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Sursock Purchases

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The Sursock Purchases were land purchases made by Jewish organizations from the absentee landowning Lebanese Greek Orthodox Christian Sursock family , mainly from 1901 to 1925. These included the Jezreel Valley and Haifa Bay , as well as other lands in what became the Mandate for Palestine . These collectively formed the largest Jewish land purchase in Palestine during the period of early Jewish immigration.

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131-721: The Jezreel Valley was considered the most fertile region of Palestine. The Sursock Purchase represented 58% of Jewish land purchases from absentee foreign landlords (as identified in a partial list in a 25 February 1946 memorandum submitted by the Arab Higher Committee to the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry ). The buyers demanded the existing population be relocated and, as a result, the Palestinian Arab tenant farmers were evicted, and approximately 20–25 villages were depopulated . Some of

262-615: A Neolog Jewish family. He was the second child of Jeanette and Jakob Herzl, who were German-speaking, assimilated Jews. Herzl stated he was of both Ashkenazi and Sephardic lineage, predominantly through his paternal line and to a lesser extent through the maternal line, but there is no evidence for the claim of Sephardic origins. His father's family had migrated from Zimony (today Zemun , Serbia ), to Bohemia in 1739, where they were required to Germanize their family name Loebl (from Hebrew lev , 'heart') to Herzl (diminutive of Ger. Herz ; 'little heart'). Herzl's father Jakob (1836–1902)

393-497: A doge . His daughter Paulina suffered from mental illness and drug addiction. She died in 1930 at the age of 40 of a heroin overdose. His only son Hans was given a secular upbringing and the Herzls refused to allow him to be circumcised. On Herzl's early death, after reportedly being pressured to do so by his Zionist caretakers, Hans, then a ward , submitted to circumcision on 29 May 1905; he subsequently converted, resenting

524-564: A "United State of Palestine" in place of Israel and an Arab state. The Arab Higher Committee said that in the future Palestine, the Jews will be no more than 1/7 of the population. i.e. only Jews that lived in Palestine before the British mandate would be permitted to stay. They did not specify what would happen to the other Jews. The Arab Higher Committee has been criticised for not preparing

655-678: A Jewish homeland in Palestine. A Heimstatte —a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine secured by public law. On 26 January 1904, Herzl was received in audience by Pope Pius X at the Holy See in Rome , in the hope of convincing the Vatican at supporting the Zionist movement. Pius X was respectful towards Herzl, but resolutely refused to support Zionism in any way. Herzl did not live to see

786-414: A community of primarily Yiddish -speaking recent Eastern European Jewish immigrants, Herzl addressed a mass rally of thousands on 12 July 1896 and was received with acclaim. They granted Herzl the mandate of leadership for Zionism. Within six months this mandate had been expanded throughout Zionist Jewry: the Zionist movement grew rapidly. On 10 March 1896, Herzl was visited by Reverend William Hechler ,

917-512: A despicable type of Jew and has often been described as antisemitic. In Der Judenstaat he writes: "The Jewish question persists wherever Jews live in appreciable numbers. Wherever it does not exist, it is brought in together with Jewish immigrants. We are naturally drawn into those places where we are not persecuted, and our appearance there gives rise to persecution. This is the case, and will inevitably be so, everywhere, even in highly civilised countries—see, for instance, France—so long as

1048-628: A detailed table of the Sursock purchases as evidence for the commission showing 1,746 families displaced from 240,000 dunums of land; the information in this table is shown below: Other villages sold by the Sursocks included: Following the purchase of the land, the Jewish farmers created the first modern-day settlements, founded the modern day city of Afula and drained the swamps to enable further land development of areas that had been uninhabitable for centuries. The country's first moshav , Nahalal ,

1179-482: A flag of the Jewish state. Herzl Day ( Hebrew : יום הרצל ) is an Israeli national holiday celebrated annually on the tenth of the Hebrew month of Iyar , to commemorate the life and vision of Zionist leader Theodor Herzl. Herzl's grandfathers, both of whom he knew, were more closely related to traditional Judaism than were his parents. In Zimony (Zemlin), his grandfather Simon Loeb Herzl "had his hands on" one of

1310-494: A general trait also common to all the littoral regions north and south of the Mediterranean . Malaria was widespread in the area, especially in the plains, hindering settlement and allowing Bedouins to settle there. During drought years, Bedouins from the ghor even encroached on lands cultivated by local fellahin , covering the entire area with their tents. The "permanent" nomads, Bedouins of Turkmen descent, lived in

1441-657: A loan he had made to the Turkish Government. The Turkish Government never had any intention of turning the Arabs off the land, it was more of a sort of mortgage, and Sursock was collecting the tithes interest on his money... Sursock did not become possessed of the lands by virtue of Title Deeds in the original instance. Later Sursock applied to the Government to give him title deeds." In 1878, Claude Reignier Conder explained as follows: One curious fact, as showing

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1572-767: A minister of state or a prince. Then the Jews will believe in me and follow me. The most suitable personage would be the German Kaiser." Hechler arranged an extended audience with Frederick I, Grand Duke of Baden , in April 1896. The Grand Duke was the uncle of the German Emperor Wilhelm ;II . Through the efforts of Hechler and the Grand Duke, Herzl publicly met Wilhelm II in 1898 . The meeting significantly advanced Herzl's and Zionism's legitimacy in Jewish and world opinion. In May 1896,

1703-569: A number of attempts to limit mass land acquisition and immigration, but these restrictions did not last long due to European pressure under the terms of the capitulations . In 1901, the Jewish Colonisation Association , having been blocked from land purchases in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem , made its first major purchase in the north of Palestine in an acquisition of 31,500 dunums of land near Tiberias from

1834-479: A number of years. This purchase, along with others, dispossessed the local Bedouins. The Sursocks soon began to repopulate long-abandoned villages with tenant sharecroppers. Most of those were located in the outskirts of the valley. According to Frances E. Newton 's testimony at the Shaw Commission noted the genesis of the Sursock purchase: "...these lands came into the possession of Sursock through

1965-524: A religious capital, and is ever busy in gaining a footing in the country. In 1891, Yehoshua Hankin , who had immigrated to Palestine from Russia a few years previously, began negotiations to acquire the Jezreel Valley; the negotiations ended when the Ottoman government enacted a prohibition on Jewish immigration. On 10 March 1897, Theodor Herzl wrote about the Sursock family in his diary, noting

