A History of Modern Israel: Part II

Continuing the story from part I.

Please note – this part includes sensitive content.

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The pogrom had begun, and the violence would be vicious. One survivor wrote, “It lasted from 11 to 6:30 PM. The police stood by but sought not to check the awful work, rather encouraging it…The killing was barbarous; nails were driven into the heads of people, their bones were broken in their hands and bodies, and then they were clubbed to death with rifles.” This was one account from a pogrom in Russia in 1906.

Pogrom is a Russian word that means devastation or riot. For Russian Jews in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, pogroms became a grim reality of life, though their experience came with much more than devastation. To them, pogroms were crazed mobs racing around Jewish parts of towns, looting, raping, and killing. Doing so in the most brutal of ways. And this was all done without fear of punishment, as the government and police supported the actions, even encouraged them. In total, there were many hundreds of pogroms throughout these years.

Faced with such relentless persecution, Russian Jews began fleeing the country en masse. Between 1881 and 1914, an estimated 2 to 2.5 million fled. The word choice here is important. They didn’t just leave looking for better opportunities. They fled.

Many of these people went to the U.S. But a smaller group, somewhere in the low tens of thousands, decided to go to Zion, or the land known then as the Ottoman territory of Palestine, which we’ll just refer to as Palestine for now.

This wave of migration is crucial to understanding the history of the region. These immigrants were a unique blend of people – they sought safety from the pogroms while at the same time embodying a pioneering spirit. Even within this group, many left pretty soon after arriving. Life was harsh in Palestine. Those who stayed were determined to rebuild the Jewish homeland. It says a lot about them, their characters and their goals. They wanted safety and to follow the Zionist dream that Theodor Herzl had laid out.

But just as we need to understand the immigrants, equally so, we need to understand what Palestine was, who was living there, and how they perceived the immigration.

Let’s start with what Palestine was, and who lived there.

At the time, Palestine was a territory under the Ottoman Empire’s governance, a rule that had started in the early 16th century. It was roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts in the U.S. and housed a population of about 600,000 people, most of whom spoke Arabic and were Muslim in religious practice. About 10% were Christians, and about 5-10% were Jewish, though Jewish people were the majority in some cities, such as Jerusalem. Under the Ottoman Empire, the Jewish population lived relatively stable but were considered second-class citizens.

Economically, Palestine was largely rural and agrarian. Most Arab residents lived in small villages, farming crops like wheat, barley, olives, and fruits. These villages were self-sufficient, relying on traditional farming methods and communal labor.

A quick note here – we can go further back into the region’s history to the times before the Ottoman Empire took over. But we’ve decided not to. Our choice for doing so is the following – it’s clear that Jewish people have a long, significant history in the region. That it isn’t just some land where some Jewish people lived in the past. The ties of Judaism and Jewish people to the region cannot be understated. On the other side of the conversation, it’s also pretty clear that there has been a long presence of people there who today call themselves Palestinian. Now, while the question of indigenous is debatable, especially given what definition is used, a many centuries presence in that general area is not. They lived there. It’s important to acknowledge both of these histories.

But let’s continue now with the story – As Jewish immigrants began settling and buying land tensions arose. Some of the land was purchased from absentee landlords who owned large estates in Palestine but lived elsewhere. These transactions were legal and above board, but the consequences for the local Arab tenants were often difficult. Some of these tenants, who had worked the land for generations, found themselves out of work as new owners took possession and became part of new settlements or agricultural projects managed by the Jewish immigrants. This led to some economic hardship and resentment among the Arab population.

This marks an important beginning in the strife that we see into the present, and one that is critical to understanding the conflict in the region today. Because it was during this time that the narratives surrounding the Jewish immigration to the region formed for each side. And they weren’t the same. They were vastly different, in fact. So why did the narratives differ?

To many of the Jewish immigrants, coming to Palestine was an escape from pogroms and anti-Semitism and to re-build the Jewish homeland, very much in line with Theodor Herzl’s vision. And the help they were receiving from most was to further this cause. Even though, yes, one can find statements and actions that could suggest they wanted to displace the population living there, the overwhelming objective of most was to make some territory in that general region a Jewish state.

For the local Arab population, however, the influx signaled colonialism fueled by Western interests. Why did they perceive the migration in this way?

There were a few reasons. Amongst them were the following – 1. the Ottoman Empire and Russia were bitter enemies who had fought against each other in wars. 2. The Europeans at the time were trying to have more influence in the region because of Jerusalem’s significance and the weakening of the Ottoman Empire. 3. the money used to purchase the land was often from organizations or individuals in the Western world. 4. The new Jewish residents tended to keep their citizenship in the countries from which they emigrated and often spoke in that language during this time. So, to the Arabs of Palestine, a story formed of foreign entities vying for control in the region.

To step away from the history for a moment once more, these split narratives have had long-lasting effects, continuing to the present day. But narratives aren’t necessarily truths. In this case, history tends to suggest that immigration was not fueled by a desire to replace the people living in Palestine or to be a colony for some Western powers. But rather to make some of the land a Jewish homeland, even though there are kernels of truth that could suggest otherwise. Our main reason for drawing this conclusion is the future pattern that will emerge of Zionist and then Israeli leaders being willing to partition the land. But we’ll discuss this more in future episodes.

Meanwhile, in Europe during this time, Theodor Herzl worked hard to generate support for Zionism, meeting with political and business leaders. These years of garnering support came with much struggle. Many Jewish people in Europe didn’t support the Zionist movement. Some even mocked Theodor for the initiative. But he stayed committed and helped in one of the most important developments of the time. At the fifth Zionist Congress in 1901, someone proposed a Jewish National Fund to help with land purchases in Palestine. Theodor passionately advocated for its establishment, emphasizing the importance of creating a financial mechanism to purchase land in Palestine to lay the foundation for a future Jewish state. His compelling speech at the congress convinced the delegates to vote to create the fund, despite earlier hesitations. The organization would provide the funds for many of the land purchases in Palestine.

Theodor, however, would pass away soon after, in 1904. Though he was gone, the movement at this point had enough momentum to keep growing.

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Sources:

• Cowen Report – European Investigation Entry No. 9; 1906 – 1907; File No. 51411/056; Subject and Policy Files, 1893 – 1957; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85; National Archives Building, Washington, DC.
• Khalidi, Rashid. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017. United States, Henry Holt and Company, 2020.
• Sachar, Howard M.. A history of Israel : from the rise of Zionism to our time. United Kingdom, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2007.