[News] Why we created the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism

[Anti-Imperialist News]

mondoweiss.net
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/08/why-we-created-the-institute-for-the-critical-study-of-zionism/>
Why we created the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism By Rabab
Ibrahim Abdulhadi <https://mondoweiss.net/author/rabab-ibrahim-abdulhadi/>
and Heike Schotten <https://mondoweiss.net/author/heike-schotten/> August
24, 2023
<https://mondoweiss.net/2023/08/why-we-created-the-institute-for-the-critical-study-of-zionism/>
------------------------------
[image: Palestine_anti_semitism_poster_800_528_90.jpg]

In recent years, the Israeli flag has increasingly appeared around the
world alongside racial supremacist political messaging– for instance, at
the January 6th riot
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/our-house-inside-maga-riot-rocked-america>
in Washington D.C., Hindutva rallies in India
<https://www.972mag.com/india-israel-zionism-hundutva/>, Nazi rallies in
Europe
<https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2017-08-04/ty-article/why-the-u-k-s-neo-nazis-are-posing-with-israeli-flags/0000017f-e746-df2c-a1ff-ff579fdb0000>,
and, most potently, in anti-Palestinian pogroms
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/01/nowhere-in-palestine-is-free-west-bank-villagers-defenceless-against-rising-settler-violence>
in the West Bank
<https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/15/middleeast/huwara-west-bank-settler-attack-cmd-intl/index.html>.
At this point, it could not be clearer that Zionism is a political ideology
tightly enmeshed with racism, fascism, and colonial dispossession. But the
conditions for studying and resisting Zionism are incredibly difficult
because Zionism has been framed by its proponents as “Jewish liberation,”
while opposition to Zionism has been historically framed as antisemitic (or
even, as the ADL habitually characterizes left-wing groups, framed in the
rhetoric of totalitarianism). College students studying settler colonialism
<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/15/uc-berkeley-israel-palestine-class-suspended-decal>
are deemed antisemitic. Antiracist organizers drawing links between U.S.
repression and Israeli repression are labeled antisemitic. Ethnic studies
teachers who include any content related to Palestine in classes are deemed
antisemitic.

Despite the false antisemitic labels used to smear research and teaching on
Zionism and Palestinian liberation, scholars and activists continue to
produce crucial new knowledge in these areas. A growing body of exciting
work is also looking at the work of Zionist politics and institutions in
seemingly unexpected domains, from surveillance
<https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/07/spain-lack-of-cooperation-from-israel-on-pegasus-spyware-firm-highlights-impunity/>
to education <https://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/israel2/ISRAEL0901-01.htm>
to farming
<https://www.academia.edu/89697727/Israel_Guatemala_and_the_agricultural_roots_of_an_authoritarian_internationalism>,
and critically analyzing how Zionist logics are reproduced and utilized in
ideas and arguments about race
<https://m4bl.org/statements/end-us-complicity-in-israels-abuses-of-palestinians/>,
policing
<https://magazine.scienceforthepeople.org/vol24-2-dont-be-evil/slapdsc-pym-roundtable/>,
land usage
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/colonial-chutzpah-jewish-national-fund>
and climate change, and neoliberal capitalism
<https://al-shabaka.org/op-eds/palestine-how-western-aid-enables-israels-colonialism/>.
Extending well beyond the academy, this research is being undertaken by
activists and organizers as well, in the United States
<https://deadlyexchange.org/>, Palestine
<https://www.birzeit.edu/en/news/birzeit-university-organizes-study-day-rise-far-right-and-right-wing-populism-israel>,
and around the world
<https://sojo.net/magazine/june-2023/christian-zionism-takes-root-latin-america>who
are directly confronting these systems of surveillance and repression.
[image: A logo depicting a green-colored circle with black edges. Overlaid
on top of the green are the words "Institute for the Critical Study of
Zionism" on the right, while on the left side of the circle is an
illustration of cactus plants that represent Palestinian steadfastness and
resilience.]The logo of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism
(Photo courtesy of authors)

Embracing this growing body of work, the Institute for the Critical Study
of Zionism <https://criticalzionismstudies.org/> moves beyond the
conventional conception of Zionism as a narrowly Jewish project and instead
engages it as a combined political/ideological project with its own
institutional infrastructure and set of repressive agendas. Of course, the
Palestine liberation movement as a whole (which includes anti-Zionist
Jewish scholars and activists) has long theorized and argued against
efforts to conflate Zionist politics and ideology with Jews or Jewishness.
The Institute arises from that long history of struggle. In academia in
particular, extending the study of Zionism beyond its presumed exclusive
location in Jewish studies is a necessary intervention that refocuses on
Zionism as a political, ideological, racial, and gendered knowledge project
whose structural consequences include, but are not limited to, the
colonization of Palestine. By taking its place alongside Decolonial
Studies, Settler Colonial Studies, Critical Ethnic Studies, Gender and
Sexuality Studies, Critical Disability Studies, and related scholarship and
activism, Critical Zionism Studies does not simply interpret the world but
also works to change it.

