Causes and Consequences of the Creation of Israel

History 2.2

Causes and Consequences of the Creation of Israel

“A land without people for a people without land.”

The creation of Israel was a significant event for people in the region of Palestine and has lasting consequences that has affected a significant number of people and still affects people today. The creation of Israel is the result of a determined Jewish community to create a Jewish homeland to free themselves from historic and extreme persecution and anti-Semitism n in Europe. Motivation for a Jewish state was fueled by the mass genocide of millions of Jews in the Holocaust and the rise of Zionism in the 20th century to create a Jewish state with national and cultural identity. Displaced Jews from the Holocaust and World War Two put pressure on the UN to resolve the issue and resulted in an UNSCOP Committee report which was unfair to the majority Arab population but gave Jews what they needed to declare independence. The influence of growing superpower America was key in the international community vote for the partition of Palestine and led to more countries supporting Israel. Short sighted and conflicting British historical agreements lead to a mixture of confusion and hope among Arabs and Jews which paved the way for future conflict. The most significant consequence from the creation of Israel is the 5,000,000 Palestinian refugees who today have no homes and many live in UNRWA refugee camps. A significant number of Jewish people in Palestine and neighboring Arab states and were also affected in terrorist plots created by Jews and Arabs alike. The 1948 and 1967 wars also affected Arabs and Jews as well as Arabs in surrounding Arab countries such as Jordan, Syria and Egypt.

The main cause of the creation of Israel was the Holocaust which fueled zionist aspirations. The Holocaust, the mass genocide of more than 6,000,000 Jews in World War Two showed Jews that they would only be safe in a Jewish state where they would be free from persecution. Jews had been subject to anti-Semitism in Europe for centuries such as when under Roman occupation and were subjects of pogroms but Nazi Germany's calculated systematic killing of Jews in purpose built extermination camps such as Treblinka added immediate urgency for a Jewish state. The killing of Jews in Europe added fuel to the Zionist cause which was the movement founding in the 1800s by Theodor Herzl which called for a Jewish homeland. The zionist movement gained traction due to homeless and displaced Jews looking for a place to live and who would passionately fight for a Jewish state as they had nothing to lose. The Yishuv and Haganah were two of these passionate Jewish groups that would ensure the creation of Israel at all costs. “a land without a people for a people without a land” is a famous quote attributed to the zionist movement which shows the perspective of displaced Jews migrating to Palestine. The displaced Jewish persons did not recognise the significant Arab population who already inhabited the land and this lack of respect for Arabs early on continues for years following and eventually leads to Israel not respecting Arab right to the land and claiming their own state. The Holocaust was significant because it showed Jews that other countries would not protect them from atrocities such as the holocaust and that a Jewish state was needed urgently so Jews would never again be the victims. The Holocaust provided the necessary motivation to a previously weak zionist movement to concentrate resources and speed up migration to Palestine. This zionist movement caused surviving european Jews to migrated to Palestine which would later cause tension between Arabs and Jews and would eventually make Jews more powerful than the Arabs in the region leading to the creation of Israel.

The UNSCOP Committee report into Jewish Palestine migration conflict was a significant cause of the creation of Israel as it gave Jews western support to create their own state regardless of Palestinian Arab claim to the land. Due to a three way conflict between Arabs, Jews and Britain, the British planned to withdraw from Palestine and end the British mandate over Palestine. Britain's attempt to please the population of Arabs by limiting jewish migration in the 1939 white paper had failed and conflict was increasing because despite these measures over 550,000 Jews had immigrated to Palestine. Britain handed the issue over to the newly formed United Nations to resolve the problem. The UN commissioned the UNSCOP (United Nations Special Committee on Palestine) to study Jewish settlement in Palestine and propose the best solution. UNSCOP released Resolution 181 which was passed by the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947 and recommended the Partition of Palestine. The committee had recommended this because they were shocked by the treatment of Jews on the Exodus ship which was carrying Jewish immigrants to Palestine and they believed the the only way to resolve the conflict was to split the groups. Resolution 181 was extremely unfair to the majority Arab population as the partition plan gave Jews 56% of the land while Jews at the time only made up 33% of the population. In addition, Jews also received the most fertile land with the best water resources.

