IN THE NAME OF SOCIALISM - ZIONISM AND EUROPEAN SOCIAL-DEMOCRACY IN THE INTERWAR YEARS

Since 1917, the European social democratic movement has given fulsome support to Zionism. The article examines the ideological basis on whic h Zionism and, in particular, Labour Zionism gained, from 1917, the ba cking of social democratic parties and prominent socialists. It argues that Labour Zionism's appeal to socialists derived from the notion of ''positive colonialism''. In the 1930s, as the number of Jewish refug ees from Nazi persecution increased considerably, social democratic pr o-Zionism also came to be sustained by the fear that the resettlement of Jews in Europe would strengthen anti-Semitism and the extreme right .