Zionism, which emerged when Leo Pinsker founded a Jewish nationalist organization called Chovove Zion (Lovers of Zion) and demanded the establishment of an independent state belonging to the Jews, turned into a universal system of thought under the leadership of Theodore Herzl (1860-1904). With Zionism’s maturation Jews began mass migration to Palestine starting in 1882. With these migrations, financed by various institutions, organizations, and individuals and called Aliyah, farms (Moshav) and colonies (Kibbutz) were established for Jews in Palestine on lands purchased through various means. The Aliyah affair’s, which lasted nearly a century, caused demographic and social problems. The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 by the Zionists, who received the support of Europe and the United States, especially Britain, led to an increase in these problems. Although Sultan Abdülhamid II took measures to prevent the Aliyah’s, they were not sufficient. After the proclamation of Constitutional Monarchy II, there was an increase in the number of Aliyahs during the period when the Union and Progress Party and the Freedom and Entente Party were in the Ottoman government. Some intellectuals resorted to political, literary, and cultural means, especially the press, to fight Zionism and the Aliyah’s. The First World War and Arab Revolt in Hejaz under the leadership of Sharīf Ḥusain b. ʿAlī prepared the ground for the long-term establishment of a Jewish state rather than Arab independence. The withdrawal of the Ottoman Empire from Arab geography with the loss of war led the British and French to create many statelets in the region. Palestine, on the other hand, entered the British mandate without being subject to certain status. During this mandate, the British made great efforts to realize Zionist ideals. This led to bloody conflicts between Arabs and Jews and great resistance by Palestine’s people. Palestine’s elite families, notable intellectuals and patriotic youth played a major role in the formation and maturation of this resistance against Zionism, which continues to this day.

During Ottoman rule and the British mandate, Palestinian Arab intellectuals struggled against the problems caused by Zionism in political, literary, and cultural fields and tried to prevent the Zionists from achieving their goals. One of these intellectuals was Najīb al-Hūrī Nassār (1865-1948), a Christian Arab intellectual. Born in Lebanon to an Orthodox family, Najīb converted to Protestantism with his family. Najīb received his primary education in the village where he was born. After attending high school in Sūq al-Gharb, he graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy at the American University of Beirut. He began his professional life as a pharmacist’s journeyman and worked as a teacher, translator, and farmer. Najīb, who had the opportunity to closely examine the farms and colonies created as a result of Aliyah’s while he was farming, read about Zionism and predicted that Zionism could be a danger to the Ottoman Empire and especially Palestine. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Najīb wrote down his knowledge and experiences regarding Zionism and sent them to Beirut, Damascus, and Cairo newspapers. With the declaration of the Constitutional Monarchy II, he bought a printing house in Beirut and began publishing the al-Karmil newspaper. In addition to publishing al-Karmil, he fought against Zionism throughout his life, writing works such as al-Sihyawniyya, Muflah al-Ghassani, al-Zirā’at al-jāffa, Shumam al-’Arab, and al-Rajul. He also participated in political, literary, and cultural activities.

On the one hand, Najīb wrote articles in al-Karmil about the danger of Zionism and invited the Palestinian press to unite and show resistance; on the other hand, he established societies and associations, visited villages, and raised awareness among the villagers about the dangers of land sales. Najīb established a committee to monitor the Aliyah’s and land sales, investigated any activity that he suspected of Zionism, and exposed in his newspaper the individuals he found selling land to Zionists. Najīb accused the notables of Palestine, the district governors, the Ottoman administration, and the British rulers of serving Zionism, and published in his newspaper the documents he considered as evidence of this. His harsh style and strong stance caused Zionists to feel uncomfortable, and religious and political leaders who supported Zionism considered it a religious obligation to attack Najīb through the press and the judiciary. This situation not only increased Najīb’s popularity, but also led young people and some Arab intellectuals to support him. Although Najīb supported the British for a while during the mandate years, the situation did not last long. The British appointment of Herbert Samuel, a Zionist supporter of Jewish origin, as the High Commissioner for Palestine (1920) completely destroyed Najīb’s trust in the British, and from then on, he became an opponent of both British and Zionism. Harshly criticizing the conflicts and problems in Palestine during the Mandate, Najīb held the British administrators and Arab political leaders responsible for the events. After 1935, Najīb began to lose hope in Arab politics and leadership, claiming that the Zionists would not only occupy Palestine but also take all the promised land. He accused Arab leaders, including the Emir of Jordan ‘Abdullāh b. Ḥusain, Haj Amīn al-Ḥusaynī, King Faisal, King Ghāzī and ‘Abdul ‘azīz b. Sa’ūd, of being passive and cowardly. In his writings in al-Karmil, which he had published for more than 30 years, he called on people to stop placing their hopes in political leaders and start mass resistance. His predictions and demands regarding Zionism were often seen as exaggerations. He was even referred to as a “madman” by some. However, nearly a hundred years of bloody conflicts, especially the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and the unceasing massacres of the Zionists show that Najīb Nassār was correct in his predictions. Najīb, who tried to prevent the realization of Zionist ideals by engaging in political, literary, and cultural activities for nearly half a century, died shortly before the Nakba in 1948. His last wish was for the Palestinian people to organize a mass resistance against the occupiers, like the people of Syria, and he passed away in his house in Bīsān, which he had acquired by preventing its sale to the Jews.