Arab-Israeli Conflict

1
Arab-Israeli Conflict
2
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.

3
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)
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Palestinians Today

• 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

www.cnn.com/.../mideast/stories/
history.maps/accords.html
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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

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Claims to Land
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Claims to the Land

• Palestinians

• Israelis

• Ancestors lived in area nearly 2000 years ago
• Jerusalem home to most important Jewish
  siteWestern Wall

• Ancestors have been living in area nearly 2000
  years
• Jerusalem home to 3rd most important Muslim
  site-Dome of the Rock/Al-Aqsa Mosque

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Jewish and Palestinian Claims to Land

• Jewish Claims
• Biblical promise of land to Abraham and his
  descendents begets Isaac, begets Jacob a.k.a.
  Israel
• Historical site of the Jewish Kingdom of Israel
• Need for haven from European anti-Semitism

• Palestinian Claims
• Several hundred years of continuous residence
• Demographic majority
• Bible is not a legitimate basis for modern claim
  to territory

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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/s01p05.html)

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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

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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

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Anti-Semitism and Pogroms
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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 anti-Semitism and pogroms.
• In the 1880s over 200,000 Jews were murdered in
  state organised Russian pogroms.

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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.

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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.

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A Jewish house after a pogrom.
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1905 Jewish victims of a pogrom in Odessa.
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Zionism
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Zionism

• GOALSThe spiritual andpolitical renewal ofthe
  Jewish peoplein its ancestralhomeland
  ofPalestine.
• Freedom from Western anti-Semitism.

Theodore Herzl1860-1904
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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.

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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.

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First Zionist Conference, 1897

• Herzl writes Der Judenstaat, orThe Jewish State
  in 1896.
• Met in Basel, Switzerland.
• Creates the First Zionist Congress.
• Becomes an international Jewishorganization.
• Next Year in Jerusalem!

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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
  self-segregated.
• Around 60,000 arrived between 1882 and 1914.

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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?

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Role of the British
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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
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Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916
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The Arab Revolt 1916-1918
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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

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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.

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CH 34 Section 4 The Early Stages Text p.
901 Packet p.
How did the Treaty of Versailles change the world
map?
1918 - Ottoman Empire is defeated in World War I
igniting widespread Turkish
nationalism leading to the creation
of Turkey. The League of Nations
asks Britain to oversea Palestine
as a mandate a territory to be
controlled by the League of Nations
until ready for independence.
T. Loessin Akins H.S.
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CH 34 Section 4 The Early Stages Text p.
901 Packet p.
How did the Treaty of Versailles change the world
map?
1918 - Ottoman Empire is defeated in World War I
igniting widespread Turkish
nationalism leading to the creation
of Turkey. The League of Nations
asks Britain to oversea Palestine
as a mandate a territory to be
controlled by the League of Nations
until ready for independence.

• Arabs were concerned
• about the increased immigration
• of Jews to Palestine.
• Jews were making requests for
• a homeland to be carved out of
• the region when the war ended.

1. Britain issues the Balfour Declaration.

Unable to settle the matter after World War II,
Britain decides to turn the issue over to the
U.N.
T. Loessin Akins H.S.
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Violence in the 1920s

• Palestinians demanded representative
  self-government 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.

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Arab Riots and Violence Against the Jews
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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.

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Armed and organised Arab fighters launch an
attack on a Jewish settlement.
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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 couldnt 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.

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1929 Arab Riots
IZBAH AL-YAHUD! Slaughter All the Jews!
Immigration Immigration
1931 4,075
1932 12,533
1933 37,337
1934 45,267
1935 66,472
1936 29,595
1937 10,629
1938 14,675
1939 31,195
1940 10,643
1941 4,592
Jewish Jewish
1919 1,806
1920 8,223
1921 8,294
1922 8,685
1923 8,175
1924 13,892
1925 34,386
1926 13,855
1927 3,034
1928 2,178
1929 5,249
1930 4,944

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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.

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Blood dripping down steps after the massacre in
Hebron 1929.
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The Haganah- the Jewish settlers self-defence
force.
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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

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Palestine Arab Revolt
1936-1939
Their Goals

• An end to Jewish immigration to Palestine.
• An end to the transferof lands to Jewish
  owners.
• A new generalrepresentative government.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin
al-Hussani, with Adolf Hitler.
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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.

