Israel and Palestine Competing Histories
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Israel and Palestine Competing Histories Mike Berry and Greg Philo Pluto P Press LONDON • ANN ARBOR, MI BBerryerry 0000 pprere iiiiii 99/8/06/8/06 110:10:070:10:07 First published 2004. This expanded version fi rst published 2006 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106 www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Mike Berry and Greg Philo 2006 The right of Mike Berry and Greg Philo to be identifi ed as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Hardback ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2566 8 ISBN-10 0 7453 2566 1 Paperback ISBN-13 978 0 7453 2565 1 ISBN-10 0 7453 2565 3 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Designed and produced for Pluto Press by Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Printed and bound in the European Union by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, England BBerryerry 0000 pprere iivv 99/8/06/8/06 110:10:070:10:07 Contents List of Maps vi Introduction vii Zionist Roots and the First Wave of Jewish Immigration into Palestine 1 Theodor Herzl and the Emergence of Political Zionism 3 The Second Wave of Jewish Immigration into Palestine 5 The Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate 6 American Politics and the Settlement of the Holocaust Survivors 19 The End of the Mandate 23 The United Nations Debates the Future of Palestine 24 The Unoffi cial War 28 The First Arab–Israeli War 30 Post-War Negotiations: Peace Treaties, Borders and Refugees 36 1956: The Suez Confl ict 41 1967: The Six-Day War 43 Resolution 242 and the War of Attrition 52 Settlement-Building, Economic Integration and the Occupation 53 Military Occupation/Administration 59 Nationalism and the Rise of the Opposition Movements 61 1973: The October War/The Yom Kippur War 66 Confl ict in Lebanon 67 Diplomacy and the Camp David Accords 72 1982: The Invasion of Lebanon 74 1987: The First Intifada 82 The Beginning of the Oslo Process 89 The Declaration of Principles 91 v BBerryerry 0000 pprere v 99/8/06/8/06 110:10:070:10:07 vi Mike Berry & Greg Philo The Cairo Agreement, Oslo II and the Israel–Jordan Peace Treaty 95 The Netanyahu Administration 100 The Barak Administration 105 The Camp David Final-Status Talks 109 September 2000: The Second Intifada 114 The Sharon Administration 119 Notes 137 References 151 Index 158 MAPS 1. Peel Partition Plan, 1937 14 2. United Nations Partition Plan, 1947/9 26 3. The Near East After the 1967 June War 45 4. The Allon Plan, July 1967 51 5. Wye Memorandum, 1998 (Wye Accords map) 106 6. Projection of the West Bank Final Status Map, presented by Israel, Camp David, July 2000 110 7. Final Status Map presented by Israel, Taba, January 2001 118 8. The Wall in the West Bank, December 2003 128 BBerryerry 0000 pprere vvii 99/8/06/8/06 110:10:070:10:07 Introduction This book was developed from work that we originally undertook for our study of TV news coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian confl ict.* When we began that research we thought it would be useful to give a brief history partly because there was a great deal of public interest in the area and also because we wanted to show the complex arguments through which journalists had to pick their way when making news programmes. It quickly became apparent to us that there was not one history of the confl ict but many, since almost every historical fact was contested by one or other of the parties. There were many deep divisions of opinion, not only between the Israeli and Palestinian historians but also within each side. Such divisions always to some extent characterise academic debate, but in this case there was also a strong ideological dimension, since the different interpretations and historical accounts could be used to justify and legitimise political positions. The Israeli historian Avi Shlaim has written of the ‘history wars’ in which the traditional Zionist account of the birth of Israel was challenged by a new group of Israeli historians who were much more critical of the role of Israel in the generation and continuation of the confl ict. These historians, including Ilan Pappe and Shlaim himself, were attacked publicly in Israel. As Avi Shlaim writes of his critics: They would like school history books to continue to tell only the heroic version of Israel’s creation. In effect they were saying that in education, one has to lie for the good of the country. (2003: 9) What concerned the conservative critics was their belief that the new historians had undermined patriotic values and * This was