Re: circumstances?
>Zionist Jews began to move to Palestine early in the 20th Century.
First off, there were plenty of Jews there before the 20th century.
Really? How many would that be? From what I have read, they were a very small minority of the population.......somewhere around 50k and that was after approx. 35k emigrated to Israel/Palestine between 1882 and 1904.
>By the 30's they made up 16% of the population, the rest were mostly Muslim Arabs and some Christians. As the Zionist bought land, the Palestinian farmers/sheep herders were forced out.
You're talking revisionist history here... there was more than enough land to go around- the "Palestinians" (they refused to call themselves that at the time, they felt that they were part of Syria) were not forced out.
This is ridiculous. Are you saying that the Zionists did not buy any land at all when they got to Palestine? You talk about plenty of land....in the north its hilly/mountainous and in the south, its desert. Israel/Palestine was not the size of TX but rather N. Jersey. Where is all this arable land you talk about? And why would the Zionists not want to buy any?
In addition, hostilities increased between the incoming Zionists and the indigenous Palestinians; forcing the exodus of over 100k Palestinians in the mid 30's. They fled to neighboring Arab states.
Huh? Where do you get these figures from?
Actually I tried to take the median of three numbers.......I have had to read three different versions of the history to try and figure out what really went on there since everyone seems to have their own very unique account of the events. From what I understand, when hostilities broke out, some Arabs/Palestinians fled to neighboring cities like Cairo or Damascus. They returned after the Palestinian uprising was quelled.
>By 1947, the UK and US felt some guilt over turning their backs on the Jews during the Holocaust so they agreed to carve out a piece of land from the UN trust that the UK was responsible for and where 1,000,000 Palestinians still lived.
Huh? Britain decided in 1917 that Palestine should be given to the Jews. They were eventually given about a quarter of what they were promised.
Yes, back in 1917 they said that the Jews would get a portion of Palestine. However, by WWII they had also promised the Arabs some land as well. But the whole deal did not get finalized until 1947 after the Brits turned over what had become a hornets nest [thanks to them] to the UN for resolution.
>Earlier in the decade, Ben Gurion and his committee had determined the best way to handle the Arab/Jew intermixing was to establish an Arab transfer out of what was to become the Jewish state.
There was no such policy, AFAIK.
And was there no Mapai Council as well? Its my understanding that this council which later formed the basis for Ben Gurion's political party discussed the Arab population. Many believed that a transfer out of what was to become Israel was the only way to handle the problem. Is that revisionist history as well?
However, no such policy required implementation because war broke out in 1948 between the Arabs and the Palestinians, and eventually the problem reached its own final conclusion.
>This Zionist policy coupled with considerable hostilities in the late 1940's forced many of the Palestinians out of Israel. Stateless, they ended up as refugees in camps in the WB and neighboring Arab countries.
In 1947, the Arab leaders told the Arabs in the area that was to become Israel to leave, so they could push the Jewish state into the sea right after its establishment. Hundreds of thousands of them left, fully expecting to come back and have all of the land when they returned. However, when the Arabs declared war in 1948, they, well, sort of lost. Those Arabs who had fled before the war were not allowed to return, and any Arabs remaining were asked to either live peacefully with the Jews or leave. Many refused and were expelled.
So there was no Arab transfer policy but many Arabs were not allowed to come back simply because they fled the war, or were expelled because they were belligerent. That seems fair.....thanks for clearing that one up.
Once again, 18% of the citizens of Israel are Arab. How could that be if the plan was to expel them all? Israel could've easily done so if it had wished.
It would seem to me that had they expelled all the Arabs, the world might not have looked too favorably. However, its hard to know since I wasn't around then and the history of events has become scrambled with each side having its own version.
>Now, it seems to me the Palestinians got slightly screwed.......but then again, call me crazy.
Yes, but not by Israel.
Well, mostly by the Brits and other Arabs but the Zionists/Israelis played their part. I can understand how Israel should not have to shoulder the blame for the current crisis. However, in reading the history of the region, its not surprising that there are problems now. Britain's handling of its mandate was anything but well done. And how everyone minimized/ignored the potential reaction by the Arab community is beyond me. After all, they were the majority and the indigenous population in the region up until WW II. What a mess!!
ted |
