WikiPortallus: History of Zionism.html

This article is about Zionism as a movement, not the History of Israel. For other uses, see Zion (disambiguation).

Although the Zionist movement was created by Theodor Herzl in 1897, the history of Zionism can be seen as beginning earlier and related to the Jewish religion and history. Before the Holocaust the movement's central focus was the creation of a Jewish National Home and cultural centre in Palestine by facilitating Jewish migration. After the Holocaust, the movement focussed on creation of a Jewish state, attaining its goal in 1948 with the creation of Israel. After the creation of Israel, the Zionist movement acted to support Israel, assist persecuted Jews and worked to encourage Jewish emmigration to Israel. The percentage of the world's Jews who live in Israel has steadily grown over the years and today 40% of the world's Jews live in Israel.

The Historic and Religious Origins of Zionism

Biblical Precedents

The desire of Jews to return to their ancestral homeland is a Jewish theme that first makes its appearance in the Torah. Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt to escape a drought, where they became a nation and were enslaved. Moses went before Pharoh and demanded, "Let my people go!" Most of the Torah is devoted to the story of the Exodus from Egypt, which is estimated at about 1400 BCE and is celebrated annually during Passover. The Passover meal traditionally ends with the words "Next Year in Jerusalem."

After the Babylonians conquered Judea in 641 BCE, the Judeans were exiled to Babylon and the theme of return to a homeland came up again. In the book of Psalms (Psalm 137), Jews lamented their exile while Prophets like Ezekiel foresaw their return. The Bible recounts how, in 538 BCE Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylon and issued a proclamation granting the people of Judah their freedom. 50,000 Judeans, led by Zerubabel returned. A second group of 5000, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, returned to Judea in 456 BCE.

The Jewish Presence in Israel

The third great Jewish exile is considered to have begun after the destruction of Judea by the Roman Empire in the year 70 (after the Great Jewish Revolt). A second Jewish revolt against the Romans, Bar Kokhba's revolt of 135, led to further dispersal of Jews to other parts of the Empire.^[2]

A Jewish presence in the Land of Israel was maintained even after the Bar Kokhba revolt, and there is evidence of vibrant communities in the first millennium. For example, the Jerusalem Talmud was created in the centuries following the revolt. The inventors of Hebrew vowel-signs, the Masoretes (ba'alei hamasorah, Hebrew בעלי המסורה), groups of scribes in 7th and 11th centuries were based primarily in Tiberias and Jerusalem.

Aliyah and the ingathering of the exiles

Among Jews in the Diaspora Eretz Israel was revered in a religious sense. They thought of a return to it in a future messianic age.^[4] Return remained a recurring theme among generations, particularly in Passover and Yom Kippur prayers which traditionally concluded with, "Next year in Jerusalem", and in the thrice-daily Amidah (Standing prayer).^[5]

Aliyah (immigration to Israel) has always been considered to be a praiseworthy act for Jews according to Jewish law, and is included as a commandment in most versions of the 613 commandments which Jews are supposed to strive to fulfill. From the Middle Ages and onwards, many famous rabbis (and often their followers) immigrated to the Land of Israel. These included Nahmanides, Yechiel of Paris with several hundred of his students, Yosef Karo, Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk and 300 of his followers, and over 500 disciples (and their families) of the Vilna Gaon known as Perushim, among others.

Pre-Zionist Initiatives 1799–1897

The Enlightenment and the Jews

The Age of Enlightenment in Europe led to an 18th and 19th century Jewish enlightenment movement in Europe, called the Haskalah. In 1791, the French Revolution led France to become the first country in Europe to grant Jews legal equality. Britain gave Jews equal rights in 1856, Germany in 1871. The spread of western liberal ideas among newly emancipated Jews created for the first time a class of secular Jews who absorbed the prevailing ideas of rationalism, romanticism and, most importantly, nationalism.

However, the formation of modern nations in Europe led to changes in the prejudices against Jews. What had previously been religious prejudice now became a new phenomenon known as antisemitism. Antisemites saw Jews as an alien national or racial group and actively tried to prevent Jews from acquiring equal rights and citizenship.

Proto-Zionism

Auto-Emancipation by J.L. Pinsker, 1882

Moses Hess's 1862 work Rome and Jerusalem. The Last National Question argued for the Jews to create a socialist state in Palestine as a means of settling the national question. Also in 1862, German Orthodox Rabbi Kalischer published his tractate Derishat Zion, arguing that the salvation of the Jews, promised by the Prophets, can come about only by self-help.^[7] In 1882, Judah Leib Pinsker published the pamphlet Auto-Emancipation, arguing that Jews would not require emancipation in their own country.

