A BRIEF HISTORY OF PALESTINE - Israel

A BRIEF HISTORY OF PALESTINE

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What Was Palestine?

As a geographic territory, what is generally thought of today as "Palestine," has had many names from the earliest times to the present. The ancient Egyptian name for the region was Kharu in the south and Retenu in the north. Prior to its conquest by the Israelite Hebrews under Joshua, it was known as the "Land of Canaan," and afterwards it received the name Eretz Yisrael - , or "land of Israel" (I Samuel 13:19). As recorded in Ezechiel (26:20), Palestine was also referred to as Eretz Chayim in Hebrew,  - land of the living. However, the land east of the Jordan river was named separately as Ever ha'Yardan,  - "the other side of Jordan." During the divided kingdom period after the death of King Solomon (10th to 6th century B.C.E.) the Northern and Southern Kingdoms were known as "Israel" (also Samaria) and "Judah" respectively. In the Northern Kingdom, the tribe of Ephraim was the largest, and for this reason, the Northern Kingdom was often called "Ephraim.". The Asserian king Adadnirari IV spoke of the "land of Omri" in referring to the Kingdom of Israel.

During the Hellenistic period from the 4th to the 2nd century B.C.E., Judah was referred to as Judea, the name retained in its use by both the New Testament and Roman authorities. However, the name "Palestine" was officially introduced in the period after 138 C.E., three years after the suppression of the Bar Kochba revolt. It was originally used as an adjective, Palaistinei - , derived from the Hebrew word, Pelashet- , or "land of the Pelashtim" (i.e., the Philistines). It was first mentioned by the Greek historian, Herodotus as the "Philistine Syria" - , referring originally only to the southwestern coast south of Phoenecia held by the Philistines, but was gradually extended to cover the entire region. In time, the name was shortened and the adjective Palaistinei became a proper noun. Philo of Alexandria, a contemporary of Jesus, identified Palaistinei with the biblical Canaan.

Talmudic literature has referred to Palestine as ha'eretz -  - the land, and Palestina was used by Vespasian as the official name of the Roman province adjoining the provinces of Finukyah (Phoenicia) andAruvyah (Arabia) on the coins which he struck after destruction of the Second Temple in 70 C.E. From the 4th century C.E. however, the three provinces into which the Land of Israel was then divided were referred to as the "First" (Judea and Samaria), "Second" (Jezreel and the Galilee), and '"Third Palestine" (Idumea, or Edom) respectively.

Since the 6th century C.E., Arabs used the term Filastin - , to mean the "First Palestine" only, differentiating between it and al-Urdunn,  - Jordan. However these designations soon fell as the Arabs generally referred to provinces by the names of their capital cities, such as al-Ramlah,  - Ramlah, the capital city of the province of Filastin. The crusaders renewed the use of the "Three Palestines," the borders of which however, differed from those of the earlier Roman provinces. After the fall of the crusader kingdom, Palestine was no longer an official designation, but was still used in non-Hebrew languages as the name of the "Holy Land" on both sides of the Jordan River.

In current usage, the official modern Hebrew term  is pronounced as Palestina, to which the Hebrew letters aleph () and yod (), the abbreviation for Eretz Yisrael,  - "Land of Israel" within parentheses are added to it. In literature, verse, and song, Palestine has been referred to by a number of poetic and symbolic names, such as "The Holy Land", "The Promised Land", "Land of the Bible", and "Land of the Fathers."

Palestine Prior to 1918

For over 4,000 years since the dawn of recorded history, Palestine was ruled by a succession of conquerors - Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Seleucids, Romans, Fatimids, Seljuks, Crusaders, Saracens, and Mamelukes - chiefly because of its position as a strategic geographic crossroad. For the 400 years prior to 1918, Palestine was a small part of the Ottoman (Osmanli) Empire after their conquest of the Mamelukes in 1517 by Salim I. Since then, the Jews of the Diaspora sought refuge in Palestine from Christian persecution and expulsion despite spasmodic ill-treatment by their Muslim rulers.

As part of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine was administratively divided into the Mutasarriflik of Jerusalem, and the Vilayets of Beirut and Damascus. The Vilayet of Beirut, in part, was divided into the Sanjaks (i.e., districts) of Nablus, Acre, and Beirut, while the Vilayet of Damascus, essentially located east of the Jordan River and the Wadi Araba, was subdivided into the Sanjaks of Hauran, Ma'an, and Damacus.

On November 5, 1914, England in protecting her interests in the Suez Canal as well as benefitting from the System of Capitulations, declared war on Turkey, who had sided with the Central Powers. During 1915, the first plans were drawn up by Britain for the partition of the Turkish Empire. In an attempt to win Arab support in the war against Turkey, Britain began negotiations with the Grand Sherif of Mecca, Hussein, afterwards the King of Hedjaz. On October 25 of that year, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry MacMahon, informed Hussein that Britain was "prepared to recognize and support the independence of the Arabs." But MacMahon also added that the areas of Palestine west of the Jordan River and parts of Lebanon would have to be entirely excluded from any future Arab State.

