arab palestine conflict[1]

7/31/2019 Arab Palestine Conflict[1]

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HISTORY OF CONFLICT.

RELIGION ISSUE

BRITISH MANDATE PERIOD.

ARAB PALESTINE CONFLICT


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History of the Conflict


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Map of Palestine


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The Jewish Kingdoms of Ancient Judah and

Israel

The archeological record indicates that the Jewish people evolved out of native

Cana'anite peoples and invading tribes. Some time between about 1800 and 1500B.C., it is thought that a Semitic people called Hebrews (hapiru) left Mesopotamia

and settled in Canaan. Canaan was settled by different tribes including Semitic

peoples, Hittites, and later Philistines, peoples of the sea who are thought to have

arrived from Mycenae, or to be part of the ancient Greek peoples that also settled

Mycenae.

According to the Bible, Moses led the Israelites, or a portion of them, out of

Egypt. Under Joshua, they conquered the tribes and city states of Canaan. Based

on biblical traditions, it is estimated that king David conquered Jerusalem about

1000 B.C. and established an Israelite kingdom over much of Canaan including

parts of Transjordan.

The kingdom was divided into Judea in the south and Israel in the north followingthe death of David's son, Solomon. Jerusalem remained the center of Jewish

sovereignty and of Jewish worship whenever the Jews exercised sovereignty over

the country in the subsequent period, up to the Jewish revolt in 133 AD.


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The Assyrians conquered Israel in 722 or 721 B.C. The Babylonians conquered

Judah around 586 B.C. They destroyed Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, and

exiled a large number of Jews. About 50 years later, the Persian king Cyrus

conquered Babylonia. Cyrus allowed a group of Jews from Babylonia to rebuild

Jerusalem and settle in it. However, a large number of Jews remained inBabylonia, forming the first Jewish Diaspora. After the reestablishment of a

Jewish state or protectorate, the Babylonian exiles maintained contact with

authorities there.

The Persians ruled the land from about 530 to 331 B.C. Alexander the Great then

conquered the Persian Empire. After Alexander's death in 323 B.C., his generals

divided the empire. One of these generals, Seleucus, founded a dynasty that

gained control of much of Palestine about 200 B.C. At first, the new rulers, called

Seleucids, allowed the practice of Judaism. But later, one of the kings, Antiochus

IV, tried to prohibit it. In 167 B.C., the Jews revolted under the leadership of the

Maccabeans and either drove the Seleucids out of Palestine or at least established

a large degree of autonomy, forming a kingdom with its capital in Jerusalem.

The kingdom received Roman "protection" when Judah Maccabee was made a

"friend of the Roman senate and people" in 164 B.C. according to the records of

Roman historians.


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About 61 B.C., Roman troops under Pompei invaded Judea and sackedJerusalem in support of King Herod. Judea had become a client state ofRome. Initially it was ruled by the client Herodian dynasty. The land wasdivided into districts of Judea, Galilee, Peraea and a small trans-Jordanian section, each of which eventually came under direct Romancontrol. The Romans called the large central area of the land, whichincluded Jerusalem,Judea. Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, Judea, inthe early years of Roman rule. Roman rulers put down Jewish revolts inabout A.D. 70 and A.D. 132.

In A.D. 135, the Romans drove the Jews out of Jerusalem. The Romansnamed the areaPalaestina, at about this time. The namePalaestina,which became Palestine in English, is derived from Herodotus, who usedthe termPalaistine Syria to refer to the entire southern part of Syria,meaning "Philistine Syria." Most of the Jews who continued to practice

their religion fled or were forcibly exiled from Palestine, eventuallyforming a second Jewish Diaspora. However, Jewish communitiescontinued to exist in Galilee, the northernmost part of Palestine. Palestinewas governed by the Roman Empire until the fourth century A.D. (300's)and then by the Byzantine Empire. In time, Christianity spread to most ofPalestine.


