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Palestine: Zionism and the Genesis of the Mandate

D. K. Fieldhouse

in Western Imperialism in the Middle East 1914-1958

Mandatory Palestine, built from the sanjaq of Jerusalem and two southern sanjaqs of the vilayet, was unique in British imperial history. Hitherto all British dependencies had fallen into two broad ... More

Mandatory Palestine, built from the sanjaq of Jerusalem and two southern sanjaqs of the vilayet, was unique in British imperial history. Hitherto all British dependencies had fallen into two broad categories: colonies of occupation and colonies of settlement. The first, ranging from India and Nigeria to Gibraltar, were held because they were thought to fulfil some of a wide range of economic or strategic purposes. The second, such as Australia and Canada, were acquired mainly for settlement by Britons. Palestine did not fit either category, as it should have been a quasi-colony of occupation, yet it was treated as a colony of settlement. This chapter explains this seemingly irrational fact.Less

Before Oslo: A Brief Legal History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

GEOFFREY R. WATSON

in The Oslo Accords: International Law and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreements

This chapter presents a brief legal history of the Palestinian–Israel conflict. Topics discussed include the origins of the conflict, the Balfour Declaration, the League of Nations mandate for ... More

This chapter presents a brief legal history of the Palestinian–Israel conflict. Topics discussed include the origins of the conflict, the Balfour Declaration, the League of Nations mandate for Palestine, the founding of the state of Israel, and the Six-Day War of Jun 1967.Less

Epilogue: Emergence of a Jewish Majority in Jerusalem

Arie Morgenstern

in Hastening Redemption: Messianism and the Resettlement of the Land of Israel

The beginning of the modern historical period in the Land of Israel was marked by the European powers’ new interest in the region and by the Jews’ own changed attitudes toward the Land. Jews began ... More

The beginning of the modern historical period in the Land of Israel was marked by the European powers’ new interest in the region and by the Jews’ own changed attitudes toward the Land. Jews began settling the Land in increasing numbers, largely in anticipation of the Messiah’s expected appearance in 1840; settlement continued even after those expectations were dashed. The new motives for Aliya were spiritual and religious under the oppression of the governments in Europe. Thus, due to the expansion of the yishuv, Western philanthropists used their influence to modernize Jerusalem. Jerusalem expanded beyond the old city walls, laying the basis for what would become West Jerusalem. Ultimately, it was only thanks to the existence of a Jewish yishuv in the Land of Israel during the first half of the 19th century that masses of Jews in the Diaspora as well as the nations of the world became aware of the reality of the Land of Israel as a place in which the Jewish nation could settle in the future.Less

The United States, World War I, and the End of the Ottoman Empire, 1908–1921

Karine V. Walther

in Sacred Interests: The United States and the Islamic World, 1821-1921

Chapter 8 analyzes the culmination of the Eastern Question by analyzing American reactions to the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917 and President Woodrow Wilson’s failed plans for an American mandate ... More

Chapter 8 analyzes the culmination of the Eastern Question by analyzing American reactions to the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1917 and President Woodrow Wilson’s failed plans for an American mandate over Armenia. It examines the role played by the United States in establishing the larger mandate system in the Middle East. The primary actors involved in pushing for such a system included political and diplomatic elites, such as Woodrow Wilson and Henry Morgenthau, who worked closely with American missionaries, including Josiah Strong and James Barton. It also analyzes how American support for the Balfour Declaration built on previous arguments about the Jewish Question in Europe to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. In concludes with an analysis of the King-Crane Commission.Less

The Ancient Ideal and the New World

Jan Rybak

in Everyday Zionism in East-Central Europe: Nation-Building in War and Revolution, 1914-1920

The chapter investigates the two simultaneous but in many respects contradictory promises of national and social emancipation given in 1917 by the Russian Revolution and the Balfour Declaration. It ... More

The chapter investigates the two simultaneous but in many respects contradictory promises of national and social emancipation given in 1917 by the Russian Revolution and the Balfour Declaration. It analyses how activists perceived these two events, how they responded to them, and what conclusions they drew for their own work. Both events gave local activists a boost in self-confidence and energy and let them turn towards mass work—albeit in very different forms. At the end of the war many activists struggled with the two practical alternatives of emigration to Palestine or participating in a revolution in Europe. The chapter examines closely the various forms of revolutionary activism and the relations between left-wing Zionists and their fellow non-Jewish revolutionaries. It shows how both revolutionary activism and attempts to organize emigration to Palestine worked on a practical level in local contexts, and what these efforts implied for the future evolution of both Zionist political practice and ideology. While for many the Balfour Declaration spurred the move to emigrate, emigration was not necessarily an ideological choice—much to the frustration of many activists. At the same time, the emancipatory promise of revolution led a number of activists to question whether a homeland in Palestine was even necessary, and whether Zionism maintained its validity in this new period.Less

