As the situation in the Middle East escalates, even the slightest criticism of Israel's indiscriminate destruction of Palestinian men, women and children is being condemned by a hyper-sensitive American Jewish lobby as anti-Semitism raises an old question: Is anti-Zionism equivalent to anti-Semitism? No.
Zionism is a political movement, articulated most clearly in 1897 with the Basel Program: "The aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a homeland [homestead] in Palestine secured by public law." Therefore anti-Zionism is that political movement which opposes the imposition of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine on its indigenous population. On the other hand, anti-Semitism is a racist ideology that found its most evil expression in the Holocaust. How then did these two very different ideologies become so inseparably linked? Sadly, Palestinian leadership during the late mandatory period is largely to blame.
Following the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 much of the Palestinian leadership fled Palestine to escape British capture. Hajj Amin al-Husayni, the mufti of Jerusalem, went to Germany where in 1941 he met with Adolf Hitler. In order to mobilize the Palestinian Arabs against the growing Zionist establishment, Palestinian leadership, most notably Hajj Amin al-Husayni, used Nazi rhetoric and Islamic themes that would eventually tarnish the Palestinian cause with the stigma of Islamic fanaticism and anti-Semitism.
If Israel was a theocracy one might argue that criticizing her was equivalent to criticizing Judaism, or at least her interpretation of Judaism. However, Israel is not a theocracy, it is a democracy, so any critique directed at the Israeli government is purely political. Furthermore, criticism directed at the Israeli government is not necessarily anti-Zionist; certainly one can criticize the state of Israel without objecting to its existence. As long as we continue to feel obliged by our self-imposed gag orders for fear of being labeled anti-Semitic we betray our moral obligation to the Palestinian people.
Aun Hasan Ali is a Rutgers College junior majoring in religion.
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