For decades, public discourse has been warped by the claim that to oppose Zionism is to be antisemitic. This conflation has silenced dissent, justified state violence, and stigmatized critics. Yet Jewish voices themselves have long rejected this distortion, insisting that Zionism is not Judaism and that opposing a colonial ideology is not hatred of a people.
The First Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress, convened in response to Israel’s escalating campaign in Gaza and the West Bank, has re-centered the issue. Their declaration reminds the world that Zionism is a political project rooted in colonialism, racial supremacy, and dispossession, not an expression of Jewish faith or culture.
As a follower of Christ, though not ethnically Jewish, I approach this issue as one who has been grafted into the true Israel of God (Rom. 9:6–8). Christ’s teachings proclaim equality, humility, and mercy—not domination or ethnic privilege. Zionism, far from fulfilling Scripture, violates the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount.
Early Rabbinic Opposition
From its inception in the late 19th century, Zionism faced fierce rabbinic resistance. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808–1888), a towering Orthodox leader, rejected any attempt to create a Jewish political nation, insisting that Jews were bound by divine covenant, not territorial nationalism.¹ Likewise, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum of Satmar denounced Zionism as a rebellion against God’s will, arguing in his book VaYoel Moshe (1959) that establishing a Jewish state before the coming of the Messiah violated Torah.²
The anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta still embodies this position today, maintaining that Jews must live in peace with their neighbors and await divine redemption rather than seize land through violence.³
Secular Resistance: The Bund
Alongside religious opposition, secular Jews also resisted Zionism. The Jewish Labor Bund, founded in 1897 in Vilna, insisted that Jewish flourishing was possible wherever Jews lived. Their slogan—“Where we live, there is our homeland”—directly rejected Herzl’s nationalist project.⁴ Bundists fought for workers’ rights, Yiddish culture, and integration rather than colonization.
The Balfour Declaration and Mandate Palestine
In 1917, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, promising support for a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine. Yet the land was overwhelmingly Arab at the time—90 percent Muslim and Christian, with Jews a small minority.⁵ This imperial promise, made without Palestinian consent, sowed the seeds of dispossession.
During the Mandate period (1920–1948), Zionist militias—including the Irgun and Haganah—carried out violent campaigns to expel Palestinians, culminating in the Nakba of 1948, when over 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes.⁶ Historian Ilan Pappé documents at least 31 massacres during this period, demonstrating systematic ethnic cleansing.⁷
Contemporary Resistance
Today, organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace, Breaking the Silence (an Israeli veterans’ group), and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network continue this tradition, affirming: “Not in our name.” Their voices echo the long history of Jewish opposition to colonialism, reminding the world that Zionism does not equal Judaism.
Defining Apartheid
Under international law, apartheid refers to an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression by one racial group over another. In 2022, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch both concluded that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians constitutes apartheid.⁸ The UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) issued a similar report in 2017.⁹
Practices include:
- Land confiscations and home demolitions
- Separate legal systems for settlers and Palestinians
- Military checkpoints and restricted movement
- Discriminatory access to water, healthcare, and education
Historical Parallels
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who fought apartheid in South Africa, declared after visiting Palestine: *“I have witnessed the humiliation of Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like we experienced when young white police officers prevented us from moving about.”*¹⁰
Just as global solidarity dismantled South African apartheid, so too must the international community confront Zionism’s systemic oppression.
Judaism’s Ethical Mandate
Jewish Scripture commands justice for the stranger: “Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Deut. 10:19, AKJV). Leviticus echoes: “The stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself” (Lev. 19:34, AKJV).
By dispossessing Palestinians, Zionism betrays Judaism’s own ethical core. Rather than safeguarding Jewish survival, it cultivates resentment and endangers Jews globally by identifying them with colonial violence.
Christianity’s Universalism
The gospel of Christ dismantles ethnic privilege. Paul declares: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28, AKJV).
The Beatitudes redefine chosenness:
“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth… Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matt. 5:5, 9, AKJV)
Christ’s kingdom embraces all nations equally. Zionism, by contrast, enthrones ethnic supremacy, contradicting both Old and New Testament ethics.
