Over the past decades, there has been an active movement in the Israeli arena that speaks of the need to move to a post-Zionist phase. What is this concept? And has the war on the Gaza Strip increased the Zionist tendency of the occupying state?
The episode of the “Mawazine” programme, which was broadcast on the “Tel Aviv Tribune 360” platform, shed light on the topic of Zionism, the foundations on which it was founded, the call put forward by some Israeli thinkers regarding the transition to “post-Zionism”, and the impact of the war on the Gaza Strip on this call.
In this context, the director of the Al-Zaytouna Center for Studies, Dr. Mohsen Saleh, confirms that the “post-Zionist” movement emerged in the late 1980s, and appeared clearly as a movement with its own ideology in 1993 with the Oslo Accords, and its pioneers include historians Ilan Pappe and Avi Shlaim, among others.
It is a trend that combines the “new historians” and the “progressive sociologists.”
The “new historians” focus on the idea of establishing the Israeli entity, and they presented a different narrative from the accepted Israeli narrative, which came very close to the Palestinian narrative, and they acknowledged – according to what Dr. Mohsen explains – that the Palestinian people were exposed to a lot of suffering, oppression, massacres, and displacement.
In the view of the “new historians,” Zionism achieved its goal by establishing the Israeli entity in 1948, after which Israel is supposed to enter a “post-Zionist” phase.
However, this trend – Dr. Saleh continues – witnessed a split in its ranks, with some rejecting that there be equal rights between Palestinians and Israelis, and many of them returned to their Zionism.
In his analysis of the term “post-Zionism,” Israeli affairs expert Dr. Muhannad Mustafa explains that there are two aspects to this term: a historical aspect that stems from the fact that Zionism as a movement ended its role with the establishment of the so-called State of Israel.
On the other hand, there is an analytical aspect led primarily by the “New Historians” and is part of the thinking of “post-Zionism.” This idea says that “post-Zionism” is a reality and an analytical framework for understanding the transformations that Israeli society is going through, including the failure of the idea of building a Zionist identity that was dreamed of by “the founder of the State of Israel, David Ben-Gurion.”
He points out the emergence of an important trend in Israel alongside “post-Zionism,” which is “new Zionism,” a trend that is trying to revive the Zionist project anew, and has triumphed with the rise of the extreme right in Israel, as the expert on Israeli affairs says.
Dr. Mustafa points out that there is a conflict within Israel over the concepts of Zionism and Judaism, but the important conflict in recent years has revolved around the concept of Jewish identity, meaning: Will Israel be a more religious state or a state in the national and cultural sense?
Dismantling Zionism
Regarding the possibility of Israel transforming into a liberal, non-Zionist democratic state, Dr. Mustafa believes that achieving this requires dismantling the ideology of Zionism, and democracy for Israel in the current situation is a tool for managing the Zionist project.
He points to what he called a flaw in the essence of the true democratic system, which is evident in the absence of equality among all citizens. For example, the occupation gave the Palestinians (1.6 million) Israeli citizenship, but they do not enjoy complete equality with the Jews, neither individually nor collectively.
The director of the Al-Zaytouna Center for Studies rules out the possibility of the Zionist tendency disappearing. Rather, in his view, it will increase and will remain and will establish “political Zionism,” because “the concept of Israeli national security is based on the idea of preserving the Jewishness of the state and achieving what is known as the legitimacy of the Jewish state in the region, and this is what the Zionist project means.”
The occupation will also be keen to remain strong and able to dominate and survive in a hostile environment after the severe blow it received in the “Al-Aqsa Flood” battle, noting in this context that the Israeli deterrence theory was struck at its core due to “Al-Aqsa Flood.”
In this context, Dr. Saleh talks about the Israeli mentality, which, in his opinion, is based on eliminating the other in terms of history, place, geography, and religion. This explains their behavior with the Palestinians and through settlement and Judaization.
To watch the full episode, please click on this link on the Tel Aviv Tribune 360 platform.