Israel's Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 1

Edmond de Rothschild: Funded initial Zionist settlers in Palestine

                                                                 

“…During 1883-84, the first settlement began to be patronized by Rothschild. Due to his desire to remain anonymous in this venture, he was known by a cover name `Ha-Nadiv-ha Yadu’a’ (`the Well-Known Benefactor’)…”

--from the 2007 edition of Encyclopedia Judaica

Israel’s Historic Rothschild Dynasty Connection Revisited: Part 1

In the United States, neither corporate media monopoly conglomerate news departments nor most of U.S. power elite foundation-subsidized alternative media groups have generally been interested, since the end of World War II, in examining very much the role that the super-rich Rothschild Dynasty has played in world history during the last three centuries. And just as writers who examine the degree to which pro-Zionist movement lobbying organizations in the USA, like AIPAC, may have exercised a special influence over U.S. government foreign policy in the Middle East have often been stereotyped as being “anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists,” people who are interested in discussing the historical role of the Rothschild Dynasty are often falsely accused of being “anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists, like Adolf Hitler, etc.” 

   

But at least one member of the super-rich Rothschild banking family, played an important role in supporting the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist project in Palestine; that eventually led to the violation of Palestinian democratic self-determination and national rights and Palestinian human rights, especially following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. As Frederic Morton recalled in his 1962 book, The Rothschilds: A Family Portrait:

“The story starts on Sept. 28, 1882…in Edmond [Rothschild]’s office…He began by financing the settlement of exactly 101 Russian Jews not far from Jaffa. Gradually he went on to subsidize…Jewish colonies and to create others…Of the 7 new Jewish agricultural communities existing in Palestine in the middle 1880’s, 3 escaped bankruptcy only through Rothschild. A fourth was altogether of his own making. The rest benefited vitally, if more indirectly, from his help. The initial colony of Rothschild-propelled emigrants was soon followed by many hundreds and later thousands of such settlers…

“…Before long Edmond [Rothschild] found himself intervening with the Turkish government, at that time in control of Palestine, in favor of Jewish colonization. He did diplomatic backstage work…When a deputation of Russian Zionists called on him to discuss the need to reform in some of his settlements, he grew purple…: `These are my colonies, and I shall do with them as I like.’…

“…He…sparked the industrial development of Israel-to-be. His funds facilitated the formation of the Palestine Electric Corporation Ltd., the Portland Cement Company’s `Nesher Ltd.,’ the Palestine Salt Company and the Samarita Water Company…He even made sure that the colonies he bought clustered strategically across Judea, Samaria and Galilea, to serve as strongholds in time of need. The time of need came 4 decades later…”

Before transferring 62,500 acres of his Palestinian agricultural settlement land and a cash grant of 14 million French francs to the Zionist movement’s Jewish Colonization Association [JCA] in 1901, “all the agricultural experiments carried out in” these “settlements by French experts were covered” by Edmond Rothschild’s “funds,” according to the 2007 edition of Encyclopedia Judaica. The same encyclopedia also observed that “under JCA the settlements expanded, to a large degree with Rothschild’s direct and indirect support” and “Rothschild played a major role in the development of the wine industry” in Palestine.

According to the 1994 book, The Rothschilds: A European Family, which Georg Heuberger edited:

“In Haifa, Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, in Rishon Le-Zion and in numerous other places in Israel, streets and buildings are named after Edmond and Adelheid de Rothschild and their son James Armand…This honour  dates back to Edmond de Rothschild’s commitment…From his 37th year onwards, he devoted himself to establishing…settlements in Palestine. And he dedicated the larger part of his wealth to this undertaking…

“Edmond’s commitment…commenced in the summer of 1882…Edmond de Rothschild’s commitment started with concrete promises of help for the settlers in Rishon Le-Zion…Edmond granted them 25,000 francs. He also sent technical equipment and experts…Almost all the settlements founded around 1881-3 in Palestine…applied to Edmond for help…As we know from countless handwritten letters sent by him, Edmond concerned himself with all the different sides to the settlements…He sent gardeners, engineers and administrators from France, furnishing them with far-reaching power. These officials were instructed to inform Edmond in great detail about the settlements and the settlers…The power of money in distant Paris decided the day and Edmond ruled with an…iron fist…”

By 1903, 28 Zionist movement “settlements existed in Palestine, of which 19 were partially or completely financed by Baron Edmond de Rothschild” and “furthermore, he had purchased large tracts of land for future” Zionist movement “settlements,” according to The Rothschilds: A European Family book; and in the early years of the 20th-century Edmond Rothschild was now the chairman of a “Palestine Commission” which managed the Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist activities in Palestine.

The Jewish News of Northern California website also noted in a March 1997 article that “Baron Edmond de Rothschild developed a deep interest in Zionism in the 1880s” and initially “asked that none of his efforts be publicly acknowledged.” For that reason, “on one of his trips to” Palestine, “so as to arrive in relative anonymity,” Edmond Rothschild “insisted on leaving his private yacht at Alexandria and traveling on to Jaffa by ordinary passenger boat;” and “he even eschewed the public use of his name, and was known instead only as Hanadiv Hayadua (the well-known benefactor),” according to the same 1997 article.

According to Simon Schama’s 1978 book, Two Rothschilds and the Land of Israel, in 1900 the Zionist movement settlements that Edmond Rothschild established in Palestine “covered 145,000 dunams or 67 percent of all” Zionist movement-controlled “land in Palestine;” and in 1914, “235,000” dunams and “56 percent” of all Zionist movement-controlled land in Palestine were owned by the settlements established by Edmond Rothschild.

So, not surprisingly, one of the streets in Tel Aviv that was originally called “Rehov Ha’Am” or “the people’s street” was renamed “The Rothschild Boulevard” in 1910, in honor of the Rothschild Dynasty member who funded the initial settlements of the European-initiated Zionist movement’s settler-colonialist project in Palestine.

Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv

 (end of part 1)