Mandates; founding of Israel (1948); Arab-Israeli conflicts

Things happened, and the rest is history

1. 01

   The Sykes-Picot Agreement and wartime promises

   Event

   What happened

   In 1915 and 1916 Britain's Henry McMahon exchanges letters with Sharif Hussein of Mecca about Arab independence in return for revolt against the Ottomans. In May 1916 Britain and France secretly agree, in the Sykes-Picot Agreement, to divide much of the Ottoman Arab lands into zones of influence. The Bolsheviks publish the agreement in November 1917.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The overlapping promises left lasting distrust among Arab leaders. Historians still debate how far the final mandate borders followed Sykes-Picot, since the plan was revised at the San Remo conference in 1920. The mandates did place French rule in Syria and Lebanon and British rule in Iraq and Palestine.

   Sources

   1. BookFromkin, David. A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. New York: Henry Holt, 1989.
   2. BookRogan, Eugene. The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East. New York: Basic Books, 2015.
2. 02

   The Balfour Declaration

   Event

   What happened

   On 2 November 1917 British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour writes to Lord Rothschild that the government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. The letter adds that nothing should prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities. British forces take Jerusalem in December 1917.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The declaration was written into the Palestine Mandate, which the League of Nations approved in 1922. Historians debate Britain's motives, which combined wartime strategy, sympathy for Zionism and imperial interest. Arab leaders rejected it, and it became a central grievance in the later conflict.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryBalfour Declaration. Letter from Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, 2 November 1917. British Library.
   2. BookSchneer, Jonathan. The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. New York: Random House, 2010.
3. 03

   The League of Nations mandates are assigned

   Event

   What happened

   At the San Remo conference in April 1920 the Allied powers assign mandates over Syria and Lebanon to France and over Mesopotamia and Palestine to Britain. Article 22 of the League Covenant describes these peoples as needing guidance until they can stand alone. Britain later creates Transjordan under Emir Abdullah in 1921 to 1923.

   ↓ The rest is history

   France faced a revolt in Syria in 1925, and Britain faced an uprising in Iraq in 1920. Iraq became formally independent in 1932, and Syria and Lebanon gained independence in 1946. Palestine's mandate lasted until May 1948.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryCovenant of the League of Nations, Article 22. Paris, 1919.
   2. BookPedersen, Susan. The Guardians: The League of Nations and the Crisis of Empire. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
4. 04

   Immigration, unrest and the Arab Revolt in Palestine

   Event

   What happened

   Jewish immigration to Mandate Palestine grows through the 1920s, and rises sharply in the 1930s as Jews flee persecution in Europe. Violence breaks out in 1920, 1921 and 1929. From 1936 to 1939 an Arab Revolt against British rule and Jewish immigration is put down by British forces.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The Peel Commission of 1937 proposed partition, which Arab leaders rejected. The 1939 White Paper limited Jewish immigration and land purchase, which angered Zionists as the Holocaust approached. The revolt weakened Palestinian Arab leadership before 1948.

   Sources

   1. BookSegev, Tom. One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2000.
   2. BookKhalidi, Rashid. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2020.
5. 05

   The UN partition plan of 1947

   Event

   What happened

   In February 1947 Britain refers Palestine to the United Nations. On 29 November 1947 the General Assembly votes 33 to 13, with 10 abstentions, for Resolution 181, which proposes separate Jewish and Arab states with Jerusalem under international administration. Jewish leaders accept the plan and Arab leaders reject it.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Fighting between Jewish and Arab communities began almost at once. Britain announced it would end the mandate on 14 May 1948. The proposed plan was never carried out.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryUnited Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II). Future Government of Palestine, 29 November 1947.
   2. BookMorris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.
6. 06

   Israel declares independence and the 1948 war

   Event

   What happened

   On 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel in Tel Aviv. The next day forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon enter the former mandate. Armistice agreements are signed in 1949 with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Israel held more territory than the partition plan had allotted, Jordan took the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Egypt held Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled, an event they call the Nakba. Many Jews also left or were pushed out of Arab countries in the following years. Historians still debate the causes of the Palestinian exodus.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryDeclaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel. Tel Aviv, 14 May 1948.
   2. BookMorris, Benny. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.
7. 07

   The Suez Crisis of 1956 and the Six-Day War of 1967

   Event

   What happened

   In 1956 Egypt nationalises the Suez Canal, and Israel, Britain and France attack Egypt, then withdraw under American and Soviet pressure. In June 1967, after Egypt closes the Straits of Tiran and moves troops into Sinai, Israel strikes first. In six days it takes Sinai, Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.

