Summary
Historian whose The Returns of Zionism (2008) supplies, in Shtetl Colonialism: First and Last Impressions of Indigeneity by Colonised Colonisers, the analysis of the Zionist hegemonic narrative as a typical settler colonialist one and the link to postcolonial Jewish studies (Shtetl Colonialism: First and Last Impressions of Indigeneity by Colonised Colonisers, PDF p.4-5 / printed p.42-43).
Details
- Piterberg has shown, as Pappé reports it, that the Zionist narrative fits the settler colonialist pattern in three factors: an emphasis on the exceptionality of each settler nation, the exclusiveness of the settlers’ subjectivity, and the refusal to recognise the presence of colonised people. His unique manifestations for Zionism are the alleged uniqueness of the Jewish nation in its relentless search for sovereignty in the biblically endowed homeland, and the privileging of the consciousness of Zionist settlers at the expense of the colonised, together with a focus on settler intentions rather than on the outcome of their actions (Shtetl Colonialism: First and Last Impressions of Indigeneity by Colonised Colonisers, PDF p.4 / printed p.42).
- Piterberg sees the Zionist denial of the presence of the Palestinian Arabs on the land destined for colonisation as the single most significant factor in determining the shape taken by the settlers’ nation (PDF p.4).
- Cited in notes 3-4: The Returns of Zionism (London: Verso, 2008), p.6 for the diachronic view Pappé adopts, and p.62 for the connection to postcolonial Jewish studies (PDF p.19 / printed p.57).
Related pages
Shtetl Colonialism: First and Last Impressions of Indigeneity by Colonised Colonisers, Settler Colonialism, Postcolonial Jewish Studies, Ilan Pappe