Revisionist Zionism

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Vladimir Jabotinsky
(mid-1930s)

The Revisionist Zionism is a civic, anti Socialist and radical direction of Zionism . The founder was Wladimir Zeev Jabotinsky , who saw himself as the true successor of Theodor Herzl , whom he admired . The revisionist faction wanted to review and reassess Zionism, which was dominated by Chaim Weizmann's world of thought. Weizmann, then chairman of the World Zionist Organization , was, in Jabotinsky's view, too little committed to a state of its own. The revisionists wanted to “revise” the British decision to separate Transjordan from the mandate for Palestine .

Historical roots

Wladimir Jabotinsky took part in the sixth Zionist congress in Basel in 1903 . This was the last Zionist congress that Theodor Herzl was able to attend personally. Among other things, his proposal for a constitution for the World Zionist Organization (WZO) and - mainly because of the pogrom of Chisinau - a settlement of the Jews in a separate national territory were discussed. In 1923 Jabotinsky founded the youth organization Betar ; the name is an acronym for Brit HaNoar HaIvri al schem Joseph Trumpeldor , "Hebrew Youth Association Joseph Trumpeldor ". In 1924 the sports association of the same name was founded. Jabotinsky saw himself as the true successor of Theodor Herzl. Like the latter, he considered the political and diplomatic struggle to take priority over cultural goals and emphasized the necessity of military struggle.

founding

In April 1925, Vladimir Jabotinsky founded the revisionist party. The revisionists saw themselves as the only ones who preserved the tradition that began with Herzl and Max Nordau , while the leadership of the ZWO continued to deviate from the original course. Jabotinsky had already formulated the program in 1924: The goal of Zionism was a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan, which was to be achieved through mass colonization and a national loan. The militarization of the youth in Eretz Israel is also necessary .

The revisionist wing was oriented towards bourgeois and national movements, partly also towards Italian fascism . With this he stood in opposition to the socialist tendency that was predominant in Zionism.

aims

Revisionist Zionism rejects the synthesis of socialism and Zionism. The desired new state should not be socialist, but bourgeois. He represented a faction within Zionism that advocated direct diplomatic and political efforts instead of arduous and protracted building work in Palestine. The aim of these efforts should be the fastest possible immigration and settlement of Jews in Palestine and the subsequent establishment of a Jewish state.

Revisionists are taking a hard line against the Arab population. Jews should never again be exposed to their tormentors helplessly, was her credo.

Jabotinsky assumed that the Arabs would always fight against Jewish settlement as they did not compromise territoriality and did not allow themselves to be bribed. From this he concluded that only a position of strength would deter the Arabs. He did not advocate expulsion of the Arabs, but integration, albeit in a Jewish state.

Ariadna Scriabin

history

Mandate period (1923–1947)

The uprisings of the Arabs of 1929 with the Hebron massacre and the riots in Safed led to the establishment of the first militant organization within revisionist Zionism, e.g. B. the Brit HaBirionim . These were rejected by the majority of the movement.

In 1930, Jabotinsky demanded that the World Zionist Organization should more emphatically represent the goal of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine with a Jewish majority and a Jewish military in relation to the British Mandate Government . He accused Chaim Weizmann of being too reluctant to implement the Zionist state idea.

In 1931 the Irgun Tzwaʾi Leʾumi were founded, which was initially considered to be the revisionist party army. Later it developed more and more into a military underground organization that propagated a politico-military actionism and became independent from the revisionist movement.

On September 12, 1935, Jabotinsky founded the “New Zionist Organization” in Vienna, the program of which was a Jewish state on both sides of the Jordan (according to the mandate of the League of Nations) and large-scale Jewish immigration. In addition, the Jewish diaspora in Europe should be dissolved. The culture of the new state should be based on Jewish values ​​and Hebrew should be introduced as the state language.

In contrast to the majority at the 20th Zionist Congress in Zurich , the revisionists rejected the plan submitted by the Peel Commission in 1937 to divide Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state . Not “land against peace”, but “peace against peace” was their watchword; for them, the historical land of Israel was identical to the whole of Palestine - on both sides of the Jordan.

Ariadna Scriabin, daughter of the Russian composer Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin , was one of the well-known activists from that time. In 1942 she founded the Jewish resistance movement in France in Toulouse. Another well-known representative since 1930 was Uri Zvi Greenberg , who was elected to the Knesset in 1949 as a member of the Cherut party.

Israel Prime Minister Menachem Begin 1978

In Israel (since 1948)

From 1948 onwards, the movement was mainly part of the Cherut party founded by Menachem Begin . Jabotinsky, who had died on August 4, 1940, was Begin's theoretical and practical role model.

The efforts of revisionist Zionism were reflected, among other things, in the Law of Return of July 5, 1950, which gave all Jews in the world the right to immigrate to Israel.

The Zionists' dream of finding a safe home through the establishment of their own Jewish state did not come true. In an environment hostile to them, the Israelis had to fight hard for their existence. There could be no talk of normality in life. In June 1967 Israel defeated the Arab alliance in the Six Day War and conquered further areas from Eretz Israel with the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula including the Gaza Strip , the Syrian Golan Heights and the West Bank annexed by Jordan . This triumph sparked a national and religious euphoria and revived the old Zionist spirit. In the course of this development, the discussion about the borders of Israel broke out again. At the same time, the Avoda, as the leading Zionist party, was challenged because of the reluctance to colonize the occupied territories. The settlement of the occupied territories is of central importance for radical Zionism. This development led the Likud to appoint the prime minister for the first time in 1977 and replace the socialist-Zionist movement in government.

Groupings

The following political groups profess revisionism:

  • Cherut , political party founded in 1948
  • Irgun Tzwaʾi Leʾumi , paramilitary unit, existed from 1931 to 1948
  • Betar , youth organization, founded in 1923
  • Likud , political party founded in 1973

literature

  • Yaacov Shavit: Jabotinsky and the Revisionist Movement, 1925-1948. Frank Cass, London 1988, ISBN 0-7146-3325-9 .
  • Joseph Heller: The Stern Gang: Ideology, Politics and Terror, 1940-49. Frank Cass, London 1995, ISBN 0-7146-4558-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Michael Brenner : The Development of Political Zionism according to Herzl , Federal Center for Political Education, March 28, 2008
  2. Ann-Kathrin Biewener: Secularization in the Holy Land? University of Potsdam, accessed on November 10, 2019 .
  3. ^ A b c Martin Kloke : The development of Zionism up to the founding of the state of Israel in European History Online , December 3, 2010
  4. Michael Wolffsohn : Politics in Israel, Springer-Verlag, ISBN 366305764X , p. 68f
  5. Eric Hobsbawm : The Age of Extremes. World history of the 20th century. Munich / Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-446-16021-3 , p. 170.
  6. a b c d Israel's settlement policy, foundations of the Middle East conflict. In: bornpower.de , accessed on March 30, 2018.
  7. Mordecai Naor : Eretz Israel. The 20th century. Könemann, Cologne 1998, ISBN 3-89508-594-4 , p. 187.
  8. ^ Knesset Members: Uri-Zvi Greenberg
  9. Eric Hobsbawm : The Age of Extremes. World history of the 20th century. Munich / Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-446-16021-3 , p. 152.
  10. ^ English translation of the law , Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.