The dispute between Aharonovitch and Arlosoroff over the Zionist stance on the ‘Arab question’

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Notes

1. For these two trends, see B. Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–2001 (London: J. Murray, 1999), p.xiii; A. Halamish, ‘Mandatory Palestine: A Dual Society or Colonial Reality’, Zmanim, No.92 (Autumn 2005), pp.16–25 (in Hebrew). For examples of the first trend, see: D. Horowitz and M. Lissak, Origins of the Israeli Polity: Palestine Under the Mandate (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), pp.16–36; Y. Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs, 1882–1948: A Study of Ideology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987); J. Metzer, The Divided Economy of Mandatory Palestine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998); I. Pappe, A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006). For examples of the second trend, see: N. Caplan, Palestine Jewry and the Arab Question 1917–1925 (London: Frank Cass, 1978); M.J. Cohen, Palestine: Retreat from the Mandate (New York: Holmes & Meier, 1978); S. Teveth, Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs: From Peace to War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985); Morris, Righteous Victims; A. Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000); A. Dowty, Israel/Palestine (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2005).

2. See, for example, Morris, Righteous Victims, pp.676–8; G. Shafir, Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); D.J. Penslar, ‘Zionism, Colonialism and Postcolonialism’, The Journal of Israeli History, Vol.20, No.2–3 (Summer–Autumn 2001), pp.84–98; I. Pappe, ‘Zionism as Colonialism – A Comparative View on the Mixed Colonialism in Asia and Africa’, in Y. Weitz (ed.), From Vision to Revision: A Hundred Years of Historiography of Zionism (Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center, 1997), pp.345–65 (in Hebrew); idem, A History of Modern Palestine, pp.11, 72–116; B. Kimerling, Immigrants, Settlers, Natives: The Israeli State and Society Between Cultural Pluralism and Cultural Wars (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 2004), pp.76–7, 90–123 (in Hebrew).

3. B.T. Dinur (ed.-in-chief), Book of the History of the Haganah, Vol.1, part 2 (Tel Aviv: Ma'arakhot, 1956), pp.565–625, Vol.2, part 1 (Tel Aviv: Ma'arakhot, 1959), pp.77–109, 301–40 (in Hebrew); B. Wasserstein, The British in Palestine: The Mandatory Government and the Arab–Jewish Conflict 1917–1929 (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1991), pp.63–8, 101–8, 223–38.

4. See I. Kolatt, ‘The Zionist Movement and the Arabs’, in S. Almog (ed.), Zionism and the Arab Question (Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center, 1983), pp.10–15; J. Heller, ‘Ben-Gurion, Weizmann and Jabotinsky on the Arab Question: A Comparison’, in A. Shapira, J. Reinharz and J. Harris (eds.), The Age of Zionism (Jerusalem: The Zalman Shazar Center, 2000), pp.203–40 (in Hebrew). The discussion on the idea of ‘parity’ began after the 1929 riots and the proposal was approved by Mapai in February 1931.

5. Y. Epstein, ‘A Hidden Question’, HaShiloah, No.17 (September–October 1907), pp.193–206 (in Hebrew).

6. Ibid., p.196 (emphasis original); A. [Y. Aharonovitch], ‘Letters to a Friend’, Hapoel Hatza'ir (Iyar 5667 [April–May 1907]), No.1 (in Hebrew) (this was the first issue and was produced on a hectograph). See also [A. Turknitz], ‘The Real Work in Palestine’, Hapoel Hatza'ir (Heshvan 5668 [October 1907]) (in Hebrew); the article, written by one of the heads of Hapoel Hatza'ir, was placed at the beginning of the first printed issue after its wording was approved by the party's central committee. In addition, see Anonymous, ‘Regarding the Incident in Jaffa’, Hapoel Hatza'ir (II Adar 5668 [March–April 1908]) (in Hebrew); the article was probably written by Zeev Smilansky, one of the party leaders and the editor of this issue.

7. Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs, pp.151–2.

8. On Aharonovitch, see D. Zakkai, ‘His Generations’, and Y. Lufban, ‘Introduction’, in D. Baron and E. Shohat (eds.), The Writings of Yosef Aharonovitch (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1941), Vol.1, pp.3–44 (in Hebrew); M. Chazan, ‘Immortalizing the Implementers of Zionizm according to Yosef Aharonowitz’, Zion, Vol.70, No.1 (2004), pp.63–93 (in Hebrew).

