252 Mediated Publics
[eretz moladetenu] and to our enlightened government, and it is incum-
bent upon us to fulfill our holy duty especially according to the laws.”
Although new beginnings are difficult, the paper continued, particularly
since the majority of Jewish young men did not know Arabic and Turkish,
it was incumbent upon Jews to “give the last drop of their blood for the
good of the homeland.” The Jewish press explicitly reinforced the link
between the Ottoman citizenship project and the duty to serve in the mili-
tary. On the eve of the first conscriptions the press exhorted young men
to think of the Ottoman patria and Ottoman umma: “Brothers! Don’t be
lazy, it is incumbent upon us to carry weapons and fight with our bodies
for our dear homeland, because its peace is also peace for us.”^46 Patriotic
articles were published, praising Jewish volunteers to the Ottoman army,
Jewish war heroes from the spring 1909 countercoup, and even mobilized
Jews worldwide.
ith the passage of time, however, the Jewish press had to acknowl-W
edge the growing resistance on the part of Jewish youth throughout
Palestine. Even while the first call-ups and inspections were taking
place, an advertisement placed in a local newspaper urged all Ashkenazi,
Sephardi, Maghrebi and Yemeni young men who stood to be drafted to go
to the house of one Shlomo Eliach to get advice on what could be done to
better “their depressing situation.”^47 In fact, tens of Jewish and Christian
youth were leaving Palestine weekly, hundreds leaving Greater Syria. The
September 1909 rolls of eligible non-Muslim men in the Jerusalem area
yielded 1953 names, which included almost 600 Jews. However, from the
periodic reports in the press, we know that by the time the actual call-
ups came around, a significant percentage of the summoned youth never
showed up.^48
n February 1910, the first non-Muslims were finally conscripted into I
the army in Istanbul, and the Palestinian Jewish press had an opportunity
to adopt the “Jewish pioneers” as an example to the local youth. As one
newspaper remarked, the “capital was full of emotion” as people from all
walks of life came to see the nearly one thousand non-Muslim conscripts
performing their “duty for the homeland.” Furthermore, through their
induction, the Jewish and Christian youth fulfilled “equality” in deeds,
not just in words. That Friday evening for the first time, Christian, Jewish
and Muslim soldiers sat and ate together, the fulfillment of the revolution’s