Israel Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === British Mandate for Palestine === {{main|Mandatory Palestine}} {{further|Yishuv|Intercommunal conflict in Mandatory Palestine|1948 Palestine war}} {{see also|Balfour Declaration|United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|Jewish land purchase in Palestine}} [[Chaim Weizmann|Chaim Weizmann's]] efforts to garner British support for the Zionist movement would eventually secure the [[Balfour Declaration]] in 1917.<ref>{{Cite book |first=James |last=Gelvin |author-link=James L. Gelvin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wfIFVze1MqQC&pg=PA81 |title=The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |orig-year=2002 |edition=3 |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-521-85289-0 |access-date=9 November 2020 |archive-date=9 October 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231009012922/https://books.google.com/books?id=wfIFVze1MqQC&pg=PA81#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> British Foreign Secretary [[Arthur Balfour]] sent the Balfour Declaration to [[Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild|Lord Rothschild]], a leader of the British Jewish community, stating Britain's support for the creation of a Jewish "[[Homeland for the Jewish people|national home]]" in Palestine.<ref name=macintyre>{{cite news |last=Macintyre |first=Donald |title=The birth of modern Israel: A scrap of paper that changed history |work=The Independent |access-date=20 March 2012 |date=26 May 2005 |url=http://maof.rjews.net/english/37-english/19351-the-birth-of-modern-israel-a-scrap-of-paper-that-changed-history |archive-date=14 November 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114031304/http://maof.rjews.net/english/37-english/19351-the-birth-of-modern-israel-a-scrap-of-paper-that-changed-history |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=The Making of the Modern Near East 1792β1923 |last=Yapp |first=M.E. |author-link=Malcolm Yapp |year=1987 |publisher=Longman |isbn=978-0-582-49380-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/makingofmodern00yapp/page/290 290] |url=https://archive.org/details/makingofmodern00yapp/page/290 }}</ref> Weizmann interpretation of the declaration entailed that negotiations on the future of the country were to happen directly between Britain and the Jews, excluding Arab representation. His famous announcement at the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919β1920)|Paris peace conference]] would reflect this interpretation, stating that the goal "[t]o make Palestine as Jewish as England is English." The years that followed would see Jewish-Palestinian relations deteriorate dramatically.<ref name="Avi Shlaim">{{cite book |author=Avi Shlaim |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HBBbY9rMxSAC&pg=PA |title=The Iron Wall |publisher=W.W. Norton |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-393-32112-8 |pages= |chapter=PROLOGUE: THE ZIONIST FOUNDATIONS}}</ref> In 1918, the [[Jewish Legion]], a group primarily of Zionist volunteers, assisted in the British [[Sinai and Palestine Campaign|conquest of Palestine]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title = Jewish Legion|encyclopedia = Encyclopaedia Judaica|url = http://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CCX2587510141|year = 2007|publisher = Macmillan Reference|access-date = 6 August 2014|first = Joseph B.|last = Schechtman|page = 304|volume = 11|archive-date = 8 March 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210308102952/https://go.galegroup.com/ps/anonymous?id=GALE%7CCX2587510141|url-status = live}}</ref> In 1920, the territory was divided between Britain and France under the [[League of Nations mandate|mandate system]], and the British-administered area (including modern Israel) was named [[Mandatory Palestine]].<ref name="GudrunKramer"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/leagcov.asp#art22 |title=The Covenant of the League of Nations |website=Article 22 |access-date=18 October 2012 |archive-date=26 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110726080156/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/leagcov.asp#art22 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>"Mandate for Palestine," ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'', Vol. 11, p. 862, Keter Publishing House, Jerusalem, 1972</ref> Arab opposition to British rule and Jewish immigration led to the [[1920 Palestine riots]] and the formation of a Jewish militia known as the [[Haganah]] ("The Defense" in Hebrew) as an outgrowth of Hashomer, from which the [[Irgun]] and [[Lehi (group)|Lehi]] paramilitaries later split.