1917 Jaffa deportation

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Ahmed Jamal Pasha, who ordered the expulsion

Tel Aviv and Jaffa deportation was the forcible deportation on April 6, 1917, of the entire Jewish civilian population of Jaffa, including Tel Aviv, by the authorities of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine.[1][2]

Jews who were affected by the deportation were unable to return to their homes until the British conquest, in the summer of 1918. 14% of the Jewish population left the area for Egypt.[3]

History

Before World War I

Unlike the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians, the Jews were treated comparatively leniently by the Ottoman Empire, because Jews had sought refuge in the empire due to Bayezid II's welcoming policy.[4] The Zionist leader Theodor Herzl even asked the then-Ottoman Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, to acquire Palestine and fulfil the promise of returning the Jews to Zion. The Sultan declined Herzl's request, but he agreed to allow the Jews to establish settlements in Palestine, where they would pay taxes to the Ottoman authorities.[5]

However, as Turkish nationalism began to rise in the late 19th century, the Jewish position in the empire came into question. The Young Turks, who came to power in 1908, openly espoused the idea that all non-Turkish subjects had to be Turkified.[6] Even though the Ottoman leaders did not target the Jews for Turkification, their skepticism of Jewish motives increased and as a result of it, they became increasingly hostile towards the Jews.[7][8]

World War I

Notice by the Ottoman Empire's Ministry of Palestine in 1915 requiring Jews to arrange Ottoman citizenship before 15 May 1915.

In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers. Many people from the opposing Allied countries lived in Palestine, and its Turkish officials considered them a threat to military security. Two waves of expulsion occurred as part of Turkish failed defence of their fading empire.

In December 1914, the Turks expelled up to 6,000 Jews who resided in Jaffa.[9] They were resettled in Alexandria, Egypt.[10] The Ottoman Empire then issued forcible draft of Jews into the army, demanding Jews to take Ottoman citizenship or either getting expelled from the region before 15 May 1915. Following the devastating effect of the Lebanese famine, situation worsened.[11] Aharon Aharonson described the situation,

"Meanwhile, people are literally starving. Horrified sights have seen our eyes: old women and children wandering, hunger and nightmare-madness in their dying eyes, no food falling under them and dying."

An unnamed eyewitness stated,

"Even wealthy people in Jerusalem are becoming recipients (of alms) and even courting the remaining."[12]

Beginning of the expulsion

Graves of unknown victims of the Tel Aviv and Jaffa deportation

By January 1917, British forces had crossed the Sinai Desert and were about to invade Palestine, which alarmed the Turkish authorities. The Ottoman Empire began to become skeptical of the residents in the region, mostly Jews, as the Ottomans disdained them for alleged collaboration with the British.

At the start of March, all the inhabitants of Gaza were expelled, a town of 35,000–40,000 people, mostly Arabs.[13][14] They had 48 hours to leave "even if crawling on their knees".[13] Many of the men were conscripted and the rest scattered around Palestine and Syria, first to nearby villages and then further afield as those villages were also evacuated.[13] Death from exposure or starvation was widespread.[13] Gaza did not recover its pre-war population until the 1940s.[13]

On 28 March 1917, Djemal Pasha ordered the evacuation of the inhabitants of Jaffa.[15][14] They could go wherever they liked except Jerusalem or Haifa.[15] Farmers with crops in their fields, the workers of the winery in Rishon Lezion, and the teachers and students of the Mikveh Israel school and the Latrun estate were excluded.[15] Djemal Pasha, who was in charge of the Greater Syrian Theatre of the war, was forced to provide explanations.[16]

Over 40,000 Jews had been forcibly deported, many would not return until after the British conquest and some died on their way. Friedman holds that this was a deliberate decision on the part of the Ottoman authorities.[17] Sheffy regards that it is more reflective of cultural and behavioral differences: the Arabs had no central organization, and with their experience of how government decrees were enforced, just remained nearby until the storm had passed, whereas the Jews obeyed the evacuation decree as a group.[14] In any case, when New Zealand troops entered Jaffa in November 1917, only an estimated 8,000 of the previous population of 40,000 was present.[14]

Response from Yishuv

The procession to return the exiled Torah scrolls back to Tel Aviv and Jaffa in 1918.

