On The Turkish Expulsion of the Yishuv's Jews

From "The Zionist Leaders’ Fear: Perception of, Comparison with, and Reactions to the Armenian Genocide" by Martina Berli:

The first attack on the Yishuv had already taken place in December 1914, when a large number of Jews were expelled from Palestine. Entering the war, Turkey faced the problem of having thousands of non-Ottomans living in the empire, a great number of them from hostile countries. The backbone of Jewish colonization was built of non-Ottomans, of whom 50,000 were Russians. According to Zionist perception, Talât could not bear having a “Russian vilayet in Palestine”80 and gave the Jews two options: either to become Ottomans or to leave. Having secured Cemal’s support, Behaeddin Bey, the kaymakam (governor) of Jaffa, who had a rigid anti-Jewish attitude, expelled several Jewish families on December 17. He forced 600 persons to board a boat that brought them to Egypt. The amount of time set for the Jews to become Ottomans was not respected, and the expulsion was not limited only to Jews from hostile countries. The expelled Jews were mistreated, beaten, and their belongings were stolen; some fell into the water, and because the ship could not take all those being expelled on board, many families were separated.81

This, however, marks only the beginning of the persecution of the Yishuv. Was this course predictable? For Ruppin, stationed in Jaffa, it was: “If this school of thought [the xenophobia of Behaeddin and Cemal Pasha] is the dominant one in the Young Turk party, we will have to make ourselves ready for serious opposition in our further work in the country.”82 The eviction of Jews continued during the entire summer of 1915. Unremittingly during the war, the Jewish population was exposed to house searches, arrest, expulsion, and deportation. The Jewish arbitral court and the Anglo-Palestine Bank were closed. Zionist flags and weapons owned by Jews were confiscated, and the latter were distributed among the Arabs. Furthermore, the use of Hebrew in correspondence was prohibited.83 In all these repressive measures, the Zionists saw Cemal’s intention to halt the Jewish colonization work in Palestine.84

In fact there was considerable disparity between the central government’s order to facilitate the Ottomanization of foreign Jews and its implementation by local officials. The Turkish authorities in the Jaffa district especially caused difficulties, whereas Constantinople often asked the local authorities in Palestine why, in specific cases, Ottoman citizenship was refused to Jews.85 In the end a great number of individuals left the country, discouraged by the process of naturalization. The total number of Jews who left––whether they were expelled or left of their own accord––between December 1914 and the end of 1915 amounted to 11,277.86

In spring 1917 a major incident—the evacuation of Jaffa—provoked international attention, as the expulsion in December 1914 had already done. Prior to this event, however, attempts to harm Jewish colonization had already been discussed by Cemal and Talât. According to a telegram addressed to Cemal Pasha on August 25, 1915, Talât was already considering the deportation of foreign Jews living in the empire.93 

Even the Jews who applied for naturalization were to be placed outside Palestine.94 The Zionists were alarmed. The chief rabbi in Constantinople, Haim Nahum Effendi, with whom the Zionist leaders were in touch, was visiting Talât to discuss the deportations of the Jews from the Marmara region,95 when Talât commented:

“What would you think if we were to cast out the Jews from Palestine too?”96 During that time Talât informed Cemal that “it is certain that one must agree to the brutal expulsion of Zionists, who are undoubtedly harmful to the homeland, in order to clean it.”97 This growing tension was noticed by the Zionists, as Lichtheim’s report from the end of November 1916 reveals. In his opinion Cemal “undoubtedly in recent times again considered measures against the Palestinian Jews.”98

The Zionists saw Cemal as the main actor of the anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist campaigns. Their reports convey that there was talk of “cleansing” all suspicious elements in Palestine and that these talks were initiated and led by Cemal.99 They also claimed that he was acting with malicious intent against Zionism and had influenced the central government with his anti-Zionist attitude and his mistrust of all Jews. In the end the Zionists had to assume that the Turkish government was harboring a “hostile attitude” toward them.100 In the Zionists’ interpretation this was exactly the attitude shown toward them by the decision to evacuate Jaffa’s Jewish population, which consisted of some 10,000 Jews and was the center of the Yishuv. 

With the arrival of the British forces in Gaza in March 1917, the evacuation of the population of Jaffa was ordered. Cemal explained this as an “unfortunate military necessity,” which had to happen “for the good of the fatherland and the population.”101 The evacuees could go wherever they wanted, but those without means would be transported into the Syrian hinterland.102 The movement of the refugees was under constant Ottoman surveillance.103 Gaza, with its mostly Muslim inhabitants, had been evacuated some weeks earlier. This had also been done on Cemal’s order, for military reasons and to relieve the army of the burden of civilians.104

The first British attack on Gaza was repelled. This military success brought with it the justification for the evacuation of Jaffa.105 The Jews and newly appointed Journal of Levantine Studies 101 German Consul Karl Freiherr von Schabinger interpreted this evacuation as an act directed against the Yishuv because the German and Austrian non-Jewish nationals were allowed to remain at their own risk. It also seemed that the mutasarrif, the administrative authority of the district, showed some consideration with respect to the Muslim orange-grove owners but not to their Jewish neighbors.106 Finally, about 9,000 Jews were deported. 

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