Thread:

I see a lot of posts defining Zionism, through what it isn’t. Nonetheless, I see very few trying to tackle this word’s simple definition. Zionism is the Jewish people’s liberation movement; our right to self-determination in our homeland. 1/

Zionism culminated, or should have, in the creation of Israel, the Jewish state, in 1948. The way the state is run, the middle eastern geo-politics that surround it, are not essential, or related really, to the core belief of Zionism. 2/

Zionists can (and do) have incredibly diverse opinions on government and policy. 3/

Israel exists. So why is it, if this movement achieved this goal, and Zionism is not attached to a set of political beliefs, that most Jewish people today actively label themselves Zionists? 4/

The sad truth is that Zionism, along with Jewish identity, is twisted and distorted by non-Jews to fit a Western narrative that demonizes Jewish people, and aims to delegitimize, and eventually dissolve the country that saved millions of us. 5/

Jews are forced to take on this label (even though we do it proudly) because we actively have to defend our humanity and the plight for our survival, which so many expect us to apologize for. 6/

Zionism is actually the opposite of racism, the opposite of White supremacy, the opposite of genocidal, the exact opposite of colonialism. 7/

Zionism is the ideology, present in our texts and practice, which has given an ethnic minority the agency to rid ourselves of persistent persecution for millennia, and finally have equality in a world that has continuously and vigorously tried to subjugate and eradicate us. 8/

So the next time antizionism is presented as a difference of opinion or as a legitimate point of view, ask yourself, what is the productivity of arguing against the existence of a state is already established. Ask yourself what the culmination of this argument would be. 9/

Ask yourself to what degree you are privileged enough to distance yourself or reject Zionism, while so many Jews cannot. Ask yourself and look into how history has been able to feed on this same complicity with the cost of Jewish lives. 10/