Canaanism: The Search for an Alternative Identity to Zionism in Israel

Zionism, as Israel's founding ideological movement, aimed to construct a national identity through the Jewish religious tradition while presenting itself as a form of secular nationalism. This paradox—the incorporation of religious elements into a secular identity—has shaped the core "Traditionalist-Secular" divide in Israeli politics and emerged as a significant obstacle to forming a coherent nation-state identity. The official conception of Israeli identity has consistently reflected tensions between tradition and modernity, fostering the development of dissenting political positions from the state's early years. One notable response was the Canaanite movement, developed by a group of artists and intellectuals in the 1930s. Led by poet-journalist Yonatan Ratosh, the movement, known as the "Young Hebrews," critiqued Zionism's vision of identity and proposed an alternative nationalist discourse. Highlighting the distinction between Jewishness and Hebrewness, the Canaanites argued for the institutionalization of Israel as a secular nation-state. They posited that national identity should be rooted not in the religious affiliation of Jewishness but in the ethnic and geographical identity of Hebrewness. This study examines the contradictory nature of Zionist national identity and the critical nationalist response articulated by the Canaanite movement.