# The Anti-Zionist Idea: History, Theory, & Politics (Fred Moten and Samera Esmeir) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vk7qsb9FTvE Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/vk7qsb9FTvE --- ## Quick Overview The anti-Zionist idea, as explored by Fred Moten and Samera Esmeir, reveals that dominant cosmological thinking, particularly atomism, is inseparable from political brutality, and that Israel functions as a settler-colonial project of obliteration and a modern state with indefinite temporality, rather than solely a nation-state. True anti-Zionism involves a "breach" of this permanence and a practice of "sharing practices in anti-colonial differing," moving beyond liberal frameworks of national liberation. **Key Points:** - Fred Moten asserts that the dominant cosmological thinking, which views the universe as constantly moving individual atoms, is "inseparable from the forms of political brutality that we find ourselves submitted to." - Moten expresses his "moral discomfort" with the term "anti-Zionism," stating it feels wrong because it "violates a sense of subjectivity that I haven't wanted to know that I have and don't want to have that form is liberalism." - He proposes that "the subject reaction"—the justifiable but impossible claim to a denied subjectivity—can be called Zionism, and that anti-Zionism should be understood as "sharing practices in anti-colonial differing." - Samera Esmeir highlights that the narration of concrete details by survivors in Gaza "checks on and resists the totalization of the disaster," revealing a "destructible life in struggle in excess of genocide and its remainders." - Esmeir argues that Israel is not only a nation-state but a "modern state that assumes that its own temporality to be indefinite," making it "permanent" and ceaselessly protecting itself through violence. - She states that "Israel and Zionism are obliteration if we give them a right to exist we're giving the right to exist to obliteration," describing it as a "ceaseless Impossible Project that aims to wipe out a place." - Esmeir advocates for an "anti-Zionism of breach" that confronts Israel as a project of obliteration and a modern state, emphasizing that resistance must breach the state's permanence and indefinite temporality. **Context:** The discussion takes place within a conference on "The Anti-Zionist Idea," held in a repressive institutional environment, with speakers expressing gratitude for the event's generative and inspiring nature despite the context of "massacre and genocide." Fred Moten, a prolific author and poet, and Samera Esmeir, an associate professor of rhetoric, present their academic perspectives on anti-Zionism, drawing on critical theory, philosophy, and historical analysis to challenge conventional understandings of the term and the nature of the Israeli state. ## Detailed Analysis Fred Moten and Samera Esmeir delivered talks exploring the anti-Zionist idea within a conference context, acknowledging the backdrop of "massacre and genocide." Moten discussed his unread paper "Violence and Physics," asserting that dominant cosmological thinking, like Richard Feynman's atomic view of the universe, is intrinsically linked to political brutality. He connected this to W.E.B. Du Bois's 1905 essay "Sociology Hesitant," which critiques positivism and highlights the "incalculable Rhythm Of Human Action" found in collective, insurgent practices like women's clubs, contrasting it with the atomistic imposition of individuation that coloniality uses to both normalize and deny subjectivity. Moten expressed his discomfort with the term "anti-Zionism," finding it imprecise and morally problematic due to its entanglement with liberalism and the "subject reaction" of claiming a subjectivity that is simultaneously denied and fought against. He proposed "anti-Zionism as sharing practices in anti-colonial differing." Esmeir began with a testimony from Gaza, emphasizing how the narration of concrete details resists the "totalization of the disaster" and highlights a "destructible life in struggle in excess of genocide." She critiqued the "legible itinerary of anti-Zionism" in the West, which often focuses on critique and alternative futures (e.g., binationalism, universal human rights) within a nation-state framework. Esmeir argued for an "anti-Zionism of breach" that confronts Israel not merely as a nation-state, but as a "project of obliteration" and a "modern state" whose "indefinite temporality" is the engine of its cruelties, ceaselessly imposing impermanence on Palestinians. She concluded that resistance must breach this state permanence, moving beyond a futurist imaginary to confront the present and the "obliterating machinery." ### Thematic Foundations - Fred Moten links dominant cosmological thinking, specifically atomism, to political brutality and asserts that "massacre and genocide will have always been the occasion under which we have to do it" - He connects this to W.E.B. Du Bois's "Sociology Hesitant" (1905), which critiques positivism and highlights the "incalculable Rhythm Of Human Action" found in collective, insurgent practices - Moten argues that coloniality imposes individuation as a norm while simultaneously making it impossible, creating a fundamental modality of degradation. ### Critique of Anti-Zionism and Liberalism - Fred Moten expresses discomfort with the term "anti-Zionism" due to its "imprecision and inadequacy and insufficiency" and a "moral discomfort" stemming from its entanglement with liberalism - He suggests that the term feels wrong because it "violates a sense of subjectivity that I haven't wanted to know that I have and don't want to have that form is liberalism" - Moten proposes that "the subject reaction"—the justifiable but impossible claim to a denied subjectivity—can be called Zionism, and that anti-Zionism should be understood as "sharing practices in anti-colonial differing." ### Gaza Testimony and Destructible Life - Samera Esmeir begins with a testimony of a 70-year-old woman surviving in Gaza on "almonds, walnuts and pasta soaked overnight in tap water" amidst total destruction - Esmeir highlights that the narration of concrete details "checks on and resists the totalization of the disaster" - She introduces the concept of a "destructible life in struggle in excess of genocide and its remainders," a life that precedes and coincides with obliteration. ### Two Itineraries of Anti-Zionism - Esmeir distinguishes between a "legible itinerary of anti-Zionism" (critique and alternativization) that focuses on the nation-state, often employing liberal, universalist, or humanist values - She contrasts this with an "anti-Zionism of breach" that confronts Israel as a "project of obliteration" and a "modern state" with "indefinite temporality," rather than solely a nation-state - Esmeir notes that in Arab socialities, "anti-zionism is practiced without a name ideation is not is unnecessary." ### Israel as a Project of Obliteration - Esmeir argues that Israel is not only a nation-state but a "modern state that assumes that its own temporality to be indefinite," making it "permanent" and ceaselessly protecting itself through violence - She states that "Israel and Zionism are obliteration if we give them a right to exist we're giving the right to exist to obliteration" - Obliteration is described as a "Zionist ceaseless Impossible Project that aims to wipe out a place in response to a subtler colonial desire to restart the land by digging up a mythical ancient biblical Jewish pure beginning or origin." ### Resistance and Breach - Esmeir concludes that the "Palestinian people can only appear as an interruption or an obstacle that must be removed" in Zionist historical time - She emphasizes that "resistance responds to the totalization of Destruction by breaking halting and interrupting it" - The "anti-Zionism of a breach" cannot begin with the problem of the nation-state but must confront the state's permanence and indefinite temporality, requiring a slowing down before leaping to future imaginaries.