In addition to migration from Europe, there were groups of Jews from the Arab world making the journey. A dispatch from the British Consulate in Jerusalem in 1839 reported that "the Jews of Algiers and its dependencies, are numerous in Palestine. . . ." Significant movements also took place from the Yemen (Yemenite Jews) and Central Asia (Bukharan Jews).

Pre-Zionist groups were active in the 1880s in Eastern Europe, where emancipation had not occurred to the extent it had in Western Europe. The massive pogroms after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II made emancipation seem more elusive than ever, and influenced the Hibbat Zion to actively promote Jewish settlement in Palestine. In 1890, the "Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Eretz Israel" (better known as the Odessa Committee) was officially registered as a charitable organization in the Russian Empire, and by 1897, it counted over 4,000 members.

Agricultural settlements

The first aliyah: Biluim used to wear the traditional Arab headdress, the kaffiyeh

In the late 1870s, Jewish philanthropists such as the Montefiores and the Rothschilds responded to the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe by sponsoring agricultural settlements for Russian Jews in Palestine. The Jews who migrated in this period are known as the First Aliyah.^[8] Aliyah is a Hebrew word meaning "ascent," referring to the act of spiritually "ascending" to the Holy Land.

Rishon LeZion was founded on 31 July 1882 by a group of ten members of Hovevei Zion from Kharkov (today's Ukraine). The land was owned by Tzvi Leventine and was purchased by the "Pioneers of Jewish Settlement Committee" that was formed in Jaffa, the port of arrival for many of the immigrants to the area.

In 1890, Palestine, which was part of the Ottoman Empire, was inhabited by about 520,000 people, mostly Muslims and Christian Arabs, but also 20-25,000 Jews.

Non-Jewish Support

Napoleon offered to establish a Jewish state in Palestine as early as 1799, during his invasion of the Levant.^[9].

However, the idea of a Jewish state as an 'outpost' of European colonialism was taken up and developed by the British Empire. Ideas of the restoration of the Jews in the Land of Israel entered British public discourse in the early 19th century, at about the same time as the British Protestant Revival. ^[10] Not all such attitudes were favorable towards the Jews; they were shaped in part by a variety of Protestant beliefs,^[11] or by a streak of philo-Semitism among the classically educated British elite,^[12] or by hopes to extend the Empire. (See The Great Game) At the urging of Lord Shaftesbury, Britain established a consulate in Jerusalem in 1838, the first diplomatic appointment in what is now Israel. In 1839, the Church of Scotland sent Andrew Bonar and Robert Murray M'Cheyne to report on the condition of the Jews in their land. Their report was widely published^[13] and was followed by a "Memorandum to Protestant Monarchs of Europe for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine." In August 1840, The Times reported that the British government was considering Jewish restoration.^[10] Lord Lindsay wrote in 1847: "The soil of Palestine still enjoys her sabbaths, and only waits for the return of her banished children, and the application of industry, commensurate with her agricultural capabilities, to burst once more into universal luxuriance, and be all that she ever was in the days of Solomon."^[14] In her 1876 novel Daniel Deronda, George Eliot advocated "the restoration of a Jewish state planted in the old ground as a center of a national feeling, a source of dignifying protection, a special channel for special energies and an added voice in the councils of the world." Benjamin Disraeli wrote in his article entitled "The Jewish Question is the Oriental Quest" (1877) that within fifty years, a nation of one million Jews would reside in Palestine under the guidance of the British. Moses Montefiore visited the Land of Israel seven times and fostered its development.^[12]

The Treaty of Paris (1856) granted Jews and Christians the right to settle in Palestine and opened the doors for Jewish immigration.

In 1873, Shah of Persia Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar met with British Jewish leaders, including Sir Moses Montefiore, during his journey to Europe. At that time, the Persian king suggested that the Jews buy land and establish a state for the Jewish people.^[15]

Persecution in Russia

Jews in Eastern Europe faced constant pogroms and persecution in Tzarist Russia aimed at driving them out. In response to the Jewish drive for modern education (Haskalah) and pressure for emnacipation, the Tzars imposed tight quotas on schools, universities and cities to prevent entry by Jews. The Russian government deliberately organized pogroms by military authorities, disarming any Jews who attempted to defend themselves. Consequently, between 1880 and 1928, two million Jews left Eastern Europe, mostly for the USA. A minority went to Palestine.

