“CONCerNING Our ARAb QuESTIOn”? • 105as well.^42 This impression is confirmed, it would seem, by the fact
that one decade later, Kremer was one of ha-Ḥerut’s main correspon-
dents on issues concerning palestine’s native non- Jewish population,
further indicating that there were Ashkenazim who were viewed by
the Sephardic editors of ha-Ḥerut as experts on the affairs of Pales-
tine’s natives. For the present discussion, it is relevant to note that
Kremer typically used religious categorizations of Palestine’s Arabs in
his articles.
Kremer was in fact the author of the ha-Ḥerutarticle, noted above,
that listed the representatives elected to the Ottoman parliament as
Jews, Christians, and Ishmaelites. though the term Ishmaelite does
not necessarily have religious connotations, in these newspapers it is
used interchangeably with Muslim.^43 In an issue of Ben- Yehuda’s ha- Or
printed just ten days after ha-Ḥerut’s report on the elections, there is a
small notice on “the Holiday of the Sacrifice” (the Hebrew translation
of the Islamic holiday ʿīdal-qurbān, i.e., ʿīdal-aḍḥā): “Monday will be
the first day of the holiday of ‘the Sacrifice’ for the community of the
Ishmaelites. the holiday will last four days.”^44 this notice may also
have been written by Kremer, as it is signed with his initials M.K.^45 In
1909, also in ha-Ẓevi, Kremer published a letter with his full name that
insisted that under the new Ottoman regime, the Jews had the same
right to serve in the highest levels of government “just as all [other]
Ottomans.” In this letter, Kremer was particularly concerned that in
Jerusalem’s administrative council— in which “all important matters”
of government would be addressed, including “many issues that affect
the Jewish community [ʿedatha-yehudim] of Jerusalem”— “there is not
a single Jew, but there are seven from the community of Ishmaelites
and five from the community of Christians.”^46 Kremer, an influential
journalist in both the Sephardic- edited and Ashkenazic- edited Zionist
newspapers, was interested in religious distinctions and brought these
(^42) The fact that Kremer was in Palestine in 1898, of course, also indicates that he was
either a member of the pre- Zionist Jewish community of palestine or that he had come
to Palestine in the first wave of Zionist immigration.
(^43) On the generally ethnic usage of the term Ishmaelites, see Israel Ephʿal, “Ishmael-
ites,” eJ^2 ; “Ishmael,” EQ; and “Races,” EQ. On Ishmael in rabbinic sources, see Bakhos,
IshmaelontheBorder.
(^44) ha- Or, December 12, 1910.
(^45) Kremer, in ha-Ẓevi25:56 (December 18, 1908), 3, acknowledged that he sometimes
published with these initials, though he claims that someone else had done so as well,
and that, as a result, to avoid confusion and so as not to be associated with another’s
views, he would cease to do so. however, given that this 1910 article is on the same sub-
ject as Kremer’s typical articles, it would seem that, sometime between 1908 and 1910,
Kremer had reclaimed his initials for the purposes of articles in Ben- Yehuda’s papers.
(^46) ha-Ẓevi 25:75 (January 10, 1909), 2.