page_title: Anti-Zionism
section_title: Secular Arab
hierarchical_section_title: Anti-Zionism / Outside the Jewish community / Secular Arab
caption_attribution_description: العربية: جمال عبد الناصر English: President Gamal Abdel Nasser, the second president of Egypt.
context_page_description: Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. The term is broadly defined in the modern era as opposition to the State of Israel or, prior to 1948, its establishment, as well as to the political movement of Jews to self-determination.
  The anti-Zionism movement has attracted supporters and controversy, including within the broader Jewish community. Critics of anti-Zionism have charged it is a cover for modern-day antisemitism, that it may be motivated by prejudices against Jewish people, or that it creates a climate where anti-semitism is viewed as acceptable. Defenders of anti-Zionism have rejected these characterizations and counter-accused critics of attempting to stifle legitimate criticisms of Israeli policies, particularly of Israeli military actions and occupation of the West Bank.
context_section_description: Anti-Zionism in the Arab world emerged at the end of the 19th century, very soon after the First Zionist Congress was held in Basel in 1897. However, only after the Young Turk revolution in 1908 did opposition to Zionism in Palestine and Greater Syria became widespread.
  According to philosopher Michael Neumann, Zionism as an "expansionist threat" has caused Arab hostility toward Israel and even antisemitism. Pan-Arabist narratives in the 1960s Nasser era emphasized the idea of Palestine as a part of the Arab world taken by others.  In this narrative, the natural means of combating Zionism is Arab nations uniting and attacking Israel militarily.
  Most Arab citizens of Israel do not have strong anti-Zionist views.  A poll of 507 Arab-Israelis conducted by the Israeli Democracy Institute in 2007 found that 75 percent profess support for Israel's status as a Jewish and democratic state that guarantees equal rights for minorities.  Israeli Arab support for a constitution in general was 88 percent.
caption: Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, pan-Arabist
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