Dr. Theodor Herzl was a wealthy Hungarian Jewish lawyer and journalist, known as the “father of Zionism.” In 1896, his manifesto Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) set forth an argument, and a detailed business plan, for the creation of Israel. He claimed the way to end Jewish oppression and antisemitism was for Jews to have their own sovereign nation. He called on fellow Zionists to vote on whether to create Israel in Argentina or Palestine.
PALESTINE OR ARGENTINE?
Herzl explained that “important experiments in colonization” had already occurred in both countries, when Jews gradually, secretly, and illegally immigrated to both countries in the past.
In the early 1880s, Jews funded by Baron Edmond de Rothschild established agricultural settlements in Palestine. This became known as the beginning of the First Aliyah.
In 1891, Baron Maurice de Hirsch funded Jewish settlements in Argentina through the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA), scattered across the Pampas and central-eastern provinces, mostly in Entre Ríos, Santa Fe, and Buenos Aires.
Herzl argued that the prior methods of settling in Palestine and Argentina were flawed because locals felt threatened by the significant rise in Jewish immigrants. Ottoman authorities shut their doors and imposed restrictions on immigration.
Herzl believed that moving Jews in first and hoping for security later was the fatal flaw of previous attempts. He wrote:
An infiltration is bound to end in disaster. It continues till the inevitable moment when the native population feels itself threatened, and forces the Government to stop the further influx of Jews. Immigration is consequently futile unless based on an assured supremacy.
Herzl argued that an open, internationally chartered approach was better. His plan gave Zionists a choice between creating Israel in either Palestine or Argentina:
Shall we choose Palestine or Argentine? We shall take what is given us, and what is selected by Jewish public opinion. The Society will determine both these points.
Argentine is one of the most fertile countries in the world, extends over a vast area, has a sparse population and a mild climate. The Argentine Republic would derive considerable profit from the cession of a portion of its territory to us. The present infiltration of Jews has certainly produced some discontent, and it would be necessary to enlighten the Republic on the intrinsic difference of our new movement.
Palestine is our ever-memorable historic home. The very name of Palestine would attract our people with a force of marvellous potency. If His Majesty the Sultan were to give us Palestine, we could in return undertake to regulate the whole finances of Turkey. We should there form a portion of a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism. We should as a neutral State remain in contact with all Europe, which would have to guarantee our existence. The sanctuaries of Christendom would be safeguarded by assigning to them an extra-territorial status such as is well-known to the law of nations. We should form a guard of honor about these sanctuaries, answering for the fulfilment of this duty with our existence. This guard of honor would be the great symbol of the solution of the Jewish Question after eighteen centuries of Jewish suffering.
THE FIRST ZIONIST CONGRESS UNANIMOUSLY CHOSE PALESTINE
After writing Der Judenstaat, Herzl formed a grassroots movement across Eastern and Central Europe with the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion). They made it clear to him that mass Jewish support could only be for Palestine. Moving to Argentina would have fractured the Zionist movement. Herzl adopted this view and set the agenda for the First Zionist Congress in Basel, to create the Jewish State in Palestine, and scraped Argentina.
In August 1897, the First Zionist Congress assembled in Basel, Switzerland. There was no need for them to vote on establishing the Jewish State in Palestine because by that time, the question was no longer on the table. The Zionists unanimously adopted the Basel Program, which defined the Zionist Organization’s goal as: “Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law.”
In 1903, during the Sixth Zionist Congress, Herzl presented the British Uganda Scheme, a proposal to consider territory (in modern-day Kenya) as a temporary safe haven for Jews. The Zionists voted 295 to 178 to send an investigative commission to Uganda. This triggered a revolt among Russian delegates that nearly destroyed the Zionist movement.
HOW THE ZIONISTS TOOK PALESTINE
Ultimately, it took the Zionists more than 50 years to establish Israel, and they did not acquire it through peaceful negotiated means.
From 1920 through 1948, “Mandatory Palestine” was officially a British administrative territory. Initially, British officials facilitated Jewish immigration under certain economic guidelines. But over the years, massive waves of Jewish immigration, including during World War II, caused serious conflicts with locals. So, Britain began curbing Jewish immigration with the hope of maintaining stability in the region. But violent Jewish insurgency ensued.
In 1946, the Irgun, a group of militant right-wing Zionists, waged a terrorist attack on British officials. The Irgun bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem which served as the central office of the British Mandatory authorities of Palestine and the headquarters of the British Armed Forces in the area. The Irgun planted 770 pounds of explosives in the hotel which ended up killing 91 people, including British officials and soldiers.
On May 14, 1948, the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed the Palestine Act of 1948, for the termination of jurisdiction in Palestine, thereby ending the British Mandate. Later that day, Zionist leader and future Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel in Tel-Aviv.
