Tennessee WordSmith: A Liberal Dose, Aug. 29, 2024 “A Brief History of Israel and Palestine, Part 7”

A Liberal Dose, Aug. 29, 2024

Troy D. Smith

“A Brief History of Israel and Palestine, Part 7”

So much has been going on politically lately that I haven’t picked back up my narrative on Palestine in a month. The good thing about that (or, more accurately, the sad thing) is that this particular subject can be revisited any time and still be relevant, because it is always in the news (and almost always bad).

It has been so long, I should probably refresh your memory about where we left off. By the late 1800s, Palestine had been under the control of the Ottoman Empire (based in Turkey) for centuries. An Arab nationalist movement, seeking independence from the Turks, was developing by 1900. Meanwhile, due to massive antisemitic violence in Russia and other parts of the world, many Jews felt the need for a homeland where they could feel safe. A large number wanted that homeland to be in Palestine, site of their ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah. This movement for Jewish settlement in Palestine became known as Zionism. It was also called, in Hebrew, Aliyah (ascent, as in “going up” to the traditional region of Israel). The Ottomans sold land to Jewish settlers. In the “first aliyah”, 1881-1903, about 25,000 Jews immigrated to Palestine, mostly from Eastern Europe and Yemen. In the second wave, 1904-1914, 35,000 Jews arrived, mostly from Russia and Poland. The majority of Arabs and minority of Christians in Palestine grew increasingly concerned about the ever-growing number of Jewish immigrants.

The Ottoman Empire sided with the Germans in WWI. British operatives gained military support from Arab nationalists in the area by promising that, once the Ottomans were defeated, the British would back the creation of a large Arab State in Palestine (as mentioned before, this was the plot of Lawrence of Arabia). However, just a year or so after making that promise, British prime minister Lord Arthur Balfour issued “The Balfour Declaration” of 1916, promising to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Jewish nationalists viewed this as a promise they would have their own state soon, while Arab nationalists viewed it as a betrayal by the British. British forces defeated the Ottoman Empire at the Battle of Megiddo (a name whose significance Sunday school scholars should immediately recognize) in September, 1918, and the whole war ended a couple of months later. Instead of an Arab state, the whole Middle Eastern region was carved up by the victorious allies at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. In 1920, Britain was given the mandate to control Palestine for the League of Nations, beginning the “British Mandate” period that would last until 1947. Semantics aside, what it really meant was that Britain now ruled Palestine, which seemed like even more of a betrayal to Arabs. Meanwhile, Britain allowed an even higher rate of Jewish immigration than the Turks had- 450,000 by 1939 (many fleeing the Nazis). Palestine was 3% Jewish in 1878, 11% by 1922, and 31% by 1947.

There was increasing tension between Jews and Arabs in Jerusalem, with Arab protesters chanting threats that reminded many Jewish settlers of the lead-up to the European pogroms they had once experienced. The British had far fewer soldiers in the city than the Turks had usually stationed there, and did not respond to Jewish requests for more military protection. Under Ze’ev Jabotinsky, about 600 Jewish men of the city started training militarily. Many were veterans of the Jewish League, an all-Jewish unit that had fought the Turks as part of the British forces in WWI.

In April, 1920, tensions came to a head. There are conflicting stories about what the inciting incident was, but a four-day riot ensued in which tens of thousands of Arab protesters attacked the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem. Jabotinsky’s armed Jews did not participate in the defense, as they were held outside the walls of the city by British troops to prevent escalation of the violence- violence the British did a poor job of containing, with fewer than 200 troops on hand. Five Jews and four Arabs were killed, but ten times as many Jews as Arabs were injured, many rapes were committed, and much property was destroyed.

Arabs continued to grow angrier at the increasing losses of land to Jewish settlers, and Jewish settlers stepped up efforts to organize their own defense forces instead of relying on the British.

To be continued -off and on, as I will usually be talking about the upcoming election the next couple of months.

--Troy D. Smith, a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech and serves on the executive committee of the Tennessee Democratic Party. His words do not necessarily represent TTU.

Buy the book A Liberal Dose: Communiques from the Holler by Troy D. Smith HERE