People don't know the level of discrimination against Jews in the Holy Land pre-1948. Here's a document from the US State Department about 2 American Jews who were kicked out of Safed in 1885 by the Ottomans for the crime of being "Hebrews". They called the US consulate for help. 
A follow up correspondence follows where the citizenship of the two Jews was verified, and then the inquired why they were being kicked out. The response was "Are they not Jews? If so, they must go."
This was life for Jews in there own homeland for 2000 years.
This was life for Jews in there own homeland for 2000 years.
There are many exchanges in between, but in this one, the State Department instructs the Jews not to let the Ottomans kick them out on account of being Jews, but are then informed that one of the brothers left due to "ill-treatment and sickness".
It is not known exactly what happened to the brothers in the end, but nothing came from the threats by the state department that a religious test would not be tolerated on it's citizens by any country. They just let the matter drop without consequences.
This is not the last state department correspondence concerning the Ottoman program of expelling foreign Jews from Palestine. It was a doctrine called Iradeh. I hope to post more about this tomorrow.