2096-789: A second formal, public audience with the emperor at the latter's tent camp on Street of the Prophets in Jerusalem on 2 November 1898. The English Zionist Federation, the local branch of the World Zionist Organization, was founded in 1899, after Herzl had established in Austria in 1897. In 1902–03, Herzl was invited to give evidence before the British Royal Commission on Alien Immigration. His appearance brought him into close contact with members of

2227-539: A series of diplomatic initiatives to build support for a Jewish state, appealing unsuccessfully to German emperor Wilhelm II and Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid II . At the Sixth Zionist Congress in 1903, Herzl presented the Uganda Scheme , endorsed by Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain on behalf of the British government. The proposal, which sought to create a temporary refuge for

2358-444: A strong attachment to his mother, who was unable to get along with his wife. These difficulties were increased by the political activities of his later years, in which his wife took little interest. Julie died in 1907, 3 years after Herzl, aged 39. Herzl imagined himself as a great statesman creating a dynasty for his family in Palestine once a Jewish state was established, where his father would be its foundational senator, and his son

2489-452: A suicide note explaining his reasons. "A Jew remains a Jew, no matter how eagerly he may submit himself to the disciplines of his new religion, how humbly he may place the redeeming cross upon his shoulders for the sake of his former coreligionists, to save them from eternal damnation: a Jew remains a Jew ... I can't go on living. I have lost all trust in God. All my life I've tried to strive for

2620-538: A symbol of Herzl's returning. Operation Agatha of 29 June 1946, precluded that possibility: local military and police fanned out throughout the Mandate and arrested Jewish activists. About 2,700 individuals were arrested. On 2 July, Norman wrote to Mrs.Stybovitz-Kahn in Haifa. Her father, Jacob Kahn, had been a good friend of Herzl and a well-known Dutch banker before the war. Norman wrote, "I intend to go to Palestine on

2751-612: A true Kulturvolk along the German lines. In 1878, after Pauline's death, the Herzl family moved to Vienna , Austria-Hungary, and lived in the 9th district, Alsergrund . At the University of Vienna, Herzl studied law. As a young law student, Herzl became a member of the German nationalist Burschenschaft (fraternity) Albia, which had the motto Ehre, Freiheit, Vaterland ("Honor, Freedom, Fatherland"). He later resigned in protest at

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2882-465: Is a Jewish, state here... Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of the Arab villages, and I do not blame you, because these geography books no longer exists; not only do the books not exist [but] the Arab villages are not there either. Nahalal arose in the place of Mahalul, Gvat in the place of Jibta, Sarid in the place of Haneifs, and Kfar Yehoshua in

3013-570: Is best to scrap it." In 2006 the remains of Paulina and Hans were moved from Bordeaux , France, and reburied not far from their father on Mt. Herzl. Paulina and Hans had little contact with their young sister, "Trude" (Margarethe, 1893–1943). She married Richard Neumann, a man 17 years her elder. Neumann lost his fortune in the Great Depression . Burdened by the steep costs of hospitalizing Trude, who suffered from severe bouts of depressive illness that required repeated hospitalization,

3144-605: The 1948 Arab-Israeli War . It was sidestepped by Egypt and the Arab League with the formation of the All-Palestine Government in 1948 and both were banned by Jordan . The first Arab Higher Committee was formed on 25 April 1936, following the outbreak of the Great Arab revolt , and national committees were formed in all of the towns and some of the larger villages, during that month. The members of

3275-734: The Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question , formed in October 1947, again repeating its previous demands. Despite Arab objections, the ad hoc committee reported on 19 November 1947 in favour of a partition of Palestine. The United Nations General Assembly voted on 29 November 1947 in favour of the Partition Plan for Palestine , all the Arab League states voting against the Plan. The Arab Higher Committee rejected

3406-493: The All-Palestine Government (an Egyptian protectorate) in Gaza on 8 September 1948, while the 1948 Arab–Israeli War was in progress, under the nominal leadership of Amin al-Husayni, which was soon recognized by six of the seven Arab League members, the exception being Transjordan . King Abdullah of Transjordan regarded the attempt to revive al-Husayni's Holy War Army as a challenge to his authority and all armed bodies operating in

3537-616: The Anglican minister to the British Embassy in Vienna. Hechler had read Herzl's Der Judenstaat , and the meeting became central to the eventual legitimization of Herzl and Zionism. Herzl later wrote in his diary, "Next we came to the heart of the business. I said to him: (Theodor Herzl to Rev. William Hechler) I must put myself into direct and publicly known relations with a responsible or non responsible ruler – that is, with

3668-796: The British Army rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Artillery . In late 1945 and early 1946 he took the opportunity to visit the British Mandate of Palestine "to see what my grandfather had started." He wrote in his diary extensively about his trip. What most impressed him was the "look of freedom" on the faces of the children, which were not like the sallow look of those from the concentration camps of Europe. Norman planned to return to Palestine following his military discharge. The Zionist Executive had worked for years through L. Lauterbach to get Norman to come to Palestine as

3799-759: The First Zionist Congress in Basel , Switzerland. He was elected president of the Congress (a position he held until his death in 1904), and in 1898 he began a series of diplomatic initiatives to build support for a Jewish country. He was received by Wilhelm II on several occasions, one of them in Jerusalem , and attended the Hague Peace Conference , enjoying a warm reception from many statesmen there. His work on Autoemancipation

3930-596: The Judenstaat . Pinsker's manifesto was a cry for help; a warning to others Mahnruf , a call for attention to their plight. Herzl's vision was less about mental states of Jewry, and more about delivering prescriptive answers about land. "The idea that I have developed is a very old one; it is the restoration of the Jewish State" was a follow-up of Pinsker's early weaker version Mahnruf an seine Stammesgenossen von einem nassichen Juden . Herzl visited Jerusalem for

4061-702: The Neue Freie Presse . Herzl presented his proposal to the Grand Vizier: the Jews would pay the Turkish foreign debt and help Turkey regain its financial footing in return for Palestine as a Jewish homeland. Prior to leaving Istanbul, 29 June 1896, Herzl was granted a symbolic medal of honor. The medal, the "Commander's Cross of the Order of the Medjidie ," was a public relations affirmation for Herzl and

