This story starts in 1799,
outside the walls of Acre in Ottoman-controlled Palestine, when an army under
Napoleon Bonaparte besieged the city. It was all part of a campaign to defeat
the Ottomans and establish a French presence in the region.
In
search of allies, Napoleon issued a letter offering Palestine as a homeland to
the Jews under French protection. He
called on the Jews to ‘rise up’ against what he called their oppressors.
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