Kitty Herweijer, a columnist for the Dutch Algemeen Dagblad, claims that anyone who views Israel as a colonial project is an anti-Semite and wants to destroy Israel. Why? Is labeling a country as a colonial project equivalent to wishing for its destruction? No. Numerous countries, including the United States, Canada, and Australia, are also considered colonial projects, without this leading to accusations of hatred against their residents.
A glance at my bibliography on Palestine shows numerous publications from reputable publishers that discuss colonialism in Palestine. Elia Zureik’s book, titled “Israel’s Colonial Project in Palestine,” is just one example. In academic circles, there is nothing strange about such terminology. Study material from Leiden University states: “International Law prohibits… the colonization of occupied territories… A well-known example is Israel’s long-standing policy of establishing settlements.”1Melzer, N. (2016). International humanitarian law a comprehensive introduction. ICRC, International Committee of the Red Cross
Political Zionism emerged in Europe during a period when colonization was widely discussed. This influenced Zionist thought. Zionist leaders used arguments or rhetoric that drew analogies with European colonial projects. They lobbied with colonial powers and compared their project to French and British colonies.
In 1902, Theodor Herzl, one of the founders of modern Zionism, tried to win the support of Cecil Rhodes for “something colonial,” by comparing Zionist aspirations with Rhodes’ colonization projects in Africa.
Another example is Ze’ev Jabotinsky, the ideological precursor of the Likud party. I had ChatGPT perform a linguistic analysis of his essay “The Iron Wall” and found 21 colonial terms. A striking quote:
“Every indigenous people will resist alien settlers as long as they see any hope of ridding themselves of the danger of foreign settlement. That is what the Arabs in Palestine are doing, and what they will persist in doing as long as there remains a solitary spark of hope that they will be able to prevent the transformation of ‘Palestine’ into the ‘Land of Israel’”.
John Locke’s theory of property, that whoever mixes his labor with nature becomes its owner, inspired the later Zionist idea that Jews, by making the desert bloom, had a right to Palestine. Even the respectable Hannah Arendt fell for it. However, Locke devised his theory to justify colonialism, as he deemed Native Americans lazy.2Temin, D. M. (2022). “Nothing much had happened”: Settler colonialism in Hannah Arendt. European Journal of Political Theory, 21(3), 514-538. https://doi.org/10.1177/14748851198930773Lederman, Shmuel. “Making the Desert Bloom: Hannah Arendt and Zionist Discourse.” The European Legacy 21, no. 4 (May 18, 2016): 393–407.
Even if the Zionists did not see themselves as colonizers, colonial powers certainly had colonial plans for the Middle East, such as the Sykes-Picot Agreement. In his Balfour Declaration, Arthur Balfour understood “Jewish National Home” to mean a protectorate, which is a glorified colony.4Ingrams, Doreen. Palestine Papers, 1917-1922: Seeds of Conflict. Pbk. ed. London: Eland, 2009.
The main reason for Palestinians to call Israel a colonial project is to demonstrate that they are the victims. They want to say, “Look, 78% of our land was colonized; we have the right to the rest without concessions.”
It is even more dangerous that the Israeli government wants to annex the occupied territories and force Palestinians to pledge allegiance to Israel. Otherwise, they must leave. So, it’s not Israel that is in danger, but the Palestinians.
[…] It is true that 2,000 years ago, Jews controlled a territory in Palestine, but international law only recognizes historical rights for peoples who rule a territory continuously and peacefully. The longer this is the case, the stronger the right. The longer a people are absent, the weaker their rights. The Netherlands discovered Mauritius, which was uninhabited, then it left. France also found it empty. Nevertheless, neither the Dutch nor the French have any rights to that land. If all ancient peoples had the right to current states, many countries would be ethnically cleansed. Therefore, Israel is indeed a colonial project. […]