Arab-Israeli Conflict
One House, Two Stories: Dalia
“Growing up, Dalia would frequently ask her parents and teachers: “What are
these houses we are living in?”
“These are Arab houses,” she was told.
“What are these Arab houses that everyone talks about?” she would reply.
Dalia’s school was in an Arab house, and there she would learn Israel’s history.
She learned about the creation of the state of Israel as a safe haven for the
Jews. She studied the War of Independence as the story of the few against
the many. The Arabs had invaded, Dalia would read, in order to destroy the
new state and throw the Jews into the sea. Most nations confronted with such
hostilities would have been paralyzed, but tiny Israel had withstood five Arab
armies. Little David had defeated Goliath. As for the Arabs, Dalia’s textbooks
would report that they ran away, deserting their lands and abandoning their
homes, fleeing before the conquering Israeli army. The Arabs, one textbook of
the day declared, “Preferred to leave” once the Jews had taken their towns.
Dalia accepted the history she was taught. Still, she was confused. Why, she
wondered, would anyone leave so willingly?”
--Excerpt from: The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan, page 115
One House, Two Stories:
Bashir
“We were exiled by force of arms. We were exiled on foot. We were exiled
to take the earth as our bed. And the sky as a cover. And to be fed
from the crumbs of those among the governments and international
organizations who imparted their charity. We were exiled but we left
our souls, our hopes and our childhood in Palestine. We left our joys
and sorrows. We left them in every corner, and on every grain of sand
in Palestine. We left them with each lemon fruit, with each olive. We
left them in the roses and flowers. We left them in the flowering tree
that stands with pride at the entrance of our house in al-Ramla. We left
them in the remains of our fathers and ancestors. We left them as
witnesses and history. We left them, hoping to return.”
--Excerpt from: The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan, page 217
Introduction
• Two conflicting sides over land, resources,
sovereignty, religion, and culture.
– Jerusalem/Temple Mount
– Jordan River
• Israelis – Judaism, claim rights to ‘Israel’ a
recognized state of the UN
• Palestinians – Islam, claim the same land as
‘Palestine’, are not recognized by the UN, but
have a central ‘PNA’
• Both sides have contributed considerably to
violence.
Who are the Palestinians and
Israelis?
• Palestinians include Muslims,
Christians, and Druze
– Currently a ‘state-less’ nation
and therefore ‘citizenship-less’
• Israelis include Jews, Christians,
Muslims, Druze
– Became a political state in
1948
• The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is
not simply Jews vs. Muslims,
though it is often represented
that way
Wailing Wall (Jewish) and Dome of the Rock (Muslim)
Palestinians Today
www.cnn.com/.../mideast/stories/ history.maps/accords.html
• Palestinians are Arabs [Muslim,
Christian, Druze] with historical
roots to the territory of Palestine
defined in the British Mandate
– 3 million live within this area
divided among Israel, West
Bank, and Gaza Strip
• 700,000 are Israeli
citizens
• 1.2 million live in West
Bank
• 1 million in Gaza Strip
– 3 million in diaspora
• The diaspora community is
without citizenship; Jordan only
Arab state to grant citizenship
The Issues
• Palestinian Refugees and the Right of
Return
• Status of Jerusalem
• Borders and the Occupied Territories
• Israeli Security Concerns in relation to
sovereignty
• Settlements in the West Bank
Claims to the Land
Israelis
• Ancestors lived in
area nearly 2000
years ago
• Jerusalem home to
most important
Jewish site—Western
Wall
Palestinians
• Ancestors have been
living in area nearly
2000 years
• Jerusalem home to 3rd
most important Muslim
site-Dome of the
Rock/Al-Aqsa Mosque
Jewish and Palestinian Claims
to Land
Jewish Claims:
1. Biblical promise of land
to Abraham and his
decedents [begets Isaac,
begets Jacob a.k.a.
