Halutzim of the Third Aliyah.
“Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries round-about her.” - Ezekiel 5:5
This is part eight of the FAI Publishing series Center of Nations which examines the history of the modern State of Israel in the midst of an increasingly hostile world.
The Great War triggered the collapse of three world empires in 1918, changing the world order in a way that had far-reaching implications for the Zionist movement. First was the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 which ended the Romanov dynasty and plunged Russia into a bloody civil war. As always, Jewish residents in the Pale of Settlement were blamed for the turmoil, and another wave of anti-Semitic violence ravaged Russia and Eastern Europe, leading to the death of tens of thousands of Jews and the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands more. The end of the Russian Empire saw the rise of modern nation-states within the Pale, including Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine, creating conflict between ethnic groups as they jockeyed for power. The defeat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire also led to the dissolution of that kingdom into multiple nation-states, including Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia. Jews living in those nations (especially Hungary) experienced the pressure of demographic power shifts as well. Finally, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey brought 1200 years of Muslim rule over the Middle East to a temporary end. Combined with new immigration quotas in the United States (the preferred destination for most Jewish emigrants), the collapse of the three empires had the effect of both pushing European Jews from their host nations and pulling them toward their ancestral homeland. The result was a Third Aliyah, which would see more Jews immigrate to the Promised Land than the first two waves of Aliyah combined.
At first, Zionists celebrated the British victory over the Turks in Palestine as as a step toward realizing their aspirations of a Jewish state. The British, French and Arab allies created the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (OETA) as the war ended in Fall, 1918, granting the British Empire control over the Jewish homeland. Eretz Yisrael was finally open to Jewish immigration. On December 19, 1919, the SS Ruslan docked in Jaffa Port with 600 Jewish passengers aboard. It was the first of hundreds of ships to arrive in Jaffa between 1919 and 1923, bringing over 8,000 halutzim (pioneers) annually, swelling the ranks of the Yishuv in the Land from 55,000 to over 90,000. Over 75% of the emigres came from Russia and Poland, with the remainder travelling from other eastern and southern European nations experiencing turmoil in the wake of the war. Unlike their predecessors, the olim of the Third Aliyah did not quit the Land and return to the diaspora in large numbers, but instead worked diligently to build upon the Zionist institutions that had been established before the war under the auspices of the Jewish Agency. They formed dozens of new communities, built roads, and drained swamps. They founded Histadrut, the first national trade union in the Land, and also formed the Palestine Football League, travelling to the World Cup twice before the Second World War. Approximately 70,000 hectares (over 180,000 acres) of land were purchased by the Jewish National Fund between 1920-23, including the largest single land purchase to date in the fertile Jezreel Valley. The number of Kibbutzim more than doubled from 50 in 1920 to 110 in 1923 in order to absorb the tens of thousands of poor farmers flooding in from the Pale of Settlement. It was a time of unprecedented progress for the Zionist movement, but it was not without obstacles.
Both Jewish and Arab communities paid close attention to the peace talks in Europe in 1919. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 had clearly defined the British government’s policy towards the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The two preeminent Arab tribes in the Land at the time were the al-Husseinis and Nashashibis, who had been locked in a competition for power and influence long before the arrival of the British. However, the change in governance galvanized them even further, with the al-Husseinis taking a hard stance against Zionism, while the Nashashibis showed a willingness to work with organizations such as the Jewish Agency. The death of Joseph Trumpeldor and seven other Hashomer self-defense militiamen in the Battle of Tel Hai on March 1, 1920 was an alarm for the Yishuv. At the same time, the Hashemite King Faisal was preparing to declare an independent Kingdom of Syria in Damascus after leading a military resistance against French occupation, and Palestine was claimed as part of his unrecognized domain. Pan-Arab nationalism and antagonism towards Jews escalated sharply within Arab communities in the Land, stoked by Amin al-Husseini, the head of the Jerusalemite family who opposed the growing Jewish presence. Zionist leaders such as Chaim Weizmann recognized the stirring hostility for what it was, remarking that a “pogrom is in the air.” However, their warnings and pleas were largely dismissed by British authorities in the OETA.
A photo of the Palestinian Arab Congress, 1920. Amin al-Husseini is standing third-from-right in the top row.
It would not take long for the anti-Semitic rhetoric to materialize into action. On March 7, the Syrian Arab government declared independence from French occupation in the new Kingdom of Syria under Faisal. Pro-Husseini Arabs took to the streets across Palestine, attacking their Jewish neighbors and chanting, “Death to Jews” and "Palestine is our land and the Jews are our dogs!” Ze’ev Jabotinsky and his compatriot Pinhas Rutenberg petitioned the OETA for the creation of an armed Jewish defense force, but their request was denied. Jabotinsky began enlisting and training a force nonetheless, recruiting veterans of the Jewish Legion and athletes in the Palestine Football League. By April,1920, over 600 volunteers were training in hand-to-hand combat with rods and sticks in Jerusalem, while Jabotinsky worked to procure arms for the fledgling army. Meanwhile, al-Husseini was raising a military force of his own. Known as the fedayeen, Arabic for “one who sacrifices himself,” Husseini hoped to duplicate Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s success in driving the Greeks out of Turkey in his effort to drive Jewish residents out of Palestine.
