(Prepared by the Emergency Committee for Palestinian Rights)
In Palestine — a land bridge between Asia, Africa and at the centre of the Arab World — a tolerant people lived peacefully for more than 4,000 years. The Palestinians are the descendants of the original inhabitants, the Amorites, Canaanites, Aramaeans, or in the modern term Arabs.
EARLY HISTORY
From 3500 B.C. Semites left the Arabian Peninsula in migratory waves for Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. They established the state of Canaan, the first in history to be founded in that country.
About 1200 B.C. the Hebrews fled from Egypt across the Sinai peninsula and settled in the area east of the Dead Sea. Under the leadership of Joshua the Hebrews invaded the state of Canaan, wiping out populations of whole cities, as readers of the Old Testament know.
In the year 1020 B.C. they set up, in a part of Palestine, a kingdom under Saul, whose successors, David and Solomon, ruled until 923 B.C., while the other parts of Palestine remained under the control of the original inhabitants. In 923 B.C. the Hebrew kingdom split, and later the Assyrians and Babylonians brought an end to the two Hebrew kingdoms in Palestine. A small number of Hebrews chose to remain in the land. Throughout this period, the original inhabitants remained in Palestine.
Although Palestine was invaded by the Persians in 538 B.C. and the Romans in 64 B.C., the inhabitants resisted these invasions. The year 636 A.D. saw a convergence on the area of a great Arab wave from the Arabian peninsula. From that date on, the Arab identity of Palestine and the surrounding regions has been uncontestably reaffirmed.
In 1099 the Crusaders captured the city of Jerusalem and the Crusader state of Jerusalem was proclaimed. In 1187 Saladin recovered Jerusalem and drove the Crusaders out of large areas of Palestine.
The Ottomans overran the area in 1517 and ruled Palestine until 1917, when the people of Palestine and other Arab countries rose against them and joined ranks with the Allies during World War I. The Allies pledged complete independence for all Arab countries when the war ended.[1]
In the meantime, the British were coming under the influence of Zionist arguments.
ZIONISM
In 1897 the first Zionist congress was held in Basle, Switzerland, under the chairmanship of Theodor Herzl. The congress claimed that their co-religionists had inhabited Palestine some 2,000 years earlier. They therefore passed a resolution stating that the objective of Zionism was the establishment of a national home for Jews in Palestine. Even at that time some of their leaders were looking further than Palestine…
In 1899 Davis Trietsch, a prominent German Zionist leader wrote to Herzl:
“I would suggest to you to come round in time to the ’Greater Palestine’ programme before it is too late… the Basle programme must contain the words ‘Great Palestine’ or ‘Palestine and its neighbouring lands,’ otherwise it’s nonsense. You do not get the ten million Jews into a land of 25,000 square kilometres.” (the area of Palestine)[2]
In 1902 Herzl argued before a Royal Commission: “Support of Zionism would not only spare the British Government the distasteful necessity of imposing immigration restrictions against growing numbers of Eastern Jews, but would also serve British imperial interests.”[3] This was further amplified in 1914 by Dr. Chaim Weizman, who was later to become the first president of Israel, when he argued that such a state would “form a very effective guard for the Suez Canal.”[4]
In 1917, in return for a Zionist promise to protect British interests in the Middle East and to save the route to India and Southeast Asia, Britain promised the Zionists a national home in Palestine, without any consultation with the Palestinians who had uninterruptedly inhabited and owned the land for 1300 years since pre-Biblical times.
BALFOUR DECLARATION
This promise came in the form of what has come to be called the Balfour Declaration, and was made in a private letter from Lord Balfour, the British Secretary of Foreign Affairs, to Lord Rothschild on November 2, 1917. The Declaration reads:
“His Majesty’s Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours 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 allusion to the 92% Arab population as the “non-Jewish communities” revealed the capacity of the British Government to tailor reality to its plans and to lay the ground psychologically for the easy acceptance of the imperialist interpretation.[5]
As Britain neither owned Palestine, nor had jurisdiction over it at that time, it was not for Britain to decide its fate.
