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See also: Timeline of Zionism and World Zionist Organization

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Zionism is an international political movement that supports a homeland for the Jewish People in the Land of Israel.^[1] Although its origins are earlier, the movement was formally established by Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl in the late nineteenth century. The international movement was eventually successful in establishing the State of Israel in 1948, as the world's first and only modern Jewish State. It continues primarily as support for the state and government of Israel and its continuing status as a homeland for the Jewish people.^[2] Described as a "diaspora nationalism,"^[3] its proponents regard it as a national liberation movement whose aim is the self-determination of the Jewish people.^[4]

While Zionism is based in part upon religious tradition linking the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, where the concept of Jewish nationhood is thought to have first evolved somewhere between 1200 BCE and the late Second Temple era (i.e. up to 70 CE),^[5][6] the modern movement was mainly secular, beginning largely as a response by European Jewry to antisemitism across Europe.^[7] At first one of several Jewish political movements offering alternative responses to the position of Jews in Europe, Zionism gradually gained more support, and after the Holocaust became the dominant Jewish political movement.

Contents 1 Terminology 2 The Historic and Religious Origins of Zionism 2.1 Biblical Precedents 2.2 The Jewish Decline in Israel 2.3 Aliyah and the ingathering of the exiles 3 Pre-Zionist Initiatives 1799 - 1897 3.1 The Enlightenment and the Jews 3.2 Proto-Zionism 3.2.1 Agricultural settlements 3.3 Non-Jewish Support 3.4 Causes of the Emergence of Zionism 4 Establishment of the Zionist Movement 1897 - 1917 4.1 Formation 4.1.1 The objectives of Zionism 4.1.2 The organizational structure of the Zionist movement 4.2 Early Arguments 4.2.1 Cultural Zionism and Opposition to Herzl 4.2.2 The Uganda Proposal 4.2.3 The death of Herzl 4.3 Anti-Zionism and Alternative Proposals 4.3.1 Orthodox Jewish Opposition 4.3.2 Support for other homelands 4.3.3 Communism 4.4 Growth of the Zionist community in Israel 4.5 Zionism in non-European Jewish communities 4.5.1 Socialist Zionism: a new Zionist movement 4.5.2 Early Zionism and the non-Jewish population of Palestine 4.6 The Zionist Movement in World War I and the Balfour Declaration 5 The British Mandate and the struggle for Palestine 1918 - 1939 5.1 Weizmann becomes leader 5.2 The League of Nations endorses Zionism 5.3 Expansion of the Movement 5.3.1 Religious Zionism 5.3.2 Revisionist Zionism 5.4 Jewish Opposition to Zionism between the wars 5.5 Marcus Garvey and "Black Zionism" 5.6 Arab attitudes to Zionism 5.6.1 The Mufti and the emergence of Palestinian Nationalism 5.7 Zionist attitudes toward the Arabs 5.7.1 Weizmann 5.7.2 Jabotinsky 5.7.3 Ben-Gurion 5.7.4 Bi-National support 5.7.5 Zionist Para-Military Organizations 5.8 British Immigration Restrictions 5.8.1 The rise of Hitler and illegal migration 6 The Struggle Against Britain and the Nazis 1939–1948 6.1 The 1939 White Paper and the British break with Zionism 6.2 State of the Zionist Movement on the eve of World War II 6.3 Zionism during the Holocaust 6.4 Impact of the Holocaust 6.4.1 The rapid growth of illegal immigration to Palestine 6.5 The 1947 UN decision to partition Palestine 7 Zionism and Israel since 1948 8 International reactions to Zionism 9 Anti-Zionism and post-Zionism 10 Non-Jewish Zionism 10.1 Christian Zionism 10.2 Muslims supporting Zionism 11 References and footnotes 12 See also 12.1 Types of Zionism 12.2 Zionist institutions and organizations 12.3 History of Zionism and Israel 12.4 Other 13 Other resources

The word "Zionism" itself derived from the word "Zion" (Hebrew: ציון, Tzi-yon), one of the names of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel, as mentioned in the Bible. It was coined as a term for Jewish nationalism by Austrian Jewish publisher Nathan Birnbaum, founder of the first nationalist Jewish students' movement Kadimah, in his journal Selbstemanzipation (Self Emancipation) in 1890. (Birnbaum eventually turned against political Zionism and became the first secretary-general of the anti-Zionist Haredi movement Agudat Israel.)^[8]

Since the founding of the State of Israel, the term "Zionism" is generally considered to mean support for Israel as a Jewish nation state. However, a variety of different, and sometimes competing, ideologies that support Israel fit under the general category of Zionism, such as Religious Zionism, Revisionist Zionism, and Labor Zionism. Thus, the term is also sometimes used to refer specifically to the programs of these ideologies, such as efforts to encourage Jewish immigration to Israel.

Certain individuals and groups have used the term "Zionism" as a pejorative to justify attacks on Jews. According to historians Walter Laqueur, Howard Sachar and Jack Fischel among others, in some cases, the label "Zionist" is also used as a euphemism for Jews in general by apologists for antisemitism.^[9]

Zionism should be distinguished from Territorialism which was a Jewish nationalist movement calling for a Jewish homeland, but not necessarily in Palestine. During the early history of Zionism, a number of proposals were made for settling Jews outside of Europe but these all ultimately were rejected or failed. The debate over these proposals helped define the nature and focus of the Zionist movement.

Main article: Jewish history

The desire of Jews to return to their ancestral homeland is a Jewish theme that first makes its appearance in the Torah. Israel and his sons went down to Egypt to escape a drought, in Egypt they became a nation and were enslaved. Moses goes before Pharoh and demands "Let my people go!". Most of the Torah is devoted to the story of the Exodus from Egypt which is estimated to have taken place in 1400 BCE and is celebrated annually during Passover. The Passover meal traditionally ends with the words "Next Year in Jerusalem".

After the conquest of Judea by Babylon in 641 BCE, the Judeans were exiled to Babylon and the theme recurs. In the book of Psalms (see Psalm 137) Jews lamented their exile while Prophets like Ezekiel foresaw their return. The Bible recounts how, in 538 BCE Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and issued a proclamation granting the people of Judah their freedom. 50,000 Judeans, led by Zerubabel returned. A second group of 5000 led by Ezra and Nehemiah returned to Judea in 456 BCE.

Main article: Jewish history

See also: History of the Jews and the Crusades, inquisition, and Bohdan_Khmelnytsky#Khmelnytsky_in_Jewish_history

During the Hellenistic Age many Jews left Judea to live in other parts of the Mediterranean basin.^[10]

The third great Jewish exile is considered to have begun after the destruction of Judea by the Roman Empire in the year 70 (after the Great Jewish Revolt). A second Jewish revolt against the Romans, Bar Kokhba's revolt of 135, led to further dispersal of Jews to other parts of the Empire.^[11]

A Jewish presence in the Land of Israel was maintained even after the Bar Kokhba revolt, and there is evidence of vibrant communities in the first millennium. For example, the Jerusalem Talmud was created in the centuries following the revolt. The inventors of Hebrew vowel-signs, the Masoretes (ba'alei hamasorah, Hebrew בעלי המסורה), groups of scribes in 7th and 11th centuries were based primarily in Tiberias and Jerusalem.

