A note about Zionism: When a word means such vastly different things to different groups of people, we can’t operate as if it has one universal or “true” definition. Not if we want to actually engage with each other and build power across lines of difference. https://twitter.com/egsophie/status/1003458664446005249

Instead of canceling people based on their stance on Zionism—whether they call it racism or speak in favor of it—we should ask “what does that word mean to you?” Because chances are, we’re operating with vastly different definitions yet assuming we’re talking about the same thing

I’m personally of the opinion that the fight to “reclaim Zionism” isn’t worth the energy. I think we should retire the word and focus on the ideas/values.

BUT I can’t ignore that the word holds importance for a large subset of Jews—including Jews on the left who we can organize.

If we’re going to bring everybody with us, we have to be more open to understanding that there are people who identify as Zionists who share our values and whose Zionism doesn’t look anything like what many of the “Zionism is racism” folks see it as.

If we’re going to bring everybody with us, we have to acknowledge that the implementation of a Zionist project has been catastrophic for Palestinian people. No Palestinian or person whose orientation is focused on Palestine should be expected to be pro-Zionism.

And that’s okay.

We have to accept that many Jews feel connected to the idea of Zionism, that for many Jews it’s a spiritual dream of a homeland.
We have to accept that many people view Zionism as harmful, oppressive, colonialist.

We have to stop acting as if only one of these things can be true

There’s so much violence and trauma all around us. We need to see each other, to be gentler with each other, so that we can take on the necessary work of effectively organizing against white supremacy, militarism, hyper-nationalism and all the other isms that threaten our safety.