Origins of the Jewish Labor Movement

Adam M. Howard

in Sewing the Fabric of Statehood: Garment Unions, American Labor, and the Establishment of the State of Israel

In 1917, the AFL endorsed the British government’s Balfour Declaration, which called for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This marked the first time that the American labor movement engaged with the ... More

In 1917, the AFL endorsed the British government’s Balfour Declaration, which called for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This marked the first time that the American labor movement engaged with the issue of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. However, most Jewish trade unionists, centered in the garment industry, did not support the AFL’s endorsement of the Declaration as they rejected the nationalist overtones associated with it. Most Jewish trade unionists descended from the Bund, the General Federation of Jewish Workers of Lithuania, Poland, and Russia. Bundists viewed Zionist support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine as anathema to their socialist views, and they bitterly clashed with Zionists over the issue of Palestine. However, the creation of Histadrut, the General Federation of Jewish Workers in Palestine in 1920 altered the dynamic. By the early 1920s, a small number of labor leaders who were either Labor Zionists or Bundists who viewed Histadrut as a fellow labor movement worth supporting. Led by Max Pine, the leader of the United Hebrew Trades, these labor activists started raising funds for Histadrut in 1923 through the Gewerkschaften campaign. These fundraising drives continued through the 1920s and marked the true engagement of American labor with Jewish labor in Palestine.Less

American Journalists, Artists, and Adventurers and the Zionist Movement (1917–1947)

Shalom Goldman

in Starstruck in the Promised Land: How the Arts Shaped American Passions about Israel

Beginning with the “reconquest of Jerusalem” of the British over the Turks, this chapter details the transition to British rule and the seeds sown for future conflict. The Balfour Declaration served ... More

Beginning with the “reconquest of Jerusalem” of the British over the Turks, this chapter details the transition to British rule and the seeds sown for future conflict. The Balfour Declaration served as a clarion call both to Jews and American Evangelicals, for whom the obsession with a Jewish return to Jerusalem resounded with Biblical import. The chapter also details opponents of Zionism, such as Joseph P. Kennedy, appointed by Franklin Delano Roosevelt as ambassador to Great Britain during the transition to British rule in Palestine. Further, it accounts for the two main branches of political belief in the Yishuv, Palestine’s Jewish community: Labor Zionism, embodied by David Ben Gurion, and Revisionism, embodied by Vladimir Jabotinsky. Finally, the chapter explores Ghandi’s relationship to Israel, the rise of the Nazi state vis a vis British Palestine, and American pro-Israel activism and fundraising in New York City and on Broadway, by such champions as Ben Hecht.Less

The Imperial Dominions

PETER C. OLIVER

in The Constitution of Independence: The Development of Constitutional Theory in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand

This chapter considers how English law came to be received in foreign lands and how self-government came to be established. The basic texts and rules of the Imperial Constitution are discussed here, ... More

This chapter considers how English law came to be received in foreign lands and how self-government came to be established. The basic texts and rules of the Imperial Constitution are discussed here, together with the early constitutional development of the three countries under study.Less

The Economic Basis for Arab/Jewish Accommodation

S. Ilan Troen

in Imagining Zion: Dreams, Designs, and Realities in a Century of Jewish Settlement

This chapter illustrates how Zionism achieved international recognition and legitimacy on the eve of Britain's conquest of Palestine, paving the way for the expansion and development of the Jewish ... More

This chapter illustrates how Zionism achieved international recognition and legitimacy on the eve of Britain's conquest of Palestine, paving the way for the expansion and development of the Jewish community in Palestine, the Yishuv. The Covenant of the League of Nations reiterated the Balfour Declaration's commitment that a Jewish “national home” would be built, while at the same time stipulating the obligation to safeguard “the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.” The biggest challenge for Zionist experts is proving that a large-scale Jewish settlement could be accomplished without jeopardizing the rights of the Arab population. Simple logic would suggest that as more Jews settled in Palestine and purchased more land, less land and opportunity would be available for Arabs.Less

“Should We Change Our Stance toward Zionism?” (1918)