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4192-730: The Palestine Jewish Colonization Association (PICA) was established to take over the role of the Jewish Colonisation Association; PICA became the largest Jewish landowner in Palestine. In parallel, the PLDC acted as the purchasing organization for the Jewish National Fund . The high priority given to these lands owes much to the strategy pursued by Menachem Ussishkin , who found himself opposed by other members of

4323-627: The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) formed in May 1947 to investigate the cause of the conflict in Palestine, and, if possible, devise a solution. Despite the official Arab boycott, several Arab officials and intellectuals privately met UNSCOP members to argue for a unitary Arab-majority state, among them AHC member and former Jerusalem mayor Husayn al-Khalidi . UNSCOP also received written arguments from Arab advocates. The Arab Higher Committee rejected both

4454-465: The Yishuv . British police carried out eviction orders, forcing the farmers from their former homes. Through the 1930s, dispossessed fellahin made their way to the coast in search of work, settling in shanty towns on the edges of Jaffa and Haifa . The Sursock Purchase became a focus of the 1930 Shaw Commission . Palestinian American Saleem Raji Farah, son of a previous mayor of Nazareth, prepared

4585-468: The " Uganda Project " and Herzl presented it to the Sixth Zionist Congress (Basel, August 1903), where a majority (295:178, 98 abstentions) agreed to investigating this offer. The proposal faced strong opposition particularly from the Russian delegation who stormed out of the meeting. In 1905 the 7th Zionist Congress, after investigations, decided to decline the British offer and firmly committed itself to

4716-482: The "new Crusaders") without the Ottoman government lifting a finger." The political activity against the sale is considered to be "the first concerted action against the growing Zionist activities", and the sale can be considered "in this context the most significant event that took place in the period before the outbreak of the First World War." The Ottomans had refused to authorize numerous sales, such that

4847-558: The 'Problem of the Jews .' Beginning in late 1895, Herzl wrote Der Judenstaat ( The State of the Jews ), which was published February 1896 to immediate acclaim and controversy. The book argued that the Jewish people should leave Europe for Palestine, their historic homeland. The Jews possessed a nationality; all they were missing was a nation and a state of their own. Only through a Jewish state could they avoid antisemitism, express their culture freely and practice their religion without hindrance. Herzl's ideas spread rapidly throughout

4978-673: The AHC soon after its formation, was not outlawed, and Raghib al-Nashashibi was not pursued by the British. When the committee was outlawed in September 1937, six of its members were deported, its president Amin al-Husayni managed to escape arrest and went into exile in Beirut . Jamal al-Husayni escaped to Syria. Three other members were deported to the Seychelles, and other members moved into voluntary exile in neighbouring countries. Al-Hadi, who

5109-669: The AHC to include additional supporters of Amin al-Husayni was seen as a bid to increase his political power. Following the failure of the London Conference, the British referred the question to the UN on 14 February 1947. In April 1947, the Arab Higher Committee repeated Arab and Palestinian demands in the solution for the Question of Palestine: The Arab states and the Arab Higher Committee officially boycotted

5240-556: The AHE as well as the Jewish Agency, but was attending by Arab League states, which argued against any partition. In January 1947, the AHE was renamed the "Arab Higher Committee", with Amin al-Husayni as its chairman and Jamal al-Husayni as vice-chairman, and expanded to include the four remaining core members plus Hasan Abu Sa'ud , Izhak Darwish al-Husayni , Izzat Darwaza , Rafiq al-Tamimi and Mu'in al-Madi . This restructuring of

5371-501: The Arab Higher Committee's performance during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War as being unaware and ineffective at best and ambivalent at worst to the needs of the Palestinian Arab population. In a personal note, Nusseibeh wrote, "Obviously they thought of the Palestine adventure in terms of an easy walkover for the Arabs, and the only point that seemed to worry them was credit for the expected victory. ... [They] were determined that

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5502-659: The Arab Higher Committee. Christian as well as Muslim Arabs were represented on it, with no opposition parties. The commission reported in July 1937 and recommended the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. Arab leaders, both in the Husseini-controlled Arab Higher Committee and in the Nashashibi National Defense Party denounced partition and reiterated their demands for independence, arguing that

5633-562: The Arab League (Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Yemen) reconstituted the Arab Higher Committee comprising twelve members as the supreme executive body of Palestinian Arabs in the territory of the British Mandate of Palestine . The committee was dominated by the Palestine Arab Party , controlled by the Husayni family, and was immediately recognised by Arab League countries. The Mandate government recognised

5764-462: The Arab League ordered the dissolution of the AHC and Arab Higher Front and formed a five-member Arab Higher Executive , under Amin al-Husayni's chairmanship, and based in Cairo. The new AHE consisted of: The United Kingdom government called the 1946–47 London Conference on Palestine in an attempt to bring peace to its Mandate territory, which began on 9 September 1946. The conference was boycotted by

5895-577: The Arabs had been promised independence and granting rights to the Jews was a betrayal. The Arabs emphatically rejected the principle of awarding any territory to the Jews. After British rejection of an Arab Higher Committee petition to hold an Arab conference in Jerusalem, hundreds of delegates from across the Arab world convened at the Bloudan Conference in Syria on 8 September 1937, including 97 Palestinian delegates. The conference rejected both

6026-772: The British government, particularly with Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain through whom he negotiated with the Egyptian government for a charter for the settlement of the Jews in Al 'Arish in the Sinai Peninsula , adjoining southern Palestine. The project was blocked as impractical by Lord Cromer , the Consul General in Egypt. In 1902 he wrote a letter to Cecil Rhodes , attempting to get his support for Jewish state. Then in 1903, Herzl attempted to obtain support for

6157-426: The Chief Rabbis of France and Vienna, the German financier Maurice de Hirsch who had created the Jewish Colonization Association in 1891 to encourage mass emigration of Russian Jews to North and South America, and would later be repurposed as the Palestine Jewish Colonization Association in 1924, and especially French philanthropist and art collector Edmond James de Rothschild who was already independently funding

