Arab-isreali Conflict

• The origins of the mandate of the Middle East are subject of debate
• Claims about the cause of the mandate of the Middle East


  • Religion is its true cause (Islam vs Judaism)
  • Fault of Western colonialism (correct)
  • Fault of both the Arab and the Zionists
• Zionism


  A disease, the belief that the Jewish people are one and should have a state of their own (they shouldn't)
• Zionism was inspired by the French revolution + the enlightenment's secular and rationalistic traditions
• First Zionist Council / congress in Basle, Switzerland


  1897
• Establishment of the World Zionist Organization
• Balfour: '"for the Creation of a home for the Jewish people in Palestine to be secured by public Law"'
• Sentiment of 'a land without people for a people without a land'
• Complete erasure of nationalist Palestinians following Second Aliyah (1904-1914)
• Sources focus on European interests in Palestine / not written by Arabs, no mention of a Palestinian people only Jerusalem / biblical Palestine
• Palestinian nationalism dates back to the Ottoman Empire, the Sanjak (sub-province) of Jerusalem was established in 1872
• WWI had a profound impact on Palestine: Ottoman's confiscation of food, Fellaheen (peasants) conscriptions, European blockade of ports, no grain import -> populations of Palestine on the brink of Starvation
• Hussein-McMahon agreement: British wanted Hussain to incite revolt against Ottoman Turks, promised Arab independence in return, however left Palestine out
• Hussain felt betrayed as Britain did not uphold deal and promised Palestine to the Jews through the 1917 Balfour declaration
• Jewish troops Zion Mule Corps attached to British Forces, also in Palestinian division
• David & Boyd George & Foreign minister Arthur Balfour supported Chaim Weizmann obtaining a guarantee from Britain of a Jewish "home in Palestine"
• Balfour: '"being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish Communities in Palestine"'
• British mandate


  Britain's position following the establishment of the league of nations
• Officials stationed in Palestine


  • Tended to be more sympathetic
  • Complicated Britain's position
• Sir Herbert Samuel


  • High commissioner of Palestine
  • Pledged to uphold zionist aims while Safeguarding the rights of the Palestinians
• Samuel ensured that Jewish Settlement immigration also included Palestinians in the civil administration and encouraged the communities to reconcile
• There were constant clashes and riots between Jaffa and Tel Aviv Jewish Settlements / acts of resistance against Jewish Colonisation and settler Violence
• Nebi Musa Riots


  1920
• Wailing Wall Riots


  1928-1929
• World War Two
• 164,000 Jews from Germany | Austria emigrated from 1433-36
• Tel Aviv (Jaffa) and Haifa expanded the yishuv
• There was a new class difference from new Western European Jews
• Following the Holocaust, the establishment of the Jewish state was seen as a moral obligation + solution to European immigration problem
• Britain's mandate


  Tenuous as Jewish settler violence became a prominent problem
• Jewish "resistance" / terrorist groups

  • Carried out attacks during Jewish revolt of 1944
  • Sabotaged British installations such as radar posts, police stations, airfields, railways + Iraqi Oil Company pipeline
  • Irgun + Lehi targeted British military personnel as well
• Haganah, Irgun and Lehi extremists


  • Carried out attacks during Jewish revolt of 1844
  • Sabotaged British installations such as radar posts, police stations, airfields, railways + Iraai Dil Company pipeline
• UN Intervene

  14th February 1947
• UNSCOP


  United Nations Special Commission on Palestine
• UN ruled 4 months later that only partition would resolve the Conflict
• Zionists accepted Partition + Palestinians boycotted UNSCOP inquiry and rejected Partitions
• The Jews got


  • Tel Aviv
  • Haifa
  • Negev
  • Jezreel + Huleh valleys
• Palestinians got


  • Gaza Strip
  • Galilee
  • Nablus
  • Hebron
  • Barsheba
• Neighbouring Arab states vowed to destroy any Jewish ethnostate
• Nakba


  1948