Zionists - who is this? What is the essence of Zionism?

Zionists - who is this? Let's figure it out. The word "Zionism" comes from the name of Mount Zion. It was a symbol of Israel and Jerusalem. Zionism is an ideology that expresses longing for the historical homeland of the Jewish people in a foreign land. This political movement will be considered in this article.

When did the idea that formed the basis of Zionism originated?

The idea of returning to Zion originated with the Jews in ancient times, at a time when they were expelled from Israel. The very practice of returning was not an innovation. About 2,500 years ago, the Jewish people returned to the country from the Babylonian diaspora. Modern Zionism, formed in the 19th century, thus, this practice was not invented, but merely encased the ancient movement and idea into an organized modern form.

The declaration of May 14, 1948 on the formation of the State of Israel is the quintessence of the movement that interests us. This document states that the Jewish people appeared in the country of Israel.

His political, religious and spiritual appearance was formed precisely here. The people, according to the declaration, are forcibly expelled from their homeland.

The connection between the Jewish people and Israel

We continue to consider the question: "Zionists - who is this?" It is impossible to understand the movement we are interested in without understanding the existing historical connection between Israel and the Jewish people. It arose almost 4 thousand years ago, when Abraham settled in the territory of modern Israel. Moses in the 13th century BC. E. Led the exodus from Egypt of the Jews, and Joshua seized the divided between the twelve tribes of Israel. In the 10th-11th centuries. BC. In the era of the First Temple, Solomon, David and Saul ruled in the state of monarchy. Israel in 486 BC. E. Was captured by the Babylonians, who destroyed the Temple, and the Jewish people were for the most part taken captive. Under the leadership of Nehemiah and Ezra in the same century, the Jews return to their state and establish the Temple again. Thus began the era of the Second Temple. It ended with the conquest of Jerusalem by the Romans and the repeated destruction in the year 70 of the Temple.

The Rebellion of the Jews

After the capture of Judea in Israel, many Jews lived. They raised in 132 an uprising against the Romans led by Bar Kochba. For a short time they managed to form a Jewish independent state again. This uprising was brutally suppressed. According to historians, about 50 thousand Jews were killed. However, even after the uprising was suppressed, there were still hundreds of thousands of representatives of the Jewish people in Israel.

After the 4th century AD E. In Galilee, a major uprising against Roman rule began again, the mass of Jews from Israel was again expelled, their lands were requisitioned. In the country in the 7th century there was their community, the number of which was 1/4 million people. Of these, tens of thousands assisted the Persians, who seized Israel in 614. This was explained by the fact that the Jews placed high hopes on this people, because the Persians allowed them in the 6th century BC. E. Return from Babylonian captivity to your country.

In the year 638 AD. After the Arab-Muslim conquest, the local Jewish population became a melting minority. This was also due to forced Islamization. At the same time, in Jerusalem, for a long time, there was a fairly large Jewish community. Captured in 1099, the Jerusalem Crusaders committed a massacre, which victims were both Muslims and Jews. However, even when the number of inhabitants was sharply reduced in Israel, the representatives of the indigenous population did not completely disappear.

Immigration flows

Individual groups or members of the messianic movements throughout history have periodically returned or sought to get to Israel. The next flow of immigration in the 17th and 19th centuries, that is, before the rise of Zionism, leads to the fact that the Jerusalem Jewish community in 1844 turns into the largest among other religious communities. It should also be noted that the waves of Jewish migration throughout all the years (from the end of 19 and throughout the 20th century) were preceded by more sporadic, smaller and less organized streams. Zionist repatriation began, along with the migration to Israel of Palestinophiles, as well as members of the Bilu movement. This happened in 1882-1903. After this, throughout the 20th century, new waves of repatriation were taking place, which were arranged by the Zionists. Who you are, you will understand better, knowing what the basic concept of Zionism was.

