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Jews in Palestine before 1948 |
ישוב | |
|---|---|
 Jewish yishuv inRishon LeZion, 1882 | |
| Total population | |
| 1880s | 25,000 |
| 1948 | 630,000 |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Palestine (Ottoman Syria, OETA South, Mandatory Palestine) | |
| Languages | |
| Hebrew, Ladino, Judeo-Arabic, Yiddish | |
| Religion | |
| Judaism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Old Yishuv,New Yishuv | |
TheYishuv (Hebrew:ישוב,lit. 'settlement'),HaYishuv Ha'ivri (Hebrew:הישוב העברי,lit. 'theHebrew settlement'), orHaYishuv HaYehudi Be'Eretz Yisra'el (lit. 'the Jewish Settlement in the Land of Israel') was the community ofJews residing inPalestine prior to the establishment of theState of Israel in 1948. The term came into use in the 1880s, when there were about 25,000 Jews living in that region, and continued to be used until 1948, by which time there were some 630,000 Jews there.[1] The term is still in use to denote the pre-1948 Jewish residents in Palestine, corresponding to the southern part ofOttoman Syria until 1918,OETA South in 1917–1920, andMandatory Palestine in 1920–1948.[2]
A distinction is sometimes drawn between theOld Yishuv and theNew Yishuv. The Old Yishuv refers to all the Jews living in Palestine before the firstZionist immigration wave (aliyah) of 1882, and to their descendants until 1948. The Old Yishuv residents were religious Jews, living mainly inJerusalem,Safed,Tiberias, andHebron. There were smaller communities inJaffa,Haifa,Peki'in,Acre,Nablus,Shfaram, and until 1799[3] inGaza. In the final centuries before modern Zionism,[clarification needed] a large part of the Old Yishuv spent their time studying theTorah and lived off charity (halukka), donated by Jews in theDiaspora.[4][clarification needed]
The termNew Yishuv refers to those who adopted a new approach, based on economic independence and various national ideologies, rather than strictly religious reasons for settling in the "Holy Land".[citation needed] The precursors began building homes outside theOld City walls of Jerusalem in the 1860s, followed soon after by the founders of themoshava ofPetah Tikva, with growth in full swing during theFirst Aliyah of 1882, followed by the founding of neighbourhoods and villages until the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.[citation needed]
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The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of southernOttoman Syria in theOttoman Empire,[5] up to the onset of Zionistaliyah and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I in 1918 and the establishment of the BritishMandate for Palestine. The Old Yishuv had continuously resided in Palestine and was largely made up ofultra-Orthodox Jews dependent on external donations (Halukka) for living, as opposed to the later Zionist aliyah and the New Yishuv, who were more socialist-leaning and secular, emphasizing labor and self-sufficiency.[citation needed]
The Old Yishuv developed after a period of severe decline in Jewish communities of the SouthernLevant during theearly Middle Ages, and was composed of three clusters. The oldest group consisted of theLadino-speakingSephardic Jewish communities inGalilee and theJudeo-Arabic speakingMusta'arabi Jews who settled in Eretz Yisrael in the Ottoman and lateMamluk period. A second group was composed ofAshkenazi andHasidic Jews who had emigrated from Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries. A third wave was constituted by Yishuv members who arrived in the late 19th century.[6] The Old Yishuv was thus generally divided into two independent communities – theSephardi Jews (including Musta'arabim), mainly constituting the remains of Jewish communities ofGalilee and theFour Holy Cities of Judaism, which had flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries; and theAshkenazi Jews, whose immigration from Europe was primarily since the 18th century.[7]
TheOld Yishuv term was coined by members of the 'New Yishuv' in the late 19th century to distinguish themselves from the economically dependent and generally earlier Jewish communities, who mainly resided in the four holy cities, and unlike the New Yishuv, had not embraced land ownership and agriculture. Apart from the Old Yishuv centres in the four holy cities of Judaism, namelyJerusalem,Hebron,Tiberias andSafed, smaller communities also existed inJaffa,Haifa,Peki'in,Acre,Nablus andShfaram.Petah Tikva, although established in 1878 by the Old Yishuv, nevertheless was also supported by the arriving Zionists.Rishon LeZion, the first settlement founded by theHovevei Zion in 1882, could be considered the true beginning of theNew Yishuv.[8]
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The Ottoman government was not supportive of the new settlers from the First and Second Aliyah, as the Ottoman government officially restricted Jewish immigration. The Yishuv relied on money from abroad to support their settlements.
