Arab Literary Travels

Michael Espersen: Background on the Palestine War

On November 27th, 1947, the United Nations passed its infamous Partition Resolution on Palestine. This was an attempt by the world powers to resolve the dispute over the territory of Palestine between the Zionist movement and the Palestinian Arabs. The resolution, however, which split the territory by a measure of 56% going to the Zionist side and 44% going to the Arabs, was not to succeed. Although the resolution passed, it passed in the General Assembly, a non-binding institution, and the acceptance of the resolution by world powers triggered an explosion in Palestine, with violence breaking out on both sides. This would be the first fighting of what would become the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, the first in a series of wars between Israel and the Arabs.

On the Zionist side, the Israelis had one of the most formidable armies in the Middle East, due to mass immigration, superior weapons, and support from outside sources. On the Palestinian side, the Arab armies were disorganized, led by poor leaders, and had inferior equipment from WW1 and before. The great majority of the fighting, perhaps as much as 80% of the battles, took place on Arab-occupied land, with much of the war consisting of Israeli troops invading Arab towns and occupying them for Israel.

According to Israeli historian Benny Morris, the 1948 war consisted of two phases: November 1947 to May 1948, and May 1948 until the February 1949 armistice agreements. By the end of the war in 1949, over 700,000 Arabs had fled or been forced to leave their homes by the Israeli army, and Israel had occupied almost 80% of what was originally Palestine. Israel never allowed any of the refugees to return, and the Palestinian refugee problem continues even until today, with the great mass of the Palestinian refugees clinging to the hope that one day they and their descendants will return to the land of their ancestors.

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