The Second Aliyah ( Hebrew : העלייה השנייה , romanized : HaAliyah HaShniya ) was an aliyah (Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel ) that took place between 1904 and 1914, during which approximately 35,000 Jews, mostly from Russia , with some from Yemen , immigrated into Ottoman Palestine .
106-599: The Second Aliyah was a small part of the greater emigration of Jews from Eastern Europe which lasted from the 1870s until the 1920s. During this time, over two million Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe. The majority of these emigrants settled in the United States where there was the greatest economic opportunity. Others settled in South America , Australia , and South Africa . There are multiple reasons for this mass emigration from Eastern Europe, including
212-505: A Zionist group called Beni Zion —Children of Zion. In 1900 it had a membership of 200. David was the youngest of three boys with an older and younger sister. His mother, Scheindel (Broitman), died of sepsis following a stillbirth in 1897. It was her eleventh pregnancy. Two years later his father remarried. Ben-Gurion's birth certificate, found in Poland in 2003, indicated that he had a twin brother who died shortly after birth. Between
318-715: A British decision to establish a Jewish state. However, it became clear that the British had no intention of immediately establishing a Jewish state and that limits on Jewish immigration would remain for the time being. As a result, with Ben-Gurion's approval the Haganah entered into a secret alliance with the Irgun and Lehi called the Jewish Resistance Movement in October 1945 and participated in attacks against
424-713: A Hebrew school for girls established by the Hovevei Zion in Jaffa in 1909, and the Reali School in Haifa . Some of the new institutions received support from the " Kol Yisrael Chaverim " and "Ezra" societies. Hebrew education and education for national values also developed under the influence of Ahad Ha'Am and the Hovevei Zion. At the end of the "Language War" – the debate over the language of instruction following
530-529: A Jewish home-in-exile in Vietnam. Ben-Gurion declined, telling Ho Chi Minh: "I am certain we shall be able to establish a Jewish Government in Palestine." According to his biographer Tom Segev , Ben-Gurion deeply admired Lenin and intended to be a 'Zionist Lenin'. In Ben-Gurion: A Political Life by Shimon Peres and David Landau , Peres recalls his first meeting with Ben-Gurion as a young activist in
636-579: A Warsaw heder. Inspired by Tolstoy he had become a vegetarian. He became involved in Zionist politics and in October 1905 he joined the clandestine Social-Democratic Jewish Workers' Party— Poalei Zion . Two months later he was the delegate from Płońsk at a local conference. While in Warsaw the Russian Revolution of 1905 broke out and he was in the city during the clamp down that followed; he
742-602: A better economic situation which the majority found in the United States. The Palestine region on the other hand offered very limited economic incentives for new immigrants, because there was very little industry in the region. Thus, the majority of the Jewish immigrants found a livelihood through working the land. Many of the European Jewish immigrants during the late 19th-early 20th century period gave up after
848-434: A community of around 200 Jews. It was one of the most remote colonies in the foothills of north-eastern Galilee . It took the two young men three days to walk there. Coincidentally at the same time Bar Giora, now with about 20 members and calling themselves 'the collective' but still led by Shochat, took on the operating of the training farm. Ben-Gurion found work in the farm but, excluded from 'the collective', he later became
954-423: A day-labourer at Kfar Saba , moved to Rishon Lezion where he remained for two months. He made detailed plans with which he tried to entice his father to come and be a farmer. In October 1907, on Shlomo Zemach 's suggestion, Ben-Gurion moved to Sejera . An agricultural training farm had been established at Sejera in the 1880s and since then a number of family-owned farms, moshavah , had been established forming
1060-450: A desire to escape negative circumstances such as shortages of land or jobs, or unfair treatment. People can be pulled to the opportunities available elsewhere. Fleeing from oppressive conditions, being a refugee and seeking asylum to get refugee status in a foreign country, may lead to permanent emigration. Forced displacement refers to groups that are forced to abandon their native country, such as by enforced population transfer or
1166-671: A few hundred idealists like Ben Gurion, totaling fewer than half the number of Templers living in Palestine at the time. The Second Aliyah is largely credited with the revival of the Hebrew language and establishing it as the standard language for Jews in Israel. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda contributed to the creation of the first modern Hebrew dictionary. Although he was an immigrant of the First Aliyah , his work mostly bore fruit during
SECTION 10
#17327652348211272-535: A few months and went back to their country of origin, often suffering from hunger and disease. David Ben-Gurion estimated that 90% of the Second Aliyah “despaired of the country and left”. Many of the Second Aliyah immigrants were idealists inspired by the revolutionary ideals then sweeping the Russian Empire and sought to establish agricultural settlements ; others were evading conscription into
1378-604: A group of around 25 Poale Zion followers. Shochat made a point of inspecting new arrivals looking for recruits. A month after his arrival at Petah Tikva, Shochat invited Ben-Gurion to attend the founding conference of the Jewish Social Democratic Workers' Party in the Land of Israel in Jaffa. The conference, 4–6 October 1906, was attended by 60 or so people. Shochat engineered the elections so that Ben-Gurion
