Mainly for Men: Israel and the Palestinians

Gentlemen,

This conflict is not going away quickly. It is not about religion or race, but about land — the very land where Jesus once walked and taught.

I once had a client who in the 1940s had served as a British policeman in Palestine. He told me about his firefights with the Stern Gang — Jewish terrorists who later became Israeli government ministers, much to his disgust. His stories aroused my interest.

With Israel once more in the news, the subject came up in our house group.

So, I have written a blog summarising the little-discussed story of Israel’s foundation and the role we played in it. I will follow this with another blog looking at the different interpretations Christians give to these events.

I hope this will stimulate discussion.
The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of Kings Church.

Roger



Before the First World War (1914–18), Palestine, part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, was inhabited largely by Arabs. During that war, Turkey allied with Germany against Britain and its allies.

In 1916, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, promised Sharif Hussein of Mecca, the Arab leader, that if the Arabs revolted against Turkey, then after the war, Britain would support the creation of an independent Arab kingdom. Later that year, the Arabs revolted, helping Britain invade and conquer Palestine, contributing to the eventual surrender of Turkey.

However, in 1917, the British Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, issued a Declaration that the British government would support the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish national home. This aimed to secure US support for the allies, given strong and influential Zionist lobbying. Both Balfour and the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, were practising Non-Conformist Christians sympathetic to the Zionist cause. However, there is no evidence that either believed they were fulfilling Biblical prophecy; it was simply a wartime diplomatic strategy.

To the Arabs, the Declaration contradicted British promises. Lloyd George correctly argued that McMahon’s letters left the borders vague, and specifically excluded territory reserved for British interests. But the Arabs felt cheated, their trust in Britain collapsed.

At that time, Jews made up roughly 10% of Palestine’s population, while Arabs accounted for about 88% (of whom around 11% identified as Christian and the rest Muslim). These communities had coexisted peacefully for centuries.

In 1922, Britain was granted a Mandate by the League of Nations (forerunner of the UN) to govern Palestine. It incorporated the Balfour Declaration, giving international legitimacy to the creation of a Jewish homeland, but without consulting the Arabs. They were promised only protection of their civil and religious rights, not political rights. Arabs consistently objected, but the League ruled the Mandate could not be altered, recognising the historic connection of Jews worldwide to Palestine. But it effectively outweighed the rights of Arabs who had lived there for centuries. This was a key factor in the ensuing tragedy. Violence soon followed: Jewish settlements, often under British protection, were attacked. From 1936 to 1939, Britain brutally suppressed an Arab revolt, using methods unacceptable today. The Jewish defence force expanded its capacity in co-operation with the British, but also launched retaliatory attacks on Arab communities.

As a result of persecution in Europe before and during the Second World War, Jews migrated to Palestine in large numbers. The Arab population strongly opposed this, so Britain imposed quotas. However, the Jewish leadership organised illegal immigration. They established schools, hospitals and governance structures essential to creating a viable, functioning state, capable of protecting itself and absorbing refugees. To pressure Britain into facilitating statehood, Jewish terrorists then attacked British military and civilian targets.

During the Mandate, over 700 Brits were killed, more than 3,000 Jews lost their lives, and over 5,000 Arabs were killed. So, caught in the middle, in 1947, Britain referred the Palestine question to the United Nations. By then, Jews made up about 30% of the population and had legally purchased about 7% of the land.

The UN Plan proposed two states, with Jerusalem under UN control. Despite Arabs comprising 68% of the population, the UN offered them 43% of the land, divided into three disconnected sections, which would be very difficult to defend. Arab leaders rejected the Plan as unjust and impractical. The Jewish state comprised 56% of the land, where almost half the population were Arabs. After centuries of persecution, Jews now had a contiguous, defensible homeland. They accepted. With much of the world feeling sympathy and a moral responsibility for what had happened during the Holocaust, the UN approved the Plan. The Arab states voted against, and Britain abstained.

In 1948, Israel declared independence. Neighbouring Arab states immediately invaded. The invasion was repulsed, but Israel expanded its territory, including West Jerusalem. East Jerusalem, with many Jewish holy sites, remained under Jordanian control. At least 10,000 Palestinians were killed and approximately 700,000 displaced, many fleeing to the West Bank (administered by Jordan), Gaza (administered by Egypt), or to other Arab countries. Many still live in UN camps and depend on humanitarian aid. About 6000 Jews were killed, and 850,000 fled Arab countries, most settling in Israel.

Many Christian Palestinians emigrated to Europe and North America. Today, only about 1–2% of the population in the West Bank and Gaza is Christian.

From the Israeli perspective, these events were about survival in a hostile regional environment and the creation of a state capable of absorbing Jewish refugees. For the Palestinians, it was an unmitigated disaster that watered and fertilised the seeds of never ending conflict sown years before. Palestinians called it al-Nakba — The Catastrophe.