Nationalising the Crusades by Engaging the Crusades Volume Eight (Engaging the Crusades Book 8) (2023)

Author:Engaging the Crusades, Volume Eight (Engaging the Crusades, Book 8) (2023) [Retail]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Unlimited)
Published: 2022-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

‘Athlit in the 1920s

An examination of some of the Zionist writing from the second decade of the twentieth century, however, shows an attempt to change this perception, to merge the site of the crusader castle with that of Jewish ancient and present history. This change was prompted mainly by the endeavour of immigrants of the second and third waves of immigration (known as the Second and Third Aliyah, 1904–23), Socialist-Zionists who saw in the creation of a national Hebrew culture an integral and essential component in the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This received a great boost with the institution of British rule over Palestine through the League of Nations Mandate, which brought with it economic stability and, more relevant to our topic, a blossoming of scientific research in and on Palestine.18

From the 1920s a more proactive approach towards research, exploration and education was adopted by Zionist institutions, such as the ‘Committee for Culture’ of the General Federation of Labour (‘Va’dat ha-tarbut’ shel Histadrut ha-’ovdim) and the Hebrew/Jewish Palestinian Exploration Society (Hevrah ha-’Ivrit le-hakirat Erets Yisra`el ve-’atikoteah). These institutions stressed the importance of education and culture, especially the field of Yed’iat ha’arets (‘knowing/Learning the Land’). By studying and teaching all fields connected to the Land of Israel, such as history, geography, geology, botany, biology, and by promoting the Hebrew language, they aimed to support the Jewish material claim to the Land and to lend historical authenticity to the Zionist effort. Their works were also important in shaping a common identity that could be shared by Jews coming from very different countries and backgrounds. The collective past was used to bind these new migrants to each other and to their historical, and now actual, homeland.19

The castle of ‘Athlit became a topic of study and interpretation by Zionist scholars and writers who used the site for their nationalist aims: to create an historical awareness attuned with the Zionist ideology. In ‘The Land of Israel and Syria, a travel book’ (Erets Yisra’el ve-Suria ha-dromit, sefer masaot) by Yeshayahu Press, the crusader site and the Jewish settlement became one. Press, who was the secretary of the newly founded Jewish Palestine Exploration Society, described in detail the crusader castle:

‘Athlit was famous during the Crusades as the fortress of the immigrants (Château des Pélerins or Castelum Peregrinorum) […] The Knights of the Temple fortified it well in 1218 and made it the centre of their order, which remained in their hands until it was destroyed in 1291 by the Sultan King Al-Ashraf […] ‘Athlit’s position on a bedrock between two bays was well established. The outer wall had two towers and three gates from the east and one gate from the south. The channel that surrounded the wall on the land side was filled with seawater, and in the northeast were the remains of tower […].

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