Haaretz, Dec 19, 2013

This process, which is imposing a Jewish identity on a land that was largely Palestinian-Arab in its recent past, “necessitates” Jewish expansion accompanied by coerced religious, ethnic, cultural, political and, most crucial, geographic separation. Clearly, if the populations were to intermingle, the edge would be taken off the Judaizing process and a different − mixed − identity would be created.

[...] It is true that the Jewish colonization of Palestine/Israel stems in part from motives different from those of the other settler states mentioned. The Jews are not British, French or Russian imperialists who settle in distant lands, backed by vast military and economic might. They are, rather, a group of persecuted, expelled communities, first from Europe and subsequently from Islamic countries, who sought shelter in the land that was the cradle of their historic and mythical identity.

[...] However, for the native inhabitants of this country − the Palestinians − the process of the Jewish takeover looked quite similar to other ethnic takeovers, which almost always assume the form of appropriation, settlement, expulsion and political subordination of the local population to settlers who come from afar.