In 1917 the Russian revolution gave Jews equal rights as individuals but the Bolsheviks, partially inspired by Karl Marx's antisemitism, were particularly intolerant of Judaism and sent thousands of Zionists to the Gulag

During the 1920s antisemitism gained popularity across Europe. By 1928, nations were increasingly legislating to prevent Jews from entering and new European states established after the First World War perceived Jews as a threat to their stability. Many countries feared that immigrating Jews would bring revolutionary ideas and Jews were often percieved as being a negative moral influence on society.

Establishment of the Zionist Movement 1897–1917

Formation

In 1883, Nathan Birnbaum, 19 years old, founded Kadimah, the first Jewish student association in Vienna. In 1884, the first issue of Selbstemanzipation (Self Emancipation) appeared, printed by Birnbaum himself.

The Dreyfus Affair, which erupted in France in 1894, profoundly shocked emancipated Jews. The depth of antisemitism in a country thought of as the home of enlightenment and liberty led many to question their future security in Europe. Among those who witnessed the Affair was an Austro-Hungarian (born in Budapest, lived in Vienna) Jewish journalist, Theodor Herzl, who published his pamphlet Der Judenstaat ("The Jewish State") in 1896 and Altneuland ("The Old New Land") [1] in 1897. He described the Affair as a personal turning point, Before the Affair, Herzl had been anti-Zionist; afterwards he became ardently pro-Zionist. In line with the ideas of 19th century German nationalism Herzl believed in a Jewish state for the Jewish nation. In that way, he argued, the Jews could become a people like all other peoples, and antisemitism would cease to exist.^[17]

Herzl infused political Zionism with a new and practical urgency. He brought the World Zionist Organization into being and, together with Nathan Birnbaum, planned its First Congress at Basel in 1897.^[18]

The objectives of Zionism

During the First Zionist Congress, the following agreement, commonly known as the Basel Program, was reached:

In this text the word "home" was substituted for "state" and "public law" for "international law" so as not to alarm the Ottoman Sultan.^[20]

The organizational structure of the Zionist movement

For the first four years, the World Zionist Organization (WZO) met every year, then, up to the Second World War, they gathered every second year. Since the war, the Congress has met every four years.

Theodor Herzl addresses the Second Zionist Congress in 1898.

Congress delegates were elected by the membership. Members were required to pay dues known as a "shekel," At the congress, delegates elected a 30-man executive council, which in turn elected the movement's leader. The movement was democratic and women had the right to vote, which was still absent in Great Britain in 1914.

The WZO's initial strategy was to obtain permission from the Ottoman Sultan Abd-ul-Hamid II to allow systematic Jewish settlement in Palestine. The support of the German Emperor, Wilhelm II, was sought, but unsuccessfully. Instead, the WZO pursued a strategy of building a homeland through persistent small-scale immigration and the founding of such bodies as the Jewish National Fund (1901 - a charity which bought land for Jewish settlement) and the Anglo-Palestine Bank (1903 - provided loans for Jewish businesses and farmers).

Early Arguments

Cultural Zionism and opposition to Herzl

Herzl's strategy relied on winning support from foreign rulers, in particular the Ottoman Sultan. He also made efforts to cultivate Orthodox rabbinical support. Rabbinical support depended on the Zionist movement making no challenges to existing Jewish tradition. However, an opposition movement arose which emphasized the need for a revolution in Jewish thought. While Herzl believed that the Jews needed to return to their historic homeland as a refuge from antisemitism, the opposition, led by Ahad Ha'am, believed that the Jews must revive and foster a Jewish national culture and, in particular strove to revive the Hebrew language. The opposition became known as Cultural Zionists. Important Cultural Zionists include Ahad Ha'am, Chaim Weizmann, Nahum Sokolow and Menahem Ussishkin.

The Uganda proposal

In 1903, the British Colonial Secretary, Joseph Chamberlain, suggested the British Uganda Program, land for a Jewish state in "Uganda" (in today's Kenya). Herzl initially rejected the idea, preferring Palestine, but after the April 1903 Kishinev pogrom, Herzl introduced a controversial proposal to the Sixth Zionist Congress to investigate the offer as a temporary measure for Russian Jews in danger. Despite its emergency and temporary nature, the proposal proved very divisive, and widespread opposition to the plan was fueled by a walkout led by the Russian Jewish delegation to the Congress. Nevertheless, a committee was established to investigate the possibility, which was eventually dismissed in the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905. After that, Palestine became the sole focus of Zionist aspirations.

