A carefully constructed narrative began to form among the Zionist leaders: Yes, there was a large Arab population already living in Palestine. But they were not Palestinian. They were not a distinct people, a tribe, a nation. They could not be considered a national entity. They were part of the global “Arab nation” and thus held no claim to the land on which they lived. As Israel’s “Iron Lady,” Golda Meir, explained, “It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them.
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