12.2 The Secret History of Israel/Palestine pt2: Fellahin and Bedouin in the Ottoman Empire

Who were the people of Palestine and what were their lives about in the mid to late 19th century, before the first Zionists began arriving from Europe in the 1880s?

This episode focuses on the fellahin - the peasants of Palestine who comprised 70% of its population in the late 19th century, who are the first to clash with Zionist immigrants, and who later bore the brunt of the 1948 war which established the modern state of Israel.

We also look at the Bedouin, whose social structure and culture are the archetype for fellahin culture, and who were the founders of Arab civilization as a whole.

This is the 2nd in a multipart series about the “secret” or hidden origins of the Israel/Palestine conflict, focusing on episodes of history that both Israeli and Palestinian nationalist historians and partisans ignore and overlook because they don’t fit into either nationalist narrative.

Cover image: 19th century tatreez / embroidery on a dress from an unspecified village between Hebron and Jaffa

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0:00 Introduction
1:53 Diaper Warning
3:25 Secret History?
6:51 Why focus on peasants and Bedouin?
10:59 Origins of Palestine
13:48 Origins of the Palestinians
14:45 Ottoman Palestine
15:48 Europe and the Ottoman Empire
26:35 The Millet System
30:27 Ottoman political structure
31:33 Intro to the fellahin
36:00 Tribes vs the state: Bedouin social organization
46:05 Material roots of Bedouin culture
57:44 Advantages/disadvantages of tribal organization
59:16 Urban vs rural religion
1:01:13 Fellahin social organization
1:10:20 Fellahin attachment to land
1:15:01 Male dominance
1:26:22 Slavery
1:27:51 19thC population pressure
1:31:38 Communal land vs. economics 101 vs. Papa Smurf
1:47:13 Village religion
1:52:16 Village sectarian relations
1:55:17 Next time on the Secret History of Israel/Palestine