Palestine between WWI and WWII - Essay Example

Palestine between WWI and WWII Arab-Israeli conflict refers to the political disagreement and military tension between the Israelis and Arabs and between the Arab league and Israel over geographical territory. The rise of Zionism and Arab nationalism in 19th century forms the roots of modern Arab-Israeli conflict hence forming basis of this historical essay. The conflict emerges over defence of their geographical territory with each group claiming Canaan land to be their own promised inheritance. In their case, Jewish people claimed the land to be their historical homeland, while Pan Arab movement also regarded the land to be initially and currently belonging to Palestinian Arabs (Pressman, 2005). Arguably, Muslims, Christian and Jewish groups invoke religious arguments to hold their positions on the Canaan land territory hence sparking conflict. Muslims argue that the land belongs to all Abraham descendants with Ishmael included whom they believe as their origin. Jews and Christians believe that God promised the land of Canaan to them through Abraham’s young son Isaac. The conflict exploded to a full-blown civil war in 1947 leading to establishment of Israel modern state in May 1948. Competing territorial ambitions initiated political and nationalist conflict following the fall of Ottoman Empire shifting large-scale Arab, Israeli conflict to local Palestinian Israeli conflict (Goldschmidt & Davidson, 2009). The large-scale conflict largely ended after 1973 October cease-fire. In the interwar years, the conflict was further fuelled by land purchases and culture conflicts, mainly attributed to religious differences. The other major cause of the war was the rise of anti-Semitism and the rise of the Arab Nationalism. The anti-Semitism caused by a notion that there was a Jewish conspiracy that was propagated by the Europeans and had no roots to Islam. The rise of the Arab Nationalism saw the coming of leaders such as Hajj Amin al-Husayn who were both educated and enlightened the masses on their rights and what they needed to do. The Great Britain white paper was also known as MacDonald white paper. This was because Malcolm McDonald presided over it as the British colonial secretary. It was a policy paper issued by the Great Britain government with the idea to partition the Palestine mandate as it was recommended by a report produced by a peel commission of 1937. The report was abandoned to create an independent Palestine to be governed by Jews and Palestinian Arabs in proportion of their population numbers as by 1939. The Palestine mandate was a document approved by the League of Nations in June 1922 and took effect from September 1923. The document mainly emphasized on Britain’s powers and responsibilities of administration in Palestine including safeguarding the religious and civil rights of Palestine inhabitants, as well as securing Jewish national home (Gelvin, 2007). Of the white paper’s main points of was the constitution, which stated that four-fifty thousand Jews having settled in the mandate, the national home of the Jewish people was declared to have been met hence called for an independent Palestine to be formed within 10 years and be governed by both Jews and Arabs. Arabs revolted since they could not accept to be made subjects of a Jewish state against their wish. The new independent Palestine state was to involve Jews and Arabs sharing the government to ensure that each community essential interests are safeguard. Immigration of Jews to Palestine was to be limited to seventy-five thousand over the coming five years under the British mandate after which it would depend on consent of Arabs (Pressman, 2005). In regards to land issue, white paper stated that due to the natural high growth of Arab population, there was not going to be further transfers of Arab land to the Jews through selling. This was contrary to the previous non-restriction on transfer of land from Arabs to Jews. The House of Commons on 22nd May, 1939 disapproved the white paper by 268 votes to 179 votes due to it is inconsistency with the mandate terms. The result was that the British high commissioner in Palestine issued an edict to divide Palestine into three zones in March 1940. Zone A: 63% of the country including the stony hills, Palestinian Arab land transfers was forbidden. Zone B consisting 32% of the country, Palestinian Arab transfer to another Palestinian Arab were restricted severely under high commissioner discretion. Zone C of about 5% of the country including most fertile areas were unrestricted (Bassiouni & Shlomo, 2009). The effects of that was the Zionist reacted by organising illegal migration while on the other hand, the British authority countered it by blockading the Palestine state. Later, both Arabs and Jews in Palestine opposed the white paper provisions. The Arab high commission argued that the Palestine government future independence would prove illusory, as Jews would withhold participation hence preventing its functionality. Zionist groups in Palestine also opposed the white paper and began to attack Arab civilians and government property lasting for many months and finally calling a major general Jewish strike. On July 13th 1939, the British authority suspended Jewish immigration into the Palestine until March 1940 due to the increase of illegal immigrants’ arrival (Gelvin, 2007). On September 1939, the head of Jewish agency for Palestine declared war in overlook of the white paper saying. In December 1942, when the Jews extermination became a public knowledge, they started receiving immigration certificates gradually though at the end of the war 3000 certificates were left. At the end of Second World War, there was a vote to rescind the white paper by a British labour party conference and establish Jewish state in Palestine, however, the policy persisted and it remained in effect up to the departure of British authority from Palestine in May 1948 (Goldschmidt & Davidson, 2009). On the date of the expiry of British mandate over Palestine, the council of Jewish people gathered at Tel Aviv museum and established a Jewish state in to be known as the state of Israel. In the 1948 Israeli Arab war, the Israeli defence force repulsed Arab league nations from the part of territories they occupied thus extending its borders beyond the original partition. In 1948 December, most of the portion of mandate Palestine Jordan River west was in control of Israel. The mandate remainder consisting of Jordan (that came to be called west bank controlled by Jordan), the Gaza strip was controlled by Egypt (Bassiouni & Shlomo, 2009). During and prior this conflict, majority of Palestinian Arabs fled from their original lands and became Palestinian refugees. Palestinians fled most areas in response to massacres of Arab towns by Jewish militant organisation. These areas are now the present day Israel. In 1949, Israel signed an armistice agreement with its Arab neighbours, which brought the end of war. References Bassiouni, C. & Shlomo, B. (2009). A Guide to Documents on the Arab-Palestinian/Israeli Conflict: 1897-2008. Leiden: BRILL. Gelvin, L. J. (2007). The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Goldschmidt, A. & Davidson, L. (2009). A Concise History of the Middle East. Colorado: Westview Press. Pressman, J. (2005). A brief History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. Retrieved on 27 October 2012, from http://anacreon.clas.uconn.edu/~pressman/history.pdf Read More