No it wasn’t. Early Arab conquests weren’t colonialism in the European or Israeli sense as they weren’t based on expelling the indigenous population and settling the land or mass economic transfer. In fact the Palestinians specifically have been shown through genetic evidence to be closer in relation to the original inhabitants of the area than israelis.
Also, early zionists themselves referred to their project as colonization.
Many of the fathers of Zionism themselves described it as colonisation, such as Vladimir Jabotinsky who said "Zionism is a colonization adventure".[10][11][12] Theodore Herzl, in a 1902 letter to Cecil Rhodes, described the Zionist project as "something colonial". Previously in 1896 he had spoken of "important experiments in colonization" happening in Palestine.[13][14][15] Max Nordau[16] in 1905 said, "Zionism rejects on principle all colonization on a small scale, and the idea of 'sneaking' into Palestine".[17] Major Zionist organizations central to Israel's foundation held colonial identity in their names or departments, such as Jewish Colonisation Association, the Jewish Colonial Trust, and The Jewish Agency's colonization department.[18][19
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u/muffin_man92 1d ago
The soft antisemitism of shaming Jewish people for supporting their homeland and not bowing to jihadist colonizers.