The Legacy of Solomon
Page 82
THE TERM ZIONISM WAS FIRST USED in 1892 for Jewish nationalism by the Austrian publisher Nathan Birnbaum. He was founder of the first nationalist Jewish students’ movement Kadimah, in 1890.’
‘Does it still have the same meaning?’
‘As you know Zion is another name for Jerusalem but, today the term Zionism is generally considered to mean support for Israel.’
‘You mean politically?’
‘Not only politically, it’s used for those who support the concept of a Jewish nation state, but it is also used to identify other ideas such as Religious Zionism, Revisionist Zionism, or Labour Zionism.’
‘Why do the enemies of Israel always refer to a Zionist state, or Zionists?’
‘I’m sorry to say certain people use the term Zionism or Zionist negatively against the Jews, today the Arabs and Iranians use it liberally as a defamatory term.’
‘What were the goals of Birnbaum?’
‘Amongst others a return to the homeland.’
‘Immigration?’
‘If you like, we call it the Aliyah, one of the basic principals of Zionism, the Law of Return, which permits any Jew the legal right to Israeli citizenship and assistance to immigrate and settle in Israel.’
‘Anybody?’
‘Yes, Jewish of course, it is part of the biblical promise to the descendants of the Hebrew patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’
‘The very great majority of Israeli’s immigrated here from somewhere abroad.’
‘I suppose it goes back to the Jewish diaspora and persecution in Europe.’
‘Yes, the Jews were expelled from England in 1290, from France in 1391, from Austria in 1421 and from Spain in 1492.’
‘History has been unkind to the Jews.’
‘Yes, though the case of Spain has sometimes been exaggerated seen through the prism of time.’
‘Why is that?’
‘The Jews live in the Iberian Peninsula since at least the third century. In the Middle Ages they were the largest Jewish community in the world, but contrary to what is generally believed, by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike, they formed only about two percent of Spain’s population, that’s to say about one hundred thousand people, in percentage terms that’s about twice that of the present day Jewish population of France. In addition most did not leave Spain, they were converted to Christianity, and many of those who left returned.’
‘It was still a tragedy for the Jews.’
‘That’s an understatement. But the Zionist Aliyah started in 1882 with Russian Jews, if we go into figures then about 35,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine in the period from 1882 to 1903. The second Aliyah took place between 1904 and 1914 and brought another 40,000 Jews from Russia as a result of the pogroms and anti-Semitism. Then after WWI from 1919 to 1923, again mostly Russian Jews.
When the British were given the mandate for Palestine by the League of Nations, the Jewish population had reached 90,000 and between 1924 and 1929 more Jews arrived from Poland and Hungary, another 90,000 of mostly middle class families, they settled in towns setting up small businesses and industry.
When the Nazis came to power in Germany 250,000 immigrants arrived, these were mostly from Eastern Europe, they were doctors, lawyers and teachers, and by 1940 the Jewish population of Palestine had reached 450,000.’
‘That’s still a long way from today’s population.’
‘Don’t be in such a hurry, after the end of WWII, nearly 700,000 Jews quit the Arab countries for Israel, but the greatest exodus was from Russia, first from the USSR and then from the Russian Federation, today we have over one million Russian Jews.
‘That explains why we see so much written in Russian everywhere.”
‘Quite so.’
‘What about the Arabs?’
‘You mean the Israeli Arabs.’
‘Yes.’
‘There are about one million Israeli Arabs, they have equal rights as Israeli citizens.’
‘Some of them are against the State of Israel.’
‘Yes, they’re the families of Palestinians who stayed in Israel after the war of independence in 1948.’
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The Wandering Jew