With the Turks in Palestine:

by Alexander Aaronsohn

Thirty-five years ago, the impulse which has since been organized as the Zionist Movement led my parents to leave their homes in Roumania and emigrate to Palestine, where they joined a number of other Jewish pioneers in founding Zicron-Jacob-a little village lying just south of Mount Carmel, in that fertile coastal region close to the ancient Plains of Armageddon. Here I was born; my childhood was passed here in the peace and harmony of this little agricultural community, with its whitewashed stone houses huddled close together for protection against the native Arabs who, at first, menaced the life of the new colony. The village was far more suggestive of Switzerland than of the conventional slovenly villages of the East, mud-built and filthy; for while it was the purpose of our people, in returning to the Holy Land, to foster the Jewish language and the social conditions of the Old Testament as far as possible, there was nothing retrograde in this movement. No time was lost in introducing progressive methods of agriculture, and the climatological experiments of other countries were observed and made use of in developing the ample natural resources of the land.

Genres: History, Middle East, Nonfiction

54 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1916

Reviews

[Steven Walle]

Very good book.

[Kinga]

I am making amazing progress with my Gutengberg Project Project. I am already at AAR.

So this was a short piece by Alexander Aaronsohn about Israel back when it was called Palestine and was ruled by Turks.

From this book we learn that the Jews are very good, the Christians are ok, the Arabs are bad, the Turks are even worse and the Americans are the best.

We also learn :

That it is good to have a horse because "in a land where a horse considerably more valuable than a wife, his ownership cast quite a glamour over me."

Arabs don't need alcohol: "These dances lasted for hours, and as they progressed the men gradually worked themselves up into a frenzy. I never failed to wonder at these people, who, without the aid of alcohol, could reproduce the various stages of intoxication."

Germans are Muslims: "The dominant figure of this movement in Palestine was, without doubt, the German Consul at Haifa, Leutweld von Hardegg. He traveled about the country, making speeches, and distributing pamphlets in Arabic, in which it was elaborately proved that Germans are not Christians, like the French or English, but that they are descendants of the Prophet Mohammed. Passages from the Koran were quoted, prophesying the coming of the Kaiser as the Savior of Islam."

And various ways to corrupt Turk officials.

[Jamie Barringer (Ravenmount)]

This is an account of a Jewish man's experiences during the beginning of WW1 in Palestine. It is a bit annoying to read at times because the author is rather racist towards Arabs, an ingrained sort of racism that reminded me of the attitude of racist people in the Deep South towards Black people, where the author may never recognize he is being racist. Still, his story offers an interesting perspective on life in a region run by the Turks and their allies, the Germans, in an era when gentlemanly warfare was still common and civilian casualties were perhaps less acceptable than they seem to be in modern times.
This is a short read, and if you are interested in history this is worth reading.

[Fatma]

Kitaba göre Araplar pis, adi, sinsi ve aptal; Türkler böl ve yönet politikası izleyen, hiçbir haltı beceremeyen bir millet. İngilizler, Fransızlar ve bilhassa Amerikalılar yiğit, mert, tek amaçları Filistin'e ve Doğuya iyilik getirmek olan bir takım insanlar. Yahudilerse her daim "Tanrım, bana ne zaman yardım edeceksin?" diye dua eden mazlum bir topluluk. Baya komik kitaptı, en azından bu mazlum (!) insanların ezelden beridir nasıl düşünebildiklerini görmüş oldum.

