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Short answer
Zionism is the exact opposite of colonialism. It is the return of all Jews to their ancestral homeland, where Jews have resided for thousands of years both as a sovereign kingdom and under foreign occupation, including occupation by Arabs.
Long answer
Zionism is the exact opposite of colonialism. Zionism is the movement for the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel. There is concrete evidence of a Jewish presence in the land of Israel dating back thousands of years, including coins with Hebrew inscriptions, ancient Jewish texts, and synagogues. Jews have always resided in the land of Israel both as sovereign kingdoms and under foreign occupation, including occupation by Arabs. Throughout the millennia, most Jews were expelled from the land of Israel by powerful empires. Even though Jews built thriving communities all over the world, there has always been a yearning to return to Zion—the biblical term for both the land of Israel and Jerusalem. Today, with a Jewish sovereign state a reality, Zionists believe in and support the right of the democratic State of Israel, the only Jewish state in the world, to exist as a refuge for Jews. So, looking at the historical facts, the idea that Zionism is a form of colonialism is simply untrue.