The Crusades were devastating for the Jewish presence in Israel^{[citation needed]}. The Crusaders massacred Jews, both on their path across Europe and in the Holy Land.^[12] After the Arab reconquest in the thirteenth century, Sultan Baybars ravished the land to ensure it could not sustain a large population and would not be attractive to invaders. It remained poor under the Ottomans, who took over in the 16th century and ruled it until the 20th.

Over the centuries, the population of the Holy Land was slowly bolstered by Jews fleeing Christian persecution especially after the Reconquista of Al-Andalus (the Muslim name of the Iberian peninsula). Safed became an important center of Kabalah. Hebron and Tiberias also had significant Jewish populations.

Main article: Aliyah

Return to the Land of Israel had remained a recurring theme among generations of diaspora Jews, particularly in Passover and Yom Kippur prayers which traditionally concluded with, "Next year in Jerusalem", and in the thrice-daily Amidah (Standing prayer).^[13]

Aliyah (immigration to Israel) has always been considered to be a praiseworthy act for Jews according to Jewish law, and is included as a commandment in most versions of the 613 commandments.

From the Middle Ages and onwards, a number of famous Jews (and often their followers) immigrated to the Land of Israel. These included Nahmanides, Yechiel of Paris with several hundred of his students, Yosef Karo, Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk and 300 of his followers, and over 500 disciples (and their families) of the Vilna Gaon known as Perushim, among others.

See also: Jewish Emancipation, antisemitism, and History of antisemitism

The age of enlightenment in Europe led to an 18th and 19th century Jewish enlightenment movement in Europe, called the Haskalah. The French Revolution and the spread of western liberal ideas among newly emancipated Jews, created for the first time a class of secular Jews who absorbed the prevailing ideas of rationalism, romanticism and, most importantly, nationalism.

Emancipated Jews who abandoned Judaism, often found themselves still rejected by their host societies and still regarded as 'Jews'. They also found that abandoning their Jewish identity meant loss of their heritage.

The formation of modern nations in Europe led to changes in the prejudice directed against Jews. What had previously been religious prejudice now became a new phenomena known as antisemitism. Anti-Semites saw Jews as a racial group as well as a religious group and actively tried to prevent Jews from being given equal rights and citizenship.

A precursor to the Zionist movement of the later 1800s occurred with the 1820 attempt by journalist, playwright and American-born diplomat Mordecai Manuel Noah to establish a Jewish homeland on Grand Island, New York, (north of Buffalo, New York, USA). In 1840s, Noah advocated the "Restoration of the Jews" in the Land of Israel.^[14]

Moses Hess's 1862 work Rome and Jerusalem. The Last National Question argued for the Jews to create a socialist state in Palestine as a means of settling the national question. In the same year 1862, German Orthodox Rabbi Zvi Hirsch Kalischer published his tractate Derishat Zion, positing that the salvation of the Jews, promised by the Prophets, can come about only by self-help.^[15] In 1882 Judah Leib Pinsker publish the pamphlet Auto-Emancipation, arguing that Jews would not require emancipation in their own country.

Pre-Zionist groups were active in the 1880s in Eastern Europe where emancipation had not occurred to the extent it had in Western Europe (if at all). The massive pogroms following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II made emancipation seem more elusive than ever, and influenced the Hibbat Zion to actively promote Jewish settlement in Palestine. In 1890, the "Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Eretz Israel" (better known as the Odessa Committee) was officially registered as a charitable organization in the Russian Empire and by 1897 it counted over 4,000 members.

American Protestant Christian Zionists such as William Eugene Blackstone also pursued the Zionist ideal during late 19th century, especially in the American Blackstone Memorial (1891).

Main articles: Mikveh Israel Settlement, Bilu, and Hovevei Zion

In the late 1870s, Jewish philanthropists such as the Montefiores and the Rothschilds, responded to the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe by sponsoring agricultural settlements for Russian Jews in Palestine. The Jews who migrated in this period have become known in Zionist history as the First Aliyah.^[16] Aliyah is a Hebrew word meaning "ascent," referring to the act of spiritually "ascending" to the Holy Land.

Founded in 1878, Petah Tikva was the first Zionist settlement.

Rishon LeZion was founded on 31 July 1882 by a group of ten members of Hovevei Zion from Kharkov (today's Ukraine). The land was owned by Tzvi Leventine and was purchased by the "Pioneers of Jewish Settlement Committee" that was formed in Jaffa, the port of arrival for many of the immigrants to the area.

In 1890 Palestine, which was part of the Ottoman Empire, was inhabited by about 520,000 people, mostly Muslims and Christian Arabs—but including 20-25,000 Jews.

Napoleon suggested the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine as early as 1799, during his invasion of the Levant.^[17] In 1873, Shah of Persia Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar met with British Jewish leaders, including Sir Moses Montefiore, during his journey to Europe. At that time, the Persian king suggested that the Jews buy land and establish a state for the Jewish people.^[18]

Ideas of the restoration of the Jews in the Land of Israel entered the British public discourse in the 19th century.^[19] Not all such attitudes were favorable towards the Jews; they were shaped in part by a variety of Protestant beliefs,^[20] or by a streak of philo-Semitism among the classically educated British elite,^[21] or by hopes to extend the Empire. (See The Great Game) At the urging of Lord Shaftesbury, Britain established a consulate in Jerusalem in 1838, the first diplomatic appointment in the Land of Israel. In 1839, the Church of Scotland sent Andrew Bonar and Robert Murray M'Cheyne to report on the condition of the Jews in their land. Their report was widely published^[22] and was followed by a "Memorandum to Protestant Monarchs of Europe for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine." In August 1840, The Times reported that the British government was considering Jewish restoration.^[19] Lord Lindsay wrote in 1847: "The soil of Palestine still enjoys her sabbaths, and only waits for the return of her banished children, and the application of industry, commensurate with her agricultural capabilities, to burst once more into universal luxuriance, and be all that she ever was in the days of Solomon."^[23] In her 1876 novel Daniel Deronda, George Eliot advocated "the restoration of a Jewish state planted in the old ground as a center of a national feeling, a source of dignifying protection, a special channel for special energies and an added voice in the councils of the world." Benjamin Disraeli wrote in his article entitled "The Jewish Question is the Oriental Quest" (1877) that within fifty years a nation of one million Jews would reside in Palestine under the guidance of the British. Moses Montefiore visited the Land of Israel seven times and fostered its development.^[21]

The Treaty of Paris (1856) granted Jews and Christians the right to settle in Palestine and opened the doors for Jewish immigration.

See also: History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union

Zionism arose out of a combination of factors, it was a nationalist ideology, a response to anti-Semitism, an attempt to provide a means of escape from what many Jews saw as unceasing Christian persecution and also an alternative to assimilation, Bolshevism and conversion.

Jews in growing numbers began to perceive themselves as a "nation" in the new European sense and were inspired by various national struggles. If European nations were entitled to a homeland, and if they excluded Jews, why not create a Jewish homeland, where Jews would be free of persecution?

Jews in Eastern Europe faced constant pogroms and persecution in Tzarist Russia aimed at driving them out. In response to the Jewish drive for modern education (Haskalah) the Tzars imposed tight quotas on schools, universities and cities to prevent entry by Jews, the government deliberately organized pogroms with military authorities disarming any Jews who attempted to defend themselves. Consequently, between 1880 and 1928, two million Jews left Eastern Europe, mostly for the USA. A minority went to Palestine. By 1928 nations were increasingly legislating to prevent Jews from entering, particularly in the wake of the Bolshevik revolution in which Jews were seen as playing a prominent role. Many countries feared that immigrating Jews would bring revolutionary ideas with them.

