Creation+of+Israel

medina

=﻿Creation of Israel=

Britain's Involvement
After the Second World War Britain remained the only power involved in the Middle East because of interest in the Suez and oil. Britain still kept Palestine as a mandate while France had given up their mandates of Lebanon and Syria in 1946. The Holocaust had a major impact on the situation in Palestine because something had to be done about a new homeland for t he Jewish people and some communities had already settled in Palestine. Britain had been working towards Arab unity with the Arab League in 1945 made up of Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen however they ended up turning against British rule in the Middle East. The Arab League was also against the Zionist moement (Jewish radicals who pushed for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine). Britain and other European contries began to support the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine however they had already promised the Arabs that they would limit the Jewish immigration and continued intercepting Jewish refugee boats before they reached their destination. The Jewish leaders stopped trusting Britain, leaving Britain with enemies on both sides.

Jewish leaders resorted to violence through organizations such as the Stern Gang and Irgun Zwei Leumi and in 1946 Jewish terrorists bombed the British headquarters at the King David Hitel in Jerusalem, killing many British officials. After this the British opinion about the situation began to change and they were now against the Jews. In 1947 both the Jews and Arabs rejected a joint Anglo-American recommendation on Palestine and the British Foreign Secretary handed over the responsibility of Palestine to the United Nations.

United Nations


A United Nations Special Commission recommended the partition of Palestine into two separate states for the Jewish and the Arabs. The partition was passed at the United Nations General Assembly, but the Arabs remained bitter.

Conflict
Palestine quickly sank into anarchy. British troops remained in Palestine to ensure neither side tride to take more territory than they were given under the United Nations Plan. in 1948 Arab and Jewish guerrillas both tried to gain as much territory as possible even though the British troops were still there. The United States wanted Britain to leave her troops in Palestine because Oof all the violence between the two, but the British refused. On May 14, 1948 the British mandate of Palestine expired and war broke out. The Jews led by Ben Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel on the same day.