- The Zionist movement has maintained a striking continuity
in its aims and methods over the past century. From the start, the movement
sought to achieve a Jewish majority in Palestine and to establish a Jewish
state on as much of the LAND as possible. The methods included promoting
mass Jewish immigration and acquiring tracts of land that would become
the inalienable property of the Jewish people. This policy inevitably prevented
the indigenous Arab residents from attaining their national goals and establishing
a Palestinian state. It also necessitated displacing Palestinians from
their lands and jobs when their presence conflicted with Zionist interests.
- The Zionist movement-and subsequently the state of ISRAEL-failed
to develop a positive approach to the Palestinian presence and aspirations.
Although many Israelis recognized the moral dilemma posed by the Palestinians,
the majority either tried to ignore the issue or to resolve it by force
ma
-
- <http://www.wrmea.com/html/focus.htm#Historical>Historical
Background
- <http://www.wrmea.com/html/focus.htm#British>The
British Mandate
- <http://www.middleeastbooks.com/#Zionist>The Zionist
Movement
- <http://www.wrmea.com/html/focus.htm#Practical>Practical
Zionism
- <http://www.wrmea.com/html/focus.htm#Policies>Policies
Toward the Palestinians
- <http://www.wrmea.com/html/focus.htm#Conclusion>Conclusion
-
- Historical Background
-
- The Zionist movement arose in late nineteenth-century
Europe, influenced by the nationalist ferment sweeping that continent.
Zionism acquired its particular focus from the ancient Jewish longing for
the return to Zion and received a strong impetus from the increasingly
intolerable conditions facing the large Jewish community in tsarist Russia.
The movement also developed at the time of major European territorial acquisitions
in Asia and Africa and benefited from the European powers' competition
for influence in the shrinking Ottoman Empire.
-
- One result of this involvement with European expansionism,
however, was that the leaders of the nascent nationalist movements in the
Middle East viewed Zionism as an adjunct of European colonialism. Moreover,
Zionist assertions of the contemporary relevance of the Jews' historical
ties to Palestine, coupled with their land purchases and immigration, alarmed
the indigenous population of the Ottoman districts that Palestine comprised.
The Jewish community (yishuv) rose from 6 percent of Palestine's population
in 1880 to 10 percent by 1914. Although the numbers were insignificant,
the settlers were outspoken enough to arouse the opposition of
-
- Arab leaders and induce them to exert counter pressure
on the Ottoman regime to prohibit Jewish immigration and land buying.
- As early as 1891, a group of Muslim and Christian notables
cabled Istanbul, urging the government to prohibit Jewish immigration and
land purchase. The resulting edicts radically curtailed land purchases
in the sanjak ( district) of JERUSALEM for the next decade. When a Zionist
Congress resolution in 1905 called for increased colonization, the Ottoman
regime suspended all land transfers to Jews in both the sanjak of Jerusalem
and the wilayat (province) of Beirut.
- After the coup d'etat by the Young Turks in 1908, the
Palestinians used their representation in the central parliament and their
access to newly opened local newspapers to press their claims and express
their concerns. They were particularly vociferous in opposition to discussions
that took place between the financially hard-pressed Ottoman regime and
Zionist leaders in 1912-13, which would have
-
- The Zionists did not try to quell Palestinian fears,
since their concern was to encourage colonization from Europe and to minimize
the obstacles in their path. The only effort to meet to discuss their aspirations
occurred in the spring of 1914. Its difficulties illustrated the incompatibility
in their aspirations. The Palestinians wanted the Zionists to present them
with a document that would state their precise political ambitions, their
willingness to open their schools to Palestinians, and their intentions
of learning Arabic and integrating with the local population. The Zionists
rejected this proposal.
