ZIONISM FROM THE STANDPOINT OF ITS VICTIMS 79 the sheer contradiction o f living a foreign life in an enclave many physical and cultural miles from E urope, in the midst of hostile and uncomprehending natives, gave rise to a sense of history, a stubborn kind o f logic, a social and political state decreeing the present colonial venture as normal, justified, good. With specific reference to Palestine, what were to become institutional Zionist attitudes to the A rab Palestinian natives and their supposed claims to a “ norm al'’ existence, were more than prepared for in the attitudes and the practices o f British scholars, administrators, and experts who were officially involved in the exploitation and governm ent o f Palestine since the mid-nineteenth century. Consider that in 1903 the Bishop o f Salisbury told members o f the Palestine Exploration Fund that Nothing, I think, that has been discovered makes us feel any regret at the suppression of Canaanite civilisation [the euphe­ mism for native Arab Palestinians] by Israelite civilisation. . . . [The excavations show how] the Bible has not misrepre­ sented at all the abomination of the Canaanite culture which was superseded by the Israelite culture. Miriam Rosen, a young Am erican scholar, has compiled a spinetingling collection o f typical British attitudes to the Palestinians, attitudes which in extraordinary ways prepare for the official Zionist view, from Weizmann to B egin, o f the native Palestinian. Here are some citations from Ms. R osen’s important work: Tyrwhitt D rake, who wrote in a survey o f Western Palestine: The fear of the feltahin that we have secret designs of re-conquering the country is a fruitful source of difficulty. This got over, remains the crass stupidity which cannot give a direct answer to a simple question, the exact object of which it does not understand; for why should a Frank wish to know the name of an insignificant wady or hill in their land? The fellahin arc all in the worst type of humanity that I have come across in the east. . . . The fellah is totally destitute of all moral sense. , . .