Christian Theologians on Zionism
- John Stott, Anglican leader, warned against “Zionist literalism,” which misreads Scripture by treating ancient territorial promises as permanent political rights.¹¹
- N.T. Wright argues that Christ fulfills Israel’s promises, relocating chosenness from land and ethnicity to faith and discipleship.¹²
- Palestinian theologian Naim Ateek, founder of Sabeel, critiques Zionism as a distortion of God’s covenant: *“Any theology that legitimizes the occupation of land and oppression of people is not from God.”*¹³
IV. Zionism as Betrayal of Prophetic Tradition
The Hebrew prophets consistently condemned leaders who abused God’s name for violence. Jeremiah thundered: “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD” (Jer. 23:1, AKJV).
Ezekiel condemned false shepherds who “fed themselves, and fed not my flock” (Ezek. 34:2, AKJV). Zionism, which sanctifies dispossession in God’s name, stands under this same prophetic judgment.
The true covenant people are those who pursue justice, mercy, and humility (Mic. 6:8)—not those who practice colonization while invoking divine chosenness.
Zionist apologists often appeal to biblical promises of land. Yet two problems arise:
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Historical Discontinuity: From the Roman expulsion in 70 CE until the 20th century, Palestine was continuously inhabited by Arabs—Muslim and Christian. By the 1920s, Jews comprised less than 10 percent of the population.¹⁴
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Biblical Ethics: The Ten Commandments forbid theft: “Thou shalt not steal” (Exod. 20:15, AKJV). To displace indigenous people under a 2,000-year-old claim is theft, not covenant fulfillment.
Furthermore, New Testament writers spiritualize the land promise. Hebrews teaches that Abraham “looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10, AKJV). The promise points to Christ’s kingdom, not to territorial supremacy.
VI. The Universal Oath: From Mauthausen to Palestine
The Jewish Anti-Zionist Congress invokes the oath of survivors of the Mauthausen concentration camp, who pledged to fight imperialism and hatred among nations.¹⁵ To honor that oath today requires resisting Zionism, which replicates the logic of supremacy and exclusion that Jews themselves suffered under Nazism.
By aligning with Palestinians, anti-Zionist Jews fulfill that legacy, transforming memory of suffering into solidarity with the oppressed.
The way forward is neither endless war nor ethnic supremacy but shared justice. Palestinians and Jews must live together in equality, not under apartheid.
Christians are called to stand with all who resist oppression. To align with Zionism is to betray Christ’s gospel of love and justice. To oppose Zionism is to affirm the Beatitudes, the Ten Commandments, and the prophetic tradition.
God’s chosen people are not warmongers or colonizers but those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. It is faithfulness—to Judaism’s ethics, to Christianity’s gospel, and to universal human dignity.
Zionism is a political ideology rooted in colonialism and racial supremacy. Judaism is a faith rooted in covenant and justice. Christianity is a gospel rooted in grace for all nations. To confuse them is to obscure the truth.
The task of our generation is clear: join Jewish anti-Zionists, Palestinians, and people of conscience worldwide in declaring:
“Not in Our Name.”
Notes
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Samson Raphael Hirsch, Nineteen Letters on Judaism (New York: Feldheim, 1995).
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Joel Teitelbaum, VaYoel Moshe (Brooklyn: Satmar, 1961).
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Neturei Karta International, “Statement of Principles,” accessed September 2025, https://www.nkusa.org.
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Emanuel S. Goldsmith, Modern Yiddish Culture: The Story of the Yiddish Language Movement (New York: Fordham University Press, 1997), 83–85.
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Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood (Boston: Beacon Press, 2006), 32–35.
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Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947–1949 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
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Ilan Pappé, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (London: Oneworld, 2006).
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Amnesty International, Israel’s Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity (London: Amnesty International, 2022).
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UN ESCWA, Israeli Practices Towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid (Beirut: UN, 2017).
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Desmond Tutu, “Apartheid in the Holy Land,” The Guardian, April 29, 2002.
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John Stott, Issues Facing Christians Today (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1984), 176–78.
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N.T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2013), 1150–55.
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Naim Ateek, Justice and Only Justice: A Palestinian Theology of Liberation (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1989), 106.
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Walid Khalidi, Before Their Diaspora: A Photographic History of the Palestinians, 1876–1948 (Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1984).
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“Oath of Mauthausen Survivors,” Austrian Resistance Archive, accessed September 2025.
