Palestine 101

 

Palestine-101

WARNING: Very Long Writing!

Theodor Herzl^[a] (2 May 1860 – 3 July 1904)^[3] was an Austro-Hungarian Jewish journalist, lawyer, writer, playwright and political activist who was the father of modern political Zionism. Herzl formed the Zionist Organization and promoted Jewish immigration to Palestine in an effort to form a Jewish state. …

Beginning in late 1895, Herzl wrote Der Judenstaat (The State of the Jews), which was published February 1896 to immediate acclaim and controversy. The book argued that the Jewish people should leave Europe for Palestine, their historic homeland. The Jews possessed a nationality; all they were missing was a nation and a state of their own.^[32] Only through a Jewish state could they avoid antisemitism, express their culture freely and practice their religion without hindrance.^[32 …

In 1897, at considerable personal expense, he founded the Zionist newspaper Die Welt in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, and planned the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland. He was elected president of the Congress (a position he held until his death in 1904), and in 1898 he began a series of diplomatic initiatives to build support for a Jewish country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodor_Herzl

Palestine immediately prior to the growth of Zionism in the late 19^th Century was a part of the Ottoman Empire.   Jews residing in Palestine were primarily very religious and impoverished.  The discrimination they faced related to not being Muslim.   They were a “protected minority”.   Anti-Semitism was minimal.

… Nevertheless, the Ottoman census of 1878 indicated the following demographics for the Jerusalem, Nablus, and Acre districts:[5]

Census Group	Population	Percentage
Muslim	403,795	85.5
Christian	43,659	9.2
Jewish	15,001	3.2
Jewish (Foreign-born)	Est. 10,000	2.1
Total:	472,455	100.0

… Jewish emigration to historic Palestine grew over the first decades of the 20^th century, especially during the 1930s.  As the Jewish population in Palestine increased, the indigenous Arab population put pressure on the British government to control the immigration.  Thus, in the 1920s, the British restricted Jewish immigration by fixing quotas and authorizing certain Jewish organizations to distribute immigration certificates as they saw fit.  Nevertheless, with increased persecution of Jews in Europe, many Jews were not willing to wait years for immigration certificates.  Thus, in 1934, the Vallos became the first chartered immigration ship to arrive in Palestine, carrying 350 Jews.  By the time WWII had begun, tens of thousands of Jewish immigrants had arrived illegally in Palestine by ship.  This illegal shipping of immigrants continued well into the 1940s.  While the British intercepted some of the ships, almost all of the immigrants were eventually able to settle in Palestine.[6] …

The below estimates are based on the reports of the British Mandate for Palestine and the Mandatory censuses, conducted only in 1922 and 1931. All figures following 1931 are estimates; most figures as of Dec. 31 of each year.   

Total Population in Palestine[10]
Year	Total	Muslims		Jews		Christians		Others
		Total	Percent	Total	Percent	Total	Percent	Total	Percent
1922	752,048	589,177	78.34	83,790	11.14	71,464	9.50	7,617	1.01
1931	1,033,314	759,700	73.52	174,606	16.90	88,907	8.60	10,101	0.98
1931	1,036,339	761,922	73.52	175,138	16.90	89,134	8 60	10,145	0.98
1932	1,073,827	778,803	72.52	192,137	17.90	92,520	8.61	10,367	0.97
1933	1,140,941	798,506	69.99	234,967	20.59	96,791	8.48	10,677	0.94
1934	1,210,554	814,379	67.27	282,975	23.38	102,407	8.46	10,793	0.89
1935	1,308,112	836,688	63.96	355,157	27.15	105,236	8.04	11,031	0.85
1936	1,366,692	862,730	63.13	384,078	28.10	108,506	7.94	11,378	0.83
1937	1,401,794	883,446	63.02	395,836	28.24	110,869	7.91	11,643	0.83
1938	1,435,285	900,250	62.72	411,222	28.65	111,974	7.80	11,839	0.83
1939	1,501,698	927,133	61.74	445,457	29.66	116,958	7.79	12,150	0.81
1940	1,544,530	947,846	61.37	463,535	30.01	120,587	7.81	12,562	0.81
1941	1,585,500	973,104	61.38	474,102	29.90	125,413	7.91	12,881	0.81
1942	1,620,005	995,292	61.44	484,408	29.90	127,184	7.85	13,121	0.81
1943	1,676,571	1,028,715	61.36	502,912	29.99	131,281	7.83	13,663	0.81
1944	1,739,624	1,061,277	61.01	528,702	30.39	135,547	7.79	14,098	0.81

 

https://www.cjpme.org/fs_007

Great Britain had a huge effect upon the evolution of what became the State of Israel. 

The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British Government in 1917 during the First World War announcing its support for the establishment of a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine, then an Ottoman region with a small minority Jewish population. The declaration was contained in a letter dated 2 November 1917 from the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. The text of the declaration was published in the press on 9 November 1917. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balfour_Declaration

(The Declaration Follows)

Foreign Office
November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you. on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet

His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours,

Arthur James Balfour   https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/text-of-the-balfour-declaration

The Mandate for Palestine was a League of Nations mandate for British administration of the territories of Palestine and Transjordan – which had been part of the Ottoman Empire for four centuries – following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. The mandate was assigned to Britain by the San Remo conference in April 1920, after France's concession in the 1918 Clemenceau–Lloyd George Agreement of the previously agreed "international administration" of Palestine under the Sykes–Picot Agreement. Transjordan was added to the mandate after the Arab Kingdom in Damascus was toppled by the French in the Franco-Syrian War. Civil administration began in Palestine and Transjordan in July 1920 and April 1921, respectively, and the mandate was in force from 29 September 1923 to 15 May 1948 and to 25 May 1946 respectively. …

According to the second paragraph of the mandate's preamble,

Whereas the Principal Allied Powers have also agreed that the Mandatory should be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 2nd, 1917, by the Government of His Britannic Majesty, and adopted by the said Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing should be done which might prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country ...^[177]

The United Nations partition plan

By the mid-1940s, the British found themselves in an increasingly untenable position in Palestine.

