The following Ideological Statement was adopted unanimously at the 32nd biennial convention of LZA.

INTRODUCTION
Labor Zionism has its origins in the early twentieth century. Its ideology is based on the 2000-year-old dream of Jewish national self-determination and the vision of a just and humane society. Labor Zionists were a driving force in the reestablishment of the Jewish homeland. Labor Zionists emphasize Israel as the center of Jewish life and are committed to promoting progressive Jewish issues, a peace-oriented Israel, social democracy, and economic justice throughout the world.

LABOR ZIONISM AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE
Labor Zionists view Judaism as a civilization that embodies a multifaceted religion, diverse cultural traditions and languages, and the need for national self-determination. We believe that Jews must build on the foundations of our heritage, and promote its continuation. We are committed to the following:

• Fight for the rights of the Jewish people, wherever and whenever threatened
• Revitalize Jewish life in the United States through innovative formal and informal Jewish education
• Educate and support Jewish youth through our affiliated youth movement, Habonim Dror
• Create new leadership whose role is to promote progressive Jewish issues
• Support pluralism and egalitarianism in Jewish life
• Work toward a democratic distribution of power in our Jewish communities.

LABOR ZIONISM AND ISRAEL
As Labor Zionists, we believe that Israel and the Diaspora are linked in the development of the Jewish people. It is the responsibility of Zionists in the Diaspora to engage Israelis in an open dialogue. While often in close affinity with the goals of the Israel Labor Party, we remain an independent and constructively critical partner in their deliberations. Labor Zionists support key Israeli institutions such as cooperative settlements: kibbutzim and moshavim; the national labor union: Histadrut; and Israel's universal health care system. We are committed to the following:

• Support full implementation of the Oslo peace process and the Labor-led government's initiatives for peace with the Palestinians and the Arab world and security for Israel and its neighbors
• Engage in a dialogue with the Israel Labor Party on issues such as religious pluralism, helping the disadvantaged, the rights of minorities in Israel, and the role of both the Israeli leadership and the younger generation of Israelis in bridging Israel/Diaspora relations
• Promote aliyah for those who choose to live in Israel
• Support the mutual recognition by the State of Israel and the Palestinian people of each other's self-determination.

LABOR ZIONISM AND SOCIAL DEMOCRACY
Labor Zionists believe that the governments of the United States and Israel must provide their citizens with the fundamental legal, social, and economic rights that serve as the basis for all democratic and just societies. We are committed to fight for human rights, social and economic justice, equal education, civil liberties and religious freedom. We oppose all forms of persecution, including those based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, and sexual orientation. We are committed to the following:

• Support minimum wage and "living wage" campaigns
• Strengthen the labor movement as a vehicle for social and economic advancement
• Work to eliminate poverty in the United States, Israel, and other nations
• Support public education, vocational training, and job counseling in order to obtain equal opportunity in the workplace
• Fight for equal rights for all minorities
• Work towards guaranteed health care for all people
• Advocate initiatives that safeguard the environment, protect workers and consumers, encourage responsible methods of agriculture, and promote the humane treatment of animals
• Support the continued development of social democratic institutions throughout the world
• Work with like-minded organizations and individuals who strive to create a society that pursues justice, equal opportunity, and peace.

APPENDIX: OUR PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
The Labor Zionist Alliance is an affiliate of the World Labor Zionist Movement. We work with a variety of other institutions in the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds. Zionism is based on the unity of the Jewish people, the centrality of the State of Israel, the renaissance of the Hebrew language, and the importance of aliyah (immigration to Israel). As Labor Zionists, we are committed to emphasizing the centrality of Israel in Jewish life and to transmitting a shared set of socially progressive Jewish values from one generation to the next. We believe that the transmission of these values lies in our commitments to Jewish peoplehood, a progressive and peace-oriented Zionism, and the realization of social democracy and economic justice in Israel, the United States, and the world.

Founded in the early years of the twentieth century, Labor Zionism played a central role in the reestablishment of a Jewish society in our ancestral homeland. Labor Zionism rose to the challenges of transforming the land and the Jews who came to build it: establishing social institutions to sustain the new society, and rescuing and ingathering the surviving remnant of the Shoah.

Labor Zionism made possible the establishment of the state, and provided the majority of its early leadership. It led the struggle for Israel's independence and organized the mass immigration of hundreds of thousands of refugees from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Its sons and daughters were among the first rank of Israel's armies in each of its wars. Labor Zionism founded the economic institutions which have been the core of Israel's agriculture and industry. Labor Zionism's current political embodiment in the Israel Labor Party is primarily responsible for the road to long-term peace with Israel's Palestinian and Arab neighbors.

With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, political Zionism achieved one major objective: Jewish national self-determination. In the last five decades, Jews in the Diaspora, working in close cooperation with Jews of Israel, have striven for and rejoiced in the success of Israel's economic and cultural achievements. Disapora Jews have supported Israel's heroic rescues of Soviet and Ethiopian Jewry.

With Israel established as an instrumentality for the development of the Jewish people, Zionists continue to address the nature of that development. What does it mean to be a Jew and a Zionist today? Now that we have a Jewish state, what kind of state should it be? How should the Jewish people develop itself in both the Diaspora and in Israel? What shall be the relations between the two? These questions inspire heated debate among Zionists of various political affiliations, and among Jews in general.

Labor Zionism has continually expressed through its institutions and the writings of its adherents the centrality of democracy and the dignity of the human being. Labor Zionism has consistently respected the demands of Jewish tradition and its continuous redefinition, and reshaping of the Jewish condition in the modern world. In particular, Labor Zionism recognizes the legitimacy of pluralistic forms of Jewish religious and spiritual expression. Labor Zionism continues to recognize the inherent dignity in all forms of labor. As Labor Zionists, we are committed to a core set of principles and policies designed to reduce the inequalities in the economic systems of society.