Israel uiz 2014 B O O K O N E
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
SECTION 1: JEWISH CLAIMS TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL
1.1 Hashem's promise to Avraham 2 1.2 Myths and Facts about the Jewish Claim to the Land of Israel 4 1.3 Jewish Presence throughout the Ages 8 1.4 The Jewish People's Connection with the Land of Israel 10
SECTION 2: THE PREHISTORY OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL (c. 1880 – 1948)
2.1 The Roots of Zionism 15 2.2 The Mandate for Palestine and the Pre-State Period 19 2.3 Arab-Jewish Conflict under the British Mandate 23 2.4 World War II and the Holocaust 26 2.5 The end of the British Mandate and the Partition Plan 28
SECTION 3: THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL: 1948–1967
Introduction 32 3.1 Israel's Declaration of Independence 32 3.2 Israel's War of Independence 1948 38 3.3 Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands 41 3.4 Israel's Early Years 46 3.5 Israel between 1957 – 1967 48 3.6 Israel's Six Day War 1967 51
SECTION 4: MULTIMEDIA VIDEOS 60
SECTION 5: MAPS 61
5.1 Map of Israel and surrounding countries 5.2 Regional map of Arab affiliated countries
1 SECTION 1: JEWISH CLAIMS TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL
1.1 HASHEM'S PROMISE TO AVRAHAM
Abraham is introduced in the Bible when Hashem challenges him with three sweeping instructions which will alter his life and the lives of his family forever.
1.1.1 The First Promise
God said to Abram, "Go from your land, from your birthplace, and from your father's house to the land that I will show you.” (Genesis 12:1)
God is not like Charles Dickens. Dickens got paid by the word, and would be as verbose as possible. God is the exact opposite. God uses words sparingly throughout the whole Bible, thus His repetition of this command to Abraham is surprising. "Separate yourself completely, not just from your land, but from your birthplace, from your father's house." If you grew up in a specific house for a specific period of time that will always be home for you. When you think of home, no matter where you later live, no matter how comfortable you've been, you'll always think about your original home. There's a deep connection. So God is says to Abraham: "Separate yourself on this most basic emotional level."
More importantly, from the macrocosmic, historical perspective, God is saying to Abraham, and therefore to the Jewish people: "Separate yourself completely and go in a different direction."
The journey that God is directing Abraham to undertake is not just a physical journey, it's a journey through history that is going to be different from anyone else's. Abraham is going to become a father to a nation that is not reckoned among the rest of the nations, a nation that dwells alone.
This is the first unique characteristic of Jewish history.
1.1.2 The Second Promise
We learn in the next verse: "I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you and make your name great; and you will be a blessing." (Genesis 12:2)
This verse conveys God's promise that He will be actively involved in Jewish history: "I will make you ..."
Jewish people should not have come into existence. Abraham's wife Sarah was barren, Abraham would have died, and his mission should have died with him. But a miracle occurred.
Thus we learn that the Jewish people come into being miraculously, they survive human history miraculously, outliving some of the greatest empires that ever were. This is because the Jews are a nation with a unique mission, a nation with a unique history. Things happen to the Jews that don't happen to other peoples. To live for 2000 years as a nation without a national homeland is unheard of. It's unique in human history. To re-establish a homeland in the place that was yours 2000 years before is also unique in human history.
2 1.1.3 The Third Promise
"I will bless those who bless you, and curse those who curse you, and through you, will be blessed all the families of the earth." (Genesis 12:3)
God is saying here to Abraham that he and his descendants -- the Jews -- will be under God's protection. The nations and peoples who are good to the Jews will do well. Empires and peoples that are bad to the Jews will do poorly. The entire world is going to be changed by the Jewish people.
That is one of the great patterns of history. You can literally chart the rise and fall of virtually all the civilizations in the western world by how they treated the Jews: Antiochus, Spain's King Ferdinand, Joseph Stalin and others who tried to stamp out Judaism. Greece was sacked by the Romans; Spain's empire crumbled; the powerful Soviet Union was shattered into a cluster of impotent nations. Clearly history was not on their side. America on the other hand prospered. Part of this is supernatural, part of it is not.
If a group of people lives within your country -- educated, driven, dedicated, loyal, creative, well-connected people -- and you're nice to them allowing them to participate and contribute in a meaningful way, your country will benefit. If you crush those people and expel them, you will suffer, because of the economic fallout. But, of course, there's much more going on than just that.
A third pattern shows that the rise and fall of nations and empires will be based on how they treat the Jews, an amazing idea, and one you can clearly see in human history.
You can also see the positive impact the Jews have had on the world. The most basic of all is the Jewish contribution to the values linked with democracy -- values that come from the Torah -- respect for life, justice, equality, peace, love, education, social responsibility etc.
These three verses in Genesis show us the key underlying patterns of Jewish history.
Abraham's journey is the paradigm. His personal life and the life of his immediate descendants will be a mini-version, a microcosm, of what Jewish history is all about.
1.1.4 The Promised Land
God gave Abraham and his family the Land of Israel as a laboratory where his descendants were to create a model nation for the world.
The Jewish story begins in the Book of Genesis, Chapter 12, when God first speaks to Abraham, and it continues through to the death of Jacob and Joseph. This segment is best described as the development of the "family" of Israel, which in the Book of Exodus becomes a "nation."
Abraham was born in Ur Kasdim in Mesopotamia (today's Iraq). He then moved with his father to Haran (today's northern Syria/southern Turkey) where he was instructed to go to Canaan, the Promised Land, which will become the Land of Israel.
God said to Abram: "Go from your land ... to the land that I will show you." (Genesis 12:1)
3 1.2 MYTHS AND FACTS ABOUT THE JEWISH CLAIM TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL
MYTH “The Jews have no claim to the land they call Israel”
FACT A common misperception is that all the Jews were forced into the Diaspora by the Romans after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70 C.E. 1,800 years later, they returned to Palestine demanding their country back. In reality, the Jewish people have maintained ties to their historic homeland for more than 3,700 years. Jews were forced out of Israel, never having the power to return till much later. They never gave up hope of returning to Israel and Israel remained part and parcel of their culture. They prayed three times a day for a return and many laws, customs and holidays embrace ideas connected to living and growing the land of Israel.
The Jewish people base their claim to the Land of Israel on at least four premises:
1) the Jewish people settled and developed the land 2) the international community granted political sovereignty in Palestine to the Jews 3) the territory which became Israel was captured in defensive wars 4) G-d promised the land to the patriarch Abraham
Even after the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, and the beginning of the exile, Jewish life in the Land of Israel continued and often flourished. Large communities were re- established in Jerusalem and Tiberias by the ninth century. In the 11th century, Jewish communities grew in Rafah, Gaza, Ashkelon, Jaffa and Caesarea. The Crusaders massacred many Jews during the 12th century, but the community rebounded in the next two centuries as large numbers of rabbis and Jewish pilgrims immigrated to Jerusalem and the Galilee. Prominent rabbis established communities in Safed, Jerusalem and elsewhere during the next 300 years.
By the early 19th century - years before the birth of the modern Zionist movement - more than 10,000 Jews lived throughout what is today Israel. The 78 years of nation-building, beginning in 1870, culminated in the re-establishment of the Jewish State.
Israel's international “birth certificate” was validated by the promise of the Bible; uninterrupted Jewish settlement from the time of Joshua onward; the Balfour Declaration of 1917; the League of Nations Mandate, which incorporated the Balfour Declaration; the United Nations partition resolution of 1947; Israel's admission to the UN in 1949; the recognition of Israel by most other states; and, most of all, the society created by Israel's people in decades of thriving, dynamic national existence.
“Nobody does Israel any service by proclaiming its 'right to exist " :
“Israel's right to exist, like that of the United States, Saudi Arabia and every other state, is axiomatic and unreserved. Israel's legitimacy is not suspended in midair awaiting acknowledgement.... There is certainly no other state, big or small, young or old, that would consider mere recognition of its 'right to exist' a favour, or a negotiable concession.” (Abba Eban) 4 MYTH ”Palestine was always an Arab country”
FACT The term “Palestine” is believed to be derived from the Philistines, an Aegean people who, in the 12th Century B.C.E., settled along the Mediterranean coastal plain of what are now Israel and the Gaza Strip. In the second century C.E., after crushing the last Jewish revolt, the Romans first applied the name Palaestina to Judea (the southern portion of what is now called the West Bank) in an attempt to minimize Jewish identification with the land of Israel. The Arabic word Filastin is derived from this Latin name
The Hebrews entered the Land of Israel about 1300 B.C.E., living under a tribal confederation until united under the first monarch, King Saul. The second king, David, established Jerusalem as the capital around 1000 B.C.E. David’s son, Solomon, built the Temple soon thereafter and consolidated the kingdom’s military, administrative and religious functions. The nation was divided under Solomon’s son, with the northern kingdom (Israel) lasting until 722 B.C.E., when the Assyrians destroyed it, and the southern kingdom (Judah) surviving until the Babylonian conquest in 586 B.C.E. The Jewish people enjoyed brief periods of sovereignty afterward until most Jews were finally driven from their homeland in 135 C.E.
Jewish independence in the Land of Israel lasted for more than 400 years. This is much longer than Americans have enjoyed independence in what has become known as the United States. In fact, if not for foreign conquerors, Israel would be more than 3,000 years old today.
Palestine was never an exclusively Arab country, although Arabic gradually became the language of most of the population after the Muslim invasions of the seventh century. No independent Arab or Palestinian state ever existed in Palestine. When the distinguished Arab- American historian, Princeton University Prof. Philip Hitti, testified against partition before the Anglo-American Committee in 1946, he said: “There is no such thing as ‘Palestine’ in history, absolutely not.”
Prior to partition, Palestinian Arabs did not view themselves as having a separate identity. When the First Congress of Muslim-Christian Associations met in Jerusalem in February 1919 to choose Palestinian representatives for the Paris Peace Conference, the following resolution was adopted:
Palestine is part of Arab Syria, as it has never been separated from it at any time. We are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds. In 1937, a local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, told the Peel Commission, which ultimately suggested the partition of Palestine: “There is no such country as Palestine! ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria.” The representative of the Arab Higher Committee to the United Nations echoed this view in a statement to the General Assembly in May 1947, which said Palestine was part of the Province of Syria and the Arabs of Palestine did not comprise a separate political entity. A few years later, Ahmed Shuqeiri, later the chairman of the PLO, told the Security Council: “It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria.”
Palestinian Arab nationalism is largely a post-World War I phenomenon that did not become a significant political movement until after the 1967 Six-Day War.
5 MYTH “The ‘traditional position’ of the Arabs in Palestine was jeopardized by Jewish settlements”
FACT For many centuries, Palestine was a sparsely populated, poorly cultivated and widely- neglected expanse of eroded hills, sandy deserts and malarial marshes. As late as 1880, the American consul in Jerusalem reported the area was continuing its historic decline. “The population and wealth of Palestine has not increased during the last forty years,” he said.
The Report of the Palestine Royal Commission quotes an account of the Maritime Plain in 1913: “The road leading from Gaza to the north was only a summer track suitable for transport by camels and carts...no orange groves, orchards or vineyards were to be seen until one reached the Jewish village of Yabna Yavne....Houses were all of mud. No windows were anywhere to be seen....The ploughs used were of wood....The yields were very poor....The sanitary conditions in the village were horrible. Schools did not exist....The western part, towards the sea, was almost a desert....The villages in this area were few and thinly populated. Many ruins of villages were scattered over the area, as owing to the prevalence of malaria, many villages were deserted by their inhabitants.”
Surprisingly, many people who were not sympathetic to the Zionist cause believed the Jews would improve the condition of Palestinian Arabs. For example, Dawood Barakat, editor of the Egyptian paper Al-Ahram, wrote: “It is absolutely necessary that an entente be made between the Zionists and Arabs, because the war of words can only do evil. The Zionists are necessary for the country: The money which they will bring, their knowledge and intelligence, and the industriousness which characterizes them will contribute without doubt to the regeneration of the country.”
Even a leading Arab nationalist believed the return of the Jews to their homeland would help resuscitate the country. According to Sherif Hussein, the guardian of the Islamic Holy Places in Arabia:
“The resources of the country are still virgin soil and will be developed by the Jewish immigrants. One of the most amazing things until recent times was that the Palestinian used to leave his country, wandering over the high seas in every direction. His native soil could not retain a hold on him, though his ancestors had lived on it for 1000 years. At the same time we have seen the Jews from foreign countries streaming to Palestine from Russia, Germany, Austria, Spain, USA. The cause of causes could not escape those who had a gift of deeper insight. They knew that the country was for its original sons (abna’ihilasliyin), for all their differences, a sacred and beloved homeland. The return of these exiles (jaliya) to their homeland will prove materially and spiritually [to be] an experimental school for their brethren who are with them in the fields, factories, trades and in all things connected with toil and labour.”
As Hussein foresaw, the regeneration of Palestine, and the growth of its population, came only after Jews returned in massive numbers.
Mark Twain, who visited Palestine in 1867, described it as: “...a desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds-a silent mournful expanse....A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action....We never saw a human being on the whole route....There was hardly a tree or a shrub anywhere. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of the worthless soil, had almost deserted the country.”
6 MYTH “Zionism is racism”
FACT In 1975, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution slandering Zionism by equating it with racism. Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which holds that Jews, like any other nation, are entitled to a homeland.
History has demonstrated the need to ensure Jewish security through a national homeland. Zionism recognizes that Jewishness is defined by shared origin, religion, culture and history. The realization of the Zionist dream is exemplified by more than five million Jews, from more than 100 countries, who are Israeli citizens.
Israel’s Law of Return grants automatic citizenship to Jews, but non-Jews are also eligible to become citizens under naturalization procedures similar to those in other countries. More than one million Muslim and Christian Arabs, Druze, Baha’is, Circassians and other ethnic groups also are represented in Israel’s population. The presence in Israel of thousands of dark- skinned Jews from Ethiopia, Yemen and India is the best refutation of the calumny against Zionism. In a series of historic airlifts, labelled Operations Moses (1984), Joshua (1985) and Solomon (1991), Israel rescued more than 20,000 members of the ancient Ethiopian Jewish community.
Zionism does not discriminate against anyone. Israel’s open and democratic character, and its scrupulous protection of the religious and political rights of Christians and Muslims, rebut the charge of exclusivity. Moreover, anyone - Jew or non-Jew, Israeli, American, or Saudi, black, white, yellow or purple - can be a Zionist.
Writing after “Operation Moses” was revealed, William Safire noted:
“...For the first time in history, thousands of black people are being brought to a country not in chains but in dignity, not as slaves but as citizens.”
By contrast, the Arab states define citizenship strictly by native parentage. It is almost impossible to become a naturalized citizen in many Arab states, especially Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Several Arab nations have laws that facilitate the naturalization of foreign Arabs, with the specific exception of Palestinians. Jordan, on the other hand, instituted its own “law of return” in 1954, according citizenship to all former residents of Palestine, except for Jews.
To single out Jewish self-determination for condemnation is itself a form of racism. When approached by a student at Harvard in 1968 who attacked Zionism, Martin Luther King responded: “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism.”
The 1975 UN resolution was part of the Soviet-Arab Cold War anti-Israel campaign. Almost all the former non-Arab supporters of the resolution have apologized and changed their positions. When the General Assembly voted to repeal the resolution in 1991, only some Arab and Muslim states, as well as Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam were opposed.
In 2001, Arab nations again were seeking to delegitimize Israel by trying to equate Zionism with racism at the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa. The United States joined Israel in boycotting the conference when it became clear that rather than focus on the evils of racism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia that were supposed to be the subject of the event, the conference had turned into a forum for bashing Israel.
7 The United States withdrew its delegation “to send a signal to the freedom loving nations of the world that we will not stand by if the world tries to describe Zionism as racism. That is as wrong as wrong can be.” White House Press Secretary Ari Fleisher added the President is proud to stand by Israel and by the Jewish community and send a signal that no group around the world will meet with international acceptance and respect if its purpose is to equate Zionism with racism.
MYTH ”Supporters of Israel only criticize Arabs and never Israelis”
FACT Israel is not perfect. Even the most committed friends of Israel acknowledge that the government sometimes makes mistakes, and that it has not solved all the problems in its society. Supporters of Israel may not emphasize these faults, however, because there is no shortage of groups and individuals who are willing to do nothing but focus on Israel’s imperfections. The public usually has much less access to Israel’s side of the story of its conflict with the Arabs, or the positive aspects of its society.
Israelis themselves are their own harshest critics. If you want to read criticism of Israeli behaviour, you do not need to seek out anti-Israel sources, you can pick up any Israeli newspaper and find no shortage of news and commentary critical of government policy. The rest of the world’s media provides constant attention to Israel, and the coverage is far more likely to be unfavourable than complimentary.
1.3 JEWISH PRESENCE THROUGHOUT THE AGES
1.3.1 The Identity of the Palestinians
“There is no such thing as Palestine in (Arab) history, absolutely not.” Professor Philip Hitti, distinguished Aran historian, testified before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry convened in Jerusalem in 1946
Hitti even expressed his opposition to using the word "Palestine" in maps because, in his words, it was "associated in the mind of the average American, and perhaps the Englishman too, with the Jews." This distinguished Princeton University professor could hardly be accused of acting as a Zionist spokesman! Nine years earlier, a noted local Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul- Hadi, told the Peel Commission, which recommended the partition of Mandatory Western Palestine: "There is no such country as Palestine! ’Palestine' is a term the Zionists invented! There is no Palestine in the Bible. 'Palestine' is alien to us; it is the Zionists who introduced it." Since the Balfour Declaration of 1917 spoke of the historic Land of Israel* as "Palestine" in which a "National Home for the Jewish People" was to be established, the Arabs, for obvious reasons, started declaring that there is no such thing as Palestine except as the southern part of Greater Syria. The application of the term "Palestinian" to the Arab inhabitants of Palestine to the exclusion of the Jews, probably began in the early 1960s, but neither 1967 Security Council Resolution 242, nor 1973 - Resolution 338 mentions Palestinians at all. It was only in the mid-seventies that the term first started being exploited by the PLO.
8 How did the present-day Arab inhabitants of the territory between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River call themselves "Palestinians" and claim exclusive right to this title? This is not merely semantics. The term Palestinians has gained currency in the media and has firmly established itself in the public mind. The psychological connotations of the term have specific political implications, as expressed in the formula: "The rightful heirs to the land called Palestine are, first and foremost, the people called Palestinians. All other claimants are newcomers or invaders.”
