Before 1948: Israel's Future Leaders Studied Law and Served in the Ottoman Empire
Key Takeaways
- •In 1914, David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi — the future prime minister and president of Israel — were studying law at Istanbul University, having learned Ottoman Turkish in hopes of serving as elected representatives from Jerusalem in the Assembly of Deputies.
- •The two men's proposal to create a Jewish legion fighting under the Ottoman banner was rejected, and after the Balfour Declaration they instead joined the Jewish Legion of the British Army in 1918.
- •Moshe Sharett, another future Israeli prime minister said to be fluent in Arabic and Turkish, studied law in Istanbul and served in the Ottoman army through the Balkan Wars and the First World War, continuing even after the British occupation of Jerusalem in December 1917.
- •The Ottoman state collapsed in the early 1920s, its Middle Eastern provinces were divided into British and French mandates, and Palestine came under British administration.
- •The account originates from Mustafa Aksakal's book 'The War That Made the Middle East: World War I and the End of the Ottoman Empire,' which the Marginal Revolution post's author describes as quite good.
In 1914, Yitzhak Ben-Zvi and David Ben-Gurion — who would go on to become, respectively, the president and prime minister of Israel after 1948 — were in the Ottoman capital, studying law at Istanbul University. Palestine had been under Ottoman rule for some four centuries, and the Young Turk Revolution of 1908, which restored the constitution and reconvened parliament, had opened new possibilities for political participation across the empire's communities. Having already studied Ottoman Turkish, the two had embarked on their legal studies in the hope of one day serving in the Assembly of Deputies as elected representatives from Jerusalem.
With war on the horizon, they made their way back to Palestine, where they volunteered for military service in the Ottoman army. They also proposed the formation of a Jewish legion to fight under the Ottoman banner, but the initiative fell on deaf ears. As the account observes: "We have no way of knowing how things might have turned out had Ben-Zvi and Ben-Gurion been allowed to suit up in Ottoman uniform." In the end, both men did wear a uniform — but a British one: in 1918, after the Balfour Declaration, each enlisted in the Jewish Legion of the British Army.
Moshe Sharett, another future prime minister of Israel who was said to have been fluent in both Arabic and Turkish, had followed a similar path, studying law in Istanbul before serving in the Ottoman army during the Balkan Wars and all through the First World War — even beyond the announcement of the Balfour Declaration and the British occupation of Jerusalem in December 1917.
The empire these future leaders sought to work within did not outlast the war. The Ottoman state collapsed in the early 1920s, its Middle Eastern provinces were divided into British and French mandates, and Palestine passed to British administration — the setting in which Ben-Gurion, Ben-Zvi and Sharett would eventually lead a state of their own.
The account is drawn from The War That Made the Middle East: World War I and the End of the Ottoman Empire by Mustafa Aksakal, a book the author of the Marginal Revolution post describes as "quite good."
Source: Marginal Revolution
