Arab-Israeli confict - depth study

historic jewish claim to palestine

- lived in the land of Palestine from 1500 BC

- in AD 70 and AD 135 they rebelled against their roman rulers and roman soldiers crushed both revolts and destroyed the jewish temple and the city of jerusalem expelled most of them

- Many thousands feld to neighbouring countries and became a scattered people with only a few thousand remaining in palestine

Persecution of Jews

- by 19th the country with the largest population was Russia

- after the tsars anti jewish policies the number of pogroms increased sharply

-pogroms in Russia 1881-82 led to the 'first aliyah' 1882-1903 which was the first wave of jewish immigration into palestine

- between 25-35,000 Jews emigrated from Russia and Romania

-In 1881 the Diskin Orphanage was founded in Jerusalem for the arrival of Jewish children orphaned by the Russian Pogroms

Theodor Herzl

- published the 'Jewish state' which argued that they should be granted a portion of the globe large enough to satisfy the rightful requirements of a nation

- laid the foundation of the Yishuv in Palestine and the second aliyah stared in 1904 and lasted until 1913.

-by 1914 60k jews had settled in Palestine and zionists had agreed the homeland would have to be in Palestine as this was the 'promised land '

Arab historic claim to palestine

- In the Middle Ages , Palestine was one of the countries they took over.

-then in 16th century Ottoman Turks conquered most of the Middle East including the Arabs and Palestine

- In the late 19th century the Arabs tried to remove their turkish leaders especially in Palestine

Arab nationalism

- 3 key concepts that embodied this

1) strong anti- Turkish sentiment as a reaction to centuries of Ottoman control

2) the entrance of european colonial powers and foreign control of Arab land led to anti colonial and imperialist sentiments

3) interaction and competition with Zionism also provided it with an anti Zionist ideology

- in 1913 the first arab national congress was held and a year later the arab national manifesto was published

- there were 126 members of the ABS and 22 were Palestinian

- In 1914 Palestine had a pop of 657k Muslim Arabs 81k Christian Arabs and 60k Jews

Arab Jewish hostilities in Palestine pre 1914

- accidental shooting death of Arab man in Safed during a wedding in Dec 1882 by jewish guard of newly formed Rosh Pinna which was a new town established by Jews in 1878. In response about 200 Arabs descended on the Jewish settlement throwing stones and vandalising property

- in march 1886 a mob of Palestinian Arabs from the village of Yahudiya attacked the Jewish settlement of Petah Tikva

- influx of Jews in 1891 caused a group of Arab Jerusalem notables to send a telegram ro the Sultans's grand vizer which requested a halt to the immigration of Jews into Palestine and a ban on the purchase of land by jews

Impact of Young turks revolution

-On July 24, 1908, the Ottoman Empire went through a dramatic series of changes due to the seizure of power by a group of Turkish officers

- the reinstatement of the constitution caused press censorship to be repealed and new political parties were permitted to form

- 35 Arab newspapers began circulation in Palestine during the first year after the Young Turks Revolution

- paper Al- Asma'i founded in Jaffa in 1908 reported that zionist immigrants 'harm the local population and wrong them'

- A vehemently anti-Zionist newspaper was founded in Haifa in 1908 and A- Karmil ran 134 articles about zionism between 1908 and 1913

McMahon-Hussein Correspondence

-july 1915 , hussein, sharif of Mecca sent letter to BHC sir hebert mcmahon detailing the conditions under which he would consider a partnership with the british

- in the letter he stated that he required Britain to 'acknowledge the independence of the Arab countries '

-insisted that certain areas falling within the french sphere of influence would not be included

- state that if arabs fought agaisnt the ottomans that britian would when the situations allows help the arabs to form government in those various territories

arab resistance

- june 1916 an arab army of 30k men had taken the red sea ports of jjeddah, rabigh and yanby . they had also taken mecca and Tai'f and 60k Ottoman prisoners

- captured Aqabah in July 1917 and cut the Hejaz railway a vital strategic link through the Arab peninsula

- by 1918 the british were paying them 220k a month in gold to fight the Ottoman turk

- with the capture of damascus in 1918 turkish hold on the middle east ended

syeks picot agreement

-1916 secret treaty between UK and France that their mutually agreed spheres of influence and control in the eventual dismemberment of the Ottoman empire

- agreement led to the dicison of turkish held Syria Iraq Lebanon and Palestine into various French and British administered areas

role of jewish community in WW1

- Jews from Palestine, Russia and Turky lobbied the British gov to be allowed to join up despite not being british national

- formed the Zion mule corps

- once the gallipolli campaigned ended the Jewish legion was formed in 1917 and made into the 38th, 39th ,40th and 42nd batalions of the royal fusiliers

Balfour Declaration

-1917

- British gov declared support for a Jewish homeland. declaration was made in the form of a letter from the UK foreign secretary Arthur Balfourto Lord Rothschild, a leading british Jew

- careful with their wording and they expressed thier support for a Jewish homeland and not a Jewish state.

