1:59

seeks to kind of group the critique

2:03

of Zionists of their colonialism in with the

2:05

critique of Judaism and Jewish values.

2:07

And we need to push back against that very strongly.

2:09

So I want to think about Zionism a little bit more.

2:12

We can acknowledge, of course, that within Jewish

2:14

liturgy and culture there's references to Israel

2:17

as a place and there has been mourning

2:20

before the Roman displacement of Jews which

2:22

occurred in the wake of the Jewish rebellion against the

2:24

Romans. But these cultural

2:26

and religious aspects here have not,

2:28

you know, historically been interpreted

2:31

as a nationalist project which should be

2:33

actualized through violence and occupation until

2:36

relatively recently. Zionism

2:38

was from the beginning a secular project.

2:41

It was grounded in nationalism and colonialism.

2:44

Zionism emerged at a time

2:46

of nationalist fervor in which imperialist

2:48

nations themselves started to deploy the

2:50

language of self-determination to justify their

2:52

actions. In the late 19th century

2:54

and early 20th century we saw many groups

2:57

around the globe begin to conceptualize themselves as

2:59

nations and demand national autonomy.

3:02

Theodore Herzl, who we got into in our main

3:04

episode, was clearly impacted by these perspectives.

3:07

Herzl's early writings on the necessity

3:09

of a Jewish state are actually remarkably secular

3:12

with references to Jewish religion largely

3:15

focused on ensuring in his adherence that

3:17

the Jewish state would be a modern secular

3:19

state which would keep religion in its rightful

3:21

place. And in addition to kind

3:24

of being a secular nationalist project, Zionism

3:26

was also colonial in origin. The

3:28

Zionist project was enabled constantly

3:31

by the intervention of colonial powers

3:34

such as Britain and the language of

3:36

early Zionism was the language of settlement

3:38

and colonialism. You could see this in organizational

3:41

names such as the Jewish colonial fund for

3:43

example and in the language adopted an

3:45

early Zionist pamphlets. Colonialism

3:48

has always, you know, cynically

3:50

deployed whatever ideology that needs including

3:52

religious ideals in order to justify itself.

3:55

But as Marxists we need to understand

3:57

that this is merely an ideological

4:00

deployment of dominant ideas. This

4:02

is what ideology always is. The source

4:04

of colonialism is never religion or whatever

4:06

ideology it grounds itself in. It's

4:09

the material relations of capital that

4:11

create global competition for spheres

4:13

of influence and ongoing resource extraction

4:16

or land theft. So we know

4:18

as Marxists that colonialism doesn't come

4:20

from ideas. It comes from material

4:22

relations. What should be very

4:25

clear for us is that Zionism

4:27

was not historically understood as a religious

4:29

ideal founded in Judaism, but as

4:31

a secular nationalist project. Despite

4:34

this, we have to acknowledge

4:36

Zionism has since adopted religious

4:38

ideology. Israeli politics

4:40

has become dominated by

4:43

a coalition of far-right secular revisionist

4:45

Zionists as well as far-right religious

4:47

Zionists. And this coalition has increasingly

4:50

grounded their defense of Zionism in

4:52

religious values. But we should understand

4:54

this as a cynical move to secure power

4:57

from as broad of a base as possible rather than

4:59

an accurate statement about the relationship

5:01

between Jewish teaching, Jewish identity, and

5:04

Zionism. What was important to

5:06

emphasize that Zionism was a secular

5:08

nationalist project, we also have to point out

5:10

that it wasn't the only such project. One

5:13

other project that I'm sure some of our listeners

5:15

are familiar with is the general Jewish labor

5:18

bond. And we're going to spend a little bit of time looking

5:20

at this group and its history in detail.

