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Global histories a student journal

The Struggle Between and : Between Class and State in Russia and Historic Author: Mirjam Limbrunner

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/GHSJ.2019.334

Source: Global Histories, Vol. 5, No. 2 (November 2019), pp. 58-88. ISSN: 2366-780X

Copyright © 2019 Mirjam Limbrunner

License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Publisher information: ‘Global Histories: A Student Journal’ is an open-access bi-annual journal founded in 2015 by students of the M.A. program Global History at Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. ‘Global Histories’ is published by an editorial board of Global History students in association with the Freie Universität Berlin.

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The Struggle between Communism and Zionism: Jewish Identity between Class and State in Revolutionary Russia and Historic Palestine

by MIRJAM LIMBRUNNER M i r j a m L b u n e ABSTRACT

Since the end of the 19th century, Jewish-Socialist Russians have played a major part in the development of Zionist thinking and of . However, their idea of building | a in Palestine was fiercely opposed by non- T h e S Jewish Russian Socialist on the one hand and by anti-Socialist Zionists on the other. How did these Russian reconcile t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z their Socialist ideology with their Zionist identity? And, after many of them had emigrated to Palestine, how did it influence their relationship with the Arabs and the British during the early 20th century? To understand the Socialist-Zionist worldview of that time, the emergence of modern political parties in the Tsarist Empire and the question of Jewish alignments during the Bolshevik will be examined in the first part. The second section analyses ’s early writing “The National Question and the Class Struggle” which attempts to build a synthesis between and Zionism—two hitherto opposing ideologies. Lastly, the fate of the Socialist-Zionist Poale party in Ottoman and later will be traced, looking at how it coped with the realities on the ground and with the Third .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mirjam Limbrunner completed her Undergraduate Degree at the University of Erfurt, Germany, where she studied International Relations and History. Before and during her studies, she traveled to Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan several times. Recently, she spent a semester abroad at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and completed a Junior Scholar term at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She is now doing her MA studies in International Criminology at Hamburg University.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 59 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Ahdut HaAvoda WZO “Labour Union”, Jewish Labour Union World Zionist Organization, non- (1919-1930) governmental organization promoting Zionism (1897 – present) Bund General Jewish Labour Bund (1897- JNF 1920) , Zionist Organization to buy and develop land Comintern in historic Palestine and later Israel t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z Third Communist International (1919– (1901 – present) 1943) T h e S | YKP (Yevsektsiya) Hagana anti-Zionist Jewish Section of the “defense”, Jewish defense Soviet (1918-1929) organization and forerunner of the Israeli Defense Forces (1920-1948)

M i r j a m L b u n e Settlement”, Jewish Population of Palestine before the foundation of “The Young Worker”, Jewish workers’ Israel party (1905-1930)

Histadrut Israeli General Federation of Trade Unions (1920 – present)

KPP Komunistische Partey fun Palestine

PCP Palestine Communist Party (1923-1943)

Poale Zion “Workers of Zion”, Socialist-Zionist workers movement in Russia, Palestine and other places in the Jewish (1903-1919)

60 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e INTRODUCTION Long before Jewish immigrants from Western Israel is considered and the arrived in a Western-democratic and large numbers, several generations “americanophil” State, quite in of immigrants from | contrast to the Arab region at large, and Russia laid the groundwork for T h e S that has received support from the building the Israeli State, founded its t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z and later Russia since first agrarian settlements and many of the beginning of the Cold War. Since its institutions such as the , the end of the Second World War and the Israeli . Countless of the polarization into East and West its leaders, among them David Ben- Israel has been a close U.S.-American Gurion, or Moshe Sharett, ally.1 Even before that, the British were born in the involvement in pre-State Palestine is and experienced to some extent remembered mainly for their support the beginnings of the revolutionary of a Jewish homeland—one only has period. They arrived in Palestine to think of such powerful statements not only as Zionists but as fervent as the . The Arab Socialists. How did they adopt and population in Palestine, on the other reconcile these two ideologies in the hand, let down by the British and the first place? How did their worldview West, had found its “natural” ally in evolve after having arrived in the Soviets. However, the situation Palestine, more specifically vis-à-vis in Palestine before 1948 was much the Yishuv, the Arab population, and more ambiguous than that. Since the Communist International? And having spent some time in a does this Socialist-Zionist history still a few years back I have been aware matter today? of the Socialist traces in Israeli In this paper, I aim to examine society and have heard some stories Socialist-Zionism’s ideological and from third-generation Russian and political sustainability by answering other Eastern European immigrants the aforementioned questions. whose ancestors came to Palestine Therefore, the Socialist-Zionists’ as Socialists. However, Israel’s rich founding text—Borochov’s The Socialist Russian heritage seems to National Question and the Class have been largely forgotten. Struggle—and the history of key organizations in both Tsarist Russia and Mandate Palestine, will be 1 According to the latest Congressional Research analyzed, ranging from the 1880s Service Report, “Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of military assistance from the United until the 1930s. I intend to draft a States since World War II.” Jeremy M. Sharp, concise history of Socialist-Zionism “U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel,” Federation of American Scientists, updated August 7, 2019, both in Russia and Palestine by https://fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL33222. merging research from separate pdf; for bilateral treaties see e.g. “Friendship, Commerce and Navigation Treaty” (1951) and “Agreement on industrial investment guaranty program” (1952).

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 61 scholarly fields2 and including emergence of modern political my own observations in order to parties among the Tsarist Empire’s contribute a new perspective to the Jewish population and ends with a debate about Zionism in the context brief outline of Jewish alignments of the current Israeli-Palestinian during the Bolshevik revolution. All Conflict. The paper is organized into this historical backdrop is needed to three main sections: fully contextualize Ber Borochov’s The first and second early writing The National Question parts deal with my first question, and the Class Struggle, which will particularly how Zionist identities be analyzed as an intermezzo part, and Socialist ideologies came to so to speak. Borochov attempted to t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z be intertwined. The first section build a synthesis between Marxism begins with describing the socio- and Zionism—two hitherto opposing T h e S | economic situation as well as the ideologies. His writings constitute the most orthodox ideological basis of the Socialist-Zionist worldview. The 2 Existing literature on Communism and Zionism third section sets out to discuss my could be divided into two different groups: works that are concerned with the Soviet- further resulting questions, namely Internationalist perspective and those that M i r j a m L b u n e what happened to the Socialist- focus on the Jewish-Zionist one. While they all contribute to a more diverse understanding Zionists’ ideology when faced with of Zionism and point out the existence of the realities in Palestine. The fate different, non-hegemonic , they otherwise differ from each other in terms of the Palestinian Socialist-Zionist of scholarly interest. The former is usually set party will be traced. From within a wider geopolitical context of Soviet policy towards the Middle East conflict and its founding in 1906, continuing covers the time period from 1918/19 until or through the years leading up to transcending the founding of the State of Israel (see e.g. Walid Sharif, “Soviet Marxism and during the British and Zionism,” Journal of Palestine Studies Mandate, the original Poale Zion 6, no. 3 (Spring 1977): 77–97; Johan Franzén, “Communism versus Zionism: The Comintern, passed through many inner-party Yishuvism, and the Palestine Communist Party,” splits and ideological transformations in Journal of Palestine Studies 36, no. 2 (Jan. 2007): 12-15). The latter, largely written by triggered by developments within Western-Jewish historians, is set within a wider the Yishuv, in regard to the Arab context of , studies or the Jewish-Arab Conflict. It focuses either population as well as by its affiliation more or less exclusively on the pre-Palestine with the Communist International. period in Russia until 1918/19 (see e.g. Jonathan Frankel, Prophecy and Politics. , Eventually, my conclusion addresses , and the Russian Jews, 1862-1917 the question of whether and to what (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1984)) or it only discusses the post-revolutionary extent this Socialist Zionist history period in Palestine (see e.g. Jacob Hen-Tov, still bears value today, despite the Communism and Zionism in Palestine during the British Mandate (New Brunswick, N.J.: fact that it can be considered a failed Transaction Publishers, 2012); Mario Offenberg, history. I argue that Socialist-Zionism Kommunismus in Palästina: Nation und Klasse in der antikolonialen Revolution (Meisenheim was an unsustainable ideology due am Glan: Hain, 1975)). Lastly, the language to the clashes between its theoretical barrier should be mentioned. Since I am neither a Russian- nor fluent Hebrew-or Arabic-speaker, foundations and the socio- and my literature research was confined to English- geopolitical realities in Mandate speaking works and translations.

