Israel Palestine

Overview

• Jews lived in the Israel area in the 1st Century but it was taken over by the Roman Empire

• In 1916 the Jewish population in Palestine was 3%

• Britain made the [[#Balfour Declaration-1917]] which led to Jews immigrating to Palestine

• The League of nations mandate was a part of the Treaty of Versailles that gave the territory that Germany and the Ottoman Empire conquered to other nations after they lost the war.

  • This mandate included the lands we know as Palestine/Israel and Jordan today
  • This mandate gave The British Empire Palestine and Jordan in 1920 but the mandate required Britain to establish a Jewish Homeland

• Britain seemed to be massively favouring the Jewish population in Mandatory Palestine, and this angered Arabs. Britain were mainly trying to achieve peace though.

  • As early as 1922 Britain were calling to curb Jewish immigration to Palestine, with the Churchill White Paper stating that they did “not want to impose a Jewish nationality on Palestine” they did this because tensions were rising in Palestine because of Arab riots.
  • By 1931 17% of Mandatory Palestine were Jewish, an increase of 14% since 1916 most immigrants were leaving from Nazi Germany
  • In 1936 the Arabs revolted, their main demand was the prohibition of Jewish immigration, the Jews were also becoming angered and doing riots
  • The Peel Commission 1937 was the first to propose a two-state solution to the conflict, the Jews accepted this, but the Arabs rejected this wholeheartedly
  • The British issued the White Paper 1939 which officially limited the Jewish immigration to 75,000 people for the next 5 years, however there were still waves of illegal immigration
  • These policies were likely made to gain Arab favour with WW2 looming
  • As a result of these policies, the Irgun was formed, which made attacks against the British Military and blew up the King David Hotel In 1946

• In February 1947 Britain announced their will to terminate the Palestinian mandate, the LON mandates were all being terminated because of the founding of the UN, and post WW2 everyone was trying to be chill and they left the future of Palestine for the UN to decide, leading to the __Partition Plan in Nov 1947

  • The Jewish Agency collaborated with the UN, but the Arab states refused to collaborate with them, because they didn’t think the UN should be able to decide
  • After three months of hearings, the UN decided that a two-state solution was the best way forward, and that Jerusalem should be made into an international territory
  • The proposed Arab state would be most of the centre, Gaza and Acre. Their state surrounded Jerusalem.
  • The proposed Jewish state was a strip next to the sea(makes sense), Eastern Galilee, and the Negev Desert
  • They tried to make the states so that the Arabs and Jews were separated, but in some cities the population was very mixed, and they gave the Negev Desert to the Jews because it left room for immigration
  • According to the plan, when the partition was activated, people living in the Jewish state would become citizens of that state and vice versa
  • The land allocated to the Arab State in the final plan made up 43% of Mandatory Palestine, however this is misleading because the Negev Desert is most likely not worth much
  • The UN asked what the two parties thought of this draft, Jews were mainly happy but they stressed that they needed to be able to control their own immigration. Arabs rejected it wholeheartedly
  • The plan got 72% of votes for, which was over the threshold of 2 thirds to pass
  • Most of Europe and America voted for the Partition, with America using it’s massive influence to sway votes, most of the middle-east voted against it
  • Most Jews gathered to celebrate the UN resolution, however some hardcore Zionists felt that this was renouncing their right to legitimate Jewish territory.
    • Ben-Gurion said that he could not be happy because he knew there was a war on the horizon
  • Arab states immediately declared that they would not be bound by the plan, and the Arabs were protesting throughout the country

• This Plan dramatically increased tensions and led to the 1947-48 Civil war which lasted 5 months

  • 5,000 Arabs died and 500 Jews died
  • The British were starting to withdraw, so there was no one to put a stop to the violence that came after the partition plan was announced
  • Conflict broke out as soon as October 1947, with the Arabs bombing a pro-Zionist news office and the Irgun and Lehi were both bombing crowded areas like bus stops
  • The Jews in Jerusalem were in a very precarious position because they were right in the centre of the Arab forces and they were not being allowed to leave and the Arabs were sieging them since Feb 1948
  • Between December 1947 and January 1948 there was around 500 casualties on either side
  • This amount of conflict was not expected and led to the US withdrawing support for the plan
  • The Jews looked to the US for support, led by Golda Meir they managed to collect $129 million dollars were raised between 1947-1949 and 60% of it was used to buy weapons
    • The Jews also got a lot of weapons from Czechoslovakia