It was in conflict with the obligation arising from the Hussein-McMahon negotiation and also inconsistent with Articles 20 and 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations,[6] which were subsequently approved by the Paris Peace Conference (April 28, 1919) and incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles, July 28, 1919.
This Declaration was formulated without regard to the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people. Thus, the indigenous people of Palestine would not only lose their homes, their land and their most basic rights, but would find themselves stripped of their own identity.
Representations were made by a delegation of Arab spokesmen to the preparatory meetings for the Peace Conference protesting this disregard of their rights, and demonstrations were mounted after the terms of the treaty were known.
BRITISH MANDATE
Nevertheless, the Mandate over Palestine entrusted in 1920 by the League of Nations to Britain denied the Palestinians the right to freely determine their own form of government.
The Allies’ promise to the Arabs was not honoured, and the promised independence was replaced by colonization and the subsequent creation of a Zionist state in Palestine.
Some Jews emigrated to Palestine. They were welcomed at first, as Jews had never suffered any ill-treatment or persecution from either the Muslims or Christians in whose midst they had lived peacefully and with mutual respect for centuries.[7] But continuing waves of Jewish immigrants were suspected of trying to take over.
ARAB RESISTANCE
The Palestinians rose in arms against the British Mandate and Zionist colonization in 1920, 21, 23, 29 and 1933. The most notable of these was the rebellion of 1936-39 with a general strike which lasted for six months against British collusion with Zionists.[8]
During the British Mandate over Palestine, thousands were interned in prisons and detention camps, and some 50,000 were killed. The repressive policies of the colonialist power and the Zionist campaigns of terror ensured that the defenceless Palestinians would remain subdued.
During the 26 years of the British Mandate (1922-1947) and by means of a politically motivated and Zionist sustained immigration, the number of Jews in Palestine rose from 7.5% to 33% of the total population — although the proportion of land they owned amounted to less than 6% of Palestine.
PARTITION OF PALESTINE
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution for the partition of Palestine into Arab and Jewish states, under pressure from the United States, which Forrestal, then a member of the Truman Cabinet, described as “bordering onto scandal.”[9]
The resolution was a flagrant violation of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, and of natural human rights. The General Assembly acted contrary to the provisions of Articles 10 and 14 of the Charter, which empower it to recommend resolutions and not to make decisions. The resolution was probably thus outside the competence of the United Nations.[10]
The UN partition plan awarded the Jews 56.47% of Palestine and internationalized 0.65% (Jerusalem area). It also stipulated that the Arab and Jewish states were to come into being two months after the date of termination of the Mandate, and provided for the establishment of a Palestine Commission to take over as British withdrew.
The people of Palestine opposed the partition of their country before the United Nations both on political and legal grounds; one third of the population of Palestine consisting mostly of foreign Jewish immigrants and owning less than 6% of the land was allocated an area equivalent to 57% of the territory of Palestine! On several occasions, the suggestion was made that certain legal issues affecting the Palestine question be referred to the International Court of Justice for an advisory opinion. But the political forces were able each time to vote down those proposals, to avoid international law in this regard.[11]
ZIONIST TERROR
Prior to the British withdrawal on May 14, 1948, the Zionists carried out a campaign of terror. The gangster bands — Irgun, Stern and Haganah — which had been trained, equipped and supported by British mandatory authorities, staged a series of brutal attacks upon Palestinian cities and villages.[12] On April 9, 1948, for instance, the Irgun attacked the village of Deir Yasin, near Jerusalem, slaughtering in cold blood 254 men, women and children.[13] The populations of Ein El’Zeitoun, Saad Eddin and Ledda were also massacred.[14] A great number of cities and villages were occupied and the inhabitants expelled. The Zionist radio mounted a harsh psychological campaign against the Palestinians in an attempt to push them out. This included the dissemination of news about the alleged spread of contagious diseases such as smallpox, cholera and typhus.[15] Haganah loudspeakers near Jerusalem urged the populace to leave, saying: “Have pity on your women and children; escape this blood bath; if you stay you shall bring calamity upon yourselves.” The resultant panic drove the Palestinians to seek refuge. (May 15, 1948, at 5:00 a.m.)
