IAFS 1000
The Arab-Israeli Conflict
Outline
• History of British-controlled Pal
• Two key figures:
--Zionist Chaim Weizmann
--Palestinian Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin alHusseini
• Partition proposals
• Post-1948 developments and recent events
Palestine
• Britain’s conflicting WW I promises:
—Balfour Declaration
—McMahon-Hussein correspondence
• Mixed population: 80% Muslim, 10%
Christian, 8% Jewish
• 1922: Palestine Mandate granted
Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952)
• Russian-born
biochemist
• Zionist leader
• Skillful negotiator
• Well-connected
http://www.art.man.ac.uk/RELTHEOL/JEWISH/EXHIBITION/BUTTONT0.HTML
Hajj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti
(1897-1974)
• 1921: Grand Mufti
of Palestine
• President of
Supreme Muslim
Council
• Palestinian Arab
nationalist leader
http://galeon.hispavista.com/historiadeisrael/mufti.jpg
Palestine Mandate Timeline
• 1920: Pogrom
• 1922: Churchill
White Paper
• 1929: Yom Kippur
attacks
• 1936-39: Arab revolt
• 1937: Peel
Commission Report
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/israel/images/israel03.jpg
Partition
• The territorial division of a previously unified
administrative entity carried out by an external
party
– vs. secession:: one part of a political entity
withdrawing itself from the whole
Palestine Mandate Timeline
• 1939 White Paper
• WWII:
Mufti to Germany
• 1947: British decision to abandon Mandate
• 1948: British withdrawal, Arab-Jewish civil war
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1987-00409A,_Amin_al_Husseini_und_Adolf_Hitler.jpg
Arab-Israeli Conflict
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1967 war
1973 war
1987 intifada
1990s peace process
2000 intifada
2005 withdrawal of Gaza settlers
2008/2009 Gaza war
“Palestine Papers” leak