From Herzl to Jabotinsky, the names behind Zionism had clear democratic ideas about the Arabs who would eventually become Israeli citizens. Some even envisioned an Arab prime minister leading the Jewish state. Below are some essential details.
Intro
I don’t believe haters should get to define the thing they hate. Rapists don’t get to define misogyny, the KKK does not get to define what minorities intend to do, and, for the sake of a less dramatic example, vegans don’t define the best hamburger.
Haters can share their opinions, but we don’t need to focus on them.
When I hear the “Free Palestine” mob scream at actual Zionists—like Arab Israeli Nas Daily—that they are racist, exclusionary, or whatever buzzwords they were directed to use, I want to remind them that they’re wrong. But they don’t care. They double down with, “We know what you believe better than you do!” Telling them what you actually believe won’t sway them.
Basically, my beliefs that Arabs should be part of the Israeli government are irrelevant. But the founders of Zionism, who helped popularize the term, can not be ignored in this conversation. It’s not a symantic game like “racism vs systemic racism.” It’s a word used from its origin til today for a safe Jewish state that Arabs also inhabit and vote in.
The following is for those who are actually curious about the OG Zionist views on Arab Israelis. It’s based on their words, not internet comments. When people argue about whether Arabs should be part of the next Israeli government, remember:
Zionists were documented discussing the possibility of Arab political leadership before Israel was re-established.
Israel's Declaration of Independence, issued on May 14, 1948, promised equal political and social rights regardless of religion, race, or sex, and explicitly invited Arabs to participate in governing the state.
When Israel held its first national election on January 25, 1949, Arab citizens, including women, were entitled to vote.
Pre-1947
The Likud Ideology Before King Bibi
Ze'ev Jabotinsky missed the 21st-century Free Palestine memo that Zionism is somehow incompatible with Arab rights. Jabotinsky, the father of Revisionist Zionism and a major influence on what eventually became Israel's Likud party, believed in Jewish sovereignty, defended the necessity of military strength, and famously wrote The Iron Wall, arguing that Zionists could not expect the Arab population to willingly accept the Zionist project.
Also, Jabotinsky believed that an Arab should be able to become the prime minister of the Jewish state. Jabotinsky was clear on egalitarian voting rights and even envisioned Arabs leading Israel through democratic elections.
In his 1929 essay The Land of Israel, Jabotinsky answered a question about what Zionists intended to do with the non-Jewish population once Jews became the majority. His answer was that everyone, whether Jewish, Arab, Armenian, or German, would enjoy complete equality before the law. He wrote (translated from Hebrew):
"He could even become prime minister if his political program appealed to the majority of representatives in the future parliament."
He compared this to Britain, where Scottish and Welsh politicians had become prime ministers without Britain somehow ceasing to be Britain. A Jewish national state could remain Jewish even if its government was headed by someone who wasn't. Zionism, after all, was supposed to establish a national home and political security for Jews, not a Jewish-only electorate.
In 1934, the Revisionist Zionist leadership prepared a draft constitution for a future Jewish state. Jabotinsky later published it in his 1940 book The Jewish War Front, including this provision:
"In every Cabinet where the Prime Minister is a Jew, the vice-premiership shall be offered to an Arab, and vice-versa."
This idea goes far beyond merely letting Arabs vote. The proposal provided for participation in parliamentary elections, public administration, military service, and government funding. Hebrew and Arabic were to enjoy equal legal standing.
Today, Jabotinsky remains one of the most influential thinkers of the Zionist right. His vision included not only equal individual rights but cultural autonomy for an Arab minority. And this was the right-wing Zionist. So just imagine the left!
Source: Israel Democracy Institute, Jabotinsky on Democracy, Equality, and Individual Rights
Herzl Supported Arab Voting Rights (120 Years Before Free Palestine Championed Losing Them)
In his 1902 novel Altneuland (Old-New Land), Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, presents a future society in Palestine in which Jews and non-Jews participate in political and civic life. The novel even features an election in which a nationalist rabbi named Dr. Geyer seeks to exclude non-Jews from the political community. The rabbi is the villain! And loses.
Herzl's protagonist explains his society's principles with a rather uncomplicated statement:
"We do not ask to what race or religion a man belongs. If he is a man, that is enough for us."
The novel also features an Arab, Reschid Bey, as a respected participant in its society. Sadly, Altneuland is a utopian novel, not a draft constitution. Herzl's imaginary society is substantially more harmonious than the actual Middle East.
Herzl imagined Jewish national revival alongside non-Jewish political participation. He even turned the attempt to exclude non-Jews into an electoral conflict, with the exclusionists on the losing side. That's a fairly unusual literary decision for someone supposedly founding a movement whose entire purpose was to deny political rights to Arabs.
