Palestine Dispute

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the control of Palestine shifted from Muslim to Western powers. Britain promised Jews and Zionists the land in Palestine in the form of the Balfour Declaration. However, at the same time, there were already Palestinians living in that land. Even today, there is no correct answer as to who should have rightfully acquired the land; however, the Palestinian Arabs should have cooperated when the Jews immigrated to the Palestine. There are plenty of facts which support both sides. The solution can only be determined through one's opinion.

According to Biblical sources, Arabs and Israelites first met in Palestine about 1500 to 500 B.C. This time period recognized the beginning of the tradition of the two peoples' common patriarchs and the cousinly ties between the offspring of Isaac and the children of Ishmael, the sons of Abraham.(Cohen 1)

Before Islam surfaced, the Jews and the Arabs met in the Arabian peninsula. There was actually a very large Jewish population in the Arabian peninsula before the Prophet Muhammed was known. After the Jews were kicked out of Jerusalem by the Romans following the Second Revolt, a large number of Jews went to the northern area of the Arabian peninsula. The settlements of Jews in the Valley of the Villages were important areas for the wandering and nomadic Arabic tribes. The Arabs actually settled near them under their protection, understanding their traditions, customs, and views of religious and social matters. Before Muhammed, some Arabs even accepted the Jewish doctrine of the "chosen people" and other basic elements of Judaism. (Cohen 2)

However after some time, things started to change. The prophet Muhammed began presenting Islam as a new religion. He even tried converting some Jews into Islam. But when his hopes of winning them over failed, he turned against the Jews. In 626, he attacked the Jewish tribes of Medina and completely destroyed them. This marked the beginning of conflict between the Jews and the Arabs. (Cohen 3)

The relationship between the Jews and the Arabs always remained tense. The connection between the two peoples is tense even today. Even with the same enmity, there has been a great deal of change from the beginning of time.

An important change that occurred was the creation of Zionism. Zionism was the belief and an endeavor to create a future Jewish state. The Jews always had a lot of faith which kept them active for centuries. Theodore Herzl, a renowned journalist and writer, was the father of the Zionist movement. The anti-Semitism that extended throughout France and Austria influenced Herzl to do something. He realized that the only way to stop the anti-Semitism was to establish a Jewish state.

World War I transformed the Zionists' viewpoints. When Turkey joined Germany and Austria against Britain, France and Russia, its defeat brought about the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and an end to the Turkish control of Palestine. However, before this, Zionists put pressure on the British who, at the time, were bearing the burden of the fighting in the Middle East and who expressed sympathy for the idea of a Jewish homeland.

In 1917, thanks to the efforts of Chaim Weizmann, a passionate Zionist, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, issued a proclamation that was to going to make Theodore Herzl's dream of a Jewish homeland come true. The Zionists' goal seemed within reach for Great Britain issued the famous Balfour Declaration. This document, issued on November 2, 1917, was a statement to the effect that Britain would support the creation in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. It was probably the most wonderful thing that happened to the Jews in eighteen hundred years. (Barker 9)

The document read:

"His Majesty's Government views 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 religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

The Balfour Declaration is regarded by some the root-cause of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Without the document, there definitely would not have been a Zionist settlement in Palestine. (Barker 9)

While the borders were still being set and the "areas of influence" were being ventured, the British army remained in control of Palestine. The French were in control of Syria, and the Arabs were set up in the spaces of the broken Ottoman Empire. (Levin 140)

The beginning of every nation has been through tension and strife; however, Palestine probably faced every imaginable complexity. There were two groups, the Arabs and the Jews. They both had their own ways of life that were around two thousand years apart. Until then, the overall Arab-Jew relationship was tense, but peaceful even though it had a few skirmishes in its history. (Levin 141)

As Levin mentions, "In the old city of Jerusalem, their crowded quarters were side by side, they bargains with each other in the market stalls, they often worked together or for each other as stonecutters, tailors, and they respected each other's religion. Yet each was something of a closed society with its own customs, its own history." (Levin 141)

Palestinian Arabs had a hard time adapting to the growing population of Jews. Jewish sharecroppers wanted a better life. Thus, some went to work for wages in the Jewish vineyards and groves instead of laboring in eternal debt. The Palestinian Arabs saw this as a vast social