Postcard of the fifth Zionist congress in Basel Switzerland in 1901
First edition in 1902 of Herzl’s novel OldNewLand, projecting his vision of a homeland for the Jews
The modern Zionist movement began in Europe in the late-19th century, aiming to establish a homeland for the Jewish people. With antisemitism on the rise everywhere in Europe — Central and Eastern Europe especially — Jews faced the question: Living in a nation state or empire that unshakably regards us as “other” (greedy, clever, deceptive, etc.), what hope for the future can we have? Is assimilation, which many of us have relied on in the past, a plausible approach any longer?
In Schnitzler’s The Road into the Open, Therese, Leo, and their Jewish family and friends respond to this dilemma in ways that propel their lives in divergent directions. Therese is a social democratic activist committed to a universalist vision of a world that enables freedom and fulfillment for all people, whatever their ethnic origin, station in life, or beliefs may be.
Therese’s brother Leo regards her optimism as naïve, and is convinced instead by the Zionist argument: given the persecution and violent riots (pogroms) that have ravaged Jewish communities for centuries and show no signs of abating (in Vienna an antisemitic mob went on a rampage in 1890, attacking local Jews and Jewish-owned shops), Jewish people will have to build their own country, distant from Europe, to find freedom and security.
Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), Austrian founder of the Zionist movement
It was to this possible future for the Jewish people that Schnitzler’s Viennese contemporary, Theodor Herzl, devoted his life. In 1896 he inscribed the idea into a pamphlet, The Jewish State. Herzl was well aware that Eretz Israel (Biblical Israel, also known as Palestine, which today includes Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank) was already inhabited by a non-Jewish population, and his view of that situation was an unsettled one, sometimes expecting that Arab communities will relocate and sometimes emphasizing the aim of peaceful co-existence. In his novel AltNeuLand (1902), which was translated from German into many languages and reached a large worldwide audience, Herzl conceives the Jewish commonwealth in Palestine as one that ensures human rights and dignity for everyone, irrespective of ethnic origin or religious conviction. Arabs and Jews, men and women, are equal citizens and full participants in the project of building a democratic social order. One of the characters in the novel, Rashid Bey, an Arab engineer from Haifa who becomes one of the new country’s leaders, explains why Arabs welcome Jewish migration to Palestine—it has “developed the country and raised everybody’s standard of living.”
As represented in the novel, Herzl’s homeland for the Jews is not conflict-free, however. The novel features a fanatical rabbi campaigning for political office who argues that non-Jewish inhabitants of the new country are not full-fledged citizens and mustn’t be allowed to vote. His view is rejected by the public and he is defeated. To be sure, Herzl’s vision here is romantic and utopian, but he points out in the preface to the novel that it anticipates an historical project, Zionism, that is actually underway.
As it turns out, 20th-century Jewish emigration to the land of Palestine did not follow the peace-making guidelines that Herzl envisaged. Schlomo Avineri writes that Herzl
“did not foresee the emergence of a Palestinian national movement that would draw much of its ideological energy from opposing the Zionist project itself. While one might fault him for this, it is important to note that when he was writing, there was no Arab national movement in existence—neither in Palestine, nor anywhere else.”
Yet there were others at the time, Arabs and Jews alike, who were more prescient than Herzl. In 1899 the mayor of Jerusalem, Yusef Effendi al-Khalidi, wrote a letter to Herzl that said it was “pure folly” to try to establish a Jewish national home in Palestine, because the land was already “inhabited by others.” Herzl, falling back on colonial stereotypes of non-Europeans as uncivilized and backward, replied to the mayor that Zionism would bring modernity to Palestine and surely benefit the Arab population too: “It is their well-being, their individual wealth, which we will increase by bringing in our own.”
Theodor Herzl was technologically minded, inclined to seek engineering solutions to human problems. His views of Palestinian Arabs were contradictory, sometimes respectful and sometimes disparaging, but never anticipating serious Arab resistance to the Zionist project. Zionist leaders who came after Herzl, however, were made more acutely aware of Palestinian opposition. To stave off such hostility, Chaim Weizmann, who would become the first president of Israel, went to Palestine in 1918 and signed an agreement with King Faisal of Iraq that called for the formation of two new states in Palestine, one Arab and one Jewish.
In the following decades, other Zionist leaders would be less sanguine about Arab-Zionist relations, and more intent on seizing and controlling the entire land of Palestine than in creating two states side-by-side. In 1937 Ze’ev Jabotinsky rejected the possibility of a two-state solution and described the conflict in stark terms:
“There is no point talking about the possibility that the Arabs in Eretz Israel would consent to the Zionist plan while we are a minority here…. [this] is utterly illogical—to obtain the Arabs’ consent and goodwill to turn Eretz Israel from an Arabic country to a country with a Jewish majority.”
Hence Jabotinsky believed that only military might, not negotiation and compromise, could counter Arab resistance.
Lottery for plots of land purchased from Bedouins for building a new Jewish neighborhood near the town of Jaffa
Chaim Weizmann (left) and Emir Faisal. Weizmann wears Arab dress as a sign of respect and friendship.
Palestinians taking an oath of allegiance to the Arab cause during the uprising in 1936
The debates about the validity of Zionism that began at the turn of the 20th century have never ceased. The issues remain contested today, and the consequences of the conflict are as horrific as ever in the past! What is striking is the historical persistence of misunderstandings, violence, and missed opportunities to find an acceptable path forward. The leadership on both sides has promoted hatred and war-making that have inflicted massive suffering. In the words of Rabbi Michael Lerner:
“Jews did not return to their ancient homeland to oppress the Palestinian people, and Palestinians did not resist the creation of a Jewish state out of hatred of the Jews…. both sides have made and continue to make terrible mistakes. Yet the choices of both sides are also understandable, given their perceptions of their own and the other’s situation. As long as each community clings to its own story, unable to acknowledge what is plausible in the story of the other side, peace will remain a distant hope.… It is only when people in both communities are able to open their minds to each other with real depth, compassion, openheartedness, and generosity that we can achieve the kind of reconciliation of the heart necessary to sustain any peace agreement.”
Standing Together is an organization that brings together Jews and Palestinians against the occupation and for peace, equality, and social justice.
For a deeper dive into the controversies about Judaism and Palestine at the time that Theodor Herzl was organizing an international Zionist movement, visit this page of our website: Diaspora/Identity
