The major reason why Zionists prevailed over Palestinians in the struggle to control Palestine was due to the continued immigration of Jews into Palestine, strong Zionist organizations as well as support from the international community, primarily Great Britain and the United States. These factors led to the creation of a Jewish state. A major movement for Zionism began in 1896 when Theodor Herzl called for the creation of a Jewish state in his book Der Judenstaat (p. 30). The World Zionist Organization, with Herzl being its first president, was founded in 1897 (p. 31). Furthermore, he lobbied for their own bank, which was established in 1901 as the Jewish National Fund. Its mission was to buy and develop land for Jewish settlements in Palestine (p. 32). Having such organizations that looked out for the interests of Zionists and calling for creation of a Jewish state was critical to Zionism gaining more momentum. By 1914, thousands of Jews had already migrated to Palestine and made up about 14 percent of the population (p. 25).
In 1917, the British Government increased their support for Zionism in order to persuade the Russians and Americans to support Great Britain during World War I (p. 62). Additionally, lobbying of Zionists, such as Chaim Weizmann, made a profound impact on the British supporting Zionism as well. He convinced Great Britain that it was in their best interest to control Palestine. The result of that lobbying resulted in the creation of the
Zionism has two main roots coming from two different places. The definition of Zionism is the desire of Jews to return to their homeland better known as Israel. This is the first root of Zionism. Zionsim is considered to be religious because the Orthodox Jews believed that only God could send them to their home. After many conflicts with Jews trying to join society and being rejected Theoder Herzl started the movement of Zionism. This is considered to be the second root and cause Zionism to also become secular. Many Jews do not believe in Zionism because they see it as a political move. Theoder Herzl wanted secular Jews to have a place called
The Israel-Palestine Conflict The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a part of the greater Arab-Israeli long-running conflict in the Middle East. The main point of this conflict is the existence of the state of Israel and its relations with Arab states and with the Palestinian population in the area. The idea and concept of Israel was born in the mid 19th century. Jews of Europe and America wanted a place for their homeland, where they could go and be with others of the same race and religion. Palestine was chosen because of its religious routs from The Bible as the “promised land” from God, and the motherland of Jews fled, known as the Diaspora.
in 1918 britain aided by the arabs captured palestine from the the ottoman turks but britain had now made too many promises that hey couldn't keep . Many Arabs opposed British troops because of England's failure to fulfill its promise and were also getting angry about the increase of jewish migrating to palestine. Arabs became concerned that Jewish immigration would threaten their position in Palestine which lead to large scale attacks on the jews. At the time of Hitler's dictatorship in Germany, Jewish immigration increased dramatically in 1933. An Arab revolt started which Britain suppressed with the help of Zionist militias. Zionist settlements climaxed in 1936. In 1947, Britain forbid Jewish refugees from nazi concentration camps to land in Palestine to prevent war between Jews and Arabs, which resulted in worldwide criticism of Britain. Britain withdrew itself from the situation handing over the mandate over Palestine, leaving the United Nations to deal with the situation. The United Nations proposed that Palestine was divided into two states, one for the Arabs and one for the Jews, however the Arabs opposed this idea claiming that the UN plan allotted too much territory to the Jews. the arabs thought it was unfair that the jews should get more land because the arabs were by far the larger population but because of the holocaust the was a lot of sympathy for the jews and this may be why the got more land.
David Ben-Gurion (the head of the world Zionist Organization) made Israel a nation-state, in may of 1948. The jews had a goal to create a homeland in the Palestine area for many years, this goal grew after WW2. The violence towards the Jewish in WW2, the united nations decided what the jews had control of. They decided that Palestine was going to be split into sections, one for the jews, one for the Arabs, and another for the jerusalem and bethlehem. A vote was taken, and soon everyone signed it. The Arab-Israeli war of 1948 was resulted in Israel's independence. The war was between the Arabs and israel. There was tension between the jews and the muslim Arab for control of “their” land. The dividing of Palestine caused the tension to end and civil war erupted. This caused many palestine Arabs to flee and become refugees and 700 000 jews flee to Israel, because they were expelled from their country. Israel's independence caused tension to form and created more problems for the
Religious connection, Zionism, the holocaust and anti-Semitism were all reasons that Israel was created in 1948. Today Israel is hated by many Middle Easterns. They had to defend their country the first day they were established. They have a strong relationship with
Since the Sykes-Picot Agreement at the beginning of the war, Palestine had taken on increasing strategic importance for Britain at this time. The British kept troops in Palestine because of its proximity to the Suez Canal and its location in the Ottoman Empire. The Zionists, who lived there, appeared as a potential ally that could provide a safeguard through the canal region. It was also felt that supporting Palestinian Jews would mobilize the Americas Jewish community and bring a stronger American support to the war. Furthermore, Although the British had committed to helping the Abrab motive in gaining independence, the much smaller Jewish community had strong political intellectuals that were incredibly persuasive. In November of 1917, one year before the end of the war, the British publicly declared their allegiance to the Zionist Jews with the Balfour Declaration. Among much surprise, the British in doing this pledged their allegiance to the Jewish State of Israel, which at the time was home to around 657,000 Muslims and only 59,000
Moreover, In 1897 Theodore Herzl, the first Zionist Congress, gave the Jewish people the right to a national rebirth in their country. In document 1 it is stated, "...the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National home." For that reason, the Jewish people must have Israel back, and the Palestinians must give it
Before anyone can comprehend the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one must understand the theory of Zionism. Theodor Herzl was the first Jew to have the idea of creating Israel. He was a witness of the Dreyfus affair, in which a Jewish officer was accused of treason, solely because he was Jewish. Herzl also witnessed mobs of people shouting “Death to the Jews”. This was the last straw for Herzl. Herzl decided that there needed to be a change so he made it one of his life goals to create a successful movement in which Jews founded a Jewish state. One of his main arguments was that discrimination against Jews could be eliminated if they had their own Jewish State, and so modern Zionism was formed. The idea of modern Zionism is so pertinent to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because much of the reason for Israel becoming a Jewish state is behind the fact that Jews were perpetrated throughout the years before Zionism even came into play of the situation.