The death of Herzl

In 1904, Herzl died unexpectedly at the age of 44 and the leadership was taken over by David Wolfsohn, who led the movement until 1911. During this period, the movement made little progress, failing to win support among the Young Turks after the collapse of the Ottoman Regime.

By 1904, cultural Zionism was accepted by most Zionists and a schism was beginning to develop between the Zionist movement and Orthodox Judaism.

Anti-Zionism and Alternative Proposals

Orthodox Jewish Opposition

Under Herzl's leadership, Zionism won orthodox Jewish support. However, cultural and socialist Zionists increasingly broke with tradition and used language contrary to the outlook of most religious Jewish communities. As a result, many religious organizations opposed Zionism, both on the grounds that it was a secular movement and on the grounds that any attempt to re-establish Jewish rule in Israel by human agency was blasphemous, since (in their view) only the Messiah could accomplish this.^[21]

Some Orthodox Jews thus retreated into the traditional Jewish belief that the Land of Israel was given to the ancient Israelites by God, and that while the right of the Jews to that land was permanent and inalienable, the Messiah must appear before Israel could return to Jewish control.

Prior to the Holocaust, Reform Judaism rejected Zionism as inconsistent with the requirements of Jewish citizenship in the diaspora.^[22]

While Zionism aroused Ashkenazi orthodox antagonism in Europe (probably due to Modernist European antagonism to organized religion), in the Islamic world, orthodox Judaism eagerly embraced Zionism.

Support for other homelands

Before 1917, some Zionist leaders seriously considered proposals for Jewish homelands in places other than Palestine. Herzl's Der Judenstaat argued for a Jewish state in either Palestine, "our ever-memorable historic home", or Argentina, "one of the most fertile countries in the world." When the Zionist Movement rejected the Uganda Proposal, the Jewish Territorialist Organization (ITO) led by Israel Zangwill split off from the main Zionist movement. The territorialists attempted to establish a Jewish homeland wherever possible, but went into decline after 1917 and the ITO was dissolved in 1925.

Communism

Zionism's most serious rival in Eastern Europe was the General Jewish Labor Union, otherwise known as the Bund, which helped promote the Communist Revolution in Russia. The Bund called for Jewish autonomy within Eastern Europe and promoted Yiddish as the Jewish language. Bund supporters regarded Zionism as a form of Bourgeois nationalism. However, as was the case with Orthodox Judaism, while the leadership opposed Zionism (and Orthodox Judaism), in practise, the rank and file often had ties with other forms of Jewish life including Zionism. The Bund thus indirectly led to development of Socialist Zionism, which competed with it for Jewish allegiances. In 1917 the Bund had 30,000 members in Russia, compared to 300,000 Zionist members. A 1922 Boslshevik census found less then 1,000 Jewish party members.^[23]

Zionism was not a purely Ashkenazi phenomenon. The first Zionist branches in the Arab world opened in Morocco only a few years after the first Zionist conference, and the movement was popular among Jews living in Arab states. A number of the founders of the city of Tel Aviv were Moroccan Jewish immigrants and there was significant early migration from Yemen (10% of Yemenite Jews moved to the Holy Land between 1880 and 1914) and Uzbekistan. Ottoman Salonika had a vigorous Zionist movement by 1908.^[24]

Socialist Zionism: a new Zionist movement

The chief rival to Zionism among young Jews in Eastern Europe was the socialist movement. Many Jews were abandoning Judaism in favour of Communism or supported the Bund, a Jewish socialist movement which called for Jewish autonomy in Eastern Europe and promoted Yiddish as the Jewish language.

Opposition to this led to the emergence of a new Zionist movement, the socialist Zionists, who believed that the Jews' centuries of being oppressed in anti-Semitic societies had reduced Jews to a meek, vulnerable, despairing existence which invited further anti-Semitism. They argued that Jews should redeem themselves from their history by becoming farmers, workers, and soldiers in a country of their own. These socialist Zionists rejected religion as perpetuating a "Diaspora mentality" among the Jewish people and established rural communes in Israel called "Kibbutzim". Major theoreticians of Socialist Zionism included Moses Hess, Nahum Syrkin, Ber Borochov and Aaron David Gordon, and leading figures in the movement included David Ben-Gurion and Berl Katznelson. Socialist Zionists rejected Yiddish as a language of exile, embracing Hebrew as the common Jewish tongue.

