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De Balfour à Ben Gourion

 | 
Ran Aaronsohn
, 
Dominique Trimbur

Abstracts

Testo integrale

La dernière Croisade ? La propagande britannique et la campagne de Palestine, 1917-1918, Eitan Bar Yosef, pp. 35-67

1Irrespective of its genuine strategic objectives, the campaign in Palestine during the First World War was seen by the British government as an invaluable exercise in propaganda. The events in the Holy Land were shaped, staged and represented to boost public moral in Britain. The almost instinctive evocation of the Crusade in this context-and the equally-instinctive impulse to suppress these evocations-exposed inherent faultlines and tensions which normally remained obscured within the self-assured ethos of imperial order. This applied not only to the fragile relationship between Britain and its Moslem subjects abroad, but also to rifts within metropolitan British society. The difficulties in generating a coherent propagandist policy suggest that the Orientalist vocabulary was far from monolithic: indeed, class and culture were crucial to the ways in which the East was imagined and understood. This article explores the images and narratives that evolved around the British conquest of Palestine not only to shed new light on the British presence in Jerusalem, but also to demonstrate that any attempt to comprehend the colonial vision must take into account the contradictory interests and alternative visions which characterize the imperial center no less than its dominated provinces.

Le mouvement du témoignage adventiste et la déclaration Balfour, Sarah Kochav, pp. 69-89

2The Balfour Declaration and the arrival of the British in Palestine, were for many students of biblical prophecy one more certain step towards the restoration of the Jews and the advent of Christ. The Advent Testimony Movement was founded in 1917, to represent the various strands of millennialism in Britain and originated with the societies founded in the second half of the nineteenth century for the study of prophecy. Some well-known Evangelical theologians had predicted in quite definite terms the events that would occur in the Holy Land. While this view of history was open to ridicule and many of its proponents have been long forgotten, strands of these beliefs are reflected in Fundamentalist Protestant thought today.

Les étapes du développement de Jérusalem pendant la période mandataire britannique, Yehoshua Ben Arieh, pp. 91-112

3The aim of the paper is to portray, in broad lines, the major developments that occurred in Jerusalem under the British rule (1917-1948). The method that was chosen was to study this important period, used a combination of thematic and chronologic examination.

4In the first part, the paper characterizes the principle factors that shaped the city at the time: the British rulers and rule; the Jewish factor and the Zionist activities; the western powers and the Christian churches; the Arab community and the Israeli-Arab conflict. The second part of the paper discusses the implications of those factors on the urban stage, through three sub-periods: (a) the revolutionary “beginning” of the British rule in Jerusalem (1917-1925/6), which was the time of big dreams and urban plans shared both by the British and the Jews; (b) the “intermediate” sub-period (1926-1936), which marked the main time of development in Jerusalem – most of the dwelling neighbourhoods and the public institutes were built then; (c) the “end” period of the British rule in Jerusalem (1936-1948), clouded by political struggles and security problems. The confrontations of Arabs and Jews with the rulers (the British) on one hand, and the national Jewish-Arab conflict on the other hand, paralyzed the capital that became at that time almost a dead city.

William Harvey : architecte, restaurateur et chercheur en Palestine, 1908-1938, Ron Fuchs, pp. 113-133

5The British architect William Harvey (1883-1962) made an important contribution to the study of the architectural monuments of Palestine and for their conservation for a period lasting 30 years. In 1908-9 he visited Palestine, then an Ottoman province, and studied the Holy Sepulchre, the Church of the Nativity, the Dome of the Rock, and various examples of Mamluk architecture and indigenous vernacular architecture. Many of these structures he recorded in drawings, measured plans and photographs. Beside his major contribution to a book on the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem (1910), the material that he collected in Palestine, Cairo and Damascus was published in a series of some 15 articles. Some of the material has never been published. 20 years after his first visit to the Christian Basilicas and the Haram mosques, Harvey was involved again with these buildings, this time as an expert on architectural conservation for the administration British Mandate of Palestine. During the 1930s he prepared a design for the rebuilding of the dome over the Catholicon in the Holy Sepulchre, and conducted a detailed survey of the Sepulchre and the Nativity Church, immediately published, together with his recommendations, by the Mandate government. His publications, drawings, survey reports and restoration work are a substantial and varied output that is of considerable scholarly and historical interest.

