DOCSLIB.ORG

Dependent Filastin: Agrochemicals and the Synthetic Age in British-Ruled Palestine Omri Polatsek

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Dependent Filastin: Agrochemicals and the Synthetic Age in British-Ruled Palestine Omri Polatsek Global histories a student journal Envisioning (In)dependent Filastin: Agrochemicals and the Synthetic Age in British-Ruled Palestine Omri Polatsek DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17169/GHSJ.2021.423 Source: Global Histories, Vol. 7, No. 1 (May 2021), pp. 78-110. ISSN: 2366-780X Copyright © 2021 Omri Polatsek 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. Freie Universität Berlin Global Histories: A Student Journal Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut Koserstraße 20 14195 Berlin Contact information: For more information, please consult our website www.globalhistories.com or contact the editor at: [email protected]. Envisioning (In)dependent Filastin: Agrochemicals and the Synthetic Age in British-Ruled Palestine by OMRI POLATSEK 78 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 Omri Polatsek | Envisioning (In)dependent Filastin 79 VII - 1 - 2021 | material transformations. ABOUT THE AUTHOR . nahda Omri Polatsek is an MA student at the Middle Eastern and Omri Polatsek Global Histories: a student journal is a visiting student at the Global History Department at Freie Universität Berlin. Omri’s master thesis explores the history of master thesis explores Universität Berlin. Omri’s synthetic agrochemicals in British-ruled Palestine, focusing on synthetic agrochemicals in British-ruled Palestine, potential chemical substances) in shaping changing ideas and African History department at Tel Aviv University. Currently, he Currently, University. Aviv History department at Tel African the role of ‘chemical agents’ (companies, chemists, and double- the role of ‘chemical agents’ ). Reconstructing al-Miqdadi’s work al-Miqdadi’s ). Reconstructing المقدادي ABSTRACT By reconstructing the history of Imperial Chemical Industries writings (one Husni al-Miqdadi’s activities and examining Levant the crystallization of agents), this article explores of ICI Levant’s was As ICI Levant Age in British-ruled Palestine. the Synthetic it held the leading local importer of agrochemicals to Palestine, a significant position for Zionist-Jews and Arab-Palestinians, both seeking to transform the economic basis of the land in order to materialize a future national economy that would be describing the interdependence After based on agriculture. Age and British Imperialism in the first between the Synthetic local and regional section, the article depicts the company’s reaction to its expansion Arab-Palestinians activity and explores in the second and third sections. In the last section, it studies agents, the activities and writings of one of the company’s Husni al-Miqdadi ( local and regional activity reveals the material and vis-à-vis ICI’s social entanglements between the national-local and imperial- generated global, resulting from the new ‘chemical possibilities’ by British Imperialism. This article argues that al-Miqdadi's expert was a product of a expertise as a fertilizer specific substantial change that took place during the interwar period– Palestine and the the rising flow of synthetic agrochemicals to Age was set into motion by Middle East. As the Synthetic imperial infrastructure and colonial mindsets, its material and conceptual aspects shaped the interactions between local and al-Miqdadi to join in like imperial actors and enabled experts the discourse of Arab-Palestinian and expand n i t s INTRODUCTION Filastin, a Jaffa based Arab- a l i F Palestinian newspaper, that “the t n e On an early morning in agent of the department gave this d n e January 1946, eight armed men huge quantity [of sodium nitrate] to p e d and women broke into the offices this Jewish man, while [previously] he ) n I ( of Imperial Chemical Industries did not want to give the officials from g n i Levant at Salame Road, Tel Aviv. Hebron Municipality 150 kilograms n o i s The single guard was no match of sodium nitrate without a police i v 3 n for this trained group. As he was escort?” Typically, the transportation E | chloroformed and tied, other team of hazardous chemical substances in k e s t members spread pepper across the Palestine was accompanied by police a l o floor in order to prevent the police or army forces. The writer explained P i r dogs from tracing their scent. The that previously, when representatives m O group quickly left, carrying ten tons of Hebron municipality picked up of sodium nitrate in two unidentified sodium nitrate from the harbor, trucks.1 This meticulously planned they had to wait until the arrival robbery was not the only one taking of 11 armed soldiers to escort place after the Second World War them back to Hebron. The Filastin in British-ruled Palestine, however. correspondent was dumbfounded A more peculiar case happened a by the company’s naiveté and few months earlier at Haifa, when speculated whether there were any in November 1945, an unknown other motives beyond it.4 man arrived at the warehouses of This article will set out to Imperial Chemical Industries Levant explore Imperial Chemical Industries enquiring about goods he claimed Levant, the company that lost dozens he had to transport. After presenting of synthetic chemicals in 1946, and himself as a representative of Hebron one of its Arab-Palestinian agents.5 municipality and showing the guard During the interwar period, Imperial his certificates, the local official gave Chemical Industries was working on him five tons of sodium nitrate.2 a global scale, setting up branches “How is it possible?” all over the British empire and selling wondered a correspondent from its products worldwide.6 In the Middle East, the company’s main branches were in British-ruled Palestine. The 1 “Jews Raid Store,” The Scotsman, 16 January 1946; “Shod 10 ton natran hankati” [“Ten Tons of Sodium Nitrate 3 “Al-’irhabyun al-yahud yakhtalasun Stolen”] Ha’aretz, 16 January 1946. 