FORMATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL 1914-1947

A Tale of Ottomans, Zionists, Palestinians, World War Two and

a fading British Empire

First 4000 Years not Important

• Except religion and adapted culture bears heavily in the myths and actualities of a culture.

• Amazing that the Jew kept an identity as a people for about 2,000 years without their own territory and low inter-marriage. (Note pre 1933 Germany)

• Persecution almost cemented this identity.

HOWEVER JERUSALEM ALWAYS A RELIGIOUS FLASH-POINT

• Western (Wailing) Wall The holiest site for the Jewish religion and the heart of the Israeli nation. The wall was part of the great temple of Herod, over 2,000 years ago.

• Dome of the Rock  shrine is the oldest extant Islamic monument. The rock over which the shrine was built is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. The Prophet Muhammad believed to have ascended into heaven from the site. In Jewish tradition, it is here that Abraham, the progenitor and first patriarch of the Hebrew people, is said to have prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac.

• Church of the Holy Sepulchre: believed site of Jesus' last known resting place

BUT ONLY IN 1914 WAS OWNERSHIP OF THE HOLY LAND IMPORTANT AS THE ALLIES CLASHED WITH

THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE (Taken in 1517)

NATIONALISM

• Nationalist movements create nations

• Nationalist myths create distinctiveness

• Zionist Nationalism a reaction to European anti-Semitism.

• Palestinian Nationalism between the wars as a reaction to Jewish immigration.

• Many Arabs viewed themselves as Syrians.

EASTERN EUROPEAN JEWS

• 75% of the world’s Jews in the 19th Century lived in Eastern Europe.

• 1900 one third of Warsaw population (220,000)

• Urban and skilled• Not permitted to live

outside of the Russian Pale.

• Poverty induced huge emigration

HUGE JEWISH EMIGRATION FROM

EASTERN EUROPE 1880-1928 1933-1939

BUT NOT SPECIFICALLY TO PALESTINE

• Cheap Steamship Travel• Urban Jews not attracted to Palestine• 1881-1914 2.5 million from Eastern Europe

(20% of Pop) emigrated.• 1.5 mil. To 2 mil to USA – a huge political

constituency in later years (Irving Berlin)• USA Jewish population 1870 (250,000) 1920

(4.5 millions)• Germany an emigration target as a Jewish

friendly country

THEODORE HERZL• He belonged to the middle class. From his

student days, he was aware of the growing anti-Semitism in Austria. As a lawyer, before he became a journalist, he had resented being barred as a Jew from the higher positions in the Austrian civil service. But he was not a Jewish activist. He maintained his distance from the plight of Jews until a major Vienna newspaper made him its correspondent in Paris.

• In 1895, Herzl covered the trial of Col Dreyfus, a Jewish officer in the French Army charged with spying. The French right in an attempt to wrest control of the army from the liberal forces in the government, launched a vicious campaign against Dreyfus and his liberal defenders.

• At the heart of the attack was political anti-Semitism - a movement created by the right wing which played upon the anti-Jewish feelings embedded in both organized Christianity and the history of Europe. Jews in government and Jews in general were portrayed as the source of all social problems, from strikes to treason. Dreyfus was convicted and stripped of his rank. At the sentencing ceremony the crowd began to shout, "Death to the traitor! Death to the Jew!"

ZOLA AND DREYFUS“J’accuse”

• Shaken by anti-Semitism he became engrossed in the "Jewish problem." Finally, Dreyfus was pardoned. The Dreyfus trial led him to conclude that anti-Semitism was eternal and could not be eradicated.

• In his book, The Jewish State, the solution for Jews was to build a state of their own, they were an alien nationality in Europe. The influx Russian and Eastern Jews could only lead to more intense anti-Semitism. He called on middle-class Jews to join the movement to found a Jewish state, which could attract these Jewish immigrants.

• Herzl proposed either Palestine or Argentina but he was not attached to any particular location. Unlike the Russian "Lovers of Zion," he felt no connection with the Palestinian "homeland." He wrote, "I shall now tell you everything about the 'promised land' except its location." He did not believe a state could be built on old religious claims. Neither could small bands of Jewish colonists create a state of their own. He argued that a state had to be built under the wing of one of the powerful European countries. For a European country to support the Jewish state, the state must serve European interests. This insight was Herzl's unique contribution to the Zionist movement.

