Israel/Palestine: Zionism, Agriculture, and the Land 1

Israel/Palestine: Zionism, Agriculture, and the Land 1

Innovations in Jewish Life Collections

2023

Gregg Drinkwater, Hilary Kalisman, Samira Mehta, Maggie Rosenau

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The modern Zionist movement emerged in Europe in the late 19th century in response to growing antisemitism and the rise of nationalism. Some Zionist leaders advocated establishing a homeland for the Jewish people in the region where Judaism first emerged, known as Eretz Israel in the biblical tradition. This territory had been called Palestine (or Syria Palaestina) since the 2nd century CE when it was part of the Roman Empire, and has been fought over and controlled by a range of empires and cultures for millennia. Since the early 16th century, the region and its majority Arab population had been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire under a variety of administrative names. Although Jews had largely been dispersed to other regions in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East following the destruction by the Romans of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE, small Jewish communities continued living in the region.

Following the defeat and breakup of the Ottoman Empire due to World War I, the League of Nations granted Great Britain control of Palestine, as a Mandate, explicitly facilitating Jewish immigration and leading to clashes with the majority Arab Palestinian population. During the war of 1948, the Zionist movement succeeded in establishing a Jewish majority in part of the former Mandate territory, creating the modern state of Israel.