wausfpp.org
1800's:
In the late 1800's, in response to continued persecution of Jews in Europe, a movement called Zionism arose in Eastern Europe, with the objective of creating a haven for Jews somewhere outside Europe. Locations in Africa and South America were initially considered, but "[f]rom the start, the Zionists wished to make the area of Palestine a Jewish state" (Morris, Benny. "Revisiting the Palestinian Exodus of 1948." The War for Palestine: Rewriting the History of 1948. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; edited by Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shlaim. 2001): 39). They wanted to colonize Palestine with Zionists and establish Zionist rule. However, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire and populated almost entirely by Muslim Arabs. There were a few Christians and a few Jews living there at the time, but they made up only a tiny fraction of the population, and none of them were Zionists. In 1878 the Zionists began establishing colonies in Palestine, with the first major group coming from Europe in 1882. After the First Zionist Congress, some organizations in Palestine and the surrounding countries began to express alarm at the stated goals of the Zionists, pointing out that the Zionists wanted to rule (Khalidi, Walid. Before their diaspora: a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. 1991): 35-38).
1881 population breakdown in all of Palestine:
Jerusalem had about 30,000 inhabitants in 1880, with roughly 50 percent being Jewish (Morris, Benny. Righteous victims : A history of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881-1998. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1999): 6.)
1910's:
In 1911 Filastin, the first newspaper addressed specifically to Palestinians, was founded; it warned against Zionism's goals. In 1909-1911, the issue of Zionism was debated in the Ottoman parliament, with members of parliament from Jerusalem arguing that Zionism intended to create a Jewish state; various MP's and others began requesting legislation against Zionist immigration and land acquisition (Khalidi, Walid. Before their diaspora: a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. 1991): 38).
In 1917, Britain conquered Palestine from the Ottoman Empire and issued the Balfour Declaration, announcing that it was going to help create a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine without violating the rights of the "existing non-Jewish communities" living there.
The wishes of the majority of the population of Palestine were not assessed by the British government concerning the terms of the Balfour Declaration. At this time Palestinian Arabs were approximately 92 percent of the population of Palestine (Khalidi, Walid. Before their diaspora: a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. 1991): 83).
Balfour Declaration (1917):
1918 population breakdown in all of Palestine:
1919 Zionist landownership in Palestine: 2.04 percent (Khalidi, Walid. Before their diaspora: a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. 1991): 86.)
1920s
The decade began with riots in 1920, which the British investigation claimed were motivated by Palestinian reactions to the nonrealization of their independence and to fear of domination by the Zionists.
"[In] April [1920] riots broke out in Palestine, in which five Jews were killed and two hundred wounded. A British commission of inquiry attributed the riots to Palestinian 'disappointment at the non-fulfillment of the promise of independence' and 'fear of economic and political subjection' to the Zionists" (Khalidi, Walid. Before their diaspora: a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. 1991): 83, 85).
In 1922 the League of Nations officially gave authority over Palestine to Britain. At the same time it made Britain "responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion" (League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, Article 2).
The League of Nations also recognized the Zionist Organization as the agency to advise Britain on matters concerning "the establishment of the Jewish national home and the interests of the Jewish population in Palestine" (League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, Article 4).
The League charged that Britain, "while ensuring that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced, shall facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and shall encourage, in co-operation with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public purposes" (League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, Article 6).
The wishes of the majority of the population of Palestine were not assessed by the League of Nations concerning the terms of the Mandate for Palestine. At this time Palestinian Arabs were roughly 88 percent of the population of Palestine.
League of Nations Mandate for Palestine (1922):
1922 population breakdown in all of Palestine (from British census):
1929 Zionist landownership in Palestine: 4.4 percent (Khalidi, Walid. Before their diaspora: a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. 1991): 86.)
1930s
"In March 1930 the report of a British commission of inquiry attributed the 1929 clashes to the fact that the Palestinians 'have come to see in Jewish immigration not only a menace to their livelihood but a possible overlord of the future.'" (Khalidi, Walid. Before their diaspora: a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. 1991): 86.)
[December 1935] British government proposes Legislative Council with 14 Arab and 14 Jewish members. Palestinian Arab leaders agree in principle. Proposal defeated by proZionist members of British parliament. (Khalidi, Walid. Before their diaspora: a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. 1991): 87.)
[1936] Population in all of Palestine:
[May 1936] Great Rebellion by Arab Palestinians against their British overlords begins. (Khalidi, Walid. Before their diaspora: a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. 1991): 193.)
[July 1937] (British) Peel Commission Report calls for creation of Jewish state in 33 percent of Palestine and forced transfer of Palestinian Arabs from some areas if Palestinians won't leave voluntarily. (Khalidi, Walid. Before their diaspora: a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. 1991): 193.) [Note: This is the first public mention of the idea of ethnic cleansing in Palestine to get rid of Arabs, the vast majority of the population. This first public mention of the idea was by Britain, not by the Zionists. This is significant because it is an example of one of the central truths about Palestine that is often hidden in texts even by friends of the Palestinians: although the proximate cause of the crimes committed against the Palestinians is Zionism, which is a small power, the greater and more important cause has been and continues to be the actions of much greater powers, especially Britain (in the years before 1947 and the creation of Israel as a Zionist state) and the US (since 1947). Britain was not only the first to publicly mention ethnic cleansing to remove Arabs, but Britain also armed Zionist forces. The British military trained and led the Zionists in the use of terror tactics against the Arab population of Palestine.]
British Royal (Peel) Commission Plan (1937):
[May 1939] (British) MacDonald White Paper issued and approved (Khalidi, Walid. Before their diaspora: a photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948 (Washington, D.C.: Institute for Palestine Studies. 1991): 194-195.)
British White Paper of 1939:
[1930s to mid-1940s, European history with relevance for Palestine:] Rise of the Nazis and other Fascist groups in Europe. Nazis and their allies and followers kill 6 million Jews in Europe. They also target communists, Roma, any citizens of other countries who refuse to submit to their rule (i.e. "insurgents" in American patriotic terminology) and other groups. After the Nazis are defeated in World War II, many European Jews wish to move to the US, but the US government restricts their entry, in hopes of increasing the number that go to Palestine and thus (it is assumed) increasing the strength of Zionist organizations there. Many European Jews who survived the Nazi-led slaughter are transferred to Palestine, where they are incorporated into the Zionist organizations. Most important, during this time the creation of a Zionist state covering most of Palestine becomes official US policy. (Twenty years later, in 1967, US policy will expand to include Israeli control of who lives and dies in all of Palestine, as it is to this day.)
1945 population map of Palestine, showing the Palestinian majority:
http://
[1947] population estimates, all of Palestine:
[1947] United Nations General Assembly passes Resolution 181, whose land distribution plans call for a "Jewish state" to get 57 percent of Palestine. The remaining 43 percent is to be given mostly to an "Arab state," with a small part of it (the area around Jerusalem and Bethlehem) to be UN-held. (See the resolution for details on what is meant by "Jewish state" and "Arab state;" it doesn't mean Israeli-style ethnic apartheid according to the resolution's language, for example, although the resolution is highly self-contradictory.) Resolution 181 is never implemented by the UN.
[Parenthetical note: It is misleading to speak as if the only actor with power was the UN and everyone else was an equally sovereign country. The US had emerged from WWII as the world's dominant power; although not as hegemonic as it is today, it already was exercising (as a routine, ordinary practice) enormous power over the people of other countries in their own homes, something it had done in the Philippines and the Americas for many decades, but now began to do on an even broader scale. One place where this new US world domination was felt was Palestine. Note who the actors are in this passage from Zionist historian Benny Morris:
"Before the General Assembly vote on November 29, 1947, the [US] State Department made frantic efforts to award the Negev--which the UNSCOP majority had earmarked for the Jews--to the Arabs. Only Weizmann's personal intervention with Truman saved the bulk of the desert for the Jews.[FN122] In exchange the Jewish Agency reluctantly agreed to concede Beersheba and a strip of territory along the Sinai-Negev border--awarded to the Jews in the majority report--to the Arabs. Jaffa was made in Arab enclave in the Jewish state, while the Jews were given a little more land in the Galilee."(Morris, Benny. Righteous victims : A history of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881-1998. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 1999): 186.)]
[1947] Fighting begins between Zionists and Arabs, and Zionist expulsion of Palestinian Arabs begins along with Zionist acquisition of Palestinian lands. Prior to the start of the fighting, Palestinian Arabs made up approximately two-thirds of the population of the entire land of Palestine.
By 1949, the Zionists have taken almost all of what is today called "Israel". This 1949 Israel-held land has the following characteristics:
Again, what I'm talking about above is only the land today referred to as Israel, not the land today called "the occupied territories."
In 1967 there was another war. In this war Israel acquired the rest of Palestine. This is when Israel took over the part of Palestine that is today called propagandistically "the occupied territories" (as if Israel weren't also occupied) or (more accurately) "the West Bank and Gaza."
In my view the main way that even many self-described anti-imperialists support the propaganda on this is when they refer to the West Bank and Gaza as "the occupied territories." This supports the idea that Israel itself is not also the home of the Palestinians, and this then radically changes the whole story, making it seem like the Palestinians have some sort of moral obligation to respect Israel's authority within the territory that Israel held by 1949, and to not attack Israel. But by ordinary moral standards, the Palestinians have no such obligation: we don't ordinarily say that a person has a moral obligation to respect someone else's taking of their home.
There is also a definitional issue here, because it is often said that when Israel fires at the West Bank or Gaza in response to rocket attacks from the West Bank or Gaza, this is an act of self-defense by Israel. But it isn't: you can't "defend" someone else's home from them: that's not defense by any normal definition. And Israel is the Palestinians' home, as are the West Bank and Gaza.
...Note: This is how far I got by Oct. 2, 2007. To be continued...