Download Meanwhile, anti-Semitism was growing at an alarming rate in central

Global Independence Stations
Station 4 – Israel and the Middle East
Name _______________________________________
Why are Israel and
Palestine Fighting (4:07
mins)
What is Zionism
(2:44 mins)
Date ________________________
Conflict in Israel and Palestine – Crash
Course World History 223 (12:52 mins)
Core ______
Decolonization and Nationalism in Israel,
Egypt, Africa and Algeria (8:36 mins)
Partition of the Ottoman Empire
For centuries prior to World War I, the Ottoman Empire had ruled over vast parts of the Middle East, Northern Africa and
even large areas of the Balkans in Europe. The expansive empire, however, had been slowly declining over the previous few hundred
years, losing much of its territory in the Balkans in separate conflicts with Austria, Russia and other European powers. Economically,
it had been slowly weakened by the colonization of North America and the growth of
the Atlantic trade routes, as Western Europe no longer relied solely on trade with the
Far East (Asia) through the Mediterranean and Ottoman-controlled waters.
The Ottoman Empire decided to join forces with Germany during WWI, which
put them on the losing side. After WWI, the Ottoman Empire, was broke-up, with a
majority of the Middle East given to Britain and France, under the Mandate System.
The idea was that Britain and France would rule over the Middle East, until the
different mandates were able to assume leadership and take control of the area.
Instead, Britain and France divided the Middle East up, often times not recognizing the
different ethnicities and religions of the people in the area. The new mandates of Syria
and Lebanon were French, while Palestine and Mesopotamia (Iraq) were British. The
new mandates were ruled similarly to British and French colonies, to exploit natural
resources like oil and to provide new markets for European goods to be sold. In 1918 and 1919, the various allied nations took
control of their allied possessions, leaving the former Ottoman Empire in control of only Constantinople and parts of Northern
Anatolia (Present-day Turkey). Thus, by the end of World War I, most of the Middle East region was controlled by imperialist
European countries.
Turkish Nationalism
Not all Turks were willing to take the breakup of the Ottoman Empire lightly, soon after the empire's partitioning, a
nationalist movement strted. While these Turkish nationalists were willing to accept the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, they
refused to accept the partitioning of the Turkish homeland (Anatolia Peninsula or Asia Minor) and called for all Turkish-speaking
peoples to rise up in resistance to foreign powers taking control of territory in Asia Minor. This movement was fostered and led by a
former Ottoman official, Mustafa Kemal Atäturk. Atäturk had fled the Ottoman capital soon after the allies' occupation, and by
1919, his forces were fighting a guerrilla war against the Greeks, and they soon set up a Turkish
nationalist government in the city of Ankara.
Full-scale battle between the Turks and Greeks continued throughout 1920 and 1921, with
Atäturk winning several victories, forcing the Greeks out of inner Anatolia. In 1922, Atäturk's troops
continued to push back the Greeks, even to the point of capturing Smyrna, the city the allies had
granted the Greeks in the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire. What remained of the Greek forces
were forced to evacuate across the sea back to Greece. Atäturk was able to win independence for the
new nation of Turkey and the Treaty of Lausanne in July of 1923 confirmed the borders of a Turkish
state that largely is the Turkey we know today, with the exception of a few border disputes with Iraq,
which were settled by the League of Nations later in the decade. Furthermore, the nationalist
government installed by Atäturk at Ankara was recognized as the only legitimate government of the
Republic of Turkey, and Mustafa Kemal Atäturk was confirmed as Turkey's first president. Today,
Turkey continues to be one of the few stable, independent, and democratic countries in the Middle East.
Unlike newly independent Turkey, much of the Middle East remained under the control of France and Great Britain from
the end of World War I to World War II. It is here in the British controlled areas in the Middle East, where we see ethnic and
religious difference emerge and cause conflict in the region, especially with the creation of Israel.
The Hope for a Jewish Homeland
To properly understand what you are about to read, you must remember that the Holy Land, before the end of WWI,
belonged to the Ottoman Empire, and the events in the next two paragraphs are events in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
In the mid and late 19th century, anti-Semitism( hostility to or prejudice against Jews) throughout Eastern Europe led to
violent attacks against Jewish people. These had occurred sporadically and locally throughout European
history, but these attacks were particularly fierce in Russia, where pogroms killed thousands of Jewish
people. In reaction to this persecution, many Jews began to believe the only way to ensure their own
and their community's safety was to begin organizing in solely Jewish areas. Many of these same Jews
believed in Zionism: the belief that the Jewish people should return to the Holy Land and establish a
Judaism-centered state. By the mid-19th century, this region was largely inhabited by Arabs, many of
whom were Muslim. What few Jews who already lived there were largely concentrated in Jerusalem.
As the Zionist movement grew, large groups of Jews began migrating to the Holy Land in the
1880s and setting up Jewish agricultural settlements. Over the next several decades, a variety of people
(authors, intellectuals, and wealthy families) began to encourage the return of Jewish people to the Holy Land. An example of this
was the Balfour Declaration in November 1917, which was a letter from British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, encouraging the
creation of a Jewish homeland and that Britain supported this idea. Indeed, another large wave of Jewish immigration to the Holy
Land from Eastern Europe took place when violence against Jews escalated once again in Russia after the turn of the 20th century.
Many of these new settlements were bankrolled entirely by wealthy European and American Jewish families.