Israel]
2. Historical site of the
Jewish Kingdom of Israel
3. Need for haven from
European anti-Semitism
Palestinian Claims:
1. Several hundred years of
continuous residence
2. Demographic majority
3. Bible is not a legitimate
basis for modern claim to
territory
Jewish Biblical Claims to Land
• Cultural Conflict goes back several
thousand years – mainly religious
– Old Canaan conquered by Israeli tribes out of
Egypt (according to Torah) [1200 BCE]
– Hebrew settlements/conquests of present-day
Jerusalem under Solomon
• First Temple Built in Jerusalem on “Temple Mount”
• Later split into two kingdoms: Israel and Judea (both
later fall to Assyrians) after Solomon’s death
– Land referred to as ‘Palestine’ by ancient
Egyptians and ‘Israel’ by the Jewish tribes
• Same place, different language
Israel: The Western Wall
• Jerusalem is the site of the holiest
site in Judaism, remains of the earliest
Temples.
• “The Western Wall is part of the
retaining wall supporting the temple
mount built by Herod in 20 B.C. After
the destruction of the Second Temple in
70 A.D., Jews were not allowed to come
to Jerusalem until the Byzantine period,
when they could visit once a year on the
anniversary of the destruction of the
Temple and weep over the ruins of the
Holy Temple. Because of this, the wall
became known as the ‘Wailing Wall.’”
(http://www.levitt.com/slideshow/s01
p05.html)
Jewish Ancient History
– Control continuously changes from app. 530 BCE
– 61 BCE ending with control from Roman Empire
• Christianity is founded around 4 BCE – 35
CE, followed by Islam in 622 CE
– Non Jewish inhabitants of Israel/Palestine convert
begin to practice Islam/Christianity
– Roman Empire Collapses after schism,
Israel/Palestine is conquered by Persians in 614
CE
– Then, conquered by Arab Islamic armies – AlAqsa Mosque is built in 715 CE on Temple Mount
(considered Third Holiest site in Islam)
Palestine: Homeland for
Palestinians
• Palestinians are the Arabic
speaking people that live in
Palestine.
• Most Palestinians practice
Islam which came to
Palestine around 638 AD,
although some are Christian.
• Jerusalem is one of the most
holy cities for Islam because
Moslems believe that
Muhammad ascended to
heaven here
The Holy Land for Christians
• Israel and Palestine has
been a major site for
Christian pilgrimage and
Crusades
• Jesus is said to have
been born in Bethlehem
and raised in Nazareth.
• He is said to have been
crucified and resurrected
in Jerusalem
Medieval History
• European Christian crusaders begin their
attacks on ‘The Holy Land’ occupied by
Saladin and his Kurds
– Crusaders briefly occupy Jerusalem in 1229 CE,
retaken by Mameluke Muslims, later defeated at
acre and evicted from ‘Palestine’
– Ottoman/Turk conquest of area in 1517, part of
official Ottoman Empire until 1917
• Demographics in Jerusalem under Ottoman Rule:
7120 Jews, 5760 Muslims, 3390 Christians
1800s
• 19th Century Palestine was a
province of the Ottoman
Empire.
• In 1850 the population was
around 4% Jewish, 8%
Christian and the rest Muslim.
There was no conflict
between the communities.
• In Europe Jews faced antiSemitism and pogroms.
• In the 1880s over 200,000
Jews were murdered in state
organised Russian pogroms.
Anti-Semitism
• As anti-Semitism in Europe increased
leading Jewish figures came to
the conclusion that without a
state of their own Jews would
always be persecuted.
• “For the living, the Jew is a dead
man; for the natives, an alien
and a vagrant; for property
holders, a beggar; for the poor,
an exploiter and a millionaire;
for patriots, a man without a
country; for all classes, a hated
rival… a people without a
territory is like a man without a
shadow: something unnatural,
spectral.” Dr Leo Pinsker, 1882.
The Pogrom.
• This is the name given to a racist attack, particularly on a
Jewish community.
• ‘Pogroms’, as a term, came from Russia in the 19th century. It
means ‘to destroy’.
