The Arab-Israeli Conflict Flashcards
what were the five MAIN causes of the Arab-Israeli conflict?
religious (Judaism & Islamic), political self-defence vs self-determination, nationalism, the influence of 20th-century major powers (imperialism), and international, regional, and local conflicts
what were the international conflicts that led to the Arab-Israeli conflict?
US & USSR conflict and conflict between other powers such as Britain & France pre-1956
what were the regional conflicts/disputes that led to the Arab-Israeli conflict?
Israel (Jewish), versus the Arab states (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria)
what were the local conflicts/disputes that led to the Arab-Israeli conflict?
Jews/1948 Israel versus the Palestinians in their fight for a homeland
who are the Jews?
an ethnic group consisting of those who identify with the Jewish culture & causes, and speak Hebrew → born to a Jewish mother, or converted to Judaism
when was the rise and fall of Israelite kingdoms in Palestine?
1025-585 BCE
when was the Jewish diaspora or exile?
135 BCE-1882 CE
between the 1880s and 1890s anti-semitism, deepened in Europe due to the anti-Jewish teachings of the Christian Church. what impact did this have on the Jews?
Jews were often blamed for the misfortune of others, had restricted living and movement areas, and were subject to severe inequality.
when did Theodor Herzl write ‘The Jewish State’?
1896
what did ‘The Jewish State’ develop?
developed the practical solution of the development of a separate Jewish state, placing Jewish sovereignty/jurisdiction in Palestine
why did the concept of Zionism start, and what is their main goal?
responding to the rising antisemitism in Europe, aiming to establish “a national home for the Jewish people secured by public law”
what group declared they wanted to establish a national home for the Jews, and by whom was it established?
the World Zionist Organization, established by Theodor Herzl
when was the first Zionist conference in Basel, Switzerland?
August 1897
what did the first Zionist conference aim to set up?
aimed to set up a Jewish home in Palestine with the support of major governments.
what did major powers fear the development of a Jewish national home in Palestine would lead to?
major powers feared this would lead to rivalry for control, and instead offered settlement in Uganda, which was declined
when did the Turks force Jews out of Palestine due to WW1?
1914-1918
who are the Arabs?
an ethnic group consisting of those who speak Arabic and identify with the Arabic culture and Arab causes.
when were the origins of the Semites (peoples who speak/spoke a Semitic language. e.g Jews and Arabs)?
3500 BC
when was the Arab-Islamic empire at its height?
750 AD
when did Palestine become part of the Ottoman Empire?
1516
when was the growth of the anti-Zionist movement?
1913-1914
why did the anti-Zionist movement occur?
resulted from the continuous growth of Jewish settlements in Palestine, due to the assumed threat to economic, cultural, and national interests
when did Arabs seek self-rule within the Ottoman Empire, and how did this occur?
1914 → they developed secret Arab societies to gain more power.
what occurred in 1914?
the outbreak of World War I
when was the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence?
1915-1916
what was the McMahon-Hussein correspondence?
Hussein wrote to McMahon, wanting support for the Arab uprising against the Ottoman sultan, and McMahon pledged support for Arab independence
what did McMahon promise? (direct quote)
that “Britain is prepared to recognise and support the independence of the Arabs”
when was the Sykes-Picot agreement?
May 1916
what was the Sykes-Picot agreement?
a British & French agreement to split the Middle Eastern countries between them, creating zones of direct control, and zones of influence
when was the Balfour Declaration?
1917
what was the Balfour Declaration?
a letter from Balfour (British Foreign Secretary) to Lord Rothschild (a leading British Jew) supporting the creation of a Jewish home state in Palestine.
whose aspirations did the Balfour Declaration support?
Zionist aspirations
what is the direct quote from the Balfour Declaration in support of the creation of a Jewish home state in Palestine?
“His Majesty’s Government [the British] view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people… [and will try] to facilitate the achievement of this.”
when was the San Remo Conference (where the Palestinian mandate was given)?
1920
what country got the Palestinian mandate, and what declaration was written into this?
Britain given the mandate of Palestine (Balfour Declaration written into)
when did the Arab Congress reject the mandate and therefore the Balfour Declaration?
1920
when did Herbert Samuel (British Jew) become the first High Commissioner of Palestine, and what was he in charge of?
1920, in charge of the administration of the territory of Palestine.
when was Mufti al-Husseini of Jerusalem appointed President of the Supreme Muslim Council?
1922
when was the Churchill White Paper written?
1922
what was the Churchill White Paper, and what did it set out guidelines based on?
British clarifying British policy in Palestine, which incorperated guidlines from the Balfour Declaration.
what were the three policy guidelines outlined in the Churchill White Paper?
