“We will treat you like the Armenians”

“Zionism strives to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law.” ¹ By the time of the first Zionist Congress, in 1897 in Basel, Switzerland, Zionism was still a nascent movement, born amid controversy. The question to be asked, however, is what was Zionism? It could be argued that it was intended as a colonization movement, with the goal of establishing either a Jewish state or a self-governing territory where Jews would become leaders of their own destiny. Zionism was also a socio-political movement that would reshape Jewish identity and finally solve the so-called Jewish question. At least, this is what was meant to be. Zionism was essentially a European nationalist movement, relying on a genealogy based on the Bible proving the antiquity of the Jewish nation. Theodore Herzl, in Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), envisioned a mass Jewish migration to Palestine in order to constitute an independent state. By the time his pamphlet was published, Palestine was an Ottoman province and Herzl suggested that, “if His Majesty the Sultan were to give us Palestine, we could in return undertake to regulate the whole finances of Turkey.” ² Although he was seen by many Jews almost as a new king of the Jews, Herzl did not take into account two major questions: Jewish settlements were already present in Palestine, and the Ottomans were not eager to allow Jewish immigration into Palestine.