62 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e Palestine. While Socialist-Zionism trading. Within a , was maybe an idiosyncratic but still however, there would be no more feasible identity project in Eastern discrimination against any social Europe, it failed to provide a viable or religious group, since everyone framework for action on the ground. would adopt the same universal | Despite its utopian nature, the paper proletarian identity.3 T h e S concludes that Socialist-Zionist Even though Marx had in t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z history is still relevant today since it mind nineteenth-century Western opens up a new perspective on the European Jewry when formulating current debate about Zionism and his theories, they were later adopted the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. by the early Soviets without many alterations. They did not, however, represent the reality of Jewish THE ROOTS OF SOCIALIST life in Russia. To understand the ZIONIST IN RUSSIA social, cultural background of those Russian-Jewish thinkers who laid 1. THE EMERGENCE OF JEWISH the groundwork for socialist-Zionist NATIONALISM AND SOCIALISM IN THE movements in Palestine, one has to TSARIST EMPIRE look at the situation of the Eastern Jewish population during the 1880s. As the founding father of Even before the emergence Communism, formulated of Herzl’s political Zionism, Russian the cornerstone of Socialist thinking Jews adopted the conviction that a about Zionism. Marx, who was large-scale exodus and the building himself born into a Jewish family, of a Jewish State was the only way never identified as Jewish, neither to free the Jewish people. In Western in a religious nor a cultural sense, Europe at the time, many Jews still but still felt compelled to address felt very strongly about their national the “” in his early identities.4 Jonathan Frankel and writings. In line with his historic- Walid Sharif both accentuate the materialist worldview he regarded fact that “the Jews in Russia [in as the cause for Anti-Semitism and contrast to the enlightened European Jewish isolation their economic Jewry] were still living in a quasi- attachment to and money. feudal medieval society”5 when By giving up their bourgeois way of Marxist thinking spread towards life, Marx proclaimed, Jews would the end of the nineteenth century. be able to rid themselves of their minority status and would no longer be subjected to discrimination. 3 See Walter Laqueur, A (New York: Schocken Books, 2003); Walid Sharif, From a communist point of view, “Soviet Marxism and Zionism,” Journal of being Jewish first and foremost Palestine Studies 6, no. 3 (Spring 1977): 77–97. 4 See Walter Laqueur, A History of Zionism. represented a social class that was 5 Sharif. “Soviet Marxism,” 81. See also for intimately linked to finance and Jewish Life in Tsarist Russia: Jonathan Frankel, Prophecy and Politics.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 63 The majority of Eastern Jews lived whereas 56% of non-Jews were in the ghettos of western Russia, working in agriculture and only called the . Only 16% in trading and manufacture.8 a fraction of Jews with higher Considering the Jewish occupational education were given permission and economic realities that differed to live outside the Pale in cities like so enormously from that of the St. Petersburg and Moscow. The non-Jewish populations, it doesn’t numbers of Jews living in poverty, surprise much that Jewish socialists isolation, and unemployment within would soon realize that the popular the Settlement grew immensely socialist movements did not address throughout the second half of the many of the challenges the Jewish t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z nineteenth century and constituted masses were facing and therefore more than half of world Jewry; 5.2 saw the need to come up with a T h e S | million according to the Russian Jewish version of Socialism. Empire’s census of 1897.6 The Pale Russian-Jewish political of Settlement was mostly made up activities during most of the of rural to town-sized communities, nineteenth century were mainly economically less developed and confined to a small elite circle

M i r j a m L b u n e isolated from the Empire’s cultural of the Jewish intelligentsia in St. and political centers. With the Petersburg and its members were population size grew the difficulty mostly occupied with philanthropic of finding employment, which was issues and trying to gain a favorable aggravated by the limited possibilities position in the eyes of the Tsar. of geographical dispersion. The term Inherent in the way that this Jewish Luftmensch was coined during this elite did politics was the belief that time, a metaphor describing one had to work and network within people living “on thin air”; mainly day the system and that the laborers who did not have any steady eventually would find a solution to means of income and were forced the Jewish Question. In that regard, to move to wherever they could find the of 1881 constituted a a job for the day.7 Slightly more than watershed.9 This unprecedented eighty percent of those Jews that did wave of overt anti-Semite violence have an occupation were working in lasted for about a year and affected commerce and manufacture as the more than 200 towns and villages two single most Jewish-dominated inside the Pale. When the Russian sectors. With only 3% of peasants, government, instead of taking agriculture constituted the most political action against antisemitism, underrepresented vocational field legitimized the violent outbreaks and among the Jewish population, issued a new series of discriminatory decrees against Jews, known as

6 Cited in Robert E. Mitchell, Human Geographies Within the Pale of Settlement (New York, NY: Springer, 2018), 52. 8 Cited in Mitchell, Human geographies, 153. 7 Mitchell, Human geographies, 47-69. 9 See Frankel, Prophecy and Politics, 49ff.

64 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e the May Laws of 1882, ambitions between the objectives of Zionism for emancipation and autonomy and its own aspirations, such as came to the forefront of the already keeping down the number of Jews”12 established Jewish political life and diverting their attention away from and spread among the hitherto un- revolutionary anti-Tsarist movements. | politicized masses. The pogroms also As for Jewish socialists, many of them T h e S triggered what is known in Israeli became active in Russian Socialist t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z historiography as the First Aliya, movements and did not identify the first—at least partly—organized with Zionist ideas. To them, Zionism wave of immigration into Ottoman couldn’t have been further away from Palestine, which was still considered their realities, something that was small compared to the ones to come. being brokered by the rich of Europe Mainly two political streams who were not concerned with the spread among Russian-Jewish day-to-day struggles of the working communities: Socialism and Zionism. class. Soon, however, many Jewish Both ideologies offered an alternative socialists felt that the Jewish masses to waiting for change to be triggered faced difficulties that were not being from above or to retreat to traditional addressed by the socialists’ programs. . Rather, they both promised Whereas the majority of populist radical social change through self- Russian politics was directed towards emancipation, a term that entered the needs of workers and peasants, Russian-Jewish discourse through the Jewish communities struggled ’s pamphlet Auto- with high unemployment rates and Emancipation, published in 1982.10 In anti-Semitism. Especially after Russian the beginning, Zionist organizations Socialist leaders failed to make a in Russia were directed towards the clear statement of solidarity with their middle-class whereas socialist ideas Jewish comrades in the wake of the corresponded with the communities pogroms, Jewish socialists started to of the poor Jewish masses. When question their allegiances.13 Socialism the first Zionist Conference in Basle and Jewish nationalism began to convened in 1897, most Zionists merge into political movements such “would have angrily rejected any as the General Jewish Labor Union, in attempt to adulterate Zionism with short, the Bund, which was founded Socialist ideas.”11 In fact, Zionism in 1897 in Vilna and which would have was regarded as anti-revolutionary a profound impact on the Socialist and did not challenge the Tsar or Zionists in Palestine in later years. the prevailing social system. The last Tsarist government, despite its anti-Semite policies, granted it semi- 12 Joseph Goldstein, “The Attitude of the Jewish legal status, since it “saw an overlap and the Russian Intelligentsia to Zionism in the Initial Period (1897-1904),” The Slavonic and East European Review 64, no. 4 (Oct. 1986): 547. 10 Ibid., 2ff. 13 Frankel, Prophecy and Politics. Socialism, 11 Laqueur, A History of Zionism, 270. Nationalism, and the Russian Jews.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 65 2. INNER-JEWISH STRUGGLES IN inner-Jewish Socialist-Zionist battle REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA: THE BUND, broke out in which both parties THE SOCIALIST ZIONISTS, AND THE struggled for majority votes from the ASSIMILATIONISTS Jewish masses in the Pale.16 It was to some extent due With popular political to the activities of the Bund as the parties spreading and gaining more immediate danger to the huge popularity within the Pale of Empire’s integrity that more radical Settlement, the Bundists did not Socialist Zionist movements could remain uncontested for long. The flourish almost unrestrictedly in Bund was mainly concerned with their early stages among Russian- t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z tending to the needs of the Jewish Jewish communities. The Russian and mobilizing the Jewish Socialists, on the other hand, did not T h e S | masses against the oppressive Tsarist see a big difference between the regime. Even though it demanded goals of the Bund and the Zionist Jewish autonomy it fervently endeavor. For them, both were opposed the Zionists. There were ethnic-nationalistic, rejectionist instances when the Bundist press movements that by proclaiming

M i r j a m L b u n e described Zionism as a fouling body a false idea of socialism diverted “crawling toward the proletariat the Jewish masses away from true to it to deviate from the path internationalist class struggle. The of the class struggle.”14 The Bund Bund, however, challenged the wanted its nationalist aspirations to integrity of a centralized Soviet State. be implemented on a federal basis Thus, Marvin S. Zuckerberg remarks within Russian territory, viewing in the preface to Bernard Goldstein’s Zionists as rejectionist, religious Memoir about life as a Bundist in zealots.15 Its main political agitator Russian Poland: “As the great Russian became the Socialist Zionists, who early Social Democrat, Lenin’s argued that the politics of the Bund teacher, Plekhanov, once wittily put did not go far enough—neither on it—‘Bundists?—Zionists who suffer the socialist nor on the nationalist from seasickness.’”17 In hindsight— spectrum—and therefore was not and from a less ideologically ridden able to bring about any change for standpoint—it is safe to say that there the Jewish proletariat that could were indeed more commonalities never come to its full potential between the Bund and the Socialist while remaining in Russia. After the Zionists than either movement would Socialist Zionist Poale Zion party was have wanted to admit. The Bund founded, which will be discussed in detail in the next section, a violent 16 See Laqueur, A History of Zionism, 270-277. 17 Bernard Goldstein, Twenty years with the Jewish Labor Bund: A memoir of interwar 14 Cited in Goldstein, “The Attitude of the Jewish Poland, ed. Marvin Zuckermann (West and the Russian Intelligentsia,” 550. Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 15 See Sharif, “Soviet Marxism.” 2016), xix.

