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{{History of Israel}}
As an organized nationalist movement, [[Zionism]] is generally considered to have been founded by [[Theodor Herzl]] in 1897. However, the '''history of Zionism''' began earlier and is intertwined with [[Jewish history]] and [[Judaism]]. The organizations of [[Hovevei Zion]] ({{Literal translation|Lovers of [[Zion]]}}), held as the forerunners of modern Zionist ideals, were responsible for the creation of 20 [[Palestinian Jews|Jewish towns in Palestine]] between 1870 and 1897.<ref name="Snitkoff">{{cite web |url=http://www.myjewishlearning.com/israel/Jewish_Thought/Modern/Secular_Zionism.shtml |title=Secular Zionism |access-date=January 2, 2011 |publisher=My Jewish Learning |first=Ed |last=Snitkoff |archive-date=April 6, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406111824/http://www.myjewishlearning.com/israel/Jewish_Thought/Modern/Secular_Zionism.shtml |url-status=dead}}</ref>

At the core of the Zionist ideology was the traditional aspiration for a [[Homeland for the Jewish people|Jewish national home]] through the re-establishment of [[History of the Jews and Judaism in the Land of Israel|Jewish sovereignty in Palestine]], to be facilitated by the [[Jewish diaspora]] (see ''[[aliyah]]''). Herzl sought an independent [[Jewish state]] (usually defined as a [[secular state]] with a Jewish-majority population, in contrast to a theocratic [[Halachic state|Halakhic state]]), as expressed in his 1896 pamphlet ''[[Der Judenstaat]]''. Though he did not live to witness it, his vision was fulfilled with the founding of the [[Israel|State of Israel]] in 1948.

While Zionist values serve as the ideological foundation of Israel, the importance of Zionism as an organized movement has declined since [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|Israeli independence]].<ref>''The Oxford companion to politics of the world'' By Joël Krieger, Margaret E. Crahan p. 942, Oxford 2001</ref>

The Zionist movement continues to exist in the form of various organizations working to support Israel, combat [[antisemitism]], assist [[Persecution of Jews|persecuted Jews]], and encourage diaspora Jews to move to Israel. Most [[List of political parties in Israel|Israeli political parties]] continue to define themselves as Zionist.

Due to the success of Zionism, [[Historical Jewish population comparisons|the global Jewish population has experienced a shift]], with statistics showing a steady pattern of growth in the percentage of diaspora Jews relocating to Israel. Today, Israel is home to around 40% of the world's Jews, and it is also the only country in which Jews account for the majority of the population. To date, there is no other example in human history of a nation being re-established after such a long period of existence as a [[diaspora]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Louza |first=Marcel |title=Hamishiya: The Story of Five Friends |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cAIIq_SO-fcC&q=There+is+no+other+example+in+human+history+of+a+nation+being+reestablished+after+such+a+long+period+of+existence+as+a+diaspora&pg=PA48 |publisher=iUniverse Publishing |year=2011 |page=48 |isbn=9781462059119}}</ref>

==Background: the historical and religious origins of Zionism==
{{Main|Jewish history}}

===Biblical precedents===
{{Main|The Return to Zion}}
The precedence for Jews to return to their ancestral homeland, motivated by strong divine intervention, first appears in the [[Torah]], and thus later adopted in the [[Christianity|Christian]] [[Old Testament]]<!-- and in Islam? Moses is mentioned.-->. After [[Jacob]] and his sons had gone down to Egypt to escape a drought, they were enslaved and became a nation. Later, as commanded by God, [[Moses]] went before Pharaoh, demanded, "Let my people go!" and foretold [[Plagues of Egypt|severe consequences]], if this was not done. Torah describes the story of the plagues and the [[The Exodus|Exodus]] from Egypt, which is estimated at about 1400 BCE, and the beginning of the journey of the Jewish People toward the Land of Israel. These are celebrated annually during [[Passover]], and the Passover meal traditionally ends with the words "[[Next Year in Jerusalem]]."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Shapira |first=Anita |date=April 2004 |title=The Bible and Israeli Identity |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ajs-review/article/abs/bible-and-israeli-identity/F840C41D6F695EE7946E663475FE8040 |journal=AJS Review |language=en |volume=28 |issue=1 |pages=11–41 |doi=10.1017/S0364009404000030 |s2cid=161984097 |issn=1475-4541|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Greenspoon |first=Leonard J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yw2yDwAAQBAJ&dq=next+year+in+jerusalem&pg=PT9 |title=Next Year in Jerusalem: Exile and Return in Jewish History |year=2019 |publisher=[[Purdue University Press]] |isbn=978-1-61249-604-7 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lind |first=Dara |date=2014-08-05 |title=Why are you supposed to say "next year in Jerusalem"? |url=https://www.vox.com/2014/8/5/18002034/why-are-you-supposed-to-say-next-year-in-jerusalem |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=Vox |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Johnson |first=George E. |date=2022-04-04 |title=Jewish Word {{!}} Why We Say 'Next Year in Jerusalem' |url=https://momentmag.com/next-year-in-jerusalem/ |access-date=2023-11-19 |website=Moment Magazine |language=en-US}}</ref>

The theme of return to their traditional homeland came up again after the [[Babylon]]ians conquered Judea in 587 BCE and the Judeans were exiled to Babylon. In the book of [[Psalms]] ([[Psalm 137]]), Jews lamented their exile while Prophets like [[Ezekiel]] foresaw their return. The Bible recounts how, in 538 BCE [[Cyrus (Bible)|Cyrus the Great]] of [[Persia]] conquered Babylon and issued a proclamation granting the people of Judah their freedom. 50,000 Judeans, led by [[Zerubbabel]] returned. A second group of 5000, led by [[Ezra]] and [[Nehemiah]], returned to [[Judea]] in 456 BCE.<ref>{{Citation |last=Talmon |first=Shemaryahu |title='Exile' and 'Restoration' in the Conceptual World of Ancient Judaism |date=2001 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004493636/B9789004493636_s008.xml |work=Restoration |pages=107–146 |access-date=November 19, 2023 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-49363-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |title=The Babylonian exile and the revitalization of a people |url=https://etd.ohiolink.edu/acprod/odb_etd/etd/r/1501/10?clear=10&p10_accession_num=osu1407406472 |publisher=The Ohio State University |date=2000 |language=en |first=Karen Sue |last=Moss}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Grayzel |first=Solomon |title=A History of the Jews: From the Babylonian Exile to the Present |year=1968 |isbn=978-0999163368 |language=en}}</ref>{{pn|date=January 2025}}

===Precursors===
{{Main|Old Yishuv|Jewish military history|Pre-Modern Aliyah|Proto-Zionism}}
The 613 [[Jewish revolt against Heraclius]] is considered the last serious Jewish attempt to gain autonomy in Palestine in antiquity. In 1160 [[David Alroy]] led a Jewish uprising in [[Upper Mesopotamia]] that aimed to reconquer the promised land. The [[Jewish expulsion from Spain]] led to some Jewish refugees fleeing to [[History of Jews in the Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Palestine]]. In 1564, [[Joseph Nasi]], with the support of the sultan of the Ottoman Empire, attempted to create a Jewish province in the Galilee, but he died in 1579 and his plans weren't completed. However, the community in [[Safed]] continued as did small-scale [[aliyah]] into the 17th century.<ref name="Edelheit-2019">{{Cite book |last=Edelheit |first=Hershel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s8PADwAAQBAJ&q=shabbetai |title=History Of Zionism: A Handbook And Dictionary |year= 2019 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0-429-70103-0 |language=en |pages=10–12}}</ref>

In 1648 [[Sabbatai Zevi]] (1626–1676) announced himself as the Messiah and gained many Jews to his side, forming a base in [[Salonika]]. He first tried to establish a settlement in [[Gaza City|Gaza]], but moved later to [[Smyrna]]. After deposing the old rabbi [[Aaron Lapapa]] in the spring of 1666, the Jewish community of [[Avignon, France]], prepared to emigrate to the new kingdom.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shabbethai Ẓebi B. Mordecai |url=https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13480-shabbethai-zebi-b-mordecai |access-date=March 10, 2023 |website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com |archive-date=March 26, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326032858/https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13480-shabbethai-zebi-b-mordecai |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Charvit |first=Yossef |date=April 3, 2024 |title=The Sabbatean syndrome, the messianic idea and Zionism |url=http://www.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/jjs.2024.75.1.137 |journal=[[Journal of Jewish Studies]] |language=en |volume=75 |issue=1 |pages=137–159 |doi=10.3828/jjs.2024.75.1.137 |issn=0022-2097|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name="Edelheit-2019"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Cohn-Sherbok |first=Dan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iQdHAQAAQBAJ |title=Introduction to Zionism and Israel: From Ideology to History |year=2012 |publisher=A&C Black |isbn=978-1-4411-6062-1 |language=en |page=1}}</ref>

At the beginning of the 19th century, the [[Perushim]], disciples of the [[Vilna Gaon]], left [[Lithuania]] to settle in [[Ottoman Palestine]] in anticipation of the return of the Messiah in 1840. A dispatch from the British Consulate in Jerusalem in 1839 reported that "the Jews of Algiers and its dependencies, are numerous in Palestine..." There was also significant migration from Central Asia ([[Bukharan Jews]]). In 1868 [[Judah ben Shalom]] led a large movement of [[Yemenite Jews]] to Palestine.

[[Safed]] became an important center of [[Kabbalah]]. [[Jerusalem]], [[Hebron]], and [[Tiberias]] also had significant Jewish populations.{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}

===Aliyah and the "Ingathering of the Exiles"===
{{See also|Aliyah}}

Among [[Jewish diaspora|Jews in the Diaspora]], [[Eretz Israel]] was revered in a cultural, national, ethnic, historical, and religious sense. They thought of a return to it in a future messianic age.<ref>Taylor, A.R., 1971, ''Vision and intent in Zionist Thought'', pp. 10, 11</ref> Return remained a recurring theme among generations, particularly in [[Passover]] and [[Yom Kippur]] prayers, which traditionally concluded with "[[Next year in Jerusalem]]", and in the thrice-daily [[Amidah]] (Standing prayer).<ref>"Sound the great shofar for our freedom, raise the banner to gather our exiles and gather us together from the four corners of the earth (Isaiah 11:12) Blessed are you, O Lord, Who gathers in the dispersed of His people Israel."</ref>

Jewish daily prayers include many references to "your people Israel", "your return to Jerusalem" and associate salvation with a restored presence in the Land of Israel, the Land of Zion and Jerusalem (usually accompanied by a Messiah); for example the prayer [[Uva Letzion]] (Isaiah 59:20): "And a redeemer shall come to Zion..."{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} ''Aliyah'' (return to Israel) has always been considered a praiseworthy act for Jews according to [[Halakha|Jewish law]] and some Rabbis consider it one of the core [[613 Mitzvot|613 commandments]] in Judaism.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.masortiworld.org/mercaz/aliyah/rabbigolinkin |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100414053036/http://masortiworld.org/mercaz/aliyah/rabbigolinkin|url-status=dead |title=Rabbi David Golinkin's Lecture for Aliyah Program &#124; Masorti Olami<!-- Bot generated title --> |archive-date=April 14, 2010}}</ref> From the [[Middle Ages]] and onwards, some famous rabbis (and often their followers) made aliyah to the Land of Israel. These included [[Nahmanides]], [[Yechiel of Paris]] with several hundred of his students, [[Joseph ben Ephraim Karo]], [[Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk]] and 300 of his followers, and over 500 disciples (and their families) of the [[Vilna Gaon]] known as [[Perushim]], among others.

==Persecution of the Jews==
{{See also|Jewish deicide|Jewish ghettos in Europe|Christianity and antisemitism|Inquisition}}
Persecution of Jews played a key role in preserving Jewish identity and keeping Jewish communities transient, it would later provide a key role in inspiring Zionists to reject European forms of identity.

Jews in Catholic states were banned from owning land and from pursuing a variety of professions. From the 13th century Jews were required to wear identifying clothes such as [[Jewish hat|special hats]] or [[yellow badge|stars on their clothing]]. This form of persecution originated in tenth century Baghdad and was copied by Christian rulers. Constant expulsions and insecurity led Jews to adopt artisan professions that were easily transferable between locations (such as furniture making or tailoring).

Persecution in Spain and Portugal led a large number of Jews there to convert to Christianity, however many continued to [[Marrano|secretly practice Jewish]] rituals. The Church responded by creating the [[Inquisition]] in 1478 and by expelling all remaining [[Alhambra Decree|Jews in 1492]]. In 1542 the inquisition expanded to include the [[Papal States]]. Inquisitors could arbitrarily torture suspects and many victims were burnt alive.

In 1516 the Republic of Venice decreed that Jews would only be allowed to reside in a walled-in area of town called the [[Venetian Ghetto|ghetto]]. Ghetto residents had to pay a daily [[Tax per head|poll tax]] and could only stay a limited amount of time. In 1555 the Pope decreed that Jews in Rome were to face similar restrictions. The requirement for Jews to live in Ghettos spread across Europe and Ghettos were frequently highly overcrowded and heavily taxed. They also provided a convenient target for mobs ([[pogrom]]). Jews were [[Edict of Expulsion|expelled from England]] in 1290. A ban remained in force that was only lifted when [[Oliver Cromwell]] [[English Civil War|overthrew]] the monarchy in 1649 (see [[Resettlement of the Jews in England]]).

Persecution of Jews began to decline following [[Napoleon and the Jews|Napoleon]]'s conquest of Europe after the [[French Revolution]] although the short lived Nazi Empire resurrected most practices.
In 1965 the Catholic Church [[Nostra aetate|formally excluded]] the idea of holding Jews collectively responsible for the death of Jesus.

===Europe's Age of Enlightenment and the Jews===
{{See also|Jewish Emancipation|antisemitism|History of antisemitism}}
{{Yishuv haYashan}}
The [[Age of Enlightenment]] in Europe led to an 18th- and 19th-century Jewish enlightenment movement in Europe, called the [[Haskalah]]. In 1791, the [[French Revolution]] led France to become the first country in Europe to grant Jews legal equality. Britain gave Jews equal rights in 1856, Germany in 1871. The spread of western liberal ideas among newly emancipated Jews created for the first time a class of [[Jewish secularism|secular Jews]] who absorbed the prevailing ideas of enlightenment, including [[rationalism]], [[romanticism]], and [[nationalism]].

However, the formation of modern nations in Europe accompanied changes in the prejudices against Jews. What had previously been [[Religious antisemitism|religious persecution]] now became a new phenomenon of [[racial antisemitism]] and acquired a new name: [[antisemitism]]. Antisemites saw Jews as an alien religious, national and racial group and actively tried to prevent Jews from acquiring equal rights and citizenship. The Catholic press was at the forefront of these efforts and was quietly encouraged by the Vatican, which saw its own decline in status as linked to the equality granted to Jews.<ref>''The Popes against the Jews: The Vatican's Role in the Rise of Modern Anti-Semitism'' by David Kertzer New York 2001, chapter 6</ref> By the late 19th century, the more extreme nationalist movements in Europe often promoted physical violence against Jews who they regarded as interlopers and exploiters threatening the well-being of their nations.

===Persecution of the Jews in the Russian Empire===
{{See also|History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union|Anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian Empire|Antisemitic boycotts}}

Jews in Eastern Europe faced constant [[pogrom]]s and [[History of the Jews in Russia and the Soviet Union#Tsarist Russia (1480s-1917)|persecution]] in Tsarist Russia. From 1791 they were only allowed to live in the [[Pale of Settlement]]. In response to the Jewish drive for integration and modern education ([[Haskalah]]) and the movement for emancipation, the Tsars imposed [[May Laws|tight quotas]] on schools, universities and cities to prevent entry by Jews. From 1827 to 1917 Russian Jewish boys were required to serve 25 years in the Russian army, starting at the age of 12. The intention was to forcibly destroy their ethnic identity, however the move severely radicalized Russia's Jews and familiarized them with nationalism and socialism.<ref>{{cite book |author1-link=Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern |first=Yohanan |last=Petrovsky-Shtern |title=Jews in the Russian Army, 1827–1917: Drafted into Modernity |date=2008 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0521515733}}</ref>

The tsar's chief adviser [[Konstantin Pobedonostsev]], was reported as saying that one-third of Russia's Jews was expected to emigrate, one-third to accept baptism, and one-third to starve.<ref>[http://www.memo.ru/hr/referats/hatespch/kis_kop.htm History of the national question in Russia] at Russian Committee in defense of the human rights (in Russian), also in [http://www.axt.org.uk/antisem/archive/archive4/russia/russia.htm AXT: Russia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120013849/http://www.axt.org.uk/antisem/archive/archive4/russia/russia.htm |date=2008-11-20 }} and in ''Studies in Comparative Genocide'' by Levon Chorbajian (p. 237)</ref>

Famous incidents includes the 1913 [[Menahem Mendel Beilis]] trial ([[Blood libel against Jews]]) and the 1903 [[Kishinev pogrom]].

Between 1880 and 1928, two million Jews left Russia; most emigrated to the [[United States]], a minority chose Palestine.

==Pre-Zionist initiatives (1799–1897)==

===Proto-Zionism===
{{main|Proto-Zionism}}
[[File:pinsker Autoemanicipation.jpg|left|thumb|''[[Auto-Emancipation]]'' by J. L. Pinsker, 1882]]

Proto-Zionists include the (Lithuanian) [[Vilna Gaon]], (Russian) Rabbi [[Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk]], (Bosnian) Rabbi [[Judah Alkalai]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/alkalai_biography.htm|title=Zionism and Israel - Biographies - Yehuda Alkalai (Akalay)|website=www.zionism-israel.com}}</ref> (German) Rabbi [[Zvi Hirsch Kalischer]], and (British) [[Moses Montefiore]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=_rhVAAAAYAAJ&q=proto+zionist+-+moses+montefiore "Jewish quarterly, Volumes 29–31"]. p. 60. Jewish Literary Trust, (London, England). 1981</ref> Other advocates of Jewish independence include (American) [[Mordecai Manuel Noah]], (Russian) [[Leon Pinsker]] and (German) [[Moses Hess]].

The [[Vilna Gaon]] of Lithuania (1720–1797) promoted a teaching from the Zohar (book of Jewish mysticism) that “the gates of wisdom above and the founts of wisdom below will open” would happen after the start of the 6th century of the 6th millennium i.e. after the year 5600 of the Jewish calendar (1839–1840 AD).<ref>Hastening Redemption--Messianism and the Resettlement of the Land of Israel by Arie Morgenstern, Oxford University Press 2006, pp. 24–25</ref> Many understood this to imply the coming of the Messiah at that time, and thus an early wave of Jewish migration to the Holy Land began in 1808 and grew until the 1840s.

