Ever since the latest round of genocidal actions by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza launched as a response to Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the discourse surrounding the ongoing tragedy seemingly has set the global community colliding with itself.
Within the sea of heated discourse about the tragedy, in East Asia, one group stands out. These are the Zionists from South Korea, who remain staunchly in favour of Israel whenever the topic comes up.
It seems bizarre, especially as large numbers of young Koreans demonstrate and march for the liberation of Palestine. So why are a large percentage of Koreans firmly in favour of Zionism?
East Asian outpost of Protestantism
Christianity is the fastest-growing religion in South Korea, and the overwhelming majority of this growth falls in the Protestant and Evangelical camps. Protestantism is famously known for being at the centre of intra-Christian disagreement with the previously all-powerful and omnipresent Catholic Church, during the Renaissance period in Europe.
Protestantism changed the practice of Christianity in many ways. Protestant revolutionaries such as Martin Luther fought for the rights of common Christians to discover Christianity of their own volition rather than remain under the thumb of corrupt Catholic Church officials.
Given the nature of the Christian Bible, breaking free of the Catholic Church’s control gave rise to new interpretations of biblical texts and their religious commandments.
It was shortly afterwards over the centuries that saw key figures in the Christian world and certain groups take the interpretations of Jeremiah 31:35-37 and Genesis 12 among other parts of the Bible quite literally.
These are the parts of the Bible that speak about the return of Jews to their homeland unrestricted and without opposition to bring about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the apocalypse.
That same homeland, though, was already known as Palestine by a diverse group of people ruled by Muslim sultans and viziers for centuries by that point. It would take Christian Zionism – which actually predates its Jewish equivalent – until today to become influential, but such ideas caught on with the burgeoning Korean Protestant population from the 1880s onwards.
The idea of divine intervention rescuing a-then oppressed people, restoring them, and then passing the world into the eternal hereafter seemed particularly attractive to Korean Protestants throughout the brutal Japanese colonial period. A tendency to take the Bible literally in many aspects thus remains to this day.
With 9 million Protestants in Korea, the idea of an oppressed Jewish nation never left just as the idea of being historically mistreated and facing challenges by nuclear-armed powers remains. Combined with the cultural distance between Korea and the Arab Islamic world, it starts to make more sense as to why this population of Korean Zionists exists.
It must be noted that the rapid growth of Protestantism and views of Christian Zionism are spread largely by Korean clergymen and priests themselves. Therefore, pointing the finger at outside Protestant-influenced powers such as the US is counter-productive in this regard.
The larger geopolitical and social context
South Korea and Israel have maintained cordial diplomatic relations since 1962. Israel goes a step further and has since recognised only the Seoul-based government as the sole representative of the Korean nation. Of course, fostering such closeness along has always been the US guiding hand. On the other hand, North Korea has never established diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv.
Both countries are some of the most important regional allies of the US, allowing the superpower to project its influence in West Asia and East Asia. Israel in particular, has taken an interest in North Korea as that state had been an important supplier of missile technology to Iran and Hezbollah. To that end, South Korea has been cooperative.
The national admiration for Israel goes above and beyond, as there is also a geographical aspect to it. While Palestinians proudly sing of their agricultural heritage, Israeli territory is devoid of natural resources. That’s something shared with South Korea, which lacks mineral resources compared to the North.
Lee Chang-ro, a researcher for the Ministry for Education explains it clearly:
“The reasons why Korean children are taught Talmud are pretty obvious. Koreans and Jews both have a long history of oppression and surviving adversity with nothing but their own ingenuity to thank. There are no natural resources to speak of in Korea, so, like the Jews, all we can develop is our minds.”
A Korean mother further adds:
“The stereotype of Jews here is that they are ultra-intelligent people. Jews have come out of nowhere to become business chiefs, media bosses, Nobel Prize winners – we want our children to do the same. If that means studying Talmud, Torah, whatever, so be it.”
It’s important to keep in mind this aspirational view of Jews extends to the whole Korean population and not just Korean Christians. When combined with Korean Protestant views of end-times prophecy though, the result is undoubtedly a community of steadfast Zionists in Korea.
In response to Palestinian military resistance through Al-Aqsa Flood in October 2023, the South Korean government has taken a stance against armed resistance while still not fully supporting Israel. This was even though US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke of the South Korean government recognizing Israel’s efforts to ‘defend itself’.
Nevertheless, from 2014 to 2022, South Korea exported $43.9 million worth of weapons to Israel and maintains close military ties.
The cracks in Korean society
It should be noted, however, that a large section of South Korean society has thrown its full support behind the Palestinian resistance movement. This is particularly prevalent among the well-connected youth of the country, who have access to Palestinian voices on the internet.
In one of the most televised displays of solidarity against the genocide in Gaza, activists displayed 2,000 shoes to represent the 2,000 innocent Palestinian lives lost due to ‘Operation Swords of Iron’ as of 17 November 2023. Protests and demonstrations in Seoul have since continued, often based around the Israeli embassy.
Leftist political parties, labour organisations, and student societies all over South Korea have been dedicated to making their disapproval of the Israeli genocide known, and such calls have also included demands that their government stop cooperating with and arming Israel.
As one might be guessing, Korean supporters of Palestine draw upon the same Korean history of Japanese colonial oppression to make the case as to why their country should stand beside Palestine.
Enthusiastic support for Palestine in Korea however, is not universal. As mentioned above, the influence of Christian Zionism piggybacking on a religious movement is gaining adherents in the country the fastest. Apart from those who side with Israel, the aforementioned distance between Korea and the Arab world means that many are simply indifferent to it.
Besides, there is also the spectre of North Korean aggression, a looming threat for Seoul as Pyongyang has wholeheartedly thrown its support behind Palestinian resistance, including through arms sales.
Since the ideologically-opposed enemy over the border often threatens them with nuclear annihilation sides with Palestine will make sure that Korean Zionists become all the more influential.
The fight for the narrative in favour of Palestinian resistance is bound to be an eternal one. As time passes, it seems voices in support of Israel continue to sprout up everywhere. Christian Zionism in particular has been steadily finding support in North America, South America, and parts of Africa.
Supercharging North America and Korea’s nominal support for Israel and giving it a religious dimension to spread around the world may bring forward an uncertain future. It certainly won’t be conciliatory.