-
- The British Mandate
-
- The proclamation of the BALFOUR DECLARATION on November
2, 1917, and the arrival of British troops in Palestine soon after, transformed
the political situation. The declaration gave the Zionist movement its
long-sought legal status. The qualification that: nothing shall be done
which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish
communities in Palestine seemed a relatively insignificant obstacle to
the Zionists, especially since it referred only to those communities':
civil and religious rights, not to political or national rights. The subsequent
British occupation gave Britain the ability to carry out that pledge and
provide the protection necessary for the Zionists to realize their aims.
-
- In fact, the British had contracted three mutually contradictory
promises for the future of Palestine. The Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916
with the French and Russian governments proposed that Palestine be placed
under international administration. The HUSAYN-MCMAHON CORRESPONDENCE,
1915-1916, on whose basis the Arab revolt was launched, implied that Palestine
would be included in the zone of Arab independence. In contrast, the Balfour
Declaration encouraged the colonization of Palestine by Jews, under British
protection. British officials recognized the irreconcilability of these
pledges but hoped that a modus vivendi could be achieved, both between
the competing imperial powers, France and Britain, and between the Palestinians
and the Jews. Instead, these contradictions set the stage for the three
decades of conflict-ridden British rule in Palestine.
-
- Initially, many British politicians shared the Zionists'
assumption that gradual, regulated Jewish immigration and settlement would
lead to a Jewish majority in Palestine, whereupon it would become independent,
with legal protection for the Arab minority .The assumption that this could
be accomplished without serious resistance was shattered at the outset
of British rule. Britain thereafter was caught in an increasingly untenable
position, unable to persuade either Palestinians or Zionists to alter their
demands and forced to station substantial military forces in Palestine
to maintain security.
-
- The Palestinians had assumed that they would gain some
form of independence when Ottoman rule disintegrated, whether through a
separate state or integration with neighboring Arab lands. These hopes
were bolstered by the Arab revolt, the entry of Faysal Ibn Husayn into
Damascus in 1918, and the proclamation of Syrian independence in 1920.
Their hopes were dashed, however, when Britain imposed direct colonial
rule and elevated the yishuv to a special status. Moreover, the French
ousted Faysal from Damascus in July 1920, and British compensation-in the
form of thrones in Transjordan and Iraq for Abdullah and Faysal, respectively-had
no positive impact on the Arabs in Palestine. In fact, the action underlined
the different treatment accorded Palestine and its disadvantageous political
situation. These concerns were exacerbated by Jewish immigration: the yishuv
comprised 28 percent of the population by 1936 and reached 32 percent by
1947 (click here for Palestine's population distributio
-
- The Palestinians' responses to Jewish immigration, land
purchases, and political demands were remarkably consistent. They insisted
that Palestine remain an Arab country, with the same right of self-determination
and independence as Egypt, Transjordan, and Iraq. Britain granted those
countries independence without a violent struggle since their claims to
self-determination were not contested by European settlers. The Palestinians
argued that Palestinian territory COULD NOT AND SHOULD NOT be used to solve
the plight of the Jews in Europe, and that Jewish national aspirations
should not override their own rights.
-
- Palestinian opposition peaked in the late 1930s: the
six-month general strike in 1936 was followed the next year by a widespread
rural revolt. This rebellion welled up from the bottom of Palestinian society-unemployed
urban workers, displaced peasants crowded into towns, and debt-ridden villagers.
It was supported by most merchants and professionals in the towns, who
fe
-
- Only one of the Palestinian political parties was willing
to limit its aims and accept the principle of territorial partition: The
NATIONAL DEFENSE PARTY, led by RAGHIB AL-NASHASHIBI (mayor of JERUSALEM
from 1920 to 1934), was willing to accept partition in 1937 so long as
the Palestinians obtained sufficient land and could merge with Transjordan
to form a larger political entity. However, the British PEEL COMMISSION's
plan, announced in July 1937, would have forced the Palestinians to leave
the olive- and grain- growing areas of Galilee, the orange groves on the
Mediterranean coast, and the urban port cities of HAIFA and ACRE. That
was too great a loss for even the National Defense Party to accept, and
so it joined in the general denunciations of partition.
