Zionism

ZIONISM. - A political movement aimed at procuring for the Jews an independent and recognized national State, it established itself at the Zionist Congress of Basel (Aug. 1897), at which Theodor Herzl, a Hungarian Jewish journalist, made triumph the ideas already set forth in his programmatic book Judenstaat (Vienna 1896). Even earlier, the millennial aspirations of the people of Israel to regain their homeland had been given concrete form, especially in Eastern Europe, in movements that promoted Jewish culture, the revival of Hebrew as a national language and the colonization of Palestine; but these small, unorganized attempts were often utopian.

In 1881, on the other hand, under the stimulus of the bloodiest "pogroms" (southern Russia), the movements intensified and became more concrete. Groups of "Lovers of Zion" were formed in many cities to collect means and recruit men for the colonization of Palestine, where the first colonies were founded in 1882: this is the phase of sporadic colonization. The physician of Odessa, Jéhùdāh Leib Pinsker, in Oct. 1883 founded in that city the first nucleus and center of all the Hobhēbhē Sijjôn. In the preceding year he had published in Berlin an anonymous pamphlet (Autoemancipation: Mahnruf an seine Stammesgenossen), in which the Jewish question was set forth dramatically and the only satisfactory solution was advocated: to give the Jews a homeland in Palestine (Eres Jisrd'el). Pinsker's pamphlet had little influence at the time, but later Herzl was to say that, had he known of it earlier, he would not have believed it necessary to write his Judenstaat. If Pinsker lacked fervor in action, this was instead possessed in high degree by Herzl. Converted to Zionism through the worsening of atheism (the final impulse was the Dreyfus trial in France), he saw in it the only means of solving the Jewish question, and from then on he devoted all his genius to it. After intense propaganda throughout the world to instill the Zionist ideal in the Jewish masses, to organize the future colonists, to create the principal instruments for reconstruction, to win the major Powers to the Zionist cause, he convened at Basel, on 29 Aug. 1897, the first Zionist Congress, in which more than 200 delegates from every part of the world participated.

Here the "Basel Program" was fixed, and the World Zionist Organization was founded, with the supreme authority of a Congress (annual at first, then biennial). At the close of this Congress, Herzl was able to write in his private Diary: "At Basel I founded the Jewish State. If I said this aloud today, I would be answered by bursts of laughter everywhere. In five years perhaps, in any case in fifty years, everyone will understand." At the exact expiration of the fifty years, the State of Israel would be born, and the following year Herzl's remains would enter Palestine amid the veneration of the newborn State of Israel, which would acclaim him "Father of the Fatherland."

After the Basel Congress all similar movements concentrated in the Zionist movement, and numerous organizations and federations were founded everywhere. Herzl encountered no small difficulties, even among his wealthy co-religionists from whom he solicited financial means, so much so that, given the near impossibility of obtaining Palestine, after other projects he accepted the proposal of the English Colonial Secretary Chamberlain, who offered Uganda as a land of gathering for the Jews; but the hostility of many of them to the project was so violent that Herzl died of grief over it (3 June 1904). From then on the "Basel Program" for Palestine remained fixed, and in 1907 the Seventh Congress advocated, on the initiative of Haim Weizmann, future first President of the State of Israel, "synthetic Zionism," which united Herzl's political program with immediate practical colonization. With funds placed at its disposal by wealthy Jewish financiers, such as, for example, Baron Edmond Rothschild, by means of annual collections organized throughout the world, the purchase of land in Palestine began and the founding of "Colonies" in the most fertile and strategically most important zones, in anticipation of the inevitable reaction of the Arabs. Successive waves of emigrants poured into Palestine, especially from the countries of Eastern Europe where anti-Semitic hostilities were most violent. At first the colonizing immigration was disorderly and often gave scant results; no organized plan regulated immigration, nothing was prepared to receive the newcomers who, in order to enter, had to evade a prohibitive law of Turkey (1882), mistress of Palestine. The First World War marked a decisive advance for organized Zionism. On 2 Nov. 1917, the English Foreign Secretary Lord Balfour declared in a letter to Lionel Rothschild, president of the English Zionist Federation: "His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a 'National Home' for the Jewish people and will use its best efforts to facilitate the achievement of this object." This famous "Balfour Declaration" was later incorporated by the League of Nations into the text of the Mandate over Palestine entrusted to Great Britain (Apr. 1922). But the latter, once the necessities of war had passed and not wishing to incur the antipathy of the Palestinian Arabs, did not hasten to carry out the promise, skillfully availing itself of the vague and equivocal form of the term "National Home." On the other hand, the Jewish people, strong in the right recognized to it, began an "invisible conquest" of Palestine, with successive immigrations supported by various Committees and directed by a central organization, the "Jewish Agency," with its two branches: the Qeren qajjemeth lé-Jisrā'el ("Fund for the resurrection of Israel"), which provided the lands; and the Qeren haj-jézādh ("Fund of the foundation"), which distributed them among the colonists, organized in the form of large Cooperatives (qibbā), very similar to the Soviet "kolkhozes." Thus in the twenty years between the two World Wars there occurred the three most important migrations (dlijjōth) of the five that the entire Zionist movement has counted since 1882; of these, the most numerous, composed in large part of German Jews, was determined by Nazi anti-Semitism (1934-1939). Difficulties arose in the international field, and in Palestine there were repeated hostilities with the Arabs, but the work was continued with tenacity. Little by little most of the productive lands of Palestine were acquired, agriculture was modernly organized, industry was developed and cities were founded; Tel-Aviv, the ghetto of Haifa, became in a few years an elegant city and now, capital of the new State of Israel, counts ca. 200,000 inhabitants. In 1943, the Jewish population of Palestine reached 539,000 individuals, 31.5% of the total population, and the properties of the "Jewish Agency" amounted to 1,300 sq km, that is, 17% of the territory.

