Sport, Zionist ideology and the State of Israel

Abstract

Sport has been a central element of the Zionist ideal to create a new Jew, even though the meaning of the term did not necessarily include physical activity and was perceived differently in the Diaspora and in Eretz Israel. As this essay explains, within the establishment of the State of Israel sport turned into an instrument for recruiting diverse streams of Zionist ideology, both on a political and on a national level and as a means of internal and external Zionist propaganda, as well as collective identification in the society taking shape in Eretz Israel. The social, economic and political changes the State of Israel has undergone since the 1980s have led sport to lose its function as a political tool and a tool for spreading propaganda. Instead, sport has become one of the few forms of collective identification that can unify the Israeli public. Still, this identification is not necessarily related to Zionist ideology, but rather to civilian identification with the State of Israel.