- intentionally vague

- called for safeguarding the civil and religious rights for the Palestinaian Arabs

what did the mandate state

- balfour declaration was incoporated into the second article for the Mandate for Palestine

- In 1922 the LoN confirmed that the mandate would secure the establishment of a Jewish national home whilst also safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine no matter what their race or religion

land transfer ordinance

-1920

-made it easier for Jews to buy large tracts of land from Arabs although it also require any new landlords to provide for Arab peasants who worked in their land

-in 1920 Jews bought a total of 262 acres.

- in 1925 they bought 44,000 acres

the third aliyah

- 1919-23

- approximately 40k people to Palestine

British Administration in Palestine

- appointed well known Zionists to influential positions

-Sir Herbert Samuel took up his appointment on 1st july 1920 as high commissioner for Palestine. fell upon him to establish the Civil Administration and he changed many of the existing laws

-Lord Plummer the successor of Herbert Samuel from 1925- 1928 was favorable to Jews in many ways .

- the arabs were a majority but their representation in government posts was less than their percentage of the total population

the Jaffa riots

- 1921

- two rival Jewish groups clashed and when police fired shots Aeabs thought the Jews were shooting at them and lased out using clubs, knives and pistols to break into Jewish buildings and murder the inhabitants

- armed arab police joined attacking a hostel were Jewish immigrants were lodged killing 13 and wounding 24 others

- the British called in air support to bomb Arab crowds attacking Jewish settlements

- Violence subsided a week later and 47 Jews and 48 Arabs killed

constitution for Arabs

- in August 1922, the british unveiled a draft constitution for Palestine

- legislative council made up of 8 muslims, 2 christians and 2 Jews

- proposal boycotted by the Muslims and Christians as they were denied the right to advise on matters concerning Zionists

revisionist party

-Vladimir Jabontinsky founded it

- extreme naitonalist group whose policies called for the use of force to establish a Jewish State

- youth wing- Betar aimed to educate the Jewish youth in a militant and national spiirit

- they were drilled in military tactics

- first Betar instructors school was set up in Tel Aviv in 1928 and its trainees took part in the violence that erupted in 1929 in Palestine

Winston Churchill

- on a visit to Palestine he was asked by a group of Arab leaders to refute the Balfour declaration and stop immigration to which he responded with 'This is not in my power and its not my wish'

- in 1922 he issued a white paper which revised it to make it clear that whilst ' the Jewish population in Palestine should be able to increase its numbers by immigration' the British did not support the imposition of a Jewish state on Arav inhabitants of Palestine

Jewish national fund and American Zionist Commonwealth

- betwen 1921-25 they purchased 240k dunums of Palestinian land from the Arab Sursuq family.

- purchase left some 8k Arab peasants landless as the Zionist buyers wanted to settle on the land themselves

fourth aliyah

- immigration wave of the 1920s which peaked in 1925 consisted of 34,386 immigrants

- largest single year infllux relative to the size of resident jewish population over the entire Mandate period

- saw the arrival of more than 67,000 Jewish people to Palestine

- by the en dof 1928 there were 100 jewish settlements in the country

Western Wall incident

- 1928-29

- fighting began over Jewish access to the western wall

-Weizmann pursued efforts to buy the wall and collected £61k by dec 1928

-On Yom Kippur 28th sep 1928 they bought a screen to divide the male and female worshippers

- Arab complaints led to the British police removing the screen forcibly due to resistance

-Hajj Amin al- Husyani formed an arab committee to defend the wall

- Weizmann wrote in an open letter to the Yishuv that the solution would be to pour Jews into Palestine and gain control of the homeland

- on Aug 15th members of the Betar marched the wall and raised the Zionist flag and sang Zionist anthems

- on Aug 16th thousands of Arabs marched to the wall to burn the slips of paper inscribed with prayers inscribed by Jews

- on Aug23 there was a hebron massacre which saw 67 Jewish lives taken

- Zionist groups retaliated as they invaded a mosque in Jaffa and killing a religious figure and 6 others

- in the end 133 Jews and 116 Arabs were killed

- most Arab deaths were caused by the british when they sent soilders to police the situation and end conflict

impact of western wall incident

- hope simpson report in Oct 1930 recommended putting a limit on Jewish immigration based on the devlopement of the country's economy and the effect it would have on the livelihood of the Arabs