5:23

The Jewish labor bond was first founded

5:25

in Lithuania in 1897. And

5:28

while the bond would become intensely

5:30

anti-Zionist later in its development,

5:32

its origins are somewhat more complex. To

5:35

understand the emergence of the bond, we

5:37

need to understand the experience of the Jewish communities

5:40

in Russia and Eastern Europe. In

5:42

Russia, the Jewish people had largely been

5:45

segregated from the rest of the population

5:47

and forced to live in an area referred to

5:49

as the Pale of Settlement. Eastern

5:51

Europe also saw similar tendencies leading

5:54

to the development of a fairly distinct Jewish

5:56

community within Europe and Eastern Europe

5:58

and Russia Much of this geographical

6:01

area, the Jewish community spoke Yiddish in

6:03

addition to whatever local languages were predominant,

6:06

further leading to the development of a distinct

6:08

Ashkenazi Jewish culture, which also

6:11

was preserved due to anti-Semitic hostility

6:14

that prevented, really, any sort of large-scale

6:16

assimilation. By the

6:18

late 1800s, Jewish workers in

6:21

Eastern Europe in the Pale of Settlement had

6:23

already begun to organize along working class

6:25

lines. There was already the beginning

6:28

of an ideological movement to

6:30

understand Jewish experience alongside

6:32

working class experience, often through

6:34

an explicitly Marxist or socialist lens.

6:37

The 1880s in particular saw

6:39

a proliferation of Jewish working

6:42

class organizing with study groups, mutual

6:44

aid societies, all developing along

6:46

Marxist or socialist lines. The

6:49

radicalization of these Jewish workers

6:51

was, of course, a product of extreme

6:54

exploitation shared among the working class

6:56

as a whole, but also the uniquely

6:59

intense forms of anti-Semitic violence

7:01

which occurred in the area. These

7:03

conditions produced some of the early precursors

7:06

to Zionism, such as the Hovebi

7:08

Zion, which translates to the lovers of

7:10

Zion and was represented by several different

7:12

groups. These groups did eventually

7:15

advocate leaving behind Eastern Europe

7:17

for immigration to Palestine. These

7:19

movements were extremely influential, for example,

7:21

in the development of the First and Second

7:23

Aliyah, which we talked about in our main episode.

7:26

Despite the reorientation of some

7:28

Jewish radicals towards Palestine, other

7:30

Jewish revolutionaries developed a nationalist

7:33

focus which understood their nationalism

7:36

as rooted in Eastern Europe

7:38

and Russia. These socialist radicals

7:40

would begin to conceptualize their socialism

7:43

in terms of nationalism as well as international

7:45

solidarity between all workers. Their

7:47

focus was on the development of a Jewish

7:50

socialism which would not demand assimilation

7:53

into the cultures around them while still fighting

7:55

for solidarity with non-Jewish

7:57

workers and revolutionary movements. This

8:00

development of this ideology came

8:02

alongside a sort of cultural revival

8:04

with the revival of the Yiddish language

8:07

in particular, serving as a very good example

8:09

of what this looked like. By the

8:11

time of November 1897, when

8:15

the Bund was founded, all of these conditions

8:17

were ripe for more formal organization.

8:21

And so in that year, we saw the creation

8:23

of the Bund. And the Bund pretty much immediately

8:26

ingrained itself within the broader Russian

8:28

socialist movement. The Jewish Virtual

8:30

Library writes that, quote, at

8:32

the founding convention of the Russian Social

8:35

Democratic Labor Party in March 1898, three

8:39

of the nine delegates were Bundists, end quote.

8:41

And again, this really shows how integrated at this

8:43

time within Marxism and revolutionary

8:46

organizing more broadly, these Bundists

8:48

were. The Bund quickly

8:51

developed union and strike infrastructure,

8:53

mutual aid groups, and also study

8:55

circles. And importantly, the Bund

8:57

also undertook the development of Jewish self-defense

9:00

infrastructure. Anti-Semitic kogroms

9:03

became a growing problem in the 20th

9:05

century, and the Bund responded by

9:07

advocating for armed self-defense. And

9:09

this was a very clever move strategically,

9:11

and the Bund was ultimately able to significantly

9:14

grow its base through this advocacy.

9:17

Within the broader Russian revolutionary movement,

9:20

though, the Bund began to distinguish itself

9:22

by demanding that the future socialist republic,

9:25

which would be built, should exist as a

9:27

federation of autonomous nations

9:29

based on national self-determination.

9:32

And this was a Marxist argument in many

9:34

ways, although it would come to butt heads with

9:36

other Marxists. This position would become

9:39

controversial within the RSDLP

9:41

due to concerns that such nationalistic

9:44

impulses would lead to chauvinism and divisions

9:46

among the workers. And unfortunately,

9:48

as a result, the Bund would eventually find itself

9:50

having to split from the RSDLP

9:53

over this and having to become an independent organization.

