Herzl was appalled by the violent Anti-Semitism he saw in France. It was this that gave him the idea that Jews ought to have a state of their own, and two years later he produced a pamphlet, Judenstaat (Jewish State) arguing this. Within a year Herzl held a major congress in Basel to discuss the idea of setting up a Jewish state. He called this new Jewish nationalist movement Zionism.
In the years of World War One, the British’s made three agreements. First agreement was called Mac Mahon agreement between Britain and the Arabs. It was said that the Arabs would rule their own nation-state after the war. Second agreement was ’The Balfour Declaration’ between the British Foreign Secretary and the Zionist leader in London. Britain promised to help set up a Jewish state in Palestine after war. Third agreement was the ’Sykes-Picot’ agreement between a British official, Sykes, and a French official, Picot, on behalf of their respective government. According to this agreement Britain and France had to share the entire region between them, with no room for nation-states, Arab or Jewish.
Balfour Declaration led hundreds of Jewish people immigration to Palestine after First World War. By the 1920s there were violent clashes between Jews and Arabs. By 1925 there was a peak of immigration. About 40 000 Jews immigrated to Palestine. The policies of Hitler and Stalin also helped to increase the flow of refugees.
If the Jews and the Arabs were each to have a nation-state, then the only way was partition Palestine, and through 1930s the British government considered ways of doing that. However the trouble with partition was that almost certain that neither side would accept the new borders, and it made dealing with Jerusalem, the holy city sacred to Jews and Muslims, as well as Christians, so this was a very difficult decision for the British’s.
Although, the Arabs and Jews hated each other, they also blamed Britain for breaking promises made during the First World War. Britain was desperately trying to find a way of keeping the promises, all three of them. In 1935 Nuremberg Laws came to power which led about 60 000 Jewish people to immigrate. Nuremberg Laws were made against the Jews from time to time.
After World War Two and the Holocaust America and Britain had a strong sympathy towards Jewish people. This was because lots of Jews immigrated to America and Britain during the Holocaust. From 1947-1949 Arabs and Jews were too much for Britain to cope with. The British government couldn’t handle the conflict between them. The problem was passed to the UN, which produced a partition plan. War broke out between the state of Israel and the Arabs. Israel was victorious and gained extra territory.
The British government had not solved the problem by the time the Second World War ended, although the situation had changed with the discovery of the Nazi Holocaust in Europe. Unfortunately for Britain, this wave of sympathy could not wish the native Palestinian Arabs out of existence. Jewish immigration still had to be strictly limited. Britain had used force and barbed wire camps against these illegal immigrants Jews to stop them entering Palestine.
Jews also had three main armed groups. They were Haganah, Irgun, and The Stern Gang. ‘Haganah’ were disciplined and well trained. ‘Irgun’ were efficient terrorist groups and the most responsible for the spectacular terrorist attacks, and ‘The Stern Gang’ was an extremist branch of Irgun.
These Jewish groups attacked Arabs and British alike, while Arab groups attacked Jewish settlers. In 14th of May 1948 the state of Israel was set up on land partitioned from Arab Palestine, with Chaim Weizmann as its first president.
As I’m finishing my coursework, recently the Arab Israeli conflict has erupted again. Nearly three hundred Palestinians are killed. America is trying to settle the conflict between Jews and Palestinians. The president of Palestine Yaser Arafat is desperately trying to become an independent country but it’s very difficult for him because Israelis don’t want it. Bill Clinton, President of the United States of America is trying very hard to set up a Peace Process to stop the violence and terror between the Jews and the Palestinians.
