Transcript Slide 1
The Rise of Zionism and Jewish Settlement in Palestine. Indigenous Response. Ottoman Palestine Zionism • Is Zionism a religious or political movement? • How would you define a religious movement as opposed to a political one? • How do the goals of religious and political movements differ? • Can a religious movement be political? • Can a political movement be religious? • Are the Jews a “nation”? Or a “people”? Are these different concepts? Terms • • • • • • • • • • • Pogroms Pale of Settlement Theodor Herzl (1860-1904) The Jewish State First Zionist Congress, 1897 World Zionist Organization (WZO) Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) Aliyah Ashkenazi/Sephardi David Ben-Gurion Yishuv I. Origins and development of Zionism A.) the Jews in Europe • • • • • • A Russian shtetl Anti-semitism 19th c. nationalism Socioeconomic roots Ghetto 19th c. changes Western vs. eastern Europe • Pale of Settlement • pogroms B. Development of Zionism • • • • Theodor Herzl Lovers of Zion Theodor Herzl Dreyfus Affair (1891) The Jewish State (1896) • First Zionist Congress (Basel, Switzerland), 1897 • World Zionist Organization • Jewish National Fund, 1901 Development of Zionism, cont. • Two bases • Weizmann • Aliyah = “waves” – 1) 1882 – 2) 1904-1914 – 3) 1919-1923 – 4) 1924-1928 – 5) early 1930s II. Settlement and Indigenous response • What was the Arab response to Zionism? What was the response to early Jewish settlement? (What’s the difference? • Why is the issue of (national, Arab) identity questioned and a source of debate? • Who were the earlier Jewish settlers? A. Historiographical issues • there was no dispossession of Palestinians because, in the words of Golda Meir: “there was no such thing as Palestinians...they did not exist.” • Arab opposition only began during Mandate; since then artificially fostered by self-interested propagandists; there was no such thing as Palestinian identity or concept of nation until Zionists provoked it • Palestinians “exist only in relation to another entity and another narrative.” B. People (population in Ottoman Palestine) • • • • 1882: between 400-500,000. Jews: 25,000 By 1914: 650,000 total – Arab: 550-585,000 (85-90%) – Jew: 80,000 (11-14%) – Christian pop. (included in Arab): 11-16% 1914: 12,000 of 85,000 Jews lived on land. 1882-1914: 100,000 Jews came; 50,000 remained Top: Ahmad and Anbara al-Khalidi, Palestinian Arab couple Bottom: Jewish workers on kibbutz C. Situation of the indigenous Jews in Palestine • Culture: Sephardi vs. Ashkenazi • Socioeconomics D. Arab Society in Ottoman Palestine • Fellahin • Urban notables • Religious groups E. Patterns of settlement of Jewish immigrants • Agricultural colonies: 500 in 1882 to 11,990 in 1914 • urban areas, pop. grew from 23,500 to 73,010 in the same period • Jewish settlement divided into two broad phases in this period: • 1) 1870-1900: unsystematic • 2) 1900-1914: the Jewish Colonization Association took over land purchases kibbutz F. Effects on Arabs and Response • Displacement (1899 in Tiberias; 1884 in Affula) • Hired as workers • Jewish-Arab relations • Peasantry: Violent resistance. Incidents: – Petah Tiqva, 1886: peasants’ land sold from under them – Tiberius, 1901-1904: – Affula, 1910-1911: • Press: al-Karmil (f. 1908) Filastin (f. 1911) • leadership (Palestinian and Ottoman): Yusuf al-Khalidi, Ottoman deputy Yusuf al-Khalidi to Herzl, 1899: • Zionism was “in theory a completely natural and just idea” as solution to Jewish problem but wouldn’t work in Palestine which was part of OE and heavily venerated by 390 mill Christians and 300 mill Muslims; “by what right do the Jews demand it for themselves?” Wealth couldn’t purchase it; it could only be taken by force; “for the sake of God, , leave Palestine in peace.” Ottoman Palestine Jewish settlers and Jewish-Arab Interactions (Elon readings) • Who were the Jewish settlers? What were their ideals? • What was the reality which they confronted? • What were the early settlements like? • How did they perceive of and treat the Palestinian Arabs? • How did Jewish settler society compare to the “native” Arab society?