Skip to content

3.2 Pre-Nakba and the Rise of Settler-colonialism

3.2 Pre-Nakba and the Rise of Settler-colonialism

The term Nakba describes the events surrounding the establishment of the state of Israel by Zionists in historical Palestine on May 15, 1948. It was first used in a work titled “Ma`na al-nakba” (The Meaning of the Catastrophe) by Constantine Zureiq, who wrote that “the tragic aspect of the Nakba is related to the fact that it is not a regular misfortune or a temporal evil, but a Disaster in the very essence of the word, one of the most difficult that Arabs have ever known over their long history.” Ghanim (2009)2. Palestinians worldwide commemorate the Nakba every year on May 15. However, the Nakba did not begin or end on that date. It was preceded by decades of Zionist settler colonisation and military conquests, which continue to this day. Therefore, to understand the current situation of Palestinians and the violence they face, one must acknowledge the events that disrupted, aimed to destroy, and ethnically cleanse the land from its Indigenous peoples.

The arrival of Zionism in the late 1880s in the West, originating partly as a response to anti-Semitism in Christian Europe, resulted in the arrival of the first European Jewish settlers in Palestine. According to G. N. Giladi (1990), the local Jews of Palestine were scarcely distinguishable from their Muslim and Christian neighbours. They wore Arabic clothing, spoke Arabic, and lived in mixed communities. The Indigenous Jews constituted the majority of the Jewish population in Palestine until the early twentieth century when Ashkenazi Zionist immigration began to increase (Giladi 1990)3. Many Ashkenazi immigrants distanced themselves from the local Palestinian Jews, establishing their communities and schools, despite the existence of established Jewish schools and community services by the native Jewish population. Giladi (1990) notes that these actions reflected an isolationist mentality prevalent among the Zionists from the outset, not only towards the Arab Muslim and Christian populations but also in relation to the Indigenous Jews and non-Zionist Ashkenazim as well. The Jewish Colonisation Association (JCA), established in 1891, initially focused on helping Jewish colonies in the Americas but began supporting agricultural settlements in Palestine in 1896. In the same year, Austrian journalist Theodore Herzl published “Der Judenstaat,” advocating for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine as a response to rising anti-Semitism, particularly in Eastern and Central Europe. Herzl already had plans on how to proceed and noted in his diary the need to expropriate property and remove the poor:

We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our own country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly. (Herzl 1960, 88--89)4

Although Herzl was not the first to propose a Jewish state in Palestine, he was instrumental in advocating the idea to Western leaders and played a crucial role in establishing the institutions and organisational structures that led to the creation of Israel (Avineri 2008)5. The First Zionist Congress in 1897 issued the Basel Program, which aimed to establish a secure home for the Jewish people in Palestine through colonisation, organisation, and the promotion of Jewish national feeling. The Congress also established the Zionist Organisation and elected Theodor Herzl as its president (Jewish Virtual Library 2019)6. Between 1904 and 1914, a second wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine brought around 40,000 immigrants, many of whom were strongly committed to Zionism. This had a significant impact on Palestinian agricultural communities in various regions, which increasingly faced confrontations with Jewish paramilitary units comprised of European settlers (Khalidi 2020)7. This period also witnessed the emergence of the Zionist’s Conquest of Labour campaign, leading to the establishment of Jewish-only agricultural communities known as kibbutzim (Wolfe 2012)8. On November 2nd, 1917, the Zionist movement received the support it sought from a powerful state. British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Arthur James Balfour, addressed a letter to the British Zionist leader Lord Rothschild, expressing backing for Zionism. The Balfour Declaration stated:

His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. (Shlaim 2005)9

The Balfour Declaration was issued by Britain in support of Herzl’s ambition to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Arthur James Balfour, the author of the declaration, held white supremacist beliefs, as evidenced by his statement that “men are not born equal, the white and black races are not born with equal capacities” (Porter 1968, 306)10. The influx of Jewish refugees into Britain further fuelled anti-immigrant racism and anti-Semitism in British society. In 1919, Balfour expressed the view that Zionism was a “...serious endeavour to mitigate the age-long miseries created for Western civilisation by the presence in its midst of a Body which it too long regarded as alien, even hostile, but which it was equally unable to expel or absorb.” (Cohen 2014)11. In a letter to the British Prime Minister the same year, he referred to the Indigenous population of Palestine, stating:

