"A land without a people for a people without a land."

Supporters invoke the slogan “A land without a people for a people without a land” to argue that early Zionists and colonial-era endorsers saw Palestine as empty and that Jewish settlement simply filled a void. They claim the phrase reflects the rightful establishment of Israel in an underpopulated territory, minimizing indigenous presence.

The phrase originated in the mid-19th century among Christian restorationists like Alexander Keith and Lord Shaftesbury, not early Zionist leaders. While later echoed by figures like Israel Zangwill, many Zionists quickly rejected the idea as dismissive of the existing Arab population. As historian Diana Muir notes, it was never a widespread Zionist slogan and was contested even among Zionist thinkers.

Moreover, Palestine was already home to hundreds of thousands of Arabs who cultivated land, maintained villages, and formed distinct communities. The slogan effectively erased these people to justify settler colonial ambitions. Critics like Edward Said and Rashid Khalidi highlight how the phrase acted as settler-colonial propaganda and contributed to the dispossession of Palestinians.