Chapter V
EMERGENCE OF ZIONISM ON THE
INTERNATIONAL STAGE AS A
JEWISH NATIONALIST MOVEMENT
1.
Distinguishing Characteristics of European Jewish Population
Chapter
IV examined the
influence which mid and late nineteenth century European political
pressure exerted on the Ottomans, exploiting the latter’s
vulnerability following the Crimean war. It also impacted on the Jewish
population of Eretz Yisrael -
the
Chapter
V is prefaced by a
discussion on the diverse
nature of Zionism and its distinction
from European colonialism. This
is followed by a chronological
continuation of the previous Chapter, Chapter IV, (with some overlap)
but viewed from the
perspective of European Jewry
whose
experience was shaped by its oppressed minority status within a gentile
environment. This experience ultimately led to the emergence of
political Zionism as the root and branch of Jewish nationalism and its
acknowledgment as an international movement.
The
material presented hereunder
deals with the following topics:
Section 1
Distinguishing
Characteristics of the European Jewish Population -
dispersion,
lack of territorial sovereignty and minority persecution
Section 2
“Enlightenment and
its Impact on Western European
Jewry”
reviews the
political and economic situation of the Jews of Western
Europe.
Section 3 contrasts
the situation of the Jews of
Eastern Europe
-Military
Conscription, Discriminatory Legislation and Pogroms -
where physical, political and economic pressure forced large segments
of the Jewish population to migrate mainly to the
Section
4 entitled
“The
Precursors to Political Zionism in Eastern Europe”
briefly describes
individual and small group attempts to
settle unofficially in
upon philanthropic sponsors. This strategy was, however, unequal to the
task of organising mass emigration.
The
‘Dreyfus’ Case: The Catalyst for Political Zionism (section
5.)
ultimately spawned an
emergent Jewish political
leadership and organisation. This forms the subject matter of the next
chapter, Chapter VI which encompasses the efforts of Theodore Herzl to
found the first Zionist institutions to gain international recognition
for the creation of a Jewish Homeland and which were to provide,
ultimately a formal, legal and constitutional solution to the
‘Jewish Question’
Finally,
this Chapter closes with the impact which European Jewish immigration
to
Before entering into the detail of this Chapter, two preliminary points should be kept in mind a) the diverse elements of Zionism and b) the non-colonial nature of Zionism.
The Diverse Nature
of Zionism
Zionism
never was nor is monolithic in its character. In no way did it embrace
the conventionally understood focus and objectives of other
nationalist movements. The latter are generally an indigenous but
minority population having a common language, religion and a more or
less occupying a defined territory. Any desire for self-determination
is generally rejected by the political-religious regime under which
that population is governed. Their aim is to overthrow or secede from
the regime which they view as oppressive.
In
contrast, the Zionist movement or rather its components comprised a
spectrum of ideological and cultural strands, in which each, with
varying degrees of commitment, advocated the restoration and
regeneration of the Jewish people in their reconstructed ancestral
homeland.
Despite these diverse philosophical threads, the re-establishment of a
Jewish homeland was the predominant and cohesive force through which
Zionist unity was achieved. This resulted in the emergence
of a political entity capable of gaining
international
recognition while conserving the distinctiveness of its components.
These factional elements - a spectrum of secular groups -
some culturally emancipated others politically, socially and
economically diverse- together with religious Zionists were each
represented in the early Zionist movement.
These strands still prevail in
Zionism
As Distinct from Colonialism
Arab opponents of
This accusation of colonialism carries the full force of a political
broadside against Zionism: Colonialism in modern international parlance
is anathema and is opposed as being expansionist and imperialistic. It
is the imposition of a national sovereignty over territory beyond its
borders. Colonialism implies the settlement of population from the home
country, often accompanied by the exploitation, displacement or
extermination of an indigenous population. It is said to arise where
the objective of the incoming population is to convert, subdue and rule
the indigenous population of a given territory in accordance with the
values of the colonisers.
European colonial imperialists of the eighteenth, nineteen and early
twentieth centuries tended to send plantation owner/managers, militia,
civil employees, merchants and traders to their
colonies for the purpose of spreading the hegemony of the mother
country and exploiting the natural resources discovered in the new land
for the latter’s economic benefit,
By
contrast, the objectives
underlying Jewish immigration to
states whence the Jews migrated.
