„What exactly is a #Zionist?

A Zionist is anyone, Jew or non-Jew, who considers the restoration of a Jewish state legitimate, having recognized the Jewish situation as one of oppression. The aim is to end this oppression so that Jews, like any other people, can regain their essence as free human beings. Or, put another way: anyone who welcomes the liberation of the Jew as a Jew.

Of course, no one is forced to be a Zionist. A non-Jew may consider something else more important or see it as contradictory. A Jew may think there is no obligation to feel a sense of belonging to one’s people, even if their people are in danger. Some may wish not to be Jewish and are slowly preparing for the assimilation of their children. Some may even care little for freedom itself, content in a state of semi-servitude, and only confront threats when they arise. Ultimately, it depends on what one can bear.

My readers already know that I never I have utterly condemned it. I don’t believe that nations are eternal, and the Jewish people may one day disappear. For me, belonging to a people doesn’t signify some mythical bond. And everyone’s freedom of choice is important to me, even if it often proves illusory.

But if someone believes, as I do, that it is important for the oppressed to regain control over their lives, if someone believes that this person must first recognize what they are and what their precise place is among humanity, and believes that, based on this recognition, they must then change their circumstances, then, as far as Jews are concerned, this person is a Zionist.

Of course, by being this way, one doesn’t abandon the great contemporary ideals of social justice and the equality of all people; on the contrary, one reinforces them.

However, by being this way, one doesn’t abandon the great contemporary ideals of social justice and the equality of all people; no, rather, one reinforces them. – Albert Memmi, Tunisian-Jewish left-wing Zionist, 1975.

As a Tunisian, a colonialist, a Jew, and a Frenchman, Albert Memmi is a hybrid, belonging to no one. Therefore, he felt called upon to examine racism and oppression in all their facets.

Albert Memmi, Tunisian-Jewish left-wing Zionist, born 1975.

As a Tunisian, colonialist, Jew, and Frenchman, Albert Memmi is a person of mixed heritage, belonging to no one. This is why he felt called upon to illuminate racism and oppression in all their facets.

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Zionism is Jewish Self-Defense ⚠️

„There are people who never tire of saying that we should open our doors, immediately return all territories occupied since the 1967 war, or even those occupied since 1947, and simply stop believing in Arab enmity. These people either don’t have much to lose by following their advice, or they are simply fools. Because it is a fact that many Arabs around the world, many of their leaders, are practically obsessed with Israel’s existence and quite seriously wish that Israel would be wiped off the map. Off the map they consider the foundation of a united, Greater Arab nation.

Many Arabs, however politically sincere they may be, have not grasped the significance and necessity of Zionism, i.e., a Jewish nation, as a fact. The same mistake that many people on the political left around the world make. If those Arabs and those leftists had…“ If they understood that Zionism is the expression of an entire people, the same expression that speaks from their own young nations, they would not talk such nonsense and would not stoke the hope of burning Israel to the ground. One cannot destroy the intentions of an entire people without striking at its very core.

I realize that this unambiguous aggression, this new Final Solution, would appeal to some. Others, however much they may consider themselves less radical and less hostile, argue in the same absurd way. They say: Israel exists, fine. But it should cease to be Zionist. This shows that they have understood the meaning of Zionism no more than the others. For if one wants to separate the Jewish Diaspora from Israel, one deprives Israel of all meaning. For Israel was created by and for the Jews in the Diaspora.

—Albert Memmi, Arab-Jewish left-wing Zionist, 1975.