Some people are talking about discarding Zionism, but can Zionism be “discarded” (or “stopped”)? And, if it can, then how?
To answer that question one first needs to understand what the word “Zionism” means in this context.
While there are many books and articles about the philosophy and history of Zionism and associated with it phenomena and events, the practical meaning of “Zionism”, in the context of “stopping” it, is very simple — Zionism is a property development project of creating a Jewish state in Palestine.
And, like all property development projects, the Zionist Project has 5 stages:
Once all the above stages are complete, a development project comes to an end — and this is the meaning of “stopping Zionism”.
So, why over 60 years after the creation of the State of Israel people are still talking about “stopping Zionism”? Has not the project been completed?
To answer that question we need to consider the five stages of the Zionist development project and what is the state of these stages today.
The site selected for the Zionist Project is an area called “Palestine”, that is the land between the Mediterranean Sea on the west, the River Jordan on the east, Lebanon on the north, and Egypt on the south. So far the development had been carried out only on a part of that area due to problems with Stages 2 and 3 of the project.
In the early days of the Zionist Project some parts of Palestine had been purchased from the then owners, but in 1947–48 some previous owners had been expelled by force, which has resulted in the “Middle East Conflict”. And in 1967 still further areas were occupied by military force, thus extending the conflict.
This conflict prevents completion of the Zionist Project.
In addition to those expelled there are also non‐Jewish residents who remained on the land, and their presence conflicts with the aim of the Zionist Project to establish a “Jewish state”.
In addition to acquiring a development site, developers need to ensure that no “third party” has a claim against the land. Such claims can be either contractual, like tenancies or leases, or “established customary uses”, like people customarily living on land owned by others or having rights of passage or some other use over it.
To be able to carry out a development the developer needs to “extinguish” such rights, usually by buying them out.
In Palestine, in addition to non‐Jewish Palestinians owning land, there were also many Palestinians who had rights of customary residence and Bedouins who had rights of use. Failure to acquire these rights prevents completion of the Zionist Project.
Carrying out construction on land not fully owned by the developers or not free from third party claims makes such development illegal. And this prevents the completion of the project.
Populating land not fully owned by the developers or not free from third party claims makes such activity illegal. And this prevents the completion of the project.
Thus, we see that the Zionist Project cannot be completed successfully due to failure to acquire all the land and making it free from all third party claims.
This, however, does not mean that a development project, which has not been competed, cannot be “stopped”. It can be stopped, without being completed, by the owners of the unpurchased land or by persons having other claims against the land, by enforcing their rights against the developers. But this is what the conflict is all about.
So, how to complete the Zionist Project successfully, without conflict, and thus “stop Zionism”?
By purchasing the unpurchased parts of the land and all the third party rights.
But why has not it been done up to now?
Because the Zionist Project has been carried out not by honest and competent property developers, but by politicians.