Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1882-1914

Gershon Shafir

University of California Press, Aug 19, 1996 - History - 288 pages

Gershon Shafir challenges the heroic myths about the foundation of the State of Israel by investigating the struggle to control land and labor during the early Zionist enterprise. He argues that it was not the imported Zionist ideas that were responsible for the character of the Israeli state, but the particular conditions of the local conflict between the European "settlers" and the Palestinian Arab population.

Contents

• Introduction: 1
• Settlement and nationalism: 7
• Frontier and land: 12
• Frontier and labor: 14
• Settlement and Palestine: 17
• The framework of dependent development in the Ottoman Empire: 22
• dependency and reform: 25
• Agricultural expansion: 28
• Tax reform and land tenure: 30
• New settlement and demographic patterns: 36
• The implications for Jewish settlement: 41
• From land to labor unequal competition and the conquest of labor strategy: 45
• The alternative labor forces: 50
• The dynamics of the struggle: 58
• The effects of the conquest of labor strategy: 69
• Conquest of labor and the foundations of Israeli nationalism: 78
• The Ottoman monetary system: 90
• The failed experiment natural workers from Yemen 19091914: 91
• The Yavnieli mission: 92
• Agudat Netaitn and the planters interests: 96
• The meeting in the labor market: 106
• The Palestine Office and conflict over access to land: 111
• Demands and identity of Yemenite Jews: 116
• Israeli nation formation: 120
• Between trade unions and political parties 19051914: 123
• From conquest of labor to conquest of land the identity of soldier and settler 19071914: 135
• The unintended means cooperative settlement 19101914: 146
• The pure settlement methodology of the World Zionist Organization: 147
• The origins of the kibbutz: 165
• The predominance of the kibbutz in Israeli state formation: 181
• Conclusion Israeli nationalism and the IsraeliPalestinian conflict: 187
• The evolution of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict: 198
• The impact of Israeli state formation on Palestinian society: 211
• Notes: 221
• Glossary: 258
• Bibliography: 261
• Index: 278

About the author

Gershon Shafir is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. He is author of Immigrants and Nationalists and editor of The Citizenship Debates.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Land, Labor and the Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, 1882-1914
• Author: Gershon Shafir
• Edition: reprint, revised
• Publisher: University of California Press, 1996
• ISBN: 0520917413, 9780520917415
• Length: 288 pages
• Subjects: History / Middle East / General