Tamir Karkason, “Delving into the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” (Review of Alan Dowty, Arabs and Jews in Ottoman Palestine: Two Worlds Collide, Bloomington IN 2019), H-Judaic (2020)

Alan Dowty. Arabs and Jews in Ottoman Palestine: Two Worlds Collide. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2019. 312 pp. $65.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-253-03865-4. Reviewed by Tamir Karkason (Ben-Gurion University) Published on H-Judaic (May, 2020) Commissioned by Barbara Krawcowicz (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) Alan Dowty’s book seeks to examine the roots The book comprises seven chapters, the first of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and to this end, two of which serve by way of an introduction. The he analyzes the history of the Yishuv in Palestine first chapter, “Palestine before Zionism,” discusses during the tail end of the Ottoman era and its rela‐ the history of the three Ottoman provinces to tions with the Arab inhabitants of the country. which Palestine belonged during the late Ottoman Dowty’s book joins the shelf of works examining period. Dowty examines the Western penetration this field, which has received heightened attention of the Ottoman Empire and the extensive consular over the past fifteen years.[1] presence of the European powers in Jerusalem. Dowty’s approach is essentially deterministic: This process also played a role in the growing im‐ with hindsight, he suggests, “it is hard to see how portance of Jerusalem within the empire, culmi‐ the conflict could have evolved much differently” nating in 1873 in the establishment of a province (p. 273). The destructive nucleus of the Israeli- of which Jerusalem served as the capital. The chap‐ Palestinian conflict was inherent in the aspiration ter focuses in particular on the Tanzimat reforms of European Jews to establish a national entity in that later facilitated the emergence of the Zionist their ancestral homeland as they searched for a enterprise. The new Land Law of 1873, for exam‐ piece of land where they might be free from subju‐ ple, allowed bourgeois urban Arabs to register in gation to others. Although most of the Jews who en‐ their name land they had acquired or purchased tered Palestine after 1882 left eastern Europe after and to become its owner; this later enabled the suffering from persecution, they continued to iden‐ usurping of the land of Arab peasants after the tify with European civilization and had no desire landowners sold their property to Zionist institu‐ to integrate in the Middle Eastern domain. On the tions or settlers. rare occasions when they pondered the question The second chapter, “Russian Jews before of their relations with the Arabs, they assumed that Zionism,” discusses the Jews of the Russian Empire these would be dominated by the great benefits the over the course of the nineteenth century. The Arabs would derive from their contacts with the chapter shapes a narrative familiar from studies Jewish immigrants. Accordingly, Dowty claims that on European Jewry according to which the era of “the ‘civilizational divide’ runs through the entire revolutions led to the emancipation of the Jews, history of Jewish Zionist activity in Ottoman Pales‐ while Napoleon’s conquests “destroyed the ghetto tine” (p. 272). gates and tore off the yellow badges that Jews had H-Net Reviews been forced to wear, replacing them with revolu‐ everyday life of the settlers in the 1880s, including tionary tricolor rosettes” (p. 43). Most central Eu‐ an analysis of the disputes that developed between ropean Jews warmly embraced emancipation, and almost every settlement and its Arab neighbors the Enlightenment movement that spread east‐ over boundaries, pastureland, and natural re‐ wards served as the precursor for the Hebrew re‐ sources. During such a confrontation in Gedera in vival movement. However, the Jews of Russia did 1888, the first apparent use of firearms occurred, not enjoy emancipation: “The emancipation that although in this period no fatalities ensued, due in had opened doors in the West was hardly felt un‐ part to fear of igniting blood feuds. der Russian autocracy in the early nineteenth cen‐ The fifth chapter, “Truth from the Land of Is‐ tury” (p. 56). Modest improvements in the legal sta‐ rael,” explores the reactions of Zionist individuals tus of the Jews inspired hope in many circles, but and institutions in the 1890s to the increasingly these were shattered by the “Storms in the South” overt conflict. Dowty focuses on the famous article riots (1881–82). The riots led to a widespread sense by Ahad Ha’am from 1891 that provided him with that “for historical reasons Jews would always be the title for the chapter. Ahad Ha’am was perhaps aliens in Europe” (p. 69).[2] the first Zionist figure to recognize that the Arabs The anti-Jewish riots played a key role in mass were not simply a passive object of manipulation migration from the Russian Empire—primarily to by others, but “actors” with their own dreams and the New World, though around 2 percent of the mi‐ desires. He acknowledged the collective dimension grants headed for Palestine. The Ḥibbat Zion of Arab identity, although he did not yet consider movement emerged, and tens of thousands of Rus‐ the “Arab problem” to be a political one, and was sian and Romanian Jews sought to emigrate to convinced that it would be resolved in the domes‐ Palestine. In this country, however, “there was a tic Ottoman context. In this early stage, Ahad building resistance to the penetration of Euro‐ Ha’am drew a lesson from Jewish history that peans and European ideas [among] Turkish rulers many others, then and now, have refused to heed: and Arab citizens alike.” Faithful to his determinis‐ “how careful we must be not to arouse the anger of tic stance, Dowty concludes that “when these two other people against ourselves by reprehensible realities met, collision was inevitable” (p. 83). conduct” (p. 163). The third chapter, “The Two Worlds Collide,” The sixth chapter, “The Arena Expands,” ex‐ describes the first decade of the First Aliya, in the amines the exacerbation of the conflict around the 1880s. For many of the settlers, the first encounter beginning of the twentieth century against the with the Arab inhabitants of Palestine was far background of the institutionalization of Zionist from simple. