As the world bears witness to the Western state governments indulge Israel`s genocide against the Palestinian people, activists of Jewish faith and background concluded their first Anti-Zionism Congress in Vienna, 13–16 June 2025. It met at the very crux of the matter.
The host city of Vienna was symbolic also as the place where Theodor Herzl, founder of modern Jewish Zionism, lived and published Der Judenstaat, which revived and promoted the old Christian antisemitic notion of creating a state for Jews outside of the Europe that had demonized and persecuted them for centuries. That Zionist colonial project founded--and has expanded--the State of Israel by destroying, dispossessing and depopulating Palestinian towns and villages for a century now.
This First Jewish Anti-Zionism Congress in Vienna brought together Jewish activists and scholars with Palestinian personalities and other supporters from every continent with a rich agenda of thematic sessions. With an opening by co-organizers Dalia Sarig, Samy Ayad and Ronnie Barkan, and with a welcoming address by Roger Waters, the program began with a Zoom connection with Dr. Mohammad Salha, medical director al-Awda Hospital (North Gaza) and keynote speeches by Palestinian academic Ghada Karmi, Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, French parliamentarian Rima Hassan and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese (online), moderated by co-organizer Haim Bresheeth.
Decolonization and liberation were overarching themes addressed by a range of speakers, including such figures as Gazan journalist and author Ramzy Baroud andSouth African BDS coordinator Roshan Dadoo. Trade union organizers such as Tony Greenstein, students, journalists such as Katie Harper, representatives of advocacy and human rights organizations joined as allies in the struggle against Zionism, racism, apartheid and genocide.
HIC-HLRN`s coordinator Joseph Schechla addressed the Congress with a statement of solidarity, recalling the long pedigree of Jewish resistance to Zionism that has informed struggles against that and other forms of fascism and corresponding atrocity crimes.
The organizers’ statement on the Congress website asserts that Zionism is a crime against both Judaism and the Indigenous People of Palestine, and commits to putting an end to it. They explain how, “over the years, it became clear that Zionism, instead of protecting Jews, has placed them in great danger by committing atrocious acts in their name. Zionism is based on racial supremacy, adopting the very racist assumptions which are inherent to antisemitism – describing Jews as belonging to some chosen race – a notion which is fundamentally racist and which has no relation to Judaism.”
The Congress participants denounced both Zionism and the Zionist settler-colonial entity as crimes against humanity. Invoking the oath of Mauthausen Concentration Camp survivors at the end of World War II, they echoed those predecessors’ legacy of resistance against Nazi fascism. The diverse participants convened in Vienna issued a clarion call to reinforce Palestinians liberating Palestine and toward building a democratic, just and equitable society for a future without Zionism.
