A Brief History of Zionism

Zion is the name of a hill in ancient Jerusalem. The Jewish nationalist movement coined the term Zionism in the 1890s. Zionism got the big power backing it was looking for when Britain issued the Balfour Declaration on November 2, 1917. Arthur James Balfour, the British foreign secretary stated: “His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” This declaration became the major legal cornerstone for Zionist claims to Palestine. Two issues complicated things. At the time, 90% of Palestine’s population was Arab Muslim and Christian, and only 10% Jewish. And the British were signing away land that was not theirs.

Recorded at NYU.

Speaker: Zachary Lockman

Zachary Lockman is a professor of Middle Eastern Studies and History at New York University. He is the author of Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948 and Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism. He is a contributing editor to the Middle East Report.

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