Populating Colonized Palestine: The Role of Humanitarianism in the Demographic Project of Zionist Settler-Colonial Replacement, 1938–52

This article examines how international humanitarianism facilitated the expansion of Zionist settler colonization in Palestine throughout the mid-twentieth century. By reading historical materials both along and against the archival grain, the author traces a contentious debate between Zionist settlers and Arab nationalists in a range of international arenas over whether the humanitarian plight of the Jews of Europe should justify the dispossession and expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and lands. The author shows that despite initial British resistance to adopting the humanitarian framework to populate Palestine with Jewish settlers, the internationalization of humanitarianism during and after World War II allowed imperial institutions, including the League of Nations and International Refugee Organization, to create a hierarchy of victimhood where the persecuted Jew superseded the unfortunate Palestinian. He concludes that this nascent global humanitarian regime helped constitute the demographic project of Zionist settler-colonial replacement in Palestine.