Ilan Pappe

Nothing, neither rocks nor Palestinians, was to stand in the way of the national ‘redemption’ of the land the Zionist movement coveted.

sense of a looming danger, indeed a catastrophe, settled in among the more intellectual sections of the elite,6 but it was never translated into proper preparations for the existential danger awaiting their society.

moment British Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour gave the Zionist movement his promise in 1917 to establish a national home for the Jews in Palestine,10 he opened the door to the endless conflict that would soon engulf the country and its people.