Zionism

Zionism is the brand of Jewish nationalism that sought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Zionism is not a unified ideology but a cluster of movements and ideas, all of which share the belief that the Jews are an ethnic and not merely a religious group and that Palestine (the Land of Israel) is the Jewish homeland. An international Zionist Organization was established in 1897. Building on Jewish religious attachment to the Holly Land, the Zionist movement promoted the colonization of Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish “national home” there. The growth of a Zionist community in Palestine under the British Mandate for Palestine and Jewish triumph over the Palestinians in the war of 1948 culminated in the establishment of Israel, defined as a Jewish state. Zionism was also a movement of cultural revival, which sought to shape a new, Hebrew, national culture and a “new Jewish man.”