The problem of “settler colonialism” in the history of Palestine: modern interpretations

A review is given of the new monograph by Palestinian-Israeli sociologist Areej Sabbah-Khoury “The Colonization of Palestine: The Zionist Left and the Making of the Palestinian Nakba” (Stanford University Press, 2023). This publication is a comprehensive historical and sociological study that examines the problem of Palestinians displacement from their lands by Israeli settlers in the first half of the 20th century. The author of monograph shares a critical approach to the official point of view in Israeli historiography on the Palestinian problem. Reviewers point to the innovative characteristics of the A. Sabbah-Khoury’s research, emphasizing her active use of interdisciplinary historical and sociological methodology. The researcher’s attention is focused on the historical relationship between the ideology of the left Zionists and the practice of seizing Palestinian lands. A. Sabbah-Khoury managed to collect rich empirical material: materials from eight Israeli archives, including the archive collections of three kibbutzim. Areej Sabbah-Khouri’s research, as shown in the review, demonstrated the importance of analyzing those aspects of settler colonialism that were practically not taken into account in official Israeli historiography (the duration of the Zionist colonial project, the features of social interaction between settlers and the local population, the role of coercion in the struggle for control over land).

Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, Palestine, settler colonialism, colonial border, Zionism, Hashomer Hatzair