Socialist Zionism became a dominant force in Israel. However, it caused the schism between Zionism and some groups of Orthodox Jews (such as Neturei Karta) to grow.

Early Zionism and the non-Jewish population of Palestine

Zionist leaders and advocates followed conditions in the land of Israel closely and traveled there regularly. Their concern, however, was entirely with the future of Jewish settlement. The future of the land's Arab inhabitants concerned them as little as the welfare of the Jews concerned Arab leaders. During the movement's formative stages, Zionist negotiators with stronger political powers (such as the British) remained silent about the Arab inhabitants of Palestine, who numbered just under half a million during the late 19th century.^[25]

According to Anita Shapira, among nineteenth and early twentieth century Zionists, 'The Arabs in Palestine were viewed as one more of the many misfortunes present in Palestine, like the Ottoman authorities, the climate, difficulties of adjustment, [...] [T]he Zionist organization did not discuss this issue during that period and did not formulate a political line on it. Yet at that particular juncture in the movement such deliberations [...] had about the same importance as the learned disputations customarily held in the courtyards of Hassidic rebbes regarding what would happen after the coming of the messiah.' ^[26]

What thought Zionists did give to Arab national rights was perhaps typified by this passage by Israel Zangwill, written just after the first World War: 'The Arabs should recognize that the road of renewed national glory lies through Baghdad, Damascus and Mecca, and all the vast territories freed for them from the Turks and be content. [...] The powers that freed them have surely the right to ask them not to grudge the petty strip (Israel) necessary for the renaissance of a still more down-trodden people.' ^[27] From the beginning, Zionists saw the Arab residents of Palestine as part of a larger Arab nation.^[28]

Under the Ottomans, Palestine's Arab population mostly saw themselves as Ottoman subjects. They feared the objectives of the Zionist movement, but they assumed the movement would fail. After the Young Turk revolution in 1908, Arab Nationalism grew rapidly in the area and most Arab Nationalists regarded Zionism as a threat, although a minority perceived Zionism as providing a path to modernity.^[29]

The Zionist Movement in World War I and the Balfour Declaration

In the search for support, Herzl made most progress with the Kaiser, joining him on his 1898 trip to Palestine.^[30] At the oubreak of war in 1914, the offices of the World Zionist Organization were located in Berlin and the Zionist leader, Otto Warburg, was a German citizen. With different sections of the movement supporting different sides in the war, Zionist policy was to maintain strict neutrality and "to demonstrate complete loyalty to Turkey."^[31]

At this time, England had a rapidly growing Jewish minority. About 150,000 Jews migrated there from Russia in the period 1881–1914. There was pressure from British voters to halt the influx as well as a strong love for the Old Testament in British society, which made Zionism an attractive solution.^[32]

In 1914, most Jews viewed Russia as the historic enemy of the Jewish people, and there was tremendous support for Germany within the Jewish community, particularly in the United States, where the many Russian and German Jews supported the Germans alongside the large Irish-American community. Britain was anxious to win US support for its war effort, and winning over US Jews was considered vital.^[33] Most Russian Jewish immigrants to Britain supported Germany in its war against Russia and avoided the draft.

Following Turkey's entry into the First World War, the Zionists were expelled from Tel Aviv and its environs. A Polish Zionist, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, worked to create a Jewish division in the British army. The Jewish Legion provided a means of recruiting Russian immigrants to the British war effort and was dominated by Zionist volunteers. The Jewish Legion participated in the 1917 British invasion of Palestine and Jabotinsky was awarded for bravery.

In 1915, the British government fell as a result of its inability to manufacture sufficient artillery shells for the war effort. In the new Government, David Lloyd George became the minister responsible for armaments. Lloyd George was a Christian-Zionist and had represented the Zionist movement in its dealings with the British Government over the Uganda proposal.

The most prominent Russian-Zionist migrant to Britain was Chaim Weizmann. Weizmann developed a means for mass production of Acetone, a critical ingredient of explosives that Britain was unable to manufacture. He did not ask for any payment for his efforts. According to Lloyd George, Weizman told him that he wanted no payment, just the rights over Palestine.^[34] Weizmann became a close associate of Lloyd George (Prime-Minister from 1916) and the First Lord of the Admiralty (foreign minister from 1916), Arthur Balfour.