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The Crusaders, however, broke the alliance and invaded Palestine

about a year later. They captured Jaffa and Jerusalem in 1099,

slaughtered many Jewish and Muslim defenders and forbade Jews to

live in Jerusalem. They held the city until 1187. In that year, theMuslim ruler Saladin conquered Jerusalem. The Crusaders then held

a smaller and smaller area along the coast of Palestine, under treaty

with Saladin.

However, they broke the treaty with Saladin and later treaties.Crusade after crusade tried unsuccessfully to recapture Jerusalem.

The crusaders left Palestine for good when the Muslims captured

Acre in 1291. During the post-crusade period, crusaders often raided

the coast of Palestine. To deny the crusaders gains from these raids,the Muslims pulled their people back from the coasts and destroyed

coastal towns and farms. This depopulated and impoverished the

coast ofPalestine for hundreds of years.


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The population consisted of Jewish converts to Christianity and

paganism, peoples imported by the Romans, and others who had

probably inhabited Palestine continuously.

During the seventh century (A.D. 600's), muslim Arab armies movednorth from Arabia to conquer most of the Middle East, including

Palestine. Jerusalem was conquered about 638 by the caliph Umar

who gave his protection to its inhabitants. Muslim powers controlled

the region until the early 1900's. The rulers allowed Christians and

Jews to keep their religions. However, most of the local population gradually accepted Islam and

the Arab-Islamic culture of their rulers. Jerusalem became holy to

Muslims as the site where, according to tradition, Muhammed

ascended to heaven after a miraculous overnight ride on his horseAl-

Buraq. The al-Aqsa mosque was built on the site generally regardedas the area of the Jewish temples


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The Rise of Zionism

Jews had never stopped coming to "the Holy land" or Palestine in smallnumbers throughout the exile. Palestine also remained the center of Jewish

worship and a part of Jewish culture. However, the Jewish connection with

the land was mostly abstract and connected with dreams of messianic

redemption.

In the nineteenth century new social currents animated Jewish life. Theemancipation of European Jews, signaled by the French revolution,

brought Jews out of the Ghetto and into the modern world, exposing them

to modern ideas. The liberal concepts introduced by emancipation and

modern nationalist ideas were blended with traditional Jewish ideas about

Israel and Zion. The marriage of "love of Zion" with modern nationalism

took place first among the Sephardic (Spanish and Eastern) Jewish

community of Europe.


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There, the tradition of living in the land of the Jews and return to Zion

had remained practical goals rather than messianic aspirations,

and Hebrew was a living language. Rabbi Yehuda Alcalay, who lived

in what is now Yugoslavia, published the first Zionist writings in the1840s.

Though practically forgotten, these ideas took root among a few

European Jews. Emancipation of Jews triggered a new type of virulent

anti-Jewish political and social movement in Europe, particularly in

Germany and Eastern Europe. Beginning in the late 1800's, oppressionof Jews in Eastern Europe stimulated emigration of Jews to Palestine.

The Zionist movement became a formal organization in 1897 with the

first Zionist congress in Basle, organized by Theodor Herzl. Herzl's

grandfather was acquainted with the writings of Alcalay, and it is very

probable that Herzl was influenced by them. The Zionists wished toestablish a "Jewish Homeland" in Palestine under Turkish or German

rule. They were not concerned about the Arab population, which they

ignored, or thought would agree to voluntary transfer to other Arab

countries.
http://www.mideastweb.org/BasleProgram.htmhttp://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/biography_herzl.htmhttp://www.zionism-israel.com/bio/biography_herzl.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/BasleProgram.htm


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In any case, they envisioned the

population of Palestine by millions of

European Jews who would soon form a

decisive majority in the land.

The Zionists established farm

communities in Palestine at Petah

Tikva, Zichron Jacob, Rishon Letzion

and elsewhere. Later they established

the new city of Tel Aviv, north of Jaffa.

