## Timeline - Mid 1912: Arabs in Beirut form the "Reform Society" and emigres from Cairo form the "Decentralisation Party" - Only a handful of Decentralisationists favour full Arab independence - The majority sought administrative reform and decentralisation, including Arabic as an official language in Arab provinces, equal to Turkish - 3rd December, 1912: First Balkan War armistice - Ottoman Empire financially crushed - Britain or France reluctant to extend credit to the Empire for fear of further hostilities in the Balkans - Deutsche Bank shelved a loan intended for the Ottoman Government in Jan 1913 - Ottoman leaders and opposition alike moderated their position on Zionism, in part, to open themselves up to financial support - 1913: Ottoman officials discuss financial dealings with Victor Jacobson, member of the Zionist Executive - Offer of financial support for the Empire in exchange for facilitating the purchase of 12 tracts of land in Palestine - Application expected to be considered by the Council of State on Jan 24th - Jan 23rd, 1913: CUP overthrows the Liberal Union Government - Enver Bey, Ottoman military officer, led a group of men into the Cabinet room, killed the Minister of War on the way in and forced Kamil Pasha to resign - Jan 28th: Mahmud Sevket Pasha, the new Grand Vezir, decides against relinquishing Adrianople to Bulgaria - Bulgarians expected this concession as part of the armistice and were unwilling to accept the alternative officer, which set the border just to the west of the city - Feb 3rd: Second Balkan War breaks out - Feb 10th: Minister of Justice receives internal memoranda, calling for the abolition of the old regime's restrictions on Jewish land purchase - Argued on grounds that restrictions were unconstitutional (they inevitably affected Ottoman Jews) and contrary to the "vital interests" of the Empire - Two members of the CUP Central Committee, Esad Pasha and Ahmed Agayev proposed a Muslim-Jewish alliance to Jacobson - CUP had adopted Pan-Islamism in 1911; the Jewish inclusion was primarily to gain capital from Jews in Europe - Jacobson's attempts to get Jewish leaders in Europe to consider a loan to the Ottoman Empire ultimately failed - Most Jewish financiers would only offer support after the restrictions against Jews in Palestine were lifted - Aug 4th, 1914: Outbreak of World War I ## Zionists and the Decentralisation Party - Christian members of the Decentralisation Party were more favourable towards Zionists because they too were a minority and they believed an influx of Jews would counterbalance the Muslim majority - Some allegedly said they welcome a Jewish majority in Palestine "which would split in two that compact Muslim mass which peoples such vast contiguous regions as Iraq, Syria, Egypt, the Hijaz and Yemen." - Rizq Allah Arqash & Khalil Zayniyyah in 1913 - Two Decentralisation Party members who had written to the French Consul-General in Beirut, requesting a French occupation of Syria and complete autonomy for the Vilayet of Beirut under the protection and effective control of France - Argued that Christian and Muslim equilibrium in the region was being threatened by a flow of Christians out of Syria as well as the influx of Muslims refugees from Macedonia after the Balkan Wars - Positions of Muslim members from the Decentralisation Party - Some willing to accept Jewish immigration unreservedly - Others wanted a fixed number and limits to the extent of land purchases e.g. American-style legislation which required every migrant to bring a certain sum of money - Others fully opposed to Jewish immigration, which they saw as a foreign element, liable to break the Arab mass which derived its strength from a unity of language and customs - Verbal agreement between the Zionists (represented by Sami Hochberg, editor of *Le Jeune--Turc*, a Zionist-sponsored publication) and the Decentralisation Party >[!quote]- *entente verbale* > >1. The Cairo Committee, being in principle in favour of Jewish immigration into Syria and Palestine and of an agreement with the Zionists, will make a point of working for a rapprochement between the Arab world and the Jewish world, and of dispelling by its word-of-mouth propaganda and by way of the Arabic press all the prejudices which have been current until now in the Arab world as regards Jewish immigration and which have prevented an Arab-Jewish rapprochement. > >2. In exchange, *Le Jeune-Turc* will make a point of supporting the cause of the Arab movement while it remains compatible