What is it with this Israeli/Palestinian issue anyway? Part II

So, let’s continue. I will again be simplifying a lot, but the time line is going to slow down. (I want to interject here that I have found a terrific website, http://www.procon.org/, which has taken this issue (and 38 others) and reports on information with NO editorializing....it presents the pros and cons as gathered from prime sources. Go to the website to explore...you will find an issue that is meaningful to you and can finally read information, not rhetoric.)

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When Jewish settlement started to pick up some speed in the late 1800s, settlers made land purchases in areas that were desirable because of arability and water availability. This may not have made much of an impression at the beginning, but issues soon arose, similar to the American West, between the farming culture and the grazing culture. These issues arose well before the English were involved when the land was part of the Ottoman Empire and the people living there did not call themselves as Palestinians.

Following World War I and with the British Mandate over the land, it became politically known as Palestine. The French were in Syria and the issues came to a head in 1920 when the Syrian Congress elected Faisal as King of United Syria. The concept of Arab nationalism started to grow with the hope to unite all the Arab lands and all lands that had once been Arab. Rioting broke out at a pro-Faisal demonstration in 1920 in Jerusalem after the leaders incited the crowd, and Jews were attacked. The local police, most of whom were Arabs, did nothing to stop the situation and the British army had to intervene.

The second major incident occurred in 1921 and actually started when Jewish Communists clashed with Jewish Labor Party members at a Labor Day parade. Local Arabs joined the fray and this time the rioting escalated until people were killed there in Jaffa and throughout the land. Again, the civil authorities, using the local police, were unable to maintain order and troops had to be called in. In all 88 people were killed and 238 wounded.

By the end of the decade, the situation had become more tense. While the arguments were not based on religious differences, rumors of destruction of religious symbols were used more and more to incite each side to anger. Riots and killings spread and because the outgoing British governor had reduced the number of British troops, the Hagana began to defend Jews in Tel Aviv and in Haifa but in other areas whole communities were killed.

By the middle of the 1930s it was harder for the British to maintain some balance between the Jewish and Arab interests in Palestine. At the same time, as the Nazi policies against the Jews became intolerant to many, increasing pressure on the British to permit more Jewish immigrants. In August 1936 what started as a simple criminal murder of two Jews by two Arabs became a major political incident, escalating rapidly and became what is now called the Great Arab Revolt. The Arab Higher Committee called for a general strike as a way to show their dissatisfaction with the British rule and violence increased with attacks on British troops and police posts; sabotage of roads, railways and pipelines; as well attacks on Jewish settlements. In reaction, over 15,000 Jews became armed.

The Brits imposed curfews but little could be done to end the uprising. The British Government appointed a Royal Commission to investigate the cause of the current problem and the Commission appealed to the rulers of the Arab States for mediation. The strike was called off in October but proved only to be a lull. As soon as violence recommenced the Royal Commission arrested the prominent leaders of the Arab Higher Committee and deported them to the Seychelles Islands. (off the southeastern coast of Africa just north of Madagascar) The Mufti of Jerusalem escaped to Lebanon and continued to direct the rebellion.

Information from the MidEast Web website gives us some interesting concepts to consider:
Palestine was not an empty land when Zionist immigration began. The lowest estimates claim there were about 410,000 Arab Muslims and Christians in Palestine in 1893.
Zionist settlement between 1880 and 1948 did not displace or dispossess Palestinians. Every indication is that there was net Arab immigration into Palestine in this period, and that the economic situation of Palestinian Arabs improved tremendously under the British Mandate relative to surrounding countries. By 1948, there were approximately 1.35 million Arabs and 650,000 Jews living between the Jordan and the Mediterranean, more Arabs than had ever lived in Palestine before, and more Jews than had lived there since Roman times.
The city of Jerusalem has had a Jewish majority for over 100 years - The city of Jerusalem itself has had a Jewish majority since about 1896, but probably not before. The district of Jerusalem (as opposed to the city) comprised a very wide area in Ottoman and British times, in which there was a Muslim majority. This included Jericho, Bethlehem and other towns

The British government informed the United Nations that the Mandate over Palestine would end May 15, 1948. When the United Nations adopted the plan to partition the land of Palestine into a Jewish State and an Arab state in 1947, it did so based on population centers and land ownership. The city of Jerusalem was to be under the aegis of the United Nations, part of neither nation.

The United Nations made no provision for how the partition would take place. The Council of the Arab League announced it would prevent the proposed partition by force. In contrast, the Jews planned how to form a new nation. Nothing was done to help the Arab Palestinians form a nation. The effect of the British suppression of the Arab Revolt in 1936-1939 resulted in damage to the Palestinian Arab political and economic infrastructure. No one stepped forward to fill that vacuum of leadership.

During the time between the United Nations vote and the actual withdrawal of the British and the declaration of the Jewish State of Israel May 14, 1948, there were many incidents of fighting between the Jews and the Arabs. However, the day after Israeli statehood was announced, the Arab leadership in the region with the armies of Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq launched a war to win back all of Israel. Despite smaller numbers of troops, the Jews in the land had been preparing for over a decade and their training and superior cache of weapons helped them occupy all the territory they hoped for except for the west bank area of the Jordan River.

The issue of the Palestinian refugees begins here. At the time of the UN vote to partition Palestine in 1947, thousands of wealthy and middle class Arabs left Palestine and immigrated to other nations. During the 1948 war the Arab leadership from countries surrounding Israel urged Arabs to flee to safe areas until the fighting was over. In addition, to encourage the departure, broadcasts in Arabic by Israeli forces told Palestinian Arabs that there was typhus and cholera in the area and they should leave to avoid death.

The exact number of Palestinians who fled Israel from November 1947 to the armistice in 1949 will never be known. Estimates range from about 400,000 to one million with 550,000 a generally plausible figure. Based on the census at the time there were about 740,000 Palestinians living in the area that became Israel in 1947. About 140,000 remained and about 50,000 returned after 1948. About two-thirds who left Israel went to the West Bank and Gaza with the rest going to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Palestinian Refugee Camp 1948

Displaced Persons Camp 1947 Israel

It needs to be noted that there was another displacement of people going on. Prior to 1948 there were slightly more than one million Jews living in other areas of the Middle East and in North Africa. As warned by the Egyptian delegation to the United Nations during discussion of partition in 1947, reprisals and increased activities to eliminate the Jews could be expected. He actually likened it to the recent experience in Europe by the Nazis. About half of this population chose to leave their homes. Some emigrated to the United States and other nations but most found their way to Israel. In contrast to most Palestinian refugees n their new locations, the Jews from Arab nations were assimilated into the Israeli population. (By the way, almost the rest of the Jewish population in these nations left after the 1967 Six Day War and the anger and difficulties then.)

It is important to note that we are talking about the same number of displaced people. The difference is how those people were welcomed or used as a political tool.

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It seems to me that there were two basic problems in the Arab community that contributed greatly to the continuing refugee problem.
1: There was no effort to take advantage of the United Nations establishment of an Arab state in the partition of Palestine. The whole emphasis at that time was that the Jews did not belong there and they would be removed forcefully, if necessary. There was no concept of how to build an Arab nation even if they did win in their efforts in 1948.
2. The lack of leadership in the Arab community continued following the refugee situation. Instead of accepting their fellow Arabs into citizenship, with the exception of the Kingdom of Jordan who absorbed the West Bank following the 1948 War and offered citizenship, the other nations set up refugee camps and continue, to this day, to use them as a political tool.

Okay, I have gone on longer than I first expected. I will need to start a third section to explain the various plans to be considered for a possible solution to this mess.