5 atnan mutafajjirat” [“The Jewish 2 “5 ton homrey-nefets huts’au Terrorist Stole Five Tons of bemirma?” [“Five Tons of Explosives Explosives”] Filastin, 02 December Taken in Deceit?”] Ha’aretz, 03 1945. December 1945; “Mehapsim 5 ton 4 Filastin, 02 December 1945. homrey-nefets” [“Searching for Five 5 Hereafter: ICI Levant. Tons of Explosives”] LaHayal, 04 6 Hereafter: ICI (referring to the mother December 1945. company in London). 80 Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 O m r company’s personnel, products, and local and imperial-global, which i P o ideas were prevalent in Palestine resulted from the new ‘chemical l a t s during a specific historical moment possibilities’ generated by British e k | when synthetic chemicals became imperialism between both world E n common both for domestic and wars. v i s i industrial usages. In the agricultural While in the case of these o n i realm, this moment during the two robberies, the synthetic fertilizers n g ( I interwar period marked a shift were most likely used by the Jewish n ) d towards a mounting application anti-imperial forces to blow up British e p e of synthetically made fertilizers, infrastructure, their original role was n d 7 e pesticides, and herbicides. to nourish various fields and orchards n t F As this article will seek to in Palestine. In 1946, at the time of i l a s demonstrate, Husni al-Miqdadi these robberies, synthetic fertilizers t i n who was working for the were often employed in intensive ,(المقدادي) company as a consultant and sales ‘modern’ agriculture schemes agent, was well-aware of the and used in various cultivation possibilities generated from ICI’s fields in British-ruled Palestine, chemical products. As a fertilizer the British empire, and around the specialist, he was informed of the world.8 While the consumption of potential for agrochemicals to synthetic agrochemicals outside enhance the economic value of Europe and North America was extracted from orange cultivation— gradually spreading through the Palestine’s most lucrative export crop. interwar period, the history of this From his ‘expert’ position, al-Miqdadi agricultural-industrial transformation sought to contribute to the prevalent remains unresearched. Historical national economic-awakening accounts on synthetic fertilizers discourse. By focusing on al- and pesticides are centered around Miqdadi’s work vis-à-vis the North America and Western Europe.9 company’s regional activity, this study will highlight the material and social entanglements between the national- 8 Corey Ross, Ecology and Power in the Age of Empire: Europe and the Transformation of the Tropical World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 7 Edward Melillo, “The First Green 2017). Revolution: Debt Peonage and the 9 Vaclav Smil, Enriching the Earth: Making of the Nitrogen Fertilizers Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and the Trade, 1840-1930,” The American Transformation of World Food Historical Review 117, no. 4 (2012): Production (Cambridge, MA: The MIT 1053-56, https://doi.org/10.1093/ Press, 2000); David Kinkela, DDT ahr/117.4.1028; Edmund Russell, War & The American Century: Global and Nature: Fighting Humans and Health, Environmental Politics and Insects with chemicals from World the Pesticide that Change the World War I to Silent Spring (Cambridge: (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Cambridge University Press, 2001), Carolina Press, 2011); Russell, War 53-73. and Nature. Historical scholarship on Global Histories: a student journal | VII - 1 - 2021 81 n i t s Likewise, conventional histories while the emerging ties between a l i F of chemical infrastructure were imperial states and chemical t n e written solemnly through nation- companies during the interwar d n e centered and comparative national period has been accounted for, the p e d history paradigms, dealing primarily consequences of this collaboration ) n I ( with industries located in the Euro- overseas has been completely g n 10 11 i American metropoles.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Arab-Israeli Relations
    FACTSHEET Arab-Israeli Relations Sykes-Picot Partition Plan Settlements November 1917 June 1967 1993 - 2000 May 1916 November 1947 1967 - onwards Balfour 1967 War Oslo Accords which to supervise the Suez Canal; at the turn of The Balfour Declaration the 20th century, 80% of the Canal’s shipping be- Prepared by Anna Siodlak, Research Associate longed to the Empire. Britain also believed that they would gain a strategic foothold by establishing a The Balfour Declaration (2 November 1917) was strong Jewish community in Palestine. As occupier, a statement of support by the British Government, British forces could monitor security in Egypt and approved by the War Cabinet, for the establish- protect its colonial and economic interests. ment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. At the time, the region was part of Otto- Economics: Britain anticipated that by encouraging man Syria administered from Damascus. While the communities of European Jews (who were familiar Declaration stated that the civil and religious rights with capitalism and civil organisation) to immigrate of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine to Palestine, entrepreneurialism and development must not be deprived, it triggered a series of events would flourish, creating economic rewards for Brit- 2 that would result in the establishment of the State of ain. Israel forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee their Politics: Britain believed that the establishment of homes. a national home for the Jewish people would foster Who initiated the declaration? sentiments of prestige, respect and gratitude, in- crease its soft power, and reconfirm its place in the The Balfour Declaration was a letter from British post war international order.3 It was also hoped that Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour on Russian-Jewish communities would become agents behalf of the British government to Lord Walter of British propaganda and persuade the tsarist gov- Rothschild, a prominent member of the Jewish ernment to support the Allies against Germany.
