Timeline of Anti-Zionism

This is a partial timeline of Anti-Zionism in the modern era, where Anti-Zionism is broadly defined as opposition to the idea of a Jewish state in historical Palestine or opposition to the modern State of Israel as defined as a A Jewish and Democratic State.

1850 - 1896

• 1850 - Edward Swaine writes Objections to the Doctrines of Israel's Future Restoration to Palestine, national pre-eminence, etc.
• 1879 - Kapper-Society founded in Austria
• 1885 - The Pittsburgh Platform, convened by Reform Judaism leaders Kaufmann Kohler and Isaac Mayer Wise, denounces Zionism, adopting the text: "We recognize, in the modern era of universal culture of heart and intellect, the approaching of the realization of Israel's great Messianic hope for the establishment of the kingdom of truth, justice, and peace among all men. We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state"
• 1891 - Jewish Colonization Association set up to facilitate settlement of Russian and Eastern European Jews in North and South America, but not Palestine

After the First Zionist Congress

• 1897 - General Jewish Labour Bund is founded in the Russian empire
• 1902 - The American Israelite calls Zionism a "pernicious agitation", and is used by a number of editorial contributors such as Rabbi David Philipson, Rabbi Moses Mielziner and Jewish history scholar Gotthard Deutsch to oppose Zionism, arguing that Judaism was a religion exclusively, and thus stateless
• 1903 - British Uganda Programme offered to the World Zionist Organization
• 1905 - Jewish Territorialist Organization splits off from the World Zionist Organization, in order to obtain "a large tract of territory (preferably within the British Empire) wherein to found a Jewish Home of Refuge" outside of Palestine
• 1905 - Folksgrupe founded in the Russian empire
• 1915 - Philosopher Hermann Cohen publishes Deutschtum und Judentum, an Anti-Zionist work which encouraged German Jews to assimilate
• 1917 - Edwin Samuel Montagu submits his Memorandum on the Anti-Semitism of the British Government in response to ongoing discussions around the Balfour Declaration, in which he states "Zionism has always seemed to me to be a mischievous political creed, untenable by any patriotic citizen of the United Kingdom" and outlines his four principles of anti-zionism
• 1917 - David Lindo Alexander, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Claude Montefiore, president of the Anglo-Jewish Association objecting to published statements of the Zionist leaders that "Jewish settlements in Palestine shall be recognized as possessing a national character " and the intention "to invest the Jewish settlers in Palestine with certain special rights in excess of those enjoyed by the rest of the population"

After the Balfour Declaration

• 1919 - Congressman Julius Kahn presents an anti-zionist petition to Woodrow Wilson ahead of the Paris Peace Conference, including the statement "…we protest against the political segregation of the Jews and the re-establishment in Palestine of a distinctively Jewish State as utterly opposed to the principles of democracy which it is the avowed purpose of the World’s Peace Conference to establish. Whether the Jews be regarded as a “race” or as a “religion,” it is contrary to the democratic principles for which the world war was waged to found a nation on either or both of these bases." The petition included signatures from over 300 prominent American Jews, including Henry Morgenthau, Sr. and Simon W. Rosendale
• 1919 - Reichsbund jüdischer Frontsoldaten founded in Germany
• 1924 - Jacob Israël de Haan assassinated by Haganah for his anti-Zionist political activities
• 1935 - Louis Fles writes Godsdienst, openbare school en Zionisme
• 1936 - Victor Alter of the General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland labels Ze'ev Jabotinsky antisemitic, writing "No, it is not we who are creating a sense of alienation between the Jewish masses and Poland; this is being attempted by those who have supported Jewish reaction wherever and whenever it occurs, who wish to turn the Jewish masses into a collective of fanatics who are alien to the ideology and struggles of Polish workers"

After the Biltmore Program

• 1942 - American Council for Judaism founded
• 1943 - Orthodox Hungarian rabbi, Yissachar Shlomo Teichtal, originally opposed to Secular Zionism, publishes Eim HaBanim Semeicha in Budapest under Nazi persecution which strongly advocates, on a religious basis, the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. He concluded that "Anti-Zionism was the root of evil befalling the Jewish people."
• 1944 - Philosopher Hannah Arendt publishes Zionism Reconsidered, writing "Only folly could dictate a policy which trusts a distant imperial power for protection, while alienating the goodwill of neighbours... If the Jewish commonwealth is obtained in the near future… it will be due to the political assistance of American Jews... But if the Jewish commonwealth is proclaimed against the will of the Arabs and without the support of the Mediterranean peoples, not only financial help but political support will be necessary for a long time to come. And that may turn out to be very troublesome indeed for Jews in this country, who after all have no power to direct the political destinies of the Near East."
• 1945 - Elmer Berger publishes The Jewish Dilemma, which argued that Zionism was a surrender to the racial myths about the Jews and that assimilationism was still the best path for the Jews in the modern world
• 1946 - The Jewish Anti-Zionist League founded in Egypt

After the founding of the State of Israel

• 1961 - Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum, leader of the Satmar Hasidim, publishes Vayoel Moshe, a robust castigation of Zionsim, in which he blames the Holocaust on the "idolatry of Zionsim".
• 1962 - Matzpen organisation founded in Israel
• 1967 - Maxime Rodinson publishes "Israel, fait colonial" in Jean-Paul Sartre's journal, Les Temps Modernes

After the Six Day War

• 1968 - Elmer Berger founds the American Jewish Alternatives to Zionism (AJAZ)
• 1970 - Ma'avak party founded
• 1972 - Aki Orr publishes The Other Israel: the Radical Case against Zionism
• 1973 - Trial of Revolutionary Communist alliance - Red Front members including Daud Turki, Udi Adiv and Dan Vered
• 1975 - United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 passed, which "determine[d] that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination"
• 1979 - Edward Said publishes The Question of Palestine
• 1980 - Naeim Giladi writes Ben Gurion's Scandals: How the Haganah and the Mossad Eliminated Jews
• 1983 - Noam Chomsky writes The Fateful Triangle
• 1983 - The USSR founds the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public, headed by David Dragunsky
• 1984 - Uri Davis joins Fatah
• 1984 - Alternative Information Center founded
• 1989 - Marc H. Ellis writes The Future of Dissent: a Reflection on What Shall I Do With This People? Jews and the Fractious Politics of Judaism
• 1990 - Thomas A. Kolsky writes Jews Against Zionism
• 1990 - Lenni Brenner and Stokely Carmichael found the Committee against Zionism and Racism

1994 to present

• 1994 - Israel Shahak writes Jewish History, Jewish Religion: the Weight of Three Thousand Years
• 2000 - Norman Finkelstein publishes The Holocaust Industry
• 2001 - Israel and the United States pull out of the World Conference against Racism 2001, also known as Durban I
• 2005 - Michael Neumann writes The Case Against Israel
• 2005 - Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign initiated
• 2006 - Yakov M. Rabkin publishes A Threat from Within: a Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism
• 2006 - Mondoweiss website launched
• 2006 - Ilan Pappé writes The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
• 2008 - Shlomo Sand publishes The Invention of the Jewish People
• 2008 - International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network founded
• 2010 - Former BBC and ITN journalist Alan Hart publishes Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews
• 2011 - Gilad Atzmon publishes The Wandering Who?

See also

• Timeline of Zionism
• Anti-Zionism