6288-400: The Colonial Secretary, Malcolm MacDonald , repeated his refusal to allow Amin al-Husayni to be a delegate, but was willing to allow the five Palestinian leaders held in the Seychelles to take part in the conference. The deportees were released on 19 December and allowed to travel to Cairo and then, with Jamal Husseini, to Beirut where a new Arab Higher Committee (or Higher National Committee)

6419-410: The English translation of Der Judenstaat appeared in London as The Jewish State . Herzl had earlier confessed to his friend Max Bodenheimer that he "wrote what I had to say without knowing my predecessors, and it can be assumed that I would not have written it [ Der Judenstaat ] had I been familiar with the literature." In Istanbul, Ottoman Empire, 15 June 1896, Herzl saw an opportunity. With

6550-486: The German ideal of Bildung , whereby reading great works of literature by Goethe and Shakespeare could allow one to appreciate the beautiful things in life and thus become a morally better person (the Bildung theory tended to equate beauty with goodness). Herzl believed that through Bildung Hungarian Jews such as himself could shake off their "shameful Jewish characteristics" caused by long centuries of impoverishment and oppression, and become civilized Central Europeans,

6681-404: The JNF board. The result of the costly purchase was that much of the organization's capital was tied up for the ensuing decade. Under the British Mandate , the land laws were rewritten, and the Palestinian farmers in the region were deemed tenant farmers by the British authorities. In the face of local opposition, the right of the Sursocks to sell the land and displace its population was upheld by

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6812-415: The Jewish State". Herzl was born in Pest , Kingdom of Hungary , to a prosperous Neolog Jewish family. After a brief legal career in Vienna , he became the Paris correspondent for the Viennese newspaper Neue Freie Presse . Confronted with antisemitic events in Vienna, he reached the conclusion that anti-Jewish sentiment would make Jewish assimilation impossible, and that the only solution for Jews

6943-475: The Jewish homeland from Pope Pius X , an idea broached at 6th Zionist Congress . Palestine could offer a safe refuge for those fleeing persecution in Russia. Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val ordained that the Church's policy was explained non possumus on such matters, decreeing that as long as the Jews denied the divinity of Christ, the Catholics could not make a declaration in their favour. In 1903, following Kishinev pogrom , Herzl visited St. Petersburg and

7074-575: The Jewish question is not solved on the political level." The book concludes: Therefore I believe that a wondrous generation of Jews will spring into existence. The Maccabeans will rise again. Let me repeat once more my opening words: The Jews who wish for a State will have it. We shall live at last as free men on our own soil, and die peacefully in our own homes. The world will be freed by our liberty, enriched by our wealth, magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there to accomplish for our own welfare, will react powerfully and beneficially for

7205-434: The Jewish world and attracted international attention. Supporters of existing Zionist movements, such as the Hovevei Zion , immediately allied themselves with him, but he also encountered bitter opposition from members of the Orthodox community and those seeking to integrate in non-Jewish society. His notorious article Mauschel , published just after the first Zionist Congress, depicted Jews who oppose Zionism as constituting

7336-410: The Jewish world of the seriousness of the negotiations. On 1 March 1899 Yousef Al-Khalidi , the mayor of Jerusalem, sent a letter to Zadok Kahn , the chief rabbi of France, with the intention to reach Herzl and ask Zionists to leave the area of Palestine in peace. Al-Khalidi was very familiar with Zionist thought, and the anti-Semitic environment in Europe out of which it emerged. He also perceived

7467-467: The Jews in British East Africa following the Kishinev pogrom , was met with strong opposition and ultimately rejected. Herzl died of a heart ailment in 1904 at the age of 44, and was buried in Vienna. In 1949, his remains were taken to Israel and reinterred on Mount Herzl . Theodor Herzl was born in the Dohány utca ( Tabakgasse in German), a street in the Jewish quarter of Pest (now eastern part of Budapest ), Kingdom of Hungary (now Hungary), to

7598-426: The Jezreel Valley as the most strategically attractive area to acquire, even more so than the coastal region of Palestine. This is because of the opportunity to carry out large scale agriculture in the area, and the speed at which settlement could be carried out due to the large landowners; in the coastal region smaller parcels of land were available for purchase, and the land was less fertile. The Ottoman government made

7729-408: The Jezreel Valley during summer and autumn, then spent winters between the Sharon region and the Valley, passing through the Manasseh Hills . In 1872, the Ottoman Government sold the Jezreel Valley (in Arabic, Marj ibn Amir) to the Sursock family for approximately £20,000. The family went on to acquire 230,000 to 400,000 dunams (90,000 acres or 364 km). These purchases were sustained over

7860-416: The Neumanns' financial life was precarious. The Nazis sent Trude and Richard to the Theresienstadt concentration camp where they died. Her body was burned . Her mother, who died in 1907, was cremated, and her ashes were lost by accident. At the request of his father Richard Neumann, Trude's son (Herzl's only grandchild), Stephan Theodor Neumann (1918–1946), was sent for his safety to England in 1935 to

7991-442: The Ottoman Empire and the non-Jewish population of Palestine would benefit from Jewish immigration. As to al-Khalidi concerns about the non-Jewish majority population of Palestine, Herzl replied rhetorically: "who would think of sending them away?" and concluded ambiguously that "If he (the Ottoman Sultan) will not accept it, we will search and, believe me, we will find elsewhere what we need." Rashid Khalidi notes that this sentiment

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8122-441: The Palestine Arabs should at all costs be excluded." The Arab community, being essentially agrarian, is loosely knit and mainly concerned with local interests. In the absence of an elective body to represent divergences of interest, it therefore shows a high degree of centralization in its political life. The Arab Higher Committee presented a 'common front' for all political parties. There was no opposition party. Decisions taken at

8253-417: The Palestinian population for the war, accepting the general expectation that Palestinian Arabs alone would not prevail over the Yishuv , and accepting the joint Arab strategy of outside Arab armies securing a prompt takeover of the country. Anwar Nusseibeh , a Palestinian nationalist who believed that the best way to advance Palestinian interest was to operate within whichever regime was in power, criticized

8384-432: The Sursock Purchase/Afula incident at the time constitute "one of the earliest cases of organized opposition to Zionist land purchase in Palestine." Through much of the period of Ottoman rule, the low-lying land of Palestine had suffered from depopulation due to the unhealthy conditions on the plains, and the insecurity of life there. According to Henry Laurens , this was not peculiar to that region, but rather reflected