published as Bad News from Israel (Pluto Press, 2004). vii BBerryerry 0000 pprere vviiii 99/8/06/8/06 110:10:070:10:07 viii Mike Berry & Greg Philo young people’s confi dence in the justice of Israel’s cause. Six months before the Israeli election of January 2001 Ariel Sharon commented that ‘the new historians should not be taught’. When the new right-wing government came to power under Ariel Sharon in 2001 the education minister ordered changes. As Shlaim notes: One of the fi rst things Ms Livnat did on becoming Minister of Education was to order new history textbooks for secondary schools to be written, removing all traces of the infl uence of the new historians. (2003:10) It is clear, then, that there are many different narratives and that they are sometimes bound up in attempts to defend the moral certainties of the contending parties. In this book we have outlined the range of different positions and arguments on all the major events in the history of the confl ict. However, we have not simply repeated these without comment. We are not ‘post-modern’ in our approach and we do not believe that all accounts should be seen as equally valid. There is a difference between those who make statements without apparent recourse to evidence and others who spend long hours in archives, researching and checking their conclusions. There will always be contestation, but as far as possible we have indicated which views are best supported by available evidence and where there are contradictions or inaccuracies in what is being said. We have, however, tried to do this with a light touch because in the end it is up to our readers to make their own decisions on the validity of accounts and on what they believe. Finally, we hope that in laying out the range of arguments in a clear and accessible fashion, we may contribute to a better-informed public debate in an area that has so often been full of propaganda and confusion. BBerryerry 0000 pprere vviiiiii 99/8/06/8/06 110:10:070:10:07 ZIONIST ROOTS AND THE FIRST WAVE OF JEWISH IMMIGRATION INTO PALESTINE The American historian Howard Sachar (1977) traces the contemporary emergence of Zionist thought to the European Rabbis, Judah Alkalai and Zvi Hirsh Kalischer, who from the 1830s onwards stressed the need for Jews to return to the Holy Land as a necessary prelude to the Redemption and the coming of the Messiah. Sachar argues that such messianic exhortations did not immediately or widely take root among European Jews. However, he suggests that by the 1870s societies generally known as Chovevei Zion (‘Lovers of Zion’) had formed across Russia, which viewed Palestine as a site for national renewal and a refuge from anti-Semitism. In 1881, following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, large numbers of Jews were killed in a series of Russian pogroms. By 1914 up to two million Jews had fl ed Russia to escape persecution. The vast majority sought sanctuary in the United States but 25,000 arrived in Palestine in two waves of immigration in 1882–84 and 1890–91. At the time the Jewish population in Palestine was small. The offi cial Ottoman census of 1878 had put the total at 15,011 living among a combined Muslim/Christian population of 447,454 (McCarthy, 1990). The newcomers, backed with Jewish capital from prominent families such as the Rothschilds, saw themselves as agricultural pioneers, who were working to establish the foundations of Jewish self-determination in Palestine. A letter dated 21 September 1882 from Vladimir Dubnow, a worker at the Mikveh Israel agricultural settlement, to his brother Simon, captures the sentiments and hopes of the early Jewish settlers: My ultimate aim, like that of many others, is greater, broader, incomprehensible but not unattainable. The fi nal goal is eventually to gain control of Palestine and to restore to the Jewish people the political independence of which it has been deprived for two thousand years. Don’t laugh this is no illusion. The means for realising this goal is at hand: the founding of settlements in the country based on agriculture and crafts, the establishment and gradual expansion of all sorts of factories, in brief – to make an effort so that all the 1 BBerryerry 0011 cchapshaps 1 99/8/06/8/06 110:09:420:09:42 2 Mike Berry & Greg Philo land, all the industry will be in Jewish hands. In addition, it will be necessary to instruct young people and the future generation in the use of fi rearms (in free, wild Turkey anything can be done), and then – here I too am plunging into conjecture – then the glorious day will dawn of which Isaiah prophesised in his burning and poetic utterances.