Albert Einstein warned that Zionism betrayed Jewish ethics today his critique would be branded antisemitic, proving truth has been silenced for power, writesAisya Zaharin.

IN 1948, AS THE FOUNDATIONS of the Israeli state were being laid upon the ruins of hundreds of Palestinian villages, Albert Einstein wrote aletterto the American Friends of the Fighters for the Freedom of Israel (AFFFI), condemning the growing Zionist militancy within the settler Jewish community:

Einstein perhaps the most celebrated Jewish intellectual of the 20th century refused to conflate his Jewish identity with theviolenceof Zionism. He turned down Zionists offer to become Israels President, rejecting the notion that Jewish survival and self-determination should come at the cost of another peoples displacement and suffering.

And yet, if Einstein were alive today, his words would likely be condemned under the currentdefinitionsof antisemitism adopted by many Western governments and institutions including the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition, now endorsed by most Australianuniversities.

Under this new definition, Einsteins outspoken criticism of Israel calling its foundational actors terrorists", and denouncing their betrayal of Jewish ethics would render him suspect. He would be accused not only of delegitimising Israel but of antisemitism itself. His moral clarity, once visionary, would today be vilified.

Standing up for human rights in the 2020s is something that moves at a glacial pace.

The danger of conflating antisemitism with anti-Zionism

Einsteins resistance to Zionism was not about denying Jewish belonging or rights it was about refusing to build those rights onethno-nationalist violence. He understood what too many fail to grasp today: Zionism and Judaism are notsynonymous. Zionism is a political ideologyrootedin European colonial logics, one that enforces Jewish supremacy in a land historically shared by Palestinians and other Levantinepeoples.

To criticise this ideology is not antisemitic it is, in fact, a necessaryact of justiceand a moral act ofbearing witness. And yet, in todays political climate, any critique of Israelno matter how grounded ininternational law, historical fact, orhumanitarian concernis increasingly branded asantisemitic.

This conflation serves two functions: it shields a settler-colonial state fromaccountability, and it silences Palestinians and their allies from speaking the truth of their oppression. How many times must we watch Western leaders weaponise antisemitism to shield Israel before we admit the truth?Billions in arms sales,stolen resources, and apartheid infrastructure dont just happen theyre the reason "criticism" gets rebranded as "hate.

Zionism: A settler-colonial project, not a religious mandate

To understand Einsteins critique, we must confront the truth about Zionism itself. While often framed as a movement for Jewish liberation, Zionism in practice has operated as acolonial projectof erasure anddomination. TheNakbawhen over 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced in 1948 was not a tragic consequence of war; its ablueprint for disappearance. Jewish historianIlan Pappdetails howDavid Ben-Gurion, Israels first Prime Minister, approvedPlan Daleton March 10, 1948 a strategy that included the mass expulsion and execution of Palestinians to create a Jewish-majority state.

As Ben-Gurion himself chillinglydeclared:

This is the foundation of the (Zionist) state we are told not to critique.

Einstein saw this unfolding and recoiled. In another 1948 openletterto theNew York Times, he and other Jewish intellectuals described Israels newly formed political parties like Herut (the precursor to Likud) as:

Einstein's words were not hyperbole they were a warning. Having fled Nazi Germany, he had direct experience with the defining traits of Nazi-fascism.

He wrote:

Today, we are living in the very future Einstein feared a reality marked bymassacresin Gaza, thedestructionof infrastructure, and thedenialof essential resources such as water, electricity, and medical aid. This is not about defence it is the logic of colonialdomination.

A state established on principles of ethnic supremacy and expulsion could not transcend its foundation ethos it cannot endure without employing repression. To criticise Israel is to challenge Zionism itself Israels foundation is Zionism in practice. Einstein has warned what many still refuse to see: Israels founding logic demands perpetual violence until Palestinian resistance is erased entirely.

The Nakba didn't end in 1948; it evolved; funded by Washington, armed by Berlin and enabled by every government that trades Palestinian blood for political favours. Today, theland theftcontinues, and theviolenceescalates.

Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism

Israel is criticised because of its political ideology rooted inethnonationalismandsettler colonialism. The symbols it uses are irrelevant its actions speak for themselves. Equating the two is a disservice not only to Palestinians, but to Jews especially those who, like Einstein, refuse to have their identity weaponised in the service of war crimes. Zionism today includes not only Israeli supporters butChristian Zionists,military allies, and Westernpoliticianswho benefit from Israels imperial reach througharms deals,surveillancetechnology, andgeostrategic partnerships. It is a global power structure, not a monolithic ethnic identity.

Many Jews around the world rabbis, scholars, students, and survivors continue Einsteins legacy by saying:

They reject theco-optationof Holocaust memory to justify genocide in Gaza. They refuse to be complicit in what the Torah forbids: the theft of land and the murder of innocents. They are notself-hating Jews.They are theinheritorsof a prophetic tradition of justice. And they are being silenced.

Colonial legacies and the myth of Jewish exclusivity

Zionism cannot be separated from the broader history of European settler-colonialism. AsPatrick Wolfeexplains, Zionism hijacked the rhetoric of Jewish liberation to mask its colonial reality of re-nativism where the settlers recast themselves as 'indigenous while painting resistance as terrorism.

Theodor Herzl, the father of political Zionism, stated in his manifesto-novelAltneuland:

To Zionists, Palestine was not seen as a shared homeland, but as a house to be razed and rebuilt by and for Jews alone. His ideology was further made possible by British imperial interests. From the1917 Balfour Declarationto the (ironically) Zionist-Nazi 1933Haavara Agreement, Zionist project aligned perfectly with the Wests goal todivideand dominate post-Ottoman Southwest Asia through ethnic partition and militaryalliances(read:Sykes-Picot Agreement).

The real danger: Weaponising Jewish identity

Perhaps the most dangerous development today is Israels insistence on linking its crimes to Jewish identity itself. It frames civilian massacres, apartheid policies, and international law violations as acts done in the name of all Jews. By tying the Jewish people to the crimes of a state, Israel risks exposing Jews globally to collective blame and retaliation.

PM Anthony Albaneses recent actions, including his decisive step this week to at last recognise a separate Palestinian State, suggest he may become the progressive leader for our times.

Einstein warned against this. And if Einsteins vision teaches us anything, it is this: Justice cannot be compromised for comfort and profit. Truth must outlast repression. And freedom must belong to all. In the end, no amount of Israelsmilitarisation, propaganda, or geopolitical alliances can forever suppress a peoples resistance or outlast the worlds collectivecondemnation. The only question left is: how much more blood will be spilt before justice prevails?

Reclaiming Einsteins prophecy

The struggle for clarity today is not just academic it is existential. Without the ability to distinguish antisemitism from anti-Zionism, we cannot build a future where Jews and Palestinians both live in dignity, safety, and peace.

Reclaimingthe term Semite in its full meaning encompassing both Jews and Arabs is critical. Furtherisolationof Arabs from the Semiticidentityby Zionist narratives has enabled the dehumanisation of Palestinians and the erasure of shared Jewish-Arabhistories. Particularly, thecenturiesofco-existence; theJewish-Muslim Golden Agesin places likeBaghdad,Granada/Andalusia,Istanbul,Damascus, andCairo.

Einstein stood up for the future for us to reclaim it. The path forward must be rooted in truth, justice, and accountability. That means unequivocally opposing antisemitism in all its forms but also refusing to allow the term to be manipulated as a shield for apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and colonial domination. It means affirming that Jewish safety must never come at the price of Palestinian freedom, and that Palestinianresistanceis not hatred it issurvival.

And if Einstein would be silenced today, we must ask who will speak tomorrow?

Aisya Zaharinis a PhDresearcher, award-winning trans rights advocate, and member of the Australian Human Rights Commissions Trans and Gender Diverse Expert Advisory Committee.

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