Ze'ev Jabotinsky
Russian Revisionist Zionist leader (1880–1940)
Ze'ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky (alternatively Zhabotinski) (Hebrew: זאב ז'בוטינסקי, Russian: Зеэв (Владимир Евгеньевич) Жаботинский; October 18, 1880 – August 4, 1940) was a Zionist leader, author, orator, soldier, and founder of the Jewish Legion in World War I.
QuotesEdit
- A Jew brought up among Germans may assume German custom, German words. He may be wholly imbued with that German fluid but the nucleus of his spiritual structure will always remain Jewish, because his blood, his body, his physical-racial type are Jewish. ... It is impossible for a man to become assimilated with people whose blood is different from his own. In order to become assimilated, he must change his body, he must become one of them, in blood. ... There can be no assimilation as long as there is no mixed marriage. ... An increase in the number of mixed marriages is the only sure and infallible means for the destruction of nationality as such. ... A preservation of national integrity is impossible except by a preservation of racial purity, and for that purpose we are in need of a territory of our own where our people will constitute the overwhelming majority.
- V. Jabotinsky, "A Letter on Autonomy", Evreiskaya zhizn, no. 6, June 1904. As translated in "Israel Among the Nations : Selection of Zionist Texts" (ed. Zvi Zohar; Jerusalem : World Zionist Organization, Organization Department, Research Section, 1966). Reprinted in L. Brenner, 51 Documents, Barricade Books, 2002, pp. 7–20.
- Our habit of constantly and zealously answering to any rabble has already done us a lot of harm and will do much more. … We do not have to apologize for anything. We are a people as all other peoples; we do not have any intentions to be better than the rest. As one of the first conditions for equality we demand the right to have our own villains, exactly as other people have them. … We do not have to account to anybody, we are not to sit for anybody's examination and nobody is old enough to call on us to answer. We came before them and will leave after them. We are what we are, we are good for ourselves, we will not change, nor do we want to.
- Instead of Excessive Apology (1911).
- We cannot give any compensation for Palestine, neither to the Palestinians nor to other Arabs. Therefore, a voluntary agreement is inconceivable. All colonization, even the most restricted, must continue in defiance of the will of the native population. Therefore, it can continue and develop only under the shield of force which comprises an Iron Wall which the local population can never break through. This is our Arab policy. To formulate it any other way would be hypocrisy.
- The Iron Wall (1923).
- Eliminate the Diaspora, or the Diaspora will surely eliminate you.
- Tisha B'av (1937).
- The Jews might become the dynamite that will blow up the British Empire.
- Palestine Bulletin, (1934-01-04) (Source).
