Editing David Ben-Gurion (section)

=== Ottoman Empire and Constantinople ===
[[File:David Ben-Gurion, 1920-2.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Ben-Gurion]]
[[File:David Ben-Gurion 1912-5.1 V01-1.1A.jpg|thumb|A group portrait of Jewish Ottoman men, among them, [[Istanbul University|Dar al-Funun]] Law Students David Ben-Gurion (sitting row, third from right) and next to him [[Yitzhak Ben-Zvi]] (sitting row, second from right), İstanbul ("Kushta"), c. 1912]]
Immediately on landing in [[Jaffa]], 7 September 1906, Ben-Gurion set off, on foot, in a group of 14, to [[Petah Tikva]].<ref>[[Michael Bar-Zohar|Bar-Zohar, Michael]] (1978) ''Ben-Gurion''. Translated by [[Peretz Kidron]]. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London. {{ISBN|978-0-297-77401-3}}. Originally published in Israel 1977. p. 14</ref><ref>Teveth (1987). p. 40</ref> It was the largest of the 13 Jewish agricultural settlements and consisted of 80 households with a population of nearly 1,500; of these around 200 were [[Second Aliyah]] pioneers like Ben-Gurion. He found work as a day labourer, waiting each morning hoping to be chosen by an overseer. Jewish workers found it difficult competing with local villagers who were more skilled and prepared to work for less. Ben-Gurion was shocked at the number of Arabs employed. In November he caught [[malaria]] and the doctor advised he return to Europe. By the time he left Petah Tikva in summer of 1907 he had worked an average 10 days a month which frequently left him with no money for food.<ref>Teveth (1987). p. population 40, malaria 43</ref><ref>Segev (2019). p. hunger 64</ref> He wrote long letters in Hebrew to his father and friends. They rarely revealed how difficult life was. Others who had come from Płońsk were writing about tuberculosis, cholera and people dying of hunger.<ref>Teveth p. 42</ref>

On his disembarkation at Jaffa, Ben-Gurion had been spotted by [[Israel Shochat]] who had arrived two years previously and had established a group of around 25 Poale Zion followers. Shochat made a point of inspecting new arrivals looking for recruits. A month after his arrival at Petah Tikva, Shochat invited Ben-Gurion to attend the founding conference of the Jewish Social Democratic Workers' Party in the Land of Israel in Jaffa. The conference, 4–6 October 1906, was attended by 60 or so people. Shochat engineered the elections so that Ben-Gurion was elected onto the five-man Central Committee and the 10-man Manifesto Committee. He also arranged that Ben-Gurion was chosen as chairman of the sessions. These Ben-Gurion conducted in Hebrew, forbidding the translation of his address into Russian or Yiddish. The conference was divided: a large faction{{Emdash}}''Rostovians''{{Emdash}}wanted to create a single Arab–Jewish proletariat. This Shochat and Ben-Gurion opposed. The conference delegated the Manifesto Committee the task of deciding the new party's objectives. They produced ''The [[Ramleh]] Programme'' which was approved by a second smaller 15-man conference held in Jaffa the following January 1907. The programme stated "the party aspires to political independence<ref>Bar-Zohar. has "independence", Lockman, Zachary (1996) ''Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906–1948''. University of California Press. {{ISBN|978-0-520-20419-5}} has "autonomy"</ref> of the Jewish People in this country." All activities were to be conducted in Hebrew; there should be segregation of the Jewish and the Arab economies; and a Jewish trade union was to be established. Three members of the Central Committee resigned and Ben-Gurion and Shochat continued meeting weekly in Jaffa or [[Ben Shemen]] where Shochat was working. Ben-Gurion walked to the meetings from Petah Tikva until he moved to Jaffa where he gave occasional Hebrew lessons. His political activity resulted in the establishment of three small trade unions amongst some tailors, carpenters and shoemakers. He set up the ''Jaffa Professional Trade Union Alliance'' with 75 members. He and Shochat also brokered a settlement to a strike at the [[Rishon Le Zion]] winery where six workers had been sacked. After three months the two-man Central Committee was dissolved, partly because, at that time, Ben-Gurion was less militant than Shochat and the Rostovians. Ben-Gurion returned to Petah Tikva.<ref>Teveth (1987). pp. 39, 47–51, 72–73</ref><ref>Lockman (1996). pp. 46–47</ref><ref>Bar-Zohar (1978). p.17</ref><ref>Negev (2019). p.73</ref>

During this time Ben-Gurion sent a letter to ''Yiddish Kemfer'' ("''The Jewish Fighter''{{-"}}), a Yiddish newspaper in New York City. It was an appeal for funds and was the first time something written by Ben-Gurion was published.<ref>Teveth (1987). p. 48</ref>