Tension reached a boiling point in Jerusalem before the Passover. On April 4, 1920, Arab crowds congregated in the Old City to hear sermons delivered by Amin al-Husseini and his uncle, the mayor of Jerusalem. It was the first day of the festival of Nebi Musa, or “The Prophet Moses,” when Muslim residents would lead a procession from Jerusalem to the traditional Islamic site of Moses’ tomb near Jericho. Whereas Ottoman authorities had previously deployed in force during the festival, British authorities deployed only a small detail of less than 200 policemen to monitor tens of thousands of marchers. Once again, Zionist leaders warned the OETA of trouble, but their concerns went unheeded. The violence began early in the morning as Muslim rioters raided the Jewish Quarter and began ransacking Jewish businesses, synagogues and yeshivot (schools of Talmudic study). Torah scrolls were destroyed, buildings razed, and over 160 Jewish residents of the Old City injured on the first day alone. One sympathetic Arab witness described the scene:
"[A] riot broke out, the people began to run about and stones were thrown at the Jews. The shops were closed and there were screams…I saw a Zionist soldier covered in dust and blood…Afterwards, I saw one Hebronite approach a Jewish shoeshine boy, who hid behind a sack in one of the wall's comers next to Jaffa Gate, and take his box and beat him over the head. He screamed and began to run, his head bleeding and the Hebronite left him and returned to the procession…The riot reached its zenith. All shouted, "Muhammad’s religion was born with the sword"…I immediately walked to the municipal garden…my soul is nauseated and depressed by the madness of humankind."
A Jewish victim of the Nebi Musa Pogrom in Jerusalem, April, 1920.
Jabotinsky and his militia had procured firearms before the riot began but found themselves locked outside the Old City. British policemen arrested several rioters on the first day, but released them the following day, and the violence continued. Instead of doubling down on their duty to protect Jerusalem’s Jewish population, the British policemen were instead withdrawn, and kept Jewish defenders outside its walls. This left the Jewish Quarter defenseless besides two Jewish militiamen who managed to sneak into the Jewish Quarter, disguised as medical personnel, armed only with rocks and boiling water. By the time British authorities were finally able to restore order on the fourth day, five Jews and four Arabs were dead, over 200 Jews were injured, and over 300 Jewish residents of the Old City were forced to flee. A British commission assigned to investigate the incident called the OETA decision to withdraw from the city “an error in judgment” but stopped short of describing the event as a full-fledged pogrom. Ze’ev Jabotinsky and some of his cohort were arrested for possession of illegal weapons and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor by a British tribunal, but their sentence was later overturned. The British military commander in Jerusalem, Col. Ronald Storrs, attempted to created a joint Jewish-Arab deputy force to keep order in the city, but was soon ordered to disband it. Amin al-Husseini fled to Syria before his tribunal began, during which he was found guilty in abstention and sentenced to 10 years of prison. In all, over 200 individuals were arrested and tried as a result of the pogrom, including 39 Jewish defenders.
However, not all Arabs agreed with al-Husseini’s tactics of anti-Semitism. Hundreds of Muslim sheiks representing communities throughout Palestine sent cables to the OETA London which condemned the violence and affirmed their support for Jewish immigration to the Land. The three waves of Aliyah had established new businesses, institutions and infrastructure that benefited both Jewish and Arab residents, and thousands of Arabs were migrating from Syria and other Middle Eastern states to enjoy a higher standard of living than they had in their home nations. But anti-Zionist factions such as al-Husseini’s followers continued to oppose a Jewish presence in Eretz Yisrael and agitated the Arab population wherever they could. On May Day, 1921, two rival Jewish socialist groups clashed in a march between Jaffa and Tel Aviv. British policemen and some Arab bystanders intervened to disperse the two groups, but were not directly involved in the melee. Nonetheless, a rumor spread to the Arab villages around Jaffa that a mob of Jews was attacking Arabs nearby, and a pogrom immediately ensued. Arab civilians and policemen raided and looted Jewish homes and businesses throughout the city for several days, killing 47 men, women and children, and injuring almost 150 more. The violence was so widespread that British aircraft were scrambled for bombing runs against Arab positions. Almost 50 Arab participants in the pogrom were killed in the course of restoring order, mostly by responding British units. Several arrests of Arab participants were made, but three Jews, including a policeman, were also tried and convicted of murder. Their convictions were later overturned and their actions declared self-defense after an uproar throughout the global Jewish Diaspora. The British commission that investigated the Jaffa Riots blamed the violence on Arab agitators, but also found fault with the Jewish Yishuv for “not doing enough to mitigate the Arabs' apprehensions.”
Police officers disperse Arab crowds during the Jaffa riots in May, 1921 (Getty Images).
After the lackluster response by British authorities to the pogroms in 1920 and 1921, it became clearer to Zionist leaders across the world that the British policy of neutrality in Palestine meant that Jews would be left to fend for themselves against anti-Semitic violence. Some even accused lower-level British officers in the OETA of complicity with al-Husseini. As a result, the decision was made to disband the relatively small Hashomer home defense militia, which had less than 200 members spread out across the Land in defense of Jewish communities, and to instead organize a Jewish armed force under the auspices of the Jewish Agency, the Jewish governing body in Palestine. The paramilitary army was named Haganah, “The Defense,” and as its name suggested, it was limited to a purely defensive role in accordance with the Jewish principle of havlaga, or “self-restraint.” Although it began as a small, poorly-equipped force of mostly farmers defending their communities and kibbutzim, in time the Haganah would grow to become a formidable army of tens of thousands Jewish men and women, creating the structure and ethos of what would eventually become the Israeli Defense Forces almost 30 years later.
Gabe Caligiuri is the editor of THE WIRE, as well as an occasional contributor to other FAI digital content on the subjects of history and geopolitics as they relate to the Great Commission. Gabe and his family live in California.