Political and economic development Jewish sector in Palestine was directly linked to British policy. Even before the occupation of Palestine by the British colonial corps, British Foreign Secretary John Balfour approved a declaration, which, in particular, stated: “Her Majesty’s Government favors the creation in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will make every effort to ensure that achieve this goal...”. On November 2, 1917, the Balfour Declaration was approved by the British Cabinet and submitted to the Supreme Council of the Entente. US President W. Wilson also agreed to approve this document. The provisions of the Balfour Declaration were fully incorporated into the text of the mandate of the Council of the League of Nations to administer Palestine, issued by Great Britain on international conference in San Remo (April 19, 1920). In the sixth paragraph of the mandate, it was noted that England "will facilitate the immigration process and the settlement of Jews in the lands of Palestine."
The establishment of British colonial rule in Palestine opened up wide opportunities for the development of the socio-economic infrastructure of the future state of Israel. From 1919 to 1923 immigration mainly came from Russia. Almost 35,000 Jews who arrived in Palestine during these years laid the foundation for industrial and agricultural production in the Jewish sector of the economy. Aliya of 1924-1932 (about 60,000 people) came mainly from Poland. This wave captured mainly representatives of the petty and middle bourgeoisie, who contributed to the development of the urban economy and trade. In the 1930s and until the outbreak of World War II, Palestine received about 165,000 people. They were mostly German Jews fleeing the Nazi genocide. Among these repatriates, highly qualified specialists prevailed, who made up the cultural and educational elite of the Yishuv.
During the years of the British Mandate, the land fund of the Yishuv almost tripled, and the number of Jewish settlements quadrupled; about 25% of the entire Jewish population was employed in agriculture. The policy pursued by the British authorities to encourage the entrepreneurial activities of Jewish immigrants from abroad contributed to the penetration of capital, which stimulated the creation and development of all vital for existence independent state branches of the economic economy. By the end of World War II, over 80% of all Palestinian industry was in the Jewish sector.
Along with the strengthening of the positions of the Yishuv in the economy of Palestine, there was a rapid process of formation political system future Israel. The system of quasi-public administration of the Yishuv was based on the principles of Western parliamentarism and party representation. It was based on three institutions: "Asefata-nivharim" ("Assembly of Deputies") - the legislative institution of the Jews of Palestine; "Vaad leumi" ("National Committee") - the executive body of the assembly of deputies; Ha-Sokhnut ha-Yegudit (Jewish Agency) is the Palestinian branch of the executive committee of the WZO. By 1930, norms were finally developed that regulated the procedure for elections to the Assembly of Deputies, which acted like the current Israeli parliament - the Knesset. The National Committee acted as a Yishuv coalition government.
The Jewish Agency (founded in 1929) played the role of a link between the Zionist Palestinian organizations and the WZO. The main Zionist funds, Keren Hayesod and Keren Kayemet Le Israel, were transferred to the jurisdiction of the Jewish Agency, which had accumulated 33.7 billion pounds by the time Israel was founded. The functions of the "Jewish Agency" were quite diverse: it represented the Yishuv in the international arena, financed the legislative and executive bodies of the Palestinian Jewish community and Zionist parties, was engaged in buying up land and resettling Jewish immigrants in Palestine, creating Jewish urban and agricultural settlements, building industrial enterprises, raising funds for Zionist activities, developing a network of educational, medical and religious institutions.
Parties were the most important structural element of the political organization of the Yishuv. Despite all the diversity and multiplicity of parties, four main areas can be distinguished in them:
- social Zionist parties (MAPAI, or the Party of Labor, Ahdut a-Avoda, MAPAM - United Workers' Party), gravitating in their ideological content and socio-economic programs to the social democratic parties of Western Europe. On the initiative of MAPAI, the Histadrut (General Confederation of Labor of Israeli Workers) was founded in 1920, uniting dozens of trade unions. Through its head office, the Hevrat ovdim (Community of Workers) controlled almost all industrial and construction companies, agricultural cooperatives and public utilities, medical and social security. The Labor Party played a major role in the creation of the main military formations of the Yishuv - the Hagans (Defense) and Palmach (Shock Battalions), which together numbered almost 40 thousand people;
- parties of "general Zionists", or a liberal trend that absorbed all groups that expressed the interests of private entrepreneurs;
- the so-called revisionist direction in Zionism, which became a symbol of militant Zionism, was represented in Palestine by the Revisionist Party, founded in 1924 by Z. Zhabotinsky. This direction united extreme nationalists who did not recognize any compromise with the Arabs and believed that a Jewish state should be created on both banks of the Jordan River, and the main means to achieve this goal was the use of military force against everyone who did not support this point of view. In their economic programs, the "revisionists" merged with the "general Zionists". Revisionist militias ETZEL ("National Military Organization") and LEHI ("Fighters for the Freedom of Israel") also joined the Israeli army;
- religious parties (MIZRAHI, Agudat Yisrael - World Orthodox Jewish Association, founded in 1912, "a-Poel a-MIZRAHI" - Workers of the Spiritual Center, Poalei Agudat Yisrael - Workers of the Orthodox Association) advocated the adaptation of religious legislation to the new living conditions of Jews in Palestine.
