I support the existence of Israel but it's worth remembering that Herzl and others explicitly used words like 'colonisation'. Back then of course colonisation was usually seen as a good thing in Europe, and Herzl's novel Old New Land has friendly attitudes towards Arabs, imagining beneficial coexistence, even if it seems a bit simplistic in places.
: Many of the fathers of Zionism described Zionist activity in Palestine as "colonization",[10] such as Vladimir Jabotinsky, who said "Zionism is a colonization adventure".[11][12][13][14] Theodore Herzl, in a 1902 letter to Cecil Rhodes, described the Zionist project as "something colonial".[15][16] Previously in 1896 he had spoken of "important experiments in colonization" happening in Palestine.[17][18] In 1905 Max Nordau said, "Zionism rejects on principle all colonization on a small scale, and the idea of 'sneaking' into Palestine", and that instead it advocates "that the existing and promising beginnings of a Jewish colonization shall be looked after and maintained till the movement will be possible on a large scale".[19]
Major Zionist organizations central to Israel's foundation held colonial identity in their names or departments, such as the Jewish Colonisation Association, the Palestine Jewish Colonisation Association, the Jewish Colonial Trust, and The Jewish Agency's colonization department.[21][
Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann wrote in his autobiography that at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference he had spoken to US Secretary of State Robert Lansing of "the hope that by Jewish immigration, Palestine would ultimately become as Jewish as England is English" and described how he had taken as his example "the outstanding success which the French had at that time made of Tunisia. What the French could do in Tunisia," Weizmann said, "the Jews would be able to do in Palestine".[28]
In a 1956 speech, Israeli Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan stated in regards to Palestinian political violence: "Who are we that we should argue against their hatred? For eight years now, they sit in their refugee camps in Gaza and, before their very eyes we turn into our homestead the land and the villages in which they and their forefathers have lived. We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and the cannon we cannot plant a tree and build a home."[34][35]
(Yes, these are from Wikipedia, but they are all sourced, I'll paste here :
11.Jabotinsky, Ze'ev (December 1962). "The Iron Law". The Selected Writings of Ze'ev Jabotinsky (PDF). South African Betar. p. 26.
12. Liu, James H. (18 August 2022). Collective Remembering and the Making of Political Culture (1 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 190. doi:10.1017/9781108985093.013. ISBN 978-1-108-98509-3.
13. Jabotinsky, Ze'ev (4 November 1923). "The Iron Wall" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 September 2024. Colonisation can have only one aim, and Palestine Arabs cannot accept this aim. It lies in the very nature of things, and in this particular regard nature cannot be changed...Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population.
15.Herzl, Theodor (11 January 1902). Complete Diaries. Vol. III. Translated by Zohn, Harry. Herzl Press. p. 1194 – via Internet Archive.
16. Bar-Yosef, Eitan (2012). "A Villa in the Jungle: Herzl, Zionist Culture, and the Great African Adventure". In Gelber, Mark H.; Liska, Vivian (eds.). Theodor Herzl: From Europe to Zion. De Gruyter. pp. 100–101. ISBN 978-3110936056.
17. Herzl, Theodor (1917) [1896]. A Jewish State. Translated by d'Avigdor, Sylvia. New York: Federation of American Zionists. p. 12. Here two territories come under consideration, Palestine and Argentina. In both countries important experiments in colonization have been made, though on the mistaken principle of a gradual infiltration of Jews. An infiltration is bound to end in disaster. It continues till the inevitable moment when the native population feels itself threatened, and forces the Government to stop the further influx of Jews. Immigration is consequently futile unless based on an assured supremacy.
19. Nordau, Max Simon; Gottheil, Gustav (1905). Zionism and Anti-Semitism. Fox, Duffield. p. 30
21–22. ISBN 978-1-6084-6470-8.
21. Stein, Kenneth W. (1 March 2017). The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939. University of North Carolina Press. p. 93. ISBN 978-1-4696-1725-1.
81.
28 Weizmann, Chaim (1949). Trial and Error: The Autobiography of Chaim Weizmann. Harper & Brothers. p. 244. LCCN 49048354. OCLC 408962.
34]Spangler, Eve (2015). "Four Frames". Understanding Israel/Palestine – Race, Nation, and Human Rights in the Conflict. Rotterdam: SensePublishers. p. 178. doi:10.1007/978-94-6300-088-8_9. ISBN 978-94-6300-088-8 – via Springer Nature (Wikipedia Library).
I don't think this colonisation language was good but it's dishonest for writers to claim, as some have, that it was never used. Personally, I think part of the issue was that it was hard to describe the goal of Israel as it was a unique project and there were lots of competing ideas. Herzl wasn't particularly attached to the land while obviously most people were. And he wanted it to speak German officially (tragically of course he could not know what would happen there after he died). And framing it as colonisation was a good way to make it understandable and appealing to European states.
No country is perfect and I support Israel's right to exist just as much as any other flawed country which is all of them. I support a 2 state solution ideally but not at the moment definitely.