Zionism for Palestinians

Zionism for Palestinians?

I’ve been having great discussions with listeners to The Z Word ‘s first episode, my conversation with Palestinian author Mo Husseini .

A central point of not conflict nor disagreement but, rather I would say, creative tension, between Mo and I was in the relevance of Zionism to Palestinians.

Mo represented an honest perspective: Zionism can mean different things to different people, granted, but beyond dealing with the localized (and often adverse) effects of Zionism on Palestinian lives, why should Palestinians care about Zionism? Isn’t it just something that the Jews are doing “over there”?

I, in response, made a brief argument for Zionism’s relevance to Palestinians.

I want to elaborate a bit more on why I think joining the Zionist discourse is not just relevant to Palestinians but, suggesting as a non-Palestinian, possibly desirable for them.

Firstly, I think that being subject to the localized effects of Zionism – whether under the current conditions of occupation and discrimination or in a situation where a future Palestinian state must partner with the Israeli state – is sufficient to make developing an active concern with its voices, institutions, policies, and direction a priority to Palestinians not just in the West Bank but “Israel proper.” From this purely pragmatic perspective alone, I think Zionism – as an irreversible fact of life not just in the modern Levant – is clearly relevant to Palestinians.

But beyond the pragmatic level, I think that the Palestinian national aim – to establish a just and autonomous society on this land of their ancestors, free from foreign colonialism and imperialism – is so closely aligned with the Israeli national aim that their attainments mutually coincide. Far from being an ideology of foreign invasion and exploitation, Zionism was and is a liberation movement of indigenous de-colonization, which for Israelis included an explicit process of leaving socio-political exile and reestablishing traditional society in their homeland. The intersection with Palestinian liberation and de-colonization is obvious – as is the shared dream of a just, democratic society. (Shared by most – obviously both Israelis and Palestinians deal with their own internal fascist demons and reactionary religious conservatives.) Zionism, in this sense, can serve Palestinians equally well as a vehicle and vector for realizing their national dream, as it does Israelis.

Furthermore, in my personal (controversial) opinion, while Palestinians and Jews are two separate peoples, we are actually majority descended from the same nation of Israel (which, again in my personal and controversial opinion, was called Palaistine in both Jewish and non-Jewish Hellenistic sources). The Romans did not succeed in driving out the entire nation, and many Israelites remained in this land after the Roman conquest. In the face of waves of colonization over the ensuing centuries, many Israelites eventually chose to adopt Christianity and/or Islam and an independent consciousness of peoplehood emerged among their descendants here in this land. While many foreigners came and joined them over the years, the exact same thing can be said of every Israelite community in the diaspora. This historical narrative makes a lot more sense to me than competing narratives which position either Palestinians or Israelis as essential interlopers in the land, based on superficial demographic markers and what I contend amount to the effects of colonization. Accordingly, Zionism – in its pursuit of Israelite autonomy – is as much the heritage of Palestinians as it is of Israelis, and the cultural dimension of Zionism (including the Kookian revivalism and renaissance of Israelite culture in all its spiritual and creative depth and diversity) may itself be further accessible to and expanded by the unruptured relationship with land (as well as the Christian and Islamic elements, redeemed of their imperialism and supremacism) of the Palestinian (-Israelite) people.