You Bothered About the Term "Settlements"?

It's tough in the semantic battles.

Why "settlements" when "communities can be used?

But giving it some thought, we've been-there-and-done-that.

Did you know there was the Jewish Colonial Trust?

It was

The financial instrument of the Zionist movement. Its establishment was suggested at the First Zionist Congress, held at Basel in 1897; the first definite steps toward its institution were taken at Cologne, May, 1898. It was conceived by the political Zionists as a financial instrument which should hold in trust the moneys of the Zionists for the direct purposes of the movement, and, at the same time, should act as a bank and carry on business according to the methods of the commercial world.

Arabs claimed even before 1967 that we set up "colonies".

In the 1952 NYTimes obituary of Chaim Weizmann, we read:

Weizmann had dared to criticize Herzl as "too visionary," and in 1900, at the Fourth Zionist Convention, he emerged as the leader of the Democratic Zionist faction.  This group opposed both the political Zionists, who wanted political guarantees for the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine, and the practical Zionists, who wanted to settle Jewish colonies in the Holy Land without regard to political guarantees. Dr. Weizmann helped reconcile their differences.

On January, 8, 1937, testifying before the Royal Commission, Weizmann suggested its member to visit the Jewish colonies in Palestine.  He called them 'colonies' after his first visit in 1907.

I could go on, but my point is made.

We got over "colonies", we'll get over "settlements'.

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