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❖ 5 ❖ ZIONISM’S ENCOUNTER WITH THE PALESTINIANS The Dynamics of Force, Fear, and Extremism NADIM N. ROUHANA This chapter examines the impact of the Zionistideaand how the implementation of that idea transformed Palestine from an Arab homeland into a Jewish state. This chapter also discusses the collective behavior of the colonizers— those who took over the homeland—vis à vis the colonized, whose homeland was claimed by outsiders and was successfully taken over.1 This analysis uses the national ideology and experience that guided the pre-state and post-state mainstream Zionists in order to historicize and contextualize the emergence of dynamics within Israeli society and its treatment of and attitudes toward all segments of the Palestinian people—those under occupation, those who are citizens of Israel, and those who are still in forced exile for nearly sixty years. I argue that these dynamics are creating a new Zionist hegemony, at the center of which is a combustive mixture of force, fear, and extremism that is leading Israel—with strong public support—to commit war crimes in the Occupied Territories; to exclude its own Palestinian citizens through various means including “democratic”legislation; to entrench the denial of its responsibility for the forced exile of the majority of Palestinians; and further to resist the right of the refugees ever to return.2 I suggest that the roots of this mixture can be traced back to the characteristics of Zionism’s encounter with Palestinians. I advance arguments about the dynamics that this encounter produced. The Encounter The encounter between Zionism and Palestinians is the most signi¤cant modern national experience for Palestinians and for Israelis, to the extent that the Jewish historical experience helped to shape Zionist views of and behavior toward Palestinians. This encounter has a more prominent place than the Holocaust in Zionist–Palestinian relations, even though the Holocaust is undoubtedly the most important experience in Jewish modern history. That the Holocaust had a profound impact on con®ict-related behaviors, feelings, and perceptions goes without question, but the essence of Israelis’ “national” views of Palestinians has been shaped for more than a century by the asymmetric, forceful, and violent encounter between both groups. The encounter has been between an indigenous people in a homeland de-¤ned by the political unit known as Palestine ever since the 1914 British Mandate was established,and another group of people,the Zionists,who came from outside of Palestine, mainly from Europe, and developed a modern ideology based on three key principles: 1. The Jews are a nation and should establish their own state as an expression of national self-determination. Jews who do not live in that state are in exile, and only the establishment of a Jewish state will return Jews to a condition of “normalcy” as a nation among all nations. By establishing a Jewish state, Jews will end their long exile in a redemptive process of returning and building their homeland. Originally, Herzl did not have a particular country in mind for the Jewish homeland but described “a country where Jews would be able to dwell among themselves and develop their national life as a people.”3 2. A Jewish state should be established in Palestine. Although Palestine was not the only location considered for establishing the Jewish state, the scale was tipped in favor of Palestine by the obvious historical and religious connections to the land of Palestine as well as by other factors. Theoretically, Zionists could have sought to establish a Jewish state elsewhere—for example, Uganda and Argentina were once considered as possible locations.4 3. Once Palestine was targeted as the future location of the Jewish state, Zionists wanted Palestine to become the exclusive homeland of the Jewish people and not the land of both the Jewish people and the people of Palestine. Mainstream Zionists, therefore, did not seek partnership with the people who lived in Palestine to build a common homeland but rather to transform the country into an exclusively Jewish homeland. I see no reason why Palestinians should have a problem with the ¤rst of these principles. However, the last two—that Palestine is the homeland of the 116 ❖ Nadim N. Rouhana ❖ Jewish people and that it is exclusively their homeland—are detrimental to the national encounter between Arabs and Jews in Palestine. The ¤rst idea in and of itself is not of direct concern to Palestinians. Had Zionists chosen to establish their state elsewhere, say in Australia, another location that the Zionists considered, Palestinians...

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