“The Jewish State,” Theodor Herzl
Eventual head of the World Zionist Organization, Theodor Herzl says anti-Semitism requires a Jewish state.
Assembled here are key sources that have shaped the modern Middle East, Zionism and Israel. We have included items that give texture, perspective and opinion to historical context. Many of these sources are mentioned in the Era summaries and contain explanatory introductions.
Max Nordau: Address at the First Zionist Congress, 1897
Nordau’s impassioned speech summarized the unique Jewish identity to belief, Torah, ritual and community. With those central elements as a people, their state of impoverishment and wretched physical insecurity, he argued, were vital for rebuilding the Jewish national territory.
1914-1915 Hussein-McMahon Correspondence
The Sharif of Mecca and Sir Henry McMahon, a British official in Cairo, speaking for the Foreign Office exchanged letters about the current war effort against the Turks, and the future political status of specific Arab lands in the Ottoman Empire. McMahon said then and he repeated the statement again in 1937, that the area of Palestine was definitely excluded from any area to be provided to an Arab leader after WWI. The British allowed the area of Palestine to develop as a “national home for the Jewish people.”
Balfour Declaration, 1917
British Foreign Ministry promises to set up a Jewish National Home in Palestine with no harm to non-Jewish populations, or to Jews living elsewhere who might want to support a Jewish home.
Herbert Samuel’s Review of Present and Future Zionist-Arab Interactions in Palestine, 1920
Samuel would serve as Britain’s first and only Jewish High Commissioner (1920-1925) in Palestine; he noted reasons for Arab political in-fighting, origins of Arab dislike of Zionism, how land sales to Jews generated Arab jealousies, Jewish educational focus, and Palestine as a land area capable of supporting 4 million people.
San Remo Conference Agreement, 1920: Borders Set for Postwar Middle Eastern Mandates
April 25, 1920 In April 1920, the San Remo Conference in Italy determined the boundaries of the territories captured by the allies during World War I. These included boundaries for the political existence of Syria,…
Mixed Muslim and Arab Views and Actions Toward Jews, Zionism and Israel, 1920s-Present
For more than 100 years, Arabs and Muslims have expressed multiple attitudes toward Jews, Zionism and Israel. The remarks stretch along a spectrum from hatred, including the absolute, uncompromising need to prevent a Jewish state…
Haycraft Commission Reports on May 1921 Palestine Disturbances
In early May 1921, communal riots unfolded in the city of Jaffa and at Jewish settlements along the coast, with considerable loss of life and property for both communities. The British decided that both Arabs and Jews had real as well as exaggerated fears of the other.
1922 White Paper on Palestine
With intentioned ambiguity, Britain asserted that its goal in Palestine was not to make it wholly Jewish or subordinate the Arab population. Self-determination was not promised. Britain wanted to remain ‘umpire’ between the communities. Naively it thought it could control communal expectations and keep the peace.
League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, 1922
International legitimacy is granted to establish a Jewish National Home in Palestine. Rules for its establishment clearly give Jews in Palestine distinct advantages over the local Arab population.
League of Nations — Annual Reports, 1922-1939
Established in 1920, the League of Nations evolved out of the Paris Peace Conference. One of its objectives was to assist former territories evolve to self-government through Mandates. In the Middle East there were British Mandates for…
Vladimir Jabotinsky, “The Iron Wall,” 1923
April 11, 1923 Vladimir “Ze’ev” Jabotinsky (October 17, 1880-August 3, 1940) was a Russian-Jewish intellectual, writer, soldier and political activist who founded the Revisionist Zionist movement. A charismatic orator and prolific author, Jabotinsky broke with…
Composite Statements in KKL/JNF Discussions About Lands to Purchase, 1926-1948
Dr. Kenneth Stein, Professor Emeritus, Emory University, kenstein@israeled.org, November 2024 Sources: Minutes of JNF meetings, statements by JNF officials, comments in the Palestinian Arab Press, remarks by British Colonial officials, and official reports. All KKL…
Palestine High Commissioner Sir John Chancellor Seeks to Stop Jewish National Home in Dispatch to Colonial Secretary, 1930
Palestine’s High Commissioner Chancellor seeks to halt the Jewish National Home in favor of the Arabs. He fails to overcome the Zionist drive and Arab unwillingness to cooperate with his intentions.
Jewish Agency’s Margalith Identifies Arab Peasant Displacement From Arab Landlord Sales to Jewish Buyers, 1930
Two letters detail how Arab peasants are sometimes swindled out of their lands by Arab land brokers and effendis, noting economic harm to them, and how they learn to avoid landlords and sell directly to Jewish buyers. Intra-Arab communal tension rises.
1931-1949: Arab Land Sales to Jews — Palestine Arab Press, British Reports and Zionist Accounts
These Palestinian Arab newspaper materials and other quotations about Arab land sales to the Zionists during the British Mandate were first read and collected at the National Library at the Hebrew University on the Givat…
The Census of Palestine, 1931: An Invaluable Glimpse at Gaping Socio-Economic Distances and Differences Among Muslims, Christians and Jews
An invaluable glimpse at Palestine’s population: gaping socio-economic distances and vast communal differences between Muslims, Christians and Jews that set the strong preferences for separation of the populations.
Ken Stein: Socio-Economic Differences Preface Palestine’s Political Partition — The Mandate
Primary sources, reputable scholarship and archival materials collectively show major communal (Arab-Jewish) socio-economic separation, factors that foreshadowed geo-spatial partition.
Minutes of Jewish Agency Meeting on Inaugural Maccabiah Games, Jerusalem, 1932
Zionists decide to hold the first international sports games in Tel Aviv bringing 400 Jewish athletes from 18 countries. The games open on March 28, 1932. Zionists value the games as a “possible awakening of youth in the Diaspora” to Zionism and the positive economic outcome for the Jewish community in Palestine.
Systematic Agricultural Colonization in Palestine
August 21, 1933 J. Elazari – Volcani (Issac Vilkanski) SYSTEMATIC AGRICULTURAL COLONIZATION IN PALESTINE REPORT PRESENTED AT THE XVIIITH ZIONIST CONGRESS PRAGUE, 1933 Special Printing from the Protocol of the XVIIIth Zionist Congress 1934 Published…
Palestinian Arab Grievances Against the British for Supporting the Jewish National Home, 1936
Five Arab political parties sent a memorandum of protest to the British asking for a halt to Jewish immigration, a stoppage in Arab land sales to Jews,and a measure of self-determination. The British did not change their policies in these three areas. In 1939, they did severely limit Jewish land purchases and severely curtailed Jewish immigration.
David Horowitz, Study on Economic and Social Transformation of Palestine, Jewish Agency for Palestine, 1937
This four-page assessment notes multiple Jewish contributions to Palestine’s development: expansion of health care, advancement of agricultural methods, government revenue, industrial growth and Jewish building expansion. It notes that the Jewish economy has attracted Arab immigration to Palestine for jobs and the mushrooming of the Jewish education system from Jewish sources. Without saying so directly, its contents tout Jewish state building.
David Ben-Gurion’s Secret Remarks on “Arab Perceptions of Zionism,” 1937
Ben-Gurion recognized that Arab opposition to Zionism is a national feeling and that Palestinian Arab leadership had done little to help the majority impoverished peasant population.
Peel Commission Report, Excerpts From the Findings and Recommendations of the Royal Commission, 1937
After outbreak of communal violence, the British investigatory committee suggests partition of Palestine, seeking to create two states for two peoples.
