Is Zionism Racism?

The beloved Albert Einstein was a Zionist Jew¹. He was even asked to be the second President of Israel (a ceremonial role) which he modestly declined. He served on the board of governors of Hebrew University in Jerusalem. His views on the need for a Zionist state are summarized in his 1947 letter to the Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, where he wrote, “at the end of the first world war, the Allies gave the Arabs 99% of the vast, underpopulated territories liberated from the Turks to satisfy their national aspirations and five independent Arab states were established. One percent was reserved for the Jews in the land of their origin". Re-establishment of this Jewish homeland in that one percent is Zionism.

Many anti-Zionists on campus claim that "Zionist are racists". Could the beloved scientist who contributed so much to the world have been a racist?

Let’s take a step back and discuss just who is a "Zionist". Simply put, today a Zionist is anyone, Jewish or otherwise, who believes the state of Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself like any other state. Polls taken across Canada and the United States show that more than 3 out of every 4 people are Zionists. So, if all Zionists are racists, then that renders 75% of the population in Canada and the United States to be racists. Are so many of us truly racist?

The "racist" label applied to all Zionists is propaganda that originated as a smear campaign orchestrated by the Soviet Union to alienate their Russian Jewish population. This smear campaign was adopted by some on the far left in academic circles and it has been embraced by certain pro-Palestinian supporters to discredit Israel, its people, and its supporters.

To be clear, there are racists amongst Jewish Zionists just like there are racists amongst whites, racists amongst blacks, and racists amongst every group of people. Amongst Zionists there are a minority who establish illegal settlements on Palestinian lands – an act considered reprehensible by many other Zionists who actively call for these settlements to be terminated and Arab Palestinians to be fully protected. The vast majority of Zionist Jews and Zionist Israeli’s are peace-loving people who would like nothing more then to get along with their Arab neighbors and to share the land in a peaceful two-state solution or some other arrangement.

If one thing is clear from the decades-long fight against racism and bigotry, it is that generalizations of groups of people are usually themselves bigoted and racist. The presence of some rotten actors does not justify generalizations of any group of people as being racist. The very act of doing this is itself racist and should be something that antiracists combat. True antiracists combat the notion that Zionists are racists. True antiracists stand up to the minority of academics who preach intolerance of Zionists in their classrooms and instigate racist policies against their Zionist students². True antiracists do not stand idly by while antisemites replace the word “Jew” with “Zionist” when spewing their hate. If the Equity, Diversity and Inclusivity (EDI or DEI) movement is to have any moral foundation to stand on, then it is time that those promoting this ideology stand up and protect Zionist Jews on campus against the sort of discrimination within their own ranks that is currently undermining everything antiracists stand for.

NOTES

1) Wikipedia has an article that documents Albert Einsteins Zionist activities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_views_of_Albert_Einstein#Zionism

2) The syllabus for a course (DTS2002H1) from The Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies (CDTS) at the University of Toronto had a policy on discrimination that originally stated: “This classroom is a space free of sexism, racism, Zionism, homophobia, and all other forms of social violence.” Our understanding is that the university administration required the term “Zionism” to be dropped from the syllabus, but that no corrective action was taken to re-educate the