The weak point of our position of course is that in the case of Palestine we deliberately and rightly decline to accept the principle of self-determination. If the present inhabitants were consulted they would unquestionably give an anti-Jewish verdict. Our justification for our policy is that we regard Palestine as being absolutely exceptional; that we consider the question of the Jews outside Palestine as one of world importance and that we conceive the Jews to have an historic claim to a home in their ancient land; provided that home can be given them without either dispossessing or oppressing the present inhabitants. (Krämer 2008, 167)12

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine, the British assumed control of the region, leaving the Palestinians to face a new occupier, the British army. The end of the Ottoman Empire and subsequent historical events allowed Palestinian national identity to emerge. As Manuel Hassassian explains, two significant developments after World War I contributed to forming Palestinian ideology and institutions. While not directly responsible for its creation, Zionism played a crucial role in catalysing Palestinian nationalism by providing a focal point for their national struggle, initially incorporating pan-Arabism ideals centred around Arab unity and independence (Hassassian 2002)13. Another factor, as highlighted by Muhammad Y. Muslih (Muslih 1988)14, was the fragmentation of the Arab nationalist movement orchestrated by the British and French. The shift from an imperial identity under Ottoman rule to a territorial nationalism was a gradual process that occurred over multiple periods (ibid.), with the initial period marked by the imperial power of the British Mandate and its association with the Zionist Movement. During this time, a determined Palestinian national movement emerged in opposition to these powers (Khalidi 1997)15. Between 1919 and 1923, approximately 35,000 Zionists migrated to Palestine. After the effective start of the British Mandate in 1923, another 67,000 Zionist immigrants arrived between 1924 and 1928, increasing the Jewish population to 16 per cent. During this period, the Zionist underground military organisation known as the Hagana, which would later become the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)1, was established in 1920. From 1929 to 1939, a new wave of 250,000 Zionist immigrants further increased the Jewish population in Palestine to 30 per cent. This was followed by an additional wave of 180,000 immigrants, mainly from Poland and Germany, during the rise of the Nazis to power.

In response to Hitler’s ascent, the Zionist Congress of 1933 stated that it “regards it as the duty of the Mandatory Power to open the gates of Palestine for as large an immigration of German Jews as possible and to facilitate their settlement, and to take all steps so that the Jewish National Home, whose establishment is the cardinal object of the Mandate, shall be built as speedily as possible and on the largest scale.” (Central Office of the Zionist Organisation 1934)16. The Congress also expressed its intention to engage in Jewish colonisation in Transjordan with the assistance of the British Mandate (ibid.)

From 1936 to 1939, the Palestinians initiated the Great Arab Revolt, a period marked by their uprising against both the Zionist settler colonisers and the British authorities. The revolt presented opportunities for the Hagana, who received assistance from British troops, to refine their military tactics. As Amatziya Cohen explains, the use of bayonets in attacks on defenceless villagers served as training for the Hagana, as they lacked knowledge of “the elementary use of bayonets when attacking dirty Arabs” (quoted in Pappé 2006, 16)17. During this time, the Irgun, another Zionist paramilitary group, intensified its attacks and carried out numerous bombings in public places like markets, targeting Palestinians. During the Second World War, some members of the Hagana joined British forces to gain further military expertise on European battlefields. At the same time, the remaining Hagana continued infiltrating approximately 1,200 Palestinian villages with centuries of history (Pappé 2006).

Just eight years later, Weitz’s words would become a grim reality. The atrocities of the Second World War and the Nazi Holocaust, which resulted in the annihilation of six million European Jews and 1.5 million Romani people (Hancock 2005)18, along with the persecution of various other groups, including sexual minorities, individuals with disabilities, and political opponents who did not conform to the Nazi ideology, expedited the establishment of the State of Israel. Following the war, the returning Hagana and other Zionist groups began targeting and killing British troops stationed in Palestine in order to intensify pressure on the British government to withdraw from the region.