1484-422: A heavy fine. He immediately deserted and returned to Sejera, travelling, via Germany, with forged papers. On 12 April 1909 two Jews from Sejera were killed in clashes with local Arabs following the death of a villager from Kfar Kanna , shot in an attempted robbery. There is little conformation of Ben-Gurion's accounts of his part in this event. Later that summer, Ben-Gurion moved to Zichron Yaakov . From where
1590-436: A labourer for one of the moshav families. One of the first acts of 'the collective' was organising sacking of the farm's Circassian nightwatchman. As a result, shots were fired at the farms every night for several months. Guns were brought and the workforce armed. Ben-Gurion took turns patrolling the farm at night. In the autumn of 1908 Ben-Gurion returned to Plonsk to be conscripted into the army and avoid his father facing
1696-615: A letter to Yiddish Kemfer (" The Jewish Fighter " ), a Yiddish newspaper in New York City. It was an appeal for funds and was the first time something written by Ben-Gurion was published. The arrival of Yitzhak Ben-Zvi in April 1907 revitalised the local Poale Zion. Eighty followers attended a conference in May at which Ben-Zvi was elected onto a two-man Central Committee and all Ben-Gurion's policies were reversed: Yiddish, not Hebrew,
1802-521: A limited action aimed at the conquest of Latrun, and not for an all-out offensive. According to David Tal, in the cabinet meeting, Ben-Gurion reacted to what he had been just told by a delegation from Jerusalem. He points out that this view that Ben-Gurion had planned to conquer the West Bank is unsubstantiated in both Ben-Gurion's diary and in the Cabinet protocol. The topic came back at the end of
1908-633: A major Zionist leader, and the executive head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence , which he had helped to write. Under Ben-Gurion's leadership, the 1948 Arab–Israeli War saw the uniting of the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), and
2014-448: A place, Jose C. Moya writes "one could easily compile similar lists for periods and places where no migration took place." Search for "Emigration from" in titles Unlike immigration, in many countries few if any records have been recorded or maintained in regard to persons leaving a country either on a temporary or permanent basis. Therefore, estimates on emigration must be derived from secondary sources such as immigration records of
2120-558: A real Jew until she underwent an Orthodox conversion many years later. Amos became Deputy Inspector-General of the Israel Police , and also the director-general of a textile factory. He and Mary had six granddaughters from their two daughters and a son, Alon, who married a Greek gentile. Geula had two sons and a daughter, and Renana, who worked as a microbiologist at the Israel Institute for Biological Research , had
2226-613: A result Jabotinsky's supporters split with the Haganah and abandoned Havlagah. The house where he lived from 1931 on, and for part of each year after 1953, is now a historic house museum in Tel Aviv, the " Ben-Gurion House ". He also lived in London for some months in 1941. In 1946, Ben-Gurion and North Vietnam's Politburo chairman Ho Chi Minh became very friendly when they stayed at the same hotel in Paris. Ho Chi Minh offered Ben-Gurion
SECTION 20
#17327652348212332-925: A son. After the death of theorist Ber Borochov , the left-wing and centrist factions of Poalei Zion split in February 1919, with Ben-Gurion and his friend Berl Katznelson leading the centrist faction of the Labor Zionist movement. The moderate Poalei Zion formed Ahdut HaAvoda with Ben-Gurion as leader in March 1919. In 1920 he assisted in the formation of the Histadrut , the Zionist Labor Federation in Palestine, and served as its general secretary from 1921 until 1935. At Ahdut HaAvoda's 3rd Congress, held in 1924 at Ein Harod , Shlomo Kaplansky ,
2438-400: A substantial factor of influencing emigration to Ottoman Syria when looking at the greater context of Jewish emigration from Eastern Europe. The two major reasons for Jewish emigration were poverty and persecution, and Ottoman Syria did not offer a respite from either. Jews emigrating from Eastern Europe often experienced much hardship on their way to their destinations, especially those going to
2544-601: A veteran leader from Poalei Zion , proposed that the party should support the British Mandatory authorities' plans for setting up an elected legislative council in Palestine. He argued that a Parliament, even with an Arab majority, was the way forward. Ben-Gurion, already emerging as the leader of the Yishuv , succeeded in getting Kaplansky's ideas rejected. In 1930, Hapoel Hatzair (founded by A. D. Gordon in 1905) and Ahdut HaAvoda joined forces to create Mapai ,
2650-628: Is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it's true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that? In 1909, Ben-Gurion attempted to learn Arabic but gave up. He later became fluent in Turkish . The only other languages he
2756-405: Is one of the countries, where emigration has become a part of culture since 20th century. For example, between 1990 and 2005 approximately 700,000–1,300,000 Armenians left the country. The highly rising numbers of emigration are a direct response to socio-political and economic areas of the country. The internal migration (migration in country) is big (28.7%), while international migration is 71.3% of
2862-468: Is projecting a message of transfer. There is no explicit order of his in writing, there is no orderly comprehensive policy, but there is an atmosphere of [population] transfer. The transfer idea is in the air. The entire leadership understands that this is the idea. The officer corps understands what is required of them. Under Ben-Gurion, a consensus of transfer is created. Ben-Gurion published two volumes setting out his views on relations between Zionists and
