British–Zionist conflict

British-Zionist Conflict
Date 1939-1948 (de facto halt during most of World War II)
Location British Mandatory Palestine
Result British withdrawal
Creation of Israel
Belligerents
United Kingdom Jewish Resistance Movement
Commanders and leaders
Evelyn Barker
Lord Moyne  †
Alan Cunningham
Harold MacMichael
Gordon MacMillan		 David Ben-Gurion
Menachem Begin
David Remez
Moshe Sharett
Yitzhak Gruenbaum
Dov Yosef
Ya'akov Meridor
Avraham Stern  †
Avshalom Haviv  †
Dov Gruner  †
Yigal Allon
Moshe Dayan
Eitan Livni
Amichai Paglin
Avraham Tehomi
Yitzhak Shamir
Casualties and losses
996 killed[1] Unknown killed in action
2,755 captured (Operation Agatha alone)
12 executed

The British–Zionist conflict refers to events which occurred between the publication of the MacDonald White Paper of 1939 and the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, when the British government policy of limiting Jewish immigration to Mandate Palestine led to conflict between the British Empire and Zionist organizations in Palestine, some of which resorted to armed revolt. Within Britain there were deep divisions over Palestine policy. The conflict led to heightened anti-Semitism in the UK and, in August 1947, to widespread anti-Jewish rioting across the UK.[2] The conflict undermined Britain's relationship with the USA.

Contents

Background in 1917-1939

Although both the 1917 Balfour Declaration and the terms of the League of Nations British Mandate of Palestine called for a Jewish National Home in Palestine, the British did not accept any linkage between Palestine and the situation of European Jews. After the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 many German Jews sought refuge abroad, and by the end of 1939 some 80,000 had been given refuge in Great Britain itself.[3]

In 1936-7, soon after the start of the Arab uprising in Palestine, Earl Peel led a commission to consider a solution. The Peel Commission proposed a partition of Palestine that involved the compulsory resettlement of some Arab and Jewish inhabitants. It was not acceptable either to the Arab or to the Jewish leaders, though David Ben-Gurion remarked in 1937 that: "The compulsory transfer of the Arabs from the valleys of the proposed Jewish state could give us something which we have never had, even when we stood on our own during the days of the First and Second Temples." The twentieth Zionist Congress resolved in August 1937 that: ".. the partition plan proposed by the Peel Commission is not to be accepted"; but it wished ".. to carry on negotiations in order to clarify the exact substance of the British government's proposal for the foundation of a Jewish state in Palestine".[4]

A further attempt was made in the Woodhead Commission, also known as the "Palestine Partition Commission", whose report was published in late 1938. A government statement (Cmnd 5843) followed on 11 November 1938.[5] It concluded that: "His Majesty's Government, after careful study of the Partition Commission's report, have reached the conclusion that this further examination has shown that the political, administrative and financial difficulties involved in the proposal to create independent Arab and Jewish States inside Palestine are so great that this solution of the problem is impracticable." The brief St. James Conference followed in early 1939.

Britain also attended the international Évian Conference in 1938 on the issue of providing for refugees from Germany. Palestine was not discussed as a refuge because it might worsen the ongoing Arab revolt; Zionists naturally hoped that Palestine would be the principal destination for all such refugees.

The 1939 White Paper

Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, the British introduced the 1939 White Paper which allowed for a further 75,000 Jews to migrate to Palestine by 1944, after which the country was to become an independent state with an Arab majority, to be governed jointly by Arabs and Jews. Sales of Arab land to Jews were to be restricted. In response the leader of Palestine's Zionists, Ben-Gurion, issued a call for Jews to "support the British as if there is no White Paper and oppose the White Paper as if there is no war".[6]

During the war Palestinian Jews volunteered in large numbers to serve in the British army, serving mainly in North Africa. Zionists in Europe also played a major role in the Jewish resistance to the Germans.

After the Holocaust became known to the Allies, the British continued to refuse to change their policy of limited immigration, or to admit Jews from Nazi controlled Europe. Jews who escaped Nazi Europe with the intention of going to Palestine, (about 2,000) were interned in a British camp in Mauritius.[7] Some ships carrying Jewish refugees were turned back towards Europe. The British also stopped all attempts by Palestinian Jews to bribe the Nazis into freeing Jews.

