Introduction to Antizionism Studies

This course introduces students to the emerging field of Antizionism Studies by examining antizionism as a distinct and historically coherent form of anti-Jewish bigotry. Rather than approaching antizionism merely as “opposition to Zionism” or as a subset of antisemitism, the course takes antizionism itself as an object of systematic historical, theoretical, and comparative inquiry. Students will explore the conceptual limitations of existing frameworks for understanding anti-Jewish hostility, the historical emergence of antizionism as a modern ideological movement, and the relationship between antizionism, classical antisemitism, and earlier forms of anti-Jewish thought and polemic.

The course traces the intellectual, political, and institutional genealogy of modern antizionism across several interconnected traditions: Nazism, Islamism, Arab Nationalism, Soviet communism, Third-Worldism, postcolonialism, and settler-colonial theory. Through close readings of primary sources, propaganda, political declarations, and scholarly and pseudoscientific texts, students will investigate how these traditions converged to produce a transnational ideological movement, and how its central
accusations against Israel—colonialism, apartheid, and genocide—were formulated, disseminated, and institutionalized.

Finally, the course considers the contemporary manifestations of antizionism and the conceptual and practical challenges of confronting it. Drawing on anthropology, Jewish studies, intellectual history, political theory, and legal scholarship, students will examine Jewish peoplehood, indigeneity, and civilizational continuity as alternative frameworks for understanding the Jewish relationship to Israel. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to identify antizionism as a distinct object of study, reconstruct its intellectual genealogy, critically analyze its ideological claims and institutional mechanisms, and contribute to the development of Antizionism Studies as an interdisciplinary field.

Session 1: What is Antizionism?

This opening session introduces students to antizionism as a distinct historical, ideological, and political phenomenon, establishing the foundations for its systematic study. Rather than beginning with contemporary debates over definitions of antisemitism, the session approaches antizionism as an object of inquiry in its own right, examining its historical emergence, intellectual traditions, political organizations, and recurring ideological patterns. Students will be introduced to the major traditions that have shaped modern antizionism, including Soviet communism, Arab nationalism, Islamism, Third-Worldism, and postcolonialism, and to the ways these traditions converged into a transnational movement.

Through a combination of foundational scholarship and historical texts, students will examine the central features of antizionist ideology, including the construction of the “Zionist” as an anti-Jewish stereotype, the denial or erasure of Jewish peoplehood, the deployment of anti-Israel libels, and the relationship between discourse and violence. The session introduces the central proposition of Antizionism Studies: that antizionism possesses a coherent history, conceptual structure, and set of social and political consequences that require analysis beyond existing frameworks of antisemitism research. It establishes the intellectual foundations for the subsequent sessions on antizionism’s ideological genealogy, international institutionalization, historical consequences, and contemporary manifestations.

Session 2: The Genealogy of Antizionism

This session traces the genealogy of modern antizionism through several interconnected ideological traditions. Beginning with the Nazi–Islamist axis, students will examine the transmission and transformation of European anti-Jewish ideology within Arab nationalism and Islamism, including the role of Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the ideological antecedents of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and the contemporary Iranian Regime. The session will then turn to the emergence of antizionism within Marxism-Leninism, beginning with Lenin’s characterization of Zionism as bourgeois nationalism and his rejection of Jewish national culture. Students will examine how these ideas informed the Soviet campaign against Jewish national and religious institutions, including the tokenized Yevsektsiya, and developed into an elaborate system of state-sponsored antizionist propaganda.

The session then explores the convergence of these ideological traditions in the postwar period, particularly through the relationship between the Soviet Union, Arab nationalist movements, and the Palestine Liberation Organization. Special attention will be given to the Palestine Research Center in Beirut and the work of Fayez Sayegh, which helped formulate antizionism within the language of colonialism, racism, and national liberation. Students will examine how Soviet internationalism, Arab nationalism, Islamism, and Third-Worldism reinforced one another, transforming antizionism into a transnational ideological movement whose intellectual influence extended into postcolonial theory and antizionist pseudoscience.

Session 3: Token Antizionism: Its Sources and Function

This session examines Jewish tokenization as a consistent and constitutive feature of antizionism throughout its history. Rather than treating Jewish participation in antizionist movements as incidental or exceptional, the session investigates how these movements have systematically mobilized selected Jewish individuals and organizations to legitimate anti-Jewish ideologies, discredit Jewish communal institutions, and provide an alibi against accusations of bigotry. Beginning with the emergence of modern antizionist movements, students will examine the role of Jewish intermediaries in Soviet communism, Arab nationalism, and other political traditions. Particular attention will be given to the Yevsektsiya, whose Jewish members helped carry out a cultural genocide of Jews in the Soviet Union, as well as the Anti-Zionist League of Iraq and the Soviet Anti-Zionist Committee. These cases demonstrate how Jewish identity was strategically deployed by movements engaged in the persecution and exclusion of Jewish communities.

The session then turns to the contemporary politics of Jewish tokenization, examining the continuity of this mechanism across different historical and ideological contexts. Students will investigate how Jewish identity functions as a credential of authenticity within antizionist movements and as an instrument for denying Jewish peoplehood and delegitimizing the collective identity of Jews. They will also consider how historically distinct forms of Jewish opposition to Zionism have been retrospectively assembled into a supposedly continuous tradition of “Jewish anti-Zionism,” obscuring the ideological character of modern antizionism. Particular attention will be given to the role of Jewish intellectuals, organizations, and academic institutions in legitimizing antizionist discourse, demonstrating how Jewish tokenization has remained a central mechanism through which antizionism reproduces and legitimizes itself.

Session 4: Antizionism in Civil Society

This final session examines the contemporary operation of antizionism within civil society, focusing on its institutionalization in universities, international organizations, human rights institutions, and political movements. Building on the historical and ideological foundations established in previous sessions, students will investigate how antizionism has become embedded in academic discourse, institutional policies, and public advocacy, and how the stigmatization of “Zionists” translates into discrimination, harassment, exclusion, and violence against Jews and Israelis. The session then turns to the challenges of identifying and confronting antizionism in contemporary civil society, particularly on university campuses. Students will examine the ways “Zionist” functions as a category of stigmatization and exclusion, and the limitations of prevailing approaches to antisemitism, including the competing frameworks of the IHRA Working Definition, the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), and the Nexus Document. Particular attention will be given to the argument for recognizing antizionism as a distinct form of anti-Jewish bigotry, rather than treating it merely as a contested subset of antisemitism. Finally, drawing on the work of the Movement Against Antizionism (MAAZ) and other emerging initiatives, the session will consider how a clearer understanding of antizionism as a distinct anti-Jewish bigotry can inform institutional accountability, legal protections, public advocacy, and the development of Antizionism Studies as an interdisciplinary field.

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