By Adar
Through a couple of my classes, namely Contemporary Israel and Arab-Israeli-Relations, I've been learning quite a bit about early zionism and the build-up of the Israeli state. I find it fascinating, and so relevant to the state today, that I wanted to give a little summary of what "Zionism" is. The basic definition is a sense of nationalism of the Jewish people, much like French Nationalism or Australian Nationalism. One of the differences between Jewish Nationalism and French Nationalism is that, for example, the area known as France is filled with French people, who have a language, culture, history, and set of traditions. For centuries, Jewish People (with their own language, culture, history, and traditions) did not have an area to fill, and over the past century many things have led to a return of many Jews to the same place, in essence to rebuild the location to put the nation. This little history is not going to cover nearly everything that is important, it's just a summary of what I connect to the most.
Older generations of Jews, from the second century until about the 1700s, Jewish people lived all over the world in what's known as the Diaspora, mainly in central and eastern Europe, and earlier in Spain until the expulsion in 1492. During this period, there was a strong Messianic belief of miraculous redemption -- at some point the Messiah will come and take us all back to Jerusalem.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Jews began to think of themselves as much more integrated into the places they lived, though that wasn't reciprocal. Pogroms and other forms of persecution killed thousands of Jews in Europe, and the diaspora continued to spread. But in the later part of the 19th century, a movement began called Labor Zionism, or Practical Zionism. It was the idea that instead of waiting for a messiah, it's time to make a change in themselves and actually up and move. In the late 1880s, the first Alliyah (wave of immigration by Jews to Israel) brought religious Jews over, who bought land and started farming.
But it wasn't until the second Alliyah (1904-1914) that the real wave of new socialist labor zionists arrived and founded Kibbutzim, or collective agricultural living. These were people who had shed the rabbinical traditions of previous generations, and were fierce pioneers. They went to areas where absolutely nobody lived that were in terrible condition, with swamps and malaria among other diseases. They were primarily sixteen and seventeen year olds who had no experience in farming whatsoever, but they did it anyway.
The third wave of Alliyah after World War I brought mainly Eastern European Jews who fled from the socialist revolutions in the Soviet Union which had turned against them. They started diversifying industry and living more in villages and cities. Again, they were not religious, or not nearly in the way Jews had been back in Europe.
During the third Alliyah, an organization, or rather a concept, called HaHistadrut (The Union) became a huge influence in infrastructure. It was basically a giant umbrella organization with labor unions that actually created industry.They bought land and distributed it. The growing country needed transportation? So the union created bus lines. People wanted banks? So the union created a bank. New immigrants needed jobs? So the union created factories. (side note: that was my great grandfather's job for several years, creating factories for new immigrants under HaHistadrut). It's a concept different than the American love of capitalism, which lets the market determine what industries are going to be built. I think it's pretty much straight-up socialism, and it worked wonders in early Palestine. The majority of early infrastructure was built in just a couple of decades through it, and still runs smoothly today (though it's a little different).
Of course, there is more than one narrative to the story. For centuries, the majority demographic in the area was Arab-Muslim, with close connections to a much much smaller Arab-Christian population. Around the same time as the first and second Alliyahs, there was a movement for Pan-Arab and Pan-Islam, to unite all Arab people with a capital in Damascus, Syria. There were a handful of large family-based clans in Palestine that kept stability here and organized life. And over the course of about a century, the minority population of Jews steadily then exponentially increased, until they well tipped the balance of power. Today as it stands, Arabs only make up about 20% of the population, whereas they used to be over 75%. For any group of people, anywhere, that is a huge challenge to an accepted lifestyle and status quo. Not surprisingly, this challenge led to many tensions between Jews and Arabs on a personal level and political level, which have escalated and changed into what they are today.
I think being in these classes has really helped me start to understand much more about why things are the way they are here. In particular the theme of a "national memory" which started with the sociopolitical position Jews held over the globe, and has morphed into the direct history of recent Jews in this particular piece of land until today. Its socialist and secular roots are tied very strongly to a collective history, and have changed over the years in very interesting ways that are clearly manifested now. I also think my classes are being fair and balanced (for the most part) in regards to Arab collective memory here as well, which is so important in understanding anything about the middle east at all.
Coming from the GW community, which is so wonderfully politically active, I have many friends who are very anti-Israel. It's too violent, too racist, too aggressive. I am not denying any of that. But I also think there is something incredibly powerful about the way people here understand their role in the world today not just as modern Israelis but as those who managed to get here after such a struggle. Those Jews who arrived during the first and second Alliyahs managed to create such impressive progress just within the land and infrastructure of this (pre) country that I think it's worth recognizing.