Palestinian Arabs and the British

The Arabs and the British had a long standing relationship. Arabs had helped the British to capture the Ottoman Empire. So the British favoured a separate land for the Arabs in Palestine but there was opposition and it was not easy for the British to do this. The biggest opposition was from the Jews as they claimed Palestine to be their homeland. The British wanted a bi-national state, one for the Arabs and the other for the Jews. But the British could not bring an amicable solution to the issue. Since then there were wars and battles between the Jews and the Arabs and Britain asked UN to find a solution for it.

The 1930s

Between 1936 and 1939 there was a nationalist movement of the Palestinian Arabs against the British administration. They demanded Arab independence and to put an end to Jewish immigration as permitted by the League of Nations in 1922. There was a general strike that later from April to October 1936 which initiated a violent revolt. The revolt was in two phases. In the first phase Higher Arab Committee focussed on strikes and other political protests. But in 1936 this was put to an end by the British administration through international diplomacy and a threat of martial law. The Peel Commission was announced in May 1936 and its members were appointed on July 29^th in the same year. But it was only in November the commission arrived in Palestine. Peel Commission put down on records that thousands of Arabs were killed and that the strike was not as peaceful as it was intended to be.

The second phase which started in 1937 was led by the peasants and was violent too. This was suppressed with a heavy had by the British Army and the Palestine Police Force.  The Royal Air Force was a big support for the people on the ground. With wireless systems the bombers were airborne in five minutes and attacked the areas where there was unrest. The Royal Navy was also put into use. Initially they were used to disperse Arab snipers and later they were stationed to patrol the coat of Palestine. The British Intelligence Service also played a big part in Palestine. They were deployed to counter insurgency through strategies which were very effective. It was a multi-pronged attack on the rebels and so it was easy to curtail the revolts of the Arabs.

Since the Arab revolt was suppressed there were activities to make their case strong and in 1948 broke out the Palestine war. To quell this British supported the militia group of the Zionist, the Haganah. Finally the Zionist militia groups were responsible for the death of many British officers in King David Hotel. The Arabs had to fight two enemies – the Jews and the British. The Jews also had two enemies, the Arabs and the British. British was pushed into the conflict and right into the middle of it. The British tried to put an end to the violence. They planned to appease the Arabs by putting a restriction in the Jewish immigration. They appeased the Jews by allowing them to enter Palestine but there was a small restriction for this too. Both these suggestion did not go well down with either of them and the strife continued.

The Anger of Jews and Arabs

• The Jews and the Arabs attacked the British.
• The Arabs attacked for the reason that the British had not kept up their word after 1918 and later were unable to check the flow of Jewish immigrants into Palestine.
• The Jews on the other hand attacked British because they felt that the quota allowed for immigration was very little and unfair.
• The British were also responsible for the land ceiling for the Jews, that is, Jews could buy only some restricted area of land in Palestine.
• Whatever peace talks or truce was announced was only temporary.
• Many Jews fought in WWII, so the Jews honed their military skills and these skills became very useful in their acts of terrorism.
• Jews had great hopes on the new Labour Government which was elected in Britain after the war but their hopes were dashed to the ground.
• They believed that they could occupy more area in Palestine as there was a widespread sympathy for the Jews, thanks to the holocaust of Hitler and his men.

Nothing the Jews or Arabs desired were fulfilled. The British continued to control Palestine. So the Jews took the path of terror. There were many peace loving organisations but after total neglect by the British all the organizations came under one umbrella and planned to hit out at the British. The attack on King David Hotel was the biggest attack where many British officials died. Many civilians and other nationals also lost their lives in this attack. This made the Jews stop and think about the results of violent actions. From that incident violence came down in the Jewish side.

The Later Years

After the World War II, UN came to function and UN took upon itself the issue of Jews and Arabs. It was decided in the UN to divide Palestine into a zone for Jews called Israel and a zone for the Arabs called Palestine. With the role of UN becoming more dominant in that area British withdrew from that region on May 14^th, 1948. But peace was far away in this region. Almost immediately Israel and Arab attacked each other and the war lasted for an hour. The streak of violence became stronger in Arab held Palestine. The PLO was an organisation with violence as its prime agenda. In the later years when PLO softened its stand, there were some factions like the Hamas that continued to perpetuate violence. It is only in the recent times that there is a scale down of violence and there are hopes that there will be lasting peace in that region in the coming years.