Year 11 Modern History: Case Study – The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict

A Jewish Homeland Post-Second World War 2

When the Second World War ended in 1945, the terrible truth about the
Holocaust was revealed. Six million Jews had been murdered, and CONCENTRATION
CAMPS
hundreds of thousands of survivors of the Nazi concentration camps
A camp in which civilian
found themselves living in refugee camps. By 1946, there were 250 000
and political prisoners or
Jewish displaced persons in Europe. With much international support, prisoners of war are
Jewish people argued that Jewish refugees from Europe should be allowed detained under extremely
to enter Palestine for humanitarian reasons. hard conditions.

American opinion at the time

supported the Zionist cause. Many
Jews had settled in the United States,
and held significant financial and
voting power. An Anglo-American
Committee of Inquiry was
established, and in 1946
recommended that 100 000 Jews be
allowed into Palestine. The US
President, Harry Truman, supported
this recommendation.

Mounting Violence leading

to the 1948 Arab-Israeli War
Arabs continued to oppose increased
Jewish immigration into Palestine
after the Second World War and argued thatas they had not been responsible forthe recent persecution
of the Jews, they should not be the ones to bear the brunt of Jewish resettlement. The armed struggle
between Jewish groups and the British authorities in Palestine intensified. While the Haganah attacked
installations and deliberately avoided endangering lives, the Jewish militant group Irgun and its
breakout group, the Lehi, had no such reservations. They attacked British soldiers and government
workers, mined roads, blew up facilities and captured weapons from the British.

On 22 July 1946, Irgun fighters mounted an attack, in retaliation to a British security blitz that had seen
4000 suspected Jewish terrorists swept into detention camps. Dressed as Arabs,they delivered milk
churns packed with explosives to the basement of the King David Hotel, which was used as the
headquarters of the British administration of Palestine. When the churns exploded, much of the hotel
was destroyed and nearly a hundred people were killed, among them top civil servants and military
officials. One of the five Irgun terrorists involved was shot dead; the others escaped.

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 Year 11 Modern History: Case Study – The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Examine Sources 21 and 22, and
explain what they reveal about Jewish
tactics in the period leading to the
establishment of Israel?

Peace building:

Think about a time when you have

experienced conflict with someone
who is close to you. Were you able to
overcome your differences and reach a
“peace” agreement? Why or why not?
What does it take to make peace on a
personal level? On a national level?
Why is it so hard to do?