Lehi leader Avraham Stern attempted to form an alliance with the Nazis in 1941 in exchange for their help in establishing a Jewish state and allowing the Jews of Europe to resettle in Palestine. As a result, Stern became a pariah among Jews in Palestine. Lehi started a campaign against British forces in Palestine in 1942 that culminated in the assassination of Lord Moyne in 1944. After the war, with no new policies on partition or on Jewish immigration from Britain, Lehi, Haganah and other groups joined in the anti-British Jewish Resistance Movement in 1945-46. A low-level guerilla war continued, that escalated into the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, during which the unsuccessful British-approved United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was announced.

As all the League of Nations mandates were to be taken over by the new United Nations, Britain had declared that it would leave Palestine on 1 August 1948, and then changed the date to 15 May; on 14 May 1948 the Zionist leadership proclaimed the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Effect upon mutual British-Arab interests

Anglo-Arab relations were of vital importance to British strategic concerns both during the war and after, notably for their access to oil and to India via the Suez Canal. Britain governed or protected Oman, Sudan, Kuwait, the Arab Emirates, Bahrain and the Yemen, had treaties of alliance with Iraq (the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty (1930) and The Anglo-Iraqi Treaty of 1948) and Egypt (Anglo-Egyptian Treaty of 1936). Transjordan was granted independence in 1946 and the Anglo-Jordanian Treaty of 1948 allowed Britain to station troops in Jordan and promised mutual assistance in the event of war.[8]

Armed conflict and illegal Jewish immigration

Main article: Aliyah Bet
See also: Kielce Pogrom, Brichah, and Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp

In February 1944 the Irgun, now led by Menachem Begin, ended the wartime truce and began blowing up British offices related to immigration and tax collection. However, they avoided striking military targets while the British were still fighting the Germans.

In November 1944, the Lehi (Stern Gang) assassinated Lord Moyne, the British minister in Cairo. The Jewish Agency Executive condemned terror attacks and called on its members to inform on known members of the Irgun. Leftist Zionist assistance (Irgun were Revisionists, or Political Zionists, at odds with the Labour Zionist movement, known as Practical Zionists) led to the arrest of some 1000 Irgun members, 250 of which were held indefinitely and without trial in internment camps in Eritrea.[9]

In the meantime, following the continued application of the 1939 White Paper the Jewish Agency Executive turned to illegal immigration. Over the next few years in Europe and North Africa, tens of thousands of Jews, many of them Holocaust survivors, sailed in overcrowded boats, despite the almost certain knowledge that it would lead to incarceration in a British prison camp (most boats were caught). The determination of these Jews to leave Europe and the absence of alternative destinations fatally undermined British policy in Palestine.

In Europe former Jewish partisans led by Abba Kovner began to organize escape routes taking Jews from Eastern Europe down to the Mediterranean where the Jewish Agency organized ships to illegally carry them to Palestine.[10] British officials in the occupied German zones tried to halt Jewish immigration by refusing to recognize the Jews as a national group and demanding that they return to their places of origin.

In order to prevent Jewish illegal migrants reaching Palestine a naval blockade was established to stop boats carrying illegal migrants and there was extensive intelligence gathering and diplomatic pressure on countries through which the migrants were passing or from whose ports the ships were coming.

British officials in the liberated zones tried to halt Jewish immigration, and did not recognize the Jews as a national group, demanding that they return to their places of origin. Jewish concentration camp survivors (displaced persons or DPs) were forced to share accommodation with non-Jewish DPs some of whom were former Nazi collaborators, now seeking asylum. In some cases former Nazis were given positions of authority in the camps which they used to abuse the Jewish survivors.[11] Food supplies to Jewish concentration camp survivors in the British zone were cut to prevent them from assisting Jews fleeing Eastern Europe. In the British zone they were refused support on the grounds that they were not displaced by the war.[12]

Troops in the US zone were also not helping survivors but in 1945, US President Harry S. Truman sent a personal representative, Earl G. Harrison, to investigate the situation of the Jewish survivors in Europe. Harrison reported that

substantial unofficial and unauthorized movements of people must be expected, and these will require considerable force to prevent, for the patience of many of the persons involved is, and in my opinion with justification, nearing the breaking point. It cannot be overemphasized that many of these people are now desperate, that they have become accustomed under German rule to employ every possible means to reach their end, and that the fear of death does not restrain them.[13]

The Harrisson report changed US policy in the occupied zones, and US policy increasingly focussed on helping Jews escape Eastern Europe. Jews escaping post-war anti-Semitic attacks in Eastern Europe learnt to avoid the British zone and generally moved through American zones.

