One Million Plan

Der One Million Plan (hebräisch תוכנית המיליון Tochnit hamillion, deutsch ‚Ein-Million-Plan‘) war ein strategischer Plan für die Einwanderung und Integration von einer Million Juden aus Europa, dem Nahen Osten und Nordafrika nach Mandatspalästina, innerhalb eines Zeitraums von 18 Monaten.^[4] Nachdem er 1944 von der Exekutive der Jewish Agency for Israel abgestimmt wurde, wurde er zur offiziellen Politik der zionistischen Führung.^[5][6][7][8] Die Umsetzung eines bedeutenden Teils des One Million Plans erfolgte nach der Gründung des Staates Israel im Jahr 1948.^[9][10]

Als 1944 das Ausmaß der Dezimierung der Juden im Holocaust bekannt wurde, korrigierte man das ursprüngliche Ziel der Biltmore-Konferenz, zwei Millionen Einwanderer aufzunehmen, nach unten. Der Plan wurde erstmals überarbeitet, um Juden aus dem Nahen Osten und Nordafrika als eine einheitliche Kategorie in den Einwanderungsplan aufzunehmen.^[11] In den Jahren 1944–45 beschrieb Ben-Gurion den Plan gegenüber ausländischen Beamten als „das Hauptziel und oberste Priorität der zionistischen Bewegung.“^[12]

Die fortlaufenden Einwanderungsbeschränkungen durch das britische Weißbuch von 1939 bedeuteten, dass ein solcher Plan nicht sofort umgesetzt werden konnte. Nach der Gründung Israels präsentierte die Regierung von Ben Gurion der Knesset einen neuen Plan – die Bevölkerung von 600.000 innerhalb von vier Jahren zu verdoppeln. Die israelische Historikerin Devorah Hacohen beschreibt den Widerstand gegen diese Einwanderungspolitik innerhalb der neuen israelischen Regierung, wie jene, die argumentierten, es gäbe „keine Rechtfertigung für die Organisation einer großangelegten Emigration unter Juden, deren Leben nicht in Gefahr war, insbesondere wenn der Wunsch und die Motivation nicht ihre eigenen waren“,^[13] sowie jene, die argumentierten, dass der Integrationsprozess „unangemessene Härten“ verursachte.^[14] Die Stärke von Ben-Gurions Einfluss und Beharrlichkeit stellte jedoch sicher, dass die uneingeschränkte Einwanderung fortgesetzt wurde.^[15][16]

Der Plan wurde als „ein entscheidendes Ereignis bei der 'Vorstellung' des jüdischen Staates“ charakterisiert^[17] und als „der Moment, in dem die Kategorie der mizrachischen Juden im heutigen Sinne des Begriffs als eine ethnische Gruppe, die sich von in Europa geborenen Juden unterscheidet, geschaffen wurde.“^[18] Die umfangreiche Einwanderung in den ersten Jahren nach der Unabhängigkeitserklärung Israels war das Ergebnis dieser Politikänderung, die eine Masseneinwanderung begünstigte und sich auf Juden aus arabischen und muslimischen Ländern konzentrierte.^[19]

1. ↑ Irit Katz: Camp evolution and Israel's creation: between 'state of emergency' and 'emergence of state'. In: Political Geography. 55. Jahrgang, 2016, S. 144–155, doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2016.09.003 (englisch, academia.edu): "These camps did not merely appear due to a state of emergency of the increasing stream of immigrants; instead, they were a product of an existing detailed plan, the One Million Plan, consolidated between 1942 and 1945 in order to absorb one million Jewish immigrants a few years before Israel's establishment… Camps were an integral part of the One Million Plan… However, three years after its completion, the One Million Plan approached realisation following the Israeli declaration of independence in May 1948 and the decision to open the state’s gates to Jewish immigration. As planned and anticipated, the camp had gradually become a central instrument in the absorption process. Several small immigrant camps operated before statehood in the centre of the country, and in accordance with the One Million Plan, about 30 additional camps opened in former British military facilities." 
