The last colonizer

Zionism and the State of Israel: A Moral Inquiry. By Michael Prior: Routledge, 291 pp., $75.00.

Recently I witnessed an Israeli settler march at the square inside Jerusalem's Jaffa Gate. The settlers had traveled from towns with biblical names like Efrat (the field where Rachel was buried), newly built on land confiscated from Palestinian villagers. Israeli soldiers with machine guns stood between the settlers, some of whom were dancing jubilantly, and sullen-faced Palestinian shopkeepers. A tourist taking this scene at face value might have imagined he was seeing Zion being restored to God's chosen, protected by soldiers from Arab terrorists.

After reading Michael Prior's book, however, one would perceive the scene quite differently. One would see recently arrived colonists celebrating their successful settlement on stolen land, protected by imperial soldiers holding the dispossessed natives at bay. And one would understand how such a thing could still be happening long after the abolition of colonialism elsewhere.