Summary
French writer whose 1833 visit to Palestine Said uses as the perfect case of cancelling a resident Arab reality by means of a future wish for the land.
Details
- Lamartine visited in 1833 and produced a several-hundred-page narrative of his travels, Voyage en Orient, to which he affixed a Résumé politique of suggestions to the French government (The Question of Palestine, PDF p.30 / printed p.9).
- Although the Voyage proper detailed numerous encounters with Arab peasants and town dwellers in the Holy Land, the Résumé announced that the territory was not really a country and therefore a marvelous place for an imperial or colonial project to be undertaken by France (The Question of Palestine, PDF p.30 / printed p.9).
- Said: Lamartine cancels and transcends an actual reality, a group of resident Arabs, by means of a future wish that the land be empty for development by a more deserving power; almost to the letter, this informed Israel Zangwill’s slogan for Palestine (The Question of Palestine, PDF p.30 / printed p.9).