* Palestine Jews








Palestine Jews


Figure 1.--This is a Jewish immigration camp at Tel Aviv in Palestine. The photograph is not dated, but would have been taken about 1920. The sign indications that it was set up by the Zionist Commission, Palestine. The Commission was formed (March 1918) and went to Palestine to study conditions and make recommendations to the British authorities. The Commission, including Chaim Weizmann and Israel Sieff as secretary, reached Palestine (April 14, 1918. It encountered immediate difficulties with the British military administration (OETA), which was not sympathetic to the Zionist goals. The Commission completed initial surveys and aided in the repatriation of Jews exiled by the Ottoman Turks during the War. The Commission was the forerunner of the Jewish Agency. The Commission became the Palestine Zionist Executive, which acted as the Jewish Agency for Palestine (1921). Source: American Colony, Jerusalem Photographic Archive.

The Romans in supressing the Jewish Revolt (70 AD) left Jerusalem to the jackels. Most of the Jewish population was killed, enslved, or fled. The Jews were thus dispersed throughout the Roman Empire or fled east to Persian lands. Jerusalem disappeared from history for more than two centuries. It did not reappear until the Emperor Constantine emraced Christianity. Constantine adired his mother Helena who was a Christian convert. Helena made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem(326). She claimed to have dicovered the true cross. And she built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Later her grandson, Julian the Apostate, argued that the Jewish Temple should be rebuilt. Jew throughout the Empire pryed for it, but of course it never occurred. During the reign of Emperor Heraclius, Christians massacered Jews (6th century AD). Mohammed adopted the Jerusalem Temple as his first qibla, the direction toward which Muslims should pray. Here he was inspired by the Jewish Torah and the desire to replace Judaism. Offended that the Jews would not convet, he turned toward Mecca. Mohammed died (632). Two years later Arab armies took Jerusalem (634) as they pursued conquests in the Byzantine-controlled Levant. The Arabs built two mosques on the Temple Mount--Omar and Al-Aqsa. Islamic tradution claims that Mohammed ascended to heaven from the Dome on thec Rock, the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Pope Urban II launched the Crusades (1095) which brought Jerusalem and much of Palestine under Christian control. The immediate result was caranage in the Temple Mount. One crusader wrote, "Wonderful sights were to be seen. Our men cut off the heads of their enemies., others shot them with arrows so they fell from towers, others tortured them .... Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen on the streets." As the Christians Knights put Muslims to the sword, they also burned Jews in Synagogues. They bashed the heads of babies against walls. They proceed to Helena's Church of the Holy Sepluchre seeking what remined of the True Cross. There a Norman Bishop had Greek Orthodox priests tortured to get them to reveal where the cross was hidden. [Montefiore]

Ancient Hebrews

Archeological evidence shows that many mostly small kingdoms rose and fell over time in the area between the two great centers of civilization, Mesopotamia and Egypt. While these peoples are mostly of only minor importance in the great swwp of history. One of these people, however, the Hebrews have come to play a major role in the development of Wetern civilization. The origin of the very name is shrouded in the mist of pre-history. Scholars associate it with the word "Hiberu". It first appears in writing sent to Egypt from one of the small client states which the Egyptians left after withdrawing from Canaan in the 1300s BC. These client states faced wves of nomadic tribes. The Egupian word "Hiberu" meant "outsider" and originally was probably used to describe migrants in general and not one specific people. The early Hebrews apparently were semi-nomadic heardsmen who gradually began some limited farming They did not have metal tools or a written language. Like other nomads, the ancient Hebrews lived in tents and were organized in extended families combined into kinship groups. [Smitha] Biblical scholarship has developed extensive information on the Hebrew people who for a tome were captives in both Egypt and Babylonia.

Great Jewish Revolt (66-70 AD)