9:56

It's with the emergence of this form

9:58

of Bundist national work, that we can

10:00

begin to see the way that the Bund was distinct

10:03

from what would ultimately

10:06

come into conflict with Zionism. Again,

10:09

we're going to quote from the Jewish Virtual Library,

10:11

who writes that, quote, The Bund did not

10:13

consider the Jews a worldwide national

10:15

entity, and was opposed to a global

10:17

Jewish policy, limiting its demands

10:20

for rights and autonomy with reference

10:22

to the Russian Jewry. The Bund

10:24

rejected in the name of class war

10:26

principles any collaboration with other

10:29

Jewish parties, even in the organization

10:31

of self-defense against pogroms, end

10:33

quote. And so here we can see the way that the Bund

10:36

is walking this complicated line, distinguishing

10:38

itself from the other Jewish political groups on

10:40

the basis of its Marxism, but also

10:42

distinguishing itself from the RDSDLP

10:45

on the basis of its nationalism. And

10:48

this is where things become somewhat tricky. The

10:50

Bund was actively opposed

10:53

to the emergence of Zionism by this period in time, and

10:55

Bund is propagandized significantly against

10:58

Zionism as a reactionary movement. The

11:01

ideology of the Bund began to focus

11:03

on a notion of doykiet, which means

11:05

hereness. The idea behind

11:07

this concept was summarized, I think, quite well

11:10

by Mishka Bargaman, an Australian Bundist

11:12

who wrote, quote, The only way to

11:14

truly build Jewish life is to follow

11:17

the principle of doykiet, of believing

11:19

in the life force, permanence and rootedness

11:21

of the Jews there where they live,

11:24

end quote. This concept

11:26

of hereness and this demand for national recognition

11:29

in Eastern Europe and Russia clearly

11:31

was at odds with the design's desire to move

11:33

to Palestine. The Bundists were critical

11:35

designers for choosing to abandon a region

11:38

where a vibrant, if oppressed Jewish

11:40

culture had emerged and for abandoning

11:42

the Ashkenazi culture of Eastern Europe. The Zionist

11:45

choice to revive modern Hebrew

11:47

instead of Yiddish was one source of particular

11:50

ire that we can see here. Now,

11:52

as time moved on, the Bund participated in

11:54

radical organizing throughout Russia between

11:57

the 1905 revolution and the October revolution. in 1917,

12:01

but the organization had begun to shrink

12:04

from its earlier prominence and size.

12:06

By the early 1920s, the majority

12:09

of the Bundist organizations throughout

12:11

the USSR had either dissolved

12:14

or merged with the predominant communist parties,

12:16

and it was the official position of the common

12:18

turn that the Buns ought to merge into these communist

12:21

parties throughout the world. And so

12:23

we saw really the end of the Bund as

12:25

an organized Jewish nationalist movement.

12:28

So

12:29

why does the story of the Bund matter? What's

12:32

ultimately important to understand

12:34

about the Bund's nationalism is that

12:37

it shows that Zionism was one

12:39

of several secular national projects

12:41

of its time. The existence of

12:43

the Bund contests the Zionist claim

12:46

that Zionism is the sole and only

12:48

organic expression of Jewish self-determination,

12:51

while simultaneously contesting the anti-Semitic

12:54

arguments that Jewish ideals and nationalism

12:57

had to end the genocidal supper colonialism.

12:59

The ideology of the Bund is

13:02

of course complex, and we never saw its

13:04

nationalism transformed into an actual project

13:06

of nation-building, and it's possible that

13:08

such a project could have encountered serious problems,

13:11

but the organized agitation for such a project

13:14

does a lot to shatter the common ideological

13:17

justifications for Zionism. We

13:19

might, and I would even say we must, be critical

13:21

of some of the ideology of the Bund at the same time.

13:25

Bundism spread throughout the world, with an American

13:27

Bund forming as well, but given,

13:29

as we talked about in our main episode, that America

13:32

is itself a settler colony, we might

13:34

push back against the appropriateness of

13:36

the concept of hereness on stolen land.

13:39

Now, these are largely hypothetical considerations

13:42

as the project of the Bund never materialized.

13:45

The Bundist ambitions gave way to the communist

13:48

position of the common turn, and that was

13:50

kind of the end of that story. We

13:52

do have to recognize, of course, that many anti-Zionists

13:54

use today to draw serious inspiration from

13:57

the Bund, and that these histories have been revived.