-
- During the PALESTINE MANDATE period the Palestinian community
was 70 percent rural, 75 to 80 percent illiterate, and divided internally
between town and countryside and between elite families and villagers.
Despite broad support for the national aims, the Palestinians could not
achieve the unity and strength necessary to withstand the combined pressure
of the British forces and the Zionist movement. In fact, the political
structure was decapitated in the late 1930s when the British banned the
Arab Higher Committee and arrested hundreds of local politicians. When
efforts were made in the 1940s to rebuild the political structure, the
impetus came largely from outside, from Arab rulers who were disturbed
by the deteriorating conditions in Palestine and feared their repercussions
on their own newly acquired independence.
-
- The Arab rulers gave priority to their own national considerations
and provided limited diplomatic and military support to the Palestinians.
The Palestinian Arabs continued to demand a state that would reflect the
Arab majority's weight-diminished to 68 percent by 1947. They rejected
the UNITED NATIONS (U.N.) partition plan of November 1947, which granted
the Jews statehood in 55 percent of Palestine, an area that included as
many Arab residents as Jews. However, the Palestinian Arabs lacked the
political strength and military force to back up their claim. Once Britain
withdrew its forces in 1948 and the Jews proclaimed the state of Israel,
the Arab rulers used their armed forces to protect those zones that the
partition plans had ALLOCATED to the Arab state. By the time armistice
agreements were signed in 1949, the Arab areas had shrunk to only 23 percent
of Palestine. The Egyptian army held the GAZA STRIP, and Transjordanian
forces dominated the hills of central Palestine. At leas
-
- The Zionist Movement
-
- The dispossession and expulsion of a majority of Palestinians
were the result of Zionist policies planned over a thirty-year period.
fundamentally, Zionism focused on two needs:
-
- 1) to attain a Jewish majority in Palestine
- 2) to acquire statehood
- irrespective of the wishes of the indigenous population.
Non-recognition of the political and national rights of the Palestinian
people was a KEY Zionist policy.
-
- Chaim Weizmann, president of the World Zionist Organization,
placed maximalist demands before the Paris Peace Conference in February
1919. He stated that he expected 70,000 to 80,000 Jewish immigrants to
arrive each year in Palestine. When they became the majority, they would
form an independent government and Palestine and would become: "as
Jewish as England is English". Weizmann proposed that the boundaries
should be the Mediterranean Sea on the west; Sidon, the Litani River, and
Mount Hermon on the north; all of Transjordan west of the Hijaz railway
on the east; and a line across Sinai from Aqaba to al-Arish on the south.
He argued that: "the boundaries above outlined are what we consider
essential for the economic foundation of the countr
-
- Weizmann's policy was basically in accord with that of
the leaders of the yishuv, who held a conference in December 1918 in which
they formulated their own demands for the peace conference. The yishuv
plan stressed that they must control appointments to the administrative
services and that the British must actively assist their program to transform
Palestine into a democratic Jewish state in which the Arabs would have
minority rights. Although the peace conference did not explicitly allocate
such extensive territories to the Jewish national home and did not support
the goal of transforming all of Palestine into a Jewish state, it opened
the door to such a possibility. More important, Weizmann's presentation
stated clearly and forcefully the long-term aims of the movement. These
aims were based on certain fundamental tenets of Zionism:
-
- 1) The movement was seen not only as inherently righteous,
but also as meeting an overwhelming need among European Jews.
- 2) European culture was superior to indigenous Arab culture;
the Zionists could help civilize the East.
- 3) External support was needed from a major power; relations
with the Arab world were a secondary matter.
- 4) Arab nationalism was a legitimate political movement,
but Palestinian nationalism was either illegitimate or nonexistent.
- 5) Finally, if the Palestinians would not reconcile themselves
to Zionism, force majeure, not compromise, was the only feasible response.