In his reply on November 5, Hussein insisted on the inclusion of the Vilayet of Beirut but made no mention of the Mutasarriflik of Jerusalem. MacMahon on December 14 replied that any such inclusion "will require careful consideration." On January 1, 1916, Hussein warned MacMahon that "the people of Beirut will decidedly never accept such isolations." However, at no point in the correspondence was any mention made of southern Palestine, Jerusalem, or the Jews.

The Balfour Declaration

During World War I, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour wrote to Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild of the Zionist Federation in England the following letter of November 2, 1917:

"I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of His Majesty's Government the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations, which has been submitted to and approved by the Cabinet: His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and the religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. I should be grateful if you would bring this Declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation."

The above Balfour Declaration was issued with the support of the French government and President Woodrow Wilson of the United States. Official approval came from France on February 14, 1918, from Italy on May 9, 1918, and from President Wilson in a letter to Rabbi Stephan S. Wise on August 31, 1918. This then became the basis of the Mandate for Palestine given later to Great Britain by the League of Nations on July 24, 1922.

The British Occupation and Mandate

On December 8, 1917 (the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Hanukah and few weeks after the Balfour Declaration), the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian-based expeditionary forces of Great Britain, General Edmund Henry Allenby triumphantly entered Jerusalem after defeating the Turkish forces. However, Palestine remained divided, with the British controlling the south while the Turks holding the north. This situation lasted until September 21, 1918 when a new offensive, centering in the valley of Jezreel in Samaria, threw back the Turkish armies, driving them out from Palestine and neighboring Syria. At the end of October, Turkey completely surrendered and the British conquest of Palestine was completed.

The period following World War I found Palestine, as well as the Near and Middle East, in a complex political situation. The area taken from Turkey was under the military control of Allied armies, and conflicts in claims were already arising between the various powers. Palestine proper, on both sides of the Jordan River, was under British military government, while Lebanon and Syria, to the north, were under French control. Disagreement between England and France over the exact boundary between Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria was not slow in arising, with both Arabs and Bedouins freely participating in the boundary dispute.

Largely as a result of Britain's victories over the Ottoman Turks, more than ten million Arabs were liberated from Turkish rule. The total area of Arab lands in (now Saudi) Arabia was 1,184,000 square miles. Palestine, the only portion of former Ottoman territory that was set aside for a Jewish national home, covered less than 11,000 square miles! Besides his infamous 1917 declaration, Arthur Balfour on July 12, 1920 reminded the Arabs:

"So far as the Arabs are concerned, I hope that they will remember that it is we who have established an independent Arab sovereignty of the Hedjaz. I hope that they will remember it is we who desire in Mesopotamia to prepare the way for the future of a self-governing, autonomous Arab State, and I hope that, remembering all that, they will not grudge that a small notch - for it is no more than that geographically, whatever it may be historically - that small notch in what are now Arab territories being given to the people who for all these hundreds of years have been separated from it."

The Mandates for Palestine, Syria, and Iraq, which were won from Turkey following World War I, were allotted by the principal Allied Powers at a conference at San Remo, Italy in April, 1922. The Palestine Mandate, which included the area of Cis-Jordan (later Transjordan), was granted to Great Britain, which already had been in military occupation since 1917. By the Treaty of Sèvres between the Allies and Turkey signed on August 10, 1920, Turkey now renounced her sovereignty over Palestine, thereby recognizing the mandatory settlement. However, this treaty was never ratified, being only until the ratification of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1924, did Turkey implicitly accept the Mandate.

The Mandate instrument itself, which defined the conditions of the trust conferred by the League of Nations on the mandatory for the government of mandated territory, was drafted by the mandatory power. It was presented to the Council of the League of Nations for its approval on July 24, 1922, and was confirmed after some discussion. However it did not come into legal force until September 29, 1923 as questions arose between Italy and France regarding the Mandate for Syria. It was then decided that the Mandates for the adjoining territories should enter into operations at the same time.

Although the United States took no active part in the final negotiations over the Palestine Mandate, it nevertheless had been consulted by Great Britain in the earlier stages when the draft was under consideration. Through a joint Congressional resolution signed by President Warren G. Harding on September 21, 1922, the United States already had expressed its approval of "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish People." In 1924 the United States became a party to the agreement through the joint American-British Convention which incorporated the terms of the Mandate as well as providing that no changes could be made in the document in derogation of American rights or interests without their consent.

