Zionist Quotations
19th Century
Zionism was created by Theodor Herzel and others at the end of the 19th Century, and in
that era it was commonplace to be colonialist, to be racist, to be super-nationalist, to adore the nation-state,so the idea of France for the French, Germany for the Germans, and then some state for the Jews. This all formed the basis for Zionism.
Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine, "Complete Diaries," June 12, 1895 entry.:
"Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."
Asher Ginsberg, 1891
“We abroad have a way of thinking that Palestine today is almost desert, an uncultivated wilderness, and that anyone who wishes to buy land there can do so to his heart’s content. But this is not in fact the case. It is difficult to find any uncultivated land anywhere in the country…”[1]
Before Statehood
In 1923, radical Zionist Ze'ev Jabotinsky-- spiritual father of not only of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin but of Brooklyn Rabbi Meir
Kahane-- wrote:
The "sole way" for Jews to deal with Arabs in Palestine was through "total avoidance of all attempts to arrive at a settlement"-which Jabotinsky euphemistically termed the "iron wall" approach. Not coincidentally, a picture of Jabotinsky graces Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's desk.
Source: The Village Voice, "Death Wish in the Holy Land," Dec. 12, 2001.
Ben Gurion, David 1938
"If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Israel, then I opt for the second alternative."
Herbert Samuel, British High Commissioner for Palestine, in a personal letter to Weizman in 1921:
“After a year in Palestine I have come to the conclusion that the importance of the Arab factor had been underestimated by the Zionist movement: unless there is very careful steering it is upon the Arab rock that the Zionist ship may be wrecked.”[2]
Gilbert Clayton, one of Chaim Weizman’s chief advisers, wrote in 1924:
“.. We have become an alien and detested element into the very core of Islam, and the day may well come when we shall be faced with the alternative of holding it there b the sword or abandoning it to the fate …”[3]
David Ben-Gurion in a speech before the Mapai Political Committee in 1938:
“This is an active resistance by the Palestinians to what they regard as an usurpation of their homeland by the Jews – that’s why they fight …. In our political argument abroad, we minimize Arab opposition to us. But let us not ignore the truth among ourselves. I insist on the truth, not out of respect for scientific but political realities. The acknowledgement of this truth leads to inevitable and serious conclusions regarding our work in Palestine … the fighting is only one aspect of the conflict which is in essence
a political one. And politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves. Militarily, it is we who are on the defensive, who have the upper hand … but in the political sphere they are superior. … The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle, and in their view we want to take away from them their country, while we are still outside.”[4]
David Ben-Gurion wrote in 1919
“Everybody sees the problem in the relations between the Jews and the [Palestinian] Arabs. But not everybody sees that there’s no solution to it. There is no solution! … The conflict between the interests of the Jews and the interests of the [Palestinian] Arabs in Palestine cannot be resolved by sophisms. I don’t know any Arabs who would agree to Palestine being ours – even if we learn Arabic, … There is a national question here. We want the country to be ours. The Arabs want the country to be theirs.”[5]
Ben-Gurion, David, October 5, 1937
A partial Jewish State is not the end, but only the beginning. ... We shall bring into the state all the Jews it is possible to bring ... we shall establish a multi-faceted Jewish economy - agricultural, industrial, and maritime. We shall organize a modern defense force, a select army ... and then I am certain that we will not be prevented from settling in the other parts of the country, either by mutual agreement with our Arab neighbors or by some other means. Our ability to penetrate the country will increase if there is a state. Our strength vis-à-vis the Arabs will increase. I am not in favour of war ... [but if] the Arabs behave in keeping with [their] barren nationalist feelings and say to us: Better that the Negev remain barren than that Jews settle there, then we shall have to speak to them in a different language. But we shall only have another language if we have a state."
Moshe Sharett warned in 1936:
“There is no Arab in Palestine who is not harmed by Jewish immigration; there is no Arab who does not feel himself part of the Great Arab Nation … For him Palestine is an independent unit that had an Arab face …”[6]
David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978:
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."
Ben-Gurion, David, July 18, 1948 "
We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return!"
Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's Colonization Department.
"Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them."