Haganah joins the conflict

After the 1945 British election, the new Labour Foreign Minister, Ernest Bevin, decided to maintain the policy of restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine, although "the party's platform had promised free Jewish immigration to Palestine and even transfer of the Arabs."[14] Before the war, Bevin had been the head of Britain's largest trade-union, the TGWU and in this capacity had led a campaign to prevent German Jews being allowed to migrate to Britain.[15] Bevin continued to oppose Jewish migration into Britain after 1945 and under Labour 5000 Jews migrated into Britain.

In October 1945, the Haganah entered into an alliance with the Irgun and ceased cooperation with the British.

In April 1946 the Anglo-American Committee of Enquiry reported that given a chance, half a million Jews would immigrate to Palestine:

In Poland, Hungary and Rumania, the chief desire is to get out… …The vast majority of the Jewish displaced persons and migrants, however, believe that the only place which offers a prospect is Palestine".[16]

A survey of Jewish DPs found 96.8% would choose Palestine.[17] The Anglo-American Committee recommended that 100,000 Jews be immediately admitted into Palestine.

Despite British government promises to abide by the committee's decision, the British decided to persist with a ban on Jewish migration.

In June 1946, as part of Operation Agatha, in events known as the Black Sabbath, the British raided the Jewish Agency headquarters in Jerusalem, confiscating large amounts of paperwork, and arrested Jews suspected of being involved with "terrorism", including leading members of the Jewish Agency, holding them without trial.[18] In response, the leadership of the Haganah, through the Jewish Resistance Movement, organized various acts, including the King David Hotel bombing carried out by the Irgun (the main branches of the civil and military administration of Palestine were located in the King David Hotel).[19]

The commander of the British forces in Palestine, General Sir Evelyn Barker, who was having an affair with the wife of the late George Antonius (a leading Arab Nationalist), responded to the bombing by ordering British personnel to boycott all:

"Jewish establishments, restaurants, shop, and private dwellings. No British soldier is to have social intercourse with any Jew… I appreciate that these measures will inflict some hardship on the troops, yet I am certain that if my reasons are fully explained to them they will understand their propriety and will be punishing the Jews in a way the race dislikes as much as any, by striking at their pockets and showing our contempt of them "[20]

Barker, whose forces participated in the capture of the Bergen Belsen concentration camp, made many anti-Semitic comments in his letters to Antonius' wife[21] and was relieved of his post a few weeks after issuing the statement. A few months after his return to England, Barker was sent a letter bomb by the Etzel but detected it before it exploded.[21]

The Jewish Agency was issuing constant complaints to the British administration about anti-Semitic remarks by British soldiers:

"they frequently said "Bloody Jew" or "pigs", sometimes shouted "Heil Hitler", and promised they would finish off what Hitler had begun. Churchill wrote that most British military officers in Palestine were strongly pro-Arab."[22]

A week after the King David bombing, four ships carrying 6,000 illegal immigrants arrived in Haifa, completely overflowing the temporary prison for illegal migrants at Atlit.[23] The British government, which had known for some time that it would be unable to contain Jewish emigration, decided to intern all illegal immigrants on Cyprus (without trial). About 50,000 Jews, mostly Holocaust survivors, passed though these camps. It was then normal in the British Empire to use emergency regulations to hold people in concentration camps without trial.[24]

In October 1946, in fulfillment of the recommendation of the Anglo-American Committee, Britain decided to allow a further 96,000 Jews into Palestine at a rate of 1,500 a month. Half this monthly quota was allocated to Jews in the prisons on Cyprus.

The British leave Palestine

From October 1946, opposition leader, Winston Churchill, began calling for Palestine to be given to the UN.[25]

In January 1947, all British civilians were evacuated from Palestine.

