Editing Zionism (section)

=== Colonization and colonialism ===
Sternberg argues that it is important to clearly distinguish between colonization and colonialism as concepts.{{sfn|Sternberg|2016|loc=The Colonialism/Colonization Perspective on Zionism/Israel}} For Shafir and Peled, "colonization, namely territorial dispossession and the settlement of immigrant populations",{{sfn|Shafir|Peled|2002|p=37}} cannot happen without colonialism and "the means of violence of a colonial metropole".{{sfn|Shafir|2016|p=794}} In contrast, Sternberg considers classical definitions of colonization as broad enough to include cases that did not require the dispossession of the native population.{{sfn|Sternberg|2016|loc=The Colonialism/Colonization Perspective on Zionism/Israel}}

Tuvia Friling depicts the Zionist movement as operating differently from colonial movements in terms of land acquisition. Specifically, the Zionist movement acquired land in the early years by purchasing it.{{sfn|Friling|2016|p=852}} Sternberg in contrast explains that it was not unique for colonial movements to purchase land as part of land acquisition, pointing to similarities in North American colonialism.{{sfn|Sternberg|2016|p=837}} Friling argues that in contrast to European colonial projects, the early Zionist leadership was dominated by the labor movement with a socialist ethos.{{sfn|Friling|2016|p=855}} Shafir points to ideological drives in American and Rhodesian settler colonies that developed in service of the colonial project. Similarly, Shafir says, the Zionist labor movement used socialist ideals largely in service of the national movement.{{sfn|Shafir|2016|p=799}}

In response to the argument that Zionism could not be a colonial project, but should instead be described as a project of immigration, Shafir quotes [[Lorenzo Veracini]]'s statement that settlers sometimes hide "behind the persecuted, the migrant, even the refugee... behind his labor and hardship." Shafir goes on to characterize Zionism as not unique, in the sense that "[t]he ruthless ethnic cleanser is commonly hidden behind the peaceful settler who arrived in an 'empty land' to start a new life."{{sfn|Shafir|2016|p=799}}

Alan Dowty describes the debate over the relationship between Zionism and colonialism as essentially a discussion of "semantics". He defines colonialism as the imposition of control by a "mother country" on another people, for economic gain or for the spreading of culture or religion. Dowty argues that Zionism does not fit this definition on the basis that "there was... no mother country" and that Zionism did not consider the local population in its plans.<ref>{{harvnb|Dowty|2022}}: "They did not recognize the Arab population of Palestine as another people with their own collective claims..."</ref> Efraim Karsh adopts a similar definition and similarly concludes that Zionism is not colonialism.{{sfn|Karsh|2000}}{{page needed|date=November 2024}} Dowty elaborates that Zionism did not control the local population since it ultimately failed to remove the native people from Palestine.{{sfn|Dowty|2022}} In his assessment of whether Zionism is colonialism, Penslar works with a broader definition of colonialism than Dowty, which allows for the country sponsoring the colonial enterprise to be different from the country of origin of the settlers.{{sfn|Penslar|2023|pp=70–71, 82–83, and 95–96}}