In addition to the British desire to cement US Jewish support, there was concern to keep Russia in the war after the overthrow of the Tzar in February 1917. Jews were prominent in the new Russia, and it was hoped that British support for Zionism would help keep Russia fighting Germany.

In 1917, the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, made the famous Declaration in favour of "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." The Declaration used the word "home" rather than "state," and specified that its establishment must not "prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine."

When the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917, Edwin Montagu, the only Jew in the British Cabinet, "was passionately opposed to the declaration on the grounds that (a) it was a capitulation to anti-Semitic bigotry, with its suggestion that Palestine was the natural destination of the Jews, and that (b) it would be a grave cause of alarm to the Muslim world."^[35], the reference to the rights of non-Jews in Palestine was thus demanded by the only Jew in the British cabinet.

Five days after the declaration was published, the Bolsheviks took over Russia. In the ensuing civil war, Russian and Ukrainian nationalists, aided by British and other troops, killed between 70,000 and 200,000 Jews in Pogroms.

The British Mandate and the struggle for Palestine 1918–1939

Weizmann becomes leader

In 1921, the 12th Zionist congress (the first since 1913) was held in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia. 450 delegates attended, representing 780,000 fee paying Zionist members.^[36] Chaim Weizmann was elected president in recognition of his role in creating the Balfour Declaration. The conference resolution called on the leadership to "forge a true understanding with the Arab nation".^[37] Weizmann led the movement until 1931. From 1931 to 1935 the WZO was presided by Nahum Sokolov (who had also spent the first world war in Britain). Weizmann resumed presidency of the WZO in 1935 and led it until 1946.

The League of Nations endorses Zionism

Poster from the Zionist Tarbut schools of Poland in the 1930s. Zionist parties were very active in Polish politics. In the 1922 Polish elections, Zionists held 24 seats of a total of 35 Jewish parliament members.

After the defeat and dismantling of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the League of Nations endorsed the Balfour Declaration with the establishment of the British Mandate for Palestine (text: [2]).

In addition to the promises made by Balfour, the League required Britain to create a representative body, the Jewish Agency, which would administer Jewish affairs in Palestine.

The Zionist movement entered a new phase of activity. Its priorities were the escalation of Jewish settlement in Palestine, the building of the institutional foundations of a Jewish state, raising funds for these purposes, and persuading — or forcing — the British authorities not to take any steps which would lead to Palestine moving towards independence as an Arab-majority state. The 1920s did see a steady growth in the Jewish population and the construction of state-like Jewish institutions, but also saw the emergence of Palestinian Arab nationalism and growing resistance to Jewish immigration.

Expansion of the Movement

The success of Zionism in getting international recognition for its project, led to growth in the membership and developmenmt of new forms of Zionism.

Religious Zionism

In the 1920s and 1930s, a small but vocal group of religious Jews began to develop the concept of Religious Zionism under such leaders as Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine) and his son Zevi Judah, and gained substantial following during the latter half of the 20th century. Kook was concerned that growing secularization of Zionism and antagonism towards it from the Orthodox Jews would lead to a schism. He therefore sought to create a brand of Judaism which would serve as a bridge between Orthodoxy and secular Jews.

Revisionist Zionism

The Revisionist Zionists were a group led by Jabotinsky who advocated pressing Britain to allow mass Jewish emigration and the formation of a Jewish Army in Palestine. The army would force the Arab population to accept mass Jewish migration and promote British interests in the region.

Revisionist Zionism was detested by the Socialist Zionist movement which saw them as being influenced by Fascism and the movement caused a great deal of concern among Arab Palestinians. After the 1929 Arab riots, the British banned Jabotinsky from entering Palestine.

Revisionism was popular in Poland but lacked large support in Palestine. In 1935 the Revisionists left the Zionist movement, rejoining in 1946.

Zionism and Feminism

The Zionist movement never restricted female suffrage. Women were active in Zionist parties in many countries before women gained the franchise, and ran for office in Poland where Zionist and other Jewish parties won seats in parliament. Roza Pomerantz-Meltzer was the first woman elected to the Sejm, the Parliament of Poland. She was elected in 1919 as a member of a Zionist party. ^[38] ^[39] In Mandatory Palestine women in Jewish towns could vote in elections before women won the right to vote in Britain.