As Early As 1916 the Colonial Powers Were Planning to Grab What They Could of a

Collapsing Ottoman Empire.• The Sykes-Picot agreement

was a secret understanding concluded in May 1916, during World War I, between Great Britain and France, with the assent of Russia, for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. The agreement led to the division of Turkish-held Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine into various French and British-administered areas. The agreement took its name from its negotiators, Sir Mark Sykes of Britain and Georges Picot of France.

WARTIME POLITICSSharif Hussein as depicted on a Jordanian banknote.

• The British were afraid that oil supplies from Persia (current day Iran) might be cut off by the Turks. They decided to encourage Arabs to rebel against their Turkish rulers and try to gain their independence. They hoped this uprising would distract the Turkish from Britain.

• The Arab army was led by the Sharif's son, Prince Faisal. After the war ended the Arabs were confident that they would gain independence as promised to them by McMahon.

• 1915 Britain promised the independence of all Arab areas of the Turkish Empire

• A major set of vague assumptions as the Arabs maintain this included Palestine while Britain insists it did not. FOG OF WAR

• However they soon discovered that Britain and France had made a secret deal in 1916 called the Sykes-Picot agreement; this deal was to share out Ottoman territory.

• The Arabs felt betrayed as they kept their side of the bargain by allying with Britain. Allenby and Arabs defeated Turks at Gaza 1917

THING THAT IF YOU KNEW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN LATER YOU WOULD

NOT DO NUMBER ONE• October 24, 1915.

---- I regret that you should have received from my last letter the impression that I regarded the question of limits and boundaries with coldness and hesitation; such was not the case ---- I have realised, however, from your last letter that you regard this question as one of vital and urgent importance. I have, therefore, lost no time in informing the Government of Great Britain of the contents of your letter, and it is with great pleasure that I communicate to you on their behalf the following statement, which I am confident you will receive with satisfaction. The two districts of Mersina and Alexandretta and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama.and Aleppo cannot be said to be purely Arab, and should be excluded from the limits demanded. With the above modification, and without prejudice to our existing treaties with Arab chiefs, we accept those limits. As for those regions lying within those frontiers wherein Great Britain is free to act without detriment to the interests of her ally, France, I am empowered in the name of the Government of Great Britain to give the following assurances and make the following assurances and make the following reply to your letter: Subject to the above modifications, Great Britain is prepared to recognise and support the independence of the Arabs in all the regions within the limits demanded by the Sherif of Mecca. Great Britain will guarantee the Holy Places against all external aggression and will recognise their inviolability. ---- the immediate results of which will be the expulsion of the Turks from the Arab countries and the freeing of the Arab peoples from the Turkish yoke, which for so many years has pressed heavily upon them. (Compliments).(Signed): A. HENRY MCMAHON.

Hashemite Kingdoms• After the collapse of Ottoman power,

Hussein bin Ali ruled an independent Hejaz, of which he proclaimed himself king, with the tacit support of Britain. His chief rival in the Arabian peninsula was Ibn Saud who annexed the Hejaz in 1925. The region was later incorporated into Saudi Arabia.

• Hussein bin Ali had five sons:• Ali, who briefly succeeded to the throne of

Hejaz before its loss. • Abdullah, later became the king of

Transjordan. • Faisal, was briefly proclaimed King of Syria,

and ended up becoming King of Iraq. • Prince Zeid, who became a claimant to the

throne of Iraq when his brother's grandson was overthrown and murdered in a coup in 1958.

THING THAT IF YOU KNEW WHAT WOULD HAPPEN LATER YOU WOULD

NOT DO NUMBER TWO• Zionist (as opposed to Jewish) movement turned

to Britain as Turkey became the enemy. So Britain now courted by Jews and Arabs in Palestine who all had a common aim to remove the Ottoman empire.

• So, in autumn 1917 Britain decided on a gesture to the Jews particularly to engage the Jews of the USA as they entered the war. (April 06).

• And to please Russian Jews who were in the new provisional govt. (keep them in the war)

• War not looking good for Britain at this point.

THE BALFOUR DECLARATION Approved in advance by Pres. Wilson but not the Arabs

• The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was a formal statement of policy by the British government on the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire in the aftermath of WW1.