-
- First
-
- Adherents of Zionism believed that the Jewish people
had an inherent and inalienable right to Palestine. Religious Zionists
stated this in biblical terms, referring to the divine promise of the land
to the tribes of Israel. Secular Zionists relied more on the argument that
Palestine alone could solve the problem of Jewish dispersion and virulent
anti-Semitism. Weizmann stated in 1930 that the needs of 16 million Jews
had to be balanced against those of 1 million Palestinian Arabs: "The
Balfour Declaration and the Mandate have definitely lifted [Palestine]
out of the context of the Middle East and linked it up with the world-wide
Jewish problem. ...The rights which the Jewish people has been adjudged
in Palestine do not depend on the consent, and cannot be subjected to the
will, of the majority of its present inhabitants."
-
- This perspective took its most extreme form with the
Revisionist movement. Its founder, Vladimir Jabotinsky, was so self-righteous
about
-
- Second
-
- Zionists generally felt that European civilization was
superior to Arab culture and values. Theodor Herzl, the founder of the
World Zionist Organization, wrote in the Jewish State (1886) that the Jewish
community could serve as: "part of a wall of defense for Europe in
Asia, an outpost of civilization against barbarism."
-
- Weizmann also believed that he was engaged in a fight
of civilization against the desert. The Zionists would bring enlightenment
and economic development to the backward Arabs. Similarly, David Ben-Gurion,
the leading labor Zionist, could not understand why Arabs rejected his
offer to use Jewish finance, scientific knowledge, and technical expertise
to modernize the Middle East. He attributed this rejection to backwardness
rather than to the affront that Zionism posed to the Arabs' pride and to
their aspirations for independence.
-
- Third
-
- Zionist leaders recognized that they needed an external
patron to legitimize their presence in the international arena and to provide
them legal and military protection in Palestine. Great Britain played that
role in the 1920s and 1930s, and the United States became the mentor in
the mid-1940s. Zionist leaders realized that they needed to make tactical
accommodations to that patron-such as downplaying their public statements
about their political aspirations or accepting a state on a limited territory-while
continuing to work toward their long-term goals. The presence and needs
of the Arabs were viewed as secondary. The Zionist leadership never considered
allying with the Arab world against the British and Americans. Rather,
Weizmann, in particular, felt that the yishuv should bolster the British
Empire and guard its strategic interests in the region. Later, the leaders
of Israel perceived the Jewish state as a strategic asset to the United
States in the Middle E
-
- Fourth
-
- Zionist politicians accepted the idea of an Arab nation
but rejected the concept of a Palestinian nation. They considered the Arab
residents of Palestine as comprising a minute fraction of the land and
people of the Arab world, and as lacking any separate identity and aspirations
(click here, to read our response to this myth). Weizmann and Ben-Gurion
were willing to negotiate with Arab rulers in order to gain those rulers'
recognition of Jewish statehood in Palestine in return for the Zionists'
recognition of Arab independence elsewhere, but they would not negotiate
with the Arab politicians in Palestine for a political settlement in their
common homeland. As early as 1918, Weizmann wrote to a prominent British
politician: "The real Arab movement is developing in Damascus and
Mecca. ..the so-called Arab question in Palestine would therefore assume
only a purely local character, and in fact is not considered a serious
factor."
-
- In line with that thinking, onists' premise that Arab
statehood could be recognized while ignoring the Palestinians was thus
rejected by the Arab rulers themselves.
-
- Fifth
-
- Finally, Zionist leaders argued that if the Palestinians
could not reconcile themselves to Zionism, then force majeure, not a compromise
of goals, was the only possible response. By the early 1920s, after violent
Arab protests broke out in Jaffa and Jerusalem, leaders of the yishuv recognized
that it might be impossible to bridge the gap between the aims of the two
peoples. Building the national home would lead to an unavoidable clash,
since the Arab majority would not agree to become a minority. In fact,
as early as 1919 Ben-Gurion stated bluntly: "Everybody sees a difficulty
in the question of relations between Arabs and Jews. But not everybody
sees that there is no solution to this question. No solution! There is
a gulf, and nothing can fill this gulf. ...I do not know what Arab will
agree that Palestine should belong to the Jews. ...We, as a nation, want
this country to be ours; the Arabs, as a nation, want this country to be
theirs."