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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.

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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.
• Zeev 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.
  

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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.

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The Peel Commission Partition Plan, 1937
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British White Paper of 1939

• Limited Jewish immigration toPalestine to
  75,000 over the next five years.
• It ended Jewish landpurchases.
• Independence forPalestine within 10 years.
• It is NOT British policythat Palestine become
  aJewish state.

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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.

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World War Two and Holocaust
53
Shoah
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The Nazis

• In 1933 the Nazis came to power in Germany.
• Immigration exploded as Jews sought to escape
  Europe. Between 1933 and 1936 140,000 new
  immigrants arrived.
• The Palestinians believed they were being swamped.

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The Holocaust.

• Nazi Germany, and Hitler, perpetrated the worst
  Pogrom in living memory by systematically
  trying to eliminate all Jewish people.
• The factory-like process by which Jewish men,
  women and children were identified, labelled,
  moved, stored, abused and finally killed became
  called the Holocaust.
• Over 6 million Jewish people died.
• The Germans did not succeed in eliminating the
  Jews however.

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World War II

• The discovery of Hitlers death camps profoundly
  shocked the world and highlighted the case of the
  Jewish people who had survived.
• Many Jewish people began seeking refuge in
  Palestine.
• The Arab states near Palestine were, meanwhile,
  throwing off colonial rule and getting together
  to preserve Palestine for the Arabs.

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World War II 1939-1945

• The British Empire was severely shocked by the
  war and needed men fast.
• It was proposed that Palestine could be a
  recruiting base for Jewish soldiers.
• The government agreed and a Jewish Brigade was
  established. It was even allowed the Zionist
  emblem as its flag.
• By the end of the war the British sought to
  break up the Brigade. They confiscated equipment-
  but military knowledge they couldnt erase.

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Redemption---Post WWII

• After World War Two Holocaust survivors desperate
  to get out off Europe and with the gates of the
  world closed to them headed for Palestine.
• Most arrived as illegal immigrants and had to be
  smuggled into the country.
• The fate of the refugee ship The Exodus became an
  international scandal after the British beat its
  passengers on to prison ships and then returned
  them to camps in Germany. A US newspaper ran the
  headline, Back to the Reich.

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Jews Arabs in Palestine, 1920

• In 1920, there was 1 Jew toevery 10 Arabs
  inPalestine.
• By 1947, the ratio was 2 Arabs forevery Jew.

The Arabs felt that they were loosing control of
their country!
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Jews Arabs in Palestine, 1920

• In 1920, there was 1 Jew toevery 10 Arabs
  inPalestine.
• By 1947, the ratio was 2 Arabs forevery Jew.

The Arabs felt that they were loosing control of
their country!
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UN Partition Plan 1947
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The Creation of Israel

• Nationalism led to the creation of Israel
• Late 1800s Jewish nationalist movement of Zionism
  growing
• Jews calling for an independent state in ancient
  homeland

Jewish leaders accepted the proposal, but Arabs
did not. Despite Arab objections, the UN passed a
resolution supporting the partition as valid.
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The United Nations Plan of 1947

• The world was sick of war by 1945 and the
  prospect of another starting in the Middle East
  cheered no-one up.
• The United nations decided to partition Palestine
  as a way to separate the warring Arabic and
  Jewish peoples.
• Neither the British, nor the United Nations
  implemented this plan, and the cavalier way in
  which it was seen to be an outside imposition did
  not appeal to Jew or Arab.
• British limits on immigration also further
  angered Zionist groups.
• The idea of an international city (Jerusalem)
  was also found to be unworkable. Neither side
  could recognise others control of their most
  special places.
• The rejection of the plan laid the path clear for
  the Arab-Israeli war of 1948

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UN Plan for Palestine (1947)

• Partition (separate) the area into 2 countries
• Israel (Jewish State) and Palestine (Arab State)
• 55 of land goes to the Jews
• 45 of land goes to the Arabs
• Total Population 1.8 million
• 1.2 million Arabs living in area
• 600,000 Jews living in area
• Jerusaleminternational city controlled by UN
• Accepted by Jews
• Rejected by Arabs
• No Arab on committee

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The Arab League 1947

• The Arab states now combined together to form the
  Arab League
• The Arab League consisted of Syria, Egypt,
  Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen,
  and it became a formidable Arab force arranged
  against the Jewish settlers.