PROCLAMATION OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
On May 14, 1948, as the last of the British troops were leaving, the General Assembly decided to appoint a mediator. But on May 15, Israel was proclaimed a new state. In defiance of the very UN partition resolution which proposed the creation of the Jewish state and fixed its frontiers, its troops, who had long been in training, rapidly seized and usurped considerable sectors of Palestine, estimated as 50% more than the partition plan allotted them.[16] Thus they deprived the Arabs of Palestine of the territory reserved for them by the UN Partition Plan.
Following a cable to the United Nations, troops of the neighbouring Arab states entered Palestine on May 15 to protect the rights and lives of the Palestinians. Their forces were estimated as 21,500 against the new Israeli forces formed from the Jewish terrorist organizations to whom the British forces had handed over most of their arms. These forces were estimated as 65,000 strong.[17] The UN dispatched Count Bernadotte of Sweden as mediator to arrange a ceasefire and start procedures for a peace settlement. In an early report to the UN, he made the following statement:
“The Jewish State was not born in peace as was hoped for in the resolution of the November 29, 1947, but rather, like many another state in history, in violence and bloodshed… It is, however, undeniable that no settlement can be just and complete while recognition is not accorded to the rights of the Arab refugee to return to the home from which he has been dislodged by the hazards and strategy of the armed conflict between Arabs and Jews in Palestine… The exodus of the Palestinian Arabs resulted from panic created by the fighting in their communities, by rumours concerning real or alleged acts of terrorism, or expulsion. It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine, and indeed, at least, offer the threat of permanent replacement of the Arab refugees who have been rooted in the land for centuries.”[18]
On September 17, 1948, following the submission of his report to the United Nations, Count Bernadotte and his aide, Colonel Spiro, were assassinated by Israeli soldiers.
In December 1948, the UN appointed a Palestine Conciliation Commission to arrange a ceasefire and settlement. The UN General Assembly passed a resolution on December 11, 1948 that refugees wishing to return to their homes should be permitted to do so, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those not choosing to return, as Bernadotte had recommended.[19]
ARMISTICE OF 1949
General Armistice Agreements were finally concluded in Rhodes in early 1949 between Israel and each of the Arab States — Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Jordan. Thus as a result of the Israeli aggression, Palestine was divided into three sections:
— (Israel) the occupied Arab territory, with 78% of the country.
— The West Bank (annexed to Jordan) with 20.5% of the country.
— The Gaza Strip (under Egyptian administration) with 1.5% of the country.
750,000 Palestinians had been uprooted from their homes and condemned to live in refugee camps. Many of them left without their possessions and, in the words of Count Bernadotte, “were deprived of everything except the clothes in which they stood.”
Following a meeting called by the Conciliation Commission in Lausanne, Switzerland, on May 12, 1949, a “Protocol” was signed where the Israelis and representatives of the Arab states undertook to settle the Palestine problem within the framework of the 1947 Partition Plan. Israel was then admitted to the United Nations on condition of applying the UN Resolution No. 194 which recognized the Palestinian right to repatriation or compensation.[20]
EXPANSION
The tragedy did not end there. At the end of the 1948 war, David Ben Gurion, then Israeli Premier, said:
“The present map of Palestine was drawn by the British mandate. The Jewish people have another map which our youth and adults should strive to fulfil — from the Nile to the Euphrates.”[21]
Thus, Israel maintained an aggressive policy of waging military attacks across the Armistice Demarcation Lines, repeatedly invading the territories of the neighbouring Arab states, to absorb the increased waves of Jewish immigrants into Palestinian homes and properties and to extend her borders. One example was the occupation of an Egyptian village, Umrashrash, on the Gulf of Aquaba (renamed Eilat) one month after the signature of the Armistice Agreement with Egypt. Israel has been duly rebuked, censured or condemned for these military attacks by the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations on scores of occasions. No Arab state has ever been condemned by any organ of the United Nations for a military attack upon Israel.
