Zionism is fundamentally a national liberation movement seeking self-determination for the Jewish people, based on shared cultural, familial, and historical ties to the land of Israel. Shaped by a profound religious bond to the land and a history of persecution, the movement advocating for the restoration of Jewish self-governance in their ancestral homeland has led to a thriving liberal, multicultural democracy called Israel. 

Since 1948, Israel has maintained its promise as a haven for Jewish refugees, as the national and religious Jewish homeland, and as the quintessential Middle Eastern melting pot for all its citizens regardless of ethnicity, religion, or original nationality. 

In 1975, The United Nations passed Resolutiong 3379, which falsely labeled Zionism as racism. This was spearheaded by the Soviet Union, which agreed to condemn antisemitism as part of a UN convention against racial discrimination, but only if Zionism was included as a form of discrimination. The body accepted this precondition, and so Resolution 3379 consequently stated that “Zionism is a form of racism.”

The Soviet Union was behind a slew of anti-Zionist propaganda we continue to see on university camuses and far left spaces. 

Although the UN repealed this resolution in 1991, the canard remains prolific today. 

Nation-states of self-determining peoples comprise our world, and many of those states profess a religious identity. Yet Israel remains the only country who is targeted on this question, and denied the right to exist, presenting a clear double standard.

Learn more about Soviet anti-Zionism and contemporary left antisemitism.