Idéologie, colonialisme et le paysage de la Palestine britannique, 1918-1929, Gideon Biger, pp. 135-163

6The British enter Jerusalem in 9 December 1917 and left it in 14 May 1948. During their short period of rulling the Holy City they influence much upon its development. First they established Jerusalem as the Capital of Palestine, a status the city did not have since 1187. Secondly they added some government buildings to the city, mainly the High Commissioner residence (today – the UN headquarter in the Middle East), central Post Office Buildings and others. Thirdly they establish a town planning regime, created 5 town plans, giving Jerusalem its view for many years to come.

La particularité de Haïfa et son développement pendant le Mandat britannique, Yossi Ben Artzi, pp. 165-181

7The article deals with the uniqueness of Haifa as a multi-national and multi-cultural city in Palestine, during the British Mandate period- 1918-1948. The article describes the contribution of three main elements to the physic and economic development of the city: the Mandate authorities, which initiated major infrastructure facilities, like the modern harbor, railway workshops and an airfield; the Arab citizens who developed the commerce sector both on the national and international level, and the Jewish settlers who brought about significant developments in industry and education. All these elements were acting to enhance the city economic prosperity, creating a unique atmosphere of cooperation and a patter of coexistence in a mixed town.

Diviser et soigner : les problèmes de santé publique pendant le Mandat, Naomi Shepherd, pp. 183-195

8During British rule in Palestine between l917 and l948, the improvement in public health was dramatic. The diseases indigenous to the country, chief among them malaria- virtually eradicated by the l940s-were brought under control; epidemics of cholera, typhoid and even bubonic plague were checked by prompt action, as were trachoma and other eye diseases rife in the rural population. All this was the more remarkable given the meagre financial resources allotted the Health department by the Mandate Treasury, and the growing conflict between Arabs and Jews – particularly during the l936-9 Arab Revolt. The Jewish population had its own medical services financed by self taxation and donations from abroad, and the Arab “notable” class sought private medical care. Hence it was the Arab peasantry, and the nomadic Bedouin, who profited the most from the dedicated services of a handful of British doctors, before the chaos of civil war ended both the Mandate and their successes.

Le droit comme objet de conflit culturel anglo-français dans la Palestine mandataire, Assaf Likhowski, pp. 197-216

9One of the main characteristics of the legal system of mandatory Palestine was that it was a place where collective identities were formed, displayed and disseminated with special intensity. This article analyzes two examples of the way in which law and identity were connected in Palestine. Both examples deal with the conflict between English and French legal cultures. The first example is the Arab reaction to the changes made by the British to the structure of the court system in the 1920. The second example is the attempt by some Jewish lawyers in the 1930s to establish a law school that would offer an alternative to British legal education. In both cases, local lawyers, Arabs or Jews, turned to French legal models as an alternative to English legal practices, using French law as a way to form a nationalist, anti-British legal identity that would be simultaneously nationalist and modern.

« ... Passer au filtre de l’esprit juif le meilleur de la culture de nombreux peuples et de nombreuses langues » : l’Université hébraïque et les puissances européennes dans l’entre-deux-guerres, Dominique Trimbur, pp. 219-281

10Embodiment of the Zionist national and cultural construction, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was an establishment for higher education, inspired by foreign, especially German, academic models. Opened in 1925 in mandatory Palestine under British authority, it represented a growing, Jewish and Zionist, impregnation in a deeply modified Holy Land. Under the circumstances, it could nothing but attract the attention of European Powers traditionally interested by the area: Germany, Italy and France. Encouraged by academic heads willing to open the scope of the first students, the three countries, lately followed by Great-Britain apparently not so much interested by the topic, successively introduced the teaching of their respective language within the institution; on an independent basis (the Italian, fascist, government acting by himself), or more or less in cooperation with the respective Jewish communities (like in the German and the French cases). Illustration of traditional imperialistic views, part of beginning foreign cultural policies, these intrusions reflect the wishes to influence the development of a Jewish élite in becoming, which destiny was to exert, sooner or later, responsibilities in a new Palestine.

