1901

1901: The Zionist Congress would gather yearly until 1901. In the same year, Herzl meets with the Ottoman ruler, Sultan Abdul Hamid II. Herzl offers assistance in paying the vast debt of the Ottoman Empire in exchange for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Although Sultan Abdul II agrees to Jewish settlement in Ottoman territory, he refuses to sell Palestine saying: “I cannot sell even a foot of land, for it does not belong to me, but to my people”. In the same year, Herzl establishes the “Jewish National Fund”, with the intention of using the funds collected to buy and develop land in Palestine.