Shtetl colonialism: first and last impressions of Indigeneity by colonised colonisers

This article argues that although the paradigms of settler colonialism and apartheid are adequate analytical tools for understanding Israel and Zionism in the past and in the present, they leave few of the phenomena in that part of the world unexplained and in need of further elaboration. Through an examination of the steadfastness of the racist perception of what is 'Arab' in Jewish Palestine and Israel since the late 19th century and until today, this article wants to attract attention to two such phenomena. The first is the rapid transformation of the Jews of Europe from the ultimate victims of that continent and that civilisation to the chief victimisers in Palestine. Secondly, this article draws attention to the total immunity the Zionist movement and, later, the Jewish state received as a result of this transformation.