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda would later recall activity following the formation of the World Zion‐ his feelings on encountering the Arabs: “I must ad‐ ist Organization, headed by Theodor Herzl (1897). mit that this first encounter with our Ishmaelite The affinity of the Jewish settlements to these for‐ cousins was not happy for me. A depressing feeling mal Zionist activities enraged the Ottoman author‐ of fear … suddenly filled my heart” (p. 88). During ities: “the last thing that the sultan needed was an‐ this period, the first settlements (moshavot) were other restive non-Muslim minority, like the Arme‐ established, while the Ottoman authorities sought nians” (p. 203), who were violently suppressed in to restrict Jewish immigration and settlement. The the period 1894–96. Various Arab intellectuals also settlers received assistance from the foreign con‐ began to express reservations about Zionism and sulates, thereby provoking the wrath both of the Jewish settlement. The Jerusalemite Yusuf Zia al- authorities and of the local residents. The fourth Khalidi, for example, corresponded with Herzl chapter, “Unneighborly Relations,” examines the through the mediation of the chief rabbi of France, 2 H-Net Reviews imploring him: “in the name of God, leave Pales‐ gether with a cohesive narrative. The book will tine in peace” (p. 209). serve as a foundation text for beginners and un‐ dergraduates interested in the field. The seventh chapter, “Battle Lines,” examines the decade preceding the First World War (1905– The first two chapters could serve in their own 14)—the period when broad circles on both sides right as an introduction to the history of Ottoman realized for the first time that they were facing a Palestine and modern Jewish history, providing national conflict. This period “is best understood synthetic summaries of the research in these fields. as a continuation, and intensification, of what be‐ Dowty returns to these introductions throughout gan a little over two decades earlier” (p. 271). The the book, thereby weaving a longue durée history hardcore of the Second Aliya immigrants arrived of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is profound‐ with a revolutionary mentality that had been gal‐ ly linked to the history of the Jewish diaspora dur‐ vanized following the failed revolution of 1905 in ing the period preceding the first Zionist Aliyot. It is Russia. They were much less open to compromise only Dowty’s summary of the development and than most of the earlier arrivals and founded the failure of emancipation that enables him to ex‐ Hebrew Defense force. There were some excep‐ plain to the reader how important it was to the tions to the aggressive attitude toward the Arabs. First Aliya settlers to find “the one place in the In his article “A Hidden Question” (1907), the teach‐ world where they were not obliged to adjust to oth‐ er and intellectual Yitzhak Epstein urged his fellow ers” (p. 121), and why the attacks on some of the Zionists to recognize that the conflict would only settlements in Palestine reminded the settlers of “a be resolved on the national level and could not be shtetl after a pogrom” (p. 136). confined to the local dimension. In this respect, Ep‐ Dowty’s study corresponds with the “Affective stein was decades ahead of the Zionist main‐ Turn” in general and in Jewish historiography, de‐ stream. voting considerable room to the emotions of its During the first few years following the revolu‐ subjects (most of whom are Ashkenazi Jewish tion of the “Young Turks” (1908), the Ottoman au‐ men). By way of example, Dowty describes the ex‐ thorities granted more permits than in the past for perience of Alter Druyanow, “a young law stu‐ daily newspapers. This step facilitated the develop‐ dent,” following the “Storms in the South:” “When I ment of nationalist movements around the em‐ saw … [the pogroms] something in me snapped…. pire, including the Arab national movement, and a In one flash all my illusions were revealed, and all surge was seen in anti-Zionist publications. Just be‐ the beautiful pictures of the future, that I and my fore the outbreak of the First World War, the end of friends painted for ourselves, dissipated like the period covered by Dowty, “both parties are be‐ smoke” (p. 66). A particular merit of Dowty’s study ginning to speak openly about the use of force” (p. is that he presents the experience of numerous fig‐ 261), and this would, of course, become the pre‐ ures from the second rank of national activists, dominant reality over the hundred years that fol‐ rather than confining himself to the central fig‐ lowed. ures. Dowty’s book will serve as an accessible and Historians are well aware of the enormous important work in the field of the history of the quantity of primary sources available from the be‐ Yishuv during the Ottoman period and the early ginning of the Second Aliya, and particularly fol‐ stages of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It draws lowing the revolution of 1908, by comparison to largely on relatively well-known primary sources, earlier periods. However, Dowty manages to and its main contribution lies in making these present his discussion of the period 1905–14 in just sources easily accessible in English translation, to‐ one-fifth of his study and does not allow the large 3 H-Net Reviews corpus of material from this period to overshadow are more nuanced theologies, national rivalries the earlier years. Indeed, he remarks that “I come that develop into alliances, and more complex and away from this study feeling that the first aliya has nuanced views of national rights. The decisions been unjustly minimized, and even denigrated, in made and deeds done by Jews and Arabs prior to evaluations of its role in Arab-Jewish relations and and during the riots were those of human beings. in the rise of Zionism generally” (p. viii). His impor‐ At each decision point, at each occasion of sponta‐ tant emphasis on the period 1880–05 is consistent neous action, there are a range of possibilities.”