The aftermath of World War II and the revelations of the Holocaust had intensified global sympathy for Jewish refugees and increased pressure on Britain to allow more Jewish immigration to Palestine.

Simultaneously, the Arab majority in Palestine, along with neighboring Arab states, opposed the establishment of a Jewish state.

Given the complexities and the escalating tensions, Britain decided to refer the issue to the United Nations in 1947.

In response, the UN formed a Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) to investigate the situation and recommend a solution. 

After extensive study and field visits, UNSCOP proposed the partition of Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem under international administration due to its religious significance to Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike.

Formally known as Resolution 181, this plan aimed to address the conflicting national aspirations of the Jewish and Arab populations in Palestine, a territory that had been under British administrative control since the end of World War I. 

The proposed plan divided the territory in such a way that the Jewish state would comprise roughly 56% of Palestine, including much of the coastal plain and the Negev desert.

The Arab state would encompass about 43%, including the highlands, the Galilee, and the major part of the Jordan Valley.

Jerusalem and its surroundings, given their unique status, would be placed under international trusteeship.

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly voted on the partition plan. It was approved with 33 votes in favor, 13 against, and 10 abstentions.

The Jewish leadership in Palestine, seeing this as a pragmatic step towards realizing the dream of a Jewish homeland, accepted the plan.

However, the Arab leadership, both in Palestine and in the surrounding Arab states, rejected the proposal, viewing it as an imposition on the rights of the majority Arab population in Palestine.

Declaration of the State of Israel

The declaration of the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, was a momentous event, marking the culmination of decades of Jewish nationalist aspirations and the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

 

David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, made the declaration in a ceremony held at the Tel Aviv Museum.

In his proclamation, he announced the establishment of a Jewish state in the land of Israel, to be known as the State of Israel.

The declaration emphasized the historical connection of the Jewish people to the land, the hardships they had endured throughout history, and their right to self-determination.

It also extended an olive branch, calling for peace with neighboring states and assuring the Arab inhabitants of Israel of their civil rights.  https://www.historyskills.com/classroom/modern-history/formation-of-modern-israel-reading/

1952 - George and Moses Marx (grandson with grandfather)

The Nakba (Arabic: النَّكْبَة, romanized: an-Nakba, lit. 'the catastrophe') is the ethnic cleansing^[2] of Palestinian Arabs through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property, and belongings, along with the destruction of their society and the suppression of their culture, identity, political rights, and national aspirations.^[3] The term is used to describe the events of the 1948 Palestine war in Mandatory Palestine as well as the ongoing persecution and displacement of Palestinians by Israel.^[4] As a whole, it covers the fracturing of Palestinian society and the long-running rejection of the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants.^[5][6]

During the foundational events of the Nakba in 1948, approximately half of Palestine's predominantly Arab population, or around 750,000 people,^[7] were expelled from their homes or made to flee through various violent means, at first by Zionist paramilitaries, and after the establishment of the State of Israel, by its military. Dozens of massacres targeted Palestinian Arabs and over 500 Arab-majority towns, villages, and urban neighborhoods were depopulated,^[8] with many of these being either completely destroyed or repopulated by Jews and given new Hebrew names. Israel employed biological warfare against Palestinians by poisoning village wells. By the end of the war, 78% of the total land area of the former Mandatory Palestine was controlled by Israel. …

On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly passed Resolution 181 (II) – the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.^[27] At the time, Arabs made up about two-thirds of the population^[28] and owned about 90% of the land,^[29] while Jews made up between a quarter and a third of the population^[30] and owned about 7% of the land.^[31] The UN partition plan allocated to Israel about 55% of the land, where the population was about 500,000 Jews and 407,000-438,000 Arabs. Palestine was allocated the remaining 45% of the land, where the population was about 725,000-818,000 Arabs and 10,000 Jews. Jerusalem and Bethlehem were to be an internationally governed corpus separatum with a population of about 100,000 Arabs and 100,000 Jews.^[32]

The partition plan was considered by detractors to be pro-Zionist, with 56%^[33] of the land allocated to the Jewish state although the Palestinian Arab population numbered twice the Jewish population.^[34] …

On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly passed Resolution 181 (II) – the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine.^[27] At the time, Arabs made up about two-thirds of the population^[28] and owned about 90% of the land,^[29] while Jews made up between a quarter and a third of the population^[30] and owned about 7% of the land.^[31] The UN partition plan allocated to Israel about 55% of the land, where the population was about 500,000 Jews and 407,000-438,000 Arabs. Palestine was allocated the remaining 45% of the land, where the population was about 725,000-818,000 Arabs and 10,000 Jews. Jerusalem and Bethlehem were to be an internationally governed corpus separatum with a population of about 100,000 Arabs and 100,000 Jews.^[32]

The partition plan was considered by detractors to be pro-Zionist, with 56%^[33] of the land allocated to the Jewish state although the Palestinian Arab population numbered twice the Jewish population.^[34] The plan was celebrated by most Jews in Palestine,^[35] with Zionist leaders, in particular David Ben-Gurion, viewing the plan as a tactical step and a stepping stone to future territorial expansion over all of Palestine.^{[36][37][38][39]} The Arab Higher Committee, the Arab League and other Arab leaders and governments rejected it on the basis that in addition to the Arabs forming a two-thirds majority, they owned a majority of the lands.^[40] They also indicated an unwillingness to accept any form of territorial division,^[41] arguing that it violated the principles of national self-determination in the UN Charter which granted people the right to decide their own destiny.^[42][43] They announced their intention to take all necessary measures to prevent the implementation of the resolution.^{[44][45][46][47]}

