Mobile Modernity by Presner Todd;

Author:Presner, Todd;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LIT000000, Literary Criticism/General, REL040000, Religion/Judaism/General
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2007-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

5.7 Theodor Herzl and the Zionist delegation traveling to Palestine (1898).

5.8 Kaiser Wilhelm II traveling to Palestine (1898).

The musty deposits of two thousand years of inhumanity, intolerance, and uncleanliness lie in the foul-smelling streets…. If we ever get Jerusalem back and if I’m able to still do something, the first thing I would do is clean it up. I would get rid of everything that is not sacred, set up homes for workers outside the city, empty out and tear down the nests of filth, burn the secular ruins, and move the bazaars elsewhere. Then, retaining the old architecture as much as possible, I would build a comfortable, well-ventilated, well-organized, new city around the holy places. (T 2:680–81)

Echoing the thoughts of a speech that he composed for the kaiser several days earlier, he argued that the Jewish people have the right to return to their ancient homeland in order to colonize, improve, and cultivate it. Even though “many generations have come and gone since this earth was Jewish,” Herzl says:

This is the land of our fathers, a land suitable for colonization and cultivation [Colonisirung u. Cultivirung]. Your Majesty has seen the country. It cries out for people to build it up. And we have among our brothers a frightful proletariat. These people cry out for a land to cultivate…. We are honestly convinced that the implementation of the Zionist plan must mean welfare for Turkey as well. Energies and material resources will be brought to the country; a magnificent fructification of desolate areas may easily be foreseen and, from this, more happiness and civility will flourish for all human beings. We plan to establish a Jewish Land Society for Syria and Palestine, which is to undertake this great work and request the protection of the German kaiser for this company. Our idea threatens no one’s rights or religious feelings; it breathes a long-desired reconciliation. We understand and respect the devotion of all faiths on this soil, upon which the beliefs of our fathers also arose.

(T 2:657–68)

Although couched in terms that emphasize religious tolerance, Herzl’s plan clearly involves a marginalization and displacement of the current population. The Zionists would cleanse the foul-smelling streets, tear down the secular buildings, and get rid of the means of sustenance for the Arab people, while “cultivating” and bringing “fructification” to the impoverished land. In its essence, Herzl imagined Zionist colonization as a project of cleansing, resettling, and cultivating, which would take the German model of Bildung as its historical justification.117

When Herzl finally met the German kaiser in Jerusalem, the kaiser’s observations were essentially the same as Herzl’s: “The settlements that I have seen, both the German ones and those of your people, can serve as a model for what one can make out of this country. There is room for everyone. Only provide water and trees. The work of the colonists will serve as a stimulating model for the native population. Your movement, which I know quite well, contains a healthy idea” (T 2:689). Jews, like Germans, could cultivate the land and the people, in turn improving them both.

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