It is true that the catalyst for this return was the political and
economic oppression under which European Jewry suffered. However, as
Chapter II has shown, Jewry has maintained a continuous spiritual,
cultural and physical connection with Eretz Yisrael for over two
thousand years.
Chapter IV has shown that early
Jewish settlements were established in Palestine by visionaries and
pioneers who came, not as “parasites” with the
intention of
exploiting the existing population, but rather with a desire to create
with their own hands; becoming self-sufficient, independent and living
a life of dignity rather than one of squalid poverty and social
denigration. The principle of self-labour
was cardinal
in Zionism.
The point being emphasised here is
that while the early Zionists established colonies as
a means of slow and gradual development of the
natural potential of the land, present-day Israel
does
not espouse ‘colonial’ values or aspirations as
above
defined, despite some contemporary claims to the contrary. The
Palestinian claim that
While Jewish aspirations have moved in the direction of establishing a
Jewish majority and dominant culture in
(see Hayim Greenberg, Is
Zionism Imperialistic? in
Enzo Serini and R.E.Ashery (ed) Jews
and Arabs in Palestine,
Hechalutz Press, New York, NY, 1936, p 249)
**************************
Much
of
the background to the Jewish immigration and land acquisition is to be
found in the many published histories on the origins of Zionism, such
as Gideon Shimoni, ‘The
Zionist Ideology’
(Brandeis
University Press, Hanover NH , 1995); David Vital, ‘The
Origins of Zionism’
(Oxford University Press, London 1975
hereafter ‘Vital’
); together with Ben
Halpern and Jehuda Reinharz, ‘Zionism
and the Creation of a
New Society’(Oxford
University Press, New York, 1998);
and in the biographies of Zionist leaders: Chaim Weizmann, ‘Trial
and Error’ (Greenwood
Press, Westport, Conn, 1972); Shabtai
Teveth’s ‘Ben
Gurion, The Burning Ground 1886-1948,
(Houghjton Mifflin, Boston, 1987); and Menachem Begin, ‘The
Revolt’ (Nash
Publishing New York 1977). The material
presented hereunder is intended neither to be comprehensive nor to
duplicate or summarise what has already been researched and recorded.
***************************
1.
Distinguishing Characteristics of European Jewish Population
a.
Dispersion
In
contrast
to other religious and ethnic populations who have tended to live in
more or less concentrated and defined territorial areas, the Jews, as a
people and as a religious-ethnic
group, have experienced dispersion and oppression. They also exhibit a
number of other characteristics which bear directly on both the early
and contemporary Jewish resettlement of Eretz Yisrael-Palestine.
Ever
since
their expulsion from
b.
Peoplehood Without Territory
A second
Jewish characteristic, valid until the turn of the twentieth century,
was that despite their not having any defined territorial base under
their political control, Jews have maintained
a sense of ‘peoplehood’ in terms of their culture,
literacy, religious practice and language. Religious practice, in
particular, ensured Jewish separateness. While observance of the
dietary
laws, the Sabbath and other Old Testament commandments lay at the base
of their identity, literacy from a very young age and the study of
biblical texts and Talmudic analysis provided Jewish males with tools
to take advantage of the newly emerging scientific and literary
opportunities characteristic of European enlightenment. In the process,
however, adhesion to their ‘peoplehood’ came under
threat.
c.
Persecuted Minority
A third and
important characteristic which has had a very strong impact on the
behaviour of the contemporary State of Israel and its population in
relation to its neighbours is that the
Jews have always constituted a minority, generally persecuted,
impoverished and downtrodden lacking security of person, property or
residence. This was especially true during the
Middle Ages in
o
Crusaders,
out of religious fervour, massacred Jews in their thousands.
o
In
1215 the Roman Catholic Church proclaimed an official policy of
restrictions similar to those of Islam and ordered all Jews to wear
distinctive badges.
o
Throughout
urban Europe Jews were forced to live in ghettos and their freedom of
movement restricted.
o
During
the 13th and 14th centuries several European monarchs, including
England’s Edward I in 1290 and French King
the owners, many of whom who migrated eastwards to Germany, Poland and
Russia.
o
The
Black Death of the 14th century also saw Jews massacred throughout
o
Fifteenth
century
By the
end
of the 16th century in
Paradoxically,
the Catholic Church which constituted the major source of both
religious and temporal power, and also a major influence in the spread
of anti-Semitism, found itself under attack for its impingement into
secular areas of society and its autocratic wielding of power.