2. ↑ Roy Kozlovsky: Modernism and the Middle East: Architecture and Politics in the Twentieth Century. Hrsg.: Sandy Isenstadt, Kishwar Rizvi. University of Washington Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-295-80030-1, Temporal States of Architecture: Mass Immigration and Provisional Housing in Israel, S. 155 (englisch, google.de): “To contain the risks of mass immigration, Ben Gurion commissioned a group of experts to prepare the "Million Plan," which included a complete design for a system of camps to house the influx of refugees until they could be settled and employed. The plan was elaborated with great detail, even calculating the caloric value of the meals that were to be prepared in the camps' kitchens." The existence of the "Million Plan" requires us to reevaluate the way in which the story of the ma'abaras has been told, since it now appears that the concept of the ma'abara was in fact the precondition for, not the effect of, mass immigration.” 
3. ↑ Piera Rossetto: Space of Transit, Place of Memory: Ma'abarah and Literary Landscapes of Arab Jews; in Memory and Forgetting among Jews from the Arab-Muslim Countries. Contested Narratives of a Shared Past. In: Emanuela Trevisan Semi, Piera Rossetto (Hrsg.): Quest. Issues in Contemporary Jewish History. Journal of Fondazione CDEC. 4. Jahrgang, November 2012 (englisch, quest-cdecjournal.it): “It could be argued that the State of Israel, before and immediately after its declaration, was going through such hardships that there were no many other options to “absorb” so many thousands of immigrants arriving to the Country than by placing them in these precarious hosting facilities. Nonetheless, I am of the opinion that the most controversial issue in this respect is not the outcome (e.g. the ma’abarot) of the choice, rather the choice in itself to bring to Israel so many thousands of immigrants, following the idea of the “One Million Plan” unveiled by Ben Gurion in 1944.” 
4. ↑ Ari Barell, David Ohana: 'The Million Plan': Zionism, Political Theology and Scientific Utopianism. In: Politics, Religion & Ideology. 15. Jahrgang, Nr. 1, 2014, S. 1–22, doi:10.1080/21567689.2013.849587 (englisch, academia.edu). 
5. ↑ Mark Avrum Ehrlich: Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora: Origins, Experiences, and Culture. Band 1. ABC-CLIO, 2009, ISBN 978-1-85109-873-6 (englisch): “A Zionist plan. designed in 1943–1944, to bring one million Jews from Europe and the Middle East to Palestine as a means and a stage to establish a state. It was the first time the Jews of Islamic countries were explicitly included in a Zionist plan.” 
6. ↑ Esther Meir-Glitzenstein: Zionism in an Arab Country: Jews in Iraq in the 1940s. Routledge, 2004, ISBN 978-1-135-76862-1, The Reversal in Zionist Policy vis-a-vis the Jews of Islamic Countries: The One Million Plan, S. 44 #1 (englisch, google.de): “After it was presented to the Jewish Agency Executive, the One Million Plan became the official policy of the Zionist leadership. The immigration of the Jews of Islamic countries was explicit or implicit in all the declarations, testimonies, memoranda and demands issued by the Jewish Agency from World War II until the establishment of the state.” 
7. ↑ Dalia Ofer: Studies in Contemporary Jewry: VII: Jews and Messianism in the Modern Era: Metaphor and Meaning. Hrsg.: Jonathan Frankel. OUP USA/Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, New York 1991, ISBN 978-0-19-506690-6, Illegal Immigration During the Second World War, S. 239 (englisch, google.de): “This tactical approach, the demand for "control of aliyah" and the immediate immigration of two million (later, one million) Jews, was the declared policy of the Jewish Agency Executive until the end of the war.” 
8. ↑ David Ohana: Nationalizing Judaism: Zionism as a Theological Ideology. Lexington Books, 2017, ISBN 978-1-4985-4361-3, S. 31 (englisch, google.de): “The Million Plan was not an intellectual project or an abstract utopia with merely propagandist goals. It was a strategic move with extremely ambitious national, political, and techno-scientific goals, while being specific and concrete at the same time.” 
