Zionism as an intellectual posture and a political project: an approach from the Palestinian perspective

Abstract

This article is divided into two parts. In the first, it addresses the central principles of Zionism as an intellectual elaboration that responds negatively to the Jewish question in Europe. It argues that the negative character of this set of ideas resides precisely in the communion of foundations with the very problem it intends to respond to, anti-Semitism; further, it aligns with an imperialist, colonial and two-way racist perspective, particularly European. For this, it is based on the conceptions of founding authors of the Zionist ideology, and political Zionism, Moses Hess and Theodor Herzl, and of authors who critically examine both the theoretical conception and the political realization of Zionism, that is, the colonization of Palestine and the foundation of the State of Israel. In the second part, I present the novel Return to Haifa, by Ghassan Kanafani, which contributes to concretize the colonial and intrinsically racist sense of the Zionist project and its practical realization. The text assumes the broad point of view of taking a position on a social problem.