The
above
explains to some degree present-day
2. The ‘Enlightenment’ and Its Impact on Western European Jewry
The
Christian reformation
movements in Europe (Lutherism in
Europe and released intellectual and scientific development from its
religion-driven straight-jacket.
The Enlightenment movement was
predicated upon:
o
the
Universe being fundamentally rational and capable of being understood
through the exercise of human rationality;
o
scientific
discovery through empirical observation;
o
human
improvement through education; and
o
the
removal of religious doctrine as the basis for understanding the
physical and human worlds,
These assumptions together with
mercantilism and political emancipation constituted the building blocks
of the of the secular west-European states of
In an era in which the temporal
power of European states was severed from that of the Church and in
which nation building became the dominant political force, Jews were
adversely affected to a considerable degree. The anti-Semitic
influences and attitude created at the grass roots levels by the Church
towards the Jews still maintained their potency, more or less
subliminally in
The
Protestant Reformation with its increased religious, political and
social freedom created an environment of sufficient tolerance to enable
Jews to re-establish themselves in
In
French Revolution. Napoleon, during his military campaigns, opened the
ghettos and emancipated the Jews as he marched across
when Jewish repression by states once subject to Napoleon was
reinstituted and his policies reversed, Jewish emancipation in
Jewish
Emancipation in
The
emancipation of the Jews had far-reaching religious, cultural, and
political effects. Slowly, as Jews took their place in the modern
world, the wall erected around the Jewish community by strict,
traditional Judaism began to crumble. … By translating the
Pentateuch into German and teaching the value of cultural affiliations
between Jews and their non-Jewish environment, Mendelssohn opened the
route for the cultural contributions made by later Jews, both to the
Jewish community and to the world. One of the results of his work was
the Reform Judaism initiated by German Jews. Many Jewish families
discarded Judaism entirely, becoming Christian to increase their
cultural and civic opportunities, and this action did not occasion the
stern condemnation that it would have if taken only a century before.
JEWS. [Internet]. 2009.
The History Channel
website. Available from : http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=213220
[Accessed 10 Mar 2009].
With
some notable exceptions,
the assimilative process left almost untouched Jewish social
discrimination and in so doing it created an identity crisis for those
who saw themselves first and foremost, as nationalists of the countries
in which they resided, but of Jewish persuasion. This was later to
become a crucial factor in the political scandal which arose out of
‘Dreyfus Affair’ which divided
Meanwhile,
emancipated Jews
expressed their identity in establishing and maintaining educational
institutions that expounded universal
values,
rather
than predominantly Jewish religious and cultural values as well as
providing moral and some financial support for their co-religionists
both in Eretz
This early divergence within
European Jewry still remains a potent divisive element in contemporary
Israeli politics vis à vis the Palestinians.
The emergent
(See Section
3 below)
The plight of East European Jewry galvanised philanthropists and
secular movements
in
lived. These included Sir Moses Montifiore and Baron
a.
Founded
in
The affair drew wide international attention, especially in
for the equal protection of their civil rights.
In addition to protecting Jewish human
rights in their
countries of residence, one of the goals of the AIU was to combine the
ideals of self-defence and self-sufficiency through education
and professional development among Jews around the world. The seventeen
founding members of the organisation, amongst whom were doctors,
teachers, journalists, lawyers, and businessmen, represented late 19th
century Jewish liberal bourgeoisie - “beneficiaries of light
and
emancipation, deeply patriotic but simultaneously unwilling to disown
their roots.”
