lcc liberal arts studies / 2010 volume iii - LCC International University

RAJA S. TANAS / RESPONSES TO CULTURAL HOMOGENY: THE CASE OF PALESTINE
Anti-Semitism in Europe
During the lifespan of the Arab-Muslim and the non-Arab Muslim Empires, anti-
Semitism in Europe was widespread. European Jews had no place in Christian
Europe. European anti-Semitism reached a high point by the mid-1880s as
epitomized in the Dreyfus Affair. Alfred Dreyfus, then a military officer in the French
Army and a Jew, was accused of selling military secrets to Germany. The cry
"Death to the Jews" resounded throughout Europe. That was the world into which
Adolf Hitler was born.
In 1897, an Austrian Jew by the name of Theodore Herzl envisioned the
establishment of a separate safe haven for European Jews in Palestine, then a
province of the Ottoman Empire. In Herzl, the Zionist movement was born. Its goal
was to create a homeland for European Jews in Palestine. At its inception, Zionism
faced horrendous difficulties. The Ottoman Caliph refused to allow European Jews
to immigrate to Palestine. However, the golden opportunity for the success of
Zionism materialized when the WWI commenced in 1914. On the eve of WWI, and
in order to guarantee the success of the allies that comprised of Britain, France, and
Russia against the Ottoman Empire, the British Government promised Sharif
Hussein, then the leader of the Arabs, the entire Eastern Arab homeland (the
Arabian Peninsula) for an independent Arab state if his militia forces joined the
allies to fight against the Ottomans. It was a sealed deal for Sharif Hussein.
In November 1917, the British Government made another deal with Jewish
Zionist leaders in Europe, promising them Palestine for a homeland once the
Ottoman Empire was defeated if they were to support the war effort with finances
and fighters. This was another sealed deal made by the British Government, known
as the Balfour Declaration. In the Balfour Declaration, the British Government
made it clear to the Zionist leaders that by creating a home for European Jews in
Palestine “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights
of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.” The existing non-Jewish
communities referred herein are the native Palestinian Christians and Palestinian
Muslims.
When the WWI was over, the victorious allies namely, France and Britain,
split up the northern region of the Arabian Peninsula into independent nation states.
In the San Remo Agreement of 1920. Iraq, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, and
Palestine were created as politically independent entities for the first time ever.
Other politically independent states were created when the British and the French
military forces gradually left the Arabian Peninsula, resulting in the establishment of
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