of the Israeli ruling class. Zionist colonization did not proceed as an ordinary, capitalist, colonizatory process motivated by considerations of profitability. The bourgeois elements in this colonization always preferred to employ Arab labour, but the Zionist Labour bureaucracy struggled against this and demanded a policy of 'Jewish labour only'. It was a bitter struggle that was waged throughout the 1920's and 1930's and formed the main conflict within the Zionist community in Palestine. It was finally won by the Labour bureaucracy, to a considerable extent due to the support it received from the world Zionist movement. That support was based on political considerations, for the aim of political Zionism was, from the very beginning, to establish a purely Jewish nation-state in Palestine and to displace the indigenous population. As early as June 1895 Theodor Herzl wrote in his diary: 'The private lands in the territories granted us we must gradually take out of the hands of the owners. The poorer amongst the population we try to transfer quietly outside our borders by providing them with work in the transit countries, but in our country we deny them all work. Those with property will join us. The transfer of land and the displacement of the poor must be done gently and carefully. Let the landowners believe they are exploiting us by getting overvalued prices. But no lands shall be sold back to their owners.' [22] It was this consideration embodied by the world Zionist movement that tipped the scales in favour