2968-572: The 1955 elections . He backed Israel's reprisal operations to Arab guerrilla attacks , and its invasion, along with Britain and France, of Egypt during the Suez Crisis in 1956. He stepped down from office in 1963, and retired from political life in 1970. He then moved to his modest "hut" in Sde Boker , a kibbutz in the Negev desert, where he lived until his death. Posthumously, Ben-Gurion
3074-789: The British Army and trained at Fort Edward in Windsor, Nova Scotia . He volunteered for the 38th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers , one of the four which constituted the Jewish Legion. His unit fought against the Ottomans as part of Chaytor's Force during the Palestine Campaign , though he remained in a Cairo hospital with dysentery. In 1918, after a period of guarding prisoners of war in the Egyptian desert, his battalion
3180-631: The Jaffa Professional Trade Union Alliance with 75 members. He and Shochat also brokered a settlement to a strike at the Rishon Le Zion winery where six workers had been sacked. After three months the two-man Central Committee was dissolved, partly because, at that time, Ben-Gurion was less militant than Shochat and the Rostovians. Ben-Gurion returned to Petah Tikva. During this time Ben-Gurion sent
3286-541: The No'ar Ha'Oved youth movement . Ben-Gurion gave him a lift, and out of the blue told him why he preferred Lenin to Trotsky : "Lenin was Trotsky's inferior in terms of intellect", but Lenin, unlike Trotsky, "was decisive". When confronted with a dilemma, Trotsky would do what Ben-Gurion despised about the old-style diaspora Jews: he manoeuvred; as opposed to Lenin, who would cut the Gordian knot , accepting losses while focusing on
Second Aliyah - Misplaced Pages Continue
3392-609: The Palestine region of the Ottoman Empire in 1906. Adopting the name of Ben-Gurion in 1909, he rose to become the preeminent leader of the Jewish community in British-ruled Mandatory Palestine from 1935 until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, which he led until 1963 with a short break in 1954–55. Ben-Gurion's interest for Zionism developed early in his life, leading him to become
3498-628: The Tzarist Russian army. In 1906 there were 13 Jewish agricultural settlements established with financial support from the Jewish Colonisation Association , a philanthropic organization founded by Baron Maurice de Hirsch in 1891. In 1907 it is estimated there were 550 active pioneers. The first kibbutz , Degania , was founded in 1909. Most of those arriving were married, many with children; 40% were women. Few had any resources and many remained destitute. Some of
3604-717: The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine . While the Jewish Agency under Ben-Gurion accepted, the Arabs rejected the plan and the 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine broke out. Ben-Gurion's strategy was for the Haganah to hold on to every position with no retreat or surrender and then launch an offensive when British forces had evacuated to such an extent that there would be no more danger of British intervention. This strategy
3710-523: The expulsion and flight of a majority of the Palestinian Arab population. Subsequently, he became known as "Israel's founding father ". Following the war, Ben-Gurion served as Israel's first prime minister and minister of defence . As prime minister, he helped build state institutions, presiding over national projects aimed at the development of the country. He also oversaw the absorption of Jewish immigrants . A major part of his foreign policy
3816-543: The 1948 war, when General Yigal Allon also proposed the conquest of the West Bank up to the Jordan River as the natural, defensible border of the state. This time, Ben-Gurion refused although he was aware that the IDF was militarily strong enough to carry out the conquest. He feared the reaction of Western powers and wanted to maintain good relations with the United States and not to provoke the British. Moreover, in his opinion
3922-594: The Arab economies; and a Jewish trade union was to be established. Three members of the Central Committee resigned and Ben-Gurion and Shochat continued meeting weekly in Jaffa or Ben Shemen where Shochat was working. Ben-Gurion walked to the meetings from Petah Tikva until he moved to Jaffa where he gave occasional Hebrew lessons. His political activity resulted in the establishment of three small trade unions amongst some tailors, carpenters and shoemakers. He set up
4028-428: The Arab world: We and Our Neighbors , published in 1931, and My Talks with Arab Leaders published in 1967. Ben-Gurion believed in the equal rights of Arabs who remained in and would become citizens of Israel. He was quoted as saying, "We must start working in Jaffa. Jaffa must employ Arab workers. And there is a question of their wages. I believe that they should receive the same wage as a Jewish worker. An Arab has also
4134-457: The Arabs" or "not expel the Arabs" depending on one's interpretation of whether such deletion was intended by Ben-Gurion. Israeli historian Benny Morris wrote that the idea of expulsion of Palestinian Arabs was endorsed in practice by mainstream Zionist leaders, particularly Ben-Gurion. He did not give clear or written orders in that regard, but Morris claims that Ben-Gurion's subordinates understood his policy well: From April 1948, Ben-Gurion
4240-654: The British, and after Lehi assassinated Lord Moyne , the British Minister of State in the Middle East, decided to stop it by force. While Lehi was convinced to suspend operations, the Irgun refused and as a result, the Haganah began supplying intelligence to the British enabling them to arrest Irgun members, and abducting and often torturing Irgun members, handing some over to the British while keeping others detained in secret Haganah prisons. This campaign, which
4346-566: The British, stating: "Peace in Palestine is not the best situation for thwarting the policy of the White Paper". Ben-Gurion believed a peaceful solution with the Arabs had no chance and soon began preparing the Yishuv for war. According to Teveth "through his campaign to mobilize the Yishuv in support of the British war effort, he strove to build the nucleus of a 'Hebrew Army', and his success in this endeavor later brought victory to Zionism in
