The UN Partition Plan 1948

The Attack on Deir Yassin, April 9 1948. Took place prior to Ben Gurion’s proclamation of the state of Israel Attack on Palestinian village by members of Stern Gang and the Irgun. 245 men, women and children were murdered, with women and girls raped before their execution. Mutilated bodies were thrown down wells. Took place in a village outside of the mandated Jewish territory and before the state of Israel was proclaimed. The Irgun, the Haganah and the Palmach had a scheme to clean out all hostile forces from those areas of Palestine allocated in the partition resolution. Part of the plan involved using terror or the threat of terror to force Palestinian Arabs to flee. Also it required the establishment of a corridor connecting Tel Aviv to Jerusalem free of Arabs. So twenty villages including Deir Yassin had to go.  

The Attack on Deir Yassin, April 9 1948 cont’d Jewish Response to the attack The actions were defended in some Israeli circles and that there was fierce resistance offered from the village Warnings were given prior to the raid for the aged, women and children to leave Zionist historians claim that Iraqi and Palestinian irregulars used the village as a base for snipers and that 200 villagers were allowed to leave unharmed. They also point to premeditated Arab atrocities prior to Deir Yassin. Arab Response to the attack The attack on the village was part of campaign of terrorism to force Arabs to leave their villages Retaliation: April 13 a convey of mainly Israeli doctors and nurses was attacked by Arabs just outside Jerusalem and seventy-seven were killed.

Count Folke Bernadotte

Brief Timeline of events On May 15 armies from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq (Arab nations) entered Palestine seeking to destroy Israel. By mid June Count Bernadotte, the UN mediator, had negotiated a month long cease fire. Israeli forces had halted the Egyptians The Transjordan army had captured the West Bank region and Jerusalem. During the ceasefire the Israeli built up their arms from Czechoslovakia.   September 16 Bernadotte recommended that Jerusalem become an UN governed city as designated by original UN partition plan.

Timeline Continued September 17 Bernadotte was assassinated At the time his killers were never caught and the truth of his death kept a secret He was in fact killed by the Stern Gang. Ben-Gurion dismantled both the Irgun and the Stern groups but fell short of denouncing terrorism as a weapon.

Ceasefire and Armistice: 1949 Following a resumption of fighting between the Israelis and Arab forces, Transjordan agreed to a ceasefire on December 1st. Egypt, its army in disarray, signed a ceasefire in January 1949.   The new UN mediator, Ralph Bunche, skilfully organised truce and armistice agreements between all the warring parties. Israel had expanded its territory by 20%. In essence, Israel now covered 80% of the former mandate of Palestine west of the Jordan River. Transjordan (renamed the Kingdom of Jordan) occupied and then annexed the area known as the West Bank (again mandated Palestinian territory) and East Jerusalem. Egypt retained and administered the Gaza Strip. While the Armistice agreements were not regarded as permanent border arrangements, they remained as such until the Six Day War in 1967.

Reasons for Israeli Success Arab Forces Only 40 000 troops combined, of whom 10 000 were British trained Many of Arab soldiers were irregulars (part time) had armour (heavy weapons and artillery) Jewish forces 30 000 armed men and women. 15 000 front line, 10 000 local defence another 25 000 as a kind of home guard 2 000 Irgun terrorists 800 Stern Gang. They had few heavy weapons, no artillery, armoured vehicles or planes. Stern Gang Members

Reasons for Israeli Success Arab Difficulties The Arabs were divided right from the start. No unified command and no real clear unified goals. Each Arab nation had its own agenda and remained divided along traditional rivalries. Egypt: would have preferred not to fight but feared rivals (Transjordan and Iraq) would gain the upper hand in the region. Supported the Palestinian Arabs Syria wanted the Palestinian lands for themselves. Transjordan: King Abdullah did not want an Arab Palestine ruled by the Palestinian Mufti Hajj Amin al-Husseini. It wanted control of the West Bank and Jerusalem. Supported rivals of the Palestinian Mufti. Arab armies did achieve some victories and majority of its soldiers were effective. Reasons for the Jewish Victory. Unified command Clear goals Fought with fierce determination Relied heavily on terrorism. Continued the pattern of warfare used so successfully against the British. 6000 Israeli deaths out of population of 608 000. Israeli forces 1948

PALESTINIAN REFUGEES The first Arab-Israeli War (The War of Independence/ The Catastrophe) created about 750 000 homeless Palestinian refugees, about 70% of the Arab population of Palestine. Figure is problematic. Why did so many leave their homes and where did they go? Israelis have always contended that the Arabs left of their own free will They did so at the urgings of their leadership. Once Israel was destroyed they could return to their homes. Evidence is inconclusive. Some sources indicated that the Arab League and the Mufti ordered them to stay put and fight. Israeli revisionist historians Now say it was part of a campaign to evacuate Arabs from the Jewish state. The Haganah deliberately destroyed villages, spread false stories about the spread of disease like cholera and typhoid and urged the Arabs to leave and avoid the coming bloodshed. Efforts were made to reassure Arabs and in some cases Jews encouraged Arabs to stay. However by July 1948, 300 000 Palestinians had fled, some freely, some in terror, some expelled.

Additional Factors Damage done to political and economic infra-structure by the British during Arab revolt. Palestinian leadership was absent when needed most. During 1948-49 local mayors, judges, clerics, landlords and other leaders fled. Arab townspeople, villagers and peasants had no one to turn to and were left helpless. The Israelis insisted that they had no moral obligation or responsibility to restore Arab property after the ceasefire. They remained flexible until mid 1949, willing until then to discuss the refugee problem within the direct framework of peace negotiations. Arabs refused to enter peace negotiations.

Where did they go? 320 000 moved into the eastern portion of Palestine and Jordan 210 000 into the Gaza strip 100 000 into Lebanon 75 000 into Syria some to Egypt and Iraq 150 000 remained within the Jewish state

Last Bit! No one in 1948 had any plans for the future of the Palestinian Refugees Israel was not prepared to allow them to return The US and the UN were powerless to offer anything but relief for those in camps In the years after the establishment of Israel, it suited both Israel and the Arab states to do little about the refugees and so nothing was done.

The Palestinian Arab Refugees

Israel after the 1948-49 war