In 1883, Nathan Birnbaum, nineteen years old, founded Kadimah, the first Jewish Students Association in Vienna. In 1884 the first issue of Selbstemanzipation or Self Emancipation appeared, completely made by Nathan Birnbaum himself.

T. Herzl and his 1896 book The Jewish State

The Dreyfus Affair, which erupted in France in 1894, profoundly shocked emancipated Jews. The depth of anti-Semitism in a country thought of as the home of enlightenment and liberty led many to question their future security in Europe. Among those who witnessed the Affair was an Austro-Hungarian (born in Budapest, lived in Vienna) Jewish journalist, Theodor Herzl, who published his pamphlet Der Judenstaat ("The Jewish State") in 1896 and Altneuland ("The Old New Land") [3] in 1897. He described the Affair as a turning point—prior to the Affair, Herzl had been anti-Zionist, afterwards he became ardently pro-Zionist. Herzl believed in a Jewish state for the Jewish nation; in that way the Jews, he argued, could become a people like all other peoples and anti-semitism would cease to exist.^[24]

Herzl infused political Zionism with a new and practical urgency. He brought the World Zionist Organization into being and, together with Nathan Birnbaum, planned its First Congress at Basel in 1897^[25]

During the congress, the following agreement, commonly known as the Basel Program, was reached:

Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Eretz-Israel secured under public law [that is to seek legal permission from the Ottoman rulers for Jewish migration]. The Congress contemplates the following means to the attainment of this end:

1. The promotion by appropriate means of the settlement in Eretz-Israel of Jewish farmers, artisans, and manufacturers.
2. The organization and uniting of the whole of Jewry by means of appropriate institutions, both local and international, in accordance with the laws of each country.
3. The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment and national consciousness.
4. Preparatory steps toward obtaining the consent of governments, where necessary, in order to reach the goals of Zionism.^[26]

For the first four years, the World Zionist Organization met every year, up to the Second World War they gathered every second year . Since the war the Congress meets every four years.

Congress delegates were elected by the membership (members were required to pay a due known as a "Shekel"). At the congress delegates elected a 30 man executive council which in turn elected the movement's leader. The movement was democratic and women had the right to vote (in 1914 still absent in Great Britain).

The WZO's initial strategy was to obtain permission from the Ottoman Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II to allow systematic Jewish settlement in Palestine. The good offices of the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, were sought, but nothing came of this. Instead, the WZO pursued a strategy of building a homeland through persistent small-scale immigration, and the founding of such bodies as the Jewish National Fund in 1901 and the Anglo-Palestine Bank in 1903.

Main article: Cultural Zionism

See also: Revival of the Hebrew language and Ahad HaAm

Herzl's strategy relied on winning support from foreign rulers, in particular the Ottoman Sultan. He also made efforts to cultivate Orthodox, Rabbinical support. Rabbinical support depended on the Zionist movement making no challenges to existing Jewish tradition, however an opposition movement arose which emphasized the need for a revolution in Jewish thought. While Herzl believed that the Jews needed to return to their historic homeland as a refuge from anti-Semitism, the opposition, led by Ahad HaAm, believed that the Jews must revive and foster a Jewish national culture and, in particular strove to revive the Hebrew language. The opposition became known as Cultural Zionists.

In 1903 the British Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain suggested the British Uganda Program, land for a Jewish state in "Uganda" (in today's Kenya). Herzl initially rejected the idea, preferring Palestine, but after the April 1903 Kishinev pogrom Herzl introduced a controversial proposal to the Sixth Zionist Congress to investigate the offer as a temporary measure for Russian Jews in danger. Despite its emergency and temporary nature, the proposal proved very divisive and widespread opposition to the plan was fueled by a walkout led by the Russian Jewish delegation to the Congress. Nevertheless, a committee was established to investigate the possibility which was eventually dismissed in the next (Seventh) Zionist Congress in 1905. After that Palestine became the sole focus of Zionist aspirations.

In 1904, Herzl died unexpectedly at the age of 44 and the leadership was taken over by David Wolfsohn who led the movement until 1911. During this period the movement made little progress, failing to win support among the Young Turks after the collapse of the Ottoman Regime.

From 1911 - 1921 the movement was led by Dr Otto Warburg.

By 1904 Cultural Zionism was accepted by most Zionists and a schism was beginning to develop between the Zionist movement and Orthodox Judaism.

Main article: Anti-Zionism

Under Herzl's leadership Zionism won orthodox Jewish support, however cultural and socialist Zionists increasingly broke with tradition and used language contrary to the outlook of most religious Jewish communities. As a result many religious organizations opposed Zionism, both on the grounds that it was a secular movement and on the grounds that any attempt to re-establish Jewish rule in Israel by human agency was blasphemous, since (in their view) only the Messiah could accomplish this.^[27]

Some Orthodox Jews thus retreated into the traditional Jewish belief that the Land of Israel was given to the ancient Israelites by God, and that while the right of the Jews to that land was permanent and inalienable, the Messiah must appear before Israel could return to Jewish control.

Other Orthodox Jews formed an orthodox Zionist movement, Mizrachi.

Prior to the Holocaust, Reform Judaism rejected Zionism as inconsistent with the requirements of Jewish citizenship in the diaspora.^[28]

It should be noted that while Zionism aroused Ashkenazi Orthodox antagonism in Europe (probably due to Modernist European antagonism to organized religion), in the Islamic world Orthodox Judaism eagerly embraced Zionism.

Before 1917 some Zionist leaders took seriously proposals for Jewish homelands in places other than Palestine. Herzl's Der Judenstaat argued for a Jewish state in either Palestine, "our ever-memorable historic home", or Argentina, "one of the most fertile countries in the world". when the Zionist Movement rejected the Uganda Proposal, the Jewish Territorialist Organization (ITO) led by Israel Zangwill split off from the main Zionist movement. The territorialists attempted to establish a Jewish homeland wherever possible, but went into decline after 1917 and the ITO was dissolved in 1925.

Zionisms most serious rival in Eastern Europe was the General Jewish Labor Union, otherwise known as the Bund, which helped promote the Communist Revolution in Russia. The Bund called for Jewish Autonomy within Eastern Europe and promoted Yiddish as the Jewish language. Bund supporters regarded Zionism as a form of Bourgeois nationalism. However, as was the case with Orthodox Judaism, while the leadership opposed Zionism (and Orthodox Judaism), in practise the rank and file often had ties with other forms of Jewish life including Zionism. The Bund thus indirectly led to development of Socialist Zionism, which competed with it for Jewish allegiances.

In Palestine, the small Zionist community began to expand. Widespread pogroms accompanied the 1905 Russian Revolution, inspired by the Black Hundreds. This and the desire of many young Jews to avoid conscription for the Russo-Japanese war led to a wave of immigrants to Palestine. The new wave of immigrants resurrected the Hebrew Language.

Outside Jaffa a new town called, Tel-Aviv was established, the new town had a modern school, the Herzliya Hebrew High School, which was the first modern school to teach only in Hebrew. In Jerusalem foundations were laid for a Jewish University (the Hebrew University), one which would teach only in Hebrew and which the Zionists hoped would help them prove their usefulness to the Turks (this did not come to fruition until 1918). In Haifa the cornerstone was laid for a Jewish Technical school (the Technion).