Second Aliyah - Misplaced Pages Continue
4452-471: The British. In June 1946, the British launched Operation Agatha , a large police and military operation throughout Palestine, searching for arms and arresting Jewish leaders and Haganah members in order to stop the attacks and find documentary evidence of the alliance the British suspected existed between the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi. The British had intended to detain Ben-Gurion during the operation but he
4558-527: The General Assembly and in other places: talk of Arab-Jewish amity sound fantastic, for the Arabs do not wish it, they will not sit at the same table with us, they want to treat us as they do the Jews of Bagdad, Cairo, and Damascus. Nahum Goldmann criticised Ben-Gurion for what he viewed as a confrontational approach to the Arab world. Goldmann wrote, "Ben-Gurion is the man principally responsible for
4664-711: The Holy Land. The group ran Hebrew classes for local youth and in 1903 collected funds for the victims of the Kishinev pogrom . One biographer writes that Ezra had 150 members within a year. A different source estimates the group never had more than "several dozen" members. In 1904 Ben-Gurion moved to Warsaw where he hoped to enroll in the Warsaw Mechanical-Technical School founded by Hipolit Wawelberg . He did not have sufficient qualifications to matriculate and took work teaching Hebrew in
4770-520: The Jewish Resistance Movement be dissolved. From then on, the Irgun and Lehi continued to regularly attack the British, but the Haganah rarely did so, and while Ben-Gurion along with other mainstream Zionist leaders publicly condemned the Irgun and Lehi attacks, in practice the Haganah under their direction rarely cooperated with the British in attempting to suppress the insurgency. Due to the Jewish insurgency, bad publicity over
4876-556: The Jewish immigration. Among the deportees were David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi . The idea that the Second Aliyah was a realization of the zionist movement does not take all the hardships endured by the immigrants into account. Because of this, the majority of Jewish emigrants went to the United States where there was much more economic opportunity. Between the years 1907-1914 almost 1.5 million Jews went through Ellis Island , while only about 20,000 immigrated to Palestine. One of Ben Gurion's biographers states that there were only
4982-424: The Jews who even if their numbers were initially fewer could quickly call on reinforcements from the entire quarter. Far from being afraid of them, they were rather afraid of us. In general, however, relations were amicable, though distant. In autumn of 1906 he left Poland to go to Palestine . He travelled with his sweetheart Rachel Nelkin and her mother, as well as Shlomo Zemach his comrade from Ezra . His voyage
5088-667: The Land of Israel and the imperative of its "revival". Emigration Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanently move to a country). A migrant emigrates from their old country, and immigrates to their new country. Thus, both emigration and immigration describe migration , but from different countries' perspectives. Demographers examine push and pull factors for people to be pushed out of one place and attracted to another. There can be
5194-539: The Manifesto Committee the task of deciding the new party's objectives. They produced The Ramleh Program which was approved by a second smaller 15-man conference held in Jaffa the following January 1907. The program stated "the party aspires to political independence of the Jewish People in this country." All activities were to be conducted in Hebrew; there should be segregation of the Jewish and
5300-471: The Palestine region. Ottoman government had been negative to the migration of Jews (" Yishuv ") to Palestine from late 19th century till the end of World War I. One of the reasons was that most of the Jews had foreign citizenship, which curtailed the Empire's ability to deal with them and enforce Ottoman law. Expulsions, deportations, arrests, denial of Ottoman nationality were some of the measures used to contain
5406-534: The ages of five and 13 Ben-Gurion attended five different heders as well as compulsory Russian classes. Two of the heders were 'modern' and taught in Hebrew rather than Yiddish . His father could not afford to enroll Ben-Gurion in Płońsk's beth midrash so Ben-Gurion's formal education ended after his bar mitzvah . At the age of 14 he and two friends formed a youth club, Ezra , promoting Hebrew studies and emigration to
SECTION 50
#17327652348215512-418: The anti-Arab policy, because it was he who molded the thinking of generations of Israelis." Simha Flapan quoted Ben-Gurion as stating in 1938: "I believe in our power, in our power which will grow, and if it will grow agreement will come..." Goldmann reported that Ben Gurion had told him in private in 1956: Why should the Arabs make peace? If I was an Arab leader I would never make terms with Israel. That
5618-460: The city were roughly equal, about five thousand each. The Jews, however, formed a compact, centralized group occupying the innermost districts whilst the Poles were more scattered, living in outlying areas and shading off into the peasantry. Consequently, when a gang of Jewish boys met a Polish gang the latter would almost inevitably represent a single suburb and thus be poorer in fighting potential than
5724-569: The creation of the state of Israel in 1948. During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine , Ben-Gurion instigated a policy of restraint (" Havlagah ") in which the Haganah and other Jewish groups did not retaliate for Arab attacks against Jewish civilians, concentrating only on self-defense. In 1937, the Peel Commission recommended partitioning Palestine into Jewish and Arab areas and Ben-Gurion supported this policy. This led to conflict with Ze'ev Jabotinsky who opposed partition and as