[Warmth]

قرأت الكتاب مترجما لذا علىّ أن أقيم التجربة كاملة؛ الكتاب والترجمة وليس الكتاب وحده؛ لأني لو كنت لأقيّم الكتاب فقط لأعطيته نصف نجمة وربما نجمة واحدة.
الكاتب يحكي عن اضطهاده واضطهاد "شعبه" كما اعتاد ان يكرر باستمرار خلال الكتاب من الأتراك المستبدون(حكام الدولة العثمانية) وسعيه للهرب من فلسطين هربا منهم!
وبصفته من الأفراد الفاعلين في الحركة المسئولة عن نشر الصهيونية في مجتمعه وفي البلاد، فقد كانت هذه الرحلة مهمة لقراءة ذهن "الطرف الأخر من الصراع" وكيف يفكرون هم في العرب بشكل عام والمسلمين على وجه الخصوص، وتلك كانت النجمة المستحقة للتقييم.
النجمة الأخرى للترجمة وللمترجم فشكرا له على هذا العمل الذي ربما لم اكن لأقرأه لو كان بلغته الأصلية، وشكرا له على تذييلاته التي في محلها في الكتاب.
بشكل عام، تظهر كراهية وعنصرية الكاتب بشكل مكثف في الكتاب، فلا تكاد تخلو صفحة منه من سباب العرب وشتم المسلمين بمناسبة وغير مناسبة. وهذا بالفعل دفعني للشك في مصداقية قصصه وحكاياته!!!
ويبدو ان الكاتب قد اعمت هذه العصبية عين بصيرته عن رؤية حقيقة العرب والمسلمين، فكلامه عن ان العرب لا يجيدون ركوب الخيل من أين جاء بهذه الفرية! ومن أين له بأن العرب وخصوصا في فلسطين كسالى لا يصلحون لشيء ولا يجيدون شيئا في حياتهم ؟
هذا جهل بالعدو واستخفاف بقدراته وخسف بحقه.
تراه يصور الطيب شريرا والشرير طيبا داعما ! وصار الحق باطلا والباطل حقا!

"هذا الكتاب لتعرف عدوك قبل أي شيء"

[Şevki]

Filistinde her şeyini borçlu olduğu oraya yerleşmesine devlete ihanet ve hıyanet içinde bulunan bir yahudi adamın serzenişlerini okuyoruz. Fransız, ingiliz ve amerikan hayranlığı gözünü kör etmiş olan bu genç adam askerden kaçmakla kalmamış bir nevi jurnalcilik de yapmıştır. Bugün kendinde aidiyet hissetmeyen yüz binleri de aynı şekilde beslediğimiz düşünülünce halimiz osmanlı gibi olmaz inşallah diyorum…

[Bochra]

A must-read!
❞ وُلدتُّ أنا في هذا المجتمع الزراعي الصغير، وبمنازله الحجرية بيضاء اللون، المُتكاتفة بجوار بعضِها البعض كشكلٍ من أشكال الحماية ضدَّ **العرب الأصليين**- الذين كانوا في البداية يهددون حياةَ المستعمرة الجديدة- وفيها عشتُ طفولتي في سلام وانسجام. ❝

[Gemma Fasheun]

I think the author has a race problem. He hates the arabs thinking that the Jews are better than them in all aspects which personally I disagree.

[Arno Mosikyan]

A short experience with Turkish courts and Turkish justice taught our people that they would have to establish a legal system of their own; two collaborating judges were therefore appointed—one to interpret the Mosaic law, another to temper it with modern jurisprudence. All Jewish disputes were settled by this court. Its effectiveness may be judged by the fact that the Arabs, weary of Turkish venality,—as open and shameless as anywhere in the world,—began in increasing numbers to bring their difficulties to our tribunal.

There was no question as to my eligibility for service. I was young and strong and healthy—and even if I had not been, the physical examination of Turkish recruits is a farce. The enlisting officers have a theory of their own that no man is really unfit for the army—a theory which has been fostered by the ingenious devices of the Arabs to avoid conscription. To these wild people the protracted discipline of military training is simply a purgatory, and for weeks before the recruiting officers are due, they dose themselves with powerful herbs and physics and fast, and nurse sores into being, until they are in a really deplorable condition. Some of them go so far as to cut off a finger or two. The officers, however, have learned to see beyond these little tricks, and few Arabs succeed in wriggling through their drag-net. I have watched dozens of Arabs being brought in to the recruiting office on camels or horses, so weak were they, and welcomed into the service with a severe beating—the sick and the shammers sharing the same fate. Thus it often happens that some of the new recruits die after their first day of garrison life.

