Theodor Herzl, the founder of
Zionism, proposed Arish as
a Jewish homeland since neither the
Sultan nor the
Kaiser supported settlement in
Palestine. In 1903,
Joseph Chamberlain, the British colonial secretary, agreed to consider Arish, and Herzl commissioned the lawyer
David Lloyd George a charter draft, but his application was turned down once an expedition, led by
Leopold Kessler had returned and submitted a detailed report to Herzl, which outlined a proposal to divert some of the Nile waters to the area for the purpose of settlement.