In the nineteenth century, there were a number of initiatives to create Jewish colonies or homelands in various places outside Palestine. Jewish settlements were proposed for establishment in the upper Mississippi region by W.D. Robinson in 1819.<ref>American Jewish Historical Society, Vol. 8, p. 80</ref>{{full citation needed|date=September 2024}} Moral but not practical efforts were made in [[Prague]] by [[Abraham Benisch]] and [[Moritz Steinschneider]] to organize a Jewish emigration in 1835. In the United States, [[Mordecai Manuel Noah]] attempted to establish a Jewish refuge opposite [[Buffalo, New York]], on Grand Isle, 1825. These early Jewish nation building efforts failed.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://www.jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org/images/Mordecai_Manuel_Noah_-Final.pdf |title=Major Noah: American Patriot, American Zionist |first=Jerry |last=Klinger |publisher=[[Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation]] |access-date=May 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303231234/http://www.jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org/images/Mordecai_Manuel_Noah_-Final.pdf |archive-date=March 3, 2016}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=May 2015}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org/completedprgms2/buffalonewyork.html |title=Mordecai Noah and St. Paul's Cathedral: An American Proto-Zionist Solution to the 'Jewish Problem' |publisher=[[Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation]] |access-date=May 12, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150311093639/http://www.jewish-american-society-for-historic-preservation.org/completedprgms2/buffalonewyork.html |archive-date=March 11, 2015}}</ref>

The idea of returning to Palestine was rejected by the conferences of rabbis held in that epoch. Individual efforts supported the emigration of groups of Jews to Palestine, [[Aliyah#19th century|pre-Zionist Aliyah]], even before the [[First Zionist Congress]] in 1897, the year considered as the start of practical Zionism.<ref>{{cite book |first=C. D. |last=Smith |date=2001 |title=Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict |edition=4th |isbn=978-0-312-20828-8 |pages=1–12, 33–38 |location=Bedford |publisher=St. Martin's}}</ref> Sir [[Moses Montefiore]] established a colony for Jews in Palestine. In 1854, his friend [[Judah Touro]] bequeathed money to fund Jewish residential settlement in Palestine. [[Laurence Oliphant (author)|Laurence Oliphant]] failed in a like attempt to bring to Palestine the Jewish proletariat of Poland, Lithuania, Romania, and the Turkish Empire (1879 and 1882).

In 1862 [[Moses Hess]], a former associate of Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, wrote ''[[Rome and Jerusalem. The Last National Question]]'' calling for the Jews to create a socialist state in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] as a means of settling the [[Jewish question]]. Also in 1862, German Orthodox Rabbi Kalischer published his tractate ''Derishat Zion'', arguing that the salvation of the Jews, promised by the Prophets, can come about only by self-help.<ref>[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=56&letter=K Zvi Hirsch Kalischer] (''Jewish Encyclopedia'')</ref> In 1882, after the [[Odessa pogrom]], [[Judah Leib Pinsker]] published the pamphlet ''[[Auto-Emancipation]]'' (self-emancipation), arguing that Jews could only be truly free in their own country and analyzing the persistent tendency of Europeans to regard Jews as aliens:
<blockquote>"Since the Jew is nowhere at home, nowhere regarded as a native, he remains an alien everywhere. That he himself and his ancestors as well are born in the country does not alter this fact in the least... to the living the Jew is a corpse, to the native a foreigner, to the homesteader a vagrant, to the proprietary a beggar, to the poor an exploiter and a millionaire, to the patriot a man without a country, for all a hated rival."<ref>{{cite web |title=Autoemancipation |first=Leon |last=Pinsker |year=1882 |url=http://www.mideastweb.org/autoemancipation.htm |website=www.mideastweb.org |access-date=January 21, 2009}}</ref></blockquote>

Pinsker established the [[Hovevei Zion|Hibbat Zion]] movement to actively promote Jewish settlement in Palestine. In 1890, the "Society for the Support of Jewish Farmers and Artisans in Syria and Eretz Israel" (better known as the [[Odessa Committee]]) was officially registered as a [[charitable organization]] in the [[Russian Empire]], and by 1897, it counted over 4,000 members.

=== Christian Zionism ===
{{Main|Christian Zionism}}The Reformation led to the emergence of the belief of a return of the Jews to Palestine due to a specific theological biblical interpretation, among some Protestant Christian thinkers, and originally as an anti-Catholic and anti-Muslim movement.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Lewis |first=Donald M. |url=https://www.ivpress.com/Media/Default/Downloads/Excerpts-and-Samples/4697-excerpt.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOoqA26ME9c2b5ANQQ3VIaE4ScvGTR9Xvf4yiPeLxNEGFbFHEwREV |title=A Short History of Christian Zionism: From the Reformation to the Twenty-First Century |publisher=[[InterVarsity Press]] |year=2021 |isbn=978-0-8308-4698-6 |postscript=. The book's Introduction, pp. 1–16.}}</ref>

For Herzl Christians who supported Zionism were allies, whatever their motives.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Levenson |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Levenson |year=2002 |title=Gentile Reception of Herzlian Zionism, a Reconsideration |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20101468 |journal=Jewish History |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=187–211 |issn=0334-701X |JSTOR=20101468}}</ref> Addressing the [[Second Zionist Congress]] in 1898 Herzl commented that there those who criticised Zionism for erecting new dividing lines but also for welcoming the friendship of Christian Zionists.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herzl |first=Theodor |url=http://archive.org/details/sechskongressred00herz |title=Sechs Kongressreden |date=1914 |publisher=Zionistische Ortsgruppe Leipzig |year=1914 |publication-place=Leipzig |page=22 |language=de |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Herzl |first=Theodor |url=http://archive.org/details/congressaddresse00herz |title=The Congress Addresses of Theodor Herzl |publisher=Federation of American Zionists |others=Translated from the German by Nellie Straus |year=1917 |publication-place=New York |page=12 |via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref>

Donald M. Lewis claimed that the first modern Zionists were Christians and that their contribution had been ignored by traditional Zionist historiography.<ref name=":2" /> 

===Early British and American support for a Jewish state in Palestine===
[[File:Memorandum to Protestant Monarchs of Europe for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine, Colonial Times 1841.jpg|thumb|"Memorandum to the Protestant Powers of the North of Europe and America", published in the ''[[Colonial Times]]'' (Hobart, Tasmania, Australia), in 1841]]
Ideas of the restoration of the Jews in the Land of Israel entered [[British Empire|British]] public discourse in the early 19th century, at about the same time as the British Protestant Revival.<ref name=BritZion>[http://www.mideastweb.org/britzion.htm British Zionism – Support for Jewish Restoration] (mideastweb.org)</ref>

Not all such attitudes were favorable towards the Jews; they were shaped in part by a variety of [[Protestant]] beliefs,<ref name=Cowen2002>[http://www.leaderu.com/common/british.html The Untold Story. The Role of Christian Zionists in the Establishment of Modern-day Israel] by Jamie Cowen (Leadership U), July 13, 2002</ref> or by a streak of [[philo-Semitism]] among the classically educated British elite,<ref name=Green2005>[http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/110.3/green.html Rethinking Moses Montefiore: Religion, Nationhood, and International Philanthropy in the Nineteenth Century] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080217075328/http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ahr/110.3/green.html |date=2008-02-17 }} by Abigail Green. (''The American Historical Review''. Vol. 110 No. 3.) June 2005</ref> or by hopes to extend the Empire. ''(See [[The Great Game]])''

At the urging of [[Lord Shaftesbury]], Britain established a consulate in Jerusalem in 1838, the first diplomatic appointment in the city. In 1839, the [[Church of Scotland]] sent [[Andrew Bonar]] and [[Robert Murray M'Cheyne]] to report on the condition of the Jews there. The report was widely published<ref>''A Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of Scotland in 1839'' (Edinburgh, 1842) {{ISBN|1-85792-258-1}}</ref> and was followed by ''Memorandum to Protestant Monarchs of Europe for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine''. In August 1840, ''The Times'' reported that the British government was considering Jewish restoration.<ref name=BritZion/> Correspondence in 1841–42 between [[Moses Montefiore]], the President of the [[Board of Deputies of British Jews]] and [[Charles Henry Churchill]], the British consul in Damascus, is seen as the first recorded plan proposed for political Zionism.<ref>{{cite book |title=Restoring the Jews to their homeland: nineteen centuries in the quest for Zion |last=Adler |first=Joseph |year=1997 |publisher=J. Aronson |isbn=1-56821-978-4 |pages=150–156 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cFAwAAAAYAAJ&q=%22charles+henry+churchill%22 |access-date=January 19, 2011}}</ref><ref name="gutenberg">''Notes on the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Question with texts of protocols, treaty stipulations and other public acts and official documents'', Lucien Wolf, published by the Jewish Historical Society of England, 1919 [http://ibiblio.org/pub/docs/books/gutenberg/3/1/3/8/31385/31385-8.txt]</ref>

Lord Lindsay wrote in 1847: "The soil of Palestine still enjoys her sabbaths, and only waits for the return of her banished children, and the application of industry, commensurate with her agricultural capabilities, to burst once more into universal luxuriance, and be all that she ever was in the days of Solomon."<ref>Crawford, A. W. C. (Lord Lindsay), ''Letters on Egypt, Edom and the Holy Land'', London, H. Colburn 1847, V II, p. 71</ref>

In 1851, correspondence between [[Edward Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby|Lord Stanley]], whose father became [[British Prime Minister]] the following year, and [[Benjamin Disraeli]], who became [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] alongside him, records Disraeli's proto-Zionist views: "He then unfolded a plan of restoring the nation to [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]—said the country was admirably suited for them—the financiers all over Europe might help—the [[Ottoman Porte|Porte]] is weak—the Turks/holders of property could be bought out—this, he said, was the object of his life..." ''[[Coningsby (novel)|Coningsby]]'' was merely a feeler, my views were not fully developed at that time—since then all I have written has been for one purpose. The man who should restore the Hebrew race to their country would be the Messiah—the real saviour of prophecy!" He did not add formally that he aspired to play this part, but it was evidently implied. He thought very highly of the capabilities of the country, and hinted that his chief object in acquiring power here would be to promote the return".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qTKiTZIyr3AC&q=%22he+then+unfolded+a+plan+of+restoring%22&pg=PA52 |title=Disraeli and the Eastern Question |first=Milos |last=Kovic |year=2010 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |via=Google Books |isbn=9780199574605 |page=52}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7vkstP7R6uYC&q=1851 |title=Benjamin Disraeli Letters: 1852–1856 |first1=Benjamin |last1=Disraeli |first2=John Alexander Wilson |last2=Gunn |first3=Melvin George |last3=Wiebe |date=1997 |publisher=[[University of Toronto Press]] |via=Google Books |isbn=9780802041371}}</ref>{{pn|date=January 2025}} 26 years later, Disraeli wrote in his article entitled "The Jewish Question is the Oriental Quest" (1877) that within fifty years, a nation of one million Jews would reside in Palestine under the guidance of the British.

[[Moses Montefiore]] visited the Land of Israel seven times and fostered its development.<ref name=Green2005/>

In 1842, [[Joseph Smith]], founder of the [[Latter Day Saints movement]], sent a representative, [[Orson Hyde]], to dedicate the land of Israel for the return of the Jews.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/0,15478,3900-1,00.html#FlashPluginDetected|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030406002351/http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/0,15478,3900-1,00.html#FlashPluginDetected|url-status=dead|archive-date=2003-04-06|title=Church History|website=www.lds.org}}</ref> Protestant theologian [[William Eugene Blackstone]] submitted a petition to the US president in 1891; the [[Blackstone Memorial]] called for the return of Palestine to the Jews.

=== First Aliyah (1881–1903) ===
{{Main|Mikveh Israel Settlement|Bilu (movement)|Hovevei Zion}}
{{Aliyah}}
In the late 1870s, Jewish philanthropists such as the [[Moses Montefiore|Montefiores]] and the [[Rothschild family|Rothschild]]s responded to the persecution of Jews in Eastern Europe by sponsoring agricultural settlements for Russian Jews in Palestine. The Jews who migrated in this period are known as the [[First Aliyah]].<ref>Scharfstein, Sol, ''Chronicle of Jewish History: From the Patriarchs to the 21st Century'', p. 231, Ktav Publishing House (1997), {{ISBN|0-88125-545-9}}</ref> ''Aliyah'' is a Hebrew word meaning "ascent", referring to the act of spiritually "ascending" to the Holy Land and a basic tenet of Zionism.

The movement of Jews to Palestine was opposed by the [[Haredi]] communities who lived in the [[Four Holy Cities]], since they were very poor and lived off charitable donations from Europe, which they feared would be used by the newcomers. However, from 1800 there was a movement of Sephardi businessmen from North Africa and the Balkans to Jaffa and the growing community there perceived modernity and Aliyah as the key to salvation. Unlike the Haredi communities, the Jaffa community did not maintain separate Ashkenazi and Sephardi institutions and functioned as a single unified community.

Founded in 1878, [[Rosh Pinna]] and [[Petah Tikva]] were the first modern Jewish settlements.

In 1881–1882 the Tsar sponsored a huge wave of pogroms in the [[Russian Empire]] and a massive wave of Jews began leaving, mainly for America. So many Russian Jews arrived in Jaffa that the town ran out of accommodation and the local Jews began forming communities outside the Jaffa city walls. However, the migrants faced difficulty finding work (the new settlements mainly needed farmers and builders) and 70% ultimately left, mostly moving on to America. One of the migrants in this period, [[Eliezer Ben-Yehuda]] set about modernizing Hebrew so that it could be used as a national language.

[[Rishon LeZion]] was founded on 31 July 1882 by a group of ten members of [[Hovevei Zion]] from [[Kharkov]] (today's [[Ukraine]]). Zikhron Ya'akov was founded in December 1882 by [[Hovevei Zion]] pioneers from [[Romania]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gemsinisrael.com/e_article000004384.htm |title=Gems in Israel-Zichron Ya'acov |access-date=2008-01-26 |work=Gems in Israel |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827184052/http://www.gemsinisrael.com/e_article000004384.htm |archive-date=2008-08-27 }}</ref> In 1887 [[Neve Tzedek]] was built just outside Jaffa. Over 50 Jewish settlements were established in this period.

In 1890, Palestine, which was part of the [[Ottoman Empire]], was inhabited by about half a million people, mostly [[Muslim]] and [[Christian Arabs]], but also some dozens of thousands Jews.

==Founding of the modern Zionist movement (1897–1917)==

===Formation===
In 1883, [[Nathan Birnbaum]], 19 years old, founded ''Kadimah'', the first Jewish student association in Vienna and printed Pinsker's pamphlet [[Auto-Emancipation]].

{| style="margin:10px; border:solid 1px #bbb; width:298px; float:left;"
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[[File:Theodore Herzl.jpg|150px]]
[[File:DE Herzl Judenstaat 01.jpg|130px]]
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| Theodor Herzl and his 1896 book, ''The Jewish State''.
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The [[Dreyfus Affair]], which erupted in [[France]] in 1894, profoundly shocked emancipated Jews. The depth of antisemitism in the first country to grant Jews equal rights led many to question their future prospects among Christians. Among those who witnessed the Affair was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, [[Theodor Herzl]]. Herzl was born in [[Budapest]] and lived in Vienna (Jews were only allowed to live in Vienna from 1848), who published his pamphlet ''[[Der Judenstaat]]'' ("The Jewish State") in 1896 and ''[[The Old New Land|Altneuland]]'' ("The Old New Land")<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1600 |title=''Altneuland'' - Part One - An Educated, Desperate Young Man |access-date=2008-01-21 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027155301/http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1600 |archive-date=October 27, 2007 }}</ref> in 1902. He described the Affair as a personal turning point. Seeing Dreyfus's Jewishness used so successfully as a scapegoat by the monarchist propagandists disillusioned Herzl. Dreyfus's guilt was deemed indisputable simply because Jewish stereotypes of nefariousness prevented a fair trial from occurring. Herzl outright denied that any such Jewish stereotypes were rooted in reality in any way.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Zionism|last=Engel|first=David|publisher=Longman|year=2008|isbn=978-1405835565|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781405835565/page/48 48]|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9781405835565/page/48}}</ref> However, he believed that anti-semitism was so deeply ingrained in European society that only the creation of a Jewish state would enable the Jews to join the family of nations and escape antisemitism.<ref>[[Hannah Arendt]], 1946, ' ''Der Judenstaat'' 50 years later', also published in: Hannah Arendt, ''The Jew as pariah'', NY, 1978</ref>

[[Theodor Herzl|Herzl]] infused political Zionism with a new and practical urgency. He brought the [[World Zionist Organization]] into being and, together with Nathan Birnbaum, planned its First Congress at [[Basel]] in 1897.<ref>[http://fusion.dalmatech.com/%7Eadmin24/files/zionism_in-britishpalestine.pdf Zionism & The British In Palestine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071127070858/http://fusion.dalmatech.com/~admin24/files/zionism_in-britishpalestine.pdf |date=2007-11-27 }}, by [[Arjun Charan Sethi|Sethi, Arjun]] (University of Maryland) January 2007, accessed May 20, 2007.</ref>