The final blow came one morning when all the Jewish and Christian soldiers of our regiment were called out and told that henceforth they were to serve in the taboor amlieh, or working corps. The object of this action, plainly enough, was to conciliate and flatter the Mohammedan population, and at the same time to put the Jews and Christians, who for the most part favored the cause of the Allies, in a position where they would be least dangerous. We were disarmed; our uniforms were taken away, and we became hard-driven "gangsters." I shall never forget the humiliation of that day when we, who, after all, were the best-disciplined troops of the lot, were first herded to our work of pushing wheelbarrows and handling spades, by grinning Arabs, rifle on shoulder. We were set to building the road between Saffêd and Tiberias, on the Sea of Galilee—a link in the military highway from Damascus to the coast, which would be used for the movement of troops in case the railroad should be cut off. It had no immediate strategic bearing on the attack against Suez, however.

When I finally reached Zicron-Jacob, I found rather a sad state of affairs. Military law had been declared. No one was supposed to be seen in the streets after sundown. The village was full of soldiers, and civilians had to put up with all kinds of ill-treatment. Moreover, our people were in a state of great excitement because an order had recently come from the Turkish authorities bidding them surrender whatever fire-arms or weapons they had in their possession. A sinister command, this: we knew that similar measures had been taken before the terrible Armenian massacres, and we felt that some such fate might be in preparation for our people.

It was all very well to decide to leave the country; to get safely away was a different matter. There were two ways out. One of these—the land route by Constantinople—could not be considered. The other way was to board one of the American cruisers which, by order of Ambassador Morgenthau, were empowered to assist citizens of neutral countries to leave the Ottoman Empire. These cruisers had already done wonderful rescue work for the Russian Jews in Palestine, who, when war was declared, were to have been sent to the Mesopotamian town of Urfa—there to suffer massacre and outrage like the Armenians.

The cool Syrian night, our first night on the cruiser, was spent in songs, hymns, and conversation. We were all too excited to sleep. Friends discovered friends and tales of woe were exchanged, stories of hardship, injustice, oppression, all of which ended with mutual congratulations on escaping from the clutches of the Turks.

[جلجامش Nabeel]

النزعة الاستشراقية لأوائل المستوطنين اليهود في فلسطين

في قراءتي لرواية «قصة عن الحب والظلام» لعاموس عوز، وغيره من روائيين إسرائيليين ولدوا قبل قرار التقسيم، لا يمكننا إغفال النظرة الاستشراقية للمستوطنين القادمين من أوروبا لهذه الأرض الجديدة، وفي كثير من الأحيان نلمح نظرة استعلائية غربية لا يمكن أن تصدر إلاّ من شخصٍ يشعر أنّه أوروبي، ويحتقر الشرق، ولكن أوروبا ترفضه وأجبرته على المغادرة.

ليلة البارحة، بدأتُ بقراءة كتاب «مع الأتراك في فلسطين» With the Turks in Palestine، لألكساندر آرونسون، المولود لأسرة يهودية مهاجرة من رومانيا في مستوطنة في جبل الكرمل، شمال الأراضي المقدسة. يتطرق الكتاب لحياة المستوطنة، والعلاقة مع العرب والسلطات التركية قبيل الحرب العالمية الأولى وأثنائها.

تزخر الفصول الأولى من الكتاب بمحاولات رسم ملامح التفوق الأوروبي اليهودي على السكّان المحليين، ونشر بروباغاندا المشروع الصهيوني، ووصف سوء أوضاع الإدارة العثمانية.

عن مستوطنته، حاول رسم صورة مشروع حضاري وسط بيئة بربرية. تحدث عن إدخال أشجار اليوكالبتوس من أستراليا، وعن كون القرى الزراعية تستخدم أحدث التقنيات، التي يحتقرها العرب، وأن مشروعهم ليس رجعيًا، ويتمثل في إقامة قرى على النمط الشيوعي يتشارك فيها النساء والرجال العمل على حدٍ سواء، ويحظون بحقوقٍ متساوية، فيما يحبس العرب نساءهم في الحرملك.