66 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e might have opposed nationalism and democratic state in backward but was nationalistic in many ways. Turkey if Jews were still struggling And the Bundists achievements for civil in Europe? These in struggling for Jewish autonomy Assimilationsts, despite being neither in different spheres of life laid the Zionists nor Socialists are being | groundwork for many of the Socialist included here for two reasons: First— T h e S Zionists’ later institutions in Palestine. ironically enough—their assessment t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z Apart from full Jewish civil rights and of Zionism reaches the same bottom- a trade union, the Bund advocated a line as Marxist orthodoxy when separate school system and laid the stating that assimilation was “the focus on the preservation of Jewish only way to attain self-realization culture rather than religion when it and social emancipation.”19 Second, came to educate its youth. First and the Jewish intelligentsia illustrates foremost, it implemented for the first that even in the period following the time Jewish self-defense units who pogroms of 1881-2 and lasting until evolved into well-organized militias the , not all Jews during the in 1905 and could simply abandon their Russian- 1918. Some leaders of Labor Zionist Jewish identities in exchange for parties and youth movements such radical socialist and/or Zionist ideals. as Yitzhak Tabenkin and Simon Many Jews in this social stratum felt Dubnow grew up inside Bundist an emotional attachment to both structures in Tsarist Russia.18 their Jewish and Russian heritage As much as the Bundists and were still trying to reconcile both and the left-wing Zionists struggled into a synthetic nationalist identity. against each other, they both Accounts of Leib Jaffe,20 a very opposed the assimilationists which prominent Zionist leader who at the were mainly composed of the same time fostered many links into center and right-wing Jewish avant- the Russian cultural elite throughout garde, or—as the socialists would the revolutionary years, as well as call them—the Jewish . Daniel Pasmanik,21 also a Zionist, but Their main argument against a fervent supporter of the counter- Zionism was that a Jewish national revolutionary White movement, state and the estrangement from show that sometimes Russian- Russian nationality would only lead Jewish identities clearly transcended to further isolation of the Jews. In their eyes, Zionism was a religious- utopian, totally irrational endeavor 19 Goldstein, “the Jewish and the Russian Intelligentsia,” 554. that would only lead Jews away from 20 See Brian Horowitz, “Russian-Zionist Cultural Enlightenment and true progress Cooperation, 1916-18: Leib Jaffe and the Russian Intelligentsia,” Jewish Social Studies 13, in the civilized world. How could no. 1 (Fall 2006): 87–109. one build a Jewish autonomous 21 See Taro Tsurumi, “Jewish Liberal, Russian Conservative: Daniel Pasmanik between Zionism and the Anti-Bolshevik White Movement,” Jewish Social Studies 21, no.1 (Fall 18 See Laqueur, A History of Zionism. 40-84. 2015): 151-180.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 67 socio-ethnic camps. Soon after the but among the Labour Zionists in revolution, such complex identities Palestine and the West, that the constructs dissolved. As Brian would finally solve Horowitz argues in his essay “What the Jewish Question, glorifying the is “Russian” in Russian Zionism?: revolutionists as the saviors of the Synthetic Zionism and the Fate Jews freeing them from the of Avram Idel’son” that: “1917-18 oppression and backwardness of the represented a tragic watershed. Tsarist Empire.24 , The Bolshevik victory ended an one of the leading Zionists of the first era. To succeed in the post-war era, generation, proclaimed in an article one either had to transform oneself for the Zionist Review in 1917: t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z entirely or leave the scene.”22 The Russian Revolution is a T h e S | landmark in Jewish history which 3. JEWISH ALIGNMENTS DURING THE promises a brighter future for our OCTOBER REVOLUTION sorely-tried nation. Russia, which contains more than half of the Considering the fact that Jewish population of the world

M i r j a m L b u n e Jews made up only a small fragment within its borders, is passing from of the general Russian population serfdom to freedom. The country their actual impact on the October in which a Jewish tradition—a Revolution was perceived as complete Jewish life with its disproportionally high. hopes and aspirations—has been Demonstrations and violence against built up is passing from a state the would oftentimes of medieval reaction to that of turn into pogroms against Jews and extreme modern . Such, therefore only exacerbated the briefly, is the momentous change Jewish problem.23 This prevailing which is taking place.25 antisemitism among the “Whites” was an additional motivation for Jews to Since the support of the generally side with the Bolsheviks Pale regions was considered a that were considered the least anti- strategically important factor in the Semitic among all of the political Bolsheviks’ war aims the military movements. It was a commonly held leadership played into these beliefs belief, not only among Jews in Russia in order to recruit Jews into their ranks. A much smaller but still considerable number of middle- 22 Brian Horowitz, “What is “Russian” in Russian Zionism?: Synthetic Zionism and the Fate of Avram Idel’son,” in Russian idea - Jewish presence: essays on Russian-Jewish intellectual life, (Brighton, Mass.: Academic 24 See Anita Shapira, “Labour Zionism and the Studies Press, 2013): 70. October Revolution,” Journal of Contemporary 23 See Oleg V. Budnitskiĭ, Russian Jews History 24, no. 4 (Oct. 1989): 626f. between the Reds and the Whites, 1917-1920 25 Chaim Weizmann, “The Russian Revolution and (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Zionism,” The Zionist Review 1, no. 1 (May 1917): 2012), 34ff. 4.

68 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e class Jews feared the degeneration take up any profession and even of Russian culture, morale, and work as state officials, as long as economy under a revolutionary they gave up all of their Jewish government which would, eventually, religious or cultural practices and also threaten Jewishness and devoted themselves only to the | therefore sided with the White Soviet State. With the publication of T h e S Movement. But also among the the Balfour Declaration, however, t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z socialist Jewish movements, some the Zionist dream of a Jewish State remained critical of the Reds. As the in Palestine did not seem so utopian Jewish socialist Bernard Goldstein anymore. In addition—and contrary describes in his memoir, many to all expectations—Anti-Semite comrades felt drawn towards the discrimination under the Reds did not Bolshevik ideology, which he saw as suddenly seize to exist. In fact, a new a rather concerning trend: series of Jewish pogroms occurred immediately after the Bolsheviks The Bundist comrade who took power from the provisional became pro-Bolshevik government in October. With this turn did not simply change his of events, the left-wing Zionists in opinion. He suddenly became Russia rapidly gained popularity at the unrecognizable, an altogether expense of the Bundists. While the different person. In the factional Bund was still clinging onto the hope of fight, betrayal, trickery, and a normalization of events, urging their disloyalty became his weapons. voters “to keep faith in Russia’s future Painfully we witnessed how and in the Constituent Assembly,”28 the Bund spirit of comradeship, anti-Semitism by rampaging Bolshevik the feeling of belonging to soldiers paired with worsening one family, began to dissipate. economic conditions and the prospect In its place came distrust and of a long hard winter impelled many suspicion.26 former anti-Zionist socialist Jews to turn to the Zionists’ promise of a Bolshevik ideology left no brighter future in Palestine. The Zionist room for identities that comprised Review reported that during the anything more or less than October 1917—elections for the newly proletarian internationalism. As established Jewish communal authority Budnit︠s︡kii sums up the outcome in Moscow the had of the revolution, “[t]he Jews finally gained three times as much support achieved equality . . . having ceased as any other .29 All this to be Jews.”27 Under the Bolshevik translated into the hitherto highest administration, Soviet Jews could

28 Michael Hickey, “Revolution on the Jewish 26 Goldstein, Twenty years with the Jewish Labor Street: Smolensk, 1917,” Journal of Social Bund,” 10. History 31, no. 4 (Summer 1998): 839. 27 Budnitskiĭ, Russian Jews between the Reds and 29 “Moscow Elections,” The Zionist Review 1, no. 7 the Whites,” 412. (Nov. 1917): 167.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 69 immigration numbers into Palestine by be mentioned, before dealing with people that were hugely impacted by Borochov and his theories in greater Socialist ideals— and highly motivated detail, that the ideological spearhead to put these ideals into practice. The of Socialist Zionism was, in fact, “Third Alyia” came to be considered Nahman Syrkin. Even before Ber more radically left than the second Borochov and the 1905 revolution he immigration wave, at the turn of stirred outrage at Zionist congresses the century. Having experienced by presenting his Marxist views and the turmoil and, eventually, the disdain for the bourgeois lifestyle. disappointment of the Russian Syrkin, however, was not remotely as revolution, these new immigrants successful in establishing a cohesive t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z wanted to finally bring their program or enough support for vision of a Jewish state to life.30 his cause. He might have simply been T h e S | slightly ahead of his time, as Frankel argues.32 MARXIST RATIONALE AND Therefore, we are going to ZIONIST PATHOS: BER trace what could be considered BOROCHOV AND THE POALE the Socialist Zionist breakthrough

