A debate over “leftist Zionism” has intensified ahead of Israel’s October 27 elections, after the youth wing of the newly formed Democrats party announced a joint campaign with Austria’s Young Greens.
Israel’s Young Democrats said the initiative would support “progressive voices on the ground and work with them towards a sustainable peace”. The partnership has placed renewed focus on whether Zionism can be reconciled with left-wing politics.
At the same time, Hamahanot Haolim, or the Ascending Camps, a youth movement described as leftist, is considering plans to establish a new kibbutz in the occupied West Bank near Jericho.
Ilan Gazit, the group’s director, said Israeli settlements were being built regardless and argued that left-wing Israelis should ensure they were populated by “Israeli leftists”, rather than far-right settlers.
“We aren’t ashamed of this, and we aren’t hiding it,” Mr Gazit said when asked about the possible impact on the Palestinian population.
The history behind Israel’s leftist Zionism debate
Supporters of the term “leftist Zionism” present it as a political identity combining Jewish nationalism with progressive views on social and economic issues. Critics, particularly from a Palestinian and anti-colonial perspective, argue that the two positions are fundamentally incompatible.
Zionism developed as an organised Jewish nationalist movement in 19th-century Europe, seeking to establish a Jewish national home. Its early advocates included Theodor Herzl, a secular Hungarian Jewish journalist whose politics were shaped by the growth of antisemitism in Europe.
Socialist factions later became influential within the World Zionist Organisation and early settler communities in Palestine. The movement used the language of socialism through institutions including kibbutzim, trade unions and political organisations, while pursuing Jewish nation-building in Palestine.
The central criticism is that this project led to the establishment and maintenance of a state based on Jewish supremacy, alongside the dispossession of Palestinians. Opponents of leftist Zionism say that this cannot be reconciled with principles including anti-racism, decolonisation, equality and social justice.
The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution in 1975 declaring that “Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination”. The resolution was revoked in 1991 following pressure from Israel and its allies and after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Labour Zionism and Palestinian exclusion
For much of Israel’s early history, the country was governed by parties that described themselves as left-wing. Mapai, founded in 1930 and led by David Ben-Gurion, was a leading force in the pre-state period and remained dominant in Israeli politics into the 1960s before being succeeded by the Labour Party.
Critics of Labour Zionism argue that its language of workers’ solidarity concealed institutions designed to exclude Palestinians. They point to the Histadrut trade union confederation, founded in 1920 as part of a policy intended to establish Jewish settlements and reduce reliance on Palestinian labour.
After 1948, Palestinian workers were excluded from membership or held an inferior status for decades, according to the criticism. Even where formal rights later applied, collective bargaining agreements in sectors such as construction were said not to be consistently implemented for Palestinian workers, whose employment remained unstable and informal.
The education system established by Labour governments has also been described by critics as a means of creating Jewish national consciousness while erasing Palestinian history and presenting settlement as national redemption.
Kibbutzim and moshavim, meanwhile, were central institutions of Labour Zionism. Critics say their locations and role during the 1948 conflict linked the settlement network to operations that depopulated nearby Palestinian villages.
Dispute over the political divide
The argument that Israel’s policies are primarily the result of its current far-right leadership is rejected by opponents of the leftist Zionist label. They say the occupation and Palestinian dispossession predate Benjamin Netanyahu and cannot be ended simply by changing the government.
For those critics, the distinction between left-wing and right-wing Zionism risks presenting the underlying system as a matter of policy rather than ideology. They argue that progressive parties abroad should instead listen to Palestinians and support political movements that describe Zionism as a racist, settler-colonial ideology rather than one that can be reformed.