[4] with the welcome trend in the literature to accen‐ In conclusion, Dowty’s book makes an ex‐ tuate the historical function of the First Aliya. tremely important contribution to the literature The book is well written and readable; the examining the history of the Yishuv and the Israeli- quality of the fine Hebrew in the primary sources, Palestinian conflict. The combination of attention which are quoted at length, is preserved almost en‐ to detail and a broad overview means that this tirely in the translation. The author artfully ties to‐ work will be useful to scholars and students for gether the different chapters, and the short conclu‐ years to come, and the author deserves every sion at the end of each chapter helps the reader to praise for this. understand Dowty’s arguments and narrative. The Notes book shows a clear preference for Hebrew sources over Arabic ones, as Dowty acknowledges in his preface (p. vii); this preference should be under‐ [1]. For example, see Itzhak Bezalel, You Were stood against the background of the relative pauci‐ Born Zionists: The Sephardim in Eretz Israel in ty of Arabic sources from before 1908. As a result, Zionism and the Hebrew Revival during the Ot‐ the first six chapters of the book rely mainly on toman Period [in Hebrew] (Jerusalem: Yad Itzhak Jewish sources. This historiographic discrepancy Ben-Zvi, 2007); Michelle U. Campos, Ottoman might have been overcome by reducing the vol‐ Brothers: Muslims, Christians, and Jews in Early ume of quotes from the Jewish sources, thereby Twentieth Century Palestine (Stanford: Stanford moderating the emphasis on the Jewish voice at University Press, 2011); Yuval Ben-Bassat, Petition‐ the expense of the Arab side. ing the Sultan: Protests and Justice in Late Ottoman Palestine, 1865–1900 (London: I. B. Tauris, 2013); The book contains a few errors relating to the and Amos Noy, Experts or Witnesses: Jewish Intelli‐ history of the Ottoman Empire and its Jewish pop‐ gentsia from Jerusalem and the Levant in the Be‐ ulation. For example, it is incorrect to state that ginning of the 20th Century [in Hebrew] (Tel Aviv: “the only major blood libel accusation against Resling, 2017). Jews was the 1840 Damascus case” (p. 99).[3] By 1908, the Ottoman Jews had not been “subjects” (p. [2]. Recent historical studies argue that the 249) for around fifty years, but were citizens. How‐ emancipatory model should not be applied to the ever, such errors do not mar the generally high case of Russian Jewry, since it is irrelevant to the standard of the book. historical reality of corporative society in the Rus‐ As for Dowty’s deterministic approach, I sian Empire. As Benjamin Nathans has shown, the would like to quote an observation that Hillel Co‐ imperial state sought to grant “selective integra‐ hen makes toward the end of his book on the 1929 tion,” rather than “emancipation,” to various cor‐ riots: “Were the killings of 1929 a necessary result porations and minorities, including the Jews. of the Arab-Zionist encounter in Palestine? Deter‐ Nathans continues: “What happened in Russia was minists argue that everything that happened had thus not simply a failed attempt at a European- to happen…. But there are other possibilities. There style emancipation. During the mid–nineteenth 4 H-Net Reviews century, Russia was still emerging—in part under state tutelage—as a hierarchy of culturally and ju‐ ridically distinct estates, and it was precisely this hierarchy that various groups within the Jewish population were encouraged to enter.” See Ben‐ jamin Nathans, Beyond the Pale: The Jewish En‐ counter with Late Imperial Russia (Berkeley: Uni‐ versity of California Press, 2002), 79. Accordingly, the situation of the Russian Jews should be com‐ pared not to that of their coreligionists in western and central Europe, but rather to other minorities in the Russian Empire (ibid., 376). These studies are not reflected in Dowty’s book. [3]. See Jacob Barnai, “'Blood Libels’ in the Ot‐ toman Empire of the Fifteenth to Nineteenth Cen‐ turies,” in Antisemitism through the Ages, ed. Shmuel Almog (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1988), 189–94. [4]. Hillel Cohen, Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1929, trans. Haim Watzman (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2015), 260. Tamir Karkason is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Jewish History, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and a teaching fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, currently working on the manuscript of his first book on the Ottoman Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah) in the nineteenth century. If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-judaic Citation: Tamir Karkason. Review of Dowty, Alan. Arabs and Jews in Ottoman Palestine: Two Worlds Collide. H-Judaic, H-Net Reviews. May, 2020. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=54540 5 H-Net Reviews This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 6