    [Show full text]
  • The Land of Israel Symbolizes a Union Between the Most Modern Civilization and a Most Antique Culture. It Is the Place Where
    The Land of Israel symbolizes a union between the most modern civilization and a most antique culture. It is the place where intellect and vision, matter and spirit meet. Erich Mendelsohn The Weizmann Institute of Science is one of Research by Institute scientists has led to the develop- the world’s leading multidisciplinary basic research ment and production of Israel’s first ethical (original) drug; institutions in the natural and exact sciences. The the solving of three-dimensional structures of a number of Institute’s five faculties – Mathematics and Computer biological molecules, including one that plays a key role in Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biology Alzheimer’s disease; inventions in the field of optics that – are home to 2,600 scientists, graduate students, have become the basis of virtual head displays for pilots researchers and administrative staff. and surgeons; the discovery and identification of genes that are involved in various diseases; advanced techniques The Daniel Sieff Research Institute, as the Weizmann for transplanting tissues; and the creation of a nanobiologi- Institute was originally called, was founded in 1934 by cal computer that may, in the future, be able to act directly Israel and Rebecca Sieff of the U.K., in memory of their inside the body to identify disease and eliminate it. son. The driving force behind its establishment was the Institute’s first president, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, a Today, the Institute is a leading force in advancing sci- noted chemist who headed the Zionist movement for ence education in all parts of society. Programs offered years and later became the first president of Israel.
    [Show full text]
  • The Making of the Balfour Declaration
    The Making of the Balfour Declaration The Palestinian Return Centre i The Palestinian Return Centre is an independent consultancy focusing on the historical, political and legal aspects of the Palestinian Refugees. The organization offers expert advice to various actors and agencies on the question of Palestinian Refugees within the context of the Nakba - the catastrophe following the forced displacement of Palestinians in 1948 - and serves as an information repository on other related aspects of the Palestine question and the Arab-Israeli conflict. It specializes in the research, analysis, and monitor of issues pertaining to the dispersed Palestinians and their internationally recognized legal right to return. Giving Away Other People’s Land: The Making of the Balfour Declaration Editors: Sameh Habeeb and Pietro Stefanini Research: Hannah Bowler Design and Layout: Omar Kachouch All rights reserved ISBN 978 1 901924 07 7 Copyright © Palestinian Return Centre 2017 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publishers or author, except in the case of a reviewer, who may quote brief passages embodied in critical articles or in a review. مركز العودة الفلسطيني PALESTINIAN RETURN CENTRE 100H Crown House North Circular Road, London NW10 7PN United Kingdom t: 0044 (0) 2084530919 f: 0044 (0) 2084530994 e: [email protected],uk www.prc.org.uk ii Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................3
    [Show full text]
  • History and Politics of Nomadism in Modern Palestine (1882-1948)
    History and Politics of Nomadism in Modern Palestine (1882-1948) A Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Arabic and Islamic Studies By Seraje Assi, M.A. Washington, DC May 30, 2016 Copyright 2016 by Seraje Assi All Rights Reserved ii History and Politics of Nomadism in Modern Palestine (1882-1948) Seraje Assi, M.A. Thesis Advisor: Judith Tucker, Ph.D. ABSTRACT My research examines contending visions on nomadism in modern Palestine. It is a comparative study that covers British, Arab and Zionist attitudes to nomadism. By nomadism I refer to a form of territorialist discourse, one which views tribal formations as the antithesis of national and land rights, thus justifying the exteriority of nomadism to the state apparatus. Drawing on primary sources in Arabic and Hebrew, I show how local conceptions of nomadism have been reconstructed on new legal taxonomies rooted in modern European theories and praxis. By undertaking a comparative approach, I maintain that the introduction of these taxonomies transformed not only local Palestinian perceptions of nomadism, but perceptions that characterized early Zionist literature. The purpose of my research is not to provide a legal framework for nomadism on the basis of these taxonomies. Quite the contrary, it is to show how nomadism, as a set of official narratives on the Bedouin of Palestine, failed to imagine nationhood and statehood beyond the single apparatus of settlement. iii The research and writing of this thesis is dedicated to everyone who helped along the way.