• The second phase of the war began in April 1948, where the Haganah (Jewish Military) started to take the offensive and win a lot of battles

  • __Plan Dalet was a Zionist military plan to take control of Mandatory Palestine and declare a Jewish State made in 1948
  • Operation Nachshon 2 April is where the Jews took control of the villages involved in the blockade of Jerusalem, this exposed the poor organization of the Arab Forces
    • The Deir Yassin massacre was a couple of days after this, it was carried out by Irgun and Lehi in a village near Jerusalem killing 100 civilians
      • This attack was not popular internationally, and Ben-Gurion condemned it
      • It also made the Arabs fearful of the Jewish military
  • On 13 April the Arabs responded with the Hadassah convoy massacre where they killed 79 Jews in a convoy
  • The second phase of the war led to the Palestinian exodus, the wave of 350,000 Arab refugees
  • The civil war was seen as a decisive victory for the Jews
    • Territory

• In an Arab League meeting in Feb 1948 the other Arab leaders were willing to support the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon said they were ready to intervene immediately, Abdullah stalled for a while but eventually declared Jordan ready

  • On 26 April the intention to occupy Palestine was announced by the Transjordan Government, and Jews were invited to take their place under Abdullah, Yishuv took this as a declaration of war
  • On 10 May, Golda Meir and King Abdullah of Jordan met, Golda Meir was likely trying to win his favour, she requested that he annex the West Bank
    • King Abdullah was in a strange situation, on one hand he had a lot to gain from taking the Jewish side and annexing the Arab part of Palestine. However he also knew it would not be popular with his people and the other Arab states
    • King Abdullah was previously quite cooperative with the British
  • And on 15 May, the Arab League officially announced they were intervening in Palestine

• The Israeli Declaration of Independence was made on 14 May 1948

  • The borders of the state were not made in the Declaration, although there was a part in which they implied a willingness to cooperate with the guidelines set by the Partition Plan

Cool links

Territory Time lapse
1945 Palestine land ownership
Partition Plan territory split It looks like the jews got a lot but most of it was Negev desert
data for partition plan

Notes

Balfour Declaration-1917

• The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 addressed to Lord Rothschild. It stated that Britain would support the establishment of a “National home for Jews” in Palestine.
• This statement was made with a strong influence from David Lloyd George, who had been raised with a Christian Zionist ideology which included the idea that the Jews returning to their holy land was a prerequisite to the second coming of Christ. David Lloyd George. The man who wrote the Balfour Declaration, Arthur Balfour was also a Zionist Source
• This Declaration specifically stated that no harm should come to the non-Jewish communities in the area
• Zionist movements in Europe were putting pressure on their governments to establish a homeland for them, this may be why the US and France accepted this.
• Sokolow was important

The main reason behind the Declaration was Zionist Lobbying, Lloyd George and Balfour were both Zionists and Lloyd George was indebted to Weizmann, a leader of the Zionist movement. They used hopes of swaying America/Russia to justify this. Both cabinet members were quite sympathetic to Zionism, In a conversation with Weizmann about the Jewish Tragedy, Belfour shed tears. Lloyd George had Jewish friends and visited Israel and told them that the declaration came from a place of sympathy. The claims of swaying Russia/US were either optimistic or overestimating the Jewish power around the world.

There are many other theories as to why Britain made this declaration:

• They thought that by convincing the world that they were being noble by helping the Jews establish a state of their own could embolden their claim to Palestine, which was close to Egypt, also controlled by the British
• They thought that this could help get Russia and America onside in the current war, Woodrow Wilson was also a supporter of Zionism
• This was a very popular thing to do, Jews all around the world would be happy with this, and so would the anti-Semites
• It was also theorized that Britain wanted to get rid of the growing Jewish population in the country, it was growing because of immigration from Russia due to the Jewish Pogroms there

Declaration effects

• This Declaration sparked the growth of Zionist movements all over the world, with the American Zionist movements going from 7,500 members in 1914 to 149,000 members in 1919.
• The Arabs were furious, they saw this as a betrayal to the McMahon–Hussein correspondence
• Allied powers supported the Declaration
• It led to many Jews travelling to Palestine

Was the Balfour Declaration fair?

• Many British Military Leaders in Palestine felt that the only way to carry out the Zionist programme was to carry out a force of arms. source
• Historian labelled the Declaration as one of the greatest mistakes in its imperial history, regarding British interests

Mandatory Palestine

Mandatory Palestine was the British owned Palestine
The Mandate was terminated on 14 May 1948

Who was responsible for the start of the Arab-Israeli conflict?

