Aaronsohn bribed his way to a discharge soon after, but many others were not so lucky. While labour battalions worked with the army, Jewish and Christian civilians were conscripted into ‘garbage battalions’ to work in the towns and cities. Many of the conscripts were older men, too old to serve in the army, but who under the local customs and culture should have been accorded respect and a certain level of privilege. Even as a Muslim Arab, Private Ihsan Turjman of the Jerusalem garrison recorded how:
This morning while walking to my work at the Commissariat I came across several Jewish citizens, almost all above 40 years of age, holding brooms and cleaning streets. I was horrified by this scene.134
Khalil Sakakini shared Turjman’s horror, to see men forcibly given such menial tasks:
Today a large number of Christians were recruited as garbage collectors to Bethlehem and Bait Jala. Each was given a broom, a shovel, and a bucket and they were distributed in the alleys of the town. Conscripts would shout at each home they passed, ‘send us your garbage.’ The women of Bethlehem looked out from their windows and wept. No doubt this is the ultimate humiliation. We have gone back to the days of bondage.135
Clearly, outrage at this act was not confined merely to those affected, and spread through the wider community. Some, like the Arab Turjman, even seem to have found some kind of solidarity in the Ottoman Empire’s treatment of its subject people. There was beyond doubt inherent discrimination against them all, and most importantly for this region against the Arabs. Even in the army (of which they made up around one-third) they were looked down upon as second class, even after many Arab units performed with distinction at Gallipoli and elsewhere. Rafael de Nogales was a Venezuelan mercenary in Ottoman service, and came without the inherent world-view of most Ottoman officers, yet even he felt that:
Neither rhyme nor reason avails with the low-caste Arab recruit. He is traitor, liar, and deserter by nature. The only way to subjugate and rule him is to pump him full of lead or lay on the lash. The contrary is true of the Bedouin of the desert and the Moor of the rocky plain, who are the embodiment of courage, chivalry, and knighthood.
In fact, Nogales was fairly enlightened by Ottoman terms, in not only drawing a distinction between the different types of Arabs but also praising some of them.
But while Arabs made up around a third of the rank and file of the army, they only provided about 15 per cent of the officers, and these were often looked upon with distrust. The small numbers were generally due to the relatively poor education available in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, compared to the European and Turkish lands. Efforts had been made to change this from the 1870s onwards, with military schools being slowly established across the empire, in part to solve the perennial and chronic shortage of trained officers for the army. The resulting Arab officers were frequently distrusted and seen as potentially disloyal, both by the Ottomans and by the British, who both believed that secret societies of Arab officers were plotting revolution. During the war, this impression was assisted by the defection of a small but prominent number of Arab officers who, after being captured by the British, opted to join the Arab Revolt rather than go to prisoner of war camps. (Interestingly, attempts to recruit Arab soldiers from the prison camps proved largely unsuccessful.) However, the bulk of the Arab officer corps remained steadfastly loyal; of the seventy-five Arabs who graduated from the Military Academy in 1914, just one would desert during the war. On the other hand, thirty-two of them not only opted to remain in what became the army of the Republic of Turkey after the break up of the empire at the end of the war, but also then fought for the Republic during the Turkish War of Independence.136
While this proves that broad stereotypes and racial divisions cannot be drawn across the Ottoman Empire, there can be no doubt that there was a very definite undertone of discontent among the various minorities, even if it usually fell short of open revolt or disobedience. Ihsan Turjman was probably not alone in questioning, in September 1915:
What does this barbaric state want from us? To liberate Egypt on our backs? Our leaders promised us and other fellow Arabs that we would be partners in this government and that they seek to advance the interests and conditions of the Arab nation. But what have we actually seen from these promises? Had they treated us as equals, I would not hesitate to give my blood and my life – but as things stand, I hold a drop of my blood to be more precious than the entire Turkish state.137
However, that did not stop him serving loyally until his death in late 1917.
Less passive was the Aaronsohn family. After leaving the army, Alexander had escaped to Egypt in August 1915, and tried to get British Intelligence interested in an organisation growing under the encouragement of his brother. Aaron Aarohnson was a noted botanist, and conducted agricultural research. His work, sanctioned by the Ottomans, allowed him to travel freely around the country. He used this freedom to map the country, to build up connections in scattered Jewish communities, and to gather information on garrisons and defences. Alexander initially failed to overcome British suspicions that he was an Ottoman agent trying to spread disinformation, but a visit by another member of the group, Avshalom Feinberg, later in the year convinced them. When Feinberg returned to Palestine – being landed at night on the coast – in November, arrangements for a scheme for visual signals on the coast had been agreed. Unfortunately, this broke down almost immediately, and it was not until February 1917 that communications were re-established.