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Studying Zionism through such a comprehensive lens means, for instance,
looking at the role of Zionist institutions in arenas beyond Palestine as
well as the range of Jewish communities, organizations, and institutions
where it is not as readily transparent. Critical Zionism Studies means
examining how Zionist interventions move capital and shape the material
conditions of life and death–in Palestine, North America, and beyond.
Critical  Zionism Studies means considering how Zionist politics form and
influence common sensibilities about race, identity, and the possibility of
shared liberation. Critical Zionism Studies means
<https://m.facebook.com/AlQawsorg/videos/beyond-propaganda-reorienting-anti-pinkwashing-organizing/407241884004906/?__so__=permalink&__rv__=related_videos>
interrogating
<http://alqaws.org/articles/Beyond-Propaganda-Pinkwashing-as-Colonial-Violence?category_id=0>
how
<https://www.academia.edu/89122225/TERFism_Zionism_and_Right_Wing_Annihilationism_Toward_an_Internationalist_Genealogy_of_Extinction_Phobia>
sex/gender/sexuality are inflected, organized, directed, and contained in
and through Zionist political and ideological projects. And this research
is already happening, albeit on the rocky, uphill terrain
<https://ccrjustice.org/the-palestine-exception> of repressive conditions
fostered and perpetuated by Zionist institutions. The Institute intends to
counteract this repression by allocating space, resources, and visibility
to Critical Zionism Studies, supporting and amplifying it through
fellowships, conferences, and publications that will extend the reach of
academic and activist knowledges into popular culture.

This task has never been more urgent, given the constant and intensifying
attacks on critical Zionism research and activism, especially in North
American and European universities. Departments of Jewish Studies and
Israel Studies have all too frequently either spearheaded these attacks or
served as the terrain wherein Zionist institutions try to assert control
over knowledge
<https://www.chronicle.com/article/when-gifts-come-with-strings-attached>
about Zionism and police the permissible boundaries of critique. By
contrast, the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism is financially
and politically transparent and grounded in grassroots spaces, offering an
intellectual and political home for academics and activists across
institutions and cultural sites. The Institute is a response to the
pressing need to declare space, distribute resources, and galvanize the
necessary dialogue, research, and pedagogical approaches that will
constitute the knowledge bases of Critical Zionism Studies. As recent
research
<https://www.academia.edu/43046935/Whose_University_Academic_Freedom_Neoliberalism_and_the_Rise_of_Israel_Studies_>
has clearly shown, the rise of Israel studies in academia has been directly
linked to Zionist donor-driven initiatives, as exemplified by the Tikvah
Fund’s financing of lectureships
<https://jewishcurrents.org/the-israeli-far-rights-man-in-princeton>,
student fellowships, and events intended to “leverage”
<https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/conservative-money-and-jewish-studies-investigating-the-tikvah-fund/>
universities’ prestige and resources. This approach has been encouraged by
the Israeli state as a strategic soft-power effort to enlist popular,
political, and diplomatic support (in much the same way as the Israeli
Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sought to build a base of LGBTQI+
supporters of Israel
<https://medium.com/@nellybassily/from-pinkwashing-to-pinkwatching-palestinian-queer-resistance-26b7e44447e3>
or undermine the call for BDS in the United States).

Students and faculty who insist on critically examining Israel and the
foundational politics that undergird it, or who reject the notion that
Zionism is simply a point of view rather than a mode and structure of state
violence, have regularly been penalized and punished for, allegedly,
“stifling academic freedom.” Yet it is anti-Zionist critics and scholars
whose academic freedom has been violated. University administrations are
often influenced by wealthy donors as well as the rhetoric produced within
Israel Studies department
<http://www.ijan.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/IJAN-Business-of-Backlash-full-report-web.pdf>s.
By contrast, scholars studying the politics and impacts of Zionist
institutions– especially those who center Palestine–are subjected to
silencing <https://palestinelegal.org/news/fatima-mohammed-media-roundup>,
retaliation
<https://www.chronicle.com/article/why-i-was-fired/?sra=true&cid=gen_sign_in>,
and other
<https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2022/03/21/palestinian-scholar-accuses-sfsu-broken-contract-promise>
repressive
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-university-dismisses-antisemitism-claims-against-psychology-professor>
measures
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/legal-battle-ends-larger-struggle-continues-professor-denied-tenure>,
adversely impacting their safety and livelihoods. These sanctions are meted
out beyond the academy, by Zionist institutions, and, all too often, within
it, by university administrators
<https://mondoweiss.net/2022/05/grieving-against-the-neoliberal-universitys-collusion-with-apartheid-israel-zionist-donors-and-private-tech-companies/>
hamstrung by a combination of Zionist bullying and neoliberal imperatives
of diversity, equity, and inclusion that conflate Jewish, Israeli, and
Zionist “identities” as vulnerable subjectivities in need of protection.
The Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, working with scholars
across fields, including but not limited to Jewish Studies, challenges the
assumption that Jewish Studies—and, more obviously, the study of
Zionism—must necessarily be pro-Zionist and overseen by Zionist faculty. A
key part of the Institute’s work is to support resistance to the onslaught
of campaigns seeking to equate the critique of Zionism with antisemitism.
This tired tactic is increasingly the only means left to discredit the
growing grassroots support for the Palestine solidarity movement,
especially since claims like “Palestinians want to ‘throw the Jews into the
sea’” have lost credibility <https://www.proquest.com/docview/195261631>
and apologists for Israel’s escalating anti-Palestinian violence are
increasingly unable to defend or justify them.

