Mastodawn

oatmeal Apr 25, 2024

#Passover 2023 / Zionism stage 2: "The Hidden Question" (Yitzhak Epstein, 1907)

It's still colonialism, but Epstein was witness to the dispossession of Palestinian tenant farmers from their land by Jewish land purchasing practices, and in his speech to the 7th Zionist Congress in Basel in 1905, he advocates for an ethical and inclusive approach to the Zionist settlement, recognizing the rights and humanity of the Arab population, and promoting a path of coexistence, cooperation, and mutual understanding between Jews and Arabs in #Palestine.

[...] We devote attention to everything related to our homeland, we discuss and debate everything, we praise and criticize in every way, but one trivial thing we have overlooked so long in our lovely country: there exists an entire people who have held it for centuries and to whom it would never occur to leave.

#PDF https://balfourproject.org/bp/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Yitzhak-Epstein.pdf

Author Ehud Ben Ezer [...] From my understanding, the issue that troubled Yitzhak Epstein was the manner in which lands were acquired from the #Druze tenant farmers in the Metullah area (now the Rosh Pina moshav). He opposed the violent expulsion of the peasant farmers from the lands they had worked for generations, despite it being a difficult process accompanied by hatred and a desire for revenge from the displaced Druze.

Epstein supported an approach of coexistence and cooperation between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. He criticized the violent way in which the Metullah lands were acquired and called for closeness and mutual respect between the two peoples, as he tried to implement in the Rosh Pina moshav where he taught, in an attempt to expose his students to Arab culture.

In his speech "The Hidden Question," he presented his firm stance against the expulsion of Arab peasants from their lands, and called for mutual respectful relations, learning about Arab culture, and cooperative agricultural methods that would benefit both sides.

"צל הפרדסים והר הגעש: שיחות על השתקפות השאלה הערבית ודמות הערבי בספרות העברית בארץ־ישראל מסוף המאה הקודמת ועד ימינו / אהוד בן עזר - פרויקט בן־יהודה." 25 Apr. 2024, benyehuda.org/read/25465.