Britain was at this time negotiating a loan from the United States vital to its economic survival. Its treatment of Jewish survivors generated bad publicity and encouraged the US Congress to stiffen its terms. The post-war conflict in Palestine caused more damage to US-British relations than any other issue.[26]

In 1947 the United States chapter of the United Jewish Appeal raised 150 million dollars in its annual appeal – at that time the largest sum of money ever raised by a charity dependent on private contributions. Half was earmarked for Palestine. The Times reported that Palestine brought more dollars into the sterling zone than any other country, save Britain.[27]

In April 1947 the issue was formally referred to the UN. By this time over 100,000 British soldiers were stationed in Palestine. Referral to the UN led to a period of uncertainty over Palestine's future. A United Nations special committee (UNSCOP) investigated the problem and recommended solutions.

In May a large break-out was staged by 200 Jewish prisoners at the main high-security prison in Palestine at Acre. In June a number of Irgun member were sentenced to death; Irgun responded to the sentencing by kidnapping a number of British officers and promised to kill them if its members were hanged. On July 29, 1947 the three Irgun members were executed and the next day the two British Sergeants were killed in response. Following this incident there were anti-Jewish riots in Liverpool over the course of several days which spread to other major British cities, including London, Manchester, Cardiff, Derby and Glasgow.[28][29]

Following this incident the British government decided to return one ship, the Exodus-1947, to its port of origin in France instead of imprisoning the 4,500 passengers on Cyprus. The passengers refused to disembark, spending weeks in difficult conditions. They were eventually forcibly removed at Hamburg and returned to DP camps. The event became a major media event, influencing UN deliberations and exacerbating the already poor relationship between Britain and the Jews.[29]

Partition

The United Nations Special Committee on Palestine recommended partition, and on 29 November 1947 the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into two states. The partition resolution (181) intended administration of Palestine to be in the hands of five UN representatives and assumed free Jewish immigration into the Jewish area even before the creation of a Jewish state:

The mandatory power shall use its best endeavours to ensure that an area situated in the territory of the Jewish state, including a seaport and hinterland adequate to provide facilities for a substantial immigration, shall be evacuated at the earliest possible date and in any event not later then 1 February 1948.[30]

Britain refused to comply with these conditions on the grounds that the decision was unacceptable to the Arabs. It neither allowed Jewish immigration outside the monthly quota nor granted control to the UN representatives (who became known as the "five lonely pilgrims"). A statement issued by the British Ambassador to the UN stated that the inmates on Cyprus would be released with the termination of the mandate.[31]

Over the remaining period of British rule, British policy was to ensure that the Arabs did not resist Britain or blame it for partition. Convinced that partition was unworkable, the British refused to assist the UN in any way that might require British forces to remain on Palestinian soil (to implement it) or turn their army into a target for Arab forces. The Chiefs of Staff in particular, believed they needed the Arabs on their side. Already embroiled in a war against the Jews, they were concerned not to get involved in a war with both sides while trying to withdraw and feared for their extensive Middle Eastern interests.

On 22/2/48 men wearing British uniforms, either British deserters working for the Arab Liberation Army or Arabs wearing stolen uniforms, detonated a truck laden with explosives in Ben-Yehuda street in Jerusalem, killing about 60 people.

British policy during the 1948 War

In April 1948 the Security Council called upon all governments to prevent fighting personnel or arms from entering Palestine.[32]

British rule of Palestine formally ended on 15 May 1948 and the State of Israel was declared, leading to war with several Arab states. Despite this, Britain agreed to release only Cyprus inmates of non-military age. 8,000 men between the ages of 18 and 45 were kept in captivity. 3,000 women refused to leave the Cyprus camps without their menfolk (and had 822 babies before being released).

Britain did release the 250 men held in Kenya as terrorists.

On 28 May 1948 the Security Council debated Palestine. The British proposed that the entry of arms and men of military age into Palestine should be restricted. At the request of the USA, the ban was extended to the whole region. A French amendment allowed immigration so long as soldiers were not recruited from immigrants.[33] Britain cited this resolution as the justification for its refusal to release the Jews imprisoned in Cyprus.

In November 1948 Israel occupied the Negev. The RAF conducted reconnaissance flights over Israeli positions, taking off from Egyptian air bases. Some of these flights were conducted alongside Egyptian planes.[34] Under the terms of the Anglo-Egyptian treaty the Egyptians could appeal for British help in the event of an Israeli invasion, however the Egyptians were concerned to avoid any such eventuality.[35]

The British Cabinet decided that action could be taken to defend Transjordan, but that under no circumstances would British troops enter Palestine.

