Social media is full of people decrying the evils of zionism and zionists. But I had always understood zionism to mean the Jewish wish for a homeland. This clearly isn't what the anti-zionists mean by the word. What do they mean?
I have tried asking them but they never reply directly to the question.
anti-zionism is a broad movement, and their definitions of zionism vary. Most do reject the idea that Jews have a right to national self-determination (at the very least in the levant).
Oftentimes, Zionism is just a placeholder for world Jewry.
The far right often uses Zio/Zionist as a shorthand for Jew/Jewish. It uses the same antisemitic conspiracy theories, but attributes them to "Zionist" instead of Jews, to make their antisemitism more palatable to the mainstream. They use the exact same ideas, but just copy-replace Jews to Zionists.
David Duke is one example, using age-old antisemitic canards of an all-powerful cabal which secretly controls the world. Not attributing it to Jews, but Zionists. The ADL has collected a lot of examples of this as well.
Part of the far left have taken up this meaning as well, and Zionist / Jew are often used interchangeably in the Arab-speaking world.
Especially left-wing, Jewish anti-zionists define Zionism as Jewish nationalism. They differentiate between political, religious, and cultural zionism. But they reject all forms.
Some on the left define Zionism as a form of settler-colonialism. The antisemitic BDS movement for example defines Zionism as an Ideology 'which holds that the “Jewish nation” has an inherent right to the land of Palestine', which they consider to be settler-colonialism.
The - since revoked - UN resolution 3379 defined zionism as a form of racism & a threat to world peace.
Dr. Gabor Maté: (physician, author and trauma expert) a former Zionist that now supports the people of Palestine. In an interview with Piers Morgan:
I used to be a Zionist, as you mentioned. I’m a Holocaust survivor. Zionism was very important for me as the salvation of the Jewish people until I found out that the state was founded based on the extirpation, expulsion, and multiple massacres of the local population. And that’s not historically controversial. So, I’m taking a long review of this, and I’m saying that the present situation cannot be understood without looking at the historical context. Nor can we move forward if the present occupation and the suppression of the Palestinians continue. Sharon, your previous guest talked about the fragile coexistence. There was no coexistence; there was oppression, periodic massacres, land occupation in the West Bank—the continuous expulsion of the population from their homes. I visited the occupied territories three times now. The first time, back during the first Intifada, I cried every day for two weeks at what I saw. So, this cannot go on. I saw the news about the Elgin Marbles being returned and how you changed your mind about that. Well, how about returning the land that’s been stolen from the Palestinians? I’m not talking about the state of Israel; I’m not talking about 1948. I’m talking about since ’67 and what’s going on right now. So, there’s got to be some stop to what’s going on, and that’s how I understand it. This is for the sake of both Israelis and Palestinians.
One who visited the Palestine: (YouTube)
If we don't stop Zionism, some day we will all be Palestinians. Someday we'll all be in a refugee camp and we'll all be ruled by Zionists.
I don't mind if after the job is done you put me in front of a Nuremberg Trial and then jail me for life. Hang me if you want, as a war criminal. What you don't understand is that the dirty work of Zionism is not finished yet, far from it. (Ariel Sharon to Amos Oz, editor of Davar, Dec. 17, 1982)
"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionism, colonization or Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands." (Yoram Bar Porath, Yediot Aahronot, of 14 July 1972.)
The letter of Theodor Herzl, founder of the World Zionist:
"Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly." (Theodor Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine, Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry.)
Gideon Levy – Speech at the Olof Palme Prize reception ceremony 29 jan 2016:
I’ll just give the three principles which enable us Israelis to live so easily with this brutal reality. A) Most of the Israelis, if not all of them, deeply believe that we are the chosen people. And if we are the chosen people, we have the right to do whatever we want. B) There were more brutal occupations in history. There were even longer occupations in history, even though the Israeli occupation gets to quite a nice record. But there was never in history an occupation in which the occupier presented himself as the victim—not only the victim, but the only victim around. This also enables any Israeli to live in peace, because we are the victims.
...
But the third set of values is the most dangerous one. This is the systematic de-humanization of the Palestinians, which enables us Israelis to live in peace with everything, because if they are not human beings like us, then there is not really a question of human rights.
