The Ottoman Empire had long been a refuge for Jews. When Spain expelled them in 1492, many fled to Ottoman lands, where Jewish communities flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries. But by the 19th century, the empire was weakening, and European powers were gaining influence. Treaties gave European merchants privileges, and after the Russo-Turkish War of 1768–1774, Russia gained access to the Black Sea and religious influence in Ottoman affairs.
In 1831, Egypt’s ruler Muhammad Ali invaded Ottoman Syria, including Palestine. Egypt won the war and implemented reforms, but by 1840, with British intervention, the Ottomans regained control. The British, focused on protecting their route to India, generally supported Ottoman territorial integrity rather than exploiting the treatment of non-Muslims. After Sultan Mahmud II died in 1839, his successor Abdulmejid introduced reforms modeled on Western secular ideas, promising equal rights for Muslims and non-Muslims.
Not everyone welcomed this. Muslims resented secular equality, and some Christians opposed being equated with Jews under the new law. In 1858 and 1867, the Ottomans introduced land reform laws that allowed non-Muslims to legally purchase land, provided they paid taxes. This led to a surge in foreign religious activity.
French Catholics launched a “peaceful crusade,” building churches. German Templars founded farming communities. Protestant missionaries from Britain and the United States arrived. But few people actually bought land at first.
Those who did were mainly tax collectors, wealthy Jerusalemite families, and rich merchants. The Ottomans, needing money, often turned a blind eye to illegal purchases. In 1878, after the Russo-Turkish War, European powers redrew borders. Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro gained independence, and Austria took control of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
That same year, in response to violent anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia, Jewish activists formed the Lovers of Zion movement. In 1881, Jewish thinker Leo Pinsker published “Auto-Emancipation,” arguing that Jews needed a homeland to escape persecution. Though he wasn’t focused on Palestine specifically, the Lovers of Zion favored settlement there. Between 20,000 and 30,000 Russian Jews migrated to Palestine in this early wave, known as the First Aliyah.
About 3,000 settled in farming communities, which survived thanks to the financial support of wealthy European Jews. In 1882, Britain invaded Egypt and effectively took control of it, making it a major base of British power. From that point on, Jewish investment and colonization in Palestine intensified. Jewish settlers had access to modern European technology, giving them a significant economic advantage over local Arabs.
For most of the 19th century, Jews who came to Palestine did so for religious reasons, mainly settling in cities like Jerusalem, which had a Jewish majority by 1890. But from 1895 to 1914, most Jews who came were Zionists with political goals. They aimed to build agricultural colonies as a foundation for a future Jewish state, rather than simply joining religious communities. In 1897, everything changed when Theodor Herzl, a Jewish journalist from Austria-Hungary, founded the World Zionist Organization in Basel, Switzerland.
Inspired partly by the Dreyfus affair in France, Herzl had already written “The Jewish State” in 1896, calling for the creation of a Jewish homeland. He traveled widely to win political support. In 1898, he met the Grand Duke of Baden and argued that Jewish settlements would help the Ottoman economy. Germany, however, wasn’t interested in breaking up the Ottoman Empire.
At one point in 1902, Herzl considered alternatives to Palestine. The British offered land in East Africa as a possible refuge for Jews. This proposal, known as the Uganda Scheme, was controversial and eventually rejected. Palestine remained on the table.
Ottoman Sultan Abdulhamid II opposed Zionist aims. He never officially allowed Jews to settle in Palestine. He told his officials to be more vigilant. In 1900, he imposed restrictions on Jewish visits.
Still, some immigration and land purchases continued, often through bribery or with the help of corrupt officials. Herzl himself tried to win the Sultan’s support, offering to pay off the Ottoman Empire’s debts in exchange for permission to carry out his plans. When Herzl met the Sultan on May 19, 1901, the meeting was polite, but the Sultan resisted. Despite his resistance, international pressure and internal corruption allowed immigration to continue.
The Second Aliyah, the second major wave of immigration, began in 1904. Between 40,000 and 55,000 Jews arrived during Abdulhamid’s rule, and over 30 settlements were established by the eve of the Young Turk Revolution in 1908. Arab anti-Zionism had not yet fully emerged, but there was unease about the expanding Jewish community and growing antagonism towards it. Abdulhamid was removed from power on April 27, 1909, following the Young Turk Revolution, which effectively ended Ottoman efforts to restrict Zionist immigration.
By September 1908, Young Turk leaders were more supportive of Zionism. Later, Zionist leaders and rabbis held talks with Ottoman officials. Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike noticed that Jewish settlers were buying up Arab land. Arab resistance to Jewish immigration and land sales began well before World War I.
Even before the first Zionist Congress in 1897, there were concerns. From 1908 onward, Arab newspapers began publishing anti-Zionist articles. In Jaffa, Arabs were provoked by the indiscreet behavior of some recent immigrants who paraded a Zionist flag in the streets during celebrations after the revolution. These newcomers, members of the Second Aliyah, also declared that political Zionism must be the basis of Jewish activity in Palestine and that Jews must elect Zionist deputies to the Ottoman Parliament to press their claim to the country.
The Arabs were reported to have restrained their feelings and merely remarked, “Demand what you wish. We shall not grant your wish. Indeed, you are not capable of achieving what you want, so we shall not spoil our celebration even by debating with you. ”
In 1914, the First World War broke out, and the Ottoman Empire sided with the Central Powers.
The Ottoman Empire would find its demise at the hands of the Allied powers, who then carved up the empire.
