Partition of Palestine Creation of Modern Israel

Partition of Palestine Creation of Modern Israel

Zionist Movement • European Jews meet in Vienna to discuss the creation of a Jewish homeland in biblical Israel ( Zion) • Leaders Theodore Herzl and Chain Weitzman cite past and present violence against Jews ( 1880’s) • Some Zionists move to Ottomancontrolled Palestine and purchase land from the Turks– they create Kibbutzim( communal farms)

Zionist settlements in Palestine(1900)

Ottoman Empire ( 1300 -1919) • Turks enter Anatolia from Central Asia • Slowly take land from eastern Roman Empire • In 1453, they capture Constantinople- rename Istanbul • Greatest Sultan ( ruler) will be Suleiman the Magnificent…extents rule into S. E. Europe • Turks will rival the greatest rulers in Europe • They control much territory, but do not force others to convert to Islam • Over time, they grow weak, broken apart after losing WW I

Ottoman Empire

Anatolian Peninsula

WW I and Palestine • British send T. E. Lawrence into the Turkish controlled Middle East to stir-up Arab tribes against the Ottomans • British encourage Lawrence to promise autonomy freedom) if they successfully overthrow Turks • Lawrence and his Arab companions disrupt Turkish control, even capturing Jerusalem, and Damascus • British also sign the Balfour Declaration ( 1917), saying they “ look with favor upon a Jewish homeland in Palestine”… same land has now been promised to several groups !!! • The seeds of discord have been sown

British Mandate in Palestine(1919 -1947) • British and French betray Arabs and occupy the Middle East…. Britain gains mandate over the Holy Land • Brits allow massive Zionist immigration • Arabs rebel in 1936 against large presence of Jews in Palestine … British use harsh force to repress revolt • The British do make a concession to the Palestinians , no further Jewish emigration allowed– very bad timing for the Nazis were beginning their campaign of terror • this is the status quo until end of WWII in 1945

The Holocaust • The Nazis systematically round-up any undesirables in Germany, and any other territories they occupy. Millions of Jews, Gypsies, homosexua ls, catholics, and communists die either through forced labor, or pure extermination • The Final Solution • The deliberate attempt to rid Europe of all the Jews • German companies actually compete for the contracts to devise methods for quick, mass exterminations… gas chamber is one choice…many shot • The priority to kill the Jews will mean that an estimated six million will die – four million in the last year alone ( 1944 -45)… horrendous experiments carried out as well ( Dr Mengele)

Partition • Hitler's Final Solution leaves many of Europe's Jews either dead or displaced • New urgency for a Jewish homeland • Zionists use terror/violence to force the hand of the British • Right-wing Irgun blow-up the King David Hotel in Jeruslaem… killing 93 British officers ( 1946) • British then decide to turn over the future of Palestine to the United Nations ( 1947)

Victims of the Holocaust

Destruction of the British headquarters at the King David Hotel

A Land Divided • United Nations votes in favor of dividing the land ( partition) England relinquishes its mandate in 1948 • Nascent Jewish state is attacked by numerous Arab armies ( including Palestinians) • Israel survives this assault, as well as Arab coalition that attack again in 1956 • Israel does a pre-emptive attack in June, 1967 ---and defeat their neighbors, and this time retain captured land ( West Bank of the Jordan river, Golan heights from Syria, and the Sinai peninsula and Gaza from Egypt) • Millions of Palestinians become refugees

Shifting map of Israel/Palestine