ABSTRACT

Zionism and Jerusalem — the Conflict of Priorities: Changes in Zionist Settlement in the Jerusalem Vicinity, 1937–48

Yossi Katz

Until the 1930s, Jewish agricultural settlement in Eretz Israel was concentrated in the plains and valley areas and the towns of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Tiberias. By contrast, Jewish settlement over the same period was quite sparse in the Jerusalem vicinity. This article examines the change that took place in the effort of the Zionist settlement bodies to strengthen the Jewish foothold in the vicinity of Jerusalem from the latter half of the 1930s up to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. It examines the reasons for the paucity of Zionist activity prior to this date, the causes that prompted the policy shift and the manner in which the shift found practical expression. It then attempts to assess the significance of this turnabout by comparing it to the settlement activity undertaken by World Zionist Organization bodies in other areas of Palestine in the same timeframe.