Legally, the Palestine Mandate was of the "Class A" Mandates in which the mandatory was regarded as the guardian of a people not yet able to stand by itself and which was to be trained for self-government. A Mandate was a system of trusteeship established by Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations for the administration of former Turkish territories and German colonies. It marked an important innovation of international law with respect to dependent territories, differing from a protectorate in that obligations were assumed by the Mandate power to the inhabitants and to the League. It also differed from a sphere of influence in that the guardians had an acknowledged right to raise and expand revenues, to appoint officials, and to make and enforce laws. The Mandate system was administered by the League of Nations through a Permanent Mandates Commission of eleven members. With the creation of the United Nations in 1945, the Mandate system was superseded by the trustee system.

However, the special purpose of establishing the "Jewish National Home" made the terms of that Mandate different from all others. The Mandate's preamble recited the Balfour Declaration, and adopted by the Allied Powers, to the effect that:

"His Majesty's Government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people...it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

It then recited the selection of His Britannic Majesty as the mandatory, the formulation of the terms of the Mandate, the acceptance of the Mandate on behalf of the League of Nations by His Majesty and the confirmation of the Mandate by the Council of the League.

In the Mandate, the trust for the Jewish national home was applied to a number of the Articles. Of numismatic interest, Article 22 carried out a cultural purpose in that it decreed:

"English, Arabic, and Hebrew were to be the official languages of Palestine. Any statement or inscription in Arabic on stamps or money in Palestine shall be repeated in Hebrew, and any statement or inscription in Hebrew shall be repeated in Arabic."

However, it was not until November 1, 1927 on the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Balfour Declaration did Palestine have money which it could call its own.

The Mandate contained other special provisions arising out of the character of the country as the "Holy Land" of the three principal religions: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, all of which are historically linked. All responsibility in connection with the Holy Places in Jerusalem and elsewhere, and with the religious sites and buildings, including rights and of securing free access to such places, was assumed, in terms of the Mandate, by the mandatory, with responsibility to the League of Nations. The head of the Palestine civil government administration was the High Commissioner, appointed by the crown, and was under the immediate direction of the British Colonial Office.

Until Transjordan acquired independence in May, 1946, the High Commissioner for Palestine was always the High Commissioner for Transjordan as well. The High Commissioner was assisted by an advisory council of government officials and an executive council. Consequently, he was the supreme head of Palestine, and had complete legislative and executive power subject only to control from London. With respect to Transjordan, the High Commissioner was represented in Amman by a Resident and kept in close touch with Emir (later King) Abdullah. Any member of the public who had a matter of public or private importance to discuss could usually see the High Commissioner personally, if his application was submitted throught the proper channelsand if all resources at lower levels had been exhausted. If on tour, the High Commissioner was ever more accessible. Petitions would frequently be pressed into his hand as he walked through a village. Any peasant with a grievance could, by planting himself in his path, secure a summary hearing. A visit to the village much resembled a medieval royal progress and gave tremendous satisfaction to the inhabitants who like to feel that they could appeal directly to the highest authority in the land. There was much Muslim and Jewish tradition behind this feeling.

The official British military occupation of Palestine ended with the appointment of Sir Herbert Samuel, himself an orthodox Jew, as the first High Commissioner on July 1, 1920. Britain then had started to set up a civil government although the final ratification was to occur three years later. The post of the High Commissioner was not an easy one for the Colonial Office to fill. proncipally because of the onerous political responsibility attaching to it. Of Palestine's seven High Commissioners, only two were career apointments (Sir John Chancelor and Sir Harold MacMichael). Of the other five, four were professional soldiers and one was a former Cabinet minister (Sir Herbert Samuel). It was rare for Cabinet ministers to accept colonial appointments in peacetime, for their future centered around so much in British politics at home and not overseas.

Despite the Balfour Declaration, England never sought to disguise or hide its primary intent in Palestine as an area of strategic importance to the British Empire. Palestine proved a valuable base of military operations in the protection of the Suez, making the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine legally more secure. From the beginning, many questions were raised as to interpretations of the terms of the Mandate. In effect, the British systematically hedged on and blocked the execution of their Mandate for over 20 years. The rivalry between Britain and France for control of the Middle East (e.g., in Lebanon and Syria), rising Arab nationalism as well as the rising ambitions of Arab leaders, all served to arouse Arab unrest and incite violence.

Following Arab riots in 1920 and 1921 on Jewish agricultural colonies in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Jaffa, which were sparked by the urgings of the Mufti Haj Amim al-Husseini, the (Winston) Churchill White Paper was issued by the British in July, 1922, setting forth official policy in a manner designed to limit the interpretations which had been previously cited in the Balfour Declaration. This, the first of the "White Papers" on the Mandate, diminished the area of Jewish Palestine by removing Transjordan, the country lying on both sides of the Jordan River and the Dead Sea from Palestine and making it a separate Arab territory. In Biblical terms, this included the lands of Ammon, Gilead, Moab, and Midian. To this territory, the "Jewish National Home" clause did not apply, such that a separate system of representative government under an Arab emir was established.

