Late Ottoman rule over Palestine: its evaluation in Arab, Turkish and Israeli histories, 1970–90

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyse the scholarly and journalistic literature dealing with late Ottoman rule in Palestine (1840-1918) by Arab, Turkish and Israeli historians writing between 1970 and 1990. The 'parties' that were directly involved in the history of Ottoman Palestine were the Arabs as the numerically preponderant population, the Ottomans as sovereigns, and the Jews both as a small indigenous minority and also as a group of immigrants. The 'successor' states of these parties, the Arab states and the stateless Palestinians, Turkey and Israel regard themselves as the trustees of their 'own' histories, a position that is more or less adopted by their respective historians. The broader interest of the analysis is the question of the civilizational impact of Ottoman rule and the extent to which Ottoman reforms of the nineteenth century influenced the changes that Palestine has undergone in the last 150 years. The focus here is on the interpretations given by historians to the attitude of the Ottoman government towards early Zionist immigration to Palestine. In the intrusion of European imperialism and European-style nationalisms and the Zionist immigration, the Arab, Turkish and Israeli historians have found a common point of debate. They are not far removed from the 'overheated ethnocentricism' brought forth by the Israeli-Arab conflict after 1948.' Underlying the description of Ottoman Palestine the endeavour to make an early claim on post-Ottoman history can be detected.