Arabs reacted with hostility and boycotted the resolution believing it was unfair to Arabs. Arabs didn’t believe that they should have to give up their land due to mistakes made by western countries in Europe. They also didn’t believe they should have to give the most fertile land to Jews and disliked the idea of moving when they owned most of the land. Palestinian Arabs would only keep 43% of their current land and Jews only owned 7% of the land they would be inheriting. Arabs and neighbouring Arab Countries strongly opposed the resolution aswell, the Jewish agency, of course, welcomed the majority plan. Arabs didn’t want to share governance with the British or with Jews and so didn’t agree with the partition. If the Partition Plan was more equal towards Arabs then perhaps the creation of a Jewish state would have been more peaceful and there would be no need for wars and thousands of people to become refugees.

It is argued that Holocaust guilt and powerful zionist organisations influenced UNSCOP and the Un general assembly to vote in favour of Jews and give Jews more land than their population represented.

American support of Israel is an important cause of the creation of Israel due to America’s heavy influence in the world. Jews in America were in powerful media positions and were able to persuade public opinion towards a Jewish state. Zionist organisations also had a lot of influence in America due to large funding in support of Zionist aspirations by American Jews. The Holocaust had showed Jews world wide that they would only be safe in a Jewish state and for this reason American Jews had the same reasons for wanting Israel as European Jews. American politicians didn’t want to exclude the vote of the 1,500,000 Jews in America so they supported the creation of Israel. America as a country publicly supported the partition plan on 4th October. Along with political interests in supporting Israel, America also wanted to protect its commercial oil interests in Palestine so they could supply a recovering war torn Europe. America was also interested in the strategic location of Palestine and wanted US friendly policies in the region. By supporting Jews, they could guarantee their interests were protected as they knew they could work with the Jews better than the Arabs. America’s influence in the international community undoubtedly influenced some countries votes in the UN General Assembly and as a consequence of that vote Israel was effectively created. Countries would have been keen to support America as it was quickly becoming the rising superpower in the world following the war and even more countries would have abstained under pressure from Britain to its commonwealth countries.

A cause of the creation of Israel was Britain creating multiple conflicting agreements with various nations resulting in a mixture of confusion and hope. The first agreement was with Palestinians created in 1915 (McMahon-Hussein Agreement). The intention of this agreement was that Arabs would rise up against their governing Ottoman Empire leaders making them unstable thereby helping Britain which was currently in a war against the Turks. The Palestinians believed that after the war they would get the land themselves and would be free from Ottoman rule. Britain also made another conflicting agreement with Jews in the Balfour Declaration 1917 which promised Britain's support for a Jewish state in Palestine in return for Jews fighting in the war. The British also had another agreement with France in the Sykes–Picot Agreement which promised the same area of land as the previous agreements.

These agreements showed short term thinking by Britain who at the time were mainly thinking about their own self interests in World War Two and neglected to think of the Palestinians who may have to give up land for a Jewish state. These agreements caused a great deal of tension in the time of the British Mandate in Palestine as Arabs argued their agreement (McMahon-Hussein Agreement) entitled them to the land of Palestine and not the Jews. Both groups would have felt betrayed by Britain and would have trouble trusting them in future agreements. This may be why the 1939 White Paper which was meant to limit Jewish immigration was not accept by either Jews or Arabs. This constant conflict between Britain, Jews and Arabs ultimately led to a British withdrawal from Palestine as they handed the unresolved problem onto the United Nations. This was good for Jews as they knew they would get more support from the international community than Arabs and thus Israel would be created. Britain tended to take a more neutral view on the issue of Palestine than countries like America where they had invested interests in having a Jewish homeland. Without Britains confusing and conflicting past agreements there would have been no real hope of a Jewish State for Zionists in Europe and Britain would not have handed the issue onto the United Nations where Jews would inevitably get support.

The War of Independence was an immediate and major consequence of the creation of Israel. The war was from 15 May 1948 - 10 March 1949. Though this war Israelis took 20% more land than the UN Resolution 181 partition plan allowed. Israelis believe that they should be allowed the land as Arabs had refused to accept the partition plan so therefore they didn’t need to abide by it either and could take more land than set out for them. Zionist historians point out Arabs had an opportunity to work with Israel and accept the plan and keep more land. Zionist historians accuse Palestinians of being greedy in not accepting the offer while pro-palestinian and revolutionary zionists argue Arabs accepting the extremely unfair resolution shouldn’t be expected of them as some of the terms in the deal were unfair beyond belief. Furthermore, the War of Independence was actually started by the surrounding Arab countries declaring war on Israel and so Israel argues they shouldn’t have to give back gained land from a war that wasn’t started by them and they were not the ones being provocative. The Israeli army was much larger and was more passionate about their cause whereas surrounding Arab countries soldiers didn’t have stakes in the outcome of the war at all and were not motivated to fight whereas the yishuv and Israel defence force would die for Israel. Surrounding Arab countries declared war on israel the day after the declaration of independence. Israel would be fighting a war on all fronts. Israel had an army of 95,000 troops in December compared with Arabs 55,000 troops fighting. Israel was more successful and won because they were also much more organised. While the Arab countries were all fighting for the same cause, they were not united and didn’t trust each other due to longstanding rivalries. Arab countries also had much larger supply lines, Iraq had a 1100 km supply line to the capital Baghdad. These factors resulted in Israel winning the war and claiming 20% more land than set out for them in the Partition Plan.