It must be clear that there is no room for both peoples in this country … There is no room for compromise on this point! The Zionist enterprise so far, in terms of preparing the ground and paving the way for the creation of the Hebrew State in the land of Israel, has been fine and good in its own time, and could do with ‘land-buying’ – but this will not bring about the State of Israel; … and there is no way besides transferring the Arabs from here to neighboring countries, to transfer all of them, not one village, not one tribe should be left. And only with such a transfer will the country be able to absorb millions of our brothers, and the Jewish question shall be solved, once and for all. There is no other way out.”[7]
Ben-Gurion, David in the introduction to The History of the Haganah:
“At the present time we speak of colonization, and only of colonization. It is our short-term objective.
But it is clear that England belongs to the English, Egypt to the Egyptians and Judea to the Jews.
In our country there is room only for Jews. We will say to the Arabs: “Move over”; if they are not in agreement, if they resist, we will push them by force.”[8]
After Statehood
Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969:
"We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, ‘What is to be done with the Palestinian population?’
Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!'"
Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, 'Begin and the "Beasts"', New Statesman, 25 June 1982:
"We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return."
Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979. Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet:
"We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters."
Ehud Barak, on Israeli TV (date undetermined, but confirmed by former Israeli Knesset Member Marsha Friedman):
"If I were a Palestinian, I would be a terrorist."
(Speaking about Sharon's policies toward the Palestinians.)
Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel (date undetermined, in an Israeli cabinet meeting):
Don't worry, we [Israel] control the United States.
(In response to concerns raised by another cabinet member about Sharon's ["the butcher of Beirut"] invasion and brutality in the West Bank.)
Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse,
November 15, 1998:
"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionim, colonialization, or a Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."
Michael Ben-Yair, Attorney General of Israel, 1993-1996 (in Ha'aretz):
"The Intifada is the Palestinian's people's war of national liberation. We [Israel] enthusiastically chose to become a colonialist society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the Occupied Territories, engaging in theft and funding justification for all these activities.. we [Israel] established an apartheid regime."
Aluf Benn, September 28, 2003
Sharon certain does have a plan: to protect Eretz Yisrael, avoid returning any territories and make sure the settlements stay where they are. Everything else is tactics."
Schlaim, Avi, 2000
"Ben Gurian gave the official version. He denied any IDF involvement (in the Qibya massacre) ... This was not Ben Gurion's first lie for what he saw as the good of his country, nor was it to be the last, but it was one of the most blatant."
Ben Gurion, David, (unknown date)
"The Jewish immigrants from Arab countries are human dust lacking language, education, roots, tradition or national dreams."
Dayan, Moshe, September 1967
"Ben Gurion said that anyone who approaches the Zionist Problem from a moral aspect, he is not a Zionist"
Ben Gurion, David, July 1948
"Why are there so many Arabs? Why didn't you expel them?"
Ben-Gurion, David, 1954
"To maintain the status quo will not do. We have set up a dynamic State, bent upon creation and reform, building and expansion."
Warning
Abba Evan, one of Israel’s wisest statemen and its most passionate defender, 1988:
“If we insist on ruling an entire territory and population (which was never envisioned when we made the dramatic breakthrough to Jewish statehood), we shall soon lose our Jewish majority, our democratic principles, our hope of ultimate peace, the prospect of avoiding war, the maintenance of our international friendships, the durability of the Egyptian treaty relationship and any chance of a national consenses at home. The status quo is the least viable and the most catastrophic of all the Israeli options.”[9]
[1] Ginsberg, Asher, quoted in The Decadence of Judaism in our Time, Institute of Palestinian Studies, Beirut, 1969”
[2] Samuel, Herbert, as quoted in John H. Davis The Evasive Peace, pp. 66
[3] Clayton, Gilbert, as quoted in John H. Davis The Evasive Peace, po. 28-29
[4] Ben-Gurion, David, The History of the Haganah, World Zionist Organization, 1943, pages 141-142
[5] Segev, Tom, One Palestine, Complete, p. 116
[6] Sharett, Moshe, quoted in John H. Davis The Evasive Peace, pp. 14-15,46
[7] From Israel: an Apartheid State by Uri Davis, p.5: [8] Ben-Gurion, David, The History of the Haganah
[9] From Op-Ed by Abba Evan, former Israel foreign minister and ambassador to UN and the USA) in the New York Times of Feb 24, 1988
Zionism was created by Theodor Herzel and others at the end of the 19th Century, and in
that era it was commonplace to be colonialist, to be racist, to be super-nationalist, to adore the nation-state,so the idea of France for the French, Germany for the Germans, and then some state for the Jews. This all formed the basis for Zionism.
Theodore Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, speaking of the Arabs of Palestine, "Complete Diaries," June 12, 1895 entry.:
"Spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly."
