Zionism
their efforts in alliance with other social movements, partic-
ularly with Mexican "workers, campesinos teachers, students,
employees ... the workers of the city and the countryside."
Nevertheless, the EZLN has recently criticized certain polit-
ical candidates and exhibited a loss of interest in the electoral
process and a loss of confidence in Mexican civil society.
There are several possibilities for the future regarding
this conflict. On one hand, it is evident that the EZLN will
reinforce the "other campaign" that it launched as a new
strategy based on listening in order to seek alliances with
the Mexican civil society. The EZLN's role in Mexican
politics during the electoral period has been cautious,
though decisive in Chiapas. O n the other hand, the Mex-
ican government has again diminished the Chiapas conflict
and the indigenous people's demands. It would not be a
surprise to see new popular movements or rebellions occur-
ring in Mexico in the near future.
SEE ALSO Mayan Genocide in Guatemala; Viohce
against Indigenous People, Latin America.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Canal 6 de Julio. 1998. Acteal Masacre de Muerte. Documentary
video. Mexico: Canal 6 de Julio
Collier, George. 1994. Basta! Land and the Zapatista Rebellion in
Chiapas. Oakland, CA: Food First.
EjCrcito Zapatista de Liberaci6n Nacional (EZLN). Available
from http://www.ezln.org/. The texts of the six Declarations
of the Lacandon Jungle &n be found at http:l/www.aln.org/
documentos.
Holloway, John, and Eloina Pelia, eds. 1998. Zapatista!:
Reinventing Revolution i n Mexico. London: Pluto Press.
Garcia de Le6n, Antonio. 1989. Resistencia y utopia. Memorial de
a p v i o s y cro'nica de revueltas y proficias acaecih m la
provincia de Chiapas durante los tiltimos 500 arios de su historia.
Mexico City: Editorial ERA.
~ u i i b zRamira, Gloria. 2003. EZLN 20 y 10, el&ego y la
palabra. Mexico City: Desarrollo de Medios.
Ordbiiez, Carlos Salvador. 1996. "Derechos humanos de 10s
pueblos indios." In Etnicidad y Derecho un diilogo postergado
mtre cimtifios sociales, edited by Josk Ord66a. Mexico City:
Universidad Nacional Autbnoma de Mkxico.
Peace Brigades International. 1996. "Massacre in Acteal
(Chenalho), Chiapdaramilitary group kills 45 Tzozil
Indians." Available from http://www.peacebrigades.org/ernl
ernchiapas.hun1.
Ruiz HernLnda, Margarito. 1999. "La Asarnblea Nacional
Indigena Plural por la Autonomia. (ANIPA) Proceso de
consuucci6n de una propuesta legislativa auton6mica
nacional." In M&ico Experiencias de Autonomia Indkma,
edited by Aracely Burguete Cal y Mayor. Copenhagen,
Denmark: Grupo Internacional de Trabajo Sobre Asuntos
Indigenas.
Sewicio Internacional para la Paz (SIPAZ). "Brief History of the
Conflict in Chiapas." Available from hnp://www.sipaz.org/
fini-eng.htm.
V k q u a Montalvk, Manuel. 2001. Marcos: Elseiior de los espgos.
Madrid, Spain: Aguilar.
Womack, John, ed. 1999. Regellion in Chapas: An HistO,.iCal
Reader. New York: New Press.
ZIONISM
Zionism is the political movement created to foster he
establishment of a Jewish state. It is based on he idea
that Jews, wherever they live, constitute a single people. lt
developed in Europe in the late nineteenth ten
against a backdrop of rising nationalism and anti-Jewish
sentiment, especially in areas ruled by the car, vhere h e
greatest number of Jews lived, but alslo in Franc:e, where
the Dr9&s case revealed widespread ~ L , L L I L , , I C ~ ~ C of J~
even in a modern democracy where tlhey werc:cornpara-
t i d y assimilated. Because it defines /Irw not t'y religious
observance, language, place of birth, or cult1ire, but by
descent, Zionism is an ideology of race.
To many early Zionists, the location of the future
Jewish state was of no importance; among the areas con-
templated were Argentina and Uganda. The first World
Zionist Congress, organized by Theodore Herzl and held
in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, set its sights on Palestine in
order to draw upon the religious tradition that holds that
with the coming of the Messiah, Jews will be reunited
there and the kingdom of God will be accomplished for
the whole of humankind.
MODERN PALESTINE
In 1868 there were 13,000 Jews in Palestine, out of an
estimated population of 400,000; the majority were reli-
gious pilgrims supported by charity from overseas. In 1882
the Frenchman Baron Edmond de Rothschild, combining
philanthropy and investment, began to support Jewish
settlers from eastern Europe who were brought to Palestine
to build a plantation system along the model the ~rench
had set up in Algeria. By 1895 the number of Jews had
grown to 50,000; they spoke Yiddish, Arabic, Persian*
Georgian, and other languages. Hebrew was a liml$d,
language, spoken in daily life by no one. As late as 19072 /
Jews made up only 80,000 out of a population of 700,000-
In 1917, Lord Balfour, the British foreign m i d s
seeking support for Britain's efforts in World War 1, issued'
i
a declaration expressing sympathy with effom to s t a b ~I
a Jewish homeland in Palestine, then under ~ r i d s hrule.i
He also vowed that such a homeland 1vould not ham the/
interests of the Arab majority. The Zionists sei:ted upon1
this statement, interpreting it to mean : c aJ ~I
ews an-,
state. At the time of the Balfour Dec~araclv~l, J I
stituted less than 10 percent of the and oanod
2.5 percent of the land in Palestine.
I