RUHI AL-KHALIdI’S “AS-SAYūNīZM” • 85The third explanation for antisemitism that al- Khalidi proposes is
Russians’ alleged “racial hatred” (ʿadāwatuhumfīal-ʿunṣurwa-l-ʿirq) of
Jews. “The Jewish race (al-ʿunṣur),” writes al- Khalidi, “is very popu-
lous, with many children. Where they settle, their numbers increase
and they multiply in a short period. In the cities of Poland, for example,
they are more numerous than the christians.”^158 The ever- increasing
Jews differ from the gentiles not only in religion, al- Khalidi explains,
but also “in their language, nationality (qawmiyyatihim), customs, and
particular interests,” and thus Jews “consider the people among whom
they live to be strangers.” “Therefore”— note the direction of the cau-
sality that al- Khalidi perceives to be driving this phenomenon— “the
Russians look at them [the Jews] as foreigners and they do not be-
stow upon them all of the rights that are bestowed upon the christian
Russian people.”^159 In pointing to Russian christians’ “racial hatred,”
al- Khalidi appears to evince a certain sympathy for Jews, yet that ap-
pearance is tempered by his suggestion that this racial hatred stems
from the fact that the populous Jews perceive their gentile neighbors as
“strangers.” The Russian government’s discrimination against its Jew-
ish population is understandable, perhaps even justifiable, given Jews’
own chauvinistic attitudes. Moreover, the reader notices that these two
supposed characteristics of Jews— their insatiable appetite for wealth
and unceasing biological reproduction— are at once the cause of an-
tisemitism and, as al- Khalidi explains earlier, that which provide Jews
with true “religious happiness.” even in al- Khalidi’s analysis of the eco-
nomic and racial motivations of contemporary antisemitism, religion
remains at its core.
Jews from east and WestAl- Khalidi recognized, however, that the condition of Jews was not
uniform across all countries, even in europe. When his presentation
of Jewish history reaches its ultimate focus, “the Zionist Question,”
al- Khalidi discusses the means taken by the Ottoman government to
halt Jewish immigration through the so- called Red Slip policy. This
policy allowed foreigners to enter Palestine with the equivalent of a
three- month visitor’s visa. The foreigner would yield his or her pass-
port to the Ottoman authorities upon entry and would receive, in its
place, a red- hued permit that provided entry for up to three months.
Some time before the end of the term, the visitor was expected to leave
(^158) al- Khālidī, “as- Sayūnīzm, ay al- masʾala aṣ- ṣahyūniyya” [copyist version], 69.
(^159) Ibid.