Arab-Israeli Conflict

Palestine and Israel

Jews have a history in Israel/Palestine going back 3000 years.

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Jews began immigrating to Israel as a result of the Russian Pogroms (Anti-Semitic) riots.

In 1896 Theodor Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), in which he asserted that the solution to growing antisemitism in Europe (the so-called "Jewish Question") was to establish a Jewish state. In 1897, the Zionist Organisation was founded and the First Zionist Congress proclaimed its aim "to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law."[49] However, Zionism was regarded with suspicion by the Ottoman rulers and was unable to make major progress.

Jewish/Arab Population of Israel over time.

LebanonSyriaJordanEgyptIsraelGaza (Gaza Strip)West BankGolan HeightsJerusalemTel AvivSinai Sea of GalileeDead SeaMediterranean SeaDamascusBeirutJordan River

“It would be my greatest sadness to see Zionists (Jews) do to Palestinian Arabs much of what Nazis did to Jews.” ― Albert Einstein

“You cannot continue to victimize someone else just because you yourself were a victim once—there has to be a limit” ― Edward W. Said

“Palestine is the anvil of our souls.” ― Clovis Maksoud

“We can't just run away. It's our land. Our people. We have a duty.” ― Selma Dabbagh, Out of It

“People who call themselves supporters of Israel are actually supporters of its moral degeneration and ultimate destruction.” ― Noam Chomsky

“Israeli occupation exposes us very young to the extremes of our emotions, until we cannot feel except in the extreme.” ― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin

“Now for a good twelve-hour sleep, I told myself. Twelve solid hours. Let birds sing, let people go to work. Somewhere out there, a volcano might blow, Israeli commandos might decimate a Palestinian village. I couldn't stop it. I was going to sleep.” ― Haruki Murakami, Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World

His majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.

“ supporting a Jewish entity in Palestine would mobilize America's influential Jewish community to support United States intervention in the war”

Basically, American Jews would use their power and influence in US politics to get the US into World War II.

There was also a fear that Germany might promise Palestine to the Jews first and therefore keeping the US out of the war.

(4 million Jews living in America at the time)

Ottoman Empire (Turkey)

Problems with the Balfour Declaration…

The British had also promised Palestine to the Arabs in 1915.

The McMahon AgreementIf the Arabs rise up and fight the Turks, they’d be given Palestine if Great Britain won the war.

After WWI, both Arabs and Jews thought Palestine belonged to them.

But of course, who got control of the land?

Sykes-Picot Agreement 1916

Great Britain and France agreed to divide up the Ottoman Empire after victory in WWI.

League of NationsIt was decided that Britain and France be given mandates in the Middle East.Mandate: an official order or commission to do something

As promised, Jews began moving to Palestine after WWI.

"The Zionists are after a Jewish state with the Arabs as hewers of wood and drawers of water. That is not my view. I want the Arabs to have a chance and I do not want a Jewish State"

What is Aliyah?