Apart from the camp of the Zionist parties stood the Communist Party of Palestine, founded in 1918. The activity of this party was directed by the Comintern. During the mandate period, the Communist Party was weakened by the repression and persecution carried out against this party by the British authorities, and before the formation of Israel, it was in deep underground, was not numerous and could not significantly influence political life countries.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the positions of the Yishuv were so strengthened that the then chairman of the executive committee of the WZO and the Jewish Agency, the future Prime Minister of Israel, Ben-Gurion, openly called for the creation of the State of Israel. However, the desire of the country's Jewish community for national and state sovereignty ran into stubborn resistance from the Palestinian Arabs. The leaders of the Arab nationalists, headed by the Supreme Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj-Amin al-Husseini, categorically refused to discuss the very possibility of dividing Palestine.
The influx of Jewish immigrants, the reduction of the land fund of the Arab sector, the rapid economic development of the Yishuv - all this objectively led to the landlessness of the Arab peasants, the reduction of their traditional production and unemployment. In 1929 and 1933, thousands of anti-British and anti-Zionist demonstrations took place in the Arab cities of Palestine. During the massive uprisings of the Arab-Palestinians in 1936-1939, the British government proposed the Peel Plan in July 1937, which provided for the division of Palestine into three sectors - Arab, English and Jewish. But the plan was rejected by both the leaders of the Yishuv and the Arab leaders, in the summer of 1938 the Arab uprising in Palestine broke out with renewed vigor. Fearing that Arab nationalists would join the countries of the German coalition, the British authorities took the path of "appeasement" of the Arabs. On May 17, 1939, Britain published a "White Paper" from the Colonial Office containing serious concessions to the Arab community while at the same time restricting Jewish repatriation to Palestine and the sale of land in the country to Zionist institutions.
England's decision put the leadership of the Yishuv in a very difficult position, when the world was entering the bloody war of the 20th century, during which about 6 million Jews were exterminated in ghettos and concentration camps in the territory occupied by Nazi Germany (the Holocaust). The Yishuv was guided in World War II by the following tactics: "We will wage war as if there is no White Paper, and we will fight against it as if there is no war." Despite the fact that about 30,000 Yishuv volunteers fought on the fronts of the war against the Nazis as part of the British army, the political paths of international Zionism and the government of England diverged during the war years. By the end of World War II, the British administration in Palestine further tightened the transit regime for Jewish repatriates. However, these measures did not give any results: from 1944 to 1948, almost 200 thousand European Jews were smuggled into the country illegally. In the same years, all Jewish armed formations enter into open confrontation with the British military corps in Palestine. In addition, the British authorities were no longer able to contain armed clashes between Jews and Arabs, which by 1947 had escalated into a real war that engulfed most of the country.
In such circumstances, the British government was forced to refer the question of the future status of Palestine to the UN General Assembly. On November 29, 1947, with the support of the USSR, the UN General Assembly voted by a majority vote in favor of the abolition of the British mandate regime in Palestine and the creation of two independent states- Arabic and Jewish. The Yishuv fully supported the decision of the UN General Assembly, but the Arab Supreme Committee took an absolutely uncompromising position. The leaders of the Arab community said that the Palestinian Arabs are starting an armed struggle against the Jews and will continue it until the UN finds a fair solution. However, by the end of 1947, after numerous clashes, the Jewish armed groups managed to bring under their control the entire territory of Palestine allocated by the UN for Israel, at the same time, work was underway in the Yishuv to reorganize the political administration. In October 1947, the executive committee of the "Jewish Agency" and the National Committee merged into the Extraordinary Committee, a little later renamed Moetzet ha-am (People's Council). Its executive body, Minalat a-am (People's Administration), included representatives from all the major Yishuv parties.
By the time the State of Israel was formed, 6,560,000 Jews lived in Palestine. Exactly at the hour of the expiration of the term of the British mandate in Palestine, on the night of May 14-15, 1948, the People's Council held its meeting, at which D. Ben-Gurion read out the Declaration of Independence, proclaiming the creation of the State of Israel. This first document of independent Israel stated that the People's Administration would act as an interim government and its main duty was to prepare a constitution and organize elections for the State of Israel. However, the first elections in Israel took place a year and a half after the creation of this state.