Visions françaises de la Palestine de l’entre-deux-guerres : orientalisme, art colonial et sionisme, Dominique Jarassé, pp. 283-301

11In the 1920’s, as France registered a “Palestine fashion”, French Jewish artists, who travelled to the ares, or were attracted by Zionist propaganda, were not able to renew their vision. Adolphe Feder, one of the most important artists of the time, illustrated many books with drawings made in Palestine in 1924. The question may be asked: have we here a form of Orientalism renewed by Zionist concepts or pure colonial art ? This artists contributed so much to French art that they brought back more orientalist than Zionist or modernist images, more palm trees and camels than haloutzim...

Le Patriarcat latin de Jérusalem et la France, 1918-1940, Paolo Pieraccini, pp. 303-323

12In March 1920 the Holy See appointed to the office of Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem the Italian ecclesiastic Luigi Barlassina. The Vatican authorities thought it necessary to place a resolute personality to manage the affairs of the Latin diocese of the Holy Land in a phase of political transition and to restore the Catholic institutions of the region, that had had a rough time during the war. In compliance with Vatican policy, the new Patriarch took a rather negative attitude toward the French religious protectorate. The French authorities, influenced by this stance, suspected the Patriarch to favouring the political penetration of the Italian government in Palestine. But the French consuls of Jerusalem, more versed in local politics, reassured their government: actually Barlassina had taken advantage of the political rivalry between France and Italy to get money for his religious institutions. He could be bothersome but it was not interested in politics. His attitude toward the Fascist Regime was not always very friendly, and quite different from that of the Franciscan friars of the Custody, the true supporters of the Italian interests in the Holy Land. The consuls also thought that the continuous English pressures on the Vatican to remove the Patriarch from Jerusalem were contrary to the French interests. These interests, in fact, were indirectly helped by the hostility of Barlassina toward the Mandatory Authorities, as he wanted the Latin community to maintain the same privileges guaranteed to Christians by the Ottomans.

Visite d’un ami : le président tchécoslovaque Thomas G. Masaryk en Palestine, avril 1927, Yeshayahu A. Jelinek, pp. 325-337

13The first President of Czechoslovakia Thomas G. Masaryk paid in April 1927 a visit to Egypt and Palestine. In the Holy Land he concentrated on location of cultural-religious significance (Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Tabgha, Nazareth) and of places of construction and development of the Zionist movement (Tel Aviv, Rishon le Zion, Beit Alfa, Degania Alef and Nahalal); In Jerusalem he met Jewish and Arab personalities, like Haj Amin el-Husseini, Yehuda Magnes and Rabbi Haim Zonenfeld. He inquired much in the conditions of life in tthe country and plans for the future.

La vie culturelle arabe en Palestine pendant la période du Mandat britannique, Qustandi Shomali, pp. 341-350

14In tracing the progress of the literary and cultural life in Palestine during the British Mandate Period, we witness that it had been determined, on the one hand, by a multitude of internal factors, political, social, economic and national changes. On the other hand, the Palestinian literature had been stimulated by a variety of foreign cultural influences. The literary revival was a gradual product of the confrontation between the traditional values of Arabic language and literature and the modern critical values of the West. It was marked in mid-twenties by two distinct trends: classicist and modernist. In mid-thirties, many critical writings helped to introduce new literary trends, critical methods and literary genres. Although, writers were heavily influenced by the Romantic Movement, they developed later two main schools simultaneously, romantic and realistic; and many writings were in favor of greater involvement of literature with social problems. Poetry received more attention at the beginning and was the most dominant literary genre, while novel and drama played a minor role. However, the development of all literary genres, mainly the short story and the novel, was obvious in the late forties.