• Jewish communities had long suffered from pogroms even as
long ago as Roman times.
• As a close-knit group they were small, easily identifiable and as
a result were easy to scapegoat (blame for others’ problems ).
• Jewish people had no specifically Jewish country that would
defend their rights or allow them a place to flee.
• They were uniquely vulnerable, sustained only by their faith
and traditions.
A Jewish house after a pogrom.
Examples of anti-Jewish attacks
Throughout History
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Roman Emperor Caligula
12th century London and York riots
After the Black Death in Europe.1348
In Ukraine 1648
1821 Ukraine. (the first riot actually called a ‘pogrom’)
1881-4 Russia. Few deaths, but much fear and property destruction.
1903-6 Russia. Many deaths. Much Jewish emigration to Europe
and the USA
1918, and beforehand, sporadic outbreaks in Poland.
1919 Argentina
1927 Romania
1933 Germany. The Holocaust
1945 Arab states such as Libya
1905 Jewish victims of a pogrom
in Odessa.
Zionism
 GOALS:
The spiritual and
political renewal of
the Jewish people
in its ancestral
homeland of
Palestine.
 Freedom from
Western anti-Semitism.
Theodore Herzl
1860-1904
Zionism-Late 1800s
• Zionists are a political group of Jewish people.
• They argued for a homeland for all Jewish people, a place where
Jews would not fear pogroms, and where they could live safely.
• ’Zion’ is a Biblical name for Israel.
• They received a huge amount of support towards the end of the
19th century when many Jews were being displaced from around
the world.
• Zionists looked particularly at the land of their Jewish ancestors in
Palestine, the land that had been called Judea and had given its
name to ‘Jew’.Capital city Jerusalem.
• This land was already occupied, however, by Arabic peoples called
‘Palestinians’.
• Many Jewish people were anti-Zionist however despite the
pogroms.
• They felt that a small country would make them easy targets and in
any event their ‘Jewishness’ did not make them any less Russian, or
German or American. Judaism, they argued, was a religion.
“A land without a people for a
people without a land”
• Theodor Herzl was the founder of modern
Zionism. He advocated mass Jewish
immigration to Palestine.
• Herzl initially did not consider the
indigenous people, when he realised they
existed he advocated transferring them.
• “We shall try to spirit the penniless
population across the border by procuring
employment for it in transit countries,
while denying it employment in our
country. The property-owners will come
over to our side. Both the process of
expropriation and the removal of the poor
must be carried out discreetly and
circumspectly.”
• Before they left however the indigenous
population would be put to work
exterminating snakes and wild animals.
Benjamin Ze'ev Herzl
 “Oppression and persecution cannot exterminate us. No nation on
earth has survived such struggles and sufferings as we have gone
through.
“Palestine is our ever-memorable historic home. The very name of
Palestine would attract our people with a force of marvelous
potency.
“The world will be freed by our liberty, enriched by our wealth,
magnified by our greatness. And whatever we attempt there to
accomplish for our own welfare, will react powerfully and
beneficially for the good of humanity.
Pamphlet: "The Jewish State.” (1897)
“The
idea which I have developed in this pamphlet is a very old
26
one: it is the restoration of the Jewish State.
First Zionist Conference,
1897
 Herzl writes Der Judenstaat, or
The Jewish State in 1896.
 Met in Basel, Switzerland.
 Creates the First Zionist
Congress.
 Becomes an international Jewish
organization.
 “Next Year in Jerusalem!”
Aliyah (Ascension)
• From 1882 onwards
mostly eastern
European Jews seeking
a new life free from
persecution began
arriving in Palestine.
• The first arrivals quite
often mixed with the
Palestinians, after 1900
they increasingly selfsegregated.
• Around 60,000 arrived
between 1882 and
1914.
Reflection
• Write for three minutes about BOTH of the
following questions.
– If you were Israeli, why might you think you
should live on the land that is now Israel?
– If you were Palestinian, why might you think
you should live on the land that is now Israel?