Jews had the right to national-home land, but not the whole of Palestine; non-Jewish (Arab) interests would be safeguarded; Jewish immigration would be based on the economic capacity of the country.
what was greater Palestine partitioned into under the 1922 British redrawing of the Palestinian boundaries?
partitioned into into Smaller Palestine, and Transjordan (where no Jewish settlement would be allowed)
what did the redrawing of the Palestinian boundaries ensure British access to?
ensured British access to the oil fields of Iraq and the Persian Gulf.
when, and by whom, was the Palestinian Constitution approved?
approved by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922
what did the Palestinian Constitution give the Jews the right to do?
gave Jews the right to settle & purchase land in Palestine, creating a Jewish Agency to cooperate with the British on matters regarding the establishment of a Jewish national home.
what word was not directly used in the Palestinian Constitution, and when was, it indirectly referenced?
the term ‘Arab’, and the only indirect reference was when stating the official languages of the nation-state (English, Hebrew, Arabic).
when were the Wailing Wall riots?
1929
what were the Wailing Wall riots?
orthodox Jews attached a screen to the Wailing Wall, separating men & women at prayer. Muslims thought religious Jews were laying claim to the wall, and the claim would expand across the whole of Palestine.
how many people died in the Wailing Wall riots (how many were Arab v Jewish)?
249; 133 Jews, 116 Arabs
when was the Passfield White Paper written?
1930
what did the Passfield White Paper conclude?
concluded that Jewish immigration and land occupation had created nationwide unrest and both activities should be restricted.
did any change come from the Passfield White Paper?
no, lobbying from Henry Weizmann (Zionist leader) reversed the decision
when, and what, was the Black Letter created?
1931 → PM Ramsay Macdonald wrote to Henry Weizmann as the Arabs felt they had been badly let down by Weizmann’s reversal
who are the Yishuv, and when did they set up self-governing institutions?
the Jewish community in Palestine, who set up self-governing institutions between 1920-1929
what did these self-governing settlements/institutions, created by the Yishuv, establish?
National Council, political parties, large trade union (called ‘Histadrut’), Hebrew University of Cultural & Scientific Organisations
what happened to Jewish immigration in the 1920s & 1930s?
most Jews left Europe and went to the USA from Palestine.
when did this situation change, and what did this see a rise in (including %)?
with the rise of Nazism in Europe, which saw the rise Jewish population in Palestine, where they became 30% of the total population.
when was the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany?
1933
what did the denial of Jewish civil rights in Europe (1933-38) entail?
Nuremberg Laws which banned marriages between Jews & non-Jews; deprived of their citizenship and the right to vote
what was the Crystal Night (Kristallnacht) that occurred on 9 November 1938?
Jewish shops in Germany were smashed, and synagogues burned down, consequently sending 40,000 Jews to concentration camps
how many Jews did the Nazis kill (in concentration camps or elsewhere)?
over 6 million (6,000,000)
when, and under whom, was the formation of the Arab Higher Committee, and who did it bring together?
April 1936 under the the Mufti, al-Husseini, bringing together 6 political parties.
what did the assembly of the 6 political parties under the Arab Higher Committee, make the Mufti a link between?
the Mufti became a link between the non-religious (secular), and religious (sacred) parties
between when did the Arabs revolt against the British & the Jews, and why did the revolt occur?
1936-1939, after the British government turned down Arab demands
who/what was the Arab revolt aimed at?
mainly the Jewish and British, but the revolt was also a social class struggle within the Arab community
what occurred during the Arab revolt?
uprisings in the countryside in 1937 involving the Mufti.
the Nashashibis were opposed to the uprising. what did they do?
the Nashashibis, along with their allies, attacked Hussaini strongholds in the countryside
what was the outcome/result/consequence of the Arab revolt?
the revolt had a serious weakening effect on the nationalist movement, benefiting the Jews.
when was the Peel Report on the partition and what did it suggest?
July 1937, suggesting a two-state solution
what did the Royal Commission conclude regarding the two-state solution?
that Jewish immigration should be restricted to 12000 per year, and that Palestine should be partitioned into a smaller Jewish state (20% of Palestine, originally accepted by Zionists), and a larger Arab state.
what were the key issues surrounding the Peel Report?
there was the practical difficulty of how to ‘transfer’ 300000 Arabs from the Jewish to the Arab state.
what was the Arab reaction to the Peel Report?
most opposed, which further fueled the revolt.
when was the British White Paper announced?