At the same time, Palestine's Arab

population grew rapidly. By 1914, the

total population of Palestine stood at

about 700,000. About 615,000 were

Arabs, and 85,000 to 100,000 wereJews.
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The British Mandate for Palestine

The Balfour Declaration - In November 1917, before Britain had

conquered Jerusalem and the area to be known as Palestine, Britainissued the Balfour Declaration. The declaration was a letter addressed to

Lord Rothschild, based on a request of the Zionist organization in Great

Britain. The declaration stated Britain's support for the creation of a

Jewish national home in Palestine, without violating the civil and

religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities. The declaration was the result of lobbying by the small British Zionist

movement, especially by Dr. Haim Weizmann, who had emigrated from

Russia to Britain, but it was motivated by British strategic

considerations. Paradoxically, perhaps, a major motivation for the

declaration may have been the belief, inspired by anti-Semitism, thatinternational Jewry would come to the aid of the British if they declared

themselves in favor of a Jewish homeland, and the fear that the Germans

were about to issue such a declaration.


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http://images.google.co.in/imgres?imgurl=http://i103.photobucket.com/albums/m143/italmalk/Zionism1-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm%3Ffuseaction%3Duser.viewprofile%26friendid%3D71665058&h=716&w=567&sz=68&hl=en&start=3&tbnid=_DfgHgC2lbyKIM:&tbnh=140&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3DZionism%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff


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After the war, the League of Nations divided much of the Ottoman Empireinto mandated territories. The British and French saw the Mandates asinstruments of imperial ambitions. US President Wilson insisted that themandates must foster eventual independence. The British were anxious to

keep Palestine away from the French, and decided to ask for a mandatethat would implement the Jewish national home of the Balfour declaration,a project that would be supported by the Americans. The Arabs opposedthe idea of a Jewish national home, considering that the areas now calledPalestine were their land. The Arabs felt they were in danger ofdispossession by the Zionists, and did not relish living under Jewish rule.

Arabs lobbied the American King-Crane commission, in favor ofannexation of the Palestine mandate area to Syria, and later formed anational movement to combat the terms of the Mandate. At the instigationof US President Wilson, the King Crane commission had been sent to hear

the views of the inhabitants. At the commission hearings, Aref PashaDajani expressed this opinion about the Jews, "Their history and their pastproves that it is impossible to live with them. In all the countries where theyare at present, they are not wanted...because they always arrive to suck theblood of everybody..."
http://www.mideastweb.org/Kingcrane.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/Kingcrane.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/Kingcrane.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/Kingcrane.htm


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Assignment

Write 300 word essay explaining theBritish Mandate and its effects


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The Mandate: Zionism, the Arab Revolt andthe Conflict With Britain

From the beginning of the British Mandate, Arab opposition to Zionism

coalesced into organized resistance, taking the form of riots and later a

revolt. The chief architects of this mischief were the Husseini clan led by

Hajj Amin Al Husseini, the Grand Mufti.

The Mufti and others convinced Palestinian Arabs that the Zionists were

going to dispossess them of their lands by force, and spread false rumors

that the Jews were going to desecrate the Al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.

Riots and pogroms were instigated in 1920, 1921 and 1929 resulting in

deaths and injuries in Jaffa, Hebron, Jerusalem, Motza and elsewhere.

The British government increasingly understood that its promises to the

Zionists and Mandate obligations were very unpopular in the Arab world.
http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Haj_Amin_El_Husseini.htmhttp://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Haj_Amin_El_Husseini.htm


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They split off a large part of thePalestine Mandate territory to formTransjordan and issued the PassfieldWhite Paper that proposed limiting

Jewish immigration to Palestine. ThePassfield White Paper was quietlywithdrawn under pressure fromZionists, from British public opinionand from the League of Nations.

