Shlomo Kaplansky

Shlomo Kaplansky (Hebrew: שלמה קפלנסקי‎) (b. 7 March 1884 in Białystok, d. 7 December 1950 in Haifa) was a Labour Zionist politician, who served as the secretary of the World Union of Poalei Zion. During the 1920s he was a leading advocate of a bi-national state in Palestine.

Kaplansky was one of the founders of Poale Zion, a Marxist-Jewish group. He was a Poale Zion delegate to the 10th Zionist Congress (Basle, August 1911) at which he raised the question of relations with the Arabs and advocated explaining to them the benefits that the Zionist enterprise could bring them. In June 1914 he argued that sharecroppers being evicted following Zionist land purchases should be given land outside Palestine. He was profoundly shaken by the First World War which led to his opposition to notions of armed conflict in Palestine and he hoped for the realization of Zionism by peaceful means. In 1919 he envisioned that "both people in this country, Jews and Arabs, are guaranteed national autonomy on a personal basis, and will enjoy national equity of rights in municipalities and local governments" and that "the national languages of Jews and Arabs will enjoy equal status."

He became head of the World Union of Poale Zion in Vienna and in the summer of 1920 he and David Ben-Gurion were sent to set up a Poale Zion office in London. The office was in rooms in Petticoat Lane with Moshe Sharett working part-time translating Yiddish into English. They succeeded in becoming affiliated to the British Labour Party under the name of 'The Jewish Socialist Labour Party', claiming membership of 3,000—though actual membership was a few hundred. One issue that they tried to influence policy on was the northern border of Palestine which was being decided at the San Remo conference. They hoped that it would be extended as far as the Litani River. They had only limited success in influency Labour party Middle East policy and the office closed in March 1921. Along with David Ben-Gurion, he had contacts with both Labour and the Independent Labour Party. He collaborated with the Independent Labour Party in setting up the Vienna International.

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