The Ottoman Empire in
WW1
The Middle East in 1914
Hussein-McMahon Letters,
1915
....Britain is
prepared to
recognize and
uphold the
independence of
the Arabs in all
regions lying
within the frontiers
proposed by the
Sharif of Mecca....
Hussein ibn Ali,
Sharif of Mecca
Sykes-Picot Agreement,
1916
The Arab Revolt: 1916-1918
World War One
• World War I breaks out; Turkey (Ottoman
Empire) fights against Allies
– Balfour Declaration by the UK in Nov 1917
• “His Majesty's government view with favour the
establishment in Palestine of a national home for
the Jewish people, and will use their best
endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this
object…” - British Foreign Policy during wartime
– British control of Egypt extends itself to the
Israel/Palestine area under pressure from the
‘Zionist Movement’ Dec 1917
The Balfour Declaration
• In 1917 Britain, at the height of World War
One, agreed for its own imperial reasons
agreed to sponsor the creation of a Jewish
homeland in Palestine.
• Palestinians were not consulted, Lord Balfour
wrote:
“in Palestine we do not propose even to go
through the form of consulting the wishes of
the present inhabitants of the country. The
Four Great Powers are committed to Zionism.
And Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or
bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in
present needs, in future hopes, of far
profounder import than the desires and
prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who inhabit
that ancient land… In short so far as
Palestine is concerned, the powers have
made no statement of fact which is not
admittedly wrong, and no declaration of
policy which, at least in the letter, they have
not always intended to violate.”
Balfour Declaration
The Balfour Declaration
The British Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty’s
Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist
aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.
“His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment
in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use
their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it
being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may
prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish
communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed
by Jews in any other country.”
I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge
of the Zionist Federation.
Signed by Arthur James Balfour
37
Post World War One
• Faisal-Weizmann Agreement – Jan 3, 1919; part
of the Paris Peace Conference
– Leader of the Zionist Commission (Chaim Weizmann)
met with Emir Faisal (Kingdom of Hedjaz)
– Encourage mass Zionist/Jewish settlements in
Palestine, in exchange for an Arab nation
encompassing present-day Iraq, Syria, and the Fertile
Crescent
– Became irrelevant – Kingdom of Hedjaz was
conquered in 1923 and incorporated under the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
The dividing up of the Middle East after World War I.
Redeeming the Land---Post
World War One
• After Britain took control of Palestine in
1918 a whole new wave of Zionist
immigration began.
• These new immigrants sought to have as
little to do as possible with the Palestinian
population – boycotting their produce,
culture and economy.
• Instead these immigrants with British
support set up their own exclusive
institutions, used their own language and
generally ignored the fact that another
people was already living in Palestine.
• A key element of their settlement was the
idea of “the conquest of labour” whereby
they would “redeem the land” by
establishing modern farming communities.
In this way they hoped to become “a light
unto the nations.”
Palestine 1920.
The flag of the British Mandate
over Palestine
Violence in the 1920s
• Palestinians demanded
representative selfgovernment but Britain
ignored their calls.
• Tensions between the
Palestinians and the new
immigrants rose throughout
the 1920s and 30s as
Palestinians feared for their
future.
• Violence broke out in 1920,
1921 and 1929. The worst
single incident was the murder
of 67 Jews in Hebron in 1929.
1920 Anti-Jews Riots
• The Arabs had been promised Palestine after World War One, but the
British had decided to retain control in the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
• This supported the Zionists’ idea of a national home for Jews in
Palestine whilst promising to curb any erosion of the rights of the
local Arab population.
• Many Arabs did not believe that the British could, or would, protect
their rights if many Jewish settlers were to arrive.
• Meanwhile Jewish people who already lived in Palestine had been
clashing with their Arab neighbours.
• April 4,1920,during a Muslim procession, a riot broke out in Jerusalem.
It lasted 4 days.
• Jewish people- ironically non-Zionists- were the main casualties.
• The consequences were: that Jewish immigration to Palestine was
temporarily stopped (turning the Zionists against the British),and the
Jews themselves realised that they had to defend themselves if they
were to survive.