with the unity and the integrity of the Empire. *Le Jeune-Turc* will do all it can so that European newspapers (especially German ones), with which it has relations, will do the same. - Rafiq Bey al-Azm, President of the Decentralisation Party - Had written an anti-Zionist article in *al-Hadara* in 1910 - Press statement from the verbal agreement: "we appreciate too well the precious combination which Jewish capital, manpower and intelligence can bring us for the rapid development of our provinces to commit the error of refusing them." - Agreement accepted by the Reform Committee - Decentralisation Party resolution assured Ottoman Jews equal rights in a decentralised administration - The agreement seemed to sway the rest of the Arabic press into adopting a more mild tone towards Zionism >[!quote]- Al-Zahrawi in an interview for *Le Jeune-Turc* after the First Arab Congress >"In the course of the Congress, I presented a new formula which had considerable success because it accorded perfectly with the mentality and the spirit of the delegates, namely: 'The Jews of the whole world are but Syrian emigres, like the Syrian Christian emigres in America, Paris and elsewhere. Like them, \[the Jews] are also nostalgic for the country of their birth'... We are quite sure that our Jewish brethren in the whole world will lend us their support to bring about the triumph of our common cause for the material and moral rehabilitation of our common land." >- Published on July 16th - Post Congress, Arab interest in the entente (still unofficial at this point) had waned - Hochberg had oversold himself as a potential mediator between Arabs and Turks - Once Arab leaders were able to negotiate with the CUP, the Zionist input was unnecessary ## First Arab Congress - Held in Paris from 18-23 June, 1913 - Stressed Arab loyalty to the Empire, but also aimed to get Europe's attention on Arab demands for reform - Item called "Migration from and to Syria" discussed fears of Christian emigration (to Egypt, America and Australia) alongside Muslim resettlement from Macedonia - Chariman, Abd al-Hamid al-Zahrawi wrote to Rida complaining that the Christian Arabs from Beirut attending the Congress were not Arab nationalists: "They had not once sipped from the fountain of Arab unity, no, nor from that of Syrian unity; their only interest was in Beirut and Beirut alone." - One speaker, Sheikh Ahmad Tabbarah gave a speech on migration where he spoke about having "changed his mind" after initially having concerns about Jews in Palestine (referred to them indirectly as non-Arabs) - CUP only met some demands - Promised at least three Arab Cabinet members, five valis, ten mutasarrifs and more senior posts in various ministries - Arab as the language of official correspondence in the Arab provinces as well as in primary and secondary schools - Arab soldiers would do their service in their home provinces as much as possible - Foreign advisors would be attached to local administrations - Proposals for a second Congress to be held in Nablus; ultimately failed - The Sanjak of Nablus had been unique in that there was only one settlement in the region (Kfar Saba, 1903) - Autumn, 1913: *Falastin* proposal for a society of notables in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Haifa, Gaza and Nablus - Aimed "to engage in the purchase of ciftliks before it is done by the Zionists" - Society described as a *Sharika Wataniyaa Filastiniyya* (Palestinian Patriotic Company), in contrast with the Ottoman Patriotic Party in Jaffa, established 2 years earlier ## Incident at Rehovot in 1913 * July, 1913: One Arab and one Jew killed in a clash between Arab villagers and Jewish watchmen at Rehovot * *Falastin* covered the affair so closely that it eventually had to enlarge its original format by an extra page * Rumour spread about "accusing the Jews of systematically persecuting the peasants" * Mukhtars of several villages around Rehovot petitioned the Mutasarrif of Jerusalem for protection against Russian Jews on the settlement who "kill, pillage and violate Muslim women and girls" * When a Jewish delegation petitioned their response, the Mutasarrif admitted that he had been receiving complaints against Jewish settlers on the daily, often from "various respected citizens" - Campaign partially led by Sheikh Suleiman al-Taji, a founder of the Ottoman Patriotic Party in Jaffa - Competed with Jews in 1913 over land he owned near Tel Aviv - August: addressed an open letter to the Mutasarrif and the Prosecutor