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The Foundations of Zionism
Translated into English for the first time since its original publication by the PLO’s Palestine Research Center, this book extensively details the origins of Zionism and its development as an ideology and political project that has wrought havoc in the Middle East and beyond over the last century.
The Foundations of Zionism chronicles this development from Zionism’s early origins up to the establishment of the British mandate over Palestine in 1923, refuting many of the movement’s own foundational myths – from its early relationship to the Palestinians to its exclusively religious character. Sabri Jiryis delves into Zionism’s successive congresses and factional struggles, its early failures to settle in Palestine and the formation of armed militias, and its temporary alliances with the Ottoman Empire before the movement eventually secured support from Western colonial powers such as Britain. In a newly written conclusion, Jiryis reconsiders the Zionist project 100 years on from the Balfour Declaration and amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
The Foundations of Zionism chronicles this development from Zionism’s early origins up to the establishment of the British mandate over Palestine in 1923, refuting many of the movement’s own foundational myths – from its early relationship to the Palestinians to its exclusively religious character. Sabri Jiryis delves into Zionism’s successive congresses and factional struggles, its early failures to settle in Palestine and the formation of armed militias, and its temporary alliances with the Ottoman Empire before the movement eventually secured support from Western colonial powers such as Britain. In a newly written conclusion, Jiryis reconsiders the Zionist project 100 years on from the Balfour Declaration and amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
614 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1977
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 30, 2026
Everything you always wanted to know about Zionism but couldn’t find – now all available in English. This book shows the history of Zionism from the last quarter of the 19th century up to the formal start of the British Mandate in 1923. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to learn more about the roots of this political ideology that continues wreaking havoc throughout the Levant to this day.
Sabri Jiryis (1938) is a Palestinian scholar, lawyer and writer. He served for many years as director of the PLO Research Centre and published the two-volume work The Foundations of Zionism in 1977 and 1986. Almost 40 years later, an English translation is now available, which marks a significant milestone for a number of reasons.
Firstly: very few researchers have, or had, access to primary archival material from historic Palestine. The archives that the PLO had built up in Beirut were systematically looted and confiscated by the Israelis in 1982 – but until then, Jiryis, as director of the Research Centre, had direct access to a great wealth of source material.
Secondly, there are very few readers in the West who are proficient in both Arabic and Modern Hebrew, meaning that researchers, policymakers, analysts, opinion leaders and historians have had to make do with what is available in translation – this edition has made a comprehensive and important collection of sources accessible.
These sources help us to better understand Zionism as a political ideology. Internal power struggles and opportunism are recurring themes. It is clearly demonstrated that at virtually all Zionist congresses there were heated debates over the approach to colonisation (initially also over which territory to colonise) and how to organise and finance that colonisation. It also traces how the Balfour Declaration came about: which Zionists lobbied which politicians (a sort of AIPAC avant la lettre) and the various draft versions that preceded the final text (spoiler alert: the very first draft was quite different from the version Balfour signed). And there is the account of the highly opportunistic “Haavara” agreement (“transfer” in Hebrew), a formal collaboration between Nazi Germany and the Jewish Agency in Palestine that lasted from 1933 to 1939. This agreement enabled German Jews to go to Palestine provided they deposited a substantial portion of their assets with a German branch of the Anglo-Palestine Bank – this money was then used to purchase German capital goods for export to Palestine for projects run by the Jewish Agency.
In the introductory chapter, Sabri Jiryis provides a concise and clear history of Judaism in Europe since 1492. That year is significant because it marks the beginning of European colonialism, and Jiryis repeatedly demonstrates that Zionism has not only been an explicitly colonial project from the very outset, but that Zionists have also consistently allowed themselves to be used by the colonial superpowers of Great Britain and America: Jiryis calls this “Zionism in the service of colonialism”.
This historical account is exceptionally well-documented: sources are cited as footnotes on each page, totalling nearly 1,700. There is a bibliography with references to books and articles in Hebrew, English and Arabic, and a list of official publications by the British authorities, the World Zionist Organisation, the Jewish Agency and sub-divisions of these organisations.
The translation was a special collaborative project between father and daughter. Fida Jiryis studied the original text whilst researching her book Stranger in My Own Land, and her father Sabri proofread and checked this translation. The English text is exceptionally accessible and readable, a great achievement by the translator, Fida Jiryis.
A must-read for anyone wishing to learn more about the roots of this political ideology.
#history #zionism #colonialism #palestine
Sabri Jiryis (1938) is a Palestinian scholar, lawyer and writer. He served for many years as director of the PLO Research Centre and published the two-volume work The Foundations of Zionism in 1977 and 1986. Almost 40 years later, an English translation is now available, which marks a significant milestone for a number of reasons.
Firstly: very few researchers have, or had, access to primary archival material from historic Palestine. The archives that the PLO had built up in Beirut were systematically looted and confiscated by the Israelis in 1982 – but until then, Jiryis, as director of the Research Centre, had direct access to a great wealth of source material.
Secondly, there are very few readers in the West who are proficient in both Arabic and Modern Hebrew, meaning that researchers, policymakers, analysts, opinion leaders and historians have had to make do with what is available in translation – this edition has made a comprehensive and important collection of sources accessible.
