Palestinian-Israeli ConflictBackground, the Creation of Israel,

and the Palestinian Nakbah

Geography of Conflict

Note: Unless otherwise noted, all maps in this presentation from http://www.dartmouth.edu/~gov46/

These maps prepared by pro-Israeli sources show the size of Israel-Palestine relative to other parts of the world.

A little history

Both Jews & Palestinians have lived in the area for a long time, although in varying numbers 3000-1500 BC Canaanites 1200-1100 BC Philistines (Palestinians) & Jews invade

& settle the area

Distant history of Jewish statehood in the region 1000 BC Jews unite, defeat other groups, & found

Kingdom of Israel. Lasts in unified form for about 70 years

722 BC-600s AD various Jewish states rise & fall but area mostly under control of empires (Babylonian, Roman, etc.)

(More history)

Recent history of Palestinian & Ottoman control of the region, 640s-1918 Rise of Islamic empires, 7th c. Ottoman rule, 14-20th c.

Indirect Empire: Palestinian “notables.” Jews a mostly tolerated minority (sometimes

persecuted, although status largely better than for Jews in Europe)

Jerusalem a religious center for Judaism, Christianity, & Islam

Palestinian Politics, early 20th century

Largely (90%) rural population Varying senses of identity: Local, Palestinian, Muslim,

Ottoman, Arab Palestinian politics dominated by “local notable”

families Divisions with the community exacerbated by the

British Varying ideas of new political configurations:

Palestine as southern Syria under Arab rule 1930s: emergence of new Palestinian leadership

Zionism Basic tenets:

Jews constitute a nation Jews should create & live in a Jewish state in Palestine

Largely secular Inspirations

Persecution of Jews in Europe Age of Nationalism Late Colonialism

Various strands Labor Settlement Movement (Labor Zionism) – 1904-1914

Land Purchases Socialism Self-reliance & “closed shop” labor

Revisionist Zionism (“Eretz Israel -- territorial maximalization)- 1920s onward

Main means of organization World Zionist Organization/Jewish National Fund

Early demographics of Palestine

1878: 443,000 Arabs; 15,000 Jews 1914: 560,000 Arabs; 80,000 Jews.

Arab pop: 84 % Muslim (mostly Sunni), 16 % Christian

Jewish pop: about 70% longtime inhabitants, about 30% Zionists

1933: about 950,000 Arabs; 280,000 Jews 1946: 1.26 million Arabs; 608,000 Jews

The Creation of Israel: How and Why

British (London) support for Zionism, 1917-1939 Balfour Declaration Palestine Mandate

Power Vacuum High level of Zionist organization & mobilization

Diplomatic strategies Armed strategies Economic/demographic strategies: Creating “Facts on

the Ground” WWII and the Holocaust

New waves of immigration New international support (U.S., Russia)

Challenges to Zionism

Growing British resistance

Arab and Palestinian resistance

Internal disputes Divided Jewry (pre-

WWII) Political disputes (Ben

Gurion vs Jabotinsky) The Holocaust Jewish passengers from the damaged

ship, the Exodus, disembark in July 1947 at the port of Haifa in Palestine before being forcibly returned to Germany. Photograph from the Government Press Office, Jerusalem, courtesy of the USHMM Photo Archives.

|WWII & Jewish immigration

Holocaust prompts renewed Jewish emigration to Palestine

Jewish perspective: Jewish state needed for their protection (war largely dissolved former Jewish resistance to Zionism)

Palestinian perspective: Arabs shouldn’t have to pay for Europe’s injustice towards Jews

New U.S. support for Zionism

UN Partition Plans (see following slide) propose 2-state solution

Establishment of Israel, 1948

British withdrawal, 1947 Attacks by both Jews

and Arabs on British forces

UN Partition Plan 1947 Civil war 1947-48

Bombings and terror used by both sides

Deir Yassin 04/48 14 May 1948 Israeli

Proclamation of independence

Arab-Israeli wars, 1948-49

On May 14, 1948, on the day in which the British Mandate over a Palestine expired, the Jewish People's Council gathered at the Tel Aviv Museum and approved a proclamation, declaring the establishment of the State of Israel.

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians loss their homes in the fighting after 1948. This woman sits across from her home, separated from it by the new border.

Results of the 1948-49 War Expanded Israel state boundaries

Jordan controls West Bank; Egypt controls Gaza

700,000 Palestinians expelled or fled from Palestine (al-Nakbah,the disaster)

470,000 enter camps in Arab Palestine & Gaza

Rest dispersed (Palestinian Diaspora)

Exodus of 325,000 Jews from the Arab world to Israel

End of 1949: Israeli population about 1 million