Zionism is a settler colonial racial project. Like the US, Israel is a settler colonial state. The Institute opposes Zionism and colonialism, and abides by the international, Palestinian-led call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.
Studying Zionism – its direct work for the Israeli state and its “other work” – is politically necessary. The rigorous, transnational study of Zionism as a political ideology and practice, and of Zionist institutions as political actors, is necessary for political pursuits from democracy to decolonization.
Academic research is not politically or morally neutral. The Institute’s research aims to interrogate and intervene in racism, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and the appropriation of liberatory rhetoric by repressive political forces, among other harms.
We join in resistance to structures of racism, group supremacy, violence, militarism, colonialism, and capitalism. The Institute works in conjunction with interconnected movements, led from below, for justice and self-determination. Researching the role that Zionism plays in struggles over racism and violence advances those movements. Neither studying nor criticizing Zionism is anti-Jewish.
Research on power must center the narratives and perspectives of those it dominates. The Institute’s project is to support research from below, produced by a community led by people who are the targets of Zionist and state repression, with a research agenda determined in collaboration with communities resisting repression.
We reject the exclusionary/scarcity model of academic work. US academia is an exclusionary environment, and it is additionally exclusionary for those engaging critically with Zionism. We reject academic professional success as a measure of the value of our colleagues’ research, ideas, and participation. Instead, we aim to broaden the community of participation in rigorous research and conversation on Zionism, ensuring that it includes and uplifts students, junior and contingent faculty, activists, and communities whose lives are shaped by Zionist institutions’ political work.
We protect each other by working accountably together. Researchers and activists are subjected to different levels of repression. We protect each other by adhering to shared security protocols, and using less vulnerable voices to protect more vulnerable voices.