Asher Ginsberg, 1891
“We abroad have a way of thinking that Palestine today is almost desert, an uncultivated wilderness, and that anyone who wishes to buy land there can do so to his heart’s content. But this is not in fact the case. It is difficult to find any uncultivated land anywhere in the country…”[1]
Before Statehood
In 1923, radical Zionist Ze'ev Jabotinsky-- spiritual father of not only of Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin but of Brooklyn Rabbi Meir
Kahane-- wrote:
The "sole way" for Jews to deal with Arabs in Palestine was through "total avoidance of all attempts to arrive at a settlement"-which Jabotinsky euphemistically termed the "iron wall" approach. Not coincidentally, a picture of Jabotinsky graces Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's desk.
Source: The Village Voice, "Death Wish in the Holy Land," Dec. 12, 2001.
Ben Gurion, David 1938
"If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Israel, then I opt for the second alternative."
Herbert Samuel, British High Commissioner for Palestine, in a personal letter to Weizman in 1921:
“After a year in Palestine I have come to the conclusion that the importance of the Arab factor had been underestimated by the Zionist movement: unless there is very careful steering it is upon the Arab rock that the Zionist ship may be wrecked.”[2]
Gilbert Clayton, one of Chaim Weizman’s chief advisers, wrote in 1924:
“.. We have become an alien and detested element into the very core of Islam, and the day may well come when we shall be faced with the alternative of holding it there b the sword or abandoning it to the fate …”[3]
David Ben-Gurion in a speech before the Mapai Political Committee in 1938:
“This is an active resistance by the Palestinians to what they regard as an usurpation of their homeland by the Jews – that’s why they fight …. In our political argument abroad, we minimize Arab opposition to us. But let us not ignore the truth among ourselves. I insist on the truth, not out of respect for scientific but political realities. The acknowledgement of this truth leads to inevitable and serious conclusions regarding our work in Palestine … the fighting is only one aspect of the conflict which is in essence
a political one. And politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves. Militarily, it is we who are on the defensive, who have the upper hand … but in the political sphere they are superior. … The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle, and in their view we want to take away from them their country, while we are still outside.”[4]
David Ben-Gurion wrote in 1919
“Everybody sees the problem in the relations between the Jews and the [Palestinian] Arabs. But not everybody sees that there’s no solution to it. There is no solution! … The conflict between the interests of the Jews and the interests of the [Palestinian] Arabs in Palestine cannot be resolved by sophisms. I don’t know any Arabs who would agree to Palestine being ours – even if we learn Arabic, … There is a national question here. We want the country to be ours. The Arabs want the country to be theirs.”[5]
Ben-Gurion, David, October 5, 1937
A partial Jewish State is not the end, but only the beginning. ... We shall bring into the state all the Jews it is possible to bring ... we shall establish a multi-faceted Jewish economy - agricultural, industrial, and maritime. We shall organize a modern defense force, a select army ... and then I am certain that we will not be prevented from settling in the other parts of the country, either by mutual agreement with our Arab neighbors or by some other means. Our ability to penetrate the country will increase if there is a state. Our strength vis-à-vis the Arabs will increase. I am not in favour of war ... [but if] the Arabs behave in keeping with [their] barren nationalist feelings and say to us: Better that the Negev remain barren than that Jews settle there, then we shall have to speak to them in a different language. But we shall only have another language if we have a state."
Moshe Sharett warned in 1936:
“There is no Arab in Palestine who is not harmed by Jewish immigration; there is no Arab who does not feel himself part of the Great Arab Nation … For him Palestine is an independent unit that had an Arab face …”[6]
David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978:
"We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population."
Ben-Gurion, David, July 18, 1948 "
We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return!"
Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency's Colonization Department.
"Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours... Everything we don't grab will go to them."
It must be clear that there is no room for both peoples in this country … There is no room for compromise on this point! The Zionist enterprise so far, in terms of preparing the ground and paving the way for the creation of the Hebrew State in the land of Israel, has been fine and good in its own time, and could do with ‘land-buying’ – but this will not bring about the State of Israel; … and there is no way besides transferring the Arabs from here to neighboring countries, to transfer all of them, not one village, not one tribe should be left. And only with such a transfer will the country be able to absorb millions of our brothers, and the Jewish question shall be solved, once and for all. There is no other way out.”[7]
Ben-Gurion, David in the introduction to The History of the Haganah:
“At the present time we speak of colonization, and only of colonization. It is our short-term objective.