8515-458: The Sursock family and their partners. Another of the early Zionist purchases from the Sursocks became known as the "Fula affair" (sometimes erroneously referred to as the "Afula affair," and also called sometimes "the al-Fula incident"). In 1910–11, Elias Sursock sold 10,000 dunums around the village of al-Fula , located at the foot of the Nazareth mountains in Marj Ibn 'Amir , to the Jewish National Fund. The Palestinian peasants refused to leave

8646-428: The Sursocks were unable to sell significant land to Jewish purchasers prior to World War I. In 1912, the Palestine Land Development Company (PLDC) arranged to purchase a large area in the Jezreel Valley from Nagib and Albert Sursock, but the transaction did not complete due to World War I. On 18 December 1918, the agreement was concluded; it covered 71,356 dunams in the Jezreel Valley, including Tel Adashim . Following

8777-482: The Viennese Zionists and the Zionist Executive in Israel based there . The Neumanns deeply feared for the safety of their only child as violent Austrian antisemitism expanded. In England he read extensively about his grandfather. Zionism had not been a significant part of his background in Austria, but Stephan became an ardent Zionist, was the only descendant of Theodor Herzl to have become one. Anglicizing his name to Stephen Norman, during World War II, Norman enlisted in

8908-416: The Viennese stage. His early work did not focus on Jewish life. It was of the feuilleton order, descriptive rather than political. As the Paris correspondent for Neue Freie Presse , Herzl followed the Dreyfus affair , a political scandal that divided the Third French Republic from 1894 until its resolution in 1906. It was a notorious antisemitic incident in France in which a Jewish French army captain

9039-652: The Zionist movement could work to improve Abdul Hamid II's reputation and shore up the empire's finances. Bernard Lazare harshly criticized this position, arguing that Herzl and other delegates of the Zionist Congress "have sent their blessing to the worst of murderers." Returning from Istanbul, Herzl traveled to London to report back to the Maccabeans , a proto-Zionist group of established English Jews led by Colonel Albert Goldsmid . In November 1895 they received him with curiosity, indifference and coldness. Israel Zangwill bitterly opposed Herzl, but after Istanbul, Goldsmid agreed to support Herzl. In London's East End ,

9170-498: The acting British district commissioner of Galilee , Lewis Yelland Andrews , was assassinated in Nazareth . Four days later Britain outlawed the Arab Higher Committee, and began to arrest its members. On 1 October 1937, the National Bloc, the Reform Party and the Istiqlal Party were dissolved. Yaqub al-Ghusayn, Al-Khalidi and Ahmed Hilmi Pasha were arrested and then deported. Jamal al-Husayni escaped to Syria, as did Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni. Amin al-Husayni managed to escape arrest, but

9301-454: The areas controlled by the Arab Legion were ordered to disband. Glubb Pasha carried out the order ruthlessly and efficiently. After the war, the Arab Higher Committee was politically irrelevant, and banned from the Jordanian West Bank , as was the All-Palestine Government. Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904) was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, lawyer, writer, playwright and political activist who

9432-592: The assistance of Count Philip Michael von Nevlinski, a Polish émigré with political contacts in the Ottoman Court, Herzl attempted to meet Sultan Abdulhamid II in order to present his solution of a Jewish State to the Sultan directly. He failed to obtain an audience but did succeed in visiting a number of highly placed individuals, including the Grand Vizier, who received him as a journalist representing

9563-510: The authorities. A number of purchased villages, particularly those in the Jezreel Valley , were inhabited by tenants of land who were displaced following the sale. The buyers demanded the existing population be relocated and as a result, the Palestinian Arab tenant farmers were evicted, with some receiving compensation the buyers were not required to pay under the new British Mandate law. Although they were not legally owed any compensation,

9694-471: The behest of Zionist leaders, read the kaddish . First buried at the Viennese cemetery in the district of Döbling , his remains were brought to Israel in 1949 and buried on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem , which was named after him. The coffin was draped in a blue and white pall decorated with a Star of David circumscribing a Lion of Judah and seven gold stars recalling Herzl's original proposal for

9825-508: The causes of the disturbances. The strike had been called off in October 1936 and the violence abated for about a year while the Peel Commission deliberated. The commission was impressed by the fact that the Arab national movement, sustained by the committee, was a far more efficient and comprehensive political machine than had existed in earlier years. All the political parties presented a 'common front' and their leaders sit together on

9956-455: The center. Differences of approach and interest, can be discerned, the more so from the strong pressure that is brought against them. In times of crisis, as in 1936–1938, such pressure has taken the form of intimidation and assassination. At present time, nonconformity regarding any important question on which the Arab Higher Committee has pronounced a policy is represented as disloyalty to the Arab nation. The Arab League – led by Egypt – set up

10087-400: The committee were: Initially, the committee included representatives of the rival Nashashibi and al-Husayni clans. The committee was formed after the 19 April call for a general strike of Arab workers and businesses, which marked the start of the 1936–39 Arab revolt . On 15 May 1936, the committee endorsed the general strike, calling for an end to Jewish immigration ; the prohibition of

10218-559: The craving for literary success and a desire to act as a public figure. Around this time, Herzl started writing pamphlets about A Jewish State . Herzl claimed that these pamphlets resulted in the establishment of the Zionist Movement, and they did play a large role in the movement's rise and success. His testimony before the British Royal Commission reflected his fundamental, romantic liberal view on life as

10349-543: The danger Zionism could expose Jews to throughout the domains of the Ottoman Empire. According to scholars Rashid Khalidi , Alexander Scholch and Dominique Perrin , Al-Khalidi was prescient in predicting that, regardless of Jewish historic rights, given the geopolitical context, Zionism could stir an awakening of Arab nationalism uniting Christians and Muslims. Kahn showed the letter to Theodor Herzl and on 19 March 1899 Herzl replied to al-Khalidi arguing that both

10480-467: The establishment of Jewish colonies in Ottoman Palestine, and to whom Herzl wrote a 65-page long pitch in 1895. He fared best with Israel Zangwill , and Max Nordau . They were both well-known writers or 'men of letters'—imagination that engenders understanding. The correspondence to Hirsch, who had died in 1896, led nowhere. Baron Albert Rothschild had little to do with the Jews. Herzl

