Israel and Palestine

Greg Philo, Mike Berry

Description

This is a concise guide to the Israel-Palestine conflict. There are many different, competing histories of the conflict, however, this book collects those which are based on the most considered historical research.



The book covers key events in chronological order, in each case examining the varied historical accounts and presenting the beliefs of key thinkers across the ideological spectrum, from Edward Said to Binyamin Netanyahu.



Starting the with emergence of the Zionist movement in the nineteenth century, and the figures who shaped it, the authors go on to cover the founding of Israel and its subsequent history, up to and including the 'roadmap for peace', the construction of the wall, the death of Arafat and the withdrawal from Gaza.
1. Peel Partition Plan, 1937

2. United Nations Partition Plan, 1947/9

3. The Near East After the 1967 June War

4. The Allon Plan, July 1967

5. Wye Memorandum, 1998 (Wye Accords map)

6. Projection of the West Bank Final Status Map, presented by Israel, Camp David, July 2000

7. Final Status Map presented by Israel, Taba, January 2001

8. The Wall in the West Bank, December 2003

Notes

References

Index

MAPS

Sujets

• Israel
• History
• Palestine
• History of the Middle East
• Histoire
• Middle Est

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 septembre 2006
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781783714919
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Israel and Palestine
Israel and Palestine
Competing Histories
Mike Berry and Greg Philo
First published 2004. This expanded version first published 2006 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
and 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48106
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Mike Berry and Greg Philo 2006
The right of Mike Berry and Greg Philo to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Hardback
ISBN-13    978 0 7453 2566 8
ISBN-10    0 7453 2566 1
Paperback
ISBN-13    978 0 7453 2565 1
ISBN-10    0 7453 2565 3
PDF eBook
ISBN    978 1 8496 4316 0
Kindle eBook
ISBN    978 1 7837 1492 6
EPUB eBook
ISBN    978 1 7837 1491 9
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Chase Publishing Services Ltd, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Printed and bound in the European Union by
Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham and Eastbourne, England
Contents
List of Maps
Introduction
Zionist Roots and the First Wave of Jewish Immigration into Palestine
Theodor Herzl and the Emergence of Political Zionism
The Second Wave of Jewish Immigration into Palestine
The Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate
American Politics and the Settlement of the Holocaust Survivors
The End of the Mandate
The United Nations Debates the Future of Palestine
The Unofficial War
The First Arab–Israeli War
Post-War Negotiations: Peace Treaties, Borders and Refugees
1956: The Suez Conflict
1967: The Six-Day War
Resolution 242 and the War of Attrition
Settlement-Building, Economic Integration and the Occupation
Military Occupation/Administration
Nationalism and the Rise of the Opposition Movements
1973: The October War/The Yom Kippur War
Conflict in Lebanon
Diplomacy and the Camp David Accords
1982: The Invasion of Lebanon
1987: The First Intifada
The Beginning of the Oslo Process
The Declaration of Principles
The Cairo Agreement, Oslo II and the Israel–Jordan Peace Treaty
The Netanyahu Administration
The Barak Administration
The Camp David Final-Status Talks
September 2000: The Second Intifada
The Sharon Administration
Notes
References
Index
MAPS
1. Peel Partition Plan, 1937
2. United Nations Partition Plan, 1947/9
3. The Near East After the 1967 June War
4. The Allon Plan, July 1967
5. Wye Memorandum, 1998 (Wye Accords map)
6. Projection of the West Bank Final Status Map, presented by Israel, Camp David, July 2000
7. Final Status Map presented by Israel, Taba, January 2001
8. The Wall in the West Bank, December 2003
Introduction
This book was developed from work that we originally undertook for our study of TV news coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. * When we began that research we thought it would be useful to give a brief history partly because there was a great deal of public interest in the area and also because we wanted to show the complex arguments through which journalists had to pick their way when making news programmes. It quickly became apparent to us that there was not one history of the conflict but many, since almost every historical fact was contested by one or other of the parties. There were many deep divisions of opinion, not only between the Israeli and Palestinian historians but also within each side. Such divisions always to some extent characterise academic debate, but in this case there was also a strong ideological dimension, since the different interpretations and historical accounts could be used to justify and legitimise political positions. The Israeli historian Avi Shlaim has written of the ‘history wars’ in which the traditional Zionist account of the birth of Israel was challenged by a new group of Israeli historians who were much more critical of the role of Israel in the generation and continuation of the conflict. These historians, including Ilan Pappe and Shlaim himself, were attacked publicly in Israel. As Avi Shlaim writes of his critics:
They would like school history books to continue to tell only the heroic version of Israel’s creation. In effect they were saying that in education, one has to lie for the good of the country. (2003: 9)
