Zionism+Vocabulary+Terms


 * __Zionism Vocabulary Terms__**

__The Dreyfus Affair:__ A political scandal that reshaped French politics in the 1890's and early 1900's. In October 1894, the French army accused one of its officers, Captain Alfred Dreyfus (1859-1935), of selling military secrets to Germany. Almost the only evidence against him was a secret document that a French agent found in the wastepaper basket of Lieutenant Colonel Maximilian von Schwartzkoppen, a German military attache in Paris. Handwriting on the document resembled that of Dreyfus. In December 1894, a court-martial condemned Dreyfus to life imprisonment on Devils Island in French Guiana. The Dreyfus affair led to an increase in anti-Semitism in France. This development helped convince Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl that Jews could never find a home in non-Jewish societies. As a result, he organized a worldwide Zionist movement, which inspired the founding of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. __ Theodor Herzl: __ The founder of the Zionist movement he worked as a writer and journalist in Vienna, advocating the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. His goal was to create a Jewish state to avoid the discrimination of Anti-Semitism. His plan was a gradual departure of Jews over several decades. He suggested the poorest to go first to cultivate the land, build roads, bridges, railways, home and regulate rivers. This labor will in turn create trade and markets establishing a Jewish state that can thrive. __The Basel Declaration:__ This was the official statement of Zionist purpose created by the first Zionist congress in Basel in 1897. "The aim of Zionism is to create a home in Palestine for the Jewish people secured by public law. The congress contemplates the following means to the attainment of this end: 1. The promotion, on suitable lines, of the colonization of Palestine by Jewish agricultural and industrial workers. 2. The organization and binding together of the whole of Jewry by means of appropriate institutions, local and international, in accordance with the laws of each country. 3. The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment and consciousness. 4. Preparatory steps toward obtaining government consent where necessary, to the attainment of the aim of Zionism." Source: Laquer and Rubin, Israel-Arab Reader, pp. 11-12