Seeking Direction after the First World War

After the First Zionist Congress met in Basel in 1897 the question of financing the future activities in Eretz Yisrael was raised. Accordingly a fund for the collection of contributions and the purchase of land for Zionist settlement was established in 1901 and was called Hakeren hakayemet leyisrael, rendered The Jewish National Fund in English. During that period a migration from Eastern Europe to Palestine of Jewish immigrants of socialist ideology, known as the Second Aliya (migration), began. These immigrants saw cooperative rural settlement on national land as a central principle of their activity. These immigrants, led by David Ben-Gurion, had deep political convictions and became the political elite that dominated the Jewish community in Eretz Yisrael as well as gaining control of the institutions of the World Zionist movement during the 1920s and 1930s. The political domination of the Second Aliya made their political principles the official policy of the Zionist movement, with the emphasis on ‘national land’ and cooperative rural settlements in Eretz Yisrael (see Table 1.1).

Together with this one must note that after the First World War and the arrival of other waves of immigration (the Third and Fourth Aliya) the urban population grew, especially in the Tel Aviv area. Some of these immigrants brought with them a capitalistic outlook and believed in the purchase of private land and individual, rather than cooperative settlement. As a result, during the 1920s and 1930s private Jewish settlement grew in the country. Together with this, the political activity of the Revisionist right, who challenged the socialist control of the Second Aliya, also grew in the Zionist movement. The right wingers, however, did not manage to upset or change the political structure of the Zionist institutions or change the socialist ideology that dominated them.

The First World War brought about the transfer of the centre of organisation and activity of the Zionist movement from Central and Eastern Europe to the English-speaking world, namely Britain and the USA. After the war, in February 1919, the World Zionist Congress met in London and discussed future settlement activity and questions of land in Eretz Yisrael, development strategies, and different organisational matters.