Year 11 Modern History: Case Study – The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Arab Nationalism and Zionism

By the middle of the nineteenth century, there were approximately 10 000 Jews and 500 000 Arabs in
Palestine. It was at this time that the first stirrings of Arab nationalism were noted. A Lebanese
Christian philosopher named Ibrahim al-Yazigi started calling for Arabs to ‘throw off the yoke of the
Turks’. By the 1870s, secret societies were being formed among Arabs wanting to see a revitalisation of
Arab culture. The key question Arab nationalists tussled with was whether to push for a pan-Arab
society that could arise from the Ottoman-controlled areas, or whether to satisfy nationalist yearnings for
individual nations. The British were keen to exploit any anti-
Ottoman sentiment among the Arabs during the First World Pan-Arabism
War, but their eventual betrayal of the Arabs would come to The idea of a unified Arab world
play a key role in the emergence of the modern Arab–Israeli
conflict.

The First Wave of modern immigration to Palestine

In the last decades of the nineteenth century, a small trickle of Jewish immigrants entered Palestine,
primarily for religious reasons. During this first wave of modern immigration to Palestine, called the
First Aliyah (ascent), some 10 000 Jewish settlers entered the region and established about 20 agricultural
settlements. Finance to assist the settlers was provided by benefactors such as Baron Edmond James de
Rothschild, a member of a prominent Jewish banking family in France.

It was at this time that the first tensions between Arabs and Jews begin to arise. Soon after the first
Jewish settlers arrived in the 1880s, quarrels broke out with neighbouring Arab villagers over grazing,
crops and other land issues. Disputes also arose when Jews purchased land from

absentee Arab landowners, leading to the dispossession of

the peasants who farmed the land. As the number of Jewish
settlements
Zionist increased, and
A supporter of Zionism; a person who
Arabs became
believes in self-determination
aware of the
(independence / autonomy) for all the
Zionist
Jewish people and the development
intention to
and protection of a Jewish nation
establish a
(‘Zion’)
Jewish
homeland,
opposition to the new immigrants spread through the Arab
community. Jews in the wider Diaspora were largely
unaware of the situation in Palestine. Many regarded
Palestine as ‘a land without a people awaiting a people
without a land’.

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 Year 11 Modern History: Case Study – The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Herzl and the First Zionist Congress, 1897.

In 1896 an Austrian Jew, Theodor Herzl, published a pamphlet titled The Jewish State, in which he argued
that Jews were alienated from society, and destined to be universally hated. Because the Jews were ‘a
people without a land’, Herzl believed that world powers should grant a territory to fulfil the need for a
Jewish nation. Herzl travelled throughout Europe meeting national leaders, but failed to convince them
to support his scheme. However, he was acclaimed among Eastern European Jews and, on the strength
of this, was able to convene the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897.

Delegates at the First Zionist Congress agreed to promote the settlement of Palestine by Jewish farmers
and artisans, attempt to strengthen the national consciousness of all Jews, and seek approval from
whatever governments were necessary to achieve the goalsof Zionism. Not all Jews were in favour of
these aims, however. Opponents argued that for men to create a new state was a blasphemy, forcing the
hand of God. Others advocated assimilation rather than
separation as the way for Jews to become better accepted
Assimilation
in society. Nonetheless, the congress was a significant step The absorption and integration of
towards the establishment of a Jewish homeland. people, ideas or culture into a wider
society or culture.
Because Herzl did not
have the deep emotional
and religious ties to the
Old Testament of many
Eastern European Jews,
he was willing to
consider sites other than
Palestine for the new
Jewish homeland.
Consequently, when in
1903 the British
Government offered a
territory in Uganda, East
Africa, Herzl was eager
to accept. His advocacy
for Uganda split the
Zionist movement, but
his death in July 1904 effectively killed off the Uganda scheme.

Using Sources – Questions

1. What evidence is there in Source 5 that the Zionist might not be willing to live side by side with Arabs
in Palestine? Does this explain why Arabs are not mentioned in Source 5?

2. What is the main fear expressed in Source 6?

3. From the tone of the article in Source 6, who do you think are the main readers of this article?

4. Explain why some historians argue that the establishment of Jewish settlers in Palestine during the
1880s and 1890s was a long-term cause of modern Arab-Israeli conflict.