A Concise History of the Middle East - Essay Example

Oppression of Jews in Eastern Europe during the late 1800’s resulted in a mass emigration of Jewish refugees to Palestine some of whom formed Zionist movement, which was aimed at making Palestine an independent Jewish nation (Ellis, 1972) In 1917, Britain issued Balfour declaration which was seen as an attempt to support Jewish. The declaration however stated that Britain’s support for the creation of Jewish national home in Palestine without violating civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities.

By the year 1923 Britain had received two mandates a provisional mandate over Palestine and another east of river Jordan Arabs apposed the idea of Jewish national home which lead to a Palestine, Arab nation movement in early 1930s over 100,000 Jewish refugees came to Palestine from nazi Germany and Poland) which made the Arabs organize a general uprising that paralyzed Palestine in the late 1930s. In 1939 British began to limit Jewish immigration and land purchases and it was to be done under Arabs approval only (Mendelsohn, 1989) During World War II, most Palestinian Arabs and Jews stopped their resistance to the British rule and joined the allied forces.

After World War II Zionist wanted British to allow immigration of the holocaust survivors they therefore used force to stop Great Britain from limiting Jewish immigration into Palestine. The United Nations special commission on Palestine recommended that Palestine be divided into Arab state and Jewish state also Jerusalem to be put under international control. The UN general assembly adopted this plan on November 29 1947, which could lead to the birth of Israel. Arabs rejected the move and fighting broke immediately.