The 1948 Nakba

The central facts of the Nakba during the 1948 Palestine war are not disputed.^[48]

About 750,000 Palestinians—over 80% of the population in what would become the State of Israel—were expelled or fled from their homes and became refugees.^[7] Eleven Arab urban neighborhoods and over 500 villages were destroyed or depopulated.^[8] Thousands of Palestinians were killed in dozens of massacres.^[49] About a dozen rapes of Palestinians by regular and irregular Israeli military forces have been documented, and more are suspected.^[50] Israelis used psychological warfare tactics to frighten Palestinians into flight, including targeted violence, whispering campaigns, radio broadcasts, and loudspeaker vans.^[51] Looting by Israeli soldiers and civilians of Palestinian homes, business, farms, artwork, books, and archives was widespread.^[52]

Nov 1947 – May 1948

Small-scale local skirmishes began on 30 November and gradually escalated until March 1948.^[53] When the violence started, Palestinians had already begun fleeing, expecting to return after the war.^[54] The massacre and expulsion of Palestinian Arabs and destruction of villages began in December,^[55] including massacres at Al-Khisas (18 December 1947),^[56] and Balad al-Shaykh (31 December).^[57] By March, between 70,000 and 100,000 Palestinians, mostly middle- and upper-class urban elites, were expelled or fled.^[58]

In early April 1948, the Israelis launched Plan Dalet, a large-scale offensive to capture land and empty it of Palestinian Arabs.^[59] During the offensive, Israel captured and cleared land that was allocated to the Palestinians by the UN partition resolution.^[60] Over 200 villages were destroyed during this period.^[61] Massacres and expulsions continued,^[62] including at Deir Yassin (9 April 1948).^[63] Arab urban neighborhoods in Tiberias (18 April), Haifa (23 April), West Jerusalem (24 April), Acre (6-18 May), Safed (10 May), and Jaffa (13 May) were depopulated.^[64] Israel began engaging in biological warfare in April, poisoning the water supplies of certain towns and villages, including a successful operation that caused a typhoid epidemic in Acre in early May, and an unsuccessful attempt in Gaza that was foiled by the Egyptians in late May.^[65]

Under intense public anger over Palestinian losses in April, and seeking to take Palestinian territory for themselves in order to counter the Israeli-Jordanian deal, the remaining Arab League states decided in late April and early May to enter the war after the British left.^[66] However, the armies of the newly independent Arab League states were still weak and unprepared for war,^[67] and none of the Arab League states were interested in the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Amin al-Husseini at its head. Neither the expansionist King Abdullah I of Jordan nor the British wanted the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.^[68] On 14 May, the Mandate formally ended, the last British troops left, and Israel declared independence.^[69] By that time, Palestinian society was destroyed and over 300,000 Palestinians had been expelled or fled.^[70]

May 1948 – Oct 1948

On 15 May, Arab League armies entered the territory of former Mandatory Palestine, beginning the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the second half of the 1948 Palestine war.^[71] Most of the violence up to that point occurred in and around urban centers, in the Israeli portion of the partitioned land, while British troops were still present.^[72] After the end of the Mandate, Israel seized more land allocated to the Palestinians by the UN partition plan, and expulsions, massacres, and the destruction of villages in rural areas increased,^[73] including the Tantura massacre (22-23 May).^[74]   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba

-       *   -

Israel consistently expressed a desire to negotiate with its neighbors. In an address to the UN General Assembly on October 10, 1960, Foreign Minister Golda Meir challenged Arab leaders to meet with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to negotiate a peace settlement. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser answered on October 15, saying that Israel was trying to deceive world opinion and reiterating that his country would never recognize the Jewish State. ⁽¹⁾ …

In 1963, the Arab League decided to introduce a new weapon in its war against Israel — the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO formally came into being during a 1964 meeting of the first Palestinian Congress. Shortly thereafter, the group began to splinter into various factions. Ultimately, the largest faction, Fatah, would come to dominate the organization, and its leader, Yasser Arafat, would become the PLO chairman and most visible symbol. All the groups adhered to a set of principles laid out in the Palestine National Charter, which called for Israel’s destruction.

The PLO’s belligerent rhetoric was matched by deeds. Terrorist attacks by the group grew more frequent. In 1965, 35 raids were conducted against Israel. In 1966, the number increased to 41. In just the first four months of 1967, 37 attacks were launched. The targets were always civilians. ⁽³⁾

Most of the attacks involved Palestinian guerillas infiltrating Israel from Jordan, the Gaza Strip, and Lebanon. The orders and logistical support for the attacks were coming, however, from Cairo and Damascus. Egyptian President Nasser’s main objective was to harass the Israelis, but a secondary one was to undermine King Hussein’s regime in Jordan.

King Hussein viewed the PLO as both a direct and indirect threat to his power. Hussein feared that the PLO might try to depose him with Nasser’s help or that the PLO’s attacks on Israel would provoke retaliatory strikes by Israeli forces that could weaken his authority. By the beginning of 1967, Hussein had closed the PLO’s offices in Jerusalem, arrested many of the group’s members, and withdrew recognition of the organization. Nasser and his friends in the region unleashed a torrent of criticism on Hussein for betraying the Arab cause. Hussein would soon have the chance to redeem himself. …

The United States tried to prevent the war through negotiations, but it was not able to persuade Nasser or the other Arab states to cease their belligerent statements and actions. Eshkol sent the head of the Mossad, Meir Amit, to Washington to gauge the sentiment for war. Amit learned the flotilla idea had failed and that the United States would not object to an Israeli offensive. ^(15b) Still, right before the war, Johnson warned: Israel will not be alone unless it decides to go alone.⁽¹⁶⁾ Then, when the war began, the State Department announced: Our position is neutral in thought, word, and deed.⁽¹⁷⁾

Moreover, while the Arabs were falsely accusing the United States of airlifting supplies to Israel, Johnson imposed an arms embargo on the region (France, Israel’s other main arms supplier, also embargoed arms after Israel ignored De Gaulle’s plea not to go to war).

