#timeline #History

The Road to Partition

Key takeaways

content: "@nasrallahRoadPartition2002" -file:@nasrallahRoadPartition2002

Reading notes

• February 14 1947 the British Cabinet declared Britain's inability to deal with the conflict in Palestine

• Laid the groundwork for UN involvement

• UN set up UNSCOP to reflect on partition

• Jewish agency attempted to convince them of a European Jewish image and set up meetings with people that spoke the same languages as the UN members

• Arabs dealt with the commission suspiciously and defended the unity of Palestine

• The committee argued for two states, with Jerusalem and Bethlehem under international trusteeship, and economic unity between the two states and an interim of British mandate for two years, during which 150,000 Jews were allowed to emigrate

• On 20 September the British unilaterally withdrew from Palestine

• Resolution 181 was western civilisations gesture for repentance for the holocaust

• Between 1947 and 1922 Jews in Palestine reached 600 per cent, whilst Arab Palestinian population grew 84 per cent

• Partition gave Jews more than half of historic Palestine

• 90% of Jews included in this state, with 50% of Arabs

• Jews owned less than 6.5% of total area of Palestine (14% of arable land)

• Zionist strategy during the Yishuv period worked on geographically linking Jewish areas, geography was given priority over demography

• Ben Gurion devoted most of his time from sprin 1947 to preparing Yishuv for war, working with the Haganah and Palmah officers

• Palestinians found themselves weak after the collapse of the 1936-9 revolt

• Divisions between the working farmers, and the middle classes

• The 1936 strike also collapsed the economy

• Exodus of wealthy families also negatively affected the economy

• Confrontations began with clashes over the countries main transport arteries

• Palestinians isolated Jerusalem from the coast

• First months of 1948 saw the Haganah field an army of 15,000

• Jewish strategy in April switched from defensive to offensive

• British troops did not participate or intervene, sometimes acting as protection for settlements and settlers convoys

• As the conflict escalated the Haganah developed the ''plan Dalet''

• Expel hostiles from lands allotted to the Jewish state

• Acheiche geographic continuity

• Fortify borders

• Secure transport links

• Arab villages within the borders of the Jewish state were thus considered hostile and forcibly expelled

• Also included areas outside the Jewish state, that were of interest (2-300,000 Palestinians were expelled)

• When the Jewish state was declared on 14 may, 1948 the newly formed Arab regimes wielded a force of 55,000 in October and the Israelis had 115,000 in spring of 1949

• The Arab coalition faced serious logistical problems

• By October 1948 Israel occupied 77 per cent of mandate Palestine and expelled another 500,000 Palestinians

• Ethnic cleansing continued and only 150,000 Palestinians remained in Israel

• The feeling of injustice caused by the international formula that prioritised and privileged the Jews, forced the Palestinians outside the framework of international efforts