Magshimey Herut
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Magshimey Herut (Hebrew: מגשימי חרות; "achievers of liberty") is a Zionist movement founded in 1999 by a group of Jewish activists who felt the need for a young adult movement dedicated to the ideals of Revolutionary Zionism, being aliyah, social justice and the territorial integrity of the land of Israel. In many countries the movement is known as ZFA (Zionist Freedom Alliance). Unlike most Zionist movements, Magshimey Herut’s membership is vastly diverse. The movement includes many socialists and capitalists as well as both observant and non-observant Jews. Despite the great diversity within the movement, all members are said to support the idea of a Greater Israel.
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[edit] History
Magshimey Herut was founded in 1999 by a number of Betar activists who were disappointed with what they viewed as a lack of ideological integrity within their movement. When a Likud government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relinquished parts of Hebron to Yasser Arafat in 1998, Ze'ev Benyamin Begin and Michael Kleiner led the Herut faction out of the Likud. As the youth movement most associated with the ruling party, Betar members were uncertain on how to view a Likud Prime Minister betraying one of their most sacred principles. While the Betar leadership passively supported Netanyahu's policies, the organization's director of overseas activities, Karma Feinstein-Cohen, along with a group of ideological purists and veteran activists from chapters throughout the world, left Betar in order to establish Magshimey Herut.
Discarding Betar’s militaristic image, Magshimey Herut focused on packaging their ideals in a way that would be more current and appealing to young Jews. Led by a blend of secular and observant activists, the new movement made an effort to be more sympathetic than Betar to the needs and values of religious members. In the years that followed its establishment, a number of graduates from the Bnei Akiva religious Zionist youth movement joined Magshimey Herut, seeing it as a young adult movement most committed to the values that Bnei Akiva instilled in them as youth.
Possibly as a result of its focus on social issues in addition to nationalist Zionist goals, Magshimey Herut attracted many Jews who, although actively left-wing on economic and societal issues, believe strongly in the Jewish people’s right to the entire land of Israel. In recent years, the North American branch of Magshimey Herut has begun calling itself ZFA (Zionist Freedom Alliance) and has advocated seemingly left-wing positions on numerous issues, including globalization and America's war in Iraq. According to the ZFA website, the movement supports freedom for Chechnya from Russian rule and has called upon the Israeli government to send IDF troops to Darfur.[1]
Magshimey Herut is the youngest movement within the World Zionist Organization’s hagshama department.
[edit] Ideology
Magshimey Herut 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.
Magshimey Herut 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. Magshimey Herut 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 have been expressed repeatedly by Yehuda HaKohen, a Magshimey Herut leader, who co-hosts an internet based radio program for Jewish college students on Arutz 7 (channel seven).[2]
Although Magshimey Herut views itself as loyal to the basic Zionist teachings of Zev Jabotinsky, there is evidence that the movement takes great liberty in interpreting Jabotinsky’s views. Due to Magshimey Herut's involvement in social causes and semi-mystical orientation, some critics argue that the group's ideological leanings are closer to those of Uri Zvi Greenberg and Avraham Stern’s Lehi organization than to Jabotinsky and the Irgun underground (with whom Betar closely identifies). While Betar chapters in the United States have in recent years allied themselves with neo-conservative elements of the American political system, Magshimey Herut presents itself as an anti-imperialist movement dedicated to the freedom of all peoples. It has been noted that Magshimey Herut does not call itself a Revisionist Zionist movement but instead uses the terms "Revolutionary Zionism" and "Humanitarian Zionism" (a term linked to Jabotinsky towards the end of his life).
It has been noted that some Magshimey Herut chapters are more observant than others and are therefore not ideologically homogeneous. The Jerusalem branch, for example, is led by observant activists influenced by the teachings of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook while some other branches project a much less religious image. While some chapters may base their claims on traditional Jewish texts and others on history and international law, all agree that the Jewish people have a moral right to the entire land of Israel.
Although opposed to many policies of recent Israeli governments, Magshimey Herut views the State of Israel as being of great historical significance and deserving of their loyalty independent of the current leadership. 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.[3]
[edit] Objectives
Although each branch enjoys a degree of autonomy, all chapters of Magshimey Herut adhere to fourteen basic movement objectives:[4]
1. To develop young leadership in Israel and abroad, working together to impart Jewish and Zionist values.
2. To initiate educational activities designed to imbue Jewish youth with a love for the nation, homeland and tradition of Israel.
