Black Zionism: Difference between revisions

Long before the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, there was a Black Zionist tradition which envisioned the liberation and deliverance of those throughout the African diaspora using the book of Exodus. Later, Black Zionism was established with the quote; “not only a narrative of slavery, emancipation, and renewal, but with a language to critique America’s racist state since the biblical Israel represented a new beginning.” Quote: [https://www.versobooks.com/books/1825-letters-to-palestine|(Book: letters to palstine]

 

One of the main arguments of Black Zionists would be the precedent of U.S. settler-colonialism in the name of African American repatriation, through the emergence of Liberia. Liberia was a product of both white and black American interests. The American Colonization Society, supported by Abraham Lincoln and other prominent politicians, began sending freed black volunteers to Liberia in 1822. The African Civilization Society supported emigration to the West Indies, Mexico, and Liberia. However, Americo-Liberians, as African-American settlers became known, took control of indigenous West African land. Local people were excluded from citizenship until 1904. Liberia also supported U.S. business interests, and in order to exploit cheap labor reached a deal in 1926 with Firestone Tire and Rubber Company. By these actions, the Liberian government would receive military protection against hostile neighbors, and the U.S. government would gain a coveted naval post off the coast of West Africa. Black Zionists argues,that the case of Liberia reveals how the pathways of American capitalism, Racism and Neo-colonialism rerouted black freedom dreams(Thats the problem of Capitalism, not BLACK RACISM). The Black Zionist vision of a liberated homeland became a so-called "settler-colonial state" characterized by an exploitative ruling class, natural resource extraction, and a U.S. military outpost...as long as they call them..

 

===Black Zionists vs Zionists===

When Israel was founded in 1948, most black intellectuals did not see the state in settler-colonial terms, but rather as a nationalist effort which responded to the genocide of the Holocaust. The most conventional marker of the shift in black radical thinking about Israel coincided with the Arab-Israeli War of June 1967. The essay “The Palestine Problem” established a stance as seeing the war on Israel as a litmus test for black radicalism and internationalism. Then why do they hate Jews? Black Zionists are known(?) to have changed sides after the invasion of Egypt. In 1956, Israel was on the side of Britain and France in the invasion of Egypt under President Gamal Abdel Nasser. He positioned Israel as a “new form of colonialism,” arguing that Zionism had no legal or religious basis and was simply colonialism camouflaged though philanthropy and economic aid to developing nations. Malcom also charged that “zionist dollarism” drove 20th century imperialism. Black Zionists claim that as opposed to the “African-Arab Unity under Socialism” prescribed by Nasser, the United States and Israel crippled emerging independent African nations through capitalism and militarization.

 

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