However, Palestine did not remain

quiet. The Mufti allied himself withFascist Italy and Germany, andprobably was was funded by theItalian government beginning about1936.
http://www.zionism-israel.com/Passfield_White_Paper_1930.htmhttp://www.zionism-israel.com/Passfield_White_Paper_1930.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htmhttp://www.zionism-israel.com/Passfield_White_Paper_1930.htmhttp://www.zionism-israel.com/Passfield_White_Paper_1930.htm


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In 1936, in response to the large Jewish immigration from Europe, openArab Revolt broke out. Three years of bloody riots instigated by the GrandMufti Hajj Amin Al Husseini and his allies resulted in hundreds of Jewishcasualties and an estimated 4,500 Arabs were killed, many by the Mufti.The rioting forced the British to take draconian measures. The Mufti fled

to Iraq in 1937 and then to Nazi Germany in 1941 after instigating an AxisCoup in Iraq. In 1937, the British proposed tentatively to partitionPalestine in the Peel report.

This caused additional divisions in the Zionist movement. Some believed ina bi-national Jewish Arab state and objected to the idea, contained in the

Peel recommendations, of transferring Arabs "voluntarily" out of theterritory to be allotted to the Jewish state.

The revisionists and religious Zionists, on the other hand, objected togiving up any part of the territory of Palestine. Subsequently the Britishissued the White Paper of 1939, severely limiting Jewish immigration. TheRevisionists formed the Irgun underground army, which attacked Britishsoldiers and administrators and perpetrated terror attacks against Arabsin retaliation for Arab attacks on Jews.
http://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Arab_Revolt.htmhttp://aval31.free.fr/anglais.htmhttp://aval31.free.fr/anglais.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/peelmaps.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/1939.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/1939.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/peelmaps.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/iraqaxiscoup.htmhttp://aval31.free.fr/anglais.htmhttp://aval31.free.fr/anglais.htmhttp://www.zionism-israel.com/dic/Arab_Revolt.htm


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Partition The United Nations Special Commission on Palestine

(UNSCOP) recommended that Palestine be divided into an

Arab state and a Jewish state. The commission called forJerusalem to be put under international administration TheUN General Assembly adopted this plan on Nov. 29, 1947 asUN Resolution (GA 181), owing to support of both the USand the Soviet Union, and in particular, the personal supportof US President Harry S. Truman.

Many factors contributed to Truman's decision to supportpartition, including domestic politics and intense Zionistlobbying, no doubt. Truman wrote in his diary, however, "I

think the proper thing to do, and the thing I have beendoing, is to do what I think is right and let them all go tohell."
http://www.mideastweb.org/UNSCOP1947.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/UNSCOP1947.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/181.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/US_SupportforState.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/US_SupportforState.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/US_SupportforState.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/US_SupportforState.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/US_SupportforState.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/US_SupportforState.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/US_SupportforState.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/US_SupportforState.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/US_SupportforState.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/US_SupportforState.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/181.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/181.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/181.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/181.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/UNSCOP1947.htmhttp://www.mideastweb.org/UNSCOP1947.htm


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The Jews accepted the UN decision, but the Arabs rejected it. Theresolution divided the land into two approximately equal portions in acomplicated scheme with zig-zag borders

The intention was an economic union between the two states with openborders. At the time of partition, slightly less than half the land in all ofPalestine was owned by Arabs, slightly less than half was "crown lands"belonging to the state, and about 8% was owned by Jews or the JewishAgency. There were about 600,000 Jews in Palestine, almost all living inthe areas allotted to the Jewish state or in the internationalized zone ofJerusalem, and about 1.2 million Arabs. The allocation of land by

Resolution 181 was intended to produce two areas with Jewish and Arabmajorities respectively. Jerusalem and environs were to beinternationalized.

The relatively large Jewish population of Jerusalem and the surroundings,about 100,000, were geographically cut off from the rest of the Jewish

state, separated by a relatively large area, the "corridor," allotted to thePalestinian state. The corridor included the populous Arab towns of Lodand Ramla and the smaller towns of Qoloniyeh, Emaus, Qastel and othersthat guarded the road to Jerusalem.

arab palestine conflict[1]

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