Jews and Palestinians: Two Claims to Palestine

Ancient Palestine Ancient Palestine is the homeland of BOTH Jews and Palestinians Original Jews came around the 12 th Century BCE and believed the land had been given to them by their god in exchange for living by God’s laws Original Palestinians (called Philistines) were of Greek origin and settled there around the same time

Kingdom of Israel and the Diaspora 200 years after settlement the Jews established a kingdom called Israel In 73 CE the Roman Empire conquered Palestine A majority of Jews left Palestine and settled in the Middle East and Mediterranean Arabs arrived in the 7 th Century and will mix with the Palestinians, who will then convert to the Arab’s new religion of Islam

Zionism After leaving Palestine most Jews dreamed of returning During the 1800s European Jews began political movements to move back to Palestine (then ruled by the Ottoman Empire) This movement was called Zionism Many Jews also suffered from anti-Jewish sentiment and persecution (i.e. pogroms in Russia)

Jewish Immigration Into Palestine In 1882 waves of Jews began migrating to Palestine By 1914 Jews made up 10% of Palestine’s population Christian Palestinians worried that Zionism was an extension of European colonialism Jews began buying more and more land, which began to worry the Muslim Palestinians

British Mandate of Palestine 1916 Britain and France sign the secret Sykes-Picot agreement, which divided Ottoman lands after WWI In this agreement Britain would take control of Palestine 1917 British government issued the Balfour Declaration which supported a home in Palestine for the Jewish people Jewish immigration to Palestine increased 1918 Palestine became a British mandate and Jewish immigration increased This caused more tension between the Arabs and the Jews in Palestine resulting in riots and attacks by 1929

Increasing Arab-Jewish Tensions Many Jewish immigrants arrived poor but over time improved as they settled land Arabs were displaced from their land and moved into overcrowded cities and became more and more impoverished 1936 Arabs revolt and the British government creates a plan to divide Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab Arab leaders refused the division of their homeland The British withdrawal the plan

The British Mandate Ends World War II changed Zionism in Palestine After the Holocaust there was world sympathy for the Jews to have their own state Jews moved in large numbers to Palestine even though the British had set a limit on it Zionist terrorist groups formed and fought the British limit and demanded the creation of a Jewish state 1947 The British turn the mandate over to the newly created United Nations There were 1.3 million Palestinians and 600,000 Jews living in Palestine Palestinians wanted to govern all of it Jews wanted a division of it