In 1908, the Zionist Organization founded thePalestine Office [he], underArthur Ruppin, for land acquisition, agricultural settlement and training,[9] and later for urban expansion. The first Hebrew high schools were opened in Palestine as well as theTechnion, the first institution for higher learning.Hashomer, a Zionist self-defence group, was created to protect the Jewish settlements. Labor organizations were created along with health and cultural services, all later coordinated by theJewish National Council. By 1914, the old Yishuv was a minority, and the New Yishuv began to express itself and itsZionist goals.
TheFirst Aliyah was the very beginning of the creation of the New Yishuv. More than 25,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine. The immigrants were inspired by the notion of creating a national home for Jews. Most of the Jewish immigrants came from Russia, escaping thepogroms, while some arrived from Yemen. Many of the immigrants were affiliated withHovevei Zion. Hovevei Zion purchased land from Arabs and other Ottoman subjects and created various settlements such asYesud HaMa'ala,Rosh Pinna,Gedera,Rishon LeZion,Nes Tziona andRechovot. These agricultural settlements were supported by philanthropists from abroad, chieflyEdmond James de Rothschild. andAlphonse James de Rothschild.[10]
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda also immigrated during the first Aliyah. Ben-Yehuda took it upon himself to revive the Hebrew language, and along withNissim Bechar started a school for teaching Hebrew, later on founding the first Hebrew newspaper.
During the Second Aliyah, between 1903 and 1914, there were 35,000 new immigrants, primarily from Russia.
DuringWorld War I, the conditions for the Jews in the Ottoman Empire worsened. All those Jews who were of an enemy nationality were exiled and others were drafted into the Ottoman army. Many of those exiled fled toEgypt and theUnited States. Those who remained in the Ottoman ruled Palestine faced hard economic times. There was disagreement whether to support the British or the Turks. A clandestine group,Nili, was established to pass information to the British in the hope of defeating the Ottomans and ending their rule over Palestine. The purpose and members of the Nili were discovered. All involved were executed by the Ottomans except its founder,Aaron Aaronsohn, who escaped to Egypt. During World War I, the Jewish population in Palestine diminished by a third due to deportations, immigration, economic trouble and disease. During World War I, there were two British battalions of Jews, called theZion Mule Corps, who were to fight on the front of Palestine. They helped in the British capture of Ottoman Syria (including Palestine), leading to the Turkish surrender. The members of the Zion Mule Corps later made up the Yishuv's defence groups that would fight against the British.
World War I ended, along with the Ottoman Empire. Britain gained control of Palestine through theSykes–Picot Agreement, which partitionedOttoman Syria into French-ruled Syria and Lebanon and British-controlledPalestine andTransjordan. There was a hope that British control would allow the creation of a Jewish national homeland as promised in theBalfour Declaration. The British Mandate was formalized in 1922 based on the Balfour Declaration. The British were supposed to help the Jews build a national home and promote the creation of self-governing institutions. The mandate provided for an agency in which the Jews could represent Jewish interests and promote Jewish immigration. It was called theJewish Agency for Palestine, and was only created ten years later, serving as the de facto government of the Yishuv.
Along with a Jewish agency there was to be a general self-governing institution created in Palestine including Jews and Arabs. The Yishuv feared such an institution due to the Arab majority, but none was created in the end due to the Arabs' refusal to cooperate with the Jews or the British. The optimism that existed in the beginning of the British mandate soon diminished due to continued hardships in the Yishuv. Most of the European funds that supported the Jewish settlements before World War I ended. The Arabs, opposed to the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate, instigated riots against the Jews. The British limited immigration through yearly quotas; only those who received "certificates" could make Aliyah.
Many women who immigrated to Israel came out of national Zionist motives; they wanted the same rights as men and wanted to rebuild their land.[11] In 1919 the first nationwide women's party in the New Yishuv (the Union of Hebrew Women for Equal Rights in Eretz Israel) was created, andRosa Welt-Straus, who had immigrated there that year, was appointed its leader, as which she continued until her death.[12][13][14][15] The constituent assembly was voted upon in 1920, and 14 women were elected out of the three hundred and fourteen delegates.[16] As well as the increase in the number of women filling public positions, the rate of women participating in the labor force increased steadily during the British mandate period in the Yishuv. With that being said, the employment opportunities at the beginning of the mandate period were very limited and women were mainly restricted to typical female occupations because the only other option would be to work in construction, which only pioneer women committed to as part of their feminist-nationalist outlook because those roles were considered inappropriate for women.[17] Women were consistently more unemployed when compared to their male counterparts, regardless ofcyclical fluctuations. The wages for working women were consistently lower than the wages of their male counterparts, and throughout the Yishuv period, the average wage for women were 50 to 70 percent of male's wage.