The Jews of Jaffa and Tel Aviv organized a migration committee, headed by Meir Dizengoff and Rabbi Menachem Itzhak Kelioner. The committee arranged the transportation of the Jewish deportees to safety, with the assistance of Jews from the Galilee, who arrived in Tel Aviv with carts. The exiles were driven to Jerusalem, to cities in central Palestine (such as Petah Tikva and Kfar Saba) and to the north of Palestine, where they were scattered among the different Jewish settlements in the Lower Galilee, in Zichron Yaacov, Tiberias, and Safed. Up to 16,000 deportees were evacuated from Tel Aviv, which was left with almost no residents.[18]

The homes and property of the Jews of Jaffa and Tel Aviv were kept in the possession of the Ottoman authorities, and they were guarded by a handful of Jewish guards. Djemal Pasha also released two Jewish doctors to join the deportees. Nonetheless, many deportees had perished during the harsh winter of 1917–1918 from hunger and contagious diseases due to negligence by the Ottoman authorities: 224 deportees are buried in Kfar Saba, 15 in Haifa, 321 in Tiberias, 104 in Safed, and 75 in Damascus.[19][18]

Destination

Many Jewish deportees ended up in Zichron Yaacov, Hadera, Petah Tikva and Kfar Saba, with few choosing to go to Jerusalem despite being forbidden by the Ottoman authorities. Sympathizing with the situation, some members of the population decided to provide needed medical and financial support. But when winter 1917–1918 arrived, the situation worsened for many deportees and many died by hunger, famine, starvation and maltreatment, as several Yishuvs didn't receive them and thought they could be Ottoman spies.[20] Deterioration of condition had prompted many Jews to flee and several of them had migrated to Egypt, or Europe and the United States.[21][18]

Aftermath and memorials

Gravestones of the deportees in Kinneret cemetery.
The sign placed in the victims' compound of the Tel Aviv deportation in Kfar Saba.

The deportation and subsequent deaths of so many Jewish deportees were not properly documented.[19]

After Shragai's address, the Kfar Saba City Council voted to change the name "Pilots Street" in the city to "Tel Aviv-Jaffa" Street in October 2009 to commemorate the victims of the deportation. The Tel Aviv Founders' Families Association has been working for years with a burial society to establish a gilad in the Trumpeldor Cemetery in Tel Aviv in memory of those who perished among the deportees from Tel Aviv.[22]

In literature

Deborah Barun's book, "The Exiles", published in 1970 after her death, centered around the deportation.[23]

Two of Nahum Guttman's books mentioned the deportation, both when it began and after the deportation.[24][25]