The 1911 edition of the Jewish Encyclopedia evidenced the movement's growing popularity: "there is hardly a nook or corner of the Jewish world in which Zionistic societies are not to be found."^[29]

Zionism was not a purely Ashkenazi phenomenon. The first Zionist branches in the Arab world opened in Morrocco only a few years after the first Zionist conference, and the movement was popular among Jews living in Arab states. A number of the founders of the city of Tel-Aviv were Moroccan Jewish immigrants and there was significant early migration from Yemen (10% of Yemenite Jews moved to the Holy Land between 1880 and 1914) and Uzbekistan. Ottoman Salonika had a vigorous Zionist movement by 1908.^[30]

Main article: Socialist Zionism

See also: Kibbutz Movement and Kibbutz

This section does not cite any references or sources. Please improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (May 2007)

The chief rival to Zionism among young Jews in Eastern Europe was the socialist movement. Many Jews were abandoning Judaism in favour of Communism or supported the Bund, a Jewish socialist movement which called for Jewish autonomy in Eastern Europe and promoted Yiddish as the Jewish language.

Opposition to this led to the emergence of a new zionist movement, the socialist Zionists, who believed that the Jews' centuries of being oppressed in anti-Semitic societies had reduced Jews to a meek, vulnerable, despairing existence which invited further anti-Semitism. They argued that Jews should redeem themselves from their history by becoming farmers, workers, and soldiers in a country of their own. These socialist Zionists rejected religion as perpetuating a "Diaspora mentality" among the Jewish people and established rural communes in Israel called "Kibbutzim". Major theoreticians of Socialist Zionism included Moses Hess, Nahum Syrkin, Ber Borochov and Aaron David Gordon and leading figures in the movement included David Ben-Gurion and Berl Katznelson. Socialist Zionists rejected Yiddish as a language of exile, embracing Hebrew as the common Jewish tongue.

Socialist Zionism became a dominant force in Israel, however it caused the schism between some groups of Orthodox Jews such as Neturei Karta and Zionism to grow.

See also: Zionist attitudes toward the Palestinian Arabs

Zionist leaders and advocates followed conditions in the land of Israel closely and travelled there regularly. Their concern, however, was entirely with the future of Jewish settlement. The future of the land's Arab inhabitants concerned them as little as the welfare of the Jews concerned Arab leaders. During the movement's formative stages, zionist negotiators with stronger political powers (such as the British) corresponded enthusiastically while remaining silent about the inhabitants of Palestine, who numbered just under half a million during the late nineteenth century.^[31]

According to Anita Shapira, among nineteenth and early twentieth century Zionists, 'The Arabs in Palestine were viewed as one more of the many misfortunes present in Palestine, like the Ottoman authorities, the climate, difficulties of adjustment, [...] [T]he Zionist organization did not discuss this issue during that period and did not formulate a political line on it. Yet at that particular juncture in the movement such deliberations [...] had about the same importance as the learned disputations customarily held in the courtyards of Hassidic rebbes regarding what would happen after the coming of the messiah.' ^[32]

What thought Zionists did give to Arab national rights was perhaps typified by this passage by Israel Zangwill, written just after the first World War: 'The Arabs should recognize that the road of renewed national glory lies through Baghdad, Damascus and Mecca, and all the vast territories freed for them from the Turks and be content. [...] The powers that freed them have surely the right to ask them not to grudge the petty strip (Israel) necessary for the renaissance of a still more down-trodden people.' ^[33] Thus from the beginning Zionists saw the Arab residents of Palestine as part of a larger Arab nation.^[34]

Under the Ottomans, Palestine's Arab population mostly saw themselves as Ottoman subjects or as Moslems and, when they concerned themselves with Zionists, they generally assumed the movement (whose objectives they feared) would fail. After the Young Turk revolution in 1908, Arab Nationalism grew rapidly in the area and most Arab Nationalists regarded Zionism as a threat, although a minority perceived Zionism as providing a path to modernity.^[35]

Main article: Balfour Declaration

In the search for support, Herzl made most progress with the Kaiser, meeting with him and joining the Kaiser on his 1898 trip to Palestine ^[36] At the oubreak of war in 1914, the offices of the World Zionist Organization were located in Berlin and the Zionist leader was a German citizen, Otto Warburg. With different sections of the movement supporting different sides in the war, Zionist policy was to maintain strict neutrality and "to demonstrate complete loyalty to Turkey".^[37]

At this time England had a rapidly growing Jewish minority. Some 150,000 Jews migrated there from Russia in the period 1881 - 1914. There was pressure from British voters to halt the influx as well as a strong love for the Old Testament in British society which made Zionism an attractive solution.^[38]

In 1914, most Jews viewed Russia as the historic enemy of the Jewish people and there was termendous support for Germany within the Jewish world. Particularly in the United States where the many Russian and German Jews supported the Germans alongside the large Irish-American community. Britain was concerned to win US support for its war effort and winning over US Jews was considered vital.^[39] Most Russian Jewish emmigrants to Britain supported Germany in its war against Russia and avoided the draft.

Following Turkey's entry into the First World War, the Zionists were expelled from Tel-Aviv and its environs. A Polish Zionist, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, worked to create a Jewish division in the British army. The Jewish Legion provided a means of recruiting Russian immigrants to the British war effort and was dominated by Zionist volunteers. The Jewish Legion participated in the 1917 British invasion of Palestine and Jabotinsky was awarded for bravery.

In 1915 the British government fell as a result of its inability to manufacture sufficient artillery shells for the war effort. In the new Government Lloyd-George became the minister responible for armaments. Lloyd George was a Christian-Zionist and had represented the Zionist movement in its dealings with the British Government over the Uganda proposal.

The most prominent Russian-Zionist migrant to Britain was Chaim Weizmann. Weizmann developed a means for mass production of Acetone a critical ingredient of explosives that Britain was unable to manufacture. He did not ask for any payment for his efforts. According to Lloyd-George he said he expected no payment, just the rights over Palestine...^[40] Weizmann became a close associate of Lloyd George (Prime-Minister from 1916) and the First Lord of the Admiralty (foreign minister from 1916), Arthur Balfour.

In addition to the British desire to cement US Jewish support, there was concern to keep Russia in the war after the overthrow of the Tzar in February 1917. Jews were prominent in the new Russia and it was hoped British support for Zionism would help keep Russia fighting Germany.

In 1917, the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, made the famous Declaration in favour of "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." The Declaration used the word "home" rather than "state," and specified that its establishment must not "prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine."

When the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917, Edwin Montagu, the only Jew in the British Cabinet, "was passionately opposed to the declaration on the grounds that (a) it was a capitulation to anti-Semitic bigotry, with its suggestion that Palestine was the natural destination of the Jews, and that (b) it would be a grave cause of alarm to the Muslim world."^[41], the reference to the rights of non-Jews in Palestine was thus demanded by the only Jew in the British cabinet.

Five days after the declaration was published, the Bolsheviks took over Russia. In the ensuing civil war Russian and Ukrainian nationalists aided by British and other troops killed between 70,000 and 200,000 Jews in Pogroms.

Main article: Chaim Weizmann

After the war, in 1921, Weizmann was elected president of the World Zionist Organisation in recognition of his role in creating the Balfour Declaration. He remained in this position until 1931. From 1931 to 1935 the WZO was presided by Nahum Sokolov (who had also spent the first world war in Britain). Weizmann resumed presidency of the WZO in 1935 and led it until 1946.