<ref>{{harvnb|Scharfstein|1996|p=269}}. "During the First and Second Aliyot, there were many Arab attacks against Jewish settlements ... In 1920, [[Hashomer]] was disbanded and [[Haganah]] ("The Defense") was established."</ref> In 1922, the [[League of Nations]] granted Britain the [[Mandate for Palestine]] under terms which included the Balfour Declaration with its promise to the Jews, and with similar provisions regarding the Arab Palestinians.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1922mandate.html |title=League of Nations: The Mandate for Palestine, July 24, 1922 |journal=Modern History Sourcebook |date=24 July 1922 |access-date=27 August 2007 |archive-date=4 August 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110804221156/http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1922mandate.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[Demographic history of Palestine (region)|population of the area]] was predominantly Arab and Muslim, with Jews accounting for about 11%,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shaw |first1=J. V. W. |title=A Survey of Palestine: Prepared in December 1945 and January 1946 for the information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry |edition=Reprint |volume=I |year=1991 |orig-date=1946 |publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies |isbn=978-0-88728-213-3 |oclc=311797790 |page=148 |chapter=Chapter VI: Population |url=http://www.palestine-studies.org/books.aspx?id=543&href=details |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130827011258/http://www.palestine-studies.org/books.aspx?id=543&href=details |archive-date=2013-08-27}}</ref> and Arab Christians about 9.5% of the population.<ref>{{cite web|title=Report to the League of Nations on Palestine and Transjordan, 1937 |publisher=British Government |url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/7BDD2C11C15B54C2052565D10057251E |access-date=14 July 2013 |year=1937 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923061547/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/7BDD2C11C15B54C2052565D10057251E |archive-date=23 September 2013}}</ref> [[File:"Jews and Arabs in Grim Struggle for Holy Land" article (1938).jpg|thumb|"Jews and Arabs in Grim Struggle for Holy Land", article from 1938]] The [[Third Aliyah|Third]] (1919β1923) and [[Fourth Aliyah]]s (1924β1929) brought an additional 100,000 Jews to Palestine. The [[Hitler's rise to power|rise of Nazism]] and the increasing persecution of Jews in 1930s Europe led to the [[Fifth Aliyah]], with an influx of a quarter of a million Jews. This was a major cause of the [[1936β39 Arab revolt in Palestine|Arab revolt of 1936β39]]. The revolt, which involved significant intercommunal fighting among the Arabs{{Citation needed|date=April 2024|reason=A citation needs to be provided to show there was significant infighting.}}, was suppressed by British security forces and Zionist militias. Several hundred British security personnel and Jews were killed, while 5,032 Arabs were killed, 14,760 were wounded, and 12,622 were detained.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hEt5PWCTMJMC&q=irgun%2520and%2520haganah%2520in%2520the%25201936+riots&pg=PAPA374|title=A History of Zionism: From the French Revolution to the Establishment of the State of Israel|access-date=15 October 2015|publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group|author=Walter Laqueur|year=2009|isbn=978-0-307-53085-1|archive-date=19 December 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231219070659/https://books.google.com/books?id=hEt5PWCTMJMC&pg=PAPA374&dq=%22irgun%2Band%2Bhaganah%2Bin%2Bthe%2B1936%2Briots%22&q=irgun%2520and%2520haganah%2520in%2520the%25201936+riots#v=onepage&q=irgun%2520and%2520haganah%2520in%2520the%25201936%20riots&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hughes |first1=M |year=2009 |title=The banality of brutality: British armed forces and the repression of the Arab Revolt in Palestine, 1936β39 |url=http://v-scheiner.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/7251/4/The%20banality%20of%20brutality.pdf |journal=English Historical Review |volume=CXXIV |issue=507 |pages=314β354 |doi=10.1093/ehr/cep002 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160221163210/http://v-scheiner.brunel.ac.uk/bitstream/2438/7251/4/The%20banality%20of%20brutality.pdf |archive-date=21 February 2016}}</ref><ref>Levenberg, Haim (1993). ''Military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine: 1945β1948.'' Routledge. ISBN 978-0-7146-3439-5, pp. 74-76</ref> An estimated ten percent of the adult male [[Palestinian people|Palestinian Arab]] population was killed, wounded, imprisoned or exiled.