1921 More AntiJew Riots.
• Clashes between rival Socialist and Communist Jewish
groups in Tel-Aviv reached a peak.
• Arab Palestinians, feeling threatened by the violence,
readily joined in and had to be controlled by the British
military.
• The Arabs were ever fearful that they were being pushed
out of Palestine by the growing numbers of Jewish
immigrants.
• Riots also occurred in Jerusalem.
• Casualties were low, and were mostly where Arab
protesters met with a military response from the British.
Winston Churchill
Jews are in Palestine
“as of right and not
on sufferance...”
British
Secretary of
State for the
Colonies
June, 1922
46
“When it is asked what is meant by the development
of the Jewish National Home in Palestine, it may be
answered that it is not the imposition of a Jewish
nationality upon the inhabitants of Palestine as a
whole, but the further development of the existing
Jewish community, with the assistance of Jews in
other parts of the world, in order that it may become
a centre in which the Jewish people as a whole may
take on grounds of religion and race, an interest and
a pride.”
A Telling Terminology
“Recognition … to the Historical
Connection of the Jewish People
with Palestine.
(Preamble to the Mandate)
“Reconstituting their National Home
in that Country [Palestine]
(Preamble to the Mandate)
“Recreation of Palestine as the
national home of the Jewish race.”
(U.S. Congress 1922)
47
Post World War One Canges
• European Zionists continue to settle in Palestine
– Britain begins to decolonize – grants
independence to nearby Egypt and Transjordan
• League of Nations – France and Britain divide
the Middle East into ‘Mandates’
– Churchill White Paper (June 3, 1922) – clarifies
Balfour Declaration in response to anti-semeiic riots in
Palestine
– Main Point: Europe dividing new nations for ‘selfdetermination’ – deconstruction of imperialism
•
July 24, 1922
“Mandate for Palestine”
51 member
countries –
the entire
League of
Nations –
unanimously
declared:
“Recognition Has Been Given to the Historical
Connection of the Jewish People with Palestine and
to the Grounds for Reconstituting their National
Home in that Country.”
Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil,
British India, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland,
France, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Japan,
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, Latvia, Liberia,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua,
Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Persia, Peru, Poland, Portugal,
Republic
of
China,
Romania,
Siam,
Spain,
Sweden,
Switzerland, Union of South Africa, United Kingdom, Uruguay,
Venezuela.
49
The British mandate of
Palestine. 1923.
The area labelled ‘Palestine’ by 1936
had become a war zone with regular
clashes between Arab and Jewish
settlers.
By 1939 however the Arabs were
completely repressed by the harsh
British military presence.
A Jewish military was being
encouraged, and the partition of
Palestine would seem to be an
acceptable solution along the line
shown on this map.
Mandate for Palestine - The British Mandate
A Trust – “Mandate for Palestine”
• Confus
ed
•?
51
“The Mandates of the League of Nations have
a special status in international law. They are
considered to be trusts, indeed ‘sacred
trusts.’”
Professor Rostow
Trustee (Mandatory) – Great Britain
Great Britain was entrusted by the League of
Nations with the responsibility to administer the
area delineated by the “Mandate for Palestine”
in accordance with the provisions of the
articles of the Mandate.
Mandate for Palestine – Front Cover
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
__________
MANDATE FOR PALESTINE,
TOGETHER WITH A
NOTE BY THE SECRETARY - GENERAL
RELATING TO ITS APPLICATION
TO THE
TERRITORY KNOWN AS TRANS-JORDAN,
under the provisions of Article 25.
===============================
Presented to Parliament by Command of His Majesty,
December, 1922.
===============================
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY HIS MAJESTY’S STATIONARY OFFICE.