As academic workers, activists, and grassroots organizers who have already
contributed to research on Zionism, both within the Palestinian context and
beyond, we come together in committed support of this work (see the
founding organizing collective here
<https://criticalzionismstudies.org/people/>). The Institute is explicitly
anti-Zionist, anti-racist, and anti-colonial, and is strictly committed to
abiding by the BDS picket line, established by the 2005 call from
Palestinian civil society. The Institute seeks to create an intellectual
and political community grounded in solidarity with and dedicated to
uplifting the voices, experiences, and lives of those most harmed by
Zionism, understood as a broad set of colonial and repressive networks
acting against dissenting peoples and movements. The points of unity
<https://criticalzionismstudies.org/points-of-unity/> below unite the
Institute’s activist and academic members. Starting from this common ground
allows for study, debate, and true academic freedom to pursue critical
anti-Zionist research unhampered by constant derailing demands, bullying,
smearing, and distractions. Perhaps most importantly, it allows the work to
begin without having to declare or justify its first principles, which are
a decisive rejection of the animating values of the neoliberal colonial
university.

   - *Zionism is a settler colonial racial project. Like the United States,
   Israel is a settler colonial state. *The Institute opposes Zionism and
   colonialism.
   - *Studying Zionism – its direct work for the Israeli state and its
   “other work” –  is politically necessary. *The rigorous, transnational
   study of Zionism as a political ideology and practice, and of Zionist
   institutions as political actors, is necessary for political pursuits from
   democracy to decolonization.
   - *Academic research is not politically or morally neutral. *The
   Institute’s research aims to interrogate and intervene in racism,
   colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and the appropriation of liberatory rhetoric
   by repressive political forces, among other harms.
   - *We join in resistance to structures of racism, group supremacy,
   violence, militarism, colonialism, and capitalism. *The Institute works
   in conjunction with interconnected movements, led from below, for justice
   and self-determination. Researching the role that Zionism plays in
   struggles over racism and violence advances those movements. Neither
   studying nor criticizing Zionism is anti-Jewish.
   - *Research on power must center the narratives and perspectives of
   those it dominates. *The Institute’s project is to support research from
   below, produced by a community led by people who are the targets of Zionist
   and state repression, with a research agenda determined in collaboration
   with communities resisting repression.
   - *We reject the exclusionary/scarcity model of academic work. *US
   academia is an exclusionary environment, and it is additionally
   exclusionary for those engaging critically with Zionism. We reject academic
   professional success as a measure of the value of our colleagues’ research,
   ideas, and participation. Instead, we aim to broaden the community of
   participation in rigorous research and conversation on Zionism, ensuring
   that it includes and uplifts students, junior and contingent faculty,
   activists, and communities whose lives are shaped by Zionist institutions’
   political work.
   - *We protect each other by working accountably together. *Researchers
   and activists are subjected to different levels of repression. We protect
   each other by adhering to shared security protocols and using less
   vulnerable voices to protect more vulnerable voices.

This October, an upcoming bicoastal conference
<https://criticalzionismstudies.org/2023conference/>, “*Battling the ‘IHRA
definition’: Theory & Activism*,” will officially inaugurate the Institute. The
conference will bring together scholars and activists for dialogue and
organizing sessions and to share analysis and critiques of the
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of
antisemitism, which serves as both a tool of and a shield for repressive
state power. We encourage activists and academics alike — all those who are
battling the IHRA definition, including students, researchers, faculty, and
organizers — to join the Institute’s mailing list
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1vsp_5o0OOyrDXtdejbMCK9Qm5ys845TeX-MyTQ7EI-c/viewform?edit_requested=true>
to keep up with and support our work. If you’d like to be in touch or get
involved in other ways, you can also email us at
info at criticalzionismstudies.org.
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