M i r j a m L b u n e ZION PARTY PROGRAM thanks to “Borochovism” in the early nineteenth century. Just like After having discussed the the Bund came to be regarded beginnings of popular political parties in academic historiography as an in the Pale of Settlement during the eventual result of the “Haskala,” the 1880s, it is time to introduce the Jewish enlightenment period after establishment of the socialist Bund the pogroms of 1881, “Borochovism” and its many struggles against inner- emerged during the first revolution and outer-Jewish political opponents in 1905. Frankel points out in leading up to the Russian Revolution. his book that Ber Borochov was The Jewish Social Democratic exceptionally central to the socialist , called in short Poale Zionists’ party doctrine and spirit, Zion (Hebrew for “Workers of lending it his dynamism, charisma Zion”), was founded in 1906, about and ideological zeal, which stood in a decade after the General Jewish contrast to the other, more inclusive Labour Union (Bund). It only gained and collectively organized socialist significance in Palestine when the groups. He further describes third wave of immigrants arrived Borochov as “the peripatetic agitator after the end of the Revolution and and referant, the ever resourceful World War I—the same year that teoretik and indefatigable praktik, Ber Borochov, Poale Zion’s most the party champion relentlessly prominent figure, died.31 It should exposing the doctrinal errors of

30 See Laqueur, A History of Zionism, 308-314. 31 See Frankel, Prophecy and Politics, 329f. 32 See ibid., 133f.

70 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e rival organizations”33—hence the for the Zionist cause.35 Only after personified term “Borochovism” to the revolution of 1905, he began describe the essence of orthodox to openly adopt a revolutionary Socialist Zionism. The first phase of ideology, advocating a synthesis Borochov’s political career began between Marxism and Zionism. | when he had barely graduated high Borochov managed to walk the fine T h e S school, after meeting Menachem line between stirring debate and t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z Ussishkin, one of the most famous objection, while never alienating Russian Zionists, for whom he worked himself completely from either the as a very gifted spokesperson for general Zionist or the Communists’ the pro-Palestinian Zionist cause. In camp. He made it his mission to those beginning years, Borochov prove with all his analytical might was touring all across the Pale of that Socialism and Zionism, hitherto Settlement, holding speeches among considered as inherently opposing, workers and giving lectures in Jewish were actually inherently intertwined intelligentsia circles, constantly and that one could not be reached moving from one place to the next. without the other. To put it in other He soon had made himself a name words, for him, Zionism was the among the lower class as a “man of Jewish pre-requisite for Socialism. the people” who could sway even The National Question the most critical anti-Zionist in his and the Class Struggle (1905) was favor, as well as in well-educated published one year before Borochov conservative-Zionist circles where formulated Our Platform, which he was respected for his debating was adopted as Poale Zion’s party skills and his expertise in philosophy program in Russia. Almost identical and Jewish history. He remained in their claims, Borochov’s earlier in constant correspondence with work spells out his argument for the Ussishkin, keeping him updated synthesis of Marxism and nationalism about the conditions and political the most thoroughly, hence why landscape of every place he visited, I chose his “Nation and Class” eagerly awaiting further instructions essay to trace his line of thought, by his employer and mentor.34 As one which became so essential for the might wonder, Borochov’s Marxist Poale Zion’s ideological struggle in ideology did not play a very dominant Palestine. role during that early period in the The fact that Borochov public sphere. As Walter Laqueur starts out his whole argumentation implies, Borochov initially kept his with a quote from Marx couldn’t be socialist convictions separated more revealing. Large extracts of from his work as a political agitator his essay could very easily be taken from a schoolbook on Marx’ Historic Materialism: All men are bound by

33 Ibid., 330. 34 Ibid., 329ff. 35 Laqueur, A History of Zionism, 275f.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 71 the relations of production between of production between classes them and the quality of these but due to unequal conditions of relations creates a division of society production between societies. Most into different classes. Classes are importantly, Borochov postulates determined by the ownership of and that “[t]he national struggle is waged access to the means of production. not for the preservation of cultural Due to these inequalities, the societal values but for the control of material split exists largely between the possessions, even though it is very bourgeoisie that own all means of often conducted under the banner production and the proletariat, of spiritual slogans. Nationalism that has lost all ownership is always related to the material t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z thereof. Borochov now transfers all possessions of the nation, despite that Marx said about class differences the various masks, which it may T h e S | onto differences between societies. assume outwardly.” His first deviation from orthodox Borochov defines conditions Marxist theory, therefore, is based of production as the material upon the assumption that it can be resources a society has at their considered “common knowledge” disposal, namely territory, and

M i r j a m L b u n e that several societies exist: “If this deriving from that, the means were not so, we could not speak of to protect its territory, political an English bourgeoisie, for example, institutions and so forth. However, and a German bourgeoisie or an he also remarks that over time American proletariat and a Russian the anthropological and historical proletariat. Then we would speak distinctiveness of one social group only of mankind as a whole, or at influences these conditions of least of civilized humanity, and no production as well. A society that more.”36 He argues that there exists is continuously subjected to the a two-fold split of humanity: the same conditions of production split along class lines and the split over time develops into a people. along societies, the latter of which If peoples further acquire a group has so far been largely ignored consciousness of their shared by Marxism. These differences conditions of production they between societies “give rise to the evolve into nations, being the more whole national question.” Just like sophisticated version of peoples. class struggle, the national struggle According to Borochov, a feudal aims at abolishing inequalities that system cannot produce lasting arise not due to different means national consciousness since it lacks “harmonious wholeness in the conditions of production.” Only within 36 This and the following citations are taken from an English translation of Borochov’s text: “The a capitalist system nationalism in its National Question and the Class Struggle by more permanent form can develop. In Ber Borochov 1905,” Marxists Internet Archive Library website, accessed July 6, 2019, https:// this sense, Borochov breaks with the www.marxists.org/archive/borochov/1905/ idea that nations are ancient, mythical national-class.htm.

72 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e entities that exist on their own, which means having a territorial property traditional Zionism, and most national that translates into political power. narratives for that matter, were based For the great bourgeoisie the upon. He states that “[t]hose who nation constitutes the “operating berate nationalism in general as base” from which to struggle for | something obsolete and , domination of the world market and T h e S as a traditional thing, are remarkably for the middle-class, a nation mainly t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z shallow and ignorant”37—which is provides a consumers’ market. For clearly aimed towards the Communist the proletariat, however, national mainstream belief. To refute their territory provides a secure workplace. most common argument against Therefore, “[n]o one is bound to nationalism, he clearly distances accept the widely spread fallacy, himself and his idea of national which claims that the proletariat consciousness from “nationalistic really bears no relationship to propaganda” of the oppressing ruling the territory, and consequently class. The difference is, he proclaims, possesses neither a national sense that national thinking recognizes nor national interests.” Consequently, the disparities between classes the proletariat as the most vulnerable within every social system, which of the classes is especially concerned nationalistic ideology tries to obscure. with the national question and the It is this entirely different concept securing of sufficient conditions of of a nation which Borochov and production. Whenever “abnormal Socialist Zionism postulate that will conditions of productions” prevail, make it so difficult for them to accept such as the lack of a territory, the the Communists’ hostile attitude national question becomes more towards their efforts in Palestine. acute and the struggle between Borochov attacks the ideology classes subsides. Only as long as of the socialist Bund very bluntly, “normal” conditions of production can accusing it of inconsistency from a be provided for, the class struggle historical materialist point of view: will resume, therefore creating “To be concerned, however, about antagonisms between national and the struggle without considering the class struggle. Only “among the most conditions of the struggle-base and progressive elements” of a nation, the workplace is stupidity.” the organized proletariat, “genuine Lastly, in his essay, Borochov nationalism” develops and seeks “to elaborates on the connection restore to normal its conditions and between nationalism and the relations of production.” Only then, proletariat. Each class, according to the class struggle can be pursued him, attaches different significance and fully exercised. onto its national territory. For the To end this section about landlords, being part of a nation Borochov’s theory on nation and class, I am going to touch upon a few inconsistencies that arise from 37

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 73 his arguments and that already society, can only follow as a second foreshadow the many challenges that step.38 Nevertheless, the fact that he the Socialist Zionists were confronted considers the creation of a Jewish with in their struggle in Palestine. state necessary to fulfill this eventual Naturally, Borochov speaks goal might not be so comprehensible of “the Jews” as one sufficiently for non-Jewish communists in Tsarist coherent social group, a people with Russia for whom the national forces a national consciousness. Zionism, have hitherto always represented the defined as the Jewish national enemy. struggle for material conditions of Following Borochovist production requires a short-term rationale, the colonization of t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z allegiance between the bourgeoisie Palestine had to be taken upon and the proletarian class against by the Jewish proletariat and was T h e S | outside forces that deny them equal rationalized as the historic materialist conditions of production. Only when consequence of the Jewish people’s the national struggle is solved can need for territory. His entire argument a nation be concerned with class is based upon the idea of a Jewish struggle. At the same time, Borochov workers proletariat as the central