By then, the group had been formalised as the Netzah Yisrael Lo Yishaker (‘Eternal one of Israel will not lie’, Samuel 15:29) or ‘Nili’ organisation. Their network involved twenty-three regular agents with many more sources and contacts, spread from Damascus to Beersheba. There were a series of regional cells, where one member acted as the hub to collect and collate information to pass on to Aaronsohn’s headquarters in Atlit, on the coast north of Haifa. From here, messages and reports were passed out to the Royal Navy, although this system was slow and sporadic. In the seven months that the Nili group was at its most active – March to September 1917 – only nine rendezvous with ships could be made. Naturally, this negated much of the immediate use of the reports, and by that time the five-or six-week-old information had often already been received or surmised from wireless interceptions, aerial observation or other human intelligence sources. Where the Nili group was invaluable was in confirming this other information. So reliable were their reports that they were considered the litmus test for all other sources.
In late August or early September 1917, two Arab agents were captured by the Ottomans as they landed on the Palestine shore. Under interrogation they revealed not only their own tasks and contacts, but also knowledge of the Nili.* From this, Aziz Bek, head of counter-intelligence for the 4th (OT) Army, managed to begin to unravel the network. Aaron Aaronsohn was out of the country at the time, and escaped, but his sister Sarah was among those arrested. She withstood four days of torture before managing to end her own life. Others were tortured and executed, and the most reliable direct source of intelligence for the British in Palestine ended.138
The simmering discontent below the surface in Syria was heightened by other circumstances of the war. The sudden arrival of thousands of troops stretched the capacity of the land to support them. Due to the logistical inefficiency of the empire, the army was forced to fall back on local resources. Djemal Pasha recorded in his memoirs that he ordered the 4th (OT) Army to pay promptly and in cash for all food and supplies rather than simply requisitioning them, as the Ottomans did elsewhere.139 But, if this command was issued, it was soundly ignored. All that could be said for the army policy of living off the land was that it was non-discriminatory. Christian Jerusalemite Wasif Jawhariyyeh recalled that:
Food prices rose dramatically due to the army’s tyranny and despotism. They confiscated the foodstuffs stored in the foreign establishments they had seized, as well as grains, oils, and even textiles from markets and from Jerusalem’s well-known mercha
nts, on an incredibly large scale. Since the goods were seized without payment, this confiscation was called ‘assistance to the military’.140
The family of the Muslim Turjman also suffered, with their lands just outside Jerusalem being plundered, despite their having at least one son in the army:
Soldiers are stealing wood from our land in Karm al A’raj. Not satisfied with dead wood, they started tearing branches from our olive trees. Who do we complain to? The officers claim they cannot control their subordinates. Of course not. Officers are busy in taverns getting drunk; then they go to the public places [brothels] to satisfy their base needs.141
‘Requisitioning’ could take place on large or small scales. Alexander Aaronsohn witnessed an incident where:
A Turkish soldier, sauntering along the street, helped himself to fruit from the basket of an old vender, and went on without offering to pay a farthing. When the old man ventured to protest, the soldier turned like a flash and began beating him mercilessly, knocking him down and battering him until he was bruised, bleeding, and covered with the mud of the street. There was a hubbub; a crowd formed, through which a Turkish officer forced his way, demanding explanations. The soldier sketched the situation in a few words, whereupon the officer, turning to the old man, said impressively, ‘If a soldier of the Sultan should choose to heap filth on your head, it is for you to kiss his hand in gratitude.’142
Given the low pay of soldiers it is perhaps inevitable that abuses took place. An Ottoman private received 85 piastres a month.143 In comparison, the British government forwarded to soldiers who had been taken prisoner 1,000 piastres a month from their own pay, and even then this often proved insufficient as shortages became more acute and prices rose. And it did not take long for those shortages to start. Even without all of the extra people to feed, there was also the cessation to all imports from outside the empire and many of those from within. As early as April 1915, Turjman was recording in his diary that ‘money is scarce and the stores are empty’.144 As the year progressed, the situation worsened:
10 July 1915
The government is trying (with futility) to bring food supplies, and disease is everywhere … Jerusalem has not seen worst days. Bread and flour supplies have almost totally dried up. Every day I pass the bakeries on my way to work, and I see a large number of women going home empty-handed. For several days the municipality distributed some kind of black bread to the poor, the likes of which I have never seen. People used to fight over the limited supplies, sometimes waiting in line until midnight. Now, even that bread is no longer available.145
20 October 1915
People are dying of hunger. All essential foodstuffs are missing, including material produced in other Ottoman provinces. Citizens can no longer bear this situation.146
17 December 1915
I haven’t seen darker days in my life. Flour and bread have basically disappeared since last Saturday. Many people have not eaten bread for days now. As I was going to the Commissariat this morning, I saw a throng of men, women, and boys fighting each other to buy flour near Damascus Gate. When I passed this place again at midday, their numbers had multiplied.147
Some small relief was available through the religious or social organisations in Jerusalem. The American Colony, for example, maintained a soup kitchen and gave work and training to the unemployed, as well as channelling money for relief efforts from international sources. Even after the entry of the United States into the war, Djemal Pasha allowed them to continue their good work unhindered.