General in Jerusalem which was published in *Falastin* under the title "Freedom or Slavery: Justice or Tyranny?" - Argued that Jews had almost 'conquered' Palestine and that settlements near Zarnuqa were waiting for an opportunity to destroy the village - Another open letter was addressed in October - November: published a poem entitled "The Zionist Danger" in *[Falastin](https://jrayed.org/he/newspapers/?a=is&oid=falastin19131108-01&type=staticpdf&pdfaccesscode=Pdq%2FqrzFFmDBHiAwZ3eUxLBHJFKXYsoIBM0rVcUrc%2FvV4%3D&submitted=1&e=-------he-20--1--img-txIN%7CtxTI--------------1&g-recaptcha-response=0cAFcWeA7NNJ1R_WFNXzohVtyCjNFEQPix7o7VQpC5uxtdqWZ79GuQj9fEl7sN_FW94tseW-joVpEa-3dhiaEnZrnAsAeXrEcqCLNjOD7HmuY7XZEgRWfSvCrUE2LUm5OKfT5MY4bYGnTuGUoLs-ooBfF2v4x-Qq6B6brP4GFhB2KfWOJcStBuGZBTKSnSyrDjVQzLn607wSWYNsDF16fo7LoViPKRf1jbi_4qOBj-dXpD-8vAwXeGXZISzQMU8yseCmFG6Yoo5Aue_3vdtHpjm5XyktYTvUN92HJe1Ygp-rXUvjLwKRdyH-Ip7708fYDfxcHVtESy2D7DLMMnqBSMc6wlNKj8pbmONEOzuJYSq0HDXqSnOj8FqKV617lJDehhWsiJ5jgnShZj8dGrM32CT3TONQ0hhW-z5fNFKBJ3g7hhT-7xGp94SxEysqk2sc8eFBTXvfvPCPD8XhcBnGo6WTZ5XtL5_7GJnVxWJdraPR1kNdHtfnXB4WusAv_nHQkFMdsY3x9u6wI_kcWwbwOXZ9qwVxia7hPBucxamrRWjuCS2JjPw5icKoSudvG7NvNlXsmK1iWWQJdX2jDKnBteyqItieq_sADuACILjUPxC2vyIhtcv86tR_dIkiJWr7Hd92Du93u8v187KXNvA1tx3KEYtydBSxX6MNrbMFVZUEpHtjpj8hgeen9Y_4mX8V2mvAkGK38xkOykbP3fBjHzM1hH404jvR4kn1OlSoMsdk4nd2Dc8kX8tWnwUyTElweTYY34obtULlPKHBFpePdd4rR_FOP6VApqzg)* (potentially the first published anti-Zionist poem in Arabic) - Local patriot first, Ottoman loyalist second - In keeping with the Quran and some *hadiths*, the Jews are weak people who achieve their ends by lying - The impotent Caliphate could still be appealed to >[!quote]- The Zionist Danger >Jews, sons of clinking gold, stop your deceit; >We shall not be cheated into bartering away our country! >Shall we hand it over, meekly, >while we still have some spirit left? >Shall we cripple ourselves? > >The Jews, the weakest of all peoples and the least of them, >are haggling with us for our land; >how can we slumber on? >We know what they want >-and they have the money, all of it. > >Master, rulers, what is wrong with you? >What ails you? >It is time to awake, to be aware! >Away with this heedlessness >-there is no more time for patience! > >While you said nothing, >our enemies were encouraged. >Now you must speak >-to put them to flight and us at ease! >The danger is clear; >can no one resist it? >Is there not an eye left >to shed a tear for our country? > >Send the rulers a message for me, >to alarm and dismay the bravest of hearts: >if they do not do their duty as leaders, >why do they hold power, >and why do they sit so high? > >And you, O Caliph, guardian of the faithful, >have mercy on us, your shield. >Ours is a land whose frontiers God has blessed, >we are a people rejoicing in the merit of religions; >we are worthy of the mercy you can show. >Without it, the faithful will lie wounded >and afflicted in their holy places. >Bearer of the Crown, does it please you >that we should witness our country being bought from us, wrenched from us? > >- Sheikh Suleiman al-Taji, published in *Falastin*, 8/11/1913 ## Ottoman Government & the Arab press 1. Winter 1913: Government accepts a land purchase offer from an Arab notable, who had shown a willingness to help the Zionists after his first offer was rejected 2. Jan 1914: General Council in Beirut awarded a concession for the draining of the Hula swamps (north of the Sea of Galilee) to Ahmad Bayhum and a member of the Sursuq family - Both were falsely accused of acting on behalf of the Jews - Press pressure forced the government to overrule the General Council's decision 3. June 1914: Concession offered to an Arab group near the hot springs at Tiberias - Zionists had spent years trying to develop a health and tourist resort in the area - When negotiations reopened in 1913, several Arab papers voiced their opposition - *Falastin* and other papers regularly followed and attacked Zionist activity in the region - Debate over the language at a technical school in Haifa; German (proposed by the school's sponsors) vs Hebrew (proposed by the teachers in Palestine) - Arabic papers viewed the decision to choose Hebrew as a victory for Zionism - *Falastin* described Zionism as an instrument of German policy, though they had previously laid this charge against Russia - First months of 1914 featured a column headed "The Jewish Week" - December 1913 editorial on "The Zionist Danger", signed by a "patriot" - Blamed local notables who sold land