-
- Practical Zionism
-
- In order to realize the aims of Zionism and build the
Jewish national home, the Zionist movement undertook the following practical
steps in many different realms:
-
- 1) They built political structures that could assume
state functions
- 2) Created a military force.
- 3) Promoted large-scale immigration.
- 4) Acquired land as the inalienable property of the Jewish
people
- 5) Established and monopolistic concessions. The labor
federation, Histadrut, tried to force Jewish enterprises to hire only Jewish
labor
- 6) Setting up an autonomous Hebrew-language educational
system.
-
- These measures created a self-contained national entity
on Palestinian soil that was ENTIRELY SEPARATE from the Arab community
.
- The yishuv established an elected community council,
executive body, administrative departments, and religious courts soon after
the British assumed control over Palestine. When the PALESTINE MANDATE
was ratified by the League of Nations in 1922, the World Zionist Organization
gained the responsibility to advise and cooperate with the British administration
not only on economic and social matters affecting the Jewish national homen
they would try to block Jewish immigration and the purchase of land by
Zionist companies. Zionist opposition was couched indirectly in the assertion
that Palestine was not ripe for self-rule, a code for not until there's
a Jewish majority.
-
- To bolster this position, the yishuv formed defense forces
(Haganah) in March 1920. They were preceded by the establishment of guards
(hashomer) in Jewish rural settlements in the 1900s and the formation of
a Jewish Legion in World War I. However, the British disbanded the Jewish
Legion and allowed only sealed armories in the settlements and mixed Jewish-British
area defense committees.
-
- Despite its illegal status, the Haganah expanded to number
10,000 trained and mobilized men, and 40,000 reservists by 1936. During
the 1937-38 Arab revolt, the Haganah engaged in active defense against
Arab insurgents and cooperated with the British to guard railway lines,
the oil pipeline to Haifa, and border fences. This cooperation deepened
during World War II, when 18,800umber of Jews had doubled and the relative
number had increased from 11 percent to 17 percent. Two-thirds of this
growth could be attributed to net immigration, and one third to natural
increase. Two-thirds of the yishuv was concentrated in Jerusalem and Jaffa
and Tel Aviv, with most of the remainder in the north, including the towns
of HAIFA, SAFAD, and Tiberias.
-
- The Mandate specified that the rate of immigration should
accord with the economic capacity of the country to absorb the immigrants.
In 1931, the British government reinterpreted this to take into account
only the Jewish sector of the economy, excluding the Palestinian sector,
which was suffering from heavy unemployment. As a result, the pace of immigration
accelerated in 1932 and peaked in 1935-36. In other words, the absolute
number of Jewish residents doubled in the five years from 1931 to 1936
to 370,000, so that they constituted 28 percent of the total population.
Not until 1939 did the British impose a severe quota on Jewish immigrants.quals
approximately one-quarter of an acre). By 1930, the amount had expanded
to 1,164,000 dunums and by 1936 to 1,400,000 dunums. The major purchasing
agent (the Palestine Land Development Company) estimated that, by 1936,
89 percent had been bought from large landowners (primarily absentee owners
from Beirut) and only 11 percent from peasants. By 1947, the yishuv held
1.9 million dunums. Nevertheless, this represented only 7 percent of the
total land surface or 10 to 12 percent of the cultivable land (click here
for a map illustrating Palestine's land ownership distribution in 1946)
-
- According to Article 3 of the Constitution of the Jewish
Agency, the land was held by the Jewish National Fund as the inalienable
property of the Jewish people; ONLY Jewish labor could be employed in the
settlements, Palestinians protested bitterly against this inalienability
clause. The moderate National Defense Party , for example, petitioned the
British in 1935 to prevent further land sales, arguing that it was a: life
-
- 1) The economic suitability of the tract
- 2) Its contribution to forming a solid block of Jewish
territory.
