Lectures History of the Middle East 2 (1500-present) (Lecture 7-
2020-2021
Leiden University – Bachelor Middle Eastern Studies– year 2 – semester 2
Midterm 2
Lecture 7 History of the Middle East
Wrong ideas about the conflict between Israel and Palestina that are widespread:
The conflict is age old.
Arabs and Jews are in conflict since the immemorial.
Enmity between Jews and Muslims. There is actually more theological enmity between
Christians and Jews.
These ideas are wrong, but they are useful and that is why they have come into existence. They
mobilize people. They are also useful because they try to use past conflicts for modern political
purposes. Even if conflicts between Jews and Muslims/Arabs have existed in the past, that does not
necessarily mean they were embryonic versions of the current conflict.
In the late 19th century, it was not common to organize identity under nation state nationalism. Being
governed by your own people or living in a state with your own culture were alien. The idea that
nations are a natural way of organizing people is also a myth. Nationalism invented all these things.
How did inhabitants of Palestine identify themselves in the late 19 th century? They did this by
religion, family, place et cetera and there was a sense of belonging to the land for everyone living
there. There was no sense of belonging to a nation state. Educated Palestinians were conscious of
living in an area called Palestine. But awareness cannot be called nationalism per se.
This awareness was also the consequence of the creation of the Sanjak of Jerusalem. This was a
separated jurisdiction, designated by the Ottoman Empire. The separation of Jerusalem from the rest
of Syria led the way for the emergence of a new place, which was not the aim of this separation. The
aim was to enforce Ottoman rule and be stronger against European pressures. The Ottoman state
was very aware of the pressures upon this part of their empire and to prevent conflict, side
agreements and further erosion of the Ottoman state power, they decided to directly administer the
area.
The separation did a lot to determine the character and future of Palestinian politics. It contributed
to Palestinian nationalism instead of a larger Syrian nationalism. Educated Palestinians became
conscious of living in this separated area. In the separation, also geographic factors and family
connections played a role. There was the idea of a boundary, not nation state boundaries, but
boundaries nonetheless. During the Crimean War Palestine experienced economic growth. Palestine
becomes less and less of a peripheral place. Before the Tanzimat reforms it was seen as this, because
it was far away from the centre of the empire (Instanbul).
At the end of the 19th century, we see the development of nation state nationalism almost
everywhere.
Zionism and the Other
1
,Zionism was very important in the Middle East, it is a Middle Eastern nationalism with origins in
Europe (European ideology imported to the Middle East). The Other in Zionism was originally the
European and anti-Semitism (because they were treated so badly in Europe). The Others were not
Palestinians, Arabs or Muslims. The Other being a Palestinian came much later. Zionism becomes
essential and popular because of the problems Jews living in Europe face, resulting from a growing
anti-Semitism.
Palestinians after WW1 start defining themselves against Arab nation states and Ottoman others. The
Other form them thus also were not the Jews.
The Others are thus more than what is traditionally thought of or assumed.
Jews in Europe lived in especially designated urban areas. Legal and social emancipation came at
different times in different places. Jews in Eastern-Europe were not emancipated. They were made to
work in useful occupations, so they could not compete with other inhabitants. Under the Russian
empire there was a terrible economic environment and there were many pogroms. Jews were
scapegoats and restrictions were imposed on them (they could not own or lease land). This made the
Jewish community increasingly urban. Many Jews tried to emigrate to the US. America restricted
immigration from Europe in 1921, partly due to anti-Semitism and partly due to the isolationism of
the US in that time period.
The origins of modern Zionism are to be found in Russia. This basis of Zionism among Russian Jews is
called Haskala, which rose post 1850. This Haskala is also known as the Jewish Enlightenment. Within
this movement, there was a distinction between Eastern and Western European Jews. Western
European Jews perceived their Eastern counterparts as inferior. So there was also intra-Jewish
conflict. The only way to improve their condition, they thought, was to civilize them. Western
European Jews thus employ a civilization discourse that is almost colonial in nature. By the 1880s
there is a growth of political Zionism. The move to the ancient homeland, Palestine, was seen as the
solution for the problems Jews were facing in Europe.