to Zionists: "The work of a criminal who hands over his country to the enemy in wartime is no different from their work." - *al-Karmil* article in April 1914 entitled "The Newspapers Are Not Guilty, but We Are." - Attacked the "thousands" of Arab opponents of Zionism for their lack of leadership and organisation - Ottoman measures against Arabic press - *al-Muqtabas* (Damascus) closed down for printing an article supporting calls for reform in Baghdad and Basra - *al-Karmil* editor, Najib Nassar, taken into custody for several days after withdrawing support from the CUP - *Falastin* closed down in November 1913 for an article severely criticising the Mutasarrif of Jerusalem ; the paper continued to appear under different names (*al- Akhbar* and *al-Dustur*) before reverting back to it's old name a month later - Editors were reprieved from Constantinople due to their record of loyalty to the CUP - As other papers were persuaded to soften their tone, *Falastin* became the exception - Suspended in April 20th because of an article containing "a fulminating and vague threat that when the eyes of the nation were opened to the peril towards which it was drifting it would rise like a roaring flood and a consuming fire and there would be trouble in \[store] for the Zionists." >[!quote]- Circular from the editors of *Falastin* to its readers, after the paper's second suspension in April, 1914 >"It seems that in the opinion of the Central Government we have done a serious thing in drawing the attention of the nation to the danger threatened by the advancing tide of Zionism, for in the course of last week the Local Authorities received a telegram from the Ministry of the Interior ordering the suppression of our paper "Palestine" and our committal for trial as having committed in our campaign against Zionism and our appeal to the national spirit an offence which they term "sowing discord between the elements of the Empire." > >This is mighty well; still better is the acknowledgement by the Government of the Zionist Society as one of the elements of the Empire, in which she shows more devotion to their cause than the Zionists themselves. > >They cry in their meetings, declare in their conferences, and announce in the highways and byways of Palestine, nay from the very housetops, that they are a *political party* whose aim is to restore Palestine to their nation and concentrate them in it, and to keep it exclusively for them. Then comes the Government saying, "No, you are on the contrary one of the elements of our happy empire, and he who opposes you is in our sight a criminal bent on causing strife between those elements." - Though the circular described Jews as a "fraternal Ottoman element," they were followed, in the Second Aliyah, by a wave "composed of German revolutionaries, Russian nihilists and vagabonds from other nations" - Accused Henry Morgenthau, American Ambassador at the Porte, of promising to help the Zionists and demanding the closure of *Falastin* - Closure orders eventually annulled by a local judge, who ruled to uphold the freedom of press ## 1914 General Elections - Successful CUP candidates in Jerusalem - Raghib Bey al-Nashashibi (District Engineer of Jerusalem; prominent figure in the Mandate period) - Recommended the Government deal with the Zionists by adopting "the methods of Rumania", that is, to treat them as aliens and deny them political and civic rights in certain areas, as Romania did to their Jews - Faydi al-Alami (President of the Municipal Council in Jerusalem 1906-1909; father of Musa al-Alami, senior official during the Mandate) - Sa'id Bey al-Husseini (deputy in the first Ottoman Parliament) Interviews with candidates in the Arabic press >[!quote]- Hussein al-Husseni, interviewed in *al-Iqdam* >"I am certain that the idea of founding a Jewish state in Palestine does not occur to any reasonable and rational Zionist, as people say. The Zionists come to this country to live. They are educated, cultured people; they do not inflate their importance and they are united amongst themselves. It is not just or humane that we should hate or despise this people. On the contrary, we should imitate them and learn from their activities, which can give us a good and appropriate lesson and thereby we can give an important impetus to the progress of our husbandry and agriculture. > >But.. despite all this, we must keep an open eye on them, for if we continue in our way and they in theirs, then all our lands will pass into their possession. Our *fellah* is poor and impoverished, and the poor man is liable to surrender his land to keep himself alive. Therefore, the Government must pass a new law concerning the sale of land in Palestine, setting up known conditions and limiting them according to our position in the country." >[!quote]- Hafiz Bey al-Sa'id of Jaffa, interviewed in *Falastin* >"Were the Zionist danger not great, I would be the first to declare that we need Zionism here in this country. \[But] it is otherwise, if the matter proceeds unrestricted, if the immigrant is entitled to buy \[land] wherever he pleases... If the Government does nothing against the danger of Zionist immigration, it is quite possible that the new settlers will attract to themselves the lion's share of trade and land \[in Palestine], and that they will outnumber the local population, nine-tenths of whom are ignorant of what knowledge and education are... I do not share the view of some people that the local population can benefit from having Zionist neighbours, that they can learn agriculture, trade and building from them. Rather, I believe that the object lesson of the Zionists through their find buildings, modern plantations, new machines, their founding agricultural companies and schools has no significance for the local population, because for these things one needs money and education, which is possessed only by the Zionists... I ask God that the people at the helm of government will take measures which will benefit the inhabitants of the country." >[!quote]- Raghib Bey al-Nashashibi, interviewed in *al-Iqdam* >"If the foreign Jew truly wishes to win our sympathy for him, then he must accept Ottoman nationality and must learn the language of the country so that he will understand us and we shall understand him, and both \[our peoples] will work for the good of the country. But if the foreign subject comes to fight us with the weapon of his foreign nationality and despises our sons and brethren and breaks our statues and laws, then it is our duty not to pass over this in silence. If I am elected as a deputy, I will dedicate all my energies day and night to remove the harm and danger awaiting us from Zionism and the Zionists - without, as has been said, harming the rights of our Ottoman \[Jewish] brethren." ## Prospects of an Arab-Zionist entente, 1913-1914 - Jan 1914: Abd al-Hamid al-Zahrawi appointed an Ottoman senator - Having been President of the First Arab Congress in Paris, he reaffirmed the view that Arabs "must maintain good relations with the Jews and work together." - His appointment in 1914 discredited him in the eyes of many Arab nationalists and also led to him severing his contacts with the Zionists - By mid-1914, it became clear that the Ottoman government had no intention of implementing the forms which had been promised to the Arabs - Rafiq al-Azm and the Decentralisationists in Cairo still remained open to an entente with the Zionists - Arthur Ruppin, director of the Zionist Office in Jaffa may have been delegated to pursue talks, although it doesn't appear that anything came of this - Rashid Rida and two other Decentralisationists had tried to get in touch with the Zionist Executive "with the object of laying the foundations of an entente and of mutual collaboration for the realisation of the reciprocal aims of both \[the Decentralisation and Zionist] organisations." - Zionist Head Office in Berlin fails to respond promptly and Decentralisationists don't bring up the issue for a couple of months in early 1914 - March 27th, 1914: Rashid Rida in *al-Manar* - Speculates that the CUP were helping Zionists in Palestine - "The leaders of the Arabs - the local population - must do one of two things. \[Either they must] make an agreement with the leaders of the Zionists to settle the differences between the interests of both parties in the country... \[or] gather all their forces to oppose the Zionists in every way, first by forming societies and companies, and finally by forming armed gangs that will oppose \[the Zionists] by force. Some \[Arabs] say that this is the first thing to be done, because cauterisation is the only way - and cauterisation is the ultimate remedy, as it is said." - April, 1914: Zionist Executive delegation arrives in Palestine - Nahum Soklow charged with examining Arab-Zionist relations - Posed that Arabs should regard Jews as fellow-Semites "returning home" with European skills that would be of great value to the local population - Argued that Jews and Arabs would prosper