To further favor union and the national spirit, jiddī, defined as "a junk-dealers' jargon," was abandoned, and the classical Hebrew of the Bible was adopted as the national language, for which Ben Jéhūdhāh of Odessa wrote a dictionary of 15 vols., adapting it to modern needs.

In the face of the extraordinary achievements of Zionism, the Palestinian Arabs began to realize that a Jewish State was not only in the process of being formed, but already existed on their territory and that little by little they would be overwhelmed by it. And so the struggle between the two groups began, conducted with acts of terrorism, sabotage and assassinations, to which the Jews opposed a small but powerful clandestine army, called Haghānah, which responded to reprisals and terrorism with the same weapons, while England skillfully wavered between one faction and the other, though sympathizing with the Arabs. The Second World War (1939-45) marked a pause in the struggle, but it resumed more violently at the end of the conflict, given that the British Mandate was due to expire in 1948. Proposals and attempts at conciliation multiplied; it was proposed to extend the British Mandate, permitting the immigration of 100,000 Jews once and for all, but the proposal failed owing to popular fury; likewise the Morrison proposal for an independent State divided into two provinces failed. In any case, England announced that, as soon as the Mandate expired (15 May 1948), it would abandon Palestine into the hands of the United Nations.

The U.N. (31 Aug. 1947) adopted the plan for partition of Palestine into two separate States, but the next day open fighting began in Jerusalem between Jews and Arabs and, on 15 May 1948, official war broke out between Israel and the Arab League (Syria, Lebanon, Irāq, Transjordan, Egypt and Arabia) in solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs. Israel, more compact, better armed and prepared, mobilizing even women and boys, gradually gained the upper hand. The brief conflict was characterized by stubbornness and cruelty, acts of terrorism, massacres and reprisals, on both sides.

The U.N. imposed three truces, which were not respected; indeed, the U.N.'s own truce envoy, the Swede Count Bernadotte, was assassinated on 6 Sept. 1948 by a group of Jewish terrorists. Finally the U.N. enjoined the belligerents to conclude an armistice (16 Nov. 1948), which in reality Israel made separately with the various States of the Arab League in the following spring. Israel found itself master of more than two thirds of the territory. On 11 May 1949, the U.N. admitted the State of Israel into its midst.

Having by now achieved its goal, Zionism in the original sense of the word should be said to be finished, but there still remains the question of Jerusalem, still divided between the two contenders: the new city is in Israel's hands, the old one is occupied by the Arabs, who garrisoned most of the Holy Places with the Arab Legion. Israel demands Jerusalem as its capital, the Arabs will not yield; the U.N. has proposed the internationalization of the city but the proposal has so far not been carried out.

Pope Pius XII, concerned for the fate of the Holy Places, has repeatedly urged the Nations to adhere to the solution of internationalizing Jerusalem, since it is a sacred city for a billion men. He has clearly stated his anxiety for the fate of the Holy Places in three Encyclical Letters, of 1 May 1948, of 24 Oct. 1948, of 15 Apr. 1949, and in the Exhortation of 8 Nov. 1949. Although Jews and Arabs have repeatedly assured that they wish to respect the venerable Sanctuaries, the profanations, destructions and threats to which they were subjected during and after the conflict show how well founded the Pope's concerns are.

Eugenio Pellegrino