page_title: Haim Arlosoroff
section_title: Political career
hierarchical_section_title: Haim Arlosoroff / Political career
caption_attribution_description: English: Haim Arlosoroff (seated centre) with Chaim Weizmann (to his left) at a meeting with Arab leaders at the King David Hotel, Jerusalem, 8 April 1933. Also pictured Moshe Shertok (Sharett) and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (standing in the right). The representatives from Transjordan were Sheikh Mithqal Pasha al-Faiz, Chief of the Bani Sakhr; Rashid Pasha al-Khaza'i, supreme sheikh of Mount Ajlun; Mitri Pasha Zurikat, Christian leader from al-Karak district; Shams-ud-Din Bey Sami, Circassian leader, and Salim Pasha Abu al-Ajam, supreme sheik of the Belka region. Avraham Elmalih is standing second in the left. According to Davar, June 11, 1958, page 3, the picture was taken the eve of Passover 1931 at discussions on land sale in Transjordan (see File:Davar11 june1958 302.jpg). עברית: חיים ארלוזורוב ומשמאלו חיים ויצמן (ישובים במרכז) בפגישה עם מנהיגים ערבים במלון המלך דוד בירושלים, 1933; בימין התמונה למעלה עומדים משה שרתוק ויצחק בן-צבי עברית: אברהם אלמליח עומד שני משמאל.
context_page_description: Haim Arlosoroff was a Zionist leader of the Yishuv during the British Mandate for Palestine, prior to the establishment of Israel, and head of the Political Department of the Jewish Agency. In 1933, Arlosoroff was assassinated while walking on the beach in Tel Aviv.
context_section_description: In 1930, Arlosoroff was influential in unifying the two major Zionist socialist political parties, the Poale Zion and the Hapoel Hatzair. This merger brought the establishment of the Mapai Labour Party. Through the Mapai's political muscle, Arlosoroff received election as a member of the Zionist Executive at the 1931 Zionist Congress. In addition, he was named Political Director of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, a prominent position he filled until his 1933 assassination.
  As the Jewish Agency's Political Director, Arlosoroff first believed that the British would help settling Jews in Palestine, so he worked with the British mandatory government which was in charge of running that territory. Prior to his tenure as Political Director, Arlosoroff had already familiarized himself with the British system of rule, having written an essay titled "The British Administration and the Jewish National Home". During his years in office, Arlosoroff would develop close working relationships with Britain's High Commissioner Arthur Wauchope and British Colonial Secretary Sir Philip Cunliffe-Lister.
  Arlosoroff was a close friend of the Jewish scientist and statesman, Chaim Weizmann. Dr. Weizmann was considered to be among the most politically moderate of Arlosoroff's Mapai Zionist contemporaries.
  In the months leading up to his assassination, Arlosoroff's fervor to help establish a Jewish national homeland intensified. At a Mapai Labour Council meeting occurring in January 1933, Arlosoroff strongly clashed with David Ben-Gurion and other prominent Mapai leaders regarding whether or not the Zionists should work within the British government's infrastructure to help bring about Jewish statehood. Arlosoroff warned his colleagues that if the Zionist movement maintained an isolationist policy with the British ruling authorities, Arab political influence would increase within the British Administration and cause the rights of Jewish people in Eretz Israel to suffer.
  On April 8, 1933, Arlosoroff organized a historic event at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on the Jewish Agency's behalf. The luncheon, attended by Weizmann and prominent Arab leaders of Transjordan, would be the first time Jewish Zionists and key Arabs gathered together to help promote cooperative efforts between the two groups. Arlosoroff hoped that by building an accord with the Arab sheiks of Transjordan, political relations with Arab leaders of Mandatory Palestine might be enhanced. However, not everyone was pleased with Arlosoroff's vision for Jewish/Arab collaboration, nor the possibility of a bi-nationalistic future in Eretz Israel. After the luncheon, Arab radicals openly chastised the moderate Arabs who had attended the meeting. Certain Arab leaders in Mandatory Palestine distanced themselves completely from the Transjordanian Arab delegation. Particular anger was directed at Transjordan's Emir Abdullah, the ruler over large territories in Transjordan, who had taken a leading role in the conciliation efforts. Jewish opposition to the King David Hotel meeting also became apparent as the major party of religious Zionism, Mizrachi, demanded that Arlosoroff should resign from his position at the Jewish Agency. Some radicals in the Revisionist movement went even further and questioned Arlosoroff's right to be alive.
  As a result of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Arlosoroff directed his focus to the plight of German Jews. The Germany Arlosoroff loved growing up changed quickly and drastically upon Hitler's rise to power. In April 1933, the new regime implemented the first of many anti-Jewish laws by terminating all Jewish employees from German government positions. Also at that time, Nazi officials decreed Jewish people would not be permitted to leave the country without a specially issued exit visa. Jewish groups responded worldwide to Hitler's regime through protests and boycotts of German products.
  Immediately following an organized Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses in Germany on April 1, 1933, Arlosoroff contacted High Commissioner Arthur Wauchope requesting Bri
caption: Haim Arlosoroff (sitting, center) at a meeting with Transjordanian Arab leaders at the King David Hotel, Jerusalem, 1933. Also pictured are Chaim Weizmann (to Arlosoroff's right), Moshe Shertok (Sharett) (standing, right), Yitzhak Ben-Zvi (standing, to Shertok's right) and sheikh Mithqal al-Faiz, chief of the Beni Sakhr (sitting, left).
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