52
1920 – Original Mandate Territory
Assigned
to the
Jewish
National
Home
This Land Is My Land
“MANDATE FOR PALESTINE” THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF JEWISH RIGHTS ELI E. HERTZ
53
Article 25 - “Mandate for Palestine”
“In the territories lying between the
Jordan and the eastern boundary of
Palestine as ultimately determined, the
Mandatory shall be entitled, with the
consent of the Council of the League of
Nations, to postpone or withhold
application of such provision of this
Mandate as he may consider
inapplicable to the existing local
conditions...”
This Land Is My Land
“MANDATE FOR PALESTINE” THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF JEWISH RIGHTS ELI E. HERTZ
54
Article 25 of the “Mandate”
Where
Jews are
not permitted
to settle
Iraq was given to Faisal
bin Hussein, son of the
sheriff of Mecca in 1918.
To reward his younger
brother Abdullah with an
emirate, in 1922, Britain
cut away 77 percent of its
mandate over Palestine
earmarked for the Jews
and gave it to Abdullah,
creating the new country
of Trans-Jordan or Jordan,
as it was later named.
This Land Is My Land
“MANDATE FOR PALESTINE” THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF JEWISH RIGHTS ELI E. HERTZ
55
1922 - Final territory in which the Jewish
National Home was to be reconstituted.
This Land Is My Land
“MANDATE FOR PALESTINE” THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF JEWISH RIGHTS ELI E. HERTZ
56
Palestine is a geographical area
Not a nationality
Palestine lies on the western edge of the continent of Asia between Latitude 30º N. and 33º
N., Longitude 34º 30’ E. and 35º 30’ E.
On the North it is bounded by the French Mandated Territories of Syria and Lebanon, on the
East by Syria and Trans-Jordan, on the South-west by the Egyptian province of Sinai, on the
South-east by the Gulf of Aqaba and on the West by the Mediterranean. The frontier with
Syria was laid down by the Anglo-French Convention of the 23rd December, 1920, and its
delimitation was ratified in 1923.
Briefly stated, the boundaries are as follows:
North. – From Ras en Naqura on the Mediterranean eastwards to a point west of Qadas,
thence in a northerly direction to Metulla, thence east to a point west of Banias.
East. – From Banias in a southerly direction east of Lake Hula to Jisr Banat Ya’pub, thence
along a line east of the Jordan and the Lake of Tiberias and on to El Hamme station on the
Samakh-Deraa railway line, thence along the centre of the river Yarmuq to its confluence with
the Jordan, thence along the centres of the Jordan, the Dead Sea and the Wadi Araba to
a point on the Gulf of Aqaba two miles west of the town of Aqaba, thence along the shore of
the Gulf of Aqaba to Ras Jaba.
South. – From Ras Jaba in a generally north-westerly direction to the junction of the NekiAqaba and Gaza Aqaba Roads, thence to a point west-north-west of Ain Maghara and thence
to a point on the Mediterranean coast north-west of Rafa.
West. – The Mediterranean Sea.
Report by his Majesty’s G0vernment. 1938, page 439
This Land Is My Land
“MANDATE FOR PALESTINE” THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF JEWISH RIGHTS ELI E. HERTZ
57
Article 2 - Mandate for Palestine
Just & Legal
Occupation
This Land Is My Land
The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the
country under such political, administrative and economic
conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish
national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the
development of self-governing institutions, and also for
safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the
inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.
“MANDATE FOR PALESTINE” THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF JEWISH RIGHTS ELI E. HERTZ
58
Article 6 - Mandate for Palestine
Where
Jews are
permitted to
settle
Jewish
Settlements are
Legal
This Land Is My Land
“The Administration of Palestine …, shall encourage …
close settlement by Jews on the land, including State
lands and waste lands not required for public
purposes.”