After the defeat and dismantling of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the League of Nations endorsed the Balfour Declaration with the establishment of the British Mandate for Palestine (text: [4]).

In addition to the promises made by Balfour, the League required Britain to create a representative body, the Jewish Agency, which would administer Jewish affairs in Palestine.

The Zionist movement entered a new phase of activity. Its priorities were the escalation of Jewish settlement in Palestine, the building of the institutional foundations of a Jewish state, raising funds for these purposes, and persuading — or forcing — the British authorities not to take any steps which would lead to Palestine moving towards independence as an Arab-majority state. The 1920s did see a steady growth in the Jewish population and the construction of state-like Jewish institutions, but also saw the emergence of Palestinian Arab nationalism and growing resistance to Jewish immigration.

The success of Zionism in getting international recognition for its project, led to growth in the membership and developmenmt of new forms of Zionism.

Main article: Religious Zionism

In the 1920s and 1930s, a small but vocal group of religious Jews began to develop the concept of Religious Zionism under such leaders as Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine) and his son Zevi Judah, and gained substantial following during the latter half of the 20th century. Kook was concerned that growing secularization of Zionism and antagonism towards it from the Orthodox Jews would lead to a schism. He therefore sought to create a brand of Judaism which would serve as a bridge between Orthodoxy and secular Jews.

Main article: Revisionist Zionism

The Revisionist Zionists were a group led by Jabotinsky who advocated pressing Britain to allow mass Jewish emigration and the formation of a Jewish Army in Palestine. The army would force the Arab population to accept mass Jewish migration and promote British interests in the region.

Revisionist Zionism was detested by the Socialist Zionist movement which saw them as being influenced by Fascism and the movement caused a great deal of concern among Arab Palestinians. After the 1929 Arab riots, the British banned Jabotinsky from entering Palestine.

Revisionism was popular in Poland but lacked large support in Palestine. In 1935 the Revisionists left the Zionist movement, rejoining in 1946.

International Jewish opinion remained divided on the merits of the Zionist project. While many Jews in Europe and the United States argued that a Jewish homeland was not needed because Jews were able to live in the democratic countries of the West as equal citizens, others supported Zionism.

Jews who embraced socialism and proletarian internationalism sometimes opposed Zionism as a form of bourgeois nationalism. The General Jewish Labor Union (Bund), which represented socialist Jews in Eastern Europe, was anti-Zionist and called for Jewish autonomy within Eastern Europe.

The Communist parties, which attracted substantial Jewish support during the 1920s and 1930s, were usually anti-Zionist, however communist Jews generally abandoned their connection with the religion (thereby ceasing to be Jewish). In 1928, the Soviet Union established a Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Russian Far East but the effort failed to meet expectations and as of 2002 Jews constitute only about 1.2% of its population.^[42]

Zionist success in winning British support for formation of a "Jewish National Home" in Palestine helped inspire the African-American Nationalist Marcus Garvey to form a movement dedicated to returning Americans of African origin to Africa. During a speech in Harlem in 1920 Garvey stated that

other races were engaged in seeing their cause through---the Jews through their Zionist movement and the Irish through their Irish movement---and I decided that, cost what it might, I would make this a favorable time to see the Negro's interest through.^[43]

Garvey established a shipping company, the Black Star Line, to ship Black Americans to Africa, but for various reasons failed in his endeavour. His ideas helped inspire the Rastafarian movement in Jamaica, the Black Jews ^[44] and the Black Hebrews who initially moved to Liberia before settling in Israel.

Though there had already been Arab protests to the Ottoman authorities in the 1880s against land sales to foreign Jews, the most serious opposition began in the 1890s after the full scope of the Zionist enterprise became known. There was a general sense of threat. This sense was heightened in the early years of the 20th century by Zionist attempts to develop an economy from which Arab people were largely excluded, such as the "Hebrew labor" movement which, in an effort to prevent Zionist settlements turning into a standard colonial enterprise and to secure the creation of a Jewish proletariat, campaigned against the employment of cheap Arab labour. The creation of Palestine in 1918 and the Balfour Declaration greatly increased Arab fears.

In 1919 King Faisal I of Iraq (who was then King of Syria, before the French expelled him), signed the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement. He wrote: "We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our delegation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist organization to the Peace Conference, and we regard them as moderate and proper."

Palestinian Arab nationalism was motivated by anti-Zionism more then any other factor and developed in opposition to Zionism. Faisal's agreement with Weizmann led the Palestinian-Arab population to reject the Syrian-Arab-Nationalist movement (in which many previously placed their hopes) and to agitate for Palestine to become a state governed by the Arab majority, in particular they demanded an elected assembly. ^[45]

The Arabs in Palestine were led by two main camps. The Nashashibis, led by Raghib al-Nashashibi, who was Mayor of Jerusalem from 1920 to 1934, were moderates who sought dialogue with the British and the Jews. The Nashashibis were overshadowed by the al-Husaynis who came to dominate Palestinian-Arab politics in the years before 1948. The al-Husaynis, like most Arab Nationalists, denied that Jews had any national or religious rights in Palestine.

Main article: Mohammad Amin al-Husayni

After 1920 Haj Amin al-Husseini became the focus of Palestinian opposition to Zionism. Despite his involvment in the 1920 Palestine riots, Herbert Samuel made him Mufti of Jerusalem in 1921.

The Mufti was concerned that Jews were seeking to rebuild the Jewish Temple on the site of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque and responded by trying to gain control of the Kotel, also known as the Wailing Wall, saying it was sacred to the Muslims.

Religious tension (over the Kotel), an international economic crisis (affecting crop prices) and nationalist tension (over Zionist immigration) led to the 1929 Palestine riots. In these religious-nationalist riots Jews were massacred in Hebron and the survivors were expelled from the town. Devastation also took place in Safed and Jerusalem. This violence was directed against the non-Zionist orthodox communities; Zionist communities were able to defend themselves and had established defence organizations. As a result the orthodox community in Palestine was increasingly dependent on Zionist support.

A British commission investigated the riots, and throughout his interview the Mufti (who was a virulent anti-semite)^{[citation needed]} held a copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.^[46]

In 1936 the Supreme Muslim Council in Palestine, led by the Mufti, instigated an Arab uprising which lasted for three years. During the revolt the Mufti was forced to flee to Iraq, where he was involved in a pro-Nazi coup during which the Jewish areas of Baghdad were subjected to a pogrom. In May 1941 he issued a fatwa for a holy war against Britain.^[47] After the British reoccupied Iraq the Mufti joined the Nazis, serving as a colonel with the Waffen SS in Bosnia. During the war he made requests to "the German government to bomb Tel Aviv" and was active in promoting the Nazi extermination program.^[48]

In 1948 the Mufti returned to Egypt from where he made his way to Palestine and assumed command of the Palestinian-Arab forces.

See also: Zionist attitudes toward the Palestinian Arabs

Most Zionists were Europeans, and although Jews were generally less racist then the average European of the time (Jews were prominent in fighting racism around the world), European-Jewish public opinion generally reflected attitudes of the European societies in which they lived, which at this time was highly prejudiced.

One issue fatally divided Arab and Jew in Palestine: immigration. Jews could not compromise over immigration as for them Palestine was intended as a haven from persecution, particularly after the rise of the Nazis. The Arabs for their part could not compromise on immigration because to do so would effectively end their majority in Palestine. Each side distrusted and feared the other's long-term ambitions.

