I try, inasmuch as I can, to ensure that I cast around the blogosphere for interesting material (same goes for non-blog sources) which deserves a wider audience. In that spirit, I just have to share something that I came across this morning.
Here’s a blog called At the Back of the Hill:
“One of the terms that is gaining wide-spread currency among those who support Israel is ‘Anarcho-Zionism’. It names one of the more interesting movements, and shows that left-wing ideology need not be slavishly pro-Palestinian, nor witless, gutless, and insane.”
Want to know more? Read the rest of this intriguing and fascinating post which provides a brief introduction to the ideas of Sam Dolgoff, who once observed the following:
“The day after the proclamation of the state of Israel (15 May 1948) Assam Pasha, Secretary-General of the Arab League, threatened that: ‘This will be a war of extermination and momentous massacres like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades.’ In discussion with Israeli anarchists it was emphasized that the unilateral dismantling of the Israeli state would not at all be anarchistic. It would, on the contrary, only reinforce the immense power of the Arab states and actually expedite their plans for the conquest of Israel.”
As Hamlet said to one of his friends, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Here is another terrific quote from the above website:
“It is interesting to note that anti-Zionism, like all classic bigotries, knows no class or caste, and occurs across the entire spectrum of political action. The Nazis were anti-Semitic, the Stalinists were and are still anti-Semitic, and the Arab Nationalists have always been anti-Semitic. That anti-Semitism reaches its fullest modern expression in anti-Zionism.
That anti-Zionism is a destructive poison which the sympathizers and collaborators of Arab Nationalist Movement on both the left and right, in America, in Europe, and in the third world, have infected the political discourse.”
If too much focus is placed on contemporary Anarchism, you will find the same tropes present as with much of the far left. However, Anarchist history is much more interesting. Though some did share in a left anti-Semitism, there was a strong Jewish involvement in Anarchism and an important gentile organiser of Jewish labour, the amazing Rudolph Rocker. Rocker learnt Yiddish and worked in London’s East End. You can read about it in his account of the period, The London Years, recently re-issued.
Whilst some saw Anarchism as an alternative to Zionism, there was a considerable sympathy and cross-over between the two ideologies. Anarchism influenced many of the early settlers too. One of the most intriguing of figures related to the Anarchist movement was the Scottish polymath Patrick Geddes, and he drew up the first plans for the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Anarchism was a broader and more complex movement that belies the simplicities of a Chomsky inspired demonology or the use of anti-statism as a device to deny the legitimacy of a Jewish state.
One should mention Bernard Lazare in this context. I think that - in a historic perspective - his writings mark the closest proximity of Anarchism and Zionism.
Interesting stuff, but are these Anarcho-Zionists doing anything besides posting opinions on the Internet? The reason I ask is I read some similar posts on Bay Area Indymedia over a year ago. I attempted to contact the author(s) a few times and never received a reply. I can’t find the urls at the moment…
I do not see any evidence that the notion of Anarcho-Zionism is gaining “wide-spread currency” among left-leaning supporters of Israel. I think supporters of Israel are incredibly rare in the radical left milieu. As Peter points out, the contemporary anarcho-left shares the knee-jerk anti-Zionism of the authoritarian left.
My mistake. I said the previous posts on anarcho-Zionism were on the Bay Area IMC, it was actually DC IMC.
I did some very basic Google searches to see how wide-spread this notion of anarcho-Zionism is. My searches turned up very little besides links to various Indymedia sites and the article posted above. I also searched for “Nation Building as the means of Social Liberation” which is referenced near the end of the article and cannot find anything about this document on the Internet.
So is anarcho-Zionism an idea that one or two people are promoting or an ideology that actually has some broader support? I do not of any self-described anarchists who view Zionism outside of the standard radical leftist narrative i.e. Zionism = colonialism and racism. A quick perusal of anarchist sites like Anarkismo, Infoshop.org, A-Infos, etc. will show this is the case.
Is the situation different in Israel? I know about Anarchists Against the Wall who are anti-Zionists and anarchist involvement in the International Solidarity Movement (again, anti-Zionists) but are there anarcho-Zionist groups involved in activist projects in Israel? If so, I’d really like to hear about it.