These sources help us to better understand Zionism as a political ideology. Internal power struggles and opportunism are recurring themes. It is clearly demonstrated that at virtually all Zionist congresses there were heated debates over the approach to colonisation (initially also over which territory to colonise) and how to organise and finance that colonisation. It also traces how the Balfour Declaration came about: which Zionists lobbied which politicians (a sort of AIPAC avant la lettre) and the various draft versions that preceded the final text (spoiler alert: the very first draft was quite different from the version Balfour signed). And there is the account of the highly opportunistic “Haavara” agreement (“transfer” in Hebrew), a formal collaboration between Nazi Germany and the Jewish Agency in Palestine that lasted from 1933 to 1939. This agreement enabled German Jews to go to Palestine provided they deposited a substantial portion of their assets with a German branch of the Anglo-Palestine Bank – this money was then used to purchase German capital goods for export to Palestine for projects run by the Jewish Agency.
In the introductory chapter, Sabri Jiryis provides a concise and clear history of Judaism in Europe since 1492. That year is significant because it marks the beginning of European colonialism, and Jiryis repeatedly demonstrates that Zionism has not only been an explicitly colonial project from the very outset, but that Zionists have also consistently allowed themselves to be used by the colonial superpowers of Great Britain and America: Jiryis calls this “Zionism in the service of colonialism”.
This historical account is exceptionally well-documented: sources are cited as footnotes on each page, totalling nearly 1,700. There is a bibliography with references to books and articles in Hebrew, English and Arabic, and a list of official publications by the British authorities, the World Zionist Organisation, the Jewish Agency and sub-divisions of these organisations.
The translation was a special collaborative project between father and daughter. Fida Jiryis studied the original text whilst researching her book Stranger in My Own Land, and her father Sabri proofread and checked this translation. The English text is exceptionally accessible and readable, a great achievement by the translator, Fida Jiryis.
A must-read for anyone wishing to learn more about the roots of this political ideology.
#history #zionism #colonialism #palestine
January 21, 2026
Originally published in Arabic in 1977, this is no small part in the effort of the Palestinian political consciousness to understand the settler-colonial Zionist movement.
A very measured and detail-oriented work which is written in accessible language. It covers the periods between 1862-1923 across seven chapters, delving into the origins of Zionism and it's major players; the basic Jewish histories of the relevant areas Russia, England, France, Poland, Ukraine, later on America as Jewish immigration there increased, and the historical community in Palestine (the rest of the SWANA Jewry having little impact on Zionist thought or immigration in this timeframe); the First through Third Aliyahs; Ottoman and feudal rule to the Balfour Doctrine to WWI/the Sykes-Picot Agreement to the British Mandate; and the ongoing organizational struggles + advancements between Zionist 'lobbyists' (for lack of a better word) and the settlers themselves.
The conclusion section very briefly covers the colonial conflict between Israel and Palestinians to today and is written in a much more personal tone, having been added later. Commendable translation effort.
A very measured and detail-oriented work which is written in accessible language. It covers the periods between 1862-1923 across seven chapters, delving into the origins of Zionism and it's major players; the basic Jewish histories of the relevant areas Russia, England, France, Poland, Ukraine, later on America as Jewish immigration there increased, and the historical community in Palestine (the rest of the SWANA Jewry having little impact on Zionist thought or immigration in this timeframe); the First through Third Aliyahs; Ottoman and feudal rule to the Balfour Doctrine to WWI/the Sykes-Picot Agreement to the British Mandate; and the ongoing organizational struggles + advancements between Zionist 'lobbyists' (for lack of a better word) and the settlers themselves.
The conclusion section very briefly covers the colonial conflict between Israel and Palestinians to today and is written in a much more personal tone, having been added later. Commendable translation effort.
May 3, 2026
The sheer amount of information in this book is staggering. It is the most exhaustive study of the theory and praxis of Zionism that I’ve encountered to date, and so I can’t recommend it highly enough to anyone who wants to learn, in depth, how and why Zionists acted the way they did during the first half century of their movement’s existence.
Despite all the praise I have for the core of the book, I found the conclusion to be by far its most powerful section. The fact that Sabri Jiryis has lived long enough to see Israel’s genocide in Gaza could perhaps be seen as a misfortune for him, but the rest of us are very lucky indeed to be gifted his personal observations on the horrors that Israel has inflicted in Gaza since 2023. He minces no words, nor should he. We must never forget what Israel has done, nor can those of us in the west ever atone for our governments supporting it.
One minor point: there are a couple of sections of the book that describe intra-Zionist ideological debates (mostly among different strands of socialists) in exhaustive - and excessive - detail. They leave the reader wondering how Zionists ever managed to erase Palestine from the map if they spent half their time arguing over how many workers could dance on the head of a pin.
If you do read this book and enjoy it, I’d highly recommend reading Jiryis’ earlier classic, The Arabs in Israel (get the American edition from 1976, rather than the earlier, shorter, edition from 1966).
Despite all the praise I have for the core of the book, I found the conclusion to be by far its most powerful section. The fact that Sabri Jiryis has lived long enough to see Israel’s genocide in Gaza could perhaps be seen as a misfortune for him, but the rest of us are very lucky indeed to be gifted his personal observations on the horrors that Israel has inflicted in Gaza since 2023. He minces no words, nor should he. We must never forget what Israel has done, nor can those of us in the west ever atone for our governments supporting it.
One minor point: there are a couple of sections of the book that describe intra-Zionist ideological debates (mostly among different strands of socialists) in exhaustive - and excessive - detail. They leave the reader wondering how Zionists ever managed to erase Palestine from the map if they spent half their time arguing over how many workers could dance on the head of a pin.
If you do read this book and enjoy it, I’d highly recommend reading Jiryis’ earlier classic, The Arabs in Israel (get the American edition from 1976, rather than the earlier, shorter, edition from 1966).
May 29, 2026
An extremely useful and informative book with all you ever wanted to know about the origins, ideology, and practice of zionism through the early 1920s. Super detailed, to the point at being a little bit dry at times.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews