Zionism, The Birth of Israel, and the Palestinian Predicament

The Zionist movement The British Mandate of Palestine Birth of the Israeli state and the

Palestinian catastrophe (al-Nakba)Later Post-WWII conflicts Peace Process

The emergence of political Zionism: Jews before emancipation Emancipation’s mixed record and the

Haskalah Movement and integration attempts Jewish Political Movements

▪ Zionism, Socialism, Folkism, Territorialism Zionism & Development of Nationalist

Ideology Adoption of a nationalist ideology

▪ Leo Pinsker’s Autoemancipation (1882)▪ Eliezer ben-Yehuda’s re-creation of Hebrew in 1880s▪ Theodor Herzl’s The Jewish State (1896)▪ First Zionist Congress in Basel (1897)…Palestine▪ Division of labor: Western European Ideologues &

Eastern European migrants Imagining Palestine as an empty land

The Balfour declaration (1917)

1917-20: British military rule 1920-48: Mandate

1920 Appointment of Sir Herbert Samuel as Civilian High commissioner Conflicting “White Papers” Samuel’s 1922 White Paper

and Balfour Declaration

Divided Arab leadership, strongest component under Mufti Amin al-Husayni. Husayni-Nashashibi rivalry

Incoming Jews formed the Jewish Agency to run the Yishuv—a parallel government

▪ Histadrut: ▪ most powerful institution in Yishuv▪ mainstay of the Labour Zionist movement▪ Aside from being a trade union, its state-building role made

it the owner of a number of businesses and factories Largest employer in the country

▪ Also controlled Jewish Defense Force -- Haganah

David Ben-Gurion was a kibbutznik who became General Secretariat of the Histadrut. Kibbutzim (collective community based on traditional

agriculture. Transformed Histadrut into an institution to help realize the

goals of Zionism Immigration was key to Ben-Gurion & used Histadrut to

facilitate this

Jabotinski’s Revisionist Zionism: “Historical” Israel (Judea and Sumeria)

Settlement efforts: Jewish National Fund

1936 & 1937-9 Arab rebellions

External effects on Jewish emigration (Hitler & Nazism)

US post-WWII support for a Jewish state

The Jewish insurgency: Haganah guerilla fighting & Irgun terror

Haganah defeat of Arab military resistance (1947-48)

UNSCOP Partition Plan

British withdraw, Ben Gurion declares new state on May 14, 1948

Arab-Israeli war of 1948: Israel holds territory and creation of Armistice Line

Haganah expulsion of Palestinians and Palestinian flight

The Nakba (‘Catastrophe’)

The refugee situation

Arab Israelis

Palestinians in the West Bank & Gaza—creeping colonization

Palestinians in Lebanon, Jordan & Syria

Nationality Law versus Right of Return