The UK Green Party is set to vote on whether “Zionism is Racism” at the upcoming Spring Conference.
Motion A105 Zionism is Racism defines Zionism as racism, recognises its “continued harm to Palestinians,” and would position the stance of the Green Party as anti-Zionist.
It recognizes Zionism as Israel’s foundational ideology that has created and maintains an apartheid regime between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It further affirms the right to self-determination and liberation of the Palestinian people and supports the establishment of a “single democratic Palestinian State in all of historic Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital.” This effectively would eradicate the State of Israel.
It should be common sense that Zionism is racism but everyone is still afraid to say it. One of those “ahead of our time” moments.
There were Zionists (mainly early socialist Zionists) who believed in coexistence and attempted to uphold the rights of the Palestinians and promote equality. They didn’t succeed. I think that this was what Zach was alluding to with his “Zionism isn’t necessarily inherently racist” comments. But in practice, the logic of colonialism will inevitably lead to racism, ethnic cleansing and often genocide, and the idealists will get pushed aside by the bigots and thugs.
A historical parallel is the Spanish conquest of Mexico. There were people among the conquistadors, mainly priests, who had benign intentions towards the indigenous peoples. They were rendered completely irrelevant by the vast majority of conquistadors who were gold-hungry gangsters with swords and guns. Those are the forces that colonialism unleashes, and the benign intentions of a few don’t change the overall effect.
So I’d support a resolution that Zionism, as it exists now, is colonialist and racist.
It’s undeniable that there have been Jews which were trying to live together, especially German Jews which were ethnically cleansed by the Holocaust. However most of these groups show up after 1920, more than 20 years after the Zionist conferences decided on colonizing Palestine and having set the plan in motion (which was already deep into Zionism, they conferred on ethnically cleansing other lands too). The Jews opposing ethnically cleansing Palestinians certainly didn’t create Zionism, they were reformists.
The origins of Zionism, and the vast majority of its followers throughout all of Zionist history, have always wanted to ethnically cleanse Palestinians and colonize their land because Palestinians are not “racially Jewish” according to them.