In December 1948 Israeli troops made a twenty-mile incursion into Egyptian territory and Israeli forces completed the conquest of the Negev. On 2 January 1949, fear of invasion and shortage of ammunition led Transjordan to invoke its mutual defence pact with Britain.[36]

On 7 January 1949 Israeli forces shot down five British fighter planes over the Egyptian border.[37] The UK Defence Committee responded to this and the Jordanian request by sending two destroyers carrying men and arms to Transjordan.[38] Israel complained to the UN that these troops were in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 50. Britain denied this, claiming the resolution did not apply to Britain and that the troops were not new to the region as they had been transferred from Egypt.[39] Throughout the 1948 war, 40 British officers served with the Jordanian Army and the Jordanian army commander was a British General, John Bagot Glubb.

On 17 January 1949 the Chief of Staff briefed the cabinet on events in the Middle East. Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan, protested at the decision to send arms to Transjordan, taken by the Defence Committee without cabinet approval. He complained that British policy in Palestine was inconsistent with the spirit and tradition of Labour Party policy and was supported by the Deputy Prime-Minister, Herbert Morrison and Chancellor of the Exchequer, Stafford Cripps.[40]

The cabinet voted to continue supporting the Arab states, but also voted to recognize Israel and release the Jews from Cyprus.[41] The last prisoners left Cyprus in late January and shortly after they left, Britain formally recognized Israel.[42]