Israeli writer Yosef Chaim Brenner, who was deported and survived, wrote "The Origin" about the deportation which he experienced.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ When Tel Aviv was a wilderness Archived 2019-06-24 at the Wayback Machine, Haaretz
  2. ^ Alroey, Gur (2016-09-06). "The Expulsion of the Jews from Tel Aviv-Jaffa to the Lower Galilee, 1917-1918". Orient XXI. Archived from the original on 2021-09-14. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  3. ^ "The Tel Aviv Deportation - הארכיון הציוני". www.zionistarchives.org.il. Archived from the original on 2022-02-20. Retrieved 2021-09-14.
  4. ^ Agency, Anadolu (August 4, 2018). "Turkish Jews remember being welcomed in Ottoman lands". Daily Sabah. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2020.
  5. ^ Mayorek, Yoram (July 10, 1999). "Herzl and the Ottoman Empire". CEMOTI, Cahiers d'Études sur la Méditerranée Orientale et le monde Turco-Iranien. 28 (1): 13–18. doi:10.3406/cemot.1999.1476. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved October 25, 2020 – via www.persee.fr.
  6. ^ Öke, Mim Ketnâl (1986). "Young Turks, freemasons, Jews and the question of Zionism in the Ottoman empire (1908–1913)". Studies in Zionism. 7 (2): 199–218. doi:10.1080/13531048608575900. Archived from the original on 2020-09-16. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  7. ^ Boyraz, Cemil (2017). "Ethnic Turkification and homogenization from Ottoman empire to the Turkish republic: Critical investigations into the historiography of non-Muslims in Turkey". Turkish Studies. 18 (2): 378–389. doi:10.1080/14683849.2016.1246944. S2CID 152043476. Archived from the original on 2020-11-01. Retrieved 2020-10-25.
  8. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-28. Retrieved 2020-10-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  9. ^ Mary McCune (July 2005). The Whole Wide World, Without Limits: International relief, gender politics, and American Jewish women, 1893–1930. Wayne State University Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-0-8143-3229-0. Archived from the original on May 13, 2020. Retrieved November 26, 2010.
  10. ^ Jonathan R. Adelman (2008). The Rise of Israel: A history of a revolutionary state. Routledge. pp. 58–59. ISBN 978-0-415-77510-6. Archived from the original on May 2, 2014. Retrieved November 26, 2010.
  11. ^ "Israeli history photo of the week: The locusts of 1915". The Jerusalem Post | JPost.com. Archived from the original on 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  12. ^ מרדכי בן הלל הכהן, "גיוס בני הארץ לצבא הטורקי", בתוך: במצור ובמצוק, עורך: מ. אליאב, ירושלים, 1991, עמ' 444
  13. ^ a b c d e Doton Halevy (2015). "The rear side of the front: Gaza and its people in World War I". Journal of Levantine Studies. 5 (1): 35–57.
  14. ^ a b c d Yigal Sheffy (2009). "?גירוש יהודי תל אביב 1917: התעמרות פוליטית או כורח צבאי (Deportation of the Jews of Tel Aviv 1917: Political abuse or military necessity?)". Fighting at the entrances of Jaffa and the Yarkon victory : 8th Annual conference of the WW1 Heritage Association in Israel. pp. 22–30.
  15. ^ a b c Gur Alroey (2006). "גולים באתם? פרשת מגורשי תל־אביב ויפו בגליל התחתון, 1918-1917 (Exiles in their country? The Case of the Deportees of Tel Aviv and Jaffa in the Lower Galilee, 1917–1918)" (PDF). Cathedra (120): 135–160. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  16. ^ Hasson, Nir. "The 1917 Expulsion of Tel Aviv's Jews, Seen Through Turkish Eyes". Haaretz. Archived from the original on December 24, 2016. Retrieved December 25, 2016.(subscription required)
  17. ^ Isaiah Friedman (1971). "German intervention on behalf of the 'Yishuv', 1917". Jewish Social Studies. 33 (1): 23–43.
  18. ^ a b c "A Beginning Expulsion of Jews from Tel Aviv by the Turks in 1917 | Institute on the Holocaust & Genocide in Jerusalem". Archived from the original on 2021-07-10. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
  19. ^ a b Nadav Shragai (September 12, 2007). מדוע לא מנציחה עיריית תל אביב את נספי גירוש 1917? [Why doesn't the municipality commemorate the deportation victims of 1917?]. Haaretz (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on October 28, 2020. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
  20. ^ Bar-El, Dan; Greenberg, Zalman, חולי וכולרה בטבריה במלחמת העולם הראשונה
  21. ^ זה את הפרק "היישוב הישן וההתיישבות החדשה" בתוך יהושע קניאל, המשך ותמורה: היישוב הישן והיישוב החדש בתקופת העלייה הראשונה והשנייה, עמודים 102 – 128
  22. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2020-10-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  23. ^ "חנות הספרים של איתמר". Archived from the original on 2021-05-16. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  24. ^ "עיר קטנה ואנשים בה מעט - נחום גוטמן". Archived from the original on 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2020-10-26.
  25. ^ "שביל קליפות התפוזים". Archived from the original on 2021-07-10. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
  26. ^ The origin, archived from the original on 2018-01-28, retrieved 2020-10-26

External links

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