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Zionism and the Foundation of the State of Israel
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Israel-Palestine: Politics and Regime Structure
In this course, Dr Mori Ram (Newcastle University) explores the political structure of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, focusing on how Israel’s regime type should best be characterised. In the first lecture, we outline the historical development of Zionism amongst European Jews, the formation of the State of Israel within the historical territory of Palestine amidst the 1948 War, and the accompanying mass displacement of the Palestinian Arabs. The second lecture considers the extent to which Israel can be regarded as democratic, noting that whilst it has enshrined liberal principles, its democratic character is significantly problematised by its differential treatment of its Jewish citizens, Palestinian citizens, and Palestinians in the occupied territories. In the third lecture, we look at key trends in contemporary Israeli party politics, most importantly the rise of the far-right within its governing coalitions in recent years. We conclude with a fourth lecture which moves beyond discussion of Israel as a democracy to think about alternative ways scholars have conceptualised its regime type, notably Oren Yiftachel’s characterisation of Israel as an “ethnocracy”, and arguments that it can be designated as an apartheid state.
Zionism and the Foundation of the State of Israel
In this lecture, we think about the development of Zionist thought and the foundation of the State of Israel in 1948. We focus on: (i) Jewish responses to persecution in Europe from the late-19th century, and the emergence of Zionism in this context; (ii) the key principles of the Zionist national narrative, notably its assertion of a Jewish claim over the Land of Israel, which at the time comprised the territory of Ottoman Palestine; (iii) the spread of Zionism amongst European Jews, and the process of Jewish migration to Ottoman (later British) Palestine from the late-19th century; (iv) growing tensions between the Jewish and indigenous Arab communities during the British Mandate period (1920-48), culminating the 1948 Arab-Israeli War; (v) the consequences of the 1948 War - whilst the Jewish community realised the Zionist goal of creating an independent State of Israel, the Palestinians Arabs suffered mass displacement, violence, and persecution.
Hello.
00:00:05Welcome. My name is doctor Morir Raum.
00:00:07I'm a lecturer in politics here in Newcastle University.
00:00:09I wanna welcome you to our course Israel Palestine
00:00:12politics and regime structure.
00:00:16In this course, we will discuss the foundation upon which Israel was
00:00:18established as a state.
00:00:21We will discuss whether Israel is a democracy and explore
00:00:23other forms of regime types we can designate Israel as.
00:00:27And we also survey the current political landscape and Israel
00:00:32and whether or not the concepts concepts such as ethnocracy or
00:00:36apartheid fits to its current module.
00:00:40So let's begin with our first module in this
00:00:46course, in which we will discuss
00:00:50the foundation of the state of Israel.
00:00:54One caveat though,
00:00:57we will discuss the establishment of Israel and its
00:00:59politics mostly from the perspective
00:01:02of its Jewish majority.
00:01:04However, I and the knowledge, of course,
00:01:07that Israel has a significant Palestinian minority as well as
00:01:10a very large Palestinian population under its control,
00:01:14which we will, of course, explore.
00:01:17However, our course and module begins by reflecting
00:01:19on the ideological,
00:01:24and ident and the identity of Israel as a Jewish state.
00:01:26And for that, we need to start with understanding
00:01:32or a basic understanding of what is Zionism,
00:01:35which is the main form of identity of Israel as
00:01:39a society and state.
00:01:44So briefly speaking, Zionism can be discussed
00:01:47as an answer an answer to one of the main questions
00:01:54troubling Jewish communities throughout the nineteenth and
00:01:58twentieth century.
00:02:02And that question was,
00:02:03given the increasing prosecution of Jews,
00:02:05especially in Europe,
00:02:08what should be the best way to ensure the continuation of
00:02:09Jewish communal presence?
00:02:13And there are different answers to that question.
00:02:15One of those answers was insulation and isolation,
00:02:18such as many religious communities of Jews chose to
00:02:22differentiate themselves from the broader majorities in which they lived.
00:02:25Another answer was revolution or revolutionary ideas,
00:02:29and so many Jews,
00:02:33signed themselves to revolutionary movements such as
00:02:35communism, socialism, anarchism, and so forth.
00:02:38Another answer was assimilation.
00:02:41And so many Jews, mainly from the middle class,
00:02:44tried to assimilate themselves within the communities
00:02:48and societies in which they live,
00:02:51mostly in Western Europe and North America.
00:02:53Zionism rejected all of these answers.
00:02:57However, they did share some affinities with some of them.
00:03:01Nevertheless, it rejected the premises that Jews can either isolate
00:03:04themselves, assimilate, or simply revolt against this
00:03:08current social order.
00:03:12Instead, Zionism argued that Jews are not just a religion or
00:03:14a religious community, but but an ethnonational community,
00:03:19one that has a distinct affiliation to and a claim of a
00:03:24geopolitical place, which they defined as the land of Israel.
00:03:28You know, the land of Israel itself is a vague term,
00:03:33but it broadly refers to that piece of land in the Middle
00:03:37East sandwiched between what is today Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt,
00:03:40which was under the control of the Ottoman Empire and then the
00:03:46British Empire.
00:03:49So we need to understand Zionism less as a clear
00:03:50ideology and more as a form of a
00:03:53national narrative,
00:03:56and that national narrative includes four main principles.
00:03:58The first is precedence.
