Background
In February 1915, a small committee in Alexandria approved a plan of Zeev Jabotinsky and Joseph Trumpeldor to form a Jewish military unit that would participate in the British effort to conquer Palestine from the Ottoman Empire. The British commander General Maxwell rejected the idea, stating that he doubted that Palestine would be invaded and that foreign nationals were not allowed in the British Army. Maxwell suggested instead that a "mule corps" be formed to serve somewhere else on the Turkish front. Jabotinsky rejected the idea and left for Europe to seek other support for a Jewish unit, but Trumpeldor accepted it and began recruiting volunteers from among the Jews in Egypt who had been deported there by the Ottomans in the previous year. The British Army formed 650 of them into a Zion Mule Corps, of which 562 served in the Gallipoli Campaign.
The British opposed the participation of Jewish volunteers on the Palestinian front and they were put to serve as a detachment for mule transport on another sector of the Ottoman front. Trumpeldor formed the 650-strong Zion Mule Corps, of whom 562 were sent to the Gallipoli front.
Read more about this topic: Jewish Legion
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