Middle-East, this is definitely a region that gives headlines to the daily newspapers and news channels. So, here we will discuss this region in a very simple manner. And will know why this region takes so much of importance in world politics. In this particular post, we will discuss the birth of Israel.
Genesis of the Idea of Israel
Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe in a common prophet “Hazrat Ibrahim”. But in a span of time due to differences in their political, social, and economic opinion they became staunch enemies of each other. And with the passage of time, Europe became the homeland of Christians and Central and West Asia became the land of the Islamic population. We have read that the relation between the Roman Empire and Arabs was not good, which led to the Crusade.
In 71 CE, Romans drove out the Jews from Palestine. Palestine was the holy land for all these three religions. From that Jews did not find their homeland in the world. Along with this Arabs and Christians mistreated the Jewish population. In 2000 years Jews had a dream of their homeland.
So, After a long time, in the 19th century, their dream of 2000 years turned into a demand. In 1897 World Zionist Organisation was established by the Theodore Herzl. This organization started the Zionist Movement with the objective to settle the Jews in their homeland Palestine.
Creation of Israel: Balfour Declaration
During World War-I Britain promised Zaghlul Pasha of Egypt for independence and Muhammad Hussein of Hajjaj (Saudi Arabia) for the Arab Empire. In return for this support, Britain asked these two to fight against the Ottoman Empire in World War-I.
Both of them supported Britain in the World War-I wholeheartedly. But after the World War-I, victorious Britain forgot to complete his promise because of the Russian Revolution of 1917. Because after the Russian Revolution capitalist order got their all-weather rival as the communist order. So, it was not possible for Britain to hand over the central and west Asian territory to a community whose philosophy was closer to communism.
Therefore in 1917 Arthur Balfour, British Foreign Minister came out with Balfour Declaration. And in this declaration, he gave approval for Israel. He stated that Palestine is the natural homeland of Jews. And from here influx of Jews came in the land of Palestine.
As we know during World War-II and before it, the mass Jewish execution took place in Europe in general and Germany in particular. So, after Nazi Execution in 1940, the migration of Jews to Israel was at its highest pace. Now, approximately 50 percent population of Palestine was Jewish.
British Peel Commission
The inflow of Jews increased tension between Jews and Arabs. Arabs were the natives of Palestine. So, they strongly objected to the influx of Jewish people in their homeland. In such a situation, Britain appointed Peel Commission in 1936. This commission gave the following solutions:
- 1937, Two-State proposal, One for Jews and another for Arabs. But Arabs outrightly rejected this proposal.
- In 1939, One State proposal was given. But Jews rejected this solution.
- In 1946, the British Peel Commission gave One State proposal, but this time with two different provinces. One for the Jews and another one for the Arabs.
With the end of World War-II, United States emerged as a superpower. In 1945, USSR succeeded in creating Red Wall in Eastern Europe. So, this alarmed the USA and USA became cautious about the middle east region. So, USA stood in support of Jews.
Birth of Israel
Finally, in September 1947 the United Nations voted to divide Palestine into two parts Jewish State and the Arab States. But Arabs once again rejected this proposal. But this plan moved forward with the withdrawal of the British Delegates in 1948 from Palestine.
On 1st January 1948, David Gurion declared the birth of Israel as the Jews State in West Asia. This was the beginning of the West Asian crisis initially in the form of the Israel-Palestine crisis. In which so-called “outsiders (Jews)” got the status of the nation while “natives (Arabs)” became identity-less.
In the upcoming post, we will deal with Israel-Palestine Conflict.
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