10611-453: The evicted population received compensation though the buyers were not required under the new British Mandate law to pay. The total amount sold by the Sursocks and their partners represented 22% of all land purchased by Jews in Palestine until 1948, and, as first identified by Arthur Ruppin in 1907, this sale was perceived as vitally important in sustaining the territorial continuity of Jewish settlement in Palestine. Palestinians' responses to

10742-481: The evicted tenants (1,746 Arab farmer families comprising 8,730 persons in the largest group of purchases), were compensated with $ 17 per person (approx. $ 300 in 2024 dollars). Despite the sale, some former tenants refused to leave, such as in Afula .However, the new owners considered it was inappropriate for these farmers to remain as tenants on land intended for Jewish labor, according to the working-the-land ideology of

10873-538: The first copies of Judah Alkalai 's 1857 work prescribing the "return of the Jews to the Holy Land and renewed glory of Jerusalem." Contemporary scholars conclude that Herzl's own implementation of modern Zionism was undoubtedly influenced by that relationship. Herzl's grandparents' graves in Semlin can still be visited. Alkalai himself witnessed the rebirth of Serbia from Ottoman rule in the early and mid-19th century and

11004-410: The first time in October 1898. He deliberately coordinated his visit with that of Wilhelm II to secure what he thought had been prearranged with the aid of Rev. William Hechler , namely public world power recognition of himself and Zionism. Herzl and Wilhelm II first met publicly on 29 October, at Mikveh Israel , near present-day Holon , Israel. It was a brief but historic meeting. He had

11135-642: The footsteps of Ferdinand de Lesseps , builder of the Suez Canal , but did not succeed in the sciences and instead developed a growing enthusiasm for poetry and humanities. This passion later developed into a successful career in journalism and a less-celebrated pursuit of playwrighting. According to Amos Elon , as a young man, Herzl was an ardent Germanophile who saw the Germans as the best Kulturvolk (cultured people) in Central Europe and embraced

11266-556: The good of humanity. Herzl began to energetically promote his ideas, continually attracting supporters, Jewish and non-Jewish. According to Norman Rose, Herzl "mapped out for himself the role of martyr ... as the Parnell of the Jews." Herzl saw an opportunity in the mid-1890s anti-Armenian Hamidian massacres which severely tarnished the public image of the sultan in Europe. He proposed that in exchange for Jewish settlement in Palestine,

11397-478: The indications of a new European war on the horizon, and in an endeavor to resolve the inter-communal issues in Palestine, the British government proposed in late 1938 a conference in London of the two Palestinian communities. Some Arab leaders welcomed the proposed London Conference but indicated that the British would need to deal with the disbanded Arab Higher Committee and with Amin al-Husayni. On 23 November 1938,

11528-606: The infamous condition of the administration, we here also ascertained. A Greek banker named Sursuk, to whom the Government was under obligations, was allowed to buy the northern half of the Great Plain and some of the Nazareth villages for the ridiculously small sum of £20,000 for an extent of seventy square miles; the taxes of the twenty villages amounted to £4000, so that the average income could not be stated at less than £12,000, taking good and bad years together. The cultivation

11659-631: The initiative of Haj Amin al-Husayni , the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem , and comprised the leaders of Palestinian Arab clans and political parties under the mufti's chairmanship. The committee was outlawed by the British Mandatory administration in September 1937 after the assassination of a British official. A committee of the same name was reconstituted by the Arab League in 1945, but went to abeyance after it proved ineffective during

11790-423: The land and the qaimaqam (district governor) of Nazareth , Shukri al-Asali fought to overturn the sale, and refused to finalize the transaction. The villagers themselves sent a petition to the grand vizier complaining of the oppressive use of arbitrary power ( tahakkum ). In particular, they claimed that Ilyas Sursuk and a middleman had sold their land to people, whom they called "Zionists" and "sons of

11921-561: The land sale. Palestinians made speeches in opposition in Ottoman Parliament and numerous newspaper articles were published on the subject as well. As put by historian Rashid Khalidi , "the important thing was not whether the ruin had originally been built by Saladin: it was that these newspapers' readers believed that part of the heritage of Saladin, savior of Palestine from the Crusaders, was being sold off (by implication, to

12052-523: The majority and minority recommendations within the UNSCOP report. They "concluded from a survey of Palestine history that Zionist claims to that country had no legal or moral basis". The Arab Higher Committee argued that only an Arab State in the whole of Palestine would be consistent with the UN Charter. The Arab Higher Committee as well as the Arab states were actively involved in the deliberations of

12183-466: The new Arab Higher Committee, by then recognised by the Mandate administration. Amin Al-Husayni never returned to British Palestine. After the end of the war, Amin al-Husayni managed to find his way to Egypt and stayed there until 1959, when he moved to Lebanon . On 22 March 1945, the Arab League was formed. In November 1945, on the urging of Egypt, its leading member, the then seven members of

12314-401: The new committee two months later. In February 1946, Jamal al-Husayni returned from exile to Palestine and immediately set about reorganising and enlarging the committee, becoming its acting president. The members of the reconstituted committee as at April 1946 were: The Istiqlal Party and other nationalist groups objected to these moves, and formed a rival Arab Higher Front . In May 1946,

12445-415: The only way to avoid it was the establishment of a Jewish state. In June 1895, he wrote in his diary: "In Paris, as I have said, I achieved a freer attitude toward anti-semitism ... Above all, I recognized the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-semitism." Herzl's editors at Neue Freie Presse refused any publication of his Zionist political activities. A mental clash gripped Herzl, between

12576-653: The onset of negotiations with the Jewish Colonisation Association for the purchase of 97 villages in Palestine: The Jewish Colonisation Association is currently negotiating with a Greek family (Soursouk is the name, I think) for the purchase of 97 villages in Palestine. These Greeks live in Paris, have gambled away their money, and wish to sell their real estate (3 % of the entire area of Palestine, according to Bambus) for 7 million francs. The Zionist Organization considered

12707-486: The organisation's antisemitism . After a brief legal career in the University of Vienna and Salzburg , he devoted himself to journalism and literature , working as a journalist for a Viennese newspaper and a correspondent for Neue Freie Presse , in Paris, occasionally making special trips to London and Istanbul . He later became literary editor of Neue Freie Presse , and wrote several comedies and dramas for

