تيودور هرتزل

Theodor Herzl, leader of the Zionist movement. He tried to meet Sultan Abd al-Hamid II, but the officials of the Yildiz Palace prevented him, and then he met him in 1901 CE ².

In a meeting that lasted two hours, Herzl proposed that Jewish banks in Europe would help the Ottoman state reduce its public debts, in return for permission to settle in Palestine. The Sultan listened more than he spoke, until Herzl thought he had succeeded, and then he realised he was on a dead-end path. ².

Herzl wrote that Turkey could not be made use of unless its political condition changed, or it was drawn into wars in which it was defeated. He said that he lost hope of achieving the aspirations of the Jews in Palestine so long as Abd al-Hamid was in power. ³.

• The entry is based on al-Salabi's summary of the book. We have not yet gone back to Herzl's own writings or to the memoirs of the Zionist movement.
• The Sultan's position on Jewish immigration is recorded in the entry on Herzl's audience with Sultan Abd al-Hamid, and is not repeated here.