Iron Wall (essay)

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"About the Iron Wall" (Russian: О железной стене, O zheleznoy stene), often shortened to "The Iron Wall", is an essay written in 1923 by Ze'ev Jabotinsky (born in Russia as Vladimir Yevgenyevich Zhabotinsky). It was originally written in Russian and published by the Russian press.^[1]

Jabotinsky wrote the essay after the British Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill prohibited Zionist settlement on the east bank of the Jordan River. He formed the Zionist Revisionism party after writing the essay.^[2]

Jabotinsky argued that the Palestinian Arabs would not agree to a Jewish majority in Palestine, and further noted that:

"Zionist colonisation must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population – behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach."^[1]

The only solution to achieve peace and a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, he argued, would be for Jews to first establish a strong Jewish state, which would eventually prompt the Arabs leadership to become moderate, who would be more open to "mutual concessions."

A week following the publication of this essay, Jabotinsky followed with "The Ethics of the Iron Wall," in which he argued that morality comes before everything else, and that Zionism is "moral and just," since it subscribes to "national self-determination" as a "sacred principle," which Arabs may also enjoy.^[3]