<ref>[[Walid Khalidi|Khalidi, Walid]] (1987). ''From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism and the Palestine Problem Until 1948''. Institute for Palestine Studies. {{ISBN|978-0-88728-155-6}}</ref> The British introduced restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine with the [[White Paper of 1939]]. With countries around the world turning away [[Jewish refugees]] fleeing [[the Holocaust]], a clandestine movement known as [[Aliyah Bet]], was organized to bring Jews to Palestine. By the end of [[World War II]], 31% of the total population of Palestine was Jewish.<ref>Government of Palestine, Department of Statistics, Village Statistics, 1945.</ref> The UK found itself facing a Jewish [[Jewish insurgency in Mandatory Palestine|insurgency]] over immigration restrictions and continued conflict with the Arab community over limit levels. The Haganah joined Irgun and Lehi in an armed struggle against British rule.{{sfn|Fraser|2004|p=27}} At the same time, hundreds of thousands of Jewish [[Holocaust survivors]] sought a new life far from their destroyed communities in Europe. The Haganah attempted to bring tens of thousands of Jewish refugees to Palestine by ship in a programme called [[Aliyah Bet]]. Most of the ships were intercepted by the [[Royal Navy]] and the refugees placed in detention camps in [[Atlit detainee camp|Atlit]] and [[Cyprus internment camps|Cyprus]].<ref name="Golani2013">{{cite book |author=Motti Golani |title=Palestine Between Politics and Terror, 1945β1947 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mp7BAgAAQBAJ&pg=PAPA130 |year=2013 |publisher=UPNE |isbn=978-1-61168-388-2 |page=130 |access-date=1 December 2018 |archive-date=19 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231219073858/https://books.google.com/books?id=Mp7BAgAAQBAJ&pg=PAPA130#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Cohen |first1=Michael J |title=Britain's Moment in Palestine:Retrospect and Perspectives, 1917β1948 |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-415-72985-7 |page=474 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DLPpAgAAQBAJ&q=British%2520detention%2520camps%2520at%2520atlit%2520and+cyprus&pg=PAPA474 |access-date=1 December 2018 |archive-date=19 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231219070640/https://books.google.com/books?id=DLPpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PAPA474&dq=%22British%2Bdetention%2Bcamps%2Bat%2Batlit%2Band%2Bcyprus%22&q=British%2520detention%2520camps%2520at%2520atlit%2520and+cyprus#v=onepage&q=British%2520detention%2520camps%2520at%2520atlit%2520and%20cyprus&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> [[File:UN Palestine Partition Versions 1947.jpg|thumb|upright|[[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|UN Map]], "Palestine plan of partition with economic union"]] On 22 July 1946, Irgun [[King David Hotel bombing|bombed]] the British administrative headquarters for Palestine, killing 91.<ref>The Terrorism Ahead: Confronting Transnational Violence in the Twenty-First | By Paul J. Smith | M.E. Sharpe, 2007 | p. 27</ref><ref>''Encyclopedia of Terrorism'', [[Harvey W. Kushner]], Sage, 2003 p. 181</ref><ref name="brtca_irgun">[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/293947/Irgun-Zvai-Leumi#ref112521 EncyclopΓ¦dia Britannica] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150417201023/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/293947/Irgun-Zvai-Leumi#ref112521 |date=17 April 2015 }} article on the Irgun Zvai Leumi</ref><ref>The British Empire in the Middle East, 1945β1951: Arab Nationalism, the United States, and Postwar Imperialism. William Roger Louis, Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 430</ref><ref name="tclarke81">[[Thurston Clarke|Clarke, Thurston]]. ''By Blood and Fire'', G.P. Puttnam's Sons, 1981</ref><ref name="bethell">{{Cite book|first=Nicholas|last=Bethell|title=The Palestine Triangle|publisher=Andre Deutsch|year=1979}}</ref> The attack initially had the approval of the Haganah. It was conceived as a response to [[Operation Agatha]] (a series of raids, including one on the [[Jewish Agency for Israel|Jewish Agency]], by the British) and was the deadliest directed at the British during the Mandate era.<ref name="tclarke81"/><ref name="bethell"/> The Jewish insurgency continued throughout 1946 and 1947 despite concerted efforts by the British military and [[Palestine Police Force]] to suppress it. British efforts to mediate a negotiated solution with Jewish and Arab representatives also failed as the Jews were unwilling to accept any solution that did not involve a Jewish state and suggested a partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, while the Arabs were adamant that a Jewish state in any part of Palestine was unacceptable and that the only solution was a unified Palestine under Arab rule. In February 1947, the British referred the Palestine issue to the newly formed [[United Nations]]. On 15 May 1947, the [[General Assembly of the United Nations|UN General Assembly]] resolved that a [[United Nations Special Committee on Palestine|Special Committee]] be created "to prepare ... a report on the question of Palestine."