Zionism as settler colonialism

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Settler colonialism is a frame of reference for Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that has become increasingly prevalent in the twenty-first century, although it is still not the dominant framing as of 2022. Influential scholars who have used a settler-colonial analysis of Israel/Palestine include Edward Said, Fayez Sayegh, Maxime Rodinson, George Jabbour, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, Baha Abu-Laban, Jamil Hilal, and Rosemary Sayigh.

Background

In contrast to classical colonialism, in settler colonialism the focus is on eliminating rather than exploiting the original inhabitants of a territory. Commonly cited cases of settler colonialism include the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. As theorized by Patrick Wolfe, settler colonialism is a structure, not an event. Settler colonialism operates by processes including physical elimination of the native but also can encompass projects of assimilation, segregation, miscegenation, religious conversion, and incarceration.

Historiography

According to Uri Ram, the characterization of Zionism as colonial "is probably as old as the Zionist movement". One influential early analysis was that of Palestinian writer Fayez Sayegh in his 1965 essay "Zionist Colonialism in Palestine", which was unusual for the pre-1967 era in specifying Zionism as a form of settler colonialism. Sayegh later drafted the UN's "Zionism is racism" resolution. After Israel assumed control of all of Mandatory Palestine in 1967, settler-colonial analyses became prominent among Palestinians. In Israel, the New Historians, a movement that emerged in the 1980s, were associated with colonial analysis. Along with explicitly settler colonial analysis, another persistent view is that the "Zionist national project has been predicated on the destruction of the Palestinian one".

Portrayal of Zionism as a colonial movement is rejected by most Israeli Jews, and perceived either as an attack on the legitimacy of Israel or a form of antisemitism. Some critics highlight aspects such as Zionism's non-exploitation of indigenous labor or lack of a metropole as reasons not to consider it a colonial movement. Scholars of settler colonialism have analyzed Zionism's external supporters, either private organizations or various states (such as the United Kingdom, France, or the United States), as a metropole.

Although settler colonialism is an empirical framework, it is associated with favoring a one-state solution. Rachel Busbridge argues that settler colonialism is "a coherent and legible frame" and "a far more accurate portrayal of the conflict than the picture of Palestinian criminality and Israeli victimhood that has conventionally been painted". She also argues that settler colonial analysis is limited, especially when it comes to the question of decolonization.

Incidence

In 1905, jobless Jewish settlers invented the idea of Hebrew labor arguing that all Jewish-owned businesses should only employ Jews. Later on the kibbutz—collectivist, all-Jewish agricultural settlements—developed to counter plantation economies relying on Jewish owners and Palestinian farmers. The kibbutz was also the prototype of Jewish-only settlements later established beyond Israel's pre-1967 borders.

In 2013, historian Lorenzo Veracini argued that settler colonialism has been successful in Israel proper but unsuccessful in the territories occupied in 1967.

References

Sabbagh-Khoury 2022, Conclusion.
Sabbagh-Khoury 2022, first section.
Busbridge 2018, p. 92.
Busbridge 2018, p. 95.
^ Busbridge 2018, p. 94.
Behar 2020, p. 221.
^ Sayegh 2012, p. 206.
Behar 2020, p. 227.
Busbridge 2018, pp. 97–98.
^ Sabbagh-Khoury 2022, The Settler Colonial Paradigm in the Israeli-Palestinian Context.
Busbridge 2018, p. 104.
Busbridge 2018, pp. 92–93.
Busbridge 2018, p. 93.
Svirsky 2021, pp. 80–81.
Svirsky 2021, p. 81.
Veracini 2013, p. 38.

Sources

Behar, Moshe (2020). "Competing Marxisms, Cessation of (Settler) Colonialism, and the One-state Solution in Israel-Palestine". The Arab and Jewish Questions. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-55299-8.
Busbridge, Rachel (2018). "Israel-Palestine and the Settler Colonial 'Turn': From Interpretation to Decolonization". Theory, Culture & Society. 35 (1): 91–115. doi:10.1177/0263276416688544.
Sabbagh-Khoury, Areej (2022). "Tracing Settler Colonialism: A Genealogy of a Paradigm in the Sociology of Knowledge Production in Israel". Politics & Society. 50 (1): 44–83. doi:10.1177/0032329221999906.
Sayegh, Fayez (2012). "Zionist Colonialism in Palestine (1965)". Settler Colonial Studies. 2 (1): 206–225. doi:10.1080/2201473X.2012.10648833.
Svirsky, Marcelo (2021). "The Reproduction of Settler Colonialism in Palestine". Journal of Perpetrator Research. 4 (1). doi:10.21039/jpr.4.1.79.
Veracini, Lorenzo (2013). "The Other Shift: Settler Colonialism, Israel, and the Occupation". Journal of Palestine Studies. 42 (2): 26–42. doi:10.1525/jps.2013.42.2.26.

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