There is a widespread belief that, after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, all the Jews left Jerusalem and the Holy Land, and went into exile, i.e., the Diaspora. The Jewish homeland was then renamed Palestine by the Roman conquerors, and was owned and inhabited solely by Arabs. The Jews are therefore presented as "intruders" - in Jerusalem and elsewhere in the country - and their claim to the Holy Land and the Holy City is placed in question.
In actual fact, there is conclusive historical and archaeological evidence that there has been an unbroken Jewish presence in Jerusalem since 438 CE, 200 years before the Arab conquest in 638 CE. The Jewish claim, therefore, is not based on biblical and historical rights alone. Jews have always been permanent residents of the Old City, and since 1820, the Jews constituted the largest single community there. Despite persecution and oppression, the Jewish presence in Jerusalem was interrupted only twice: under Byzantine rule between 135 and 438 CE, and during the Crusader Kingdom, which lasted from 1099 to 1187 CE.
Counting from 1994 CE back to 996 BCE (David’s capture of the city), Jerusalem was a Jewish city for 1154 years. For 1174 years it was under Muslim rule, for 448 years Christians held sway; and for 222 years the Romans ruled. Most of the city’s Muslim rulers were not Arabs. The illustrious Saladin was a Kurd, and Suleiman the Magnificent was an Ottoman Turk. The Seljuks were Turkish mercenaries and the Mameluks hailed from the Caucasus.
In their efforts to refute Jewish historical claims to Jerusalem, Arab spokesmen tend to brush aside, as irrelevant or anachronistic, the Jewish right to call on history. To reinforce these attempts, the Arabs have rewritten the history of Jerusalem. In the process they have created a new myth by attempting to trace their origins in the region back to biblical times and thus establish their right of primogenitor in the country, as well as the Holy City. Publications issued by Arab sources, including the Palestine Information Office in Washington DC and the Palestine Encyclopaedia published in Beirut, as well as declarations made in the US and British media by eloquent Arab professors from prestigious universities, base Arab rights on imaginary claims that mix fantasy and distortion. No serious academic would even consider them worthy of refuting, but since these claims have been widely publicised, they require a response. Here are a few examples:
9 1.3.2 “Who are the Palestinians?”
The Palestinian people's historical roots can be traced back to the distant past of recorded history. The name "Palestine" came from 'Philistia', the land of the biblical Philistines, or "Peoples of the Sea."
This statement is correct only insofar as the Philistines were indeed the Biblical “Peoples of the Sea”, having arrived on the shores of Canaan from the Aegean Sea. However, they were not of Semitic origin, and the land which the Bible called "Eretz Pleshet" was only a narrow strip along the coastal plain. The god they worshiped was Dagon, an equivalent of the Greek Poseidon. Herodotus, the greatest historian of ancient times, refers to the land of the Philistines as being confined to the coastal plain. The name "Palestine" was given to the land by the Romans more than a thousand years later, while searching for a non-Jewish name for the province of Judea.
Before the establishment of the State of Israel, both the Jewish and the Arab inhabitants of the country were called Palestinians. Jewish soldiers serving with the Allies in World War II - including the author of this book -had the word "Palestine" inscribed on their shoulder badges. The Jerusalem Post, a Jewish-owned paper, was then called The Palestine Post. Likewise. The world-famed Israel Philharmonic Orchestra was called The Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra, playing under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. During the British Mandate period, the Arab political representation, headed by the Mufti of Jerusalem, was called The Arab Higher Committee," not the "Palestinian Committee."
1.4 THE JEWISH PEOPLE’S CONNECTION WITH THE LAND OF ISRAEL
1.4.1 The Jewish People were born in the Land of Israel
In every generation the People of Israel renewed their call to Zion. The founder of our people, Abraham, was commanded: "Rise up, walk about in the Land through its length and breadth for I shall give it to you" (Genesis 13, 17). His son, Isaac was commanded: "Reside in the Land which I point out to you dwell in this land and I will be with you" (Genesis 26, 2-3). Jacob, after whose adopted name, Israel, the Land is called, was promised "The ground on which you lie will I give to you and your descendants" (Genesis 28, 13). Even since those ancient times the land of our fathers - the Land of Israel has been the subject of numerous struggles.
The conquest and settlement of the Land were the first stage after the exodus from Egypt. The struggle was long and unceasing. It continued through wars in the times of the judges and kings of Israel until the exile of Israel and of Judah following the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E.
In the Book of Books - the Bible - the Jewish People have remained consistently true to their ties to Zion and to the belief that only there, in the land where their spiritual and national identity was formed in the past, could they have a future.
10 1.4.2 The Jews remained faithful to the land
For nearly two thousand years the Land of Israel was under foreign rule. The destruction of the Second Temple in 70 B.C.E. and the exile of the people of Israel from their land did not bring about a break in the connection or prevent the Jews from yearning for their land. The Jewish longing for their homeland arose out of deep religious feeling for the Holy Land and from the prohibitions decreed by their enemies and detractors. The efforts of the people to settle in the Land, whether permanently or temporarily were intended as a statement directed at conquerors and foreign rulers: that the people of Israel belong to the Land of Israel and no one can break the connection between the two. The connection to the Land of Israel became a basic factor in the everyday events of Jewish life in the Diaspora. It created a deep connection and became the basis for the existence of the Jewish way of life.
The oath "If I forget Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its cunning" found expression in the prayers, customs and ceremonies which Jews observe constantly.
At the end of every meal when reciting the Birkat Hamazon or Birkat Hanehenin (prayers of thanks for food) we say "And rebuild Jerusalem the Holy City speedily in our days"; at a Jewish wedding the groom puts ashes on his forehead and breaks a glass in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem as it is written "to return to those who mourn for Zion to give them majesty instead of ashes" (Isaiah 61, 3). Following the blessings on the engagement (erussin) and the marriage (nissuin) we say "Soon may there be heard in the Hills of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and the sounds of gladness, the voice of a groom and the voice of a bride".
On our festivals we express our Jewish belief in the prayer "Because of our sins we were exiled from our land...” for exile is punishment, severe punishment the meaning of which is to be cut off from our homeland, from the place where the unique Jewish national and spiritual nature was formed. Just as the Jewish presence in the Land has never ceased, the Aliyah (“going up; immigration”) of Jews to the Land with the intention of bringing about Redemption and the end of exile, has also never ceased.
1.4.3 ... to return and take possession ... they gave rebirth to their Hebrew language
The year 1882 was a turning point in the modern history of the Land of Israel. It marked the beginning of the Aliyah which can be described as "Zionist Aliyah", and which aimed at renewing Jewish independence and establishing a sovereign state for the Jewish People.
Those few hundred Jews who set out on the journey and left the countries in which they lived, to reach the Land of Israel are called "The First Aliyah". However the name is inaccurate. Without the "Yishuv Hayashan" (the old time settlers) who kept watch over the walls of Jerusalem the "Yishuv Hachadash" (the new settlers) outside the walls could not have existed; without the old "Love of Zion" (Chibat Tziyon) the new movement bearing this name could never have been created.
11 The uniqueness of the new "olim" (immigrants) who came in 1882 was in their stated goal to "homestead" on the Land of Israel with the intention of building up an independent entity as existed in ancient times.
Nearly 30,000 Jews lived in the Land of Israel in 1882. On the eve of the First World War that number had grown to 100,000. The foundation was poor in numbers but rich in the quality of its members.
The achievements of the First and Second Aliyot in the years 1882-1914 became the cornerstones of the developmental processes of the Jewish State. During that period the Hebrew Language was revived, a Jewish self-defence capability was created and new lifestyles were born - the moshavah and the kibbutz. Their uniqueness was in their preference for manual labour and their desire to cultivate the Land. The efforts of these pioneer "olim" laid the foundation for the State of Israel.
1.4.4 The Holocaust and Israel
The Holocaust influenced the establishment of the State of Israel on two levels. One was a real, tangible effect; the second was an indirect but deeper influence. On the tangible level there is no doubt that the fact at the end of the Second World War that the refugees of the Holocaust were concentrated in Central Europe - mostly in Germany and Italy, where nearly 300,000 Jewish displaced persons were located - was an important factor.
The aspiration of the Holocaust survivors was to go up to the Land of Israel - an aspiration which was clearly expressed in the attempts at illegal immigration - and this was crucial in the creation of the process which placed the question of the Land of Israel on the agenda of the United Nations, a process which ultimately led to an expression of international support for the establishment of the Jewish State in the Land of Israel.
The Holocaust was a terrible blow to the Jewish People, cruel and inhuman, like nothing which had ever happened before even in the long history of suffering and sacrifice which they had known.
"The Final Solution" of the Nazis brought about the destruction of European Jewry. Europe had been the largest centre of Jewish population in the world at the outbreak of the Second World War. From among the smouldering embers of the concentration camps and death camps, from the streets of the ruined cities the innermost cry of the Jews rose up to be heard "Give us a state!"
The leaders of Jewish Ghetto uprisings said it clearly: "The Holocaust will occur again - we do not know when or where!" The Jewish demand which rose up from the depths of despair fused with the sense of guilt felt by the community of nations which wanted to provide aid to the Jewish People in rebuilding its destroyed remnants and its renewed independence.
12 1.4.5 …..to go up to the Land Of Israel
One hundred and fifteen thousand illegal immigrants reached the Land of Israel during the years 1934 -1948. Most of them reached the shores of the Land in 141 ships which symbolized the Jewish rebellion against dependence on foreign rulers. The minority made their way on foot or by airplane.
The Ha'apalah (Illegal Immigration) was a clear indication that the Jewish People had decided to take its destiny into its own hands. The Aliyah of these Ma'apilim (Illegal Immigrants), the Ha'apalah project or by other names "the illegal Aliyah to Israel" or in short, "Aliyah Bet" is without a doubt among the crowning achievements of Jewish history and of Zionism in this century.
There were two obstacles which the Ha'apalah had to overcome: one was the prohibition against entering the Land, the other was the prohibition against free emigration from the countries of the Diaspora.
The Ha'apalah movement which grew as a reaction to the opposition of the British Mandatory Government became the central focus in the life of the Jewish nation after the Holocaust of European Jewry.
The extent of the "Ha'apalah" was so great that it could have changed the demographic balance in the land in favour of the Jews. The Arabs made no secret of their concern and applied whatever pressure they could on the British government to put a stop to the "Ha'apalah". Arab pressures succeeded, the British government viewed the illegal Aliyah as a highly dangerous element which could threaten their control and influence in the Middle East.
The obstacles only served to strengthen the efforts of the Ha'apalah activists. Even when many "olim" were deported from the land, first to Mauritius and later to Cyprus, the struggle continued between those barely seaworthy boats, armed only with daring and cleverness, and the warships of the British Navy. The existence of the Ha'apalah project served as a giant springboard toward tearing down the wall of oppression and alienation and as a catalyst for the establishment of the State.
The Ha'apalah activity was summarized in this definition by Berl Katzenelson in 1939: Whether you want it or not, whether you help or hinder, the troubles which beset Israel will send those boats out onto the water". There is no more accurate definition than that to describe that heroic struggle, filled with suffering, disaster and courage.
13 1.4.6 …The Hebrew Yishuv contributed ….
The volunteer (movement), conscious and aware of the opportunities created by the war, was the most important Zionist act since the Balfour Declaration". This was written by Major General Chaim Laskov and describes very clearly the contribution of the thirty thousand soldiers - Jews from the Land of Israel - who volunteered to serve in the British army.
The volunteer movement, between 1940 and 1945, adopted four goals: 1. to fight as men against the Nazi beast; 2. to wage the war of the Jews against the Nazis; 3. to open communications with the Jews of Europe; 4. to create the nucleus of a permanent Jewish army. Each of these four goals formed the basis of the personal decision of each volunteer to stand up and be counted.
Who were they? Native born Israelis, olim and ma'apilim who had reached the land during and just prior to the war years. They served in the infantry and artillery corps, in the women's division and in the Royal Air Force, in transport units and in the Royal Navy - almost every branch of the British military forces. They fought on every front against the armies of Germany and Italy and some even against the Japanese. From among the volunteers the "Jewish Brigade" was created, its nucleus was formed by three regiments from Israel to which artillery units were added. The symbol of the Brigade was a golden Star of David on a blue background (ח-י-ל) "and the Hebrew letters "chet - yud -lamed
The image of Israeli society was reflected in the hearts and deeds of those volunteer warriors who prayed for the redemption of the Land and contributed in a very tangible way to the establishment of the State of Israel. They were ordinary people who accomplished extra- ordinary feats.
14 SECTION 2: THE PREHISTORY OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL (c. 1880 – 1948)
2.1 THE ROOTS OF ZIONISM
Israel's modern history begins before statehood, with the migration of Jews to Palestine (as the area was then called) in the 19th century from eastern Europe, primarily Russia and Poland, and with the establish- merit of the modern political Zionist movement.
In 1880, the total number of Jews in Palestine was estimated at under 25,000. Some two- thirds lived in Jerusalem with most of the remainder in other cities considered holy by the Jews, such as Safed, Tiberias, and Hebron. There were also small Jewish communities in Jaffa and Haifa. Most of the Jews were Orthodox and generally subsisted on charitable donations from Jews abroad.
In the early 1880s, a wave of aliyah (immigration to Palestine or Israel), known as the First Aliyah, brought Jews from Russia and eastern Europe who wanted to settle the land. The Second Aliyah, which began in 1904 and lasted until Word War 1, brought additional immigrant settlers from Eastern Europe. This increased the Jewish population in Palestine to approximately 85,000 (about 12 percent of the total population) by 1914, with about half of the Jews residing in Jerusalem.
During these waves of migration, Jews came to Palestine for a variety. of reasons. Some came primarily for religious reasons and joined existing Jewish communities, primarily in Jerusalem, but also in other holy cities, where they could study and practice their religion. Others sought to escape the pogroms (organized massacres) prevalent in Russia or the generally poor economic and social conditions in eastern Europe and often were motivated by socialist ideas and concepts. Some were drawn by the Zionist ideology that sought the creation of a Jewish state as a response to anti-Semitism (discrimination against or hostility toward Jews) in their native lands.
Nineteenth-century Western Europe provided some opportunities for Jews to move from the ghettos and be assimilated, or incorporated, into general society: Some Jews prospered and were seen as an economic threat to the local populace, fuelling anti-Semitism, Political Zionism was the nationalist response of the Jewry of western and central Europe to the pervasiveness of anti-Semitism. Its objective was the establishment of a Jewish homeland in any available territory-not necessarily in Palestine- through cooperation with Western powers (the Great Powers). These Zionists believed that the new state, which they envisioned as a secular nation modelled after the post-emancipation European states, would attract large numbers of Jews and resolve the problem of anti-Semitism.
In the Russian Empire, the situation of the Jews was different. Under Czar Alexander 11 (1855- 1881), Jews gained access to educational institutions and professions previously closed to them, and a class of Jewish intellectuals began to emerge in some cities, as they had in Western Europe. However, all hopes for emancipation were dashed when Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. His reign was followed by renewed anti-Semitism and pogroms throughout the Russian Empire as Alexander III instituted oppressive policies. This led to substantial emigration of Jews from the empire. Between 1881 and 1914, some 2.5 million Jews left Russia. Most went to the United States, but some chose Palestine, where they sought refuge in the idea of reconstituting a Jewish state-but a secular and socialist one
15 2.1.1 Zionism as a Political Movement
Modern Zionist writings emerged in Europe in the mid-1880s. A number of Jewish writers were impressed by the nationalist fervour developing in Europe that led to the creation of new nation-states and also by the resurgence of messianic expectations among Jews that, some believed, might include the return of the Jews to the Holy Land. In Rome and Jerusalem (1862), Moses Hess, a German Jew, called for the establishment of a Jewish social commonwealth in Palestine as a solution to the Jewish problem, Leo Pinsker, a Russian physician living in Odessa, wrote in Auto-Emancipation (1881), that anti-Semitism was a modern phenomenon and that Jews must organize themselves to find their own national home wherever possible. Pinsker’s work attracted the attention of Hibbat Zion (Lovers of Zion), an organization devoted to Hebrew education and national revival. It took up his call for a territorial solution to the Jewish problem and helped establish Jewish agricultural settlements in Palestine at Rishon Le Zion, south of Tel Aviv, and Zikhron Yaaqov, south of Haifa.
Although the numbers were small – only 10 000 settlers by 1891 – the first Aliyah (1882 – 1903) was important because it established a Jewish position in Palestine espousing political objectives.
Theodor Herzl (1860 -1904)
Theodor Herzl is widely recognized in Israel and elsewhere as the founder of political Zionism and the prime mover in the effort to found a Jewish state. Modern political Zionism as conceived by Herzl sought the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine as a solution to 'the "Jewish Question" (essentially anti-Semitism). In Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), published in Vienna, Austria, on 14 February 1896, Herzl assessed the situation of the Jews and proposed a practical plan for a resolution by creating a state in which Jews would reconstitute their national life from biblical days in a territory of their own. His assessment of the problem saw anti-Semitism as a broad-scale and widespread phenomenon that appeared wherever Jews were located. He wrote: "Let sovereignty be granted us over a portion of the globe large enough to satisfy the rightful requirements of a nation" (Reich, ed., 1995, p. 18). He suggested that the preferred location was Palestine: "Palestine is our ever-memorable historic home. The very name of Palestine would attract our people with a force of marvellous potency" (ibid.). But initially, Palestine was not the only location considered by the Zionist movement.
On August 23, 1897, in Basel, Switzerland, Herzl convened the first World Zionist Congress, representing Jewish communities and organizations throughout the world. The congress established the World Zionist Organization (WZO), whose primary goal was enunciated in the Basel Program: "to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine." Herzl believed the meeting to have been a success and wrote in his diary on September 3, 1897:
16 Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in a word ... it would be this: At Basel I founded the Jewish State. .lf I said this out loud today, I would be answered by universal laughter. Perhaps in five years and certainly in 50, everyone will know it.
Thus, by the beginning of the 20th century, there was a movement whose goal was a Jewish state in Palestine, and there was Jewish immigration to Palestine, primarily from Eastern Europe and Russia. Herzl negotiated for land with a number of world leaders, including the pope, Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm, the Ottoman sultan Abdul Hamid Il, various princes, and other European political figures.
Herzl's political Zionism and the WZO that he established to secure a Jewish state in Palestine were not universally welcomed in the world's Jewish communities, Only a small number of individuals joined his cause at the outset, and the growth of the movement was slow, especially outside western Europe. The primary opposition to political Zionism came from Orthodox Jews who saw it as a rewriting of Jewish tradition, They rejected the idea that the Jews would return to the Holy Land before the coming of the Messiah. Zionism was seen as a secular (and socialist) movement that contradicted Jewish belief and tradition. Many Jews were also of the view that Zionism had altered Judaism by its focus on a political objective, a Jewish state, rather than sustaining a central sense of devotion and Jewish ritual observance.
