Where We Stand: The Reconstructionist Movement, Israel and Zionism
From our movement’s beginnings in the 1920s, we have expressed a deep commitment to the flourishing of Jewish life in the Land of Israel based on principles of democracy, Jewish religious pluralism, Jewish cultural renewal and the pursuit of compromise and peace with the Palestinians. In the decades since 1967, when Israel began its military rule over the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza and began building Jewish settlements there, the central organizations of our movement have approved multiple resolutions and published substantive reports calling for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the following five principles:
- Securing Israel’s place in the Middle East as a Jewish and democratic state according to the vision expressed in its Declaration of Independence;
- Ending Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza;
- Halting the expansion of settlements in those same territories;
- Establishing a democratic Palestinian state alongside Israel within final borders to be agreed by both parties; and
- Supporting Israeli and Palestinian negotiations seeking to achieve mutually agreed creative compromises to resolve the complex issues involving Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
These five principles form the core of what is often termed “progressive Zionism.” No one has ever been required to agree with all of these positions in order to be a Reconstructionist, but the movement as a whole has reaffirmed these principles many times through public statements, our resource development for our congregations and summer camp, our Israel program of study for rabbinical students, our participation in the Hatikvah Slate delegation to the World Zionist Congress and our membership in the Progressive Israel Network. The central organizations of our movement continue to affirm this progressive Zionist stance as our established position.