The arrival of [[Yitzhak Ben-Zvi]] in April 1907 revitalised the local Poale Zion. Eighty followers attended a conference in May at which Ben-Zvi was elected onto a two-man [[Central Committee]] and all Ben-Gurion's policies were reversed: Yiddish, not Hebrew, was the language to be used; the future lay with a united Jewish and Arab [[proletariat]]. Further disappointment came when Ben-Zvi and Shochat were elected as representatives to go to the [[World Zionist Congress]]. Ben-Gurion came last of five candidates. He was not aware that at the next gathering, on Ben-Zvi's return, a secret para-military group was set up{{Emdash}}[[Bar-Giora (organisation)|Bar-Giora]]{{Emdash}}under Shochat's leadership. Distancing himself from Poale Zion activism Ben-Gurion, who had been a day-labourer at [[Kfar Saba]], moved to [[Rishon Lezion]] where he remained for two months. He made detailed plans with which he tried to entice his father to come and be a farmer.<ref>Teveth (1987). pp. 51–55</ref>

In October 1907, on [[Shlomo Zemach]]'s suggestion, Ben-Gurion moved to [[Sejera]]. An agricultural training farm had been established at Sejera in the 1880s and since then a number of family-owned farms, [[moshavah]], had been established forming a community of around 200 Jews. It was one of the most remote colonies in the foothills of north-eastern [[Galilee]]. It took the two young men three days to walk there.<ref>Segev p.87</ref> Coincidentally at the same time Bar Giora, now with about 20 members and calling themselves 'the collective' but still led by Shochat, took on the operating of the training farm. Ben-Gurion found work in the farm but, excluded from 'the collective', he later became a labourer for one of the moshav families. One of the first acts of 'the collective' was organising sacking of the farm's [[Circassians in Syria|Circassian]] nightwatchman. As a result, shots were fired at the farms every night for several months. Guns were brought and the workforce armed. Ben-Gurion took turns patrolling the farm at night.<ref>Segev p. 90</ref>

In the autumn of 1908 Ben-Gurion returned to Płońsk to be conscripted into the [[Imperial Russian Army#Jews in the Russian Army|army]] and avoid his father facing a heavy fine. He immediately deserted and returned to Sejera, travelling, via Germany, with forged papers.<ref>Bar Zohar p.22</ref>

On 12 April 1909 two Jews from Sejera were killed in clashes with local Arabs following the death of a villager from [[Kfar Kanna]], shot in an attempted robbery. There is little conformation of Ben-Gurion's accounts of his part in this event.<ref>Segev p.94</ref>

Later that summer, Ben-Gurion moved to [[Zichron Yaakov]]. From where the following spring he was invited, by Ben-Zvi, to join the staff of Poale Zion's new Hebrew periodical, [[Ha'ahdut]] (The Unity), which was being established in Jerusalem.<ref>Bar Zohar p. 26</ref> They needed his fluency in Hebrew for translating and proof reading.<ref name="Teveth 1987 p.72">Teveth 1987 p.72</ref> It was the end of his career as a farm labourer. The first three editions came out monthly with an initial run of 1000 copies. It then became a weekly with a print run of 450 copies.<ref>Segev pp.101, 103</ref><ref name="Teveth 1987 p.72" /> He contributed 15 articles over the first year, using various pen names, eventually settling for Ben Gurion.<ref>Teveth (1989) p.73</ref> The [[Hebraization of surnames|adopting]] of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] names was common amongst those who remained during the [[Second Aliyah]].  He chose Ben-Gurion after the historic [[Joseph ben Gurion]].<ref>Segev p.105</ref>

In the spring of 1911, faced with the collapse of the Second Aliyah, Poale Zion's leadership decided the future lay in "Ottomanisation". [[Yitzhak Ben-Zvi|Ben-Zvi]], [[Manya Shochat|Manya]] and [[Israel Shochat]] announced their intention to move to [[Istanbul#Ottoman Empire and Turkish Republic eras|Istanbul]]. Ben-Zvi and Shochat planned to study law at [[Istanbul University]]; Ben-Gurion was to join them but first needed to learn [[Turkish language|Turkish]], spending eight months in [[Salonika#Jews of Thessaloniki|Salonika]], at that time the most advanced Jewish community in the area. Whilst studying he had to conceal that he was [[Ashkenazi]] due to local [[Sephardic]] prejudices. Ben-Zvi obtained a forged secondary school certificate so Ben-Gurion could join him in [[Istanbul University|Dar al-Funun]].<!--From {{cite news|title=Old Schools Scrapped in Turkey|newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]]|place=[[Baltimore]]|date=1 October 1933|page=[https://www.newspapers.com/clip/159112915/ 2]|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}} - "Dar-ul-funun" was reformed into University of Istabul.--> Ben-Gurion was entirely dependent on funding from his father, while Ben-Zvi found work teaching. Struggling with ill health, Ben-Gurion spent some time in hospital.<ref>[[Tom Segev|Segev, Tom]] (2018–2019 translation [[Haim Watzman]]) ''A State at Any Cost: The Life of David Ben-Gurion''. Apollo. {{ISBN|978-1-78954-463-3}} pp.109–115</ref><ref>[http://www.oswego.edu/~baloglou/misc/sephardim.html Oswego.edu] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110530141514/http://www.oswego.edu/~baloglou/misc/sephardim.html |date=30 May 2011}}, Gila Hadar, "Space and Time in Salonika on the Eve of World War II and the Expulsion and Extermination of Salonika Jewry", ''Yalkut Moseshet'' 4, Winter 2006</ref>