#2 - World History: The Nakhba “Catastrophe” 1948-1949

  1. Versailles and Self-Determination
  1. In January, 1919 President Woodrow Wilson arrived in Europe to settle the peace with the British leader David Lloyd George and the French Premier Clemenceau.
  2. Wilson proclaimed, “every territorial settlement involved in this war must be made in the interests and for the benefit of the populations concerned.”Clemenceau did not like the self-righteous Wilson or the land-grabbing Lloyd George. He complained, “I find myself caught between Jesus Christ and Napoleon”.
  3. In a wood-paneled room in Paris, lined with books, these Olympians would shape the world, the prospect amused Balfour as he watched “three all powerful, all-ignorant men carving up continents”. Montefiore, Jerusalem, pg 449.
  4. By 1917 hundreds of thousands of American Jews were Zionists. Evangelical Protestants were lobbying for Zionism and ex-President Theodore Roosevelt was backing a Zionist state around Jerusalem.
  5. Wilson faced a painful contradiction between Zionism and the self-determination of the Arabs. The British demanded Palestine, the French wanted Syria and Wilson was felled by a stroke in October of 1919.
  1. Violence in Jerusalem
  1. In April, 1920 Jerusalem was tense. Sixty thousand Arabs gathered for a festival. They protested the Balfour Declaration and shouted, “Palestine is our land, the Jews are our dogs!”
  2. The mob turned violent. Daggers and clubs appeared. The crowd now shouted “The religion of Muhammad was founded by the sword” and “Slaughter the Jews!”.The British restored order, but five Jews were killed and 216 wounded.
  3. The British administration of Palestine had begun. Between 1921 and 1929 another 70,000 Jews arrived in Palestine. Tensions between the Sunni Palestinians and the swelling Jewish populace grew apace.
  4. In 1929 riots took the lives of 131 Jews. The Palestinians did not want the Jews to have access to the Western Wall. They argued this was where Muhammad had tied his horse with a human face, Buraq, while on his Night Journey. They feared the Jews would build a Third Temple on the grounds of the Noble Sanctuary.
  5. Hitler became German Chancellor in 1933. Jewish immigration to Palestine accelerated, by 1936 there were 100,000 Jews in Jerusalem compared to 60,000 Christian and Muslim Arabs.
  1. The Arab Revolt (1936-1945)
  1. The Sunni Islamic leader in charge of Jerusalem’s Muslim holy sites is called The Grand Mufti. He demanded Palestinian independence, the repeal of the Balfour Declaration and removal of the Jews in 1936.
  2. The revolt led to a bloody struggle between moderate Arabs who wanted compromise with the British and extremists who wanted total victory. The Zionists contributed armed units to the struggle. The British employed tanks and aircraft in the struggle against the Mufti’s forces.
  3. The British provided military training to 25,000 Jews including special commando units. The British commander told them, “You are the sons of the Maccabees, the first soldiers of a Jewish army.” pg 472.
  4. British forces under future WWII leader General Bernard Montgomery crushed the Palestinians. 4,000 were killed, 50,000 more arrested and 5,000 homes destroyed.
  5. In 1939 with war likely in Europe, the British made a calculated decision. The Jews would have no choice, but to side with Britain against the Nazis. The Arabs, though, had a choice. To obtain Arab support the British proposed limiting Jewish land purchases and limiting Jewish immigration to 15,000 a year.
  6. The British also promised Palestinian independence with ten years and no Jewish state. Jews rioted in Jerusalem. General Montgomery said, “The Jew murders the Arab and the Arabs murder the Jews and it will go on for the next 50 years in all probability” (Montefiore, Jerusalem, pg 474).
  1. 1945 – 1947: Exit The British
  1. May 8, 1945 is Victory in Europe Day. Nazi Germany had been utterly defeated. Hitler was a suicide. Peace came to Europe. Millions of displaced people roamed the continent. Hundreds of thousands of Jews prepared to immigrate to Palestine. The British were determined to stop them.
  2. Shiploads of refugees included death camp survivors were turned away from the Palestinian coast. Zionist insurgents bombed British airfields, hotels, trains, army and police stations across the Holy Land.
  3. The British asked the Americans for support. President Truman’s administration recommended they allow 100,000 Jewish refugees into Palestine “immediately”. The British were furious. They had crushed the Arabs, now they would crush the Jews. They arrested 3,000 Zionists in one night.
  4. The Jewish insurgents responded by blowing up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. It was the HQ of the British administration and intelligence agencies in the city. A few months later they blew up the British embassy in Rome.
  5. When the British executed captured Jewish insurgents, the insurgents executed British captives. When Jewish insurgents were whipped by their British captors, British soldiers were whipped by their Jewish captors.
  6. The British had fought World War II from 1939 to 1945. They had experienced U-Boat warfare, Dunkirk, the Battle of Britain, war with Japan. British rule in India was ending in Muslim-Hindu violence. The Arab-Jewish conflict was another burden on the exhausted British state.
  1. The United Nations – Resolution 181 – The Creation of Modern Israel
  1. On February 14, 1947 the British decided to get out of Palestine. The newly formed United Nations proposed the partition of Palestine into two states with Jerusalem as an international trusteeship under a UN governor. On November 29, 1947 the UN voted on the proposal.
  2. Thirty-three countries voted in favor of Resolution 181 led by the United States and the Soviet Union, thirteen voted against and ten, including Britain, abstained.
  3. The Arabs did not accept that the UN had authority to carve up the country. There were 1.2 million Palestinians who still owned 94% of the land; there were 600,000 Jews. Both sides prepared to fight.
  4. Arab mobs poured into the center of Jerusalem lynching Jews, firing into their suburbs, looting their shops, shrieking, “Butcher the Jews!” Within two weeks 74 Jews and 71 Arabs were dead.
  5. The Arab states of Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia prepared for war. But the Arab states were not unified. They had different aims and fielded only 68,000 soldiers to the Israeli’s 88,000 troops.
  6. The war ended in the first six months of 1949. West Jerusalem was given to the Israelis. The Eastern half of the city was assigned to the Arabs.
  7. Half the Palestinians remained in Israel and became Israeli Arabs but altogether 600,000 – 750,000 Palestinians left and lost their homes. Their tragedy was the Nakhba – the Catastrophe.

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#2 – The Nakhba “the Catastrophe” 1948-1949

  1. Where did Zionist Jews, Evangelical Christians and Teddy Roosevelt believe a Zionist state be created?
  2. In what year did British administration of Palestine begin?
  3. How many Jews emigrated to Palestine between 1921 and 1929?
  4. Why did Palestinians not want the Jews to have access to the Western Wall?
  5. Why did the population of Jews increase so rapidly after 1936?
  6. What did the Sunni Islamic leader demand in 1936?
  7. In order to received Arab support during WWII, what did the British promise the Arabs?
  8. When Great Britain promised Arabs no Jewish State, what was the reaction of the Jewish community?
  9. After 3,000 Zionist insurgents were arrested by the British, what were the two targets of the Zionists?
  10. When did the British abandon Palestine?
  11. What was UN Resolution 181?
  12. What percentage of land was owned by Palestinians after the UN Resolution 181?
  13. How many Palestinians fled Palestine after 1949?