What concerned the conservative critics was their belief that the new historians had undermined patriotic values and young people’s confidence in the justice of Israel’s cause. Six months before the Israeli election of January 2001 Ariel Sharon commented that ‘the new historians should not be taught’. When the new right-wing government came to power under Ariel Sharon in 2001 the education minister ordered changes. As Shlaim notes:
One of the first things Ms Livnat did on becoming Minister of Education was to order new history textbooks for secondary schools to be written, removing all traces of the influence of the new historians. (2003:10)
It is clear, then, that there are many different narratives and that they are sometimes bound up in attempts to defend the moral certainties of the contending parties. In this book we have outlined the range of different positions and arguments on all the major events in the history of the conflict. However, we have not simply repeated these without comment. We are not ‘post-modern’ in our approach and we do not believe that all accounts should be seen as equally valid. There is a difference between those who make statements without apparent recourse to evidence and others who spend long hours in archives, researching and checking their conclusions. There will always be contestation, but as far as possible we have indicated which views are best supported by available evidence and where there are contradictions or inaccuracies in what is being said. We have, however, tried to do this with a light touch because in the end it is up to our readers to make their own decisions on the validity of accounts and on what they believe. Finally, we hope that in laying out the range of arguments in a clear and accessible fashion, we may contribute to a better-informed public debate in an area that has so often been full of propaganda and confusion.
* This was published as Bad News from Israel (Pluto Press, 2004).
ZIONIST ROOTS AND THE FIRST WAVE OF JEWISH IMMIGRATION INTO PALESTINE
The American historian Howard Sachar (1977) traces the contemporary emergence of Zionist thought to the European Rabbis, Judah Alkalai and Zvi Hirsh Kalischer, who from the 1830s onwards stressed the need for Jews to return to the Holy Land as a necessary prelude to the Redemption and the coming of the Messiah. Sachar argues that such messianic exhortations did not immediately or widely take root among European Jews. However, he suggests that by the 1870s societies generally known as Chovevei Zion (‘Lovers of Zion’) had formed across Russia, which viewed Palestine as a site for national renewal and a refuge from anti-Semitism.
In 1881, following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, large numbers of Jews were killed in a series of Russian pogroms. By 1914 up to two million Jews had fled Russia to escape persecution. The vast majority sought sanctuary in the United States but 25,000 arrived in Palestine in two waves of immigration in 1882–84 and 1890–91. At the time the Jewish population in Palestine was small. The official Ottoman census of 1878 had put the total at 15,011 living among a combined Muslim/Christian population of 447,454 (McCarthy, 1990). The newcomers, backed with Jewish capital from prominent families such as the Rothschilds, saw themselves as agricultural pioneers, who were working to establish the foundations of Jewish self-determination in Palestine. A letter dated 21 September 1882 from Vladimir Dubnow, a worker at the Mikveh Israel agricultural settlement, to his brother Simon, captures the sentiments and hopes of the early Jewish settlers:
My ultimate aim, like that of many others, is greater, broader, incomprehensible but not unattainable. The final goal is eventually to gain control of Palestine and to restore to the Jewish people the political independence of which it has been deprived for two thousand years. Don’t laugh this is no illusion. The means for realising this goal is at hand: the founding of settlements in the country based on agriculture and crafts, the establishment and gradual expansion of all sorts of factories, in brief – to make an effort so that all the land, all the industry will be in Jewish hands. In addition, it will be necessary to instruct young people and the future generation in the use of firearms (in free, wild Turkey anything can be done), and then – here I too am plunging into conjecture – then the glorious day will dawn of which Isaiah prophesised in his burning and poetic utterances. The Jews will proclaim in a loud voice and if necessary with arms in their hands that they are the masters of their ancient homeland. (cited in Gilbert, 1999: 5–6)
Relations between the new Jewish immigrants and the native population were mixed. Jewish settlements were built on land that was purchased from absentee effendi landlords. Often the locals who had tended the land were evicted with the help of Turkish police, and this led to resentment and violence. Some Zionists such as Ahad Aham were very critical of the way the settlers gained control of the land and treated the local population. In 1891 he argued that the settlers ‘treat the Arabs with hostility and cruelty and, unscrupulously deprive them of their rights, insult them without cause and even boast of such deeds; and none opposes this despicable and dangerous inclination’ (1923: 107, cited in Hirst, 1977: 24). There was also evidence that the two groups were able partially to accommodate each