While reading about the Israel/Palestine conflict, I found this 1927 statement by Chaim Weizmann (emphasis mine):
Palestine must be built up without violating the legitimate interests of the Arabs not a hair on their heads shall be touched. The Zionist Congress must not confine itself to platonic formulae. It has to learn the truth that Palestine is not Rhodesia and that 600,000 Arabs live there, who before the sense of justice of the world have exactly the same right to their homes in Palestine as we have to our National Home.
What is meant by "Palestine is not Rhodesia?" It seems like Weizmann was referring to Britain's then-recent (1923) colonization of Rhodesia, and warning that creating a Jewish state in Palestine would not be as straightforward due to the 600,000 Arabs living there. But there were also people living in Rhodesia before colonization, so it is not clear to me what distinction he was trying to make.