14:00

and reconsidered and wrestled with in truly

14:02

inspiring ways, so it is something

14:04

that we still need to think through. The

14:07

Bund, of course, was only one instance

14:09

of Jewish opposition to Zionism, and

14:12

the Bundist opposition to Zionism, again, it

14:14

was rooted in similar secular and nationalist

14:16

ambitions to those held by the Zionists

14:19

themselves, but these are not the

14:21

only groups upon which are the only

14:23

grounds upon which Jewish anti-Zionism

14:26

would be developed. So let's take a

14:28

little bit of time and think about one of the other

14:30

organizations that kind of approached anti-Zionism

14:32

from a different perspective. One

14:35

example that I think we can look at is the American

14:37

Council for Judaism, which was rooted

14:40

in the ideals of Reform Judaism.

14:43

Zionism had received, you know,

14:45

near instantaneous opposition from

14:47

Reform Judaism upon its development,

14:50

with Herzl actually struggling to even

14:52

find a venue for the first Zionist congress

14:54

due to Reform rabbis

14:57

trying to stop the congress from taking place.

14:59

Reform Judaism within Europe

15:02

and the United States had largely

15:04

embraced a view of Judaism as a

15:06

religious movement rather than a national

15:09

identity. Reform Jews focused

15:11

on seeking rights for Jewish people within

15:13

the frameworks of European liberalism and

15:15

human rights and democracy, and

15:18

we can already see here how distinctly

15:20

this position differs from the Bundist position,

15:23

despite the fact that during the height of the Bund,

15:25

both groups would have been opposed to Zionism.

15:28

Over time, the Reform movement

15:31

would give way to more positive views

15:33

on Zionism, with most major

15:35

organizations adopting neutrality towards

15:38

Zionism by the late

15:40

1930s. Today, Reform Judaism is largely

15:43

Zionist in orientation, you know, there

15:45

has been almost a 180 in terms of the general

15:48

position on Zionism. Still, the

15:50

history of this 180 and this development of

15:52

the modern movement wasn't simple,

15:55

and it was marked by internal dissent and

15:57

anti-Zionism. In 1940, to

16:00

reform Judaism was caught up in a particular

16:03

controversy and debate around the

16:05

idea of developing a specifically

16:07

Jewish army in the British Mandate

16:09

Palestine to fight alongside the

16:11

British during World War II. While

16:14

many reform rabbis would come to support

16:16

this position, the American Council

16:18

for Judaism was founded to oppose

16:21

the foundation of this Jewish army. The

16:23

position of the ACJ in opposition to

16:26

Dubundism and Zionism was distinctly

16:28

anti-nationalist. The ACJ

16:30

was opposed to political Zionism as

16:32

a project and argued that, Jewish

16:35

nationalism tends to confuse our

16:37

fellow men about our place and function

16:40

in society, and diverts our attention

16:42

from the historic role to live as a religious

16:45

community wherever we may dwell.

16:49

This statement might superficially

16:51

sound similar to the Bundist notion of heerness,

16:54

but it's important to note that there's a key distinction

16:56

in as much as the notion of heerness

16:58

was meant to be the basis of

17:00

nationalism, whereas the ACJ

17:03

meant to emphasize the role of Jewish people within

17:05

the nations in which they resided. Unfortunately,

17:08

this led the ACJ to grounding its

17:11

Zionism in a liberal support

17:13

for the nationalist ideals of whatever

17:15

nation the Jewish people found themselves in.

17:18

Examples of this can be seen when the ACJ

17:20

argued for examples that, quote,

17:23

the flag of Americans of the

17:25

Jewish faith is the stars and stripes, end

17:28

quote. In this statement, we can

17:30

see a sort of assimilationist

17:32

impulse alongside kind of a lack

17:34

of criticism of European and American

17:37

nationalisms themselves. Still,

17:39

despite these problems, the ACJ was

17:42

a major voice of anti-scientist

17:44

opposition, and they did bravely demand

17:46

that any state which would replace the

17:48

British mandate in Palestine would have to

17:50

be based upon universal equal rights

17:53

for Jews, Muslims, and Christians rather

17:55

than partition. When the UN

17:57

partition was ACJ

18:00

stood in opposition arguing for

18:02

a single state that equally represented the

18:05

interests of Jews and Palestinians. The

18:08

ACJ was also highly critical

18:10

of the terror campaigns carried out by groups

18:12

such as the Ergun who we discussed in

18:14

our main episode. ACJ insisted

18:17

that the Jewish community must denounce these actions.

