Chapter 1 Palestine and Transjordan in Transition (1945–47)

1 Framing the Background

1.1 “Non possumus”? The Alternate Relations between the Holy See and the Zionist Movement (1897–1939) At the turn of the twentieth century, the Holy See’s concern about the situation of Catholics in the eastern Mediterranean was not limited to the rivalry among European powers to achieve greater prominence and recognition in Jerusalem. By the end of the nineteenth century, a new actor had appeared on the scene: the Jewish nationalist movement, Zionism, whose significance seemed to be on the increase all over Europe after it had defined its program and as the num- ber of Jews emigrating to Palestine after the first aliyah (1882–1903) became more consistent.1 The Zionist leaders soon made an attempt at mediation and rapproche- ment with the Holy See.2 Indeed, the Vatican’s backing would have been

1 From the vast bibliography on Zionism, see, in particular, Arturo Marzano, Storia dei sion- ismi: Lo Stato degli ebrei da Herzl a oggi (Rome: Carocci, 2017); Walid Khalidi, From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism and the Palestine Problem until 1948, 3rd ed. (Washington, DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2005); Alain Dieckhoff, The Invention of a Nation: Zionist Thought and the Making of Modern Israel, trans. Jonathan Derrick (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003); Georges Bensoussan, Une histoire intellectuelle et politique du sionisme, 1860–1840 (Paris: Fayard, 2002); Walter Laqueur, A History of Zionism (New York: Schocken, 1989); Arthur Hertzberg, ed., The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1959). 2 On the relations between Zionism and the Christian churches – and specifically the Holy See – since the nineteenth century, see Dominique Trimbur, “The Catholic Church’s Thought on Judaism, Zionism and the State of Israel: Mid-Nineteenth Century–1965,” in O’Mahony and Flannery, The Catholic Church in the Contemporary Middle East, 225–36; Uri Bialer, Cross on the Star of David: The Christian World in Israel’s Foreign Policy, 1948–1967, trans. Haya Galai (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2005); Paul C. Merkley, Christian Attitudes Towards the State of Israel (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001), esp. 134–60; Silvio Ferrari, Vaticano e Israele dal secondo conflitto mondiale alla guerra del Golfo (Florence: Sansoni, 1991); Sergio I. Minerbi, The Vatican and Zionism: Conflict in the Holy Land, 1895–1925, trans. Arnold Schwarz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); Meir Mendès, Le Vatican et Israël (Paris: Cerf, 1990); Andrej Kreutz, Vatican Policy on the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: The Struggle for the Holy Land (New York: Greenwood, 1990); George E. Irani, The Papacy and the Middle East: The Role of the Holy See in the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1962–1984 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1986). Although the historiography is mainly in English, Italian and French, some works in Hebrew (in addition to the original editions of the Minerbi,

© Maria Chiara Rioli, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004423718_004 Palestine and Transjordan in Transition (1945–47) 31 highly symbolic and would have constituted a significant card to play in politi- cal negotiations with other governments, which the leadership of the Jewish nationalist movement was conducting in parallel. Theodor Herzl (1860–1904), the founder and first president of the Zionist Organization, was convinced of the importance of a meeting with the pope to attempt to extract a word of approval for the Zionist colonization that had commenced. Herzl sought to obtain a meeting with Pope Leo XIII and his Secretary of State Cardinal Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro, in the conviction that both would support the Zionist Organization once they received a detailed briefing from himself personally. The papal audience did not take place: despite the pope’s con- stant focus on the Catholics of the Middle East, the birth and development of Zionism did not seem worthy enough of his particular interest. After the death of Leo XIII and the election of Pius X to the papacy, Herzl renewed his efforts to arrange a meeting with the new pope. As a result, one of the founders of Zionism, who was nearing the end of his life, visited the pope in January 1904. On this occasion, too, the Zionist hopes turned out to be ill-founded. The pope did not intend to alter the church’s longstanding position of hostility and suspicion toward the Jews and their initiatives. The Jewish nationalist aspirations toward Palestine were no exception and the pope’s stance was even reinforced by ancient stereotypes that were remodeled in light of the new political context. In any case, the encounter between Herzl and Pius, preceded by the former’s meeting with the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Rafael Merry del Val, did not achieve anything; the pope responded to the request for papal support for the Jewish national cause by reiterating the impossibility of the church supporting Zionism for as long as the Jews contin- ued to deny Jesus as the Messiah. Pius’s non possumus signified a setback for the Zionist leadership’s hopes for an alliance with the Holy See, or at least for convergence on some points. It did not signify an a priori end to requests from the Jewish world; suffice it to mention the letter Poloniae populum, issued on December 3, 1905, addressed to the Polish episcopate, whom Pius joined in condemning the pogrom against the Jews in the territory under Russian control.3 At the same time, the pope did not intend to give the impression that there would be any change in the Vatican’s stance on the Zionists’ requests.

Bialer and Mendes books) have appeared: see Moshe Ma’oz, Rav ha-Nistar ‘al ha-Galui: ha- Nazirut ha-Katolit ha-Latinit be-Erets-Yisra’el ba-‘Et ha-Hadashah (1799–1914) [More unknown than known: Latin Catholic monkhood in the Land of Israel in the modern period (1799– 1914)] (Tel Aviv: Hotsa’at Gama, 2018); Rami Degani, Kenesiyot, ‘Edot u-Misadarim Notsriyim be-Yisra’el [Christian churches, congregations and orders in Israel] (Jerusalem: Ari’el, 1999). 3 ASS 38 (1905–6): 321–27.