France and the Zionist Project in Palestine (1799-1917): A New Vision in Light Of French Diplomatic Documents
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35516/jjha.v19i2.2472Keywords:
Palestine, France, French archives, Zionism, colonialismAbstract
The study clarifies the problematic relationship between colonial France and the Zionist project in Palestine since Napoleon’s attempt to occupy Palestine in 1799 and ending with Britain’s issuance of the Balfour Declaration. The study addresses the following questions: Was this relationship characterized by compatibility or conflict between French interests in Palestine and the Zionist project during that period? Was France a sponsor and supporter of the Zionist project in Ottoman Palestine, as is rumored in many studies? Alternatively, did it see this project as a competitor to its historical colonial ambitions in Palestine, represented by “possessing the Holy Land”? Based on a primary source as the documents of French diplomacy preserved in the French archives, the study showed through analysis, investigation and documented, that the “Zionist project in Palestine” was an unofficial French colonial invention and was not a purely Jewish issue; It started with a “false news report” attributed to Napoleon and ended as a historical fact. France saw the Zionist project in Palestine as a competitor to its colonial project in the region and opposed to its influence and economic and political interests in the region, as it saw the Holy Land as a Catholic land as an extension of the ideology of the Crusades. As a result, at the end of World War I and Britain’s military control over Palestine and its issuance of the Balfour Declaration, France was forced to deal with the existing reality and agree to the Zionist project in Palestine in the hope that it would preserve its interests and influence in Palestine through the French Jews and their own projects under its protection in Palestine. Accordingly, France did not adopt this project, as some believe.
References
Abū al-Qāsim, Sa ‘d allah (1998) ; « al-Taṣriḥāt al-Faransīyah al-Moālīyah lil-Ṣahūnīyah 1917-1918”. Magallat al-Tārīkh al-‘Arabī, Gam‘īyah al-Mu’arikhīyn al-Maghāribah, vol. 7, Pp. 15-30.
Abū Shabakīyah, ‘Adnān Aḥmad Ḥassan (2017); “Gul Cambon's Statement to The Zionist Jew, Nahum Sokolov, June 4, 1917: Historical Studies”. Magallat al-Buḥūth wa-al-dirasāt al-‘Arabīyah, vo, 43, no. 66, Pp. 145-192.
Ammédie, Le R. P. (1866); En Orient. Voyage à Jérusalem, Paris: Putois-Cretté.
Archives du Quai d’Orsay (AQO) / La Courneuve أرشيف وزارة الخارجية الفرنسية / باريس
fonds de la « correspondance politique de 1843 à 1871, Turquie – Jérusalem ». Ces fonds sont numérotés de 1-10. de 1843-1870.
Fonds « Turquie-Jérusalem de la correspondance politique des consuls ». Ces fonds sont numérotés de 11-27. de 1871-1895.
Fonds de la « correspondance politique et commerciale – nouvelle série – Turquie – Palestine ». Ces fonds portent les numéros 129-138. de 1871-1895.
Fonds « Guerre 1914-1918 : Turquie : Syrie-Palestine ». Ces fonds portent les numéros 867 à 886. de septembre 1914 - mars 1918.
Archives diplomatiques de Nantes (CADN) الأرشيف الدبلوماسي الفرنسي / نونت Jerusalem, Fonds de la série A. vol. 1-137.
Benbassa, E. (1999) ; “L’Alliance israélite universelle et les projets juifs en Palestine”. In: De Bonaparte à Balfour, La France, l’Europe occidentale et la Palestine 1799-1917, Domonique Trimbir ed., Pp. 391-405. Paris: CNRS.
Chateaubriand, Franco̧is-Rene (2008) ; Itinéraire de Paris à Jérusalem, Mai ‘Abd el-Karīm Maḥmūd tran., Damascus : Dār al-Madā lil-Thaqāfah wa-al-Nashr.
Eliav, Mordechai (1975); “German Interests and the Jewish Community in Nineteenth-Century Palestine”. In: Studies on Palestine During The Ottoman Period, Moshe Ma’oz ed., Pp. 423-441, Jerusalem: the Magnes Press, the Hebrew University.