(see http://www.aiu.org/ANGLAIS/presentation_ang.htm#HISTORY)
In 1870, the AIU succeeding in obtaining a gift from the Ottoman Empire
of a lease of a tract of land located near
know-how. In 1886 the school attracted its first Jewish Sephardic
agronomist, Yosef Niego to its staff. He recruited at least one child
from every pioneer village founded by the “Hovevei
Zion”
settlers from
is reported to have said:
“The State was established
thanks to
Mikvei-Israel. If there was no Mikveh-Israel, it is doubtful
Denis Ojalvo, Foundation for the
Advancement of
Sephardic Studies and Culture, (http://www.sephardicstudies.org/school.html
In
addition to Mikve Yisrael, Rothschild’s
beneficence was expressed elsewhere in
pioneers from
the swamp and overcoming malarial disease, the
agricultural settlement distant from
from the Russian pogroms. Although
initially the establishment
of the school created Arab opposition, by 1914
This is indicative of the fact that before British involvement in the
government of
(Eric Fischer, The Mikveh Yisrael School During the War Years 1914-18, 4 Jewish Social Studies, (Jul.,
1942), pp. 269-274)
b. Jewish Colonial
Association
One other institution of importance
which gave
financial assistance to Russian Jews wishing to migrate was the Jewish
Colonial Association (JCA). This is not to be confused with the Jewish
Colonial Trust – the latter being a Zionist institution
established in 1902 under the auspices of the Zionist Congress.
The JCA, founded by universal philanthropist Baron
The most notable of its Palestinian activities was to take over the
management of Baron Rothschild’s settlements in 1906 when his
French authoritarian bureaucrats were unable to work amicably with the
immigrant settlers. Dictatorial directives issued from above
did
not sit well with the more democratically and communally minded Russian
expatriates, who had migrated to escape such officialdom.
3. East European Military Conscription, Discriminatory Legislation and Pogroms
From the founding of the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Poland
Most
Polish Jews now found
themselves under Russian domination and the previous policy of Jewish
tolerance was reversed. To offset any possible liberal tendencies,
Russian Jews were forbidden to live
outside specific areas, and their educational and occupational
opportunities were rigidly circumscribed. In particular, the Czarist
regime was at pains to isolate and render ineffective the importation
into Russia of West-European political ideas and influences which might
create any disturbance in the Russian Jewish population.
JEWS.
[Internet]. 2009. The History Channel website. Available from : http://www.history.com/encyclopedia.do?articleId=213220
[Accessed 11 Mar 2009].
Created
under pressure to rid Moscow of Jewish business competition and the
"evil" influence of the Jews on the Russian masses, Czar Cathrine II
authorised, in 1791, the establishment of the Pale of Settlement, an
area covering present-day
Even
within
the Pale, Jews were discriminated against: they paid double taxes, were
forbidden to lease agricultural land, run taverns or receive higher
education; they were excluded from employment in the free professions
and engaging in many trades. Along with the gentile serfs their lives
were one of severe economic hardship, poverty, human degradation,
intellectual and educational stagnation – except for
traditional
religious studies.
Ultimately
Imperial policy was aimed at eliminating the Jews
by
assimilation, by violence and by emigration.
a.
Assimilation
The Czarist
regime under Nicholas I promoted assimilation of Jewish youth into
Russian society through harsh military conscription. Designed to remove
men from the Jewish community and make them more "Russian”
legislation was introduced in 1827 compelling Jewish boys and men
between the ages of 12 and 25 to serve in the army for twenty-five
years. As a consequence many of the conscripts were unable to see their
families for years, and many were converted to Christianity. By the
time the law was rescinded in 1859, an estimated forty
to fifty thousand Jewish minors had been conscripted as cantonists
(juvenile conscripts). (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/heritage/episode6/documents/documents_7.html)
b. Mob
Violence -Pogroms
Encouraged
and even financed by the imperial government periodic massacres of Jews
were initiated in order to divert the attention of the Russian populace
from their discontent with the feudalistic system still prevailing in
the late 19th century.
The first ‘pogrom’ to be so labelled was the
anti-Jewish
rioting in
between 1860-1881 under
Czar
Alexander II, the
constant lack of personal and property security motivated Jewish
migration from
The
level of violence directed against Jews rose to a
head on March 13,
1881 following the
assassination of the Czar Alexander by a group of radicals called 'Narodnaya
Volya' or 'The People's Will.' There
would be two more pogroms
between 1891 and 1906.
The 1881 event precipitated the rampage of thousands
of frustrated
non-Jewish peasants through the Jewish neighbourhoods of
Alexander
II’s successor, Alexander III,
encouraged by the Russian Orthodox Church
led by
Konstantin Pobedonostev,
reverted to the earlier conservative and repressive
regime.
