Summary
A leading activist of the Second Aliya, spelled Rabinowitch, Rabinowtich and Rabinnowitch in text and notes as printed, whose Rehovot diary entries in Shtetl Colonialism: First and Last Impressions of Indigeneity by Colonised Colonisers give both a momentary humanist indulgence and the period’s most zealous statement against employing Palestinians (Shtetl Colonialism: First and Last Impressions of Indigeneity by Colonised Colonisers, PDF p.15 / printed p.53).
Details
- In what he called a moment of weakness he was charmed momentarily by the beauty of an Arab village and the sound of the shepherd’s flute, and had to remind himself that these were foreigners on the homeland (PDF p.15, note 36 to ‘Entries from the Rehovot Diary’, p.234).
- He was one of the most zealous fighters against the employment of Palestinians, which he defined as the evil, Hara’ Hazeh, fearing that if the Palestinians rose up it would be the settlers’ end; even a decent farmer, in his notes, was potentially Raa Hola, glossed a malignant evil (PDF p.15, note 37, p.235).
Related pages
Shtetl Colonialism: First and Last Impressions of Indigeneity by Colonised Colonisers, Second Aliya, The Book of the Second Aliya