M i r j a m L b u n e seeks the support of the Russian agitator for change. However, communists, which in his own among the Jews of Tsarist Russia, wording, belong to a different people. as discussed in more detail in the Why would he expect them, in times first section, there was no Jewish of national struggle, to compromise proletariat in the Marxist sense. Most on their material conditions of Jews were either working in the trade production by supporting large-scale and manufacturing sectors, were emigration of workforce? simply poor and unemployed due Even though Borochov makes to the situation in the Pale or were a strong point when formulating his part of the educated intelligentsia. concept of a nation as a construct Borochov wanted to create a Jewish of the modern capitalist system he proletariat in Palestine by addressing remains inside the very confines a Jewish proletariat in Russia that not that, as a Marxist, he eventually yet existed. seeks to overthrow. A classless Borochov also denied any society means a nation-less society. emotional attachment to Palestine Borochov does not disagree with this or any other territory stemming from fundamental communist premise, a historic or mythical connection to which is why he talks of Zionism the land. This begs the question: only as the “minimalist program”, Why Palestine? Borochov, for a very a preliminary step concerned with long time, does not provide any the present needs of the Jewish workers. The “maximalist program” that is concerned with the ultimate 38 Ber Borochov, “Was wollen die Poale Zion? goal of an internationalist proletarian (1906),“ Das Klasseninteresse und die nationale Frage, (Berlin: Hechalutz, 1932), 46-61.

74 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e answers for this heatedly debated that neither granted them a strong issue among Zionists. Over a decade enough national consciousness nor later, in his last recorded speech an exclusive territory. titled Palestine in our Program and Finally, how does Borochov Tactics,39 Borochov gives more legitimize his sentimental outlook on | substantial reasons why Palestine Palestine and Zionism in 1917, when T h e S has always had his full support. In this a decade before he had warned his t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z speech, he also adopts a position followers of too much bourgeois that seems very much at odds with emotion? One could say he was some of his earlier statements. He adapting to new realities. As he refers to the Jewish state as “Eretz mentions himself at the beginning of Israel, the Jewish homeland” and his speech, much had changed since overall speaks in more sentimental, the party’s founding. The “experiment emotional terms about the Zionist of labor” in Palestine had matured project. He argues that Palestine and extended the party’s program has a much-underrated population from a minimalist approach to a capacity—according to some maximal minimalist one, meaning alleged research undertaken by that beyond securing the territory, his party colleague Yitzhak Ben the proletariat wanted to be actively Zvi. Furthermore, he continues, involved in developing the Jewish the fact that the land would soon homeland. Even though Borochov be without any native jurisdiction had become more emotionally after the collapse of the Ottoman attached to Palestine and Zionism, Empire meant that it would require he continued to elaborate Marxist assistance in developing a more rationalizations, bending his theory productive agricultural economy from over backward to best fit his growing which the Arabs would profit as well. Zionist pathos and the activities of These arguments do not differ much the Poale Zion members in Palestine. from the official Zionist narrative of the time but seem quite detached from the communist standpoint that THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN considered the Arab population as COMMUNISM AND ZIONISM IN the victims of outside intervention PRE-STATE PALESTINE rather than their beneficiaries. But even if following Borochov’s initial 1. THEORY MEETS REALITY: POALE theory he never considered the ZION’S EARLY YEARS IN PALESTINE Arab population in Palestine to be equal to the Jewish people, since the As the section above has former still lived in a feudal system shown Borochov’s greatest strength and at the same time greatest weakness was his fixation on theory 39 Ber Borochov, “Palästina in unserem Programm und in unserer Taktik (1917),” Das and abstraction. His writings reflect Klasseninteresse und die nationale Frage his very analytical way of thinking, but (Berlin: Hechalutz), 99-103.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 75 also reveal how naïve and detached This somewhat flippant from realities on the ground his drafts distancing from constant theorizing for a Jewish nation were. Towards over Marxism rather than setting to the end of his career, Borochov felt work describes, in a nutshell, Poale compelled to renew the party’s aims Zion’s generational struggle that it and tactics as could be seen in his had to face once having arrived in last speech. Among Israel’s Russian- Palestine. born founding generation there The Ramle Platform of 1906 were famous former Poale Zion- constitutes the founding document members such as David Ben-Gurion, of Poale Zion’s Palestine branch and Yitzhak Tabenkin, Moshe Sharett coincided with the second Jewish t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z or Golda Meir. At some early stage immigration wave from Russia and in their careers, they all felt drawn Poland. It was set out to be the T h e S | towards Borochov’s deterministic, Palestinian counterpart to Borochov’s revolutionary theories that rid Our Platform, mentioned in the Zionism of any Utopian elements.40 earlier section of this paper. Even However, these beliefs did not though there exists no translation necessarily reappear in their later of the Hebrew original, Rubenstein

M i r j a m L b u n e state-building policies. There was remarks that “[i]f one were to a time for theorizing and a time for remove from the [Ramle Platform] taking action; or, as Ben-Gurion put it document the adjective ‘Jewish’, one when describing an encounter with would be left with a clearly Marxist other newcomers at the port: document […].”42 Right from the start, the generational gap among Here I had come to build Eretz the new immigrants between the Israel and first thing, after a long older Marxist “theoreticians” and journey, after turning my back on the younger party segments that education and my father’s hopes wanted to hurl themselves into for me, after finally arriving in the the construction of their homeland land of my ancestors, I was being became evident and resulted in the asked to pronounce on Marxism. founding of the Hapoel Hatzair, the I burst out: ‘Got to hell with your “Young Worker”-movement. Whereas . I’ve come the Hapoel Hatzair group focused to Eretz Israel and you talk to me on dealing with daily life in Palestine of theories. What sort of Jews and sparked to life the idea of the can you be?’41 agricultural communal settlements, the old Poale Zion was still completely devoted to class struggle and building a strong proletariat as

40 See Shapira, “Labour Zionism and the October Revolution,” 625f. 41 David Ben-Gurion, Memoirs David Ben-Gurion, 42 Sondra M. Rubenstein, The communist ed. Thomas R. Branstein (: The movement in Palestine and Israel, 1919-1984 World Publishing Company, 1970), 48. (Boulder, Colo: Westview Press, 1985), 37.

76 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e the basis of a Jewish state. However, One might wonder why, realities on the ground soon led in the beginning, the Poale Zion the Palestinian Poale Zion to divert headquarters were so rejecting away from total conformity with towards the idea of Jewish their Russian headquarters. The settlements that wanted to put the | Ottoman authorities’ strict stance socialist communal spirit into practice T h e S against Socialism highly impaired on the basis of agricultural labor. The t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z their political activism in the urban first truly communal “kvutza” (Hebr. centers, forcing them to retreat to the “collective”) established in 1910 countryside, where they found soon by its twelve pioneering members found a lot more common ground became a success story and drew a with the Hapoel Hatzair.43 Walter lot of attention especially from the Laqueur describes the reasons for Socialist-Zionist youth movements in this drift away from the international Palestine and abroad. What is often union of Poale Zion movements led forgotten or hardly commented upon by their Russian “original” as follows: in Western/Jewish historiography at this point is that in order to establish Who needed yet another Bund? such communities, the Jewish When the world association of Socialists had to ask the Jewish Poale Zion, its parties embarrassed National Fund to assign them land, by its collaboration with the the very same Zionist-imperialist bourgeois elements, decided to institution they were supposed to leave the Zionist congress, the defy. By entering into this dependent did not follow suit. relationship, they were not only While the world organization participating in the “capitalist system” continued to hold its meetings and as pointed out above. They were also to publish its literature in Yiddish, supporting the expulsion of Arab- the language of the ‘Jewish toiling Palestinian peasants. More often masses’, the Palestinians switched than not these lands had long been to Hebrew. When the Palestinians sold under Ottoman laws began to found to wealthy Arab notables, turning agricultural settlements, they the original owners into tenants, had to face bitter resistance from but at the same time developing sections of the world movement, sort of kinship bonds with the local who argued that according to the communities who hitherto had teaching of Marxism, workers ought been living in complete remoteness to fight for their class interests, and and political incapacitation.45 were not called on to establish economic enterprises within the 45 see James L. Gelvin, “The ‘Politics of 44 framework of the capitalist system. Notables’ Forty Years After,” Middle East Studies Association Bulletin 40, no. 1 (June 2006): 19–29. See also Mario Offenberg, Kommunismus in Palästina: Nation und Klasse 43 See ibid., 35-38. in der antikolonialen Revolution (Meisenheim 44 Laqueur, A History of Zionism, 284. am Glan: Hain, 1975), 17-25.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 77 Consequently, when the Zionist World Communist Party (YKP) and the Organization began to purchase land “leftover” Poale Zion who did not in Palestine, the de-jure landowners join the Bolsheviks and remained were not the ones affected by the faithful to the Palestine cause.46 The loss of property and displacement. end of the First World War and the When the WZO approached the Russian Revolution not only triggered landlords, desperately in search for the third wave of immigration into acres to meet the hugely increasing Palestine but also ended the hitherto demand among the new immigrants, still significant influence of the the urban notables’ only interest Russian Poale Zion on its Palestinian was selling their land in the most branch. The World War and the t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z profitable way. Even though the issuance of the Balfour Declaration history of Ottoman land reform and had brought the left-wing Zionist T h e S | the Palestinian agricultural system groups in Palestine closer together before the large-scale Russian- and in an effort to coordinate their Jewish immigration would far activities they formed the Ahdut outreach the scope of this paper, it haAvoda (Hebr. Unity of Labour) did play a pivotal role for Arab-Jewish in 1919. This was the beginning of