The
situation was made worse by the anti-Semitic
‘May Laws’ promulgated in 1882 that
were designated to make
life intolerable for Russian Jews.
They especially affected those who had become assimilated. Enacted as a
temporary measure, the legislation remained in effect for more than
thirty years. It expressed a systematic policy of discrimination
against the Jews,
banning them from living in Russian rural areas and small towns;
imposing quotas on the number of Jews admitted to high schools and
universities; and prohibiting them from
practicing many free professions and from holding public
office. The
government encouraged Jewish emigration, and for those who chose to
stay, there was talk of reinstituting
compulsory military service for Jewish children.
(Lloyd D Harris, Sod Jerusalems:, Jewish
Agricultural
Communities in Frontier Kansas,
Kansas Collection Books www.kancoll.org/books/harris/sod_chap01.htm
)
c.
Emigration
Between
1880 and 1920 Russian anti-Semitism forced more than two million Jews
to migrate. Most of them went to the
Only a relatively few migrants saw their future in
4.
The Precursors to Political Zionism in Eastern
Europe
In addition to the lack of financial
support, the Jews
of Eastern Europe lacked political leadership and a centralised
organisation to alleviate their situation.
A few wealthy Jewish philanthropists and numerous informal groups
emerged to counter East European ethnic discrimination. Many of these
groups later became political movements,
supporting settlement institutions in Eretz Yisrael under the Zionist
umbrella, and holding a variety of ideologies, views, and forms of
Jewish religious orientation. The Zionist movement also unintentionally
generated some anti-Zionists, especially in
(see
Simon Dubnow, Israel Friedlaender, History
of
the Jews in Russia and Poland: From the Earliest Times Until the
Present Day (1915),
Avotaynu Inc, Bergenfield, NJ. 2000)
o
Hovevei
Zion
Amongst the informal groups which
arose in response to
Russian discriminatory practices were those who saw their future in
In
his early years, Pinsker had believed that
assimilation and the attainment of equal rights with his Russian
gentile contacts would resolve the Jewish problem. However, the 1871
Under
the impetus of his ideas,
the first seeds of the Zionist organisation were planted. In
1884, 36 delegates met in
the Odessa Committee counted over 4,000 members - even before Herzl
organised the First Zionist Congress, at which the World
Zionist
Organization was created – and to which most of the Hovevei
Zion
societies became affiliated.
o
BILU
Politics, however, could not be eliminated from Jewish
emigration! 1882 saw the organisation of the ‘BILU’
group, its name - a Hebrew acronym - derived from a verse in
the
Book of Isaiah (2:5) "Beit
Ya'akov
Lekhu
Ve-nelkha"
("House of Jacob, let us go [up]").
Comprising fourteen Marxist-influenced Russian ex-university students
they emigrated with the purpose of redeeming Eretz Yisrael and
re-establishing a Jewish State, by setting up farming cooperatives.
With little money and no farming experience they arrived in
After making an unsuccessful attempt
to attend the
Jewish farm school in Mikveh
The
Hovevei Zion had succeeded
in acquiring (by way of donation) some
However, in contrast to other
Russian and Rumanian Jewish immigrants, the remnant of the BILU
displayed a distinguishing characteristic: their belief in the
pre-eminent importance of ideas and organisation and the need to form a
party, formulate an explicit ideology, and set an example by
implementing their objectives and values through direct action.
Although few members of BILU remained in Eretz Yisrael, their ideas in
relation to nationhood, the role of the individual, and their
socio-economic objectives left a deep imprint in the collective
agricultural kibbutz and moshava movements. These were to be
established under the impetus of the political Zionists some fifteen
years in the future, and were to be felt throughout the entire history
of the Jewish resettlement of Eretz Yisrael, down to 1948 and
beyond.
(see
Vital,
especially Chapter 4, pp. 65-
108)
o
Rothschild
Philanthropic Support
While
political leaders appear
and disappear from the scene, behind the power of any state its
economic substructure exerts a decisive influence. Such was the
character of the Rothschild
banking influence in
Unlike Alphonse, his younger brother, Baron Edmond James (1835-1934),
did not enter the family banking empire. Instead, he devoted himself to
art and culture. In the last decades of the nineteenth century,
however, he became involved in Jewish land acquisition in
On the other hand, Baron James did
not envisage his philanthropy extending to long-term support for
massive Jewish immigration into Eretz Yisrael.