9. On Arlosoroff, see Y. Lufban, ‘The Days of Clandestine Immigration’, in C. Arlosoroff, The Writings of Chaim Arlosoroff (Tel Aviv: Shtibel, 1934), Vol.1, pp.23–68 (in Hebrew); M. Getter, Chaim Arlosoroff: Political Biography (Tel Aviv: Hakibbutz Hameuchad, 1977), pp.5–27 (in Hebrew); S. Avineri, Arlosoroff (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1989), pp.3–5. The aspects of Arlosoroff's views on the Arab question that are discussed in this article are covered extensively and in depth in the last two sources, though not necessarily with the same emphases and in the same contexts as here.

10. A. Shapira, ‘The Debate in Mapai about the Use of Violence, 1932–1935’, Zionism, Vol.5 (1978), pp.141–81 (in Hebrew); Y. Goldstein and Y. Shavit, The Agreement between D. Ben-Gurion and V. Jabotinski and its Failure (1934–1935) (Tel Aviv: Yariv, 1979), pp.13–39 (in Hebrew).

11. See S. Avigur, ‘The Start of the Haganah’, in Dinur (ed.-in-chief), Book of the History of the Haganah, Vol.1, part 2, pp.565–625 (in Hebrew).

12. Temidi [Yosef Aharonovitch], ‘On Current Affairs’, Hapoel Hatza'ir, 11 June 1920 (in Hebrew).

13. Y. Aharonovitch, ‘Vision of the End of Days’, Ma'abarot, Vol.1, No.5 (February 1920), pp.471–3 (in Hebrew).

14. Y. Aharonovitch, ‘On the Riots in Jaffa’, Hapoel Hatza'ir, 6 May 1921 (in Hebrew).

15. Y. Aharonovitch, ‘After the Riots’, Hapoel Hatza'ir, 13 May 1921 (in Hebrew); A. Shapira, Land and Power: The Zionist Resort to Force, 1881–1948, trans. W. Templer (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), pp.111–13.

16. Arlosoroff to his mother, 2 April 1921, 11 May 1921, in Arlosoroff, Writings, Vol.6, pp.162–4.

17. Arlosoroff to members of the World Federation of Hapoel Hatza'ir and Tze'irei Zion, 21 May 1921, Labor Archives, Tel Aviv, IV-104-19-1-29A; Lufban, ‘The Days of Clandestine Immigration’, p.28.

18. Ibid., pp.28–9; C. Arlosoroff, ‘An Evaluation of the Situation’, At This Time, n.d. [27 May 1921] (in Hebrew). This was published instead of issue No.29 of Hapoel Hatza'ir due to censorship restrictions imposed by the British administration. The date of publication was determined on the basis of Arlosoroff's letter to his mother, 30 May 1921, in Arlosoroff, Writings, Vol.6, p.166.

19. Y. Aharonovitch, ‘For Ourselves’, Ma'abarot, Vol.3, No.4–5 (June 1921), pp.239–41 (in Hebrew). On the views of the Ahdut ha-Avoda leaders, see Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs, pp.134–6.

20. Arlosoroff, ‘An Evaluation of the Situation’. See also Caplan, Palestine Jewry, pp.95–6.

21. Aharonovitch, ‘For Ourselves’, pp.239–41; see also Y. Aharonovitch, ‘Opposites’, At This Time, June 1921 (in Hebrew).

22. M. Chazan, ‘The Moderate View on Security and Political Issues in Hapo'el Hatza'ir and Mapai, 1905–1945’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Tel Aviv University, 2005), pp.129–34 (in Hebrew); Avineri, Arlosoroff, pp.60–61. The slogan ‘conquest through labour’ meant the use of Jewish labour in the Jewish settlements (which generally was in contrast to the Arab cheap labour in those settlements and had controversial implications) and the physical and spiritual effort required of each individual worker who had to inure himself to agricultural work.

23. Hapoel Hatza'ir Council, minutes, 12–14 June 1921, Labor Archives, IV-402-14-A; Y. Aharonovitch, ‘Conclusions’, Hapoel Hatza'ir, 11 November 1921 (in Hebrew); Epstein, ‘A Hidden Question’, pp.204–5.