Herts Burgin

in Jewish Radicals: A Documentary History

This chapter argues that socialism and Zionism could not be reconciled, in response to the 1917 Balfour Declaration in support of a Jewish homeland. In this chapter, Herts Burgin, veteran journalist ... More

This chapter argues that socialism and Zionism could not be reconciled, in response to the 1917 Balfour Declaration in support of a Jewish homeland. In this chapter, Herts Burgin, veteran journalist and author of the first comprehensive history of the Jewish labor movement, asserts that working toward the Zionist ideal is not as feasible as working toward socialist goals. One reason is because the Jewish Question has long been solved, though the chapter also addresses the hypothetical scenarios that reveal otherwise. Moreover, socialists would have to bend working-class unity before the Jewish bourgeoisie, rendering the socialist cause “two-faced” as a conflict between class interests and national interests develops.Less

I Found the Best Woman

Lee Shai Weissbach

in A Jewish Life on Three Continents: The Memoir of Menachem Mendel Frieden

This chapter describes no only Frieden’s courtship and eventual marriage to his second wife, Ray Savage, but also tells of his life-altering decision to leave the United States and take his family on ... More

This chapter describes no only Frieden’s courtship and eventual marriage to his second wife, Ray Savage, but also tells of his life-altering decision to leave the United States and take his family on aliya to the Land of Israel. In the story of Frieden’s courtship Frieden makes it clear that in looking for a new wife, he was searching for a mate as well as someone who would be a mother to his daughters. His feelings of affection for his wife Ray are given free reign in the text. By contrast, Frieden tells of his decision to immigrate to the Land of Israel more briefly and less emotionally, perhaps because his Zionist consciousness was so engrained in his psyche by the time he penned his memoir that he felt no need to spell out how and why he had resolved to make aliya.Less

‘Outposts of Jewish Palestine’: young Zionist refugees in Manchester

Bill Williams

in Jews and Other Foreigners: Manchester and the Rescue of the Victims of European Fascism, 1933-40

In 1933, the Zionist movement in Manchester was already fifty years old. The first Manchester Jewish organisation to promote the colonisation of what was then Ottoman Palestine was founded in 1884, ... More

In 1933, the Zionist movement in Manchester was already fifty years old. The first Manchester Jewish organisation to promote the colonisation of what was then Ottoman Palestine was founded in 1884, the first body seeking the creation of a Jewish state in 1896. By 1900, the community had generated twelve Zionist formations, representing most facets of the international Zionist movement. Manchester became the home of the Russian émigré, Chaim Weizmann, already a leading player on the international Zionist scene formed the ‘Manchester School’ of Zionists which Weizmann gathered around him during his Manchester years. This group included young men and women—Simon Marks, Israel Sieff, Leon Simon, Harry Sacher, Harry Dagut, and Rebecca Sieff—who were to become key figures amongst the leaders and publicists of British Zionism. It was with their backing that Weizmann was able to negotiate the Balfour Declaration.Less

Zionism Reconsidered

Jerome Slater

in Mythologies Without End: The US, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1917-2020

In some ways, Zionism is legitimate and persuasive, but in other ways it has undermined the possibilities of Israeli peace with the Arab world. The argument that the history of murderous ... More

In some ways, Zionism is legitimate and persuasive, but in other ways it has undermined the possibilities of Israeli peace with the Arab world. The argument that the history of murderous anti-Semitism, culminating in the Holocaust, justified the creation of a Jewish state, somewhere, was strong. However, the arguments that the Jews had an eternal right to Palestine were weak. The religious claim that God gave Palestine to the Jews is challenged by Christian and Islamic counterclaims. The argument that 2,000 years ago the Jews were predominant in Palestine until they were driven out by the Romans has long been shown by archaeologists and historians to have little foundation. Even if true, it would be irrelevant to establishing a convincing claim for exclusive Jewish sovereignty today. Likewise, the Balfour Declaration and the League of Nations Mandate to Britain, the basis for the Zionist claims based on modern history, were simply colonialist impositions.Less

Interregnum (1918–1920)

in The Jews of Pinsk, 1881 to 1941

From 1918 to 1920, Pinsk passed from one regime to another. The city witnessed seven regimes during the period, starting with the rule of the German-Ukrainian Condominium, following the peace treaty ... More

