What effect did the Holocaust have on Palestine?

Answer 1

There was no Israel during the holocaust. The holocaust occurred during World War II. Israel was not founded until after the war was over.

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In the Middle East the German army did not reach Cairo or the Suez Canal and so do not enter the territory of the city of Palestine.

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Hitler made an agreement with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in which he agreed to do what he could to prevent Jews getting into Palestine.

Answer 2

Answer 1

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has its origins in the confrontation between immigrant Zionist Jews in the Mandate of Palestine and their interaction with the indigenous Arabs in the 1920s and 1930s. Before that point, the Immigration into the land had been a small trickle and Arabs were not terribly concerned. However, the Jewish immigration in the 1920s was quite large and disruptive. By the mid 1930s, both sides had developed militias which they used both to attack British colonial institutions and each other. Jews also flooded back to the Holy Land following World War II, since they felt that they would always be persecuted in countries where they were the minority. In 1947, as UN Resolution 181 was being debated, a full-scale war erupted between the Jewish militias and the Arab militias. When Israel declared its independence in 1948, the Arab States joined in the War which caused it to be internationally recognized and called the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9. During this conflict, many Palestinians fled the land either because they believed the other Arab powers would defeat Israel, they were afraid of Israeli soldiers killing or brutally injuring them, or both. After the war, this exodus of Palestinians made the new State of Israel a Jewish majority State and Prime Minister Ben-Gurion forbade the return of the Palestinians who fled.

The Arab countries absorbed many of these Palestinian Refugees, but refused to integrate them, making them dependent on a Palestinian State which did not exist. These conditions of squalor hardened their hearts against the State which denied them the Right to Return. In 1967, the Six Day War fundamentally changed the Israeli map and brought the Gaza and West Bank territories (which were almost exclusively Palestinian) under Israeli military occupation. This occupation is resisted by the Palestinians in those territories and that resistance boiled over into conflict between the Israeli Military and Terrorist Organizations in 1987-1993 (the First Intifada) and 2000-2005 (the Second Intifada). The interim period saw the recognition of the Palestinian Authority, an organization that saw itself as the representative of the Palestinian people. Israel and the PA organized a resolution to help the Palestinians gain statehood. This roadmap was dealt a harsh blow by the separation of Hamas from the Palestinian Authority and its creation of an independent, militaristic state in the Gaza Strip. This Hamas-State and Israel have gone after each other several times culminating in Operation Cast Lead in which 1400 Palestinians died.

See the Related Questions for more information.

Answer 1 Continued: Commentary on Answer 3

Additionally, I wanted to note several grossly incorrect statements in Answer 3:

1) The British granted a deal to the Arabs of the Euphrates to the Nile:

This is patently untrue. In fact, the terms "Euphrates to the Nile" refer to what God promised Abraham according to Genesis 15:18. The British agreement that I guess that Answer 3 is referring to is the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence of 1915 which stated in relevant part: The districts of Mersina and Alexandretta, and portions of Syria lying to the west of the districts of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo, cannot be said to be purely Arab, and must on that account be excepted from the proposed limits and boundaries. Since all of the British Mandate of Palestine lies west of these Syrian districts, it is at best ambiguous about whether Israel/Palestine belonged in the Arab area designated. It also would be ridiculous for Britain to say something like "Euphrates to Nile" since that would include the lucrative Suez Canal which the British refused to give up as late as 1956 (whence comes the Suez Crisis).

2) The Balfour Declaration was issued after World War II:

This is also patently untrue. The Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917 by Lord Balfour in order to court the support of British Zionists for the World War I efforts. This was not a unique declaration as the French and Germans had already stated as much; the difference was that the British were in a unique position to bring about the objective. The British were also aware of the possible contradiction with the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence of 1915, but figured that they would worry about winning the war first before dealing with the problems of agreement. After the war, the League of Nations created the Mandate of Palestine. In the 1922 basis for the mandate it says in pertinent part: The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish national home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.

By 1922, long before Hitler was elected (in 1933) and the Holocaust began in earnest (in 1939), there was a clear manifest intent to create a Jewish State in Mandatory Palestine. While it is true that Holocaust-sympathy did help Jews acquire the votes necessary to get UNGA Resolution 181 passed (allowing the Jewish State to declare independence separate from the Arab State), the Holocaust was not the reason that a Jewish State was created. The reason was Jewish and Zionist will stretching back to the late 1800s that was vindicated by the British Balfour Declaration in 1917.