00:04:03The Zionist movement argued that Jews are are not invaders
00:04:05to the land of Israel,
00:04:10but are returning to the ancient homeland of the Jews
00:04:12that was established during the kingdoms of David and Solomon.
00:04:16The second principle is exclusivity.
00:04:20The Zionist movement believed that only Jews has exclusive
00:04:24rights over that piece of land.
00:04:28Now that principle of exclusivity was more mute in
00:04:30the earlier years of the movement, but in recent years,
00:04:35it is much more dominant as we shall see.
00:04:38The third principle was urgency.
00:04:42Given the increasing prosecution of Jews,
00:04:45especially in Europe,
00:04:48the Zionist movement and Zionism argued that there is an
00:04:49urgency to find a home and a shelter for Jews outside of
00:04:53Europe.
00:04:57And, of course, that persecution eventually culminated in the genocide
00:04:59against Jews that took place in the second World War.
00:05:03Finally, providence.
00:05:07The Zionist movement,
00:05:09although established as a secular movement,
00:05:10and many of its forefathers rejected the religious
00:05:12principles upon which they were educated as Jews in different
00:05:16diasporic locations.
00:05:19Nevertheless, he couldn't reject in total the fact that Judaism is also a religion.
00:05:21Therefore, there was an argument that by coming to
00:05:27Israel, by fulfilling this idea of return,
00:05:31there is also a nod towards the idea of salvation and
00:05:34redemption guaranteed theologically
00:05:38to Jews as written by the biblical scriptures.
00:05:41So all of these different elements
00:05:46play a role in shaping the national narrative of
00:05:49Jewishness as an ethnocationality,
00:05:53which is Zionism.
00:05:55It is less so, therefore,
00:05:57an ideology and more of a narrative that
00:06:00can like every other national narrative,
00:06:04might tell a very captivating story,
00:06:06but is also full with incongruities
00:06:08and paradoxes, especially when it comes to establishing a state.
00:06:12We will focus now briefly on nineteen forty eight.
00:06:18We will just say that Zionism as a movement
00:06:23took hold eventually in Palestine under Ottoman and
00:06:28later British rule and grew into a functioning society,
00:06:31which eventually came to be at odds with the local Palestinian
00:06:36population who also developed their own sense of national
00:06:41self determination.
00:06:45In nineteen forty eight, after Britain decided to withdraw from Palestine,
00:06:47that tension between Palestinians and Jews in Palestine
00:06:52erupted as a civil war.
00:06:58That civil war later on developed into a full regional
00:07:00conflict when Israel announced its independence in May
00:07:03nineteen forty eight.
00:07:07So the ninety eight nineteen forty eight war started as a
00:07:09civil war between rivaling communities inside Palestine,
00:07:12the Jews who were the minority and the Palestinians who were
00:07:16the majority, and then developed into a regional conflict.
00:07:20The outcome of the war,
00:07:25which concluded in a series of armistice agreements from
00:07:26January to May nineteen forty nine,
00:07:29was immense.
00:07:32Israel was established as a sovereign state recognized by
00:07:35the entire international community
00:07:40with recognized borders and gradually accepted by its neighbors.
00:07:43Even though they never signed a peace deal with Israel,
00:07:48they nevertheless
00:07:52acquiesced to a series of armistice.
00:07:54On the other side, the Palestinians,
00:07:57which were the majority in Palestine,
00:07:59numbering to about one point two million
00:08:03in contrast to the six hundred thousand Jews which were at the
00:08:06beginning of the war in nineteen forty eight,
00:08:09the Palestinians found themselves either displaced
00:08:12amongst the different countries of the region or under the
00:08:15control of a state, Israel,
00:08:19which considered them a a security threat and a national adversary.
00:08:21So while Israel was able to announce its independence
00:08:26and the fulfillment of the ideal of a Zionist
00:08:30strive to establish a national home for Jews,
00:08:34the Palestinians experienced what then known became known
00:08:37ever since as the Nakba or Catastrophe,
00:08:40in which their society was completely ruptured,
00:08:43fragmented, displaced,
00:08:48and underwent and still undergoing various forms of
00:08:49violence, repression, and oppression.
00:08:53So the nineteen forty eight war was a significant watershed
00:08:57movement both for Israelis and Palestinians.
00:09:01In this course, in this specific module,
00:09:05we will just focus on one important aspect of the
00:09:07nineteen forty eight war,
00:09:11which was the establishment of an independent internationally
00:09:13recognized state of Israel, which
00:09:17announced its independence in May nineteen forty eight and
00:09:20eventually managed to create
00:09:24a sustainable political sovereign state.
00:09:28So in the next sessions,
00:09:32we will discuss this state and its tensions,
00:09:35political paradox, and incongruities,
00:09:39which are direct directly linked to its idea identity as
00:09:42both a Jewish state, but also one which claims to be a democracy.
00:09:47So join me in the next modules to discuss this further.
00:09:52
Cite this Lecture
APA style
Ram, M. (2024, November 01). Israel-Palestine: Politics and Regime Structure - Zionism and the Foundation of the State of Israel [Video]. MASSOLIT. https://massolit.io/courses/israel-palestine-politics-and-regime-structure
MLA style
Ram, M. "Israel-Palestine: Politics and Regime Structure – Zionism and the Foundation of the State of Israel." MASSOLIT, uploaded by MASSOLIT, 01 Nov 2024, https://massolit.io/courses/israel-palestine-politics-and-regime-structure