In the [[Basel program]], the draft of the objective of the modern Zionist movement submitted to the First Zionist Congress of the Zionist Organization in 1897 read: "Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured by law." One delegate sought to replace "by law" with "by international law",<ref name=Jubilee>{{cite book |url=http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00072101/00001/70j |title=The Jubilee of the first Zionist Congress, 1897–1947 |location=Jerusalem |publisher=Executive of the Zionist Organization |year=1947 |pages=108 pages, 2 leaves of plates |author=Jubilee Publication}} Published simultaneously in Hebrew, French, Spanish and Yiddish.</ref> which was opposed by others. A compromise formula was adopted that read:
:Zionism seeks to establish a home in Palestine for the Jewish people, secured under public law.<ref>"{{lang|de|Der Zionismus erstrebt für das jüdische Volk die Schaffung einer öffentlich-rechtlich gesicherten Heimstätte in Palästina.}}" The original proposal had "{{lang|de|rechtlich}}" rather than "{{lang|de|öffentlich-rechtlich}}" but was altered during the Congress.</ref>{{full citation needed|date=January 2025}}<ref>{{harvnb|Brenner|2020|p=89}}: "What was a "national home"? The truth is that nobody really knew. This formula reached back to the First Zionist Congress, when "a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine" became the central demand of Herzl's new movement. Even then it was not clear if this meant an independent state or a cooperative as in Herzl's "Society of the Jews," a spiritual center as envisioned by Ahad Ha'am and his followers or an autonomous region within a multi-national empire based on the Habsburg monarchy."</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kedar |first=Nir |date=2002 |title=Ben-Gurion's Mamlakhtiyut: Etymological and Theoretical Roots |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30245598 |journal=Israel Studies |volume=7 |issue=3 |page=120 |jstor=30245598 |issn=1084-9513 |quote=The Zionists argued whether to fight for a sovereign state in Palestine first (as some of the General-Zionists and later the Revisionists demanded) or to concentrate on a Jewish socio economic infrastructure. Others questioned whether a Jewish sovereign state should be Zionism's final goal or an alternative type of polity was preferable. As opposed to the "statists" who favored of sovereign statehood, some Zionists advocated an autonomous Jewish canton affiliated either with the Ottoman or British Empire, or in alliance within a future Middle-Eastern federation or confederation. Still others endorsed the vague concept of a Jewish "Homeland" or "National Home" that would flourish under the aegis of the British Empire. In sum, Zionists not only lacked a Hebrew rendering for the terms "state", "commonwealth", "republic" and "polity", but were also divided upon the type of polity they wished to create in Palestine. Only in 1942, at the Biltmore Conference in New York, did the Zionist Movement finally abandon the ambiguous concepts of "National Home" and "Homeland," officially declare Jewish statehood as its ultimate goal, and adopt the word "medinah" as Zionism's formal rendering for "state".}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Laqueur|2009|p=}}: "Up to the 1930s the Zionist movement had no clear idea about its final aim. Herzl proclaimed that a Jewish state was a world necessity. But later he and his successors mentioned the state only infrequently, partly for tactical reasons, mainly because they had no clear concept as to how a state would come into being. Two generations of Zionist leaders, from Herzl to Weizmann, believed that Palestine would at some fairly distant date become Jewish without the use of violence or guile, as the result of steady immigration and settlement, of quiet and patient work. The idea that a state was the normal form of existence for a people and that it was an immediate necessity was preached by Jabotinsky in the 1930s. But he was at the time almost alone in voicing this demand. It took the advent of Nazism, the holocaust and total Arab rejection of the national home to convert the Zionist movement to the belief in statehood."</ref>{{page needed|date=January 2025}} 
Early Zionists initially envisioned a limited autonomy within a larger multinational framework.<ref>{{harvnb|Gorny|2006|ps=:
pp. 41–42: "The idea of national autonomy within a federative state structure was related to the tradition of political liberalism and, especially, Eastern and Central European social democracy. They were brought to Palestine by members of Po'alei Tsiyyon who settled in the country during the Second Aliya years and found expression in the early writings of Ber (Dov) Borochov. However, the ideas had been publicized first in the Ottoman era, in a "Manifesto" put out by four socialist parties, including Po'alei Tsiyyon, during the first Balkan War (1912)... Following the traditional attitudes of social democracy on the eve of World War I, the authors expressed staunch opposition to the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire into independent nation-states. Instead, they proposed a federative political structure, based on national autonomy, that would preserve the integrity of the state and satisfy just national aspirations as well."}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Penslar|2023|ps=:
p. 47: "Initially, Statist Zionism did not necessarily demand a sovereign state for Jews in Palestine. The ZO’s Basel Program, affirmed at the First Zionist Congress in 1897, called for a Jewish “national home, secured by public law,” not a state. Herzl himself was willing to accept alternate arrangements for Palestine, such as a designated Jewish province of the Ottoman Empire or a Great Power protectorate...}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Shumsky|2018|ps=:
pp. 79–80: "It is extremely important to realize the fact that Herzl’s clear misgivings about the separatist Greek model of a unitary linguistic-cultural nation-state in no way contradicts the contents of ''The Jewish State'' or of the term ''Judenstaat''. Indeed, most of the neighboring non-Jewish national movements of the Habsburg imperial space in Herzl’s time used the term ''Staat'' with explicitly substatist intentions in their national political programs and positions... Herzl clearly states that Altneuland is a district of the Ottoman Empire, just as the Transylvania envisioned by Popovici and the Czech lands envisioned even by the radical Czech nationalists were imagined as districts of the Habsburg Empire."<br/>
p. 152: "During the imperial period, as we saw in his programmatic 1909 article “The New Turkey and Our Chances,” Jabotinsky considered the term “state” to be totally irrelevant to Zionism’s political purpose, whose realization he envisioned as part of a wider sovereign-political framework in the form of an autonomous district in a federative Ottoman nationalities state." <br/> pp. 173: "it is well-known that shortly after immigrating to Palestine (1906), and particularly on the eve of and during World War I, Ben-Gurion, along with his friend and Poalei Zion party comrade Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, clearly espoused the political vision in favor of turning Palestine into a Jewish national district under an Ottoman nationalities state"}}</ref> During the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate]], these aspirations evolved into discussions that considered binational federalist models that sought to reconcile Jewish national goals with coexistence and shared governance with the Arab population in Palestine.<ref>{{bulleted list|
|{{harvnb|Brenner|2020|ps= p. 93: "Even for David Ben- Gurion, the emerging leader of the Yishuv (the Jewish population in Palestine), an independent Jewish state was by no means his only future vision during the 1920s... In a speech to the Assembly of Representatives of Palestine’s Jewish community in 1926, he stressed that there could not be a single legal system in a territory with so many different national and religious groups as Palestine. He demanded far-reaching autonomy for all groups and a decentralized government. Ben-Gurion and other Labor leaders drafted several proposals for a future Jewish society based on autonomous rights for both the Jewish and the Arab communities, and they developed federalist plans for the region as well"<br/>pp. 111–112: "Jabotinsky never doubted the necessity of granting Arabs equal rights in a future Jewish state and, throughout almost his entire life, he opposed plans to expel them from their native lands. His agenda called for both individual and collective rights for the Arab population... In 1918 he wrote an unpublished treatise, over 100 pages in length, suggesting a bi-national administration of Palestine, and in 1922 presented a federalist proposal for a Middle Eastern federation consisting of Muslim (Syrian and Mesopotamian), Muslim- Christian (Lebanese), and Jewish (Palestinian) cantons, each with a high degree of autonomy. A year later he presented another federation plan together with Chaim Weizmann."}}
|{{Cite book |last=Gorny |first=Yosef |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rIZSEAAAQBAJ |title=From Binational Society to Jewish State: Federal Concepts in Zionist Political Thought |publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-90-474-1161-1}}
|{{Cite book |last=Chaim |first=Gans |year=2008 |title=A Just Zionism: On the Morality of the Jewish State |publisher=Oxford Academic |page=54 |quote="At the beginning of the 1920s, even Ze'ev Jabotinsky, the founder of the right‐wing Revisionist faction within Zionism, still spoke in terms of a binational "Jewish‐Arab federation."}}
|{{harvnb|Shumsky|2018|ps=: p. 200: "Ben-Gurion was not the only figure in the Mandate-era Zionist Labor movement who spoke in autonomist terms about the Jewish nation's self-determination in Palestine. Berl Katznelson, the ideological mainstay of the Zionist Labor movement, gave a long political lecture in the Third Mapai Congress, February 5–8, 1931, only days before the MacDonald Letter was published, in which he argued that Zionism must work toward an equitable model of joint binational sovereignty in Palestine, and to do so as a matter of principle."}}
}}</ref> However, as the political landscape hardened — marked by growing Arab opposition and shifting British policies — a broad consensus favoring the establishment of a fully independent Jewish state gradually emerged.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} According to historian Walter Laqueur, the bi-national solution was advocated in only a "half-hearted way" by the Zionist movement. In Laqueur's analysis, the proposal relied on the unrealistic expectation of gaining Arab agreement. Arabs rejected bi-nationalism and parity, feeling no need to compromise on Palestine's Arab identity and were particularly concerned that increased Jewish immigration would threaten their status in Palestine.<ref>{{harvnb|Laqueur|2009}}: "The bi-national solution (parity), advocated by the Zionist movement in a half-hearted way in the 1920s and, with more enthusiasm, by some minority groups, would have been in every respect a better solution for the Palestine problem. It would have been a guarantee for the peaceful development of the country. But it was based on the unrealistic assumption that Arab agreement could be obtained. Bi-nationalism and parity were utterly rejected by the Arabs, who saw no good reason for any compromise as far as the Arab character of Palestine was concerned. They were not willing to accept the yishuv as it existed in the 1920s and 1930s, let alone permit more Jewish immigration and settlement. They feared that a further influx of Jews would eventually reduce the Arabs to minority status in Palestine."</ref>

====Objectives====
[[File:Herzelandsecondcongress.jpg|thumb|[[Theodor Herzl]] addresses the [[Second Zionist Congress]] in 1898.]]
During the [[First Zionist Congress]], the following agreement, commonly known as the [[Basel Program]], was reached:
<blockquote>
Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] secured under public law. The Congress contemplates the following means to the attainment of this end:
#The promotion by appropriate means of the settlement in Palestine of Jewish farmers, artisans, and manufacturers.
#The organization and uniting of the whole of Jewry by means of appropriate institutions, both local and international, in accordance with the laws of each country.
#The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment and national consciousness.
#Preparatory steps toward obtaining the consent of governments, where necessary, in order to reach the goals of Zionism.<ref>[http://www.mideastweb.org/basleprogram.htm The Basle Program. Resolutions of the First Zionist Congress] August 30, 1897 (mideastweb)</ref>
</blockquote>
"Under public law" is generally understood to mean seeking legal permission from the Ottoman rulers for Jewish migration. In this text the word "home" was substituted for "state" and "public law" for "international law" so as not to alarm the Ottoman Sultan.<ref>C.D. Smith, 2001, ''Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict'', 4th ed., {{ISBN|0-312-20828-6}}, p. 55</ref>

====Organizational structure====
[[File:May our eyes behold your return in mercy to Zion.jpg|thumb|''May our eyes behold your return in mercy to Zion''. Design by [[Ephraim Moses Lilien|Lilien]] to the Fifth Zionist Congress, Basel, 1901.]]
For the first four years, the [[World Zionist Organization]] (WZO) met every year, then, up to the Second World War, they gathered every second year. Since the creation of Israel, the Congress has met every four years.

Congress delegates were elected by the membership. Members were required to pay dues known as a "shekel". At the congress, delegates elected a 30-man executive council, which in turn elected the movement's leader. The movement was democratic and women had the right to vote, which was still absent in Great Britain in 1914.

The WZO's initial strategy was to obtain permission from the [[Ottoman Empire#Sultans|Ottoman Sultan]] [[Abdul Hamid II]] to allow systematic Jewish settlement in Palestine. The support of the German Emperor, [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]], was sought, but unsuccessfully. Instead, the WZO pursued a strategy of building a homeland through persistent small-scale immigration and the founding of such bodies as the [[Jewish National Fund]] (1901—a charity that bought land for Jewish settlement) and the [[Anglo-Palestine Bank]] (1903—provided loans for Jewish businesses and farmers).

=== Cultural Zionism and opposition to Theodor Herzl ===
{{Main|Cultural Zionism}}
{{See also|Revival of the Hebrew language|Hebraization of surnames|Ahad Ha'am}}
Herzl's strategy relied on winning support from foreign rulers, in particular the [[Ottoman Sultan]]. He also made efforts to cultivate Orthodox rabbinical support. Rabbinical support depended on the Zionist movement making no challenges to existing Jewish tradition. However, an opposition movement arose that emphasized the need for a revolution in Jewish thought. While Herzl believed that the Jews needed to return to their historic homeland as a refuge from antisemitism, the opposition, led by [[Ahad Ha'am]], believed that the Jews must revive and foster a Jewish national culture and, in particular strove to revive the Hebrew language. Many also adopted Hebraized surnames. The opposition became known as Cultural Zionists.

===Kishinev pogrom of 1903===
{{Main|Kishinev pogrom}}
[[Chișinău|Kishinev]] was a small town in the Russian empire's [[Bessarabia Governorate]], now in [[Moldova]], where an active antisemite, [[Pavel Krushevan]], printed a local newspaper which continually alleged Jewish plots against the town's Christian minority (Kishinev had slightly more Jews).<ref name="auto">''Pogrom, Kishinev and the tilt of History'' by Steven Zipperstein, Liveright 2018 chapter 5</ref> Krushevan's campaigning led to [[Kishinev pogrom|a pogrom]] in which 50 Jews were murdered, thousands of homes and shops destroyed and hundreds of young girls and women raped. A local Zionist activist, [[Jacob Bernstein Kogan]],<ref>See "Pogrom, Kishinev and the tilt of History" by Steven Zipperstein, Liveright 2018 po. 180-182</ref> raised money from wealthy Jewish residents and sent [[telegrams]] (still quite new in the area) to various world press centers. The Zionist movement sent a young journalist, [[Hayim Nahman Bialik]], who, along with a reporter sent by US news magnate [[William Randolph Hearst]], spent weeks interviewing the survivors and reporting in detail what had happened, leading to a European and American outcry. Bialik wrote an epic poem "[[In the City of Slaughter]]", criticizing the Jews for their failure to adequately defend themselves. The poem became a rallying cry for generations of Zionist activists.<ref name="auto"/>

==== British post-Kishinev "Uganda Scheme" ====
A few weeks after the pogrom, the British Colonial Secretary, [[Joseph Chamberlain]], proposed the [[British Uganda Programme]]: Land for a Jewish state in "[[Uganda]]" (in today's [[Uasin Gishu District]], [[Eldoret]], [[Kenya]]). Herzl initially rejected the idea, preferring Palestine, but after the April 1903 [[Kishinev pogrom]], Herzl introduced a controversial proposal to the [[Sixth Zionist Congress]] to investigate the offer as a temporary measure for Russian Jews in danger. Despite its emergency and temporary nature, the proposal proved very divisive, and widespread opposition to the plan was fueled by a walkout led by the Russian Jewish delegation to the Congress. Nevertheless, a committee was established to investigate the possibility, which was eventually dismissed in the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905. After that, Palestine became the sole focus of Zionist aspirations. The vote to do so was supported by a number of the Congress's delegates. Following the vote, which had been proposed by [[Max Nordau]], Zangwill charged Nordau that he "will be charged before the bar of history," and his supporters blamed the Russian voting bloc of [[Menachem Ussishkin]] for the outcome of the vote.<ref name="Rovner-2014">{{cite book |first=Adam |last=Rovner |title=In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands Before Israel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ej_UBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA45 |year=2014 |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4798-1748-1 |page=81 |quote=On the afternoon of the fourth day of the Congress a weary Nordau brought three resolutions before the delegates: (1) that the Zionist Organization direct all future settlement efforts solely to Palestine; (2) that the Zionist Organization thank the British government for its other of an autonomous territory in East Africa; and (3) that only those Jews who declare their allegiance to the Basel Program may become members of the Zionist Organization." Zangwill objected... When Nordau insisted on the Congress's right to pass the resolutions regardless, Zangwill was outraged. "You will be charged before the bar of history," he challenged Nordau... From approximately 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 30, 1905, a Zionist would henceforth he defined as someone who adhered to the Basel Program and the only "authentic interpretation" of that program restricted settlement activity exclusively to Palestine. Zangwill and his supporters could not accept Nordau's "authentic interpretation" which they believed would lead to an abandonment of the Jewish masses and of Herzl's vision. One territorialist claimed that Ussishkin's voting bloc had in fact "buried political Zionism". |access-date=March 16, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117170246/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ej_UBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA45 |archive-date=November 17, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> The subsequent departure of the JTO from the Zionist Organization had little impact.<ref name="Pasachoff-2005">{{cite book |first1=Naomi E. |last1=Pasachoff |first2=Robert J. |last2=Littman |title=A Concise History of the Jewish People |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z4eaj09hscAC&pg=PA240 |year=2005 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-0-7425-4366-9 |pages=240–242 |access-date=February 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219222816/https://books.google.com/books?id=z4eaj09hscAC&pg=PA240 |archive-date=February 19, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Lawrence J. |last=Epstein |title=The Dream of Zion: The Story of the First Zionist Congress |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLxnCgAAQBAJ&q=uganda+zionist+maasai+lions&pg=PA97 |year=2016 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield Publishers]] |isbn=978-1-4422-5467-1 |page=97 |access-date=November 23, 2020 |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111181634/https://books.google.com/books?id=OLxnCgAAQBAJ&q=uganda+zionist+maasai+lions&pg=PA97#v=snippet&q=uganda%20zionist%20maasai%20lions&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first1=Paul R. |last1=Mendes-Flohr |first2=Jehuda |last2=Reinharz |title=The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Bu5GnLZCw0C&q=jewish+zionist+territorial+organization&pg=PA552 |access-date=January 22, 2016 |year=1995 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-507453-6 |page=552 |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111181911/https://books.google.com/books?id=0Bu5GnLZCw0C&q=jewish+zionist+territorial+organization&pg=PA552#v=snippet&q=jewish%20zionist%20territorial%20organization&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Zionist Socialist Workers Party]] was also an organization that favored the idea of a Jewish territorial autonomy outside of [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Ėstraĭkh |first=G. |title=In Harness: Yiddish Writers' Romance with Communism. Judaic traditions in literature, music, and art. |location=[[Syracuse, New York]] |publisher=[[Syracuse University Press]] |date=2005 |page=30}}</ref>

[[Israel Zangwill]] left the main Zionist movement over this decision and founded the [[Jewish Territorialist Organization]] (ITO). The [[Homeland for the Jewish people|territorialists]] were willing to establish a Jewish homeland anywhere, but failed to attract significant support and were dissolved in 1925.

A major concern and driving reason for considering other territories was the Russian pogroms, in particular the [[Kishinev pogrom|Kishinev]] massacre, and the resulting need for quick resettlement in a safer place.{{sfn|Hazony|2000|p=369|ps=: "Herzl decided to explore the East Africa proposal in the wake of the pogrom, writing to Nordau: "We must give an answer to Kishinev, and this is the only one...We must, in a word, play the politics of the hour.""}}
However, other Zionists emphasized the memory, emotion and tradition linking Jews to the Land of Israel.<ref>{{cite book |first1=Caryn S. |last1=Aviv |first2=David |last2=Shneer |title=New Jews: The End of the Jewish Diaspora |year=2005 |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8147-4017-0 |page=10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kdBtob8RWEMC&q=Jews+should+be+able+to+live+anywhere+in+the+world+theodor+herzl&pg=PA10 |access-date=January 22, 2016 |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111181736/https://books.google.com/books?id=kdBtob8RWEMC&q=Jews+should+be+able+to+live+anywhere+in+the+world+theodor+herzl&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q=Jews%20should%20be%20able%20to%20live%20anywhere%20in%20the%20world%20theodor%20herzl&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref> Palestine only became Herzl's main focus after his Zionist manifesto '{{lang|de|[[Der Judenstaat]]}}' was published in 1896, but even then he was hesitant to focus efforts solely on resettlement in Palestine when speed was of the essence.<ref>{{cite book |first=Lilly |last=Weissbrod |title=Israeli Identity: In Search of a Successor to the Pioneer, Tsabar and Settler |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ES2iAwAAQBAJ&q=and+even+then+he+was+hesitant.+After+weighing+in+the+pros+and+cons+of+Palestine+and+Argentina+he+decided+in+favor+of+the+former+because+of+its+historic+meaning+to+the+Jews&pg=PA13 |access-date=January 22, 2016 |year=2014 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-1-135-29386-4 |page=13 |archive-date=January 11, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240111181743/https://books.google.com/books?id=ES2iAwAAQBAJ&q=and+even+then+he+was+hesitant.+After+weighing+in+the+pros+and+cons+of+Palestine+and+Argentina+he+decided+in+favor+of+the+former+because+of+its+historic+meaning+to+the+Jews&pg=PA13#v=snippet&q=and%20even%20then%20he%20was%20hesitant.%20After%20weighing%20in%20the%20pros%20and%20cons%20of%20Palestine%20and%20Argentina%20he%20decided%20in%20favor%20of%20the%20former%20because%20of%20its%20historic%20meaning%20to%20the%20Jews&f=false |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 1903, British Colonial Secretary [[Joseph Chamberlain]] offered Herzl {{convert|5,000|sqmi|km2}} in the [[Uganda Protectorate]] for Jewish settlement in Great Britain's East African colonies.<ref name="Pasachoff-2005">{{cite book |first1=Naomi E. |last1=Pasachoff |first2=Robert J. |last2=Littman |title=A Concise History of the Jewish People |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z4eaj09hscAC&pg=PA240 |year=2005 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-0-7425-4366-9 |pages=240–242 |access-date=February 19, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219222816/https://books.google.com/books?id=z4eaj09hscAC&pg=PA240 |archive-date=February 19, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> Herzl accepted to evaluate Joseph Chamberlain's proposal,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofisraeli00tess_0 |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/historyofisraeli00tess_0/page/55 55]–56 |first=Mark A. |last=Tessler |title=A History of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |year=1994 |quote=The suggestion that Uganda might be suitable for Jewish colonization was first put forward by Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary, who said that he had thought about Herzl during a recent visit to the interior of British East Africa. Herzl, who at that time had been discussing with the British a scheme for Jewish settlement in Sinai, responded positively to Chamberlain's proposal, in part because of a desire to deepen Zionist-British cooperaion and, more generally to show that his diplomatic efforts were capable of bearing fruit. |access-date=June 22, 2016 |isbn=978-0-253-20873-6}}</ref> and it was introduced the same year to the World Zionist Organization's Congress at its [[Sixth Zionist Congress|sixth]] meeting, where a fierce debate ensued. Some groups felt that accepting the scheme would make it more difficult to establish a Jewish state in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]], the African land was described as an "[[Antechamber|ante-chamber]] to the Holy Land".

