Summary
Gershon Shafir’s characterisation, in Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1882-1914, of the labour-Zionist model adopted by 1914: the “separatist method of pure settlement”, seeking a homogeneous, autonomous settler society that did not significantly depend on — indeed sought to exclude — indigenous labour (Land, Labor and the Logic of Zionism: A Critical Engagement with Gershon Shafir, PDF p.4 / printed p.12).
Details
- In Shafir’s account as Lockman presents it, the model’s adoption laid the basis for labour Zionism’s hegemony and underpinned its willingness in 1947-49 to accept a Jewish state in only part of Palestine; Shafir’s preface ties it to a bifurcated model of economic development leading to territorial partition, diverting Zionism from “the South African path” (PDF p.4, p.6-7).
- Lockman’s critique: the model and its accompanying mindset do remain dominant — most Israeli Jews favour a state as demographically Jewish as possible — but it is not obvious the model has conduced to partition in the sense of serious acceptance of Palestinian self-determination; separatism alone could not have realised Zionism’s goals without displacement of the indigenous population and large-scale coercion and violence, and what exists since 1967 is the model’s continuation (a predominantly Jewish state in as much of Palestine as possible) coupled with forcible domination of the remainder (PDF p.25-26).
Where sources disagree
- Shafir, as quoted by Lockman, treats the pure settlement model’s partition disposition as the painfully learned lesson whose post-1967 abandonment is a “mistake”; Lockman treats partition interest as bound to one stage of the Zionist project, delimited by demography and lack of state power, not as its essence (PDF p.24-25).
Related pages
Land, Labor and the Logic of Zionism: A Critical Engagement with Gershon Shafir, Gershon Shafir, Conquest of Labour, Settler Colonialism, Labor Zionism