together; Arabs would be taught in Jewish schools; a health campaign would develop; social services would be launched; new branches of the Anglo-Palestine Company would be opened, offering the locals long-term credit with low interest rates - Rafiq Bey al-Azm, President of the Decentralisationists argued that Zionists did not act on these words - They didn't mix with the locals, they endangered locals economically, and were liable to bring about a Great Power occupation of the land - Argued that Zionists would have to integrate by becoming Ottoman subjects, opening their schools to Arab children and by cooperating economically with the locals - May, 1914: Zionist leader, Victor Jacobson replies to rising anti-Zionist sentiment in the Arabic press - Denied that Zionists relied on the Government at the expense of Arabs - Accepted demands for mutual cooperation and pushed for an Arab-Zionist entente - Rida argued that Arabs should have a share in the benefits of Jewish migration to Palestine - Saw Christians as an enemy to Muslims and Jews as they wanted the Great Powers to occupy Palestine - Claimed that Jews and Muslims should make an agreement and support one another to free the country from the Turks - Arab-Zionist meeting in a village near Beirut - Nasif Bey al-Khalidi, a Jerusalem native and cousin of Ruhi Bey al-Khalidi - Engineer who worked on the Hijaz Railway - Stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in 1908 - Worked with British archaeologists in the Mosque of Umar in 1913 - Chief Engineer in Beirut in 1914 - Nasif Bey, along with the Vali of Beirut and others visit the Jewish settlement, Rosh Pinna, near Safed - Administered by the Jewish Colonisation Association - Khalidi introduced JCA representatives to political leaders in Beirut, some of whom were known for their anti-Zionist polemics in the press - JCA leaders noted that Arab leaders seemed amicable to a deal with the Zionists, most likely because of their disillusionment with the Empire - Vali of Beirut - Welcomed Jewish migration on condition that they become Ottoman subjects - Suggested that Arabic be introduced at the new school in Haifa - Dismissed Arab nationalists as being "leaders without an army" who could all be bought for cash - Admitted that the Government needed cash and that Zionists could be accommodated if they provided enough money for one "Dreadnought" battleship - Proposed meeting at Brummana, near Beirut - Ten delegates invited on 19th June - Arabs requested that no delegate who had been involved in land purchases for the Zionists would attend - Vali of Beirut ultimately opposed the meeting and argued that negotiations were superfluous - Nasif Bey persisted, though the Arabs he nominated for the meeting were not well received - Three were well known anti-Zionists, six were from Beirut and Damascus and no Palestinian of any standing was on the list - Zionists ultimately sent a small delegation in the first week of August - Meetings abruptly ended with the outbreak of WWI on August 4th - The Vali's volte-face - Late 1913: Government initially believed that an Arab-Jewish agreement could result in financial aid for the Empire - Summer 1914: Arab grievances against the Government reached unprecedented heights and now, it was feared that a deal with the Zionists would only raise capital for the Empire's internal opponents, rather than the Empire itself - Notes - Rida supported the Entente because his biggest fear at the time was Christian Arabs whom he believed were wishing on the Great Powers to occupy the Arab provinces - Withdrew support for an entente at the end of the summer and accused the Zionists of seeking a Jewish state that would stretch from Palestine to Iraq ("to the Euphrates") - Unclear why the editors of aggressively anti-Zionist papers supported the meetings ; they had potentially wanted to take part in order to put the Zionists on trial - Despite allegations of separatism, the official policy of the Zionist movement at this time was to seek a "home" in Palestine *within* - not independent - of the Ottoman Empire (p. 205) - When the meeting in Brummana took place, not one prominent political figure from Palestine attended - Why they didn't is unclear but their absence ultimately set a precedent for the Arabs to not negotiate with the Zionists which continued to hold after World War I - Arab demands in an entente would have almost definitely included a halt to Jewish immigration and land purchase - something the Zionists were very unlikely to meet