9. ↑ David Ohana: Nationalizing Judaism: Zionism as a Theological Ideology. Lexington Books, 2017, ISBN 978-1-4985-4361-3, S. 31b (englisch, google.de): “...the research carried out by the [One Million Plan] Planning Committee's various teams created the know-how that was used after the state's establishment. An important part of the Planning Committee's plans and recommendations were implemented after the establishment of the State of Israel. The committee's first working premise - a rapid Jewish mass migration - was indeed implemented immediately after the establishment of Israel, as well as its recommendations concerning the setting up of immigrant camps and the request for compensation (reparations) from Germany. The Planning Committee's work also served as a basis for some of the State of Israel's initial plans and development projects such as the National Water Carrier and the first National Outline Plan.” 
10. ↑ Avi Picard: Building the country or rescuing the people: Ben-Gurion's attitude towards mass Jewish immigration to Israel in the mid-1950s. In: Middle Eastern Studies. 54. Jahrgang, Nr. 3, 2018, S. 4–5, doi:10.1080/00263206.2017.1414698, JSTOR:48543767 (englisch): “There were two major changes in Zionist aliya policy in the first half of the 1940s. The first was the replacement of the preference for selective aliya by support for mass aliya. In 1944, Ben-Gurion called for bringing a million Jews to Palestine, even if public soup kitchens had to be set up to feed them... The second change was the decision to extend the aliya net to include the Jews of Muslim countries. It had become clear that they, too, would be needed to create a Jewish majority in Palestine... Independence and the removal of the British restrictions on Jewish immigration made it possible to implement these policy changes. The large-scale aliya of the next few years was the product of these two changes: it was mass aliya and it included Jews from Muslim countries.” 
11. ↑ Gil Eyal: The Disenchantment of the Orient: Expertise in Arab Affairs and the Israeli State. Stanford University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8047-5403-3, The 'One Million Plan' and the Development of a Discourse about the Absorption of the Jews from Arab Countries, S. 86 (englisch, stanford.edu): “The principal significance of this plan lies in the fact, noted by Yehuda Shenhav, that this was the first time in Zionist history that Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries were all packaged together in one category as the target of an immigration plan. There were earlier plans to bring specific groups, such as the Yemenites, but the "one million plan" was, as Shenhav says, "the zero point," the moment when the category of mizrahi Jews in the current sense of this term, as an ethnic group distinct from European-born Jews, was invented.” 
12. ↑ Dvorah Hacohen: Studies in Contemporary Jewry: Volume VII: Jews and Messianism in the Modern Era: Metaphor and Meaning. Hrsg.: Jonathan Frankel. Oxford University Press, 1991, ISBN 978-0-19-536198-8, BenGurion and the Second World War, S. 262 #2 (englisch). 
13. ↑ Devorah Hacohen: Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and Its Repercussions in the 1950s and After. Syracuse University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8156-2969-6, S. 46 (englisch): “After independence, the government presented the Knesset with a plan to double the Jewish population within four years. This meant bringing in 600,000 immigrants in a four-year period. or 150,000 per year. Absorbing 150,000 newcomers annually under the trying conditions facing the new state was a heavy burden indeed. Opponents in the Jewish Agency and the government of mass immigration argued that there was no justification for organizing large-scale emigration among Jews whose lives were not in danger, particularly when the desire and motivation were not their own.” 
14. ↑ Devorah Hacohen: Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and Its Repercussions in the 1950s and After. Syracuse University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8156-2969-6, S. 246–247 (englisch): "Both the immigrants' dependence and the circumstances of their arrival shaped the attitude of the host society. The great wave of immigration in 1948 did not occur spontaneously: it was the result of a clear-cut foreign policy decision that taxed the country financially and necessitated a major organizational effort. Many absorption activists, Jewish Agency executives, and government officials opposed unlimited, nonselective immigration; they favored a gradual process geared to the country's absorptive capacity. Throughout this period, two charges resurfaced at every public debate: one, that the absorption process caused undue hardship; two, that Israel's immigration policy was misguided." 