After Herzl died in 1904, the Congress decided in July 1905 to decline the British offer and to "direct all future settlement efforts solely to Palestine."<ref name="Pasachoff-2005"/><ref>{{cite book |first=Adam |last=Rovner |title=In the Shadow of Zion: Promised Lands Before Israel |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ej_UBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA45 |year=2014 |publisher=[[New York University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4798-1748-1 |page=81 |quote=On the afternoon of the fourth day of the Congress a weary Nordau brought three resolutions before the delegates: (1) that the Zionist Organization direct all future settlement efforts solely to Palestine; (2) that the Zionist Organization thank the British government for its other of an autonomous territory in East Africa; and (3) that only those Jews who declare their allegiance to the Basel Program may become members of the Zionist Organization." Zangwill objected... When Nordau insisted on the Congress's right to pass the resolutions regardless, Zangwill was outraged. "You will be charged before the bar of history," he challenged Nordau... From approximately 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 30, 1905, a Zionist would henceforth he defined as someone who adhered to the Basel Program and the only "authentic interpretation" of that program restricted settlement activity exclusively to Palestine. Zangwill and his supporters could not accept Nordau's "authentic interpretation" which they believed would lead to an abandonment of the Jewish masses and of Herzl's vision. One territorialist claimed that Ussishkin's voting bloc had in fact "buried political Zionism". |access-date=March 16, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161117170246/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ej_UBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA45 |archive-date=November 17, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> [[Israel Zangwill]]'s [[Jewish Territorialist Organization]] aimed for a Jewish state anywhere, having been established in 1903 in response to the Uganda Scheme.

According to Elaine Hagopian, in the early decades it foresaw the homeland of the Jews as extending not only over the region of Palestine, but into Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Egypt.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hagopian |first=Elaine C. |date=2016 |title=The Primacy of Water in the Zionist Project |journal=[[Arab Studies Quarterly]] |volume=38 |issue=4 |pages=700–708 |doi=10.13169/arabstudquar.38.4.0700 |jstor=10.13169/arabstudquar.38.4.0700 |issn=0271-3519 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

====Russian publication of ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion''====
{{Main|The Protocols of the Elders of Zion}} {{See also|Contemporary imprints of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion}}
In 1903 [[Pavel Krushevan]], a newspaper publisher and member of the [[Black Hundreds]] (a movement dedicated to genocide of the Jews) with the aid of the [[Okhrana|Tsarist Secret Police]], began publishing a new work alleging a Jewish plot to take control of the world.<ref>[[Norman Cohn]], [[Warrant for Genocide]], Serif 2001 chapter 3</ref><ref name="auto"/>

[[The Protocols of the Elders of Zion]]" (subtitle "Protocols extracted from the secret archives of the central chancery of Zion"), invented by [[Sergei Nilus]], achieved global notability. In 1903, the editor claimed that the protocols revealed the menace of Zionism:

{{blockquote|... which has the goal of uniting all the Jews of the whole world in one union—a union that is more closely knit and more dangerous than the Jesuits.<ref>[[Norman Cohn]], ''[[Warrant for Genocide]]'', Serif 2001 p. 74</ref>}}

The book contains fictional minutes of an imaginary meeting in which alleged Jewish leaders plotted to take over the world. Nilus later claimed they were presented to the elders by Herzl (the "Prince of Exile") at the first Zionist congress. A Polish edition claimed they were taken from Herzl's flat in Austria and a 1920 German version renamed them "[[The Zionist Protocols]]".<ref>[[Norman Cohn]], ''[[Warrant for Genocide]]'', Serif 2001 pp. 75–76</ref>

===Herzl's death and new Zionist leadership===
By 1904, cultural Zionism was accepted by most Zionists and a schism was beginning to develop between the Zionist movement and Orthodox Judaism. In 1904, Herzl died unexpectedly at the age of 44 and the leadership was taken over by [[David Wolffsohn]], who led the movement until 1911. During this period, the movement was based in Berlin (Germany's Jews were the most [[Cultural assimilation|assimilated]]) and made little progress, failing to win support among the [[Young Turks]] after the collapse of the Ottoman Regime. From 1911 to 1921, the movement was led by Dr. [[Otto Warburg (botanist)|Otto Warburg]].

====Opposition from Orthodox Jews and Reformist Jews====
Under Herzl's leadership, Zionism relied on [[Orthodox Jews]] for religious support, with the main party being the orthodox [[Mizrachi (political party)|Mizrachi]]. However, as the cultural and socialist Zionists increasingly broke with tradition and used language contrary to the outlook of most religious Jewish communities, many orthodox religious organizations began opposing Zionism. Their opposition was based on its secularism and on the grounds that only the [[Jewish eschatology|Messiah]] could re-establish Jewish rule in Israel.<ref>"Most Orthodox Jews originally rejected Zionism because they believed the Jews must await the Messiah to restore them to nationhood." ''Settings of Silver: An Introduction to Judaism''. Stephen M. Wylen, 2000, Paulist Press, p. 356</ref> Therefore, most Orthodox Jews maintained the traditional Jewish belief that while the Land of Israel was given to the ancient [[Israelites]] by [[God]], and the right of the Jews to that land was permanent and inalienable, the Messiah must appear before the land could return to Jewish control.

Prior to [[the Holocaust]], [[Reform Judaism]] rejected Zionism as inconsistent with the requirements of Jewish citizenship in the diaspora.<ref>"Reform Jews originally rejected Zionism as inconsistent with the acceptance of Jewish citizenship in the Diaspora." ''Settings of Silver: An Introduction to Judaism''. Stephen M. Wylen, 2000, Paulist Press, p. 356</ref> The opposition of Reform Judaism was expressed in the [[Pittsburgh Platform]], adopted by the Central Conference of American Rabbis in 1885: "We consider ourselves no longer a nation but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the administration of the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state."<ref name=ATaylor>{{cite journal|last=Taylor|first=Alan|title=Zionism and Jewish History|journal=Journal of Palestine Studies|year=1972|volume=1|issue=2|pages=41|jstor=2535953 | doi = 10.2307/2535953}}</ref>

==== Russian pogroms and Second Aliyah (1904–1914) ====
[[File:The Life of the Jews in Palestine (1913).webm|thumb|thumbtime=1|''[[The Life of the Jews in Palestine]]'', a Russian documentary film by Noah Sokolovsky presented at the 11th Zionist congress in 1913.]]
Widespread pogroms accompanied the [[1905 Russian Revolution]], inspired by the Pro-Tsarist [[Black Hundreds]]. In [[Odessa]], [[Leon Trotsky]] provided arms so the Zionists could protect the Jewish community and this prevented a pogrom. Zionist leader Jabotinsky eventually led the Jewish resistance in Odessa. During his subsequent trial Trotsky produced evidence that the police had organized the effort to create a pogrom in Odessa.<ref>Joseph Nedava, ''Leon Trotsky and the Jews'', Jewish Publication Society of America 1972, chapter 3</ref>

The vicious pogroms led to a wave of immigrants to Palestine. This new wave expanded the [[revival of the Hebrew language]]. In 1909 a group of 65 Zionists laid the foundations for a modern city in Palestine. The city was named after the Hebrew title of Herzl's book "[[The Old New Land]]" - [[Tel-Aviv]]. [[File:TelAviv-Founding.jpg|thumb|[[Tel Aviv]] was founded on empty dunes, purchased from Arabs, north of the existing city of Jaffa. This photograph is of the auction of the first lots in 1909.]] [[Tel Aviv]] had a modern "scientific" school, the [[Herzliya Hebrew High School]], the first such school to teach only in Hebrew. All the city's affairs were conducted in Hebrew.

In Jerusalem, foundations were laid for a Jewish University (the [[Hebrew University]]), one that would teach only in Hebrew and that the Zionists hoped would help them prove their usefulness to the Turks (this did not come to fruition until 1918). In Haifa, the cornerstone was laid for a Jewish Technical school, the [[Technion – Israel Institute of Technology]].

Jewish migrants and organizations began making large land purchases, in particular buying malarial swamps (of which there were many) and draining them to produce highly fertile land.<ref>''Healing the Land and the Nation: Malaria and the Zionist Project in Palestine, 1920–1947'', Sandra Marlene Sufian, Chicago 2007, see also the [[Peel Commission]] report</ref>

In 1909 a socialist commune was given some land near the Sea of Galilee, forming the first [[Kibbutz]], [[Degania Alef|Degania]]. There were nine members, two of them women. One of the women was a former [[Narodnik]] who had volunteered as a nurse during the [[Balkan Wars]] and witnessed maltreatment of Jews by Russian troops.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/dayan-devorah|title=Devorah Dayan - Jewish Women's Archive|website=jwa.org}}</ref><ref>http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1913_1914_4_SpecialArticles.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}}</ref> Her son, the second child to be born on the Kibbutz, was General [[Moshe Dayan]], who commanded Israeli troops in the 1956 war then was Minister of Defence during the Six Day War.

=== Zionist adoption of left-wing values ===

==== The Jewish Labour Bund ====
In Eastern Europe the [[General Jewish Labour Bund in Lithuania, Poland and Russia|General Jewish Labour Bund]] called for [[Jewish Autonomism|Jewish autonomy]] within Eastern Europe and promoted [[Yiddish]] as the Jewish national language. Like the Zionist movement, the Bund was founded in 1897 and it was one of the largest socialist movements in Europe; however, it did not grow as fast as Zionism.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} The Bund campaigned for Jewish autonomy and recognition of Jewish (non-territorial) national rights within a socialist Russia. Initially the Bund included Zionist Socialist parties but over time the leadership came to oppose Zionism and Orthodox Judaism.{{citation needed|date=September 2023}} The Bund was part of the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party]] and affiliated to the [[Second International]] but the mainstream socialist movement only unevenly recognized Jews as a nationality within the movement and was often unwilling to combat worker antisemitism and or publicly condemn pogroms.<ref>The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917, Volume 1 by Nora Levin New York 1988: Chapter 1</ref><ref name="McGeever 2019">{{cite book | last=McGeever | first=Brendan | title=The Bolshevik Response to Antisemitism in the Russian Revolution | publisher=Cambridge University Press | publication-place=Cambridge New York Port Melbourne New Delhi Singapore | date=2019-09-26 | isbn=978-1-107-19599-8 }}</ref>

==== Socialist Zionism ====
{{Main|Socialist Zionism}}
{{See also|Kibbutz Movement|Kibbutz}}
{{Unreferenced section|date=May 2007}}

Socialist Zionists believed that the Jews' centuries of being oppressed in anti-Semitic societies had reduced Jews to a meek, despairing existence that invited further antisemitism. They argued that Jews should redeem themselves by becoming farmers, workers, and soldiers in a country of their own. Socialist Zionists rejected religion as perpetuating a "[[Diaspora]] mentality" among the Jewish people and established rural communes in Israel called "[[Kibbutz]]im". Major theoreticians of Socialist Zionism included [[Moses Hess]], [[Nachman Syrkin]], [[Ber Borochov]] and [[A. D. Gordon]], and leading figures in the movement included [[David Ben-Gurion]] and [[Berl Katznelson]]. Socialist Zionists rejected Yiddish as a language of exile, embracing Hebrew as the language that was common to all Jewish communities and which originated in Israel.

Gordon believed that the Jews lacked a "normal" class structure and that the various classes that constitute a nation had to be created artificially. Socialist Zionists therefore set about becoming Jewish peasants and proletarians and focused on settling land and working on it. According to Gordon "the land of Israel is bought with labour: not with blood and not with fire." He called on Jews to embrace a "religion of labour" as opposed to their existing religion. Socialist Zionism became a dominant force in Israel, however, it exacerbated the schism between Zionism and [[Orthodox Judaism]].

Socialist Zionists formed the [[Poale Zion]] ("Workers of Zion") movement, launching parties across Europe, North America and Palestine, in the 1900s - of which the most significant was the [[Jewish Social Democratic Labour Party (Poalei Zion)]] in Russia in 1906 - and a world union in 1907.

Socialist Zionists formed youth movements that became influential organizations in their own right including [[Habonim Dror]], [[Hashomer Hatzair]], [[HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed]] and Machanot Halolim. During British rule the lack of available immigration permits to Palestine led the youth movements to operate training programs in Europe, which prepared Jews for migration to Palestine. As a Socialist-Zionist immigrants arrived already speaking Hebrew, trained in agriculture and prepared for life in Palestine.

====Zionism and feminism====
The Zionist movement never restricted female suffrage. In 1911, Zionist activist [[Hana Meisel|Hannah Meisel Shochat]] established [[Kinneret, Israel|Havat Ha'Almot]] (lit. "the girls' farm") to train Zionist women in farming. The famous poet [[Rachel Bluwstein]] was one of the graduates. Zionist settlers were usually young and far from their families so a relatively permissive culture was able to develop. Within the Kibbutz movement child rearing was done communally thus freeing women to work (and fight) alongside the men.

The Zionist [[Roza Pomerantz-Meltzer]] was the first woman elected to the [[Sejm]], the Parliament of [[Poland]]. She was elected in 1919 as a member of a Zionist party.<ref>''God's Playground: A History of Poland'', By Norman Davies, Columbia University Press, 1982, p. 302</ref><ref>''Hostages of Modernization: Studies on Modern Antisemitism, 1870–1933/39'', By Herbert Arthur Strauss, Published 1993, Walter de Gruyter, p. 985</ref>
In Mandatory Palestine women in Jewish towns could vote in elections before women won the right to vote in Britain.

===Zionism in the Arab world===
The 1911 edition of the ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' noted the movement's spread: "not only in the number of Jews affiliated with the Zionist organization and congress, but also in the fact that there is hardly a nook or corner of the Jewish world in which Zionistic societies are not to be found."<ref>[http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=132&letter=Z&search=Zionism Zionism article (section ''Wide Spread of Zionism'')] by Richard Gottheil in the ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'', 1911</ref>

Support for Zionism was not a purely European and [[Ashkenazi]] phenomenon. In the Arab world<!-- Add Mizrahi and Sephardi? -->, the first Zionist branches opened in [[Morocco]] only a few years after the Basel conference, and the movement became popular among Jews living within the Arab and Muslim world where Jews generally faced religious discrimination, prejudice and occasional violence. A number of the founders of the city of [[Tel Aviv]] were early Moroccan Jewish immigrants and Ottoman [[Salonika]] had a vigorous Zionist movement by 1908.<ref>Isaiah Friedman, ''Germany, Turkey, and Zionism 1897–1918'', Oxford University Press. 1977.</ref>

====Early Zionists and the non-Jewish population of Palestine====
{{See also|Zionist and Palestinian Arab attitudes before 1948}}

Before 1917, Palestine's Arab population mostly saw themselves as Ottoman subjects. They feared the objectives of the Zionist movement, but they assumed the movement would fail. After the Young Turk revolution in 1908, Arab Nationalism grew rapidly in the area and most Arab Nationalists regarded Zionism as a threat, although a minority perceived Zionism as providing a path to modernity.<ref>Mohammed Muslih, ''The Origins of Palestinian Nationalism'', New York 1988, chapter 3, See also Yehoshua Porath, ''The Emergence of the Palestinian-Arab National Movement 1918–1929'', introduction.</ref>

==== Success and stumbles in Russia ====
Before World War I, although led by Austrian and German Jews, Zionism was primarily composed of Russian Jews.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Judaism: History, Belief, and Practice |publisher=Britannica Educational Publishing |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-61530-537-7 |editor-last=Stefon |editor-first=Matt |edition=1st |location=New York |page=151 |language=en}}</ref> Initially, Zionists were a minority, both in Russia and worldwide.<ref>{{bulleted list|
|{{Cite journal |last=Taylor |first=Alan R. |date=1974 |title=The Isolation of Israel |journal=[[Journal of Palestine Studies]] |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=82–93 |doi=10.2307/2535926 |jstor=2535926 |issn=0377-919X}}
|{{Cite journal |last=Jeffery |first=Keith |date=1982 |editor-last=Monroe |editor-first=Elizabeth |editor2-last=Hardie |editor2-first=Frank |editor3-last=Herrman |editor3-first=Irwin |editor4-last=Andrew |editor4-first=Christopher M. |editor5-last=Kanya-Forstner |editor5-first=A. S. |editor6-last=Dockrill |editor6-first=Michael L. |editor7-last=Goold |editor7-first=J. Douglas |editor8-last=Darwin |editor8-first=John |editor9-last=Kenez |editor9-first=Peter |title=Great Power Rivalry in the Middle East |journal=[[The Historical Journal]] |volume=25 |issue=4 |pages=1029–1038 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X00021415 |jstor=2638650 |s2cid=162469637 |issn=0018-246X}}
|{{Cite journal |last=Ellman |first=Michael |date=2007 |title=Another Forged 'Stalin Document' |journal=[[Europe-Asia Studies]] |volume=59 |issue=5 |pages=869–872 |doi=10.1080/09668130701377714 |jstor=20451399 |s2cid=154952224 |issn=0966-8136}}
|{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Gardner |title=Legacy of empire: Britain, Zionism and the creation of Israel |publisher=Saqi Books |year=2019 |isbn=978-0-86356-386-7 |location=London |language=en}}
}}</ref> Russian Zionism quickly became a major force within the movement, making up about half the delegates at Zionist Congresses.<ref name="Goldstein-1986">{{Cite journal |last=Goldstein |first=J. |title=The Attitude of the Jewish and the Russian Intelligentsia to Zionism in the Initial Period (1897–1904) |journal=[[The Slavonic and East European Review]] |publication-date=October 1986 |volume=64 |issue=4 |pages=546–556 |jstor=4209355 |issn=0037-6795}}</ref>

Despite its success in attracting followers, Russian Zionism faced fierce opposition from the Russian intelligentsia across the political spectrum and socioeconomic classes. It was condemned by different groups as reactionary, messianic, and unrealistic, arguing that it would isolate Jews and exacerbate their circumstances rather than integrate them into European societies.<ref name="Goldstein-1986" /> Religious Jews such as Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum viewed in Zionism a desecration of their sacred beliefs and a Satanic plot, while others hardly thought it deserved serious attention.<ref name="Waxman-1987">{{Cite journal |last=Waxman |first=Chaim I. |title=Messianism, Zionism, and the State of Israel |journal=[[Modern Judaism]] |publication-date=May 1987 |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=175–192 |doi=10.1093/mj/7.2.175 |jstor=1396238 |issn=0276-1114}}</ref> For them, Zionism was seen as an attempt to defy the divine order to await the coming of the Messiah.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Shapira |first=Anita |date=January 25, 2021 |title=Herzl Was the New Jew |url=https://mosaicmagazine.com/response/israel-zionism/2021/01/herzl-was-the-new-jew/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221208173342/https://mosaicmagazine.com/response/israel-zionism/2021/01/herzl-was-the-new-jew/ |archive-date=December 8, 2022 |access-date=November 24, 2023 |website=[[Mosaic (magazine)|Mosaic]]}}</ref> However, many of these religious Jews still believed in the Messiah coming soon. For example, Rabbi Israel Meir Kahan "was so convinced of the imminent arrival of the Messiah that he urged his students to study the laws of the priesthood so that the priests would be prepared to carry out their duties when the Temple in Jerusalem was rebuilt."<ref name="Waxman-1987" />

Criticism was not limited to religious Jews. [[General Jewish Labour Bund|Bundist socialists]] and liberals of th''e Voskhod'' newspaper attacked Zionism for distracting from class struggle and blocking the path to Jewish emancipation in Russia, respectively.<ref name="Goldstein-1986" /> Figures like historian [[Simon Dubnow]] saw potential value in Zionism promoting Jewish identity but fundamentally rejected a Jewish state as messianic and unfeasible.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Britannica Encyclopedia of World Religions |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-59339-491-2 |pages=305–306 |language=en}}</ref> They provided alternative emancipatory solutions, such as assimilation, emigration, and Diaspora nationalism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wiemer |first=Reinhard |title=The Theories of Nationalism and of Zionism in the First Decade of the State of Israel |journal=[[Middle Eastern Studies (journal)|Middle Eastern Studies]] |publication-date=April 1987 |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=172–187 |doi=10.1080/00263208708700698 |jstor=4283170 |issn=0026-3206}}</ref> The opposition to Zionism, rooted in the intelligentsia's rationalist worldview, weakened its appeal among potential adherents like the Jewish working class and intelligentsia.<ref name="Goldstein-1986" /> Ultimately, the Russian intelligentsia was united in the view that Zionism was an aberrant ideology that ran counter to their beliefs in Jewish assimilation.

