A History of Protestant missions in the near East

Syria and Palestine 231
old men who wished to
migrants in Jerusalem, either pious
die in the Holy City, or lazy mendicants who relied on the
plentiful clialuka, the weekly doles supplied by European millionaires,
amounting in 1899 to 80,000. About forty years
ago Jewish philanthropists began to establish agricultural
colonies, where Jews from abroad were to till the soil of their
forefathers. The Zion movement has given a great impetus
to such colonization. After the failure of the leaders of this
national movement to establish a more or less autonomous
colony in British East Africa, Uganda, Canada, and the Argentines,
it was decided to devote all their strength and riches
to providing in Palestine a legally secure home for Jews. To
accomplish this it was necessary to purchase land on a grand
scale, and to get rid of the Arab fellaheen living on it. With
the large means at their disposal, they first purchased fertile
tracts of land in the plains of Sharon and Jezreel. Careful
enquiries were also instituted as to the most suitable methods
of agriculture. Success has hitherto attended these colonies
only in so far as vast sums of money have been collected for
them, since the Jews coming from abroad have proved to be
wholly unsuited to the occupation of farming nor do well-informed
men take a hopeful view of their ultimate success.
;
The expropriation of the native fellaheen, who have for ages
cultivated the ground, is, therefore, to be deplored. And since
there is little prospect of the establishment of a Jewish kingdom
in Jerusalem, all of the Christian Powers being opposed
to the Judaizing of the Holy Land, Zionism is a chimera, and
the approval
it finds in European circles is only intelligible as
the expression of a vain hope of thus easily getting rid of the
Jews in Europe. Although there is thus little hope for Zionism
as a political scheme of colonization, yet the movement is
so important, so many-sided, so well-organized, that every
friend of the Holy Land is bound to keep it in view during
coming years. It is
pursuing on a grand scale all the objects
which it planned. First comes a general enquiry into the
economical conditions of the country. This is carried out by
its commission for the exploration of Palestine, appointed by