18:20

Even after the founding of the State of Israel, the

18:22

ACJ continued its agitation,

18:24

albeit in a less intense form. Unfortunately,

18:27

this agitation would take more and more

18:29

American nationalist tones with a strong

18:31

emphasis on the need for Jews to integrate

18:33

into American society. Following

18:36

the Six-Day War, the ACJ began to lose

18:38

popular support and began to shrink

18:40

rather significantly. And this has led

18:43

to a further retreat from previous anti-Zionism

18:45

with the current ACJ significantly

18:48

softening its critique of the State of

18:50

Israel. The reason that the

18:52

story of the ACJ matters at the end of the

18:54

day is because it

18:56

further contests this idea that Zionism

18:59

is a self-evident expression of Judaism

19:01

or a self-evident expression of Jewish self-determination.

19:05

In the ACJ, we saw religious rabbis

19:07

stand in opposition to Zionism. Their

19:09

opposition was not grounded in the radicalism

19:11

and Marxism of the Bund, but rather

19:14

in the predominant liberal ideas of Europe

19:16

and the United States. These ideals,

19:19

obviously, and I think we can be very clear about this,

19:21

imposed serious limits on the politics

19:23

of the ACJ. But the ACJ

19:25

still deserves recognition for being a consistent

19:28

voice of dissent during a period when

19:30

reform Judaism began to move into

19:32

an overwhelmingly Zionist position.

19:35

But the ACJ was not the only form of

19:37

anti-Zionism among Jewish thinkers and

19:39

leaders during this period of time. Alongside

19:42

the ACJ and the Bund, there

19:44

were also independent left-wing critiques

19:46

made by Jewish intellectuals. Historian

19:49

Benjamin Balthazar writes in an exceptional

19:52

article that we can put in the show notes that,

20:00

of Zionism came from two quarters, a

20:02

critique of nationalism and a critique of colonialism.

20:05

They understood Zionism as a right-wing

20:07

nationalism, and in that sense, bourgeois.

20:10

They saw it as a line with other

20:12

forms of nationalism, an attempt to align

20:14

the working class with the interests of the bourgeoisie.

20:17

There was at the time a well-known

20:20

takeover of Vladimir Jabotinsky

20:22

in the New Masses in 1935, and

20:24

which Marxist critic Robert Gessner

20:27

called Jabotinsky a little Hitler on

20:29

the Red Sea. Gessner called the

20:31

Zionists Nazis, and the left

20:33

in general saw Jewish nationalism as a right-wing

20:36

formation, trying to create a unified

20:38

militaristic culture that aligns

20:40

working class Jewish interests with the

20:42

interests of the Jewish bourgeoisie. And

20:45

then continues on. In any case, the

20:47

Jewish left in the 1930s and

20:50

1940s understood critically that the only

20:52

way that Zionism would be able to emerge

20:55

in Palestine was through a colonial project

20:57

and through the expulsion of indigenous Palestinians

21:00

from the land. In a speech by

21:02

Earl Browder, chairman of the Communist Party

21:04

in Manhattan's Hippodrome, he declared

21:06

that a Jewish state can only be formed through

21:09

the expulsion of a quarter million Palestinians,

21:12

which attendees thought was very shocking at the

21:14

time, but it actually ended up being a

21:16

dramatic undercount. Although

21:19

Balthazar did not get into this history, unfortunately

21:22

the Communist Party in the United States would

21:24

eventually shift its position from opposition

21:27

to Zionism to support for Zionism.

21:30

Another article that is fantastic that you

21:32

can look at that we'll link to goes into the history

21:34

of how this reversal took place and

21:36

how the Communist Party USA unfortunately

21:39

found itself in a position of supporting

21:41

the settler colonial displacement of the Palestinian

21:43

people. While all of this has

21:46

focused really heavily throughout this

21:48

little mini episode on the history

21:50

of Jewish anti-Zionism, I think it's important

21:53

for us to recognize that we are also living in

21:55

a moment when Jewish opposition to Zionism

21:57

is beginning to re-emerge. Although

22:00

many key institutions within contemporary

22:02

Judaism, such as the Union for Reform Judaism,

22:05

have thoroughly capitulated to the Zionist position,

22:08

young Jews have begun increasingly

22:10

mobilizing en masse against Zionist

22:12

violence against Palestinians. Just

22:15

this month, the organization, if not

22:17

now, held a direct action demonstration

22:19

outside the headquarters of the Union for Reform

22:21

Judaism in order to demand that

22:24

Reform Jews, in their own words, quote,

22:27

"...reckon with the dispossession and displacement

22:29

of Palestinians and stop funding it."