- in Oct 1930 the passfield White paper criticised Zionist colonialism and limited Jewish immigration in addition to condemning the actions of the Jewish Agency such as the expulsion of Arabs from newly purchased land

- 'macdonald letter' regarded as a withdrawl of the Passfield White Paper, it confirmed that British Policy was to support Jewish immigration and land purchases. the letter was dubbed the 'black paper' by the arabs

Jewish immigration and land issues

- fifth aliyah from 1929- 1939 saw the Jewish population rise from 160k in 1929 to 430k in 1939

- after 1929 disturbances Jewish national fund acquired land closer to existing Jewish hpilation concentrations, creating strings of Jewish settlements

- Jewish agency took care that resident arab tenants who recieved monetary compensation to vactate the land they once worked would not be physically resettled between existing Jewish settlements

- nahum Sokolow the president of world Zionist organisation supported a policy in 1931 preventing the resettlement of landless Arabs in Jewish districts

- Jewish agency influence British government against resetlling arab peasants from the hill regions of Palestine to the low lying plain and valley regions, the focus of Jewish land acquisition

British on helping issues arising from Jewish immigration and land issues

- form 1931 - 33 the landless arab inquire was set up to investigate the problem of Arab peasants however due to pressure from the Jewish Agency only 900 out of 4000 claims of landlessness was accepted

- 650k dunums were held by Jewish organisations in 1920 and at the end of 1946 it was 1.625 million an increase of 250%

-even so this land only represented 6.2% of the total area of Palestine and 12% of cultivable land

first phase of the Arab revolt

-began in 1936 with the murder of a Jew in response to jewish immigration

- six arab leaders fromed the Arab higher committee in april 1936

- the AHC declared a strike in support of three demands, cessation of Jewish immigration , an end to all further land sales to the Jews and the establishment of an Arab national government

- 80 Jews were murdered by terrorist acts during the labour strike, Arab rebels took to the hills attacking Jewish settlements in the northern part of the country

- British announced the appointment of a Royal commission to investigate the causes of 'disturbances' and turned to other Arab state leaders for mediation which led to the strike being called off in Oct 1936

Peel Comission

-1937

- report issued in July 1937 admitted that the mandate was unworkable because Jewish and Arab objectives in Palestine was incompatible

- proposed that Palestine should be partioned into 3 zones

-20th Zionist congress rejected the proposed boundaries but agreed in principle to a partition

- Palestinian Arab nationalists rejected any kind of partition

- the Woodhead commission reversed the Peel commission's findings and reported in November 1937 that partition was impracticable

second phase of the Arab revolt 1937

- the issue of the royal commisioners report brought an immediate renewal of violence starting with the assassination of a British District commissioner

- the British then shut down the AHC by deporting its prominent leaders to the Seychelles Islands while the Mufti of Jerusalem was able to escape to Lebananon from where he continued to dierct the rebellion

- military courts were established awarding 58 death sentneces by the end of 1938

British and Zionist action is the second phase of the Arab revolt

Charles Wingate, Zionist officer in the British army organized special night squads of Jewish volunteers to combat the attackers

- British shipped more than 20k troops into Palestine and by 1939 the Zionist had armed more than 15k Jews in their own nationalist movement

- british did not officially recognise the Haganah, they cooperated with it during the Arab revolt

- 415 Jewish deaths were recorded during the 1936- 1939 arab revolt period

- the Toll on the Arabs was estimated to be roughly 5k dead , 15k wounded and 5,600 imprisoned

Zionist actions after the Arab revolt - irgun

- Irgun formed in 1931 and was founded by a group of Haganah commanders who rejected the 'restraint' policy of the Haganah

- it became an instrument of the revisionist Party

- June 19th 1939 18 Arabs were killed by explosive mounted on a donkey at a marketplace in Haifa by the Irgun gang

- by the beginning of WW2 around 24k Jewish people had been brought into Palestine as illegal immigrants and about 18k of these were brought by Irgun

Zionist actions after the Arab revolt - immigration

-Jewish immigration to Palestine became increasingly harder due to British policy

- the Jewish Agency opposed illegal immigration until 1938 as it was feared that illegal immigration would affect the granting of certificates for legal immigrants

- increasing numbers of Jews arriving as tourists and never returned back to their countries. in 1935 close to 5k Jews entered the country this way

- in June 1938 a convoy of 3 boats carried 381 illegal immigrants from Vienna

white paper

- 1939

- British rewarded Arabs with the publication of the white paper

- as war with Germany became imminent their dependency on middle eastern oil increased and therefore the goodwill of the Arabs.

