Benvenisti, Meron. Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land since 1948. University of California Press, 2000.

[...] Hence the Zionists did not rob the country's inhabitants of their land; they redeemed it from desolation. The Jewish pioneer battled not the Arab fallah but the forces of nature. The Zionists had no quarrel with the fallah, and no one wanted to dispossess him; after all so the narrative goes there's room in the land for everyone. And anyway, the
Arabs are part of the natural fauna, and their villages and culture are just background, part of the picturesque landscape. Their way of life is worthy of preservation as a part of the environment, Like an exotic ornament of anthropological interest, as well as living testimony to the way
of life of our ancient forebears. But should the savage desert urge reawaken in the fallahin, causing them to violently attack the peace-loving Jewish community, then the battle between the desert and civilization will be renewed in all its force, and the "sons of light" will prevail.

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