With the founding of the League of Nations after World War One, the British Empire acquired numerous mandates from the Ottoman and German Empires. One of the primary regions the British asserted control over in the Middle East was the region known as Palestine. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was important in that it had assured the Zionists who sought to establish a Jewish state that their goals would be achieved. Indirectly, the Balfour Declaration also undermined Palestinian claims to the land known as Palestine. Under British oversight, tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants traveled to Palestine. However, the native Palestinian population began to grow uneasy due to the growing Jewish population, and small scale conflicts were starting to break out between the two peoples because of the British policies towards the Jews and Palestinians.
In the 1930’s with the rise of Adolf Hitler and Fascism, many German Jews began to feel threatened in their own country. Following the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, the entire Jewish population residing in Germany was stripped of their German citizenship. In response, more than 500,000 Jews sought to flee Germany and seek refuge in Palestine. However, the increased immigration of Jews to Palestine proved to be the breaking point for the Palestinian population. From April 1936 to August 1939, thousands of Arabs and Palestinians protested and fought the British mandate due to the Jewish immigration. In response, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain issued the White Papers of 1939, which attempted to limit immigration to Palestine.
The Jewish Zionists who had put fair in the British government to support their cause for independence and the establishment of a Jewish state were suddenly forced to oppose the British. David Ben-Gurion, one of the principle Zionists behind the eventual establishment of Israel, urged Jews around the world to protest the White Papers, and by extent, the British government.
With the conclusion of World War Two in 1945, the White Papers proved ineffectual due to illegal immigration of thousands more Jewish people from across Europe. With the revelation of the numerous war crimes committed by the Nazi regime against Jews and other European minorities, Zionists such as Ben-Gurion pushed fervently for a Jewish state, and petitioned the newly established United Nations. Their petitioning would eventually pay off in the form of Resolution 181(II) which established a partition plan to create a Jewish state and a Palestinian state. The Palestinians, who for years had to deal with an encroaching Jewish population, were suddenly faced with the division of their nation.
A refugee camp established as an emergency shelter for Palestinians who fled into Lebanon.
Shortly after, the conflict between the Jews and Palestinians had escalated to full out war. In response, Palestinian families began to flee by the thousands. On may 15, 1948, the State of Israel was officially established by David Ben-Gurion. Numerous Arab countries attempted to come to the aid of the Palestinians, but were ultimately defeated by the Israelis. Soon, thousands more of Palestinians were forcefully evicted from their homes in order to make space for Jewish families. In total, more than 700,000 Palestinians fled their homes and became refugees. The crisis that forced the Zionists’ hands in evicting the Palestinians and establishing Israel only created another crisis that has pitted Israelis against Palestinians in a conflict the ensues to this day.
References:
[1] Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York: Norton & Company, 2001).
[2] Benny Morris, Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881 – 2001 (New York: Vintage Books, 2001).
I like that you talked about the migration of Jews to Palestine before WWII. I had always thought of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict beginning immediately after WWII. It seems the conflict had roots before the war.
Also, the picture you choose for your post really taught me something. When I pictured refugee camps in my mind, I saw more of a small town. Granted, a town with feeble resources and such, but concrete shelters nonetheless. I did not take the work “camp” literally enough. The image of a large number of families sleeping in tents is saddening. It is especially heart-breaking after learning that the descendants of the creators of these camps are still living there today. It just goes to show this issue has yet to resolve itself.
I like that you brought up how saving the Jews in Israel doomed the Palestinians in Palestine. It’s not a popular stance to take up, as many feelings about Jews from after the Holocaust still survive today, but is one that I have found is supported by more historical facts and records.