Summary
Distinguished French Orientalist who spoke on behalf of the Zionist delegation in testimony to the Supreme War Council preparing the Paris Peace Conference, conceding that incoming Jews would tend to dispossess Palestine’s 600,000 Arabs.
Details
- Lévi argued, as quoted by Said, that though the work of the Zionists was of great significance from the moral point of view, Palestine was a small and poor land with a population of 600,000 Arabs, and the incoming Jews, having a higher standard of living, would tend to dispossess them (The Question of Palestine, PDF p.41 / printed p.20).
- According to Chaim Weizmann, as reported by Said, this embarrassed the Zionists, since the world would judge the Jewish state by what it shall do with the Arabs (The Question of Palestine, PDF p.41 / printed p.20).
- Said notes the profession is important for the argument of the book: the Orientalist speaking for the Zionist delegation (see Orientalism, Representation) (The Question of Palestine, PDF p.41 / printed p.20).