The Palestinian Jewish Bureau was the executive body of the World Zionist Organization in Eretz Yisrael , whose main function was to encourage, finance, and manage settlement activities in Israel. Its activities included the allocation of funds, the purchase of land, the planning of settlements, the creation of new agricultural and urban settlements, the management of agricultural farms , the distribution of settlers in established settlements, assistance to existing communities in training and assistance to workers.
In the course of its history, the Jewish bureau was renamed twice. From 1948 to our time, this is the Jewish Agency for Israel , or the Jewish Agency .
Content
Office establishment
At the beginning of its existence, the Zionist movement did little practical work in Eretz Israel , since many leaders preferred to engage in political Zionism. Practical activities during these years included the purchase of land by the Jewish National Fund and the creation of branches of the Anglo-Palestinian Bank (a subsidiary of the Jewish colonial fund).
After the death of Theodor Herzl and the Seventh Zionist Congress in 1905 , synthetic Zionism defeated political Zionism. At the Eighth Zionist Congress in August 1907, a decision was made to strengthen practical activities in the Land of Israel, and Arthur Ruppin was sent to Palestine to study possible ways of the Zionist movement.
Ruppin established the Palestinian Bureau of the World Zionist Organization on April 1, 1908 in Jaffa . Ruppin pursued a flexible policy in dealing with local authorities, as a result of which the Palestinian Bureau began to flourish. He carefully studied the problem of resettlement and the creation of the economy in Palestine and tried to find new ways in this direction. Yaakov Thon, who had previously worked with Ruppin at the Jewish Statistical Office in Berlin, was appointed Secretary of the Palestinian Bureau and Deputy Director [1] . In January 1916, in response to the demands of the Turks, that a Turkish citizen, Jacob Tkhon, would head the bureau at the head of the Palestinian Bureau [2] .
In addition to the Palestinian Bureau, an Israeli land development company was established to purchase land in Palestine. The Palestinian Bureau was assisted by three institutions: the Jewish National Fund, the Land Development Company, and the Olive Tree Planting Fund.
Even before the end of the First World War, when Turkish troops were expelled from the territory of Palestine, the Zionist Commission , headed by H. Weizman, arrived there and worked until 1919 with the Palestinian Bureau. During 1919, plans for the creation of a single body were coordinated, unification took place and the Palestinian Bureau began to work on behalf of the Zionist Organization [3] .
The historic building of the Palestinian Bureau was located in Jaffa , 17 Raziel Street, and was destroyed in 2001 by its owner, the Maronite Catholic Church , although it was a historical monument .
Bureau work
The activities of the Palestinian Bureau began in early 1908 , when it was necessary to solve a number of urgent problems. The Bureau has made great efforts to purchase land throughout Palestine. Rupin toured Eretz Yisrael, including its southern part and Transjordan, and agreed to expand Jewish agricultural settlements. He also encouraged the development of urban settlements and any plans that could help the development of industry, such as water supply, construction of roads, power plants, ports and the extraction of natural resources. Over the years, the bureau became the center that represented the new settlement and was the address for the Jews of the whole world.
The Palestinian Bureau supported the Second Aliyah pioneers and rendered them great assistance in finding employment, and eventually in permanent settlement. Cooperation was established between the bureau and the settlers. Such relations differed from the policy of dictatorship and guardianship, which Baron Edmond de Rothschild spent in his colonies.
The bureau focused on the following activities:
- Strengthening moshavim who suffered from constant and tedious transfer from place to place.
- Search for an alternative solution for land that was leased from the Turkish authorities.
- Development of new settlements for immigrants on land purchased in Palestine.
- The creation of "national farms" (cooperative agricultural settlements), which were used to prepare agricultural workers.
Training Farm
The Palestinian Bureau was looking for a solution to the difficult situation of the Jewish workers, who were concentrated in moshavim, where there was not enough work for everyone, and besides, the Jewish workers themselves did not have the skills to do agricultural work and did not know the local agronomic techniques. Ruppin proposed the creation of training farms in which settlers would prepare for productive agricultural labor on lands purchased by the Jewish National Fund . The Bureau has prepared plans to create training farms in Hittin , Umm-Juni , Beit Arif ( Ben-Shemen ) and in Hulda . The Palestinian Bureau has provided multilateral assistance for setting up a farm in Beit Shemen, for example, partially funded the payment of teachers [4] .
