Les Juifs « Moghrabi » en Palestine (1830-1903). Les enjeux de la protection française

Abstract

A few hundred of Jews coming from Algeria reach Palestine starting from 1830. Their integration in the province depends upon their contact with the Ottoman authority and with the French consular authority applying to them on the ground that they got assistance from the native Jewish community. The Ottoman administration considered that was a migration within the Empire, so that they will not get a different status from that of the Jewish communities in Palestine. As a matter of fact, the immigrants request to benefit protection by the French administration which would release them from the obligations forced upon the non-Islamic populations. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs sets the conditions for obtaining this privilege for these “French subjects”. The vagueness of the requirements for the granting of this privilege as they are defined by Paris allows the Consul to practice his own way in the matter, mainly chosen because of the concerns of France for increasing interference into the affairs of the Ottoman province. Starting from 1880, when the number of Jewish immigrants increases, the Sublime Porte forbids them to enter the province – a measure unacceptable for the French representatives who consider the Jews have been citizens since 1870.