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Palestine and retrieve his or her passport from the Ottoman authorities.
explaining that the Ottoman policy targeted Jews from eastern europe,
al- Khalidi writes:
The Ottoman government took this measure against the Jewish
immigrants from Russia and Romania because the immigration of
the Jews to Palestine came, for the most part, from eastern eu-
rope because of the humiliation and poverty in which they live.
Those [Jews] who reside in western european countries, how-
ever, live comfortably with freedom and equality, and they are
in control of finance and commerce.^160 It therefore does not cross
their minds to leave their profits and to settle in the arid lands
of Palestine, deprived of most of the conditions of civilization.^161Al- Khalidi stresses the distinction between the Jews of eastern europe
and those of western europe. The former, he argues, live in squalid
conditions under antagonistic regimes, isolated and alienated from
their non- Jewish neighbors. These are the Jews against whom the Otto-
man Red Slip policy is aimed, as these are the ones who are trying
to immigrate to Palestine. The latter, the Jews of western europe, al-
Khalidi contends, are quite satisfied with their situation, enjoying full
civic equality while they dominate the financial world and assimilate
among gentiles. So content with their status, they have no interest in
“backward,” “unfertile” Palestine. “Nevertheless,” al- Khalidi acknowl-
edges, “the Zionists aroused the Jews of Italy, who have influence on
the government because of their intermingling and assimilation among
the people.” As a result of the pressure from powerful, assimilated Ital-
ian Jews, explains al- Khalidi, the Italian government “protested against
the prevention of Jews from settling in Palestine and said that it does
not distinguish between its christian and Jewish subjects.”^162
In these words about the Red Slip policy, the disparate elements
of al- Khalidi’s perception of contemporary Jewry are united, however
uneasily, and linked to the problem of Palestine and Zionism. First,
al- Khalidi recognizes a distinction between the Jews of eastern eu-
rope and those of the West. Whether because of distinct external condi-
tions— a more liberal and tolerant gentile host society— or because, in
internal mindset, the Jews of western europe were more prepared and
eager to be accepted within their host society, western Jews have fully
(^160) Literally: “they hold the monetary and commercial reins.”
(^161) Ibid. cf. Gottheil, “Zionism,” 676, and Naṣṣār, aṣ-Ṣahyūniyya, 29.
(^162) Al- Khalidi took this final quotation from Gottheil’s “Zionism” entry. Gottheil, how-
ever, did not discuss the assimilation or financial power of Italian Jewry; this was al-
Khalidi’s explanation.