22:33

This grassroots opposition to occupation has

22:35

been growing, although it has not always taken

22:37

a distinctly anti-Zionist tone. Part

22:40

of the problem, according again to Benjamin

22:42

Balsazar, is with the place

22:44

that Jewish anti-Zionism has been left in

22:46

after all of these histories. He writes,

22:49

quote, "...today we're in a much more

22:51

fragmented space. On the same note,

22:53

though, we're seeing the rebirth, or maybe continuity,

22:56

of Palestinian civil rights movements with Palestinian

22:58

civil society putting out a call

23:00

for decolonization, both out of their

23:02

own traditions of liberation but also looking

23:05

to models from South African freedom

23:07

struggles. For contemporary Jews

23:09

who are progressive and see themselves on the left,

23:11

they're suddenly realizing that there really is no

23:14

center anymore. There is no liberal

23:16

Zionist position any longer. The

23:18

center has really fallen away. And

23:21

we're faced with this very stark decision that

23:23

either you're going to be on the side of liberation

23:26

or you're going to be on the side of the Israeli right,

23:28

which has eliminationist and genocidal intent

23:31

that has always been there but is

23:33

nakedly apparent now. And so I think

23:35

people are waking up and saying, I don't

23:37

want to be on the side of the executioners."

23:40

End quote. While, if not now,

23:43

the organization we mentioned previously does not explicitly

23:45

define their position as anti-Zionist, their

23:47

work has been influential in pushing back

23:49

against institutional support for Zionism

23:52

and occupation within reform Judaism.

23:55

If not now, describes their mission as, quote,

23:57

organizing every day to expose

23:59

the occupation as a moral crisis to

24:01

American Jews, end the weaponization

24:04

of anti-Semitism in our political debate over

24:06

Israel, and create political spaces

24:08

for leaders to stand up for the freedom and dignity

24:11

of all Israelis and Palestinians."

24:14

The focus noted here on the end about equal

24:17

dignity and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians

24:20

does kind of reveal the extent

24:22

to which their criticism is not really opposition

24:24

to Israel, which would be crucial for an anti-scientist

24:27

politics, but rather an opposition to

24:29

the most egregious instances of Israeli

24:32

violence. And while this is certainly better than

24:34

tacit support for Zionism, it also

24:36

tries to walk a somewhat centrist line that's increasingly

24:39

untenable. Balthazar does seem

24:41

to be correct to point out that the center has fallen

24:43

out, and that the choice now

24:46

is to oppose occupation, imperialism,

24:48

and colonialism by opposing Zionism,

24:51

and supporting the decolonization of

24:53

Palestine. We can hope of course that if not

24:55

now, we'll keep up pressure against the egregious

24:58

instances of violence, but we also

25:00

can hope that they'll come to connect this position

25:02

with the necessity of anti-Zionism as many

25:04

generations of anti-Zionist Jewish struggle

25:07

from the past have, because the struggle

25:09

against anti-Zionism is a global

25:11

struggle against colonialism that should link

25:13

all people together into man for decolonization.

25:17

Another organization that's worth mentioning here

25:19

is Jewish Voice for Peace, who do actually

25:21

commit to taking the actual committal

25:23

position of seeing themselves as anti-Zionist.

25:26

The organization states that quote, Jewish

25:29

Voice for Peace is guided by a vision of

25:31

justice, equality, and freedom for all people.

25:34

We unequivocally oppose Zionism

25:36

because it is counter to those ideals,

25:38

end quote. During the most recent

25:41

increase in colonial violence that we've seen around

25:43

Sheikh Jarrah and the continued bombing

25:45

of Palestine, JVP has been present

25:47

at many solidarity actions standing

25:50

alongside the struggle for Palestinian liberation,

25:52

and this is highly commendable and deserves

25:54

recognition. JVP is also

25:57

in their writings focused on these histories

25:59

of anti-Zionism. among the Jewish

26:01

population in order to understand

26:03

where this kind of opposition can draw inspiration

26:06

from. Outside of these organizations,

26:08

I know that over the last week I, and

26:10

I'm sure many of you listening to this, have

26:13

seen a new level of openness in terms of critiques

26:15

of Zionism and even anti-Zionism itself.