The central concept of Zionism

It should be noted that in this movement the central place is occupied by the concept according to which Israel is the real historical homeland of the Jewish people. Living in other states is exile. Identification with the expulsion of life in the Diaspora is the central point of the thought of this movement, the essence of Zionism. So, this movement expresses the historical connection with Israel of the Jewish people. But very doubtful is the fact that it would have arisen without modern anti-Semitism, as well as the persecution in modern times of Jews who would have been assimilated if they had been left alone.

Zionism and anti-Semitism

That is, Zionism can be considered a reaction to anti-Semitism. One can also see in it a kind of anti-colonial movement, for which oppression and discrimination, pogroms and humiliations, that is, the position of a minority subordinate to alien power, were characteristic.

It is important to emphasize in this connection that Zionism is a political movement that is a response to modern anti-Semitism. However, one should take into account hundreds of years of persecution of Jews. This phenomenon has been observed in Europe for a long time. Again and again, the European diasporas were subjected to murders and harassment for religious, social, economic reasons, as well as racial and nationalist. In Europe, Jews on the way to the Holy Land (11th-12th centuries) were slaughtered by crusaders, killed in crowds during the plague epidemic, accused of poisoning the wells in the 14th century, burnt at the fires in Spain (15th century) during the Inquisition, they were victims of mass Massacre, committed in Ukraine by the Cossacks Khmelnitsky (17 century). Hundreds of thousands of Petlyura and Denikin's armies were also killed, which caused Zionism in Russia in a civil war. The image below is devoted to these events.

After the First World War, the situation became catastrophic. Then the murderers came from Germany, where the Jews made the most serious attempt at assimilation.

This people throughout history was expelled almost from all countries of Europe: France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, England, Lithuania and Russia. All these problems have been accumulating for centuries, and by the beginning of the 19th century, Jews had lost hope of a change in their lives.

How did the leaders of this movement become Zionists?

The history of Zionism shows that the leaders of the movement to the Zionists turned often after they encountered themselves with anti-Semitism. This happened with Moses Ges, who was shocked in 1840 by slanderous attacks against Jews living in Damascus. This happened with Leon Pinsker, who after the assassination of Alexander II (1881-1882) was struck by a chain of pogroms, and with Theodor Herzl (pictured below), who as a journalist in Paris witnessed an anti-Semitic campaign launched in 1896 in connection with The Dreyfus affair.

Goals of the Zionists

Thus, the Zionist movement as its main goal considered the solution of the "Jewish problem". His supporters viewed it as a problem of a helpless people, a national minority that does not have its own home and whose lot is persecution and pogrom. So, we answered the question: "Zionists - who is this?" We note one interesting regularity, which we have already mentioned.

Discrimination and waves of immigration

There is a close connection between Zionism and the persecution of Jews in the sense that most of the major waves of immigration to Israel have consistently followed discrimination and killings in the diaspora. For example, the First Aliyah was preceded in the eighties of the 19th century by pogroms in Russia. The second began after a series of pogroms in Belarus and Ukraine in the early 20th century. And the third became a reaction to the killing by the troops of Denikin and Petlyura Jews in the civil war. This is how Zionism manifested itself in Russia. The fourth aliyah came from Poland in the 1920s, following the adoption of legislation aimed at the business of Jews. In the 30 years, in the Fifth Aliyah, they came from Austria and Germany, escaping Nazi violence, and so on.

Conclusion

The goals and deeds of the Zionists, therefore, pursued mainly the task of restoring historical justice. This is not racism, since this idea does not postulate the superiority of one people over another, as well as the existence of an elected people or a "pure race". It is also impossible to regard world Zionism as a bourgeois movement, since all classes and strata of the population participated in it. In its leadership, in fact, there were mostly people of bourgeois origin. However, the same can be said about other revolutionary movements, including communist and socialist ones. Zionism is not an "insidious" ideology that motivates the immigration of Jews to Israel. Repatriated only those who share the Zionist vision of the fate and history of this people.