A significant consequence of the creation of Israel was Palestinian refugees who had lost their homes and businesses in Israel and were not allowed back to their land. At the time of the creation of Israel there were 750,000 Palestinian refugees who left . Today there are more than 5,000,000 registered Palestinian refugees that are eligible for UNRWA camp services. Palestinians had to go to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) camps which were set up in the West Bank of Jordan, Gaza stip, Lebanon and Syria. These were meant to be temporary camps for Palestinians but the “General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA's mandate” because the issues surrounding where Palestinians migrate to is not solved as Egypt, Lebanon and Syria do not allow Palestinians to become citizens. Only Jordan allowed Palestinians to become citizens, Palestinians in other countries had much poorer future prospects. UNRWA camps have become effectively small cities for Palestinians. Palestinians at UNRWA camps initially had poor sanitation, no sewage and only basic medical facilities. As the United Nations recognised the issues of Palestinians Refugees they increased the resources allocated to them. This support for refugees is costly to the UN who spent 1.2 billion in 2009 alone caring for these refugees. The United Nations arguably has a commitment to Palestinians as they failed to protect their borders and failed to stop Israel taking more land from Palestinians. Furthermore, if these refugees were not supported then there would be more conflict between Palestinians and Israelis as they tried to reclaim their land.

There is historiographical debate over whether Palestinians were pushed by the Israeli government to leave or whether they fled. 750,000 Palestinian Arabs left Israel (85% of Arabs in Israel at the time) following and during the war. Israelis argue that Arabs left against Jewish wishes while the Arab perspective is that they were only leaving temporarily so not to interfere with the war and the Arabs and Jewish Armies. Some Arabs argue that they were pushed from Israel by Jews in the form of being expelled from their homes or terrorist tactics by Jews to get Arabs to leave. Arabs villages were also attacked by Israeli Army officials and so many would have left out of fear. The Deir Yassin massacre of April 1948 seems to disprove the Jewish perspective that Palestinians were not pushed from Israel. The Palestinian village of Deir Yassin was attacked by Jewish terrorist forces who killed 230 Palestinians civilians. This killing of noncombatants made other Arabs fearful and this would have motivated more to leave Israel. David Ben-Gurion who would go on to become the prime minister of Israel, set up Plan Dalet. Plan Dalet was aimed at systematically expelling Arabs from Israel furthermore. The Arabs that were expelled would not be allowed back and there is historiographical debate around whether Arabs should have been allowed to return to their homes. Israelis argue that Palestinians would easily be able to find homes in neighbouring Arab states. Jews also point out that large numbers of Jews were expelled from surrounding Arab countries because of the creation of Israel and so Israel is in a similar situation. Palestinians Arabs argue they were forced out of Israel and were not allowed to return. There is also debate around signing treaties between Israel and Palestine. Israel argues that they cannot sign a treaty or come to agreement with an organisation that does not officially recognise them as a country. Palestinians argue that Jews refused to sign treaties that would have allowed refugees back in. Israel discriminates towards Arabs even today. Israel has most of Palestines water resources and Palestinians rely on water to live as they don’t have enough themselves. Israel has been accused of purposely not supplying enough water to Palestinians to hold them back economically. Israel have ⅚ of the Palestine regions water resources and even though many Arabs hate is Israel, they rely on Israel to continue to supply them and not just cut them off completely.

