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Issa al Issa's Unorthodox Orthodoxy: Banned in Jerusalem, Permitted in Jaffa
'Isa al-'Isa's (1878-1950) memoirs provide an opportunity to re-examine the role of the Orthodox Christian intelligentsia in turn- of-the-century debates about Ottomanism and Arab (Syrian) nationalism. They also shed new light on the political environment prevailing in pre-World War I Jaffa that allowed for the creation of a combative press, exemplified by 'Isa's Falastin (1911-1948), and contributed significantly to the forging of a new identity for readers in southern Syria and beyond.1 Extensive writings on Falastin during that period have focused on its leading role in the forging of a separatist Palestinian identity,2 its anti-Zionism,3 and its social agenda in defending the fallah and the land question.4 In this essay, I examine the early biography of 'Isa al-'Isa, derived from his yet unpublished memoirs, to seek a better understanding of the tensions within the Arab Orthodox Renaissance (al-nahda al- Urthudhuksiyya al-'Arabiyya) between the ideology of Osmanlilik (Ottoman imperial identity) and the emergent movement for Arab independence.
The struggle for the Arabization of the Orthodox Church against Greek clerical hegemony led Orthodox Christian intellectuals to different positions toward the Ottoman regime and the constitutional revolution of 1908. Writers like Yusuf al- Hakim, the Syrian judge from Latakia who worked as a public prosecutor in Palestine, were firm believers in Ottomanism and in constitutional reform.5 Hakim was involved in the struggle against Hamidian despotism and became an enthusiastic supporter of the Committee for Union and Progress (CUP) and the Young Turks. 'Isa, on the other hand, placed little hope in Arab-Turkish unity and was skeptical about the freedoms promised by the second constitution.
Although Falastin, under the influence of 'Isa's cousin and the newspaper's deputy editor Yusuf al-'Isa, had initially supported the CUP, 'Isa al-'Isa believed the CUP was basically a Turkish nationalist party with strong Zionist sympathies.6 Together with Dr. Shibli Shumayyil and Haqqi al-'Azm - friends from his time working in Egypt - he supported the Ottoman Decentralization party.7
Osmanlilik and Orthodoxy in the Fluid Years
The period between the declaration of the 1908 constitution and the commencement of World War I (between hurriet and seferberlik in popular consciousness) was a period of fluidity in the formation and recasting of local identities in...