Claim 3: “Zionism is not Judaism. Conflating them slanders Jews.”

Fact: Zionism is the modern revival of the Jewish people’s ancient, unbreakable bond to their ancestral land.. 

Zionism is not a “colonial” ideology imported from Europe — it is: 

• A Jewish national liberation movement — like Armenian nationalism or Kurdish self-determination. 

• Rooted in Jewish prayers, rituals, and history dating back to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE. 

• Reaffirmed continuously by Jewish communities across centuries: “Next year in Jerusalem” is recited at every Passover Seder and Yom Kippur. 

  
  

The majority of Jews around the world identify with Zionism, even if they may criticize specific Israeli policies. Surveys consistently show that for most Jews, Zionism is part of their Jewish identity. 

The attempt to separate “Zionism” from “Judaism” is a political maneuver to delegitimize the Jewish right to sovereignty — not an honest theological distinction

• Memorable Messages: Short Phrases That Change the Conversation

Message 1:  

Zionism Is Jewish Peoplehood—3,000 Years in the Making.

Zionism didn’t begin in a 20th-century conference room, but in thousands of years’ longing, in every Jewish prayer, wedding, and family story. Jews are the only surviving indigenous people who’ve returned to restore sovereignty in their ancestral land—a right enshrined in international law long before Israel’s independence. Erasing Zionism is erasing the living thread that holds the Jewish people’s identity, hope, and security together.

Message 2:  

Jewish Identity and Zionism Are Intertwined—You Can’t Separate History From Hope.  

Tell Native Americans that their land rights aren’t real. Tell Armenians or Greeks or Kurds. Every genuine identity is rooted in both culture and homeland. To force Jews to sever that link—alone among the nations—isn’t “critique.” It’s a demand for spiritual dispossession.

Message 3:  

To Erase Zionism Is to Erase Jewish Heritage

After centuries of forced exile, pogroms, Holocaust and state-sanctioned expulsion from Arab lands, the battle to destroy Zionism is simply a continuation of the war to erase Jewish survival. Only racists decide for other peoples what their heritage means.

Message 4:

Zionism is not colonialism.

Zionism is the true story of an indigenous people coming home—not outsiders taking over.

Unlike colonial powers who imposed their rule on distant, foreign lands, Zionism is the return of an indigenous people—after centuries of exile—to their only ancestral homeland. Jews have had a continuous spiritual, cultural, and physical presence in the Land of Israel for over 3,000 years: “Next year in Jerusalem” has been recited in every Jewish generation, everywhere. Archaeology, history, and scripture all affirm these roots.

Message 5:

International legal recognition:

Most of the world—including the United Nations, the League of Nations, and the San Remo Conference—recognized in international law the right of Jews to national sovereignty in their homeland. The Jewish right to self-determination in Israel is the only case in the Middle East with formal international legal recognition.

Message 6:

Jews as indigenous people: The language, faith, and identity of the Jewish people were born in Israel—Jews are not settlers, but the region’s original nation

Jews are the indigenous people of Israel, by every standard: thousands of years of uninterrupted presence, unique language and culture formed in the land, and no other nation maintaining such a bond for so long.

• Zionism is a Jewish national liberation movement, no different than Armenian or Kurdish self-determination. The majority of Jews worldwide regard Zionism as part of their Jewish identity—even if they disagree on politics.

Message 7:

• Denying Jewish nationhood by splitting Zionism from Judaism is not nuance—it’s a political tactic to erase Jewish rights and fuel modern antisemitism.

The effort to separate “Zionism” from “Judaism” is not a theological debate—it’s a political attack designed to erase Jewish history and deny Jews the right every other nation claims naturally: self-determination in their ancestral homeland.

BOTTOM LINE:

Zionism is the world’s oldest indigenous rights movement, rooted in fact, law, and history—not a modern invention or foreign imposition. Denying this is not “anti-colonialism”—it’s antisemitism dressed up as politics.

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