Who are they? Palestinians and Zionists

1800s Palestinian Society  Palestinians in the 1800s were found primarily in the Ottoman empire  They were Arab speaking and Arab by culture  The majority of Palestinians were Sunni Muslim, though there was a substantial Christian minority  Palestinians lived in villages rather than cities  Their society was agriculturally based  Crops grown included citrus fruits, wheat, olives, apples, and figs  Politics were generally local  The top families of the village were the most respected  There was no sense of Palestinian or Ottoman citizenship  Individuals almost worked through their families  There was no nationhood at work yet (no call for a Palestinian state)

1800s Palestinian Land Ownership  Land codes were passed in 1858 and 1867  The goals were to make land ownership easier and land registration an official deed of land  This means that there’s a record of who owns it  It’s recorded by the government and a deed is released  This is a western world idea  The problem is that many that lived in the rural populations did not formally register their land  For years, peasants held land according to a traditional landowning rights system where it was understood who lived where

1800s Palestinian Land Ownership  The new registration process caused problems  Some were unable to register their land because of their debt (it cost $$ to register)  Some were unwilling to register (if we do, we’ll have to take a mandatory military term…if the men die, who will work the land?)  This leads to a market for land that is available to buy, leading to peasants being displaced from their homes

1800s Zionism  As we already mentioned, Zionism is a Jewish nationalist movement  Nationalism is tying together a group of people through a common language, a common culture, and common experiences  Much of the Zionist movement stemmed from anti-Semitism  Anti-Semitism is prejudice against Jews  Most anti-Semitism came from Europe though, and NOT North Africa  Arab anti-Semitism did not begin until the 20 th century  Much of the Jewish migration to Palestine stemmed from the anti- Semitism in Europe  Unlike the Palestinian movement of the time, Zionism IS tied to nationalism, and a call for a Jewish homeland in Palestine  This movement was as much about the culture as it was Judaism

Zionist Land Purchases (1880s)  Beginning in the 1880s families in urban areas of the Ottoman Empire and Western Europeans begin to buy land in Palestine  Once these families get the land deeds, they turn around and sell them to Zionists for a large profit  Much of this land is the same land the rural Palestinians are living on, but don’t have a deed for  As mentioned earlier, the Palestinians don’t have a deed either because they couldn’t purchase it (debt) or wouldn’t purchase it (military)  The Zionists have created a market for land purchases  THE ESSENTIAL QUESTION: WHICH IS MORE BINDING—A DEED TO THE LAND PROVING OWNERSHIP OR A FAMILY THAT HAS FARMED AND LIVED ON THE LAND FOR GENERATIONS (AS MANY AS 14)?  At the same time, Zionism continues to spread in Western Europe, and the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine continues to grow

The Destruction of the Ottoman Empire  The Ottoman Empire was on the losing side of WWI  The Ottomans had been slowly crumbling for decades, and WWI toppled the empire for good  What would happen in the former Ottoman region?  Several states emerged, including Turkey, and Egypt took a leadership role in the Middle East  With competing opinions over what should happen in the Middle East, especially as it related to the Zionist question, Jews settling in Palestine had a lot of success building their communities  Tension existed since the Zionist land grabs of the late 19 th century, but the Holocaust was the tipping point in the Palestinian-Jewish debate  We’ll talk about the question of Israel, through a game, tomorrow