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Israel Becomes a NationMay 14, 1948
David Ben-Gurion,1st Prime Minister
Chaim Weizmann,1st President
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1948 War of Independence
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Independence and War

• As British pulled out of Palestine, David
  Ben-Gurion, other Jewish leaders, declared birth
  of democratic State of Israel, May 14, 1948
• Ben-Gurion later became Israels first prime
  minister
• Day after Israel declared independence, armies
  from Arab countries of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon,
  Transjordan, Iraq invaded Israel, launching first
  Arab-Israeli war

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1948-9 Israeli War of Independence.

• Arab League countries declared war on the new
  Israel immediately. Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan
  and Lebanon all planned invasions.
• The idea was to crush Israel before it could
  become established.

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The war itself.

• It was a disaster for the Arabic nations. The
  Israeli forces were far stronger than any of them
  expected.
• Many Jews had fought in World War II and they had
  reasonable weaponry-mostly also from World war
  II.
• The Jewish army also greatly increased in size,
  whereas the Arab forces grew only slowly..

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Results of the war.

• Only the Jordanians and the Egyptians made any
  real gains.
• The Jordanians grabbed East Jerusalem and the
  West Bank land.
• The Egyptians gained a strip of coast-line called
  the Gaza Strip.
• Elsewhere the Arabic forces were all pushed back.
• 1949 the United Nations declared a cease-fire on
  the Green Line.
• Israel signed armistice agreements with all the
  Arab states.
• Israel had expanded by another 25!

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Palestinian Refugees

• Right of Return

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Refugee Problems

• Arab-Israeli war caused massive refugee problems
• By end of fighting around 700,000 Palestinian
  Arabs had become refugees
• Fled or expelled from areas that Israel took
  control of, as well as from general war, chaos
• Jewish refugees fled Arab countries and resettled
  in Israel

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Nakba disaster

• Up to ¾ of a million Arab Palestinians lost their
  homes in the war and fled South or East.
• Massive refugee camps sprang up and conditions
  were horrific.
• These camps proved ideal places for Arab
  resistance movements to begin recruiting members.

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Nakba (The Catastrophe)

• As Plan Dalet continued more and more of
  Palestine was ethnically cleansed.
• Over half of the Palestinian refugees had
  already been forced out before Israel declared
  its independence.
• Even after this, despite promises of equal
  citizenship, Palestinians continued to be
  expelled.

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The Right of Return

• The Right of Return remains the central demand of
  the Palestinian people. A right Israel
  absolutely refuses to acknowledge.
• Speaking before the UN General Assembly, PLO
  Chairman Yasser Arafat put the Nakba and the
  refugees at the heart of the conflict. In 1948,
  he explained, the Israelis occupied 524 Arab
  towns and villages, of which they destroyed 385,
  completely obliterating them in the process.
  Having done so, they built their own settlements
  and colonies on the ruins of our farms and our
  groves. The roots of the Palestine question lie
  here. Its causes do not stem from any conflict
  between two religions or two nationalisms.
  Neither is it a border conflict between
  neighbouring States. It is the cause of people
  deprived of its homeland, dispersed and uprooted,
  and living mostly in exile and in refugee camps.
  

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Perspectives on Partition and 1948 War

• Israeli

• Palestinian

• Creates state of Israel
• War of Independence
• Holocaust and other periods of violence against
  Jews throughout the past centuries might not have
  happened if there was a Jewish Homeland

• They had no input
• Nabka Catastrophe
• Land set aside for Palestinians now under control
  of Arab countries or Israel

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• Conflicts with Israel
• 1948, Israel established since then most Middle
  Eastern countries have refused to recognize its
  right to exist
• Some countries have repeatedly attacked Israel,
  funded militant groups that conduct raids,
  terrorist attacks against Israelis

• Expansion of Israel
• Series of wars between Israel, neighbors has led
  to expansion of Israel
• Israel controls more land now than in 1948 when
  created
• Result many Palestinian Arabs live under Israeli
  control another source of tension, conflict in
  region