What should be even more damaging to this argument is that peak Jewish immigration to Palestine prior to independence was not during 1939-1947, which is what we would expect if Israel was a result of European Jews fleeing the Holocaust, but in the 1920s. The bars to this immigration will be discussed in the next error, but for here it is relevant to say that the British detained immigrants to Mandatory Palestine to prevent the type of Jewish population growth seen in the 1920s.

3) Palestinian Innocence From the Holocaust:

There is a certain truth to the notion that Palestinians were not direct participants in the Holocaust. It is true that it was Germans who were operating the extermination camps, not Palestinians, but to ignore the Palestinian contribution to the Holocaust does a great disservice to the magnitude of the problem. Haj Amin Al-Husseini, a very important Palestinian leader and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem organized several pogroms in the Arab World (including the Farhud in Baghdad) before going to Nazi Germany and helping to create Bosnian Muslim SS Divisions. There was even a negotiation between the Nazis and the Red Cross to send 10,000 Jewish children to Palestine for German war-prisoner repatriation, but Husseini sabotaged it to prevent Jewish immigration to Palestine. All 10,000 would later die in Nazi Death Camps as a direct result of this refusal. Arab leaders were openly sympathetic to the Holocaust and the Axis powers explaining that they were united in trying to prevent the Jews from controlling the world.

On the ground, individual Palestinians were not much better. In 1929, there was a pogrom against the Jews of Hebron by Palestinian Arabs. Many smaller pogroms and attacks followed. In the 1930s, the Palestinian Arabs successfully petitioned the British to prevent further Jewish immigration in contravention to the terms of the League of Nations Mandate. This led to the 1939 White Papers which effectively barred Jewish immigration to Palestine until Israeli Independence. Jews who were caught attempting illegal immigration were deported to Cyprus or even sent back to Europe. This prevented many Jews who could have escaped the Holocaust from doing so. From 1948-1950, the majority of Israel's immigrants (roughly 350,000 in number) came from post-Holocaust Europe. How many more would have come earlier if they could have?

4) Problems with the Kuwait Comparison:

Answer 3 compares the situation in Palestine with Kuwait. The situations are dissimilar. Kuwait was an independent, recognized country that was summarily invaded and conquered. There was no intent by Iraqis to do anything but incorporate Kuwait as a province, which is a clear violation of national sovereignty. There was no independent, recognized country of Palestine until 1988, which means that Israel's activities in Mandatory Palestine prior to that point cannot even be compared with Kuwait. After 1988, we do see a diplomatic shift, culminating in the Oslo Accords of 1993 and the Palestinian Authority. Israel has shown a willingness to concede territory for a full and lasting peace, which is required by UNSC Resolution 242. This is evidenced by the Peace Treaty with Egypt in 1979, the Oslo Accords, the Peace Treaty with Jordan, and the Netanyahu-Assad proposals in 2011.

A legitimate Kuwait comparison might be the 1991 Expulsion of Palestinians from Kuwait when between 100,000 and 200,000 Palestinian "guest workers" were evicted from Kuwait because Yasser Arafat aligned himself with Saddam Hussein (not because of something they had actually done). 4,000 Palestinians were also killed by vigilante groups in 1991, more than have died in both Gazan Wars. Another 100,000 would leave due to the terrible conditions in Kuwait for the Palestinians. Interestingly, these act of cruelty on Kuwait's part is never brought up.

5) Palestine Was Stolen:

This is an argument over which there is much disagreement. In terms of international law, the 78% of Mandatory Palestine which is now the State of Israel was legally acquired. Israel accepted UNGA Resolution 181 and its border defense against Arab aggression to counter international laws that they did not like. As a result, the acquisition in the 1947-1949 of war was not an illegal act since self-defense is not a criminal act unless it is grossly disproportionate to the attack and the war was a relatively balanced affair as well as being resolved at the moment that each Arab state was willing to engage in an armistice. Just to clarify, this means that the 1949 borders of Israel belong to Israel.

As for the remaining Palestinian areas that were acquired in 1967, the situation becomes murkier, but as concerns the West Bank, Jordan attacked Israel first and Israel retaliated. Again the self-defense doctrine comes to the fore. Israel would have the rights to those territories acquired in self-defense. However, Israel was willing to concede some of those rights pursuant to a final, lasting peace with its neighbors, which is all that UN Resolution 242 discusses. Those states that have made peace with Israel since 1967 (Egypt and Jordan) have seen the return of territory (in Egypt's case) or the cession of the rights to occupied territory with tertiary partners (Jordan to the Palestinian Authority).

It should also be noted that while 720,000 Palestinians fled the State of Israel in 1947-1949, 850,000 Jews fled from Arab States from 1949-1955. More Jews fled their homes than Arabs fled theirs.