Not only were non-religious women fighting for equality, but so were religious women. Female religious Zionists were faced with double the amount of barriers of non-religious female Zionists because they were rejected from religious society because of their gender and they were rejected from secular society because of their religiosity[11] In 1926, theharedim, who preferred not to face the possibility of aplebiscite, left the Yishuv's Assembly of Representatives. That year, an official declaration was made (ratified by the mandate government in 1927) confirming "equal rights to women in all aspects of life in the yishuv – civil, political, and economic."[18] In 1935, the establishment of the national organization of religious pioneer women emerged. Its main goal was to improve the material status and spiritual welfare of the religious women workers and gain admittance to theHa-Po'el ha-Mizrachi. This organization grew from eight-hundred members in 1935 to six-thousand members in 1948.[19] Women gained rights with the establishment of the religious kibbutz movement by participating in Torah studies with men and by taking part in the co-ed activities that the Kibbutz offered.[19]
There were Arabriots throughout 1920–21 in opposition to theBalfour Declaration. The Arabs tried to show the British the instability of Palestine and that a Jewish homeland was ungovernable. Riots increased in1929 after the fourth Aliyah – 133 Jews were killed by Arab mobs during the 1929 riots. The Arabs claimed that Jewish immigration and land purchases were displacing them and taking their jobs away. These riots were also instigated by false rumours that the Jews were planning on building a synagogue near theWestern Wall. These riots led to the evacuation of Hebron's indigenous – largely non-Zionist – Jewish population.
The British responded to the Arab riots with theWhite Paper of 1939. It was based on theHope Simpson Report, which stated that Palestine after economic development could support only 20,000 more immigrant families without infringing on the Arab population's placement and employment. It therefore attempted to curtail immigration to Palestine. Upon Jewish criticism of this policy, it was clarified that immigration would not be stopped entirely but would be restricted by quotas.
There were many Jewish immigrants that arrived throughout the 1930s in the fifth Aliyah, despite the immigration quotas. Many who came were fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. Those that came from Nazi Germany were able to come because of theHaavara Agreement. This allowed Jews to escape from Germany to Palestine in return for paying a ransom to the Reich. By then, the Yishuv had a population of about 400,000.
The increasing numbers of Jewish immigrants and land purchases, unchallenged by the British Mandate, angered and radicalized many Arabs. In April 1936, Arabs attacked a Jewish bus, leading to a series of incidents that escalated into amajor Arab rebellion. The British were caught by surprise and were unable to prevent the deaths of thousands of Arabs and hundreds of Jews in the revolt.[citation needed] TheHaganah protected the Yishuv's settlements while theIrgun, a radical splinter group, launched a campaign of attacks against Arabs.[20] A coalition of recently formed Arab political parties formed theArab Higher Committee (AHC). It declared a national strike in support of three basic demands: cessation of Jewish immigration, an end to all further land sales to the Jews, and the establishment of an Arab national government. The Arabs threatened that if the British didn't comply with their demands then they would join the adversaries of the British. This concerned the British forWorld War II was just beginning and they knew they would need Middle Eastern oil.
The British worked with their Arab allies to bring a halt to the AHC riots. ThePeel Commission reported, in July 1937, that the British obligations to the Arabs and Zionists were irreconcilable and the mandate unworkable. It suggested the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, with the British mandate governing over Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem along with a corridor from Jerusalem to the coast. The Jews accepted the general principle of a partition while the Arabs refused any partition plan. The British government sent a technical team called theWoodhead Commission to detail the plan. The Woodhead Commission considered three different plans, one of which was based on the Peel plan. Reporting in 1938, the Commission rejected the Peel plan primarily on the grounds that it could not be implemented without a massive forced transfer of Arabs (an option that the British government had already ruled out).[21] With dissent from some of its members, the Commission instead recommended a plan that would leave the Galilee under British mandate, but emphasised serious problems with it that included a lack of financial self-sufficiency of the proposed Arab State.[21] The British Government accompanied the publication of the Woodhead Report by a statement of policy rejecting partition as impracticable due to "political, administrative and financial difficulties".[22]
The Arab Revolt broke out again in the autumn of 1937. The British ended the revolt using harsh measures, deporting many Palestinian Arab leaders and shutting down the AHC. In the Yishuv, the Arab Revolt reinforced the already firm belief in the need for a strong Jewish defence network. Finally, the Arab agricultural boycott that began in 1936 forced the Jewish economy into even greater self-sufficiency. The Haganah during this period changed from being a small clandestine militia to a large military force. The British security forces at this time cooperated with the Haganah to respond to the Arabs.
