108 • CHAPTER 3
Arabs to be, by definition, Muslims.^51 We infer this assumed defini-
tion not only by process of elimination— if “true” arabs are neither
Christians nor Jews, they must, in the context of Late Ottoman pales-
tine, be Muslims— but also because the essay is about military service,
which had previously been the exclusive domain of Muslims. pales-
tine’s Christians, Ben- Yehuda contends, share many cultural traits with
“real” arabs, not least their common arabic language, a commonality
that Ben- Yehuda (who perceived the hebrew language as a sine qua
non of Jewish nationality) did not underestimate. But ultimately, as
much as palestine’s Christians shared with arabs, as similar as their
way of life and customs might be, they were nonetheless something
other than proper arabs.
the distinction between arabs, on the one hand, and Christians, on
the other, was not employed consistently. as we have already seen,
ha-Ḥerut reports not infrequently on a group deemed to be “Christian
arabs”; the same is true in Ben- Yehuda’s newspapers.^52 For example, in
a December 1908 issue of ha-Ẓevi, the anonymous editor of the “Special
telegrams” section follows up on an earlier report about the Ottoman
interior minister and “the Christian arabs.”^53 the minister had refused
to fulfill “even part of the demands” of “the Christian Arabs” concern-
ing “ ‘the holy grave’ ” (i.e., the Holy Sepulcher).^54 this refusal, writes
ha-Ẓevi, “aroused among Jerusalem’s Christian arabs great agitation.”^55
In 1909 a ha-Ẓevi correspondent with the initials Sh. r. reported on a
violent incident in Jaffa: “Old Jews on their way to pray in the syna-
gogue at sunrise were beaten by a group of drunken Christian Arabs
who were returning from the bars^56 in which they drank excessively
and ran wild.” the particular way in which this author conceives of
these “Christian arabs” is highlighted in the article’s conclusion, in
which he warns that if this phenomenon is left unchecked, it will prove
to be “a disgrace to the nation of arabs [ʿamha-ʿarvim] or to Christian-
ity [noẓriyut].” While the author closes optimistically— “We are mov-
ing forward, toward the light, toward natural progress, toward a future
(^51) the dictionary entry ʿarvi in the Ben- Yehuda dictionary was written later by Moshe
Zvi Segal. See the editor’s note, MBY, vol. 9.
(^52) Ben- Yehuda’s papers pay particular attention to a specific subset of Christian Arabs,
namely, “Orthodox arabs.” See, for instance, ha-Ẓevi, november 25, 1908; December 22,
1908; December 24, 1908; January 4, 1909; March 24, 1909.
(^53) The editors on the masthead at this point were Eliezer Ben- Yehuda, his wife Hemda,
and their son Itamar Ben- avi. presumably one of them edited this section.
(^54) the phrase used is ha-keverha-kadosh, which the author places in quotation marks.
It is not clear whether these marks are meant to be derisive or simply indicate the name
of the location.
(^55) ha-Ẓevi 25:57 (December 20, 1908), 2.
(^56) Literally: “houses.”