The Migration of the Italian Jews to Israel and their Perception of the “Arab Problem” (1945‐1958)

Abstract

AbstractThis article sheds light on the way Italian Zionism addressed the so-called “Arab problem” in British Palestine and later in Israel in the years following the Second World War, when a small—yet proportionally relevant—migration took place after an extremely lively revival of Zionist life and activities in Italy. In particular, four different approaches towards the “Arab problem” are presented, i.e. its dismissal, its under-estimation, the formulation of naïve proposals to solve it, the recognition of an inevitable confrontation. These approaches clearly recall the way in which the Zionist movement had already addressed the “Arab problem,” specifically in the decades before and after the First World War. The article also presents what can be considered an alternative discourse to these approaches, carried out by a few individuals who proposed different solutions to the “Arab problem” based on co-existence and cooperation.