في الواقع، يحتاج هذا الخطاب الحداثوي للتفكيك حيث إن النساء في الأرياف عملت إلى جانب الرجل، وربما أكثر منه، عبر التاريخ وحول العالم، ولم يكن هناك مجتمع زراعي واحد يمنع المرأة من العمل، فضلاً عن ضرورة أن نفهم أن العمل وسيلة لا غاية، وأن كل إنسان ثري وله مصادر دخل دائمة لن يفضّل العمل، لأن الجميع يحب أن يعيش حياة راحة لو أمكنه ذلك، لكنّ الشيوعية حاولت جعل العمل غاية بحد ذاته. بالطبع، لا يمكن لأحد إنكار مشاركة النساء الفلسطينيات في جمع الزيتون في جميع القرى– مسلمين ومسيحيين.

تحدّث «آرونسون» أيضًا عن إقامة محكمة يهودية للمستوطنة للفصل في كل القضايا، وأنهم لم يشهدوا حالة قتل واحدة حتى. وتحدّث عن حصولهم على المواطنية العثمانية، وسفره إلى الولايات المتحدة للحصول على الجنسية الأميركية ونشر البروباغاندا الصهيونية في عام 1910. وتطرّق لحادثة يقول فيها أن طبيبًا يهوديًا كان يعالج جميع السكان، بغض النظر عن العرق والدين، قد هوجم برفقة فتاة في السادسة عشرة من عمرها من قبل أربعة عرب بهدف اغتصابها، وأنهم لذلك أدركوا ضرورة التسلّح لحماية أنفسهم.

عبّر «آرونسون» عن عدم رغبته في خدمة الجيش العثماني في الحرب العالمية الأولى، مع إقراره أن قرار الدولة بفرض التجنيد على جميع المواطنين، بما في ذلك اليهود والمسيحيين، كان بوابة للحصول على حقوق متساوية. وذكر أنه رغم ذلك لا ينكر أن تركيا فتحت أبوابها على مدى ستة قرون مرحبة باليهود الهاربين من اضطهاد محاكم التفتيش الإسبانية وغيرها من الدول المتحضرة في أوروبا.

في الفصول الأولى، يتكرّر ذكر التأثير الألماني على الدولة العثمانية في أواخر أيامها، من خلال وجود موظف ألماني عند تقديمه للتجنيد في حيفا وعكّا، والزي العسكري الكاكي والبوطات العسكرية التي حُدثت بمساعدة الألمان – قبل خمس سنوات – وغطاء الرأس الخاص الذي صمّمه أنور باشا ليمزج بين العمامة الشرقية والخوذة الألمانية لدواعٍ عملية، وسُمّي بالأنورية.

وعند الحديث عن الجيش، تزداد الإشارات إلى العرب وكأنهم شعب همجي. إذ يصفهم بالمتوحشين، وأنه اضطر للنوم مع المئات من العرب «المتسخين»؛ وأن الحذاء بالنسبة للعربي للمناسبات فقط وأنه، وعند المشي لمسافات طويلة، يخلع حذائيه ويحملهما تحت إبطه ويسير حافيًا؛ وأنهم يأكلون الرز – الطعام الوحيد في الجيش – بأصابعهم وأنه اضطر لإغماض عينيه عند الأكل مثلهم لتجنّب رؤية المناظر المقزّزة؛ وذكر أنهم يعاملون النساء أقل من الحصان، وأن العرب هاجموا حصانًا وأكلوه بسبب الجوع. وأشار إلى أن العربي يحترم القوة الوحشية ويستخدمها ضد ضحاياه ويتوقّع معاملة مماثلة ممّن هم أقوى منه. مع ذلك، يقرّ بأن الجميع عامله بلطف.

