Jews and Palestinians in the Late Ottoman Era, 1908-1914

Looks at how Jews and Palestinians set out to 'claim the homeland' during the late Ottoman era

Uncovering a recent history buried by competing nationalist narratives (Jewish, Arab and Palestinian) this book looks at how the late Ottoman era set the stage for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that has lasted for over a century. It seeks to change how we understand the conflict by exploring the period before World War One: a time when a unique sense of Palestinian identity emerged, and many Zionists imagined a Jewish national home within an Ottoman framework.
Further, it argues that in the late Ottoman era Jews and Palestinians were already locked in conflict. The new freedoms introduced by the post-1908 Young Turk Constitutional Revolution exacerbated divisions, rather than serving as a unifying factor. Offering an integrative approach, it considers both communities, together and separately, in order to provide a sophisticated narrative of how the conflict unfolded in its first years.

Key Features
. Explores internal Jewish politics in the Yishuv and the greater Ottoman Empire
. Places Palestinians within the greater Arab and regional context
. Rethinks both Palestinian and Jewish nationalism to transform our understanding of the roots of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
. Based on documents in Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew and French

Louis A. Fishman is an Assistant Professor at Brooklyn College, City University of New York.