Immediately after the declaration of Israel, the armies of six Arab countries invaded its territory. In the military operations of the first Arab-Israeli conflict, the Israeli army not only managed to repel the offensive of the Arab forces, but also annexed to its territory 6.7 thousand square kilometers allocated by the UN for an Arab state. At the beginning of 1949, under the auspices of the UN, negotiations were held between Israel and the Arab countries involved in the conflict (except Iraq), at which agreements were reached on ceasefire lines. Under these agreements, the entire coastal strip of the Mediterranean Sea to the border with Lebanon, the Galilee and the Negev went to Israel, the western bank of the Jordan River, including Jerusalem, to Jordan, and the Gaza Strip to Egypt. As a result of the Palestinian war of 1948-1949, about 750,000 Palestinian Arabs were forced to leave their areas of residence and move to the position of refugees in neighboring Arab saran. Thus, along with the birth of the State of Israel, one of the most painful problems of our time arose - the Palestinian problem. Between 1948 and 1952, about half a million Jews living in Arab countries immigrated to Israel. The Jewish communities of Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Egypt and other countries of North Africa ceased to exist.
With another.
In Israeli historiography - "War of Independence" or "War of Liberation", dates back to 1947-1949.
It began on the night of May 14-15, 1948, after the proclamation of the State of Israel and the completion of the British Mandate in Palestine. It was preceded by extensive clashes between the Arab and Jewish communities in Palestine, which lasted from November 30, 1947, after the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the Resolution on the Partition of Palestine, which provided for the creation of a Jewish and Arab states, as well as the allocation of an international zone in Jerusalem. During the armed conflicts in December 1947 - March 1948, about 2 thousand people died. The Jewish armed formations of the Yishu-va were opposed by the volunteer Arab liberation army(Jaysh al-inkad al-arabiy, AOA), formed in Syria and entered Palestine under the command of Fawzi Kaukadzhi in January 1948. In parallel, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni, the nephew of the leader of the Palestinian Arabs, Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Amin al-Husayni, organized the Army Holy War(Jaysh al-jihad al-muqaddas), which blocked the 100,000th Jewish population of Jerusalem. At the end of March 1948, the Yishuv unsuccessfully tried to break the blockade. From April 1948, the leadership of the armed forces of the Yishuv adopted the strategic plan "Dalet", according to which the Jews were to take the initiative in their own hands in order to break the blockade of Jerusalem. The tasks of Jewish self-defense - the Haganah included the occupation of Arab settlements and the establishment of control over the city left by the British troops. As a result, the Jews gained control of the cities of Tiberias, Safed, Haifa, Beit Shean and Jaffa; the Arab inhabitants of these cities and surrounding settlements were forced to flee. In total, from November 1947 to May 1948, about 400 thousand Arabs became refugees. In general, by the time the British mandate expired, the armed forces of the Yishuv had captured about a hundred Arab settlements and gained control over the main transport routes of Palestine.
The Arab states, which refused to recognize the Resolution on the Partition of Palestine, were waiting for the expiration of the mandate and were preparing to invade the territory of Palestine. The main role was played by Transjordan, Egypt, Syria, with actual support from Great Britain. On the night of May 14-15, 1948, the troops of 5 of the 7 members of the League of Arab States (LAS): Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria invaded the territory of the former British Mandate. King Abdullah I of Transjordan declared himself commander in chief. The official statement of the LAS state said that their goal was to create a united Palestinian state throughout the territory. Israel, the US and the USSR condemned the Arab invasion of Palestine as illegal aggression, while China supported the Arab League's demands.
By decree of the head of the interim government of Israel, D. Ben-Gurion, on May 26, 1948, a regular army was created - the IDF; the armed formations announced their disbandment, their fighters were accepted into the army. On May 28, the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem was blocked; the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway was also blocked, and the city found itself in a blockade, which the Israelis failed to break through. In the north, Syrian troops invaded south of the lake. Kinneret and attacked until they were stopped at Kibbutz Dganiya. In the south, the Egyptian army was able to break through the defenses of the kibbutz, but met with fierce resistance and stopped in the Ashdod area.
Through the mediation of the UN representative F. Bernadotte, a ceasefire agreement was reached between the parties to the conflict, which entered into force on June 11 and lasted until July 8. Bernadotte proposed his own settlement plan, based on the idea of creating a union of states, in which the Arab side should be represented by Transjordan, and an exchange of territories was supposed: the Negev goes to Transjordan, Western Galilee to Israel, and Jerusalem will go to Transjordan with a guarantee of autonomy for the Jewish population. Plan City was categorically rejected by the parties, with the exception of Abdullah I, who was attracted by the idea of expanding the territory of Transjordan, as well as the British representative on the UN Security Council.
After the resumption of hostilities, from July 9 to 18, 1948, the Israelis took Nazareth and a number of other settlements, but attempts to break into Old city Jerusalem were not successful. By July 18, Bernadotte prepared a new plan for resolving the conflict, which recognized the reality of an independent Jewish state; Galilee completely passed to Israel, Transjordan annexed the Negev, Ramla and Lod. And this plan was rejected by the parties. On September 17, Bernadotte was killed in the New City of Jerusalem by a member of the Lehi militant organization. October 15 ground forces Israel, with air support, launched an attack on the Negev. In the north, the AOA attacked Kibbutz Manara on the border with Lebanon. In response, the Israeli side attacked the main bases of the AOA, which was forced to retreat to the Lebanese border.
