David Ben-Gurion Quotes

Israel's first Prime Minister (National List)

19 Quotes by David Ben-Gurion

1. We view them like donkeys. They don't care. They accept it with love.

2. An Ashkenazi gangster, thief, pimp or murderer will not gain the sympathy of the Ashkenazi community (if there is such a thing), nor will he expect it. But in such a primitive community as the Marrocans - such a thing is possible…

3. We must do everything to insure they never do return.

4. What is necessary is cruel and strong reactions. We need precision in time, place, and casualties. If we know the family, we must strike mercilessly, women and children included. Otherwise, the reaction is inefficient. At the place of action, there is no need to distinguish between guilty and innocent.

5. They [Palestinians in a future Israel] can either be mass arrested or expelled; it's better to expel them.

6. No one will give us this country. In order to take it, we must rely on our own strength.

7. If I knew that it was possible to save all the (Jewish) children of Germany by transporting them to England, and only half by transferring them to the Land of Israel, I would choose the latter, for before us lies not only the fate of these children but the historical reckoning of the people of Israel.

8. We have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?

9. The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war.

10. We must expel the Arabs and take their place.

11. Arabs respect force. These days it is not right but might which prevails. It is more important to have force than justice on one's side.

12. Everybody sees the problem in the relations between the Jews and the Arabs. But not everybody sees that there's no solution to it. There is no solution! ... The conflict between the interests of the Jews and the interests of the Arabs in Palestine cannot be resolved by sophisms. I don't know any Arabs who would agree to Palestine being ours -- even if we learn Arabic ... and I have no need to learn Arabic. On the other hand, I don't see why 'Mustafa' should learn Hebrew ... There's a national question here. We want the country to be ours. The Arabs want the country to be theirs.

13. The Land of Israel will be built solely by the hands of an industrious people, rich in material and spirit, who will come to it from outside as a result of a vital historical need to create a homeland for themselves, equipped with modern scientific and technical instruments and ready at any cost to turn the desert and wasteland into a flourishing oasis, fruitful, culturally rich and populated, like what the English immigrants did in North America and the Dutch immigrants in South Africa - and like what the Jews began to do in the Land of Israel itself.

14. We must expel Arabs and take their places...and, if we have to use force-not to dispossess the Arabs of the Negev and Transjordan, but to guarantee our own right to settle in those places-then we have force at our disposal.

15. The compulsory transfer of the [Palestinian] Arabs from the valleys of the proposed Jewish state could give us something which we never had, even when we stood on our own during the days of the first and second Temples. We are given an opportunity which we never dared to dream of in our wildest imaginings. This is more than a state, government and sovereignty, this is national consolidation in a free homeland.

16. In many parts of the country new settlement will not be possible without transferring the [Palestinian] Arab fellahin. it is important that this plan comes from the [British Peel] Commission and not from us. Jewish power, which grows steadily, will also increase our possibilities to carry out the transfer on a large scale.

17. With compulsory transfer we [would] have a vast area [for settlement]. I support compulsory transfer. I don't see anything immoral in it.

18. Just as I do not see the proposed Jewish state as a final solution to the problems of the Jewish people, so I do not see partition as the final solution of the Palestine question. Those who reject partition are right in their claim that this country cannot be partitioned because it constitutes one unit, not only from a historical point of view but also from that of nature and economy

19. After the formation of a large army in the wake of the establishment of the [Jewish] state, we shall abolish partition and expand to the whole of the Palestine