With maritime traffic brought to a standstill, the transfer of charitable funds for distribution among members of the Yishuv was cut off. Cancellation of the protective status that had been granted to foreign subjects compromised the legal situation of some 40,000 Jews with Russian citizenship who were living in Palestine, as well as thousands of British- and French-born residents. Approximately half the Jews in Palestine were now considered to be citizens of enemy regimes.
The Ottoman regime suspected members of the Yishuv, and particularly the newly arrived Zionists, of disloyalty to the Sublime Porte in Constantinople. On December 17, 1914, Baha al-Din, the governor of Jaffa, issued a general decree of deportation of all foreign subjects who had not yet become Ottomanized. Panic spread throughout Jaffa over fears of an all-out massacre – until the intervention of the government of Germany.
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