التطور التاريخي للصهيونية : من معتقد ديني إلى مشروع سياسي

Abstract EN

Most sources, which dealt with the history of the Jews, indicate that the Zionism first emerged as a collective feeling, because of nostalgia for the city of Jerusalem, which resulted from the displacement imposed by the Babylonian captivity on the Jewish masses.

In those exiles, the attachment was made to the Holy City and its surronudings.

Mount Zion became the moral symbol of that connection and the hope of every Zionist’ returning to that blessed place one day.

During the captivity era, many of the heritages that were attributed to the prophets were found in the periods of Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah.

All stuck to the idea of return and attachment to the Promised Land and Mount Zion.

In those circumstances, the idea of the birth of Messiah, based on the coming of Christ_the Saviour_ would bring the Jews back to Palestine and save them from persecution and humiliation.

The Jews lived all those centuries with that mythical prophecy, which ended with their return thanks to the Persian Emperor Cyrus the Great.

During the Second Diaspora period, and the Roman era, the myth was resurrected.

The ancient Babylonian prophecy was quoted.

The Jews were once again in the process of waiting for the Saviour who would bring them back to the land of Zion.

It continued until the nineteenth century, where voices emerged among Jews calling for the embodiment of the Zionist dream.

The process was not based on dependence and waiting for the divine will, but on finding the appropriate means, depending on themselves and on the internal Jewish abilities.

The movement led by a group of Jewish intellectuals and political activists, ended by the transformation of a myth into a project, and of a sense into an organization, as well as, of a religious prophecy into a universal movement.

They all laid out plans, foundations, and means to carry out the alleged divine promise to return the Jews to the Promised Land _the land of Zion.