“Although Rothschild was by far the single most important
source
of funding for the Jewish settlements in
It was slow steady growth that he looked forward to. Not the mass
immigration of millions of "beggars" into an area as crucial to his oil
business as the
Certainly as volatile as
of "infidel" Jews, carrying with them the disease of western culture
would spell disaster for the region's peace.”
Clifford
Shack, The
Armenian & Jewish
Genocide Project that Eliminated the Ethnic Conflict Along the Oil
Transport Route From Baku to the Suez Canal Region
http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:3FcUhly86aMJ:www.geocities.com/cliff_shack/RothschildianGenocide.html+Rothschild+financing+Palestine+Projects&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=uk
Rothschild's patronage was of two
types: The first was
full support (Rishon LeZion, Zikhron Yaakov, Rosh Pina and Ekron) and
the second was partial (Petah Tikvah and others). He became the major
address for all problems in the early Jewish rural settlement movement
(the ‘Yishuv).
His
support was
implemented by a French authoritarian bureaucracy, whose mentality was
alien to the settlers. Bureaucratic dictates did not sit well with the
more democratically and communally minded Russian expatriates, who had
migrated to escape such officialdom and with which they were unable to
work amicably. The level of disharmony was such as to reach the level
of revolt in several settlements. It ultimately caused Baron James to
transfer control of the twelve settlements managed under his auspices
to the Jewish Colonial Association
This type of bureaucratic patronage
was the greatest
problem of the Jewish settlements during a 20-year
period and aroused sharp criticism. In retrospect, however, it is
recognized that Rothschild's bureaucracy also played a positive role.
It introduced new plant species into Jewish agriculture and instructed
the first settlers in the agriculture of the country”
(Rochelle
Mass, Rothschild
Boulevard,
http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1099
)
This
notwithstanding, Rothschild
played a major role in the development of the wine industry in Eretz
While
Rothschild was not
initially a supporter of the Zionist Organisation under its founder,
Theodore Herzl, in later years he grew closer to Organization and
participated with the Zionists in preparatory work for the Balfour
Declaration.
5. The ‘Dreyfus’ Case: The Catalyst for Political Zionism
In
Jews
who
had tried to become assimilated and integrated into the majority
culture came to the slow realisation that regardless of their efforts
they were still regarded in their host countries as aliens, even if
they conformed to the majority culture in their public behaviour.
Independent of the conduct displayed by Jews in public, and beyond
their spheres of influence, political events played their part in
raising latent West-European anti-Semitism to public awareness. A
relatively insignificant incident involving a single Jewish individual,
Captain Alfred Dreyfus, had national repercussions in
If
Jews
were to retain their integrity, dignity and humanity in a country which
hitherto had preached egalitarianism and equality but had failed to
live up to its ideals, a solution alternative to assimilation had to be
found. Only until the Jews – as a people- recovered or
reacquired
territory lost after their forced dispersion nearly two millennia
earlier, relearned skills long forgotten, and acquired new skills and
education commensurate with the needs of a rapidly industrialising and
now global society, could they claim equality with other nations and
peoples.
To attain these objectives, Jews as a people needed communal
institutions and leadership of a sort different from that which had
prevailed in the past; secular leadership capable of confronting and
negotiating with the political elites of the period, but also supported
by an organisation with adequate finance to implement its new and
dramatic policy - finance not only from the wealthy philanthropists,
but from the grass roots.
Theodore
Herzl emerged as the right man for the right job at the right
time
as the godfather of political Zionism
6.
Jewish - Arab Cultural Relations
a.
Ottoman
Reaction to Early Jewish Migration to and Land Acquisition in
By the 1870’s the Jewish
population in
In
November 1881, however, the Porte closed
By
April 1884, Jewish immigration to
The
Porte attempted to go further in 1892, prohibiting
European Jews from acquiring land in
slowed to a trickle as foreign philanthropic and institutional
financial support waned. Ottoman fears of mass immigration then receded
somewhat, because, although Rothschild financial support continued to
be forthcoming for the existing Jewish settlements and Arab fellahin
continued to be employed
by Jewish settlers, Jewish
philanthropy did not at the time extend to supporting mass Jewish
immigration. In any case, the Sultan had other matters to consider,
namely the increasing restlessness of internal political revolutionary
movements, which began to evolve at the turn of the century and became
full-blown in 1908.
b.