World War I was fought between the Allies and the Axis powers. The British were on the side of the allies; Germany and Turkey were on the side of the Axis powers. Until this point in time, Turkey controlled the Palestine area. The British understood that it was in their best interests to harness the Jewish Zionist aspirations for their own purposes. Part of the Jewish world lived under German and Turkish rule. The Zionist headquarters were at that time in Berlin. Part of the Jewish world lived in the Russian territories, who were undergoing the pangs of revolution. The other part of the Jewish world lived in the USA, which desired to remain neutral. The remaining Jews lived in the Allied counties. They were under the influence that the Germans who used their influence with the Turks to promote the welfare of the Jewish population in Palestine. There were rumors that the Germans would soon recognize the Zionist dream of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The British felt that this would strengthen a world-wide support by the Jews with the Axis powers
In the early stages of the Zionist movement, Theodore Herzl, the founder and “Father of Zionism”, negotiated with Britain, a major world power at the time, to give up five thousand square miles of Uganda. In 1903, this idea was brought to the Zionists, which offered geographical protection and isolation from Russia. These negotiations, however, came to a halt when Herzl died in 1904. Months later, however, the cause did find potential in the area of Palestine. Palestine was remote enough that Jews had geographical protection and had suitable weather for agricultural purposes. Similarly, Palestine was religiously significant because it contained the holy land of Jerusalem. As a result, in a span of twelve years (1902-1914), the Zionists move around 70,000 Jews within two migration periods known as the First and Second Aliyahs. These major movements gave the Jews the manpower they needed to make a serious threat to the Palestinian forces. Nevertheless, WWI put a halt in the Zionist efforts until the end of the war in 1917.
Meanwhile, Zionists had been organizing small but steady waves of immigration into Palestine as early as 1882. The new, Jewish settlements, dubbed the “new Yishuv”, grew in strength; though it initially faced serious financial setbacks, the new Yishuv had become a viable political community by the eve of World War I. Arab resentment toward the Zionists emerged due to economic and political concerns: the local Palestinian population were justifiably afraid that the Jewish population would monopolize trade or provide unwanted economic competition, while the Arab nationalists were anxious that Zionism not interfere with their own political aspirations.
Zionists and Palestinian Arabs wanted individual nations and both felt they had a claim to Palestine. Shortly after in 1947, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution (UNGAR) called for a partition, which divided the country so that each state would have a majority of its own population. This divide meant that some of the Jewish settlements would fall within the proposed Arab state while an extremely large number of Palestinian Arabs would become part of the proposed Jewish state. (Beinin and Hajjar 2014). A year later in May, Israel unilaterally declared their independence and the State of Israel was established. This of course started a war, and neighboring Arab states invaded Israel almost immediately. During this war about 750,000 Arab Palestinians fled to Lebanon, the West Bank, and the Gaza strip. (http://www.unrwa.org/newsroom/official-statements/%E2%80%9Cpalestine-refugees-unresolved-question-time-syria-crisis%E2%80%9D) Also during this fight, Israel expanded its borders far beyond the UN partition lines, leaving Egypt to take hold of the Gaza Strip & Jordan to control the West
However, when faced with the true reality of the situation, it seems simple to reach the conclusion that the British, and to some extent the United States, put aside the events of the Holocaust in favour of securing oil interests over an aggressive Soviet expansion, thus delaying the inevitable establishment of the Israeli state. Nevertheless, it is of great importance that the American and British political stances be analysed. Firstly it is essential to note the Jewish presence within the United States. Despite 1.5 million Jews being assimilated into society, anti-Semitism still existed with Jews being excluded from joining certain organisations and clubs and restrictive immigration laws operating under a quota system, thus limiting the number of Jews admitted. Despite this however, Zionist leaders saw it as essential that they enlist the American Jewish population in an attempt to get US government support for a Jewish state. In terms of the American view of Palestine, prior to the war the American government had regarded Palestine as a British responsibility. However, by March 1943, the US state department became concerned about
The end of the 19th century brought with it the rise of Arab nationalism and Zionism, which called for the existence of a permanent Jewish State. Herzl’s 1896 manifesto “The Jewish State”, popularized the idea of Isaac’s promised land and influenced the Jewish peoples of Eastern Europe and Russia to proclaim Israel their own. The Jewish people took their first steps
Tensions between the Arabs and Zionists started after the 1800’s when the immigration of the European Jews to Palestine was on the increase. The population of Palestine from 1882-1883 was 468,000 and the population consisted of 408 Muslims, 44,000 Christians and 15,000 Jews. During this time Palestine was under the Ottoman Empire.