Summary
The congress held at Basel in August 1897 under Theodor Herzl, which in Sayegh’s account replaced haphazard philanthropic-colonial colonisation with an organised nationalistic programme, stated Zionism’s aim of a home in Palestine secured by public law, diagnosed the three special features of Zionist colonisation, and created the World Zionist Organization.
Details
- The failure of the first sporadic effort to implant a Zionist settler-community in Palestine during the first fifteen years of Zionist colonisation (1882-1897) prompted the reappraisal and radical revision of strategy accomplished by the First Zionist Congress, held at Basel in August 1897 under the leadership of Theodor Herzl (Zionist Colonialism in Palestine, PDF p.3 / printed p.208).
- The overall objective it formulated, quoted by Sayegh from Israel Cohen (Note 1), was the aim of Zionism to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law (Zionist Colonialism in Palestine, PDF p.3 / printed p.208).
- Its practical programme called for action along three lines, organisation, colonisation and negotiation, and the World Zionist Organization was established at Basel as the movement’s quasi-state apparatus (Zionist Colonialism in Palestine, PDF p.5 / printed p.210).
- Sayegh dates the inauguration of the new Zionist Movement to 1897, and the conscious dedication to the racist doctrines inherent in Zionism as guiding colonisation at every stage at least since then (Zionist Colonialism in Palestine, PDF p.11 / printed p.216).
Related pages
Zionist Colonialism in Palestine, Theodor Herzl, World Zionist Organization, Zionism