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04/29/2010
The Formation of Israel
When I was in Lebanon, there were a number of stories in the local paper about the “Nakba,” or what Palestinians call the ‘catastrophe’ of 1948, “when half the Arabs of Palestine were driven from their homes,” as noted in a piece by the Daily Star of Beirut.
So I’m just going to present the other side of a debate, without comment, we’ve read much about over the decades. Understand, Lebanon has a huge population of Palestinians in various refugee camps, much as Jordan does (where I was in 2008 and saw them first hand).
“Israel has roots in the 19th-century Zionist response to Jewish persecution in Europe – a state on land Jews say God gave to them.
“Arabs say Western imperial powers supported ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to answer European Jewish aspirations.
“When World War I ended Ottoman Turkish control, the League of Nations gave Britain the Palestine Mandate in 1920, endorsing its Balfour Declaration to create ‘a national home for the Jewish people’ and to protect the rights of Arabs.
“In 1948, Palestine had 1.4 million Arabs and 720,000 Jews. Two-thirds of these were born abroad.”
Following is a brief chronology of how the land was divided (as reported by the Daily Star and Reuters):
November 29, 1947: The United Nations General Assembly agrees on a plan for partition into Arab and Jewish states and for international rule over Jerusalem.
Jewish leaders accept plan that gives them 56 percent of Palestinian land. Arab League rejects the proposal.
January 10, 1948: A British report to the United Nations says that 1,974 people were killed or wounded in violence by both sides since November 30.
April 9-10: After Jewish guerrillas launch a major push into Arab-designated areas, Jewish gunmen kill more than 100 Arab men, women and children – many more by some estimates – at Deir Yassin near Jerusalem. Word of the massacre fuels Arabs’ fears.
April 13: As tens of thousands of Arabs flee the mounting violence, Arab forces kill some 79 Jews in a Jerusalem hospital convoy.
May 14: David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel hours before the British Mandate is due to end at midnight.
May 15: Troops from five Arab states attack Israel and Israeli forces operating in areas the UN proposed for Arab rule.
May 28: The Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City falls to Jordan’s Arab Legion. Most of the quarter’s buildings there are later demolished.
June 11: First truce.
June 23: Defying a UN arms embargo and raising fears of a Jewish civil war, paramilitary Irgun group tries to land arms in Tel Aviv. Israeli government artillery cripples the ship.
June 28: Swedish UN mediator Count Folke Bernadotte puts a new peace plan, with Jerusalem to be Arab. Both sides say “No.”
June 30: The last British troops leave.
July 8: Egyptians attack in the south. Israelis soon take Lydda (now Lod) and Ramle. Some 50,000 Arabs are driven from the area, some dying on roads. Israelis take control of the road east of Jerusalem.
July 19: Second truce.
September 17: The day after he proposed another peace plan, Folke Bernadotte is killed by Jewish Stern Gang gunmen in Jerusalem.
October 15: Israeli forces attack Egyptians in Negev, capturing the Arab city of Beersheba. An offensive against Arab armies in the north produces further, swift Israeli territorial gains.
December 11: UN General Assembly Resolution 194 asserts refugees’ rights of return and to compensation and reaffirms plan to establish international control of Jerusalem area.
December 22: Israeli forces invade Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
February 24: Israel signs armistice with Egypt.
March 10: Israeli forces take Umm Rashrash (now Eliat), near the Jordanian port of Aqaba, giving Israel access to Red Sea.
July 20: Israel-Syria armistice ends war. Israelis control 78 percent of Palestine, including West Jerusalem and about half the area designated for an Arab state under the UN plan. Jordan occupies the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Egypt holds the Gaza Strip.
The UN estimates that 770,000 Palestinians were refugees. Hundreds of Arab towns and villages were razed, left empty or taken over.
December 5: Prime Minister Ben-Gurion lays out an Israeli claim to Jerusalem as its “eternal capital.” Defying the UN stance, Parliament moves to West Jerusalem from Tel Aviv later that month.
“Settlements and settlers are central to the colonial Zionist project that is the state of Israel. Strategic settlement began in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and tore apart these occupied Palestinian territories. Resistance in Gaza eventually forced Israel’s former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to uproot the settlers and leave Gaza unilaterally. Sharon’s and subsequent Israeli governments have ploughed ahead with increased settlement expansion across the West Bank, with a focus on Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority in Ramallah now links the end of settlement activity to participation in peace talks, but Israel’s current right-wing government led by Benjamin Netanyahu won’t accept such a precondition, despite pressure from the U.S. on this point. Obsessive Israeli settlement activity in occupied East Jerusalem is a real obstacle to peace as it is the intended capital of a future Palestinian state.
“As the occupation of Palestine enters its 63rd year it still casts a shadow across the world. No core issues have been resolved in that time; the refugees are still refugees and Jewish colonist-settlers continue to build on occupied Palestinian land. A new political lexicon has developed specifically for this conflict but it seems to be incapable of solving it. Sad as it may sound, the Palestinian issue looks set to be with us for many years to come.”