Zionism is the movement that lobbied, advocated, and fought for the Jewish people to be given the Land of Israel to return to and make a homeland for themselves and future generations. The early Zionists – those who participated in the movement – also claimed the right to settle and govern their homeland. They maintained that the world was responsible for granting the Jewish people their historic homeland to create a state and that Jews from around the world had the right, opportunity, and even responsibility to move to the new Jewish state.
Zionism wasn’t only a movement; it was an ideology. As an ideology, Zionism was based on concrete principles that stemmed from Jewish tradition, historical facts, and international law. Zionism believed that God had given the Jewish people the Land of Israel as their land; the Jews’ continuous presence on the Land of Israel for more than 3,000 years gave them rights to the land over any other people; and the world powers’ consensus that the Jewish people should be given an independent state established international law in the favor of the Jewish people’s claim to the Land of Israel.
Philosophically, the concept of national rights is a fascinating topic of study. The idea of a nation has existed for thousands of years. Since the beginning of human existence, groups of people with qualities such as ethnicity or geography in common have formed together and created a nation.
As a nation, they form societal structures that are meant to secure the members of the nation, enhance their lives, and ensure justice for the nation. The government they form functions best when it advances the lives, rights, and happiness of those it governs. Each nation also claimed its own land and protected the land from other people who wished to take it from them.
Throughout history, nations have been formed and dissolved. The world has never established rules to determine what constitutes a nation and what doesn’t. Many arguments have been forwarded to negate a particular group’s claim that they constitute a nation. The arguments range from the group’s lack of geographical commonality to their claim that being a nation is too premature for the world to consider them a nation in the world.
Eighty years ago, the world formed the United Nations. According to the United Nations charter, once a nation applies for membership, “If the Security Council recommends the applicant state for membership, the General Assembly shall consider whether the applicant is a peace-loving state and is able and willing to carry out the obligations contained in the Charter and shall decide, by a two-thirds majority of the members present and voting, upon its application for membership.”
Centuries ago, the world began to entertain the notion that individuals deserve rights. As the world progressed, the rights that individuals deserved expanded, and the number of people who deserved rights also grew. At first, only Christian white men of a certain age merited rights, but as time went on, those rights extended to people of all religions, races, and genders.
The global recognition of human rights in the civilized world opened the question of whether nations deserved rights as well. If nations are groups of people who have banded together to enhance their own rights, it makes sense that to preserve those rights, secure themselves, and ensure justice for their people, the world should respect the rights of nations, just as they respect the rights of individuals.
The international community
THE INTERNATIONAL community has come together within the past few centuries to develop laws that govern the relationship between nations. These laws ensure that nations do not wage war, cheat, or mistreat each other.
The laws aren’t generated by a legislative body and enforced by an armed entity, but rather agreed upon through conventions and treaties between the nations. At times, and in certain situations, the global community will band together to enforce the violation of the laws and mistreatment of a nation through force.
When Saddam Hussein’s Iraq violated international agreements by invading Kuwait, the world stood up to him by the use of force. When Vladimir Putin’s Russia invaded Ukraine, the world took limited steps to object to Russia’s violation of international law in its invasion of Ukraine.
International law doesn’t mean that nations have rights; that topic is still up for debate. A law can be limited to an institution that is enforceable but doesn’t translate to a right that nations can enjoy or claim. There isn’t a consensus over whether nations have rights.
Those who claim nations have rights see international law as an extension of the rights that nations inherently enjoy. Those who claim nations have rights see the rights of individuals mirrored onto nations. They assert that nations have the right to exist, the right to independence, the right to be treated equally to other nations, the right to their own land, and the right to ensure that their rights are guarded from violation by other nations.
Many critics object to the concept of national rights and understand that international relations are governed more by power than justice. They claim that powerful nations determine which nations are given rights and are protected by those rights.
The Jewish people believe they deserve the same rights as any other nation. They maintain they deserve independence, to be treated like all other nations, and the right to their historic homeland, the Land of Israel. The Zionist movement lobbied other nations based on these beliefs until the world recognized the Jewish people as a nation with the right to exist and govern their own land.
The writer is a Zionist educator at institutions around the world and recently published a new book, Zionism Today.