What next for Palestine and Israel?

 

Palestine is the name by the Ancient Greeks for an area in the Middle East between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It has a long history of control by various empires including the Babylonians, Persians, Alexander the Great and the Romans Palestine was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 and remained under the rule of the Turks until the end of the First World War, the Turks were defeated by the British. Parts of the Ottoman Empire were handed over to the French to control and parts were handed over to Britain – including Palestine. Britain governed under a League of Nations mandate from 1920 to 1948. For the Arabs it was their homeland which had been promised to them by the Allies for help in defeating the Turks.

Palestinian jews claimed the same area of land had also been promised to them in the Balfour Declaration.

In August 1929, relations between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine broke down. The focal point of this discontent was Jerusalem.

The main cause of trouble was the increased number of Jews who migrated to Palestine. Numbers doubled in ten years.

The city of Jerusalem had major religious significance for both Arabs and Jews and over 200 deaths occurred in just four days in August 1929.

The violence did not deter Jews from going to Palestine. In 1931, 4,075 Jews emigrated to the region. In 1935, it was 61,854.

In May 1936, more violence erupted, and the British tried to restore law and order using troops. Thirty-four soldiers were murdered by Israeli terrorists.

n 1947, the newly formed United Nations approved the partition of Palestine into a zone for Jews (Israel) and a zone for the Arabs (Palestine).

Chaos has been maintained.

Israeli academic, Professor Abraham Sion, acknowledges the quandary in his book ‘To Whom was the Promised Land Promised.'