Zionism and Semitism are different things

F. Ponce de León

It’s important to pay attention to the words. Many of the lies that the venal media have let pass about the ongoing massacres in Palestine are based on the idea that Zionism and Semitism mean the same thing. And that is simply not true – strictly speaking, there is a gulf between the two terms.

The word Semitism derives from Semitic, a term that dictionaries characterize as follows: “Individual of the Semites, an ethnographic and linguistic family, originating in western Asia, and comprising the Hebrews, the Assyrians, the Aramaics, the Phoenicians, the Arabs.”

The term Zionism, in turn, can be defined as follows: “Jewish political and religious movement that began in the 19th century, which aimed to re-establish a Jewish State in Palestine, and which became victorious in May 1948, when the State of Israel was proclaimed.”

So, unlike Semitic, an umbrella term that designates more than 6% of the world’s population, the term Zionist designates an ideological affiliation, a political current.

Israeli rulers are deeply anti-Semitic. For example, racist ideas against Palestinians (and Arabs in general) are taught in schools and circulate openly in Israeli public opinion (e.g., Sayed Kashua: why I have to leave Israel). Based on the criminal occupation of Palestinian lands and a pile of corpses that never stops growing, Israeli society is today governed by what is perhaps the most racist, most paranoid, most cynical and most belligerent state in the world.

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PS. Full version of this article (in Portuguese) can be read here.