   ↓ The rest is history

   UN Security Council Resolution 242 of November 1967 called for Israeli withdrawal and for peace for every state in the area. Israel's control of the West Bank and Gaza began a long occupation. Whether the 1967 war was preventive or avoidable is still debated.

   Sources

   1. PrimaryUnited Nations Security Council Resolution 242, 22 November 1967.
   2. BookOren, Michael. Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
8. 08

   The 1973 war and the road to peace treaties

   Event

   What happened

   On 6 October 1973 Egypt and Syria attack Israeli positions in Sinai and the Golan Heights. After heavy fighting and an oil embargo by Arab producers, a ceasefire takes hold. In 1977 Egyptian president Anwar Sadat visits Jerusalem, and in 1978 the Camp David Accords are signed.

   ↓ The rest is history

   Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty in March 1979, and Israel withdrew from Sinai. Sadat was assassinated in 1981. The Oslo Accords of 1993 and the Israel-Jordan treaty of 1994 followed, but final status talks failed at Camp David in 2000.

   Sources

   1. BookShlaim, Avi. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World. New York: W. W. Norton, 2000.
   2. BookRabinovich, Abraham. The Yom Kippur War: The Epic Encounter That Transformed the Middle East. New York: Schocken, 2004.
9. 09

   A land without a people for a people without a land

   Popular belief

   The legend

   People often say that early Zionists described Palestine as an empty land, a land without a people for a people without a land, and that they ignored the Arabs living there.

   ↓ The rest is history

   The phrase was used by some writers, and its origins go back to non-Jewish British writers in the nineteenth century, including Lord Shaftesbury. Israel Zangwill used a version of it, though he later acknowledged the Arab population. Zionist leaders generally knew Palestine was inhabited, and Ottoman records and surveys showed a population of several hundred thousand Arabs. The slogan was never an official policy.

   Sources

   1. ArticleMuir, Diana. "A Land without a People for a People without a Land." Middle Eastern Studies 44, no. 3 (2008): 395-421.
10. 10

    Sykes and Picot drew the borders with a ruler

    Popular belief

    The legend

    It is often said that Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot drew a straight line across the desert in 1916, and that this single line created the modern Middle East.

    ↓ The rest is history

    The 1916 map did use lines to mark zones, and Sykes is reported to have spoken of a line from the e in Acre to the last k in Kirkuk. But the final borders were negotiated afterwards, at San Remo in 1920 and later, and changed from the secret plan. Palestine, Iraq and Syria took their shapes from many choices, including the Syrian and Iraqi revolts and French and British bargaining. Many historians see Sykes-Picot as a symbol rather than the sole cause.

    Sources

    1. BookFromkin, David. A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. New York: Henry Holt, 1989.
11. 11

    The Arabs were told to leave by their leaders

    Popular belief

    The legend

    A common claim is that the Palestinian Arabs left in 1948 because Arab radio broadcasts ordered them to leave, to clear the way for invading armies.

    ↓ The rest is history

    Historians who studied radio monitoring records and archives, including Israeli scholars, found no evidence of a general order of this kind. People left for many reasons, including fear of fighting, massacres such as Deir Yassin, expulsions in some places such as Lydda and Ramle, and the collapse of local leadership. In some areas local leaders did urge women and children to leave temporarily. Historians still debate proportions, but the single-cause broadcast claim is not supported.

    Sources

    1. BookMorris, Benny. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem, 1947-1949. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
    2. ArticleKhalidi, Walid. "Why Did the Palestinians Leave, Revisited." Journal of Palestine Studies 34, no. 2 (2005): 42-54.
12. 12

    David against Goliath in 1948

    Popular belief

    The legend

    Israel's War of Independence is often told as the story of a tiny, poorly armed new state facing the overwhelming armies of five Arab countries.

    ↓ The rest is history

    The picture has truth in it: the new state was newly formed, had few heavy weapons at first and faced real invasion. But historians note that the Arab armies that entered were small and poorly coordinated, and the Jewish forces had about 30,000 fighters in early May 1948, rising quickly with mobilisation. Czechoslovak arms arrived from spring 1948. By the later stages Israel had numerical superiority on the field. Armistice agreements ended the fighting in 1949.

    Sources

    1. BookMorris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.
    2. BookRogan, Eugene, and Avi Shlaim, eds. The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.