Partition and Civil War

• UN

  • Brit sought UN Feb '47
  • UN took responsibility

  UNSCOP (UN special committee on Palestine)

  • Proposed partition into J and A state
  • Criss-cross arrangement; ‘Kissing point’ intersections (to increase cooperation)
  • Supposedly mostly J areas go in J state and same for A
  • But J
  • 1/3 population
  • Owned <10% land
  • Got 55%
  • Jerusalem international govern

  Response

  • AHC reject
  • Large Arab majority cities in Jew state
  • J Agency accept
  • Pleased by international support
  • Not all happy
  • Many Jew settlements in Arab state
  • Exclusion of Jerusalem
  • Irgun and Stern gang saw partition illegal
• Civil War

  • Nov '47 to May '48
  • Began few days after UN voted partition
  • AHC held 3-day strike, led to violent outbreaks against J
  • J Agency ready, knew A would resist J state
  • As Brit announced leave (dec) by May '48, fighting intensified
  • Initial, J defend given land
  • Then offensive, to gain control of J settlements in A lands
  • Palestinian A had no central organised military or unity
  • Palestinian J had political unification, strong centralised institutions (J Agency and Haganah)
  • '48 Syrian and Iraqi soldiers came to help Arabs
  • Jew expected invasion as Brit left + Israel born
• Plan D

  By Haganah:

  • Take over evacuated Brit military bases
  • Expel Palestinians from future J state
  • By Feb '48, most Palestinian elite left; contributing to A insecurity, especially in villages, encouraging more to leave
  • April '48
  • Began forcibly expelling A from villages in future J state
  • Nearly all A pop cleared from Tel Aviv to Haifa
  • Armed J surrounded village on 3 sides, forcing A to flee by 4th
  • Refusers often forced on lorries, driven to Transjordan
  • J forces took over mixed A-J towns (e.g. Jaffa and Haifa)
  • Haifa
  • Explosions in Arab areas set by J
  • Nearly all A pop (100,000) fled
• Deir Yassin

  • Bitter struggle to control roads to Jerusalem
  • Civilian massacres carried out by both sides
  • Weeks before Brit withdrawal (April '48), bloodiest fighting took place in and around Jerusalem
  • Village Deir Yassin
  • Highly publicised incident
  • A territory under UN
  • Last village in west Jerusalem whose A inhabitants had not fled
  • 9th Irgun fighters, attacked and killed 245 (claimed it A HQ)
  • May '48
  • Brit finally withdrew
  • Over 300,00 Arabs had left Palestine
  • J victory but A disaster
  • Israel declared May 14th