Finn, James (2017); Stirring Times, or, Records from Jerusalem Consular Chronicles of 1853 to 1856, Jamāl Abū Ghaidah tran., Johy Manṣūr intr., Beirut: al-Mu’assah al-‘Arabīyah lil-Dirāsāt wa-al-Nashr.
Goren, H. (1999); “Du Conflit des drapeaux à la contestation des hospices: l’Allemagne et la France Catholiques en Palestine à la fin du XIXe siècle”. In: De Bonaparte à Balfour, La France, l’Europe occidentale et la Palestine 1799-1917, Domonique Trimbir ed., Pp. 31-43. Paris: CNRS.
Heacock, Roger (1999); “La Palestine dans les relations internationales (1798-19: Dominique Trimbur et Ran Aronsohn (dir.), De Bonaparte à Balfour, la France, l’Europe occidentale et la Palestine 1779-1917, Pp.: 31-43, Paris: CNRS.
al-Ḥalāq, Ḥassān (1990); Mauqif al-Dawlah al-‘Uthmānīyah min al-Ḥarakah al-Ṣahūnīyah, Beirut: Dār al-Hudā, 2nd ed.
al-Jabūrī, Nawār (2015); al-Nashāṭ al-Qunṣūlī al-Farancī fī al-Quds al-Sharīf 1840-1900, ‘Ammān : Dār wa-Maktabat al-Ḥāmis lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘.
Jacobs, Joseph and Forsyth, John (1902); “The Damacus Affair of 1840 and the Jews of America”. American Jewish Historical Society, No. 10, Pp. 119-128.
Jarīs, Ṣabrī (20150 ; Tārīkh al-Ṣahūnīyah (1862-1900), vol.1, Ram allah : Markaz Abḥāth Munaẓamat al-Taḥrīr al-Falasṭīnīyah, 2nd ed.
Jbārah, Taisīr (1998); Tārīkh Falasṭīn, Ram allah : Dār al-Shurūq, 2nd ed.
Kāmil, Magdī (2014); The Rothschilds: The merchants, wars, revolutions, and the making of fortunes: Money when it creates a state from nothing, Damascus-Cairo: al-Kitāb al-‘Arabī.
Kawtharānī, Wajīh (1983); “France, Palestine, and Zionism at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century: A Reading of French Foreign Ministry Documents”. The Third International Conference on the History of the Levant: Palestine, Jerusalem, the Geography of Palestine and its Civilization, the History of Palestine, Amman: University of Jordan, vol. 3, Pp. 539-631.
Kawtharānī, Wajīh (2013); The Levant at the beginning of the 20" Century: Demography, Economy, Palestine and the Zionist Project: A Reading of French Diplomatic Documents, Doḥa : Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.
Laurence, Henry (1998); Bonaparte and Islam, Bonaparte and the Jewish State, Bashīr al-Sibā‘ī tran., Cairo: Miṣr al-‘Arabīyah lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘.
Laurens, Henry (1999); La Question de Palestine: L’Invention de la Terre Sainte, Tome 1, Paris: Fayard.
Laurence, Henry (2006); The Question of Palestine: The Invention of the Holy Land, Bashīr al-Sibā‘ī tran., vol. 1, Cairo: al-Majlis al-A‘lā lil-Thaqāfah.
Ma‘oz, Moshe (1975); “Changes in the Position of the Jewish Communities of Palestine and Syria in the Mid-Nineteenth Century”. In: Studies on Palestine During The Ottoman Period. Pp.142-163, Moshe Ma‘oz ed., Jerusalem: the Magnes Press, the Hebrew University.
Maḥmūd, Amīn (1983); “al-Mas’alah al-Yahūdīyah”. The Third International Conference on the History of the Levant, ‘Ammān : University of Jordan.
Maḥmūd, Amīn (1984); “Jewish Settlement Projects from the French Revolution to the End of World War I”. ‘Ālam al-Ma’rifah Magazine, no. 74, Kuwait: National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters.
Muller–Cohen, R. (1999); “ De la Restauration au second Empire: quatre consuls, une seule politiques (1843-1868)”. In: De Bonaparte à Balfour, La France, l’Europe occidentale et la Palestine 1799-1917, Domonique Trimbir ed., Pp. 45-57. Paris: CNRS.