But it is clear that England belongs to the English, Egypt to the Egyptians and Judea to the Jews.
In our country there is room only for Jews. We will say to the Arabs: “Move over”; if they are not in agreement, if they resist, we will push them by force.”[8]
After Statehood
Moshe Dayan, address to the Technion, Haifa, reported in Haaretz, April 4, 1969:
"We walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. Allon repeated his question, ‘What is to be done with the Palestinian population?’
Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said 'Drive them out!'"
Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, 'Begin and the "Beasts"', New Statesman, 25 June 1982:
"We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return."
Yitzhak Rabin, leaked censored version of Rabin memoirs, published in the New York Times, 23 October 1979. Rabin's description of the conquest of Lydda, after the completion of Plan Dalet:
"We shall reduce the Arab population to a community of woodcutters and waiters."
Ehud Barak, on Israeli TV (date undetermined, but confirmed by former Israeli Knesset Member Marsha Friedman):
"If I were a Palestinian, I would be a terrorist."
(Speaking about Sharon's policies toward the Palestinians.)
Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister of Israel (date undetermined, in an Israeli cabinet meeting):
Don't worry, we [Israel] control the United States.
(In response to concerns raised by another cabinet member about Sharon's ["the butcher of Beirut"] invasion and brutality in the West Bank.)
Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister, addressing a meeting of militants from the extreme right-wing Tsomet Party, Agence France Presse,
November 15, 1998:
"It is the duty of Israeli leaders to explain to public opinion, clearly and courageously, a certain number of facts that are forgotten with time. The first of these is that there is no Zionim, colonialization, or a Jewish State without the eviction of the Arabs and the expropriation of their lands."
Michael Ben-Yair, Attorney General of Israel, 1993-1996 (in Ha'aretz):
"The Intifada is the Palestinian's people's war of national liberation. We [Israel] enthusiastically chose to become a colonialist society, ignoring international treaties, expropriating lands, transferring settlers from Israel to the Occupied Territories, engaging in theft and funding justification for all these activities.. we [Israel] established an apartheid regime."
Aluf Benn, September 28, 2003
Sharon certain does have a plan: to protect Eretz Yisrael, avoid returning any territories and make sure the settlements stay where they are. Everything else is tactics."
Schlaim, Avi, 2000
"Ben Gurian gave the official version. He denied any IDF involvement (in the Qibya massacre) ... This was not Ben Gurion's first lie for what he saw as the good of his country, nor was it to be the last, but it was one of the most blatant."
Ben Gurion, David, (unknown date)
"The Jewish immigrants from Arab countries are human dust lacking language, education, roots, tradition or national dreams."
Dayan, Moshe, September 1967
"Ben Gurion said that anyone who approaches the Zionist Problem from a moral aspect, he is not a Zionist"
Ben Gurion, David, July 1948
"Why are there so many Arabs? Why didn't you expel them?"
Ben-Gurion, David, 1954
"To maintain the status quo will not do. We have set up a dynamic State, bent upon creation and reform, building and expansion."
Warning
Abba Evan, one of Israel’s wisest statemen and its most passionate defender, 1988:
“If we insist on ruling an entire territory and population (which was never envisioned when we made the dramatic breakthrough to Jewish statehood), we shall soon lose our Jewish majority, our democratic principles, our hope of ultimate peace, the prospect of avoiding war, the maintenance of our international friendships, the durability of the Egyptian treaty relationship and any chance of a national consenses at home. The status quo is the least viable and the most catastrophic of all the Israeli options.”[9]
[1] Ginsberg, Asher, quoted in The Decadence of Judaism in our Time, Institute of Palestinian Studies, Beirut, 1969”
[2] Samuel, Herbert, as quoted in John H. Davis The Evasive Peace, pp. 66
[3] Clayton, Gilbert, as quoted in John H. Davis The Evasive Peace, po. 28-29
[4] Ben-Gurion, David, The History of the Haganah, World Zionist Organization, 1943, pages 141-142
[5] Segev, Tom, One Palestine, Complete, p. 116
[6] Sharett, Moshe, quoted in John H. Davis The Evasive Peace, pp. 14-15,46
[7] From Israel: an Apartheid State by Uri Davis, p.5: [8] Ben-Gurion, David, The History of the Haganah
[9] From Op-Ed by Abba Evan, former Israel foreign minister and ambassador to UN and the USA) in the New York Times of Feb 24, 1988