Arabs and Israelites have been at war for a long time. The conflict between Arabs and Jews has been over a piece of land well known as the holy land. During the First World War (1915 -1916), the British high commissioner struck a deal with the Ottoman governor of Mecca. The governor was to support the Britain in the war against Turkey, who had allied with Germany. In return, the British would establish independent Arab states which included Palestine. The war was successful, and Britain gained most control in the area. In 1917, Lord Arthur Balfour, who was the British foreign minister, issued the Balfour declaration which supported the creation a national home in Palestine for the Jews. This conflicted with the first promise the British made to the Arabs. As a result, the Arabs saw this as trickery. After the war, Britain and France divided the Arab provinces between themselves. Arabs saw this as trickery. Jews started immigrating and settling in Palestine which led to resistance by the Palestinian Arabs. The Arabs feared that the Jews would establish their own state in Palestine. The Arabs disputed the British Mandate because it hindered their ambitions of self-rule and their position as Arabs was threatened in Palestine.
In the years, 1920 and 1921 Arabs and Jews fought each other, and both groups had almost equal number of casualties. The Jewish National Fund bought large pieces of land, which resulted to the eviction of Arabs who had settled in these areas. As a result of these displacements, tensions and confrontations grew between the Jews and the Arabs. Muslims and Jews began to fight in Jerusalem over tier individual religious rights. In1929, there was more religious clashes from the two groups due to religious rights. (Tessler)
During the rise of Hitler in Germany, the number of Jews immigrants escalated and thus its militancy. An Arab revolt broke in 1936-1939 because of the increasing Jewish immigration into Palestine. The revolt was broken by the British, and this made them review their policies so as to bring order to the region. The British initiated a policy to prevent future purchase of land and immigration of the Jews. This move by the British was taken as a betrayal of the Balfour Declaration by the Jews, especially at a crucial time when the Jews were facing extermination in Europe.
The Jewish forces united and attacked the British severally. The British headquarters was blown in 1946 where 92 people were killed. In 1947, the British government left Palestine in 1948 United Nations took over. United Nations settled on a plan to partition Palestine to Arab and Jewish states. However the British refused to initiate the plan claiming that both parties could not accept it. Arab –Israeli war in 1948 was as a result of failure of implementation of the plan to divide Palestine. Palestine was divided into three regions, the state of Israel took over seventy seven percent of the area. The Palestine Arab state, which was projected by the UN in their partition plan, was never found. The Palestine neighbors responded negatively to this and rejected the plan; this led to many wars in the region with the intention of preventing a Jewish state. (Karsh)
Works Cited
Karsh, Efraim. The Arab-Israeli conflict:. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2008.
Tessler, Mark. A History of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict. Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1994.
