Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 16)
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- Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 16)
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by Ahmad Halaweh
Forty-two years have passed since the creation of the
State of Israel, the dismembering of Palestine, and the
uprooting of the Palestinian people from their homeland.
The reasons why Israel exists today, and why the majority
of the Arab people of Palestine are refugees, date back a
century ago. The crucial factor, no doubt, was the unholy
alliance between British imperialism and the Zionists, aimed
‘at opening Palestine to successive waves of Jewish immig-
rants. Describing the time of the British mandate, historian
Arnold Toynbee wrote in 1968: «All through those 30 years
(1918-48), Britain admitted into Palestine, year by year, a
quota of Jewish immigrants that varied according to the
strength of the respective pressures of the Arabs and the
Jews at the time. These immigrants could not have come in,
if they had not been shielded by a British cheveux-de-frise.
If Palestine had remained under Ottoman rule or if it had
become an independent Arab state in 1918, Jewish immig-
rants would never have been admitted into Palestine in large
enough numbers to enable them to overwhelm the Palesti-
nian Arabs in this Arab people’s own country»(quoted by
Hazem Zaki Nuseibeh, Palestine and the United Nations,
1982, p.18).
After these 30 years of massive Jewish immigration,
Israel was established in 1948, and the Palestinian people
were driven into exile. The result was the tragedy of Pales-
tine and the Arab-Israeli conflict and its essence, the Pales-
tinian question.
Understanding Israel’s current policy of settling new
immigrants in the occupied territories cannot be separated
from its historical background. With the advent of the
1990’s, the Zionist challenge has assumed a new aggressive
dimension, as evidenced by Shamir’s recent statements,
clearly indicating Israel’s determination to continue to chal-
lenge the international community and proceed with plans
aimed at annexation of all the occupied Palestinian land.
This study will look into the past to analyze Zionist immig-
ration historically. One finds that the Israeli leaders of today
have not given up the dream of «Greater Israel.» Israel is
still guided by the thinking of the original leaders of the
World Zionist Organization(WZO), and it is still Zionist
ideology that governs Israeli policy.
The immigration drive
Originally, Jewish immigration to Palestine was based
on individual efforts, and did not produce decisive results.
The foundation of the WZO at the first Zionist Congress in
1897 was a turning point in terms of immigration policy.
From that time, immigration was intensified by the WZO to
create a new status quo in Palestine. In 1914, Chaim Weiz-
mann, Zionism’s foremost diplomat, said in a speech in
London, «Before transforming Palestine into a Jewish state,
we are in great need of finding the Jews who should settle
there»(quoted by Georgi Kanaan, The Collapse of the Israeli
Empire, 1982, [Arabic], p.112). The obsession with immig-
ration became a Zionist doctrine. From its very inception,
the Zionist movement, as a settler-colonial movement,
mounted a large-scale propaganda campaign to convince. as
many Jews as possible to settle in Palestine. Aiming to
16
Zionist Im
in Historical
encourage the sentiment for immigration among the Jewish
masses, Weizmann told Rumanian Jews in 1928 that if they
were «convinced of our rights in the land of Israel, you have
to come to Palestine» (quoted by Kanaan, p.112).
Despite all their efforts, the Zionists might not have
succeeded if not for the fascist terror which arose in Europe,
and the decision of most Western countries to close their
doors to Jewish refugees. As explained by Ghassan Kana-
fani in his study of the 1936-39 revolt in Palestine: «From
1926 to 1932 the average number of immigrants per year
was 7,201. It rose to 42,985 between 1933 and 1936, as a
direct result of Nazi persecution in Germany...If Nazism was
responsible for terrorising the Jews and forcing them out of
Germany, it was ‘democratic’ capitalism in collaboration
with the Zionist movement, that was resposible for directing
comparatively large numbers of Jewish immigrants to Pales-
tine...»
When Israel was declared in May 1948, the new state,
along with the WZO, proceeded to pursue their main goal
of importing Jews from all over the world. Based on the
idea that Jews had been forcibly exiled from their land,
Israel demanded the liquidation of the diaspora, through the
immigration of all Jews to the «Promised Land.» To attain
«Jewish national rebirth,» the Israeli founding declaration
pointed out: «The State of Israel will be open for Jewish
immigration and for the ingathering of the exiles...» and
appealed to «the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to
rally around the Jews of Eretz Istael in the tasks of immig-
ration and upbuilding, and to stand by them in the great
struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the re-
demption of Israel»(T.G. Fraser, The Middle East, 1914-
1979, 1980, pp.66-68).
According to Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben
Gurion, «The existence of Israel and its final victory depend
on. guaranteeing one important factor which is extensive
Jewish immigration to Israel... A fateful question... because
military force alone is unable to secure the future of Israel.
Therefore, bringing hundreds of thousands of Jews to Israel - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 38
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