Jewish Opposition to Zionism between the wars

International Jewish opinion remained divided on the merits of the Zionist project. While many Jews in Europe and the United States argued that a Jewish homeland was not needed because Jews were able to live in the democratic countries of the West as equal citizens, others supported Zionism.

The Communist parties, which attracted substantial Jewish support during the 1920s and 1930s, were usually anti-Zionist, however while communist Jews often abandoned their connection with the religion (thereby ceasing to be Jewish) many retained an affiliation with their people and a sympathy for Zionism. In 1928, the Soviet Union established a Jewish Autonomous Oblast in the Russian Far East but the effort failed to meet expectations and as of 2002 Jews constitute only about 1.2% of its population.^[40]

Arab attitudes to Zionism

Though there had already been Arab protests to the Ottoman authorities in the 1880s against land sales to foreign Jews, the most serious opposition began in the 1890s after the full scope of the Zionist enterprise became known. There was a general sense of threat. This sense was heightened in the early years of the 20th century by Zionist attempts to develop an economy from which Arab people were largely excluded, such as the "Hebrew labor" movement which, in an effort to prevent Zionist settlements turning into a standard colonial enterprise and to secure the creation of a Jewish proletariat, campaigned against the employment of cheap Arab labour. The creation of Palestine in 1918 and the Balfour Declaration greatly increased Arab fears.

In 1919 King Faisal I of Iraq (who was then King of Syria, before the French expelled him), signed the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement. He wrote: "We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our delegation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist organization to the Peace Conference, and we regard them as moderate and proper." In their first meeting in June 1918 Weizmann had assured Faisal that "the Jews did not propose to set up a government of their own but wished to work under British protection, to colonize and develop Palestine without encroaching on any legitimate interests".^[41]

Palestinian Arab nationalism was motivated by anti-Zionism more than any other factor and developed in opposition to Zionism. For a short time young Palestinian Arabs hoped for incorporation of Palestine in a greater Syria as an effective way to oppose Zionism. According to C.D. Smith these hopes waned when Faisal's government collapsed in July 1920.^[42] According to Porath Faisal's agreement with Weizmann led the Palestinian-Arab population to reject the Syrian-Arab-Nationalist movement.^[43] Instead they called for Palestine to become a state governed by the Arab majority, in particular they demanded an elected assembly.

The Arabs in Palestine were led by two main camps. The Nashashibis, led by Raghib al-Nashashibi, who was Mayor of Jerusalem from 1920 to 1934, were moderates who sought dialogue with the British and the Jews. The Nashashibis were overshadowed by the al-Husaynis who came to dominate Palestinian-Arab politics in the years before 1948. The al-Husaynis, like most Arab Nationalists, denied that Jews had any national rights in Palestine.

The Mufti and the emergence of Palestinian Nationalism

Mohammad Amin al-Husayni

Religious tension (over the Kotel), an international economic crisis (affecting crop prices) and nationalist tension (over Zionist immigration) led to the 1929 Palestine riots. In these religious-nationalist riots Jews were massacred in Hebron and the survivors were expelled from the town. Devastation also took place in Safed and Jerusalem. This violence was directed against the non-Zionist orthodox communities; Zionist communities were able to defend themselves and had established defence organizations. As a result the orthodox community in Palestine was increasingly dependent on Zionist support.

In December 1929 the Mufti was interviewed by a British commission investigating the source of the riots. Throughout the interview he held a copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.^[44]

In 1936 an Arab uprising occurred, which lasted for three years. The Supreme Muslim Council in Palestine, led by the Mufti, organized the revolt. During the revolt the Mufti was forced to flee to Iraq, where he was involved in a pro-Nazi coup during which the Jewish areas of Baghdad were subjected to a pogrom. Etzel commander, David Raziel, died helping the British suppress the coup.^[45] In May 1941 he issued a fatwa for a holy war against Britain.^[46] After the British reoccupied Iraq the Mufti joined the Nazis, serving as a colonel with the Waffen SS in Bosnia. During the war he made requests to "the German government to bomb Tel Aviv" and was active in promoting the Nazi extermination program.^[47]

In 1948 the Mufti returned to Egypt from where he made his way to Palestine and assumed command of the Palestinian-Arab forces.

Growing conflict with the Palestinian Arab population

One issue fatally divided Arab and Jew in Palestine: immigration. Jews would not compromise over immigration. The Arabs for their part could not compromise on immigration because to do so would effectively end their majority in Palestine. As time went on the conflict between the two communities became increasingly bitter.