BASEL PROGRAM (August 23, 1897)
The aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a home in Pales ne secured by public law. The [World Zionist] Congress contemplates the following means to the a ainment of this end:
· I. The promo on, on suitable lines, of the coloniza on of Pales ne by Jewish agricultural and industrial workers. · 2. The organiza on and binding together of the whole of Jewry by means of appropriate ins tu ons, local and interna onal, in accordance with the laws of each country. · 3. The strengthening and fostering of Jewish na onal sen ment and consciousness. · 4. Preparatory steps towards obtaining Government consent, where necessary, to the a ainment of the aim of Zionism.
2.1.2 World War I
The migration of Jews to Palestine from Europe and Russia continued in the earliest years of the 20th century, and the Jewish population of the Holy Land continued to grow both in the cities and in rural areas. Similarly, the Zionist movement continued its growth and development despite the death of Herzl in 1904. Growth of population was not matched by progress toward the goal of a Jewish state) and Ottoman control of the area remained the primary obstacle to Jewish self-government.
17 By World War I (1914) there were some 85,000 Jews in Palestine, both long-time residents and recent immigrants. At that time, there were some 600,000 Arabs in Palestine. The war provided an opportunity for substantial political manoeuvring by the great powers seeking enhanced positions in the region as well as by indigenous peoples and leaders. During the war, Palestine was an area of particular focus. Both the Zionist movement and its supporters on the one hand and the Arab populations of the region under the leadership of Sherif Hussein ibn Ali, the emir of Mecca, on the other hand sought eventual control over Palestine. As part of wartime manoeuvring, the British and French, initially with their Russian ally and later without it, developed schemes for the division of the territories of the defeated Ottoman Empire after the war’s end. In the Sykes- Picot Agreement, Britain sought a sphere of influence in those parts of the empire that became Palestine and Iraq, while the French focused on the more northern territories that became Syria and Lebanon.
In their victory over the Ottomans, the British sought assistance from various groups in the region and beyond. A basic strategy was to encourage an Arab revolt against the Ottomans thereby forcing the empire to divert attention and forces from the war in Europe to the conflict in the Middle East. The British concluded that this would facilitate the Allied war effort against its adversaries.
In exchange for Arab assistance, the British pledged support for Sherif Hussein ibn Ali and his plans for an Arab kingdom under his leadership. In an exchange of correspondence between Hussein and the British high commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, between July 14, 1915, and March 1916, Hussein claimed Palestine as part of that territory. Although the British excluded that area from Hussein's proposed domain, McMahon's remarks left this pledge somewhat ambiguous during the hostilities so as to ensure Arab support against the Ottomans. Indeed, the ambiguities continued in the various negotiations for the post-war settlement. It was not until 1922, in the so-called Churchill Memorandum (also known as the Churchill White Paper), that the British government clarified that the pledge by McMahon to Hussein excluded the area west of the Jordan River (in other words, the area that later became Israel, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank).
World War I also provided opportunities for the Zionist movement to make progress toward its objectives. Material aid to the Allied cause was provided by Jewish fighters, with the notable contribution of Dr. Chaim Weizmann in aiding the British war effort. A Russian Jewish immigrant to Great Britain and a leader of the World Zionist Organization who gained access to the highest levels of the British government, Weizmann helped secure the issuance of the Balfour Declaration by the British government in November 1917. The declaration's core point was that "His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people ... “
This declaration was seen as expressing support for the Zionist position and laying the basis for a Jewish state in Palestine. But it was a short and somewhat ambiguous document: The declaration suggested that the British government would view such an event "with favour"; furthermore, it spoke not of a state but of "a national home." There was no timetable, no clear articulation of the end result, and no description of the area in question beyond noting "in Palestine." The ambiguity allowed for numerous and various interpretations.
18 The British found advantages to a Jewish presence in Palestine. Some believed it was economically, politically, and strategically desirable; others saw the Jews in the Holy Land as having religious significance, with the Jews rightfully in Zion. The combination of British political and strategic calculations and Zionist efforts led to the British government's decision. The Balfour Declaration dramatically altered the Zionist movement’s efforts to create a Jewish state in Palestine. It pledged British support for the primary Zionist objective and thereby generated widespread international recognition of the objective and additional support for the goal. US president Woodrow Wilson personally endorsed the declaration and the US Congress in 1922 unanimously approved a joint resolution supporting the Balfour Declaration.
BALFOUR DECLARATION November 2, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild, I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declara on of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspira ons which has been submi ed to, and approved by, the Cabinet: 'His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Pales ne of a na onal home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of exis ng non-Jewish communi es in Pales ne, or the rights and poli cal status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.' I should be grateful if you would bring this declara on to the knowledge of the Zionist Federa on. Yours Sincerely Arthur James Balfour
2.2 THE MANDATE FOR PALESTINE AND THE PRE-STATE PERIOD
On December 9, 1917, British troops under General Edmund Allenby took Jerusalem from the Turks, ending four centuries of Ottoman rule. Included in the British army were three battalions of the Jewish Legion, consisting of thousands of Jewish volunteers. An armistice was concluded with Turkey on October 31, 1918 j and all of Palestine came under British military control.
The Ottoman Empire, defeated by the Western alliance of Great Britain, France, the United States, and others, was forced to relinquish much of its empire. Competing arguments, supporting either the Jewish (Zionist) claim or the Arab claim, were advanced at the various peace conferences and other venues where the post-war settlement and the future of
19 Palestine was considered. Eventually, the British decided not to grant control of the area to either the Arabs or the Zionists and thereby incurred the displeasure of both parties. Instead of making the decision soon after the cessation of hostilities, the British effectively postponed it and instead took upon themselves to retain control of Palestine. At the San Remo Conference of April 1920, the details of the mandate system were structured. The British mandate for Palestine was approved by the Council of the League of Nations on 24 July 1922, and became official on 29 September 1923.
The mandate for Palestine provided the legal foundation and the administrative and political framework for the ensuing quarter of a century. 'The history of the modern Jewish state, from an administrative and bureaucratic perspective, begins with the creation of the mandate. The mandate recognized the "historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine," called upon the mandatory power to "secure establishment of the Jewish national home," and recognized "an appropriate Jewish agency" for advice and cooperation to that end. The WZO, which was specifically recognized as the appropriate vehicle, formally established the Jewish Agency in 1929. Jewish immigration was to be facilitated, while ensuring that the "rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced." English, Arabic, and Hebrew were all to be official languages.
The objective of the British mandate administration was the peaceful accommodation of Arabs and Jews in the mandate and the development of Palestine by Arabs and Jews under British control. Sir Herbert Samuel, the first high commissioner of Palestine, was responsible for keeping order between the two antagonistic communities. He called for Jewish immigration and land acquisition, which enabled thousands of highly committed and well- trained socialist Zionists to enter Palestine between 1919 and 1923. The Third Aliyah, as it came to be called, made important contributions to the development of Jewish agriculture, especially collective farming.
2.2.1 The Jewish community under the Mandate
The British mandate authorities granted the Jewish and Arab communities the right to run their own internal affairs. During the mandate period the Jewish community in Palestine (known as the Yishuv) established institutions for self-government and procedures for implementing decisions, the organized Jewish community chose by secret ballot the Assembly of the Elected (Asefat Hanivcharim) as its representative body. It met at least once a year, and between sessions its powers were exercised by the National Council (Vaad Leumi), which was elected by the assembly the mandatory government entrusted the National Council with responsibility for Jewish communal affairs and granted it considerable autonomy. Financed by local resources and funds provided by world Jewry. These bodies maintained a network of educational, religious, health and social services for the Jewish population. The council and its component units were responsible for administration within the Jewish community and created institutions to perform the requisite functions.
In addition to the standard departments and agencies of the government, a clandestine force, the Haganah, was created in 1920 as a wide-ranging organization for the defence of Jewish life and property in Palestine following a series of serious Arab actions in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Palestine. After independence, the Haganah formed the core of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), Israel's military. Arms were smuggled to the Haganah, and training was provided. The Haganah guarded settlements, manufactured arms, and built stockades and roads for defence.
20 Other political and social institutions were created within the framework of the Yishuv; and many of these continued to function long after the creation of the State of Israel. These included the Histadrut, the General Federation of Labour, which coordinated Iabour-related matters and engaged in various social welfare and economic endeavours. The Histadrut, established in 1920, was more than a traditional Iabour union. It established training centres, helped to absorb new immigrants, and funded and managed large-scale agricultural and industrial enterprises. It set up agricultural marketing cooperatives, banks, and the construction firm Solel Boneh.
Political parties, many of which continue to exist today, albeit, after various reinventions of themselves, were also created within the Yishuv structure. Among these institutions was also the Jewish Agency, created by the terms of the Palestine mandate, which eventually became the basis for the foreign ministry and other agencies with diplomatic missions outside Israel and for the functions relating to immigrants and liaison with the Jewish Diaspora.
2.2.2 Division in Zionism
The Jewish community in the mandate was not wholly cohesive. Internal divisions over domestic and foreign policies periodically developed. Revisionist Zionism, led by Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky, challenged the views and policies of Ben-Gurion and the Zionist leadership of the Yishuv on a number of levels. Jabotinsky espoused a less socialist economic structure and a more activist defence policy against Arab riots and demonstrations, He also disagreed over the British decision to divide the Palestine mandate and create a new Arab state in the territory of the mandate east of the Jordan River, then known as Transjordan.
Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky David Ben Gurion (1880 – 1940) (1886 – 1973)
In the Revisionist conception, the Zionist aim was to provide an integral solution to the worldwide Jewish problem in all its aspects – political, economic, and spiritual. To attain this objective, the Revisionists demanded that the entire mandated territory of Palestine, on both sides of the Jordan River, be turned into a Jewish state with a Jewish majority. They stressed the necessity of bringing to Palestine the largest number of Jews within the shortest possible time, Revisionism met with increasingly strong resistance, particularly from labour groups. The World Union of Zionists-Revisionists was founded in 1925 as an integral part of the WZO with Jabotinsky as president. In 1935, a referendum held among Revisionists resulted in their secession from the WZO and the establishment of an independent New Zionist Organization (NZO). Eleven years later, when ideological and tactical differences between the NZO and the WZO had diminished, the NZO decided to give up its separate existence and participated in the elections to the 22nd World Zionist Congress in Basel in 1946. 21 THE KIBBUTZ
Jewish immigrants to Pales ne in the 19th and early 20th centuries sought to create condi ons for a Jewish state to prosper in an area of limited economic poten al. To facilitate their efforts, these early pioneers (Halutzim) developed a new type of communal se lement called the kibbutz.
The first kibbutz had its origins in the founding, in December 1909, of an experimental collec ve se lement in the Jordan River Valley near the Sea of Galilee. Although the experiment proved successful, its original members dispersed, and it was taken over by a group of pioneers from Russia, who named it Degania.
The kibbutz soon came to symbolize the pioneering spirit of Israel and even became synonymous with Israeli society although it never represented more than a small propor on of Israel's popula on. The word kibbutz comes from the Hebrew for "group." The kibbutz is a socialist experiment: a voluntary grouping of individuals who hold property in common and have their needs sa sfied by the commune. Every kibbutz member par cipates in the work. All the needs of the members, including educa on, recrea on, medical care, and vaca ons, are provided by the kibbutz.
The earliest kibbutzim were founded by immigrant Halutzim from eastern Europe who sought to join socialism and Zionism to build a new kind of society and have been maintained by successive genera ons as well as new members. Ini ally, the Kibbutzim focused on working the land and became known for their crops, poultry, orchards, and dairy farming. As modern, especially automated, techniques were introduced and as land and water became less available, many of the Kibbutzim shi ed their ac vi es or branched out into new areas, such as industry and tourism, to supplement their agricultural pursuits.
Kibbutz factories now manufacture electronic products, furniture, plas cs, house hold appliances, farm machinery, and irriga on- system components. Some operate large shopping centres.
A type of coopera ve agricultural se lement o en confused with the Kibbutz is the Moshav, which allows its members to live individually and to farm their own land but coopera vely owns the heavy machinery and handles the purchasing of supplies and marke ng products. The first Moshav, Nahalal, was founded in 1921 in the Yizrael Valley.
The Kibbutz, a social and economic framework that grew out of the pioneering society of the early 20th century, became a permanent rural way of life based on egalitarian and communal principles. It set up a prosperous economy and dis nguished itself through the contribu on of its members in the establishment, and building, of the state. Given the small percentage of the popula on who par cipated in kibbutzim, however, the kibbutz was over-represented in social importance and poli cal strength.
Prior to Israel's independence and its ini al years of statehood, the Kibbutz assumed a number of important func ons and ac vi es dealing with se lement, immigra on, agriculture and defence, This was important in crea ng both a new state and a new society. Later these became state func ons and the role of the kibbutzim in society, especially since the 19705, has declined, as has its poli cal strength. Nevertheless, its role in the economic sphere has remained significantly greater than the percentage of the par cipa ng popula on.
22 2.2.3 During the British Mandate
Successive waves of Jewish immigrants arrived in Palestine between 1919 and 1939, each contributing to different aspects of the developing Jewish community Some 35,000 who came between 1919 and 1923, mainly from Russia, strongly influenced the community's character and structure. These pioneers laid the foundations of a comprehensive social and economic infrastructure, developed agriculture, established kibbutzim (communal settlements) and Moshavim (cooperative settlements), and provided the labour for the construction of housing and roads.
The following influx, between 1924 and 1932, of some 60,000 immigrants, primarily from Poland, was instrumental in developing and enriching urban life. They settled mainly in TeI- Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem, where they established small businesses, construction firms, and light industry the last major wave of immigration before World War II took place in the 1930s, following Adolf Hitler's rise to power, and consisted of some 165,000 people, mostly from Germany. The newcomers, many of whom were professionals and academics, constituted the first large-scale influx from western and central Europe. Their education, skills, and experience raised business standards, improved urban and rural lifestyles, and broadened the community’s cultural life.
During the British mandate, agriculture expanded, factories were established, the waters of the Jordan River were harnessed for the production of electric power, new roads were built throughout the country, and the Dead Sea's mineral potential was tapped. Furthermore, a cultural life was emerging. Activities in art, music, and dance developed gradually with the establishment of professional schools and studios. Galleries and ha11s were set up to provide venues for exhibitions and performances. The Hebrew language was recognized as one of the three official languages of the territory, along with English and Arabic, and was used on documents, coins, and stamps, and on the radio. Publishing proliferated, and Palestine emerged as the dominant centre of Hebrew literary activity. Theatres opened and there were attempts to write original Hebrew plays. The Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra was also founded during this time.
2.3 ARAB-JEWISH CONFLICT UNDER THE BRITISH MANDATE
The history of the mandate period is one of tension and conflict between the Jewish and Arab communities in Palestine and between them and the British. Each community believed that it had the right to the entire territory and had been so promised by the British government and its World War I Allies, yet neither got it as the British retained control. The efforts of the Jewish community to build a country for themselves primarily through Jewish immigration and land purchases were opposed by the Arabs and led to unrest, in 1920 and 1921 that continued to escalate. 23 Violence erupted again in the late 1920s. In 1928 and 1929, there were disturbances and riots associated with the Western, or Wailing, Wall, and Jews were killed in j\Jerusalem, Hebron, and Safed, with more injured there and elsewhere. A tenth of the Jewish community in Hebron was massacred, and the remainder left the city. The British government established a commission in September 1929 to investigate the cause of the anti-Jewish riots and to suggest policies that might prevent such occurrences in the future.
The Shaw Commission report suggested that the disturbances resulted from Arab fears of Jewish domination of Palestine through Jewish immigration and land purchases. It recommended that the British government issue a clear statement of policy on the meanings of the mandate provisions and on such issues as land ownership and Immigration. The British continued to debate the issue of immigration and land purchases in the early 1930s but reached no definitive policy. Nevertheless, for several years Palestine remained relatively calm.
In November 1935, the Arabs in Palestine petitioned the British authorities to halt land transfers to the Jews, to establish a form of democratic leadership, and to terminate further Jewish immigration until there was an evaluation of the absorptive capacity of the country. Their demands were rejected, and in April 1936, the Arab Higher Committee, which consisted of representatives from the major Arab factions or groups in Palestine, called for a general strike. The Arab revolt soon escalated into violence as marauding bands of Arabs attacked Jewish settlements and Jewish paramilitary groups responded. After appeals from Arab leaders in the surrounding states, the committee called off the strike in October 1936.
The British government appointed a Commission under Lord Robert Peel to assess the situation. The Peel report, published in July 1937, noted that because the British had made promises to both the Arabs and Jews during World War I and in return had gained the support of both, each party had drawn its own expectations from those promises. Although the British had believed that both Arabs and Jews could find a degree of compatibility under the mandate, this belief had not been justified nor would it be in the future. However, Britain would not renounce its obligations; it was responsible for the welfare of the mandate and would strive to make peace:'
In the light of experience and of the arguments adduced by the Commission ... [the British government is] driven to the conclusions that there is an irreconcilable conflict between the aspirations of Arabs and Jews in Palestine, that these aspirations cannot be satisfied under the terms of the present Mandate, and that a scheme of partition on the general lines recommended by the Commission represents the best and most hopeful solution to the deadlock.
Cantonization (the division of Palestine into cantons, or territories) was examined as a possible solution and found not to be viable because it would not settle the question of self- government. The commission suggested the partition of Palestine into three zones: a Jewish zone, an Arab section, and a corridor that went from Tel Aviv-Jaffa to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, which was to be under a continued British mandate. The drawbacks of partition, it was believed, would be outweighed by the advantages of peace and security. The mandate would thus be dissolved and replaced by a treaty system identical to that of Iraq and Syria. Access to and the protection of the holy places in Jerusalem and Bethlehem would be guaranteed to all by the League of Nations. The principle guiding the partition of Palestine was the separation of Jewish areas of settlement from those completely or mostly occupied by the Arabs.
24 The partition plan proposed by Peel, the first recommendation for the partition of Palestine, was a reversal of British policy on the mandate .and the Balfour Declaration. Anger and protest from both the Arabs and the Zionists ensued. The Arabs did not want to have to give up any land to the Jews, and the Zionists felt betrayed in their pursuit of all of Palestine as a national home.
Britain endorsed the Peel plan. After reviewing the Peel Commission report-in July/August 1937, the League of Nations Permanent Mandates Commission in Geneva objected to the partition: The Jewish Agency accepted the plan even though it was not happy with the exclusion of Jerusalem and with the amount of territory allotted to the Jewish state. The Arab Higher Committee rejected the plan and the division of Palestine, and a new and more violent phase of the Arab revolt began.
