Bilu (movement)

This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Bilu (Hebrew: ביל"ו; also Palestine Pioneers) was a Jewish movement of the late 19th century, fueled predominantly by the immigration of Russian Jews, whose goal was the agricultural settlement of the Land of Israel.

Originally the movement was called Davio, an acronym of the Hebrew words from the Book of Exodus: "Speak unto the children of Israel that they will go forward."

The movement's name was later changed by its founder, Israel Belkind, to "Bilu", which is an acronym based on a verse from the Book of Isaiah (2:5) "בית יעקב לכו ונלכה" Beit Ya'akov Lekhu Venelkha ("House of Jacob, let us go [up]").

The wave of pogroms in 1881–1884, known as "Southern Storms",[1] in conjunction with Tsar Alexander III of Russia's antisemitic May Laws of 1882 prompted mass emigration of Jews from the Russian Empire.

Responding to local pressures, the Ottoman authorities started restricting Jewish land purchase[7] and immigration to the empire.

[10] After the Bilu'im admitted to needing help, Hirsch and Rothschild provided funding that led to the establishment of the local wine industry as a result of more successful agricultural work.

Gedera was established on a tract of land purchased from the Arab village of Qatra by Yehiel Michel Pines of the Hovevei Zion through the auspices of the French consul in Jaffa.

[9] Scholar Baruch Kimmerling argues that the group was more religiously- than politically-motivated and that "the newcomers lacked a coherent ideological vision of the Jewish state and nation building.

[citation needed] The Bilu movement wanted young Jews to immigrate to Palestine to create farming communities.

[6] The Bilu idealists wished to create a new breed of Jewish farmer and reintroduced old colonist solutions to different established nations.

Though agriculture was a part of the society, farming settlements tend to be beholden to a scope of natural weather disasters and do require some sort of financial backing to succeed.

[13] As a result of challenging farming season,[14] a lack of financial means, and the variability of wine fit for sale,[15] the Russian Bilu'im ceased to exist.