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Genuine question that I'm sure you get a lot but how can someone be both pro Zionism and pro Palestine? Everything I have read and consumed would make it seem as if they are the antithesis of each other.
This is in fact the first time someone has asked me this!! I'm so happy to be answering this tbh it's gonna be a nice note to end on (i'm going to sleep after this).
(I fell asleep before I finished lol, good morning)
So when people call themselves "Pro-Palestine", they overwhelmingly consider themselves to be acting on behalf of the civilians of Palestine, rather than in support of any particular military efforts (though pro-Palestine protests have horrendous track records concerning pro-Hamas demonstrations/speakers). When I call myself "Pro-Palestine", I am aligning myself with the civilians of Palestine and wishing for their suffering to end.
When people (generally Zionists) align themselves in opposition to self-described "pro-Palestine" people, they overwhelmingly consider themselves to be acting in opposition to a pro-Hamas group. This is because, as mentioned previously, the pro-Palestine movement has a horrendous problem with keeping pro-Hamas sentiments seperate from it.
When self-described "pro-Palestinian" people align themselves in oppsition to Zionism, they overwhelmingly consider themselves to be acting in opposition to an expansionist force that seeks to subjugate the Palestinian people; Revisionist Zionism and Kahanism, two offshoots of Zionism, are both anti-Palestinian in this sense, but the reduction of Zionism to these frankly fringe (though regrettably prominent in the current Israeli government) beliefs is incorrect and, in a lot of cases, disingenuous and/or actively malicious.
The generally accepted definitions of Zionism among Zionists are "the right of the Jewish people to return to, and form communities in, their ancestral homeland" and "the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their ancestral homeland". When I call myself "pro-Zionism", I am aligning myself with the belief that these rights are as inalienable from Jews as they are from any other indigenous group the world over; I do not believe they can expire, or be rescinded, or otherwise become invalid, for any reason.
As you can see, my beliefs that:
- Palestinian civilians are experiencing a hardship that should by all rights stop immediately
- Jewish people have the right to home, community, and self-determination in their ancestral homeland
are not at all in conflict with each other!
NB: This analysis applies only to people who are acting in good faith. There are self-described Zionists who subscribe to Kahanism/Revisionist Zionism, and many ostensibly "pro-Palestine" people who support Hamas. The world at large is very susceptible to propaganda spread by Hamas, because the world is antisemitic.
The two most common dogwhistles to watch out for are pro-Hamas dogwhistles:
- Positive reference to "resistance" or "the resistance" — these are euphemisms for "terrorism" and "Hamas" or, more recently, "Hezbollah".
- Negative reference to "the occupation", "the Zionist occupation", or "Zionist settlers" — there are illegal settlers in the West Bank, and I'd bet my life they overwhelmingly identify as Zionists, but these dogwhistles are code for Israel as a whole and the desire for it to cease to exist. When the illegal West Bank settlers are being discussed, specifying "the West Bank settlers" and/or "the West Bank occupation" is best practice.
I hope this helped!! I didn't want to just give you my definitions of the terms in question because that wouldn't really address why the stances of "Zionist" and "pro-Palestine" have become essentially diametrically opposed in popular discourse. As I said, this is not in fact a question I've recieved before & I really appreciate being asked <3
ALSO PPS: The reason I don't call myself a "Zionist" is because I am not a Jew. The conversation of Zionism was always meant to be an internal discussion between Jews, and I'm only aligning myself with it in order to show solidarity with a movement that is having its name forcefully and effectively blackened.
(Yes, this does in fact mean that non-Jews who call themselves "anti-Zionist" are essentially co-opting a Jewish word. Idk how to fix this either.)
Thank you so much for asking, have a great day!!