Les chrétiens palestiniens : politique, droit et société, 1917-1948, Anthony O’Mahony, pp. 351-395

15The Presence of Christian communities in Palestine under the British Mandate is an important aspect for understanding the religious and political dynamics which brought colonial power into contact and conflict with the two nationalist forces of the Zionist movement and Arab Palestinian nationalism. This paper looks at how the Christian communities were configured during this period: their educational and cultural position in society, including demography and legal status. Arab Christians also made a distinctive contribution to political culture, which helped define the Palestinian Nationalist Movement in broader terms than political Islam. Intercommunal relations however had tensions created by a situation which put the three communities Jews, Christians and Muslims on a equal “millet” position this time under British Imperial power and not the Muslim Ottoman Empire. The Christians of Palestine, although only ten per cent of the Arab population, played an important role and distinctive contribution to the economic and political society which made Palestine such a charged environment between religion and politics, Jew, Christian and Muslim, sacred geography, and colonial power and nationalist ideology.

Les institutions françaises en Palestine (1947-1949 : un facteur central dans l’établissement de la position de la France sur la question de la Terre sainte, Tsilla Hershco, pp. 399-423

16Towards the end of the British Mandate in Palestine in the years 1947-1948, there were about 70 French religious, cultural and charity institutions in Palestine.

17The present article claims that the issue of preserving the special historical rights of these institutions, as a means of safeguarding French influence in the region, constitutes a major consideration in the formulating of French Policy towards the Question of Palestine in the years 1947-1948.

18The article starts with the analysis of the considerations which brought about the French decision to vote for the partition plan in November 1947, indicating the outstanding weight of the issue of the French institutions during the inner deliberations in the Quai d’Orsay.

19Subsequently the article presents how the damages inflicted on the French institutions during the war of 1948, because of the battles, caused a significant deterioration in the French-Israeli relations at that time.

20Finally, the article depicts how the Isreali agreement to grant special rights to the French institutions played a major role in French De- Facto recognition of the State of Israel in January 1949.

L’UNSCOP et l’internationalisation de Jérusalem en 1947 : un plan visant à préserver l’hégémonie occidentale en Palestine, Dan Bitan, pp. 425-475

21UNSCOP’s plan for Jerusalem, later adopted as part of the General Assembly’s resolution of 29.11.1947, was influenced by the international context, especially the emerging Cold War. Anxious to preserve Western and Christian influence in Palestine, 5 of the 11 members of UNSCOP – all from Western and Christian countries – envisioned a Jerusalem Metropolis of extensive territory. Rejecting the Security Council as its permanent Source of Authority, the Five preferred the west-controlled Trusteeship Council, where the Soviets couldn’t exercise the veto power, appointing an ever foreign Christian governor, whose jurisdiction was to include hundreds of varied religious, or merely foreign, institutions throughout Palestine. Zionist (and their supporters’) arguments for a divided Jerusalem, or Arab (and their supporters’) claims for Jerusalem as capital of a Federal State were discarded in favour of the vision of a trilateral partition of Palestine – between the Christian West, Jews, and Arabs.

La dilapidation des dépouilles du Mandat : la Palestine sans les Palestiniens, Ilan Pappe, pp. 477-487

22This article attempts to assess the British mandatory legacy in Palestine. It views the mandatory period as a whole with a particular focus on the 1948 war. While both Zionist and Palestinian historiographies tend to be very critical about this legacy it seems that the balance sheet is more complex. All in all, the British mandate left, and helped to create, a de-Arabized Palestine, a landed emptied in many parts of its original native population. But they also helped built a safe haven for the prossecuted Jews who were about to face extermination in Europe. Reconciling the two led the British to commit atrocities against the Palestinians in the 1930s and leave them to their fate in 1947. History will judge who does these troubled legacies compare with the great effort involved in building and developing the country.

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