===World War I and the Balfour Declaration of 1917===
{{Main|Balfour Declaration of 1917}}

The Jewish population of the USA increased about ten times between 1880 and 1920, with the immigration of poorer, more liberal and radical, "downtown", Eastern European immigrants fleeing persecution in contrast to the older generations of German, Spanish and Portuguese Jews that were much more conservative and rich. It was not until 1912, when the secular "people's lawyer" [[Louis Brandeis]] became involved in Zionism, just before the First World War, that Zionism gained significant support.<ref name="HagshBrand">{{cite web|url=http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1635 |title=Patriot, Judge and Zionist |access-date=2007-10-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071027065906/http://www.hagshama.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=1635 |archive-date=October 27, 2007 }}</ref> By 1917, the American Provisional Executive Committee for General Zionist Affairs, which Brandeis chaired, had increased American Zionist membership ten times to 200,000 members; "American Jewry thenceforth became the financial center for the world Zionist movement".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ajhs.org/scholarship/chapters/chapter.cfm?documentID=281 |title=Louis D. Brandeis and American Zionism |access-date=2010-06-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080518134349/http://www.ajhs.org/scholarship/chapters/chapter.cfm?documentID=281 |archive-date=May 18, 2008 }} [[American Jewish Historical Society]]</ref>

As in the US, England had experienced a rapid growth in their Jewish minority. About 150,000 Jews migrated there from Russia in the period 1881–1914.<ref>{{cite web |last=Roberts |first=Josie |title=The Great Migration and the Jewish East End |url=https://jewishmuseum.org.uk/2017/11/07/the-great-migration-and-the-jewish-east-end/ |website=www.jewishmuseum.org.uk}}</ref> With this immigration influx, pressure grew from British voters to halt it; added to the established knowledge in British society of [[Old Testament]] scripture, Zionism became an attractive solution for both Britain and the [[British Empire#World wars (1914–1945)|Empire]].{{CN|date=January 2025}}

In the search for support, Herzl, before his death, had made the most progress with the German Kaiser, joining him on his 1898 trip to Palestine.<ref>"Herzl's Journeys in Palestine and Egypt" by Desmond Stewart in the ''Journal of Palestine Studies'', Vol. 3, No. 3 (Spring, 1974), pp. 18–38</ref> At the outbreak of war in 1914, the offices of the Zionist Organization were located in Berlin and led by [[Otto Warburg (botanist)|Otto Warburg]], a German citizen. With different national sections of the movement supporting different sides in the war, Zionist policy was to maintain strict neutrality and "to demonstrate complete loyalty to Turkey",<ref>Jehuda Reinharz, ''Chaim Weizmann, the Making of a Statesman'', p. 10. Oxford, 1993.</ref> the German ally controlling Palestine. Following Turkey's entry into [[World War I]] in August however, the Zionists were expelled from Tel Aviv and its environs.

[[David Ben-Gurion]] and [[Yitzhak Ben-Tzvi]] both volunteered for the Turkish Army but were rejected and exiled to Egypt. They moved to the US and tried to recruit Jews to set up a Jewish unit in the Turkish army.<ref>Teveth, Shabtai (1985) ''Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs: From Peace to War''. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-503562-3}}. pp. 25, 26</ref>

Although 500,000 Russian Jews were serving in the Russian army, the Russian leadership regarded all Jews as their enemies and assumed that most were avoiding the draft. In 1915, following German advances in the Baltic provinces, the Russian military leadership accused the Jews of being a German fifth column and ordered 500,000 to leave their homes in the [[Pale of Settlement]], mostly with less than 24 hours notice, and to relocate in central Russia. An estimated 100,000 died of starvation and exposure and their plight contributed to the disintegration of the Russian army.<ref>''The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917'' by Nora Levin pp 28–29. NY 1988</ref>

In the United States, still officially neutral, most Russian and German Jews supported the Germans, as did much of the largely anti-British [[Irish American]] and [[German American]] community. Britain was anxious to win US support for its war effort, and winning over Jewish financial and popular support in the US was considered vital.<ref>''Weizmann, the Making of a Statesman'' by Jehuda Reinharz, Oxford 1993, chapters 3 & 4</ref> With [[Tsardom of Russia|Tsarist Russia]] on the Allied side, most Jews supported Germany and in much of Eastern Europe the advancing Germans were regarded as liberators by the Jews. Like the Germans and the Russians, the British assumed that most Jews were avoiding the draft; these beliefs were groundless, but the Polish Zionist [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] was able to exploit it to promote a Jewish division in the British army. For the British, the [[Jewish Legion]], was a means of recruiting Russian Jewish immigrants (who were mostly Zionists) to the British war effort. The legion was dominated by Zionist volunteers.

In January 1915, two months after the British declaration of war against the Ottomans, Zionist and British cabinet member [[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel|Herbert Samuel]] presented a detailed memorandum entitled ''[[s:The Future of Palestine|The Future of Palestine]]'' to the British Cabinet on the benefits of a British protectorate over Palestine to support Jewish immigration.

The most prominent Russian-Zionist migrant in Britain was chemist [[Chaim Weizmann]]. Weizmann developed a new process to produce [[acetone]], a critical ingredient in manufacturing explosives that Britain was unable to manufacture in sufficient quantity. In 1915, the British government fell as a result of its inability to [[Shell Crisis of 1915|manufacture enough artillery shells]] for the war effort. In the new government, [[David Lloyd George]] became the minister responsible for armaments, and asked Weizmann to develop his process for mass production.

Lloyd George was an evangelical Christian and pro-Zionist. According to Lloyd George, when he asked Weizmann about payment for his efforts to help Britain, Weizmann told him that he wanted no money, just the rights over Palestine.<ref>''Chaim Weizmann, The Making of a Statesman'' by Jehuda Reinharz, Chapter 2.</ref> Weizmann became a close associate of Lloyd George (Prime Minister from 1916) and the [[First Lord of the Admiralty]] (Foreign Secretary from 1916), [[Arthur Balfour]].

In 1916 [[Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca]] (in [[Arabia]]), began an "[[Arab Revolt]]" hoping to create an Arab state in the Middle East. In the [[McMahon–Hussein Correspondence]] British representatives promised they would allow him to create such a state (the boundaries were vague). They also provided him with large sums of money to fund his revolt.

In February 1917 the [[February Revolution|tsar was overthrown]] and [[Alexander Kerensky]] became Prime Minister of the Russian Empire. Jews were prominent in the new government and the British hoped that Jewish support would help keep Russia in the war. In June 1917 the British army, led by [[Edmund Allenby]], invaded Palestine. The [[Jewish Legion]] participated in the invasion and [[Jabotinsky]] was awarded for bravery. Arab forces conquered [[Transjordan (region)|Transjordan]] and later took over Damascus.

In August 1917, as the British cabinet discussed the Balfour Declaration,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.zionism-israel.com/hdoc/Montagu_balfour.htm|title=Zionism-Israel Information Center Historical Source Documents - Edwin Montagu Memorandum on the Balfour Declaration as Antisemitism, August 1917 Judaism and Zionism|website=www.zionism-israel.com}}</ref> [[Edwin Samuel Montagu]], the only Jew in the British Cabinet and a staunch anti-Zionist, "was passionately opposed to the declaration on the grounds that (a) it was a capitulation to anti-Semitic bigotry, with its suggestion that Palestine was the natural destination of the Jews, and that (b) it would be a grave cause of alarm to the Muslim world".<ref>Hitchens, ''Love, Poverty, and War'' p. 327</ref> Additional references to the future rights of non-Jews in Palestine and the status of Jews worldwide were thus inserted by the British cabinet, reflecting the opinion of the only Jew within it. As the draft was finalized, the term "state" was replaced with "home", and comments were sought from Zionists abroad. Louis Brandeis, a member of the US Supreme Court, influenced the style of the text and changed the words "Jewish race" to "Jewish people".<ref name="HagshBrand"/>

On November 2, the British Foreign Secretary, [[Arthur Balfour]], made his landmark [[Balfour Declaration]], publicly expressing the government's view in favour of "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people", and specifically noting that its establishment must not "prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".

====1917 Russian Revolution====
On November 7, five days after the Balfour declaration, the [[Bolsheviks]] led the [[October Revolution]] in Russia. The Bolshevik seizure of power led to [[Russian Civil War|civil war]] and the collapse of the Western part of the Russian Empire. During the fighting, there were [[Pogroms during the Russian Civil War|pogroms across Russia]] perpetrated by fighters from all sides, but especially the counter-revolutionary [[White Army]].<ref name="McGeever 2019"/> Between 1918 and 1921, when the Bolsheviks assumed control of Ukraine, over 50,000 Jews were killed, a further 100,000 were permanently maimed or died of wounds and 200,000 Jewish children became orphans.<ref>''The Jews of the Soviet Union since 1917'' by Nora Levin page 43. New York 1988</ref>

At the time of the Russian revolution, the Bund had 30,000 members in Russia, compared to 300,000 Zionist members of which about 10% were Marxist-Zionists.<ref name="Zvi Y. Gitelman 2001, pages 60-61">Zvi Y. Gitelman, ''A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present'', 2001, pp. 60–61 and 64.</ref> [[Joseph Stalin]] was the first [[People's Commissariat of Nationalities]] and in this role suppressed the Bund. Bundists supportive of the Bolsheviks formed short-lived Kombund (Communist Bund) parties (such as the [[Jewish Communist Labour Bund (Ukraine)]] and [[Jewish Communist Labour Bund in Poland]]) or joined the [[Yevsektsia]], a Jewish section of the Bolshevik organization created by Stalin which worked to end Jewish communal and religious life,<ref>Zvi Y. Gitelman, ''A Century of Ambivalence: The Jews of Russia and the Soviet Union, 1881 to the Present'', Indiana 2001, pp. 72–74</ref> while anti-Communist social democrats maintained independent Bund structures, especially in [[General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland|Poland]].

Members of the [[Marxist]] Zionist movement, [[Poale Zion]] led by [[Ber Borochov]], returned to Russia (from Palestine) and requested to form Jewish Brigades within the Red Army. Trotsky supported the request but opposition from the Yevsektsia led to the proposal's failure.<ref>''Trotsky and the Jews'', Joseph Nedava, [[Jewish Publication Society of America]], 1972 chapter 7</ref> Poale Zion split between a pro-Communist "Left", and an anti-Communist "Right". Future Israeli Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]] was a member of the Israeli branch of the latter, forming [[Ahdut HaAvoda]] (the ancestor of the [[Israeli Labor Party]]) in 1919.

In 1921, following a personal request to Stalin by the Soviet author [[Maxim Gorky]], the Hebrew poets [[Hayim Nahman Bialik|Bialik]] and [[Shaul Tchernichovsky]] were allowed to emigrate to Palestine.<ref>''The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917'' by Nora Levin, New York 1988, pg 103</ref> Bialik became the Israeli national poet. Despite opposition from the Evsektsiya, Stalin also permitted funding of a Hebrew theatre troupe in Moscow, called [[Habima]]. [[Konstantin Stanislavski]] attended the first night and the group put on a historic play called ''[[The Dybbuk]]'', which they were allowed to take on tour in Europe.<ref>The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917 by Nora Levin, New York 1988, pg 114</ref> The tour terminated in Tel Aviv, and Habima never returned to Moscow, becoming instead the Israel National Theatre. The Revolution was accompanied by a brief flowering of Yiddish arts before being decimated by censorship and by 1950 a significant number of prominent Yiddish intellectuals had been sent to the [[Gulag]].<ref>The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917 by Nora Levin, New York 1988, chapter 9</ref> A Soviet census found that 90% of Belarusian Jews and 76% of Ukrainian Jews gave [[Yiddish]] as their mother tongue.

Between 1922 and 1928, the Soviets embarked on a plan of moving Ukrainian Jews to agricultural communes, mainly in [[Crimea]]. The plan was encouraged by donations from US Jewish charities trying to protect and help Jews. A number of Zionist agricultural collectives were established in Crimea in preparation for Kibbutz life. Soviet leader [[Mikhail Kalinin]] considered creating a Jewish state in Crimea which had a large [[Crimean Karaite|Karaite]] population who had been exempt from Tsarist persecution. (Karaites are Jews who reject the authority of the Talmud.)<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/164673/crimea-as-jewish-homeland |title=Before Crimea Was Russian, It Was a Potential Jewish Homeland |magazine=[[Tablet Magazine]] |date=4 March 2014}}</ref>

In 1924 Stalin became the ruler of the USSR. In 1928 a [[Jewish Autonomous Oblast]] was created in the [[Russian Far East]] with [[Yiddish language|Yiddish]] as an official language and Hebrew was outlawed: The only language to be outlawed in the USSR.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/44.html |title=Beyond the Pale: Jewish Life Between the Wars II |website=www.friends-partners.org |access-date=March 10, 2010 |archive-date=December 22, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222011734/http://www.friends-partners.org/partners/beyond-the-pale/english/44.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> Few Jews were tempted by the Soviet Jewish Republic and as of 2002 Jews constitute only about 1.2% of its population.<ref>Mark Tolts: [https://web.archive.org/web/20090327164435/http://www.jafi.org.il/education/100/concepts/demography/Tolts_Article1.pdf The Post-Soviet Jewish Population in Russia and the World.] Published in: ''Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe'', 2004, No. 1 (52). p.51</ref>

The Yevsektsiyas were disbanded in 1927 and many their leaders perished during the [[Great Purge]]. The Bund survived in independent Poland until the Second World War, when its membership was exterminated by the Nazis.{{Citation needed|date=January 2018}}

== Zionist paramilitaries in Palestine ==
===Haganah===
{{main|Haganah}}
'Haganah ({{langx|he|הַהֲגָנָה}}, lit. ''The Defence'') was the main [[Zionist]]<ref>Washington Robnett, George (1976). ''Zionist Rape of the Holy Land!: How Zionism Turned Palestine Into a Jewish State''. Crown City Publishing Company, p. 169.</ref> [[paramilitary]] organization of the Jewish population ("[[Yishuv]]") in [[Mandatory Palestine]] between 1920 and its disestablishment in 1948, when it became the core of the [[Israel Defense Forces]] (IDF).

Formed out of previous existing militias, its original purpose was to defend Jewish settlements from Arab attacks, such as the riots of [[1920 Nebi Musa riots|1920]], [[1921 Jaffa riots|1921]], [[1929 Palestine riots|1929]] and during the [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]]. It was under the control of the [[Jewish Agency]], the official governmental body in charge of Palestine's Jewish community during the [[Mandate for Palestine|British Mandate]]. Until the end of the [[Second World War]], Haganah's activities were moderate, in accordance with the policy of [[havlaga]] ("self-restraint"), which caused the splitting of the more radical [[Irgun]] and [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]]. The group received clandestine military support from Poland. Haganah sought cooperation with the British in the event of an [[Axis powers|Axis]] invasion of Palestine through [[North African campaign|North Africa]], prompting the creation of the [[Palmach]] task force in 1941.

With the end of World War II and British refusal to cancel the [[1939 White Paper]]'s restrictions on Jewish immigration, the Haganah turned to [[Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine|sabotage activities]] against the British authorities, including bombing bridges, rail lines, and ships used to deport illegal Jewish immigrants, as well as assisting in bringing Jews to Palestine in defiance of British policy. After the United Nations adopted a [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|partition plan for Palestine]] in 1947, the Haganah came into the open as the biggest fighting force among Palestinian Jews, successfully overcoming Arab forces during the [[1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine|civil war]]. Shortly after [[Israeli Declaration of Independence|Israel's independence declaration]] and the beginning of the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]], the Haganah was merged with other groups and reorganized into the official army of the state.

===Irgun===
{{main|Irgun}}
The '''Irgun''' ({{langx|he|ארגון}}; full title: {{langx|he|הארגון הצבאי הלאומי בארץ ישראל}} ''{{transliteration|he|Hā-ʾIrgun Ha-Tzvaʾī Ha-Leūmī b-Ērētz Yiśrāʾel}}'', lit. "The National Military Organization in the Land of Israel"), or '''Etzel''' ({{langx|he|אצ"ל}}), was a [[Zionism|Zionist]] [[paramilitary]] organization that operated in [[Mandatory Palestine|Mandate Palestine]] and then [[Israel]] between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger [[Jewish]] [[paramilitary]] organization [[Haganah]] (Hebrew: {{langx|he|הגנה}}, Defence).<ref>[[Jacob Shavit]], ''Jabotinsky and the Revisionist Movement 1925–1948'' p. 97 Routledge 1988 {{ISBN|978-0-7146-3325-1}}</ref> The Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts.<ref name=SshmidtFCPRIOT>{{cite book|last=Dr. Yvonne Schmidt|title=Foundations of Civil and Political Rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories |date=May 2008 |page=254|publisher=GRIN Verlag |isbn=978-3-638-94450-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=51gNA4Go_lUC&q=%22Prevention%20of%20Terrorism%20Ordinance%22%20%20Irgun&pg=PA254}}No 33 of 5708-1948 – 23 September 1948</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Bell|first=J. Bowyer|title=Terror out of Zion : Irgun Zvai Leumi, LEHI, and the Palestine underground, 1929-1949|year=1979|publisher=Academy Press|location=Dublin|isbn=978-0-906187-11-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yrBtAAAAMAAJ&q=terror+out+of+zion|author-link=J. Bowyer Bell}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Whittaker|first1=David|title=The Terrorism Reader|date=2012|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0415687317|page=29|edition= 4th|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SOhJQbP77h0C&pg=PA29}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Kushner |first1=Harvey W. |title=Encyclopedia of Terrorism |date=2002 |publisher=SAGE Publications |isbn=145226550X |location=Thousand Oaks |page=181 |author-link=Harvey Kushner}}</ref>

The Irgun policy was based on what was then called [[Revisionist Zionism]] founded by [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]]. According to [[Howard Sachar]], "The policy of the new organization was based squarely on Jabotinsky's teachings: every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arabs; only Jewish armed force would ensure the Jewish state".<ref>[[Howard Sachar]]: ''A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time'', pp. 265–266</ref>

Two of the operations for which the Irgun is best known are the [[King David Hotel bombing|bombing of the King David Hotel]] in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946 and the [[Deir Yassin massacre]] that killed at least 107 Palestinian Arabs, including women and children, carried out together with [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]] on 9 April 1948.