May 1939
what was the British justification for their movement away from the Peel Report?
it created more harm than good, there were practical difficulties, anti-British reactions, Zionist distaste for only receiving 20% of Palestine, and the potential for war.
what did the British White Paper (1939) propose?
proposed a unitary (one) state of Palestine with a clear Arab majority, which would become independent after 10 years
what would Jewish immigration be restricted to, and what else would be limited?
over the next 5 years (from 1939 to 1944), Jewish immigration would be restricted to 75000, and land sales to the Jews would be limited.
after how long would the British no longer be bound to assist the development of the Jewish national home?
after 5 years (from 1939 to 1944)
what placed pressure on the major powers to take in Jewish refugees, and what was their reaction to this?
Hitler’s persecution of the Jews, to which no major powers offered to take in more Jewish refugees, placed additional pressure on Palestine.
when the British refused to lift the restriction on Jewish immigration in Palestine, despite Hitler’s policy, who/what were they thinking about?
the future of Palestine after the war
when did Igurn member Menachem Begin attempt to overthrow the British government in Palestine, and what did this lead Churchill to propose in September 1944?
January 1944, which led Churchill to propose the Jewish Brigade group as a front-line military unit
what did Churchill favour regarding the future of Palestine, and who did he encourage to accept it?
favoured a Jewish state in Palestine, encouraging Weizmann to accept part of it
Churchill & the Jewish Agency Executive in Palestine called for a halt to the terror. how many Igurn member names did they hand over to British authorities?
over 700
out of the 11,000,000+ displaced persons at the end of WW2, how many of these were Jews who survived the Holocaust?
200,000+
did anti-semitism end with the war?
no, especially in Poland
where were Jewish displaced persons housed, and who were these set up by?
camps set up by the UN Relief & Rehabilitation Agency (UNRRA) in America & British occupied Europe → most wanted to go to Palestine
US President Harry Truman urged the British to allow 100000 displaced persons into Palestine. was this successful? what was the British reaction?
this was unsuccessful, as the British stated that the 1939 British White Paper policy restrictions would continue
on 22 July 1946, how did Irgun terrorists retaliate against the closure of the Jewish Agency and the arrest of 3000 Jews? however, what did this harden about the British opinions of Jewish immigration?
blowing up the southern wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. however, this hardened British opposition to Jewish immigration.
when did 40000 Jews enter Palestine illegally?
August 1945 - May 1948
how many illegal Jewish immigrants arrived by boat in Palestine, and where were they transhipped on arrival?
51000 Jews who were then transhipped to Cyprus where they were placed in camps
when was the rapid build-up of the Yishuv?
1939-1945
between when were 94 new Jewish settlements set up? what percentage of these were during WW2?
between 1939-1947, and 50% of these were during WW2
when was the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Jewish immigration set up and what did it propose regarding the future of the Arabs and Jews in Palestine?
April 1946, where it proposed the entry of 100,000 Jewish refugees, the establishment of a state that was neither Arab nor Jewish, and international guarantees of protection for the communities of Palestine.
when did the British announce that it was handing the problem of Palestine to the UN?
February 1947
when were two British sergeants kidnapped and hanged by the Irgun, and what was the British reaction to this?
July 1947. the British were outraged but at the same time, sick of the fighting and the constant loss of British soldiers in Palestine, as there was nothing in it from them.
when was the UN Partition Resolution and what did the UN Special Commission of Palestine (UNSCOP) produce?
1 September 1947, where it drew up two reports – the majority report and the minority report
what did the majority report favour?
favoured the partition of Palestine, recommending an Arab state, a Jewish state, and the city of Jerusalem under an international trusteeship.
what did the minority report favour?
favoured a federal solution, with Jewish and Arab states with Jerusalem as their capital
how many Jews versus Arabs were there in Palestine before the partition?
1,380,000 Arabs; 700,000 Jews
what % of Palestine would be given to each group with the implementation of the partition?
56% (19942 km2) would be Jewish land, 43% (11203 km2) would be Arab Land, and <1% (177 km2) would be internationalised Jerusalem
when did the Arab League (the Arab states) threaten war if the UN approved either proposal?
17 September 1947
when did the UNGA vote in favour of the partition 33 to 13 (10 abstentions)?
29th November 1947
what did this partition resolution virtually assure due to it liquidating the Mandate, and defining a legal framework in which the Yishuv could establish a state?
a Jewish state
what date were the British determined to NOT stay in Palestine past?
14 May, 1948
when was the massacre of the Arab villiage of Deir Yassin (west of Jerusalem), and what happened?
9 April, 1948, Irgun forces massacred 254 Arabs in an attempt to force the Arabs from their land
when did, and what, Arab states declare war on Israel, and why?
1948, armies of Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Arab liberation forces entered the war to ‘save’ Palestine
between when was the war in Palestine?
1948-1949
which army (between the Arabs and the Jews) was smaller?
Arab forces stood significantly smaller than the Jewish, who had majority army reserves
