What is Zionism ?
Zionism is a colonial ideology and political movement that calls for establishing a Jewish nation state in Palestine with a Jewish majority. Seeing as Palestine was already inhabited, and that there were barely any Zionists there before the 20th century, this necessitated the oppression and expulsion of the Palestinians to create the necessary conditions for this state.
The claim that Zionism is just Jewish self-determination has become popular as of late, but it is rife with critical omissions. It is akin to describing manifest destiny as “pilgrims seeking a better life for themselves”. While this definition is convenient to its proponents, it leaves out the horrific acts of barbarity committed towards those ends. Israel as a colonial project was not created in a vacuum, its establishment necessitated the active oppression and dispossession of the Palestinians.
Palestine has always been home to countless refugee populations, the idea that the Jewish people fleeing persecution could find a safe home in Palestine was never the issue. The issue is that these sentiments were never reciprocated by the Zionist movement, who showed disdain towards Palestinians from the very beginning and sought to take over the land with the aim of establishing an exclusive ethnic state.