Yet another commission was established. The Woodhead Commission published its findings in October 1938, which held that the Peel Commission’s proposals were not feasible, primarily because it would leave a large Arab minority within the boundaries of a Jewish state, which also would be surrounded by other Arab states. The Woodhead Commission concluded that there were no feasible boundaries for self-supporting Arab and Jewish states in Palestine but suggested a number of partition plans. The British government responded on 9 November 1938, noting that partition was not feasible: "His Majesty's Government ... have reached the conclusion that ... the political, administrative and financial difficulties involved in the proposal to create independent Arab and Jewish States inside Palestine are so great that this solution of the problem is impracticable."
On 7 February 1939, the British government convened the St. James Conference in London to see if a solution could be developed through negotiations with the Arabs and the Jews. The failure of the conference led to a White Paper of 17 May 1939, that called for severe restrictions on Jewish immigration: "His Majesty's Government believe that the framers of the Mandate in which the Balfour Declaration was embodied could not have intended that Palestine should be converted into a Jewish State against the will of the Arab population of the country." It called, therefore, for the establishment of a Jewish National Home in an independent Palestinian state. Jewish immigration would be restricted, as would be land transfers. The White Paper foresaw an independent Palestinian state within 10 years.
The House of Commons debated the White Paper on 22 May 1939, and it was approved. The House of Lords also approved it. The response was outrage in both Arab and Jewish communities. The Arabs wanted an immediate end to all Jewish immigration and the review of all immigrants who had entered Palestine since 1918. The Zionists felt the British had backed away from previous commitments to work towards a Jewish homeland and this policy was a breach of faith. Peace in Palestine seemed improbable, as both the Arabs and the Jews rejected the White Paper.
On the eve of World War II, the British realized they could not end the conflict in Palestine and that their role in the country was over. The animosity and the violence between Jews and Arabs had become unmanageable.
25 2.4 WORLD WAR ll AND THE HOLOCAUST
During World War Il, the National Socialist (Nazi) regime under Adolf Hitler in Germany systematically carried out a plan to liquidate the European Jewish community As the Nazi armies swept through Europe, Jews were persecuted, subjected to pain and humiliation, and herded into ghettos. From the ghettos, they were transported to concentration camps and murdered in mass shootings or in gas chambers, In 1939, some 10 million of the estimated 16 million Jews in the world lived in Europe. By 1945, almost 6 million had been killed, most in the major concentration camps. In Czechoslovakia, about 4,000 Jews survived out of 281,000; in Greece, about 200 survived out of 65,000-70,000. In Austria, 5,000 of 70,000 escaped death. Some 4.6 million were killed in Poland and German-occupied areas of the Soviet Union.
During World War Il, the Yishuv generally pursued a policy of cooperation with the British in the war effort against 'Germany and other Axis powers. About 32,000 Jews in Palestine volunteered to serve in the British forces. In 1944, the Jewish Brigade (composed of some 5,000 volunteers) was formed and later fought. As a consequence, the Yishuv leadership formed a mobile defence force to replace the Haganah members who had gone to fight with the British. The Plugot Mahatz (Shock Forces) or Palmach were a mobile force designed to defend the Yishuv. and the British helped train them, The Jewish Brigade and Palmach veterans would later constitute the core of the IDF officer corps.
2.4.1 After World War ll
World War Il and its associated horrors created a greater need for a resolution to the Palestine issue, and the struggle for Palestine intensified. At the end of World War Il, hundreds of thousands of desperate Jews who had populated Europe's concentration camps wanted relocation to Palestine, but the British were still unwilling to allow it. A change of government in Britain brought Ernest Bevin, widely regarded as anti- Semitic, into the position of foreign secretary, and he opposed any new Jewish immigration to Palestine. British policy united the various elements of the Yishuv leadership, who saw no alternative but to launch a full-fledged campaign against the British, which took several forms. One was diplomatic, Another was an appeal to the compassion of the world by launching an illegal immigration effort, bringing tens of thousands of refugees from Europe in refugee boats. The campaign against the British also used violence, with the first shots fired on British military and government facilities by armed underground groups.
On 22 July 1946, the southwest corner of Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, headquarters of the British military and civilian command in Palestine, was destroyed by a bombing committed by the lrgun Zvai Leumi. A total of 91 people were killed in the attack: 41 Arabs, 28 British, 17 Jews, and five others. According to the lrgun's leader, Menahem Begin, the bombing was a political act, a demonstration that the Irgun could strike at the very heart of the British mandate in Palestine. The attack was condemned by the Jewish Agency leadership. Nevertheless, it prompted a crackdown by British security authorities on Zionist activities in Palestine.
During World War Il, the focus of the Zionist movements activities and leadership shifted from Europe to the United States, creating a new set of opportunities to achieve the Zionist objective as well as a fortuitous linking of Zionism to the United States, which would emerge a superpower from World War II and help guide the creation of a new world environment. The Biltmore Conference of 1942 marked the public manifestation of the move in Zionist focus to the United States. Subsequently, Chaim Weizmann secured US support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, paralleling his role with the British during World War l.
26 THE IRGUN
In part in response to an -Jewish riots in 1929, the newly formed Revisionist Zionist movement developed its own mili a. The Irgun (short for Irgun Zvai Leurnl, or Na onal Military Organiza on, also known by its Hebrew acronym, Etzel) was a clandes ne defence organiza on founded in 1931 by militant members of the defence forces, the Haganah, and others who believed that the Haganah was not sufficiently responsive to Pales nian Arab violence against the Jews in the mandate. In 1936, the Irgun formally became the armed wing of the Revisionist movement. In 1937, an agreement with the Haganah for the merger of the two defence bodies led to a split in Etzel in April 1937. Un l May 1939, the Irgun's ac vi es were limited to retalia on against Arab a acks. A er the publica on of the Bri sh White Paper of 1939, the Bri sh mandatory authori es became. the lrgun's target.
With the outbreak of World War 11, the Irgun announced the cessa on of an -Bri sh ac on and offered its coopera on in the common struggle against Nazi Germany. The Stern Gang (Lohamei Herut Yisrael-Lehi-Fighters for the Freedom of Israel) was then formed due to disagreement within the lrgun over an -Bri sh ac ons. Founder Avraham Stern and his followers sought con nued an -Bri sh ac on despite World War 11.
Menahem Begin was the Irgun's commander from December 1943 to 1948. In January 1944, the lrgun declared that the truce with the Bri sh was over and renewed the state of war. The lrgun demanded the libera on of Pales ne from Bri sh occupa on. Its a acks were directed against government ins tu ons such as immigra on, land registry, and income tax offices and police and radio sta ons. Limited coopera on was established in the late fall of 1945 among the Irgun, Lehi, and Haganah and lasted, with occasional setbacks, un l August 1946. On 22 July of that year, Etzel blew up the Bri sh army head- quarters and the secretariat of the Pales ne government, housed in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.
A er the United Na ons adopted the Pales ne par on plan on 29 November 1947, organized Arab bands launched an -Jewish a acks; the lrgun vigorously countera acked. One of these was the capture, on 9 April 1948, of the village of Deir Yassin by the Irgun-Lehi forces, which resulted in a large number of Arab civilian casual es.
When the State of Israel was proclaimed on 14 May 1948, the Irgun announced that it would disband and transfer its men to the Israel Defence Forces. For several weeks, however, un l full integra on was completed, the lrgun forma ons con nued to func on as separate units, especially in Jerusalem which the UN had declared to be an interna onal city. On 20 June 1948, a cargo ship, the Altalena, purchased and equipped in Europe by the Irgun and its sympathisers and carrying 800 volunteers and large quan es of arms and ammuni on, reached Israel's shores. The Irgun demanded that 20 percent of the arms be allocated to its s ll independent units in Jerusalem, but the Israeli government under David Ben-Gurion ordered the surrender of all arms and of the ship. When the order was not complied with, government troops opened fire on the ship, which consequently went up in flames off Tel Aviv. On 1 September 1948, the remaining lrgun units disbanded and joined the IDF.
27 The Zionist movement had been primarily a European one until World War Il when its membership and leadership was destroyed and dislocated by the Holocaust and by the war. In the United States, the Jewish community; whose focus generally had not been on Zionism as a solution to anti-Semitism but rather on the civil rights concerns of American Jews, emerged as interested in and concerned about the fate of their coreligionists in Europe and Palestine.
The Holocaust and. World War 11 emerged as public policy issues in the United States at the end of the war. The practical and humanitarian problems were faced by US military forces confronting large numbers of displaced European Jews and the problems associated with their survival and future. It was at this point that US President Harry Truman determined that allowing some of these Jewish refugees to find refuge in Palestine would make good sense and good policy. Truman suggested the need to open the gates to Palestine for displaced Jews seeking refuge. The newly elected British government refused. In November 1945, an Anglo- American Committee of Inquiry, composed of representatives appointed by their respective governments was charged with studying the question of Jewish immigration to Palestine and the future of the British mandate, After numerous meetings and hearings in the region and elsewhere, it issued a report on 20 April 1946. Among the recommendations was the immediate issuing of 100,000 immigration certificates for Palestine to Jewish victims of Nazi and Fascist persecution. Truman accepted much of the report; the British government did not and refused to increase the Iimits on Jewish immigration to Palestine.
Faced with continued British opposition, the Yishuv decided to commence illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine. The goal was to move secretly, and primarily by ship, Jews from European camps for displaced persons to Palestine's ports. The Yishuv sought to evade the British navy and land in Palestine where the arriving immigrants were granted refuge among the Jewish community in Palestine. This alternative immigration was referred to as Aliya Bet (Immigration B). More than 70,000 Jews arrived in Palestine on more than 100 ships of various sizes between the end of World War Il and the independence of Israel in May 1948.
2.5 THE END OF THE BRITISH MANDATE AND THE PARTITION PLAN
The enormous drain on human and economic resources of the Allied powers during and immediately after World War II forced significant rethinking of political and strategic policies for the post-war era in most of the major states of the world. In Britain, the crucial decision was taken to re-examine the empire and re-evaluate positions "east of Suez." The British position in Palestine became increasingly untenable, and it soon became an obvious choice for British withdrawal. The costs of continuing the mandate far outweighed the benefits to Britain of remaining there, especially with the growing pressures accelerated by the war and its subsequent effects on the regional and external players.
The British, reflecting on their inability over the previous decades to find a solution to the Palestine issue that would satisfy the conflicting views of the Jews and the Arabs, and reconsidering the cost in men and pounds sterling of their continuation as the mandatory power, made a decision to relinquish their control over the Palestine mandate.
On 15 February 1947, Great Britain turned the issue of the Palestine mandate over to the United Nations. In effect, the British gave up on the issues affecting Palestine and, rather than suggesting a serious resolution of the issue, chose to place the problem on the agenda of the international community The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) was created to investigate the issue and suggest appropriate measures to be taken.
28 As part of the Zionist lobbying effort, 'WZO president Chaim Weizmann met with US president Truman. These meetings were crucial to generate American support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine along the lines preferred by the Zionist movement.
“EXODUS”
The Exodus was the best known of the many ships loaded with refugees that Zionist ac vists sought to bring to Pales ne, in defiance of the Bri sh authori es. Originally known as the President Warfield, the Exodus was purchased by the Haganah expressly to transport immigrants to Pales ne. It departed from France in July 1947 with a shipload of 4,500 Holocaust survivors who sought entrance to Pales ne. As the Exodus sailed across the Mediterranean, it was trailed by a Bri sh warship and became the subject of interna onal media a en on. When it approached Pales ne on 18 July, it was intercepted by the Bri sh navy. Interna onal controversy intensified when the Bri sh, instead of depor ng the refugees to Cyprus, shipped them back to France; however, all but a handful of the passengers refused to disembark. Then on 22 August, the Bri sh ordered the refugees sent to the Bri sh zone of occupied Germany. Media coverage of the struggle further galvanized interna onal cri cism of Great Britain's policies.
The passengers of the Exodus finally reached Israel in late 1948, following the establishment of the State of Israel.
The Haganah ship Exodus carried thousands of Jewish refugees to Pales ne. (Courtesy Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C)
Direct and significant US involvement in the Palestine question had developed since the shift of the Zionist movement from Europe to the USA during World War II. Toward the end of the hostilities, the United States was also involved in the question of the future of the displaced persons in the concentration camps liberated by the US and Allied forces. Truman’s interest and concern with this issue was among the earliest of the US involvement in the Palestine matter.
After considerable deliberation, the UNSCOP proposed a plan that called for the partition of the British mandate of Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state, with an international regime (corpus separatum) for the city of Jerusalem and its environs, as the city was deemed too holy to be accorded to either. The partition plan proposed boundaries for a 4,500-square- mile Arab state that would be home to about 800,000 Arabs and 10,000 Jews. The Jewish state was to consist of some 5,500 square miles where some 498,000 Jews and 468,000 Arabs would live. The Jewish state was located in the coastal plain along the Mediterranean Sea from about Ashkelon to Acre, the eastern area of the Galilee, and much of the Negev desert. The Arab state included. the remainder of the territory of the mandate west of the Jordan River, except for Jerusalem and the immediate area around it, which were included in the internationalized zone. All would be linked in an economic union. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly, by a vote of 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions and one member absent, adopted Resolution 181 (II), the plan of partition for Palestine. Thus, the international system created a Jewish state of Israel, within the territory of the Palestine mandate. 29 ARAB OPPOSITION TO THE PARTITION OF PALESTINE (29 November 1947)
A er the adop on of Resolu on 181 (11) by the United Na ons General Assembly, Saudi Arabia's chief delegate, Emir Faisal al- Saud, declared:
Today's resolu on has destroyed the Charter and all the covenants preceding it. We have felt, like many others, the pressure exerted on various representa ves of this Organisa on by some of the big Powers in order that the vote should be in favour of par on. For these reasons, the Government of Saudi Arabia registers, on this historic occasion, the fact that it does not consider itself bound by the resolu on adopted today by the General Assembly. Furthermore, it reserves to itself the full right to act freely in whatever way it deems fit, in accordance with the principles of right and jus ce. My Government holds responsible those par es that hampered all means of coopera on and understanding.
The Zionist movement and other Jews were divided concerning the United Nations decision. Among the Zionist groups in Palestine and the Diaspora there were essentially two perspectives. Both believed that they had been offered less than they wanted, but the left-of- centre Labour Zionists adopted a practical stance and believed that acceptance of the partition was the most logical and appropriate step. The right 'wing of the Zionists, primarily the Revisionists, believed that they should have been awarded all of the land west of the Jordan River as well as the territory east of the river that the British had severed from the original League of Nations mandate for Palestine to create the state of Transjordan. Nevertheless, there was little that could be done. Thus, the Yishuv, though unhappy with the exclusion of Jerusalem, and the Jewish Agency, accepted the decision of the General Assembly as an important step toward independent statehood and a practical necessity for providing refuge for survivors of the Holocaust. When the new state of Israel declared its independence in May 1948, it was within the lines drawn by the United Nations.
Meanwhile, the Arab leadership in Palestine and the League of Arab States unconditionally rejected the UN partition plan on the grounds that all of Palestine should be awarded to a Palestinian Arab state. The Arab rejection was based on the position that the United Nations had no right to give away approximately half of Palestine to the Zionists and that Palestinian Arabs should not be made to pay for Europe's crimes against the Jews. The latter argument was advanced despite the fact that the Balfour Declaration had been issued before the Nazis rose to power in Germany.
These clashing perspectives provided a basis for the ongoing Arab- Israeli conflict. The partition plan was supported by the United States and the Soviet Union, both of whom seemed to be courting the new Jewish state as an ally in the east-west struggle for regional mastery. Fighting erupted in Palestine after adoption of the partition plan; the first Jewish buses were attacked the next morning; six passengers were killed and many others were wounded. Armed Palestinian Arabs aided by volunteers smuggled in from neighbouring Arab countries launched attacks on Jewish settlements and facilities. The forces of the Yishuv, especially the Haganah, were able to deal effectively with this threat in many areas. The civil war between the communities in Palestine was the prelude to full-scale hostilities after the British mandate ended on 15 May 1948.
30 ISRAEL IS ESTABLISHED
Hours a er David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel, Arab armies invaded the borders of the new State. Egypt from the south, Iraq and Jordan from the east, and Lebanon from the north joined local forces and threatened to conquer the newly- formed country.
The declara on was made in a special hour-long Na onal Council mee ng. Hundreds of thousands of people were glued to their radios, listening excitedly to the live broadcast. The country burst into celebra on. City residents danced in the squares.
Thousands came to Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv to witness the historic moment with their own eyes.
The excitement peaked with a spontaneous rendering of 'Ha kva’, Israel’s na onal anthem. Ben-Gurion approached the singers with the generals of the newly-formed army at his side: Chief of Staff Ya'akov-Dori and his deputy, General Yigael Yadin. A erwards. The three headed to an emergency mee ng of the new army's commanders to prepare for the imminent invasion of the newborn State.
31 SECTION 3: THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL: 1948 – 1967
INTRODUCTION
The United Nations partition plan of November 1947 provided for the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine, and the date of the termination of the British mandate was set for 15 May 1948. The Zionist leadership decided that an independent Jewish state would issue a declaration of independence. The British mandatory authority and it military forces withdrew from the mandate, as scheduled, on 14 May 1948 (corresponding to 5 Iyar 5708 in the Jewish calendar) and the new Jewish state declared its independence in Tel Aviv. David Ben-Gurion read the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel. The Declaration provided for a Jewish state in the land of Israel and recalled the religious and spiritual connection of the Jewish people to Eretz Yisrael, but did not mention boundaries. It specified that “it will guarantee freedom of religion and conscience, of language, education and culture.” The document did not address the meaning of a Jewish state or the roles that would be played by religious factors in such an entity.
Israel’s declaration of independence was and remains something of a unique document. Israel’s founding elite expressed their views on the nature of the state, its historical connection to the Land of Israel, and the main components of its view of the principles that should guide the state. It set out the framework for governing concepts and spoke of the need for peace with its neighbours.
Israel’s declaration was greeted with jubilation among Jews in Palestine and Jewish communities worldwide. It was seen by some as the fulfillment of biblical prophecy and by others as a logical outcome of history. It provided a haven for persecuted Jews and a refuge for those displaced by the Holocaust. For the Zionist movement the creation of the state was the successful result of five decades of Zionist efforts. For the anti-Zionists, this result was unfortunate. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews opposed the creation of a state as blasphemous, because the Messiah had not yet come, and refused to abide by its laws and regulations. Some still do.