Manors
One of the activities of the bureau was Ruppin’s attempt to interest Jews from other countries with money in investing these funds in settlements in Palestine. For this, the idea of creating estates here.
The idea was based on the desire to give people living abroad and investing in the purchase of land in Eretz Yisrael , a certain delay so that they would come to Palestine only when the land they bought would give a guaranteed income. In the meantime, the settlers who are temporarily living on it will cultivate the land they have bought. In this case, the Palestinian Bureau was going to advise the unions of such workers and organize the immigration of the "owners" of the estates. Thus, at the expense of Jews from the United States , the Poria farm was established in 1912 and Sharon in 1913 , and Kfar-Uriya at the expense of the London Jews. Moshavim Rekhovot and Hadera were organized at the expense of investors from among Russian Jews. The city of Afula in the Jezreel Valley grew out of an estate organized by the Palestinian Bureau in 1915
Farm Kinneret
In June 1908, the Palestinian Bureau, with the financial support of the Land Development Company, established the first agricultural settlement. On the lands purchased from the Bedouin tribe of Dyke, the Kinneret farm was founded.
An agronomist Berman was appointed director of the farm, and a group of Jewish workers there who knew Berman to work together at Ben-Shemen's Jewish National Fund farm worked there. Farm workers were counting on profits in the first year, but expectations did not materialize, and at the end of the year, tensions arose between Berman and the workers. Arriving at the site of Arthur Ruppin decided to dismiss Berman and replace the entire brigade of workers. The team of workers who built the farm from the very beginning left itself, but this did not solve the problem. The workers' union of Galilee demanded that Ruppin hand over the Kinneret farm to the workers themselves. Ruppin did not agree with this, but suggested conducting an experiment on the Um-Jun lands, setting up another farm there and handing it over to the responsibility and control of a group of workers. This proposal was accepted, and thus the first kibbutz - Degania was founded.
Helping immigrants
The Palestinian Bureau helped Jewish immigrants, especially immigrants from Yemen , move to Palestine. The bureau participated in the financing of sites for the settlement of Yemeni Jews [5] [6] , and also paid for the provision of medical care to them [7] . The bureau organized the Yemeni Jewish Affairs Council, which was attended by representatives of various organizations, including Joseph Shprinzak from the Ha-Poel ha-Tsair party, Berl Katsnelson from Histadrut , David Bloch-Blumenfeld from the Poalei Zion party [8] and Shmuel Yavnieli [9] ] .
Rename
In 1929, the Palestinian Jewish Bureau was renamed the Palestinian Jewish Agency.
From 1948 to our time - the Jewish Agency for Israel (Jewish Agency, Sohnut).
Literature
- Alex Bein- אלכס ביין. History of Zionist Settlements = תולדות ההתייושוו הציונית (Hebrew) . - ירושלים - Jerusalem: הוצאת מסדה, 1942.
- Margalit Shiloh - מרגלית שילה. Experience of the Palestinian Bureau in the field of settlements in 1908-1914 = נסיונות בהתיישבות המשרד הארצישראלי 1914-1908 (Hebrew) . - ירושלים - Jerusalem: ירושלים: הוצאת יד יצחק בן-צבי, 1988.
- Arthur Ruppin - ארתור רופין. My Life, Volume II: The Beginning of My Work in Israel = פרקי חיי, כרך ב ': ראשית עבודתי אר (Hebrew) . - תל אביב - Tel Aviv: הוצאת עובד, 1968.
Notes
- ↑ Congress - second day = הקונגרס - היום השני // הצפירה: newspaper. - 1911. - August 16th.
- ↑ In the Land of Israel = בארץ ישראל // הצפירה: newspaper. - 1916. - January 5th.
- ↑ At the moment = לענייני השעה // הפועל הצעיר: newspaper. - 1919. - September 24th.
- ↑ Ben-Shemen = בן שמן // הפועל הצעיר: newspaper. - 1913. - May 16.
- ↑ יהושע ברזילי. Jewish farmer = איכרה בריה // הצפירה: newspaper. - 1912. - April 12th.
- ↑ Hadera = חדרה // הפועל הצעיר: newspaper. - 1912. - November 1st.
- ↑ This week. Jaffa = השבוע. יפו // הפועל הצעיר: newspaper. - 1913. - July 4th.
- ↑ This week = השבוע // הפועל הצעיר: newspaper. - 1914. - 10 April.
- ↑ Chronicle = חרוניקא // האחדות: newspaper. - 1914. - 12 June.