Zionist Freedom Alliance

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Zionist Freedom Alliance logo

ZFA (Zionist Freedom Alliance) is a grassroots movement advocating the Jewish people’s right to the entire land of Israel. It was established by Magshimey Herut (Hebrew: מגשימי חרות‎; "achievers of liberty") activists in response to what they perceived to be growing anti-Israel sentiment among young people throughout the world. ZFA claims that Israel’s narrative has not been presented since before the start of the Oslo peace process and that this has resulted in the world’s ignorance of Israel’s valid claim to all territory between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River. ZFA views Zionism as a revolutionary struggle and itself as the voice of Jewish national liberation. Its members are both observant and non-observant Jews.

What makes ZFA unique among other Zionist movements is that it fights for social causes often associated with the left while maintaining a hard right position on Jewish identity and Israel’s borders. In November of 2007, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported the ZFA to be promoting Israeli nationalism on twenty American college campuses and described the group as socially liberal with a hard-right stance on Israeli border issues.^[1] On the organization’s website, ZFA claims to take a revolutionary step in the Zionist world by combining a faithful adherence to Jewish national aspirations with a steadfast commitment to social justice within society.^[2]

ZFA trains activists on college campuses to forward the cause of what the group terms "Jewish liberation." In the field of Israel advocacy, the movement is unique as it speaks of Israel's moral right to the land rather than the country's security needs. In February of 2008, the ZFA created controversy at the University of Pennsylvania by holding a demonstration against a group of ex-Israeli soldiers who came to the campus in order speak against the IDF's presence in territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.^[3]

In April of 2008, ZFA led a week long program called Israel Liberation Week at Hofstra University.^[4] During this week of events, ZFA reached beyond the Jewish community and targeted a wider student public through films, art exhibits and concerts that focused on Jewish rights to the Land of Israel, the Jewish revolt against British rule and the need for the State of Israel to become an independent country.^[5]

[edit] Ideology

ZFA activists do not discuss Israel's security needs or democratic character but focus on Israel's basic national rights

ZFA views the Jewish people as indigenous to the Middle East and the victims of Western imperialism. Leading activists of the movement have often pointed out that Great Britain, the United Nations and even the United States government did everything in their power to prevent a Jewish state from coming into existence. The Zionist struggle, according to ZFA, is therefore an anti-imperialist struggle aimed at liberating the land of Israel from foreign rule and securing the Jewish people’s right to self determination in their country.

As a national liberation movement, ZFA alleges to advocate freedom for all nations from foreign rule (specifically the Chechens, Kurds, and Irish) but denies that freedom to a Palestinian nation whom ZFA claims does not exist. The movement argues that a Palestinian national identity was invented in the 1960s by the Arab League and Western powers for the purpose of robbing the Jewish people of their homeland. ZFA asserts that multi-national corporations and Western governments seeking to promote globalization have been using the Palestinian Arabs as a political tool against the State of Israel and that the front line in the battle against globalization is actually the struggle to retain Greater Israel.^[6] Unlike similar movements on Israel’s political right, ZFA avoids anti-Arab rhetoric and actually advocates Israel becoming more Middle Eastern in character. Many ZFA leaders, including Elie Yossef and Benny Katz, have put forward the need for a genuine peace agreement between Israel and the Arabs but have rejected the notion of territorial concessions as this would be – in the view of ZFA – an historic injustice against the Jewish people.

Heavily influenced by the philosophy of Israel Eldad, ZFA views Zionism as the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and a revolution unparalleled by any other in human history. The movement validates this claim by emphasizing that while various revolutions have succeeded in leaving their mark on human development, none have succeeded in reviving a dead language or relocating a scattered nation from dispersion to a central location. ZFA defines the Zionist Revolution as the liberation of Jewish land from foreign rule, the ingathering of the Jewish people from the exile to their soil, the revival of Hebrew as a spoken language for everyday use, and the creation of a utopian society that will serve as a model of social justice to the world. The movement views itself as the vanguard of this revolution and often calls itself the “voice of Jewish liberation.” The above views are featured on the organization’s website and have been expressed repeatedly by Yehuda HaKohen, a ZFA leader, who hosts two internet based radio programs on Israel National Radio (channel seven).^[7]

Although opposed to many policies of recent Israeli governments, ZFA views the State of Israel as being of great historic significance and deserving of their loyalty. The movement places unity amongst Jews of all persuasions on equal footing with the territorial integrity of the land of Israel and therefore works to build dialogue and strengthen the bond between Jews with opposing political and religious opinions.

[edit] See also

• Israel
• Israel Eldad
• Lehi
• Magshimey Herut
• Yehuda HaKohen
• Zev Jabotinsky
• Zionism
• Zionist youth movement

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• ZFA website