5830-422: The decision to teach in German at the Technion – Hebrew emerged victorious as the everyday spoken language, as well as the language of academia. As a result, a network of Hebrew education developed under the auspices of a public committee with national-Zionist values. In the struggle for the Hebrew language, the "Hebrew Union" was established, whose founders championed the principle of the "naturalness" of Hebrew in
5936-443: The destination that pull them in. Motives to migrate can be either incentives attracting people away, known as pull factors, or circumstances encouraging a person to leave. Diversity of push and pull factors inform management scholarship in their efforts to understand migrant movement. Some scholars criticize the "push-pull" approach to understanding international migration . Regarding lists of positive or negative factors about
6042-443: The early 1950s, the Soviet approach to controlling national movement was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc. Restrictions implemented in the Eastern Bloc stopped most east–west migration, with only 13.3 million migrations westward between 1950 and 1990. However, hundreds of thousands of East Germans annually immigrated to West Germany through a "loophole" in the system that existed between East and West Berlin , where
6148-444: The end of World War II in 1945, the Soviet Union occupied several Central European countries, together called the Eastern Bloc , with the majority of those living in the newly acquired areas aspiring to independence and wanted the Soviets to leave. Before 1950, over 15 million people emigrated from the Soviet-occupied eastern European countries and immigrated into the west in the five years immediately following World War II . By
6254-423: The essentials. In Peres' opinion, the essence of Ben-Gurion's life work were "the decisions he made at critical junctures in Israel's history", and none was as important as the acceptance of the 1947 partition plan , a painful compromise which gave the emerging Jewish state little more than a fighting chance, but which, according to Peres, enabled the establishment of the State of Israel. The 1937 Ben-Gurion letter
6360-519: The first year, using various pen names, eventually settling for Ben Gurion. The adopting of Hebrew names was common amongst those who remained during the Second Aliyah . He chose Ben-Gurion after the historic Joseph ben Gurion . In the spring of 1911, faced with the collapse of the Second Aliyah, Poale Zion's leadership decided the future lay in "Ottomanisation". Ben-Zvi , Manya and Israel Shochat announced their intention to move to Istanbul . Ben-Zvi and Shochat planned to study law; Ben-Gurion
6466-459: The following spring he was invited, by Ben-Zvi, to join the staff of Poale Zion's new Hebrew periodical, Ha'ahdut (The Unity), which was being established in Jerusalem. They needed his fluency in Hebrew for translating and proof reading. It was the end of his career as a farm labourer. The first three editions came out monthly with an initial run of 1000 copies. It then became a weekly with a print run of 450 copies. He contributed 15 articles over
SECTION 60
#17327652348216572-420: The four occupying World War II powers governed movement. The emigration resulted in massive "brain drain" from East Germany to West Germany of younger educated professionals, such that nearly 20% of East Germany's population had migrated to West Germany by 1961. In 1961, East Germany erected a barbed-wire barrier that would eventually be expanded through construction into the Berlin Wall , effectively closing
6678-436: The growing antisemitism in Tzarist Russia and the Pale of Settlement . The manifestations of this antisemitism were various pogroms , notably the Kishinev pogrom and the pogroms that attended the 1905 Russian Revolution . The other major factor for emigration was economic hardship. The majority of the Jewish population of Eastern Europe was poor and they left in search of a better life. Jews left Eastern Europe in search of
6784-440: The immigrants, such as Akiva Aryeh Weiss , who preferred to settle in the new district created Ahuzat Bayit near Jaffa , which was later re named as Tel Aviv . In 1914 it had a Jewish population of 2,000. There is a large misconception that Zionism played a major role in the immigration of Jews to Ottoman Syria (later British Palestine) during The Second Aliyah. While Zionism may have had some influence, it cannot be viewed as
6890-401: The introduction and two-thirds of the text. He suspended all his Poale Zion activities and spent most of the next 18 months in New York Public Library . Ben-Zvi, originally designated as co-editor, contributed a section on Jewish history in which he expounded the theory that the fellahin currently living in the area were descendants of pre- Roman conquest Jews. Eretz Israel – Past and Present
6996-436: The later Soviet Union began such restrictions in 1918, with laws and borders tightening until even illegal emigration was nearly impossible by 1928. To strengthen this, they set up internal passport controls and individual city Propiska ("place of residence") permits, along with internal freedom of movement restrictions often called the 101st kilometre , rules which greatly restricted mobility within even small areas. At
7102-994: The loophole. In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell , followed by German reunification and within two years the dissolution of the Soviet Union . By the early 1950s, the Soviet approach to controlling international movement was also emulated by China, Mongolia , and North Korea . North Korea still tightly restricts emigration, and maintains one of the strictest emigration bans in the world, although some North Koreans still manage to illegally emigrate to China. Other countries with tight emigration restrictions at one time or another included Angola , Egypt , Ethiopia , Mozambique , Somalia , Afghanistan , Burma , Democratic Kampuchea (Cambodia from 1975 to 1979) , Laos , North Vietnam , Iraq , South Yemen and Cuba . David Ben Gurion David Ben-Gurion ( / b ɛ n ˈ ɡ ʊər i ə n / ben GOOR -ee-ən ; Hebrew : דָּוִד בֶּן־גּוּרִיּוֹן [daˈvid ben ɡuʁˈjon] ; born David Grün ; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973)