ARAB HUMAN RIGHTS
As conceived by its Zionist founders, Israel meant, as was mentioned by Dr. Chaim Weizman, its first President, a state “as Jewish as England is English.”[22]In the Zionist conception this implied the expulsion of the original Arab inhabitants from their homes and lands by any means in order to judaise the country.
Palestinians who remained in their homeland have been subjected to a virtual system of apartheid.[23]
Whole villages were razed to the ground. Land was confiscated, restrictions were placed on educational opportunities. Work opportunities were drastically restricted. Cultural expression was suppressed. Systematic downgrading in all aspects of living which has deprived them of fundamental rights of the citizen, freedom of movement and freedom of residence. They were not accepted as members with equal rights and obligations in the Trade Union (Histadrut), nor as employees in most concerns.[24]
All organization, including Mutual Aid Organizations, Pupil Councils, etc., is forbidden.
In Israel, 90% of agricultural land is owned by the Jewish National Fund (JNF). On this land, under the constitution of the JNF no Arab is permitted to dwell, rent or be employed. These rules on all tenants are upheld in Israeli Civil Courts by the Law of Contract which was condemned by Uri Avnery (Israeli MP), who told the Knesset: “If we are going to expel Arab cultivators from their land that was formerly theirs, and was handed over to the Jews, we shall be acting in accordance with the verse which says, ‘Hast thou killed and also inherited?’ The Jews took the land from them; somehow or other they got back as cultivators, and now they are being driven out again.”
Moreover, Palestinian workers under the Israeli occupation are exploited. The Palestinian worker does not receive the same payment for the same work as his Israeli counterpart; as a matter of fact they are not receiving payment from their employers at all. The employer pays the Israeli Government, which deducts about 40% and pays the rest to the Palestinian labourer. It should be noted that the official legitimation of the deduction is claimed to be social welfare, organization and travel tax, while the Palestinian labourers from the occupied territories are denied all social welfare rights such as health insurance, pension, etc. through legislation [25]
THE JUNE WAR
On June 5, 1967, Israel launched its new aggression on each of the three bordering Arab states — Egypt, Syria and Jordan.[26]
The war commenced on June 5 has carried in its wake an aftermath which is of great concern both to the Middle East and the world at large: the military occupation by Israel of the West Bank of Jordan, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and the Syrian Golan Heights, the expulsion or flight of over 400,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes or refugee camps; the subjection to Israeli domination and oppression of nearly one and a half million Palestinian Arabs in the whole of Palestine; the occupation of the Christian and Islamic Holy Places; the annexation of Jerusalem; the expropriation of the land to build settlements for the new Jewish immigrants; the changing of the physical character or demographic composition;[27] the arbitrary arrests and transfer of population to concentration camps; the innumerable violations which have been condemned by the United Nations and several international commissions;[28] the shattering of the economy of Egypt, Jordan and the occupied territories and finally the interruption of navigation through the Suez Canal.
On November 22, 1967, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling upon Israel to withdraw from lands occupied in the June War. Instead of withdrawal, Jews from different countries of the world, in response to Zionist propaganda, continued to emigrate to Israel to fill the occupied territories.
PALESTINE AND THE UNITED NATIONS
Since 1948 the United Nations has failed to check the hostile acts and aggressions committed by Israel against the Palestinians. Several international commissions of inquiry or investigation were formed but not allowed by the Israeli authorities to enter the occupied territories and check the Israeli practices against Palestinians. During this period, a total of 164 UN resolutions have been passed in favour of the Palestinian Arabs concerning their legitimate rights in their own homes and their own country, but Israel has steadfastly defied the UN resolutions year after year.
PALESTINIAN GOAL
The Palestinians, seeing their evicted people exterminated in refugee camps, or in Israeli prisons and concentration camps; their properties confiscated; their human rights violated; their plight completely laid aside and ignored; their voice muted and neglected, realized that they must shoulder the responsibility of facing up to the Zionist menace. They came to understand that they have been left with two alternatives: either to rot in their camps or to fight for their rights.