Immigrant Jewish Relations with Arab Fellahin
It is important to bear in mind that,
apart from Asher
Ginsberg (1856-1927), known better as ‘Ahad
Ha’Am,’
– ‘One of the People’ - the immigrants in
the First
Aliyah were
more concerned about their own physical and economic survival than with
the impact which their presence might have on the Arab fellah.
They relied on the latter’s strength and
agricultural experience and were happy to employ him. The main object
of the First Aliyah was to escape the pogroms of East Europe and
particularly
in Eretz Yisrael as part of a Jewish ingathering. It remained for
subsequent immigrants to emphasise the necessity for Jews to reconnect
with the Land through their own agricultural
labour and investment – and to create an ideological issue
over
whether to rely solely on Jewish labour to the near exclusion of the
Arabs and ultimately on how to bring about the establishment of a
Jewish national home.
Not all commentators saw Jewish
migration to
hunger there, on Arab dissatisfaction and unrest, on unemployment, and
on emigration from
Jews would be attracted gradually over time, until they could assume
the burden of building a nation independent of the largesse of outside
benefactors.
(Ami Isseroff, ‘Biography
- Achad Ha'am (Asher Ginsberg) and Cultural Zionism’
http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/echad_haam.htm
)
As long as Jewish migration remained
slow and at a
relatively low level, Ginsberg envisaged that conflict between Arab and
Jew could be avoided.
However, given the potential of mass immigration, his concern lay with
the manner in which Jewish settlers related to the Arab population. In
an essay entitled
”The Truth from the
Land of Israel”
Ginsberg warned
against the 'great error,' noticeable among Jewish settlers, of
treating the fellahin with contempt, of regarding
them as savages of the desert, a people similar to a donkey.’
"The Arab, like all Semites, has a sharp mind and is full of cunning
... [They] understand very well what we want and what we do in the
country, but ... at present they do not see any danger for themselves
or their future in what we are doing and therefore are trying to turn
to their advantage these new guests ... But when the day will come in
which the life of our people in the Land of Israel will develop to such
a degree that they will push aside the local population by little
or by much, then it will not easily give up its place."
As
one critic of contemporary Israeli attitudes towards
Palestinian Arabs noted:
The
behaviour of the immigrants disturbed him. They had
not learned from experience as a minority, but, like a slave who has
become king, "behave towards the Arabs with hostility and cruelty,
infringe upon their boundaries, hit them shamefully without reason, and
even brag about it."
The Arab did
indeed respect strength, but only when the other side used it justly.
When his opponent's actions were unjust and oppressive, then "he may
keep his anger to himself for a time ... but in the long run he will
prove to be vengeful and full of retribution."
Prophetic words!
In 1913, after a correspondent had complained of the contemptuous
attitude of settlers and of the Zionist Organisation's Palestine
Office, towards the Arab fellah, Ha'am wrote back,
"When I realise that our brethren may
be morally
capable of treating another people in this fashion and of crudely
abusing what is sacred to them, then I cannot but reflect: if such is
the situation now, how shall we treat others if one day we actually
become the rulers of
(see David J Goldberg, Prophecy
of Retribution The
Guardian, Thursday May 29 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/29/israelandthepalestinians
While this attitude may have been expressed and prevalent at the time,
there is no evidence that such conduct was universal. Neither should it
be forgotten that the new immigrants,
never having being placed in a ‘superior’ position
to the
indigenous inhabitants, knew nothing better than the Russian conduct to
which they had been subjected for centuries. Furthermore, even if they
had acted differently towards the Arab fellah,
it is unlikely
that they could have behaved in a manner consistent with the Arab
cultural norms, some of which have been discussed earlier in Chapter
II. While subsequent events have shown differing Jewish attitudes
towards the Palestinian Arab population, there is little doubt that
Jewish expressions of superiority over their Arab neighbours,
especially immediately after the 1967 Six Days War, have not been
conducive to good relations between Arab and Jew.
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