On December 22, the IDF launched Operation Horev, the purpose of which was to push the Egyptian army as far as possible from the borders of Israel. The operation ended on January 7, 1949, when the IDF surrounded the Egyptian army in Gaza and entered the Sinai Peninsula, forcing Egypt to evacuate troops and begin peace negotiations.
Negotiations with a view to a final settlement of the problem began on January 13, 1949 on the island of Rhodes. On February 24, the General Egyptian-Israeli Armistice Agreement was concluded; Israel signed a similar agreement with Lebanon on March 23, with Jordan on April 3, and with Syria on July 20. Iraq, Yemen and Saudi Arabia have not signed a truce. The new borders of Israel, according to the agreements, covered about 78% of the former mandated territories. The borders established by the truces became known as the "Green Line". Gaza Strip and the West Bank Jordan were occupied respectively by Egypt and Jordan. A demilitarized zone was established between the territories controlled by Israel and the Arab states.
The Arab states did not recognize Israel, believing that an Arab state should be formed throughout Palestine. The problem of refugees remained unresolved, many of whom are still in neighboring Arab states. This set of issues became the basis of the so-called Palestinian problem, which has not been resolved to date.
Russian Historical Encyclopedia
WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE ( מִלְחֶמֶת הָעַצְמָאוּת , milhemet X a-‘atzmaut, or מִלְחֶמֶת הַקוֹמְמִיוּת , milhemet X a-comemiut, or מִלְחֶמֶת הַשִׁחְרוּר , milhemet X a-shihrur, that is liberation war), the war waged by the Jews of Eretz Israel against the Arabs in 1947–1949. for their lives, freedom and independence.
Chronologically, the war is divided into two stages: the first stage, which began on November 30, 1947, the day after the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the partition of Palestine, continued until May 14, 1948, inclusive, when the British troops and administration left the country; the second stage, which began with the evacuation of the British, ended on July 20, 1949, with the signing of the last armistice agreement (with Syria).
First stage
The beginning of the war was the attack on the Jews by semi-organized Arab gangs, led by representatives of the political organization of the Palestinian Arabs. The first attacks of the Arabs ran into the resistance of the mobilized units and reservists of the Jewish self-defense - X Agana, which consisted, in addition to headquarters, auxiliary units and a few artillery, of four Palmach battalions with a total strength of 2,100 men and women and 1,000 reserve fighters (in October); units and divisions of Khish (heil sad), that is, infantry with 1,800 cadre army fighters and ten thousand reservists; parts of Him (heil mishmar), carrying security or garrison service, with 32 thousand registered fighters who were in positional defense. Khish consisted of separate units, named after the areas of deployment (for example, Giv'ati, Golani, Carmeli). Subsequently, these parts were formed in separate brigades. Members of the Gadna, who had been trained in support functions, were actively preparing to fill the ranks of the Palmach and Hysh. There were two more underground armed organizations that during the first stage of the war acted independently of X agans: Etzel (see Irgun tsvai leummi), numbering five thousand people at the beginning of the war, and Lehi (see Lohamei herut Yisrael) with one thousand fighters.
During December, the areas under Jewish control were gradually separated from the Arab areas. In cities with mixed populations, areas between Jewish and Arab residential areas were evacuated and became the object of fighting on both sides. As a result of the British policy - formally neutral, but actually pro-Arab - the Arabs found themselves in a better position in the struggle for the main lines of communication.
On January 10, 1948, an attack by a detachment of the so-called Arab Liberation Army, numbering 900 people, on kibbutz Kfar Sold in the Upper Galilee was repelled. The Arabs attacked solitary Jewish settlements located in the hilly regions of Jerusalem and Hebron, in the Upper Galilee and the Negev. They brutally killed 35 people from the Jerusalem detachment, sent to the rescue of the isolated settlements of Gush Etzion in the mountains of Hebron. Explosive charges were planted in the Jewish districts of Haifa. In Jerusalem, explosions damaged the buildings of the Palestine Post newspaper and the Jewish Agency. Three military trucks filled with explosives were blown up on Ben-Ie Street X good luck. Whole houses were demolished by the explosion and dozens of Jews were killed and wounded.
The Jewish lines of communication were guarded by armored personnel carriers and convoys, which left irregularly and moved in circuitous ways, usually at night. In March, after an unsuccessful attempt to capture the Jewish settlements, the Arabs threw their main forces into the battle for roads, while continuing their attacks on the outskirts of cities with a mixed population and on settlements in the north, in the Jerusalem mountains and in the Negev. During this period, the Jewish forces made significant progress in organizing and training personnel. By the end of March, twenty-one thousand people aged 17-25 had been mobilized. The production of anti-tank flamethrowers, machine guns and explosives has expanded. A large consignment of light weapons purchased from Czechoslovakia was expected to arrive. Air Force Jewish defense consisted of 30 light aircraft, which were used for reconnaissance, transportation of goods and supply of isolated areas.
