Arabs and Jews

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Arabs and Jews

• A Brief History of the Middle East

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Learning Objectives

• Identify the claims to Palestine of the Arabs and
  of the Jews.
• Explain why both sides feel anger at the way they
  have been treated.
• Explain why the Arabs may distrust the Americans.

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The Roman Empire
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The Holy Land

• At the time of Jesus Palestine was called Judea
  and populated largely by Jews
• Jews were followers of the teachings of Moses
• Judea was occupied by the Romans as part of their
  empire
• The Jews fought a terrorist campaign to rid their
  land of the Romans

It has been suggested that Jesus was in fact a
leader of the Jewish Resistance and died, not on
the cross, but at the siege of Masada in AD70.
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The Crusadesin the Twelfth Century

• By the 12th Century Christianity had spread north
  into Europe
• The dominant religion of the Middle East was the
  newer Islam
• The Jews had been forced to leave the Holy Land
  and make their way into Europe (The Diaspora).
• As Islam spread into Europe the Christians
  decided it was time to hit back

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To Jerusalem

• Their aim was to unite Christians and march to
  defeat the Muslims and recover the holy city of
  Jerusalem.
• Christians, hasten to help your brothers in the
  East, for they are being attacked. Arm for the
  rescue of Jerusalem. Christ himself will be your
  leader ... Wear his cross as your badge. If you
  are killed your sins will be pardoned ... Let
  those who have been fighting against their own
  brothers now fight lawfully against the
  barbarians.
• Pope Urban encourages the Crusaders.

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The Blood of the Unbelievers

• Some of our men ... cut off the heads of their
  enemies ... others tortured them longer by
  casting them into the flames. Piles of heads,
  hands and feet were to be seen in the streets of
  the city. ... But these were small matters
  compared with what happened in the Temple of
  Solomon, a place where religious services are
  normally chanted. What happened there? ... men
  rode in blood up to their knees ... Indeed, it
  was a just and splendid judgement of God that
  this place should be filled with the blood of the
  unbelievers, since it had suffered so long from
  their blasphemies. The city was filled with
  corpses and blood.
• From Raymond d'Aguilers, Historia francorum qui
  ceprint Jerusalem

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• Ultimately the Crusades failed and the Holy Land
  remained in Muslim control
• Jerusalem is a holy city for all three major
  faiths
• Where Jesus died
• Home to Mohammed
• Location of the Temple of Solomon.

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1897 - first Zionist conference held in Basle
The First Zionist Congress met in Basle,
Switzerland, to discuss the ideas set out in
Theodor Herzl's 1896 book Der Judenstaat (The
Jewish State). Herzl, a Jewish journalist and
writer living in Vienna, wanted Jews to have
their own state - primarily as a response to
European anti-Semitism. The Congress issued the
Basle Programme to establish a "home for the
Jewish people in Palestine secured by public law"
and set up the World Zionist Organisation to work
for that end.
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Ottoman Empire

• By the beginning of the Twentieth Century
  Palestine was a part of the shrinking Ottoman
  Empire
• In 1914 the Turks entered the First World War and
  British troops made for the Middle East to fight
  them.

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A League Mandate

• At the Paris Peace Conference control of
  Palestine was taken from the Turks and handed to
  the League of Nations, under the supervision of
  Britain.

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The Balfour Plan

• In 1917 British politician Lord Balfour came up
  with a plan which would allow the Palestinian
  Arabs to control their own land, whilst there was
  also room for the Jews to have land of their own
  too.
• When given control of Palestine in 1919 Britain
  chose not to implement this plan.

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Letter written by Balfour
Foreign OfficeNovember 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.
Yours,Arthur James Balfour
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Arab Discontent
Zionist project of the 1920s and 1930s saw
hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrating to
Palestine. In 1922, a British census showed the
Jewish population had risen to about 11 of
Palestine's 750,000 inhabitants. More than
300,000 immigrants arrived in the next 15 years.
Zionist-Arab antagonism boiled over into
violent clashes in August 1929 when 133 Jews were
killed by Palestinians and 110 Palestinians died
at the hands of the British police.
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A Jewish Homeland?

• As a result of persecution throughout the Fascist
  states of Europe, the Jews campaigned in the
  1930s for a Jewish homeland.
• Zionism the belief that the Jews were destined
  to have a Jewish homeland in the Holy Land

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• Pressure increased for a Jewish homeland as a
  response to the horrors of the Nazi Holocaust
• Many people were sympathetic to the cause of the
  Jews after 1945
• However Britain still refused to concede, worried
  about the rights and future of the Palestinian
  Arabs who already lived on this land, and had
  done for centuries.

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Jewish Terrorism

• The Stern Gang and Irgun.
• Starting in the 1930s and continuing until 1948
  these two Jewish terror groups attacked British
  property and personnel.
• Their most famous attack was the bombing of the
  King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

Menachem Begin, Irgun member and later Prime
Minister of Israel.
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An Independent Israel, 1948

• Israel was declared an independent state in 1948
• Because of unrest between Jews and Palestinian
  Arabs the UN drew up a plan to divide the land
  (Jews yellow, Arabs grey)
• However the new Jewish Government of Israel was
  in no mood to give away its newly won land.

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The Six Day War, 1967
The Israelis attacked their Arab neighbours
Jordan, Egypt and Syria without warning and
with devastating force and speed.
The disputed Palestinian lands of the Gaza Strip
and the West Bank were absorbed into Israel.
Israel After 1967 War
Israel Before 1967 War
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The Yom Kippur War, 1973

• The Arab states hit back, attacking Israel on the
  day of Yom Kippur, a Jewish festival
• Egypt recovered the Sinai Desert, and Syria
  retook part of the Golan Heights
• Gaza and the West Bank remained disputed, but in
  Israeli hands
• Arabs gained confidence that they could take on
  Israel.

In a World dominated by the Cold War between the
USA and the Soviet Union, inevitably countries
sought help from one side or the other. The
Soviets assisted the Arab states of Egypt and
Syria the US supported and supplied the Israelis.
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Palestinian Terrorism

• Born out of the frustration of living in a land
  they see as occupied by Israeli outsiders
• Divided ethnically, culturally, and
  linguistically from their oppressors
• Feeling let down by the rest of the World
• Desperate times have led some to desperate
  actions.

Yasser Arafat, Palestinian leader and PLO terror
chief
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Yasser Arafat
In 1974, Arafat made a dramatic first appearance
at the United Nations mooting a peaceful
solution. He condemned the Zionist project, but
concluded "Today I have come bearing an olive
branch and a freedom fighter's gun. Do not let
the olive branch fall from my hand."
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Why do the Arabs hate the Americans?

• US supported Israel in its persecution of the
  Palestinians
• US supported Israels attacks on her neighbours
  Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon
• Supported the corrupt regime of the Shah of Iran,
  overthrown by the Islamic Revolution of 1979
• See Western influence and decadence as contrary
  to some of the teachings of Islam
• Believe that US is interested in expanding its
  control over oil, and thus reducing Arab
  countries ability to make money out of oil sales.

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Learning Objectives

• Identify the claims to Palestine of the Arabs and
  of the Jews.
• Explain why both sides feel anger at the way they
  have been treated.
• Explain why the Arabs may distrust the Americans.