RUHI AL-KHALIdI’S “AS-SAYūNīZM” • 87embraced “Mendelssohn’s theory.” They have shed their particularities
in all but religion, “intermingling and assimilating” with their gentile
neighbors. The fact that these western Jews continued and have suc-
ceeded in their efforts to dominate finance and commerce is only evi-
dence that they have maintained their religion in which, as al- Khalidi
sees it, amassing wealth is among the greatest religious joys. Though
western european Jews have abandoned the age- old desire of a return
to Palestine, the impoverished and persecuted Jews of eastern europe
have not, and because of the wealth (and consequent influence) of the
former, the Ottoman government faces pressure, such as that from the
Italian government, to admit the latter.
In al- Khalidi’s appraisal, money is central to the Zionist effort. “With
their money,” he explains, “they supported newspapers that defend Zi-
onism and that broadcast the benefits of the colonization” of Palestine.
He names a Turkish newspaper, for example, which, he alleges, takes
from the Zionists’ Anglo- Levantine Bank “whatever it needs in terms of
expenditures,” as much as “one hundred and fifty thousand francs per
year.” It is thus no surprise that this newspaper’s office, its manage-
ment, and its printing house are found in “one of the most famous and
expensive streets of Istanbul.” This particular newspaper, moreover, is
not the only one bankrolled by Zionists, al- Khalidi asserts; they sup-
port many others, “they compensated those authors and writers who
served them,” and they bribed those governors and rulers who did their
bidding.^163
The immense wealth of the Jews, as al- Khalidi saw it, had an impact
on Palestine in even more tangible ways than the Zionists’ suspected
bribes of newspapers and government officials. Al- Khalidi had per-
sonally surveyed the Zionist colonies in Palestine; these “twenty- eight
colonies covering 279,491 dunams” were founded “with the money
of Rothschild and other rich men like him.”^164 From al- Khalidi’s per-
spective, the Jews’ money was a direct threat to Palestine, as it was
the means Jews employed to appropriate increasingly large tracts of
Palestine. With this wealth, Jews
(^163) al- Khālidī, “as- Sayūnīzm, ay al- masʾala aṣ- ṣahyūniyya” [copyist version], 4– 5.
The reference to the specific Ottoman paper, JeunesTurcs, does not appear to be in al-
Khalidi’s original draft; it seems to be present only in the copyist’s version. See chapter 5
below on Zionist “subventions” for sympathetic Arabic newspapers.
(^164) The copyist’s version adds bitterly that these lands were purchased “at a very low
price with the assistance of the governors and the wealthy of the region.” The Arabic
press from cairo and Beirut is peppered with articles about the Rothschilds; this fas-
cination with this wealthy Jewish family is explored in chapter 4. On the place of the
Rothschilds in the european gentile imagination, see Penslar, Shylock’sChildren, 47– 48.