Nation Building in the Middle East: Palestine and Israel

Theodore Herzl (1860-1904)

British and French promises during WW I

Arabs

Independence for former Ottoman lands

British Jews

Balfour Declaration

Secret agreement

Create colonies from Ottoman lands

Paris Peace Conference, 1919

*Mandate system

*Palestine Mandate (Britain)

Jewish Immigration to Palestine

1920

60,000 Jews (8% of pop.)

660,000 Palestinian Arabs

1946

608,000 Jews

32% of pop.

913% increase

1,270,000 Palestinian Arabs

92% increase

Jewish immigration

Idealism, 1920s

German Nazism, 1933-1945

Social tensions in Palestine

Palestinian land and race riots

Restrictions on Jewish immigration, 1936

Jewish terrorism

Effect of World War II

Britain weakened

Holocaust

Question of Palestine at United Nations, 1947

Zionism vs. Palestinian nationalism

Partition of Palestine, 1948

Israel proclaimed, May 1948

Israeli-Arab war of 1948-49

700,000 Palestinian refugees

Cycle of violence

June 1967 War

Israeli occupation

Sinai, Golan Heights, West Bank, Gaza

UN Security Council Resolution 242

October 1973 War

*Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), 1968

Freedom fighters? Terrorists?

Negotiation

Moves toward peace

PLO-Israeli Peace accords, 1993

Palestinian Authority, 1994

Assassination of Rabin, 1995

Talks reach impasse, 2000

Jewish settlements in West Bank and Gaza

170,000 Israelis on 60% of land

2 million Palestinians on 40% of land

Second Intifada

The spark: Ariel Sharon Haram al-Sharif September 2000

Death of Arafat Nov. 11, 2004

Israeli withdrawal from Gaza 2005

Blockade

U. S. Foreign policy

Alliance with Israel

Invasion of Iraq, 2003

Life under Occupation

Video: Journey to the Occupied Lands

What are the reasons that each side wants to control the land of the West Bank? Which side has the advantage in the conflict?

Study Questions Lecture

1. What have been the causes of conflict between Zionist Jews and Arab Palestinians throughout the 20th century?

2. What role does nationalism play in this conflict?

3. What are similarities and differences between the struggle to build independent nations in South Asia (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh) and the Middle East (Israel, Palestine)?

Study Questions Reading

Hansen 797-800, 925-30

1. What was the Mandate System? What problems were created when the British took control of the Mandate of Palestine after World War I?

2. Why have Palestinians and Israelis been locked in a cycle of violence since the 1970s?

Andrea, The Human Record

Theodore Herzl, "On the Jewish State," pp. 297-301

1.  Why did Herzel want a nation for the Jews?

2. Where did he propose to create the nation?

"Announcement to the Arabs," pp. 327-30

1. Why did the author want a nation for the Arabs?

2. According to the author, what are the religions of the Arabs?

3. What possible conflicts might arise between the claims of the author and Herzel?