Bulletin of Palestine Studies

Abstract

Zionism, which emerged in Europe in the 19th century, is defined as modern Jewish nationalism. Zionism promised salvation to the Jews, claiming that it would be a solution to te Jewish Question, which developed as a result of popular ideas and belief systems in the West such as anti-Semitism and nationalism. In this context, its initial goals were to carry out a Hebrew language revolution, build a new Hebrew identity with a nationalist character, facilitate the collective migration of Jews to Palestine and establising a sovereign and independent Jewish state there. Zionism, which blends secular Western values with the purely religious doctrines of Judaism has follewed the same method in constructing this new identity. Zionists combined modern concepts like nationalism and national identity with the principle od chosenness, a key theological issue in Jewish belief. Thus, they created an identity that was both and ancient, Western and Middle Eastern, and most importantly, territorial, an identity that implanted itself into memory of some Jews. As a result of this memory implantation, Zionists “succeeded” in building a new Hebrew identity as they intended. However, it is difficult to argue that this identity closely resembles the theological identity structure in Jewish tradition. The Zionist identity, as evidenced by the history and geography of Palestine from the 20th century to the present, is hegemonic, denying the right to life to anyone but itself, and embodies a theological, colonialist character thar is fascist and chauvinistic.