In 1938 CaptainOrde Wingate created theSpecial Night Squads (SNS) that were composed mostly of Haganah members. SNS used the element of surprise in night raids to protect the Jewish settlements and attack the Arabs.
The British suppressed the Arab revolt and published theWhite Paper of 1939. It allowed for a total of only 75,000 Jews to enter Palestine over a five-year period. During this time the Yishuv entered a period of relative peace with the Arabs.
The Yishuv wanted to help their fellow Jews, who were being murdered by the Nazis in Europe. Many Jews from Europe were prevented from fleeing to Mandatory Palestine by strict immigration quotas established by the white papers. The Jewish Agency organized illegal immigration from 1939 through 1942 with the help of the Haganah. Those who arrived illegally to Israel during this time were part of theAliyah Bet. This was a dangerous operation, for these illegal immigrants arrived by boat and had to be careful not to be caught by the British orNazis. Many of these ships sank or were caught, such as thePatria,Struma andBulgaria. Compared with the number of attempts, few ships actually arrived successfully to Mandatory Palestine, but tens of thousands of Jews were saved by the illegal immigration.
The Yishuv also wanted to help on the front lines in Europe to try to save Jews from the Nazi atrocities. In 1942 the Jewish agency turned to the British to offer their assistance by sending Jewish volunteers to Europe as emissaries of the Yishuv to organize local resistance and rescue operations among the Jewish communities. The British accepted the proposal but on a much smaller scale than the Jewish agency had hoped. They only took Jewish parachutists who were recent immigrants from certain targeted countries that they wanted to infiltrate. The British Special Forces and military intelligence both consented to the volunteers' dual role as British agents and Jewish emissaries. 110 Yishuv members were trained; however only 32 were deployed. Many of them succeeded in helping the POWs and uprisings in the Jewish communities, while others were caught.
There were two periods during the war when the Yishuv faced a direct threat from Nazi forces. The first occurred following Germany's conquest of France in 1940, since the pro-Nazi Vichy regime controlled the northernLevant, from which an invasion of Palestine could take place. However, in 1941 British forcessuccessfully fought Vichy forces for control of Syria and Lebanon, thus removing the threat of invasion from the north, at least as long as German armies in Eastern Europe could be held back by theRed Army and thus unable to easily advance towards the Near East from the north. In 1942 however, as Erwin Rommel'sAfrika Korps swept acrossNorth Africa with the intent of capturing theSuez Canal, the likelihood of a German invasion from the south became a real possibility, causing great anxiety in the Yishuv and prompting plans to be drawn for its defense. Knowing that Nazi control of Palestine meant certain annihilation of the Yishuv, a debate raged among Yishuv leadership whether, in the event Nazi occupation was to take place, the inhabitants of the Yishuv should evacuate together with British forces eastwards towardsBritish possessions in Iraq and India or undertake aMasada-like last stand in Palestine, likely doing so in a fortified zone to be hastily constructed around theCarmel Mountains. This military operation was officially namedPalestine Final Fortress. Fortunately for the Yishuv, the advance of German forces eastwards in Egypt was halted during theSecond Battle of El Alamein, thus lifting the threat of invasion from the south. The anxious time leading to the Nazi loss at El Alamein became known as the200 days of dread.
Despite the reports of Nazi atrocities and the desperation of Jews needing a safe haven the British kept the gates of Palestine almost closed to Jewish immigration. The Zionist leaders met at theBiltmore Hotel in New York in May 1942 andcalled for unrestricted Jewish immigration and the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth.
Hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors were being held in Displaced Persons Camp (DP Camps) aching to go to Mandatory Palestine. The British received much international pressure, specifically from U.S. president Harry Truman, to change their policy on immigration. Despite Britain's dependence on American economic aid, the British refused, claiming that they were experiencing too much resistance from the Arabs and Jews already in Palestine and feared what would happen if more were allowed to enter. The refusal to remove the white paper policy angered and radicalized the Yishuv. The Yishuv's militia groups set out to sabotage the British infrastructure in Palestine and continue in their illegal immigration efforts. In 1946, the British responded to the Yishuv's efforts and began a two-week search for Jews suspected of anti-British activities, arresting many of the Haganah's leaders. While the British were busy looking for the Haganah, the Irgun andLehi carried out attacks on British forces. The most famous of their attacks was on theKing David Hotel, the site of the British military command and the British Criminal Investigation Division. This location was chosen because a few weeks before a large quantity of documents was confiscated from the Haganah and brought there. Despite being warned by the Yishuv and told to evacuate the building the British officials decided not to cave in to the pressure. The Yishuv attacked anyway, resulting in 91 deaths, 28 of who were British and 17 who werePalestinian Jews.
