https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/6fa4480d-29c9-4670-8d5d-65acc73ad8eb How Zionism, Western colonialism & US imperialism turned Palestine into Israel (and kept it that way) While proto-Zionist thinkers existed before, Theodor Herzl became the founder and leading voice of modern political Zionism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Zionism, a settler colonial ideology, aimed to establish a Jewish majority state by removing the indigenous inhabitants of Palestine (British East Africa and other locations were considered -- see "Uganda Scheme"). Following Herzl's death, other Zionist leaders and organizations continued his legacy in fulfilling Zionist colonial ambitions. Palestine, a region that had been under rule by the Ottoman Empire for 400 years, was composed of mostly Arab Muslims but also Christians, Jews, Druze, and other religious and non-religious peoples living in relative harmony before Zionism took hold. Jewish migration to Palestine was mostly for non-Zionist reasons prior to World War 1. Western-funded Zionist settlements expanded in small amounts during Ottoman rule but following British control of Palestine post-World War 1, the conditions for Zionism became ripe. Established under the Balfour Declaration, encouraged by British policies, and facilitated by big landowners, Zionist land purchases and settlements expanded in droves. This in turn displaced the mostly peasant farmer Palestinian population who were increasingly denied employment, rendered landless, and became impoverished. The British sought to prop up the Zionist settlers as they more closely aligned with British imperialist interests in the region. British-trained Zionist paramilitaries defended the Zionist settlement expansions until eventually some Zionist militias, namely the Lehi and Irgun, sought to remove the British entirely. After the British left, the Zionists--primarily the Haganah, Lehi, and Irgun--carried out the Nakba which expelled 750,000 Palestinians in order to establish the state of Israel. The US recognized Israel shortly afterwards and sent economic aid over the years. After the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, US military aid to Israel increased dramatically. Similar to the British, the US propped up the Zionist state to advance its own imperialist interests, now against the backdrop of the Cold War. Enormous US military aid to Israel continues until today to maintain a stronghold in a region rich in natural resources, valuable trade routes, and cheap labor. Thu, 09 Apr 2026 01:37:34 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://tankie.tube https://tankie.tube/lazy-static/avatars/3ba3ff73-a8b6-49c9-add8-9653ef090c7f.webp https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/6fa4480d-29c9-4670-8d5d-65acc73ad8eb All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://tankie.tube/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.