There were many reasons why the British handed over control of Palestine to the UNO. One of them being that during the 1930’s, both sides had begun turning towards the British troops for all the trouble they had caused. By 1946, British troops were being attacked by both sides, and example of this is in 1946, when the Arabs attacked the British army headquarters in Palestine. Another reason why Britain handed over control was because there was a lot of pressure on the government at home to pull out. This was because there had already been many deaths, and the British people didn’t want any more deaths for both groups and especially for the British soldiers. In 1945, a Labour government was elected, and they wanted to allow the countries under the British Empire to control themselves, and also to allow self-determination. One other reason was that keeping troops in Palestine became too expensive, and Britain needed the money at home, for other things they considered more important.
Once Britain handed over Palestine to the UNO, it meant that it wasn’t controlled by anyone, and the UNO could not really enforce any laws or measures unless both sides agreed. Due to the increasing violence and deaths, and also the fact that more and more Jewish immigrants were coming into Palestine, the UNO decided to partition Palestine in November 1947. This partition introduced two new states, but neither side was happy about what they had got, although the Jews accepted the terms. Soon after, the Jews declared their state as the new independent state of Israel, and soon after the UNO acknowledged this and pulled out. This was another mistake for from this point began the first war of 1948-1949.
Why was Israel able to win the war of 1948-1949?
The 1948-49 war started because of the partitioning of Palestine by the UNO on that same year. The Arabs were unhappy with the partition because they were given less land, which was separated into two areas, and although they had a much larger population than the Jews, and had been living there longer, the Jews were given 55% of Palestine. The Jews were unhappy with the partition because their sacred town of Jerusalem was left a neutral zone controlled by the UNO, and also it was surrounded by the Arab state.
Once the UNO left and the partition officially signed, the Jewish army declared their land, “the independent state of Israel”. This angered the Arabs even more because it had sealed the partition and had left Israel on top. Due to this, the Jews were expecting to be attacked, and on 15th May 1948, the day after Israel declared its independence under the UNO plan for partition, the armies of Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iraq invaded the country. Everyone, including the people of Israel expected the Arabs to wipe out the newly formed Israel. This however was not the case, for the Arab forces were inadequate, ill-equipped and poorly lead with no united command. Another reason was that the Israeli militia, (the Haganah), which was originally formed to help defend against Arab attacks under British mandate, had already been trained by “British military expects” such as Orde Wingate in the arts of anti-guerrilla tactics. Their intense training and the fact that many had fought in World War II alongside the allies, meant that the Arab guerrilla ambush attacks on towns and villages were no match for the battle hardened Haganah. The Israelis were also driven by the fact that they had just managed to get back their holy land, and gain a national homeland, and were prepared to fight brave and hard to keep it, as they were proud and determined not to let the Arabs take back what they thought was rightfully theirs. With this determination and skill in combat, the Israeli army had managed to defend itself against six countries with only home made armoured vehicles and second hand weapons bought by the Israeli government from the USA and Britain. Not only that, but it also managed to acquire more land that had been given to them by the UNO partition. An unexpected victory for a side that was almost certain to lose. This however did push many Arab refugees into camps along the boarders, which gave birth to a new wave of terror and fighting, as suicide bombers and freedom fighters took their own lives to help in what they believed was a just cause.
“During the war of 1948 the Palestinian Arabs fled their homes in terror.” Explain how far you agree with this statement.
For many years now, Arabs and Jews have been fighting a war over who has the right to the land of Palestine, and whether the Arabs did flee in terror or under orders in 1948. There are at least two arguable sides to this story, which have kept this an ongoing argument ever since it started.
This statement says that the “Palestinian Arabs fled their homes in terror.” Whether or not this is true is arguable, but what is true it that many Arabs did leave during and after the 1948-49 war. In actual fact during 1948, over half of the Arab population in Palestine (around 726,000 people) fled their homes. They claimed that the Jews terrorised them and evicted them out of their towns and farms in order to seize their land for the new Jewish state. However, the Jews claim that the Arabs left under orders by leading Arabs as the leaders threatened them not to stay.
These two arguments have been the basis of the debate for many years, and there is evidence for both sides that suggests that either one could be true. Evidence that the Arabs left because of fear from the Jews can be seen in a PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organisation) pamphlet describing the Deir Yassin massacre on the 9th April 1948, where 154 men, women and children were murdered in cold blood by the Stern Gang and the Haganah, later on renamed the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). It states that “the plan was to frighten the rest of the Palestinian population into leaving to avoid the same happening to them.” This would have made the Arabs very scared for their own life, and lead them to leaving fearing the worst could happen to them. Nonetheless, this is an Arab source, so therefore could possibly be biased towards the Arabs, as they wanted to blame the Jews. This source however, combined with another source from a Red Cross official who visited Deir Yassin states that “terror was built up among the Arabs. Driven by fear the Arabs left their homes to find shelter.” These two sources together lead us to some conclusion, and a give us a fair understanding of the Arabs point of view, but there are Jewish sources which state different.
This source from the British-Israeli public affairs committee states that “Arab propaganda led them to fear what would happen to them if they stated, and threatened that they would also be considered traitors to the Arab cause.” This is why the Jews claim they left, so therefore could also be biased towards them-selves as so they wouldn’t seem too horrific. They claim that the leaders used radio to get the message across, but this contradicted by another source form an Irish journalist. He wrote in 1961 that “There was not a single order, or appeal, or suggestion about evacuation from Palestine from any Arab radio station inside or outside Palestine in 1948.” This he said is proved by looking at the Middle Eastern broadcast records (that can be seen at the British Museum) that were monitored by the BBC and by a US monitoring unit. This source seems more reliable, because the evidence can be seen for real, and therefore tells me that the Jewish source could have been biased, and less trustworthy.
Another Jewish source that was taken from a Zionist’s book, Avi Shlaim states that “During the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled to neighbouring Arab states despite Jewish pleas to stay and demonstrate that peaceful co-existence was possible.” This quotation however is disproved when it says “Zionist extremists embarked on a series of actions designed to drive Arabs out of the area wanted for the Jewish state.” Source taken from Understanding Global Issues. This source seems more reliable as it was not written by any side, so therefore has no meaning to be biased.
Also, the Jewish claim that they fled is again contradicted by a historian, Benny Morris, who states that she “found no evidence of Arab leaders issuing calls to Palestine’s Arabs to leave (…) or any trace of a radio or press campaign urging them to flee.” This also helps me to make a conclusion in favour of the Arabs.
After gathering my evidence, I think that the Palestinian Arabs fled in terror from the Jews. Although there is evidence which contradicts this, I do not think it is strong enough to have enough influence on my decision. I think that due to the Deir Yassin crisis, people began to fear for their own lives, and news travelled fast “The press and radio spread the news everywhere among the Arabs as well as the Jews.” Quoted from Red Cross Official. This caused a wide scale panic and lead to a large amount of the Palestinian Arabs to flee. They and their descendants now live in refugee camps outside Israel.