Zionism

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Zionism^[a] is an ethnocultural nationalist^[b] movement that emerged in Europe in the late 19th century and aimed for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people through the colonization of Palestine,^[2] an area roughly corresponding to the Land of Israel in Judaism,^[3] and of central importance in Jewish history. Zionists wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine with as much land, as many Jews, and as few Palestinian Arabs as possible.^[4]

Zionism initially emerged in Central and Eastern Europe as a secular nationalist movement in the late 19th century, in reaction to newer waves of antisemitism and in response to the Haskalah, or Jewish Enlightenment.^[5][6] The arrival of Zionist settlers to Palestine during this period is widely seen as the start of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The Zionist claim to Palestine was based on the notion that the Jews' historical right to the land outweighed that of the Arabs.

In 1917 the Balfour Declaration established Britain's support for the movement. In 1922, the British Mandate for Palestine governed by Britain explicitly privileged Jewish settlers over the local Palestinian population. In 1948, the State of Israel was established and the first Arab-Israeli war broke out. During the war, Israel expanded its territory to control over 78% of Mandatory Palestine. As a result of the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight, an estimated 160,000 of 870,000 Palestinians in the territory remained, forming a Palestinian minority in Israel.^[7]

The Zionist mainstream has historically included liberal, labor, revisionist, and cultural Zionism, while groups like Brit Shalom and Ihud have been dissident factions within the movement.^[8] Mainstream Zionist groups for the most part differ more in style than substance, having in some cases adopted similar strategies to achieve their goals, such as violence or compulsory transfer to deal with the Palestinians.^[9] Religious Zionism is a variant of Zionist ideology which brings together secular nationalism and religious conservatism. Advocates of Zionism have viewed it as a national liberation movement for the repatriation of an indigenous people (which were subject to persecution and share a national identity through national consciousness), to the homeland of their ancestors.^[10][11][12] Similarly, anti-Zionism has many aspects, which include criticism of Zionism as a colonialist,^[13] racist,^[14] or exceptionalist ideology or as a settler colonialist movement.^[15][16]

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