NOTE: This is Part Five of a series. For your convenience, the first four parts are linked below, followed by today's article.
The Truth About Israel and Palestine: Part One
The Truth About Israel and Palestine: Part Two
The Truth About Israel and Palestine: Part Three
The Truth About Israel and Palestine: Part Four
Even though the Middle East became
the prize of the British Empire, England
had neither the desire nor the ability to run that region of the world forever.
For this reason, they began working to create a series of new states in which
the Arabs (who had helped them defeat the Ottoman Empire)
could administer their own affairs. Although the term “Arabia”
was already a general description of a large part of this area, many of the Middle
East countries we know of today did not officially become
independent nations until the British occupation and subsequent withdrawal from
this turbulent region of the world.
While working to create
new, multiple states, Great Britain (with the cooperation of the League of Nations, an early proto-type of the United Nations) decided
they would also offer an opportunity for Jews all over the world to return to
their homeland. This invitation was called the Balfour Declaration. Needless to
say, grateful Jews responded with terrific enthusiasm. Indeed, many children of
Abraham did migrate from Russia, Western
Europe and other corners of
the globe where they had lived for some two-thousand years in ghettos, at the
mercy of pogroms or harsh policies of Ant-Semitic governments. A homeland of
their own had been a hopeful vision to the Jews for two millennia. The most familiar
Jewish toast (common at Passover celebrations) said “Next year in Jerusalem.” But few thought they were reciting much more than a
pipe dream. Now they could really, truly return to Jerusalem! Just imagine how this must have felt! The Jews were going to sojourn to a country
of their own, and not just any country; the very land of their ancestors, a
land where a remnant of Jews had remained since ancient times, living side by
side with Muslims and Christians who also had interests in Palestine and who
viewed it as their Holy Land too.
What exactly was offered to
the Hebrew immigrants by the League
of Nations? Everything we
would today call Israel, everything we would today call Jordan and most of what we would today call “the occupied
territories.”
When the Jews arrived, many
of them purchased land from Arab lords. In time, a terrain that had been little
more than a desolate, flee bitten combination of swamp and desert, swiftly
turned green with farmland and transplanted trees. The economy also boomed, transforming this
area in such an amazing way, that the term metamorphoses barely does
justice. New jobs were created, resulting in an influx of Arabs from other
regions who now saw Palestine as a land of opportunity and employment made possible
by Jewish farmers and businessmen recently arrived from Europe.
What was the proportion of
Arab and Jew in Palestine prior to the Balfour Declaration? There were more Arabs than Jews in the
land (resulting from Muslim expansion) but the truth is, there was really only
a handful of each people group, because again, the swamp like conditions
limited the kind of life one could realistically enjoy in the Holy Land. The famous author, Mark Twain wrote as much after his own personal
visit. He was surprised how desolate the
Holy Land was, how little was going on there and how few people
inhabited the area.
All of this changed when the League of Nations
invited Jews to resettle their ancient home. Ironically, it was after
Jewish business created a surplus of jobs that Arabs flooded into the territory
in mass, creating a situation where the Arabs greatly outnumbered the
Jews.
We continue now with our true/false quiz:
True or False?
The Arabs who lived in this area were never allowed to have their own separate
Palestinian state.
ANSWER:
FALSE: In paradoxical fashion,
the British, after inviting the Jews to return, sold over 75 percent of
Palestine to the Arabs,, creating a new country called, Trans-Jordan. This is an
extremely important and seldom taught fact. Please catch this: 75 percent of what had been offered to the
Jews was sold behind their backs to the Arabs instead! Not only were the
Arabs offered a “separate Palestinian state,” long ago, but they have been
living in one since the early part of the Twentieth Century. It’s called Jordan,
a country three times the size of what remained for the Jews.
The Jews accepted this betrayal, only because they had no
choice. After, all a sliver of the promise was better than no land at all.
But the Arabs didn’t want the Jews to have even a sliver and
fresh controversy broke out over what to do with the remaining 25 percent.
Read Part Six in tomorrow’s blog.