“I don’t have a problem with Jews or Israelis. I just hate Zionists.”

A few months ago a Lebanese friend said this to me. Not angrily. Not aggressively. Just as a matter of fact.

Interestingly, I’d heard almost the exact same sentence from a Syrian neighbour of mine a few weeks earlier. And like my Lebanese friend, he’s someone I genuinely get along with.

So I asked both of them a simple question.

“Can you tell me what a Zionist is?”

Neither of them could.

They paused. Thought about it. Tried to explain. But the definition never quite came.

So I tried something else. I asked them a different question.

“Do you believe Jews have the right to live in peace alongside you… our cousins?”

Both answered immediately.

“Yes.”

So I expanded the question a little.

“Do you believe Jews have the right to live in peace alongside their neighbours in their ancestral homeland?”

Again, both answered the same way.

“Yes.”

And that’s when I broke the news neither of them expected.

“Then my friend… you’re a Zionist.”

The look of confusion was priceless. Because both of them had grown up hearing the same story that millions across the Middle East have been taught for generations.

That “Zionists” are some secretive, malevolent, colonial force. A dark movement plotting to steal land and harm their children.

But when you strip away the slogans and the propaganda, Zionism means something far less sinister.

It simply means that the Jewish people believe they have the right to live safely and peacefully in the land where their story began. That’s it. No secret cabal. No world domination plan.

Just the very ordinary hope that our children can grow up in peace. Well… that and access to good falafel and hummus. Obviously 🤪

The Jewish people are a tiny people.

Globally there are about 15 million Jews. That’s roughly 0.2% of the world’s population.

Israel itself is smaller still.

A country of about 10 million people, occupying roughly 0.001% of the world’s landmass. About the size of Wales or New Jersey.

Inside that small country live around 2 million Muslim citizens, alongside Christians, Druze, Baháʼí, Buddhists, atheists and many others.

They vote. They serve in parliament. They proudly serve alongside one another in the IDF. They sit on the Supreme Court. They run hospitals and universities. In other words, they have the same civil rights as every other Israeli citizen. And yet something curious happens in the global conversation.

No one seems particularly upset about the dozens of Christian countries. Or the 50+ Muslim-majority countries across the world. Or the many states defined by Buddhist or other religious identities.

But when it comes to the one Jewish country, the reaction is often… different. Sometimes intensely so.

Which brings us back to that original sentence.

“I don’t have a problem with Jews or Israelis. I just hate Zionists.”

When you translate those words honestly, what that sentence really means is something like this:

“I don’t hate Jews… I just hate the idea that Jews should be able to live safely in their own homeland.”

And that raises a question worth asking. Why has a simple belief in Jewish self-determination become one of the most misunderstood ideas in the modern world?

Where did the distortion begin? And more importantly… who benefits from keeping it alive?

The strange thing is that this idea isn’t unusual at all. Greeks believe Greece should exist. Italians believe Italy should exist. The Japanese believe Japan should exist. No one calls any of those controversial.

Zionism simply says that the Jewish people, one of the oldest surviving peoples on earth, should also have a small place where their language, culture, history and identity can live and breathe safely.

Which brings me back to my Lebanese friend and my Syrian neighbour. Two good people who had simply inherited a word without ever being told what it meant.

Once we talked about it honestly, the word stopped being frightening. Because in the end, Zionism is not a monster. It’s simply the belief that Jews, like every other people on earth, deserve a small place to live in peace.

And if you believe that too… then welcome to the club my Zionist friend 💙