One of the main supporters of Zionism has written an essay* that clearly represents a major shift — and a visible crack in the Zionist project. Without renouncing Zionism, Yuval Noah Harari dismantles several of its core moral pillars.
He explicitly rejects the idea that Jews are the “original indigenous people” of the land, denies that ancient kingdoms or Roman-era events create modern ownership rights, and insists that history cannot function as a real-estate deed. This alone marks a serious break with classical Zionist justification.
More strikingly, he acknowledges that in the early 20th century Palestinians had a stronger claim to the land than Jewish immigrants, and that European antisemitism was not a problem Palestinians were responsible for solving. Zionism appears here not as an inevitable historical return, but as a minority political project — contested even among Jews themselves.
Harari also abandons the moral asymmetry long embedded in Zionist discourse. Israeli and Palestinian narratives are treated as equally mythologized and equally destructive when turned into absolute certainties. Security, borders, and “two states” are no longer presented as solutions in themselves; without mutual legitimacy and generosity, they are meaningless.
That said, Harari still stops short. Narratives matter, but they cannot replace history, rights, and power relations. Without confronting colonial dynamics, structural asymmetry, and the question of justice, calls for coexistence risk remaining ethically appealing yet politically insufficient. Harari clearly needs to go further — but even what he says here already represents a visible crack in the ideological foundations of the Zionist project.
Benyounès Saidi
*Financial Times, “Only generosity can secure peace between Israelis and Palestinians”, November 8, 2025
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