• The letter stated the position, agreed at a British Cabinet meeting in Oct 1917, that the government supported Zionist plans for a National Home for the Jewish People within Palestine with the condition that nothing should be done which might prejudice the rights of existing communities there.

• The Declaration fell short of Zionist expectations.

• The "Balfour Declaration" was later incorporated into the Sevres peace treaty with Turkey and the Mandate for Palestine. The declaration was made in a letter from Arthur James Balfour (Foreign Secretary) to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish Community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation, a private Zionist organization.

A ‘WISHY WASHY’ DECLARATION IN TIME OF WAR WITH HUGE

CONSEQUENCES• Britain pursued a policy of ‘what it had to do’ to

defeat the Turks, but each side in Palestine thought differently.

• Arabs felt they had kept their side of the bargain and said a third party could not give away somebody else’s land.

• Jews felt they had a Biblical right to the land to shield their people and they had been promised (Churchill)

• Britain felt that both sides should be grateful to them for removing the Turks.

For Britain: How to Resolve the problem while getting down to running the Empire?

• Allenby feared an Arab uprising as promises looked like they would not be kept.

• Balfour addressed a Jewish conference in London: “His hope that the Arabs would not begrudge that small niche----given to the people who for all these hundreds of years been separated from it”

• Note with this address the Zionists now felt that they had been told that there was no doubt who owned the land, they were just getting a piece back.

• It was restitution not ownership rights.

• This set the scene for conflict up until today.

THE TURKISH PEACE TREATYAllenby & Feisal --------- Weizman & Feisal

• The end of 600 years of Muslim Turkish rule occurred on December 11, 1917

• Allenby “a decimated countryside laid waste by “military operations, ----, leaving almost universal poverty, malnourishment and disease among both Arabs and Jews.”

• June 1918 British advisors in Cairo set up a meeting between Weizmann, leader of Jewish Zionism, and Emir Feisal I the Hashemite son of the Sherif of Mecca. in Feisal’s headquarters in Aqaba According to one report, “ Weizmann told [Feisal] that the Jews do not propose to set up any government of their own but wish to work under British protection to colonise [sic] and develop Palestine, with all consideration for legitimate vested interests.’” The careful Feisal replied that, “in view of the use which could be made by hostile propagandists of any pronouncement by him in favour [sic] of Arab territory coming under non-Arab control, he could only express his personal opinion that Weizmann’s hopes were not incapable of realization.’”

The Feisal-Weizmann Agreement

3 January 1919• Article IV

All necessary measures shall be taken to encourage and stimulate immigration of Jews into Palestine on a large scale, and as quickly as possible to settle Jewish immigrants upon the land through closer settlement and intensive cultivation of the soil. In taking such measures the Arab peasant and tenant farmers shall be protected in their rights and shall be assisted in forwarding their economic development.

• Weizmann got everything he wanted in the Agreement—Palestine had in effect been set aside for development by the Jews in return for the Jews’ pledge to do their best for the welfare of the future Arab State in Syria. But there were two problems inherent in the agreement. First, Feisal was not the official spokesman for all 10 million Arabs, much less a spokesman for the Arabs inhabiting Palestine. Feisal after all was a Bedouin who lived in Arabia to the south of Palestine, Syria, and Mesopotamia. Second, the agreement was only on paper. There is no evidence that Feisal developed an Arab consensus to support the agreement.

• The Balfour Declaration of 1917, through the insurmountable persistence of Lord Balfour of the British Government, and over the objections of the French Government and the British military generals in Palestine, made its way into the International Turkish Peace Treaty after World War I. Once the Palestine Mandate was assigned to Britain by the League of Nations, Britain became responsible for implementation of the Turkish Peace Treaty and the Balfour Declaration contained therein. The Zionists had brilliantly accomplished what they had set out to do while the 700,000 Arabs living in Palestine and the British overseers faced a tough road in the following two and one-half decades

League of Nations MandatesBritish Mandate (1920-1948)

• Formal use of the English word

"Palestine" returned with the British Mandate. At the beginning of this period, the name "Eretz Yisrael" ("Land of Israel“) was inserted into use on a 1920 Postage Stamp by Herbert Samuel, the first British high-commissioner of Palestine Foreign office officials questioned his action, but the issue was forgotten as responsibility for Palestine was passed from the foreign office to colonial office.