Although the establishment of a Jewish majority or a Jewish state in Palestine was fundamentally at odds with the aspirations of the Arab inhabitants of Palestine, Zionists did not doubt their right to establish a Jewish majority in Palestine. Zionists justified this by referring to the 'unique' historical bond of the Jewish nation with Palestine, while the Arabs of Palestine were part of the Arab nation and therefore had no special bond with Palestine. Many Zionists claimed a 'preemptive right' to Palestine, the Jews had a right as a Nation, the Arabs only as individuals.^[49][50] Aaron David Gordon wrote in 1921: 'the creation of the Bible alone, give[s] us a perpetual right over the land in which we were so creative, especially since the people that came after us did not create such works in this country, or did not create anything at all.'^[51]

Socialist Zionists maintained a struggle for "100 per cent Jewish labour" in the Jewish sector of the economy.'^[52] which greatly alienated the Arab population.

In Chaim Weizmann's view Palestine was a Jewish and not an Arab country^[53], however Weizmann believed that the state had to be based on justice and on an accommodation with the Arabs.

In 1918, Weizmann toured Palestine as head of the Zionist Commission and met with Arab and Palestinian-Arab leaders, including the future mufti al-Husseini. He preferred to negotiate a political solution primarily with the British, and sometimes with non-Palestinian Arabs, but he opposed negotiating with the Palestinians themselves.^[54]. According to Reinharz, he focused his efforts on the Pan-Arab leadership of the Hussein family because they were (initially) willing to reach an accomodation in return for Zionist support while he failed to reach any understanding with Palestinian Arab leaders.^[55]

Vladimir Jabotinsky, the leader of the Revisionist Zionists, thought the Arabs were completely irrelevant to the question of Zionism except as enemies. In his view the conflict with the Arabs was natural and inevitable and could not be solved until the Zionists could face the Arabs with an 'iron wall' of Jewish power.^[56]

In public, Ben-Gurion upheld the official position of his party that denied the necessity of force in achieving Zionist goals. Unlike Weizmann, Ben-Gurion did have a realistic view of the strong attachment of Arab Palestinians to the Palestinian soil. In 1938 he said: 'In our political argument abroad we minimize Arab opposition to us. But let us not ignore the truth among ourselves. [...] A people which fights against [what it conceives as] the usurpation of its land will not tire so easily.'^[57] According to Flapan Ben-Gurions assesment of Arab feelings led him to an even more militant line on the need to build up Jewish military strength: 'I believe in our power, in our power which will grow, and if it will grow agreement will come...'.^[58]

See also: Brit Shalom and Binational_solution#Historic_development

A minority of Zionists, including the Socialist Zionist movement Hashomer Hatzair, sought to create a bi-national state. However, this approach was unpopular with both Arabs and Jews.

In response to Arab attacks under the Turks, the Zionists in Palestine established Hashomer (the Guardian), a self-defence organization. After the Jaffa Riots, an organization of Jewish Legion veterans was created, Haganah (Defence) to defend Jewish communities against rioters. In 1931, following the Revisionist Zionist departure from the Zionist Movement, a group of revisionists left Haganah and founded the Irgun Tzvai Leumi (National Military Organization), also known as Etzel.

British support for Zionism was never unequivocal and the issue was periodically debated in Parliament. Following the Arab riots in 1922, Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill decided to remove the Transjordan area of Palestine and use it to fulfill British promises to Sharif Hussein, making one of his sons King of Transjordan.

Churchill also imposed restrictions such as an annual quota on Jewish migration. Certificates allowing migration were distributed by the Jewish Agency. In addition, Jews with 1000 Pounds in cash or Jewish professionals with 500 Pounds in cash could emigrate freely. Churchill's reforms made it hard for Arab Jews, Orthodox Jews and Revisionist Zionists to migrate to Palestine as the Jewish Agency was dominated by European Zionists, and increasingly by Socialist Zionists. Immigration restrictions did, however mean that Jewish immigrants to Palestine had to prove their loyalty and dedication by spending years preparing for migration.

See also: Hitler's rise to power and Fifth Aliyah

The rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1933 produced a powerful new impetus for Zionism. The claim that Jews could live securely as minorities in Christian societies was deeply undermined. At the same time most countries closed their doors to Jewish immigration. A wave of migrants headed for Palestine. Those unable to pay the fees demanded by the British had to join waiting lists and spent years learning Hebrew and taking agricultural training.

Nazi efforts to push Jews out of Germany were undermined by the refusal to allow Jews to take their property with them. In response Arlozorov negotiated an agreement with the Nazis, the Haavara agreement, whereby Jews could export capital goods to Palestine. In Palestine the goods were sold and the income given to the migrants. As a result of this agreement Arlozorov was assassinated by the Irgun.

In 1934 the Revisionists started organizing illegal emigration to Palestine as they felt that the allocation of certificates discriminated against their supporters. The Jewish population of Palestine now began to rise fast and the financial influx led to an economic boom, but the rapid rise of Jewish migration led to an Arab revolt. In 1938 the pressure in Europe led the left-wing Zionists to organize illegal immigration too.

Main article: 1939 White Paper

In Britain as elsewhere in Europe, the 1930s saw an increase in antisemitism. Oswald Mosley, left the Labour Party inorder to form the British Union of Fascists, which claimed that "the Jews" were leading Britain to war and campaigned for peace with Germany.^[59] British support for Zionism was further undermined by the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine and concern that millions of Jews would soon be seeking entry to Palestine.

In 1939 the British issued a White Paper, announcing that they were withdrawing from the Balfour Declaration. A Jewish National Home now existed and their obligations were fulfilled. Further migration would be harmful to the Arab population. A further 10,000 Jews a year would be admitted from 1939 to 1944 as well as a one-time allowance of 25,000 in view of the situation in Europe. After that Jewish migration would require agreement of the Arab majority (by this time Jews were about a third of the population). The British promised Palestine independence by 1949 and banned Jews from purchasing land in 95% of Palestine.

The British were concerned about maintaining Arab support as Fascist propaganda was targeting the Arab world (and winning support).^[60] Jewish support in the fight against Fascism was guaranteed.^[61] In Palestine, Zionists increasingly viewed the British as an enemy, but they deemed the fight against the Nazis more important. In 1940 a group, later known as Lehi, left the Irgun and began fighting the British.

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v • d • e

In 1938–39 the Zionist movement had 1,040,540 members in 61 countries. Zionism was banned in Turkey. Likewise though a significant proportion of the movement's supporters originally came from the USSR, under Stalin Zionism and Orthodox Judaism were banned and Jews were prominent among the victims of the Soviet genocide.

The following figures relate to the last pre-war Zionist congress in Geneva, 1939. Elections for the congress were held in 48 countries and 529 delegates attended. Members of the movement voted for the parties. Each party submitted a delegate list. Seats were distributed to the parties according to the number of votes they obtained and candidates elected in the order in which they were named on the list. This system today forms the basis for Israeli elections.

Political Party	Number of Delegates	% of delegates
Worker's Party	216	41 %
General Zionists (centre)	143	27 %
General Zionists (conservative)	28	5 %
Mizrahi(Orthodox religious)	65	12 %
Radical Workers [far left]	3	2.5 %
State Party [right-wing]	8	1.5 %
Others	66	11 %

National origins of the delegates.