When Rome seized Egypt, Roman power and influence grew throughout the Levant, including Palesine. At about the same time, a new group of devout Jews appeared--the Zealots. They were oposed to foreign rule, at the time meaning Roman rule. Their central commitment was that the Jews had to achieve political and religious liberty. And they were willing to challege Rome. The Jews were apauled during the reign of Emperor Caligula, who declared himself to be a god and and ordered his statue to be set up at every religious building rhroughout the Empire (39 AD). This included Jewish temples. Religious leaders throughout the Empire complied--except the Jews. Caligula was outraged and threatened to destroy the Temple. The Jews sent a delegation to Rome in an effort to pacify him. Their mission was a failure. Caligula in a rage virtually condened them, "So you are the enemies of the gods, the only people who refuse to recognize my divinity." It is unclear what Caligula planned for the Jewish people, but it is wudek=ly believed that the ordered the destruction of both the templec and thecJewish people themselves. disaster was overted when the palace guard murdered the emperor (41). The experience with Caligula, however, radicalized the Jewish people. Many Jews saw Caligula's policies as what they could expect from the Romans. The Zealots claimed that it was God who had smitten Caligula ad he would assist them if they confronted the Roman Legions. The Romans made no real effort to deal with any sesitivity wih the Jews. The Romans occupied Palestine (63 AD). Rome ruled Judea through a procurator. His principal function was to collect taxes and he was assigned a quota. The way the system worked was that any amount he collected over the quota was his to keep. As a result, Roman taxes soon became onerous approaching confiscatory levels. Perhaps even more disturbing to devout Jews was that Rome began appointing the High Priest. This meant that the high priests who were the Jews representatives to God became if not tools of the Roman authorities, individuals prone to colaboration. The Jews experienced a series of what the saw as outrages aimed at their God. Roman soldiers reportedly exposed themselves in the Temple and in another occasion burned a sacred torah scroll. Thus tensions mounted as a result of financial exploitation, religious insensitivity, and favorism shown to non-Jews. The flash point came with the Roman procurator removed large quantities of silver from the Temple (66). Outraged mobs in Jerusalm attacked and killed the small Roman garison in Jerusalem. Cestius Gallus, the Roman ruler in nearby Syria dispated a more sizeable force, but Jewish rebels defeated them. The early victories over relatively small Roman forces embolded the Jews. Large numbers of new recruits joined the Zealots. The Romans dispatched a massive force of 60,000 battle hardened Legionaires. The Jews had no professinal army to meet a force of that nature. The initial Roman action came in the north, te Galilee where the Zealots were the strongest (68 AD). The Romans had no trouble in quickly defeating the Zealot forces. Reports suggest the Romans killed or took as slaves 100,000 Jews. Authorities in Jerusalem made no effort to assist the Jewish forces in the Galilee. It is unclear why. One historian believes it was because they knew the Revolt was doomed. [Zeitlin] The Zealots who survived the Roman onslaught in the Galilee fled to Jerusalem. There they attacked leaders not willing to resist the Romans. This result in a Jewish civil war at the same time the Romans were moving to besige the city. There was a large stock pile of food in Jerusalem, but inexplicably the Zealots burned it, thinking that this would make the population fight the Romans with more intensity. The result was that after the Romans besiged the city there was soon large-scale starvation. Some important leaders had opposed the Revolt, most prominate was Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai. He was targeted by the Zealots, but managed to escape, He surrendered to the Roman general Vespasian who promised that he would permit Jewish communal life to continue. The Romans under Titus, the son of Vespasian who had become emperor, finally breached the walls of Jerusalem (summer 70). He put the city to the sword and destroyed the Second Temple. Among the horrors, 6,000 women and children found hiding in a treasury chamber were burned. There are no precise numbers, but the Romans may have killed as many as 1 million Jews and enslaved many who were not killed. [Josepheus] The failure of the Revolt eded the last vestages of a Jewish state. The Jewish Disapora is generally dated from the failure of the Revolt and the destruction of the Second Temple. Jerusalem ws essentilly left to the jackekls. Zealots held out for some time. The last major engagement was the fall of Masada (73 AD). Another disterous revolt came 60 years later--the Bar Kokhba revolt (132 AD)

