Guided by this, this paper’s subsequent sections define the relationship between colonization, apartheid, and forcible transfer in the context of Palestine, summarize theoretical and legal frameworks for decolonization, and present the framework for decolonization in Palestine. This introductory paper also includes an overview of the upcoming working papers in the series, which detail different elements and policies of the Israeli colonial-apartheid regime. Simultaneously, the future papers of the series will also describe what is required for each to be dismantled, uprooted, and ultimately wholly decolonized, as well as the policies needed to guarantee the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights of selfdetermination and return. 1. The Israeli Regime: Colonization, Apartheid, and Forcible Transfer It is a matter of historical record that, from the onset of Zionism, colonization was perceived as “the instrument of nation-building” for a pure Jewish state.12 This pillar of domination intended to arm the newly-created ‘Jewish nation’ with national rights, namely “the right to separate existence in a territory of its own and the right to create a Jewish state”.13 It is this same idea of separate existence that, in a context where (Palestinian) land already has a (Palestinian) people, necessarily requires demographic engineering and by virtue, racial elimination of the other. In the case of Palestine, this racial elimination took the form of forcible transfer, a heinous crime under international law. To realize this, Zionism adopted a terra nullius discourse that attempts to erase the presence of the Palestinian people by employing tactics of forcible transfer, ethnic cleansing, and genocide – similar to other 12 Fayez A. Sayegh, Zionist Colonialism in Palestine (Research Center - Palestinian Liberation Organization 1965), 2. 13 Ibid, 1. 5