Zionism is a settler-colonial ideology that was originally conceived by Theodor Herzl in the late 19th century as a “solution for the Jewish question.” It calls for the establishment of a Jewish nation-state in Palestine with a Jewish majority. Zionism is fundamentally a response to white supremacy and followed the logic that Jews needed to leave Europe to colonize Palestine in order to earn the approval of white Europeans. Its ethnocentric settler-colonial nature was evident from the start, despite several modern-day Zionists denying the movement as a racist colonial project. The founders of Zionism, however, were very open about it. In a letter to British colonizer Cecil Rhodes, Herzl writes, “You are being invited to help make history. It doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor; not Englishmen, but Jews. How, then, do I happen to turn to you since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial.” Vladimir Jabotinsky, an early Zionist leader, also describes Zionism as a “colonization adventure” in his essay Iron Wall.
Settler colonies, wherever they may be, employ and rely upon the same logic to justify and maintain their existence. The United States of America is a settler colonial entity founded upon the genocide and displacement of Native Americans and the appropriation and exploitation of their land. Philadelphia is built upon land which belongs to the Lenape peoples who were displaced by Quakers and other religious minorities that occupied the land in the late 17th and 18th centuries.
The State of Israel was established the same way, through the ethnic cleansing and displacement of the indigenous Palestinian population under the ideology of Zionism.
Both the USA and Israel relied upon the same white supremacist logic to establish themselves. This logic often began with the idea of terra nullius, which refers to the complete denial of Indigenous presence. Indigenous existence and connection to the land is also denied by the Eurocentric logic which measures rights to the land by the ability to quantify it as property and extract from it. This reasoning justifies the right of conquest and violently seizing the land by any means possible and the establishment of colonial legal institutions and systems which further deny indigenous rights to the land based on claims of supremacy.
Indigenous peoples across the world have taken up different forms of resistance against the multi-faceted violence of the settler state. Youth of Sumud is a Palestinian youth organization which formed in 2017 in the South Hebron Hills in response to ongoing settler violence against Palestinians in the area. They work on ensuring Palestinian presence and sovereignty over their lands by rebuilding demolished homes and villages, repopulating uninhabited areas, accompanying Palestinian farmers and shepherds to protect them from harassment, and several other forms of community care including raising bail funds for incarcerated Palestinians. In Lenape territory, organizations such as The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indians of New Jersey and the Native American House Alliance in Philly focus on fostering the welfare of Native American individuals by providing healthcare services, housing, economic security, as well as services and events which preserve Native American culture and traditions. Both organizations aim to acquire and preserve land and water areas. In a settler colony whose existence depends on the continued genocide and expropriation of indigenous peoples from their land, the preservation of culture and traditions is a form of resistance to the continual denial and erasure of native existence.