7208-402: The more moderate Zionist labour party (it was still a left-wing organisation, but not as far-left as other factions) under Ben-Gurion's leadership. In the 1940s the left-wing of Mapai broke away to form Mapam . Labor Zionism became the dominant tendency in the World Zionist Organization and in 1935 Ben-Gurion became chairman of the executive committee of the Jewish Agency , a role he kept until
7314-438: The next four months Ben-Gurion and Ben Zvi embarked on a speaking tour planned to visit Poale Zion groups in 35 cities in an attempt to raise a pioneer army, Hechalutz , of 10,000 men to fight on the Ottoman side. The tour was a disappointment. Audiences were small; Poale Zion had fewer than 3,000 members, mostly in the New York area. Ben-Gurion was hospitalised with diphtheria for two weeks and spoke on only five occasions and
7420-403: The precedent for future Jewish defense organizations such as the Haganah . The new Jewish settlement embarked on linguistic and cultural independence. The expansion of the Jewish settlement led to the development of the education system and changes in the curricula. New educational institutions were established, from kindergartens to a teachers ' seminary, the David Yellin Teachers' College ,
7526-414: The receiving country or records from other administrative agencies. The rate of emigration has continued to grow, reaching 280 million in 2017. In Armenia, for example, the migration is calculated by counting people arriving or leaving the country via airplane, train, railway or other means of transportation. Here, the emigration index is high: 1.5% of population leaves the country annually. In fact, it
7632-753: The restriction of Jewish immigrants to Palestine, non-acceptance of a partitioned state (as suggested by the United Nations) amongst Arab leaders, and the cost of keeping 100,000 troops in Palestine the British Government referred the matter to the United Nations. In September 1947, the British decided to terminate the Mandate. In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution approving
7738-420: The results of the war were already satisfactory and Israeli leaders had to focus on the building of a nation. According to Benny Morris, "Ben-Gurion got cold feet during the war. ... If [he] had carried out a large expulsion and cleansed the whole country -the whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan River. It may yet turn out that this was his fatal mistake. If he had carried out a full expulsion rather than
7844-610: The right to be elected president of the state, should he be elected by all." Ben-Gurion recognised the strong attachment of Palestinian Arabs to the land. In an address to the United Nations on 2 October 1947, he doubted the likelihood of peace: This is our native land; it is not as birds of passage that we return to it. But it is situated in an area engulfed by Arabic-speaking people, mainly followers of Islam. Now, if ever, we must do more than make peace with them; we must achieve collaboration and alliance on equal terms. Remember what Arab delegations from Palestine and its neighbors say in
7950-650: The same reasoning of migration: work or study. The main destinations for it are Russia, France and US. Some countries restrict the ability of their citizens to emigrate to other countries. After 1668, the Qing Emperor banned Han Chinese migration to Manchuria . In 1681, the emperor ordered construction of the Willow Palisade , a barrier beyond which the Chinese were prohibited from encroaching on Manchu and Mongol lands. The Soviet Socialist Republics of
8056-499: The same time Ben-Gurion assisted the illegal immigration of thousands of European Jewish refugees to Palestine during a period when the British placed heavy restrictions on Jewish immigration. In 1944, the Irgun and Lehi , two Jewish right-wing armed groups, declared a rebellion against British rule and began attacking British administrative and police targets. Ben-Gurion and other mainstream Zionist leaders opposed armed action against
8162-606: The second. Ya'acov Ben-Dov became the first filmmaker to work in Hebrew. The Second Aliyah also established the first Hebrew high school in Israel, the Herzliya Hebrew High School in Tel Aviv . Prior to the First World War it is estimated that more than 40,000 of the Jews in Palestine held Russian citizenship. The Second Aliyah created the security organization, HaShomer , which became
8268-591: The struggle to establish a Jewish state." During the Second World War, Ben-Gurion encouraged the Jewish population to volunteer for the British Army . He famously told Jews to "support the British as if there is no White Paper and oppose the White Paper as if there is no war". About 10% of the Jewish population of Palestine volunteered for the British Armed Forces, including many women. At
8374-575: The ten-day campaign during the 1948 war , the Israelis were militarily superior to their enemies and the Cabinet subsequently considered where and when to attack next. On 24 September, an incursion made by the Palestinian irregulars in the Latrun sector, killing 23 Israeli soldiers, precipitated the debate. On 26 September, Ben-Gurion put his argument to the Cabinet to attack Latrun again and conquer
8480-522: The threat of ethnic cleansing . Refugees and asylum seekers in this sense are the most marginalized extreme cases of migration, facing multiple hurdles in their journey and efforts to integrate into the new settings. Scholars in this sense have called for cross-sector engagement from businesses, non-governmental organizations, educational institutions, and other stakeholders within the receiving communities. Patterns of emigration have been shaped by numerous economic, social, and political changes throughout