And if you scratch under the skin of almost every Israeli, you will find it there. Almost no one will treat the Palestinians as equal human beings like us. I once wrote that we treat the Palestinians like animals.
I can cite over 50 quotes from Zionists who describe themselves as such and state this publicly.
For context, see this question about how "anti-feminists" define "feminism".. The line I want to use from an answer to that question is that for 'anti-feminists', "Feminist' [is] merely the banner cr[y] of [a] competing power bloc".
There may be groups who advance a definition of "Feminism" but the actual use of the word is merely a tag for the perceived wrongs done by or in the name of women against "us". Likewise the actual use of "Zionism" is just a tag or a label.
In this context "Zionist" doesn't have any useful definition beyond a rallying cry referring to the perceived wrongs done by Israelis and their supporters. Any real or imagined misdeed can be called "Zionist". So "Zionism" refers to restrictions on free movement, discriminatory treatment of Arabic Israelis, policies that restrict the "right to return" of non-Jewish refugees, inequitable funding of districts with a large Arabic population, unequal treatment of Arabic speakers in education, etc. etc. etc. It matters little if these are real or imagined.
Just as calling someone a "Feminist" labels them for members of your group of "anti-feminists", and saves them the trouble of having to think. Labelling someone as "Zionist" means that your "anti-zionist" supporters don't need to analyse any subtle issues of politics.
Tl,dr; Zionists believe that all Jews have the right to live in a Jewish state in historical Palestine (aka Land of Israel). Anti-Zionists believe the opposite.
There are at least two brands of anti-Zionism; religious and secular. Religious anti-Zionists believe that the establishment of Israel displeased God and violated the Jewish people’s oath of political quietism. Based on exegesis, they argue that Jews should wait until the coming of messiah. An example of a religious anti-Zionist group is Neturei Karta, depicted below:
Secular anti-Zionists believe that Zionism is Jewish settler colonialism. Two prominent secular anti-Zionist groups are Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and the BDS movement. Both have written extensively on their views on anti-Zionism (see previous links), which I'll summarize here.
Settler colonialism is the process during which one group of people wrestle control over land from the hands of the indigenous population. They remove or eliminate the indigenous people, erase their culture, and replace it with their own economy and system of governance. Examples of states created through settler colonialism are New Zealand, Australia, Canada, South Africa, the United States, and Israel. In each case indigenous people and culture was replaced with a more powerful foreign people and associated culture. The main difference between the colonization of Palestine and other regions, they argue, is that the colonization of Palestine is ongoing as the process began relatively late. In 1948 when Israel was declared, European settlers had already supplanted the indigenous populations in the Americas. BDS uses the following map which purports to show how Zionist settlers have usurped more and more Palestinian land:
Similarly, former JVP Deputy Director Cecilie Surasky in her speech Settler colonialism, white supremacy, and the “special relationship” between the U.S. and Israel argues that Zionism is not unique, but should be analyzed in a broader historical context:
I have seen these views manifest in the movement for Palestinian liberation: sometimes people chant “2-4-6-8 Israel is a racist state”, or decry the disappearance 400 Palestinian villages when Israel was created, without even a hint of irony or self-reflection that one is literally standing on land built on slavery and the (still happening) genocide of indigenous peoples.
Her point is that anti-Zionism is about the indigenous Palestinians' rights, but indigenous peoples' rights in other parts of the world are equally important.
Back to your question:
But I had always understood zionism to mean the Jewish wish for a homeland. This clearly isn't what the anti-zionists mean by the word. What do they mean?
If you add "Jewish wish for a Jewish homeland in Palestine" then that sure is what they mean. Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement, writes:
A Jewish state in Palestine in any shape or form cannot but contravene the basic rights of the indigenous Palestinian population and perpetuate a system of racial discrimination that ought to be opposed categorically.
Just as we would oppose a "Muslim state" or a "Christian state" or any kind of exclusionary state, definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No Palestinian, rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.
His alternative is a state with equal citizenship:
Accepting modern-day Jewish-Israelis as equal citizens and full partners in building and developing a new shared society, free from all colonial subjugation and discrimination, as called for in the democratic state model, is the most magnanimous, rational offer any oppressed indigenous population can present to its oppressors. So don't ask for more.
This is an offer all Zionists reject. A democratic state with no privileges for Jews, where Jews wouldn't even be a majority, would end the Zionist project.