It is not surprising that they opted for the second. January 1, 1965 marks a turning point in the path of the Palestinian struggle. The birth of the Palestine National Liberation Movement (Al Fatah) was the rebirth of the will of the Palestinian people to struggle for their right to self-determination, even to the point of sacrificing their lives if need be, to end the injustice imposed upon them.[29]
Consequently, Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied in June 1967 — although it would be a welcome step — will not solve the problem. It only removes one of its consequences, and removing a consequence does not remove the cause. The problem lies in the usurpation of Palestine and establishing an exclusive Zionist state in circumstances of the greatest injustice to the original Arab inhabitants.
Any solution which seeks to secure settlement and bring back lasting peace and stability to the area must do justice to the basic problem of Palestine and restore to the Palestinian Arabs their land, their homes and their right to live as human beings in their own country.[30]
The last few years have shown the Palestinians’ determination to continue their struggle for the liberation of Palestine and the erection of a free democratic state, where all citizens — Muslims, Christians and Jews — can enjoy equal rights and privileges, regardless of race, religion or colour.
When the Palestine of Tomorrow comes about, a new and glorious day will dawn. The Holy Land will become a land of creative brotherhood, a land of triumph over the seemingly impossible… and a land of righteous peace.
Notes
[1] In his reply to Sharif Hussein of Mecca, Sir Henry McMahon, the British High Commissioner in Cairo stated: “I am empowered in the name of the Government of Great Britain to give the assurance that Great Britain is prepared to recognise and support the independence of the Arabs in all the regions within the limits you demanded.” Palestine was included in these regions. (The London Times, “Light on Britain’s Palestine Promise,” 17 April, 1964.) (Cmd. 5957 — Correspondence between Hussein and McMahon, letter No. 4. dated 24, October, 1915, pp. 7-9)
[2] Oscar K. Rabinowicz, Davis Trielsch’s Colonization Scheme, N.Y. 1962, p. 14
[3] Maryin Lowenthal, The Diaries of Theodor Herzl, N.Y 1956, p. 105.
[4] Alan Taylor, Prelude to Israel, Philosophical Library, N.Y. 1959, p. 6.
[5] Rufus Learst, Fulfilment: The Epic Story of Zionism, Cleveland 1951, p. 195.
[6] The Covenant of the League of Nations, treated the future of Palestine in Article 22 in the context of the mandate system. The Covenant provisionally “recognised the existence of Palestine and other Arab territories detached from Turkey, as independent nations… subject to the rendering of administrative assistance by a Mandatory until such time as they are able to stand alone. The wishes of these communities must be a principal consideration in the selection of the Mandatory.” (David Hunter Miller, The Drafting of the Covenant, NY, G.P. Putnam and Sons, 1928, pp.101-129.)
[7] G.H. Jansen, Zionism, Israel and Asian Nationalism, Beirut 1971, p. 8.
[8] “A British Royal Commission charged with investigating the causes of the rebellion of 1936 attributed it to the desire of the Arabs for national independence” and “their hatred and fear of the establishment of the Jewish national home.” It added that these “were the same underlying causes” which had brought about all the earlier rebellions; that they were the only underlying causes. (Fayez Sayegh, Time Bomb in the Middle East, N.Y.: Friendship Press 1969.)
[9] The Forrestal Diaries, W. Millis, ed., N.Y.: The Viking Press, p. 363.
[10] Principles of Public International Law, Oxford: Clarendon Press 1966, pp. 161-162.
[11] cf. Kelsen, The Laws of the United Nations, London 1951, p. 107-108.
[12] “Qurvot 1948” (Hebrew, meaning “Battles, 1948”) covers the Haganah and Palmach operations. So does “Ha Palmach” (The Book of the Palmach). Both works figure in Prof. Walid Khalidi’s study Plan Dalet, which was brought out April 1, 15 and 27, 1948, before the British Mandatory authorities’ withdrawal. (W. Khalidi, Palestine, Collected Papers, Beirut: Arab Cultural Club, 1963, pp. 69-82.)
