The Foundations of Zionism

Sabri Jiryis

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  • 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.

  • Translator’s note
    Preface

    Introduction
    1. Pioneers of Zionism: Early Thinkers (1862-1884)
    2. Lovers of Zion: Early Practitioners (1882-1904)
    3. Herzl and the Zionist Organization: The Jewish State Project and its Agencies (1897-1904)
    4. The Second Aliyah: Foundations of the Zionist Entity (1904-1914)
    5. The First World War and the Balfour Declaration: The Alliance of Colonialism and Zionism (1914-1917)
    6. British Mandate over Palestine, Part 1: The Mandate System and its Frameworks (1918-1923)
    7. British Mandate over Palestine, Part II: Foundations of the “Jewish National Home” (1918-1923)
    Conclusion: Zionism in the Service of Colonialism

    Bibliography
    Index

  • “A magisterial and comprehensive analysis of Zionism from its earliest iterations to the present. Every person who claims to oppose Israeli genocide needs to read this book for a proper understanding of Zionist motivations and attitudes, told from the point of view of its primary victims. The translation of Jiryis's opus gives Anglophone observers of Palestine the opportunity to bypass the anguished dilemmas of one-time Zionists that dominate discourse in the Global North and instead engage with one of the finest texts of the Palestinian intellectual tradition.”

    Steven Salaita, Professor in the English and Comparative Literature department, The American University in Cairo 

    “A foundational and vital work. Jiryis’ book is indispensable reading for anyone seeking to understand Zionism's monstrous rise from myth to mandate, and a sobering reminder that there is no redeeming it.”

    Mohammed el-Kurd, Palestinian writer and poet

    “Sabri Jiryis has written a most comprehensive and detailed history of the foundations of Zionism. An accomplished Palestinian historian in his own right, Jiryis’ 1976 book on the history of the Israeli state’s subjection of Palestinian citizens after 1948 remains an indispensable classic. His new book on Zionism, originally published in Arabic, has finally been translated to English and at a most auspicious moment in the history of the ideology and the movement. Based on extensive research from Zionist and Israeli sources, Jiryis’ The Foundations of Zionism will be equally indispensable to readers and specialists interested in the policies of the state of Israel and its official ideology. Erudite and thorough, the book reminds us that nothing the state of Israel does falls outside the foundations of its ruling ideology. This compelling book is essential reading.”

    Joseph Massad, Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University

    “Sabri Jiryis’ contributions to the Palestinian intellectual tradition have long been significant, and this history of the rise of Zionism is a work of tremendous scholarship undergirded by Jiryis’ singular familiarity with a prodigious array of Hebrew-language sources. For a global audience seeking to understand how the settler colonial state in Palestine first came to be, the English-language translation of The Foundations of Zionism will be essential.”

    Isabella Hammad, Palestinian writer and author of The Parisian (Jonathan Cape, 2019), Enter Ghost (Grove Press, 2023), and Recognizing the Stranger: On Palestine and Narrative (Grove Press, 2024)

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    Head of Covert Action, CIA, 1961.

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  • October 2025
    614 pages, Ebb Books
    9781738468744