وذكر بأن بعض المسيحيين العرب أفضل وأنهم يجيدون القراءة والكتابة ويتفوقون على نظرائهم من «المحمديين» في البلاد. في الواقع، هذا الفارق كان نتيجة للتجهيل العثماني وافتتاح الإرساليات للمدارس في أواخر القرن التاسع عشر، وقبل ذلك تساوى الجميع في الجهل بسبب سوء الإدارة العثمانية.
كما ذكر دبكات العرب، وكيف استمرت لساعات وسط نشوة من دون خمر، وأنهم تحدثوا عن الطقس والمحاصيل وقصص لا تنتهي عن أبو زيد الهلالي
وعنترة بن شداد. فوجئتُ صراحة لانغماس السكان المحليين بتلك القصص العربية، ممّا يشي بمدى تغيّر الأجيال اللاحقة ونسيانها مثل تلك القصص بعد التغريب. وذكر بأنهم يكثرون من الحديث عن نابليون بونابرت والملكة فيكتوريا وكأنهم لا يزالون على قيد الحياة.

وعند شكواه من النوم في المسجد مع الجنود في صفد، كان المسؤول، وهو عربي من اللاذقية، يجلس على الأرض في خيمته، ويقول له بأنه يجب أن يكون سعيدًا لأنه يخدم السلطان، وأن وضعه ليس بأفضل من وضع الجنود، لكنه سمح له في النهاية بالنوم في خان أو حانة يملكها يهود، وأن ذلك كان أفضل من النوم في المسجد الثكنة.

[Austin Kinghorn]

Basically a memoir of Alexander Aaronsohn’s time in The Land of Israel between the Second and Third Aliyah. It was interesting to read about a time period covered in the show The Beaty Queen of Jerusalem. He was a Jewish member of the Ottoman forces in “Palestine”, and this covers some of his escapades; being pressed into service, the allied embargo on trade, and subsequent local economic depression and lack of goods and employment in The Levant, the nature of Turkish and Arab relations (he relayed the Arab disdain for Turks), the process of trying to acquire weapons for his Jewish people, the discovery of the same by the Turks, and his and his coconspirator’s torture – caning the bottom of their feet, relenting after the threat of taking the men’s sisters into captivity – and release, the false reports Pasha spread after the Suez Campaign of Turkish victory over the Brits at the canal, the fact that Christians and Jews were barred from crossing over the Suez Canal as warriors, the perception of the British among the Arabs, the veneration of “Haji” Kaiser Wilhelm among the Arabs including a prayer for his blessing at the end of Mosque services among others, the distribution of pamphlets claiming the descent of Germans from Muhammed, his process of escaping duty by way of a doctor’s note claiming he had too much blood, and paying the officers in charge a sum of 200 dollars, of boarding an American ship with papers stating he will apply to become an American Citizen upon arrival on American shores, the American captain regretfully declining – stating he gave his word only to allow neutral countries’ citizens to come onto his vessel to be bound for America, the high view the Maronite Lebanese had for the French, as saviors of their fellow Christians long ago, the acquisition of fraudulent passports for an American husband and wife, which was played by his sister, and almost being exposed by a store owner at the screening point, and finally stowing below while Turkish authorities searched the new vessel’s deck in vain. It was an interesting view of someone who dealt with the groups who were to be at play years later at Israel’s critical Independence Era. It seems important to get a sense of the antecedent attractors to reckon with the forces at play today.

[Michael]

This short book was published 1916, an expanded version of an article by the author in the Atlantic Monthly. It’s an account of the life of a Roumanian expat family in Palestine late 19th c (through 1916), and of the writer’s conscription into the Ottoman army and escape to the US. (The author’s brother Aaron was deeply involved in the WWI-era push to create a national home for the Jews and is a key figure in ‘Lawrence in Arabia,’ a great book about that time.)

The author writes like such an asshole it’s hard to sympathize with him even when he’s describing real hardships faced by himself and his family.

Some notes: “that worst of agonies, the agony of the spirit.” He writes this during the war, when people are being blown apart by machine gun fire.

[I’m not getting much out of this, halfway through. some up-close details but it feels clouded by bias and cherry-picking and judgments and too-closeness, inability to tell important from unimportant fact. what mostly comes through is the author’s nastiness toward palestinians especially, and other arabs and turks as well…]

The tone is a weird jaunty young-man-of-the-world thing, so even truthful descriptions of suffering sound canned, fake, insincere. “…these Russian Jews were gathered together as in a great drag-net and herded to Jaffa, amidst suffering unspeakable.”

It gets a little better toward the end - the escape is exciting and he’s not denigrating other peoples so much.

[Farabi Abrisham]

While the book offers firsthand account of historical events in the Levant during the early 20th century, it is necessary to approach this book with an awareness of the author’s biases and prejudices written by Jewish individual seeking American citizenship. The book reflects a perspective that can be seen as both insightful and problematic. The author’s portrayal of the Arabs is undoubtedly troubling by today’s standards and his usage of derogatory language referred to them as “Mohammedan brute”, and holding them to what now seems like unfairly low standards is disheartening. It is clear that the author’s background and personal views have coloured his narrative, making it difficult to engage with the book without acknowledging this biases. Perhaps figures like TE Lawrence, who approached the Arabian people and their culture, with greater openness and respect, set a more admirable example. Despite the shortcomings in cultural sensitivity, the book does offer valuable historical insights and descriptions of the region during a very politically complicated period.

[Priya]

I have a lot of thoughts about this book. Aaronsohn offers a layman's perspective on life in WWI-era Palestine under Turkish and German rule. First as a conscripted soldier then touches on his experiences living in one of the first moshavas, and finally as a fugitive to the united states. His experiences of getting brutalized by Ottoman ruled palestine and the prominence of the Aaronsohn family in the early Zionist movement make his reflections really interesting to read. The author's deeply ingrained racism and his constant state of moral outrage towards Arabs can be off-putting through a modern lens, but I found that it added to the complexity of the narrative. It offered insights to the perspectives of early Zionism and the author's personal biases. It was difficult to distingush whether these were the personal thoughts of the author or the general attitude that prevailed amongst Jewish settlers during the first aliyah. Overall, I thought this book was really cool.

[john b maxwell iii]

Escape

Good short book. Many books from WW1 carry writing v styles carried over from Victorian era. It's good to get a flavor of the average person in a less covered area such as the Middle East. This is especially the case since its what I might think of as a double minority, that being a Jewish subject within Ottoman Empire and likely a minority among Arabs. You see the anti-Semitism rear it's head from Ottoman, American neutrals (when trying to get his papers but not elsewhere) and neighborhood, yet he gets out with determination and guile.

[Osama Qandeel]

I like to read about that era. but this book did not reflect an honest narrative about the events. nonetheless, it makes you think about many questions regarding palestine and our unusual history,

[Monty Milne]

A curious little book, giving a good flavour of what it was like to be conscripted into the Ottoman army in the first world war (hint: not exactly a bed of roses). Although the author saw no action, a number of entertaining and exciting anecdotes are described with verve. Aaronsohn was from the small but growing Jewish minority in Palestine (still at this time only a few thousand strong, and like him nearly all recent immigrants fervently devoted to the cause of Zionism). He is in a constant state of moral outrage whenever the law is not adhered to by Turks or Arabs but is curiously blind to the extensive law-breaking by himself and his own community. The poor Arab conscripts are in a far worse state than the Jewish ones (who have the benefits of money, education, and a strong and supportive community network). But the witheringly racist contempt for the Arabs drips venomously from every page. In the end, the author escapes thanks to an Arab who risks his life to smuggle him aboard a neutral ship. A courageous and self-sacrificing act, one would have thought, but no - our author claims that he was only doing it because "he was under an obligation to me". In other words, the self sacrificing heroism belongs to the author who performed the unspecified favour, not the Arab who risked his life to thank him for it. This kind of hypocritical moral blindness is so odiously pervasive that it rather put me off what is otherwise a rare and fascinating insight into a different time and place.