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Untitled Document
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The
History
of Israel
- A Chronological Presentation
2.
The Establishment of Israel (1938 - 1947)
1938 - Britain's Last Partition
Plan
In November 1938 the British Woodhead Commission issued
a report recommending a partition plan uniting a Jewish
and an Arab state in a common economic union, allowing
the Arabs to enjoy the benefits of the progress within
the Jewish community. The partition was modified (compared
to the Peel
plan) so that the Jewish state would cover
only 1/20 of Palestine, or about 1/100 of the original
mandate. The Jews rejected the plan, arguing that
the proposed Jewish state was too small. The Arabs
rejected the plan, ruling out any form of Jewish independence
or national self-determination.
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| David
Ben-Gurion. |
1939 - British
Abandonment of the Jewish National Home
The British government presented a plan severely restricting
Jewish immigration to Palestine, while proposing the
establishment of a single Arab majority state, with
no specific protection of the Jewish minority. The leader
of the Palestinian Jews, David Ben-Gurion, warned the
British that a Jewish uprising in Palestine could be
in every way as destructive as the recently ended Arab
revolt.
1939
- Jewish-British Alliance
As tensions mounted between Britain and the Jews of
Palestine, the latter were forced to make a fateful
decision: To be with or against Britain in the impending
war against Germany. The choice wasn't difficult. Jewish
welfare and security depended on the democratic world.
British-Zionist quarrels had to be suspended for the
greater cause. The Jewish community in Palestine threw
itself wholeheartedly into the war on the side of Great
Britain.
The
British Army's "Jewish
Brigade," Italy 1945.
1939-45 - Palestine
during World War II
During World War II many Palestinian Jews
were mobilized as soldiers on the side of the allies,
e.g. under the British East Kent Regiment ("The
Buffs"), and later in the "Jewish Brigade,"
while the rest of the Jewish commumity in Palestine
employed all available resources in the production
of equipment, foods and other necessities in support
of the allied war effort. Some Arabs also entered
the British forces. The leaders of the Palestinian
Arabs, on the other hand, supported the Nazis. The
highest Muslim authority, the Mufti of Jerusalem,
Haj Amin al-Husseini, was especially active, and travelled
several times to Berlin in order to persuade the Nazis
to extend their program for the extermination of European
Jewry to also include the Jews of Palestine. In addition
al-Husseini helped organize Bosnian Muslims into the
special "Hanzar" SS-division.
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The
refugee ship 'Exodus', 1947.
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1945-48 - Refugees from
Europe
Despite Jewish support for the victory against Nazi
Germany, and the enormous pressure from refugees in
the wake of the Nazi Holocaust, Great Britain, in an
attempt to appease the Palestinian Arabs, continued
to enforce strict quotas for Jewish immigration. Some
Jews were smuggled into Palestine, while many perished
at sea or ended up in refugee camps in Cyprus. In respons
to Britain's policy on Palestine the Jewish military
underground organization, Haganah, launched a campaign
of sabotage against the mandate's installations. Some
smaller, but more radical, Jewish groups carried out
regular terror attacks against the British administration
in Palestine.
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| UN
partition plan, 1947.
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1947 - The
UN Partition Plan
In February 1947 Britain decided to turn
over the problem of Palestine to the United Nations,
which had just been established following the end
of World War II. A commission appointed by the UN
recommended a partition of the
remainder of Palestine into two states, one
Jewish and one Arab, with Jerusalem as an international
zone controlled by the UN. On November 29, 1947 the
UN's General Assembly adopted resolution
181, thus approving the partition plan.
The Jews of Palestine, who by 1947 made up one third
of the population, or 600.000, were unhappy with the
area allotted to them (most of it was desert), and
regretted the separation of Jerusalem with its Jewish
majority from the proposed Jewish state. Nevertheless,
they accepted the compromise. The leaders of the 1.2
million Palestinian Arabs, on the other hand, along
with the rest of the Arab World, rejected the plan,
and declared its intention to attack and destroy the
Jewish state, the moment the last British soldier
had left Palestine.
Continue:
Chapter 3 - The New State
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