Chapter 3

“Concerning Our Arab Question”? Competing

Zionist Conceptions of palestine’s Natives

I

n a 1913 internal Zionist memorandum, “Concerning Our arab

Question,” the Galician- born hebrew writer and educator Ye-

hoshua radler- Feldmann, who had immigrated to palestine in 1907,

explained that “in palestine we can hear two contradictory opinions:

the one underrating the arab question, the other perhaps exaggerat-

ing it.”^1 Indeed, in the final years of Ottoman rule in Palestine, there

was regular discussion in Zionist circles about what it meant for Zi-

onist ambitions that there were hundreds of thousands of non- Jewish

natives in the Land of Israel.^2 radler- Feldmann’s simple assertion,

however, was not merely a description of reality; it was an interpre-

tation of that reality. For radler- Feldmann, the “question” was an

Arab question. the problem the Jews faced in palestine, his choice of

words presumed, was their confrontation with “arabs,” a group that

constituted the majority of palestine’s population. radler- Feldmann

was certainly not alone in interpreting the question as he did, and

subsequent history and historiography have generally reified his view

regarding the fin de siècle as the first years of the Zionist- Arab con-

flict.^3 But in the Late Ottoman period, there were other, competing

interpretations as well.

(^1) Cited in Roʾi, “The Zionist Attitude to the Arabs 1908– 1914,” 235. Yehoshua Radler-
Feldmann (1880– 1957), known by the pen name Rabbi Benjamin, was born in eastern
Galicia. After living briefly in London, where he worked with Yosef Hayim Brenner, he
settled in Palestine in 1907. David Tidhar, EḤY, 4:1711.
(^2) On the various positions articulated in the pre– World War I era, see Gorni, Zionism
and the Arabs 1882– 1948 , 40– 77.
(^3) See, for instance, Cohen, ed., ­Ẓiyonut­ve-­ha-­sheʾelah­ha-­ʿarvit; Beʾeri, Reshit ha-
sikhsukh­yisraʾel-­ʿarav,­1882–­1911; rodinson, Israel­and­the­Arabs; Roʾi, “The Zionist Atti-
tude to the Arabs 1908– 1914,” 198– 242.