This open-access syllabus of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (ICSZ) serves as a political education platform for the critical study of Zionism. In the tradition of Edward Said’s “Zionism from the Standpoint of Its Victims” (1979), this syllabus defines Zionism by centering the perspectives, knowledge, and research of those who experience its violence. The truths of Zionism, Said maintains in his landmark essay, can be found in an “inventory” of its effects, an “‘inventory’ of Palestinian experience.” Against the counterinsurgent weaponization of antisemitism that seeks to demonize critique of Zionism’s structural violence, this syllabus examines Zionism as an “effective political idea” (Said 1979) defined by those on the receiving end of its violence, not as a feeling or vision, as it is often described by its defenders.
Designed as a tool of resistive study for scholars, teachers, students, organizers, and activists alike, our syllabus aims to extend study beyond its location in formal classrooms and institutional educational settings. It draws inspiration from and moves in solidarity with other liberatory, online syllabi projects–the Ferguson Syllabus, the Ending the Korean War Teaching Collective syllabus, the Islamophobia Is Racism syllabus, and the Puerto Rico Syllabus, among others. Collectively, these syllabi represent an epistemological intervention, recognizing that knowledge of racism, colonialism, and policing is erased by those very systems, as are possibilities for other ways to build the world. Structuring our syllabus is therefore a commitment to praxis–the inextricability of critical study and action in transforming the world.
This syllabus calls on us to use the tools of critical study to think about Zionism, to look at how it enacts power, and to read it from below. We study Zionism in terms of what Mohammed El-Kurd refers to as its “material manifestations,” in other words as a real-world political movement that involves people, organizations, states, flows of resources, and military power and that produces conditions of dispossession and genocide. We examine its “ground truths” (Eyal Weizman). Our syllabus challenges the idea that the study of Zionism “belongs” in Jewish studies and Israel studies, fields where funders and institutions have supported–and demanded–research, writing, and teaching that endorses Zionism. By contrast, this syllabus invites the collective construction of critical Zionism studies as a field in its own right.
Our syllabus foundationally draws from the Third Worldist methodology of Said’s intervention against Zionism and the justice-centered, anti-imperialist pedagogy of ethnic studies. We open with the module, “Zionism is racism,” to locate our critique of Zionism as a colonialist project within the broader internationalist context of Third World liberation. Yet even as this syllabus aims to strip Zionism of its power as a self-serving ideology, it also spotlights Zionists in their own words. Grounded in an approach that centers the standpoint of its many victims (Said 1979; Shohat 1988), the syllabus invites critical engagement with Zionism from the mouths of Zionists.
This syllabus will evolve over time. It will be enlivened through collaboration with other organizations and collective, public-facing political education. For now, the syllabus is organized into five interlinked modules:
- Zionism is racism
- Zionism is settler colonialism
- Zionism from the standpoint of ethnic studies
- Zionism is a carceral regime
- Zionism is fascism
Each module opens with a structuring framework that explains the intervention, followed by keywords, discussion questions, and annotated study materials. Some modules include curated artifacts and historical documents. Others include assignments and resources for organizing. As a political educational tool, this syllabus can be used in sites of study outside and inside the classroom. Meant to open onto new possibilities for thinking and theorizing about Zionism, this syllabus will serve as the basis of an online classroom in late Fall 2026.