By contrast, the Soviets were supplying massive amounts of arms to the Arabs. Simultaneously, the armies of Kuwait, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq were contributing troops and arms to the Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian fronts. ⁽¹⁸⁾

Israel Launches Preemptive Strike

During the last Israel Defense Forces General Staff meeting before the war, on May 19, 1967, the head of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Aharon Yariv said the Egyptians had radically changed their conduct in the preceding days. “Their moves show a willingness to move towards or even instigate a confrontation with us,” he said. Yariv suggested the Egyptians were afraid Israel was close to building a nuclear weapon. He also said the Soviets may have convinced them of “a wider conspiracy to harm Egypt.” Rabin also addressed the question of Western assistance to respond to the Arab threats. “It’s time we stop deluding ourselves that someone will come to our aid,” said Rabin. “This is the most grave situation since the War of Independence,” he said and told his staff they “should prepare for war.” ^(18.1)

Thanks to the recordings made by King Hassan II in 1965, along with other sources, “we knew just how unprepared they were for war,” Gazit recalled. “We reached the conclusion that the Egyptian Armored Corps was in pitiful shape and not prepared for battle.” The information in those recordings gave the Israeli army’s leaders confidence “we were going to win a war against Egypt. Prophecies of doom and the feeling of imminent defeat were prevalent among the majority in Israel and the officials outside the defense establishment, but we were confident in our strength.” ^(18a)

Despite this confidence among military leaders, the government made preparations for mass temporary graves for tens of thousands of victims in Tel Aviv parks, a fact journalists were prevented from publishing by the military censor. ^(18b)

On June 4, 1967, the Israeli cabinet met and voted unanimously to give the defense ministry approval to decide when and how to respond to Egypt’s aggression. Foreign Minister Abba Eban wrote in his memoir:

Once we voted, we knew that we had expressed our people’s will, for amid the alarms and fears of mid-May, our nation gave birth to new impulses within itself. All the conditions which divide us from each other and give our society a deceptive air of fragmentation, all the deeply rooted Jewish recalcitrance toward authority now seemed to have been transmuted into a new metal which few of us had felt before. There had, of course, been some fear, as was natural for a people which had endured unendurable things. Many in the world were afraid that a great massacre was sweeping down upon us. And in many places in Israel there was talk of Auschwitz and Maidenek. The anxiety expressed by friends outside told us that our apprehension was not vain. Yet, as the last days of May were passing into the haze of memory, the people were gripped by a spirit of union and resolve. Men of military age silently laid down their work in factory, office and farm, took up their files of reservist papers and disappeared toward the south. ^(18c)

Eban also noted that thousands of you men were crowding the offices of Israeli consulates and Jewish Agency institutions throughout the world, asking to be sent to Israel for immediate service. ^(18d)

On June 5, 1967, Israel was isolated, but its military commanders had conceived a brilliant war strategy. The entire Israeli Air Force, with the exception of just 12 fighters assigned to defend Israeli air space, took off at 7:14 a.m. in Operation Moked (aka Operation Focus) with the intent of bombing Egyptian airfields while the Egyptian pilots were eating breakfast. The day before the attack, Rabin visited several air bases and told the pilots:

Remember: your mission is one of life or death. If you succeed – we win the war; if you fail – God help us. ^(18e)

By 11:05 a.m., 180 Egyptian fighter planes were destroyed. Defense Minister Moshe Dayan was not planning to attack Syria until the Syrians attacked Tiberias and Megiddo. Israeli fighters subsequently attacked the Syrian and Jordanian air forces, as well as one airfield in Iraq. By the end of the first day, most of the Egyptian and half the Syrian air forces had been destroyed on the ground. Altogether Israel claimed to have destroyed 302 Egyptian, 20 Jordanian, and 52 Syrian aircraft.^(18f) …

Initially, Israel did not plan to capture the West Bank. “The conquest of the West Bank was made conditional on the situation in the south,” Dayan said the evening of June 5. “In any case, the possibility of capturing the West Bank is considered preferable to breaking a corridor through to Mount Scopus.”

Eshkol sent a message to King Hussein on June 5 saying Israel would not attack Jordan unless he initiated hostilities. When Jordanian radar picked up a cluster of planes flying from Egypt to Israel, and the Egyptians convinced Hussein the planes were theirs, he ordered the takeover of the UN headquarters located near Talpiot and the shelling of West Jerusalem. Snipers were shooting at the King David Hotel and Jordanian mortars had hit the Knesset. It turned out that the planes were Israel’s and were returning from destroying the Egyptian air force on the ground.

Paratrooper Brigade 55, commanded by Colonel Motta Gur, was sent to Jerusalem and given the impossible task of preparing an assault on the city in just 12 hours. Jordan had two battalions of experienced, well-trained fighters assaulting the city. The initial mission was to stop Jordanian shelling of Jewish neighborhoods and rescue a besieged Israeli unit stationed on Mount Scopus, the sole Israeli enclave in East Jerusalem. The soldiers were ordered to stay away from the Old City and its sacred sites.

When the paratroopers arrived, fires were raging and the streets were full of glass. They could smell exploding shells. When they got off their bus, people suddenly began to appear from all directions carrying food. People came from all over, Avital Geva recalled in the documentary In Our Hands. They didn’t care about the bombings. Women brought food, sweets, coffee, everything. You cannot describe it. It was spontaneous love.