15. ↑ Devorah Hacohen: Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and Its Repercussions in the 1950s and After. Syracuse University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8156-2969-6, S. 47 (englisch): “But as head of the government, entrusted with choosing the cabinet and steering its activities, Ben-Gurion had tremendous power over the country's social development. His prestige soared to new heights after the founding of the state and the impressive victory of the IDF in the War of Independence. As prime minister and minister of defense in Israel's first administration, as well as the uncontested leader of the country's largest political party, his opinions carried enormous weight. Thus, despite resistance from some of his cabinet members, he remained unflagging in his enthusiasm for unrestricted mass immigration and resolved to put this policy into effect.” 
16. ↑ Devorah Hacohen: Immigrants in Turmoil: Mass Immigration to Israel and Its Repercussions in the 1950s and After. Syracuse University Press, 2003, ISBN 978-0-8156-2969-6, S. 247 (englisch): “On several occasions, resolutions were passed to limit immigration from European and Arab countries alike. However, these limits were never put into practice, mainly due to the opposition of Ben-Gurion. As a driving force in the emergency of the state, Ben-Gurion—both prime minister and minister of defense—carried enormous weight with his veto. His insistence on the right of every Jew to immigrate proved victorious. He would not allow himself to be swayed by financial or other considerations. It was he who orchestrated the large-scale action that enabled the Jews to leave Eastern Europe and Islamic countries, and it was he who effectively forged Israel's foreign policy. Through a series of clandestine activities carried out overseas by the Foreign Office, the Jewish Agency, the Mossad le-Aliyah, and the Joint Distribution Committee, the road was paved for mass immigration.” 
17. ↑ Ari Barell, David Ohana: 'The Million Plan': Zionism, Political Theology and Scientific Utopianism. In: Politics, Religion & Ideology. 15. Jahrgang, Nr. 1, 2014, S. 1–22, doi:10.1080/21567689.2013.849587 (englisch, academia.edu): “a pivotal event in 'imagining' the Jewish state” 
18. ↑ Gil Eyal: The Disenchantment of the Orient: Expertise in Arab Affairs and the Israeli State. Stanford University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-8047-5403-3, The 'One Million Plan' and the Development of a Discourse about the Absorption of the Jews from Arab Countries, S. 86–89 (englisch, google.com): “The principal significance of this plan lies in the fact, noted by Yehuda Shenhav, that this was the first time in Zionist history that Jews from Middle Eastern and North African countries were all packaged together in one category as the target of an immigration plan. There were earlier plans to bring specific groups, such as the Yemenites, but the "one million plan" was, as Shenhav says, "the zero point," the moment when the category of mizrahi Jews in the current sense of this term, as an ethnic group distinct from European-born Jews, was invented.” 
19. ↑ Avi Picard: Building the country or rescuing the people: Ben-Gurion's attitude towards mass Jewish immigration to Israel in the mid-1950s. In: Middle Eastern Studies. 54. Jahrgang, Nr. 3, 2018, S. 382–399, doi:10.1080/00263206.2017.1414698 (englisch, academia.edu): “There were two major changes in Zionist aliya policy in the first half of the 1940s. The first was the replacement of the preference for selective aliya by support for mass aliya. In 1944, Ben-Gurion called for bringing a million Jews to Palestine, even if public soup kitchens had to be set up to feed them... The second change was the decision to extend the aliya net to include the Jews of Muslim countries. It had become clear that they, too, would be needed to create a Jewish majority in Palestine... Independence and the removal of the British restrictions on Jewish immigration made it possible to implement these policy changes. The large-scale aliya of the next few years was the product of these two changes: it was mass aliya and it included Jews from Muslim countries”