The organization committed acts of terrorism against the British, whom it regarded as illegal occupiers, and against Arabs.<ref>{{Cite web|title = Irgun Zvai Leumi {{!}} Jewish right-wing underground movement|url = https://www.britannica.com/topic/Irgun-Zvai-Leumi|website = Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date = 2016-01-02}}</ref> In particular the Irgun was described as a terrorist organization by the [[United Nations]], British, and United States governments; in media such as ''[[The New York Times]]'' newspaper;<ref name="select.nytimes.com">Pope Brewer, Sam. [https://www.nytimes.com/1947/12/30/archives/irgun-bomb-kills-11-arabs-2-britons-missile-thrown-from-a-taxi-in.html?sq=terrorist+Irgun&scp=2&st=p Irgun Bomb Kills 11 Arabs, 2 Britons]. ''New York Times''. December 30, 1947.</ref><ref name="FA0E16F93D55147B93C4A81783D85F438485F9 1947">[https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0E16F93D55147B93C4A81783D85F438485F9&scp=3&sq=terrorist+Irgun&st=p Irgun's Hand Seen in Alps Rail Blast]. ''New York Times''. August 16, 1947.</ref> as well as by the [[Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry]],<ref>W. Khalidi, 1971, 'From Haven to Conquest', p. 598</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Terry|first=Janice|title=Encyclopedia of world history Vol 5 pg 20 |year=2008|publisher=Infobase Publishing}}</ref> the 1946 [[Zionist Congress]]<ref>{{cite book | chapter = Jewish Terrorism and Jewish Resistance | title = The Jewish Plan for Palestine—Memoranda and Statements presented by The Jewish Agency for Palestine to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine | publisher = The Jewish Agency for Palestine, Jerusalem | year = 1947 | pages = 20–26}}</ref> and the [[Jewish Agency]].<ref>{{cite book | chapter = Major Political Developments | title = The Jewish Plan for Palestine—Memoranda and Statements presented by The Jewish Agency for Palestine to the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine | publisher = The Jewish Agency for Palestine, Jerusalem | year = 1947 | page = 32}}</ref> However, academics such as [[Bruce Hoffman]] and [[Max Abrahms]] have written that the Irgun went to considerable lengths to avoid harming civilians, such as issuing pre-attack warnings; according to Hoffman, Irgun leadership urged "targeting the physical manifestations of British rule while avoiding the deliberate infliction of bloodshed."<ref name="Abrahms">{{cite book|last=Abrahms|first=Max|title=Rules for Rebels: The Science of Victory in Militant History|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|year=2018|isbn=9780192539441|pages=44–45, 118–120}}</ref> [[Albert Einstein]], in a letter to the [[New York Times]] in 1948, compared Irgun and its successor [[Herut]] party to "Nazi and Fascist parties" and described it as a "terrorist, right wing, chauvinist organization".<ref name="einstein">{{Cite book |last=Einstein |first=Albert |title=Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb |publisher=Princeton University Press |year=2007 |isbn=9780691120942 |editor-last=Rowe |editor-first=David E. |pages=350}}</ref> Irgun's tactics appealed to many Jews who believed that any action taken in the cause of the creation of a Jewish state was justified, including [[terrorism]].<ref>Cleveland, William L. A History of the Modern Middle East. Boulder, CO: Westview, 2004. Print. p. 243</ref>

Irgun members were absorbed into the [[Israel Defense Forces]] at the start of the [[1948 Arab–Israeli war]]. The Irgun was a political predecessor to Israel's [[Right-wing politics|right-wing]] ''[[Herut]]'' (or "Freedom") party, which led to today's [[Likud]] party.<ref>{{cite book|last=Eisenstadt|first=S.N.|title=The Transformation of Israeli Society|year=1985|publisher=Weidenfeld and Nicolson |location=London |isbn=0-297-78423-4|pages=173–4 |author-link=Shmuel Eisenstadt|quote=One of the main developments in the initial period of the State was the growth of the Herut party.... It developed from the older Revisionist groups, the 'terrorist' groups of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and members of the Revisionist party ... in 1965 Herut founded, together with the great part of the Liberals, a parliamentary bloc ... in 1973, with the addition of other small groups, it became transformed into Likud}}</ref> Likud has led or been part of most [[Israeli government]]s since 1977.

===Beitar===
{{main|Beitar}}
[[File:Betar youth camp 1.jpg|thumb|Members of Betar movement at a summer camp in the [[Poland|Polish]] resort town [[Zakopane]] in 1935]]
[[File:Young Jewish members from German Chapter of Betar in Berlin, 1936.jpg|thumb|Betar formation in [[Berlin]] in 1936]]
Betar was founded by [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]] at a meeting of Jewish youth in [[Riga]], [[Latvia]], arranged by Aaron Propes in 1923. Jabotinsky spoke of the Arab attacks on the settlement of Tel Hai and other Jewish settlements in the Galilee. He believed that these incidents, indicative of serious threats to the Jewish Palestinians, could only be addressed by the recreation of the ancient Jewish state of Israel, extending across the entirety of both Palestine and Jordan. This is the defining philosophy of Revisionist Zionism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Smith |first=Charles D. |title=Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict |year=2004 |publisher=Bedford/St. Martin's |location=Boston, MA |isbn=0-312-40408-5 |edition=2nd |page=115}}</ref> Jabotinsky proposed creating Betar to foster a new generation of Jews thoroughly indoctrinated in these nationalist ideals and trained for military action against all enemies of Judaism. In 1931, Jabotinsky was elected ''rosh Betar'' ("head of Betar") at the first world conference in [[Danzig]].<ref>JewishVirtualLibrary, [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0003_0_02836.html ''BETAR'']</ref>

[[Joseph Trumpeldor]], the leader of the Jewish settlers who were [[Battle of Tel Hai|killed at Tel Hai]] in 1920, served as the primary role model of the Betar. A disabled man with only one arm, he led his people in the futile defense of the settlement and reportedly died with the words, "Never mind, it is good to die for our country" (Hebrew: "אין דבר ,טוב למות בעד ארצנו"). This was particularly significant given that the Jews did not yet have a country: Trumpeldor was referring to sacrificing one's life in order to further the establishment of an independent Jewish state. The words of ''[[Shir Betar]]'' ("The Betar Song"), written by Jabotinsky, include a line that quotes Trumpeldor's last words of "never mind". As the song expresses, Betar youth were to be as "proud, generous, and fierce [alternately translated as 'cruel'<ref>{{cite web|last=Steiner|first=Michael|title=Shir Betar/The Betar Song|url=http://www.hebrewsongs.com/song-shirbetar.htm|access-date=1 July 2011}}</ref>]" as Trumpeldor, and as ready to sacrifice themselves for Israel.

The name Betar בית"ר refers to both the last [[Betar (fortress)|Jewish fort]] to fall in the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]] (136 CE){{dubious|The consensus is on 135 CE, not 136.|date=September 2020}} and to the altered abbreviation of the Hebrew name of the organisation, "'''B'''erit '''Tr'''umpeldor" or "'''B'''rit '''Y'''osef '''Tr'''umpeldor"<ref name=Shavit>{{cite book |author= Yaakov Shavit |title= Jabotinsky and the Revisionist Movement, 1925–1948 |publisher= Frank Cass |year= 1988 |pages= 51–52, 383 n.4}}</ref><ref name=MfA>{{cite web |title= Youth Movements: Betar |work= Centenary of Zionism: 1897-1997 |publisher= Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs |date= 4 August 1998 |url= https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/History/Zionism/Pages/Youth%20Movements.aspx |access-date=26 September 2020}}</ref> ( ברית יוסף תרומפלדור ). Although Trumpeldor's name is properly spelt with ''tet'' (ט), it was written with ''taf'' (ת) so as to produce the acronym.<ref name=Shavit/>
[[File:PikiWiki Israel 787 Education in Israel זאב זבוטינסקי בחברת מפקדי ביתר.jpg|thumb|right|Vladimir Jabotinsky in the company of Betar commanders, Palestine]]

Despite resistance from both Zionist and non-Zionist Jews, Betar quickly gained a large following in Poland, Palestine, Latvia, Lithuania, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and elsewhere. It was particularly successful in Poland, which had the [[History of the Jews in Poland|largest Jewish population in Europe]] at the time.

In 1934, Poland was home to 40,000 of Betar's 70,000 members.<ref>Shavit, Jacob. ''Jabotinsky and the revisionist movement, 1925–1948: The Right in Zionism and in Israel, 1925–1985.'' by Routledge, 1988. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ki3EQsjClWcC&pg=PA55 Page 55.]</ref> Routine Betar activities in [[Warsaw]] included military drilling, instruction in Hebrew, and encouragement to learn English. Militia groups organized by Betar Poland helped to defend against attacks by the anti-Semitic [[National Radical Camp (1934)|ONR]].<ref>Melzer, Emanuel. '' No Way Out: The Politics of Polish Jewry, 1935–1939.'' Hebrew Union College Press, 1997. [https://books.google.com/books?id=co3KJikOaBYC&pg=PA169 Pages 7, 169.]</ref> The interwar Polish government helped Betar with military training.<ref>Shapiro, Yonathan. ''The Road to Power: Herut Party in Israel'', p. 36</ref>
Some members admired the Polish nationalist camp and imitated some of its aspects.<ref>Reinharz, Jehuda. ''Living With Antisemitism: Modern Jewish Responses'', p. 306</ref>

Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, Betar aided the widespread immigration of Jews to Palestine in violation of the [[Mandatory Palestine|British Mandate's]] immigration quotas, which had not been increased despite the surge of refugees from the [[The Holocaust|Nazi persecution and murder of Jews]]. In total, Betar was responsible for the entrance of over 40,000 Jews into Palestine under such restrictions.<ref>Perl, William R. [https://books.google.com/books?id=9BSFAAAAIAAJ ''Operation Action – Rescue From The Holocaust.''] Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. New York, 1983.</ref>

==The British Mandate and the Arab–Jewish struggle for Palestine (1918–1939)==

===Chaim Weizmann leads the World Zionist Organization===
{{Main|Chaim Weizmann}}
In late 1921, the 12th Zionist congress was held in Carlsbad, Czechoslovakia; it was the first congress to be held since 1913, because of World War I. Four hundred-fifty delegates attended, representing 780,000 fee paying Zionist members worldwide.<ref name="Chaim Weizmann page 359">''Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Statesman'', Jehuda Reinharz, Oxford 1993 p. 359</ref> Weizmann was elected its president in recognition of his role in obtaining the Balfour Declaration. The conference passed a proposal for an "Arab-Jewish Entente", which expressed delegates commitment "to attain a durable understanding which shall enable the Arab and Jewish peoples to live together in Palestine on terms of mutual respect and co-operate in making the common home into a flourishing community, the upbuilding of which will assure to each of these peoples an undisturbed national development".<ref>{{cite book |url=http://passia.org/media/filer_public/18/bd/18bd9c6f-c597-47e6-bc27-bad3ab88c960/cd_vol1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240723094618/http://passia.org/media/filer_public/18/bd/18bd9c6f-c597-47e6-bc27-bad3ab88c960/cd_vol1.pdf |archive-date=July 23, 2024 |title=Documents on Palestine, Volume 1 (until 1947) |chapter=Resolution Passed At The 12th Zionist Congress, Proposal For An Arab-jewish Entente, Carlsbad, 4 December 1921 |pages=97–98}}</ref> Weizmann led the movement until 1931. From 1931 to 1935 the WZO was presided by [[Nahum Sokolow]] (who had also spent the First World War in Britain). Weizmann resumed presidency of the WZO in 1935 and led it until 1946.

Zionist Congresses:
*1929 16th Congress, Zurich: 604,000 fee paying members.<ref>https://www.bjpa.org/search-results/publication/18204 pages 5 and 6</ref>
*1931 17th Congress, Basel: 670,000 fee paying members.<ref>https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/reso/RESOLUTIONS%20OF%20THE%2018TH%20ZIONIST%20CONGRESS%20PRAGUE%20AUGUST%2021ST%20TO%20SEPT%203RD,%201933.pdf page 6</ref>
*1933 18th Congress, Prague: 828,000 fee paying members.<ref>https://www.bjpa.org/content/upload/bjpa/reso/RESOLUTIONS%20OF%20THE%2018TH%20ZIONIST%20CONGRESS%20PRAGUE%20AUGUST%2021ST%20TO%20SEPT%203RD,%201933.pdf pages 5 and 6</ref>

===The League of Nations endorses Zionism===
[[File:Tarbut poster.jpg|thumb|Poster from the Zionist Tarbut schools of [[Poland]] in the 1930s. Zionist parties were very active in [[Poland|Polish]] politics. In the 1922 Polish elections, Zionists held 24 seats of a total of 35 Jewish parliament members.]]

After the defeat and dismantling of the Ottoman Empire by European colonial powers in 1918, the [[League of Nations]] endorsed the full text of the Balfour Declaration and established the [[League of Nations mandate|British Mandate]] for Palestine (Full text:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp|title=The Avalon Project : The Palestine Mandate|website=avalon.law.yale.edu}}</ref>).

In addition to accepting the Balfour Declaration policy statement, the League included that "[a]n appropriate [[Jewish Agency for Israel|Jewish agency]] shall be recognised as a public body for the purpose of advising and co-operating with the Administration of Palestine...." This inclusion paralleled a similar proposal made by the [[World Zionist Organization|Zionist Organization]] during the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]].

The Zionist movement entered a new phase of activity. Its priorities were encouraging Jewish settlement in Palestine, building the institutional foundations of a Jewish state and raising funds for these purposes. The 1920s did see a steady growth in the Jewish population and the construction of state-like Jewish institutions, but also saw the emergence of Palestinian Arab nationalism and growing resistance to Jewish immigration.

=== Expansion of Zionism: the Third Aliyah (1919–1923) and the Fourth Aliyah (1924–1928) ===
The success of Zionism in getting international recognition for its project led to growth in the membership and development of new forms of Zionism. The period 1919–1923 saw migration by Jews escaping the civil war in Russia, the period 1924–1929 migration by Jews escaping antisemitic regimes in Poland and Hungary.

====Religious Zionism====
{{Main|Religious Zionism}}
In the 1920s and 1930s, Rabbi [[Abraham Isaac Kook]] (the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine) and his son Zevi Judah, began to develop the concept of [[Religious Zionism]]. Kook was concerned that growing secularism of Zionist supporters and increasing antagonism towards the movement from the largely non-Zionist Orthodox community might lead to a schism between them and sought to create a brand of Zionism that would serve as a bridge between Jewish Orthodoxy and secular Jewish Zionists.

The Religious Zionists established a youth movement called [[Bnei Akiva]] in 1929, and a number of [[Religious Kibbutz Movement|Religious Kibbutzim]].

====Revisionist Zionism====
{{Main|Revisionist Zionism}}
The Revisionist Zionists were established in 1923 and originally led by [[Ze'ev Jabotinsky]]. After his involvement against the [[1929 Palestine riots|1929 Arab riots]], the British banned Jabotinsky from re-entering Palestine, and until his death in 1940, he advocated the more militant revisionist ideology in Europe and America. In 1935, he and the Revisionists left the mainstream [[World Zionist Organization|Zionist Organization]] and formed the [[New Zionist Organization]]. Following mainstream Zionism's' acceptance of their earlier militant demand for a Jewish state they eventually rejoined in 1946.

During this period, Revisionist Zionism was detested by the competing Socialist Zionist movement, which saw them as being [[capitalist]] and influenced by [[Fascism]]; the movement also caused a great deal of concern among Arab Palestinians.

Revisionism was popular in Poland but lacked large support in Palestine. The Revisionists refused to comply with British quotas on Jewish migration, and, following the election of Hitler in Germany, the Revisionist youth movements [[HeHalutz]] and [[Beitar]] began to organize illegal Jewish migration to Palestine. In Europe and America they advocated pressing Britain to allow mass Jewish emigration and the formation of a Jewish Army in Palestine. The army would force the Arab population to accept mass Jewish migration and promote British interests in the region.

===Zionism and the Arabs===
Arab nationalists predominantly perceived Zionism as a threat to their own aspirations. This sense was heightened, by the growth of Zionist labor movement and its "[[Hebrew labor]]" program. The latter was an effort to increase Jewish immigrant employment, secure the creation of a Jewish proletariat, and to prevent Zionist settlement from turning into a standard colonial enterprise. Initially, it sought to develop separate settlements and economies and campaigned for the exclusive employment of Jews; it later campaigned against the employment of Arabs. Its adverse effects on the Arab majority were increasingly noted by the mandatory administration.

The [[King-Crane Commission]] concluded about the principle of self determination:

"If that principle is to rule, and so the wishes of Palestine's population are to be decisive as to what is to be done with Palestine, then it is to be remembered that the non-Jewish population of Palestine – nearly nine-tenths of the whole – are emphatically against the entire Zionist programme. The tables show that there was no one thing upon which the population of Palestine were more agreed than upon this."

and recommended:

"… serious modification of the extreme Zionist programme for Palestine of unlimited immigration of Jews, looking finally to making Palestine distinctly a Jewish State…"<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |title=Right of Self-Determination of the Palestinian People - CEIRPP, DPR study |url=https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-196558/ |access-date=2023-12-02 |website=Question of Palestine |language=en-US}}</ref>

Churchill himself stated that the goal of the [[Churchill White Paper]] was:

"…to make it clear that the establishment of self-governing institutions in Palestine was to be subordinated to the paramount pledge and obligation of establishing a Jewish National Home in Palestine"<ref name=":4" />

In 1919 [[Hashemite]] [[Faisal I of Iraq|Emir Faisal]], signed the [[Faisal–Weizmann Agreement]]. He wrote: <blockquote>
We [[Arabs]], especially the educated among us, look with the deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement. Our delegation here in Paris is fully acquainted with the proposals submitted yesterday by the Zionist organization to the Peace Conference, and we regard them as moderate and proper.
</blockquote>
In their first meeting in June 1918 Weizmann had assured Faisal that<ref>C. D. Smith, 2001, ''Palestine and the Arab-Israeli conflict'', 4th ed., {{ISBN|0-312-20828-6}}, p. 80</ref> <blockquote>
the Jews did not propose to set up a government of their own but wished to work under British protection, to colonize and develop Palestine without encroaching on any legitimate interests</blockquote>

Initially Palestinian Arabs looked to the Arab-nationalist leaders to create a single Arab state, however Faisal's agreement with Weizmann led Palestinian-Arabs to develop their own brand of nationalism<ref>''The Emergence of the Palestinian-Arab National Movement 1918–1929'', Yehoshua Porath, London 1974, chapter 2</ref> and call for Palestine to become a state governed by the Arab majority, in particular they demanded an elected assembly.