At 2 a.m. on June 6, one of Brigade 55’s three battalions attacked the Jordanian position known as Ammunition Hill, and fought one of the bloodiest battles of the war. The paratroopers blasted their way through the minefields and cut through layers of razor wire fences, but the price was high. In just the initial thrust, seven soldiers were killed and more than a dozen injured. The Israelis had not trained for trench warfare and had to improvise. Two soldiers jumped on tanks and ordered them up the hill firing at every Jordanian soldier they spotted. Years later, a Jordanian soldier admitted the tanks had convinced them the battle was lost and they retreated from the hill. It had taken three hours to capture the Jordanian command bunker. Of the 260 soldiers who fought at Ammunition Hill, only eleven emerged without being wounded or killed — 36 died. The Jordanians lost 71 men. After the battle, the Israelis buried 17 Jordanian soldiers in a mass grave with the English epitaph, Here lay 17 brave Jordanian soldiers, IDF, 1967.

A second battalion, the 66th, was assigned to take up a position at the Rockefeller Museum opposite the Arab quarter of the Old City to prepare to enter the city if given the order. The soldiers were unfamiliar with the city, however, and took a wrong turn that led down a narrow alley where they faced withering fire from the Jordanian forces. The Israelis made their way through to the museum, but only 30 paratroopers, half their original force, emerged unharmed from what they later called the Alley of Death.

Meanwhile, a third group of paratroopers from the 71st battalion succeeded in achieving its objective of securing a position on Mount Scopus.

While forbidding the army from entering the Old City, Eshkol said, “if the connection to Mount Scopus is completed this morning, the West Bank should be conquered up to the peak mountain ridges, while enabling escape routes for civilians.” Palestinians took advantage of those routes to flee eastward.

The night after the battle on Ammunition Hill, Dayan and Uzi Narkiss, the commander responsible for combating the Jordanian offensive, met on Mount Scopus and discussed how they might take the Old City. Narkiss explained where his troops were deployed and the various gates through which they could enter the city. Dayan asked, Why don’t you go through the Lion’s Gate? Narkiss had not considered this option and said to Dayan, You know what Moshe, since the time of King David, Jerusalem has never been conquered from the east. Dayan replied, Then this will be the second and last time. ^(18h)

Nasser and Hussein still hoped to save face and their remaining troops. During a phone conversation, they decided to tell the world they were losing because the British and Americans were helping the Israelis. The Israelis had recorded the call, however, and shared it with the world, which confirmed the denials of Western officials. President Johnson referred to the episode as The Big Lie.

The Israelis offered Hussein a way out of the dilemma. Eshkol said Israeli troops were prepared to take the Old City but would not do it if the king agreed to an immediate unconditional ceasefire, expelled the Egyptian generals from Jordan, and began a peace process with Israel. Hussein’s response was to send troops back to Jerusalem in hopes of holding as much territory as possible before a ceasefire was declared.

Dayan realized he had to make a decision. At 6:15 a.m. on June 7, Dayan ordered the encirclement of the Old City and instructed the army to enter with the warning not to damage any of the holy places. Fortunately, the night before, most of the Jordanian troops had retreated, so when the paratroopers stormed the gate onto the Via Dolorosa, they met no resistance. Gur led the charge up to the Temple Mount and radioed headquarters at 10:08 a.m., “The Temple Mount is in our hands and our forces are by the [Western] Wall.” The brigade’s chief communications officer, Ezra Orni, hung an Israeli flag over the Dome of the Rock. Dayan was observing from Mount Scopus and angrily radioed Gur, Do you want to set the Middle East on fire? The flag was removed. Shortly afterward, Dayan arrived with Rabin to formally mark the Jews’ return to their historic capital and their holiest site. At the Western Wall, the IDF’s chaplain, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, blew a shofar to celebrate the event, which was broadcast live on Voice of Israel Radio.The joy of reuniting Jerusalem was tempered by the loss of so many soldiers. A total of 430 paratroopers were wounded and 97 were killed.

Hussein’s decision changed the course of the war and history. Following the shelling of Jerusalem, Israel counterattacked and took over the West Bank of Jordan within 48 hours. According to Major General Rephael Vardi, the Palestinians believed the Jordanian and other Arab forces were going to occupy Israel quickly. Such was their surprise that the Israeli forces that entered Nablus were welcomed by the population with flowers and with flags because they believed that these were Iraqi forces that had come to support the Jordanians. ⁽¹⁸ⁱ⁾

A Second Exodus

After Jordan launched its attack on June 5, approximately 325,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank fled to other parts of Jordan, primarily to avoid being caught in the cross-fire of a war. ⁽¹⁹⁾ …

On November 22, 1967, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 242, calling on Israel to withdraw from territory – not all the territories – captured in the war in exchange for “secure and recognized boundaries” with the aim of achieving a “peaceful and accepted settlement.” This resolution became the basis for future peace talks.

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/background-and-overview-six-day-war

DW: What circumstances led to the war in June 1967?

Salim Tamari: The direct cause was the closure of the Straits of Tiran by Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, which the Israelis considered as a blockage of their access to international waters. The actual events had a lot to do with Israel's continued rejection of UN Security Council resolutions about the future of refugees and issues at the borders between Israel and Egypt in the Gaza area.

The war was over in a matter of days in June 1967. What was the result?

The immediate result was the defeat of the combined armies of Syria, Egypt and Jordan and the capture by Israel of all of the Sinai Peninsula, all of the West Bank and a big part of the Golan Heights from Syria. The immediate result was not only totally devastating for the regimes but also for the people of Palestine who were living in the West Bank as well as in Gaza.

How did that change people's lives?

Two major things happened in terms of daily life. The first was that Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank as well as in the Golan Heights no longer had access to the airport. They were completely blocked from travelling, making trade and having any kind of communication with the cultural world like they were used to.