• Note: Huge pressure from US Jews (against US Govt.) for Britain to be given the Palestinian Mandate.

• Note: Mandate originally included what is now Jordan

WHY DID BRITAIN WANT THE MANDATE?

• Protect access to India• Ability to hold the Suez canal• Protect oil in Iraq and Persia• Keep France out of strategic areas

• NOTE: Palestinian authority from Damascus now broken.

• Even before the Mandate came into legal effect in 1923, British terminology sometimes used '"Palestine" for the part west of the Jordan River and "Trans-Jordan" (or Transjordania) for the part east of the Jordan River.

• However, "Palestine" in the sense of the Jewish National Home often included lands on both sides of the Jordan River (see also Faisal-Weizmann Agreement).

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A GROWING MESS OF BRITAIN’S IMPERIAL AMBITIONS AND ZIONIST AND

ARAB NATIONALISM•  In July 1920, the French drove Faisal

bin Husayn from Damascus ending his already negligible control over the region of Transjordan, where local chiefs traditionally resisted any central authority. The sheikhs, who had earlier pledged their loyalty to the Sharif, asked the British to undertake the region's administration. Herbert Samuel asked for the extension of the Palestine government's authority to Transjordan, but at meetings in Cairo and Jerusalem between Churchill and Emir Abdullah in March 1921 it was agreed that Abdullah would administer the territory (initially for six months only) on behalf of the Palestine administration. In the summer of 1921 Transjordan was included within the Mandate, but excluded from the provisions for a Jewish National Home. 

•  

• July, 1922 the League of Nations approved the terms of the British Mandate over Palestine and Transjordan. The League formally approved a memorandum from Lord Balfour confirming the exemption of Transjordan from the clauses of the mandate concerning the creation of a Jewish national home and from the mandate's responsibility to facilitate Jewish immigration and land settlement. In reality, the British prevented Jews from settling in Transjordan, while Arabs could freely settle in Palestine. Transjordan was essentially 77% of Palestine so this was viewed as a great injustice and huge division of the territory designated for the Jewish National Home by the Balfour Declaration according to the Jewish leaders. 

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BRITAIN TRIMS AGAINThe (Churchill) White Paper of 1922

• It became clear to the British that it was inconvenient to implement a "National Home" for the Jewish people in Palestine.

• None of the persons who had issued that declaration in 1917 were in power.

• Britain had meanwhile, reneged on their commitment to give Syria to the Arabs, in favor of their commitment to give Syria to France based on the Sykes Picot agreement.

• The Hashemites were no longer in power in Saudi Arabia either.

AND• Churchill was given the task of reframing the mandate in a way that

it would placate the Arabs, but still give Britain an excuse to keep Palestine from the French in the form of the "homeland for the Jewish people"

•  The British government decided to detach Palestine east of the Jordan river, constituting most of the area of Palestine, and form the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan.

• However, the winds of British policy had shifted, the White paper contained a great many things that caused justifiable alarm to both sides.

• A) The Arabs were not reassured that there would not be a Jewish-ruled entity in Palestine. Transjordan was separated from Palestine and made a separate Hashemite kingdom, as compensation for the loss of Syria to the French.

• B) The Jews could see clearly the threat to partition Palestine and to limit immigration:

To Sum Up So Far

• Britain interested in its own Imperial interests and trying to give a bit to both sides.

• Zionists felt they had the green light for a future state.

• For Britain a ‘western’ sate in the middle east attractive.

• Very little Jewish immigration. Jewish Diaspora more upbeat, only 83,000 Jews in Palestine in 1921

• Arabs felt humiliated by Britain and France• Apart from a riot or two little violence or protest on

the ground. Policy working.

Another change of tack as Britain seeks to keep the Middle Ground (1929-30)

• 1930s Depression North America closes its doors. Jewish immigration to Palestine soars.

• Britain realizes the changed situation although there appeared no clear direction.

• Britain swings to sympathy with the Arabs: Shaw Commission refers to ‘excessive’ Jewish immigration.

• John Hope Simpson enquiry concludes that ‘Arab interests demand a halt to Jewish immigration’ as Arab unemployment rising.

• 1930 Passfield (Webb) White paper supports these views.

