r/JewsOfConscience • u/ArmyOfMemories Jewish Anti-Zionist • Sep 27 '24

History During the first few decades of Zionist immigration to Palestine, Zionist leaders rejected ~61% of immigrant applicants on the basis of their 'economic situation'.

https://x.com/_ZachFoster/status/1839340554347270415
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u/specialistsets Non-denominational Sep 27 '24 edited Sep 27 '24

For context, this is from before WW1 and the era of mass Zionist immigration. But it also doesn't say anyone was rejected or prevented, basically any individual from anywhere was able to move to Ottoman Palestine in those times.

ETA: Zionists only had control over Jewish immigration to Palestine during the British Mandate beginning in 1920.

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u/Saul_al-Rakoun Conservadox & Marxist Sep 27 '24 edited Sep 28 '24

Ruppin would've been active post-1908, and Sheinkin post-1906. So this is smack dab in the middle of the "Second Aliyah", with the first Kishinev Pogrom being in Spring 1903, and the second in Fall 1905.

Spin it as much as you like, this is pretty clear evidence the Zionists weren't helping people flee persecution.

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u/specialistsets Non-denominational Sep 28 '24

I am not spinning anything, nor am I defending anyone. Factually, Zionists had no control over Jewish immigration to Ottoman Palestine, nor was there a plan or system for mass immigration at that point. The Jews of the Second Aliyah typically came as independent groups and associations, it was not centralized (and encouraged) like in the Mandate era.

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u/Saul_al-Rakoun Conservadox & Marxist Sep 28 '24

Ruppin started organizing Zionist immigration in Palestine in 1908. Sheinkin directed the Hovevei Tzion immigration office in Palestine starting in 1906.

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u/specialistsets Non-denominational Sep 28 '24

You are missing the point, the Second Aliyah (a retroactive term not used at the time) was not organized mass Zionist immigration. Most of the Jews of the Second Aliyah were not even motivated by Zionism or Zionist ideologies. Zionists had no control whatsoever over who immigrated to Palestine before the end of the Ottoman Empire. Immigration to Palestine then was wide open for anyone who wanted, Jewish or not, Zionist or not.

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u/Saul_al-Rakoun Conservadox & Marxist Sep 29 '24

Obviously there was a level of organization to it, or you wouldn't have two separate organizations both operating in Tel Aviv both at the same time, both having to do with organizing immigration.

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u/specialistsets Non-denominational Sep 29 '24

Tel Aviv was first founded in 1909. Ruppin and Sheinkin were not focused on organizing or funding mass immigration then, they were attempting to establish infrastructure to enable sustainable future immigration. By all accounts they were trying to discourage mass immigration in those days (and again, they had no control over immigration regardless of how they felt about it). There were also many different independent Jewish organizations and settlements active in Palestine with varying levels of connection the "official" Zionist movement, it was quite decentralized until the British Mandate.