The upcoming evacuation of British troops prompted the Jewish command to launch active military operations in order to secure control over the territory of the Jewish state and strengthen Jewish defensive positions to repel the expected Arab invasion. The first task was to free the road to Jerusalem, which was successfully carried out during the operation "Nakhshon", and on April 15, three large transport columns delivered food and weapons to Jerusalem. At the same time, the Arab Liberation Army made an attempt to seize kibbutz Mishmar- X a-‘Emek in the Jezreel Valley, subjecting him to artillery fire. This attempt ended in failure. On April 14, parts of the Palmach penetrated into main city Galilee Safed, strengthening the defenses of the besieged Jewish quarter. On April 18, the Palmach detachments and the Golani brigade units cut the Arab region of Tiberias into two parts, after which the Arabs decided to leave the city and were evacuated with the help of the British. On April 21, the battle for Haifa began. During the day, Jewish troops captured the city. Despite assurances from the Jewish authorities that they would guarantee the safety of the Arab population, most of the Arabs left Haifa. During the operation "Iftah", the purpose of which was to occupy the Upper Galilee and establish control over its most important roads, the forces X the Aghans took possession of the fortified police fort of Rosh Pinna (see Rosh Pinna) and the neighboring military camp after being evacuated by the British (April 28). On May 3, the second Palmach battalion entered Safed and on May 10 captured key positions in the city. The Arab population of Safed, numbering ten thousand people, turned into a wholesale flight; it was followed by the inhabitants of the Arab villages of the Hula Valley, as a result of which, on the eve of the invasion of the armies of the Arab states, the entire territory of the Eastern and Upper Galilee was under the control of the Jewish armed forces. May 12, Bet She'an fell; strength X The agans also took possession of a number of villages in the region of Mount Tabor. During the operation "Ben-'Ammi", the Carmeli formation occupied strongholds dominating the city of Akko, located on the sea coast of Galilee, restoring land communication with the settlements of Yehi'am and Khanita; Acre was taken on 17 May.
On the Tel Aviv front, on the eve of Pesach, the Alexandroni, Kiryati and Giv'ati brigades launched Operation Hametz and, having occupied several Arab villages, surrounded the neighboring Arab city of Jaffa. Meanwhile, Etzel's forces attacked the northern quarters of Jaffa. The encirclement of the city was completed on April 29, and most of the 70,000 Arab population fled. On May 13, after the withdrawal of the British troops, Jaffa finally capitulated.
On April 9, the combined forces of Etzel and Lehi attacked Deir Yassin, an Arab village near Jerusalem. 254 Arabs, including women and children, caught in the war zone, were killed. By publicizing the events in Deir Yassin and portraying the actions of the Jews as a premeditated murder, Arab propaganda contributed to increased panic among the Arab population and its flight. April 13 in Jerusalem, a convoy heading to the hospital " X adassah" to the Jewish enclave on Mount Scopus, was attacked by Arabs, and 78 people, mostly doctors and medical workers, were killed with the connivance of the British police. The Arab Liberation Army captured the strongholds dominating the road to Jerusalem and again cut off the city. On May 4, the Arabs attacked the settlements of Gush ‘Etzion. On 12 May, Arab forces succeeded in penetrating the Israeli defensive line; armored cars of the Transjordan Legion penetrated the largest settlement of this block - Kfar Etzion. All the defenders of this settlement were killed, some of them after the capitulation by the inhabitants of the Arab villages located in the vicinity of Hebron, and the surviving inhabitants of other settlements were taken prisoner by the legionnaires. On May 14, when the British troops left Jerusalem, the forces of the Jerusalem Etzioni Infantry Brigade launched Operation Kilshon to prevent the Arabs from capturing the fortified areas of the city abandoned by the British troops. Almost all of these areas were immediately occupied by Jewish armed forces. The achievements of the Jewish troops were significant, but their fighting capacity was depleted in numerous operations. Some of the best commanders fell in the battles. The extremely poorly equipped Israeli army, which was in the process of being formed on the eve of the proclamation of the Jewish state, now had to fight not with the motley military detachments of the Palestinian Arabs, who, however, were assisted by the Syrians and Iraqis, but with the regular trained armies of neighboring Arab countries.
During the six weeks leading up to the declaration of the State of Israel and the invasion of neighboring Arab states, Jewish forces occupied Haifa, Jaffa, Safed and Tiberias, surrounded Akko and captured about a hundred Arab villages. Jewish forces were able to move freely along all the main arteries of the country, except for the Latrun area on the road from Jerusalem to the coastal strip. The Palestinian Arab forces were defeated and the Arab Liberation Army was defeated in the north and in the "Jerusalem Corridor". X The aganah lost several hundred fighters, but by the end of this period had thirty thousand armed young soldiers. Combat facilities were greatly strengthened by the arrival of the first transport of weapons from Czechoslovakia and the acquisition of anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery, but the young army still lacked field artillery and fighter aircraft.
