Zionism grew from Jewish religion, messianism, and persecution, not race.

Evidence

Zionism is basically not a racial movement but a form of nationalism or, to use the current nomenclature, a national liberation movement. Like other such movements, it combines various currents, some springing from tradition and necessity, others carried on the winds of international change and fashion. Most important among the former is the Jewish religion itself, with its recurring stress on Zion, Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and with the interwoven and recurring themes of bondage and liberation, of exile and return. The messianism and move­ ments of religious revival which arose among Jews from the seventeenth century also made an important contribution to the genesis of this movement. The per­ secutions to which Jews were subject, especially in Central and Eastern Europe, gave an enormous impetus to its development. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1344

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Zionism as a national liberation movement whose main springs are religious tradition, messianism, and persecution rather than racial identity.
• XREF: connects to: Zionism is settler-colonial nationalism, not national liberation. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 474; Zionism fuses religious and national identity so completely they are indistinguishable. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 483