In the Arab world, the United Nations decision and Israel’s declaration of independence were greeted with negative reactions ranging from dismay to outrage, and with a general view that the presence of a Jewish state in Palestine displaced the Arabs of Palestine and this was unacceptable. The Arab League had expressed its dismay and disapproval of the Jewish state in the United Nations debates and in its reaction to the partition plan and vote. The secretary- General of the Arab League officially informed the secretary- general of the United Nations on 15 May 1948 that Arab armies would enter Palestine to restore the rights of the Palestinian Arabs in the territories of the Palestine mandate.
3.1 ISRAEL’S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
3.1.1 The Establishment of a Jewish State in the Land of Israel...
During the late night hours of November 29th, it became clear that the hopes of the Jewish Yishuv had become a reality. The loudspeakers set up in the centres of every city and town broadcast the results of the dramatic vote in the United Nations General Assembly which had convened at Lake Success near New York. Thirty three members out of 57 in the United Nations Organization cast the much hoped for "yes" vote. Thirteen countries voted against and 10 national delegations abstained. The council of the nations decided on the partition of the Land, the establishment of a Jewish State on the larger portion of the territory. 32 Once the decision had been made, the streets filled up with masses of people and spontaneous demonstrations of joy, the like of which was never equalled before or since that night, could be seen everywhere. "A …gigantic wave of happiness" was the description of one American reporter of what he saw. Another wrote: "Tel Aviv has been dancing for ten hours". There were countless circles of dancers carried away in a joyful, excited "Hora", the national flag flew on high and the spontaneous processions of joy reached every Jew in the Land of Israel.
One man, alone, who had spent that fateful Shabbat in the Kaliah Hotel near the Dead Sea, was not excited or elated, but rather extremely worried. When the voting results were related to David Ben Gurion he knew that the local Arabs would not accept the decision, and that bloody warfare was to come. In his published announcement he wrote "Judea renewed will take its rightful place of honour in the United Nations as a force for peace, prosperity and progress in the Holy Land, in the Near East and in the whole world".
…..and based on our right ….
On May 13, 1948 350 people - the most important of the selected representatives of the Yishuv - received a simple invitation which said:
"Dear Sir, We are honoured to send you herein this invitation to the session of the declaration of independence which will take place on Friday, the 5th of lyar (14.5.1948) at 4:00 in the afternoon in the hall of the museum (16 Rothschild Blvd.).
We request that the contents of this invitation and the time of the council meeting be kept secret. Those interested in attending are requested to arrive at the hall at 3:30".
Huge crowds stood at the doors of the hall which was too small to admit all the prominent persons, the communal leaders, representatives and self-important people who wanted to be inside at that occasion. Those who were insulted - were insulted, those who understood - understood, and a great drama was played in that small auditorium.
At exactly 16h00 Ben Gurion rapped with his walnut-coloured gavel on the table. The participants who sat in a half-circle rose to their feet and sang "Hatikvah". Thus began the ceremony which lasted only 32 minutes. In a trembling voice Ben Gurion began to read the first words which were marked by the signet ring of history. "I will read to you the foundation proclamation of the State of Israel which was approved by a preliminary vote of the People's Council". The ring of the words "State of Israel" generated excitement and thrill in the assembled audience which resulted in a thundering applause. On the podium only Rabbi Yehudah Leib Fishman (Maimon) remained seated. He did not applaud. The excitement had moved him so much that he cried for joy.
…Israel…..
The government of Israel is a democratic-parliamentary government. The head-of-state is the president whose function is mainly symbolic and representative. The three branches of government which exist in any democratic system are represented in Israel by three institutions.
33 • The legislative branch is called the Knesset, and it also oversees the operation of the government and must approve the national budget.
• The executive branch is the cabinet - Memshalah - which is responsible for carrying out the laws and administering the country in accordance with the decisions of the Knesset.
• The judiciary consists of a network of courts which have independent status. The network has three levels: local, lower courts; district courts and a supreme court. In addition there are special courts for specific topics (traffic, labour relations) and religious courts.
In addition to these three governmental branches there is a supervising authority: the State Comptroller. The function of the comptroller, who must report to the Knesset, is to oversee the work of government and all official public institutions which are funded fully or partly by the State Treasury.
The basis of Israeli democracy is in elections which are held every four years, at a time set by law, unless the Knesset decides to change the proscribed date. The elections are general - national - direct - egalitarian - secret and proportional. On Election Day every voter casts two ballots: first he votes for a candidate for the office of prime minister; the second time he votes for a party to be represented to in the Knesset. The first elections were held in the month of Tevet, January, 1949.
...will be open to Jewish immigration and the Ingathering of the Exiles...
Aliyah began before the State of Israel was established and was the basis for its existence. Eight waves of Aliyah transformed the Land of Israel from a desolate strip of land in the Ottoman Empire - into a forward looking, developing Jewish entity. However the Aliyah figures changed dramatically on the day statehood was proclaimed.
Between 1948 and 1997 3,650,000 Jews made Aliyah to Israel. Of these 688,150 arrived during the first three years and they doubled the Jewish population which numbered around 600,000 when the State was established.
The olim changed the map of the State. Those who came from the Atlas Mountains and Iraq, the Prisoners of Zion from Russia and those who came from the prosperous countries of the world joined in partnership in establishing hundreds of villages, Moshavim, kibbutzim and cities. They participated in the creation of the Lachish and Adullam Regions; development towns in the South and North; they took part in settling the Arava and the Jordan valley; in settlement in Judea and Samaria and in founding settlements on the Golan Heights. Tens of thousands of olim and their children have filled the ranks of the Israel Defence Forces.
34 From where did they come? 815,000 came from Europe, 425,000 from North Africa and 355,000 from Asia. The Jews of North America, the largest and richest of the Diaspora centres, accounted for only 110,000 olim while from the Soviet Union more than 1,000,000 made Aliyah. To these, in recent years, 22,000 Jews from South Africa and 55,000 Ethiopian Jews were added.
The vision of the "Ingathering of the Exiles" (Kibbutz Galuyot) is the basic reason for Israel's existence. According to the "Law of Return" passed by the Knesset in 1950, all olim immediately upon their arrival become Israeli citizens. The strength and development of the State depend heavily on the success of the great endeavour of absorbing the olim and integrating them into the challenges of Israeli society.
3.1.2 The Declaration of Independence
The scroll on which the proclamation of the establishment of the State of Israel, was read by David Ben Gurion at the session of the People's Council (later called the Temporary Council of the State) on the fifth day of lyar, May 14th, 1948 and signed by the council members. It was published in the State’s first Official Newspaper, Issue Number 1, 1948.
The proclamation opens with a survey of the historic bond between the Jewish People and the Land of Israel from its beginning, through the years of exile until the beginning of rebirth (of both the People and the Land) through Aliyah and settlement. It recalls the Balfour Declaration, which recognized the right of the Jewish People to national rebirth in its own land, already proclaimed even earlier at the First Zionist Congress.
Further on the proclamation reminds us of the tragedy of the Holocaust which befell the People of Israel - further proof of recognition of the fact that the solution to "the Jewish question" could only be found in the renewal of independence of the Jews in their own Land. It emphasized that Jewish participation in the war effort against the Nazis and their Fascist allies strengthen their right to be counted among the peoples who established the United Nations alliance. Finally - it mentions the United Nations General Assembly decision of November 29, 1947, which called for the establishment of a Jewish State in the Land of Israel and demanded that all inhabitants of the country at the time take whatever steps necessary to ensure the carrying-out of that decision.
ERETZ-ISRAEL was the birthplace of the Jewish people. Here their spiritual, religious and political identity was shaped. Here they first attained to statehood, created cultural values of national and universal significance and gave to the world the eternal Book of Books.
After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom.
Impelled by this historic and traditional attachment, Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. In recent decades they returned in their masses. Pioneers, ma'pilim [(Hebrew) - immigrants coming to Eretz-Israel in defiance of restrictive legislation] and defenders, they made deserts bloom, revived the Hebrew language, built villages and towns, and created a thriving community controlling its own economy and culture, loving peace but knowing how to defend itself, bringing the blessings of progress to all the country's inhabitants, and aspiring towards independent nationhood.
35 In the year 5657 (1897), at the summons of the spiritual father of the Jewish State, Theodore Herzl, the First Zionist Congress convened and proclaimed the right of the Jewish people to national rebirth in its own country.
This right was recognized in the Balfour Declaration of 2 November 1917, and re-affirmed in the Mandate of the League of Nations which, in particular, gave international sanction to the historic connection between the Jewish people and Eretz-Israel and to the right of the Jewish people to rebuild its National Home.
The catastrophe which recently befell the Jewish people - the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe - was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem of its homelessness by re-establishing in Eretz-Israel the Jewish State, which would open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew and confer upon the Jewish people the status of a fully privileged member of the comity of nations.
Survivors of the Nazi holocaust in Europe, as well as Jews from other parts of the world, continued to migrate to Eretz Israel, undaunted by difficulties, restrictions and dangers, and never ceased to assert their right to a life of dignity, freedom and honest toil in their national homeland.
In the Second World War, the Jewish community of this country contributed its full share to the struggle of the freedom- and peace-loving nations against the forces of Nazi wickedness and, by the blood of its soldiers and its war effort, gained the right to be reckoned among the peoples who founded the United Nations.
On 29 November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel; the General Assembly required the inhabitants of Eretz-Israel to take such steps as were necessary on their part for the implementation of that resolution. This recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish their State is irrevocable.
This right is the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State.
ACCORDINGLY WE, MEMBERS OF THE PEOPLE'S COUNCIL, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF ERETZ-ISRAEL AND OF THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT, ARE HERE ASSEMBLED ON THE DAY OF THE TERMINATION OF THE BRITISH MANDATE OVER ERETZ-ISRAEL AND, BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT AND ON THE STRENGTH OF THE RESOLUTION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY, HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL, TO BE KNOWN AS THE STATE OF ISRAEL.
WE DECLARE that, with effect from the moment of the termination of the Mandate being tonight, the eve of Sabbath, the 6th Iyar, 5708 (15 May, 1948), until the establishment of the elected, regular authorities of the State in accordance with the Constitution which shall be adopted by the Elected Constituent Assembly not later than 1 October 1948, the People's Council shall act as a Provisional Council of State, and its executive organ, the People's Administration, shall be the Provisional Government of the Jewish State, to be called "Israel".
36 THE STATE OF ISRAEL will be open for Jewish immigration and for the Ingathering of the Exiles; it will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
THE STATE OF ISRAEL is prepared to cooperate with the agencies and representatives of the United Nations in implementing the resolution of the General Assembly of 29 November 1947, and will take steps to bring about the economic union of the whole of Eretz-Israel. WE APPEAL to the United Nations to assist the Jewish people in the building-up of its State and to receive the State of Israel into the comity of nations.
WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.
WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.
WE APPEAL to the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora to rally round the Jews of Eretz- Israel in the tasks of immigration and upbuilding and to stand by them in the great struggle for the realization of the age-old dream - the redemption of Israel.
PLACING OUR TRUST IN THE "ROCK OF ISRAEL", WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PROCLAMATION AT THIS SESSION OF THE PROVISIONAL COUNCIL OF STATE, ON THE SOIL OF THE HOMELAND, IN THE CITY OF TEL-AVIV, ON THIS SABBATH EVE, THE 5TH DAY OF IYAR, 5708 (14TH MAY,1948).
37 The following are the fundamental principles of the State of Israel:
• The State will be open to Jewish immigration and the Ingathering of the Exiles • It will endeavour to develop the Land for the benefit of all its inhabitants, be founded on the principles of liberty, justice and peace as they appear in the visions of the prophets of Israel, and ensure equality in social and political rights for all its citizens regardless of religion, race or gender • It will ensure freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; guard the Holy Places of all religions and be faithful to the principles of the United Nations Charter.
The proclamation extended the hand of peace to the people of the Arab nations who live in the State and to all the neighbouring countries, along with a call for cooperation and mutual aid. The United Nations was called upon to help the Jewish People in the building of their State.
The proclamation closes with a call to the Jewish People throughout the Diaspora to unite around the Yishuv in Aliyah and building and to stand firmly by its side in the historic effort to make the hope of generations for the redemption of Israel become a reality.
Thirty seven members of the Council signed "with trust in the Rock of Israel".
3.2 ISRAEL’S WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1948
On 15 May 1948, day after the creation of the State of Israel, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon invaded the new Jewish state.
Israel's War of Independence is the first war between the State of Israel and the neighbouring Arab countries. It started on the eve of the establishment of the state (14 May 1948) and continued until January 1949. The war broke out following the rejection of the United Nation's Partition Plan, Resolution 181 of the General Assembly (29 November 1947), by the Arab states and the Arab Higher Committee. The representatives of the Arab states threatened to use force in order to prevent the implementation of the resolution.
Stage 1: 29 November 1947 – 31 March 1948: Arab violence erupted the day after the ratification of Resolution 181. Shots were fired on a Jewish bus close to Lod airport, and a general strike declared by the Arab Higher Committee resulted in the setting fire and the plundering of the Jewish commercial district near the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem. There were still 100,000 British troops stationed in Palestine, which were much stronger than both Arab and Israeli forces. Nevertheless, the British policy was not to intervene in the warfare between the two sides, except in order to safeguard the security of British forces and facilities. During this period, Arab military activities consisted of sniping and the hurling of bombs at Jewish transportation along main traffic arteries to isolated Jewish neighbourhoods in ethnically mixed cites and at distant settlements.
The Hagana, the military arm of the organized Yishuv, (the Jewish community of Palestine) put precedence on defensive means at first, while being careful to restrict itself to acts of retaliation against perpetrators directly responsible for the attacks. On the other hand, the Etzel (an armed Jewish underground organization), an opponent of the Hagana which did not accept the authority of the official institutions, carried out acts of retaliation less discriminately, such as the planting of a bomb in the Arab marketplace. Between December 1947 and January 1948, the Arabs, with the help of volunteers from neighbouring Arab countries, made attempts to conquer distant Jewish settlements (Kfar Etzion, Tirat Zvi, Kfar
38 Szold) but were warded off by the Jewish defenders. Acts of terror, with the help of British deserters, were more successful particularly in Jerusalem. These acts included the explosion of the national institutions building, the editorial offices of the Palestine Post, and several buildings on Ben-Yehuda Street. In January 1948, a voluntary military force lead by Fawzi el Kawukji entered Palestine and took control of the Arab populated north. Other volunteers, mostly belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt entered Hebron and Bethlehem in the south. Kawukji's troops, the "Army of Salvation," numbered in January 1948 about 2,000 troops and it was estimated that their number reached 5,000 - 8,000 troops in February. This force dispatched officers and small units to cities (Jerusalem, Jaffa) that were expected to be conquered by Jewish forces. Jewish vehicles on the main roads came under attack as well which resulted in the cutting off of some remote settlements from Jerusalem, the Negev from Tel-Aviv and the western Galilee from Haifa. On 19 March 1948, the USA suggested to impose on Palestine temporary trusteeship rule by the UN instead of partition.
Stage 2: 1 April 1948 – 14 May 1948: Due to political and military reasons, the Hagana's command decided to take the initiative and gain control of the territory allocated to the Jewish State and establish effective communication lines with Jewish settlements outside of those boundaries. "Operation Nachshon" reopened the road to the besieged Jewish section of Jerusalem, although only briefly. The Hagana captured the entire city of Tiberias in which there were besieged Jews in the old city (18 April), Haifa (22 April), the area connecting Tel- Aviv with her outlying neighbourhoods, the Jerusalem neighbourhoods Katamon and Shech Jarach, the Western Galilee, the entire city of Safed. British intervention prevented the conquest of Jaffa by Jewish forces (the city surrendered later in May).
A number of Arab attacks, such as that on the convoy descending from Hadassah Hospital on Mount Scopus in Jerusalem, resulted in many casualties, but without strategic gains. Kawukji's "Army of Salvation" was in fact defeated at this stage. The creation of a continuous strip of Jewish-controlled territory contributed to the decision by the president of the United States to suspend the trusteeship plan and enabled the proclamation of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948.
Stage 3: 15 May 1948 – 10 June 1948: On 15 May, Egyptian airplanes struck Tel-Aviv. This attack signalled the invasion of Israel by the Arab states' regular armies. The Arab states' original decision was to assist the Arabs of Palestine by sending volunteers, money, arms and logistic aid, while placing their regular troops along the border. There was no intention of a full invasion. This decision was changed, in contrary to military estimates, in the first half of June. King Farouk of Egypt forced the decision on his government and Army which opposed the invasion. The decision to invade was mostly Egyptian. One of the main reasons of the Egyptians was to thwart a supposed plan by King Abdullah of Jordan to annex territories on the west bank of the Jordan River. The original plan of the invading armies, that was not properly coordinated, was a northern movement by Egyptian forces towards Tel-Aviv, advancement of Syrian, Lebanese and Iraqi forces towards Haifa, and the conquest of the west bank and Jerusalem by Jordan's Arab Legion.
The entry of five regular armies into the battle created a critical problem for the Hagana (the IDF was officially established only on 27 June), which did not yet have artillery, armour, or an air force. The Egyptian army advanced along the coast, attacking some Jewish settlements on the way (Nirim, Kfar Darom) and circumventing others (Nizanim, Yad Mordechai). They were halted only 35 kilometres from Tel-Aviv by a hastily enlisted force aided by the first fighter airplanes that arrived from Czechoslovakia. The Arab Legion captured the Etzion Bloc, Beit Ha'Arava, and the potassium plants on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Two settlements north of Jerusalem were evacuated. The Legion entered Jerusalem and captured, after a struggle, the isolated Jewish Quarter in the Old City, but failed repeatedly in its attempts to
39 invade the western areas of Jerusalem. The Hagana failed to expel the Legion from Latrun, which overlooked the road to besieged Jerusalem. Instead, an alternate road was paved to Jerusalem: The "Burma Road" saved the city from certain starvation and surrender.
The Syrian army captured Masadeh and Sha'arei Golan south of the Sea of Galilee, but were repelled at the gates of Degania by homemade "Molotov Cocktails" and sightless artillery that arrived from France. The Syrians then turned northward and established a bridgehead at Mishmar Ha-yarden, west of the Jordan River. Malchia was captured by the Lebanese army. In the beginning of June, the Arab forces lost the advantage, and hope for a swift victory dissipated. At the same time, Israeli forces suffered heavy casualties. Therefore, both sides were relieved by the decision of the UN Security Council to call for a 28-day truce implemented on 10 June.
Stage 4: 10 June 1948 – 18 July 1948: When the fighting resumed on July 8, the situation had radically changed. Heavy equipment, which was purchased before the establishment of the State of Israel but that entered the country only after the end of the British Mandate, was finally utilized by the IDF. The organization and operation of the army units were restructured. Israel took the initiative in the north. "Operation Dekel" resulted in gaining control of the lower Galilee including Nazareth, but "Operation Brosh" was only partially successful in reducing the Syrian bridgehead near Mishmar Ha-yarden. At the central front, "Operation Danny" led to the capture of Lod and Ramle (including the essential airport) that were in the hands of the Arab Legion. The second stage of the operation was meant to secure Latrun and Ramala to form a wider corridor to Jerusalem, but failed to do so. The attempt to capture the Old City of Jerusalem failed as well.
