Why is Christian Zionism Problematic?
Zionism is the belief that Jerusalem and the lands around it belong to the Jewish people. The idea is that the Jewish people are entitled to this land because God promised it to them (around 1800 BCE) and because King David conquered it around 1000 BC. (learn about the history of Zionism)
Zionism is problematic because it ignores the existence and rights of the Indigenous people; Palestinians. (learn about Zionism and colonialism)
Christian Zionism (which predated Jewish Zionism) is also problematic because it is antisemitic. Christian Zionism developed in the 16th century out of an understanding that in order for the Messiah to return to the earth (the second coming of Christ) the Jewish people need to return to Jerusalem. Unfortunately it also holds the expectation that when the Messiah returns one third of the Jewish people will convert to Christianity and the other two thirds will be condemned to hell.
UNJPPI does not support Zionism.
Zion - the City of God
The Psalms and Isaiah have many references to Zion – the City of God; meaning Jerusalem.
A few examples
“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
when we remembered Zion.” (Psalm 137)
“For the Lord has chosen Zion,
he has desired it for his dwelling” (Psalm 132)
“From Zion, perfect in beauty,
God shines forth.” (Psalm 50)
“Let heaven and earth praise him,
the seas and all that move in them,
for God will save Zion
and rebuild the cities of Judah.” (Psalm 69)
“for the Lord Almighty will reign
on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem,
and before its elders—with great glory.” (Isaiah 24)
“Those the Lord has rescued will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.” (Isaiah 51)
Watch a video from the Nelson Mandela Foundation: Critical Dialogue Series : Understanding Christian Zionism - Bridging Faith and Justice
Watch a video from Christians for a Free Palestine about Zionism
What Can I Do?
~ How does an unconscious acceptance of Zionism block people from considering the rights of Palestinians
~ Think about this – how could a God who loves everyone intend a certain land to belong exclusively to one people – based on a promise thought to be given 3500 years ago?
~ How has this idea of a land promised to a chosen people led to the conquering of much of the world with Indigenous people being dispossessed from their lands and the new people led by God to another place?
~ Think about the implications of supremacy – white supremacy, European supremacy, Israeli supremacy and how that has supported much global injustice
~ Investigate the doctrine of discovery – declared by a Pope which gave Europeans rights over North and South America. Does your church still support this doctrine today?
~ Listen to news critically to hear when a “zionist” perspective is being adopted
~ Check out the FOSNA toolkit: Countering Christian Zionism – a toolkit for activists and local leaders
Christian Zionism
Christian Zionism developed in the 16th century out of an understanding that in order for the Messiah to return to the earth (the second coming of Christ) the Jewish people need to return to Jerusalem. Unfortunately it also holds the expectation that when the Messiah returns one third of the Jewish people will convert to Christianity and the other two thirds will be condemned to hell.
Christian Zionists see the creation of the state of Israel as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy and subsequent Israeli victories as further confirmation.
The statement underlying Zionism and Christian Zionism is “a land without people for a people without land” which totally ignores the Indigenous people who were living there.
At its core, Christian Zionism is antisemitic.
Jewish Zionism
Zionism, as a belief which Jewish people held, began in the late 1800’s. Theodore Herzl is recognized as a chief proponent of it. Jewish people in Britain and in the U.S. lobbied with their governments for the creation of a “Jewish” state – a homeland for Jewish people in historic Palestine.
This movement ignored the existence and rights of the Indigenous people; Palestinians.
Inn November 1917, the Balfour Declaration said that
British people view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” with the caveat that “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”
The Holocaust intensified the drive for a “safe” place for Jewish people.
The 2018 Israeli Basic State law defines Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people and asserts that the Jewish people have the unique claim to national self-determination in the state of Israel.
Political Influences that Foster Zionism
The development of Zionism was strongly supported by various political influences over time.
Some of these geopolitical interests include
- protecting shipping through the Suez Canal
- the desire for access to oil in the Middle East
- a struggle for influence amongst Arab nations
- International guilt over what happened during the Holocaust
- the strong lobbying and financial donations by Israeli groups such as AIPAC in the United States
These geopolitical factors overcome the interests of the Palestinian people in the land that they have lived on for so long.
Zionism and Colonialism
The statement underlying Zionism and Christian Zionism is “a land without people for a people without land” which totally ignores the Indigenous people who were living there.
Settler colonialism is a form of colonialism where the focus is on removing or eliminating (rather than profiting from) the native population. From the beginning, Zionists have not hesitated to make and share plans for getting the Palestinians and Arabs off their land in order to claim it for the Jewish people.
Zionist Colonialism in their own words
We must expropriate gently the private property on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly
Theodore Herzel
In Palestine we do not propose even to go through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country
Lord Balfour
Zionist colonization must either be terminated or carried out against the wishes of the native population. This colonization can, therefore, be continued and make progress only under the protection of a power independent of the native population – an iron wall, which will be in a position to resist the pressure to the native population. This is, in toto, our policy towards the Arabs.
Vladimir Jabotinsky
Between ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples together in this country. We shall not achieve our goal if the Arabs are in this small country. There is no other way than to transfer the Arabs from here to neighboring countries – all of them. Not one village, not one tribe should be left.
Joseph Weitz
the compulsory transfer of the Arabs from the valleys of the projected Jewish State…. We have to stick to this conclusion the same way we grabbed the Balfour Declaration, more than that, the same way we grabbed at Zionism itself.
Ben-Gurion
Christian Zionism is Antisemitic
Christian Zionism is based on the idea that Zionism is critical to prepare the ground for the second coming of Christ (which will see one third of the Jewish people converted to Christianity and the other two thirds condemned to hell). This means that at its core, Christian Zionism is antisemitic.
In 2012, the Presbyterian Church in Canada categorically rejected “Christian Zionist doctrines as false teaching that corrupt the
biblical message of love, justice and reconciliation” and called “upon Christians in churches on every continent to pray for the Palestinian and
Israeli people, both of whom are suffering as victims of occupation and militarism.”
Jewish Voices for Peace
… talks about the harm Zionism does to Jewish people:
In sharing our stories with one another, we see the ways Zionism has also harmed Jewish people. Many of us have learned from Zionism to treat our neighbors with suspicion, to forget the ways Jews built home and community wherever we found ourselves to be. Jewish people have had long and integrated histories in the Arab world and North Africa, living among and sharing community, language and custom with Muslims and Christians for thousands of years.
By creating a racist hierarchy with European Jews at the top, Zionism erased those histories and destroyed those communities and relationships. In Israel, Jewish people of color – from the Arab world, North Africa, and East Africa – have long been subjected to systemic discrimination and violence by the Israeli government. That hierarchy also creates Jewish spaces where Jews of color are marginalized, our identities and commitments questioned & interrogated, and our experiences invalidated. It prevents us from seeing each other — fellow Jews and other fellow human beings — in our full humanity.
Zionist interpretations of history taught us that Jewish people are alone, that to remedy the harms of antisemitism we must think of ourselves as always under attack and that we cannot trust others. It teaches us fear, and that the best response to fear is a bigger gun, a taller wall, a more humiliating checkpoint.
Rather than accept the inevitability of occupation and dispossession, we choose a different path. We learn from the anti-Zionist Jews who came before us, and know that as long as Zionism has existed, so has Jewish dissent to it.