Palestine’s Jewish Community Unites1

During the years following the Young Turk Revolution, the Jewish community in Palestine, the Yishuv, started to unite, transforming into a national community, with Hebrew becoming the main form of communication, connecting Ashkenazim and the Sepharadim, religious and secular, and the Zionist and non-Zionist Jews. It also blurred differences between the Jewish immigrants and the local Jewish population. Through Ottomanism, Jews set out to claim their homeland, which included adopting an Ottoman identity, with some even joining the army out of a new sense of patriotism. By strengthening their ties with Istanbul, new divisions between the Jewish community and the local Palestinian population began to emerge.

Conclusion

Tracing the roots of the Palestinian–Israeli conflict is a daunting task as nationalist narratives have obscured real historical origins. This book has sought to offer a new interpretation of the first years of the conflict and presents a new context in which to understand it by going back to the late Ottoman era. This starting point is crucial to understanding how the conflict later developed into a full-fledged clash between two national movements during the British Mandate and the subsequent 1947–8 war. This book has clearly shown that the Jewish population in Ottoman Palestine was able to become a dominant force even before the Balfour Declaration, something that was accomplished within the Ottoman system....

The Emergence of a Collective Palestinian Identity

Following the Young Turk Revolution, Palestinians began to unite as a people and to take steps to claim the homeland. While Zionism posed a threat to their local hegemony, British imperialism also became a growing concern. It is for this reason that the Palestinians set out on a collective struggle to defend their rights, which was expressed in the form of petitions addressed to the central government in Istanbul and within the local Arabic press. Furthermore, during these years a local identity emerged, Palestinianism, with Muslim and Christian Arabs forming new ties, and the urban population creating new bonds with Palestine’s Arab peasants. Lastly, this chapter shows the worries Palestinians had concerning not only Jewish immigration to Palestine, but also Palestinian emigration from it.

Setting the Stage before Conflict

This chapter looks at the history of Ottoman Palestine from the late 18th century up to the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, focusing on the historic ties to the land of both Palestinians and Jews. It then looks at why both communities welcomed the revolution, adopting a sense of Ottoman civic identity. However, rather than bringing the two communities together, Ottomanism did the opposite, placing the two communities on a track of conflict, with each community taking steps to “claim the homeland.”

The Haram al-Sharif Incident and its Aftermath1

In 1911, Jerusalem was shaken by a British archaeological team’s search for treasures within the holy compound of the Haram al-Sharif. In the aftermath of the affair, Palestinians united not only against the British team’s desecration of the holy site, but also against the local Ottoman administration, who was blamed for collaborating with the British team. In the wake of this incident, Palestinians set out to strengthen their hold over the city, which included a plan to open an Islamic university. Interestingly, this case offers an example of Palestinians uniting together over an issue that had little to do with Zionism and much more with the growing fear of British imperialism.

Ottomans and Zionists in Istanbul1

The last chapter focuses on how Istanbul became the place both Palestinians and Jews set out to claim the homeland, where vibrant debates over Zionism took place in the Ottoman Parliament and within Istanbul’s Turkish press. It was the place where Jewish immigrants to Palestine came to study in university and Palestinian members came to lobby against the growing fear of Jewish hegemony in Palestine. It was here that the Zionists could argue for an autonomous homeland in Palestine, while making new allies and meeting opponents as well. This new political atmosphere also greatly affected the local Jewish population in Istanbul, which remain divided over Zionism and faced a new growing sense of antisemitism.

Introduction

[and] on the wrapper of the oranges … there is not one word in Turkish or in Arabic … if Hebrew and the Star of David are exhibited [on the orange wrappers] and propagated in this way, this forgotten language will be added to the already many languages which are used in the Ottoman lands and the addition of the Star of David will sooner or later be added to the struggle of the Cross and the Crescent....