We raise questions central to ongoing debates about Zionism, the history of Israel’s founding, and the rights of Palestinians. These questions delve into critical issues of justice, equality, and historical accountability. Here are the questions:

1. Do you believe it was justifiable to establish a state in Israel at the expense of the indigenous Palestinian population?

2. Do you believe Zionism provides equal rights and privileges to all groups living in Israel?

3. Do you think Zionism and its proponents recognize Palestinians as having equal rights to Israelis within the country?

The first truth is that our conflict is not ancient or mystical. It is not thousands of years old; it is a modern political struggle barely over a century old. For generations, Jews, Muslims and Christians lived side by side in Palestine. Coexistence is not a fantasy. It is our own history — a history erased by those who claim endless war is inevitable.

The second truth is that occupation warps the imagination. Young Palestinians today have never seen the hills before settlements carved them apart. They have never traveled 15 kilometers to Jerusalem without a checkpoint. Many have never met an Israeli who isn’t a soldier or settler. Israelis, meanwhile, rarely encounter Palestinians outside a framework of fear. This separation fuels a deadly illusion: that entire populations bear collective guilt for the actions of a few.

The third truth is that Zionism as a political project has shaped every part of Palestinian life: the expulsions of 1948, the occupation of 1967, the settlements and legal systems designed to fragment us and pressure us to leave. This critique is political — not religious. Like Shehadeh, I distinguish completely between Judaism and Zionism. I have Israeli Jewish friends who acknowledge Palestinian suffering and support our rights. True friendship requires nothing less than honesty about history.

Zionism aimed to create a Jewish majority in Palestine. When this proved impossible—since most European Jews emigrated to the Americas rather than Palestine—Zionist leaders pursued demographic change through the dispossession and expulsion of the indigenous population, while airlifting Arab Jews to repopulate the emptied land.

David Ben-Gurion stated this plainly in 1944:

“Zionism is a transfer (Haavara) of the Jews. Regarding the transfer of Arabs, this is much easier than any other transfer.”
(Expulsion of the Palestinians, p. 159)

The long-repeated claim that “seven Arab armies attacked the Jewish state” distorts reality. Palestinians were—and remain—defending their own land, much of which they still legally own, with deeds to prove it. Indigenous resistance is not an “attack.”

Finally, Zionist colonial institutions—not the Jewish population as a whole—owned under 6% of the land prior to 1948. Only about 25% of Jews in Palestine were citizens. These facts come from British Mandate and United Nations records—the same powers that enabled the creation of the so-called “Jewish state.”

In 2018, three Palestinian members of Israel’s Knesset introduced a bill affirming “equal citizenship for every citizen” and banning discrimination based on nationality, race, religion, gender, language, political outlook, or social status.

Yuli Edelstein, then Speaker of the Knesset, refused even to allow the bill to be debated. “This is a preposterous bill that must be blocked immediately,” he said. “A bill that gnaws at the foundations of the state must not be allowed in the Knesset.” (As reported by The New York Times’ Ezra Klein.)

Yet we routinely hear Zionism equated with “liberalism.” At the same time, Palestinians are blamed—by mainstream media and U.S. politicians—for rejecting Israel’s so-called “generous” Camp David offer in 2000, despite the stark imbalance between what Palestinians owned and operated in 1948 and what was later offered to them.

“Peace” is perhaps the most abused word in Israel: domination and dispossession are marketed as compromise. As Ghassan Kanafani put it in the early 1970s, this is “the neck negotiating with the sword.”

Finally, many self-described liberal Jews—particularly in the U.S. and Canada—continue to portray early Zionists as socialists while erasing their nationalist and authoritarian foundations. In reality, so-called Labor Zionism fused nationalism with socialism from the outset, pursuing ethnic cleansing, land seizure, and demographic engineering—long before the Nazis, though along a disturbingly parallel trajectory.

For those interested in a serious examination of this history, the 1983 essay “Zionism: Good and Bad” by Prof. Zachary Lockman remains highly relevant. It makes clear that these narratives persist not through ignorance, but by design.

Zionism is a settler-colonial nationalist project that sought to establish a Jewish majority in Palestine through demographic transformation, displacement of the indigenous population, and sustained legal, political, and narrative control. It maintains that this project is distinct from Judaism as a religion and that its consequences continue to shape Palestinian dispossession.

1. Zionism and European Antisemitism

• Zionism emerged in the context of European antisemitism.

• European powers supported Zionism in part to avoid integrating Jewish refugees.

• Early Zionist leaders viewed antisemitism as politically useful in advancing emigration to Palestine.

2. Early Zionism and Alternative Locations

• Early consideration of non-Palestinian locations (e.g., the Uganda Plan).

• Internal Zionist debates showing that Palestine was chosen for ideological rather than humanitarian reasons.

• A rejection of alternatives in favor of an exclusive territorial claim.

3. Land Ownership and Demography Before 1948

• Palestinians owned the overwhelming majority of land prior to 1948.

• Jewish land ownership was limited and concentrated in institutional hands.

• Zionist colonial institutions controlled a small percentage of land before statehood.

• These claims are supported using British Mandate and UN records.

4. The Nakba and Displacement

• The 1948 war involved planned expulsions, not voluntary flight.

• Palestinian displacement was a prerequisite for state formation.

• The framing of “seven Arab armies attacking Israel” obscures the reality of indigenous resistance and population removal.

5. Zionism vs. Judaism

• Zionism is a political ideology, not Judaism.

• Many Jewish groups historically opposed Zionism.

• Early Zionist leaders were largely secular nationalists.

• Criticism of Zionism is often conflated with antisemitism to suppress dissent.

6. World War II and the Holocaust

• Zionist leadership prioritized state-building over refugee rescue.

• Western powers failed Jewish refugees and later used Holocaust memory to justify geopolitical outcomes.

• Holocaust suffering was later instrumentalized politically.

7. Indigeneity, Identity, and Genetics

• Palestinians are indigenous descendants of long-standing populations in the region.

• Jewish populations are genetically diverse and not uniformly Levantine.

• Genetic evidence is used to challenge exclusive nationalist claims.

8. Israeli State Structure and Democracy

• Israel functions as a democracy primarily for Jewish citizens.

• Legal and land systems structurally disadvantage non-Jewish citizens.

• Equality legislation has been blocked or undermined.

• “Liberal Zionism” obscures ethnonationalist realities.

9. Media, Narrative Control, and “Hasbara”

• Western media disproportionately reflects Israeli state narratives.

• Public relations strategies are used to manage perception.

• Accusations of antisemitism are deployed to silence criticism of Israeli policy.