The father of Zionism is Theodore Hertzl. He himself was secular and not religious at all. The Dreyfus
Affair of 1894 (French officer of Jewish origin was accused of treason, which was completely
fabricated) showed Hertzl that there was no hope for Jews in Europe. This was a dramatic shifting
point in his life. Hertzl wanted an elite movement of Jews to leave Europe, he had no connection with
the poor. His way of thinking however was very popular among poor Jews. When Hertzl talked about
the ambition for a Jewish state, he did not mention Palestine per se, just that it could not be in
Europe.
Zionism in the first instance was quite unpopular in religious circles because rabbi’s saw it as a
challenge to Gods will. Jews were supposed to remain in exile until the coming of God and then they
could return to their homeland.
At the Third Zionist Congress in 1899 it was decided that they would stop a search for European
support, but that they would appeal to the sultan to be allowed to settle in Palestine in return for
money (it was no secret the Ottoman Empire needed money). The sultan said no and the Ottoman
government was now aware of a new threat to their sovereignty. They forbade the Jews to buy land,
but the Jews found a way around it with the help of European governments and Jewish Ottomans.
Many Jews saw Hertzl as problematic. Jews in many parts of Western Europe were assimilated and
siding with Zionism would make people question their loyalty to their nation states. These
assimilated Jews did feel that they belonged in Europe. Jews in Western Europe were afraid Zionism
would make them even more suspect, because people would suspect they were traitors when they
were not. Secondly, representatives of Eastern European Jewry were committed to the settlement
being in Palestine, while Hertzl also looked at other options. Thirdly, Hertzl also became known as
2
, someone who knew. People started seeing him as some fortune teller that had known that the
Holocaust would happen.
Zionist settlements and resistance
During the period of 1882 to 1903 the Jewish settlers were pragmatic and not really ideological. They
came to Palestine and became landowners. They did not treat their tenants better or worse than
Palestinian or Arab landowners. This was interesting, since the existing Jewish population of Palestine
lived in cities and towns.
The second period of 1904 to 1914 was different. Jews still moved to agricultural lands and not
towns, but there were more confrontations with the locals. They were also more ideological Zionists
and they came into closer contact with the larger Palestinian-Arab population. A Jewish colony is
established. Local inhabitants that considered their lands theirs were robbed of what they saw as
their righteous possession. Palestinian-Arab farmers were now expelled from their land (this did not
happen in the first phase). Locals develop a resistance against Jews wanting to buy land.
The land purchase of al-Fula occurred in 1910 and it was the beginning of an articulated anti-Zionist
campaign. The resistance came from the peasants who would be expelled from the land. The land
was owned by the Sursuq family, who were incredibly wealthy. They were based in Beirut so they
probably never met the people that cultivated their land. As long as they received their income, they
did not care who worked on the land. This explains why they were interested in a lucrative sell of
their land. There however was a large press campaign that was against the land purchase and the
resistance movement got a lot of press attention. This shows us the press plays an important role in
the development of attitudes toward Zionism. The land purchase would not have been so much a
problem if the peasants were not expelled. The press started talking about the dangers Zionism
posed to Palestinians.
After WW1
After WW1 the British mandate of Palestine is created. It was authorized by the Leage of Nations.
Article 22 talked about how the mandate power would help to form institutions until the area and
inhabitants were ready for self-governance. Imperialism with this was not only built into
international law, the British also did not follow this law.
With Palestine the British did not take into consideration the feelings of the local people. They knew
Zionism was widespread, they knew the French were not desired in Syria and Lebanon and they
ignored it. This mandate power went very far, was very arbitrary and it was without concern for
indigenous wishes.
The mandate was made in the same year as the Balfour Declaration. This also does not discuss the
situation of the indigenous people extensively (it does not talk about their political rights for
instance), but is also does not talk of a Jewish state (but of a national home in Palestine). This makes
it something neither the Jews nor the Palestinians wanted.
The Balfour Declaration became part of the international law of the League of Nations. The Jewish
agency, at this point an intermediary between the British government and Zionists, now becomes
legal and is given international legitimacy. It becomes a quasi-state body. This agency was also
responsible for a lot of the land purchases. This meant the Zionist movement was given legitimacy in
the international community by the British. Palestinians were placed in a legally disadvantaged
position.
3
