History of Zionism

This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Canaan State of Israel (1948–present) As an organized nationalist movement, Zionism is generally considered to have been founded by Theodor Herzl in 1897.

Due to the success of Zionism, the global Jewish population has experienced a shift, with statistics showing a steady pattern of growth in the percentage of diaspora Jews relocating to Israel.

These included Nahmanides, Yechiel of Paris with several hundred of his students, Joseph ben Ephraim Karo, Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk and 300 of his followers, and over 500 disciples (and their families) of the Vilna Gaon known as Perushim, among others.

In response to the Jewish drive for integration and modern education (Haskalah) and the movement for emancipation, the Tsars imposed tight quotas on schools, universities and cities to prevent entry by Jews.

In 1890, the "Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Eretz Israel" (better known as the Odessa Committee) was officially registered as a charitable organization in the Russian Empire, and by 1897, it counted over 4,000 members.

[30] —Theodore Herzl, 1897The Reformation led to the emergence of the belief of a return of the Jews to Palestine due to a specific theological biblical interpretation, among some Protestant Christian thinkers, and originally as an anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim movement.

[32] Not all such attitudes were favorable towards the Jews; they were shaped in part by a variety of Protestant beliefs,[33] or by a streak of philo-Semitism among the classically educated British elite,[34] or by hopes to extend the Empire.

[36][37] Lord Lindsay wrote in 1847: "The soil of Palestine still enjoys her sabbaths, and only waits for the return of her banished children, and the application of industry, commensurate with her agricultural capabilities, to burst once more into universal luxuriance, and be all that she ever was in the days of Solomon.

[53][54][55] During the British Mandate, these aspirations evolved into discussions that considered binational federalist models that sought to reconcile Jewish national goals with coexistence and shared governance with the Arab population in Palestine.

[56] However, as the political landscape hardened — marked by growing Arab opposition and shifting British policies — a broad consensus favoring the establishment of a fully independent Jewish state gradually emerged.

[57] During the First Zionist Congress, the following agreement, commonly known as the Basel Program, was reached: Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law.

A local Zionist activist, Jacob Bernstein Kogan,[61] raised money from wealthy Jewish residents and sent telegrams (still quite new in the area) to various world press centers.

[63] Herzl accepted to evaluate Joseph Chamberlain's proposal,[70] and it was introduced the same year to the World Zionist Organization's Congress at its sixth meeting, where a fierce debate ensued.

During this period, the movement was based in Berlin (Germany's Jews were the most assimilated) and made little progress, failing to win support among the Young Turks after the collapse of the Ottoman Regime.

[77] The opposition of Reform Judaism was expressed in the Pittsburgh Platform, adopted by the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1885: "We consider ourselves no longer a nation but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the administration of the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state.

Socialist Zionists formed youth movements that became influential organizations in their own right including Habonim Dror, Hashomer Hatzair, HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed and Machanot Halolim.

For example, Rabbi Israel Meir Kahan "was so convinced of the imminent arrival of the Messiah that he urged his students to study the laws of the priesthood so that the priests would be prepared to carry out their duties when the Temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt.

Bundist socialists and liberals of the Voskhod newspaper attacked Zionism for distracting from class struggle and blocking the path to Jewish emancipation in Russia, respectively.

With different national sections of the movement supporting different sides in the war, Zionist policy was to maintain strict neutrality and "to demonstrate complete loyalty to Turkey",[101] the German ally controlling Palestine.

Members of the Marxist Zionist movement, Poale Zion led by Ber Borochov, returned to Russia (from Palestine) and requested to form Jewish Brigades within the Red Army.

The Defence) was the main Zionist[118] paramilitary organization of the Jewish population ("Yishuv") in Mandatory Palestine between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

[124] Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the Deir Yassin massacre that killed at least 107 Palestinian Arabs, including women and children, carried out together with Lehi on 9 April 1948.

In addition to accepting the Balfour Declaration policy statement, the League included that "[a]n appropriate Jewish agency shall be recognised as a public body for the purpose of advising and co-operating with the Administration of Palestine...." This inclusion paralleled a similar proposal made by the Zionist Organization during the Paris Peace Conference.

[citation needed] As the Second World War was drawing to its close, the King of Saudi Arabia expressed his concern in a letter to US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lest the US support for Zionism will infringe on the rights of the Arabs of Palestine.

[162] For example, even when Jews were excluded from Nazi film industry, Zionist Union of Germany was allowed to organise segregated production and distribution outlets, by the German Propaganda Ministry.

Harrison reported that substantial unofficial and unauthorized movements of people must be expected, and these will require considerable force to prevent, for the patience of many of the persons involved is, and in my opinion with justification, nearing the breaking point.

A United Nations Special Committee investigated the situation and offered two solutions : From the Zionist point of view, the second option corresponded to their goal and they gave full support to this.

Over the years this has generated conflict between competing core Zionist ideals of an egalitarian democratic state on the one hand, and territorial loyalty to historic Jewish areas, particularly the old city of Jerusalem, on the other.

The Zionist Organization of America helped mobilized political support in the United States for Israel, with large scale funding and pressure on Washington and on public opinion.

Yet as the first Intifada made disturbingly visible, Israel's de facto rule over the Palestinian population created a dilemma of democracy versus Jewish majority in the long run.