[13] Colonel (Res.) Meir Pa’el, in his report published on 4 April 1972 in the Israel paper Yediot Aharonot, gave new details on that “ugliest day in his life”.
[14] The New York Times mentioned in its edition between December 21, 1947 and May 9, 1948, eighteen of the major ones.
[15] (February 18 and March 27, 1948.)
[16] Moshe Menuhin, The Decadence of Judaism in Our Times, Beirut 1969.
[17] John Glubb, Soldier with the Arabs.
[18] Progress Report of the United Nations Mediator on Palestine, Supra, p. 25.
[19] Paragraph 11 of the General Assembly Resolution 194 (111) of December 11, 1948 reads:
“(The General Assembly) Resolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property which, under principles of international law or inequity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible;
“Instructs the Conciliation Commission to facilitate the repatriation, resettlement and economic and social rehabilitation of the refugees and the payment of compensation, and to maintain close relations with the Director of the United Nations Relief for Palestine Refugees and, through him, with the appropriate organ and agencies of the United Nations.
[20] UN General Assembly Resolution No. 273 (111) of May 11, 1949.
[21] David Ben Gurion, The Rebirth and Destiny of Israel, pp. 206-207.
General Moshe Dayan, Israeli Defence Minister, said to the London Times (June 25, 1969): “Our fathers had reached the frontiers which were recognised in the partition plan. Our generation reached the frontiers of 1949. Now the Six-Day Generation has managed to reach Suez, Jordan and the Golan Heights. This is not the end. After the present ceasefire lines, there will be new ones. They will extend beyond Jordan, perhaps to Lebanon, and perhaps to central Syria as well.”
[22] Chaim Weizman, Trial and Error, p. 144.
[23] The Knesset member, Yacov Hazzan, said: “The Military Government has isolated the Arab population, through its discrimination against them in a variety of fields and by the way it has treated them as second class citizens.” (The Knesset (Israeli Parliament) Debates, Vol. 33, p. 1317, February 20, 1962.)
[24] From A Statement published in the summer of 1958 by a group of about 200 Israeli intellectuals, including 70 lecturers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (Ner Magazine, July-August 1958).
[25] From the memorandum submitted to the UN commission on the Israeli practices in the occupied territories, by the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, August 6, 1970.
[26] Mr. Bentov, a member of the coalition during the war, declared: “The idea that the danger of genocide menaced us all in June 1967, and that Israel was fighting for her very physical existence, is nothing but a bluff, which was conceived and developed after the war to justify the annexation of new Arab territory.” (Haaretz, March 19, 1972).
[27] In his report to the UN Secretary General on September 17, 1971, Sir John Rennie, the UNRWA Commissioner, stated that 6,360 Arab homes had been destroyed in Gaza by the Israelis between July 20 and August 26, 1971.
[28] One of these condemnations was the resolution adopted by the UN Commission on Human Rights, considering the Israeli violations as grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention which constitute war crimes and an affront to humanity. (Doc E. CN. 4/L. 1195, March 22, 1972.)
[29] The legality of this resistance has now been officially recognized by the General Assembly in its resolution No. 2787 of December 6, 1971, which, inter alia, decides that the General Assembly:
“Confirms the legality of the peoples’ struggle for self-determination and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and alien subjugation, notably in Southern African and in particular that the peoples of Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique and Guinea (Bissau), as well as the Palestinian people, by all means consistent with the Charter of the United Nations;
“Affirms man’s basic right to fight for the self-determination of his people under colonial and foreign domination;
“Calls upon all states dedicated to the ideals of freedom and peace to give all their political, moral and material assistance to peoples struggling for liberation, self-determination and independence against colonial and alien domination.”
[30] The UN ex-Secretary General, Mr. U Thant, declared in September 1967 at the opening of the 22nd session of the General Assembly that Palestine Arab refugees possess “the natural right to live in their native land and to have a future according to the UN Charter.”