The Zionist narrative leading up to and after 1948 portrayed the departure of Palestinians from their land as voluntary (Pappé 2006, xiv)17. However, historians such as Walid Khalidi in 1961 (and reiterated in 1988) and Ilan Pappé uncovered the existence of a master plan, known as Plan D or Dalet, behind the massacres and mass expulsions of Palestinians from the UN-created Israel (ibid.). Pappé (2006), by examining historical archival evidence, argues that the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands was indeed a systematic process consisting of various plans, with Plan D being the most infamous. David Ben-Gurion, the architect behind the ethnic cleansing, recognised that the British were nearing their departure and had instructed preparations for the complete takeover (Pappé 2006)17. Subsequently, Plan C (also known as Plan Gimmel) was implemented by the Hagana to pressure Palestinians and instil a sense of insecurity among the native population. The objectives outlined in Plan C were explicit (Pappé 2006; Slutsky 1988)17 19: eliminate Palestinian leaders; target individuals who incited and financially supported Palestinians; target Palestinians who acted against Jews; eliminate high-ranking Palestinian officials and officers within the Mandatory system; disrupt Palestinian transportation; undermine sources of livelihood such as wells and mills; attack Palestinian villages likely to aid future assaults on Zionists; and target Palestinian social establishments such as clubs and coffee houses.

Zionist groups assassinated a significant number of British military personnel through shootings and bombings, which ultimately led Britain to formally present the question of Palestine to the United Nations (UN), shifting the responsibility of determining the future of Palestine to the General Assembly. In 1947, with the end of the British Mandate, the UN, a two-year-old organisation, assumed control over the region and began preparations for the partitioning of Palestine into separate areas for Palestinians and Jews. To address the Palestine Question, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was established on May 15, 1947, to make recommendations. UNSCOP had the authority to investigate all relevant issues and gather necessary information within Palestine and beyond. The committee comprised neutral countries, including Australia, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, India, Iran, Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay, and Yugoslavia. In September of the same year, the UNSCOP report (UNSCOP 1947)20 suggested the creation of either a federal state or a partition plan for a two-state solution. Following the recommendations of the UNSCOP report, an Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question was formed, despite strong opposition from Arab states, to advance the partition process. Subsequently, on November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly (UNGA 1947)21, adopted Resolution 181 (II), calling for the establishment of independent Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem placed under a Special International Regime. This was followed by an increase in Zionist attacks on Palestinian neighbourhoods and villages, leading to the exodus of approximately 75,000 Palestinians (Pappé 2006)17. Moving forward with their planning strategies, Plan D replaced Plan C on March 10, 1948. Essentially, this plan aimed to forcefully and systematically remove Palestinians from their homeland, resulting in the ethnic cleansing of the land desired by Zionist leaders for their state. By the end of April 1948, around 250,000 Palestinians had been displaced (Khalidi 1988; Pappé 2006)22 17. On May 15, 1948, following the departure of the British, the Zionist leadership, represented by the Jewish Agency, which was established in 1929 as the operational arm of the Zionist Organisation, proclaimed the establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine. The Jewish Agency’s primary objective was to foster a strong sense of unity among Jewish individuals worldwide, ensuring their enduring connection to Israel and enabling them to contribute significantly to the ongoing Jewish narrative (Jewish Agency for Israel, The 2017, 6)23. One notable example of the ethnic cleansing that occurred in 1948 is the village of Deir Yassin, which bears striking similarities to the events that took place in Oradour-sur-Glane, France in 1944. The invasion of Deir Yassin by Zionist Irgun and Stern Gang troops resulted in the massacre of 250 men, women, and children, including 30 babies. Children were lined up against a wall and shot. The massacre at Deir Yassin led to further displacement of Palestinians from their villages. As highlighted by Pappé (Pappé 2006)17, a similar massacre would occur in Jenin in April 2002:

That year, a country and its people disappeared from maps and dictionaries ... ‘The Palestinian people does not exist’, said the new masters, and henceforth the Palestinians would be referred to by general, conveniently vague terms, as either ‘refugees’, or in the case of a small minority that had managed to escape the generalized expulsion, ‘Israeli Arabs’. A long absence was beginning. (Sanbar 1984)24

References

  1. The Israeli Defence Forces are referred to as the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) by most Palestinians. Hence, for the remainder of this work I will refer to the Israeli Defence Forces as Israeli Occupation Forces. ↩

  2. Zureiq, Constantine. 1948. Ma'na Al-Nakba [The Meaning of the Disaster]. Khayat. Khayat. ↩

  3. Giladi, G. N. 1990. Discord in Zion: Conflict Between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews in Israel. Scorpion. ↩

  4. Herzl, Theodor. 1960. Complete Diaries. Edited by Raphael Patai. Translated by Harry Zohn. Herzl Press. Herzl Press. ↩

  5. Avineri, Shlomo. 2008. Herzl's VIsion. BlueBridge. ↩

  6. Jewish Virtual Library. 2019. Zionist Congress: First Zionist Congress\ & Basel Program. Https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/first-zionist-congress-and-basel-program-1897. ↩

  7. Khalidi, Rashid. 2020. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917--2017. Metropolitan Books. ↩

  8. Wolfe, Patrick. 2012. "Purchase by Other Means: The Palestine Nakbaand Zionism's Conquest of Economics." Settler Colonial Studies 2 (1): 133--71. https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473x.2012.10648830. ↩

  9. Shlaim, Avi. 2005. "The Balfour Declaration And Its Consequences." In Yet More Adventures with Britannia: Personalities, Politics and Culture in Britain, edited by Wm. Roger Louis. I.B.Tauris. ↩

  10. Porter, Bernard. 1968. Critics of Empire: British Radical Attitudes to Colonialism in Africa 1895-1914. MacMillan. ↩

  11. Cohen, Michael J. 2014. Britain's Moment in Palestine. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315850757. ↩

  12. Krämer, Gudrun. 2008. A History of Palestine From the Ottoman Conquest to the Founding of the State of Israel. Princeton University Press. ↩

  13. Hassassian, Manuel. 2002. "Historical Dynamics Shaping Palestinian National Identity." Palestine - Israel Journal of Politics, Economics, and Culture 8 (4): 50. ↩

  14. Muslih, Muhammad Y. 1988. The Origins of Palestinian Nationalism. Columbia University Press. Columbia University Press. ↩

  15. Khalidi, Rashid. 1997. Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness. Columbia University Press. Columbia University Press. ↩

  16. Central Office of the Zionist Organisation. 1934. Resolutions of the 18th Zionist Congress. ↩

  17. Pappé, Ilan. 2006. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. Oneworld Publications. Oneworld Publications. ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩

  18. Hancock, Ian. 2005. Romanies and the Holocaust: A Reevaluation and an Overview. Edited by Dan Stone. The Historiography of the Holocaust. Palgrave-Macmillan. ↩

  19. Slutsky, Yehuda. 1988. "APPENDIX A: Text of Plan Gimmel (Plan C), May 1946: Section on Countermeasures." Journal of Palestine Studies 18 (1): 20--23. https://doi.org/10.1080/0377919x.1988.12105196. ↩

  20. UNSCOP. 1947. United Nations Special Committee on Palestine. Report to the General Assembly. United Nations Special Committee on Palestine. ↩

  21. UNGA. 1947. Resolution 181 (II). Future Government of Palestine (A/RES/181(II). United Nations General Assembly. ↩

  22. Khalidi, Walid. 1988. "Plan Dalet: Master Plan for the Conquest of Palestine." Journal of Palestine Studies 18 (1): 4--33. https://doi.org/10.2307/2537591. ↩

  23. Jewish Agency for Israel, The. 2017. 2017 Performance Report. The Jewish Agency for Israel. ↩

  24. Sanbar, Elias. 1984. Palestine 1948 : L'expulsion. Institut Des Études Palestiniennes. Institut des études palestiniennes. ↩