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/F5A49E57095C35B685256BCF0075D9C2 |title=A/RES/106 (S-1) |date=15 May 1947 |website=General Assembly resolution |publisher=United Nations |access-date=12 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120806072438/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/F5A49E57095C35B685256BCF0075D9C2 |archive-date=6 August 2012 }}</ref> The Report of the Committee<ref>{{cite web |url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/07175DE9FA2DE563852568D3006E10F3 |title=A/364 |date=3 September 1947 |website=Special Committee on Palestine |publisher=United Nations |access-date=12 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610173759/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/07175DE9FA2DE563852568D3006E10F3 |archive-date=10 June 2012 }}</ref> [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|proposed a plan]] to replace the British Mandate with "an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem [...] the last to be under an International Trusteeship System."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/2248AF9A92B498718525694B007239C6 |publisher=United Nations |date=20 April 1949 |access-date=31 July 2007 |title=Background Paper No. 47 (ST/DPI/SER.A/47) |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110103014616/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/2248AF9A92B498718525694B007239C6 |archive-date=3 January 2011 }}</ref> Meanwhile, the Jewish insurgency continued and peaked in July 1947, with a series of widespread guerrilla raids culminating in [[the Sergeants affair]], in which the Irgun took two British sergeants hostage as attempted leverage against the planned execution of three Irgun operatives. After the executions were carried out, the Irgun killed the two British soldiers, hanged their bodies from trees, and left a booby trap at the scene which injured a British soldier. The incident caused widespread outrage in the UK.<ref name=Hoffman>Hoffman, Bruce: ''Anonymous Soldiers'' (2015)</ref> In September 1947, the British cabinet decided to evacuate Palestine as the Mandate was no longer tenable.<ref name=Hoffman/> On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly adopted [[United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine|Resolution 181 (II)]].<ref name="181(II)">{{cite web |url=https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/7F0AF2BD897689B785256C330061D253 |title=Resolution 181 (II). Future government of Palestine |date=29 November 1947 |publisher=United Nations |access-date=21 March 2017 |archive-date=10 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171010090147/https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/7F0AF2BD897689B785256C330061D253 }}</ref> The plan attached to the resolution was essentially that proposed in the report of 3 September. The [[Jewish Agency]], the recognized representative of the Jewish community, accepted the plan, which assigned 55β56% of Mandatory Palestine to the Jews. At the time, the Jews were about a third of the population and owned around 6β7% of the land. Arabs constituted the majority and owned about 20% of the land, with the remainder held by the Mandate authorities or foreign landowners.<ref>Avneri, Aryeh L. (1984). ''The Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land-Settlement and the Arabs, 1878β1948.'' Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-0-87855-964-0. Retrieved 2 May 2009, p. 224.</ref><ref>Stein, Kenneth W. (1987) [Original in 1984]. The Land Question in Palestine, 1917β1939. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-4178-5. pp. 3-4, 247</ref><ref>[[Nathan Thrall]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=1oXZDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA227 ''The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231219070639/https://books.google.com/books?id=1oXZDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA227#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=19 December 2023 }}, [[Henry Holt and Company]] 2017 {{isbn|978-1-627-79710-8}} pp. 41,227 n.9.