Between Nationalism and Internationalism: Robert Weltsch and the Colonial Dilemma in World War II Palestine

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

This article proposes that the marginality of World War II in the historiography of Zionism and Israel is based on a historical perspective that shaped contemporaries’ evaluation of reality and framed postwar historiography. Through the wartime writings of Robert Weltsch, I argue that this historiographic absence draws on a dilemma: Should Britain’s colonized populations continue their fight for independence from British rule during the war or support the empire in the world conflict against the Axis? The dilemma expressed a tension between the colonial aspects of the Yishuv and its reliance on the British Empire, on the one hand, and its anticolonial struggle for independence from the British, on the other. This article examines the Yishuv’s wartime dilemma using the distinction Weltsch made between a narrow perspective, which he associated with World War I’s legacy of self-determination, and a broad international view.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)77-99
Number of pages23
JournalAJS Review
Volume48
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 2024

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Cultural Studies
  • History
  • Religious studies
  • Literature and Literary Theory

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Between Nationalism and Internationalism: Robert Weltsch and the Colonial Dilemma in World War II Palestine'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this