A Liberal
Dose
July 18,
2024
Troy D.
Smith
“A Brief
History of Israel and Palestine, Part 6”
So much is going on, I debated with myself whether to return
to my ongoing series about the history of Palestine this week. I decided to do
so, for two reasons. One, whether we’re looking at Biden’s age issues and the
fate of his campaign or the assassination attempt on Trump, it is all still
unfolding as I write this. Two, it might be a good idea for all of us to review
the history of Palestine and the violence associated with it, if for no other
reason than to remind ourselves of what can happen when hate prevails in a
region and what it can lead to.
Last time, we had finally reached the nineteenth century, a
time during which the Ottoman Empire of Turkey had ruled over Palestine for 400
years. The Turks were Muslim, but many Arabs chafed under the rule of the
Ottomans. A growing sense of Arab nationalism was developing by the late
nineteenth/early twentieth century; many adherents to this philosophy wanted
Arabs to have control of their own lands, while others remained loyal to the
Ottoman Empire but wanted Arab rights recognized. There were also different
types of Arab nationalism. To some, this meant that the whole Arabic-speaking
world was one nation. To others, it meant that Arab groups in individual
countries ruled over by the Turks should have a strong sense of nationalism to
those countries and make them independent from the Ottomans, under Arabic rule.
You might be surprised to learn that Russia played a significant
role in what happened next.
In the Russian Empire, Jews were viciously persecuted and
were frequently the target of pogroms -from a Russian word meaning destruction.
The dictionary defines a pogrom as a violent riot with the goal of massacring
or expelling Jews from a region. This activity was especially heightened in the
1880s, which is when the word first appeared -but antisemitic violence had been
common throughout Europe for many centuries. Nonetheless, it intensified in
Russia at this time. Countless Jews were murdered, sometimes whole communities.
This contributed to large numbers of Jews fleeing the Russian Empire, many of
whom immigrated to the United States (even the mouse-versions, if you know your
Fievel). It also led to a growing sense among many Jews that they needed the
safety and security of a country of their own, something they had not had since
the Roman Empire and the diaspora (or dispersal of Jews to many regions of the
world).
Whereas some Jews proposed forming a colony elsewhere in the
world, such as in Africa, eventually a majority of people calling for a Jewish
homeland supported making it in Palestine, the location of the ancient kingdoms
of Israel and Judah from which their ancestors had been exiled. This movement
quickly became known as Zionism, for Mount Zion -a large hill in Jerusalem,
which in the Hebrew scriptures and later tradition referred symbolically to all
of Israel. The movement even designed their own flag in 1891, the very same
flag used by the modern nation of Israel today.
This goal was initially pursued by buying land in Palestine
from the Ottoman Empire, and establishing Jewish settlements there. Many local
Muslims resented their Turkish rulers selling away their land to outsiders, who
were growing in number, which heightened tensions between the Ottoman Empire
and Arab-speaking peoples in the Levant. To complicate matters further, Russia
was ALSO viciously persecuting Muslims in the Russian Empire, causing many of
THEM to migrate -and most were migrating to the Ottoman Empire, introducing
even more Muslim diversity in the region and even more nationalism and
resistance to the Turks. Since the Ottoman and Russian Empires were
arch-enemies, the Turks were very suspicious of the new Muslim immigrants
coming from Russian territory.
In 1914, the Ottoman Empire/Turkey entered World War I on
the side of the Central Powers (primarily Germany and the Austro-Hungarian
Empire). Various Arab nationalist groups united during the war, and -encouraged
by Britain -revolted against Turkey, fighting on the side of the Allies in
hopes of establishing a single Arab nation that would stretch from Syria to
Yemen. Britain promised to recognize such a new nation, in return for the
Arabs’ help in the war (this is what the movie Lawrence of Arabia is about).
Instead, when the war was over, Britain joined other
European powers in dividing up the Middle East among themselves. And, before fighting
had even stopped, Britain promised to help establish a Jewish national homeland…
in Palestine.
--Troy D.
Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at
Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee
Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
You can find all previous entries in this weekly column HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
The author's historical lectures on youtube can be found HERE
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