A society in which everyone hates one another. A Jewish professor who defected unpacks the myths of Zionism in an interview with Al Jazeera Net.

They spent their first year in Jerusalem in an absorption center, an old hotel, with each family in a single room.

“Let's start from the roots”

Al-Jazeera Net

The parents were elderly and lived on social welfare while I worked in a factory as a cleaning worker and prepared for university.

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We wanted to stay in Jerusalem but it was too expensive, so after a year we bought a loan-financed apartment in Ashkelon near the Gaza Strip.

The first year felt like refugees fleeing the Soviet Union's collapse, with hope and exhilaration.

I was struck by Jerusalem's beauty and the landscapes of Palestine, but the contrast with dirty, standardized Israeli coastal towns was stark.

I wanted to communicate with Israelis and had attended a synagogue school where Zionist propaganda was practiced.

In reality Israelis treated Jewish newcomers as competitors, they disliked and despised them, and xenophobia from my Soviet experience led me to limit contact to work.

It gradually became clear that Israel's language, mentality and culture were completely different from mine.

He served in a warehouse at an IDF base in northern Gaza in the mid-1990s.

He was astonished by the weak discipline: soldiers slept on duty, disobeyed orders, and neglected weapons and uniforms.

Al-Jazeera Net

For this reason he does not believe conspiracy theories about October 7 and is surprised it did not happen earlier.

In Russia, Western propaganda taught him that conscription is bad and should be professional; in Israel propaganda claimed the opposite.

He did not understand why he should sit in a depot for three years after graduating from university.

He says he arrived in Israel at sixteen as a Zionist but confronted the ideology with reality.

“Let's start from the roots”

Al-Jazeera Net

He realized he would never be one of the Israelis and would not be able to realize himself professionally there.

He notes that Jews in Russia, the United States, and Europe have far more opportunities for university studies and that lectures contradicted Zionist propaganda about prosperity in Palestine.

He learned that settlers nearby depended on Palestinians and German settlers.

He recalls living in Ashkelon with Jews from Morocco, Yemen, and Iraq who did not accept him as someone from Russia and heard that European Jews in the 1950s and 1960s mocked them.

He realized Israeli society is a place where everyone hates each other and that only the war with Palestinians unites them.

He wondered what they did to Palestinians.

He engaged with left-wing activists and the Communist Party, but by the end of his studies he decided he did not want to live in Israel.

His grandparents opposed leaving for Israel, but others understood; there is a gap between online statements and home life; many Israelis stay because they cannot leave due to debts and hope to immigrate to Canada, the United States, or Germany.

He lists three reasons for the lack of a real movement against the regime: corruption that makes academic entry difficult, fear of losing bread and status and being labeled anti-Semitic, and the binding social ties that require participation in the army and willingness to defend the state.

He explains that opposing Zionism carries personal costs, while criticizing regimes such as Russia or Iran could bring fame, and that Western media often labels as anti-Semitic those who oppose Zionist policies.

He notes that in Israel everyone is bound by blood and service, so saying one is against genocide can invite accusations of betraying family or friends.

He argues that the West often sees the conflict through Israeli eyes, cites Orientalism, and asserts that Palestinians must refer to Arab and Palestinian dissident scholars to be heard, while the world is gradually moving away from Eurocentrism.

He states that Zionism is a historical phenomenon with an end and that Jews will have to confront the trauma left by this ideology, expressing shame for having once been part of the project and urging Israelis to learn Arabic and become good Palestinians, while advising Palestinians and Islamic countries to study Israeli society to understand the enemy and confront them more effectively.

As a historian, he asserts that Zionism is a historical phenomenon with an end and that Jews will have to confront the trauma left by this ideology.

He expresses deep shame for having once been part of the project and says he will continue paying the price.

Al-Jazeera Net

His advice to Israelis is to learn Arabic and become good Palestinians, while Palestinians and Islamic countries should study Israeli society to understand the opponent.

He argues that true victory begins with the enemy understanding them, referencing how the United States built academic institutions to study its opponent during the Cold War.