8586-471: The total migration by people aging 15 and above. It is important to understand the reasons for both types of migration and the availability of the options. For example, in Armenia, everything is localized in the capital city Yerevan, thus, internal migration is from the villages and small cities to the biggest city of the country. The reason for the migration can be work or study. International migration follows
8692-530: The violent insurrection against the British in cooperation with the Irgun and Lehi with the approval of himself and other Jewish Agency officials. However, Ben-Gurion asked that the operation be delayed, but the Irgun refused. The Irgun carried out the King David Hotel bombing in July 1946, killing 91 people. Ben-Gurion publicly condemned the bombing. In the aftermath of the bombing, Ben-Gurion ordered that
8798-464: The whole or a large part of West Bank. The motion was rejected by a vote of seven to five after discussions. Ben-Gurion qualified the cabinet's decision as bechiya ledorot ("a source of lament for generations") considering Israel may have lost forever the Old City of Jerusalem. There is a controversy around these events. According to Uri Bar-Joseph, Ben-Gurion placed a plan that called for
8904-569: The world in the last few hundred years. For instance, millions of individuals fled poverty, violence, and political turmoil in Europe to settle in the Americas and Oceania during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Likewise, millions left South China in the Chinese diaspora during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Demographers distinguish factors at the origin that push people out, versus those at
9010-421: Was able to use when in discussions with Arab leaders were English, and to a lesser extent, French. The British 1939 White paper stipulated that Jewish immigration to Palestine was to be limited to 15,000 a year for the first five years, and would subsequently be contingent on Arab consent. Restrictions were also placed on the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs. After this Ben-Gurion changed his policy towards
9116-693: Was arrested twice, the second time he was held for two weeks and only released with the help of his father. In December 1905 he returned to Płońsk as a full-time Poalei Zion operative. There he worked to oppose the anti-Zionist Bund who were trying to establish a base. He also organised a strike over working conditions amongst garment workers. He was known to use intimidatory tactics, such as extorting money from wealthy Jews at gunpoint to raise funds for Jewish workers. Ben-Gurion discussed his hometown in his memoirs, saying: For many of us, anti-Semitic feeling had little to do with our dedication [to Zionism]. I personally never suffered anti-Semitic persecution. Płońsk
9222-585: Was at sea, returning from Istanbul, when the First World War broke out. He was not amongst the thousands of foreign nationals deported in December 1914. Based in Jerusalem , he and Ben-Zvi recruited forty Jews into a Jewish militia to assist the Ottoman Army. Despite his pro-Ottoman declarations he was deported to Egypt in March 1915. From there he made his way to the United States, arriving in May. For
9328-498: Was called the Saison or "Hunting Season", left the Irgun unable to continue operations as they struggled to survive. Irgun leader Menachem Begin ordered his fighters not to retaliate so as to prevent a civil war. The Saison became increasingly controversial in the Yishuv, including within the ranks of the Haganah, and it was aborted at the end of March 1945. At the end of World War II, the Zionist leadership in Palestine had expected
9434-431: Was elected onto the five-man Central Committee and the 10-man Manifesto Committee. He also arranged that Ben-Gurion was chosen as chairman of the sessions. These Ben-Gurion conducted in Hebrew, forbidding the translation of his address into Russian or Yiddish. The conference was divided: a large faction— Rostovians —wanted to create a single Arab–Jewish proletariat. This Shochat and Ben-Gurion opposed. The conference delegated
9540-399: Was expected that their relationship would continue when they landed in Jaffa but he shut her out after she was fired on her first day labouring—manuring the citrus groves of Petah Tikva. Whilst in New York City in 1915, he met Russian-born Paula Munweis and they married in 1917. In November 1919, after an 18-month separation, Paula and their daughter Geula joined Ben-Gurion in Jaffa . It
9646-561: Was funded by his father. Immediately on landing in Jaffa , 7 September 1906, Ben-Gurion set off, on foot, in a group of 14, to Petah Tikva . It was the largest of the 13 Jewish agricultural settlements and consisted of 80 households with a population of nearly 1,500; of these around 200 were Second Aliyah pioneers like Ben-Gurion. He found work as a day labourer, waiting each morning hoping to be chosen by an overseer. Jewish workers found it difficult competing with local villagers who were more skilled and prepared to work for less. Ben-Gurion
9752-600: Was improving relations with West Germany through a reparations agreement in compensation for Nazi confiscation of Jewish property during the Holocaust . In 1954, he resigned as prime minister and minister of defence but remained a member of the Knesset . He returned as minister of defence in 1955 after the Lavon Affair and the resignation of Pinhas Lavon . Later that year he became prime minister again, following
9858-554: Was named one of Time magazine's 100 Most Important People of the 20th century . David Ben-Gurion was born in Płońsk in Congress Poland —then part of the Russian Empire , to Polish Jewish parents. His father, Avigdor Grün, was a pokątny doradca (secret adviser), navigating his clients through the often corrupt Imperial legal system. Following the publication of Theodore Herzl 's Der Judenstaat in 1896 Avigdor co-founded