Muller–Cohen, R. (2005) ; “Les Juifs “Moghrabi” en Palestine 1830-1903, les enjeux de la protection française”, in: Archives Juives, dossier: Juifs du Maghreb entre Orient et Occident, no. 38/2, 2e trimestre, Pp. 28-46.
Muller–Cohen, R. (2015); “Christians and Jews in the French Strategy for Ottoman Palestine”. in: ouvrage collectif M. N. Michael, T. Anastassiadis, C. Verdeil (eds.), Religious Communities and Modern Statehood, The Ottoman and Post-Ottoman World at the Age of Nationalism and Colonialism. Pp. 182-212, Berlin: Klaus Schwarz.
al-Na‘imī, Aḥmad Nourī (1997); The Jews and the Ottoman State, Beirut: Dār al-Basheer.
Nicolaides (1873) ; Législation ottomane ou recueil des lois, règlements, ordonnances, traités, capitulations et autre documents officiels de l’Empire Ottoman, vol. 2, Imprimerie frères Nicolaïdes.
al-Rashāidah, Bilāl Shākir (2021); Faransah wa-al-Qaẓīyah al-Falasṭīnīyah min Nablyoun ilā Mācrūn, ‘Ammān: Dār al-Janān lil-Nashr wa-a l-Tawzī‘.
Sarinay, Yusuf (ed.) (2009); Osmanli Belgelerinde Filistin, Istanbul: Basbakanlik Devlet arsivleri Genel Mudurlugu, Osmanli Arsivi Daire Baskanligi, Yayin Nu: 102.
Schölch, Alexander (1990); Palestine in Transformation, 1856-1882: Studies in Social, Economic and Political Development, Kāmil Jamīl al-‘Asalī tran., ‘Amman: Dār al-Hudā.
Sroor, M. (2010a); La métamorphose des institutions de waqfs de Saladin à Jérusalem dans la période ottomane”. Revue d’Histoire Maghrébine, 37éme année, no. 139, Pp. 79-110.
Sroor, M. (2010b); Fondations Pieuses en Mouvement: de la Transformation du Statut de Propriété des biens waqfs à Jérusalem 1858-1917, IREMAM et IFPO.
al-Shanāq, Muḥmūd (2005); al-‘Alaqāt bayn al-‘Arab wa-al-Yahūd fī Falasṭīn 1876-1914, Ḥalḥoul: Maṭba‘at Bābil al-Fanīyah.
al-Sharīf, Māhir and ‘Iṣām, Naṣār (2018); Tārīkh al-Falasṭīnīn wa-Ḥarakatahum al-Waṭanīyah, Beirut: Mu’assat al-Dirāsāt al-falasṭīnīyah.
al-Shourah, Ṣāliḥ ‘Alī (2020); “Britain's Role in Settling Jews in Jerusalem 1838-1917”. Magallat al-Mishkah lil-‘Ulūm al-Insānīyah wa-al-Igtimā‘īyah, vol.7, no. 2, Pp.13-44.
al-Sulaimī, Haīlah (2001); Daur al-Yahūd fī Isqāṭ al-Dawlah al-‘Uthmānīyah, unpublished Ma. ThesisDepartment of Postgraduate Studies in History and Civilization, College of Sharia and Islamic Studies, Umm al-Qurā University, Makkah Al-Mukarramah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Ṣaḥīfat Falasṭīn (9th march 1921); “bayn Syria and Falasṭīn”. (Yāfā), no. 1-368.
Ṣāīgh, Anīs (ed.) (1968); Herzl's Diaries, Hilda Sha‘bān Ṣāīgh tran., Beirut: Markaz Abḥāth Munaẓamat al-Taḥrīr al-Falasṭīnī.
al-Wa‘arī, Nā’ilah (2007); The Role of Foreign Consulates in Jewish Immigration and Settlement in Palestine 1840-1914, ‘Ammān: Dār al-Shorouq.
Young, G. (1905); Corps de droit ottoman: recueil des codes, lois, règlements, ordonnances et actes les plus importants du droit intérieur, et d’études sur le droit coutumier de l’Empire Ottoman, vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon.
