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There is a certain
school of thought among Zionist historians that detects anti-Semitic
overtones in every action or utterance of Muslim rulers of the
Middle East. Sultan Abdul-Hamid II's famous refusal to allow Dr.
Theodore Herzl, the founder of Political Zionism, to settle
Palestine with Jewish colonists is a case in point. Herzl probably
thought that he was offering the Sultan a bargain, knowing that the
Sultan's dearest wish was to rescue the empire from the indebtedness
it had fallen into as a result of easy European loans.
Herzl offered to buy up
and then turn over the Ottoman Debt to the Sultan's government in
return for an Imperial Charter for the Colonization of Palestine by
the Jewish people. For having refused, the Sultan is painted in the
lurid colors of the Muslim bigot and presented as the first of a
long series of Jewish-hating rulers particularly characteristic of
the Muslim Middle East.
And yet, this is far
from the truth. The fact that Jews native to the Ottoman empire had
long coexisted and made contributions to Ottoman culture is totally
ignored, although it was a reality recorded in many of the archives
of the provinces of the Ottoman empire. Ottoman Jerusalem, for
instance, was, and is still famous for the coexistence of many
different ethnic, religious and confessional groups often living
together cheek by jowl.
The reasons for
Abdul-Hamid II's decision not to initiate the beginnings of Jewish
political settlement in Palestine had to do with the internal or
foreign affairs of the empire, and were not based on racial or
ethnic bias. At a time when the multinational Ottoman empire was
being torn apart by secessionist movements in the Balkans and East
Anatolia, the Turkish government feared the creation of yet another
nationality problem . The Sultan's government also recognized that
the venture would sow the seeds for Jewish expansionism that might
affect negatively other Ottoman provinces. Finally, the Great Powers
posed as the protectors of religious minorities in the empire and
the Sultan did not want to provide them with further advantage. As a
result , the Ottomans devised a series of entry restrictions that
prohibited all foreign Jews, with the exception of pilgrims, from
visiting Palestine. Through active European involvement, however,
European Jews were granted official protection as bona-fide
minorities, thereby increasing the number of "native" Jews in
Palestine, and thereby flouting Ottoman laws.
In Jerusalem, the
governor, Ali Ekrem Bey was hard put to stem the tide of Jewish
immigration and often laid the blame for the phenomenal rise of
Jewish migrants at the door of foreign Consuls who offered
protection to all minorities . The governor realized that laws were
not enough to prevent the sale of land to foreign Jewish settlers
because many lands had been acquired by private agreements and the
connivance of corrupt officials. Moreover, the local Sephardi
community was becoming susceptible to "the winds of change" and
falling under the influence of Zionist ideas. Although he actively
fought against these tendencies , in the end Ali Ekrem Bey was
forced to conclude that the foreign Consuls had usurped a large role
in the conduct of minority relations with the Ottoman state. Suffice
it to say that largely as a result of that foreign interference, by
1908 when Sultan Abdul-Hamid II's rule collapsed, it was estimated
that the Jewish population of Palestine had risen to 80,000, three
times its number in 1882, when the first entry restrictions were
imposed. And Jews had acquired some 156 square miles of land,
setting up 26 colonies.
March 11, 1999
Of Iraqi origin, Dr.
Hala Fattah is a historian of the Arab provinces of the Ottoman
empire, especially Iraq. She is the author of The Politics of
Regional Trade of Iraq, Arabia and the Gulf, 1745-1900 (S.U.N.Y
Press, 1996). Presently, she is an Independent Scholar.
References
Oke, Mim Kemal, "The Ottoman Empire, Zionism and the Question of
Palestine" in International Journal of Middle East Studies,
vol.14, 1982. |