• In the 1930's, Canada closed its doors to all immigrants. Though the door was closed to everyone, Canada has had a race-based immigration policy since the end of World War I. This policy was based upon stereotypes of what type of immigrant would benefit Canada the most. At the bottom of the list were the Chinese, the Japanese and the Jew. It was the feeling that Jewish settlers were unsuitable because they wanted to live in the city, while Canada wanted to attract people to farm and settle the rural areas

BUT ONE MAN WOULD UPSET ALL BRITAIN’S CHESS GAMES

• Adolph Hitler in Power 1933.

• Nuremberg Racial and citizenship laws

• 1932: 353 immigrants• 1933: 5392 • 1935: 61,844• Arab population down to

70%• Increasing violence• 1936 Arab General Strike.

JULY 1937 PEEL (ROYAL COMMISION REPORT)

• In their Report of July of 1937, the Peel Commission attributed the underlying cause of the Arab revolt to the desire of the Arabs for national independence and their hatred and fear of the establishment of a National Jewish Home.

• The Commission recommended freezing Jewish immigration at 12,000 per year for five years and that a plan for partition of the land be developed.

• The Partition Plan was rejected by the Arabs, with the exception of Abdullah of Transjordan, and split the Zionist movement.

• At the 20th Zionist Congress, the movement empowered its executive to improve on the terms of the partition proposal. However, the British government dropped the plans for partition

PEEL COMMISION STOOD LITLE CHANCE

• Jews saw it as a victory for Arab terrorism• Eastern Jews (and USA Jews) saw the land

area as far too small to absorb potential refugees. But saw it as an important starting point.

• Arabs could see them losing their land because of European anti-Semitism.

• Arabs would lose Jerusalem• Germany came out against Jewish State and for

political reasons supported the Arabs.

A Really Bad Political Move by Arab Leaders Expecting Germany to win the war.

Bosnian Nazis

• “Arabs, rise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you.”

--Hajj Amin al Husseini on the German Nazi radio. (Mufti of Jerusalem)

•  

AS POLAND IS DIVIDED BETWEEN GERMANY AND RUSSIA EVENTS

GETTING OUT OF CONTROL• Jews facing disaster in Eastern

Europe.

• Britain still resisting large scale Jewish immigration because of Arab concerns.

• Also where can millions of Jews be put.

• Also fears of confirming Hitler that it was a ‘Jewish War’

• Closed eyes to arming of Jewish militias.

• DEC 07 1942 Anthony Eden announced in Parliament German policy of mass killing in East Europe.

For the Jews in Palestine a Dilemma

• They opposed Britain’s policy but could not hurt the only country waging a war against the Nazis.

• Churchill “I have one policy, the defeat of Hitler” (Jewish immigration just upset the Arabs.

• THE STRUMA INCIDENT The Struma was a vessel that "arrived at Istanbul [with 750 refugees from Roumania, Dec. 1941. The Turkish govt., "was unwilling to permit these people to land and enquired if they would be admitted into Palestine." The Turks were informed that the passengers would not be admitted to Palestine." Before arrangements for children had been completed, the Turkish authorities returned the vessel to the Black Sea. It sank as the result of an explosion, with a loss of 760 Jewish passengers.

• The Jewish underground in Palestine accused Sir  Harold MacMichael, the British High Commissioner, of murdering the passengers by refusing to grant them entry visas to Palestine.

• The drowning of the people on board the Struma killed the last remnant of hope among Palestinian Jews that the British might yet honor the Balfour Declaration and observe their legal obligations under the Mandate, the Mandate that had gained for England the right to Palestinian rule.

JEWISH DISAPROVAL TURNS TO TERRORISM AGAINST THE BRITISH MANDATE

• Britain in Palestine for its own ends. Not concerned about the Jewish upheaval in Palestine.

• BUT was concerned about Jewish public opinion in the USA.

• Hard line Zionists said Britain could not be accused of exterminating Jews but by their refusal to increase immigration into Palestine (And Jordan) they were doing the Nazi’s work.

• Britain’s actions were based on cold hearted self interest: so should the Jewish leaders.

• 1944 Jewish Zionists declared war on the Mandate, particularly police and Govt. offices.

• Also in 1944 USA commended free immigration into Palestine

RISE OF THE IRGUN

• Irgun Shorthand Hebrew for "National Military Organization in the Land of Israel", was a clandestine militant Zionist group. Policy was that "every Jew had the right to enter Palestine; only active retaliation would deter the Arabs and the British; only Jewish armed force would ensure the

Jewish state", The group made retaliation against Arab attacks a central part of their initial efforts as the armed expression of the nascent ideology of Revisionist

Zionism.