150,000 Palestinian Arabs stayed in Israel following the War of Independence. These Arabs were also significantly affected by the creation of Israel in both positive and negative aspects. Under the 1951 Nationality Law Arabs in theory shared equal rights and could vote and run for office. Arabs were only excluded from Army duty in Israel. Arab women in Israel got the right to vote, something they were not entitled to in Palestine. Despite these rights to Palestinians, there was still a lot of discrimination towards Arabs. The Defence Emergency Regulations meant that Arabs could be placed under military rule and Israelis had excessive power over Palestinian Arabs until 1966. Arabs could be arrested or even exiled without reason and land could be taken by declaring the area a military zone. Furthermore, the Israeli Government spends significantly less on Arabs populations and housing than it does for Jews. Jews in Israel treated Arabs with suspicion and this was warranted as some Arabs refused to accept the Jewish state and didn’t cooperate while others did cooperate.

Jewish people living in surrounding Arab countries were also significantly affected by the creation of Israel. The creation of a Jewish state resulted in Arabs in surrounding Arab states pressuring Jews into moving into Israel but there is historiographical debate over the reason for the migration of Jews. Zionist historians argue that Jews were persecuted against in surrounding Arab countries and were forced to go to Israel. Arabs argue that while some Jews wanted to move, many Jews were pressured by Zionists to move. Zionists used terrorist bomb scares in Iraq to get Jews to immigrate through fear. Operation Magic Carpet was a operation in the 1950s set up by Israel to get almost 50,000 Yemenite Jews to Israel. The operation involved airlifting Jews from Yemen to Israel. One interesting point is that while Jews all had the same faith, Jews from Europe and Jews from Africa and the middle east would have held very different values so there would have been conflict between jews in israel. As of 2013, there were 6,100,000 Jews in Israel and due to border insecurities in Israel there is compulsory conscription for those of Jewish faith for any Jew over the age of 18. This shows Jews insecurity about their borders as they are probably threatened by surrounding Arab states. As all their surround states have attacked them, sometimes even more than once, it makes sense for Israel to be cautious as even though tensions have died down a lot since 1967 and other wars, there are still extremist who want to destroy Israel.

The Six Day War of June 1967 was significant because it affected the lives of Palestinians and helped create the PLO (Palestinians Liberation Organisation) who would launch terrorist attacks against Israel in the name of Palestinians for years to come. The war was caused by Israel believing it was only a matter of time before surrounding Arab countries attacked and decided to initiate war against Syria, Jordan and Egypt instead of waiting to be attacked. The war was also a product of the Suez Crisis where Egypt closed of the canal and the Straits of Tiran to Israeli ships which restricted over 90% of their oil trade. Israel saw this as another provocative move in the buildup to war so they invaded. The war was six days long (hence the name) and was an overwhelming success to Israel despite the fact that they had far inferior numbers and inferior weaponry when compared to egypt who had been preparing for some time buying military weapons off the soviets. The Soviets supplied weapons (despite embargo) to Nasser because Egypt was against Israel who was supported by America.Israel's decision to invade rather than wait to be invaded ultimately lead them to win the war and defeat egypt swiftly. Israeli planes israel had air supremacy and it was especially hard to for Egypt to attack because ever airbase within range of Israel had been destroyed. Israel now had taken Sinai and the Gaza strip. The Israeli invasion into the West Bank was successful and they claimed that as Israeli land as well. Gaza, which was previously Egyptian and the West Bank, which was previously Jordanian were now annexed into Israel. This was significant because by taking this land, Israel had just inherited 600,000 Palestinian Refugees they would have to look after. Many Palestinians who fled the West Bank during the war were not allowed back and the UN tried to get Israel to honour the pre 1967 war borders but Israel didn’t comply.Israel gave Arabs citizenship and didn’t interfere with the local population much but many Arabs still hated being ruled under Israel prompting them to join the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) who would become a consistent problem for years to come. The PLOs goal by 1967 was the destruction of the state of Israel and to regain land given to Palestinians under the united nations. Parties such as Fatah engaged in terrorist acts for the 10 years that followed such as the hijacking of three airline jets and killing and hostage of the 1972 Munich Olympics Israeli squad where 11 Israeli olympians died. The world saw these acts as cold and heartless killings by an extreme terrorist group. Many Arabs instead honoured the terrorists for their commitment to the Palestinian movement and formed suicide bombing squads in Lebanon to follow the same commitment. This is contrasted to the West where most countries condemned the attacks. Some Palestinian historian argue that the Six Day War was not a reaction by israel but was instead a premeditated attack as Israel was seeking war. They argue that Syria and Egypt were not threat to Israel. Palestinians accuse Israel military commanders of starting a war because they wanted to expand their borders which they did end up doing. There are claims also that Israel got into the war so they could be seen by Jews as a victorious state when they won and more Jews would immigrate.