- Jewish influence in the Foreign office waned and thus Britain's commitment to a Jewish homeland in Palestine dissipated and the mandate authorities pursued a policy of appeasement with respect to the Arabs

white paper terms

- declared that Britain wanted an independent Palestine within 10years

- this would be neither ethinicity's but one in which Arab and Jews shared responsibility for governing Palestine

- restrict Jewish immigration as for the next five years a limit of 10k Jewish immigrants will be allowed apart from a special quota in the near future of 25k refugees

- after a period of 5 years no further Jewish immigration will be permitted

role British play in developing tensions

-1930 passfield white paper

-from 1931-33 they set up the landless Arab inquiry but only accepted 900 out of 4000 claims

- Peel commision in 1937 proposed that Palestine be partitioned into 3 zones

- Woodhead commision reveresed this and reported in Nov 1937 the partition was impractible

- 1939 white paper which supported the Arabs

Moral/international influence

- struma in Dec 1941 which had 769 Jes onboard sailed from Romania

- The struma was held up by the Turkish authorities for fear the British would not give them certificates and thye would be forced to give refuge, it stayed docked for 70 days

- The british refused to grant permission for the passegers to enter Palestine in ters of keeping in terms of the terms of the white papers and the turks would not let them repair the engine, diembark or remain in turkey

- despite the despairing appeals of the captain that the ship was unable to continue its way, turkish authorities sent the ship back on Feb 23 1942

- it was determined that the ship had been sunk by a torpedo from Russian submarine in which 103 children were found dead

- Summer 1947 - ship called the Exodus carrying 4,500 refugees from europe was prevented by the British authorities from landing its passengers inPalestine and sent back to Europe

- ended up being a Propaganda win for Jews

zionist actions causing Britain to leave

- nov 1944- Jewish terrorist group Lehi assasinated Lord moyne.

- In August 1945 the zionist conference decided on a policy of active opposiiton to British rule in Palestine. their leaders ordered the Haganah to cooperate with Irgun and Stern gang

- April 1946- 6 british soilders were murdered in one incident

- July 1946- Irgun attack on King david hotel in jerusalem in which posed as milkmen they killed 88 people including 15 jews

Feb-1947- killed 20 british soilders in the officers club in Jerusalem

-Summer 1947- pictures of 2 british soilders hanged appeared in British newpapers with Manchester guardians suggesting that it was time to go

British economy

- by 1945 , Britain was overspending by £2 billioin a year with bread rationed until 1948

- by 1947 the cost of maintaining british forces in palestine cost £40 million a year

- by 1949-51 atlee's gov increased spending on health by 80%

- ernest bevin was in favour of retaining power as the middle east was strategically important due to british reliance on oil in which the labour government hoped 82% of UK oil would come form the Midde east by 1951

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US influence

-in 1944 presidential elections boh democrats and republican election platforms endorsed the Biltmore eclaration

- king of saudi expressed concern in letter to roosevelt outlinin gthat US support for zionism will infringe on the rights of Arabs in Palestine to which he replied ' i would take no action in my capacity of chief executieve of this governement which might prov ehostile to the Arab people

- 1946 anglo american committe of inquiry was focused upon increasing jewish immigaration to palestine as well as ending restrictions on land purchases

- in april 1946 , President Truman called on the British Gov to allow the immediate entry of 100k Jewish refugees to paestine

- British needed US financial assistance as the anglo american loan of 1946 was 3.75 billion dollars which was not paid off until 2006

- the anglo american loan of 1946 was negotiated in 1947 and gained britain a 3.75 billion dollar loan but it put Britain even more dependent on US and the Americans demanded that the serling pund be fully convertible into dollars which meant that the British currency reserves plummeted

UN partition recommendation

56.47% of the land would go towards created a jewish state which included 498,000 jews and 325k arabs.

