A late night conversation with a FB friend from Bethlehem turned to Zionism. “I don’t know much about Zionism,” he said. “Could you explain it to me? I hear some people say it’s bad, some people say it’s good.”
😬
So at a quarter to one in the morning, I gave it a shot:
“Zionism started with the prophets preaching to the priests and princes of the kingdoms of yehuda and yisrael, before the destruction of both kingdoms by foreign colonizers. The prophets protested the inhumanity of human beings and the alienation of God and the needs of justice and sanctity. Zion, which started out as the neighborhood of Silwan, became a synonym for the ideal society in line with Allah’s will.
When the grandchildren of the exilees from Yehuda returned to the land, the prophets spoke again of a future reconciliation between men and between humanity and the Creator – along with the rebuilding of the destroyed sanctuary. This was the next phase of Zionism, the rebuilding of material and spiritual society after reckoning with its prior loss.
After Yehuda and Shomeron were destroyed again by foreign colonizers, Zionism became a dream in exile. It meant both the return to the land and the building of a new society. After the expulsion of the Jewish people from Spain in the 1492, Jewish people began organizing to buy back property in the land from the colonizers at the time, to rebuild the cities that had been neglected and to make new cities for the diaspora Jewish people to join the people of the land. This popular Zionist movement continued for centuries until a big wave was started by Herzl, who translated Zionism into the language of a state; inspired by him, people left the antisemitic messes of Europe, North Africa, and the Levant, and began moving to the land in masses to become simple farmers and tradesmen. One great rabbi in particular, Avraham Yitshak Kook, tried to unite all the people, from the communities that had always been here and the newcomers, around the great dream of Zion, the reality of a heavenly society on earth. He passed on to his world before the founding of the state though.
Then came 1948, and a war started by neighboring states that uprooted many Palestinians, and left half of Jerusalem under Israeli control while putting the West Bank under Jordanian control.
Then came 1967, and a war that brought the West Bank and its Palestinians – and the rest of Jerusalem – under Israeli control. Rabbi Kook’s son and his students saw this as a sign for a new phase of Zionism, based on state control of land conquered in war.
Now it is decades later and it is clear to all that the successful reclamation of east Jerusalem and the west bank from the Jordanian army was not a sign from God to keep using the powers of the state to control civilian populations but a reminder that even when our vision is clouded and our faith is narrowed, by the stresses of the furnace of history, the Creator is still with us, protecting us, and calling us to build a better society – together. Calling us all to remember our ancestors and their ways, to let go of foreign shackles, and come together again in a covenant of peace. It is up to us to answer that call.
That is Zionism. Whether it is good or bad is up to you to decide.”
His verdict:
“I see it has a good vision.”