3. To foster Zionist education abroad in order to promote and encourage aliyah.
4. To train young leaders dedicated to social justice and the territorial integrity of Eretz Yisrael.
5. To inculcate the importance of national solidarity and the responsibility of all Jews for one another.
6. To further cultural activities which foster Jewish nationalism.
7. To arouse the next generation to honor the memory of Holocaust victims and continue the struggle against anti-Semitism.
8. To establish absorption communities throughout Israel in order to improve the aliyah experience.
9. To inculcate the value of Hebrew settlement in all of Eretz Yisrael.
10. To train cadres of young leaders dedicated to promoting dialogue, understanding and tolerance between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews.
11. To promote an understanding of the necessity for preserving the Jewish character of the State of Israel.
12. To provide supplemental educational activities in Israel’s disadvantaged communities and development towns.
13. To further cultural activities that preserve the traditions of communities from around the world.
14. To educate on the importance of increasing the Hebrew birthrate.
[edit] Activities
Magshimey Herut is active in several countries with the primary objective of bringing young Jewish adults on aliyah (immigration) to Israel. Each year, the movement organizes experiential trips for Jewish students to Israel, often for the purpose of leadership training.
As an educational activist movement, many chapters take a leading role in numerous political causes. In addition to promoting Jewish settlement and fighting for the ideal of Greater Israel, Magshimey Herut has been a force in the struggle to free Jonathan Pollard. In some countries the movement has been active against globalization, claiming that it creates unjust working conditions and violates the notion of national sovereignty. Many Magshimey Herut activists express concern that globalization contradicts the basic tenets of Zionism and directly threatens Israel’s existence as a small Jewish state situated in a mostly Arab region.[5]
In the United States of America, England and Canada, Magshimey Herut is known as ZFA (Zionist Freedom Alliance) and works as a grassroots movement advocating the Jewish people’s national rights. ZFA claims that Israel’s case 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 legitimate claim to the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River. ZFA views Zionism as a revolutionary struggle and itself as the voice of Jewish national liberation.
What distinguishes ZFA from other Zionist movements in the Diaspora 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. 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.[6]
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 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. Unlike movements with similar views on Israel’s political right, ZFA avoids anti-Arab rhetoric and actually advocates Israel becoming more Middle Eastern in character. Many ZFA leaders 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.[7]
ZFA trains activists on college campus to forward the cause of Jewish liberation. In the field of advocacy, the movement is unique as it speaks of Israel's moral right to the land rather than the country's security needs.
In Israel, the movement is called Magshimey Herut Yisrael. It is active in social initiatives to help the country's poor and has devoted substantial effort to bridging gaps within society by creating workshops for dialogue with left-wing movements.[8] Magshimey Herut Yisrael organizes weekly programs for young immigrants to Israel and works with youth-at-risk in order to redirect their energies towards Zionist fulfillment.
Following the violent confrontation at Amona between the Israeli police and settler teenagers in early 2006, Magshimey Herut Yisrael activists held a three week hunger strike vigil protesting violence between Jews. The activists displayed banners and handed out flyers calling on both the Israeli government and settler leadership to seek out ways to avoid future bloodshed. Perhaps because this took place just before national elections, the hunger strike drew criticism from settlers who had felt victimized by the government and sought to use the tragedy as a means to hurt the ruling Kadima party in the upcoming elections. The government had no official response to the vigil.[9]
In early 2007 Magshimey Herut Yisrael launched a campaign calling on the government of Israel to cut all diplomatic ties to Russia due to Russia's involvement in Iran's nuclear development program.[10] [11] In a statement to the press, the movement said that "Israel must take a moral stand and send a clear message to the global community that we will not pursue diplomacy or commerce with nations working towards our annihilation." Criticizing the reactions of several Israeli politicians to the campaign, Magshimey Herut Yisrael leader Elie Yossef told Israel National Radio's Yishai Fleisher that "the Jewish People must find the moral courage to stand up to super-powers in such situations."[12]
[edit] See also
- Elie Yossef
- Israel
- Karma Feinstein-Cohen
- Lehi
- Revisionist Zionism
- Yehuda HaKohen
- Zev Jabotinsky
- Zionism
- Zionist Freedom Alliance
- Zionist youth movement
[edit] External links
- World Magshimey Herut website
- Zionist Freedom Alliance website
- ZFA Zionism on Campus Website
- World Zionist Organization website
Categories: Activism | Anti-corporate activism | Anti-globalization | Anti-globalization activists | Civil rights activists | Israeli activists | Jewish organizations | Jewish youth organizations | National liberation movements | Organizations based in Israel | Politics of Israel | Political movements by issue | Social movements | Student political organizations | Zionist youth movements
