Transcript Arab-Israeli Conflict

Arab-Israeli Conflict
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 Land
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
descendents [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
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)
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
Anti-Semitism and Pogroms
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.
1905 Jewish victims of a pogrom
in Odessa.
Zionism
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.
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?
Role of the British
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.”
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.
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.
T. Loessin; Akins H.S.
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.
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.
Arab Riots and Violence
Against the Jews
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
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.
World War Two and Holocaust
Shoah
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.
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.
World War II
• The discovery of Hitler’s 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.
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 couldn’t erase.
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.”
Jews & Arabs in Palestine,
1920

In 1920, there
was 1 Jew to
every 10 Arabs in
Palestine.

By 1947, the ratio
was 2 Arabs for
every Jew.
The Arabs felt
that they were
loosing control of
their “country!”
Jews & Arabs in Palestine,
1920

In 1920, there
was 1 Jew to
every 10 Arabs in
Palestine.

By 1947, the ratio
was 2 Arabs for
every Jew.
The Arabs felt
that they were
loosing control of
their “country!”
UN Partition Plan 1947
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
British Mandate of Palestine
• After World War I, League of
Nations gave Britain control over
Palestine, required Britain to make
preparations for Jewish homeland
• After World War II, Jewish leaders
in Palestine pressed British to
create Jewish state
End of British Mandate
• 1947, Britain announced it was
giving up control of mandate,
turning matter over to the UN
• UN proposed to partition, or divide,
Palestine into Jewish state and
Arab state with Jerusalem under
international control
Jewish leaders accepted the proposal, but Arabs did not. Despite Arab
objections, the UN passed a resolution supporting the partition as valid.
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
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
Jerusalem:“international city” controlled by UN
Accepted by Jews
Rejected by Arabs
No Arab on committee
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.
Israel Becomes a Nation:
May 14, 1948
Chaim Weizmann,
1st President
David Ben-Gurion,
1st Prime Minister
1948 War of Independence
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 Israel’s 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
No Arab State
Gaza Strip, West Bank
• War lasted from May to December;
Arab armies soundly defeated
• Both Israel, neighboring Arab
countries seized, held land planned
for new Arab state
• Arab states negotiated cease-fire
agreements, but would not sign
permanent peace treaties
• One result: Arab state proposed by
UN did not come into existence
• Egypt controlled Gaza Strip,
Transjordan controlled territory
west of Jordan River known as
West Bank
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.
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..
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%!
Palestinian Refugees
Right of Return
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
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.
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.
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.”
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
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