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.
. . Returning to our historical account, the next
key event was the disintegration of the Ottoman
Empire, thanks to them joining the wrong side
in the First World War. After the war, responsibility
for the Land of Palestine fell to the British.
In 1917, just weeks before the end of the First
World War, Lord Balfour, British Foreign Secretary,
wrote the following to the Jewish community. "His
Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment
in Palestine of a national 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 existing
and non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the
rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in
any other country". This was the Balfour Declaration
and was given as thanks for the work.
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On
the 11th December 1917, General Edmund Allenby,
British and a devout Christian, was handed
the keys of Jerusalem by the defeated Turks.
The rest of the country was conquered in the
following year and Palestine became British
responsibility. At the San Remo conference
in 1920, the League of Nations rubber-stamped
this situation and Palestine was officially
made part of the British Mandate. Britain
was now able to implement the Balfour Declaration
and it would have done if it hadn't made similar
promises to the Arabs. So, with typical Britishness,
a compromise was offered. The whole eastern
part of the Mandate was given to a prominent
Arab, Emir Abdullah, to thank him for helping
them in their fight against the Turks.
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This
became Transjordan, later to be renamed Jordan.
Interestingly, the Emir wanted to call his
land Palestine - if he had then perhaps he
would have done us all a favour! So 80% of
the British Mandate was handed to the Arabs
and Jewish immigration was completely banned
in this area.
Jewish immigration continued and in 1929 there
were about 150,000 Jews in the land, among
700,000 Arabs. But for Arab leaders this was
unacceptable and there were many clashes and
a particularly nasty massacre of Jews praying
at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and a similar
one at Hebron. Incredibly the British refused
to allow Jews to defend themselves and 133
Jews were killed in subsequent riots. The
British were becoming restless and, in 1937,
set up the Peel Commission, to suggest a further
partitioning of the land. This would have
given the Jews just the coastal plain, Galilee
and Golan, a corridor up to and surrounding
Jerusalem to the British and the rest, the
largest area, to the Arabs. Surprisingly the
Jews accepted this. Even more surprisingly,
the Arabs rejected it, declaring that no Jewish
State of any shape or form was acceptable.
So this was a waste of time and Arab revolts
continued right up to the outbreak of World
War Two, when the Arab leaders gladly opted
for the side of the Nazis.
In 1939 Britain, at a London conference, suggested
a new partition, proposing an Arab-dominated
state, with 75,000 Jews allowed in by 1944
and where, subsequently, the Arabs could decide
how many Jews to let in! Amazingly the Arabs
rejected this too! Yet, the 75,000 quota was
adhered to, a tragic state of affairs considering
what was now beginning to happen in Europe.
In early 1942, a ship with 769 Jewish refugees
was refused landing permission in Haifa and
later sank. Then there was the Exodus in 1947,
where the British refused 4,500 immigrants,
sending them back, ultimately, to holding
camps in Germany of all places.
Through these actions, Britain was vilified
by world opinion, particularly now that the
horrors of the Holocaust had been uncovered.
It was also totally fed up with the terrorism
of both the Arab and Jewish extremists and
finally decided that enough was enough. Besides,
it was having enough problems of its own,
holding together the ailing and crumbling
British Empire. So they passed over the problem
for the newly formed United Nations to sort
out.
What was proposed was a partitioning of the
land into three portions, an Arab state, a
Jewish state and an international area based
around Jerusalem. The Jewish state was to
be a strange twisted area, lassooed at two
points and destined to be the ugliest looking
bit of geography on the map. The Arab state
fared little better, being the photographic
inverse of the Jewish state except for a large
hole in the middle, the international state.
Only a committee could have come up with such
a hotchpotch! |
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On
November 29th 1947 the General Assembly of
the United Nations met. Fifty seven nations
voted. Naturally the Moslem countries - Egypt,
Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia,
Syria, Turkey, Yemen and Afghanistan - voted
against the plan, not wanting any official
declaration of a Jewish nation in their midst.
Britain, to its shame considering its century-old
relationship with the Jews, abstained; wounded
pride at its failure in the area and its desire
to cultivate oil-fields - sorry, I mean, relationships
- with their Arab friends were contributory
factors here. |
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