Zionist Para-Military Organizations

In response to Arab attacks under the Turks, the Zionists in Palestine established Hashomer (the Guardian), a self-defence organization. After the Jaffa Riots, an organization of Jewish Legion veterans was created, Haganah (Defence) to defend Jewish communities against rioters. In 1931, following the Revisionist Zionist departure from the Zionist Movement, a group of revisionists left Haganah and founded the Irgun Tzvai Leumi (National Military Organization), also known as Etzel.

British Immigration Restrictions

British support for Zionism was always controversial and the issue was periodically debated in Parliament. Following the Arab riots in 1922, Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill decided to remove the Transjordan area of Palestine and use it to fulfill British promises to Sharif Hussein, making one of his sons King of Transjordan.

Churchill also restricted Jewish migration to an annual quota decided by the British. Certificates allowing migration were distributed by the Jewish Agency. Jews with 1000 Pounds in cash or Jewish professionals with 500 Pounds in cash could emigrate freely. Churchill's reforms made it hard for Arab Jews, Orthodox Jews and Revisionist Zionists to migrate to Palestine as the Jewish Agency was dominated by European Zionists, and increasingly by Socialist Zionists. Immigration restrictions did, however mean that Jewish immigrants to Palestine had to prove their loyalty and dedication by spending years preparing for migration. Many immigrants arrived after undergoing agricultural and ideological training and learning Hebrew.

The rise of Hitler and illegal migration

The rise to power of Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1933 produced a powerful new impetus for Zionism. The claim that Jews could live securely as minorities in Christian societies was deeply undermined. At the same time most countries closed their doors to Jewish immigration. A wave of migrants headed for Palestine. Those unable to pay the fees demanded by the British had to join waiting lists.

Nazi efforts to push Jews out of Germany were undermined by their refusal to allow Jews to take their property with them. In response Arlozorov negotiated an agreement with the Nazis, the Haavara agreement, whereby Jews could export capital goods to Palestine. In Palestine the goods were sold and the income given to the migrants. As a result of this agreement Arlozorov was assassinated by the Irgun.

In 1934 the Revisionists started organizing illegal emigration to Palestine. The Jewish population of Palestine began to rise fast and the financial influx led to an economic boom, but the rapid rise of Jewish migration led to an Arab revolt. In 1938 the pressure in Europe led left-wing Zionists to organize illegal immigration too.

The Struggle Against Britain and the Nazis 1939–1948

The 1939 White Paper and the British break with Zionism

In Britain as elsewhere in Europe, the 1930s saw an increase in antisemitism. A British politician, Oswald Mosley, formed the British Union of Fascists, which claimed that "the Jews" were leading Britain to war and campaigned for peace with Germany.^[48] British support for Zionism was further undermined by the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine and concern that millions of Jews would soon be seeking entry to Palestine. The Nuremberg Laws effectively ended the 500,000 Jews of Germany status as citizens, making them refugees in their own country. In March 1938 Hitler annexed Austria making its 200,000 Jews stateless refugees. In September the British agreed to Nazi annexation of the Sudetenland making a further 100,000 Jews refugees.

In 1939 the British issued a White Paper, announcing that they were withdrawing from the Balfour Declaration. They declared that a Jewish National Home now existed and that their obligations under the mandate were fulfilled. Further migration would be harmful to the Arab population. A further 10,000 Jews a year were to be admitted from 1939 to 1944 as well as a one-time allowance of 25,000 in view of the situation in Europe. After that Jewish migration would require (the extremely unlikely) agreement of the Arab majority (by this time Jews were about a third of the population). The British promised Palestinians independence by 1949 and banned Jews from purchasing land in 95% of Palestine.

The British were concerned about maintaining Arab support as Fascist propaganda was targeting the Arab world (and winning support).^[49] Jewish support in the fight against Fascism was guaranteed.^[50] In Palestine, Zionists increasingly viewed the British as an enemy, but they deemed the fight against the Nazis more important. In 1940 a group led by Avraham Stern, later known as Lehi, left the Irgun over its refusal to fight the British.

State of the Zionist Movement on the eve of World War II

In 1938–39 the Zionist movement had 1,040,540 members in 61 countries. Zionism was banned in Turkey. Likewise though a significant proportion of the movement's supporters originally came from the USSR, under Stalin. Zionism and Orthodox Judaism were banned and Jews were prominent among the victims of the Soviet genocide.

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