1948 Arab–Israeli War
The 1948 Arab-Israeli War (also called the Israeli War of Independence) This version is disputed by many Palestinians.
Background
In 1920, at the San Remo conference in Italy, the Palestine Mandate was assigned to Britain. Palestine at this time included all of what would later became Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, the Golan Heights, and the Kingdom of Jordan. The population of this area was mainly Arab, although with a significant Jewish minority. During the twenty eight years of British rule, Arabs were allowed unlimited immigration to build their numbers in Palestine. Many Arabs opposed the same rights for Jews, even during the Holocaust. Armed Arab attacks on Jewish settlements were frequent. In 1936 the British proposed a partition between Jewish and Arab areas, which was accepted by the Jews, but rejected by the Arabs.
- (See external link: http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/History/deftoc.html)
In 1921 Britain separated Palestine east of the Jordan River into a separate territory, Transjordan, almost three quarters of the Mandate, which was given to the Emir Abdullah. (Britain doing this was foreseen under the terms of the Mandate.) Jews from then on were only allowed to move into the western quarter (which roughly corresponded to the territory of modern day Israel). In 1923 Britain transferred the Golan Heights to the French mandate of Syria, in exchange for the Metula region. Arab immigration was allowed; Jewish immigration was limited to a constantly decreasing quota.
In 1936, the Arab leadership led by Haj Abd-el-Qadr Al-Husseini (the father of Faisal Husseini) declared a general strike to protest the little Jewish immigration that was still allowed. Rather than inflicting economical damage to the Jewish population, the strike resulted in a sharp economic uprise. Seeing that, the Arab leadership then began a series of violent actions, that included the murder of dozens of Jews. The British administration, as a part of their "divide and conquer" policy did little to mitigate the riots.
This period was characterized by the rise of Jewish defence movements. The first of them, the Haganah (Hebrew for "defence") was accepted by the majority of the Jewish public. It performed military-style operations, almost always targeted solely at military objectives. A smaller group called the Irgun branched off Haganah, and an even smaller faction of the Irgun then branched off into Lehi. The latter two organizations did not confine themselves to strictly military objectives, and were criticized by the majority of the Israeli public because of their terrorist tactics.
In 1939, after three years of riots, which were put down with the help of Jewish volunteers from the Haganah, the British government issued a White Paper and reversed their support of the Balfour Declaration. They announce an absolute limit of only 75,000 on future Jewish immigration to Palestine, even during the Holocaust.
- (See external link: http://www.wzo.org.il/home/politic/white39.htm)
Partition plan and Statehood
1947 November 29. The United Nations General Assembly approved a plan which partitioned the western quarter of Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state, the former occupying most of the Mandate of Palestine. The Jewish population welcomed the partition plan (although it did not even guarantee them territorial continuity), while the Arabic leadership opposed it, claiming all of Palestine should become Arab.
Shortly after, the same leadership began to organize tribal bands from Palestinians Arabs in order to wage guerilla war on Israelis. The British representatives, having no desire to maintain order and their force waning, effectively left the Jews alone to fight the Arab militants. During the next six months, most of the fighting was be made using guerilla tactics, small Arab and Jewish forces conducting brief gunfights at various spots, without achieving any territorial goal but for the protection of the de-facto limits.
- (See external links: http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/concepts/d3.html and http://www.jajz-ed.org.il/100/maps/part.html)
1948 May 14. The State of Israel declared itself as an independent nation, stating in its Declaration of Independence that "We extend our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness". Andrei Gromyko, the Soviet Union's UN ambassador, called for the UN to accept Israel as a member state. The UN approved on the same day, the Soviet Union doing the same three days later.
- See external links:
Defence as a state
1948 May 15. Lebanese, Syrian, Iraqi, and Egyptian troops invaded Israel and join Palestinian guerillas. Bitter fighting ensues.
1948 May 28. Two weeks after the creation of the state, the Haganah forces were declared an army, Israel Defence Force. Irgun and Lehi were merged into it as well (see Altalena).
During the following months, the Syrian army was repelled easily enough, and so were guerillias led by Kawkaji. In the south, an Egyptian attack was able to penetrate the feeble defence of several Israeli civilian kibutzes, killing and looting their inhabitants. This attack is stopped near Ashdod. A second axis of attack to the east is also blocked, at the expense of diverting forces from Jerusalem. Jerusalem and the whole of West Bank were blocked by Jordanians, and all the Israeli attempts to liberate at least their holy places fail.
Results
In 1949, in separate ceasefire agreements signed with Jordan, Syria and Egypt, Israel was able to draw its own borders, known afterwards as the "Green Line". Israel occupied about 70% of the mandatory Paelstine, with the Gaza Strip and West Bank in Egyptian and Jordanian hands respectively. Syria retained the Golan Heights. Shelling, intrusions and sniper fire from these locations continued to disturb the peaceful existence of Israel civilians. However for the time being, Israel was ready to put up with this.
Over 600,000 Arab refugees and 600,000 Jewish refugees were created. Jewish refugess from Arab lands found a home in Israel, but most Arab refugees were permanently detained by Arab nations in refugee camps.