“MANDATE FOR PALESTINE” THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF JEWISH RIGHTS ELI E. HERTZ
59
Palestine
Rights under the “Mandate”
Jews
Religious Rights
Civil Rights &
Political Rights
Other Inhabitant
Religious Rights
Civil Rights
At no point in the entire document is there any granting of
political rights to non-Jewish entities (i.e., Arabs) because
political rights to self-determination as a polity for Arabs,
were guaranteed under the Mandate system to Lebanon,
Syria, Iraq and Jordan
This Land Is My Land
“MANDATE FOR PALESTINE” THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF JEWISH RIGHTS ELI E. HERTZ
60
Jewish rights to Palestine were
internationally guaranteed
“The [Balfour] Declaration was endorsed at the time by
several of the Allied Governments; it was reaffirmed by the
Conference of the Principal Allied Powers at San Remo in
1920; it was subsequently endorsed by unanimous
resolutions of both Houses of the Congress of the
United States; it was embodied in the Mandate for
Palestine approved by the League of Nations in 1922; it
was declared, in a formal statement of policy issued by the
Colonial Secretary in the same year, ‘not to be
susceptible of change’; and it has been the guiding
principle in their direction of the affairs of Palestine of four
successive British Governments. The policy was fixed
and internationally guaranteed.”
Report of the High Commissioner 1920-1925
This Land Is My Land
“MANDATE FOR PALESTINE” THE LEGAL ASPECTS OF JEWISH RIGHTS ELI E. HERTZ
61
The Western Wall- a flash point
in 1928-1929
• In Jerusalem, is the Western Wall of the old
temple of Solomon. It is sacred to Jews who
pray there regularly.
• Above the wall is the Al Aqsa Mosque which
Arab Muslims revere as the sacred place where
Muhammed (PBUH) ascended to heaven.
• The two sides angrily watched each other here
for the slightest sign of an infringement onto their
territory. This duly came in 1928-9.
Armed and organised Arab fighters launch an attack on a
Jewish settlement.
1928-29 Events
• September 1928. Jewish people were seen putting out chairs (!)in
the area of the Western Wall.
• The Arab Muslims were furious because the Jews had never been
allowed to build anything in this sensitive area.
• This was seen as Jewish people marking out territory, a deliberate
provocation.
• 1929. Jewish Zionists met at the wall shouting that it was theirs!
• This infuriated the Arab Muslims who began rioting.
• Many Jews were killed by the Arabs who, in turn were shot by the
British police who came to restore order.
• The British police were vastly outnumbered however.
• There were merely 300 to cover the whole country.
• They just couldn’t control the fighting everywhere.
• In nearby Hebron over 60 Jews were murdered in other riots.
• The single policeman could only telephone for assistance and
watch helplessly.
1929 Arab Riots
IZBAH AL-YAHUD!
[“Slaughter All the Jews!”]
Jewish
Immigration
1919
1,806
1931
4,075
1920
8,223
1932
12,533
1921
8,294
1933
37,337
1922
8,685
1934
45,267
1923
8,175
1935
66,472
1924
13,892
1936
29,595
1925
34,386
1937
10,629
1926
13,855
1938
14,675
1927
3,034
1939
31,195
1928
2,178
1940
10,643
1929
5,249
1941
4,592
1930
4,944
The British Response 1929
• Over 20,000 soldiers were sent to Palestine. The main
Arab leaders either fled, or were expelled.
• 120 Arabs were executed. Houses were demolished.
People were arrested without trial.
• The British began cooperating with the rudimentary
Jewish forces ‘Haganah’ to restore order.
• Some of the Jewish settlers decided to launch revenge
attacks of their own however. The fighting was often
indiscriminate and this made the conflict nasty for men,
women and children alike.
• Some historians take 1929 as the time when Israel
actually began functioning as a state independent of
Palestine.
Blood dripping
down steps after
the massacre in
Hebron 1929.
The Haganah- the Jewish
settlers’ ‘self-defence’ force.
1930s Events
• Britain caught in the middle of appealing to
Palestine and Israel – violence escalates
– Racial profiling, religious desecration, segregation,
power struggle within Palestine
– Zionist immigration continues
– British policy continually changes with pressure from
both sides
• Progress in Middle East halts somewhat as
WWII begins in Europe
– Britain is distracted, situation becomes even more
unclear, violence continues to escalate
In fact the term
“Palestine”
applied almost
exclusively to
Jews and the
institutions
founded by new
Jewish
immigrants in the
first half of the
20th century,
before the Israel’s
independence.