    [Show full text]
  • From Sykes-Picot to Present; the Centenary Aim of the Zionism on Syria and Iraq
    From Sykes-Picot to Present; The Centenary Aim of The Zionism on Syria and Iraq Ergenekon SAVRUN1 Özet Ower the past hundred years, much of the Middle East was arranged by Sir Mark Sykes and François Georges Picot. During the World War I Allied Powers dominanced Syria by the treaty of Sykes-Picot which was made between England and France. After the Great War Allied Powers (England-France) occupied Syria, Palestine, Iraq or all Al Jazeera and made them mandate. As the Arab World and Syria in particular is in turmoil, it has become fashionable of late to hold the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement responsible for the current storm surge. On the other hand, Theodor Herzl, the father of political Zionism, published a star-eyed novel entitled Altneuland (Old-New Land) in 1902. Soon after The Britain has became the biggest supporter of the Jews, but The Britain had to occupy the Ottoman Empire’s lands first with some allies, and so did it. The Allied Powers defeated Germany and Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, the gamble paid off in the short term for Britain and Jews. In May 14, 1948 Israel was established. Since that day Israel has expanded its borders. Today, new opportunity is Syria just standing infront of Israel. We think that Israel will fill the headless body gap with Syrian and Iraqis Kurds with the support of Western World. In this article, we will emerge and try to explain this idea. Anahtar Kelimeler: Sykes-Picot Agrement, Syria-Iraq Issue, Zionism, Isreal and Kurds’ Relation. Sykes-Picot’dan Günümüze; Suriye ve Irak Üzerinde Siyonizm’in Yüz Yıllık Hedefleri Abstract Geçtiğimiz son yüzyılda, Orta Doğu’nun birçok bölümü Sir Mark Sykes ve François Georges Picot tarafından tanzim edildi.
    [Show full text]
  • Was the Balfour Declaration a Colonial Document? » Mosaic
    11/2/2020 Was the Balfour Declaration a Colonial Document? » Mosaic WAS THE BALFOUR DECLARATION A COLONIAL DOCUMENT? https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/israel-zionism/2020/10/was-the-balfour-declaration-a-colonial-document/ So goes the accusation. But the public commitment Britain made to the Jews in Palestine is very different from the Sykes- Picot accord and other secret “treaties” carving up native lands. October 28, 2020 | Martin Kramer About the author: Martin Kramer teaches Middle Eastern history and served as founding president at Shalem College in Jerusalem, and is the Koret distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “His Majesty’s Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” This is the operative sentence in the Balfour Declaration, issued 103 years ago on November 2 by British Foreign Secretary Lord Arthur James Balfour on behalf of the British government, and transmitted by Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild for passing along to the British Zionist Federation. In 2017, on the centenary of the declaration, the anti-Zionist Oxford historian Avi Shlaim described it, more than once, as “a classic colonial document.” No doubt many today are inclined to see it the same way. And indeed it does have some of the external trappings of a “classic colonial document,” addressed as it was by one lord (Balfour) to another (Rothschild) and delivered, one can easily imagine, by a white-gloved emissary from the Foreign Office to the Rothschild palace in an envelope to be presented to the recipient on Lord Allenby, Lord Balfour, and Sir Herbert a silver platter.