Timeline

1939

1942

1944

1945

1946

1947

1948

See also

References

  1. ^ (The Ref states that 988 British were killed between the years of 1945 and 1948. This is an addition to the others killed between 1938 and 1944)
  2. ^ Jewish Chronicle 8/8/47 & 22/8/47, both page 1. See http://www.workersliberty.org/node/6351 for an eye witness account of the Manchester riot. See also Bagon, Paul (2003). "The Impact of the Jewish Underground upon Anglo Jewry: 1945-1947". St Antony’s College, University of Oxford M-Phil thesis (mainly the conclusion) http://users.ox.ac.uk/~metheses/Bagon.html Retrieved on 2008-10-25.
  3. ^ http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206312.pdf
  4. ^ Fraser, TG; "A crisis of leadership:Weizmann and the Zionist reactions to the Peel Commission's proposals, 1937-38", Journal of Contemporary History (Oct. 1988) Vol. 23, No. 4, p. 657.
  5. ^ http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/4941922311B4E3C585256D17004BD2E2 Text of Cmnd 5893 on the United Nations website, downloaded October 2011]
  6. ^ S. Teveth, 1985, 'Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs', p. 200
  7. ^ The Mauritian shekel: the story of the Jewish detainees in Mauritius, 1940-1945 By Geneviève Pitot, Donna Edouard, Helen Topor, 1998
  8. ^ Tore Kjeilen (2000-01-21). "Anglo-Jordanian Treaty of 1948 - LookLex Encyclopaedia". Lexicorient.com. http://lexicorient.com/e.o/angl_tr_jordan.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-27. 
  9. ^ see also Foundations of Civil and Political Rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories, Yvonne Schmidt, GRIN 2001, page 312
  10. ^ Flight and Rescue: Brichah, written by Yehuda Bauer, published by Random House; New York, 1970
  11. ^ Ted Gottfried, Displaced persons: the liberation and abuse of Holocaust survivors, page 25
  12. ^ A. Kochavi, Post-Holocaust Politics: Britain, the United States and Jewish Refugees 1945-1948 (Chapel-Hill: University of North Carolina Press 2001),pp 45-56. Y. Bauer, Out of the Ashes: The Impact of American Jews on Post-Holocaust European Jewry (Oxford: Pergamon 1989) chapter 2.
  13. ^ accessed Nov 2007
  14. ^ One Palestine Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate by Tom Segev pg 482, Abacus 2001
  15. ^ This Green and Pleasant Land: Britain and the Jews by Shalom Lappin. http://www.yale.edu/yiisa/workingpaper/lappin/Shalom%20Lappin%20YIISA%20Working%20Paper.pdf page 21
  16. ^ Inquiry Report http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/anglo/angch02.htm chapter II paragraph 12
  17. ^ Y. Bauer, Out of the Ashes: The Impact of American Jews on Post-Holocaust European Jewry (Oxford: Pergamon 1989) pg 86, Z.V. Hadari, Second Exodus: The Full Story of Jewish Illegal Immigration to Palestine 1945-1948 (London: Valentine Mitchell 1991) page 18. In reality less wanted to go to Palestine but DP's responded to Zionist requests that they write Palestine.
  18. ^ Foundations of Civil and Political Rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories, Yvonne Schmidt, GRIN 2001, page 312
  19. ^ M. Begin, The Revolt: Memoirs of the Commander of the National Military Organization (Tel-Aviv: 1984 in Hebrew), chapter 8.
  20. ^ The Palestine triangle: the struggle for the Holy Land, 1935-48 by Nicholas Bethell page 267 1979
  21. ^ a b One Palestine Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate by Tom Segev pp 479-480, Abacus 2001
  22. ^ One Palestine Complete: Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate by Tom Segev pg 480, Abacus 2001
  23. ^ The Times 3/8/1946 Pg4.
  24. ^ Prison conditions in the United Kingdom, Human Rights Watch 1992
  25. ^ see the House of Commons Debates (Hansard), Volume 427 Column 1682 23/10/46
  26. ^ See Post-Holocaust Politics Britain, the United States, and Jewish Refugees, 1945-1948 by Arieh J. Kochavi, North Carolina 2001.
  27. ^ Jewish Telegraphic Agency 7/1/48, The Times 19/12/46 page 3 & 27/2/47 page 5.
  28. ^ Jewish Chronicle 8/8/47 & 22/8/47, both page 1. For a discussion of anti-Semitism in Britain see T. Kushner, The Persistence of Prejudice: Antisemitism in British society during the Second World War (Manchester: Manchester University Press 1989). See http://www.workersliberty.org/node/6351 for an eye witness account of the Manchester riot.
  29. ^ a b Bagon, Paul (2003). "The Impact of the Jewish Underground upon Anglo Jewry: 1945-1947". St Antony's College, University of Oxford M-Phil thesis [1] Retrieved on 2010-4-1.
  30. ^ UN resolution 181 section 1A. http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/un/res181.htm
  31. ^ The Times 22/1/48 pg.4, Trygve Lie, In the Cause of Peace, Seven Years with the United Nations (New York: MacMillan 1954) pg.163
  32. ^ Security Council Resolution 46(1948) 17/4/48
  33. ^ Security Council Resolution 50(1948), clauses 2-4 in Index to resolutions of the Security Council : 1946-1991 (New York: United Nations 1992).
  34. ^ The Times 20 January 1949 page 4 "Urgent Need for Information"
  35. ^ The Times January 5, 1949 "No Intention of Intervening"
  36. ^ UK Foreign Office document 371/75293
  37. ^ The Israeli Air Force story by Murray Rubenstein, Richard M. Goldman 1979, see also http://www.spyflight.co.uk/iafvraf.HTM
  38. ^ The Times January 10, 1949 page 3 "British Force Sent to Akaba"
  39. ^ The Times 10/1/1949 page 4 "British Troops in Transjordan"
  40. ^ The Observer 23/1/49
  41. ^ The Time 25/1/49 "Last detainees leaving Cyprus"
  42. ^ The Times 31/1/49 page 4 "Israeli view of recognition"
  43. ^ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named AmramiMelitz; see Help:Cite errors/Cite error references no text
  44. ^ a b http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/irgunrevolt.html
  45. ^ Martin Gilbert - Churchill and the Jews
  46. ^ The Gallows
  47. ^ Yehuda Lapidot - Besieged
  48. ^ The Second Explosion at the Intelligence Offices
  49. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/brits.html
  50. ^ Horne, pp. 295-296
  51. ^ The 'Night of the Airfields'
  52. ^ The Death Sentence
  53. ^ The Sabotaging of the Railway Tracks in the South
  54. ^ http://www.etzel.org.il/english/ac14.htm
  55. ^ [2]
  56. ^ Silver, page 64
  57. ^ Black Sabbath
  58. ^ "Lohamei Herut Yisrael (Lehi)". Jewishvirtuallibrary.org. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/lehi.html. Retrieved 2011-03-27. 
  59. ^ Thurston Clarke, By Blood and Fire (1981)
  60. ^ Time Magazine, Un-British (1948)
  61. ^ The Raid on the Jerusalem Officers Club
  62. ^ "Acre Jail Break". Britains-smallwars.com. http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Palestine/Acre.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-27. 
  63. ^ a b Cesarani, David. Major Farran's Hat: Murder, Scandal and Britain's War Against Jewish Terrorism 1945-1948. Vintage Books. London. 2010.
  64. ^ Segev, Tom (2001). One Palestine, Complete; Jews and Arabs under the British Mandate
  65. ^ [3]
  66. ^ "PALESTINE: Eye for an Eye for an Eye". Time. August 11, 1947. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,887512,00.html. 
  67. ^ Bethell, Nicholas (1979). The Palestine Triangle. London: André Deutsch. pp. 323–340. ISBN 0-233-97069-X. 
  68. ^ The Sunday Times, Sept 24 1972, p.8
  69. ^ Donald Neff, Hamas: A pale image of the Jewish Irgun and Lehi Gangs. Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
  70. ^ a b "Jewish-Zionist Terror". Guardian.150m.com. http://www.guardian.150m.com/palestine/jewish-terrorism.htm. Retrieved 2011-03-27. 
  71. ^ The Times - 1 March 1948
  72. ^ The Scotsman - 7 April 1948
  73. ^ "40 Commando in Haifa". Britains-smallwars.com. http://www.britains-smallwars.com/Palestine/40.html. Retrieved 2011-03-27. 