Country	Number of members	Number of delegates at the 1939 congress in Geneva
Poland	299,165	109
USA	263,741	114
Palestine	167,562	134
Rumania	60,013	28
United Kingdom	23,513	15
South Africa	22,343	14
Canada	15,220	8

Source: A survey of Palestine, prepared in 1946 for the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, Volume II page 907 HMSO 1946.

Main article: Holocaust

During the Holocaust Europe's Jews were cut off from the outside world and systematically impoverished, starved and eventually murdered. Where Jews did succeed in fighting the Nazis, Zionists were prominent in the resistance.

The Warsaw Ghetto uprising was commanded by a Zionist, Mordechaj Anielewicz, and Zionists played a leading role in the struggle. The uprising's survivors eventually made their way to Palestine and founded two Kibutzim: Lohamey ha-Geta'ot and Yad Mordechai.

In Palestine the Zionist leadership instructed all able-bodied Jews to volunteer for the British Army. In addition there was an effort to parachute fighters into Europe, though little came of this. Fearing a Nazi invasion, the Jewish community prepared for a final stand to be made against the Nazis.^[62]

Overall there was little they could do. In the words of Tom Segev:

"The story of the yishuv leaders during the Holocuast was essentially one of helplessness. They rescued a few thousand Jews from Europe. They could, perhaps have saved more, but they could not save millions."^[63]

Efforts were made to offer the Nazis money for the release of Jews. However, these efforts were systematically (and, according to Segev, cynically) destroyed by the British.^[64]

The 1942 Zionist conference could not be held because of the war. Instead 600 Jewish leaders (not just Zionists) met in a hotel in the Biltmore Hotel in New York and adopted a statement known as the Biltmore Program [5]. They agreed that when the war ended all Jewish organizations would fight to ensure free Jewish migration into Palestine.

The Biltmore Program called for "Palestine [to] be established as a Jewish Commonwealth". David Ben-Gurion, who dominated the conference, formulated the Zionists' demand 'not as a Jewish state in Palestine but as Palestine as a Jewish state'^[65]. It was significant in that all US Jewish organizations were now united in agreement on the need for a Jewish state in Palestine.

From the beginning of the forties the Zionist movement stopped paying attention to the 'Arab question'. The reason is that it was expected that any solution, whether a Jewish state in all of Palestine, partition, or an international protectorate, would have to be imposed on the Palestinian Arabs by force, because of their refusal to compromise^[66]. According to Teveth a war was 'made inevitable after the Biltmore Plan of 1942 declared Zionism's explicit aim to be a Jewish state, which the Arabs were determined to oppose by force.'^[67]

See also: After the Holocaust

The Nazi-inspired genocide in Europe had grave consequences for the Zionists.

1. A large section of the membership was wiped out. The damage was particularly great in Poland where about a third of the Zionist members had lived (the Russian membership had been lost to communism).
2. Those Jews who were not killed lost their possessions; the ability of the Zionist movement to raise money in Europe was severely reduced.

This calamity led to important changes in Jewish and Zionist politics:

1. Many Jews were now desperate to leave Europe and willing to take grave risks for that purpose
2. All Jews now agreed on the need for a Jewish state where Jews could live free of the fear of persecution and which would provide a haven in times of persecution.
3. The Jews of the USA were now the dominant force in Jewish politics.
4. More Jews were prepared to mobilize on behalf of their brethren.
5. Britain was now weakened and less able to resist international pressure.

Main article: Aliyah Bet

See also: Berihah and Sh'erit ha-Pletah

In 1945, President Truman sent a personal representative, Earl G. Harrison, to investigate the situation of the Jewish survivors in Europe. Harrison reported that

substantial unofficial and unauthorized movements of people must be expected, and these will require considerable force to prevent, for the patience of many of the persons involved is, and in my opinion with justification, nearing the breaking point. It cannot be overemphasized that many of these people are now desperate, that they have become accustomed under German rule to employ every possible means to reach their end, and that the fear of death does not restrain them.^[68]

Despite winning the 1946 British election with a manifesto promising to create a Jewish state in Palestine, the Labour Government succumbed to Foreign Office pressure and kept Palestine closed to Jewish migration.

In Europe former Jewish partisans led by Abba Kovner began to organize escape routes taking Jews from Eastern Europe down to the Mediterranean where the Jewish Agency organized ships to illegally carry them to Palestine.^[69]

The British government responded to this movement by trying to force Jews to return to their places of origin. Holocaust survivors entering the British Zone were denied assistance or forced to live in hostels with former Nazi collaborators (Britain gave asylum to a large number of Belorussian Nazi collaborators after the war). In American-controlled zones, political pressure from Washington allowed Jews to live in their won quarters and meant the US Army helped Jews trying to escape the centres of genocide.

In 1947 Britain announced its intention to withdraw from Palestine. An United Nations Special committee investigated the situation and offered two solutions :

1. to establish a bi-national state in Palestine (the minority option);
2. to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state.

From the Zionist point of view, the second option corresponded to their goal and they gave full support to this.

On 29 November the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state (with Jerusalem becoming an international enclave). Amid public rejoicing in Jewish communities in Palestine, the Jewish Agency accepted the plan. The Palestinian Arab leadership and the Arab League rejected the decision and announced that they would not abide by it. Civil conflict between the Arabs and Jews in Palestine ensued immediately.

See also: History of Israel

On 14 May 1948 the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine made a declaration of independence, and the state of Israel was established. This marked a major turning point in the Zionist movement, as its principal goal had now been accomplished. Many Zionist institutions were reshaped, and the three military movements combined to form the Israel Defence Forces.

The majority of the Arab population having been ethnically cleansed^[70] during the War of Independence, Jews were now a majority of the population within the 1949 ceasefire lines, which became Israel's de facto borders until 1967. In 1950 the Knesset passed the Law of Return which granted all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel. This, together with the influx of Jewish refugees from Europe and the later flood of Jews from Arab countries, had the effect of creating a large and apparently permanent Jewish majority in Israel.

Since 1948 the international Zionist movement has undertaken a variety of roles in support of Israel. These have included the encouragement of immigration, assisting the absorption and integration of immigrants, fundraising on behalf of settlement and development projects in Israel, the encouragement of private capital investment in Israel, and mobilization of world public opinion in support of Israel.

The 1967 war between Israel and the Arab states (the "Six-Day War") marked a major turning point in the history of Israel and of Zionism. Israeli forces captured the eastern half of Jerusalem, including the holiest of Jewish religious sites, the Western Wall of the ancient Temple. They also took over the remaining territories of pre-1948 Palestine, the West Bank (from Jordan) and the Gaza Strip (from Egypt). Religious Jews regarded the West Bank (ancient Judaea and Samaria) as an integral part of Eretz Israel, and within Israel voices of the political Right soon began to argue that these territories should be permanently retained. Zionist groups began to build Jewish settlements in the territories as a means of establishing "facts on the ground" that would make an Israeli withdrawal impossible.

The 28th Zionist Congress (Jerusalem, 1968) adopted the following five principles, known as the "Jerusalem Program", as the aims of contemporary Zionism:^[71]

• The unity of the Jewish people and the centrality of Israel in Jewish life
• The ingathering of the Jewish people in the historic homeland, Eretz Israel, through aliyah from all countries
• The strengthening of the State of Israel, based on the "prophetic vision of justice and peace"
• The preservation of the identity of the Jewish people through the fostering of Jewish, Hebrew and Zionist education and of Jewish spiritual and cultural values
• The protection of Jewish rights everywhere.