Second phase
On May 15, 1948, the day the British mandate expired, the armies of five Arab states - Egypt, Transjordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq - invaded the territory of the State of Israel, which had been proclaimed the day before. General staff and commanders X The Aghans continued to fulfill their responsibilities within the new framework of a rapidly emerging regular army, but now their identities were no longer classified. Until the end of May, mobilization into the ranks of the active army was completed, which from May 31, 1948 became known as the Israel Defense Forces (Tsva X aganah le-Israel, abbreviated Tsa X al). Etzel and Lehi agreed to stop independent actions and merge with Tsa X al throughout the territory of the State of Israel, except for Jerusalem, which, according to the plan for the partition of Palestine, approved by the UN, was to become an international city.
In the south, the Egyptian army went on the offensive and crossed the border. After passing the area inhabited by Arabs, a large column moved along the sea coast to Gaza; another part landed from ships north of Gaza, and the third advanced in a northeasterly direction towards Beersheba. Some units advanced to the Arab cities of Hebron and Bet-Lehem, where, having joined with detachments of the Transjordan Arab Legion, they took up positions south of Jerusalem. In all these areas, 27 Jewish settlements were scattered, and in 22 of them the number of defenders was less than 30 people. Five kibbutzim were located in what later became known as the Gaza Strip. The Egyptian command decided to destroy these settlements in order to secure their rear and flanks before launching an attack on Tel Aviv. But despite the incessant attacks supported by tanks, they failed to succeed. The combat readiness and exceptional stamina of the almost unarmed kibbutzim Negba, Kfar Darom, Nirim and Yad Mordechai upset the plans of the Egyptians. Although the defenders of the last two kibbutzim had to retreat, and their inhabitants to leave their settlements, however, five days of resistance decided the fate of the Egyptian offensive, holding back their main forces, while the Israeli command strengthened its positions in the vicinity of Tel Aviv, sent reinforcements to the south, including some of the received artillery weapons and several fighters that played an important role in the decisive battle. The main phase of this battle began on May 29, when the Egyptian forces, after the battle at kibbutz Yad Mordechai, were regrouped and the column, which made up one brigade and numbering five hundred vehicles, passed Ashdod and was detained at the bridge 3 km north of the city. The sappers of the Giv'ati brigade, operating in the area, blew up the bridge the day before. The Israeli command brought into battle the first four Messerschmidt-type aircraft that had just arrived. The Egyptians managed to dig in. The destroyed bridge, located 32 km from Tel Aviv, was the northernmost point reached by Egyptian troops during the entire war. However, the settlements of the Negev were cut off from the center of Israel.
On the Jerusalem front, the Arab Legion of Transjordan achieved significant success. Despite the fact that in Jerusalem a few selfless fighters managed to break through twice into the walled Old City, the defenders of the Jewish quarter in it were not able to hold their positions; May 28, 1948 they were forced to surrender and go into captivity. Jewish settlements located north of Jerusalem were also abandoned. Having occupied the Latrun Monastery, the legion cut the main highway from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem; the water supply that brought water to the city from the coastal plain was also cut off.
The besieged Jerusalem was deprived of all sources of supply. Water and food supplies were given to the population in the most limited quantities. The city was subjected to incessant artillery bombardment by the Arab Legion, and the number of casualties increased day by day, mainly among civilian population. The Arab Legion attacked Kibbutz Ramat Rachel on the southern outskirts of Jerusalem and Mount Scopus in the north, but were still repulsed by a handful of defenders. On the other hand, three attempts by the Jewish armed forces to occupy Latrun failed and suffered heavy losses. On the outskirts of Jerusalem, the attacks of the legion on kibbutz Ma'ale were repelled. X a-Hamishsha and other strongholds, and communication with the city was resumed along a new dirt road, the so-called Burma road, bypassing Latrun, laid in incredibly difficult conditions by volunteer residents of Jerusalem, including women, children and the elderly.
In the central part of Israel, the Iraqi army, consisting of one armored and two infantry brigades, captured the "triangle" of the Arab cities of Nablus (Shechem) - Jenin - Tul Karm on May 24, and the next day tried to break through to Netanya. The Iraqis occupied one kibbutz and attacked three others near Tul Karm. In order to force the enemy forces to go on the defensive, the Golani Brigade penetrated the "triangle" from the north and captured Jenin. Not having sufficient reserves to level the front line, the Israeli command ordered a systematic withdrawal from Jenin. The only success achieved by the Iraqi forces was their capture of the headwaters of the Yarkon River and the pumping station at Rosh X a-‘Ayin.
