Emergent Nationalism in the Middle East The Struggle for Palestine

OVERVIEW In this lesson we examine: The background of the Zionist movement The conflict over Palestine Long-term effects of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War

Background of Zionism From 990BCE-597BCE, the Jews ran the city states of Judah and Israel After 597BCE, the Jewish ‘Diaspora’ spread throughout the Middle East and Europe During the 18th century, European Jews attempted assimilation into European society

During the 19th century, increased anti-Semitism in European forced many Jews to immigrate to the US or Palestine In 1896, Theodor Herzl proposed the creation of a Jewish state as a solution for anti-Semitism. Zionists were able to secure the Balfour Declaration of 1917 by the British government towards the creation of a “national home” in Palestine Why would the British government support a Jewish state in the context of WWI?

The conflict over Palestine Context Question: What factors led to an increase in Jewish immigration from ?

From , the Arab population rioted against continued Jewish immigration. As WWII approached, what options did the British have?

Support the Jews By supporting the Jews, the British would risk losing support from the Arabs, potentially threatening their supply of oil and access to India via the Suez Canal Support the Arabs By supporting the Arabs, the British would be rejecting the Balfour Declaration and lose the support of the Zionists in Western countries On what major reasons could Palestinian Arabs have laid claim to the territory?

The Holocaust had increased sympathy for the Jews Jews illegally immigrated to Palestine, reaching 600,000 by 1948 Jewish terrorists attacked British targets in Palestine During and after WWII, the British attempted to limit Jewish immigration to Palestine as per the White Paper of Several factors worked against them:

The UN proposed the following plan in November 1947: Divide Palestine into two states: Israel and Palestine Jerusalem would become an international city run by the UN Why would the Jews approve of the plan while the Arabs would reject it?

On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was declared. How did neighbouring Arab states react and what was the result?

Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon launched attacks on Israel Israel defeated all Arab forces and expanded its territory beyond the partition plan About 750,000 Palestinian refugees flooded into neighbouring Arab states

Long-term effects The outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War would be unresolved in several ways: Arab states would seek vengeance Palestinian refugees had limited rights in host countries Israel would begin settlements of territories occupied outside of the UN partition plan