- 3) The prevention of isolation of settlements
- 4) The impact of the purchase on the political-territorial
claims of the Zionists.
-
- The stockade and watchtower settlements constructed in
1937, for example, were designed to secure control over key parts of Galilee
for the yishuv in case the British implemented the PEEL PARTITION PLAN.
Similarly, eleven settlements were hastily erected in the Negev in late
1946 in an attempt to stake a political claim in that entirely Palestinian-populated
territory.
-
- In addition to making these land purchases, prominent
Jewish businessmen won monopolistic concessions from the British government
that gave the Zionist movement an important role in the development of
Palestine's natural resources. In 1921, Pinhas Rutenberg's Palestine Electric
Company acquired the right to electrify all of Palestine except Jerusalem..
Moshe Noizers picketed citrus groves and evicted Arab workers from construction
sites and factories in the cities. The strident propaganda by the Histradut
increased the Arabs' fears for the future. George Mansur, a Palestinian
labor leader, wrote angrily in 1937:
-
- "The Histadrut's fundamental aim is 'the conquest
of labor' ...No matter how many Arab workers are unemployed, they have
no right to take any job which a possible immigrant might occupy. No Arab
has the right to work in Jewish undertakings."
-
- Finally, the establishment of an all-Jewish, Hebrew-language
educational system was an essential component of building the Jewish national
home. It helped to create a cohesive national ethos and a lingua franca
among the diverse immigrants. However, it also entirely separated Jewish
children from Palestinian children, who attended the governmental schools.
The policy widened the linguistic and cultural gap between the two peoples.
In addition, there was a stark contrast in their literacy levels (in 1931):
-
- - 93 percent of Jewish males (above age seven) were literate
- - 71 percent of Christian males
- - but only 25 percent of Muslim males were literate.
-
- Overall, Palestinian literacy increased from 19 percent
in 1931 to 27 percent by 1940, but only 30 percent of Palestinian children
could be accommodated in government and private schools.
-
- The practical policies of the Zionist movement created
a compact and well-rooted community by the late 1940s. The yishuv had its
own political, educational, economic, and military institutions, parallel
to the governmental system. Jews minimized their contact with the Arab
community and outnumbered the Arabs in certain key respects. Jewish urban
dwellers, for example, greatly exceeded Arab urbanites, even though Jews
constituted but one-third of the population. Many more Jewish children
attended school than did Arab children, and Jewish firms employed seven
times as many workers as Arab firms.
-
- Policies Toward the Palestinians
-
- The main view point within the Zionist movement was that
the Arab problem would be solved by first solving the Jewish problem. In
time, the Palestinians would be presented with the fait accompli of a Jewish
majority. Settlements, land purchases, industries, and military forces
were developed gradually and systematically so that the yishuv would become
too strong to uproot. In a letter to his son, Weizmann compared the Arabs
to the rocks of Judea, obstacles that had to be cleared to make the path
smooth. When the Palestinians mounted violent protests in 1920, 1921, 1929,
1936-39, and the late 1940s, the yishuv sought to curb them by force, rather
than seek a political accommodation with the indigenous people. Any concessions
made to the Palestinians by the British government concerning immigration,
land sales, or labor were strongly contested by the Zionist leaders. In
fact, in 1936, Ben-Gurion stated that the Palesty would receive financial
subventions and their members would be helped to obtain jobs and loans.
This policy was backed by Weizmann, who commented that: "extremists
and moderates alike were susceptible to the influence of money and honors."
-
- However, Leonard Stein, a member of the London office
of the World Zionist Organization, denounced this practice. He argued that
Zionists must seek a permanent modus vivendi with the Palestinians by hiring
them in Jewish firms and admitting them to Jewish universities. He maintained
that political parties in which Arab moderates are merely Arab gramophones
playing Zionist records would collapse as soon as the Zionist financial
support ended. In any event, the World Zionist Organization terminated
the policy by 1927, as it was in the midst of a financial crisis and as
most of the leaders felt that the policy was ineffective.
