We explain what the first Arab-Israeli war was and how is the dispute between Arabs and Jews through the territory of Palestine. In addition, the results of the war.
What was the First Arab-Israeli War (1948-1949)?
The First Arab-Israeli War (1948-1949) was a military conflict in which The state of Israel faced Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Iraq. This was the first military confrontation of the Arab-Israeli conflict in which the Jewish population and the Arab population dispute the territory of Palestine.
In Israel this confrontation is known as “the War of Independence”, while for the Arab-Palestine population it remembers it as the Nakbawhich in Arabic means “the catastrophe.”
The First Arab-Israeli War began in May 1948, when the British mandate of Palestine was officially dissolved. The UN had decided to create two independent states for Arabs and Jews. However, The division of the territory was not balanced and the UN Palestine Partition Plan was rejected by the Arab League (which represented the Arab population of Palestine).
When British troops withdrew from Palestine, no agreement had been reached. Zionist leader David Ben Gurion proclaimed the creation of the state of Israel And, in response, neighboring Arab nations sent their armies.
The war lasted less than a year and ended with the final victory of the new state of Israel over neighboring Arab countries. As a result, Israel consolidated its power over almost 80% of the old Palestinian territory.
The confrontation He took the lives of almost 20,000 people. In addition, the entire Arab population was expelled from the new state of Israel and had to take refuge in neighboring Arab countries.
Background of the First Arab-Israeli War
The Palestinian Territory Society
At the end of World War I, the territory of Palestine that belonged to the Old Ottoman Empire became the British mandate of Palestine. The Palestinian population was mostly Muslim, but between 1920 and 1940, The number of Jewish inhabitants grew in exponential way. This was due to the persecution suffered by the Jews in different parts of Europe, the dissemination of Jewish nationalism and the expansion of political Zionism.
Political Zionism is an ideology that maintains that Jews have divine rights over the land of Israel (Palestinian territory). Since the end of the 19th century, The World Zionist Organization (OSM) worked for Jewish immigration to Palestine in a peaceful way.
By 1920, of the almost 750,000 Palestinian inhabitants, it is estimated that by then, about 80 % of them practiced Muslim faith, 11 % Jewish faith, 9 % the Christian faith and 1 % other confessions. By 1948, it is estimated that the Palestinian population reached 1,900,000 inhabitants, of which 65 % were Muslims and about 35 % Jews.
Origin of conflicts between Arabs and Jews in Palestine
During World War I, to ensure the support of the local population against the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom had made contradictory promises to Jewish and Muslim communities. Through the Balfour Declaration, the British supported the creation of a state of Israel in Palestinian territory. In turn, he had promised the independence of the Arab nationalist groups of the Muslim community.
During the 1930s, the relations between Arabs and Jews stressed and began to there are disturbances. The Arab population claimed a brake on the growing Jewish immigration Already the prerogatives of self -government that the British granted to the Jewish communities. In 1936, the great Arab revolt began, a set of protests and mobilizations that, over three years were repressed.
In the following years, The confrontation became increasingly violent. Many of the Arab nationalist leaders had to exile. On the other hand, the Jewish community began to form paramilitary groups. In that context, it became evident that the coexistence of both populations or the formation of a multireligious Palestinian State was not possible. Instead, it began to take shape The need for Palestine partition in two independent states.
UN Plan
During the 1940s, within the framework of the process of decolonization of Asia, different nations of the East achieved their independence with respect to the colonial dominance of the United Kingdom. At the end of World War II, the United Kingdom agreed to withdraw Palestine. In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly agreed on the Palestine Partition Plan, through Resolution 181.
The UN Plan proposed the division of the entire Palestinian territory into two independent states and the exclusion of the cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem as autonomous cities, administered by the UN (due to their historical and religious importance).
The plan established a partition of the complex and uncomfortable territory for both nations. The new state of Israel would cover 55 % of the Palestinian territory, with a population of 500,000 Jews and 400,000 Arabs. For its part, the Palestine State would include 44 % of the territory, with a population of 800,000 Arabs and a minority of 10,000 Jews.
The Arab League (a coalition of the main Arab states of the region, on behalf of the Palestinian Arab population) criticized the plan for the inequality of territories distribution in relation to the amount of population and rejected the proposal. For its part, The Jewish community accepted the plan since it was a legal guarantee for the official creation of an Israel state in Palestine.
In that context, riots and violence in Palestine accelerated. The attacks of both sides intensified and The paramilitary forces of both groups grew. In the first months of 1948, the street confrontations took dozens of dead.
Development of the First Arab-Israeli War
Although the UN proposal was rejected by the Arab community, resolution 181 established the withdrawal of British Palestine troops for May 15, 1948. On May 14, the Jewish community led by David Ben Gurion, proclaimed the declaration of the independence of Israel in the territories established by the UN partition plan. The United States, the Soviet Union and other Western powers immediately recognized the new state.
The next day, when the United Kingdom stopped having authority officially, Egypt, Syria, Transjordan, Lebanon and Iraq invaded the newly created state of Israel. The Arab forces were commanded by King Abdullah of Transjordan. Its declared objective was the creation of a single Palestinian multirreligious state and, for this, the destruction of the State of Israel.
The different Jewish paramilitary groups unified in Israel's defense forces and, in a short time, managed to stop the Arab attack and move forward on the territory that the UN had assigned to the Palestinian Arab population. In the following months, they expelled the Arab armies from the Galilee region, from the Desert of Neguev and consolidated their position in western Jerusalem and the center of the country. In addition, they advanced on Gaza, Sinai and Southern Lebanon.
By January 1949, Israeli victory became definitive. Between February and July, The different Arab countries signed the armistice with Israel.
Result of the First Arab-Israeli War
The first Arab-Israeli war meant a fundamental victory for the Jewish community and the newly created state of Israel. The claim of the Jewish community on the Palestinian lands had become legitimate with the acceptance of the UN. With the victory of the war, the creation of the Jewish country was definitive.
As a consequence of the war, the state of Israel incorporated 5,200 square kilometers more than those designated by the UN Partition Plan and reached almost 80 % of the old Palestinian territory. The rest of the territories were annexed by neighboring countries; Bank and the city of Jerusalem were incorporated by Transjordan and Gaza by Egypt.
It is estimated that as a consequence of the battles during the war There were more than 6,000 Jewish dead and between 10,000 and 12,000 Arab dead. In addition, the entire Arab population was expelled from the new state of Israel. This meant the massive migration of about 750,000 people to neighboring countries as war refugees.
The Arab-Israeli conflict over the territories of Palestine continued throughout the twentieth century and is still in force today. Among the most important clashes that followed the First Arab-Israeli War are the crisis of the Suez Canal (1956), the War of Six Days (1967) and the Second Arab-Israeli War (1973).
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References
- Black, I. (2017). Enemies and Neighbors: Arabs and Jews in Palestine and Israel, 1917-2017. Atlantic Monthly Press.
- Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia (2023). “Arab-Israeli Wars”. Britannica Encyclopedia.
https://www.britannica.com/ - Palmowski, J. (2000). “Balfour Declaration”, “Israel” and “Palestine”. In To Dictionary of Twentieth-Century World History. Oxford University Press.
- Van Dijk, R., Gray, WG, Savranskaya, S., Suri, J., & Zhai, Q. (eds.). (2013). “Israel”. Encyclopedia of the Cold War. Routledge.