Control of the West Bank and Gaza placed Israel in the position of control over a large population of Palestinian Arabs. Whether or not there had been a distinct Palestinian national identity in the 1920s may be debated, but there is no doubt that by the 1960s such an identity was firmly established — the founders of Zionism had thus, ironically, created two new nationalities, Israeli and Palestinian, instead of one.

From this point the history of Israel and the Palestinians can be followed in the article Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In 1975 the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 was passed. It stated that "zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination"^[72] The resolution 3379 was rescinded in 1991 by the Resolution 4686.^[73] This issue is discussed in length in the article on anti-Zionism.

Since 1948 most Jews have continued to identify as Zionists, in the sense that they support the State of Israel even if they do not choose to live there. This worldwide support has been of vital importance to Israel, both politically and financially. This has been particularly true since 1967, as the rise of Palestinian nationalism and the resulting political and military struggles have eroded sympathy for Israel among non-Jews, at least outside the United States.

Both the League of Nations' 1922 Palestine Mandate and the 1947 UN Partition Plan broadly endorsed the aim of Zionism. The latter was a rare instance of concurrence between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, although Harry Truman's State Department, led by George Marshall, vehemently opposed the formation of the state of Israel.^[74] Only Truman's personal insistence overcame Marshall's intense opposition, which was based on strategic concerns for the stability of the region.^[75] Marshall's opposition was recounted in detail by Truman's aide Clark Clifford, who led the internal campaign to recognize a new Jewish state.^[76]

Main articles: Anti-Zionism and Post-Zionism

There are a number of critics of Zionism, ranging from Jewish anti-Zionists to pro-Palestinian activists. Some of the most vocal critics of Zionism have tended to be Palestinians and other Arabs,^{[citation needed]} many of whom view Israel as wrongfully occupying what they view as the Arab land of Palestine.^[77][78] Such critics generally opposed Israel's creation in 1948, and continue to criticize the Zionist movement which underlies it. These critics view the changes in demographic balance which accompanied the creation of Israel, including the displacement of some 700,000 Arab refugees,^[79], the displacement of 600,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands ^[80], and the accompanying violence, as negative but inevitable consequences of Zionism and the concept of a Jewish State. Critics of Zionism, such as Joseph Massad of Columbia University have asserted that Zionism is a form of racism,^[81] both in its support of Israel as a Jewish State, and in its continuing policies such as the Law of Return.

While most Jewish groups are pro-Zionist, some liberal and Haredi Jewish communities (most vocally the Satmar Hasidim and the Neturei Karta group), oppose Zionism on religious grounds.^[82] Other non-Zionist Israeli movements, such as the Canaanite movement led by poet Yonatan Ratosh in the 1930s and 1940s, have argued that "Israeli" should be a new pan-ethnic nationality. A related modern movement is known as post-Zionism, which asserts that Israel should abandon the concept of a "state of the Jewish people" and instead strive to be a state of all its citizens.[6] Another opinion favors a binational state in which Arabs and Jews live together while enjoying some type of autonomy, as in Belgium.

Critics of anti-Zionism reject the charges that Zionism is racist, insisting it is no different than any other national liberation movement of oppressed peoples, and argue that since criticism of both the state of Israel and Zionism is often disproportionate in degree and unique in kind, much of it can be attributed to antisemitism.^[83][84]

Main article: Christian Zionism

In addition to Jewish Zionism, there was always a small number of Christian Zionists that existed from the early days of the Zionist movement. According to Charles Merkley of Carleton University, Christian Zionism strengthened significantly after the 1967 Six-Day War, and many dispensationalist Christians, especially in the United States, now strongly support Zionism.

Throughout the entire 19th century and early 20th century, the return of the Jews to the Holy Land was widely supported by such eminent figures as Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, John Adams, the second President of the United States, General Smuts of South Africa, President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia, British Prime Ministers Lloyd George and Arthur Balfour, President Woodrow Wilson, Benedetto Croce, Italian philosopher and historian, Henry Dunant, founder of the Red Cross and author of the Geneva Conventions, Fridtjof Nansen, Norwegian scientist and humanitarian. The French government through Minister M. Cambon formally committed itself to “the renaissance of the Jewish nationality in that Land from which the people of Israel were exiled so many centuries ago". In China, Wang, Minister of Foreign Affairs, declared that "the Nationalist government is in full sympathy with the Jewish people in their desire to establish a country for themselves."^[85]

Most Muslim public figures oppose Zionism; there is no organized Zionist movement among Muslims. There are, however, a few Muslim thinkers who publicly express Zionist views. The best known is Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, the leader of Italian Muslim Assembly and a co-founder of the Islam-Israel Fellowship. In 2005, Palazzi told FrontPage Magazine "I find in the Qur'an that God granted the Land of Israel to the Children of Israel and ordered them to settle therein (Qur'an 5:21) and that before the Last Day He will bring the Children of Israel to retake possession of their Land, gathering them from different countries and nations (Qur'an 17:104). Consequently, as a Muslim who abides by the Qur'an, I believe that opposing the existence of the State of Israel means opposing a Divine decree."^[86]

Other public Muslim figures supporting Zionism include Magdi Allam, Salah Choudhury and Tashbih Sayyed, who calls himself a 'Muslim Zionist'.^[87].

• Christian Zionism
• Cultural Zionism
• General Zionists
• Labor Zionism
• Reform Zionism
• Religious Zionism
• Revisionist Zionism

• Histadrut
• The Jewish Agency for Israel
• Jewish National Fund
• Vaad Leumi
• World Zionist Organization

• History of Zionism
• History of Israel
• History of Palestine
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• List of Zionist figures
• Timeline of Zionism

• Anti-Zionism
• Jewish Autonomism
• Jewish Emancipation
• Palestinophilia
• Zionism and racism allegations

For other resources and external links, see Zionism and anti-Zionism (resources)

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Roles and places	Four Holy Cities (Jerusalem · Safed · Hebron · Tiberias) · Beth din · Gabbai · Hazzan · Kohen · Maggid · Mashgiach · Mikvah · Mohel · Rabbi · Rebbe · Rosh yeshiva · Synagogue · Temple · Tabernacle · Western Wall
Religious articles	Aleinu · Amidah · Four Species · Gartel · Hallel · Havdalah · Kaddish · Kittel · Kol Nidre · Ma Tovu · Menorah · Mezuzah · Prayer · Sefer Torah · Services · Shema Yisrael · Shofar · Tallit · Tefillin · Tzitzit · Yad · Yarmulke
Other religions	Jewish views of religious pluralism · Abrahamic religions · Christianity (Catholicism · Christian-Jewish reconciliation · Judeo-Christian) · Islam · Jewish Buddhist · Judeo-Paganism · Mormonism · Others
Languages	Hebrew · Judeo-Arabic · Judeo-Aramaic · Judeo-Persian · Ladino · Yiddish
History	Ancient · Temple in Jerusalem · Babylonian captivity · Jerusalem (Significance · Timeline · Hasmonean · Sanhedrin · Pharisees · First Jewish-Roman War · Diaspora · Middle Ages · Muslim rule · Sabbateans · Haskalah · Emancipation · The Holocaust · Aliyah · Israel (History) · Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian conflicts · Land of Israel · Baal teshuva movement
Politics	Zionism (General · Labor · Religious · Revisionist) · General Jewish Labor Union · World Agudath Israel · Feminism · Politics of Israel
Antisemitism	History · Persecution · New · Racial · Religious · Secondary