There was nothing reasonable about talking land from the indigenous native population and giving it to immigrants so the immigrants could form a country in which the native people weren't welcome.
Without taking sides, I think it is possible to say that in comparative terms, there
were reasonable aspects to the Jewish colonisation of the territory in question.
1. The jews were arguably a 'people without a nation' and could be said to deserve one, somewhere, as much as any other people.
It is equally arguable that the French Jews were French, the German Jews were Germans, the Russian Jews were Russians, the Belgian Jews were Belgians, etc. , and that what they deserved was the same rights, privileges, and protections as their fellow citizens. What they did not deserve was a free pass to do unto Palestinians what was done unto them by Cossacks, Nazis, and other violent bigots.
How many generations does it take for a family to be 'from' a place, anyway? I know we Americans think it only takes one or two, but what's the European timeline? Jews were in Italy for 2,000 years. They were in the Ukraine and most of Europe for over 1,500 years. At what point is it fair to call them Italian or Ukrainian or European? The indigenous population of Palestine has been there for more than 9,000 years. Why is it that the right of European Jews to live in Palestine is recognized even after a 2,000 year absence, but 9,000 years of continuous residence isn't enough to establish a similar right for Palestinians?
That makes no sense to me.
2. They were returning to what could be described as their ancestral home, which had been conquered and taken over by others over the intervening centuries.
Conquered, yes. Taken over by others, not so much. The locals were the descendants of the same set of ancestors that European Jews claim. Over the past 2,000 years most of them had converted to Christianity or Islam, but that in no way affected their ancestry or place of origin. They had more right to Palestine than the European Jews by virtue of having never left and having almost no non-local ancestry, unlike the European Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews.
3. They were in many if not most cases fleeing persecutions.
That might give them more sympathy but it doesn't give them special rights to steal land or carry out ethnic cleansing.
4. They had the support of much of the international community, in the form of the UN.
Yes, they did. But they did not have the UN's support in expanding beyond the proposed borders, or denying refugees rights guaranteed in UN resolutions, or carrying out collective punishments.
Zionists wanted UN support for the existence of Israel and were glad they got it, but they ignored everything else the UN said, especially the part about a Palestinian State and the right of refugees to return to their homes.
5. The arabs had also been promised a homeland in Palestine (the British Mandate territory) and were given most (75%) of the land and nation status. They could have acceded to the jews getting the remaining 25% and they certainly could have gone along with the original partition plan.
They could have settled for less than half of their homeland and surrendered the rest to the European immigrants, but why would they want to? They wanted their homeland undivided, and they wanted to stay in their homes and villages. They wanted to participate in their government, a government dedicated to their welfare, protection, and prosperity. Is that unreasonable?
Also, it should be noted that the Zionists would not have accepted a mere 25% of the land, so that was a non-starter all around. Ben Gurion had to persuade his fellow Zionists to accept the UN proposal in principle in order to get support for Israel's existence while assuring them that Israel would expand far beyond what the UN proposed.
6. The Jews arguably could not be expected to have a great deal of sympathy for the local inhabitants in the circumstances, since many of them (apparently the majority) had supported extermination of jews only recently, in the holocaust. So, much of the local population was hardly morally neutral or innocent.
Untrue.
The Palestinians of that time had lived peaceable with Jews for centuries. DNA evidence and family histories indicate most of them had Jewish ancestry within a couple of generations. They did not hate Jews, did not support the extermination of Jews, and had no fight with Jews until European Zionists started arriving by the tens of thousands, singing
The East Bank of the Jordan and vowing to create a Jewish State for Jews only in all of Palestine.
Sure, you can find a few who said nasty things about Jews. I can find Jews who said nasty things about Palestinians. I can also show you Palestinians who were friendly and helpful to Jews, and Jews who felt the same way about Palestinians.
How many colonisations could we say all those of? I can't think of one.
I'm glad you recognize it as colonization. That's what the Palestinians have refused to accept, and who can blame them? No one wants to be forced out of their homeland by hostile invaders, even if the invaders have the UN's blessing.