There has been a noticeable shift among some young American Jews regarding their attitude to Israel. In short, they are far more critical of Israel than their fathers or grandfathers. This seismic transformation, having brewed for years, has accelerated since the Hamas atrocities of October 7, 2023 and Israel’s ferocious military response, which degenerated into a fullblown war in the Gaza Strip nearly three weeks later.
The still ongoing Gaza war, the fifth since 2008, has produced a vicious anti-Israel and, at times, antisemitic backlash among Palestinian Americans and their supporters, who are determined to undermine and destroy Israel by “whatever means necessary.”
A small cadre of anti-Zionist Jews have rallied to their ranks, upsetting and annoying mainstream Jews who cherish and support Israel despite all its warts.
Oren Kroll-Zeldin, a professor of theology and the assistant director of the Swig Program in Jewish Studies and Social Justice at the University of San Francisco, explores this theme rigorously in Unsettled: American Jews and the Movement for Justice in Palestine (New York University Press).
The book was published last year, but oddly enough, the events of October 7 go unmentioned. Still, the author has plenty of material to work with as he discusses the phenomenon of American Jewish solidarity with Palestinians. The proponents of this marginal position have one thing in common. They strongly believe that the Jewish community should consistently apply its usually liberal and progressive values to Israel.
Judging by the tone and substance of his book, a thorough examination of anti-Zionism among Jews, Kroll-Zeldin himself is an anti-Zionist. The scion of a Zionist family, he implicitly identifies himself as a member of that camp when, in the first few pages, he states that a growing number of Jews refuse to support “Israel’s policies of occupation and apartheid.”
The groups at the centre of his narrative are Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, and All That’s Left: Anti-Occupation Collective. They challenge the American Jewish Establishment’s “unwavering commitment to Israel and Zionism through their participation in the Palestine solidarity movement.”
Hewing to the belief that their activism is an intrinsic Jewish value, they endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and lock horns with Jewish institutions, which maintain the status quo with respect to Israel.
“Ultimately, my argument is that young American Jews are engaging in Palestine and anti-occupation activism as a way to demand the consistent application of values in all situations — not to be ‘progressive except for Palestine,’ but rather to uphold liberal, progressive and democratic values across all contexts, even in the case of Israel.”
Referencing The Crisis of Zionism, a book written by the Israel critic Peter Beinart in 2012, Kroll-Zeldin exposes the double standards of mainstream organizations, which invariably demand that their members “check their liberalism at Zionism’s door. Now, to their horror, they are finding that many young Jews have checked their Zionism instead.”
As far as these individuals are concerned, Beinart’s prophetic warning has borne fruit because they understand “the dissonance” between their liberal/ progressive values and the actions of the Israeli government.
According to the author, the “three pillars” of their participation in the Palestine solidarity movement rest on Palestinian “liberation,” the end of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and of its “policies of apartheid,” and the “liberation” of Judaism from Zionism.
It’s not entirely clear what he means by Palestinian “liberation,” but he is presumably referring to a one-state solution, which the vast majority of American and Israeli Jews fiercely oppose. In this sense, he is advocating a policy that is strictly on the margins of the Jewish community.
Kroll-Zeldin argues that younger generation Jews are more critical of Israel for at least two reasons. They are far removed from the trauma of the Holocaust, which is inextricably linked to Israel’s creation. They are not personally consumed by two major events: the Israel that seemed imperilled on the eve of the 1967 Six Day War and the Israel that was attacked by two Arab armies during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Kroll-Zeldin has come a long way.
Raised in Los Angeles in a Reform family with “a rich tradition of support for Zionism,” he received a traditional Jewish education and was “imbued with Zionism in every Jewish educational context I experienced.”
Unlearning Zionism was a “long and hard process,” he writes.
“While I was taught that Zionism was about liberation for Jews, I was unaware that Jewish liberation in Israel was predicated on the oppression and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. I was horrified when I understood the implementation of Zionist policies in Israel as a form of ethno-nationalism and that Israel, as a Jewish state, requires a demographic majority of Jews at the direct expense of the Palestinian population.
“Learning about Palestine introduced a cognitive dissonance between my values and Israel’s actions that I could not reconcile … Integral to my process of unlearning Zionism was meeting and befriending Palestinians.”
Looking back at his Jewish day school education, Kroll-Zeldin thinks he received a “one-sided and incomplete” account of Israeli history. It “omitted Palestinian narratives, demonizes Palestinians and delegitimizes their claims.”
In his opinion, many young American Jews are unwilling to adopt a worldview that requires an unwavering support for Zionism at the expense of the rights of the Palestinians.
The Birthright travel program, which provides free trips to Israel for such a cohort, perpetuates these myths, he claims.
He regards BDS as a non-violent movement to resist Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, promote the full equality of Israeli Arabs, and respect the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their former homes in what is now Israel. While he understands that the right of return is a demographic step toward Israel’s destruction as a Jewish state, he maintains that its future must be predicated on justice for Palestinians.
His argument in this respect is weak, at least from a liberal Zionist perspective. He does not recognize the potential utility of a two-state solution, which the current Israeli government equally opposes, and he implies that Israel’s flaws are so egregious that it does not deserve statehood. As an anti-Zionist, his view is hardly surprising.
In summary, he delivers an uncompromising message.
“Young Jews in the United States increasingly understand Israel’s treatment of Palestinians as a moral and ethical disaster and are waking up to the role that their communities play in upholding Israel’s occupation and its policies of apartheid. As a result, they are rising up in dissent, working toward ending American Jewish support for the occupation while also actively participating in and influencing the global Palestinian solidarity movement.”
It is difficult to see how anti-Zionist Jewish activists in the United States will alter Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians. This kind of radical change can only occur if the United States, Israel’s chief ally, exerts unrelenting pressure on Israel to alter its positions, or if Israelis elect a government seriously interested in and committed to a just and viable two-state solution.
American Jews like Kroll-Zeldin are vocal in their rejection of Israel, but it is doubtful whether their protests will lead to an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank or bring the Palestinians any closer to statehood.