M i r j a m L b u n e relations in general, but also for the less ideological Labour Zionist Socialist-Zionist history in particular. movement, in whose ranks David The limited knowledge and ignorance Ben-Gurion and other important towards such local conditions paired figures of Israeli state-building rose with total entrenchment in their to prominence. Only two small theories could be considered one of factions chose not to join the party the reasons why the attempt of the and remain devoted to their Marxist left-wing Zionists to establish friendly principles. They called themselves relations with the Arabs and to the Left Poale Zion and the Mifleget mobilize them for their socialist cause Poalim Sotsialistim (MPS, Hebr. failed eventually. Socialist Workers’ Party).47 These two Meanwhile in Russia, the splinter groups as the last remnants Poale Zion had an increasingly hard of Borochov’s early orthodox Socialist time to focus on their Zionist efforts Zionism remained on the outside of while coping with ongoing Jewish mainstream politics and when the pogroms, the hostile atmosphere British Mandate for Palestine took of inner-Jewish party politics and effect in 1923 they were faced by the growing radicalization of the double opposition from the Jewish general Left due to the emergence Yishuv and the British authorities. In of the Bolsheviks. After the Bolshevik the following section, we are going to takeover, the Poale Zion splintered trace the transformation of the MPS into a more extreme pro-Bolshevik section that called itself the Jewish 46

47 See Rubenstein, The Communist Movement, 47 Idem. 38f.

78 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e into the Palestinian Communist Party efforts into applying for membership (PCP), examine its role in the rising in the Third International while the local Arab-Jewish tensions, and its majority of the Left-wing, the Labour relations with the Third International movement, wanted to “conquer the under Lenin’s leadership. Zionist movement from within.”49 | In their opinion, the Comintern’s T h e S demands for admission were too t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z 2. BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD extreme and would merely turn PLACE: THE SOCIALIST WORKERS’ them into a Palestinian adjunct to PARTY IN PALESTINE AND THEIR the Communist International. The STRUGGLE WITH THE COMINTERN, THE Comintern itself further encouraged BRITISH, THE ARABS AND THE YISHUV this split, stating in 1922:

The dilemma of the That makes the situation clear. Since Socialist Zionists was accelerated the third congress [of the Comintern] by the question of participation the petty-bourgeois, nationalist, and in the newly established Third opportunist elements in the majority International (Comintern) and the of the delegations of the [Poale World Zionist Organization (WZO). Zion World] Federation have tried to These institutions constituted two sabotage and damp down the urge opposing fronts between which there of the proletarian and communist seemed to be no middle-ground. elements for amalgamation with Even though none of the different the Communist International…The sub-groups within the original Poale theme of Palestine, the attempt Zion wanted to give up their claim to divert the Jewish working to be Socialists as well as Zionists, masses from the class struggle by de-facto, becoming loyal to the propaganda in favor of large-scale Comintern meant cutting ties with the Jewish settlement in Palestine, WZO and vice versa. These issues is not only nationalist and petty- rose to the surface at the Conference bourgeois but counter-revolutionary of the World Union of the Poale Zion in its effect, if the broad working in in 1920, a conference masses are moved by this idea described as “one of the most stormy and so diverted from an effective in the history of the Jewish labor struggle against their Jewish and movement.”48 What emerged were non-Jewish capitalist exploiters…The two minuscule orthodox leftist groups only possible attitude of communists now opposed by an overwhelming to the Poale Zion Federation after and more pragmatic “right-wing” its rejection of the conditions of Poale Zion led by David Ben-Gurion admission is one of complete and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. The left Left hostility.50 pledged to continue to put all their

49 Laqueur. A History of Zionism, 317. 48 Cited in ibid., 53. 50 “Extracts from an ECCI Statement on the

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 79 The MPS, emerging as the immigrants, the Yishuv was more outsider among the Left-wing political concerned about the extreme spectrum, never actually managed to Left’s policies towards the Arabs. fulfill all the Comintern’s conditions After World War I, an economic and was granted a very short lifespan depression had begun to spread in the Yishuv due to events to come. across Palestine and had swept Against the party’s refutations, it was away much of the optimism and considered to be anti-Zionist, while pioneering spirit of the early years. the Communist movement believed Unemployment rates soared with them to be too closely linked to no financial assistance yet in place, Zionism to grant them membership. the newly established Histadrut t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z When during that same year the was close to bankruptcy and Arabs General Organization of Workers were considered a major threat on T h e S | (Histadrut) emerged as the successor the job-market as they were often of the Ahdut haAvoda the MPS was better trained for the scarce jobs denied seats and therefore shunned that were available.52 Conversely, from legitimate political activity in the the continuing immigration rates Yishuv. As Offenberg argues quite during times of poor economic

M i r j a m L b u n e plausibly, denying the left stream of conditions heightened agitation the former Poale Zion any Zionist among Arab communities. In legitimacy and painting them as Zionist historiography, the growing outright anti-Zionists seems, quite discontent among the Arab frankly, absurd. A Jewish Socialist population is oftentimes painted as a who did not believe in Zionism, somewhat jealous and spite reaction instead of staying in the Yishuv, to the prospering of the Yishuv “that would have been significantly more left the Arabs suspicious, frustrated, likely to leave and join the Bolsheviks and deeply concerned about the or the Communist movements of future.”53 Such accounts seem to their respective nationality instead be oblivious to the fact that national of taking a “detour” over Palestine.51 aspirations in the Arab world had This was, however, the narrative of undergone a development of their not only the British authorities but the own and that during the war Arab majority of the Jewish Yishuv. support for the British troops in While the British Mandatory their struggle against the Ottomans authorities had a very clear motive was based on the promise of Arab in marginalizing any Communist independence in Greater Syria.54 elements among the Jewish

52 Ssee Laqueur., A History of Zionism, 306f. 53 Jacob Hen-Tov, Communism and Zionism in Decision of the Poale Zion not to affiliate to Palestine during the British Mandate (New the Third International,” in The Communist Brunswick, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2012), International 1919-1943 Documents I, ed. Jane 12. Degras (: Oxford University Press, 1956), 54 For a concise overview see e.g. M.A. Aziz, “The 365-66. Origins of Arab Nationalism,” Pakistan Horizon 51 See Offenberg, Kommunismus in Palästina, 69-71. 62, no. 1 (Jan. 2009): 59–66.

