War and Military
Reading Between the Lines of Israel-Palestine Conflict

flickr/zoriah
Amid the talks between Lebanese authorities and United Nations on the refugees from Palestine, a century old Israel-Palestine issue has again strike headlines. As the time has passed, this issue has become even more complex with the stubbornness of Arab world to agree on the norms of Saudi Arab Peace Plan 2002 by Israel and the threat to Israelites of becoming a minority in their own country. But whose country was it originally or is this whole conflict based on some superficial assumption? All this can be known after carefully dissecting the history of a land which has an equally important significance for Jews, Christians and Islam.
Jews claim that according to Bible, Moses led the Israelites to Palestine, now Israel and David (Abraham descendent) conquered Jerusalem in about 1000 BC establishing an Israelite kingdom. While at the same time Arabs draws the claim that Abraham’s son Ishmael being the forefathers of Arabs grant them the same right of land.
Jews claim that during 13th century Mamelukes (originally slave soldiers of Arabs based in Egypt) had invaded the land establishing an empire of Arab speaking Muslims. This was the time when the emigration of Jews started.
Eventually Ottomans in 1517 invaded the land and Palestine became a part of Ottoman Empire which further led to reduction in the population of Jews, though during this duration there were no forced eviction as witnessed during the time of World War when Ottoman Empire joined Austria-Hungary and Germany against Allies and the Turkish military government had ordered the deportation of all foreign nationals.
This newfound hatred of Turkish governor turned Jews against the Ottoman Empire under whom Jews were thinking of creating a Jewish homeland earlier with the increasing impact of Zionist Movements. NILI, a Jewish espionage group network was formed to help Britishers during the World War 1.
Due to this insider information of Jews, Britishers were able to gain control over Ottoman Empire. In the exchange of this information, Jews tried to persuade Britishers for a Jewish state.
Seed of Arab-Israel Difference
Due to help of NILI, Britishers promised to bring the idea of Jewish state on the table while at the same time Sir Henry Macmohan secretly corresponded with Husayn ibn `Ali, the patriarch of the Hashemite family and Ottoman governor of Mecca and Medina to win the war and promised him Hashemite rule in independent Arab state. The Arab revolt, led by T.E Lawrence, the famous story of Lawrence of Arabia and Husayn’s son Faisal was successful in defeating Ottomans. Another secret agreement, was a deal between Britain and France to carve up the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire and divide control of the region which eventually led to the formation of The British Mandate and The French Mandate.
After winning the war, Lord Arthur Balfour issued a declaration called Balfour declaration announcing government’s support of Jewish national home in Palestine. In 1921, the region was divided in two: east of the Jordan River which became Emirate of Transjordan to be ruled by Faysal’s brother Abdullah and west of Jordan became Palestine Mandate. Throughout the region, Arabs were angered by Britain’s failure to fulfil its promise to create an independent Arab state, initiating the modern history of claim of land. This anger fuelled by the misgovernance of British and French rule with the Wailing Wall Conflict triggered the first Arab revolt in Palestine (1936-1939) where primarily urban and elitist Higher Arab Committee (HAC) revolted followed by a violent peasant led revolution where rebellions were brutally suppressed by British army for controlling the situation.
Wailing Wall Conflict: In 1928, Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem began to clash over their respective communal religious rights at the Wailing Wall (al-Buraq in the Muslim tradition). The Wailing Wall, the sole remnant of the second Jewish Temple, is one of the holiest sites for the Jewish people. But this site is also holy to Muslims, since the Wailing Wall is adjacent to the Temple Mount (the Noble Sanctuary in the Muslim tradition). On the mount is the site of the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, believed to mark the spot from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven on a winged horse.
On August 15, 1929, members of the Betar youth movement (a pre-state organization of the Revisionist Zionists) demonstrated and raised a Zionist flag over the Wailing Wall. Fearing that the Noble Sanctuary was in danger, Arabs responded by attacking Jews throughout the country
With the Nazi propaganda gaining ground in 1939’s Germany of Adolf Hitler, the killing of Jews (holocaust) and horrors of concentration camps, there was an increased immigration of Jews to the Palestine Mandate, which was a trigger to Arab Conflict during the same period. This increase led to the issue of White policy paper which restricted the immigration of Jews to a 75000 in the next five years triggering pressure from Zionist group from all around the world.Even after this due to Holocaust, the illegal immigration continued eventually increasing the population of Jews in the Palestine mandate from 1% to 35% and it was during this time that Zionist leadership met in New York City for Biltmore declaration in support of a Jewish Commonwealth. With the outbreak of World War 2, British freed Jewish underground leaders in amnesty. Eventually angry with the White Paper policy some underground groups attacked Britishers.
Sensing the situation getting out of control and also by the end of WWII, the British military power had been exhausted completely; the matter was taken to United Nations where United Nations Partition plan was formulated on the basis of population residing of Arabs and Jews residing within the borders of Mandate of Palestine.
The Contention By Arabs
Jewish state was larger in the UN plan i.e.56 % to 43% allotted to Arabs assuming the Jewish immigration. Jerusalem and Bethlehem were declared the international cities. One major contention in this Partition plan was the commonality of land as there were certain areas in the Arab state which had Jewish control and vice versa. Initially the availability of less land to Arabs and this common place issue fueled the rage among Arab Palestinians and as soon as the British army withdrew from Jewish Mandate, it became a no man’s land and taking advantage of the situation, Jews proclaimed the independence of Israel and Arab invaded Israel to get rid of Jews from the region.
The outcome of the first Arab-Israeli war of 1948 was uncertain initially (though due to organized Zionist movements and militias like Betar youth movement ETZEL, Haganah and Palmach Israel had an upper hand over Arabs who had lost in the Arab revolt earlier and were crushed by British with no significant organization to tackle the war), but after arms shipments from Czechoslovakia reached Israel, its armed forces established superiority and conquered territories beyond the UN partition plan borders of the Jewish state, almost 65 percent of the total Palestinian land. This war further led to 6 day war in 1967 and Yom Kippur War of 1973, through which the land acquired by Israel remained almost the same, sometimes even increasing as it happened later during invasion in Lebanon, every time Arab countries facing a defeat and seizure of lands.
This history of the land is the line of contention responsible for numerous accords like Camp David Accord, Oslo Accord, various armistice ceasefires between Israel and Arab countries and in the modern day conflict rise of extremists groups like Hamas and weakening of authorities of PNA (Palestinian National Authorities), increasing number of Palestinian refugees in countries like Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
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