Jewish Palestine …
• The Jerusalem Post, founded in 1932, was called
The Palestine Post.
• Bank Leumi L’Israel, incorporated in 1902, was
called the “Anglo-Palestine Company” until 1948.
• The Jewish Agency –a an arm of the Zionist
movement engaged in Jewish settlement since 1929 –
was initially called the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
• Today’s Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in
1936, was originally called the “Palestine Symphony
Orchestra,” composed of some 70 Palestinian Jews.
• The United Jewish Appeal (UJA), established in 1939
as a merger of the United Palestine Appeal and the
fund-raising arm of the Joint Distribution Committee.
70
Palestine Arab Revolt:
1936-1939
Their Goals:
 An end to Jewish
immigration to Palestine.
 An end to the transfer
of lands to Jewish
owners.
 A new “general
representative
government.”
The Grand Mufti of
Jerusalem, Haj Amin
al-Hussani, with Adolf
Hitler.
1936-9 Arab Revolt.
• The British tried in vain to compromise between the two
sides.
• 1936, an Arab leader suggested a general strike as a
protest to Britain against giving Jewish immigrants
permission to settle and buy land in Palestine.
• Elsewhere Palestinian Arabs became more organised
and deadly. Outlying Jewish areas were attacked, buses
bombed and the oil pipeline blown up.
• A British Commissioner was assassinated.
• Still the Jewish immigrants arrived.
The Arab Revolt
• In April 1936 the
Palestinians rebelled. Their
demands were
representative government
leading to independence
and an end to unlimited
immigration.
• The revolt continued until
1939 before the British
eventually managed to
crush it. Around 5,000
Palestinians were killed.
Zionist Violence
•
•
•
•
A number of Jewish paramilitary groups also
became active during the Arab Revolt – these
were the Stern Gang, the Irgun and the
Haganah.
Ostensibly these groups sought to protect the
Jewish settlements but they also engaged in
terrorism – the speciality of the Irgun being the
placing of bombs in Arab marketplaces for
maximum casualties.
Ze’ev Jabotinsky, an influential leader amongst
these groups was under no illusion about the
need to use violence:
“Every indigenous people will resist alien
settlers as long as they see any hope of ridding
themselves of the danger of foreign
settlement… We must either suspend our
settlement efforts or continue them without
paying attention to the mood of the natives.
Settlement can thus develop under the
protection of a force that is not dependent on
the local population, behind an iron wall which
they will be powerless to break down.”
The Peel Partition Plan
• In 1937 the British Peel Report
investigated the reasons behind the
outbreak of violence, it recorded, “the
Arabs have been driven into a state
verging on despair; and present unrest
is no more than expression of that
despair.”
• Nevertheless it recommended
partitioning Palestine, a solution that
was completely unacceptable to the
Palestinians.
• The Zionist leadership however
accepted the principle but not the
actual size to be granted to the Jewish
state.
• In the face of Palestinian resistance the
partition plan was dropped.
The Peel
Commission
Partition
Plan, 1937
British White Paper of 1939
 Limited Jewish
immigration to
Palestine to 75,000 over
the next five years.
 It ended Jewish land
purchases.
 Independence for
Palestine within 10 years.
 It is NOT British policy
that Palestine become a
Jewish state.
The 1939 White Paper
• In 1939 Britain, fearing war with
Germany, reversed its policy regarding
Palestine.
• It agreed to grant Palestine
independence within 10 years and to
limit Jewish immigration to 15,000 a
year for the next five years after which
it would be at the discretion of the
Palestinians whether it would continue.
• David Ben Gurion said, “We shall fight
the white paper as if there were no
Hitler and we shall fight Hitler as if
there were no white paper.”
• Many Israelis still harbour bitterness
towards Britain believing that at the
time the Holocaust was about to be
launched Britain closed the only
remaining escape route.