The year 1915 would be particularly bad, as other factors also came into play. At the worst possible time, Egypt and Palestine also fell under invasion by swarms of migratory locusts. Coming out of Africa, these insects literally stripped the country bare, devouring all in their path. Aaronsohn recalled:
Not only was every green leaf devoured, but the very bark was peeled from the trees, which stood out white and lifeless, like skeletons. The fields were stripped to the ground, and the old men of our villages, who had given their lives to cultivating these gardens and vineyards, came out of the synagogues where they had been praying and wailing, and looked on the ruin with dimmed eyes. Nothing was spared. The insects, in their fierce hunger, tried to engulf everything in their way.148
The locusts came in March, destroying the year’s crops. The swarm’s size was beyond measure, probably billions of insects blotting out the sky as they passed. Turjman watched their progress with horror:
The locust invasion started seven days ago and covered the sky. Today it took the locust clouds two hours to pass over the city. God protect us from the three plagues: war, locusts and disease, for they are spreading through the country.149
The swarm had already passed through Egypt, where rapid action had been taken. The concern was not just the swarm itself, but its legacy. The locusts laid eggs in shallow holes in the ground, and while mounted patrols monitored and followed the swarms, the fellahin of Egypt were mobilised to sift and turn the topsoil behind them, killing off the eggs before they could hatch. At the same time, fellahin were also employed to kill adults, being paid by the weight collected, and after an intensive effort lasting from February into June the threat was finally contained.150
Similar efforts were made in Palestine, under the direction of Aaron Aaronsohn. His brother’s undoubtedly biased account does not show the effort in a good light, and lays the blame for its failure squarely with the Arab farmers:
The menace was so great that even the military authorities were obliged to take notice of it. They realized that if it were allowed to fulfil itself, there would be famine in the land, and the army would suffer with the rest. Djemal Pasha summoned my brother (the President of the Agricultural Experiment Station at Atlit) and entrusted him with the organization of a campaign against the insects. It was a hard enough task. The Arabs are lazy, and fatalistic besides; they cannot understand why men should attempt to fight the Djesh Allah (‘God’s Army’), as they call the locusts …
In spite of these drawbacks, however, he attempted to work up a scientific campaign. Djemal Pasha put some thousands of Arab soldiers at his disposition, and these were set to work digging trenches into which the hatching locusts were driven and destroyed … It was a hopeless fight. Nothing short of the cooperation of every farmer in the country could have won the day; and while the people of the progressive Jewish villages struggled on to the end – men, women, and children working in the fields until they were exhausted – the Arab farmers sat by with folded hands. The threats of the military authorities only stirred them to half-hearted efforts. Finally, after two months of toil, the campaign was given up and the locusts broke in waves over the countryside, destroying everything …151
In his diary, Turjman (although from the point of view of one not directly involved) gives further details on the government’s campaign. All citizens aged 15–60 were required to collect 20kg of locust eggs, he recorded, while fines had to be paid for every kilogram uncollected.152 These fines, he wrote approvingly, were gradated to fit the income of the individual.153 He also records a conversation with two of his relatives, both army officers, who disapproved of the scheme, and felt it wrong for the government to compel people to take part in such a campaign even when it was for the common good.154
While the Ottoman campaign to deal with the locusts seems to have been less efficient than that of the British in Egypt, by the autumn the swarms had either been dealt with or moved on. They left devastation and starvation in their wake, and 1915 would be remembered in the region as the Year of the Locusts.
If the Arabs did see the locusts as a plague sent by God, it was just one of several. Diseases, many no doubt aggravated by poor diets, also spread across the land, with local outbreaks of cholera and typhus.155 Other, perhaps inevitable, diseases also followed in the wake of the soldiers who arrived. Venereal diseases, known euphemistically as ‘social diseases’, became prevalent in the city. A significant factor in the spread was the increase in th
e number of prostitutes, particularly as prices rose and desperate women whose husbands had been conscripted were forced to find alternative means of support.156 Such behaviour disturbed many religious and social leaders, although others seemed less concerned as they joined in the high-life of the city. While the general population and the common soldiers went short, Djemal Pasha entertained his officers and high society in style. To the suffering lower classes, his parties and celebrations became topics of great discussion and resentment, and most likely not a little exaggeration. As Turjman recorded in his diary, such events cast doubts on not only the characters of those involved, but also the righteousness and justice of their cause:
25 April 1915
Yesterday HQ sent several military vehicles to Latron to bring alcoholic drinks. More than 100 officers were invited, and the military band played throughout the meal. It’s hard to take seriously Djemal Pasha’s (and his retinue’s) claim to devotion to Islam and of wanting to liberate Muslims from the British yoke. Every day we read a circular warning soldiers and officers against frequenting cafes and beer halls, upon threat of imprisonment and expulsion from service. All this while the commanders are swimming in debauchery and drunkenness.157
27 April 1915
Djemal Pasha issued an order today, in celebration of the anniversary of Sultan Mehmet Rashad V’s ascension to the throne, to distribute mutton and sweets to members of the armed forces … This was followed by another circular issued by Rusen Bey [Albanian commander of the Jerusalem garrison] cancelling the very same order since not enough rice and meat can be obtained from the depots. It seems that rice and meat can always be found for the officers.
From Gaza to Jerusalem Page 10