Zionist supporters were by now aware of Arab opposition, and this led the movement in 1921 to pass a motion calling on the leadership to "forge a true understanding with the Arab nation".<ref>''[[Chaim Weizmann: The Making of a Statesman]]'', [[Jehuda Reinharz]], Oxford 1993 p. 359</ref>

====Jerusalem's Grand Mufti and the emergence of Palestinian Arab nationalism====
{{Main|Mohammad Amin al-Husayni}}
[[File:MAal-Husayni.jpg|thumb|[[Mohammad Amin al-Husayni]]]]

In 1921, [[Mohammad Amin al-Husayni]] was appointed as [[Grand Mufti of Jerusalem]] by the Palestine High Commissioner [[Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel|Herbert Samuel]], after he had been pardoned for his role in the [[1920 Palestine riots]]. During the following decades, he became the focus of Palestinian opposition to Zionism.

The Mufti believed that Jews were seeking to rebuild the [[Temple in Jerusalem]] on the site of the [[Dome of the Rock]] and [[Qibli Mosque|Al-Aqsa Mosque]]. This led to a long confrontation over the use of the [[Western Wall|Kotel]], also known as the Wailing Wall, which was owned by the [[Waqf|Muslim authorities]] but was sacred to Jews.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

Religious tension, an international economic crisis (affecting crop prices) and nationalist tension (over Zionist immigration) led to the [[1929 Palestine riots]]. In these religious-nationalist riots Jews were [[1929 Hebron massacre|massacred in Hebron]] and the survivors forced to leave the town. Devastation also took place in [[Safed]] and Jerusalem.

In 1936 an [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab uprising]] occurred, which lasted for three years. The [[Supreme Muslim Council]] in Palestine, led by the Mufti, organized the revolt. During the revolt the Mufti was forced to flee to Iraq, where he was involved in a pro-Nazi coup during which the Jewish areas of Baghdad were subjected to a [[Farhud|pogrom]].

In 1939 he rejected as insufficient the British [[White Paper of 1939|White Paper]], which imposed restrictions on Jewish immigration and land acquisition by Jews.

After the British reoccupied Iraq the Mufti joined the Nazis. He worked with [[Heinrich Himmler|Himmler]] and aided the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]]<ref>''The SS: Alibi of a Nation, 1922–1945 by [[Gerald Reitlinger]]'' 1989 p. 199</ref> his main role was broadcasting propaganda and recruiting Muslims, primarily for the [[13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian)|Waffen SS in Bosnia]].<ref>''Antisemitism: The Generic Hatred'' By Simon Wiesenthal, Michael Fineberg, Shimon Samuels, Mark Weitzman 2007 p. 49</ref>

In 1948 the Mufti returned to Egypt. He was involved in the short-lived [[All-Palestine Government]] sponsored by Egypt but was sidelined by most of the Arab countries.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}}

====Saudi–U.S. correspondence on Arab–Jewish relations in Palestine====
As the [[Second World War]] was drawing to its close, the King of [[Saudi Arabia]] expressed his concern in a letter to US President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] lest the US support for Zionism will infringe on the rights of the Arabs of Palestine. On April 5, 1945, the President replied in a letter to the King that
<blockquote>
I would take no action, in my capacity as Chief of the Executive Branch of this Government, which might prove hostile to the Arab people.<ref>text in ''Department of State Bulletin'', October 21, 1945, p. 623</ref>
</blockquote>
Following Roosevelt's death, the Truman administration publicly adhered to the policy announced in the letter in an official statement released on October 18, 1945.

====Growing conflict between Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs====
One issue fatally divided Arab and Jew in Palestine: immigration. Jews would not compromise over immigration, which they needed as a means of escaping European persecution and which was a core doctrine of Zionism. The Arabs for their part could not compromise on immigration because to do so would effectively end their majority in Palestine. As time went on the conflict between the two communities became increasingly bitter.

===British immigration restrictions===
British support for Zionism was always controversial and the issue was periodically debated in [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|Parliament]].

Churchill also restricted Jewish migration to an annual quota decided by the British. Certificates allowing migration were distributed by the Jewish Agency. Jews with 1000 Pounds in cash or Jewish professionals with 500 Pounds in cash could emigrate freely. Churchill's reforms made it hard for [[Mizrahi Jews|Mizrahi jews]], [[Orthodox Jews]] and [[Revisionist Zionist]]s from Poland<ref name="Wdowiński">{{cite book | author=David Wdowiński | title=And we are not saved | year=1963 | page=222 | publisher=Philosophical Library | location=New York | isbn=0-8022-2486-5 |language=en}} Note: Chariton and Lazar were never co-authors of Wdowiński's memoir. Wdowiński is considered the "single author".</ref> to migrate to Palestine as the Jewish Agency was dominated by European Zionists, and increasingly by Socialist Zionists. Immigration restrictions did, however mean that Jewish immigrants to Palestine had to prove their loyalty and dedication by spending years preparing for migration. Many immigrants arrived after rigorous preparation including agricultural and ideological training and learning Hebrew.

=== Rise of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany: the Fifth Aliyah (1929–1939) and illegal immigration ===
{{See also|Hitler's rise to power|Fifth Aliyah|Aliyah Bet}}
During the 1920s concerns about antisemitism increased across Europe. By 1928, nations were increasingly legislating immigration, which at times prevented Jews from entering, and some of the new European states, established after the First World War, perceived Jewish immigrants as a threat to their political stability. Many countries feared that immigrating Jews from the east would bring revolutionary political ideas with them; Jews were also perceived as being a negative moral influence on society.

The rise to power of [[Adolf Hitler]] in Germany in 1933 produced a powerful new impetus for increased Zionist support and immigration to Palestine. The long-held assimilationist and non-Zionist view that Jews could live securely as minorities in European societies was deeply undermined, since Germany had been regarded previously as the country in which Jews had been most successfully integrated. With nearly all other countries closed to Jewish immigration, a new [[Aliyah#Fifth Aliyah (1929–1939)|wave of migrants]] headed for Palestine. Those unable to pay the fees required for immediate entry by the British had to join the waiting lists.

Nazi efforts to induce Jews to leave Germany were made, but were undermined by their refusal to allow them to take their property also. In response, [[Haim Arlozorov]] of the Jewish Agency negotiated the [[Haavara Agreement]] with the Nazis, whereby German Jews could buy and then export German manufactured goods to Palestine. In Palestine the goods were later sold and the income returned to the migrants. As a result of this agreement, the influx of capital gave a much-needed economic boost in the midst of the [[Great Depression]]. Arlozorov, however, was assassinated shortly after his return, it was generally believed by members of the [[Irgun]] (in recent years it has been suggested that Nazi propaganda Minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] may have ordered the assassination to hide Arlozorov's connection with his [[Magda Goebbels|wife]]).

Starting in 1934, the Revisionists also began organizing [[Aliyah Bet|illegal immigration]], and combined, the Jewish population of Palestine rose rapidly. While these conditions also led to increased Arab immigration, the rapid rise in Jewish immigrants eventually led to the [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]].

By 1938, the increasing pressure put on European Jews also led mainstream Zionists to organize illegal immigration.

''Cooperation with Nazi Germany before the second world war''

Zionists and Nazi authorities had converging interests, as both wanted Jews out of Germany. Even if Nazi authorities didn’t support a Jewish State, they saw Jewish emigration as an answer for the German Jew problem, and Zionist organisations were favoured over other Jew ones by the authorities.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Stackelberg |first=Roderick |title=Review of Nicosia, Francis R., Zionism and Anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany |date=May 2009 |url=https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=24304 |access-date=October 20, 2023 |publisher=H-German, H-Review |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nicosia |first=Francis R. |date=1989 |title=Ein nützlicher Feind. Zionismus im nationalsozialistischen Deutschland 1933-1939 |language=de |url=https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1989_3_1_nicosia.pdf |journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |volume=3 |issue=37 |pages=367–400}}</ref>

Zionist were also see as a useful tool to help justify and promote anti-assimilation laws, and a new Jewish identity.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Nicosia |first=Francis R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SoJrAgAAQBAJ |title=The Third Reich and the Palestine Question |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=978-1-4128-3934-1 |pages=54, 55 |language=en}}</ref>

''"On the basis of German Jewish policy and its foreign policy implications, there exists no reason to paralyse Zionist tendencies in Germany because Zionism does not contradict the National Socialist goal of gradually eliminating the Jews from Germany." Vicco von Bülow-Schwante, september 1935''<ref name=":3" />

[[Reinhard Heydrich|Heydrich]] ordered in 1935 the prohibition of speeches who advised Jews to remain in Germany. Zionism and emigration narratives were promoted by the SS.<ref name=":3" />

For example, even when Jews were excluded from Nazi film industry, Zionist Union of Germany was allowed to organise segregated production and distribution outlets, by the German Propaganda Ministry.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Horak |first=Jan-Christopher |date=January 1984 |title=Zionist film propaganda in Nazi Germany |url=http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01439688400260041 |journal=Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television |language=en |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=49–58 |doi=10.1080/01439688400260041 |issn=0143-9685|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Even if Nazi attitude towards Zionism was favourable, it was contradictory, as economic restriction on Jews prevented emigration. [[Adolf Eichmann|Eichmann]] visited Palestine in 1937 for illegal immigration mediations with Haganah Zionists but they were cut off by British authorities.<ref>{{Cite web |last=מלול |first=חן |date=2017-11-06 |title=Adolf Eichmann's Secret Visit to Palestine |url=https://blog.nli.org.il/en/eichmann_secret_visit/ |access-date=2023-10-20 |website=The Librarians |language=en-US}}</ref><ref name=":0" />

==The Zionist–British struggle and Nazi Germany (1939–1948)==

===1939 White Paper and the British rift with Zionism===
{{Main|1939 White Paper}}
[[File:1940 POSTER CALLING FOR RESCUE AND IMMIGRATION TO ERETZ ISRAEL. כרזה משנות ה-40 הקוראת להצלה ועלייה לארץ ישראל.D247-032.jpg|thumb|Poster calling for rescue and Jewish immigration to Palestine in 1940]]
In Britain the 1930s, British Labour Party politician, [[Oswald Mosley]], established a new party, the [[British Union of Fascists]], which claimed that "the Jews" were leading Britain to war and campaigned for peace with Germany; however, his antisemitic remarks resulted in membership dropping to below 8,000 by the end of 1935 and, ultimately, Mosley shifted the party's focus back to mainstream politics before he was [[Internment|interned]] in 1940 and the BUF [[Proscription|proscribed]].<ref>''Hurrah for the Blackshirts'', [[Martin Pugh (author)|Martin Pugh]], Pimlico 2007</ref> British support for Zionism was undermined by the [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]] and concern that millions of Jews would soon be seeking entry to Palestine. The [[Nuremberg Laws]] effectively revoked the citizenship of the 500,000 Jews of Germany, making them refugees in their own country. In March 1938 Hitler [[anschluss|annexed Austria]], making its 200,000 Jews stateless refugees. In September the British [[Munich Agreement|agreed to Nazi annexation]] of the [[Sudetenland]], making a further 100,000 Jews refugees.

In the [[Évian Conference|absence of alternative destinations]], over 100,000 German Jews headed for Palestine.{{Citation needed|date=November 2009}}

In 1939 the British issued a [[White Paper of 1939|White Paper]] in which they declared that a [[Jewish National Home]] now existed and that their obligations under the mandate were fulfilled. Further migration would be harmful to the Arab population. A further 10,000 Jews a year were to be admitted from 1939 to 1944 as well as a one-time allowance of 25,000 in view of the situation in Europe. After that Jewish migration would require (the extremely unlikely) agreement of the Arab majority (by this time Jews were about one-third of the population). The British promised the Arabs independence by 1949 and imposed restrictions on land purchases by Jews.<ref>[[Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry]] - Appendix IV copy at [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/angap04.asp]</ref>

The British were concerned about maintaining Arab support as Italian Fascist and German Nazi propaganda was [[Fascism as an international phenomenon#Overtures to Muslims and Arab countries|targeting the Arab world]] (and winning support).<ref>''Mussolini's Propaganda Abroad: Subversion in the Mediterranean and the Middle East, 1935–1940'' by Manuela Williams, Routledge 2006
</ref> Jewish support in the fight against Fascism was guaranteed.<ref>Raul Hilberg, ''The Destruction of the European Jews,'' (1961) New Viewpoints, New York 1973 p. 716</ref> In Palestine, Zionists increasingly viewed the British as an enemy, but they deemed the fight against the Nazis more important. In 1940 a group led by [[Avraham Stern]], later known as [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]], left the [[Irgun]] over its refusal to fight the British.

===Zionist movement on the eve of World War II===
In 1938–39 the Zionist movement had 1,040,540 members in 61 countries. Total world Jewish population at this time was about 16 million.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/02/09/europes-jewish-population/|title=The continuing decline of Europe's Jewish population|date=9 February 2015}}</ref> Zionism was banned in Turkey and the [[USSR]], which had well over 3 million Jews.

The following figures relate to the last pre-war Zionist congress in Geneva, 1939. Elections for the congress were held in 48 countries and 529 delegates attended. Members of the movement voted for the parties. Each party submitted a delegate list. Seats were distributed to the parties according to the number of votes they obtained and candidates elected in the order in which they were named on the list. This system today forms the basis for Israeli elections.

{| class="wikitable" style="float:right;"
|+ Members and delegates at the 1939 Zionist congress, per country<ref name="Source 1946">Source: ''A survey of Palestine'', prepared in 1946 for the [[Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry]], Volume II p. 907 HMSO 1946.</ref>
|-
! Country
! Members
! Delegates
|-
| [[Poland]]
| style="text-align:center;"|299,165
| style="text-align:center;"|109
|-
| [[United States]]
| style="text-align:center;"|263,741
| style="text-align:center;"|114
|-
| [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]]
| style="text-align:center;"|167,562
| style="text-align:center;"|134
|-
| [[Romania]]
| style="text-align:center;"|60,013
| style="text-align:center;"|28
|-
| [[United Kingdom]]
| style="text-align:center;"|23,513
| style="text-align:center;"|15
|-
| [[South Africa]]
| style="text-align:center;"|22,343
| style="text-align:center;"|14
|-
| [[Canada]]
| style="text-align:center;"|15,220
| style="text-align:center;"|8
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Delegates per political party at the 1939 Zionist congress<ref name="Source 1946"/>
|-
! Party
! Number
! Percentage
|-
| Worker's Party
| style="text-align:center;"|216
| style="text-align:center;"|41
|-
| General Zionists (centre)
| style="text-align:center;"|143
| style="text-align:center;"|27
|-
| General Zionists (conservative)
| style="text-align:center;"|28
| style="text-align:center;"|5
|-
| Mizrahi (Orthodox religious)
| style="text-align:center;"|65
| style="text-align:center;"|12
|-
| Radical Workers [far left]
| style="text-align:center;"|3
| style="text-align:center;"|2.5
|-
| State Party [right-wing]
| style="text-align:center;"|8
| style="text-align:center;"|1.5
|-
| Others
| style="text-align:center;"|66
| style="text-align:center;"|11
|}

===Zionism during the Holocaust===
{{Main|Holocaust}}
[[File:Arthur Szyk (1894-1951). United Palestine Appeal (1941), New York.jpg|thumb|Poster by the [[United Palestine Appeal]] calling for Jewish mobilization during World War II]]
During the Holocaust Europe's Jews were cut off from and disowned by the outside world. Jews were systematically impoverished, starved and murdered. Where Jews did try to fight the Nazis, Zionists were prominent in the resistance. However those fighting never had a chance of success, and were always bloodily suppressed by the Nazis. The only instances where Jews had been successful, were when they fought in the woods as partisans, for example the [[Bielski partisans]], a group of 1213 Jews who survived the whole war while making trouble for the Nazis.<ref>{{cite book| title=Defiance: The Bielski Partisans| author=Tec, Nechama| year=1993| publisher=Oxford University Press US| isbn=0-19-509390-9}}</ref> Nazi allies [[Hungary]], [[Romania]], [[Slovakia]] and [[Croatia]] (mainly Romania) were responsible for the deaths of at least 10% of the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust. Axis governments, local police forces and local volunteers across Europe played a critical role in rounding up or executing Jews for the Nazis.

The [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]] of January and April 1943 included the participation of both right- and left-leaning Zionist organizations. Its commander, [[Mordechai Anielewicz]], was a Socialist-Zionist and Zionists of all political spectra played a leading role in the struggle.<ref name="Wdowiński"/> The uprising's left-leaning survivors eventually made their way to Palestine and founded two Kibbutzim, [[Lohamei HaGeta'ot]] and [[Yad Mordechai]].

In Palestine the Zionist leadership instructed all able-bodied Jews to volunteer for the British Army. In addition there was an effort to parachute fighters into Europe, though little came of this. Fearing a Nazi invasion, the Jewish community prepared for a final stand to be made against the Nazis.<ref>Tom Segev, ''The Seventh Million'', chapter 3</ref>

Overall the yishuv leaders had not done enough in publicizing and trying to stop the Holocaust.<ref>{{cite book| title=tsm: The seventh million: the Israelis and the Holocaust |author=Tom Segev |year=1994| publisher= Hill and Wang | isbn= 0-8090-1570-6 }}</ref> While they could have succeeded in saving thousands of Jews if rescuing Jews had been their top priority, rather than state creation, they had no power to "stop" the Holocaust. In the words of [[Tom Segev]]:
<blockquote>
"The story of the yishuv leaders during the Holocaust was essentially one of helplessness. They rescued a few thousand Jews from Europe. They could, perhaps have saved more, but they could not save millions."<ref>Segev ''op. cit.'', p. 72</ref></blockquote>
Efforts were made to offer the Nazis money for the release of Jews. However, these efforts were systematically (and, according to Segev, cynically) destroyed by the British.<ref>Tom Segev ''op. cit.'', p. 94</ref>

The 1942 Zionist conference could not be held because of the war. Instead 600 Jewish leaders (not just Zionists) met at the Biltmore Hotel in New York and adopted a statement known as the [[Biltmore Program]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mideastweb.org/biltmore_program.htm|title=The Biltmore Program of the Zionist leadership - 1942|website=www.mideastweb.org}}</ref> They agreed that the Zionist movement would seek the creation of a Jewish state after the war and that all Jewish organizations would fight to ensure free Jewish migration into Palestine.

