The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 65)

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The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 65)

المحتوى

49
There are many and increasing studies on the colonial nature of the Zionist
project in Palestine and the state of Israel, without losing sight of their special
characteristics,’ and thus there is no need for a lengthy discussion of Metzer’s
argument. However, two issues, one of a general nature and the other specific,
need to be addressed regarding Metzer’s contention.
The first has to do with Metzer’s conclusion of the inapplicability of the
settler colonial model for Palestine based on what he claims were differences in the
“allocation” of land and labor and the government’s role in that allocation. Taking
his argument at face value, I maintain that it is basically reductionist and
ahistorical. No single model can explain European settlement in all its
manifestations in different parts of the world and at different times. The form and
content of settlement (including its various aspects, be they political, military, or
socioeconomic) are as varied in their details as in their settlements. However, this
specificity of each situation does not nullify the general attributes of settlement as
characterized by the movement of Europeans into other lands and the imposition of
a new socioeconomic order; nor does that specificity eliminate the general
detrimental impact of that process, which Metzer acknowledges in the case of
Palestine, on indigenous peoples. At any rate, the acquisition of land in
“unregulated markets” was not unique to the Zionist settlers in Palestine.
14See, for example, Maxime Rodinson, Israel: A Colonial-Settler State? (New
York: Pathfinder Press, 1973); Gershon Shafir, Land, Labor and the Origins of
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1882-1914 (Berkeley: University of California Press,
1996); and Elia Zureik, The Palestinians in Israel: A Study in Internal Colonization
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979).
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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The Dispossession of the Peasantry

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المنشئ

Riyad Mousa

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