Zionism does not equal colonialism
Issue date: 12/5/08 Section: Opinion
To the Editor:
Uri Strauss' missive (Nov. 21) equating Zionism with colonialism is a house of cards teetering on a faulty - and disingenuous - premise. Colonialism refers to settlement authorized by and for the benefit of an outside mother country. Zionism has no external mother country; rather, the motherland is Israel itself. Thus, creation of the State of Israel was, in fact, one of the first post-colonial nationalist movements of the 20th century.
An examination of land records from the Ottoman and British Mandatory periods up to the United Nations partition vote in 1947 reveals that only a small fraction of the land was owned (purchased, registered, and taxable) by resident Palestinians; many of these Palestinians migrated from Syria to Palestine at the same time as the Jews' return to their ancestral home. And during this period the Jews purchased, rather than squatted or conquered, the territory on which they lived.
Moreover, with all the disinformation in the press and on the Internet and airways, it needs to be repeated that the leaders of the nascent Jewish state agreed to partition, but local Palestinians and surrounding Arab governments tried to destroy the embryonic state and push the Jews into the sea. Even a cursory examination of the Palestinian Awareness Week signs posted near the library shows some wishful thinking - a map of Palestine encompassing not only Gaza and the West Bank, but all of present day Israel. Hmmm…some things never change.
Charles Rosenblatt
Professor of Physics
and Macromolecular Science
Uri Strauss' missive (Nov. 21) equating Zionism with colonialism is a house of cards teetering on a faulty - and disingenuous - premise. Colonialism refers to settlement authorized by and for the benefit of an outside mother country. Zionism has no external mother country; rather, the motherland is Israel itself. Thus, creation of the State of Israel was, in fact, one of the first post-colonial nationalist movements of the 20th century.
An examination of land records from the Ottoman and British Mandatory periods up to the United Nations partition vote in 1947 reveals that only a small fraction of the land was owned (purchased, registered, and taxable) by resident Palestinians; many of these Palestinians migrated from Syria to Palestine at the same time as the Jews' return to their ancestral home. And during this period the Jews purchased, rather than squatted or conquered, the territory on which they lived.
Moreover, with all the disinformation in the press and on the Internet and airways, it needs to be repeated that the leaders of the nascent Jewish state agreed to partition, but local Palestinians and surrounding Arab governments tried to destroy the embryonic state and push the Jews into the sea. Even a cursory examination of the Palestinian Awareness Week signs posted near the library shows some wishful thinking - a map of Palestine encompassing not only Gaza and the West Bank, but all of present day Israel. Hmmm…some things never change.
Charles Rosenblatt
Professor of Physics
and Macromolecular Science
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