Post-1947: Israel Continues to Give Arabs More Voting Rights Than Enemy States
Ben-Gurion Wasn't Subtle About It Either
In July 1947, David Ben-Gurion testified before the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine. He explained that the future state would operate on democratic principles, with equal citizenship. He spelled out what he meant by calling it a Jewish state:
"We mean by a Jewish State simply a State where the majority of the people are Jews"
He then explicitly rejected the idea that Jewish citizens should enjoy greater rights because of their religion or nationality. In fact, he said the Jewish leadership had rejected proposals from the British that would have granted Jews additional privileges.
His position was that Jewish statehood meant Jewish self-determination, not political privileges unavailable to other citizens. A Jewish-majority state did not, in his stated vision, require a Jewish-only electorate.
Source: UNSCOP, July 7, 1947, verbatim testimony
Weizmann and Begin: The Right to Vote Is NOT Enough
Chaim Weizmann, who would become Israel's first president, made a similar point in November 1947, shortly before the UN partition vote. Speaking about the large Arab minority expected to live in the Jewish state, he declared:
"There must not be one law for the Jew and another for the Arab."
He also warned that the world would judge the Jewish state by its treatment of its Arab population. If the Jewish people were asking the international community to recognize their right to national independence, they would have to demonstrate that their independence did not require denying the rights of another population. (Source: Jewish Telegraphic Agency, November 26, 1947)
Arab rights in Israel continued to be championed throughout each generation. In February 1962, Menachem Begin, another major figure of the Zionist right and Israel's future prime minister, argued in the Knesset for ending military rule over Arab citizens. He confronted the argument that Arabs should not enjoy full rights because they generally did not serve in the military. Begin pointed out that the state itself had decided not to conscript most Arab citizens. And then he insisted:
"there must be and will be equal rights for all its citizens, irrespective of religion, nation, or origin."
In 1962, the future Likud prime minister was arguing that Arabs should enjoy full citizenship rights even without military service. This wasn't some remarkable late-career conversion to liberalism. Begin was expressing a principle that had been present in his own Revisionist Zionist tradition.
Source: Israel Democracy Institute, Menachem Begin on Democracy and Constitutional Values
Zionism In Practice
1949 Elections
Israel's Declaration of Independence expressly invited its Arab inhabitants to help build the country, promising them:
"full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions."
Israel held its first national election in January 25, 1949, granting its Arab citizens the right to vote, including women. The Democratic List of Nazareth, an Arab party affiliated with Ben-Gurion's Mapai, won two seats in the first Knesset. An Arab representative was also elected on the Communist Party's list.
The Alternatives
Consider everything above happened in a time when African Americans lacked basic rights in US. Compare it to what the Middle East looks like now. Eight decades after Israel's founding, much of the region still struggles with meaningful democratic participation, with monarchies retaining extensive political authority and elections frequently restricted.
Arab women could vote in Israel in 1949, seven years before Egyptian women gained national voting rights in 1956.
Even today, in Lebanon and Syria, Palestinians are considered refugees, lacking citizenship or the right to vote in national elections. Jordan is different: most Palestinians there are Jordanian citizens who can vote, though 180,000 people, particularly refugees from Gaza in 1967 and their descendants, remain without citizenship. Arab Israelis vote in Israel.
Asterisk
I want to be clear: This blog post is about Zionist ideals and their early implementation. Israel is not perfect. Neither is any country. Before the inevitable criticism of what I am not writing or saying:
On elections: male Ottoman citizens had participated in indirect parliamentary elections, including in 1908. Egypt adopted universal male suffrage in 1923. Iraq also held elections before Israel existed, albeit questionable elections.
Equal voting rights does not mean equal treatment. Black Americans gaining voting rights in US did not make their problems disappear. As I alluded to earlier, between 1948 and 1966, many Arab communities in Israel were subjected to military government, restricting movement and other civil liberties. Mapai, the socialist-leaning party that eventually became part of Israeli Labor, used the military administration and local political networks to influence Arab voting.
Arab Israelis don't all identify the same way. Some identify as Palestinian, some as Israeli, and others as both. Identity is not simply determined by citizenship or whether someone's family was granted civil rights in 1948. There are also Palestinians who want Israeli citizenship and other complex matters. And, of course, there are Palestinians and Jews who reject the state of Israel and don’t vote because they either don’t recognize the state or are not citizens.
Zionists did not unanimously agree on everything. Many of today’s Zionists have veered into anti-Arab sentiment, while others, like myself, refuse to vote for parties that neglect our Arab citizens’ voices.
But none of those qualifications changes what these men actually said.
Yes, a Jewish State Can Have an Arab Prime Minister
According to Jabotinsky, Herzl, Ben Gurion. And me. Not that my opinion matters.
Yes, others would prefer that Donald Trump was the Prime Minister. I am not going to sugar coat that.
Still, Herzl imagined a society where attempts to exclude non-Jews lost at the ballot box. Ben-Gurion argued that Jewish statehood did not require Jewish political privilege. Weizmann demanded equal laws, and Begin defended Arab citizens' rights against his own country's military administration.
The next time someone insists that Zionism means something it does not, don’t argue. Tell them to take it up with Jabotinsky.
