Table Of ContentZionism and its Discontents
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Zionism and its
Discontents
A Century of Radical Dissent
in Israel/Palestine
Ran Greenstein
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First published 2014 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Ran Greenstein 2014
The right of Ran Greenstein to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
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Contents
Preface vi
1. The Bi-nationalist Perspective During the British Mandate,
1917–48 1
2. The Palestinian Communist Party, 1919–48 50
3. Palestinian Nationalism and the Anti-Colonial Struggle 104
4. Matzpen: The Anti-Zionist Left in Israel/Palestine 154
5. Conclusions 195
Notes 207
Index 230
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Preface
This book examines Zionism through the lenses used by critical political
movements, who have sought to challenge its conceptual bases as well
as confront its practices on the ground. These include the bi-nationalist
movement of the British Mandate period; the Palestinian Communist
Party of the same period; the Palestinian national movement in its various
permutations, beginning with the Mandate period and continuing to the
present; and the Matzpen group of the 1960s to 1980s. Zionist activists
and scholars may find it strange to see their movement reflected through
the eyes of its critics and opponents. This is an essential operation,
however, to avoid the usual writing of history from the perspective of
victors, and to provide a counter-view that examines political alternatives
as they unfolded in their own time.
Inevitably, we tend to look at historical developments in retrospect,
knowing their outcomes. I tried to avoid this approach by looking
forward, from the temporal perspective of the actors discussed in the
book, and not from the vantage point of the present. None of these
actors managed to achieve their primary political goals, but they all made
valuable contributions – by way of analysis and practice – which should
serve us today in charting a new course of action. Hence, the importance
of their stories. In their different ways they provide essential starting
points for a critique of the present. I hope this will be of interest not only
to scholars but also to activists who seek to learn the lessons of the past
in order to shape their struggles in the present and achieve greater success
in the future.
These stories focus on the evolution of intellectual positions and
political perspectives. I have paid less attention to organizational issues.
The goal here is to allow the reader to appreciate the broad alternative
points of view developed by different forces, rather than trace the
development of a party apparatus or the mechanism of a movement’s
resource mobilization. Above all, it is a history of ideas which shaped
reality, albeit not always in an obvious or predictable manner.
As far as possible original sources were used and secondary analyses
were relied on to a lesser extent. The aim here has been to reflect on
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Preface vii
radical ideas and political alternatives from the perspectives of actors
directly involved in their formulation, instead of evaluating them from
a remote scholarly vantage point. I make no secret of my own views,
especially in the concluding chapter, and cannot claim political neutrality,
but have strived to present an account that is accurate, accessible and,
above all, engaging with historical and contemporary concerns.
Why study these movements specifically? The choice was made
with a view to identifying comprehensive responses to the rise of the
Zionist settlement project, which remains the crucial actor shaping the
history of Israel/Palestine for the last century. With the exception of the
bi-nationalist movement, all the others offered alternatives that attacked
Zionism from the outside and sought to replace its policies and principles
with a completely different orientation, rather than suggest internal
correctives. Even bi-nationalism involved a radical rejection of the notion
of a Jewish state, which increasingly became the goal unifying all other
Zionist movements, and still is the crucial common denominator of
Zionism today. Examples set by these radical currents serve as a form of
‘subjugated knowledges’ that have experienced a degree of ‘insurrection’
in the last two decades. This book aims to assist this process further.
In this respect, I wish to join the wave of studies that challenge the
central assumptions of mainstream Zionism from within Israeli society as
well as from outside its boundaries. Academics such as Baruch Kimmerling,
Ariella Azoulay, As’ad Ghanem, Nur Masalha, Oren Yiftachel, Shlomo
Swirski, Ilan Pappe, Honaida Ghanim, Dimitry Shumsky, Yehouda
Shenhav, Shlomo Sand, Adi Ophir and others have contributed to this
work. Many of them identify their perspective as post-Zionist rather than
anti-Zionist, but to some extent at least they follow in the footsteps of the
pioneering Matzpen approach (discussed in chapter 4), without necessarily
being aware of their debt to it. Critical questions about the structures of
domination of Israeli state and society, the relations between Zionism and
colonialism, and the role of Israeli policies in entrenching imperial control
in the Middle East, which were considered radical heresy when raised in the
1960s, are being raised openly in respectable public and academic forums.
The answers may differ but the willingness to raise difficult questions is a
testimony to the spread of dissent beyond the margins.
Although I do not discuss this directly, my geographical/intellectual
location in South Africa had an impact on some of the book’s contents.
This is not meant to be a comparative book, but here and there some
reflections of a more comparative nature entered the discussion. This
is particularly the case in chapter 3, where I set up the South African
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viii Zionism and its Discontents
liberation movement as a benchmark (or ‘ideal type’) against which to
examine Palestinian nationalism, and to a limited extent in chapters 4 and
5 as well. The task of a full-fledged study of the issue is best left for
another project, though. The South African dimensions mentioned here
are meant simply to illustrate historical possibilities in Israel/Palestine, not
to offer extended discussion in their own right.
Finally, what can the activist/scholar expect from this book? Two
things in particular: (1) a concise but thorough review of the ideas
and historical records of the movements in question, written from a
sympathetic perspective that identifies the ‘best case’ that can be made for
each of them. I do not always agree with the positions developed by these
movements but always strive to present them in a way that would make
sense to a reader located remotely in space and time. And, (2) an analysis
that places these movements in their historical and theoretical contexts,
while examining their relevance for their times and ours. The answers
they offered are not always suitable for us today (and some answers may
not have been suitable for them either), but the questions they raised are
still relevant as ever. Above all, my goal is to enable readers to look at
contemporary political and cultural issues with the benefit of historical
depth. I hope this task has been achieved.
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1
The Bi-nationalist Perspective
During the British Mandate,
1917–48
From its early days in the late nineteenth century, the modern Jewish
settlement of Palestine faced criticism from within its own ranks as well
as from outsiders. Alongside the resistance of indigenous Arabs (initially
‘mute’ but becoming increasingly vocal over time),1 it experienced dissent
from various Jewish constituencies. Three critical trends were particularly
important: religious rejection of secular nationalism; left-wing opposition
which elevated universal socialist principles above nationalist aims; and,
liberal-humanist critique of the quest for a Jewish state in Palestine,
and its associated exclusionary practices, as the ultimate goal of the
settlement project.
Even before the formal establishment of the Zionist movement in 1897,
these trends had become evident. While the religious rejection of Zionism
could be seen as an internal critique, concerned with the implications of
nationalism for the traditional definition and practice of Judaism,2 the
other two trends directed attention to relations between Jews and Arabs
in Palestine. Although many things have changed since the early days of
settlement, the main themes of the critique which were raised initially
more than 120 years ago have remained valid to this day.
The liberal-humanist critique – on which this chapter focuses – is
associated with the Russian Jewish thinker Asher Ginsberg, better known
by his pen name Ahad Ha’am (‘one of the people’). In a landmark article,
written after his first visit to the new settlements in 1891, titled Truth from
the Land of Israel [Eretz Israel], he sharply criticised the nascent settlement
project for the unhealthy relations it established between Jewish farmers
and Arab workers. He went on to debunk some of the myths involving
notions such as ‘land without a people for a people without land’, which
implicitly informed the settlement project:
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