Quotation from Moshe Sharett “We have come to conquer a country from people inhabiting it” — Feb. 12 1914
Future second Prime Minister of Israel, later described as a "moderate", in a letter sent from Istanbul to his friends in Tel Aviv.
Author :
- Sharett, Moshe (1894-1965) ( 10 quotations )
- National (Zionist) interest first and foremost ( 31 quotations )
- A Palestinian people does exist ( 30 quotations )
- The objective is not to cohabitate ( 29 quotations )
- Strictly separate from the Palestinians ( 40 quotations )
- Jewish state = negligible Palestinian minority ( 37 quotations )
" We have forgotten that we have not come to an empty land to inherit it, but we have come to conquer a country from people inhabiting it, that governs it by the virtue of its language and savage culture.Recently there has been appearing in our newspapers the clarification about “the mutual misunderstanding” between us and the Arabs, about “common interests” [and] about “the possibility of unity and peace between the two fraternal peoples.”... [But] we must not allow ourselves to be deluded by such illusive hopes ... for if we cease to look upon our land, the Land of Israel as ours alone and we allow a partner into our estate, all content and meaning will be lost to our enterprise. "
Letter sent from Istambul, published by Haaretz on dec. 1, 1995. Quoted by Benny Morris Victimes, Histoire revisitée du conflit arabo-sioniste, Complexes, 2003, p. 108.
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