- 43.3.53% of the land would go to the arabs which included 807k arabs and 10k jews

british reaction to the recommended UN partition

- Britiain announced that it would accpt it but refuse to enforce it

- announced that the mandate for palestine owuld end at midnight on may 14th 1948

30th November

- 1947-48 civil war in Palestine broke up after the general assembly of th eUN adopted a resolution on 29th november 1947 recommending the partition plan

- AHC called for protests and stike from 2-4th of dec

- Arab gunmen ambushed two Jewish buses near the city of Petah Tikva killing 7

- when hostilities commenced the Haganah had 10k rigiles 3.5k submachine guns 775 light machine guns

- haganah had a force of 2-3k members and from nov1947-may1948 it was transformed from a militia into a army

december 1947

- the arab league pledged its support to the Palestinian arabs in a meeting in cairo

- adopted a series of resolutions endorsing a military solution to the conflict and organised a force of 3k volunteers

Dec 1947- Feb 1948

-4k strog force of well equipped volunteers known as the ALA were sent to support the palestinian cause

march 1948

-Plan D was formed by zionist plitical and military leaders like Ben guiron who met in tel aviv

- israelis portrayed it as a set of defensive military measures whilst palestinians see it as proof of a systeatic strategy of ethnic cleansing

- plan explicitly stated that operations would include a destruction of villages especially those population centres which are difficult to control continously

-' in the event of resistance, the armed forces must be wiped out and the population must be expelled outside the borders of the state

april 1948

- haganah launched military operations under plan dalet

- jewish foces began the forcible expulsion of arabs from villages inside what was to become the Jewish states

-jewish forces also took over the mixed arab town haifa on 22nd and explosions were set of by jewish forces in arab areas of the city in which nearly all the arab populaiton of 10k fled

- nealry all villages from along the coast from tel aviv to haifa were cleared of their arab populations

Dier yassin massacre

-9th april 1948, irgun went on killing spre in which 107 women and children were killed

- allan cunningham british high commisioner in palestine acknowledged that a 'deliberate mass murder of innocent civillians occured' yet argud that the british forces were not in a position to take aciton in the matter

- palestinian national committee under the leaderhsip of DR Hussein Fakri El khalidi attempted to make Arab governemnts send troops by exaggerating the massacre in a radia broadcast ' we want you to say that Jews slaughtered people committed atroticites, raped and stole gold'

- on 13th of april a civilian convoy escorted by the haganah miltiia was ambushed by arab forces in which 79 jews were killed by gunfire during the ambush

may 1948

-as the state was declared on the 14th more than 200 palstiian villages had already been emptied,

- between 250k to 300k palestinians ha dalready ben expelled from their homes and commuunities including haifa, acre and jaffa

the new isreal state

- after the proclamation of the israel state armed forces from lebanon, syria, iraq, transjordan and egypt invaded

- on may 15h in the south an egyptian an army of 10k crossed th border and attacked

- leaders ike the Iraqi PM Nuri declared ' we will smash the ocutnry without gyns and obliterate every place the Jews seek shelter in'

Transfer committee

- following the creation of israel they set this up

the main aims were

1. eviction of Palestinan people

2. blocking their return

3. the destruction of villages and expropriation of their homes

- in a report presented to Ben guirion in june 1949 the committee called for the destruction of villages as much as possible during the miltary operation

June 1948

UN persuading the parties to ceasefire in which the israelis secured fresh supplies of weapons from easttern europe and they also recurited more men as well as rearm their forces

- egyptians broke the truce and the israelis went on the offensive and seized the initiative from the Arab forces

- in the north the israelis gained control of the entire galilee region including land that had been allocated to the arabs

haganah report

- entitled assesing the exodus affirmed that

- at least 55% of the total of the exodus was cuased by haganah operaitons

- operations of the irgun and LEHI directly caused '15% of the emigration'

july 1948

- in the second phase of fighinh the israelis were concerned with widening the corridor leading to jerusalem and taking land allocated to the arabs in the process

- arab legion held onto the old city of jerusalme

- on july 12th israelis battling the arab legion and local irregulars were given orders by lieutenant colonel yitzhak rabin to expel the inhabitants

- over two days between 50k and 60k inhabitants were driven from their homes

septemebr 1948

- second truce announced

- special UN mediator count bernadotte from sweden produced peace plan which gave added land to the arabs in the south and more land to the israelies in the north

- jerusalem was still to be an international city under un control and arab refugees were to have the right to return hoem

- following day bernadotte was assasinated by the sern gang

- new israeli gov intended to maintain international support and ordered the dissolution of the stern gang and irgun

October 1948

- isreal broke the second ceasefore

- concentrated on defearing the egyptians in the south and they did this successfully even pursuin gthe egyptian army over the border into europe

- agreed under american pressure to withdraw from egyptian territory

- in 1949 israel signed separate armistices with egypt on 24hth of feb , and other dates with other countries

results of the war

- israelis now controlled 79% of what had been the british madate of palestine rather than the 55% allocated to the new state by the UN

- west bank to be controlled by Jordan, the gaza strip by egypt and the city of Jerusalem was divided between the western israeli protion and the eastern arab section

by the end of the war 750k Palestian arabs had become refugees and most ended up in the Gaza or west bank