9964-573: Was poorly received. Ben-Zvi spoke to 14 groups as well as an event in New York City and succeeded in recruiting 44 volunteers for Hechalutz; Ben-Gurion recruited 19. Ben-Gurion embarked on a second tour in December, speaking at 19 meetings, mostly in small towns with larger events in Minneapolis and Galveston . Due to the lack of awareness of Poale Zion's activities in Palestine it was decided to republish Yizkor in Yiddish . The Hebrew original
10070-610: Was published in Jaffa in 1911; it consisted of eulogies to Zionist martyrs and included an account by Ben-Gurion of his Petah Tikva and Sejera experiences. The first edition appeared in February 1916 and was an immediate success; all 3,500 copies were sold. A second edition of 16,000 was published in August. Martin Buber wrote the introduction to the 1918 German edition. The follow-up was conceived as an anthology of work from Poale Zion leaders; in fact Ben-Gurion took over as editor, writing
10176-464: Was published in April 1918. It cost $ 2 and was 500 pages long, over twice the length of Yizkor . It was an immediate success, selling 7,000 copies in 4 months; second and third editions were printed. Total sales of 25,000 copies made a profit of $ 20,000 for Poale Zion. It made Ben-Gurion the most prominent Poale Zion leader in America. In May 1918 Ben-Gurion joined the newly formed Jewish Legion of
10282-432: Was remarkably free of it ... Nevertheless, and I think this very significant, it was Płońsk that sent the highest proportion of Jews to Eretz Israel from any town in Poland of comparable size. We emigrated not for negative reasons of escape but for the positive purpose of rebuilding a homeland ... Life in Płońsk was peaceful enough. There were three main communities: Russians, Jews and Poles. ... The number of Jews and Poles in
10388-608: Was shocked at the number of Arabs employed. In November he caught malaria and the doctor advised he return to Europe. By the time he left Petah Tikva in summer of 1907 he had worked an average 10 days a month which frequently left him with no money for food. He wrote long letters in Hebrew to his father and friends. They rarely revealed how difficult life was. Others who had come from Płońsk were writing about tuberculosis, cholera and people dying of hunger. On his disembarkation at Jaffa, Ben-Gurion had been spotted by Israel Shochat who had arrived two years previously and had established
10494-511: Was successful, and by May 1948 Jewish forces were winning the civil war. On 14 May 1948, a few hours before the British Mandate officially terminated, Ben-Gurion declared Israeli independence in a ceremony in Tel Aviv. A few hours later, the State of Israel officially came into being when the British Mandate terminated on 15 May. The 1948 Arab–Israeli War began immediately afterwards as numerous Arab nations then invaded Israel. After
10600-413: Was the first time he met his one-year-old daughter. The couple had three children: a son, Amos, and two daughters, Geula Ben-Eliezer and Renana Leshem. Amos married Mary Callow, already pregnant with their first child. She was an Irish gentile , and although Reform rabbi Joachim Prinz converted her to Judaism soon after, neither the Palestine rabbinate nor her mother-in-law Paula Ben-Gurion considered her
10706-542: Was the language to be used; the future lay with a united Jewish and Arab proletariat . Further disappointment came when Ben-Zvi and Shochat were elected as representatives to go to the World Zionist Congress . Ben-Gurion came last of five candidates. He was not aware that at the next gathering, on Ben-Zvi's return, a secret para-military group was set up— Bar-Giora —under Shochat's leadership. Distancing himself from Poale Zion activism Ben-Gurion, who had been
10812-706: Was the primary national founder of the State of Israel as well as its first prime minister . As head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine , and largely led the movement for an independent Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine . Born in Płońsk , then part of Congress Poland , to Polish Jewish parents, he immigrated to
10918-632: Was to join them but first needed to learn Turkish , spending eight months in Salonika , at that time the most advanced Jewish community in the area. Whilst studying he had to conceal that he was Ashkenazi due to local Sephardic prejudices. Ben-Zvi obtained a forged secondary school certificate so Ben-Gurion could join him in Dar al-Funun . Ben-Gurion was entirely dependent on funding from his father, while Ben-Zvi found work teaching. Struggling with ill health, Ben-Gurion spent some time in hospital. Ben-Gurion
11024-543: Was transferred to Sarafand . On 13 December 1918 he was demoted from corporal to private, fined three days' pay and transferred to the lowest company in the battalion. He had been five days absent without leave visiting friends in Jaffa . He was demobilised in early 1919. One of Ben-Gurion's companions when he made the Aliyah was Rachel Nelkin. Her step-father, Reb Simcha Isaac, was the leading Zionist in Płońsk, and they had met three years previously at one of his meetings. It
11130-469: Was visiting Paris at the time. The British stored the documents they had captured from the Jewish Agency headquarters in the King David Hotel , which was being used as a military and administrative headquarters. Ben-Gurion agreed to the Irgun's plan to bomb the King David Hotel in order to destroy incriminating documents that Ben-Gurion feared would prove that the Haganah had been participating in
11236-442: Was written when he was head of the executive committee of the Jewish Agency , to his son Amos on 5 October 1937. The letter is well known to scholars as it provides insight into Ben-Gurion's reaction to the report of the Peel Commission released on 7 July of the same year. It has also been subject to significant debate by scholars as a result of scribbled-out text that may or may not provide written evidence of an intention to "expel
#820179