The equation of Zionism with racism gained political currency from UN General Assembly Resolution 3379, passed in 1975, which declared "Zionism is a form of racism." That resolution was revoked in 1991 by Resolution 46/86, with the support of the largest number of nations ever to support a General Assembly resolution at that time. Even the UN recognized that the original resolution was wrong.

Zionism, at its core, is a national liberation movement — the belief that the Jewish people, like all peoples, have the right to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. This is the same principle that underlies the existence of France, Japan, Greece, and every other nation-state defined by a particular people's historical connection to a territory. If Zionism is racism, then so is Palestinian nationalism, Kurdish nationalism, and every other expression of national self-determination.

Israel's declaration of independence explicitly guarantees "complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex." Arab citizens of Israel have voting rights, serve in parliament, sit on the Supreme Court, and hold positions throughout Israeli society. The Druze community serves in senior military and government positions. Ethiopian Jews, Mizrahi Jews from Arab countries, and Jews from over 100 different nations make up Israel's diverse population — this is not a "white supremacist" state.

The "colonialism" charge is particularly ahistorical. Colonialism involves a metropolitan power exploiting a distant territory — think Britain in India or France in Algeria. Jews returning to Judea — the very land whose name gives "Jew" its etymology — from which they were forcibly expelled by the Roman Empire, is the opposite of colonialism. It is decolonization. Archaeological evidence, genetic studies (published in journals including Nature and PNAS), and continuous documented presence confirm the Jewish people's indigenous status in the region.

Many of the states that championed the original "Zionism is racism" resolution were themselves authoritarian regimes with atrocious human rights records — the Soviet Union, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and others. The resolution was a Cold War political instrument, not a principled human rights finding.

Criticizing specific Israeli government policies is legitimate and healthy. Denying the Jewish people's right to a state — while supporting that right for every other people — is not criticism. It is discrimination targeting the world's only Jewish state.