The Egyptians in the south managed again to close the main road to the Negev. A fierce battle was waged in proximity of Kibbutz Negba, near the Hebron-coast road. An alternate route was opened, used at night for Jewish transportation between the north and south (the Egyptians used the east - west route that crossed it during the day). The advantage was now in the hands of Israel, and the Arabs, through the British delegate to the Security Council, requested an unlimited truce. The truce went into effect after 10 days of battle, on 18 July.
Stage 5: 19 July 1948 - 5 January 1949: During the second truce, Count Bernadotte, the UN mediator for Palestine, made unsuccessful efforts to achieve a political solution. In the meantime Israel assembled an army of more than 100,000 troops. Every sixth Israeli was enlisted. As the result of Egyptian efforts to cut off the Negev militarily and Bernadotte's proposal to remove the Negev from the boundaries of the State of Israel, on 15 October, the IDF in a swift operation, ("Operation Yoav") managed to reopen the road to the south and capture Be'er-Sheva on 21 October. Egyptian forces were now cut off from their bases. The IDF, in "Operation To-The-Mountain" widened the narrow and unsafe corridor to Jerusalem from the south.
The irregular Arab forces, which never agreed to the truce, continued their activities of harassment against Jewish forces and settlements in the north. The Israeli counter-offensive, "Operation Hiram" (29-31 October), resulted in the capture of the upper Galilee by the use of a pincer movement from Safed to the east and from the seashore in the west. Areas in Lebanon were also occupied adjacent to the upper Galilee. The objective of "Operation Horev" (December) was to drive out the remaining Egyptian forces from Israel. IDF forces advanced south through the desert to the village of Uja on the border and into the Sinai desert, reaching the sea south of the Gaza Strip. Joint British -American pressure forced Israel to withdraw from the Sinai, but its forces regrouped east of the border with Gaza. At this point, when Egyptian forces in the Gaza Strip were in danger of being cut off, and the routes to Egypt were undefended, Egypt agreed on 5 January 1949 to conduct negotiations for an armistice which
40 had been demanded by the UN Security Council already on 16 November 1948. A new truce was effective on 7 January, while one Egyptian brigade, which had a young staff officer named Jamal Abdel Nasser remained besieged and cut off in a small "pocket" around Falouja.
The War of Independence caused heavy Israeli losses: More than 6,000 dead including almost 4,000 soldiers - almost 1% of the total population. Arab loses were estimated at about 2,000 regular invading troops and an unknown number of irregular Palestinian forces.
3.3 JEWISH EXODUS FROM ARAB LANDS
The Jewish exodus from Arab lands refers to the 20th century expulsion or mass departure of Jews, primarily of Sephardi and Mizrahi background, from Arab and Islamic countries. The rate of emigration accelerated after the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. According to UN statistics, 856 000 Jewish residents fled their homes after 1948.
3.3.1 Reasons for emigration
Discrimination and violence in Arab countries against Jews escalated significantly at this time despite the fact that were indigenous and for the most part held local citizenship. Sometimes the process was state-sanctioned: at other times it was the consequence of anti-Jewish resentment by non-Jews.
Though Jewish migration from Middle Eastern and North African communities began in the late 19th century, and Jews began fleeing some Arab countries in the 1930s and early 1940s, it did not become significant until the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
From 1948 until the early 1970s, 800,000–1,000,000 Jews left, fled, or were expelled from their homes in Arab countries; 260,000 of them reached Israel between 1948 and 1951; and 600,000 by 1972. Lebanon was the only Arab country to see an increase in its Jewish population after 1948, which was due to an influx of refugees from other Arab countries. However, by the 1970s the Jewish community of Lebanon too dwindled due to hostilities of the Lebanese Civil War. By 2002 Jews from Arab countries and their descendants constituted almost half of Israel's population.
The reasons for the exodus included push factors such as persecution, antisemitism, political instability and expulsion, together with pull factors, such as the desire to fulfill Zionist yearnings or find a better economic and secure home in Europe or the Americas. A significant proportion of Jews left due to political insecurity and the rise of Arab nationalism, and later also due to policies of some Arab governments who sought to present the expulsion of Jews as a crowd-driven retaliatory act for the exodus of Arab refugees from Palestine. Most Libyan Jews fled to Israel by 1951, while the citizenship of the rest was revoked in 1961, and the community remnants were finally evacuated to Italy following the Six Day War. Almost all of Yemeni and Adeni Jews, were evacuated during 1949–1950 in fear of their security. Iraqi and Kurdish Jews were encouraged to leave in 1950 by the Iraqi Government, which had eventually ordered in 1951 "the expulsion of Jews who refused to sign a statement of anti- Zionism". The Jews of Egypt began fleeing the country in 1948, and most of the remaining, some 21,000, were expelled in 1956. The Jews of Algeria were deprived of their citizenship in 1962 and had mostly immediately left the country for France and Israel. Moroccan Jews began leaving for Israel, as a result of the 1948 pogroms, with most of the community leaving in 1960s. Many Jews were required to sell, abandon, or smuggle their property out of the countries they were fleeing.
41 An additional 200,000 Jews from non-Arab Muslim countries left their homes due to increasing insecurity and growing hostility since 1948. Many Iranian and Kurdish Jews fled Iran and abandoned their property in fear, that they would remain hostages of a hostile regime. When combined all together, as much as 37% of Jews in Islamic countries - the Arab world, Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan, left for Israel between May 1948 and the beginning of 1952. They amounted for 56% of the total immigration to the newly founded State of Israel. The exodus of Iranian Jews peaked following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when around 80% of Iranian Jews left the war-torn country for US and Israel. Turkish Jewry had mostly immigrated due to economic reasons and Zionist aspirations, but since the 1990s increasing terrorist attacks against Jews caused security concerns, with the result that many Jews left for Israel.
3.3.2 History of the Jews in Arab lands (Pre-1948)
Jewish settlement all over the Fertile Crescent, which is now divided into several Arab states, is well attested since the Babylonian captivity. After the conquest of these lands by Arab Muslims in the 7th century, Jews, along with Christians and Zoroastrians, were accorded the legal status of dhimmi. As such, they were entitled to limited rights, tolerance, and protection; on the condition they pay a special poll tax (the 'jizya'). In return for the tax, dhimmis were exempted from military service. Dhimmi status brought with its several restrictions, the application and severity of which varied by time and place: residency in segregated quarters, obligation to wear distinctive clothing, public subservience to Muslims, prohibitions against proselytizing and marrying Muslim women (according to Islam, a Muslim woman can only marry a Muslim man), and limited access to the legal systems. Notwithstanding these provisions, Jews could at times attain high positions in government, notably as viziers and physicians. Jewish communities, like Christian ones, were typically constituted as semi- autonomous entities managed by their own laws and leadership, who bore responsibility for the community towards the Muslim rulers. Taxes and fines levied on them were collective in nature. However, a level of political autonomy and civil courts for resolving community disputes was not rare.
Mass murders of Jews and deaths due to political instability did however occur in North Africa throughout the centuries and especially in Morocco, Libya and Algeria where eventually Jews were forced to live in ghettos. Decrees ordering the destruction of synagogues were enacted at various times in the Middle Ages in Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Instances exist of Jews being forced to convert to Islam or face death in Yemen, Morocco and Baghdad.
This situation, wherein Jews both enjoyed cultural and economical prosperity at times, but were then widely persecuted at other times was summarised by G.E. Von Grunebaum:
”It would not be difficult to put together the names of a very sizeable number of Jewish subjects or citizens of the Islamic area who have attained to high rank, to power, to great financial influence, to significant and recognized intellectual attainment; and the same could be done for Christians. But it would again not be difficult to compile a lengthy list of persecutions, arbitrary confiscations, attempted forced conversions, or pogroms.”
In 1945, there were between 758,000 and 866,000 Jews living in communities throughout the Arab world. Today, there are fewer than 7,000. In some Arab states, such as Libya (which was once around 3% Jewish), the Jewish community no longer exists; in other Arab countries, only a few hundred Jews remain.
42 3.3.2.1 Morocco
Jewish communities, in Islamic times often living in ghettos known as mellah, have existed in Morocco for at least 2,000 years. Intermittent large scale massacres (such as that of 6,000 Jews in Fez in 1033, over 100,000 Jews in Fez and Marrakesh in 1146 and again in Marrakesh in 1232) were accompanied by systematic discrimination through the years. During the 13th through the 15th centuries Jews were appointed to a few prominent positions within the government, typically to implement decisions. A number of Jews, fleeing the expulsion from Spain and Portugal, settled in Morocco in the 15th century and afterwards, many moving on to the Ottoman Empire.
Jews were no longer able to get any form of credit. Jews who had homes and businesses in European neighbourhoods were expelled, and quotas were imposed limiting the percentage of Jews allowed to practice professions like law and medicine to two percent.
King Muhammad V expressed his personal distaste for these laws, and assured Moroccan Jewish leaders that he would never lay a hand “upon either their persons or property. While there has been no concrete evidence of his actually taking any action to defend Morocco’s Jews, it has been argued that he may have worked behind the scenes on their behalf.
In June 1948, soon after Israel was established and in the midst of the first Arab-Israeli war, riots against Jews broke out in Oujda and Djerada, killing 44 Jews. In 1948-9, 18,000 Jews left the country for Israel. After this, Jewish emigration continued (to Israel and elsewhere), but slowed to a few thousand a year. Through the early fifties, Zionist organizations encouraged emigration, particularly in the poorer south of the country, seeing Moroccan Jews as valuable contributors to the Jewish State.
Morocco’s increasing identification with the Arab world, and pressure on Jewish educational institution to arabize and conform culturally, added to the fears of Moroccan Jews. Emigration to Israel jumped from 8171 in 1954 to 24 994 in 1955, increasing further in 1956. Beginning in 1956, emigration to Israel was prohibited till 1961. During that time, however, clandestine emigration continued, and a further 18 000 Jews left Morocco. On 10 January 1961, a boat carrying Jews attempting to flee the country sank off Morocco’s northern coast. The negative publicity associated with this prompted King Muhammed V to allow emigration again, and over the next 3 years more than 70 000 Moroccan Jews left the country. By 1967, only 60,000 Jews remained in Morocco.
The Six-Day War in 1967 led to increased Arab-Jewish tensions worldwide, including Morocco. By 1971, the Jewish population was down to 35,000; however, most of this wave of emigration went to Europe and North America rather than Israel.
Despite their current small numbers, Jews continue to play a notable role in Morocco; the king retains a Jewish senior adviser, André Azoulay, and Jewish schools and synagogues receive government subsidies. However, Jewish targets have sometimes been attacked (notably in Al- Qaeda's bombing of a Jewish community center in Casablanca, see Casablanca Attacks), and there is sporadic anti-Semitic rhetoric from radical Islamist groups. Late King Hassan II's invitations for Jews to return have not been taken up by the people who emigrated. In 1948 more than 265 000 Jews lived in Morocco: by 2001 an estimated 5,230 remained.
43 3.3.2.2 Yemen
Including Aden, there were about 63,000 Jews in Yemen in 1948. Today, there are about 200 left. In 1947, riots killed at least 80 Jews in Aden. Increasingly hostile conditions led to the Israeli government's Operation Magic Carpet, the evacuation of 50,000 Jews from Yemen to Israel in 1949 and 1950. Emigration continued until 1962, when the civil war in Yemen broke out. A small community remained unknown until 1976, but it appears that all infrastructures are lost now.
Jews in Yemen were long subject to a number of restrictions, ranging from attire, hairstyle, home ownership, marriage, etc. Under the "Orphan's Decree", many Jewish orphans below puberty were raised as Muslims. This practice began in the late 18th century, was suspended under Ottoman rule, and then was revived in 1918. Most cases occurred in the 1920s, but sporadic cases occurred until the 1940s. In later years, the Yemenite government has taken some steps to protect the Jewish community in their country.
Yemenite Jews arriving in Israel
3.3.2.3 Iraq
In 1948, there were approximately 150,000 Jews in Iraq. In 2003, there were 100 left, though there are reports that small numbers of Jews are returning in the wake of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
In 1941, following Rashid Ali's pro-Axis coup, riots known as the Farhud broke out in Baghdad in which approximately 200 Jews were murdered (some sources put the number higher), and up to 2,000 injured.
Like most Arab League states, Iraq forbade the emigration of its Jews for a few years after the 1948 war on the grounds that allowing them to go to Israel would strengthen that state. However, intense diplomatic pressure brought about a change of mind. At the same time, increasing government oppression of the Jews fueled by anti-Israeli sentiment, together with public expressions of anti-semitism, created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.
In March 1950, Iraq passed a law of one year duration allowing Jews to emigrate on condition of relinquishing their Iraqi citizenship. Iraq apparently believed it would rid itself of those Jews it regarded as the most troublesome, especially the Zionists, but retain the wealthy minority who played an important part in the Iraqi economy. Israel mounted an operation called "Ezra and Nehemiah" to bring as many of the Iraqi Jews as possible to Israel, and sent agents to Iraq to urge the Jews to register for immigration as soon as possible.
44 The initial rate of registration accelerated after a bomb injured three Jews at a café. Two months before the expiry of the law, by which time about 85,000 Jews had registered, a bomb at the Masuda Shemtov Synagogue killed 3 or 5 Jews and injured many. The law expired in March 1951, but was later extended after the Iraqi government froze the assets of departing Jews (including those already left). In 1951 the Iraqi government passed legislation that made affiliation with Zionism a felony and ordered “the expulsion of Jews who refused to sign a statement of anti-Zionism.” During the next few months, all but a few thousand of the remaining Jews registered for emigration, spurred on by a sequence of bombings that caused few casualties but had great psychological impact. In total, about 120,000 Jews left Iraq.
The remainder of Iraq’s Jews left over the next few decades, and had mostly gone by 1970. In 1969 eleven Jews were hanged, nine of them on 27 January in the public squares of Baghdad and Basra. The 2 500 remaining community members almost all fled shortly thereafter.
3.3.2.4 Absorbing Jewish refugees
Of the nearly 900,000 Jewish refugees, approximately 680,000 were absorbed by Israel; the remainder went to Europe (mainly to France) and the Americas.
Hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees to Israel were temporarily settled in the numerous tent cities called Ma'abarot (transit camps) in Hebrew. The ma'abarot existed until 1963. Their population was gradually absorbed and integrated into Israeli society, a substantial logistical achievement, without help from the United Nations various refugee organizations. The pace and direction of this absorption was directed by a number of factors.
3.3.2.5 The International Community
UN Resolution 194 passed in 1948 resolves that "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible." The Israeli government's support of the mass immigration and resettlement of Jews from Arab lands allowed it to argue in the international arena that this provided "natural justice" via a population exchange – Jewish immigrants for Palestinian refugees.
45 LAW OF RETURN: 1950 1. Every Jew has the right to come to this country as an oleh
2. (a) Aliyah shall be by oleh's visa.
(b) An oleh's visa shall be granted to every Jew who has expressed his desire to se le in Israel, unless the Minister of Immigra on is sa sfied that the applicant.
(1) is engaged in an ac vity directed against the Jewish people; or (2) is likely to endanger public health or the security of the State.
3. (a) A Jew who has come to Israel and a er his arrival has expressed his desire to se le in Israel may, while s ll in Israel, receive an oleh's cer ficate. (b) The restric ons specified in sec on 2(b) shall apply also to the gran ng of an oleh's cer ficate, but a person shall not be regarded as endangering public health on account of an illness contracted a er his arrival in Israel
4. Every Jew who has immigrated into this country before the coming into force of this Law, and every Jew who was born in this country, whether before or a er the coming into force of this Law, shall be deemed to be a person, who has come to this country as an 'oleh under this Law
5. The Minister of Immigra on is charged with the implementa on of this Law and may make regula ons as to any ma er rela ng to such implementa on and also as to the grant of oleh's visas and oleh's cer ficates to minors up to age of 18 years.
3.4 ISRAEL’S EARLY YEARS
In Israel’s early years, the economic strain caused by the War of Independence and the need to provide for a rapidly growing, primarily immigrant population required austerity and rationing at home and financial aid from abroad. Assistance extended by the US government, loans from US banks, contributions of diaspora Jews and postwar German reparations were all used to build housing, mechanise agriculture, set up a merchant fleet and a national airline, exploit available minerals, develop industries and expand roads, telecommunications and electricity networks.
Towards the end of Israel’s first decade, the output of industry had doubled, as did the number of employed persons, with industrial exports increasing fourfold. The vast expansion of agriculture had brought about self-sufficiency in the supply of basic food products except meat and grains, and the area under cultivation increased dramatically. During this time native-born Israelis began to use for themselves the nickname sabra (“prickly pear” in Hebrew) – tough on the outside, enabling survival in a harsh environment against enemies sworn to their demise, and soft on the inside. 46 The educational system was greatly expanded. School attendance became free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 and 14. Cultural and artistic activity flourished, blending Middle Eastern and Western elements, as immigrant Jews arriving from all parts of the world brought with them the unique traditions of their own communities as well as those of the culture prevailing in the countries in which they had lived for generations.
When Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president, died in 1952, he was replaced by Itzhak Ben- Zvi, who served until his death in 1963. David Ben Gurion remained prime minister until December 1953, when he temporarily retired to a kibbutz in the Negev desert area to serve as an example to Israeli youth. Foreign Minister Moshe Sharratt then became prime minister. Ben Gurion returned to the government as defence minister in February 1955 and eight months later regained the post of prime minister, which he held till 1963. Despite crises in the governing coalition and frequent political party splits and mergers, Israel’s political system and government were remarkably stable.
3.4.1 Ashkenazi, Sephardic and Oriental Jews
The two dominant Jewish ethnic groups in Israel are the Ashkenazim (the term comes from the old Hebrew word for Germany), which now includes Jews from northern and eastern Europe (and, later, their descendants from America); and Sephardim (from the old Hebrew word for Spain), which now includes Jews of Mediterranean, Balkan, Aegean, and Middle Eastern lands. There are differences in ritual and liturgy between these two groups, but both sides have always recognized the validity and authority of the other's rabbinical courts and rulings. Nor, throughout the centuries, were scholars or notables from either branch totally isolated from the other. In some countries, Italy for example, communities representing both groups lived together. Originally, Ashkenazi meant one who spoke Yiddish, a dialect of German, in everyday life and Sephardi meant one who spoke Ladino, a dialect of Castilian Spanish. Although this narrow understanding of Sephardim is still retained at times, in Israeli colloquial usage, Sephardim include Jews who speak (or whose fathers or grandfathers spoke) dialects of Arabic, Berber, or Persian as well. In this extended sense of Sephardim, they are now also referred to as the Edot Ha-Mizrah, "the communities of the East".
