THE First Arab-Israeli War it was a conflict that took place between 1948 and 1949 in retaliation by Arab nations for creation of the State of Israel, which was officially founded on May 14, 1948. This was the first of four wars fought between Arabs and Israelis throughout the 20th century.
Background
The war of 1948 and 1949 was the result of a long process that began at the end of the 19th century and which, in theory, took place in 1948. The installation of the State of Israel in Palestine was the result of the strengthening of the political project Zionist. Zionism emerged at the end of the 19th century and was officially created by a Hungarian journalist who called himself Theodor Herzl.
O Zionism basically defended the idea of creating a national state for the Jews in response to the anti-Semitism which grew considerably on the European continent. After the First Zionist Congress, held in Switzerland, it was decided that this Jewish state would be created in Palestine, the place where Jews had lived in antiquity.
From that moment, the Zionist Jews made an effort to strengthen the Zionist cause in political and diplomatic circles, internationally speaking. The first major diplomatic conquest of the Zionists took place in 1917 during the First World War. That year, the British government issued the DeclarationBalfour, in which the British supported the Zionist project.
The big obstacle for the Zionists was the fact that Palestine was already inhabited: Palestinian Arabs lived there. Thus, as the Zionist project and the number of Jews in Palestine increased, the attrition with the Arabs also grew in the same proportion. This situation only got worse when Palestine came under British control.
Because of the influence of a group from the British diplomatic corps, the League of Nations also came to support the Balfour Declaration. As the British extended their colonization over Palestine, the number of Jews installed there also increased. The result of this was the strengthening of the Arab nationalist movement, highlighting the leadership of Hajj Amin al-Husseini, that he rejected negotiations with the Jews, just as the Jews refused to negotiate with the Arabs.
The growing tension in Palestine led the British to propose the division of Palestine between Jews and Arabs, but the proposal was rejected by both. Continued tension led the Jews to form armed militias to ensure their defense and to fight the Arabs if necessary. From that was born the haganah, which in the future became the Israel Defense Forces (FDI).
In addition to the Haganá, far-right militias such as the irgun it's the Stern. These militias mainly fought against the British mandate in Palestine, but they also focused their action against Palestinian villages. They have become known for carrying out terrorist attacks.
With the beginning of Second World War and with the intensification of the persecution of Jews in Europe, the migration of the Jewish population to Palestine increased considerably. After World War II had ended and the horrors of the Holocaust had been publicized internationally, the political conditions for the creation of a Jewish national state were in place.
See too:Final Solution and the Nazi plan to exterminate Europe's Jews
As the Zionists no longer accepted the continuity of the British mandate in Palestine and the violence for land dispute between Jews and Arabs increased, the situation in Palestine was taken to the UN by the British in 1947. The decision made by UN was decisive for a war to break out in the region from 1948.
Creation of the State of Israel
The creation of the State of Israel was debated by the United Nations in a General Assembly held in November 1947. This assembly voted to Resolution 181, who decided for the approval of the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. The voting was attended by representatives from 56 nations. 33 voted in favour,13 voted against and 10 abstained.
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With this decision, the entire territory of Palestine was divided between Jews and Arabs. Thus, 53.5% were attributed to Jews and 45.4% would be attributed to Palestinians. Jerusalem, in theory, would come under international control. This decision, of course, was accepted by the World Zionist Organization and rejected by the Arabs.
On the question of Palestine, the Jews even negotiated with the monarch of Transjordan (present-day Jordan) the division of the territory with the two nations, but this agreement did not prosper because Israel's relationship with the Arab bloc soured once and for all 1947-48. The State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, and this was the trigger for the start of the war.
First Arab-Israeli War
The war began as a response from a junction of different Arab nations against the creation of the State of Israel. The Arab forces had military contingents from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Iraq, in addition, of course, to Palestinian Arab forces. This conflict lasted until early 1949.
Arab troops were made up of about 40,000 men with little military training. Israeli troops, on the other hand, were formed from the joining of forces from the Haganá and other groups, such as the Irgun and the Stern. Israeli forces had approximately 30,000 men, but they had extensive military training1.
The Arabs initially attacked Tel Aviv, capital of Israel. This attack was carried out from the Egyptian air force and soon new air attacks took place in new regions dominated by Israel. The ground attacks by Arab forces took place in different locations.
This first part of the conflict lasted until June 11, 1948, when, under the influence of the UN, a ceasefire was signed, which was broken on July 9th. In this second moment of the war, Israeli forces managed to impose their strength on Arab armies and conquered a series of new positions.
The UN Security Council's efforts led to the signing of an armistice on January 7, 1949 that ended the war. At the end of this conflict, Israel emerged as a great victor, as it managed to conquer new lands. In all, Israel managed to increase its territory by about 1/3. All this achievement came with a low number of Israelis killed: approximately 5,0002.
For the Palestinians, the conflict was a real disaster. In the war, the Palestinians lost much of the territory allotted to them by the UN. Furthermore, this war spawned an episode that is known by the Palestinians as “nakba” (tragedy, in Portuguese). O nakba it consists in the expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their lands.
The expulsion of these Palestinians was due to the action of Israeli forces, which attacked and destroyed Arab villages. This deliberate action is estimated to have caused the destruction of some 530 Palestinian villages during the months of the war.3. This population of Palestinian refugees has spread to different parts of the world. Currently, with the descendants of that 1948 generation, it is estimated that seven million Palestinians are refugees from their land.4. Israel to this day does not accept the return of these people to Palestine.
The end of the war did not end the tension between Arabs and Israelis. Throughout the 20th century, new conflicts occurred in 1956, 1967 and 1973.
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1CAMARGO, Claudius, Arab-Israeli Wars. In.: MAGNOLI, Demetrius (ed.). History of Wars. São Paulo: Contexto, 2013, p. 432-33.
2Idem, p. 434.
3This information was taken from the video “About Palestine: Military Power and Ethnic Cleansing”, by Sabrina Fernandes. To access the video, click on here.
4Same as note 3.
By Daniel Neves Silva
Graduated in History