Published: 5 May 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Zionist youth must fight for a society of high moral standards, whether they are engaged in educating, advocating, donating, or migrating.
What am I, a young, progressive Zionist, meant to say when the country I love is falling apart? What can I, as an individual in Australia, do in response to the enormous threat to democracy in Israel? How can I stay true to my progressive, Zionist values when the fabric of Israel’s liberal and Zionist identity is being challenged in its foundational institutions?
The Israeli government would like us to believe that judicial independence is a threat to democracy; that the right of return should not be guaranteed to all; that some citizens or residents of Israel and the West Bank are more equal than others; that discourse which promotes settler violence and terrorism has a place in Israeli society; that religion should play more of a role in Israel’s governance while religious freedom should not be guaranteed to all. While we should be celebrating the delay of the judicial overhaul legislation, we should not be fooled into thinking that the threats from this extremist government are over.
We must continue to remain careful of those who use Zionism to fuel hate and division and return the philosophy to the values on which it was founded. Theodor Herzl imagined a liberal democratic state that sat as an equal in the international arena. Chana Senesh imagined a home where Judaism flourished because of its powerful connection to land and commitment to socialist values.
Rav Kook imagined a nation free from the corruption that led to the demise of our autonomy in Eretz Yisrael during the Second Temple period. Rachel the Poetess imagined a land with gender equality, where all people worked to better the collective. Even Ze’ev Jabotinsky, on whose ideology the Likud party was founded, imagined a place where true democratic values thrived. Our Zionist forefathers and mothers must be turning in their graves at the state of our nation.
How could we let the movement for the physical, cultural and spiritual liberation of our people stray so far from what it was meant to be? What is our responsibility now, simultaneously allowing us to move forwards while bringing Israel back to its roots?
As aliyah is not an option for everyone, there are other significant ways to impact change from the diaspora. First, we must be loud. While we may not be entitled to vote in Israeli elections, we can be opinionated.
Zionist youth have always played an instrumental role in Israel’s development. They made enormous sacrifices to leave the comfort of their family homes for a vision of a better future for the Jewish nation. They built the Jewish state from the ground up, creating strong institutions embedded with both Jewish and democratic values. Today, they lead protests in Israel to save the state they worked so hard to create. But they cannot do it on their own.
Many Zionists today believe aliyah is a phenomenon of the past. Yet the most effective diasporic response to today’s crisis, which has long been brewing through the growing power of the Haredi Rabbinate, expansion of settlement activity in the West Bank, and democratic instability, is another wave of aliyah.
With an influx of progressive Jews while the right of return still protects our freedom to live in Israel, another wave of aliyah could utilise sheer demographic power to ensure that those championing the judicial reforms and other problematic policies do not return to the Knesset. Aliyah would allow us to enact change and create a larger voice of reason within Israeli society to slow down Israel’s shift to religious and conservative extremism.
However, aliyah on its own is not enough. This is why, in my youth movement, Netzer, we speak about Aliyah Nimshechet, continuous aliyah. It means not just immigrating to Israel and voting but becoming an active member of Israeli society in order to make a difference. Aliyah is undeniably scary, but it may be a necessary sacrifice to protect the nation we love.
we should embrace education as an act of resistance. We need to bring the progressive foundations of the Zionist movement into the foreground.
As aliyah is not an option for everyone, there are other significant ways to impact change from the diaspora. First, we must be loud. While we may not, and should not, be entitled to vote in Israeli elections, we can be opinionated.
Already, diasporic leadership has expressed outrage at the proposed reforms and grassroots movements across the globe are standing in solidarity with protest movements in Israel. A strong voice from the diaspora paints a picture of the effects these reforms will have on Israel-diaspora relations while showing support to our brothers and sisters in Israel and Palestine.
Second, we should embrace education as an act of resistance. For those who do not align or who do not yet know enough about progressive Zionism, we should foreground the progressive foundations of the Zionist movement, helping to build both stronger and more critical connections with Israel.
Third, we must be careful where we send our money. We should strive to support NGOs and grassroots movements who are on the front lines while ensuring not to give to agencies, political parties and organisations who support the government.
Finally, we must maintain hope. Hatikvah (the hope) sustained the Jewish people for thousands of years in the galut (exile) and we should not underestimate the power of hope and optimism in ensuring that the Zionist state does not lose sight of the values on which it was founded.
Many Jews today are under the illusion that the fight for a Jewish state is over. It’s not. Today, Instead of fighting for the establishment of a home for the Jews, we are fighting our own government for a state worthy of being a Jewish home.
We must rejoin the Zionist fight. And not just a fight for the bare minimum - for a stable democracy - but a fight for the highest moral standards. Whether by educating our friends, engaging in political advocacy, donating to Israeli NGOs, or, most significantly, by making aliyah and gaining a vote, the choice is ours.
Photo: Protesting in Tel Aviv against the Government's plans for judicial reform (Matan Golan/Sipa USA)
