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Debunking the Claim that Israel Is a "Settler-Colonial Project"

(JNS) Paul Schneider - Anti-Zionists often try to delegitimize Israel by calling it a white supremacist, European-style, settler-colonial project. Yet there are several problems with that argument. The European Jews who populated Palestine were refugees, not colonizers. They came to escape oppression, not to further the interests of a mother country. They also came to reclaim their homeland, not to widen the boundaries of European influence. The Zionist immigrants were not British and not economically tied to Britain. Indeed, over time, Britain became the main opponent of Zionist immigration. Moreover, the Jewish return predated the British mandate, with the arrival of the first Zionists in 1882. A report by Moshe Aumann, Land Ownership in Palestine, 1880-1948, shows that Palestinian Arabs are not as indigenous to the land as many believe. Aumann shows that most Palestinian Arabs are the descendants of immigrants from other countries who arrived after 1882. The main cause of that immigration was "Jewish development, which created new and attractive work opportunities and, in general, a standard of living previously unknown in the Middle East." In addition, at least half the Jewish population of Israel is made up of people whose families were expelled from Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. They are non-European and just as indigenous to the Middle East as any Arab. The writer, an attorney, is a member of the board of directors of the American Jewish International Relations Institute (AJIRI), an affiliate of B'nai B'rith International.
2023-05-18 00:00:00
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