The second thing that happened was that the markets of West Bank and Gaza were integrated with Israel's. The only salutary effect was that people could have access to historic Palestine and to the homeland they had lost in 1948 as well as to have contact with Palestinians who were now Israeli citizens and now found themselves part of the single Israeli-controlled historical area of Palestine. Jerusalem was formally annexed and Arab Jerusalemites became residents, so they had eventually much more abilities to acquire work permits and to travel more freely than the population in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip.

Read more: Dire conditions in Shatila mirror refugees' lack of perspectives

I was recently in Jerusalem and the West Bank and spoke to many Palestinians who told me that for them 1948 played the greater role. Can you relate to that?

The reference to 1948 versus 1967 is significant because many people living in the West Bank and Gaza happened to be refugees from the 1948 area which became the state of Israel. People who became refugees in 1967 are now living mostly in the Arab world. If you talk to them, they would stress this combined process of 1948 and 1967. People here have been historically traumatized by the 1948 war, and 1967 means something completely different to them: They did not become refugees, but they became hostages of the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza in the state of Israel.  …

What do you expect from the international community in order to end occupation and to make a two-state solution happen?

The international community has to address the issue of expropriated land in the occupied territories, the expansion of building settlements and they should create an atmosphere where Israel has to abide by the conditions leading to withdrawal from the occupied territories. These are well-known factors. But at the moment, neither Europe, and certainly not America, are willing to translate these political positions into action.  https://www.dw.com/en/six-day-war-was-totally-devastating-for-palestinians/a-39060548

George Marx, August, 1968 - Wailing Wall - Jerusalem

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NOTE: I’m largely omitting more recent relevant history.

It repeats and greatly increases the previous history

I’ve tried to (already) address

PUTTING FORTH MY BIASES

Basic questions strongly affect one’s perspective here such as:

1.   Is “Judaism” a religion or “an ethnicity” (as in being a “single defining identity”)?

2.   Where nation-states such as The United States and/or Israel exist, where does the religious identity of its residents intersect amongst its people?

3.   Does the history of Jews in Palestine, dating from close to 2000 years ago (and prior to then), entitle the creation of the modern State of Israel as a Jewish (religious) nation?

4.   Is there such a thing as the “Palestinian People”, noting that no independent Palestinian State has ever existed?

5.   If the answer to 4. Above is “yes”, what rights should the Palestinian People have, noting that they were a majority of the population of Palestine leading up to the creation of the State of Israel? 

6.   What relevance does Anti-Semitism have?   Related to this, how are countries such as: Great Britain and Germany and most recently The United States tied in?   How is The Holocaust relevant?

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Clearly, there were Jews, in historic Palestine, whose identity, was distinct from the people of other nationalities.  If this justifies the creation of The State of Israel, other questions arise.  

 

Clearly indigenous people resided in what is now The United States, as well as in other countries such as Canada, Mexico, and Australia.   Are they then not similarly entitled to their own nation-states?

 

Situated between three continents, the region of Palestine has a tumultuous history as a crossroads for religion, culture, commerce, and politics. The region was among the earliest to see human habitation, agricultural communities and civilization. In the Bronze Age, the Canaanites established city-states influenced by surrounding civilizations, among them Egypt, which ruled the area in the Late Bronze Age. During the Iron Age, two related Israelite kingdoms, Israel and Judah, controlled much of Palestine, while the Philistines occupied its southern coast. The Assyrians conquered the region in the 8th century BCE, then the Babylonians in c. 601 BCE, followed by the Persians who conquered the Babylonian Empire in 539 BCE. Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire in the late 330s BCE, beginning Hellenization.

In the late 2nd century BCE, the Hasmonean Kingdom conquered most of Palestine, but the kingdom became a vassal of Rome, which annexed it in 63 BCE. Roman Judea was troubled by Jewish revolts in 66 CE, so Rome destroyed Jerusalem and the Second Jewish Temple in 70 CE. In the 4th century, as the Roman Empire transitioned to Christianity, Palestine became a center for the religion, attracting pilgrims, monks and scholars. Following Muslim conquest of the Levant in 636–641, ruling dynasties succeeded each other: the Rashiduns; Umayyads, Abbasids; the semi-independent Tulunids and Ikhshidids; Fatimids; and the Seljuks. In 1099, the Crusaders established the Kingdom of Jerusalem, which the Ayyubid Sultanate reconquered in 1187. Following the invasion of the Mongol Empire in the late 1250s, the Egyptian Mamluks reunified Palestine under its control, before the Ottoman Empire conquered the region in 1516 and ruled it as Ottoman Syria to the 20th century, largely undisrupted.

During World War I the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, favoring the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, and captured it from the Ottomans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Palestine#

 

Palestine,^[i] officially the State of Palestine,^[ii][e] is a country in the southern Levant region of West Asia recognized by 146 out of 193 UN member states. It encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, collectively known as the occupied Palestinian territories, within the broader geographic and historical Palestine region. Palestine shares most of its borders with Israel, and it borders Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. It has a total land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while its population exceeds five million people. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, while Ramallah serves as its administrative center. Gaza City was its largest city prior to evacuations in 2023.^[2][3]

Situated at a continental crossroad, the region of Palestine was ruled by various empires and experienced various demographic changes from antiquity to the modern era. Being a bridge between Asia and Africa, it was treading ground for the Nile and Mesopotamian armies and merchants from the North Africa, China and India. The region is known for its religious significance. The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict dates back to the rise of the Zionist movement, supported by the United Kingdom during World War I. The war saw Britain occupying Palestine from the Ottoman Empire, where it set up Mandatory Palestine under the auspices of the League of Nations. During this period, large-scale Jewish immigration allowed by the British authorities led to increased tensions and violence with the local Palestinian Arab population. In 1947, Britain handed the issue to the United Nations, which proposed a partition plan, for two independent Arab and Jewish states and an independent entity for Jerusalem, but a civil war broke out, and the plan was not implemented.^{[19][20][20][21][22][23][24][25]}

