Jewish people looks towards new Palestine home

25 May 1917 - It is widely acknowledged that the current war has thrown up the likelihood of a redrawing of the international map.

In the process, it has brought to the fore a debate around the future of the Jewish people. Zionist plans to establish, in Palestine, a permanent home for the Jewish race has divided opinion.

Baron Hirsch, a wealthy Jewish banker in Germany who has established a trust to help persecuted Jews, has encouraged settlement policies directed not at Palestine, where Jews have experienced ‘varying degrees of oppression by the Turks… but in virgin countries – notably Argentina’.  Nevertheless, the weight of Jewish opinion appears to favour making Palestine a Jewish colony.

It is not clear how this settlement would impact on the existing population of Palestine.

[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]