In the north, Syrian troops invaded Israel south of Lake Kinneret and launched an offensive on the night of May 15 with a select infantry brigade, an armored car battalion, an artillery battalion and a tank company. Despite heavy losses, the Jews held all their positions. On May 18, the enemy again threw his forces on Tsemakh, Sha'ar- X a-Golan and Masadu, a kibbutz in the area of Lake Kinneret. After fierce fighting, the Syrians managed to capture these settlements. The front line moved to Dgania. The enemy troops reached and crossed the borders of its territory. With outdated and primitive weapons, the inhabitants went out to meet the attackers. Three tanks were soon knocked out; the Syrians retreated, leaving Tsemakh, and took up positions on the hills east of Dganiya. While the Syrian forces were regrouping, a detachment of demolition X Agana blew up a large ammunition depot. The Syrian offensive has been halted. However, it resumed on June 6, when the Syrians attacked the settlement of Mishmar- X a-Yarden, located north of Kinneret. The first attack, accompanied by heavy losses on both sides, was repulsed, but as a result of a new attack on June 10, the enemy captured a bridgehead on the Israeli bank of the Jordan. Mishmar settlement X a-Yarden was captured, destroyed and its inhabitants taken prisoner. On the same day, the defenders of Ein Gev, the only Jewish kibbutz on east coast Kinneret, managed to repulse the powerful attack of the Syrians.
The Lebanese command chose for the offensive the road passing through Malkiya, located to the west of the heavily fortified police fort of Nabi Yusha, which was in the hands of the Arabs. On the night of May 14-15, a battalion of the Iftakh brigade launched an assault on Malkiya, approached Kadesh and, after heavy fighting, occupied both settlements. But the next day, the Palmach warriors were forced to leave them and took up positions between the border and Nabi-Yusha. On the same night, one unit of this battalion penetrated deep into Lebanon and cut an important supply line. After the conquest of Malkiya and Nabi Yusha, the Iftah brigade was hastily transferred to the south to participate in military operations in the Jerusalem area.
June 6, simultaneously with the Syrian offensive on Mishmar- X HaYarden, a combined force of Syrians, Lebanese and a reorganized Arab Liberation Army, consisting of two brigades, attacked Malkiya and defeated the small Jewish garrison. Through Malkia, parts of the Arab army rushed to Central Galilee, where the Arab population predominated, and entrenched themselves in this area.
On June 11, an armistice agreement entered into force between the warring parties through the efforts of a mediator appointed by the UN General Assembly, Count Folke Bernadotte.
On the tenth day of the armistice, the ship Altalena landed on the shore opposite the settlement of Kfar Vitkin with weapons brought by Etzel from Europe. Disagreements between the leadership of Etzel and the Israeli government over the distribution of these weapons led to the fact that the ship was fired upon and sunk in coastal waters off Tel Aviv.
The Arab and Israeli armies used the truce to strengthen their positions. Through the mediation of Bernadotte, an agreement was reached between the parties on the demilitarization of the territory of Mount Scopus in Jerusalem. The armistice expired at 6 am on July 9, and hostilities resumed. They continued for 10 days.
During the period of July 9-18, known as the Ten Days of Fighting, two Israeli brigades fought incessantly to hold back the powerful onslaught of the Egyptians and, breaking through their lines, come to the rescue of local kibbutzim, who courageously held their positions, repelling the attacks of superior enemy forces. On the night of July 17, Israeli troops launched a powerful attack on two positions located in the rear of the Egyptian defense line. A decisive role in this operation, carried out by the combined forces of the Giv'ati and Negev brigades, was played by a battalion of paratroopers of the newly created armored brigade, which a few days before made a breakthrough in the front in the Lod region (see below). On the evening of July 18, when the ceasefire came into force, Egyptian communications running from east to west were interrupted, and Israeli forces established a direct land connection with the Negev.
Tsa's largest offensive X ala during these Ten days of fighting was directed against the Arab Legion of Transjordan on the central front, in the area between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. One and a half days after the resumption of hostilities, as a result of the fighting, in which Israeli armored units participated for the first time, the largest airport in the Middle East in Lod was taken. The tank battalion made a sudden rush to Lod, broke into the city, overcoming the Arab positions, fired at enemy targets and repeated the same maneuver towards the starting positions. It was one of the most daring operations of the entire war, causing complete confusion in the ranks of the enemy. Without giving the legion a chance to recover, the forces of the Yiftach brigade went on the offensive. On July 12, one of the units of the Kiryati brigade captured the city of Ramla, the garrison of which capitulated after a short battle, and the other part occupied the village of Ras al-Ein (Rosh- X a-‘Ayin), captured in June by Iraqi forces.
The Arab Legion completed the regrouping of forces to strengthen the defense of Ramallah (see Ramallah X) and Latrun. In Jerusalem, local units fought heavy battles in different quarters of the city for ten days. However, all the efforts X ala to take possession of Latrun and break into the Old City of Jerusalem were unsuccessful.