The 1948 Palestine war saw the forcible displacement of most of its predominantly Arab population, and consequently the establishment of Israel, in what Palestinians call the Nakba. In the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which had been held by Jordan and Egypt respectively. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) declared independence in 1988. In 1993, the PLO signed the Oslo peace accords with Israel, creating limited PLO governance in the West Bank and Gaza Strip through the Palestinian Authority (PA). Israel withdrew from Gaza in its unilateral disengagement in 2005, but the territory is still considered to be under military occupation and was has been blockaded by Israel. In 2007, internal divisions between political factions led to a takeover of Gaza by Hamas. Since then, the West Bank has been governed in part by the Fatah-led PA, while the Gaza Strip has remained under the control of Hamas. Israel has constructed large settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since 1967, where currently more than 670,000 Israeli settlers, which are illegal under international law. ^[26]

Currently, the biggest challenges to the country include ineffective government, Israeli occupation, Islamist factions, a blockade, restrictions on movement, Israeli settlements and settler violence, as well as an overall poor security situation. The questions of Palestine's borders, the legal and diplomatic status of Jerusalem, and the right of return of Palestinian refugees remain unsolved. Despite these challenges, the country maintains an emerging economy and sees frequent tourism. Arabic is the official language of the country. While the majority of Palestinians practice Islam, Christianity also has a presence. Palestine is also a member of several international organizations, including the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. It has been a non-member observer state of the United Nations since 2012.^{[27][28][29][30]}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Palestine#

 

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I don’t see why the Jews in Palestine deserved a priority status over the native Palestinian population.   The Palestinian People were Not responsible for the rise of Hitler!   Obviously no one with significant influence helpe more than relatively few Jews fleeing Europe.   Hitler was a threat, and only a few countries offered any options for escaping what became the Holocaust.

It would be different if Great Britain had had a “win-win”  actively supporting both Jewish and Palestinian People. The Palestinian People had basically no true “allies” beyond significant numbers of non-wealthy, mostly working-class people within the Arab World.

Much has been made of the heroic underdog Jewish forces fighting  against the mighty Arab troops!   The dictatorial leadership of Jordan, with significant British support, wanted to rule over the Palestinian People, not support their independence.   Their troops did not seek to prevent Israel from evolving.   They sought to limit where Israel would possess land.   The other Arab armies were simply ineffective and weak.   The Jewish – Israeli troops got the necessary arms to win the war.

Often the Palestinian People are falsely, simplistically labeled (only) as “Arabs”.    As the Ottoman Empire was replaced by Great Britain starting in 1918, there was a clear division amongst the native Palestinian Population.  A relatively small number of people were wealthy.   A far, far larger number of people were extremely poor.   The wealthy owned the land.  The poor often worked the land, living in villages and rural areas.

Wealthy Jews such as Baron Rothschild gave substantial sums of money to purchase land for Jews.   Poor Palestinians losing their grazing lands and similar resented the wealthy absentee landlords’ actions, however the Jews were much easier to see and target. 

As the Jewish population increased, Palestinian workers were oft times let go and/or not hired, as Jews needed work.    The Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 – was an obvious reaction to the rise of Hitler in 1933 as Jewish immigration increased substantially.  To expect the poor Palestinian People to have had compassion for Jews coming from Western Europe isn’t very logical.

Arabs, Muslims, and the Palestinian People have at least indirectly been viewed as being – the “haters” and “enemy”.  European Anti-Semitism and the Depression of the 1930’s were primary problems (instead).  

It wasn’t “Arab Hatred of Jews”.  The leadership of the British Empire (which was coming to its end) manipulated the wealthy Arabs who were the only Palestinian leaders.   Great Britain’s leadership related far better to often Western European educated Jews than to both the feudal Palestinian leadership and the impoverished peasantry.   The British leadership sought to placate both the increasingly desperate Jewish leadership (relating to Hitler/ Germany) and the Palestinian People who were losing land and their way of life at the same time.  As with India, Great Britain was looking out for itself, not for the well being of the People it was ruling over!

There is no question that there has been significant resistance to both the creation of Israel, and its existence during the years 1948-1967!    How is this different from the resistance of Black South Africans, where both non-violent and violent resistance lead to the South Africa today of today?  

Oft times the position of the Native Palestinian People is simplistically dismissed and/or not even considered at all.  The fact that there were and are neighboring Arab States is rarely relevant.   Those states welcomed wealthy Palestinians, but offered only token support for the poor of Palestine.  

The Palestinian People were having their feudal world disintegrate in front of them, and no one was supporting what they were going through besides individual others, similarly struggling.  The Ottoman Empire was gone, but the British were not creating new opportunities for the people.

-       *   -

As a Jewish American I’m curious about a lot of things related to Jews, Palestinians, Israel and Palestine.  As a teenager I read Leon Uris novels like Exodus.

Exodus is a historical novel by American novelist Leon Uris about the founding of the State of Israel beginning with a compressed retelling of the voyages of the 1947 immigration ship Exodus and describing the histories of the various main characters and the ties of their personal lives to the birth of the new Jewish state. …

Published by Doubleday in 1958, it became an international publishing phenomenon, the biggest bestseller in the United States since Gone with the Wind (1936)^[1] and was still at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list eight months after its release.^[2]

Otto Preminger directed a 1960 film based on the novel, featuring Paul Newman as Ari Ben Canaan. It focuses mainly on the escape from Cyprus and subsequent events in Palestine. …

there are two stories told about how he came to write the work. The first suggests Uris, motivated by an intense interest in Israel, financed his own research for the novel by selling the film rights in advance to MGM and writing articles about the Sinai campaign.^[3][4] It has also been reported that the book involved two years of research, extensive travel including 12,000 miles within Israel, and 1,200 interviews.^[5][6] …