- Some Zionist leaders argued that the Arab community had
to be involved in the practical efforts of the Zionist movement. Chaim
Kalvarisky, w
-
- - How many Arab officials have we installed in our banks?
Not even one.
- - How many Arabs have we brought into our schools? Not
even one.
- - What commercial houses have we established in company
with Arabs? Not even one."
-
- Tow years later, Kalvarisky lamented: "We all admit
the importance of drawing closer to the Arabs, but in fact we are growing
more distant like a drawn bow. We have no contact: two separate worlds,
each living its own life and fighting the other."
-
- Some members of the yishuv emphasized the need for political
relations with the Palestinian Arabs, to achieve either a peacefully negotiated
territorial partition (as Nahum Goldmann sought) or a binational state
(as Brit Shalom and Hashomer Ha-tzair proposed). But few went as far as
Dr. Judah L. Magnes, chancellor of The Hebrew University, who argued that
Zionism meant merely the creation of a Jewish cultural center in Palestine
rather than an independent state. In any case, the binationalists had litartition.
At first, the majority proposed a voluntary transfer of Palestinians from
the Jewish state, but later they realized that the Palestinians would never
leave voluntarily. Therefore, key leaders such as Ben-Gurion insisted that
compulsory transfer was essential. The Jewish Agency then voted that the
British government should pay for the removal of the Palestinian Arabs
from the territory allotted to the Jewish state.
-
- The fighting from 1947 to 1949 resulted in a far larger
transfer than had been envisioned in 1937. It solved the Arab problem by
removing most of the Arabs and was the ultimate expression of the policy
of force majeure.
-
- Conclusion
-
- The land and people of Palestine were transformed during
the thirty years of British rule. The systematic colonization undertaken
by the Zionist movement enabled the Jewish community to establish separate
and virtually autonomous political, economic, social, cultural, and military
institutions. A state within a state was in place by the time the movement
launched its drive for independence. The legal underpinnings for the autonomous
Jewish community were provided by the British Mandate. The establishment
of a Jewish state was first proposed by the British Royal Commission in
July 1937 and then endorsed by the UNITED NATIONS in November 1947.
-
- That drive for statehood IGNORED the presence of a Palestinian
majority with its own national aspirations. The right to create a Jewish
state-and the overwhelming need for such a state-were perceived as overriding
Palestinian counterclaims. Few members of the yishuv supported the idea
of bin
-
- Ann M. Lesch
-
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
- Abu Lughod, Janet L. "The Demographic Transformation
of Palestine." In The Tansformation of Palestine, ed. by Ibrahim Abu-Lughod.
Evanston, Ill.: Northestern University Press, 1971.
- Caplan, Neil. Palestine Jew1Y and the Arab Question,
1917-25. London: Frank Cass, 1978.
- Farsoun, Samih K., and Christina Zacharia. Palestine
and the Palestinians. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996.
- Flapan, Simha. Zionism and the Palestinians. New York:
Barnes & Noble, 1979.
- Granott (Granovsky), Avraham. The Land System in Palestine.
London: Frank CaBs, 1978.
- Hadawi, Sami. Bitter Harvest Palestine 1914-1979. Rev.
ed. Delmar, N.Y.: Caravan Books, 1979.
- Hattis, Susan Lee. The Bi-National Idea in Palestine
during Mandato1Y Times. Haifa: Shikmona Publishing Co., 1970.
- Hertzberg, Arthur, ed. The Zionist Idea. New York: Atheneum,
1969.
- Hurewitz, J. C. The Struggle for Palestine. Reprint.
New
- York: Schocken Books, 1976.
- Lesch, Ann Mosely. Arab Politics in Pale
-
- The Above article was quoted from Encyclopedia Of The
Palestinians edited by Philip Mattar
-
- http://www.wrmea.com/html/focus.htm
-
-
- U.S Financial Aid To Israel: Figures, Facts, and Impact
http://www.wrmea.com/html/us_aid_to_israel.htm
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