80 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e Keeping this in mind, the violent efforts to simultaneously attract outbursts in Jaffa on May Day 1921 as Jews and Arabs into their ranks, well as all other Arab-Jewish clashes greatly adapted the contents of that were to follow appear against their posters depending on whether a much broader backdrop than the they were written in Hebrew or | recurring narrative of Arabs against Arabic.58 Regardless of whether or T h e S Jews. not or to which degree the MPS t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z The MPS, in order to fulfill can be blamed for the bloodbath the Comintern’s conditions of that occurred that day, these May admission demanding “systematic Day demonstration posters give and well-planned agitation” among a valuable insight into the radical the “rural proletariat and the poorest ’s campaign strategy. peasants,”55 launched mobilizing The Arab version of the campaigns to attract not only Jews poster texts played into Arab but also Arab fellahin into their ranks. grievances of being denied freedom One such effort was conducted as and independence on their own part of a May Day demonstration in land blaming not the Zionists per 1921. The protest turned into a scuffle se but the Jewish, British and Arab with members of an authorized capitalists. The MPS wanted to get demonstration the Arab masses to distinguish and eventually ended up in anti- between the “Jewish capitalists” Jewish rampages by Arab villagers, colluding with the British and local resulting in a number of deaths. Arab capitalists and the “Jewish The official British investigative worker who reaches out his hand report on the incident concluded as a comrade.”59 A distinction that, that the MPS, having been “the from the viewpoint of an Arab spark that set alight the explosive dispossessed peasant, might not discontent of the Arabs,”56 was to have been so easy to make. When blame for the escalations. Other calling upon all Arab workers interpretations blamed the British “to destroy their tormentors and police for provoking the Arabs into exploiters”60— an appeal that is attacking Jewish demonstrators, missing from the Hebrew version— using the MPS a scapegoat that one feels inclined to blame the had been at the wrong place at the MPS at least in part for the violence wrong time.57 Offenberg describes that ensued. The hitherto still in great detail how the MPS in its almost exclusively Jewish Socialist Workers’ Party, so entrenched in their communist jargon, might not have 55 See “Conditions of admission to the realized the effect their campaigning Communist International approved by the Second Comintern Congress,” in Degras, The Communist International I, 166-172. 56 Cited in Rubenstein, The Communist 58 See Offenberg, Kommunismus in Palästina, 211- Movement, 61. 219. 57 See ibid., 60. See also Offenberg, 59 Ibid., 218. Kommunismus in Palästina, 221. 60 Ibid., 217.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 81 had among the local communities had gone into hiding for a while, and the scope of blanket anti-Jewish splintered once again and returned hatred that had been spreading onto the political scene as the among Arabs, many of whom had Palestinian Communist Party (PCP) lost their jobs and homes due to and the Komunistische Partei the Zionist expansion. Contrary to Palestine (KPP). And again, the bone what the MPS wanted to believe the of contention was the degree of struggle that the Arab workers and solidarity with the Comintern and with peasants were fighting was not the the Poale Zion Left. The KPP as the same as that of the Socialist Zionist more extreme faction, distanced itself Jews. It was not the struggle against entirely from Zionism, hence why the t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z Arab, Jewish and British factory Yiddish name. To all the other left- owners cutting their wages short, wing Zionist factions they became T h e S | it was first and foremost a struggle known as “liquidationists,” calling against the Zionist movement very upon their Jewish workers to “leave generally. Furthermore, the majority the Zionist hell”63 and emigrate back of Arabs did not at all identify with the into their respective home countries. International Communist movement, Considering that the party members

M i r j a m L b u n e especially not at a time when Arab themselves were Jewish immigrants nationalist aspirations were on the in Palestine and therefore de-facto rise. There was hardly any overlap affiliated with the Zionist movement, between the Communists’ and the even if they opposed it ideologically, Arab peasants’ agendas, other than their agenda seemed somewhat their aversion against Zionism and bizarre. Nevertheless, they gained British . Ideologically, some popularity among recent there was no common ground at immigrants who, arriving at a time of all and the Arabs’ impression of economic depression, soon became the Soviets and the Communist disillusioned with Zionism and movement was one of suspicion decided to emigrate back. In these rather than solidarity.61 cases, and for some of the most The May Day unrests led fervent communists, the party was to the MPS’ complete ban and the regarded as a “transit camp on the expulsion of its leaders. The British way to the Soviet Union.”64 The PCP, authorities temporarily stopped on the other hand, tried to join the all immigration into Palestine and Third International without leaving stated the fear of “further Bolshevik its Zionist ground. At this point, they infiltration”62 as one of the reasons were the only group still holding on for this rather extreme policy. The to the original “Borochovist” version MPS, after its remaining members

63 Cited in ibid., 247. 64 Musa Budary, The Palestine Communist 61 See Rubenstein, The Communist Movement, Party, 1919-1948: Arab & in the struggle 105ff. for internationalism (Chicago, Ill.: Haymarket 62 Offenberg,Kommunismus in Palästina, 225. Books, 2010), 6.

82 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e of Socialist-Zionism.65 Eventually, realms of Zionism, at the margins of in 1923, both the remaining KPP the Yishuv, and in close collaboration members and the more moderate with the Third International. For them, Palestinian Communists decided to the struggle between Zionism and merge into one big PCP and apply Communism still continued. Shuttling | for Comintern membership as a back and forth between Moscow T h e S united front. When one year after and Palestine as Russia’s agents, t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z the merger the PCP admission to persecuted by the British Mandatory the Third International was finally authorities, under close watch by granted, it was under the condition the Comintern for any “deviationist of transforming the PCP “from an activities” and despised by Arab organization of Jewish workers into a leaders and Zionists alike, they were truly territorial party.”66 This happened willing to sacrifice their lives to this only a few weeks after Lenin’s death, struggle.67 when Stalin took power in Moscow, effecting major ideological and policy changes within the Comintern. 3. ARABIZATION VS. YISHUVISM IN THE It should be mentioned here PALESTINIAN COMMUNIST PARTY that since the Poale Zion’s split into a left- and a right-wing faction, the After having established original idea of Socialist Zionism had an official link with the Communist seized to exist. There would never movement and having received clear be a rapprochement between these instructions from Moscow, the PCP factions. The Labour movement was still divided in matters of how to would soon gain political hegemony best achieve their goal of becoming a in the Yishuv and would have a “territorial party” and how to continue decisive impact on the Israeli State, mobilizing Jewish workers in the its institutions, policies, and society. Yishuv while cutting ties with Zionism. It would still promote Socialist In its initial period, the years principles and try to find common leading up to the Arab rebellion in ground with Arabs on the basis of 1929, the PCP was working towards class solidarity rather than brokering two parallel goals: Finding a way to deals with their ruling elites. But separate the in the they were Zionists first and willing Yishuv from any Zionist affiliation to sacrifice as much of their Socialist and convincing them to join forces ideology to the Zionist cause as with the Arabs, while at the same necessary. In the following, I am time “Arabizing” the party’s ranks only going to trace the evolution of and forging links with the national the PCP, the former Poale Zion Left, whose story continues outside the 67 For biographical accounts of Jewish members of the Palestinian Communist Party see Hen- Tov, Communism and Zionism, 27-38 and 65 See ibid., 244ff. Rubenstein, The Communist Movement, 121- 66 Cited in ibid., 6. 146.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 83 movements in Palestine, Syria and Yishuvism doctrine in hindsight as Egypt. According to the Comintern, some form of “antizionist Zionism”, a collaboration with Arab nationalists choice of words that says a lot about was possible because they were its viability and conclusiveness as revolutionary in character, meaning a party program.68 Its proponents they opposed the British and wanted to create a distinction their feudal ruling elite. Zionism, between the Jewish community on the other hand, was seen as in Palestine that had evolved from a thoroughly rejectionist and “natural” immigration and the Zionist bourgeois nationalist movement Jews that immigrated due to Zionist because it was in collaboration with ideology—a distinction that was t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z the British and behaving, in their simply non-existent. All Jews that eyes, like a colonizing power. The decided to immigrate to Palestine did T h e S | Comintern’s directions were clear: so through some Zionist institution Jewish communists had to give abroad, were therefore affiliated with up the idea of a Jewish national the Zionist movement and, whether home but support the Arab national they wanted to or not, with the struggle because it carried a lot of colonization of former Arab land.69

M i r j a m L b u n e revolutionary potentials. The concept While having gained some of Yishuvism could be considered foothold within the Yishuv throughout the Jewish Communists’ last effort the 1920s, the party was still in finding a synthesis between their overwhelmingly Jewish. Even though communist ideology and their Jewish PCP members had taken a solidary collective identity. public stand with the Arabs whenever Yishuvism echoed very land seizures and the subsequent closely the original Borochovist expulsion of villagers turned violent, doctrine when stating that Jewish the party was struggling with immigration and the influx of Jewish recruiting Arabs into their ranks.70As capital followed an “objective” course long as this was the case, according of history, driven by conditions to the leadership in Moscow, the PCP in Europe that forced the Jews could never successfully struggle to leave. This form of “natural” against Zionism and the British Jewish immigration was regarded imperialists. Amongst scholars there to be in sync with the Communist seem to be different interpretations project because it would disrupt of the Comintern’s Arabization the dominantly feudal structures in agenda for the PCP: Palestine and create a joint Jewish- According to Hen-Tov, many Arab proletarian society. The other, politically motivated form of Zionism 68 Cited in Offenberg, Kommunismus in Palästina, that was promoted by the British 289. and the Jewish capitalists had to be 69 for a more detailed critical analysis of Yishuvism see Offenberg, Kommunismus in Palästina, stopped. Nahman List, one of the 289-298. former PCP members, describes this 70 see e.g. Afula-Affair: Offenberg, Kommunismus in Palästina, 334-345.

