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In the Name of Socialism: Zionism and European Social Democracy in the Inter-War Years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2009

Paul Kelemen
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Since 1917, the European social democratic movement has given fulsome support to Zionism. The article examines the ideological basis on which Zionism and, in particular, Labour Zionism gained, from 1917, the backing of social democratic parties and prominent socialists. It argues that Labour Zionism's appeal to socialists derived from the notion of “positive colonialism”. In the 1930s, as the number of Jewish refugees from Nazi persecution increased considerably, social democratic pro-Zionism also came to be sustained by the fear that the resettlement of Jews in Europe would strengthen anti-Semitism and the extreme right.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Review of Social History , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , December 1996 , pp. 331 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis 1996

References

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