2025/04/18 by Amir Locker-Biletzki · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #African history and culture studies #Global Maritime and Colonial Histories #Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies
paper · doi:10.1177/04866134251322919
openalex publication_date 2025/04/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/18
As Israel is engaged in one of the bloodiest chapters of its history, this article delves into the economic and political discursive structures of the Zionist project. Critically using settler-colonial theory and V.I. Lenin’s analysis of European imperialism, I argue that imperialism and empire-building were not forces external to Zionism but internal to its ideological and economic practices. By analyzing the way capital was transferred to pre-1948 Palestine, building it into a “pure colony” and a future metropole, and studying two discursive moments—the writings of the right-wing Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Israel’s founding father David Ben-Gurion—I show how small empire building was part of Zionist/Israeli thought and practice. JEL Classification : B30, F50