Zionism - moving the debate forward
Members of the Green Party of England and Wales, also called 'the Greens', triggered a nationwide debate in the United Kingdom recently, when, at their annual conference in Brighton, they voted in favour of a motion that holds Zionism to be a racist ideology.
Britain is deeply divided on the issue. One section of the society thinks that Israel's genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza is ample proof that Zionism is a racist ideology, while others view the motion as proof that the Greens are anti-Semites. I should mention that such accusations are habitually levelled at anyone who criticises Israel in the United Kingdom, but this time the outrage was particularly widespread.
My own view is different. I believe that both the Greens and the pro-Zionists are wrong. I think their debate is stale. I think Zionism is not a race-based ideology, but nor is it inherently anti-Semitic to criticise Israel.
The purpose of this short note is to cut through the confusion and offer a unifying framework for how to think about Zionism and similar ideologies, which, in my view, should not be confused with issues of race.
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Let me start with the Greens' labelling of Zionism as a racist ideology. Why is it wrong? While I have no doubt that many Zionists are racists, the ideology of Zionism, while discriminatory, does not discriminate on the basis of race. Rather, it discriminates on the basis of culture. Jews are not a race. Zionism calls for the creation and defence of a country for the exclusive use of members of the Jewish culture, not the Jewish race (which does not exist). In other words, Zionism is what I call a 'culturalist' ideology, not a racist one. Culturalism is the cultural equivalent of racism. I will return to this point shortly.
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What about those who label critics of Zionism as anti-Semites; why are they wrong? They are wrong because Zionism is an ideology and no ideology is above criticism. This is particularly the case when the ideology informs government policy, which is very much the case in Netanyahu's government. Those who label criticism of Zionism (and, indeed, anything related to Israel) as anti-Semitic do so not because they are correct, but because they want to exploit the political value of such labelling. After all, who, other than a crazy fringe, wants to lumped together with the likes of Adolf Hitler?
Still, just because anti-Semitism labelling is highly effective does not make it right. By attacking anyone who criticises Israel - and Zionism - the pro-Israeli lobby discourages legitimate criticism of Israel, which increases the likelihood that Netanyahu and his goons implement their appalling Lebensraum projects in Gaza, the West Bank, and Southern Lebanon. This, of course, is the aim of the Zionists, but that is also why it is perfectly legitimate to attack their ideology.
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I now want to move the debate forward. A far more precise characterisation of Zionism is that it is an ideology that discriminates on cultural rather than race grounds. Specifically, it discriminates in favour of Jewish culture and against Palestinian and Arab culture. As I alluded to previously, this makes Zionism an example of culturalism rather than racism. Whereas racism prioritises one race over other races, culturalism places one group of people ahead of others based on their cultural affiliation.
Zionist politicians in Israel support the marginalisation and disempowerment more than 2 million Palestinians and others Arabs who live in Israel. Every single day, the Israeli government, which is heavily influenced by Zionist ideology, brutalises and humiliates these minorities and makes it almost impossible for them to live according to their own customs. Of course, in the occupied territories the treatment of Palestinians is far worse, because Israel is stealing their land in flagrant breach of international law and actively aiding and abetting violent, extremist settlers.
However, Israeli Zionists support these discriminatory policies not because Palestinians are a different race, although many Zionists are racists, but because Palestinians are not Jews, that is, they are not seen as belonging to the Jewish culture and therefore are believed by Zionists to have no right to live in Israel. Zionists believe Jews have a unique and exclusive right to the land in and around present-day Israel due solely to their membership of the Jewish culture. Zionism is therefore an excellent example of culturalism.
Zionism also happens to be one of the most extreme and repressive culturalist ideologies in the world today. Let us not forget that it is being used to justify overt discrimination, incarceration without charge, the imprisonment of children, grotesque mistreatment, torture, rape, and murder of Palestinians, illegal settlements on Palestinian land, and, of course, the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Still, Zionism is far from the only example of culturalism. In fact, culturalism in various guises and degrees of intensity is almost ubiquitous. As I noted in a recent blog, we witness culturalism when podcaster Konstantin Kisin says former British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak can never be English, because he is a "brown Hindu". We see it in the Indian caste system and in Prime Minister Modi's overt sponsorship of Hinduism. We see culturalism in the efforts of religious fundamentalists in the United States to ban abortion. We see it expressed in tribal tensions between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and between Luos and Kikuyus in Kenya. We see it in the subordination of women in business and politics in practically every country in the world. We see it expressed in the bans on burqas imposed on Muslim women in Europe, but equally in the proscription of burqas for Muslim women in Afghanistan. We see it in demands from nativists in rich countries that immigrants go home, because 'their kind' have no right to live in 'our' countries.
This makes culturalism the most widespread yet least recognised of all forms of discrimination. Despite its prevalence, there is near-universal obliviousness to the problem, probably because most people have only ever lived in one culture. Their grotesque ignorance of other cultures makes them blind to their own culture's oppression of other cultures.
The simplicity our understanding of culture stands in sharp contrast with the cultural complexity of the world. There are literally hundreds of cultures, each with its own unique customs and underlying value systems. Every single one a social construct and not a single one can claim greater legitimacy than any of the others.
Our mono-cultural societies face an enormous policy challenge in coming to terms with enormous global cultural diversity as the world shrinks due to continuing improvements in transport, communications, and income per capita. Hardly anyone even recognises that the problem of culturalim exists yet. One thing is already clear, however. As more and more of us come into contact with one another in the years ahead, it it is clear that Zionism and similar culturalist ideologies that seek to promote one culture at the expense of others will only lead us down a road to ever more culture clashes. If instead we want prosperity and peace, we need to go in the opposite direction; we need to get to grips with culturalism.
The End
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