3.4.2 Tension and conflict with the Arabs
The armistice agreements of 1949 were not followed by comprehensive peace as intended. In general, the Arab states refused to accept their defeat, continued to regard the establishment of Israel as an injustice to be corrected, and sustained a political and economic boycott of Israel. While Israel was engaged in state-building, these efforts were overshadowed by growing and serious security problems. The armistice agreements were often violated by the Arab states, as was a United Nations Security Council resolution of 1 September 1951, that called for Israeli and Israel-bound shipping to pass through the Suez Canal connecting the Gulf of Suez and the Mediterranean Sea. An Egyptian blockade of the Straits of Tiran was sustained, thus preventing shipping to and from Israel’s port city of Eilat, the country’s gateway to East Africa and the Far East. Terrorist groups engaged in sabotage and murder and launched raids into Israel from neighbouring Arab states.
Following the signing of the armistice agreements in 1949, the Arab states maintained a policy of isolating Israel and of focusing their rhetoric on a “second round” of war. There was an increase in attacks against Israel, leading in 1951 to more than 150 Israelis killed or wounded, the worst attacks originating in the Gaza Strip. Israel adopted an active strategy,
47 including a campaign of reprisal raids. These raids had early failures, and reprisals helped little in reducing the threat of infiltrating terrorists. But planning continued, and the Israelis contemplated the occupation of Gaza, which would deny the Arabs a launching pad from which to attack Israeli population centres. The IDF created an elite force of paratroop commandos, headed by Ariel Sharon, known as Unit 101, to launch a campaign of reprisal raids into enemy territory in an effort to halt the attacks on Israel.
Tensions rose on Israel’s borders as Palestinians, often accompanied by other Arabs, began infiltrating Israel from the West Bank and Gaza and attacking people and property. Israel held the Arab governments responsible and launched retaliatory raids. The ensuing cycle of violence, in which Israeli and Arab civilians and soldiers were killed, escalated and spilled over into Syria. Conflicts also arose over projects to divert the Jordan River water for use in Israel’s more arid sectors.
In the years after the 1952 Egyptian revolution which overthrew King Farouk and brought Gamal Abdul Nasser into the power, the new government continued to oppose Israel’s existence while building its military capability. The Arab states, established military alliances and linkages, further threatening Israel. On 28 February 1955, Israeli forces launched a raid against an Egyptian army base in the Gaza Strip. President Nasser later argued that this raid prompted him to begin Palestinian fedayeen (Arab commando) operations against Israel. He also increased efforts to expand his military and to acquire arms from outside sources. Egypt concluded an arms deal with Czechoslovakia (acting for the Soviet Union) that was announced on 27 September 1955, further threatening Israel’s security.
By mid-1955, when Ben Gurion returned to the cabinet and Prime Minister Moshe Sharett, who advocated a more restrained Israeli retaliatory policy, lost influence, the Israeli government moved towards war. On 2 October 1955, Ben Gurion ordered IDF chief of staff Moshe Dayan to prepare for a major military action. Unit 101, the commando/paratroops unit under Sharon, operated in coordination with regular army forces to attack and evict Egyptian forces from the al-Auja DMZ with minimal casualties.
Nasser continued to pose a threat not only to Israel but to Great Britain, whose presence in Egypt, especially in the Suez Canal Zone, he hoped to end, and France, which had colonies in North Africa. In July 1956, Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal and other British and French properties in Egypt, creating a congruence of interests between Israel and these two European states.
By October 1956, fedayeen raids reached an all-time high in both violence and intensity; the Israeli reprisals had not succeeded in preventing new outbreaks. Israel’s objectives were thus to relieve the Egyptian stranglehold over Israel’s sea-routes via the Suez Canal and the Straits of Tiran to Israel and to counter Egypt’s threat by the fedayeen and rearmed Egyptian forces against it on its western borders in both the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula. A regime change that would bring about a less bellicose neighbour was also a desired objective.
3.5 ISRAEL BETWEEN 1957 – 1967
Israel’s conflict with the Arabs receded into the background for much of the next decade as its frontier with Egypt remained quiet, although sporadic border incidents continued on other fronts, mainly with Syria. Industrial and agricultural development allowed the government to end its austerity measures, unemployment almost disappeared, and living standards improved.
48 During the country’s second decade, emphasis was placed on relations with the rest of the world. Foreign relations expanded steadily as close ties were developed with the United States, the British Commonwealth countries, most Western European and Asian states, and nearly all the countries of Latin America and Africa. The decade was marked by extensive programmes of cooperation, as hundreds of Israeli physicians, engineers, teachers, agronomists, irrigation experts, and youth organizers shared their expertise with the populations of the developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Exports doubled and the gross national product (GNP) increased significantly. Israel now managed such items as paper, tires, radios and refrigerators, but the most rapid growth took place in the areas of metals, machinery, chemicals and electronics. As the domestic market for locally grown food was reaching saturation point, the agricultural sector began to grow a variety of crops for the food processing industry as well as for export. To handle to greatly increased volume of trade, a deep water port was constructed on the Mediterranean coast at Ashdod, in addition to the existing one at Haifa.
3.5.1 The trial and sentencing of Adolph Eichmann
After World War II, Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann fled from Austria and made his way to Argentina where he lived under the name Ricardo Klement. In May 1960, Israeli Security Service agents seized Eichmann in Argentina and took him to Jerusalem for trial in an Israeli court. Eichmann testified from a bulletproof glass booth.
Eichmann was the Nazi criminal responsible for the “final solution”, the extermination of all of Europe’s Jews.
The Eichmann trial aroused international interest, bringing Nazi atrocities to the forefront of world news. Testimonies of Holocaust survivors, especially those of ghetto fighters such as Zivia Lubetkin, generated interest in Jewish resistance. The trial prompted a new openness in Israel; many Holocaust survivors felt able to share their experiences as the country confronted this traumatic chapter.
Israeli attorney general Gideon Hausner signed a bill of indictment against Eichmann on 15 counts, including crimes against the Jewish people and crimes against humanity.
The charges against Eichmann were numerous. After the Wannsee Conference (January 1942), Eichmann coordinated deportations of Jews from Germany and elsewhere in western, southern, and northern Europe to killing centers (through his representatives Alois Brunner, Theodor Dannecker, Rolf Guenther, and Dieter Wisliceny and others in the Gestapo). Eichmann made deportation plans down to the last detail. Working with other German agencies, he determined how the property of deported Jews would be seized and made certain that his office would benefit from the confiscated assets. He also arranged for the deportation of tens of thousands of Roma (Gypsies).
Eichmann was also charged with membership in criminal organizations--the Storm Troopers (SA), Security Service (SD), and Gestapo (all of which had been declared criminal organizations at the 1946 Nuremberg Trial). As head of the Gestapo's section for Jewish affairs, Eichmann coordinated with Gestapo chief Heinrich Mueller on a plan to expel Jews from Greater Germany to Poland, which set the pattern for future deportations.
12 of the 15 charges against him carried the death penalty as the maximum punishment.
49 The three-judge panel trying the case consisted of Justice Moshe Landau, Dr. Benjamin Halevy, and Dr. Yitzhak Raveh. Justice Landau was a member of the Israeli Supreme Court. He was born in Poland and educated in London, Dr. Halevy was the president of the Jerusalem District Court and a graduate of Berlin University. Dr. Raveh was a member of the Tel Aviv District Court and had emigrated from Germany in 1933, when Jews there first began to feel threats to their physical security from the government. All of the judges were fluent in German.
For four months. Eichmann’s trial dominated Israeli life. For most people, Eichmann's guilt was never in doubt. The real question was, how to punish one man who had caused the deaths of millions.
Although the world had known about Nazi war crimes, it was not until the Eichmann trial that many people became truly aware of the "The Holocaust". For a large section of the Israeli public, almost nothing was known about the Shoah prior.
On 11 December 1961, after a four-month recess, the three judges returned to their bench with a verdict. It had been a year and a half since Eichmann's capture, and 16 years since the liberation of the Nazi camps. The time had come for Eichmann to be judged.
Eichmann was found guilty of all 15 counts against him and sentenced to death. He was responsible, the court said, "for millions of deaths, the particulars of his rank and function did not excuse his actions."
Eichmann made his final speech on the gallows: "Long live Germany! Long live Austria! Long live Argentina! I owe a lot to these countries and I shall not forget them. I had to obey the rules of war and of my flag!”
On 1 June 1962, Eichmann was executed by hanging. His body was cremated and the ashes were spread at sea, beyond Israel's territorial waters, because It was declared that no grave would mark his life, and more importantly, he would have no resting place in Israel. His ashes were scattered in the Mediterranean see (In international waters).
The execution of Adolf Eichmann remains the only time that Israel has enacted a death sentence.
3.5.2 Growing Israel-Arab Tension
The decade after the Sinai Campaign of 1956 was one of relative tranquility for Israel. Although no appreciable progress was made towards resolving the issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict, no major hostilities took place. The Egypt-Israel frontier remained tense but calm, and there were exchanges along Israel’s frontiers with Jordan and Syria, including a growing number of terrorist raids into Israel.
As Israel put its National Water Carrier into operation in 1964, and began to divert water from the Jordan river for use by the growing population in its heartland, the situation deteriorated. Syria responded with efforts to divert the Jordan River to reduce its flow to Israel. Tensions between Israel and Syria over water and the use of the DMZs between them led to numerous border incidents. This war over water had its origins in the Arab Summit in Cairo in 1964, when the Arab leaders made it a matter of policy to divert the waters of the Jordan River. Funds were allocated for this purpose, and both Syria and Lebanon began to work on projects to shunt the waters of the Hasbani and Banias Rivers away from the Jordan River, where Israel could not utilize it. Israel noted that such actions would be considered acts of war. Israel used artillery and tank fire and aircraft to stop these projects. The Israelis proved successful, and the Arab efforts were halted. 50 On 22 February 1966, a coup d’etat brought a radical military regime to power in Syria. The new Syrian government noted its desire to make common cause with progressive and leftist elements of the Arab world to confront imperialist moves and alliances. The new regime’s policy focused on the on the Palestine problem and the necessity of a war to secure the liberation of the of the usurped Arab land. It called for the unification of popular forces to face the Zionist enemy and expel it from Palestine.
In a speech on 22 February 1966, President Nasser of Egypt (then known as the United Arab Republic, or UAR, because of a short-lived union between Egypt and Syria) articulated his view that the forces of Arab unity and Arab nationalism were divided by imperialism and reaction. Nasser argued that Israel was planted in the heart of the Arab nation to prevent cooperation among the Arab states by sowing seeds of sedition, discord and division.
3.6 ISRAEL'S SIX-DAY WAR 1967
The Six-Day War was the first major Arab event since 1948 aimed specifically at the destruction of Israel.
In November 1966 an Egyptian-Syrian Defence Agreement was signed, encouraging the Syrians to escalate tensions, which reached a climax in the spring of 1967.
More than 40 years earlier, just before the 1967 Six Day War, a Palestinian terrorist organization, Fatah, headed by Yaser Arafat, conducted terrorist acts within Israel with the dual purposes of inflicting as much damage as possible on Israeli civilians, and of bringing the Arab world into a war against Israel.
Israel's retaliation against this terrorism triggered violent protests throughout the Arab world. Radical Arab regimes like Syria called for war. More "moderate" Arab states, afraid of confronting Israel's military, stopped short of declaring war. Meanwhile, the Europeans, led by France, condemned Israel's acts of self-defence, and the United Nations condemned Israel's actions almost daily. The United States of America, for its part, was embroiled in its own war in the East (Vietnam), and was therefore reluctant to become directly involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The degenerating situation put Israel in a dire situation. A deepening economic crisis grew, while many in Israel criticized the government for not doing enough to protect the country. This prompted then-Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to form a national unity Government which helped ease some societal tensions, but did little to help Israel with its security problem and increasing international isolation. The pressure was building towards war as more and more Israeli citizens were killed in attacks from the Syrian and Jordanian borders.
Nasser was intent on reversing the humiliating Arab defeats of 1948-49 and 1956. He had provoked Israel when he closed the Straits of Tiran. In the weeks leading up to Israel's pre- emptive strike, he had mobilized the Egyptian army in Sinai, and was poised to launch what he called "the operation that will surprise the world."
His pretext came on May 12, 1967, when the USSR misinformed the Egyptians that Israeli forces were massed on Israel's northern border, ready to destroy Syria. With the threat of war looming, Nasser evicted the peacekeepers from Sinai, closed the Straits of Tiran, and blocked Israel's oil imports.
51 3.6.1 Who initiated hostilities in the Six Day War?
One of the frequently heard claims against Israel is that she started the Six Day War in 1967 that Israel attacked peaceful Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq on June 5, 1967 and seized the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the "West Bank" from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria in an act of aggression.
The background to the Six Day War is quite different from the claims of pro-Arab sources. Egypt and Israel's other neighbouring countries -- all Arabs -- took a series of increasingly provocative and threatening steps during May and early June of 1967, accompanied with rhetoric stating very clearly the intent to attack and destroy Israel. Attempts by Israel to negotiate, find United Nations support, or other international diplomatic resolution failed. The United Nations Emergency Forces (UNEF) stationed on the Egyptian-Israeli border was withdrawn without any discussion. A US plan to lift the blockade of Israeli shipping found little support internationally.
Arab mobilization compelled Israel to mobilize its forces, 80 percent of which were reserve civilians. Israel feared slow economic strangulation because of the costs of long-term mobilization and the damage of the shipping blockade. Israeli leaders feared the consequences of absorbing an Arab first strike against its civilian population, many of whom lived only miles from Arab-controlled territory. Incendiary Arab rhetoric threatening Israel's annihilation terrified Israeli society and contributed to the pressures to go to war.
Faced with few choices, on June 4, 1967 the Cabinet authorized the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence to decide on appropriate steps to defend the State of Israel. On June 5, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt and captured the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. Despite an Israeli appeal to Jordan to stay out of the conflict, Jordan attacked Israel and thereby lost control of the West Bank and the eastern sector of Jerusalem. Israel went on to capture the Golan Heights from Syria by the time the war ended on June 10.
3.6.2 May 1967
During the early months of 1966, it became clear that Israel’s neighbours were escalating activities against her. More and more Israeli citizens were killed in attacks emanating from the Syrian and Jordanian borders. The Syrians, from atop the Golan Heights, shelled Israeli towns indiscriminately.
On 26 May 1967, President Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt declared: “Our basic goal is the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight … The mining of Sharm El Sheik is a confrontation with Israel.”
Modeled after the November 1966 Egyptian-Syrian “defence” pact, other pacts were signed by Egypt with Jordan and Iraq on 30 May and 4 June, thereby completing the encirclement of Israel.
COUNTRY SOLDIERS TANKS JETS Egypt 270 000 1 400 550 Syria 65 000 550 120 Jordan 55 000 300 40 Lebanon 12 000 130 35 Saudi Arabia 50 000 100 40 Iraq 75 000 630 200 TOTAL 527 000 3 100 985 52 SOLDIERS TANKS JETS Israel 264 000 800 203
3.6.3 Factors leading up to the 1967 Six Day War :
Terrorist attacks on Israel
From early 1965 to the Six-Day War in June 1967, the PLO through Fatah pursued a consistent policy of border attacks, particularly along the Jordanian and Lebanese borders. Fatah leaders used sabotage to force Israel to adopt an offensive position, which in turn would force the Arabs to step up their military preparedness. This cycle of action-retaliation-reaction gradually escalated tension on the borders and eventually to the Six Day War in 1967.
In 1965, 35 terrorist raids were conducted against Israel; in 1966 there were 41; and in the first four months of 1967, 37 attacks were launched.
The number of dangerous incidents on the Syrian border increased following Israel’s activation of the National Water Carrier from the Sea of Galilee to the Negev in 1964. This tension came against the backdrop of the on-going border clashes along the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria, as Syria resisted Israel’s attempts to increase use of the DMZ for Israeli agriculture. Syria launched attacks on Israeli farmers cultivating land in the demilitarized zone and on Israeli fishing boats and other craft in the Sea of Galilee, shelling from the commanding Golan Heights that rise dramatically to the east of the border areas.
Military provocation by Arab countries and Soviet disinformation
While Israel consistently expressed a desire to negotiate a peace with its neighbours, there was no matching sentiment on the Arab side. In an address to the UN General Assembly on October 10, 1960, Foreign Minister Golda Meir challenged Arab leaders to meet with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to negotiate a peace settlement. Nasser (Egypt) answered on October 15, saying that Israel was trying to deceive world opinion, and reiterating that his country would never recognize the Jewish State. Nasser’s rhetoric became increasingly bellicose. On March 8, 1965 he said: ”We shall not enter Palestine with its soil covered in sand. We shall enter it with its soil saturated in blood.”
A few months later, Nasser expressed the Arabs’ goal to be ”… the full restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people. In other words, we aim at the destruction of the State of Israel. The immediate aim: perfection of Arab military might. The national aim: the eradication of Israel.”
Other Arab leaders from Syria, Jordan, and Iraq joined in the rhetoric and preparations for war, increasing pressure on Egypt’s President Gamal Nasser, perceived as the leader of the Arab world. Syria’s attacks along the DMZ grew more frequent in 1965 and 1966. Syria’s attacks on Israeli kibbutzim from the Golan Heights provoked a retaliatory strike on April 7, 1967, during which Israeli planes shot down six Syrian MIGs. Israel followed up by re-introducing military forces to the DMZ.
At the same time, and unknown to the Israelis, the Soviet Union mounted a disinformation campaign pushing Egypt to join Syria against Israel and providing military and economic aid to both Syria and Egypt. On May 13, 1967 a Soviet parliamentary delegation visited Cairo and informed the Egyptian leaders that Israel had concentrated eleven to thirteen brigades along the Syrian border in preparation for an assault within a few days, with the intention of overthrowing the revolutionary Syrian Government. This was a complete fabrication; denied
53 by Israel. UN Secretary General U Thant reported that UNTSO observers on the Syrian border: ”… have verified the absence of troop concentrations and absence of noteworthy military movements on both sides of the [Syrian] line.”
On May 15, Israel’s 19th Independence Day, Egyptian troops began moving into the Sinai and massing near the Israeli border. By May 18, Syrian troops were prepared for battle along the Golan Heights.
