replicate the relationship between capital and investors that was reflected historically in the region and in colonial enterprises internationally.76 These entities understood that transportation was a way to both transform the existing geography,77 and a mechanism to render the Palestinian people nonexistent and invisible. The words of Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism, are clear enough to demonstrate this intention: “The poorest will go first to cultivate the soil. In accordance with a preconceived plan, they will construct roads, bridges, railways and telegraph installations; regulate rivers; and build their own dwellings; their labor will create trade, trade will create markets and markets will attract new settlers.” Theodore Herzl78 Early on, Zionist leaders identified the existing railway lines of Haifa, Samakh and Damascus as critical to the development of Haifa and the Zionist-Jewish colonies around Marj Ibn Amer, an extended valley located in northern Palestine. These railways allowed ease of movement for young Zionist-Jewish colonizers, particularly along the Daraa-Haifa Railway, and most colonies were located strategically near railway stations.79 The railway also facilitated the transport of Zionist products to Haifa’s port and their subsequent shipping to Europe by powerful Zionist companies.80 It further aided the transport of construction supplies to new colonies in order to expand infrastructure projects in these colonies, including a new road network. Thus, several colonies were established in the Marj Ibn Amer area during the 1920s and 1930s, as was facilitated by the railway line.81 This existing infrastructure thereby allowed Zionist leaders to maximize the impact of increased Zionist-Jewish colonization and expand their 76 From 1918-29, 73 percent of the money invested for the creation of Israel was private, and from 1930-37, 84 percent. The private sector built most of the Israeli state. See Zev Golan, “The Economics of Zionism,” Jerusalem Post, 7 May 2012, available at: https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/The-economics-of-Zionism [accessed 28 February 2020]. While the Mandate government had tax exemptions for Jewish immigrants to stimulate the Jewish industry, it imposed high taxes on Arab peasants. This culminated in a shift in the Palestinian economy where the predominantly-Arab agricultural sector was replaced with a Jewish industrial sector. See Ghassan Kanafani, The 1936-1939 Revolt in Palestine (London: Tricontinental Society, 1980), available at: http://media.virbcdn.com/ files/5f/d06c929d62d90a04-3639RevoltinPalestine.pdf. See also Suhair al-Sharbeni, “Ghassan Kanafani Dating Great Palestinian Revolt 1936” [Arabic], Ida2at, 22 April 2017, available at: https://www.ida2at. com/ghassan-kanafani-dating-great-palestinian-revolt-1936/ [accessed 28 February 2020]. 77 Salamanca, supra 70, 114-135. 78 Theodore Herzl, The Jewish State (New York: Dover, 1988), 26. 79 Mansour, supra 60, 163-172. 80 Id., 163-172. 81 Id., 169. 28