World War I and the Mandate of Palestine
During World War I, the British made promises to Arabs and Jews in the Holy Land, that if they helped defeat the Ottoman
Empire, they would be granted independence. When the war ended in 1919, the victorious allies carved up the Ottoman Empire
into 'mandates.' These were essentially non-permanent colonies. Great Britain oversaw the Mandate of Palestine, dashing the
nationalist hopes of both Jews and Arabs. Worse still, Damascus - the geographic focal point for many Arab Palestinians - fell under
the French Mandate of Syria. In other words, the British broke their promises
and when the Middle East was divided between the French and British, they
cared very little for the differences in ethnicities or religion.
In 1922, Britain divided the Palestine mandate, designating about 3/4
of the land exclusively for Arab settlement (then called Transjordan; today, the
Kingdom of Jordan); the remaining 1/4 was open to Jews (during this time it
was called Palestine). But Arab Palestinians continued to migrate into the
Jewish portion from surrounding countries, and after a 1925 revolt in the
French mandate, many began to view the Jews as their only obstacle to
complete unification with the new State of Syria, not to mention many of the
Arab Muslims had religious connections to area which was given to the Jewish
people.
Meanwhile, anti-Semitism was growing at an alarming rate in central
and southern Europe under fascist regimes, most notably in Germany and Italy. Jews were singled out and often forced to wear
clothing which identified them as Jewish, and violence against Jewish businesses and Jews themselves became state-sponsored.
During WWII, the anti-Semitism of one man in particular - Adolf Hitler - led to the worst genocide of Jews in modern history. During
WWII, Hitler's German forces executed approximately 6 million European Jews.
World War II and the Creation of Israel
The Holocaust - the genocide of 6 million Jews has become known - created worldwide sympathy for the Jewish people and
the Zionist cause. In 1947, only two years after the end of WWII, the newly formed United Nations passed a resolution (181) calling
for the creation of two states - one Arab and one Jewish - out of
the British mandate of Palestine. The resolution divided
Palestine into two states and left Jerusalem under UN control.
Independence was also granted to the rest of the Middle East,
Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan (previously named
Transjordan).
While the Jewish population in Palestine and abroad was overjoyed at the creation of a Jewish state in the Holy Land, the
existing Arab population of Palestine was outraged. Violence between Jewish settlers and Arabs in Palestine soon escalated in the
territory, and both sides armed themselves. When Britain pulled out the last of its troops in May of 1948, David BenGurion declared the independence of the state of Israel. Palestinian Arabs and the Arab world in general saw this establishment as a
major encroachment upon Arab sovereignty and the Arab League nations of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon rushed to
Palestinian aid and declared war on the new Israeli state.
The Israelis themselves mobilized quickly and combined their many paramilitary groups into
the Israeli Defense Forces. Despite initial setbacks from the pan-Arab invasion, Israeli forces slowly took
back territory, eventually occupying even territory the UN intended to be part of Palestine. When the
armistice between Israel and the Arab states was signed in early 1949, Palestine was only left the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip, and even these were held by Jordanian and Egyptian troops, respectively.
After Israel had fought off the Arab aggressors, it established a Parliament (called the
'Knesset') and was admitted as a member state to the UN in 1949. Since then, Israeli relations with its
Arab neighbors and the Palestinian population within Israel has alternated between peace and all-out
war. For example, in the late 1960s, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt and Syria and
quickly took control of the Golan Heights, all of Jerusalem, and most of the West Bank, virtually
eliminating the Palestinian state from territorial existence. Today, conflict and fighting still erupts in the
area as Palestinians seek to create their own country.
Pan-Arabism
In reaction to the creation of Israel and the growth of nationalism after WWII, a new idea emerge to help protect Middle
Eastern culture and to oppose Western (European or the U.S.) political involvement in the Middle East. This new idea was known as
Pan-Arabism, which held that Arabs should ideally live in one nation-state, stretching the span of
the Middle East (like a United States of the Middle East). Of course, such a nation-state would
have been massive, stretching from Morocco to Baghdad! That did not mean that the Arabs
were not willing to try, however. A major supporter of Pan-Arabism was the new leader of
Egypt, Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, who took power in Egypt in the 1950s. The best example of
Pan-Arabism was with the United Arab Republic which was created in 1958. The United Arab
Republic was a union established between Syria and Egypt, both countries that had once had
governments with significant ties to former European colonial powers. Suddenly, more than a
third of the world's Arabs were under one government. However, it soon became clear that
there were bigger differences in culture than similarities, and within 15 years, the United Arab
Republic ceased to exist. Also, many of the other oil-rich Arab countries were hesitant to join
because they were concerned about sharing revenues with poorer states in the Middle East.
After the United Arab Republic ended, so did the popularity of Pan-Arabism.
All-in-all, the Middle East is still an area of conflict, which can be traced back to the Mandate System and the creation of Israel.
This all of the territory
Pan-Arabism and Nasser
hoped to unite
Sources:
https://study.com/academy/lesson/resistance-in-turkey-and-india-between-world-wars.html
https://study.com/academy/lesson/overview-of-the-middle-east-1945-present.html
https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-creation-of-israel-in-1948-timeline-resulting-conflicts.html
https://study.com/academy/lesson/anti-semitism-zionism-palestinian-nationalism-in-the-arab-israeli-conflicts.html