21st century Encyclopedias
editThe discussion here is not about whether we have to include in the article the debate on whether Zionism is "colonialist"/"colonizing". I don't think there is really any objection against describing this debate in the article. The discussion here is whether Zionism should be described as "colonialist"/ "colonizing" in the first defining sentence or in the lead section at all, in wikivoice. This is mainly a question of DUE and NPOV. I present here a policy-based argument against including this description in the lead.
Here is a relevant policy statement from Wikipedia:No original research#Primary, secondary and tertiary sources "Reliable tertiary sources can help provide broad summaries of topics that involve many primary and secondary sources and may help evaluate due weight, especially when primary or secondary sources contradict each other. Some tertiary sources are more reliable than others. Within any given tertiary source, some entries may be more reliable than others." Tertiary sources are defined there as "publications such as encyclopedias and other compendia that summarize, and often quote, primary and secondary sources."
So I decided to look at encyclopedias articles whose title is Zionism. Following the policy point that "some tertiary sources are more reliable than others" I used only encyclopedias published by reputable punishers, and also almost all (if not all) of the editors and writers are scholars in relevant fields. Also, following Levivich opinion that only 21st century sources should be used in this discussion I used only encyclopedia editions that were first published in the 21st century. I collected about 30 such encyclopedias.
The results are pretty clear. The vast majority of encyclopedias do not describe Zionism as "colonialist"/"colonizing" in the first defining sentence or in their lead section at all. It seems clear that most of the scholars that edited and wrote those encyclopedia articles think that the description of Zionism as "colonialist"/"colonizing" is either wrong, or disputable, or simply just not important enough to make the head-lines. I think Wikipedia should follow this majority.
Comments:
- The encyclopedias are ordered by publication date of the edition that is used. This is of course not an exhaustive list of all possibly relevant encyclopedias in the 21st century. There were encyclopedias that were not accessible to me at all, and its very likely there are others that I missed entirely in my searches. However I believe this presents a significant portion, maybe even the majority of relevant encyclopedias that have an article about Zionism. So I think it's unlikely that the results would change significantly when more encyclopedias are found (and anyone is of course free to look for more).
- I provided links to most of the sources. There were a few that I found offline in my library. For these I supplied the text of the first paragraph in the footnotes. Images can be sent on demand.
- With regard to opening defining sentence (see MOS:FIRST) specifically it might be useful to also look at reputable dictionaries, which are the experts in defining subjects in one sentence. Looking at 6 of the leading online dictionaries (1 2 3 4 5 6) we find that none of them mentions colonization/colonialism in its definition of Zionism.
Other 21st sources
editMainstream media:
editBoorstein, Michelle (2024-05-03). "What is Zionism? The movement college protesters oppose, explained". Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
Brown, Derek (2001-09-04). "What is Zionism?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
Beauchamp, Zack (2018-11-20). "What is Zionism?". Vox. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
Thomas, Andrew (2023-12-10). "Israel-Hamas war: What is Zionism? A history of the political movement that created Israel as we know it". The Conversation. Retrieved 2024-07-03.
Introductory books published by academic publishers:
editStanislawski, Michael (2017). Zionism: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-976604-8.
Bunton, Martin P. (2013). The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-960393-0.
https://www.google.co.il/books/edition/Israel/4Oko_CcbdXgC?hl=en&gbpv=1?
https://archive.org/details/israelpalestinec0000gelv_k1z6/page/6/mode/2up?q=zionism
Introductory books published by other reputable publishers:
editTaub, Gadi (2014), Oz-Salzberger, Fania (ed.), "What is Zionism?", The Israeli Nation-State, Academic Studies Press, pp. 39–64, ISBN 978-1-61811-390-0
Engel, David (2013-09-13). Zionism. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-86549-0.
https://archive.org/details/palestineisraelc0000harm_h6a5_4thed/page/50/mode/2up (not sure if it is a reputable publisher)
Historically interesting Encyclopedias
edit"ZIONISM - JewishEncyclopedia.com". jewishencyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
"אוצר ישראל - חלק ט (צאינה-רכבים) - איזנשטין, יהודה דוד, 1854-1956 (page 9 of 328)". hebrewbooks.org. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
- ^ If the article is divided to section by sub-headers then the lead is the first section. Otherwise the lead is the first 4 paragraphs (which is the recommended maximum length of leads in Wikipedia, and the actual length of the current Zionism article lead in Wikipedia).
- ^ a b c d e f Find it among the sources in Encyclopedia.com link
- ^ Text of first paragraph: An international movement for the establishment of a Jewish homeland, formally founded in1987 although initiated in the 1880s. The word which was coined in 1890 by Nathan Birnbaum. is derived from "Zion," one of hills of ancient Jerusalem, in the Bible sometimes applied to Jerusalem itself.
- ^ Text of the first paragraph: Zionism, in its modern form, developed from a late nineteenth-century belief in the need to establish an autonomous Jewish homeland in Palestine. Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), a Hungarian journalist who lived in Vienna, was eventually persuaded by the events of the Dreyfus case in France and the "pogroms" (i.e. the organized massacre of Jews in Russia) to conclude in his book Der Judenstaat that the only way the Jewish people could practice their religion and culture in safety was by having their own nation-state. In 1897, at the First World Zionist Congress in Basel, Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) insisted that this had to be re-created in Palestine, even though there had been no significant Jewish settlement there after the conquest of Jerusalem in CE 70.
- ^ Text of first paragraph: The warm affection and concern that Jews diaspora feel for the State of Israel is commonly called Zionism. Similarly, for the Jews living Israel, the term connotes the bond that links to Jewry abroad. The great majority of Jews today experience Zionism in this sense, as an essential ingredient of being Jewish. For the majority in Israel and the diaspora who are not orthodox, Jewish identity is in large part formed by the belief that the state of Israel is the Jewish state, in the sense of belonging to the Jewish people.
- ^ Don't confuse with the 1st edition of this encyclopedia (also in Encyclopedia.com) that was published in 1968, and therefore not included here.
- ^ The word appears, but doesn't seem to refer to Zionism, but rather to its environment: "Since its inception in the nineteenth century, Zionism has been an ideologically multifaceted and internally contentious movement, and its fortunes have changed in complex relation with European anti-Semitism and with colonialism beyond Europe’s borders."
- ^ Text of first paragraph: From its emergence as a coherent political project at the very end of the 19th century, Zionism sought to unify and mobilize Jews around a nationalistic program whose chief goal was the creation in Palestine of an independent Jewish state in which most of the world's Jews would eventually settle. Like other nationalist movements, however, Zionism has never been monolithic but has encompassed a range of distinct political and ideological currents and factions that have often disagreed, sometimes bitterly, over how to pursue Zionism's aims; the social, economic, and cultural character of the projected Jewish state; relations with Palestine's indigenous Arab population; and much else.
- ^ Text of first paragraph: Zionism holds that Jews constitute a people and a nation. As a political movement, it supports the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people. Zionism began in the late 19th century, arising out of the general movement of nationalism and increased anti-Semitism. It soon became a well-organized and well-funded settlement movement focused on Palestine, which many Jews believe was the ancient homeland granted them by God. Zionism eventually contributed directly to the formation of the State of Israel and continued to influence the politics of Israeli Jews for the rest of the 20th century.