As Hitler and the Nazis rose to power in Germany, persecutions sent a stream of German Jews to Palestine. The Arabs reacted with new riots, foreseeing the day when the Jewish population would exceed their own. British action to eliminate the terror was neither forceful enough nor consistent to accomplish this aim, causing them to pursue another form of action. In November 1936, a new British Royal Commission headed by Lord William Robert Peel came to Palestine to investigate the causes of Arab terror. The Peel Commission stayed two months and issued its report in July, 1937 that the Arabs had gained materially and substantially from the presence of Jews in the country, and further declared that:

"Unquestionably...the primary purpose of the Mandate, as expressed in its preamble and its articles, is to promote the establishment of the Jewish National Home."

However, because of lack of cooperation of the Arabs, the Peel Commission concluded that the Mandate was unworkable and recommended a partition plan that divided Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, as well as a neutral corridor and all Holy Places under British rule.

On October 19, 1938, the Woodhead Commission, appointed to draw up specific boundary lines, advised that partition in any form was impractical. In May, 1939, the (Colonial Secretary Malcolm) MacDonald White Paper was issued, providing for the limit of 15,000 Jewish immigrants annually for a period of five years, as well as empowering the High Commissioner to dramatically limit the purchase of land by Jews. In effect, the British had reneged on its promises made in the Balfour Declaration. This White Paper appeared at the very time when Nazi Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and was murdering Jewish victims.

The Final Partition of Palestine

The crisis between Arabs, Jews, and the British intensified over the next eight years, leading to a near paralysis of Palestine, with the near breakdown of law and order. The United States government then brought strong pressure to bear on the British to find a rapid solution to the "Palestine problem." Meanwhile, the most powerful political and resistance weapon of the Palestine Jewish community, "illegal immigration," continued to bring in shiploads of refugees, such as the infamous Exodus, who preferred to run the British blockade rather than remain in the displaced persons camps of Germany. Many of these ships were caught by the British Navy, and thousands of refugees were then transported to the dreary Cyprus detention camps of Karaolos and Xylotymbou. Because of worldwide outrage, British Foreign Minister Ernest Bevin gave up and in February 1947 announced to the House of Commons his intention to refer the unworkable Mandate problem to the United Nations (UN), the successor to the disbanded League of Nations.

On April 28, 1947, the UN General Assembly met in a special session to consider the situation and to find a solution for it. It appointed an eleven-member Special Committee of Inquiry on Palestine (UNSCOP) "to investigate all questions and issues relevant to the problem of Palestine," and to bring back its report to the regular session of the General Assembly in September 1947. The UNSCOP members were: Emil Sanstrom (Sweden, Chairman) Roberto Fontaina (Uruguay), Nasrolla Entezan (Iran), N.S. Blom (Netherlands), Alberto Ulloa (Peru), Sir Abdur Rahman (India), Kevel Lisicky (Czechoslovakia), Ivan C. Rand (Canada), John D.L. Hood (Australia), Jorge Garcia Granados (Guatemala), and Joshua Brilej (Yugoslavia).

The UNSCOP report, published August 31, 1947, recommended unanimously the termination of the British Mandate, the preservation of economic unity of Palestine, and the safeguarding of the Holy Places. However, UNSCOP was divided on the political future of Palestine. The majority favored separate Jewish and Arab states in Palestine with Jerusalem as an "international city." The minority of three members (India, Iran, and Yugoslavia) recommended a federal Arab-Jewish state, while Australia abstained from voting. The Jews accepted the partition plan, for with all its territorial limitations and inequities, it nevertheless assured a Jewish state in Palestine with the backing of the world. The Arabs however acted to the contrary, rejecting the partition by unleashing a storm of violence through the country. For two months the UNSCOP report was debated by the UN General Assembly. On November 29, 1947, the final vote was taken, and the partition resolution based on the UNSCOP majority report was approved. Voting for partition was as follows:

For partition (33): Australia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Byelorussia, Canada, Costa Rica, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Equador, France, Guatemala, Haiti, Iceland, Liberia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, Union of South Africa, U.S.S.R., United States, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Against partition (13): Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen.

Abstention (10): Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico, United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia.

Absent (1): Siam.

Five months later on May 14, 1948, after most of the British Army had departed from Palestine, the British union jack was lowered and the seventh and last British High Commissioner, Lt. Gen. Sir Allen Gordon Cunningham, boarded a British naval vessel at Haifa. With his departure, the British Mandate of Palestine came to an end and the State of Israel - Medinat Yisrael,  was formed.