The
early Zionist movement was divided over the best way
to achieve a Jewish homeland. Political Zionists, led
by Theodor Herzl, wanted the movement to concentrate
on gaining diplomatic recognition of the Zionist cause
and a charter granting Jews sovereignty over a territory.
Practical Zionists, such as the pioneers of the Bilu
movement, who had begun settling Palestine in 1882,
believed that settlement of Palestine should be emphasized
and that only a Jewish presence in the land of Israel
could create the basis for a Jewish state.
Delegates to the early Zionist congresses hotly debated
the issue of practical vs. political Zionism, but
by 1907 the movement had reconciled the two approaches.
It continued to work for international recognition,
while supporting settlement in Palestine through the
Jewish National Fund (est. 1901), known in Hebrew
as the Keren Kayemet le-Yisrael.