AND ABSOLUTE TERRORISMJewish Revisionism (Avraham Stern)

• Terror and assassination as a morally justifiable means of achieving a political aim.

• Mainly Russian Jews influenced by the 19th Century Peoples’ Will.

• Stern believed that the Jewish population of Palestine should fight, rather than support, the British in the War.

• He believed that immigration to Palestine should be available to Jewish refugees fleeing from Europe, and that this was the most important issue of the day

• To this end, he initiated contact with Nazi authorities, in order to enlist their aid in establishing the Jewish state, open to Jewish refugees from Nazism, in exchange for collaborating with Germany against the British Empire

SOME RESULTSContradictions and Terror Begets Terror

BRITAIN’S INTERESTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST

• Churchill: A Jewish state is positive for Britain

• Foreign Office: A Jewish state is a negative for Britain

• FO 371 42817 (Armine Dow) “In my opinion a disproportionate amount of time is wasted on dealing with these wailing Jews.”

POST WORLD WAR TWO

• American policy (Truman) had no interest in Britain’s position in the Middle East but a huge interest in solving a European refugee problem. Arab view was “Take the refugees into your own countries”

• Britain another partition position which found no favour.

• Britain (and France) swung back to pro-Arabism.

LEAGUE OF NATIONS WOUND UP APRIL 1946 (UN PLAN)

• Britain decided the Mandate was no loger in its interests (Note India) and decided to hand the problem over to the United Nations. This is perhaps the only example in modern history where terrorist activity was rewarded with the creation of a new state.

• The UN, the successor to the League of Nations, attempted to solve the dispute, creating the UN Special Committee on Palestine . After spending three months conducting hearings and general survey of the situation in Palestine, UNSCOP officially released its report on August 31. A majority of nations recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem to be placed under international administration. A minority supported the creation of a single federal state containing both Jewish and Arab constituent states.

ARAB LEAGUE REJECTS THE UN PROPOSAL

• Division was to take effect on the date of British withdrawal. Both the United States and the Soviet Union, the five members of the Arab League who were voting members at the time voted against the Plan.

• The partition plan was rejected out of hand by the leadership of the Palestinian Arabs and by most of the Arab population. Most of the Jews accepted the proposal.

• Meeting in Cairo in November and December of 1947, the Arab League then adopted a series of resolutions aimed at a military solution to the conflict. Britain refused to implement the plan arguing it was not acceptable to both sides. It also refused to share with the UN Palestine Commission the administration of Palestine during the transitional period, and decided to terminate the Mandate on May 15th, 1948 Also rejected by hard line IRGUN

1948 WAR• The British mandate over Palestine

was due to expire on 15 May 1948, but Jewish Leadership declared independence on 14 May. The State of Israel was quickly recognized by the USSR and USA but not by the Palestinians. Over the next few days, approximately 1,000 Lebanese, 5,000 Syrian, 5,000 Iraqi, 10,000 Egyptian troops invaded Israel. Four thousand Transjordanian troops, commanded by 38 British officers who had resigned their commissions in the British army only weeks earlier (commanded by General Glubb), invaded the region encompassing Jerusalem and its environs.

• In an official cablegram from the Arab League to the UN the Arab states publicly proclaimed their aim of creating a "United State of Palestine" in place of the Jewish and Arab, two-state UN Plan. They stated the UN plan was invalid, as it was opposed by Palestine's Arab majority.

SOME BRITISH REACTIONS

1949 Armistice• Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli

War, the State of Israel retained nearly all the territory that would have been assigned to it in the 1947 UN Partition Plan, as well as conquered half of the land intended to become the Arab state of Palestine and a portion of the territory intended for international administration around Jerusalem. The remaining half of the land that had been intended to become Palestine along the West Bank of the Jordan River was annexed by Jordan, as was most of the Jerusalem enclave; the Gaze Strip along the Mediterranean coast, also included in the Arab state territory, was captured by Egypt.

THE MAP GETS UPDATED

AND NOW

• It is up to you to carry on the story and the argument.

• Note history and traditions• Note power politics and entrenched views• Note legal opinions• Note peace plans• Give your opinions• Best of Luck