12838-508: The partition and establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. After the rejection of the Peel proposals, the revolt resumed. Members of the Nashashibi family began to be targeted, as well as the Jewish community and British administrators. Raghib Nashashibi was forced to flee to Egypt after several assassination attempts on him, which were ordered by Amin al-Husayni. On 26 September 1937,

12969-578: The place of Tell Shaman. There is not one place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population. Arab Higher Committee The Arab Higher Committee ( Arabic : اللجنة العربية العليا , romanized :  al-Lajnah al-ʻArabīyah al-ʻUlyā ) or the Higher National Committee was the central political organ of Palestinian Arabs in Mandatory Palestine . It was established on 25 April 1936, on

13100-504: The poorest-class funeral without speeches or flowers and he added, "I wish to be buried in the vault beside my father, and to lie there till the Jewish people shall take my remains to Israel." Nevertheless, some six thousand followed Herzl's hearse, and the funeral was long and chaotic. Despite Herzl's request that no speeches be made, a brief eulogy was delivered by David Wolffsohn . Hans Herzl, then thirteen, who by his father's choice had not been circumcised at birth, and only did so later at

13231-491: The process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.' On 17 May 1901, Herzl met with Sultan Abdul Hamid II , who turned down Herzl's offer to consolidate the Ottoman debt in exchange for a charter allowing the Zionists access to Palestine . In 1897, at considerable personal expense, he founded the Zionist newspaper Die Welt in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, and planned

13362-578: The rejection of the Uganda plan. At 5 p.m. 3 July 1904, in Edlach, a village inside Reichenau an der Rax , Lower Austria , Theodor Herzl, having been diagnosed with a heart issue earlier in the year, died of cardiac sclerosis . A day before his death, he told the Reverend William H. Hechler : "Greet Palestine for me. I gave my heart's blood for my people." His will stipulated that he should have

13493-420: The religion of Moses" ( siyonist musevi ), who were not Ottoman subjects, and that the sale would deprive 1,000 villagers of their livelihoods. In earlier petitions concerning land disputes, Jews had been customarily referred to as "Israelites" ( Isra'iliyyun ). The existence of a Saladin -era Crusader castle located within the land area was used to allude to the battle against the Crusaders in opposing

13624-455: The social ghetto enforced on Western Jews. According to Henry Wickham Steed , Herzl was initially "fanatically devoted to the propagation of Jewish-German 'Liberal' assimilationist doctrine." However, Herzl came to reject his early ideas regarding Jewish emancipation and assimilation and to believe that the Jews must remove themselves from Europe. Herzl grew to believe that antisemitism could not be defeated or cured, only avoided, and that

13755-716: The start of the British Mandate, the Land Transfer Ordinance, 1920, removed all such restrictions. Between 1921 and 1925 the Sursock family sold their 80,000 acres (320 km) of land in the Vale of Jezreel to the American Zion Commonwealth (AZC) for nearly 750,000 pounds. The land was purchased by the Jewish organization as part of an effort to resettle Jews who inhabited the land, as well as others who came from distant lands. In 1924

13886-586: The transfer of Arab land to Jews; and the establishment of a National Government responsible to a representative council. Later it called for the nonpayment of taxes. Raghib al-Nashashibi , of the Nashashibi clan and member of the National Defence Party soon withdrew from the committee. In November 1936, and with the prospects of war in Europe increasing, the British government set up the Peel Royal Commission to investigate

14017-433: The truth, and must admit today at the end of the road that there is nothing but disappointment. Tonight I have said Kaddish for my parents—and for myself, the last descendant of the family. There is nobody who will say Kaddish for me, who went out to find peace—and who may find peace soon ... My instinct has latterly gone all wrong, and I have made one of those irreparable mistakes, which stamp a whole life with failure. Then it

14148-430: The vote, declaring it invalid because it was opposed by Palestine's Arab majority. The AHC also declared a three-day strike and public protest to begin on 2 December 1947, in protest at the vote. The call led to the 1947 Jerusalem riots between 2–5 December 1947, resulting in many deaths and much property damage. On 12 April 1948, with the end of the mandate looming, the Arab League announced its intention to take over

14279-711: The war years in occupied Europe , actively collaborating with the Nazi leadership. Amin and Jamal al-Husayni were involved in the 1941 pro-Nazi Rashidi revolt in Iraq . Amin again evaded capture by Britain but Jamal was captured in 1941 and interned in Southern Rhodesia , where he was held until November 1945 when he was allowed to move to Cairo. Husayn al-Khalidi returned to Palestine in 1943. Jamal al-Husayni returned to British Palestine in February 1946 as an official of

14410-403: The way he had been persuaded to be circumcised, and became successively a Baptist, then a Catholic, and flirted with other Protestant denominations. He sought a personal salvation for his own religious needs and a universal solution, as had his father, to Jewish suffering caused by antisemitism. Hans shot himself to death on the day of his sister Paulina's funeral; he was 39 years old. Hans left

14541-473: The way they like. The British Mandate of Palestine came to an end on 15 May 1948, on which day six of the then-seven Arab League states (Yemen being not active) invaded the now-former Mandate territory, marking the start of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War . The Arab Higher Committee claimed that the British withdrawal led to an absence of legal authority, making it necessary for the Arab states to protect Arab lives and property. The Arab states' proclaimed their aim of

14672-499: The whole of the British Mandate territory, with the objective being: The Arab armies shall enter Palestine to rescue it. His Majesty (King Farouk, representing the League) would like to make it clearly understood that such measures should be looked upon as temporary and devoid of any character of the occupation or partition of Palestine, and that after completion of its liberation, that country would be handed over to its owners to rule in

14803-460: The widely held belief for some time. However, some modern scholars now believe that – due to little mention of the Dreyfus affair in Herzl's earlier accounts and a seemingly contrary reference he made in them to shouts of "Death to the traitor!" – he may have exaggerated the influence it had on him in order to create further support for his goals. Jacques Kornberg claims that the Dreyfus influence