It seems like the Jews were immigrating to Palestine peacefully, and the Arabs were killing them because they felt threatened because of the Balfour Declaration.
Are the Jews really supposed to purity-test the British mandate when they are being slaughtered all over the world?
However the Jews most likely knew what they were doing when they immigrated, they were the settlers.

Arab Revolt 1936

1947 Partition Plan

• The UN’s goal with the partition plan was to have two separate states with economic unity.

1947-1948 Civil war

70,000 Arabs fled in December
There were a lot of massacres, not very cool from both sides

Declaration Of Independence

 Declaration of independence was made by David Ben-Gurion, at the time he was the executive head of the World Zionist Organization and a chairman of the Jewish agency for Palestine.
This Declaration was done on the same day that the British ended their mandate over Palestine.

This Declaration did not specify the borders that this new state encapsulated, however it did say:
“The State of Israel is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of the 29th, November, 1947”
This suggests that Israel was willing to follow the Partition Plan guidelines.

Impact

• America and the Soviet Union instantly recognized Israel as a state and a few other UN countries followed.

• This also brought another wave of inflation, with 700,000 jews immigrating from 1948-1951

It was only a few days until four of the seven states of the Arab League (Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, and Syria) and the Arab Liberation Army invaded the supposed new state and fought the Israelis. They invaded from the South, East, and North however the coordination was poor between them.

Arab-Israeli war- 16 May 1948

The UN declared a truce on the 29 May, which began on 11 June and lasted 28 days, although both sides did find ways around this truce and during this time the conflict was bubbling and both sides were strengthening their armies.

The UN also declared an arms embargo, which meant that no weapons were allowed to go into these countries.

On 7 July, the day before the truce expired, Egypt attacked Negba.

9-18 July 1948

On the 9 July, Israeli forces launched an attack with many operations such as: Dani, Dekel, and Kedem.

• Dani’s goal was to capture territory east of Tel-Aviv

• Dekel’s goal was to capture Nazareth and the Lower Galilee

• Kedem’s goal was to capture East Jerusalem 

In operation Dani 60,000 Palestinian residents were expelled.
In operation Dekel Nazareth was captured on 16 July and lower Galilee was captured on 18 July.

Bernadotte Plan- 16 September 1948

He offered a partition plan, but it was rejected by both sides

18 July 1948 - 10 March 1949

On 18 July the second truce of the conflict went into play after massive persuasion from the UN.

During the truce Egyptians were blocking a lot of supply convoys. So on 15 October, Operation Yoav was launched by Israel, it’s goal was to split the Egyptian forces and to conquer the Negev. The operation was a success, forcing Egyptian forces to retreat.

On the 22 October a third truce went into effect.

However, the ALA didn’t seem to respect this truce and attacked the IDF multiple times, and on 24 October, the IDF demanded the ALA to withdraw.

When ALA leader, al-Qawuqji said no the IDF launched Operation Hiram and captured the entire Galilee.

This is an example of Israel being more shrewd

On 22 December, the IDF launched Operation Horev with an objective to encircle the Egyptian forces in the Gaza Strip this operation was another clear victory for Israel but they withdrew due to international pressure.

Soon after on 6 January 1949, Egypt announced that they were open to armistice negotiations with Israel

And on 7 January 1949 another truce was achieved.

Aftermath

In 1949, Israel signed armistices with:

• Egypt- 24 Feb

• Lebanon- 23 March

• Transjordan- 3 April

• Syria- 20 July

Israel after armistice

The West Bank became occupied by Transjordan and the Gaza strip became occupied by Egypt

The armistice lines left them with 22% more territory than the partition plan had planned to give them.

• Israel lost 6,000 people in this war, 1% of their population- 4,000 soldiers and the rest civilians.

• 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled/were expelled.

Post Arab-Israeli war- 1949 19 July

In 1950 the Knesset passed the Law of Return, which granted to all jews the right to settle and gain citizenship. This shows that Israel were trying to increase immigration.

Modern Conflict

Questions

• Israel has used Knock Bombs to give an alert before they bomb hospitals ?
• Hamas Recruit Child Soldiers ?
• Was Palestine a generally recognized nation ? https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3792734?ln=en
• Balfour was moved to tears over convo about Zionism ?
• Why does the UN call Israel Apartheid?
• Arab Christians ?
• what was going on with Transjordan ?
• Plan Dalet ?
• why was there a Palestinian Exodus