Is Zionism Racism and has it always been?
JVL Introduction
A thoughtful, unequivocal look at this question considering history and personal experience. The reality of Zionism is that is it is – and has always been in practice – so far from an “ideal that has gone wrong” and that racism was written in from the start. Written by someone who was a Zionist for many years, his conclusions actually align with the words of early Zionists who recognised that it would not be possible to have a Jewish State in historic Palestine without (trying) to expel “the Arabs”. Of course this was not labelled racism but who can rationally argue that it is not?
People like Ben Gurion and later Moshe Dayan, among others, at least acknowledged that if they had been Palestinian, they too would fight against the Jewish take over the land: now even that recognition of the humanity of Palestinians exists no more and the promise made in the 1948 Declaration of Independence (sic) that the State of Israel “will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture.” was breached from (before) the beginning and only worsened post 1967 not least because of the impunity with which Israel has been able to act.
LL
This article was originally published by The Progressive Jew on Sun 11 Jan 2026. Read the original here.
Is Zionism Racism?
On November 10, 1975, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 3379, declaring that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.”
In 1991, Israel demanded repeal of 3379 as a condition for attending the Madrid Peace Conference, and George H.W. Bush’s administration leaned hard on governments across the world to make it happen. The revocation was a product of raw power, not a moral epiphany.
In 1975, the UN General Assembly got it right. Zionism is racism.
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Simple answer to the headline question: Yes
Much appreciated, thank you for this clear well-founded article. I ám moved.
But we are at the stage now where racists are not ashamed of being racist. Appeals to universal principles mean nothing (to them). “If you oppose me you will have to kill me, so I reserve the right to kill you first, indeed it is my racist duty to do so.” Bang.