14934-532: Was a highly successful businessman. He had a sister, Pauline, who was a year older; she died of typhus on 7 February 1878. Theodor lived with his family in a house next to the Dohány Street Synagogue (formerly known as Tabakgasse Synagogue) located in Belváros , the inner city of the historical old town of Pest, in the eastern section of Budapest. In his youth, Herzl was aspired to follow

15065-453: Was a myth that Herzl did not feel necessary to deflate and that he also believed that Dreyfus was guilty. Another modern claim is that, while upset by antisemitism evident in French society, Herzl, like most contemporary observers, initially believed Dreyfus was guilty and only claimed to have been inspired by the affair years later when it had become an international cause célèbre . Rather, it

15196-412: Was disliked by the bankers (Finanzjuden) and detested them. Herzl was defiant of their social authority. He also shared Pinsker's pessimistic opinion that the Jews had no future in Europe; that they were too antisemitic to tolerate because each country in Europe had tried antisemitic assimilation. In Berlin they said Juden raus in a well worn phrase. Herzl therefore advocated a mass exodus from Europe to

15327-472: Was drawn to the mawkishness of Judaism rendered distinctively as German. But he remained convinced that Germany was the centre (Hauptsitz) of antisemitism rather than France. In a much quoted aside he noted "If there is one thing I should like to be, it is a member of old Prussian nobility." Herzl appealed to the nobility of Jewish England—the Rothschilds , Sir Samuel Montagu , later cabinet minister, to

15458-457: Was established. Amin al-Husayni was not a member of the Arab delegation but the delegation was clearly acting under his direction. The London Conference commenced on 7 February 1939, but the Arab delegation refused to sit in the same room with the Jewish delegation present, and the conference broke up in March with no success. In May 1939, the British government presented its 1939 White Paper which

15589-405: Was falsely convicted of spying for Germany . Herzl was witness to mass rallies in Paris following the Dreyfus trial. There has been some controversy surrounding the impact that this event had on Herzl and his conversion to Zionism. Herzl himself stated that the Dreyfus case turned him into a Zionist and that he was particularly affected by chants of "Death to the Jews!" from the crowds. This had been

15720-471: Was inspired by the Serbian uprising and subsequent re-creation of Serbia. On 25 June 1889, he married Julie Naschauer, the 21-year-old daughter of a wealthy Jewish businessman in Vienna. The marriage was unhappy, although three children were born to it: Paulina, Hans and Margaritha (Trude). One of his biographers suggests that Herzl infected his wife with gonorrhea which he contracted in 1880. Herzl had

15851-408: Was materially improved under his care, and the property must be immensely valuable, or would be, if the title could be considered secure; but it is highly probable that the Government will again seize the land when it becomes worth while to do so. The peasantry attributed the purchase to Russian intrigue, being convinced that their hated enemy has his eyes greedily turned to Palestine and to Jerusalem as

15982-466: Was out of the country at the time, was not allowed to return. Membership of the outlawed committee had dwindled to Jamal al-Husayni (acting chairperson), Husayn al-Khalidi (secretary), Ahmed Hilmi Pasha and Emil Ghuri . For all practical purposes, the committee ceased to exist, however, this brought little change in the structure of Arab political life and the Palestinian revolt continued. With

16113-483: Was penned 4 years after Herzl had confided to his diary the idea of spiriting away the population of whatever country was chosen for a future Jewish state to make way for Jews: We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our own country The property owners will come over to our side. Both

16244-452: Was pre-figured by a similar conclusion drawn by Marx's friend Moses Hess , in Rome and Jerusalem (1862). Leon Pinsker had never yet read it, but was aware of the distant and far off Hibbat Zion . Herzl's philosophical instruction highlighted the weaknesses and vulnerabilities. To Herzl each dictator or leader had a nationalistic identity, even down to the Irish from Wolfe Tone onwards. He

16375-466: Was received by Sergei Witte , then finance minister, and Viacheslav Plehve , minister of the interior, the latter placing on record the attitude of his government toward the Zionist movement. On that occasion Herzl submitted proposals for the amelioration of the Jewish position in Russia. At the same time Joseph Chamberlain floated the idea of a Jewish Colony in what is now Kenya. The plan became known as

16506-581: Was rejected by both sides. The White Paper had, in effect, repudiated the Balfour Declaration. According to Benny Morris , Amin al-Husayni "astonished" the other members of the Arab Higher Committee by turning down the White Paper . Al-Husayni turned the advantageous proposal down because "it did not place him at the helm of the future Palestinian state." The deportees were not allowed to return to Palestine until 1941. Amin Al-Husayni spent

16637-547: Was removed from the presidency of the Supreme Muslim Council. The committee was banned by the Mandate administration and three members (and two other Palestinian leaders) were deported to the Seychelles and the others moved into voluntary exile in neighbouring countries. Awni Abd al-Hadi, who was out of the country at the time, was not allowed to return. The National Defence Party, which had withdrawn from

16768-527: Was settled in this valley on 11 September 1921. Moshe Dayan , who grew up in Nahalal, mentioned the moshav – together with three other locations which had been part of the Sursock Purchase – as examples of there being "not one place built in this country which did not have a former Arab population": We came to this country which was already populated by Arabs, and we are establishing a Hebrew, that

16899-489: Was the establishment of a Jewish state . In 1896, Herzl published the pamphlet Der Judenstaat , in which he elaborated his visions of a Jewish homeland. His ideas attracted international attention and rapidly established Herzl as a major figure in the Jewish world. In 1897, Herzl convened the First Zionist Congress in Basel , Switzerland, and was elected president of the Zionist Organization. He began

17030-696: Was the father of modern political Zionism . Herzl formed the Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish immigration to Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish state. Due to his Zionist work, he is known in Hebrew as Chozeh HaMedinah ( חוֹזֵה הַמְדִינָה ), lit.   ' Visionary of the State ' . He is specifically mentioned in the Israeli Declaration of Independence and is officially referred to as "the spiritual father of

17161-447: Was the rise to power of the antisemitic demagogue Karl Lueger in Vienna in 1895 that seems to have had a greater effect on Herzl, before the pro-Dreyfus campaign had fully emerged. It was at this time that Herzl wrote his play "The New Ghetto," which shows the ambivalence and lack of real security and equality of emancipated, well-to-do Jews in Vienna. The protagonist is an assimilated Jewish lawyer who tries unsuccessfully to break through

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