Pan-Nationalism Toward Israel

Nationalism can be defined as political feelings, principles, and efforts, or the desire for the political liberation of a particular country. The nationalist movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the establishment of a Jewish state in Israel is known as Zionism. This ideology was the driving force behind the Jewish expulsion of the Palestinians from their villages in1948. Through the eyes of an unnamed Israeli soldier, S. Yizhar describes this purge as it ensued in one Palestinian town in his autobiographical novella, Khirbet Khizeh. The contradictory themes of proud justification and shame or guilt because of the actions done in the name of Zionism, influence, and ultimately characterize the speaker’s identity, developing his divided loyalties as a Jew in Palestine.

In this essay I will be discussing the role of modern nationalism and how this ideology affected the transition from colonial rule to independence in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as the problems that plagued them since 1945, and how these different nations have solved them. I will be specifically concentrating on the nations of India, Algeria, and Iran.

The Jewish migration to Israel is one of the most important pivoting points in the issue of the foundation of the Israeli nation. Zionism is the main driving idea that led to the Jewish migration to Israel. The period before 1948 was the period when Zionism along with the Zionist lobbies around the world were working to promote mass migration to Israel even before the foundation of the state

The nationalist movement of Zionism emerged out of the Jewish people’s need for a national state of their own. This idea harkens back to the establishment of the Kingdom of Israel after the Exodus. The Holy Land and all of its historic prestige persisted in Jewish culture as they spread throughout the Diaspora for 2000 years.

Palestinians have slaughtered at least 34 Israelis — stabbing them to death in stores, in synagogues, in their apartments and on the street, and ramming them to death with their cars. Daring to step out onto the street almost anywhere in Israel has become a game of Russian roulette these

This problem started long after it was officially considered a conflict. The late 19th century was the age of nationalism in Europe, and a time for the Austro Hungarian Empire, in which a Jewish journalist named Theodor Herzl hoped that Jews would join into European nations, but he became certain that Jews needed to leave Europe and settle in a place of their own. This is when Jewish Nationalism started, known as the Zionism movement. In 1917, the Britain created the Balfour Declaration promising to form a national home for the Jews in Palestine . Shortly after the end of the war, the British established a colony in palestine, and with the help of the Balfour Declaration, the Jewish population of palestine increased by over 320,000 people between

Each emerges out of encounters with colonial understandings of the other, in which Palestinians and Jews being defined as others, the judge of the other, being the ‘enlightened’ European. Furthermore, the events and encounters that shape Zionism and Palestinian nationalism can be understood at various moments as the ‘same’ events. Neither Zionism nor Palestinian nationalism is destroyed by the sharing of these events in the name of nationalism as “political ideologies do not recognize nor reconcile with each other, nor do they determine who recognizes whom and who reconcile with whom.” Put another way, political ideologies, here nationalism, are capable of fully existing without the acknowledgement of the other, nor the ability to compromise with the other. Instead, both Zionism and Palestinian nationalism continue to claim legitimacy in the face of opposition and strive to be understood as legitimate heirs to the land called Israel, called Palestine.

The Jewish involvement with Israel/Palestine can be traced back to 2000 BCE, when Abraham, who the Jews claim is their oldest ancestor (Little, 2007, p.303), followed a message from God to immigrate to the Land of Canaan (Genesis 12:5), which is modern day Israel. Since this point, the Jewish people have fought to reside in Israel because it is the land that God promised them in the covenant he created with Abraham. Although this ideology is rooted in the biblical rights to the land, Theodore Herzl, who initiated Zionism to regain authority over Israel, intended for the movement to be political (Little, 2007, p.305), thus

Zionism is a nationalist and political movement of Jews and Jewish culture that supports the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel. In the late 19th century of central and eastern Europe, Zionism begins as a national revival movement, a counter-attack to the strong anti-Semitic nationalist movements in Europe. Not so long after this, Zionism leaders decide to combine their goals with establishing the new state in Palestine.

In the passage of canonic book, Torah and the rest of the Bible it is clearly explain that Israel is the promised land by the Supreme being where the Jewish fated. For all over the time before the Zionist movement raise, Jews everywhere keeping their eyes remain fixed to the Jerusalem (Rubin, n.d.). The spirit of nationalism developed in Europe during late nineteen-century. These spirits influence the Jews returning to Israel and build a state nation through the human organization and action. Through ups and down Jewish was succeed bring Israel to be a state nation. I am agreeing with the consciousness of nationalism spirit of Jewish, without this spirit Israel would not be Israel that we can see today. However, bringing one country to independence was not that easy. Israel facing a lot of controversy during their independence and was attacked by the neighborhood country after they announce their independence in Tel Aviv, 1948 (Rubin, n.d.).

To fully understand the viewpoints of both sides of this conflict and the history that comes with it, it is necessary to know the movements that are at the root of all the tensions. These movements are the Zionist movement, the Arab Nationalist movement and the Palestinian Nationalism movement. Zionism is the national movement of Jews that supports the creation of a Jewish homeland in the Land of Israel. The movement came to the forefront of global issue in the late 19th century. Zionism looks to support the upholding of the Jewish identity. The movement opposes the assimilation of Jews into other societies and pushes for Jews

Arab believes that Palestine is an important part of Middle East nation and Arabs nationalism which indicate that Israel has not rights to occupied Palestine. In addition, the Arab world became anger of Jewish therefore many of them lose their shops and homes which lead to hundred of them were murdered or imprisoned. The Jews who lived of the Arab World during 1947 was their condition unbearable which forced them to emigrate leaving all their property behind.

Both movements aimed at uniting their peoples in a national homeland. They were to converge and confront each other in Palestine where, it was initially thought by some, they could each achieve their aspirations in an atmosphere of mutual accommodation. The two movements, in fact, proved incompatible and the majority of Arab suffering resulted. Beginning in the 1800’s, oppression of Jews in Eastern Europe sparked a mass emigration of Jewish refugees. Some Jews formed a movement called Zionism, which sought to make Palestine an independent Jewish nation. The first Zionist Congress was held in Switzerland in 1897 and it issued the Basle programme on the colonization of Palestine and the establishment of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). Then, in 1906, The Zionist congress decided the Jewish homeland should be Palestine. The only problem was that there already was a large Arab-Palestinian population inhabiting the area. For this reason, Zionism was used as a propagandist tool to rid Palestine of the Arabs and to start a new nation for the Jews. A look at the fabric of Jewish Zionists that emigrated to Israel exhibited the driving forces and it displayed how massively the movement developed. For Russian Jews, it was the desire to escape totalitarian oppression. Religious Jews went there hoping for the day of messianic redemption. Still others, viewing developments on the world scene, were

After defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations Charter implied that Britain would aid in the development of Palestine. The mandatory power that began in 1920 was to result in independence for the indigenous peoples of the region and to consider the mandated territory a temporary trust and to see to the best interest and advancement of its population. However, the British policy towards Zionists and Arabs resulted in political violence and both groups are still discontent with the British mandatory period and policies from that era. Specifically, the Arab community and the documents that illustrate that the British favored the Yishuv community, and never abandoned the idea of a Jewish national home. “In the mandates twenty-eight articles, not one related to the Palestinian peoples per se: they were variously and vaguely defined as a section of the population, natives, or peoples and communities. As far as Britain and the League of Nations were concerned, they were definitely not a people.”

There was a rise in Zionism in the area of Palestine and abroad from Jewish who wanted a state. Zionism is, because on the one hand it concerns one of the oldest peoples with a clear connection to a specific land, and on the other hand most of that people had been physically separated from that land for many centuries. Zionism saw a creation of a