Compulsory Zionism and Palestinian Existence: A Genealogy
Keywords: 
Zionism
Palestine
Israel
Solidarity
activism
anti-Semitism
Abstract: 

This essay offers a genealogy of the phrase “compulsory Zionism” in order to illuminate its vexed and contradictory intellectual foundations, the ethical and political stakes of the discourse surrounding the phrase, and its accompanying racial project. Scholars of late have taken up the use of this phrase to signal how “common-sense” knowledge about Palestine and Israel is naturalized in ways that privilege Israel and subjugate Palestinian existence. However, I argue that the phrase is also useful for understanding how Palestine solidarity politics are micromanaged within transnational leftist social justice movements and academia.

Author biography: 

Umayyah Cable (they/them/their) is assistant professor of American culture and film, television, and media at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. They are completing a book project on the history of media activism in the mobilization of Palestine solidarity activism in the United States.