Settler Colonial Demographics: Zionist Land Purchases and Immigration During the British Mandate in Palestine

Abstract

The settler colonial framework provides Palestine studies with a useful tool, opening new lines of inquiry and leading to new fields of study. This essay examines the impact of the Zionist settlement policy on rural Palestine during the Mandatory period. Through a demographic analysis, the essay argues the displacement of these peasants was the result of an intentional transfer policy by the Jewish community. Transfer constituted an important part of the overall Zionist ideology and attitude towards the local population. The displacements and removal of the indigenous population started before the Nakba, including the British Mandate period, due to the settler colonial need to become a demographic majority in the land under dispute. Zionist historiography argues Zionists did not interfere in the daily life of the Palestinians and stresses the profitable aspects of Jewish immigration. This essay, using settler colonial theories, challenges this historiography and proposes new tools to deal with other settler colonial cases around the world. This essay is based on four population sources used during the British Mandate to determine the consequences of land purchases and immigration in the Haifa and Nazareth sub-districts during that period. The analysis of the growth rates of all the communities and villages will illustrate the consequences of the Zionist settler-colonial project. This essay discusses the replacement of population and the importance of population, access to land, and immigration trends for the Zionist settler-colonial enterprise on their way to becoming the demographic majority on the land of the Historical Palestine.