The Diaspora

The Jewish Diaspora began with Assyrian conquest when Jew from Israel were exiled (8th century BC). These exiles are lost to history--The Lost Tribes of Israel. As a result, many histories of the Diaspora begin with the Babylonian conquest (6th century BC). Many Jews at the time came to saw their exile as a punishment for their sins and came to believe that they would be unable to return to their land unless God redeemed by sending a Messiah. Some of the Jews taken to Babylon survived and thanks to Cyrus the Great, eventually retuned to Palestine. Another dispersal was conducted by the Romans. The Romans suppressed Jewish revolts and destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem (1st century AD). The Romans slaughtered and enslaved the Jews. Survivors spread throughout the Roman world, the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe. This is today known as the Disapora. Over time as the Jews moved into distant lands and memories of Palestine were lost, Jewish scholars came to redfine exole from a geographic sence to separation from God. The Diaspora which began with the Babylonian Captivity spread the Jews east. The Roman supresion of the Jews spread them west. The extrodinary aspect of the Diaspra is that it did not destroy the Jews as a people. They did not like so many other conquered peoples disappear from history. While dispersed, the Jews refused to abandon their faith and assimilate. Jews since the Diaspora have lived in separate, often small religious community living among Gentiles--for the most part, Christian and Islamic majorities. There are two great traditions of European Jews. The Ashkenazi (meaning German) are Eastern European Jews with traditions in some cases dateing back to Roman times. The Sephardic (meaning Spanish) Jews are Western European Jews with roots to the tolerant Omayyid Caliph of southern Spain. Their intelectual tradition developed in an atmosphere of toleration of the People of the Book. This was the Sephardic Golden Age. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella after the completion of the Reconqujista with the fall of Granada expelled the Jews (1492). The Sephardi carried this tradition with them to the other areas of Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire which accepted them. [Perera] The various Jewish communites of the Diaspora interacted to varying degrees with the local culture. The Jews of the Diaspora developed remarkably diverse cultural lives as well as religious outlooks. The Romans in supressing the Jewish Revolt (70 AD) left Jerusalem to the jackels. Most of the Jewish population was killed, enslved, or fled. The Jews were thus dispersed throughout the Roman Empire or fled east to Persian lands. Jerusalem disappeared from history for more than two centuries.

Roman Empire

Jerusalem did not reappear until the Emperor Constantine emraced Christianity. Constantine adired his mother Helena who was a Christian convert. Helena made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem(326). She claimed to have dicovered the true cross. And she built the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Later her grandson, Julian the Apostate, argued that the Jewish Temple should be rebuilt. Jew throughout the Empire pryed for it, but of course it never occurred.

Byzantine Empire

During the reign of Emperor Heraclius, Christians massacered Jews (6th century AD).

Islamic Caliphate

Mohammed adopted the Jerusalem Temple as his first qibla, the direction toward which Muslims should pray. Here he was inspired by the Jewish Torah and the desire to replace Judaism. Offended that the Jews would not convet, he turned toward Mecca. Mohammed died (632). Two years later Arab armies took Jerusalem (634) as they pursued conquests in the Byzantine-controlled Levant. The Arabs built two mosques on the Temple Mount--Omar and Al-Aqsa. Islamic tradution claims that Mohammed ascended to heaven from the Dome on the Rock, the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Crusades

Pope Urban II launched the Crusades (1095) which brought Jerusalem and much of Palestine under Christian control. The immediate result was caranage in the Temple Mount. One crusader wrote, "Wonderful sights were to be seen. Our men cut off the heads of their enemies, others shot them with arrows so they fell from towers, others tortured them .... Piles of heads, hands and feet were to be seen on the streets." As the Christian Knights put Muslims to the swird, they also burned Jews in snagogues. They bashed the heads of babies against walls. They proceed to Helena's Church of the Holy Sepluchre seeking what remined of the True Cross. There a Norman Bishop had Greek Orthodox priests tortured to get them to reveal where the cross was hidden. [Montefiore]

The Mamalukes

The Mamalukes stop a Mongol advanced prty (1260). Mamaluke calvalry scorn Ottoman firearms (1516).

Ottoman Empire

The expanding Ottoman Empire seized control of the Levant and other Arab areas (16th century). One small province of the Ottoman Empire was Palestine. The small Jewish population of the province was tolerated by Ottoman authorities to a degree. The majority Arabs were less tolerant. Palestine and the wider Levnt attracted European interest. apoleon launched his Egyptian campaign aimed at cutting British tradec routes to India (1799). He landedc at Acre and hoped to march to Jerusalkem and arm the Jews. He was stopped at Ramla. The Europeans intervened toi protect Marist Christians in Lebanon. The Ottomans also allowed small numbers of Zionist settlers to emigrate.

