You have created our exile

Within that border, Israel presents itself—and to a large extent functions—as a democracy; beyond it, in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, a different regime has become entrenched, one based on a radical inequality of rights, military control, and the progressive colonization of the land.

Is Israel, then, a colonial state?

This question is often met with simplistic answers: supporters of Israel dismiss it as propaganda; critics instinctively answer yes, sometimes overlooking the nuances. Yet the relationship between Zionism and colonialism is complex and has taken different forms over the course of history.

In the first half of the twentieth century, the Jewish refugees who arrived in Palestine—particularly during the mass immigration of the 1930s—did so not by choice, but because they were fleeing extermination and no one was willing to take them in. From 1967 onward, however, with the occupation of the Palestinian Territories and the construction of settlements, Israel also became a colonial reality in the classical sense.

Then, following the failure of the Oslo Accords, the settlers’ presence became permanent and grew exponentially. The Green Line effectively disappeared, while the colonial project began to permeate Israel itself, making its way into the military, school curricula, and civil society.

From the origins of Zionism to the establishment of settlements in the West Bank, You Have Created Our Exile reconstructs a complex history in which the most commonly used—and overused—categories of the debate are once again tested against the facts.