Others claim Uris was approached by a public relations firm in the mid-1950s with the idea of a writing a propaganda novel on behalf of Israel.^{[8][9][10][11][12][13]}

Whatever the genesis of the work, it initiated a new sympathy for the newly established State of Israel.^[14] The book has been widely praised as successful propaganda for Israel. Uris acknowledged writing from a pro-Israel perspective after the book's publication, stating that: "I set out to tell a story of Israel. I am definitely biased. I am definitely pro-Jewish," and the then–Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion remarked that: "as a piece of propaganda, it's the greatest thing ever written about Israel".^[15][16] …

The book was first criticized in 1960 by Aziz S. Sahwell of the Arab Information Center for historical inaccuracies and its depiction of Arabs.^[32][33] This criticism has been maintained by others.^[34][35][9] Edward Said suggested in 2001 that the novel still provides "the main narrative model that dominates American thinking" with respect to the foundation of Israel.^[36][37] British writer Robert Fisk wrote in 2014 that it was "a racist, fictional account of the birth of Israel in which Arabs are rarely mentioned without the adjectives 'dirty' and 'stinking' [and] was one of the best pieces of Socialist-Zionist propaganda that Israel could have sought".^[34] Norman Finkelstein espoused a similar view as Robert Fisk, in his 2008 work Beyond Chutzpah.^[35] In addition, Rashid Khalidi has stated that the book has served "to confirm and deepen preexisting prejudices" about Palestinians and Arabs in general.^[38]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_(Uris_novel)#Themes

 

Growing up (starting at age five-1956) in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA from 1956 on there was no “other side” as to how Israel and Judaism were viewed.   My grandfather bought us Israel Development Bank bonds to support Israel.   Israel was viewed entirely positively!   I remember hearing disparagingly about these horrible killers, the Fedayeen.

Emerging from among the Palestinian refugees who fled or were expelled from their villages as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War,^[5] in the mid-1950s the fedayeen began mounting cross-border operations into Israel from Syria, Egypt and Jordan. Fedayeen attacks were directed on the Gaza and Sinai borders with Israel. As a result Israel undertook retaliatory actions, targeting the fedayeen that also often targeted the citizens of their host countries, which in turn provoked more attacks. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_fedayeen

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When I was in my late 20’s, I began to realize that I’d been told a consistent distorted narrative.

I didn’t see things fully clearly from the beginning!  It took time to realize that what was going on with the PLO in Lebanon in the early 1980’s was part of a much bigger picture!   Reading influential writers like Noam Chomsky helped me a lot.   My learning continues through the present!   I still make mistakes!

Curiosity.   In case others are interested, I’d like to suggest some places to “start”.  

-       *     -

Rashid Khalidi is a caring, knowledgeable Palestinian-American.  See Peter Beinart’s January 19, 2024 interview at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EDypq6cKDM .

Khalidi’s – The Hundred Year’s War … is an incredible, personal story of Palestine. – see:

 https://www.georgemarx.org/2024/02/the-hundred-years-war-rashid-khalidi.html

The Iron Cage is also excellent.  See:

https://www.georgemarx.org/2022/12/the-iron-cage-must-read-on-palestine.html

Fida Jiryis’s: Stranger in My Own Land is a personal story of one woman’s journey and the journey of her family and her people that is a wonderful book to read.  See:

https://www.georgemarx.org/2023/03/stranger-in-my-own-land-fida-jiryis.html

Hamas is pillorized today similar to how we’ve looked at Saddam Hussein, and many others who’ve been seen as “The Devil”.   Tareq Baconi’s Hamas Contained – is well worth reading.  See:

https://www.georgemarx.org/2024/02/hamas-contained-tareq-baconis-excellent.html

Democracy Now - https://www.democracynow.org/ - provides a perspective rarely, if ever seen on MSNBC, CNN, or PBS .

The Electronic Intifida - https://electronicintifada.net/ - shows the horrors and true reality of what is going on in the Middle East every day.

Avi Shlaim -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMJJiZlXOi0&t=70s  on YouTube or in writing:  https://www.georgemarx.org/2024/10/three-worlds-avi-shlaim.html  effectively dispels myths related to his background as an Arab-Jew.

These writings are only a start – of course!   We each have our own journey towards the truths of our world(s). 

I see the most horrific Genocide – I’ve experienced in my lifetime.  It is right in front of my eyes.  I see Israel continuing on a path which at best is killing many thousands of innocent people.   It is making the safety of millions of people including many Jews less and less possible.  

At worst – the escalating – attacks upon Gaza, the West Bank, the Palestinian People of Israel, Lebanon, Iran and Yemen – could result in a nuclear holocaust – destroying the entire world.  Israel – could – hopefully this won’t happen – feel cornered – stuck – and through paranoia – threaten and potentially detonate nuclear weapons.

(Hajo Meyer –) 1924-2014 – a Jewish Concentration Camp Survivor:

Meyer repeatedly argued that there are parallels between the Nazi treatment of Jews leading to (but not including) the Holocaust, and Israel's dehumanization of Palestinians.^[26] At one talk, organized and hosted by the leader of the UK's Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, in 2010, Meyer was later reported to have repeatedly likened Israel's actions against the people of the Gaza Strip to the mass killing of Jews in the Holocaust and likened the government of Israel to that of Nazi Germany.^[27][28]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajo_Meyer#Lectures

George + Zoey - 2022 - Loyola University - Chicago

As an American I say that immediately our leadership should  suspend all financial aid to Israel.  Biden and Blinken’s purportedly sincere statements have all been rejected by Israeli leadership.  

We should seek to defend the rights of ALL PEOPLE – including the Palestinian and Israeli People.  All should be allowed to live in a just world that accepts and supports their full humanity.   We are perpetrating the Genocide through our weaponry, money and never-ending words, which are hollow!  

A just peace – is the only way that we will feel safe – and that others will be safe!