    [Show full text]
  • UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Early Zionist-Kurdish Contacts and the Pursuit of Cooperation: the Antecedents of an Alliance, 1931-1951 Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2ds1052b Author Abramson, Scott Publication Date 2019 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Early Zionist-Kurdish Contacts and the Pursuit of Cooperation: the Antecedents of an Alliance, 1931-1951 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures by Scott Abramson 2019 © Copyright by Scott Abramson 2019 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Early Zionist-Kurdish Contacts and the Pursuit of Cooperation: the Antecedents of an Alliance, 1931-1951 by Scott Abramson Doctor of Philosophy in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures University of California, Los Angeles Professor Lev Hakak, Co-Chair Professor Steven Spiegel, Co-Chair This study traces the progress of the contacts between Zionists/Israelis and Kurds—two non-Arab regional minorities intent on self-government and encircled by opponents—in their earliest stage of development. From the early 1930s to the early 1950s, the Political Department of the Jewish Agency (later, the Israeli Foreign Ministry) and several eminent Kurdish leaders maintained contact with a view to cooperation. The strategic calculus behind a Zionist/Israeli-Kurdish partnership was the same that directed Zionist/Israeli relations with all regional minorities: If demographic differences from the region’s Sunni Arab majority had made ii them outliers and political differences with them had made them outcasts, the Zionists/Israelis and the Kurds, together with their common circumstance as minorities, had a common enemy (Arab nationalists) against whom they could make common cause.
    [Show full text]
  • The-Balfour-Declaration-Lookstein-Center.Pdf
    The Balfour Declaration - November 2, 1917 Celebrating 100 Years There are those who believe that the Balfour Declaration was the most magnanimous (generous) gesture by an imperial nation. Others believe it was the biggest error of judgment that a world power could make. In this unit, we will discover: What was the Balfour Declaration Why the Balfour Declaration was so important How the Balfour Declaration is relevant today 1. Which of the following Declarations have you heard of? a) The United States Declaration of Independence, 1776 b) The Irish Declaration of Independence, 1917 c) The Balfour Declaration, 1917 d) The Israeli Declaration of Independence, 1948 e) The Austrian Declaration of Neutrality, 1955 What was the Balfour Declaration? The Balfour Declaration was a letter written in the name of the British government, by Lord Arthur James Balfour, Britain’s Foreign Secretary, to the leaders of the Zionist Federation. 2. Read the letter: Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet. “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.” I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
    [Show full text]
  • Forms, Ideals, and Methods. Bauhaus Transfers to Mandatory Palestine
    Ronny Schüler Forms, Ideals, and Methods. Bauhaus Transfers to Mandatory Palestine Introduction A “Bauhaus style” would be a setback to academic stagnation, into a state of inertia hostile to life, the combatting of which the Bauhaus was once founded. May the Bauhaus be saved from this death. Walter Gropius, 1930 The construction activities of the Jewish community in the British Mandate of Palestine represents a prominent paradigm for the spread of European avant-garde architecture. In the 1930s, there is likely no comparable example for the interaction of a similar variety of influences in such a confined space. The reception of architectural modernism – referred to as “Neues Bauen” in Germany – occurred in the context of a broad cultural transfer process, which had already begun in the wake of the waves of immigration (“Aliyot”) from Eu- rope at the end of the nineteenth century and had a formative effect within the emancipating Jewish community in Palestine (“Yishuv”). Among the growing number of immigrants who turned their backs on Europe with the rise of fas- cism and National Socialism were renowned intellectuals, artists, and archi- tects. They brought the knowledge and experience they had acquired in their 1 On the transfer process of modernity European homelands. In the opposite direction too, young people left to gain using the example of the British Mandate of Palestine, see. Heinze-Greenberg 2011; 1 professional knowledge, which was beneficial in their homeland. Dogramaci 2019; Stabenow/Schüler 2019. Despite the fact that, in the case of Palestine, the broad transfer processes were fueled by a number of sources and therefore represent the plurality of European architectural modernism, the Bauhaus is assigned outstanding 2 importance.
