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Thursday, November 13, 1975
University Daily Kansan
What is Zionism?
Zionism is the love of Zion. Zionism is the Jewish people's liberation movement, the quest for freedom, for equality with other nations. Yet in an organization in which liberation movements are hailed and supported, the Jewish people's struggle to restore its independence and Sovereignty is maligned and slandered in an endless spate of malice and venom.
In his drive to annihilate the Jewish people, Hitler began by distorting the image of the Jew, by rewriting Jewish history, by fabricating some of the most odious historic and racial theories. The Arab governments, in their campaign to complete Hitler's crimes against the Jewish people and destroy the Jewish State, have adopted the same method of falsifying Jewish history, and in particular the meaning of the Zionist movement and the significance of its ideals.
What is Zionism?
When the Jews, exiled from their land in the seventh century before the Christian era, sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept, but also prayed and sought ways to go home, that was already Zionism. When in a mass revolt against their exile they returned and rebuilt the Temple and re-established their State, that was Zionism.
When they were the last people in the Mediterranean basin to resist the forces of the Roman Empire and to struggle for independence, that was Zionism.
When for centuries after the Roman conquest they refused to surrender and rebelled again and again against the invaders, that was Zionism.
When uprooted from their land by the conquerors and dispersed by them all over the world, they continued to dream and to strive to return to Israel, that was Zionism.
When, during the long succession of foreign invaders, they tried repeatedly to regain sovereignty at least in part of their homeland, that was Zionism.
When they volunteered from Palestine and from all over the world to establish Jewish armies that fought on the side of the Allies in the First World War and helped to end Ottoman subjugation, that was Zionism.
When they formed the Jewish Brigade in the Second World War to fight Hitler, while Arab leaders supported him, that was Zionism.
When Jews went to gas chambers with the name of Jerusalem on their lips, that was Zionism.
When in the forests of Russia and the Ukraine and other parts of East Europe, Jewish partisans battled with the Germans and sang of the land where palms are growing, that was Zionism.
When Jews fought British colonialism while the Arabs of Palestine and neighboring Arab States were being helped by it, that was Zionism.
Zionism is one of the world's oldest anti-imperialist movements. It aims at securing for the Jewish people the rights possessed by other nations. It harbors malice towards none. It seeks co-operation and understanding with the Arab peoples and with their national movements.
Zionism is as sacred to the Jewish people as the national liberation movements are to the nations of Africa and Asia. Even if the Arab States are locked today in conflict with the Jewish national liberation movement, they must not stoop in their attitude towards it to the fanaticism and barbarism of the Nazis. If there is to be hope for peace in the Middle East, there must be between Israel and the Arab States mutual respect for each other's sacred national values—not distortion and abuse.
Zionism was not born in the Jewish ghettoes of Europe, but on the battlefield against imperialism in ancient Israel. It is not an outmoded nationalistic revival but an unparalleled epic of centuries of resistance to force and bondage. Those who attack it attack the fundamental principles and provisions of the United Nations Charter.
ZION Jewish Student Organization (Hillel)
Therefore, we the Jewish Student Organization of the University of Kansas call upon all students and faculty who cherish and endorse the human, liberal and freedom seeking goals of the Jewish National Movement of Zionism to vigorously express their support to this call.
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Please Return to ZION c/o Jewish Student Organization (Hillel) Kansas Union, B107, Lawrence, Kansas