Political Science In The Arab-Israeli Conflict

18 Pages 4549 Words

alestine and beginning from 133AD were banished and sold into slavery throughout Europe. Arab settlement began in 638AD when the conquest of Arab Muslims ended Byzantine rule. Palestine fell under the Turkish Empire in the 1515. In the late 1890’s the Zionist movement for the Jewish return to Palestine began under the leadership of Theodore Hertzel. During the First World War, Arab fears of loosing their lands were dispelled through correspondence between British High Commissioner, Henry McMahon and Sherif Hussein, the Emir of Mecca which promised an Arab state. Yet the Sikes-Picot agreement signed by the allies also promised Palestine as a European mandate. At the same time Britain gave assurances of a Jewish immigration to Palestine with the Balfour Agreement. After the war ended Britain was granted the mandate and began to allow Jewish settlement in Palestine in the face of Palestinian protests. Violence began in the late 1920’s and Britain began to call for an equal settlement between the two sides. Nazi persecution also increased Jewish migration. Both Arab and Jewish sides formed small forces attacking each other and British authorities. By 1939 the Jewish population was 30% of Palestine yet their cause was failing on the international scene. (Hajjar and Beinin, 1990) Extreme Jewish groups such as the Hagannah and the Irgun begin using terrorism to further their cause. Following the Second World War, world sympathy for the Jewish cause gained momentum following details of the Jewish holocaust coming to light and under growing Zionist support from Jews in America. Britain decided therefore to end its mandate and hand over the matter to the United Nations. The United Nation then decided to partition Palestine into two separate states. In May 1948 first Israeli Prime Minister David Ben Gurion declared the beginning of the Israeli state. Yet as the Jews were getting 56% of the land and were only 33% of the population, an Arab co...