    [Show full text]
  • The Promise and Failure of the Zionist-Maronite Relationship, 1920-1948
    The Promise and Failure of the Zionist-Maronite Relationship, 1920-1948 Master’s Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Ilan Troen, Graduate Advisor In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Master’s Degree by Scott Abramson February 2012 Acknowledgements I cannot omit the expression of my deepest gratitude to my defense committee, the formidable triumvirate of Professors Troen, Makiya, and Salameh. To register my admiration for these scholars would be to court extravagance (and deplete a printer cartridge), so I shall have to limit myself to this brief tribute of heartfelt thanks. ii ABSTRACT The Promise and Failure of the Zionist-Maronite Relationship, 1920-1948 A thesis presented to the Department of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Waltham, Massachusetts By Scott Abramson Much of the historiography on the intercourse between Palestinian Jews and Lebanese Maronites concerns only the two peoples’ relations in the seventies and eighties. This thesis, in contrast, attempts a departure from this scholarship, joining the handful of other works that chart the history of the Zionist-Maronite relationship in its earliest incarnation. From its inception to its abeyance beginning in 1948, this almost thirty-year relationship was marked by a search of a formal alliance. This thesis, by presenting a panoptical survey of early Zionist-Maronite relations, explores the many dimensions of this pursuit. It details the Zionists and Maronites’ numerous commonalities that made an alliance desirable and apparently possible; it profiles the specific elements among the Zionists and Maronites who sought an entente; it examines each of the measures the two peoples took to this end; and it analyzes why this protracted pursuit ultimately failed.
    [Show full text]
  • The Forgotten Regional Landscape of the Sykes-Picot Agreement
    LOEVY MACRO (DO NOT DELETE) 4/2/2018 10:42 AM RAILWAYS, PORTS, AND IRRIGATION: THE FORGOTTEN REGIONAL LANDSCAPE OF THE SYKES-PICOT AGREEMENT Karin Loevy ABSTRACT What was the geo-political scale of the Sykes-Picot Agreement of May 1916? What did the British and French mid-level officials who drew lines on its maps imagine as the territorial scope of their negotiations? This Article claims that the Sykes-Picot Agreement cannot be understood strictly as the beginning of a story about territorial division in the Middle East, but also as an end to a story of perceived regional potency. Rather than a blueprint for what would later become the post-war division of the region into artificially created independent states, the Sykes-Picot Agreement was still based on a powerful vision of a broad region that is open for a range of developmental possibilities. Part II of this Article outlines the prewar regional landscape of the agreement in ideas and practices of colonial development in Ottoman territories. Part III outlines the agreement’s war-time regional landscape in inter-imperial negotiations and in the more intimate drafting context, and locates the Sykes-Picot Agreement within a “missed” moment of regional development. I. INTRODUCTION: OPENING TERRITORIAL SPACE ............................ 288 A. Preface: December 1915, at 10 Downing Street .................... 288 B. A Forgotten Regional Landscape ........................................... 290 C. The Sykes-Picot Agreement: A Region Opening-Up for Development ........................................................................... 291 II. PRE-WAR HISTORY OF THE SYKES-PICOT AGREEMENT ................. 296 A. The Context of the Agreement in Pre-war Colonial JSD Program Manager, IILJ Visiting Scholar New York University School of Law; 22 Washington Square North, New York, NY 10001, [email protected].
    [Show full text]
  • Jerusalem: Legal & (And) Political Dimensions in a Search for Peace
    Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law Volume 12 Issue 1 Article 9 1980 Jerusalem: Legal & (and) Political Dimensions in a Search for Peace Mark I. Gruhin Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil Part of the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Mark I. Gruhin, Jerusalem: Legal & (and) Political Dimensions in a Search for Peace, 12 Case W. Res. J. Int'l L. 169 (1980) Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/jil/vol12/iss1/9 This Note is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Journals at Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Case Western Reserve Journal of International Law by an authorized administrator of Case Western Reserve University School of Law Scholarly Commons. Volume 12, Number 1, Winter 1980 Jerusalem: Legal & Political Dimensions in a Search for Peace by Mark I. Gruhin* I. INTRODUCTION ANEW ERA of camaraderie has entered the bitter Arab-Israeli conflict as a result of Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Jerusalem and the Camp David Summit. This change in Egyptian attitude" marks a hopeful start in future negotiations between Israel and her neighboring countries. Israel and Egypt have been able to come to terms on most issues concerning the Sinai, but have not been able to reach any agreement concerning the city of Jerusalem. 2 When the Peace Treaty was being signed in Washington, D.C., both Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin made conflicting remarks in their speeches regarding Jerusalem. Anwar Sadat called for the return of East Jerusalem and Arab sovereignty while Menachem Begin spoke of the reunification in 1967 of the Old City (East Jerusalem) with the New City (West Jerusalem).3 Jerusalem, a small tract of land situated in the Judean Hills, thirty- five miles from the Mediterranean Sea,4 is a city which.
    [Show full text]