By 1947 the British had 100,000 troops in Palestine trying to maintain order and protect themselves. The British mandate was a major expense to the Exchequer, forcing them to present the Palestine problem to the United Nations on May 15, 1947. The United Nations proposed a partition of the British Mandate for Palestine into 2 states—Arab and Jewish (UN Resolution 181). The Jews accepted it, while the Arabs stated that they would do everything in their power to prevent it.
The AHC, determined to preventResolution 181 from coming into effect, began to attack and besiege the Jews. The British sided with the Arabs[citation needed] in an attempt to prevent the Yishuv from arming themselves. Jerusalem was held under a siege with no access to weapons, food or water. The Provisional Government seemed helpless until it received a large shipment of arms from Czechoslovakia. The Haganah started fighting offensively from April through May. The Haganah mounted a full-scale military plan,Operation Nachshon. After much fighting and the crucial construction ofa new road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the siege of Jerusalem was broken, allowing supplies to be brought into the city.
This operation's success helped Harry S. Truman recognize that the Jews would be able to protect themselves. The United States decided therefore, it would support the establishment of a Jewish state. On May 14, 1948, the Jews proclaimed the independent state of Israel and the British withdrew from Palestine.
The 1920 Nabi Musa riots left four Arabs and five Jews killed, with 216 Jews and 23 Arabs wounded. The majority of the victims were members of theold Yishuv. About 300 Jews from the Old City were evacuated following the riots.[23]
During the Jaffa riots in 1921, thousands of Jewish residents of Jaffa fled for Tel Aviv and were temporarily housed in tent camps on the beach. Tel Aviv, which had previously been lobbying for independent status, became a separate city due in part to the riots. However Tel Aviv was still dependent on Jaffa, which supplied it with food and services, and was the place of employment for most residents of the new city.[24]
Following the1929 Palestine riots, which left 133 Jews dead,[25][26] the Jewish community members of Gaza and Hebron were ordered to evacuate by the British forces, in fear of their security.
During theArab revolt of 1936–1939, the Jewish residents ofAkko were ousted from the city by local Arab residents. The same fate was forced on the ancient Jewish community ofPeki'in.
The Assembly of Representatives was the elected parliamentary assembly of the Jewish community inMandatory Palestine. It was established on 19 April 1920,[27] and functioned until 13 February 1949, the day before thefirst Knesset, elected on 25 January, was sworn in. The Assembly met once a year to elect the executive body, theJewish National Council,[28] which was responsible for education, local government, welfare, security and defense.[29] It also voted on the budgets proposed by the Jewish National Council and the Rabbinical Council.[28]
SeeBar-Giora,Hamagen, Hanoter, andHashomer.
The most notable Jewish paramilitaries in theBritish Mandate of Palestine were theHaganah, theIrgun andLehi. In October, 1945, during theJewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine, those organizations joined to form theJewish Resistance Movement. It was established by theJewish Agency and activated for some ten months, until August, 1946.[30] The alliance coordinated acts of sabotage and attacks against British authorities.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)(p. 236) FINANCE ... we found that it was impossible, whatever boundaries we might recommend, to set up an Arab State which should be self-supporting.... deficits of £P.610,000 per annum for the Arab State (including Trans- Jordan) and of £P.460,000 per annum for the Mandated Territories, but a surplus of £P.600,000 per annum for the (p. 237) Jewish State. We have found that it is not possible to call upon the Jewish State for a direct subvention to the Arab State, and neither practicable nor equitable to set up an Arab State with a budget so very far from being balanced. We conclude that, if partition is to be carried out, there is no alternative but that Parliament should be asked to provide, in some form, sufficient assistance to enable the Arab State to balance its budget. (p. 246) ... CONCLUSION ... The question whether partition is practicable involves considerations of two kinds: practical and political. The former concern chiefly finance and economics;.... But the financial and economic difficulties, ..., are of such a nature that we can find no possible way to overcome them within our terms of reference. ... we have proposed, ... a modification of partition which, ... seems to us, subject to certain reservations, to form a satisfactory basis of settlement, if His Majesty's Government are prepared to accept the very considerable financial liability involved. There remain the political difficulties. ... But there is still the possibility that both sides may be willing to accept a reasonable compromise.
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