24. Hapoel Hatza'ir Council, minutes, 27–29 July 1922, Labor Archives, IV-402-1-16-A, IV-402-1-17.

25. Ibid.; Arlosoroff, ‘An Evaluation of the Situation’.

26. Provisional Committee of the Jews of Palestine, minutes of the Fifth Meeting, 9–11 June 1919, Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, J1/8777; Hapoel Hatza'ir Council, minutes, 27–29 July 1922, Labor Archives, IV-402-1-16-A, IV-402-1-17.

27. Y. Aharonovitch, ‘Miscellaneous – This Is Also Literature’, Hapoel Hatza'ir, 12 January, 1922 (in Hebrew).

28. Arlosoroff to Simma (his future wife), 19 November 1923, in Arlosoroff, Writings, Vol.6, pp.170–71.

29. Getter, Chaim Arlosoroff, p.72. For a slightly different Hebrew translation of Arlosoroff's speech, see Arlosoroff, Writings, Vol.6, pp.35–6.

30. ‘In the Movement and the Party: The Federation Faction at the Annual Conference in Carlsbad’, Hapoel Hatza'ir, 27 October 1922 (in Hebrew).

31. Y. Aharonovitch, ‘Conquest through Labor or Conquest of Land’, Hapoel Hatza'ir (Elul 5768 [August–September 1908]) (in Hebrew). For the assertion that Aharonovitch coined the term, see, e.g., Lufban, ‘Introduction’, p.35. In this context Lufban clearly disagreed: ‘In the political terminology we haven't used this phrase much. We've said, “many”; we've said, “multitudes”; we've said, “masses”’. See also Y. Shapiro, Hapoel Hatza'ir: The Idea and the Practice (Tel Aviv: Ayanot, 1968), p.98 (in Hebrew).

32. Arlosoroff to members of Hapoel Hatza'ir, 6 January 1923, Labor Archives, IV-104-19-1-2.

33. Y. Aharonovitch, ‘Truths and Conventions’, Hedim, No.11–12 (September 1923), pp.25–33 (in Hebrew).

34. C. Arlosoroff, ‘On the Joint Organization’, in Writings, Vol.3, pp.135–68 (esp. pp.137, 166); the quotation is on p.135. See also A. Shapira, ‘The Politics of the Community in Palestine, 1918–1939’, in M. Lissak (ed.-in-chief), History of the Jewish Community in Eretz-Israel since 1882, Vol.2: The Period of the British Mandate (Jerusalem: The Bialik Insitute, 1994), p.80 (in Hebrew); Getter, Chaim Arlosoroff, pp.75–8.

35. Sprinzak to his wife Chana, 21 September 1927, Labor Archives, IV-104-127-85.

36. Hapoel Hatza'ir central committee, minutes, 10 December 1927, Labor Archives; Getter, Chaim Arlosoroff, pp.133–4.

37. Hapoel Hatza'ir central committee, minutes, 21, 25 September 1929, Labor Archives; IV-402-1-37 (emphasis original).

38. H. Kohn, ‘Great Britain and the Orient’, Hapoel Hatza'ir, 20 September 1929 (in Hebrew).

39. Hapoel Hatza'ir central committee, minutes, 21 September 1929, Labor Archives; IV-402-1-37.

40. C. Arlosoroff, ‘An Attempt to Sum up: The Arab Factor (I)’, 18 October 1929, ‘The Jewish Factor (II)’, 1 November 1929; ‘The English Factor (III)’, Hapoel Hatza'ir, 29 November 1929 (in Hebrew).

41. Ibid.; Hapoel Hatza'ir Council, minutes, 21 September 1921, 29 September 1929, Labor Archives, IV-402-1-37; ‘Debates in the Joint Meetings of the Ahdut ha-Avoda and Hapoel Hatza'ir Central Committees’, 24–25 November 1929, in Mapai Central Committee Bulletin, No.7, 23 June 1930 (in Hebrew), Labor Party Archives, Beit Berl, 2-21-1929-2; A. Shapira, Berl: The Biography of a Zionist Socialist (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), pp.180–82; Gorny, Zionism and the Arabs, pp.208–26; idem, Policy and Imagination: Federal Ideas in the Zionist Political Thought, 1917–1948 (Jerusalem: Yad Ben-Zvi Press, 1993), pp.37–42, 48–52 (in Hebrew).

42. A. Oz, ‘Thoughts on the Current Situation’, in Under This Blazing Light: Essays (Tel Aviv: Sifriyat Poalim, 1979), p.94 (in Hebrew).

43. Shapira, The Politics, p.81.

44. See Epstein, ‘A Hidden Question’, pp.203–4.