The Land and the People
In the 19th century, following a trend that began
earlier in Europe, people around the world began to identify
themselves as nations and to demand national rights, foremost
the right to self-rule in a state of their own (self-determination
and sovereignty). Jews and Palestinians both began to develop
a national consciousness, and mobilized to achieve national
goals. Because Jews were spread across the world (in diaspora),
their national movement, Zionism, entailed the identification
of a place where Jews could come together through the process
of immigration and settlement. Palestine seemed the logical
and optimal place, since this was the site of Jewish origin.
The Zionist movement began in 1882 with the first wave of European
Jewish immigration to Palestine.
At that time, the land of Palestine was part
of the Ottoman Empire. However, this area did not constitute
a single political unit. The northern districts of Acre and
Nablus were part of the province of Beirut. The district of
Jerusalem was under the direct authority of the Ottoman capital
of Istanbul because of the international significance of the
cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem as religious centers for
Muslims, Christians and Jews. According to Ottoman records,
in 1878 there were 462,465 subject inhabitants of the Jerusalem,
Nablus and Acre districts: 403,795 Muslims (including Druze),
43,659 Christians and 15,011 Jews. In addition, there were
perhaps 10,000 Jews with foreign citizenship (recent immigrants
to the country), and several thousand Muslim Arab nomads (bedouin)
who were not counted as Ottoman subjects. The great majority
of the Arabs (Muslims and Christians) lived in several hundred
rural villages. Jaffa and Nablus were the largest and economically
most important Arab towns.
Until the beginning of the 20th century, most
Jews living in Palestine were concentrated in four cities with
religious significance: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safad and Tiberias.
Most of them observed traditional, orthodox religious practices.
Many spent their time studying religious texts and depended
on the charity of world Jewry for survival. Their attachment
to the land was religious rather than national, and they were
not involved in -- or supportive of -- the Zionist movement
which began in Europe and was brought to Palestine by immigrants.
Most of the Jews who immigrated from Europe lived a more secular
lifestyle and were committed to the goals of creating a Jewish
nation and building a modern, independent Jewish state. By
the outbreak of World War I (1914), the population of Jews
in Palestine had risen to about 60,000, about 33,000 of whom
were recent settlers. The Arab population in 1914 was 683,000. |
