Jewish-Israeli activists and the challenge to Zionism
Zochrot and Boycott from Within: Two activist groups in Israel confronting the hegemonic narrative of Zionism
By Mandy Turner
Despite over 20 years of peace process, Israel’s occupation, colonisation and repression continue, and the political and geographical fragmentation of the Palestinian people is proceeding apace. In this context, re-conceptualisations of the conflict and alternative visions of the future will take on increased urgency — both in Israel and Palestine. This article therefore focuses on two activist groups in Israel — Zochrot and Boycott from Within — engaged in provoking a confrontation with the hegemonic narrative of Zionism through a praxis of ‘re-framing’, ‘counter-branding’, solidarity and direct action. Theoretically, the research is placed within debates regarding hegemony and counterhegemony, and how activists develop praxis. Empirically, it is based on in-depth interviews with activists from these groups, analyses of their writings, observations of their social media activities and attendance at their events over a two-year period.
Introduction
In the summer of 2014, it became more dangerous to be an anti-Zionist activist in Israel. Although they have on occasion been subjected to intimidation by the Israeli state and opposition from right-wing groups, anti-Zionist activists campaigning against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza and mass arrests in the West Bank were at greater risk of arrest and physical attack during this period. The arrest of, and threat to, Eran Efrati, documented in the epigraph to this article, was in response to him reporting leaked messages from Israeli soldiers that revealed the deliberate targeting and killing of unarmed civilians in Gaza as punishment for the death of soldiers in their units. Efrati, an activist with Boycott from Within (BfW) and once a member of the Israeli ex-combatant organisation, Breaking the Silence, was forced to leave Israel in order to avoid further arrest and intimidation. Other activists, who sought to build opposition to the war, were physically attacked by right-wing gangs during and after demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem.
These attacks took place against the backdrop of Israel’s campaign of mass arrests of Palestinians (over a thousand, mostly from the West Bank but also some in Israel) and the military mission ‘Operation Protective Edge’, in Gaza, from 8 June to 26 August, which killed 1,500 Palestinians and wounded over 11,000. These military actions were coupled with an outpouring of anger and hatred towards Palestinians in response to the murder of three teenage Jewish-Israelis hitchhiking in the occupied West Bank, during which politicians — including Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu — called for revenge. This fostered a climate where it became more acceptable and widespread for individuals and right-wing groups to physically attack Palestinians, and for mainstream media and social media spaces to carry calls for further repression, including rape, genocide and population transfer. Hatred against groups and individuals who stood in solidarity with Palestinians also ran high.
This article focuses on two anti-Zionist groups — Boycott from Within and Zochrot whose activists were swept up in this situation. My research on these activists began in July 2013 — and was motivated by the realisation that alternative understandings of the conflict and visions for the future were not only necessary but increasingly urgent in the context of the breakdown in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, the acrimonious debate regarding the desirability of the two-state solution and an increasing number of prognoses that it is no longer feasible. Both groups under study in this article emerged in the post-Second Intifada period, which was marked by deep disillusionment with the Oslo peace paradigm of a two-state solution and the decline of mainstream Israeli peace organisations such as Peace Now. In the current period, there is a waning of support amongst both political elites and the Jewish public for a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, a hardening of support towards the preservation of Israel as a Jewish state, and a political shift to the right. This disillusionment is mirrored in the Palestinian arena, in which increasing debates can be witnessed regarding what strategies can be followed in the quest for Palestinian rights. In this context of deep disillusionment, it is important to look at alternative analyses, solutions and routes to peace.
Zochrot and BfW offer such an alternative. They locate the origins of the conflict in the nature of Zionism as a settler-colonial movement, the creation of the state of Israel and the Nakba (catastrophe). The solution, they argue, lies in Israel-Palestine going through a process of ‘de-Zionisation’ and decolonisation. They argue that this will be achieved through activities and actions in solidarity with Palestinians to end the occupation, end privileges for Jews, and give Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 and 1967 the right to return. There is no consensus amongst the activists in these groups whether this will lead to one state — bilateral, consociational or some other model — or two states, but there is a consensus that these changes are necessary to bring about a just and peaceful solution.
While such perspectives stand well outside of Israeli mainstream opinion, these groups were selected because they offer an interesting but under-researched dimension of activism in Israel-Palestine: that of Jewish-Israeli anti-Zionism. Research on anti-Zionism has tended to link it with, or at least always analyse it in conjunction with, anti-Semitism despite the fact that within the Jewish community anti-Zionism has as long a history as Zionism. And when it comes to studies of Jewish anti-Zionism,there has been a tendency to focus on ideas not activist groups, with more recent expressions of this intellectual current being referred to as ‘post-Zionist’. There are actually very few studies that specifically focus on Jewish-Israeli anti-Zionist activism. This research therefore seeks to fill this gap. Zochrot is not a Jewish-only organisation,but the majority of its activists are Jewish — and its activities are directed at the Hebrew-speaking Israeli public. BfW was set up by Jewish-Israelis to offer solidarity and support from within Israel for the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions(BDS) movement.
The methodology for this research, which is ongoing, is a qualitative one: employingin-depth interviews with activists from both Zochrot and BfW, analysis of their writings, observations of their social media activities, and attendance at their events over the past two years. All of the interviewees have been anonymised. The theoretical framework employed in this article is the product of three concepts that intersect in my analysis of these activists. The first two concepts employed are hegemony and counterhegemony, and their use stems from the theoretical premise that social reality is constantly created and re-created through a process of contestation. This conceptualisation captures the activists’ self-definition of their perspective as constituting actions aimed at opposing, ‘reframing’ and ‘counter-branding’ Zionism. Using this conceptual framework also ensures that Zionist hegemony is not reified, but is understood as being constituted through a constantly shifting process of creation and recreation, riddled with contradictions, and subject to critique — all of which can lead to social change. The third important concept in this research is praxis, which is here regarded as constituting a dialectical trilogy — made up of analysis (how to understand the conflict and its solution), alliances (who to work with and why) and actions (what type of activities and why).
The article is divided into four sections. Section one outlines the theoretical under-pinnings and conceptual framework of this research. Section two analyses Zionism as the hegemonic order in Israel understood as being constituted by both an ideational moral geography and structural legal-political privileges. The history and praxis of Zochrot and BfW are unpacked in section three — including an analysis of their similarities and differences. The article concludes in section four by briefly exploring the response of the Israeli state and other supporters of Zionism to these activists and their critique.
Read Mandy Turner’s full paper here:
Creating a counterhegemonic praxis: Jewish-Israeli activists and the challenge to Zionism, Conflict, Security & Development, (2015)