Answer 2: General Thematic Discussion

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has had numerous stages, but they are generally broken up into four major periods (whose names are my choice): British Mandate Period (1920s-1948), 1948-9 War and Armistice (1948-1967), Expansive Israeli Period (1967-1987), Palestinian Intifada and the Palestinian States (1987-Present).

1) British Mandate Period:

This period was characterized by a British Mandatory Government controlling the area called the British Mandate of Palestine. Some of the major events during this period were the increased Jewish immigration to the Mandate of Palestine and their modernization of the territory. This brought in Arab immigration from neighboring territories who wished to live in the more sanitary and developed conditions in Palestine. This combined immigration led to massive population increases. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Jewish population was becoming more significant and Arab leaders and militias urged the British to prevent further Jewish immigration. This resulted in the British rescinding Jewish immigration rights to the territory and culminated with the 1939 White Papers permitting only nominal Jewish immigration. During World War II, Palestine remained off-limits to Jews wishing to flee the Holocaust. This, combined with the White Papers, led many Jewish leaders to openly resist the British Occupation. In 1947, the British relented and brought the Palestinian and Jewish question to the United Nations. The slaughter of the Holocaust and American and Soviet pressure galvanized the world to provide for a Jewish State and an Arab State. The Palestinian Jewish population (who could anachronistically be called Israelis) approved of the Partition whereas the Palestinian Arab population refused further territorial concessions. The previously formed Jewish militias began to confront Arab militias in the Jewish-Arab Engagement as early as mid-1947. When Israel Declared Independence in 1948, the War became an international conflict involving Arab Armies from seven additional nations.

2) 1948-9 War and Armistices

This period was characterized by the forced emigrations of large numbers of endemic Arabs from Palestine and endemic Jews from elsewhere in the Middle East to Arab countries and Israel respectively in the wake of mass Arab Anti-Semitism. There was also a semi-viable State of Israel and remaining Palestinian territories were occupied by other Arab Nations. As a result of the 1948-9 Arab-Israeli War, Israel now occupied 78% of the Mandate of Palestine. During this period, Israel was considered weak by both allies and enemies and was treated to belligerent treatment from its neighbors (even during the "peace"). Syrian missiles rained down on the Galilee lowlands periodically, Egyptians cut off Israeli shipping through the Suez Canal (leading to the Suez Crisis of 1956), skirmishes in the water occurred, and the Old City was forcibly cleansed of its Jewish inhabitants by Jordanian forces. Palestinian rights were also suppressed by the Arab States as Jordan militarized the West Bank and Egypt openly annexed Gaza after watching its Palestinian Puppet State fail. The Egyptians openly taunted Israel and amassed troops at the Israeli border in 1967 in order to eradicate the country.

3) Expansive Israeli Period

This period is characterized by an Israeli State that acquired (through war) numerous additional territories from Arab States. During this period, most Arab States (Egypt excepted) refused to negotiate with Israel and therefore did not successfully reacquire these lands. The Six Day War completely changed the dynamic of Arab-Israeli relations. Israel was now negotiating from a place of strength and ceding territories for peace. Arab States refused to negotiate at first, but after the stalemate from the Arab-Israeli War of 1973, some Arab countries were willing to negotiate. Egypt and Israel signed a Peace Accord in 1979, giving the Sinai back to Egypt in return for mutual recognition and peace. Israel also effectively stopped Syrian peacetime attacks and reunited Jerusalem (against international law). Several of the Palestinian refugee camps were opened and a minority of Palestinians began to commute to work in Israel. In the 1981 and 1982, Israel was pulled into Lebanese Civil War and fought alongside the Christian Falangists against Sunni and Shiite Arabs. Israel withdrew to the Litani River after the Syrian intervention stabilized the conflict and back to Israeli borders in 2000.

4) Palestinian Intifada and the Palestinian States

This period is characterized by the creation of the Palestinian Authority and beginnings of a Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza Territories. This period is defined the "Roadmap to Peace". The Palestinian Uprising began to show Palestinian dissatisfaction with the continuing Israeli military occupation of the territory and lasted from 1987-1993. At that point the Oslo Accords were signed, granting recognition to a new body called the Palestinian Authority which would be responsible for governing Palestinian affairs. Israel ceded discrete pieces of land to the PA, but refused to give up large chunks of land until 2005 when it ceded all of Gaza to the PA. In the wake of this new accord, Jordan finalized a Peace Treaty with Israel in 1994. Earlier, in 1991, as a sidenote, Iraq launched skud missiles at Israel in an attempt to shatter the American-Arab Alliance to liberate Kuwait, but following American instructions, Israel stood down and did not enter the fighting. In 2000, the Second Palestinian Intifada began in response to Palestinian anger over perceived Israeli intransigence in devolving more power. This intifada lasted until 2005 and was considered a loss by Palestinians. In 2007, the Palestinian Elections sparked a civil war between Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah, leading to the former controlling Gaza exclusively and the latter controlling the West Bank exclusively. Hamas continued to exhibit bellicose behavior, bothering both Israelis and Egyptian Military leaders (who termed the territory Hamastan). Responding to constant civilian bombardment, Israel invaded Gaza in December of 2008 in what resulted in nearly 1400 Palestinian Civilian casualties.

