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When Palestinians embraced Jewish history

In the wake of Mahmoud Abbas's bigoted comments last week, I want to share an under appreciated episode of Palestinian history.

Palestinian writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries showed a lot of inclusivity towards Jews & Jewish history in Palestine. There was nothing taboo about embracing Jewish history as part of the history of Palestine.

Yusuf Diya Pasha al-Khalidi

In 1899, the mayor of Jerusalem, Yusuf Diya Pasha al-Khalidi, sent a letter to the chief rabbi of France, Zadoc Kahn, asking that it be forwarded to Theodor Herzl.

al-Khalidi, writing in French, was frank about the Jewish connection to the Holy Land: “The idea in itself is only natural, beautiful, and just. Who can contest the rights of the Jews on Palestine? My God, historically it is your country!” In fact, in the letter, Khalidi called Theodor Herzl “a true Jewish patriot” & calling the Jews “our cousins.”

The problem with Zionism, for Y. al-Khalidi, was not the lack of Jewish connection to Palestine, it was that Palestine was already inhabited, so Zionism wasn't possible to implement because it would cause pain & suffering to the people living in Palestine, the Palestinian Arabs. Apparently it was possible to embrace the Jewish connection to Palestine and still reject Zionism. Wild! 😆 

Ruhi al-Khalidi

Yusuf’s cousin, Ruhi al-Khalidi (d. 1913), who served as the Jerusalemite representative in the Ottoman Parliament, similarly engaged seriously with Jewish history.

R. al-Khalidi wrote a book manuscript titled “Zionism, or the Zionist Question” (السيونيزم أي المسألة الصهيونية). In the manuscript, al-Khalidi strove to understand Jewish history, using Jewish sources, including the Hebrew Bible, the T­almud, a 1909 Arabic book by a Sephardic Jew on the Jewish oral law and Richard J. H. Gottheil entry on “Zionism” in the Jewish Encyclopedia. In fact, R. al-Khalidi also tried to learn Hebrew, and he must have been delighted to discover soooooooooooooooooooooo many cognates, as this page from his personal notebook suggests!

The manuscript covered:

• The religious roots of Zionism in the Bible and the Talmud.

• A history of the Jews from the death of King Solomon through the destruction of the Second Temple.

• A history of Jewish dispersion and their places of refuge and settlement over the centuries.

• The modern history of the Zionist movement

al-Khalidi’s work was a nuanced and scholarly account of Jewish history and Zionism. He did not question the existence of the ancient Israelite kingdoms that thrived in Palestine. He did not doubt the link between the Zionists seeking to take over his country and the Biblical Israelites. Instead, he emphasized the Jewish yearning and longing to return to Palestine! “The captives in Babylonia demonstrated their abundant yearning for Zion and Jerusalem. No nation among the nations reached their height of grieving over their homelands and the degree of their longing for it.” Al-Khalidi discussed of Zionism’s most sacred heroes, the 2nd century Jewish rebel leader Bar Kokhba, rabbinic predictions as to when Jews will return to the Holg Land, as well as the 17th century Sabbatean immigration to Palestine. Wild!!!!!

Of course, none of this prevented Ruhi al-Khalidi from being one of the most outspoken critics of Zionism during his era. In the manuscript, his rejection of Zionism stemmed from his belief that the Jews had become a religious group, not a nation ,they had become French nationals and English nationals, which precluded them from having the right to becoming nationals in Palestine. Moreover, as the Jerusalemite representative to the Ottoman Parliament, he spoke out against Zionism on the Ottoman Parliamentary floor in 1911. He called for an end to illegal property acquisitions by Zionists, which were only made possible because of corrupt Ottoman officials, or so he argued.

In short — for many Palestinians in the late Ottoman period — there was nothing Zionist about understanding Judaism’s historical connection to Palestine.

Palestine Comedy of the Week

No issue of Palestine, In your Inbox would be complete without some comedy. This week we’ve got none other than the infamous Palestinian American Anwar Jibawi:

anwar

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Happy watching! Be safe and take care of eachother.

-Zach