On May 16, Nasser requested the withdrawal of the UN Emergency Force stationed in the Sinai since 1956. Egyptian forces moved up to the UNEF lines and began to harass the UN positions. Without bringing the matter to the attention of the General Assembly, as his predecessor had promised, Secretary-General U Thant complied with the demand. This was a direct violation of the conditions under which Israel had returned control of the Sinai to Egypt after the Sinai Campaign. The UN force was supposed to safeguard Israel from Egypt again closing the Straits of Tiran or launching terrorist attacks from that quarter.
Blockade of the Straits of Tiran
In 1956, the United States gave Israel assurances that it recognized the Jewish State’s right of access to the Straits of Tiran. In 1957, at the UN, 17 maritime powers declared that Israel had a right to transit the Strait. Moreover, any blockade violated the Convention on the Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone, which was adopted by the UN Conference on the Law of the Sea on April 27, 1958. Nonetheless, on the nights of 22-23 May 1967, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli shipping and all ships bound for Eilat. This blockade cut off Israel’s only supply route with Asia and stopped the flow of oil from its main supplier, Iran.
Nasser was fully aware of the pressure he was exerting to force Israel’s hand. The day after the blockade was set up, he said defiantly and publicly: ”The Jews threaten to make war. I reply: Welcome! We are ready for war.”
Final blows leading to war
There is evidence that Egypt was warned by the US and the Soviet Union in late May 1967 that war should be avoided, but by then the momentum to war was unstoppable.
King Hussein of Jordan signed a defence pact with Egypt on 30 May 1967, under which Jordan joined the Egyptian-Syrian military alliance of 1966 and placed its army on both sides of the Jordan River under Egyptian command. He had little choice since Jordan housed 700,000 Palestinian Arabs whose rioting in November 1966 almost brought down his government. On June 4, Iraq joined the military alliance with Egypt, Jordan and Syria. President Abdur Rahman Aref of Iraq said:
”The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear - to wipe Israel off the map.” Armed forces in the Arab countries were mobilized. Israel was confronted by an Arab force of some 465,000 troops, over 2,880 tanks and 810 aircraft. The armies of Kuwait, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq were contributing troops and arms to the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian fronts.
Israeli forces had been on high alert during the three weeks of tension which began on May 15, 1967 when it became known that Egypt had concentrated large-scale forces in the Sinai Peninsula, an alert status Israel could not maintain indefinitely. The country could not accept interdiction of its sea lane through the Gulf of Aqaba. Israel had no choice but pre-emptive
54 action. To do this successfully, Israel had to achieve surprise, not wait for an Arab invasion, a potential catastrophic situation. On June 4, the Cabinet authorized the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence to decide on appropriate steps to defend the State of Israel.
3.6.4 THE 1967 SIX DAY WAR
By Mitchell Bard
Israel consistently expressed a desire to negotiate with its neighbours. In an address to the UN General Assembly on October 10, 1960, Foreign Minister Golda Meir challenged Arab leaders to meet with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to negotiate a peace settlement. Nasser answered on October 15, saying that Israel was trying to deceive world opinion, and reiterating that his country would never recognize the Jewish State.
The Arabs were equally adamant in their refusal to negotiate a separate settlement for the refugees. As Nasser told the United Arab Republic National Assembly March 26, 1964:
Israel and the imperialism around us, which confront us, are two separate things. There have been attempts to separate them, in order to break up the problems and present them in an imaginary light as if the problem of Israel is the problem of the refugees, by the solution of which the problem of Palestine will also be solved and no residue of the problem will remain. The danger of Israel lies in the very existence of Israel as it is in the present and in what she represents.
The Palestinian Army: In 1963, the Arab League introduced a new weapon in its war against Israel - the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The PLO formally came into being during a 1964 meeting of the first Palestinian Congress. Shortly thereafter, the group began to splinter into various factions. Ultimately, the largest faction, Fatah, would come to dominate the organization, and its leader, Yasser Arafat, would become the PLO chairman and most visible symbol. All the groups adhered to a set of principles laid out in the Palestine National Charter, which called for Israel's destruction.
The PLO’s belligerent rhetoric was matched by deeds. Terrorist attacks by the group grew more frequent. In 1965, 35 raids were conducted against Israel. In 1966, the number increased to 41. In just the first four months of 1967, 37 attacks were launched. The targets were always civilians.
Most of the attacks involved Palestinian guerillas infiltrating Israel from Jordan, the Gaza Strip, and Lebanon. The orders and logistical support for the attacks were coming, however, from Cairo and Damascus. Egyptian President Nasser’s main objective was to harass the Israelis, but a secondary one was to undermine King Hussein’s regime in Jordan.
King Hussein viewed the PLO as both a direct and indirect threat to his power. Hussein feared that the PLO might try to depose him with Nasser’s help or that the PLO’s attacks on Israel would provoke retaliatory strikes by Israeli forces that could weaken his authority. By the beginning of 1967, Hussein had closed the PLO’s offices in Jerusalem, arrested many members, and withdrawn recognition of the organization. Nasser and his friends in the region criticised Hussein for betraying the Arab cause. Hussein would soon have the chance to redeem himself.
55 Terror from the Heights: The break-up of the U.A.R. and the resulting political instability only made Syria more hostile toward Israel. Another major cause of conflict was Syria’s resistance to Israel’s creation of a National Water Carrier to take water from the Jordan River to supply the country. The Syrian army used the Golan Heights, which tower 3,000 feet above the Galilee, to shell Israeli farms and villages. Syria’s attacks grew more frequent in 1965 and 1966, forcing children living on kibbutzim in the Huleh Valley to sleep in bomb shelters. Israel repeatedly protested the Syrian bombardments to the UN Mixed Armistice Commission, which was charged with policing the cease-fire, but the UN did nothing to stop Syria’s aggression — even a mild Security Council resolution expressing “regret” for such incidents was vetoed by the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Israel was condemned by the United Nations when it retaliated.
In 1965 Nasser expressed the Arabs’ aspiration: “[We seek] the full restoration of the rights of the Palestinian people. In other words, we aim at the destruction of the state of Israel. The immediate aim: perfection of Arab military might. The national aim: the eradication of Israel.” Syria’s attacks on Israeli kibbutzim from the Golan Heights finally provoked a retaliatory strike on April 7, 1967. During the attack, Israeli planes shot down six Syrian fighter planes: MiGs supplied by the Soviet Union. Shortly thereafter, the Soviets, who had been providing military and economic assistance to both Syria and Egypt, gave Damascus false information alleging a massive Israeli military buildup in preparation for an attack.
Countdown to War: On May 15, Israel's Independence Day, Egyptian troops began moving into the Sinai and massing near the Israeli border. By May 18, Syrian troops were prepared for battle along the Golan Heights.
Nasser ordered the UN Emergency Force (UNEF), stationed in the Sinai since 1956 as a buffer between Israeli and Egyptian forces after Israel’s withdrawal following the Sinai Campaign, to withdraw on May 16. Without bringing the matter to the attention of the General Assembly (as his predecessor had promised), Secretary-General U Thant complied with the demand. After the withdrawal of the UNEF, the Voice of the Arabs radio station proclaimed on May 18, 1967:
As of today, there no longer exists an international emergency force to protect Israel. We shall exercise patience no more. We shall not complain any more to the UN about Israel. The sole method we shall apply against Israel is total war, which will result in the extermination of Zionist existence.
An enthusiastic echo was heard May 20 from Syrian Defence Minister Hafez Assad:
Our forces are now entirely ready not only to repulse the aggression, but to initiate the act of liberation itself, and to explode the Zionist presence in the Arab homeland. The Syrian army, with its finger on the trigger, is united....I, as a military man, believe that the time has come to enter into a battle of annihilation.
The Blockade: On May 22, Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran to all Israeli shipping and all ships bound for Eilat. This blockade cut off Israel's only supply route with Asia and stopped the flow of oil from its main supplier, Iran.
President Johnson stated that the blockade was illegal and unsuccessfully tried to organize an international flotilla to test it. At the same time, he advised the Israelis not to take any military action. After the war, he acknowledged the closure of the Strait of Tiran was the casus belli (June 19, 1967):
Escalation: Nasser was aware of the pressure he was exerting to force Israel’s hand, and challenged Israel to fight almost daily. The day after the blockade was set up, he said defiantly: "The Jews threaten to make war. I reply: Welcome! We are ready for war.” 56 On May 27 he said, "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight.” The following day, he added: "We will not accept any...coexistence with Israel...Today the issue is not the establishment of peace between the Arab states and Israel....The war with Israel is in effect since 1948.”
When King Hussein of Jordan signed a defence pact with Egypt on May 30, Nasser announced:
”The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon are poised on the borders of Israel … .to face the challenge, while standing behind us are the armies of Iraq, Algeria, Kuwait, Sudan and the whole Arab nation. This act will astound the world. Today they will know that the Arabs are arranged for battle, the critical hour has arrived. We have reached the stage of serious action and not declarations.”
President Abdur Rahman Aref of Iraq joined in the war of words: "The existence of Israel is an error which must be rectified. This is our opportunity to wipe out the ignominy which has been with us since 1948. Our goal is clear -- to wipe Israel off the map." On June 4, Iraq joined the military alliance with Egypt, Jordan and Syria.
The Arab rhetoric was matched by the mobilization of Arab forces. Approximately 465,000 troops, more than 2,800 tanks, and 800 aircraft ringed Israel.
By this time, Israeli forces had been on alert for three weeks and decided to preempt the expected Arab attack. On June 5, Prime Minister Eshkol gave the order to attack Egypt.
The US Position: The United States tried to prevent the war through negotiations, but it could not persuade Nasser or the other Arab states to cease their belligerent statements and actions. Still, right before the war, Johnson warned: "Israel will not be alone unless it decides to go alone." Then, when the war began, the State Department announced: "Our position is neutral in thought, word and deed.”
Moreover, while the Arabs were falsely accusing the United States of airlifting supplies to Israel, Johnson imposed an arms embargo on the region (France, Israel's other main arms supplier, also embargoed arms to Israel).
By contrast, the Soviets were supplying massive amounts of arms to the Arabs. Simultaneously, the armies of Kuwait, Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq were contributing troops and arms to the Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian fronts.
On June 5, 1967, Israel was indeed alone, but its military commanders had conceived a brilliant war strategy. The entire Israeli Air Force, with the exception of just 12 fighters assigned to defend Israeli air space, took off at 7h14 a.m. with the intent of bombing Egyptian airfields while the Egyptian pilots were eating breakfast. In less than 2 hours, roughly 300 Egyptian aircraft were destroyed. A few hours later, Israeli fighters attacked the Jordanian and Syrian air forces, as well as one airfield in Iraq. By the end of the first day, nearly the entire Egyptian and Jordanian air forces, and half the Syrians’, had been destroyed on the ground.
The battle then moved to the ground, and some of history’s greatest tank battles were fought between Egyptian and Israeli armour in the blast-furnace conditions of the Sinai desert.
Jerusalem is attacked: Prime Minister Levi Eshkol sent a message to King Hussein on June 5 saying Israel would not attack Jordan unless he initiated hostilities. When Jordanian radar picked up a cluster of planes flying from Egypt to Israel, and the Egyptians convinced Hussein the planes were theirs, he ordered the shelling of West Jerusalem. It turned out that the planes were Israel’s and were returning from destroying the Egyptian air force on the ground. 57 It took only three days for Israeli forces to defeat the Jordanian legion. On the morning of June 7, the order was given to recapture the Old City. Israeli paratroopers stormed the city and secured it. Defence Minister Moshe Dayan arrived with Chief of Staff Yitzhak Rabin to mark formally the Jews’ return to their historic capital and their holiest site. At the Western Wall, the IDF’s chaplain, Rabbi Shlomo Goren, blew a shofar to celebrate the event.
A Second Exodus: After Jordan launched its attack on June 5, approximately 325,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank fled to other parts of Jordan, primarily to avoid being caught in the cross-fire of a war.
Some Palestinians who left preferred to live in an Arab state rather than under Israeli military rule. Members of various PLO factions fled to avoid capture by the Israelis.
Israeli forces ordered a handful of Palestinians to move for "strategic and security reasons." In some cases, they were allowed to return in a few days, in others; Israel offered to help them resettle elsewhere. The net result, however, was that a new refugee population had been created and the old refugee problem was made worse.
The Stunning Victory: While most IDF units were fighting the Egyptians and Jordanians, a small, heroic group of soldiers were left to defend the northern border against the Syrians. It was not until the Jordanians and Egyptians were subdued that reinforcements could be sent to the Golan Heights, where Syrian gunners commanding the strategic high ground made it exceedingly difficult and costly for Israeli forces to penetrate. Finally, on June 9, after two days of heavy air bombardment, Israeli forces succeeded in breaking through the Syrian lines.
After just six days of fighting, Israeli forces marched on Cairo, Damascus, and Amman. They had captured the Sinai and the Golan Heights, and Israeli political leaders had no desire to fight in the Arab capitals. Furthermore, the Soviet Union had become increasingly alarmed by the Israeli advances and was threatening to intervene. At this point, U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk advised the Israelis “in the strongest possible terms” to accept a cease-fire. On June 10, Israel did just that.
The victory came at a very high cost. In storming the Golan Heights, Israel suffered 115 dead - roughly the number of Americans killed during Operation Desert Storm. Altogether, Israel lost twice as many men - 777 dead and 2,586 wounded - in proportion to her total population as the U.S. lost in eight years of fighting in Vietnam. Also, despite the incredible success of the air campaign, the Israeli Air Force lost 46 of its 200 fighters. The death toll on the Arab side was 15,000 Egyptians, 2,500 Syrians, and 800 Jordanians.
By the end of the war, Israel had conquered enough territory to more than triple the size of the area it controlled, from 8,000 to 26,000 square miles. The victory enabled Israel to unify Jerusalem. Israeli forces had also captured the Sinai, Golan Heights, Gaza Strip and West Bank. Israel now ruled more than three-quarters of a million Palestinians — most of whom were hostile to the government. Nevertheless, more than 9,000 Palestinian families were reunited in 1967. Ultimately, more than 60,000 Palestinians were allowed to return.
In November 1967, the United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 242, which established a formula for Arab-Israeli peace whereby Israel would withdraw from territories occupied in the war in exchange for peace with its neighbours. This resolution has served as the basis for peace negotiations from that time on.
58 Israel's leaders fully expected to negotiate a peace agreement with their neighbours that would involve some territorial compromise. Therefore, instead of annexing the West Bank, a military administration was created. No occupation is pleasant for the inhabitants, but the Israeli authorities did try to minimize the impact on the population. Except for the requirement that school texts in the territories be purged of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic language, the authorities tried not to interfere with the inhabitants. They did provide economic assistance; for example, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were moved from camps to new homes. This stimulated protests from Egypt, which had done nothing for the refugees when it controlled the area.
Arabs were given freedom of movement. They were allowed to travel to and from Jordan. In 1972, elections were held in the West Bank. Women and non-landowners, unable to participate under Jordanian rule, were now permitted to vote.
East Jerusalem Arabs were given the option of retaining Jordanian citizenship or acquiring Israeli citizenship. They were recognized as residents of united Jerusalem and given the right to vote and run for the city council. Also, Islamic holy places were put in the care of a Muslim Council. Despite the Temple Mount's significance in Jewish history, Jews were barred from conducting prayers there.
3.6.5 United Nations Resolution 242
On November 22, 1967, the United Nations Council unanimously adopted Resolution 242, establishing the principles that were to guide the negotiations for an Arab-Israeli peace settlement.
The ultimate goal of 242 is the achievement of a "peaceful and accepted settlement." This means a negotiated agreement based on the resolution's principles rather than one imposed upon the parties. This is also the implication of Resolution 338, according to Arthur Goldberg, the American ambassador who led the delegation to the UN in 1967. That resolution, adopted after the 1973 war, called for negotiations between the parties to start immediately and concurrently with the cease-fire.
Withdrawal from Territories: The most controversial clause in Resolution 242 is the call for the "Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict." This is linked to the second unambiguous clause calling for "termination of all claims or states of belligerency" and the recognition that "every State in the area" has the "right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.”
The resolution does not make Israeli withdrawal a prerequisite for Arab action. Nor does it specify how much territory Israel is required to give up. The Security Council did not say Israel must withdraw from "all the" territories occupied after the Six-Day war. This was quite deliberate.
On October 29, 1969, the British Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons the withdrawal envisaged by the resolution would not be from "all the territories." When asked to explain the British position later, Lord Caradon said: "It would have been wrong to demand that Israel return to its positions of June 4, 1967, because those positions were undesirable and artificial.”
59 The resolutions clearly call on the Arab states to make peace with Israel. The principal condition is that Israel withdraw from "territories occupied" in 1967, which means that Israel must withdraw from some, all, or none of the territories still occupied. Since Israel withdrew from 91% of the territories when it gave up the Sinai, it has already partially, if not wholly, fulfilled its obligation under 242.
The Arab states also objected to the call for "secure and recognized boundaries" because they feared this implied negotiations with Israel. The Arab League explicitly ruled this out at Khartoum in August 1967, when it proclaimed the three “no’s." Ambassador Goldberg explained that this phrase was specifically included because the parties were expected to make "territorial adjustments in their peace settlement encompassing less than a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied territories, inasmuch as Israel's prior frontiers had proved to be notably insecure.”
The question, then, is whether Israel has to give up any additional territory. Now that peace agreements have been signed with Egypt and Jordan, the only remaining territorial disputes are with Lebanon and Syria. Israel's conflict with Lebanon is a result of fighting after 1967 and is therefore irrelevant to 242.
The dispute with Syria is over the Golan Heights. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin expressed a willingness to negotiate a compromise in exchange for peace; however, President Hafez Assad refused to consider even a limited peace treaty unless Israel first agreed to a complete withdrawal. Under 242, Israel has no obligation to withdraw from any part of the Golan in the absence of a peace accord with Syria.
Other Arab states that continue to maintain a state of war with Israel, or have refused to grant Israel diplomatic recognition, such as Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Libya, have no territorial disputes with Israel. They have nevertheless conditioned their relations on an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders.
SECTION 4: MULTIMEDIA VIDEOS
Each participant will be expected to view the following web sites. The content of each of these videos will be tested.
1. Is Israel an Apartheid State : http://youtu.be/V1dvwgjDAT8
2. The Middle East problem http://youtu.be/63hTOaRu7h4
3. The Truth about the Peace Process http://youtu.be/QAuBc_cbXo0
4. The Truth about the Refugees: Israel Palestinian Conflict http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_3A6_qSBBQ
*** If you do not find the above videos on YouTube as mentioned by their title, please email: oril@jafi.org to receive the links via email.
60 SECTION 5: MAPS
5.1 Map of Israel and surrounding countries
5.2 Regional map of Arab affiliated countries
61