The World Zionist Organization (WZO) and Zionism

Image credit: Yudkey, via Wikimedia commons

“… its definition of periphery is based on the 'GREATER ISRAEL PLAN.'
The northern region under its aegis, for example, include both the Golan and the Galilee.
It lists ... the northern Shomron and Jordan Valley, both in the West Bank."

I had thought of the WZO as an insipid, “parve” organization – one like the JNF or even the Jewish Agency. One that had ceased to have any real purpose once the State of Israel was declared and the right of Jews to return to the land was ensconced in law. The organization’s website cites a hodge-podge of vague aims and departments, most of them educational or meant to maintain ties between diaspora and Israeli Jews. Aliyah – the immigration of Jews to Israel — has its own department within the WZO, but even in the Aliyah corner, the offerings seem pale: a webinar here, a Hebrew ulpan there.

The truth of the matter is, living in Israel as I do, I rarely give any thought at all to the WZO. Once I’d moved here (with no help from the WZO), I was undoubtedly living the Zionist dream. But that dream was subsumed in the not-so-very-picturesque day-to-day work of cleaning up after cows, with a couple of weekly hours hoeing rows of cotton for fun after the milking was done. Ideology was replaced by learning to fix milking machines and treat mastitis.

Maybe because the WZO is so tangential to my life in Israel, I was taken aback on Thursday when the WZO called for annexation of the Jordan Valley.

It turns out the WZO is not, in fact parve or even non-partisan. It has a settlement division headed by a member of Bibi’s Likud party. Although the website of that division only states that it works to develop the “periphery,” it does not take a lot of digging to see that its definition of periphery is based on the “greater Israel” plan. The northern region under its aegis, for example, include both the Golan and the Galilee. It lists, in the areas in which it works, the northern Shomron and Jordan Valley, both in the West Bank.

And while I scroll through the site, it occurs to me that, if I had thought the idea of holding on to land by dotting it with small settlements was as outdated as Ben-Gurion’s haircut, I am reminded this model for planning is alive and well in the WZO. That strategy, developed to “grasp” land in areas where the population was primarily Palestinian, was also an answer to the young government’s problem of what to do with millions of refugees from Europe and North Africa. The resulting “development towns” gave rise to intractable discrimination that continues today. The idea that settlement would bring education and employment in its wake proved to be feeble and ultimately damaging. Yet the same model for planning, with little change, is being still promoted today by the WZO.

If I had thought the idea of holding on to land by dotting it with small settlements was as outdated as Ben-Gurion’s haircut, I am reminded this model for planning is alive and well in the WZO

Is the WZO simply a juggernaut too dated to be able to update the GPS? That is, does it require ever more land so that it may continue to serve its purpose of founding new settlements? Or has it become a blunt tool of right-wing politicians seeking justification for attempts at annexing land? The news report suggests both may be true.

Yaakov Hagoel, Chairperson of the WZO, was quoted in a statement that rolled smoothly over nearly six decades of conflict and attempts at peace: “Fifty-six years since we liberated Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley, and there’s still no sovereignty.”

That statement synced with the rhetoric heard in an event launching a new right-wing group in the Knesset dedicated to annexing parts of the West Bank. “The historical roots of the people of Israel are in the areas of Judea and Samaria, and the way to secure our place is to stand firm for our historical right to the Land of Israel,” said Likud MK Dan Illouz, implying that the existing State of Israel is somehow a bogus one, while taking our “right” to sovereignty farther back by a several thousand years and inflating it with a few lungfuls of hot air.

It might be rammed through the legislative process while those of us on the left are too busy protesting the erosion of our democracy

Beneath the rhetoric, however, is a sense among some on the right that the time is ripe to push for the annexation legislation that has been on hold for years. Relations with the US, which opposes settlement and annexation, are at an all-time low; sympathy for settlers within the country is at an all-time high. At best, it might be rammed through the legislative process while those of us on the left are too busy protesting the erosion of our democracy, and the Supreme Court, which could also veto annexation, is embattled.

Zionism, of course, was always about land, but it was about many other things, too.

It was about our peoplehood, our right to self-determination.

If Zionism equals annexation, then count me out. Call me an anti-Zionist.

It is not enough, anymore, for me to equivocate, to excuse the follies of Zionism, even as I cease to espouse its ideology.

Just don’t tell me this annexation is going to be done in my name.

Judy Halper is a member of a kibbutz in the center of the country. She has worked as a dairywoman, plumber and veggie cook, and as a science writer. Today she volunteers in Na'am Arab Women in the Center and works part time for Wahat al-Salam/Neve Shalom.