of a state as the solution to the problem of persecuting the Jewish minority, others viewed migration to America, transnational socialism, revolutionary communism, religious orthodoxy, or even fusion of Jewishness with French or German nationalism (among others) as a better solution to this situation. This anti-Zionist tradition, mainly Jewish, has largely lost its relevance. The issue has been decided and the State of Israel has been in existence for seventy-one years now.