26:18

I'm seeing many of my friends, both Jewish and

26:20

non-Jewish, pushing back against ideologies

26:22

of Zionism that are so predominant

26:24

in the United States. Even people who are

26:27

unorganized are starting to look to histories

26:29

of anti-Zionism and alternative

26:32

tellings of the main story we've been told

26:34

our whole life in order to understand the

26:36

violence. And all of this is hopeful

26:38

and it's important and it's crucial that this opposition

26:41

can develop and link itself with Palestinian

26:43

anti-Zionism and global demands

26:46

for decolonization in Palestine in

26:48

the United States, in Australia, and throughout

26:50

the world.

26:51

So

26:52

why did I decide to talk about

26:54

all of this for today's Patreon

26:57

episode? Well, because as

26:59

we're all confronting the question of

27:01

Zionism, the question of settler colonialism, the

27:04

question of occupation, it's

27:06

essential that we disrupt Zionist

27:08

ideologies which conflate critiques of Zionism

27:11

with anti-Semitism. But

27:13

also it's absolutely crucial

27:15

that we oppose anti-Semitic ideologies

27:18

which equate Zionism with Judaism.

27:20

Jewish opposition to Zionism in

27:23

all of its forms, despite whatever limitations

27:25

those forms may have opposed, has always

27:28

existed as long as Zionism has existed

27:30

and has always been there to push back both

27:33

against abhorrent ideologies of Zionism

27:35

and abhorrent ideologies of anti-Semitism.

27:38

Our main episode for this month went into the history

27:40

of Palestinian Zionism as well as the

27:42

various forms of Palestinian resistance

27:45

to Ottoman, British, and Israeli occupation.

27:47

And these histories are central. We have to study them,

27:49

we have to learn them, and you need to go beyond what

27:51

we covered in this episode to reading primary

27:54

texts and accounts from Palestinians yourself.

27:56

We really have to wrestle with these. But

27:59

to have a complete understanding of the debates

28:01

around Zionism and settler colonialism, we

28:03

also have to acknowledge and understand

28:05

the long and complex history of Jewish

28:08

anti-Zionism. So this

28:10

episode is an attempt to kind of give you

28:12

some of that history. We're coming in at a little

28:14

under 30 minutes, and no history

28:16

in 30 minutes is ever going to be sufficient for

28:18

you to learn what you need to learn about

28:20

something. But hopefully this is a starting point

28:23

that can help, and hopefully that as

28:25

we move forward, we can craft

28:28

and build an international opposition

28:30

to colonialism that understands anti-Zionism

28:33

as part of a broader opposition that

28:35

everyone has an obligation to participate

28:38

in in opposition to genocide and

28:40

exploitation. So

28:43

I don't really have much more to say beyond that. I hope this

28:45

is helpful. Again, this kind of comes from my notes

28:47

that were going to be in the main episode, but some

28:49

of it I took out and then I expanded on a lot here.

28:52

You obviously need to go do some reading for yourself.

28:55

There are countless resources available

28:57

from the history of the Bund, the ACJ, or

28:59

these various other groups. I would highly

29:01

encourage all of our listeners to go do that. Thank

29:03

you so much for your continued support for Red Minis

29:06

as a project. You know, I say this all

29:08

the time, but it blows my mind that people

29:10

get something out of this project and support it

29:12

the way and as much as they do. And I appreciate

29:15

it. And I know that Brett appreciates it a lot.

29:18

I think between this episode and the main episode,

29:20

we put together maybe almost 15,000 words

29:22

worth of notes, but we just say a lot of

29:24

writing and takes a lot of time. And the financial

29:26

support that we get from our patrons is part

29:28

of what allows us to take the time to do that. So

29:31

really,

29:31

this episode, the main episode, none

29:33

of what we do would exist without the support

29:35

from all of you, our patrons. And that

29:37

means the absolute world to us. Thank you

29:39

for your support. We're excited for our episode

29:42

next month. And as always, solidarity.