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Imseis|2021|pp=13β14}}: 'As to territorial boundaries, under the plan the Jewish State was allotted approximately 57 percent of the total area of Palestine even though the Jewish population comprised only 33 percent of the country. In addition, according to British records relied upon by the ad hoc committee, the Jewish population possessed registered ownership of only 5.6 percent of Palestine, and was eclipsed by the Arabs in land ownership in every one of Palestine's 16 sub-districts. Moreover, the quality of the land granted to the proposed Jewish state was highly skewed in its favour. UNSCOP reported that under its majority plan "[t]he Jews will have the more economically developed part of the country embracing practically the whole of the citrus-producing area"βPalestine's staple export cropβeven though approximately half of the citrus-bearing land was owned by the Arabs. In addition, according to updated British records submitted to the ad hoc committee's two sub-committees, "of the irrigated, cultivable areas" of the country, 84 per cent would be in the Jewish State and 16 per cent would be in the Arab State".'</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morris|2008|p=75}}: "The night of 29β30 November passed in the Yishuv's settlements in noisy public rejoicing. Most had sat glued to their radio sets broadcasting live from Flushing Meadow. A collective cry of joy went up when the two-thirds mark was achieved: a state had been sanctioned by the international community."</ref><ref name="Morris2008396">{{harvnb|Morris|2008|p=396}}: "The immediate trigger of the 1948 War was the November 1947 UN partition resolution. The Zionist movement, except for its fringes, accepted the proposal."</ref><ref>Matthews, John: [http://booksand-ebooks.com/political-commentary/israel-palestine-land-division Israel-Palestine land division] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231005145922/http://booksand-ebooks.com/political-commentary/israel-palestine-land-division |date=5 October 2023 }}</ref> The [[Arab League]] and [[Arab Higher Committee]] of Palestine rejected it,<ref>{{harvnb|Imseis|2021|pp=14β15}}: 'Although the Zionists had coveted the whole of Palestine, the Jewish Agency leadership pragmatically, if grudgingly, accepted Resolution 181(II). Although they were of the view that the Jewish national home promised in the Mandate was equivalent to a Jewish state, they well understood that such a claim could not be maintained under prevailing international law..Based on its own terms, it is impossible to escape the conclusion that the partition plan privileged European interests over those of Palestine's indigenous people and, as such, was an embodiment of the Eurocentricity of the international system that was allegedly a thing of the past. For this reason, the Arabs took a more principled position in line with prevailing international law, rejecting partition outright . .This rejection has disingenuously been presented in some of the literature as indicative of political intransigence,69 and even hostility towards the Jews as Jews'</ref> and indicated that they would reject any other plan of partition.<ref>{{harvnb|Morris|2008}}, p. 66: at 1946 "The League demanded independence for Palestine as a "unitary" state, with an Arab majority and minority rights for the Jews.", p. 67: at 1947 "The League's Political Committee met in Sofar, Lebanon, on 16β19 September, and urged the Palestine Arabs to fight partition, which it called "aggression," "without mercy." The League promised them, in line with Bludan, assistance "in manpower, money and equipment" should the United Nations endorse partition.", p. 72: at December 1947 "The League vowed, in very general language, "to try to stymie the partition plan and prevent the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine.""</ref>{{sfn|Bregman|2002|pp=40β41}} On 1 December 1947, the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day strike, and [[1947 Jerusalem riots|riots broke out in Jerusalem]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Palestine 1948 |last=Gelber |first=Yoav |year=2006 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |isbn=978-1-902210-67-4 |page=17}}</ref> The situation spiralled into a [[1947β48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine|civil war]]; just two weeks after the UN vote, Colonial Secretary [[Arthur Creech Jones]] announced that the British Mandate would end on 15 May 1948, at which point the British would evacuate. As Arab militias and gangs attacked Jewish areas, they were faced mainly by the [[Haganah]], as well as the smaller Irgun and Lehi. In April 1948, the Haganah moved onto the offensive.{{sfn|Morris|2008|p=77β78}}<ref>{{cite book |title=War in Palestine, 1948: Israeli and Arab Strategy and Diplomacy |last=Tal |first=David |year=2003 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-7146-5275-7 |page=471}}</ref> During this period 250,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled, due to [[Causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus|numerous factors]].{{sfn|Morris|2008}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page