WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Getting to grips with Zionism and the Zionist project is central to understanding what informed the establishment of the state of Israel and the political project that has sought the destruction of Palestinian society. Zionism can often be discussed in unclear and unhelpful ways in popular and media discourse, and sometimes avoided altogether.
Zionism is both an ideology and a political project. 01
It is the foundation of the Israeli state and society and is central to the destruction of Palestinian life and homeland.
02
Within this context, political Zionism can be understood as one of multiple responses arising from Europe’s politically diverse Jewish population to the problem of antisemitism.
03
The British government issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917, a public statement in which the British announced their support for “a national home for the Jewish people” in the land of Palestine.
04
In 1948 the state of Israel was formally declared and around 750,000 Palestinian Arabs were ethnically cleansed from the land. This is known as the “Nakba”, or the “catastrophe.”
05
The Zionist project of forcibly removing Palestinians continues to this day and has arguably reached its zenith, which is why Palestinians often describe their struggle as an “ongoing Nakba.”
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