84 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e Jewish Communists suffered such on the basis of an international, tragic fates71 because they “failed not ethnically exclusive, party to understand” that the Comintern composition.74 Offenberg points was discriminating against them out that, against all odds, the PCP’s “by constantly demanding that they recruiting efforts were to some extent | Arabize the Party’s leadership” successful, however not in the way T h e S and “that racist considerations, that the leadership in Moscow had t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z motivated by political expedience, anticipated. Sometimes, surprising were to prevail over the international connections were forged on the principles of their revolutionary basis of a shared affinity towards cause.”72 Drawing such a conclusion Russia. This was especially the case not only paints these Communist for Orthodox-Christian Arabs. They Jews as simply too naïve to grasp felt drawn towards the Russian what or who they were supporting language and culture due to its but also confirms the black-and-white large Orthodox-Christian community. notion that anything anti-Zionist must Paradoxically, some of these Arabs be stirred by anti-Semitic inclinations. saw the Communists as Russia’s While being more nuanced agents, who represented some link and less tendentious, Rubenstein’s to their religious faith, despite the fact accounts correspond in as much that the Orthodox Church, just like as they describe the PCP as any other religious institution, was a “Soviet anti-Zionist tool.” By suffering from great oppression and giving “unqualified support for the persecution under Bolshevik rule. Arab worker” while insisting on In 1928, the Communists’ “unmitigated antagonism toward the agenda for Palestine shifted. After Zionist movement” the Comintern having experienced a devastating led the party into complete and total blow in China, where the Communists demise.73 were toppled by their former Offenberg sheds more light nationalist ally, the party leadership on the regional developments in was not willing to risk any more Palestine that were beyond the collaboration with Yishuvist “pseudo- Comintern’s realm of influence. revolutionary” elements in Palestine.75 Quoting the PCP’s founding member Borochovism and any doctrine Joseph Berger-Barzilai the party’s affiliated with it was officially declared goal of Arabization was only partly anti-communist. The China debacle due to the Comintern’s orders. also led to a more cautious approach There was also the genuine belief towards the Arab national movement. among its members that the anti- In line with their new policy which is imperialist struggle had to be fought

74 Cited in Offenberg, Kommunismus in Palästina, 71 Hen-Tov, Communism and Zionism, 39. 355. 72 Hen-Tov, Communism and Zionism, 39. 75 See Rubenstein, The communist movement, 73 Rubenstein, The communist movement, 147. 153f.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 85 referred to as the “Third Period”76, the revolutionary wave which is the Comintern reinforced its call for sweeping over the whole of Asia.”78 a widespread Agrarian Revolt among To them, the riots were of clear anti- the Arab peasants against the British, imperialist character, directed against the Zionists and their local effendis. the Zionist oppressors and “[t]hose It was the Arab riots that Jewish members of the party who occurred the following year that opposed this reformulation were eventually revealed the discrepancy expelled as were those who had between the Comintern’s total played an active role in the Jewish entrenchment in their Communist defense effort in Jerusalem.”79 ideology and the situation on the These two, so very obviously t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z ground. The rebellion began as an subjective narratives of events not agitated group of Muslims began only illustrate more than anything T h e S | protesting at the Wailing Wall in else that the Communist endeavor Jerusalem. The protest soon spread in Palestine had eventually fallen and erupted into several violent prey to the Jewish-Arab conflict. In attacks against Jews in Hebron, a conflict in which differentiation Jerusalem and other places. between Zionist and anti-Zionist

M i r j a m L b u n e Reportedly, the British police did not Jews was not recognized as such, intervene, which prompted the PCP neither by the Zionist nor by the Arab to accuse the British of deliberately side, how could there still be an anti- supporting and even instigating Zionist Jewish force? In that sense, violence between Arabs and Jews the Comintern and its leadership in as a “divide and rule” policy. The Moscow aligned itself with the anti- PCP’s official position, some of communist narrative represented whom had witnessed the incidents by the British, the Zionists and the first-hand, was one of unwavering Arab Higher Committee. Namely solidarity with the Jewish victims. that all Jews were Zionist per To them, the fault lay clearly with definition and therefore could not the Muslim clericals and the Mufti in lead a revolutionary struggle, while Jerusalem that had incited the Arab the Arab masses were the only true masses into anti-Jewish violence. It Anti-Imperialists and Anti-Zionists called the Arab attacks “pogroms” in Palestine. Any deviationists who that were entirely racially motivated did not align themselves with this rather than serving any revolutionary nationalist divide were no longer able cause.77 The Comintern, on the other to remain in the PCP. hand, interpreted the events as a The official split of the first success in mobilizing the Arab Palestinian Communist Party into masses and as “an integral part of a Jewish and an Arab section

76 see ibid, 165f. 78 cited in Rubenstein, The communist movement, 77 see Budary, The Palestine Communist Party, 164. 18-23. 79 Budary, The Palestine Communist Party, 29.

86 Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 M i r j a m L b u n e happened only in 1936 after another State, a decision that surely had more round of Arab riots had led to the to do with (geo)political opportunism same confrontation between the rather than ideology. After 1948, party’s remaining Jewish members the PCP’s Jewish and Arab section and the Comintern.80 After the PCP’s morphed into a Jordanian and an | Arab leadership had been arrested Israeli communist party and became T h e S by the British after the revolt, the idea emerged in their respective national t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z of this exclusively Jewish PCP section politics. was a very pragmatic one, trying to ensure the party’s functioning in the absence of the majority of its high- CONCLUSION rank members. However, it was not long until this divide within the party Borochov’s history and catapulted the Jewish section back that of the Poale Zion and its many into the Yishuvist path, becoming successors in Palestine could more and more affiliated with left- be considered a failed attempt wing Zionist politics.81 at reconciling two irreconcilable When the Comintern lost ideologies. One could say that its power and was dissolved by upon arriving in Palestine and being Stalin in 1943, Soviet policy toward confronted with the realities on Zionism had already softened. the ground and the overwhelming Due to the outbreak of World pull of the anti-Zionist Communists War II and the need for a united on the one hand and the anti- communist movement in the face communist Zionists on the other, the of the Nazi crimes made formerly movement failed to establish itself in rejected ideological differences the in-between. Poale Zion’s vision less preponderate. Especially of a Jewish State might not have since the “Great Patriotic War” become reality, but it can still serve with Germany, when the Soviet’s as a reminder that there existed priority lay on defending and Zionist debates that go beyond the consolidating their Union, “there was Western-democratic concept of a once again increased leeway for nation. Especially in the context of cooperation with previously ‘suspect’ the Middle East Conflict, the largely organizations on the political left.”82 forgotten history of Socialist Zionism Eventually, in 1947, the Soviet Union might offer new impulse for solidarity- supported the partition of Palestine building between Jewish and and the establishment of an Israeli Arab communities by putting class similarities over national differences. In his preface to the 2003 80 Ibid. 29 edition of A History of Zionism Walter 81 see Johan Franzén, “Communism versus Laqueur addresses the post-Zionism Zionism: The Comintern, Yishuvism, and the Palestine Communist Party,” in Journal of Palestine Studies 36, no. 2 (Jan. 2007): 12-15. 82 See ibid., 16.

Global Histories: a student journal | VI - 2 - 2019 87 controversy.83 Since the beginning of and even Communist Yishuvists, the 21st century, a new generation of offered alternative concepts of a Israeli academics has come up with Jewish state in Palestine that are less this term in an effort to re-narrate defined through its exclusivity as a recent Jewish history from a post- nation but rather through its class colonial perspective. Their approach character and potential for building questions the very existence of class solidarity. Back in 1969, in a Israel, asking whether the Zionist preface to Borochov’s writings, the project was justified, or whether it journalist Dany Diner argues that was colonialism in disguise. Their the solution to the Israel-Palestine work has been criticized, not only by conflict might not be “De-Zionisation”, t r u g l e b w n C o m i s a d Z Laqueur, for referring to the negation but “Re-Zionisation”, since Zionism of Zionism as something “post”, even in a strictly socialist sense was only T h e S | though there is very little modern or supposed to be the framework or innovative about it. And indeed, one “minimal program”, never the political could say that post-Zionist rhetoric core, of a Jewish State. By ending is reminiscent of that of former the discourse on whether or not Communists who supported the Arab Zionism has any legitimacy at all, but

M i r j a m L b u n e struggle against the British-Zionist rather reviving alternative versions “bourgeois plot”. However, I believe of Zionism, Israel would have to get that there is still a difference between out of its defensive state and would opposing Zionism from within one’s have to divert its policies away from own Communist ideological confines trying to assert itself against the rather than attempting to deconstruct hostile “anti-Zionist Outside”. It goes it from a post-colonial perspective. without saying that mitigating the As this paper aimed to grievances between and illustrate, one does not have to look Palestinian Arabs is not as simple “post” Zionism to criticize the current as that. But there is still value in re- narrative that mainstream Zionism introducing some of the complexity has established. Not all criticism of and diversity that the Zionist debate the Israeli State has to come from an has lost after the establishment of “anti-Zionist” standpoint. Supporting the Israeli State. There needs to be a the Palestinian cause does not make greater awareness of what it meant one “anti-Zionist” per definition. back then and what it could still mean There used to be and there still is to be a Zionist since there is a wide leeway for different interpretations political and ideological spectrum of Zionism. Despite their many flaws, that it could encompass. inconsistencies and deterministic view of history Socialist Zionists,

83 Walter Laqueur, “Preface to the 2003 Edition,” in A History of Zionism. From the to the Establishment of the State of Israel (New York City: Schocken Books, 2003).

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