General sources

External links

DP conditions: http://bcrfj.revues.org/document269.html Jews on Cyprus: http://news.pseka.net/index.php?module=article&id=8199 DP camps (personal accounts): http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/Exhibitions/orphans/english/themes/pdf/the_dp.pdf

Participants in the Arab–Israeli conflict
Governments
Active organizations
Formerly active organizations
Other governments
Algeria • China • Cuba • France • Iran • Kuwait • Libya • Morocco • North Korea • Norway • Pakistan • Russia • Sudan • Tunisia • Turkey • Uganda • United Arab Emirates • United Kingdom • United States • Venezuela • Yemen
Other organizations
Former states
People involved in the Arab–Israeli conflict
Lester B. Pearson • Abd al-Hakim Amer • Hosni Mubarak • Gamal Abdel Nasser • Anwar Sadat • Mahmoud Ahmadinejad • Ali Khamenei • Ruhollah Khomeini • Faisal I • Saddam Hussein • Ehud Barak • Menachem Begin • David Ben-Gurion • Moshe Dayan • Levi Eshkol • Golda Meir • Benjamin Netanyahu • Ehud Olmert • Shimon Peres • Yitzhak Rabin • Yitzhak Shamir • Ariel Sharon • Chaim Weizmann • King Abdullah I • King Abdullah II • King Hussein • Emile Lahoud • Hassan Nasrallah • Fouad Siniora • Recep Tayyip Erdogan • Mona Juul • Johan Jørgen Holst • Terje Rød-Larsen • Mahmoud Abbas • Yasser Arafat • Marwan Barghouti • George Habash • Ismail Haniya • Amin al-Husayni • Khaled Mashal • Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi • Ahmed Shukeiri • Ahmed Yassin • King Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud) • King Abdullah • King Fahd • King Faisal • Folke Bernadotte • Hafez al-Assad • Bashar al-Assad • Shukri al-Quwatli • Salah Jadid • Ernest Bevin • Arthur Balfour • Tony Blair • Richard Crossman • Madeleine Albright • Ralph Bunche • George H. W. Bush • George W. Bush • Jimmy Carter • Bill Clinton • Henry Kissinger • Ronald Reagan • Condoleezza Rice • Dennis Ross • Ramadan Shallah • Harry S. Truman • Cyrus R. Vance
Arab–Israeli armed engagements
Before 1947

1920 Nebi Musa riots · 1921 Jaffa riots · 1929 Hebron–Safed riots · 1933 Palestine riots · 1936–1939 Arab revolt ·
1947–1949

1947 Jerusalem riots · 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine · 1948–1949 Arab–Israeli War
1950s
1960s

1962–1970 Operations Porcupine and Gravy (North Yemen Civil War) · 1964–1967 War over Water · 1966 Samu incident · 1967 Six-Day War · 1967–1970 War of Attrition · 1968 Battle of Karameh · 1968 Operation Gift 1969 Cherbourg Project
1970s