Answer 3

Palestine was a Colony under British rule. The British made a "deal" granting Arab independence in Palestine and granting them control from the Euphrates to the Nile.

The British then welched on the deal in typical British style, and drafted The "Balfour Declaration", which stated that the Jews displaced from Germany after WWII's disgusting Holocaust could go to Palestine and occupy the territory, as long as the return did not "displace the indigenous population".

The stupidity of that statement alone is evidence enough that the British and their arrogance, and moreover, ignorance, are responsible for many of the world's trouble's today, particularly in Arab regions. How can you create refugees out of more than 1 Million people after occupying (by brutal force) their homes, and NOT define that as displacement ?

I am appalled by the Holocaust, but what fault was it of the Palestinian people ?

Why has the world sat by and watched them suffer for 60 years and done NOTHING, when Hussein did the same to Kuwait and the world went in immediately ?

Yes, you're right. Palestine is (was) a barren land, not oil rich, and occupied by poor peasants much like during the time of Jesus. The world ignored the Palestinian plight and dismissed it due to their guilty conscience over the Holocaust.

The idiotic British management over the region haunts us to this day, and will continue to do so until some justice is achieved for the Palestinian people whom were forcibly thrown out of their own homes.

If somebody came into your home, brutalized you, and then threw you and your loved ones out into the street after destroying all of your personal possessions, would you simply accept it or would you fight back ?

I do not condone any of the Palestinian actions insofar as terrorist response is concerned. But you have to understand, it is a very small portion of the population that resorts to such disgusting acts, and it is only out of sheer desperation and the utter injustice that world leaders are unwilling to risk their own personal political agendas to get involved and help.

Peace will NEVER be achieved in the region unless the Palestinians are given back a home in which to live. They have even shown willingness to accept HALF of what was (by terrorism) stolen from them in 1948. Would you ? No, neither would I.......

Congratulations Britain, your idiotic decisions' influence on the world reflects your place in History. "Those who exalt themselves shall be humbled".

Amen.

Commentary 1

Answer 3 is a completely correct :) Israel should learn from history that power alone won't guarantee stability. Israel is strong now, would it be the same deal in 50 years (especially when the Arab world is in the process of waking up)? No Chance! power changes hands all the time, which is the only true thing history can teach us. So be nice and give the Palestinians back their freedom, lands, properties, and I'm sure they'll be nice to you as well and let you live in peace.

Commentary 2

First of all, Answer 3 is a complete distortion of the facts. The Arabs attacked Israel in 1948, not the opposite. They lost the war and fled, almost no one was displaced by force or indirectly by threats. Second of all, I don't think we should be concerned so much with the past, let's think about the present and the future. At present Palestinians reject any peace agreement that is offered to them. Personally I don't think they want peace, they want the Jews to go away. As a Jew, living in Israel, I am frustrated with Palestinians' reluctance to compromise. It sometimes seems that they prefer war over peace.

Answer 3

Answer 1

It increased the Jewish population.

Answer 2

The Holocaust did not have a strong direct effect on Palestine since Palestine was outside of the area under Nazi Occupation. Haj Amin al-Husseini, a leading Palestinian Militant leader spent a lot of time working alongside the Nazis and coordinating Muslim SS brigades. When he returned to Palestine, he helped infuse Arab Nationalism with increasing Anti-Semitism as a result of his exposure (and agreement with) Nazi Propaganda. One the flip side, after the Holocaust ended, many European Jews desperately wanted to go to Mandatory Palestine and be part of a Jewish State so that they would not have to suffer further Anti-Semitism. When a more Anti-Semitic group of Palestinians were faced with increasing Jewish migration, it lit the powder-keg and started violent militia raids between the two sides: the Jewish-Arab Engagement of 1947-1949.

Answer 4

Followers of Nazism wished to purge them from Germany because they weren't considered pure, full blooded Germans. They were sent to concentration camps to die.

Answer 5

Palestine was under British rule from about 1918-1948. It was not conquered by Axis forces.

Answer 6

It was created.