World War I

There was fighting in the Middle East during World War I after the Ottoman Empire entered the war. The best known campaign was fought in Egypt and Palestine. The Ottoman Empire entered the War primarilty to recover territory lost to the Russians, but the Empire also bordered on Egypt which was a British protectorate. The Suez Canal in Egypt was a critical artery of the British Empire. Egypt was also a former Ottoman Empire. The Middle Eastern campaigns were primarily fought by the Ottoman Empire with limited German support. The primary Allied forces were the British and Empire forces, especially the Australians and Indians. The Ottomans after entering the War launched an attack on Suez across Sinai which failed (1915). The British began building up forces in Egypt. The Ottoman forces launched a second attack across the Sinai (1916). These two offensives did not result in heavy casualties on either side by the standards of World War I. The British buildup was delayed by the Galipoli Campign. While building up forces in Egypt, the British dispatched Major Lawrence to Arabia to assist the Arab Revolt. The result was the fall of Aqaba and a major disruption in the Arabian Peninsula. The Arabs staged hit-and-run attacks on supply lines and tied down thousands of Ottoman soldiers in isolated garrisons throughout Palestine, Jordan, and Syria. The British failed to take the heavily defended Ottoman fort at Gaza. This resulted in major changes to the British command. General Allenby was given command and substantial reinforcements. Allenby renewed the offensive into Palestine (1917). The Arab Army, a mobile irregular formation, was a distraction the Ottomans had to deal with. The British Egyptian Expeditionary Force smashed through the Ottoman lines and finally captured Gaza. They then captured Jerusalem (December 1917).

British Era (1918-48)

After World War I, Feisal who would become King of first Syria and then Iraq, proposed to the Zionist leader Chaim Weizman, a mutual partnership in developing a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Arabs leaders subsequently rejected this understanding, clasiming that the Allies had not met their commitment to the Feisal's father Sherif Hussein. Arabs mobs conducted the first major anti-Jewish riots in Palestine (1920). The British introduced Western legal concepts to Palestine. One of the actions taken was abolishing “dhimmitude”.Under this system, non-Muslim dhimmis lived in a system of institutionalised subgegation. Political rights were denied to all but Muslims. Changing this system was a major concern of Palestianiansand other Arabs. As the number of Zionist immigrants increased and the area of land expanded, conflicts began to develop with the Arabs. Here Haj Amin el-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, played a central role. Both sides blamed the other as scattered acts of viloence occurred. There were more Arabs attacks on Jewish settlements than Jewish attacks, but there were viloence perpetrated by both sides. The worst attack occurred at Hebron where Arabs massacred 69 Jews (1929). With Jews being murdered by Arabs, David Ben-Guruon organized the Hagana--the Jewish Defense Force. The Hagana began military training in secret. The British tried to defuse the situation, arresting both Arabs and Jews and confiscating weapons. Jews claimed that because of the importance of the Arabs in British colonial policy, that the British generally favored the Arabs. Here we are not sure, but it is a topic we need to persue. Even a neutral polic, however, favored the Arabs. Palestine was suronded by Arab states or colonies to become Arab states. Thus if the Jews in Paestine had no weapons they would be defenless if the neighboring Arab states invaded. The "Arab Revolt" led by the Grand Mufti targetted both the British and the Jews (1936-39). British Era (1918-48)

World War II

Plaestine was part of Ottman Empire for several centuries. The province has a largely Arab population. Zionism was founded in Europe during the 19th century and promoted emmigration to Palestine with the purpose of founding a Jewish homeland. The Ottomons permited small-scale Jewish emmigration. The Ottomans joined the Central Powers in World War I seeking to regain lost territory in the Balkans. As part of the operations of the Arab Army and Col T.H. Lawrence and a 1917 Britih offensive under Allenby, Palestine fell. After the War, the British administered Palestine under a League of Nations trusteeship. The British saw Palestine as a potentially valuable assett in the defense of Suez. Yhis proved to be the case when war came. The Arab population was restive, but the British used Palestine as a staging area for operations against pro-MAZI elements in Iraq and Vichy authorities in Syria. Securing Iraq with its important oil resource was vital for the defense of Suez. The rise of Fascism in Europe encouraged many Jews to seek refugee and strengthened the Zionist movement. The British attempted to restrict Jewish immmigration. The expanding Jewish population also resulted in growing anti-Semitism among the Palestinians. This had opposition to British colonial rule caused many Palestinians to sympethize and seek support from the NAZIs.

War for Independence (1948)


Israel


Sources

Montefiore, Simon. Sebag. Jerusalem: The Biography (Knopf: 2011). 650p.






HBC





Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Return to the Main Jewish Diaspora pages]
[Return to the Main Jewish pages]
[Return to the Jews in the Ottoman Empire page]
[Introduction] [Activities] [Biographies] [Chronology] [Clothing styles] [Countries]
[Bibliographies] [Contributions] [FAQs] [Glossaries] [Images] [Links] [Registration] [Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]





Created: 5:03 AM 10/2/2010
Last updated: 10:12 PM 9/26/2020