Zionism and the Concept of "Transfer"

The leadership of the Zionist movement understood fully that expulsion of the indigenous Palestinian population was necessary for the movement to realize its goal of a Jewish state in historical Palestine. The following articles describe this facet of Zionist thought, helping to shed light on the 1948 war and subsequent Israeli policies.

• Ann Lesch, "Zionism and Its Impact," in Philip Mattar, ed., Encyclopedia Of The Palestinians, New York: Facts on File, 2000
  "Adherents of Zionism believed that the Jewish people had an inherent and inalienable right to Palestine. Zionist leaders argued that if the Palestinians could not reconcile themselves to Zionism, then force majeure, not a compromise of goals, was the only possible response."
• Israel Shahak, "A History of the Concept of 'Transfer' in Zionism," Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 18, No. 3. (Spring, 1989), pp. 22-37
  "Yosef Weitz, director of the Jewish National Fund in Palestine, wrote: 'Among ourselves it must be clear that there is no room for both peoples in this small country. The only solution is the Land of Israel without Arabs. We must leave not a single village, not a single tribe.'"
• Nur Masalha, "A Miraculous Clearing of the Land?: The Zionist Concept of 'Transfer' and the 1948 Exodus," Shaml Newsletter, No. 11, May 1998
  "The 1948 exodus was not just the result of military orders issued by Jewish local commanders; it was also the result of painstaking preparations and an unswerving vision stated and restated in the inner sanctums of the Zionist movement with tedious repetitiveness between 1937 and 1948."
• Charles Glass, "The Mandate Years: Colonialism and the Creation of Israel," London Review of Books (reprinted in The Guardian, May 31, 2001)
  "Britain erected and for thirty years maintained the scaffolding that the Zionists happily tore down when their house of Israel was ready. Britain protected Jewish immigration, encouraged Jewish settlement, subsidised Jewish defence and protected Palestine's minority Jewish community. Without Britain, there would not have been an Israel."
• Robert Blecher, "Living on the Edge: The Threat of 'Transfer' in Israel and Palestine," Middle East Report, No. 225, Winter 2002
  "In Israel, 'transfer' enjoys more legitimacy today than it has since 1948. With the Israeli army unable to defeat the Palestinian uprising decisively, the call to 'let the army win' has morphed into the demand to 'finish the job' begun 55 years ago. Ethnic cleansing is the openly declared history and potential future of the Zionist state."