296. An offensive tweet by American activist Kwame Ture
Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) is generally acknowledged as the pioneer of modern political Zionism. He was a Hungarian Jewish journalist and lawyer who founded the Zionist Organization, promoting Jewish migration to Palestine, which was then under Ottoman rule, to establish a Jewish homeland.
Due to his Zionist initiatives, he is called Chozeh HaMedinah, which translates to 'Visionary of the State' in Hebrew. Herzl is explicitly acknowledged in the Israeli Declaration of Independence and is officially regarded as the spiritual father of the Jewish State.
Herzl's brief legal career in Vienna was followed by his role as the Paris correspondent for the Viennese newspaper Neue Freie Presse. During that period, Vienna experienced numerous notable antisemitic incidents.
He realized that anti-Jewish sentiment would hinder Jewish integration and concluded that establishing a homeland was the only solution.
In 1894, the Dreyfus Affair was an infamous political scandal in France in which Jewish French army captain Alfred Dreyfus was wrongly convicted of spying for Germany. Large rallies were held in Paris after the trial.
The event deeply influenced Herzl; he explained that the Dreyfus case was the turning point that made him a Zionist, and he was especially affected by the crowds shouting 'Death to the Jews!'
In 1896, Herzl published the pamphlet Der Judenstaat, outlining his vision for a Jewish state.
His ideas rapidly gained international interest and boosted his standing within the Jewish community.
Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in 1897 in Switzerland and launched diplomatic efforts to garner support for a Jewish state, but his appeals to German Emperor Wilhelm II and the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II were unsuccessful.
Herzl died in 1904 at the age of 44 and was buried in Vienna. In 1949, his remains were moved to Israel and reinterred on Mount Herzl.
In an email, someone shared a tweet by American activist Kwame Ture, which I found very offensive and directly at odds with everything I knew about Herzl. However, to put it bluntly, I think we should also give Kwame the opportunity to express his opinion because it gives us an idea of how people in America are feeling right now about Israel.
Here is what he writes: “Theodor Herzl was the founder of Zionism. He said that he was going to find the state that God promised the Jews. Listen to this very carefully: this man, Herzl, was an atheist. He believed that there was no God. He said that God did not exist. Now, how is it that the man who believes that God does not exist is going to find a state that God promised to His chosen people? I tell you, this man is Satan in disguise. Zionism is a satanic movement. It is a devil. It is imperialism. It is racist. It has gone and taken the lands of the Palestinian people and, through terrorism, has driven them out. And through terrorism, it maintains its power, and the USA, with over 6 million homeless, sends Israel billions and billions of dollars everywhere to bomb the Palestinian people, while homeless people are here and unemployed. Zionism is going to raise this war and make the people in America become clear to what it is and become anti-Zionist and stop the aid to Israel and use the money to take care of the homeless in this country.”
Calling Theodor Herzl a Satan in disguise or claiming that Zionism is a satanic movement is unacceptable. Herzel has done a yeoman's service to his community and must be respected by all for it.
We can have our differences with the present Israeli administration and its inhuman activities, but bringing the greats like Herzl into our criticism is bad and unethical, illogical, and condemnable.