From 1918 to 1920, Pinsk passed from one regime to another. The city witnessed seven regimes during the period, starting with the rule of the German-Ukrainian Condominium, following the peace treaty at Brest. Ukraine then took over, followed by the Bolsheviks of Russia and then Poland. The murder of the “thirty-five” occurred on April 5, 1919, after which Pinsk came under Bolshevik rule for the second time. On September 26–29, 1920, the “White” (anti-Bolshevik) forces led by Bolak and Boris Balakhovich invaded Pinsk and initiated riots. This was followed by the second Polish regime. Pinsk was clearly besieged by political turmoil during the period. In contrast, the Russian revolution and the Balfour Declaration of 1917 brought hope and optimism to the city's young Jews.Less

The Free State and the Search for European Security, 1925–1926

Gerard Keown

in First of the Small Nations: The Beginnings of Irish Foreign Policy in the Inter-War Years, 1919–1932

Chapter 6 charts Irish responses mid-1920s’ efforts to create a European security architecture culminating in the Locarno Pacts and German admission to the League of Nations. Ireland favoured using ... More

Chapter 6 charts Irish responses mid-1920s’ efforts to create a European security architecture culminating in the Locarno Pacts and German admission to the League of Nations. Ireland favoured using the League to strengthen European security and disapproved of attempts by the larger powers to decide matters among themselves. In protest at this tendency to sideline small states, the Irish ran unsuccessfully for election to the League’s governing Council in 1926. In the same year a breakthrough was achieved on the Commonwealth front when the Balfour Declaration recognized the equality of the dominions. Dublin increasingly valued the League and its conferences and technical bodies such as the ILO, as a means to consolidate its sovereignty and to profile the Irish state and its values-based approach to foreign policy. But as the Geneva Protocol would show, an increasingly internationalist approach would at times conflict with the realities of Ireland’s ties with Britain.Less

Reframing the Pedagogical Map

Yoni Furas

in Educating Palestine: Teaching and Learning History under the Mandate

Chapter 1 examines the evolution of the Palestinian and Hebrew education systems from the late Ottoman period into the Mandate and brings forward key players and institutions in this process. The ... More

Chapter 1 examines the evolution of the Palestinian and Hebrew education systems from the late Ottoman period into the Mandate and brings forward key players and institutions in this process. The chapter highlights the differences and commonalities between the two systems. Under British rule, the Arab system was administered by the colonial Department of Education, headed by colonial officials, while the Hebrew system remained autonomous to determine its general goals and curriculum. The chapter underlines the importance of the British national home policy according to the Balfour Declaration and its influence on the education of Arabs in Palestine.Less

A Tale of Four and a Half Cities, 1900–1950

David Abulafia

in The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean

From a Mediterranean perspective, the First World War was only part of a sequence of crises that marked the death throes of the Ottoman Empire: the loss of Cyprus, Egypt, Libya, the Dodecanese, ... More

From a Mediterranean perspective, the First World War was only part of a sequence of crises that marked the death throes of the Ottoman Empire: the loss of Cyprus, Egypt, Libya, the Dodecanese, then the war itself with the loss of Palestine to British control, soon followed by a French mandate in Syria. All these changes had consequences, sometimes drastic, in the port cities where different ethnic and religious groups had coexisted over the centuries, notably Salonika, Smyrna, Alexandria and Jaffa. At the end of the war, the Ottoman heartlands were carved up between the victorious powers, and even Constantinople swarmed with British soldiers. The sultan was immobilized politically, providing plenty of opportunities for the Turkish radicals, in particular Mustafa Kemal, who had acquitted himself with great distinction fighting at Gallipoli. Allied mistrust of the Turks was compounded by public feeling: the mass deportation of the Armenians in spring and summer 1915 aroused horror among American diplomats based in Constantinople and Smyrna. Marched across the Anatolian highlands in searing heat, with harsh taskmasters forcing them on, men, women and children collapsed and died, or were killed for fun, while the Ottoman government made noises about the treasonable plots that were said to be festering among the Armenians. The intention was to ‘exterminate all males under fifty’. The worry among Greeks, Jews and foreign merchants was that the ‘purification’ of Anatolia would not be confined to persecution of the Armenians. In its last days, the Ottoman government had turned its back on the old ideal of coexistence. In Turkey too, as the radical Young Turks often revealed, powerful nationalist sentiment was overwhelming the tolerance of past times. Smyrna survived the war physically intact, with most of its population protected from persecution, partly because its vali, or governor, Rahmi Bey, was sceptical about the Turkish alliance with Germany and Austria, and understood that the prosperity of his city depended on its mixed population of Greeks, Armenians, Jews, European merchants and Turks. When he was ordered to deliver the Armenians to the Ottoman authorities, he temporized, though he had to despatch about a hundred ‘disreputables’ to an uncertain fate. Less