1970 Shelling on Lebanon · 1970 Black September in Jordan · 1972 Sabena Flight 571 (Operation Isotope) · 1972 Lod Airport massacre · 1972 Operation Crate 3 · 1972 Munich Olympics massacre · 1972–1979 Operation Wrath of God (Airstrike · Spring of Youth) · 1973 Libyan Arab Airlines Flight 114 · 1973 Yom Kippur War · 1974 Ma'alot massacre · 1974 Airstrike on Lebanon · 1975 Savoy Operation · 1975–1990 Lebanese Civil War · 1976 Operation Entebbe · 1978 Coastal Road massacre · 1978 Operation Litani
1980s

1980 Misgav Am hostage crisis · 1981 Operation Opera · 1982 Damour Airstrike · 1982 Lebanon War · 1982–2000 South Lebanon conflict · 1984 Kav 300 affair · 1985 PLO ships bombing · 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking · 1985 Operation Wooden Leg · 1987–1993 First Intifada · 1988 Mothers' Bus rescue · 1988 Tunis raid · 1989 Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid kidnapping
1990s
2000s

2000–2005 Al-Aqsa Intifada (Second Intifada) · 2000 October events · 2000–2006 Shebaa Farms conflict · 2001–present Rocket and mortar attacks on southern Israel (2001-2006 · 2007 · 2008 · Gaza War · 2009 · 2010 · 2011 · 2012) · 2001 Santorini · 2002 Operation Noah's Ark · 2002 Operation Defensive Shield (Jenin · Nablus · Bethlehem) · 2002–present West Bank barrier · 2002 Operation Determined Path · 2003 Abu Hasan · 2003 Ain es Saheb airstrike · 2004 Israel–Gaza conflict (Operation Rainbow · Operation Days of Penitence) · 2005 Operation Shevet Ahim · 2006–2011 Fatah–Hamas conflict · 2006 Operation Bringing Home the Goods · 2006 Israel–Gaza conflict (Operation Autumn Clouds) · 2006 Lebanon War · 2007–present Lebanese rockets · 2007–2008 Israel–Gaza conflict (Operation Hot Winter) · 2007 Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip · 2007–present Blockade of the Gaza Strip · 2007 Operation Orchard · 2008–2009 Gaza War (Operation Cast Lead) · 2009 Sudan airstrikes · 2009 Francop affair (Operation Four Species)
2010s
1914 Damascus Protocol • 1915 McMahon–Hussein Correspondence • 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement • 1917 Balfour Declaration • 1918 Declaration to the Seven • 1918 Anglo-French Declaration • 1919 Faisal–Weizmann Agreement • 1920 San Remo conference • 1922 Churchill White Paper • 1939 White Paper • 1947 UN Partition Plan • 1948 Establishment of Israel • 1948 UNGA Resolution 194 • 1949 Armistice Agreements • 1964 Palestinian National Covenant • 1967 Khartoum Resolution • 1967 UNSC Resolution 242 • 1973 UNSC Resolution 338 • 1973 UNSC Resolution 339 • 1974 UNSC Resolution 350 • 1978 UNSC Resolution 425 • 1978 Camp David Accords • 1979 UNSC Resolution 446 • 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty • 1979 UNSC Resolution 452 • 1980 UNSC Resolution 478 • 1981 UNSC Resolution 497 • 1983 Israel-Lebanon agreement • 1991 Madrid Conference • 1993 Oslo Accords • 1994 Israel–Jordan Treaty of Peace • 1998 Wye River Memorandum • 2000 Camp David Summit • 2000 Clinton's Parameters • 2001 Taba Summit • 2001 UNSC Resolution 1373 • 2002 Beirut Summit and Peace Initiative • 2002 Road map for peace • 2003 Geneva Accord • 2004 UNSC Resolution 1559 • 2004 UNSC Resolution 1566 • 2005 UNSC Resolution 1583 • 2005 Sharm el-Sheikh Summit • 2005 Israel's unilateral disengagement plan • 2006 Palestinian Prisoners' Document • 2006 UNSC Resolution 1701 • 2007 Annapolis Conference • 2010 Israeli–Palestinian peace talks