====Zionist role in the Jewish anti-Nazi resistance====
Most Jewish resistance to the Nazis was led by Zionists. What follows is a partial list:
* [[Mordechai Anielewicz]] - Organiser and commander of the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]]
* [[Jewish Combat Organization]]
* [[Fareynikte Partizaner Organizatsye]]
* [[Rachel Zilberberg]]
* [[Yitzhak Suknik]]
* [[Zivia Lubetkin]]
* [[Abba Kovner]]
* [[Mordechai Tenenbaum]]
See also [[Lohamei HaGeta'ot]]

===Impact of the Holocaust===
{{See also|After the Holocaust}}
{{The Holocaust sidebar|state=uncollapsed}}
The Nazi-inspired genocide in Europe had grave consequences for the Zionists.
#A large section of the membership was wiped out. The damage was particularly great in Poland where about a third of the Zionist members had lived (the Russian membership had been lost to communism).
#Those Jews who were not killed lost their possessions; the ability of the Zionist movement to raise money in Europe was severely reduced.

This calamity led to important changes in Jewish and Zionist politics:
#Many Jews were now desperate to leave Europe and willing to take grave risks for that purpose
#All Jews now agreed on the need for a Jewish state where Jews could live free of the fear of persecution and which would provide a haven in times of persecution.
#The Jews of the USA were now the dominant force in Jewish politics.
#More Jews were prepared to mobilize on behalf of their brethren.
#Britain was now weakened and less able to resist international pressure.

===Rapid growth of illegal immigration to Palestine===
{{Main|Aliyah Bet|British Conflict with Zionism}}
{{See also|Berihah|Sh'erit ha-Pletah}}

In 1945, President Truman sent a personal representative, [[Earl G. Harrison]], to investigate the situation of the Jewish survivors ("''[[Sh'erit ha-Pletah]]''") in Europe. Harrison reported that
<blockquote>
substantial unofficial and unauthorized movements of people must be expected, and these will require considerable force to prevent, for the patience of many of the persons involved is, and in my opinion with justification, nearing the breaking point. It cannot be overemphasized that many of these people are now desperate, that they have become accustomed under German rule to employ every possible means to reach their end, and that the fear of death does not restrain them.<ref>[http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/documents/harrison_report.htm accessed Nov 2007] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080213012612/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/documents/harrison_report.htm |date=2008-02-13 }}</ref>
</blockquote>

Despite winning the 1945 British election with a manifesto promising to create a Jewish state in Palestine, the Labour Government succumbed to Foreign Office pressure and kept Palestine closed to Jewish migration.

In Europe former [[Jewish partisans]] led by [[Abba Kovner]] began to organize escape routes ("''[[Berihah]]''"<ref>''Flight and Rescue: Brichah'', written by Yehuda Bauer, published by Random House; New York, 1970</ref>) taking Jews from Eastern Europe down to the Mediterranean where the Jewish Agency organized ships ("''[[Aliyah Bet]]''"<ref>A. Kochavi, ''Post-Holocaust Politics: Britain, the United States and Jewish Refugees 1945–1948'' (Chapel-Hill: University of North Carolina Press 2001), D. Ofer, Escaping the Holocaust, Illegal Immigration to the Land of Israel, 1939–1944 (New York: Oxford University Press 1990), J & D Kimche, The Secret Roads: The Illegal Migration of a People 1938–1948 (London: Secker & Warburg 1954)</ref>) to illegally carry them to Palestine.

The British government responded by trying to force Jews to return to their places of origin. Holocaust survivors entering the British Zone were denied assistance or forced to live in hostels with former Nazi collaborators (Britain gave asylum to a large number of [[30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Russian)|Belarusian Nazi collaborators]] after the war). In American-controlled zones, political pressure from Washington allowed Jews to live in their own quarters and meant the US Army helped Jews trying to escape the centres of genocide.

Despite the death of almost a third of the world's Jews during the Second World War, the number of fee paying members of the Zionist movement continued to grow. The December 1946 Zionist congress in Basle (Switzerland) attracted 375 delegates from 43 countries representing two million fee paying members. As before the largest parties were the Socialist Zionist parties although these lacked a full majority. Only ten of the delegates were British Jews.<ref>''The Times'', "Zionists at Basle" 9/12/1946 p. 3</ref>

=== British withdrawal: the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine ===
In 1947 Britain announced its intention to withdraw from Palestine. A [[United Nations Special Committee on Palestine|United Nations Special Committee]] investigated the situation and offered two solutions :
#to establish a bi-national state in Palestine (the minority option);
#to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state.

From the Zionist point of view, the second option corresponded to their goal and they gave full support to this.

On 29 November the [[United Nations General Assembly]] voted to [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|partition Palestine]] into an Arab state and a Jewish state (with Jerusalem becoming an international enclave). Amid public rejoicing in Jewish communities in Palestine, the Jewish Agency accepted the plan. The Palestinian Arab leadership and the Arab League rejected the decision and announced that they would not abide by it. [[1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine|Civil conflict between the Arabs and Jews in Palestine]] ensued immediately.

==Zionist activity after the founding of the State of Israel (1948–present)==
{{See also|History of Israel}}
{{Israelis}}
[[File:Declaration of State of Israel 1948 2.jpg|thumb|[[David Ben-Gurion]] (First Prime Minister of [[Israel]]) publicly pronouncing the Declaration of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948, [[Tel Aviv]], Israel, beneath a large portrait of [[Theodor Herzl]], founder of modern political Zionism.]]
On 14 May 1948 the leaders of the Jewish community in Palestine [[Declaration of Independence (Israel)|declared independence]] in accordance with the UN resolution, and Israel was established as the Jewish state. This marked a major turning point, since the Zionist movement had accomplished its principal goal. As a result, many Zionist institutions became government institutions, and the three Zionist militias were combined to form the [[Israel Defense Forces]].

David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel objected to the [[Zionist Organization]]'s more moderate approach in attaining Jewish statehood, and later objected to its continued existence, which he saw as competition and largely irrelevant following the formation of the state; he clashed with the leadership of the international Zionist Organization. The ZO's main activities at this point were relegated to assisting persecuted Jews, usually in countries where Zionism was illegal{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}}, and assisting immigration to Israel in countries where Jews faced little persecution,{{Citation needed|date=May 2010}} plus raising awareness and encouraging support for Israel.

Most Diaspora Jews identify with Zionism and have done so since the 1930s, in the sense that they support the State of Israel, even if they do not choose to emigrate; the Zionist movement also has undertaken a variety of roles to encourage support for Israel. These have included encouraging immigration and assisting immigrants in absorption and integration, fund-raising on behalf of needs and development, encouraging private capital investment, and mobilizing public opinion support for Israel internationally. Worldwide Jewish political and financial support has been of vital importance for Israel.{{citation needed|date=May 2021}}

The 1967 war between Israel and the Arab states (the "[[Six-Day War]]") marked a major turning point in the history of both Israel and of Zionism. Israeli forces captured the eastern half of Jerusalem, including the holiest of Jewish religious sites, the [[Western Wall]] of the ancient Temple. They also took over the remaining territories of pre-1948 Palestine, the [[West Bank]] (from Jordan) the [[Gaza Strip]] (from [[Egypt]]) as well as the [[Golan Heights]] (from Syria).

The 28th Zionist Congress (Jerusalem, 1968) adopted the following five principles, known as the "Jerusalem Program", as the aims of contemporary Zionism:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=497&subject=43 |title=The Jerusalem Program |access-date=2007-11-06 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031101105801/http://www.wzo.org.il/en/resources/view.asp?id=497&subject=43 |archive-date=November 1, 2003 }} (WZO)</ref>
{{clear left}}
*The unity of the Jewish people and the centrality of Israel in Jewish life
*The ingathering of the Jewish people in the historic homeland, Eretz Israel, through [[aliyah]] from all countries
*The strengthening of the State of Israel, based on the "prophetic vision of justice and peace"
*The preservation of the identity of the Jewish people through the fostering of Jewish, Hebrew and Zionist education and of Jewish spiritual and cultural values
*The protection of Jewish rights everywhere.

The [[1977 Israeli legislative election|election of 1977]], characterized as "the revolution", brought the nationalistic, right-wing, [[Revisionist Zionism|Revisionist Zionist]], [[Likud]] Party to power,<ref>Shelef, Nadav G., [http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/israel_studies/v009/9.1shelef.html From ''{{'}}Both Banks of the Jordan{{'}} to the 'Whole Land of Israel': Ideological Change in Revisionist Zionism''], [[Israel Studies]] – Volume 9, Number 1, Spring 2004, pp. 125–148, Indiana University Press. "Revisionist Zionism is the founding ideology of the non-religious right in Israel, represented primarily by the Likud Party."</ref> after thirty years in opposition to the dominant Labor party and indicated further movement to the political right. Joel Greenburg, writing in ''[[The New York Times]]'' twenty years after the election, notes its significance and that of related events; he writes:<ref>{{cite news |title=The World: Pursuing Peace; Netanyahu and His Party Turn Away from 'Greater Israel' |author=Joel Greenberg |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/22/weekinreview/the-world-pursuing-peace-netanyahu-and-his-party-turn-away-from-greater-israel.html?scp=4 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 22, 1998 |access-date=March 26, 2012}}</ref>

<blockquote>The seed was sown in 1977, when Menachem Begin of Likud brought his party to power for the first time in a stunning election victory over Labor. A decade before, in the 1967 war, Israeli troops had in effect undone the partition accepted in 1948 by overrunning the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Ever since, Mr. Begin had preached undying loyalty to what he called Judea and Samaria (the West Bank lands) and promoted Jewish settlement there. But he did not annex the West Bank and Gaza to Israel after he took office, reflecting a recognition that absorbing the Palestinians could turn Israel it into a binational state instead of a Jewish one.</blockquote>

Control of the West Bank and Gaza placed Israel in the position of control over a large population of Palestinian Arabs. Over the years this has generated conflict between competing core Zionist ideals of an egalitarian democratic state on the one hand, and territorial loyalty to historic Jewish areas, particularly the old city of Jerusalem, on the other.<ref>Raffaella A. Del Sarto, [http://ies.berkeley.edu/research/DelSartoIsraelMed.pdf ''Israel's Contested Identity and the Mediterranean, The territorial-political axis: Eretz Israel versus Medinat Israel'', p. 8] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100610164603/http://ies.berkeley.edu/research/DelSartoIsraelMed.pdf |date=2010-06-10 }} <blockquote>Reflecting the traditional divisions within the Zionist movement, this axis invokes two concepts, namely Eretz Israel, i.e. the biblical 'Land of Israel', and Medinat Israel, i.e. the Jewish and democratic State of Israel. While the concept of Medinat Israel dominated the first decades of statehood in accordance with the aspirations of Labour Zionism, the 1967 conquest of land that was part of 'biblical Israel' provided a material basis for the ascent of the concept of Eretz Israel. Expressing the perception of rightful Jewish claims on 'biblical land', the construction of Jewish settlements in the conquered territories intensified after the 1977 elections, which ended the dominance of the Labour Party. Yet as the first Intifada made disturbingly visible, Israel's de facto rule over the Palestinian population created a dilemma of democracy versus Jewish majority in the long run. With the beginning of Oslo and the option of territorial compromise, the rift between supporters of Eretz Israel and Medinat Israel deepened to an unprecedented degree, the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin in November 1995 being the most dramatic evidence.</blockquote></ref> Zionism and its ideological underpinnings have become less important in Israeli politics, except for the ongoing national debate about what is meant by a "Jewish State", and the geographic limits of the State of Israel. These debates however, have largely taken place outside Zionist organizations, and within Israeli national politics.

In 1975 the [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379]] was passed. It stated that "zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination."<ref>The UNGA Res 3379 was passed at the 2400th plenary meeting on 10 November 1975. [http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/000/92/IMG/NR000092.pdf?OpenElement (PDF)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061001183355/http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/000/92/IMG/NR000092.pdf?OpenElement |date=2006-10-01 }}.</ref> Resolution 3379 was rescinded in 1991 by the [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 46/86|Resolution 4686]].<ref>The UNGA resolution 4686 was passed at the 74th plenary meeting on 16 December 1991 by a vote of 111–25–13. The text of the resolution is available here [https://www.un.org/documents/ga/res/46/a46r086.htm].</ref>

In 2001, the first ever environmental Zionist organization, the [[Green Zionist Alliance]], was founded by a group of American and Israeli environmentalists led by Dr. [[Alon Tal]], Rabbi Michael Cohen and Dr. Eilon Schwartz. The Green Zionist Alliance focuses on the environment of Israel and its region.

===Immigration from Iraq===
{{Main|Operation Ezra and Nehemiah}}
In 1941, a pro-Nazi coup in Iraq led to a massacre of Jews in Baghdad (where they were the largest ethnic group and formed 40% of the population).<ref>{{cite thesis |url=http://users.ox.ac.uk/~metheses/Alexander.pdf |title=The Jews of Baghdad and Zionism 1920–1948 |first=Ari |last=Alexander |website=users.ox.ac.uk}}</ref> With anti-Semitism growing, particularly following Iraqi independence, over a 1,000 Jews were illegally fleeing Iraq for Palestine every month. In March 1950, the Iraqi government announced that for a period of 9 months it would permit Jews to leave. Over 98% of the 130,000 Iraqi Jews opted to move to Israel (they were flown from Iran). Many of them abandoning substantial property which was expropriated by the Iraqi government.

===Resistance to Soviet anti-Zionism===
[[File:Flickr - Government Press Office (GPO) - Protest Rally.jpg|thumb|Israeli demonstration in support of Soviet Jewry]]
In the late 1940s, [[Antisemitism in the Soviet Union|the USSR became increasingly anti-Jewish]] and [[Soviet Anti-Zionism|accusations of Zionism]] were frequently used as a euphemism for anti-Jewish campaigns in Eastern Europe and the Arab world.

Soviet propaganda backfired in 1967 and led to a major spurt of Jews applying to leave for Israel. The Zionist movement mounted a major campaign to pressure the USSR to allow Soviet Jews to migrate to Israel.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3671/1/The-Soviet-Jewry-campaign-transformed-American-Jewry,-too|title=Jewish Standard The Soviet Jewry campaign transformed American Jewry, too<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=2008-01-21|archive-date=2016-03-03|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303194316/http://jstandard.com/articles/3671/1/The-Soviet-Jewry-campaign-transformed-American-Jewry,-too|url-status=dead}}</ref> Zionist activists in the USSR studied Hebrew (illegal in the USSR), held clandestine religious ceremonies (circumcision was illegal) and [[Moscow Helsinki Group|monitored Human Rights]] abuses on behalf of western organizations. The most prominent activist was [[Anatoly Sharansky]], who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for his actions before being exchanged for a Soviet spy.

Over the years a number of Israeli and American Jewish organizations, most notably [[Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry|SSSJ]] and [[NCSJ]], mounted a political campaign to free Soviet Jews. Aided with the efforts of [[Reagan administration]], this campaign eventually succeeded in 1987 when most [[refusenik|refusnik]]s were released from prison and allowed to emigrate to Israel.

===American involvement in Israeli politics===
The [[Zionist Organization of America]] helped mobilized political support in the United States for Israel, with large scale funding and pressure on Washington and on public opinion. [[Emanuel Neumann]] and Hillel Silver were two leaders of the Zionist Organization of America. They felt its massive funding legitimized taking a major role in shaping Israeli government policy. They opposed the social and economic policies of Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]] and his [[Mapai]] (Labor) Party, according to historian Zohar Segev. Their interventions were rejected and Israeli politicians agreed that American Zionists had a major role in funding but not in policy guidance.<ref>Zohar Segev, "American Zionists' Place in Israel after Statehood: From Involved Partners to Outside Supporters" ''American Jewish History'' (2007) 93#2 pp. 277–302 
{{jstor|23887950}}.</ref>

==See also==
===Types of Zionism===
*[[Christian Zionism]]
*[[Cultural Zionism]]
*[[General Zionists]]
*[[Labor Zionism]]
*[[Reform Zionism]]
*[[Religious Zionism]]
*[[Revisionist Zionism]]

===Zionist institutions and organizations===
*[[Histadrut]]
*The [[Jewish Agency for Israel]]
*[[Jewish National Fund]]
*[[Vaad Leumi]]
*[[World Zionist Organization]]

===History of Zionism and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict===
*[[History of Israel]]
*[[History of Palestine]]
*[[History of the Southern Levant]]
*[[Israeli–Palestinian conflict]]
*[[List of Zionist figures]]
*[[Timeline of Zionism]]

===Related concepts===
*[[Anti-Zionism]]
*[[Jewish Autonomism]]
*[[Jewish emancipation]]
*[[Yerida]]

==Footnotes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==References==
* {{Cite book |last=Brenner |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9yCyDwAAQBAJ |title=In Search of Israel: The History of an Idea |year=2020 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-20397-3}}
* {{cite book |last1=Hazony |first1=Yoram | author-link = Yoram Hazony |title=The Jewish State: The Struggle for Israel's Soul |date=2000 |publisher=[[Basic Books]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-465-02902-0 |edition=1st}}
* {{Cite book |last=Laqueur |first=Walter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hEt5PWCTMJMC |title=A History of Zionism: From the French Revolution to the Establishment of the State of Israel |year=2009 |publisher=[[Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group]] |isbn=978-0-307-53085-1 |language=en}}
* {{Cite book |last=Penslar |first=Derek J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KJu-EAAAQBAJ |title=Zionism: An Emotional State |date=2023 |publisher=[[Rutgers University Press]] |isbn=978-0-8135-7611-4 |language=en |author-link=Derek Penslar}}
* {{Cite book |last=Shumsky |first=Dmitry |url=https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300230130/beyond-the-nation-state/ |title=Beyond the Nation-State |publisher=[[Yale University Press]] |language=en-US |year=2018}}
* Taylor, A.R., (1971), "Vision and Intent in Zionist Thought", in ''The transformation of Palestine'', ed. by I. Abu-Lughod, {{ISBN|0-8101-0345-1}}, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, US
* [[David Hazony|Hazony, David]] (2007), Yoram Hazony, and Michael B. Oren, eds., ''New Essays on Zionism'', Shalem Press, {{isbn|978-9657052440}}.

==Further reading==
* Brenner, Michael, and Shelley Frisch. ''Zionism: A Brief History'' (2003). [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1558763015 excerpt and text search]
* Cohen, Naomi. ''The Americanization of Zionism, 1897–1948'' (2003). essays on specialized topics
* {{cite journal|doi=10.1353/ajh.1998.0002|title=Review Essay: Recent Trends in the Historiography of American Zionism|journal=American Jewish History|volume=86|pages=117–134|year=1998|last1=Medoff|first1=Rafael|s2cid=143834470}}
* Sachar, Howard M. ''A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time'' (2007), [https://www.amazon.com/dp/0375711325 excerpt and text search]
* Urofsky, Melvin I. ''American Zionism from Herzl to the Holocaust'' (1995), the standard history
* Wigoder, Geoffrey, ed. ''New Encyclopedia of Zionism and Israel'' (2nd ed. 2 vol. 1994)

===Primary sources===
* Hertzberg, Arthur. ''The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader'' (1997), major primary sources

==External links==
{{Wikibooks|Israeli History|The Zionist Movement}}
*[http://www.zionism.co.il/en/ Zionism]
*[http://www.zionistarchives.org.il/en Official website] of the [[Central Zionist Archives]]

{{Jewish history}}
{{Zionism}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Zionism}}
[[Category:History of Zionism| ]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]