The most important operation in the north during the Ten Days of Fighting was Operation Dekel, which ended on 16 July with the capture of Nazareth. As a result of this operation, the entire belt of the Lower Galilee from the Haifa Bay to Lake Kinneret was cleared of enemy troops. In the north, the Carmeli brigade eliminated the Syrian salient in the Mishmar- X a-Yarden.
Small Israeli aircraft, despite the significant superiority of enemy aircraft, during these ten days actively carried out numerous combat missions. Israeli Navy, hastily re-equipping obsolete ships on which Jewish repatriates arrived illegally in Mandatory Palestine, fired on Arab military installations on the Mediterranean coast. The fleet suffered the most significant losses in personnel on land, when, to reinforce the Giv'ati brigade on southern front A battalion of naval paratroopers was hastily transferred.
The second armistice agreement came into force on 18 July. However, its violation began immediately after its signing. During July - October, the Jewish part of Jerusalem was fired almost every night by the Transjordan Legion. In the north, the Arab Liberation Army continued to make occasional surprise attacks on Jewish positions. On October 15, Israeli ground forces, with air support, went on the offensive after the Egyptians attacked a convoy heading south and a number of roads linking the kibbutzim. In the course of a short-term seven-day operation, provisionally named "Joab" (also known as Operation "Ten Plagues"), the road to the Negev was cleared and the entire area was cleared of enemy troops. This operation was carried out by three infantry brigades - Negev, Giv'ati and Yiftah - together with an armored battalion of the eighth armored brigade and the largest artillery unit of the Israeli army. At the same time, Israeli aviation for the first time achieved qualitative air superiority, and the Israeli navy won a major victory by sinking the Egyptian flagship Emir Farouk off the coast of Gaza.
Early in the morning of October 21, Israeli troops began a stubborn battle for Beersheba. At 8 o'clock in the morning the white flag was raised over the police fort, and at 9 o'clock 15 minutes the city was taken. brigade X ar'el, operating in the hilly area between the "Jerusalem Corridor" and Bet Guvrin, significantly expanded the approaches to Jerusalem and cut the Egyptian supply line connecting Bet Guvrin with Bet Lehem. After the withdrawal of the Egyptians south of Ashdod (October 28) and Majdal (November 6) to Gaza, Israeli forces captured the coastal strip to kibbutz Yad Mordechai. In the Faluja area, almost an entire Egyptian brigade of four thousand people was surrounded. On November 9, the police fort of Iraq, Suwaydan, was taken, which was transferred by the British to the Arabs at the beginning of the war and served as an important commanding height on the road to the kibbutzim of the Negev. In the north, the Arab Liberation Army under the command of Fawzi Kaukji, trying to exploit the fact that the Tsa forces X ala are busy fighting in the Negev, attacked kibbutz Menara bordering Lebanon. On the night of October 28, the Israeli army launched Operation Hiram, attacking the main bases of the Kaukji army. Having made a lightning throw, the Israeli forces, in the course of stubborn fighting that lasted less than a day, put parts of this army to flight and forced them to retreat to the north. The Oded Brigade entered into battle with the Arab forces retreating to the north, and, having reached the front road on the Lebanese border, unexpectedly for the Arabs, headed west and cleared the enemy troops all the way to the Mediterranean coast. The 7th brigade occupied Malkiya, approaching it from the south. The Carmeli Brigade, which defended eastern section front and blocking the way for the Syrians from Kibbutz Mishmar- X a-Yarden, also went on the offensive. She crossed the Lebanese border and occupied a number of villages located along the road to Manara (these Lebanese villages were subsequently abandoned by Israeli troops in accordance with the Israeli-Lebanese armistice agreement signed in March 1949). On October 31, 60 hours after the start of the operation, when the truce came into force, the entire Galilee was cleared of the Arab armed forces.
During November-December, the command of Tsa X Ala developed a plan for Operation Horev to push Egyptian troops back from Israel's southern borders. At noon on December 22, the coastal strip was subjected to intensive shelling from guns, and at night elements of the Golani brigade were brought into action. Communication between Rafah and Gaza was cut and an attempt was made to occupy key heights. Initially, the purpose of these operations was to distract the attention of the enemy from the eastern flank, where a decisive blow was being prepared. On the morning of December 26, Israeli troops captured the key central bastions on the Egyptian eastern flank and blockaded Bir Asluj, the extreme point of the Egyptian line in the northeast, which opened the way from the rear to Auja al-Khafir, the central point of the Egyptian fortifications. The main Israeli forces, which arrived in the Auja area not at dawn on December 26, as planned, but only at the end of the day, engaged enemy guard detachments, but could not launch a decisive attack. The offensive began on the morning of December 27, after the northern and western approaches to Auja were blocked. The attack, in which a battalion of an armored brigade played a decisive role, ran into fierce resistance; Egyptian troops operated under air cover. But at 8 o'clock in the morning Auja fell, after which the Egyptian command was forced to leave their strongholds. Israeli troops continued to pursue the enemy. Soon the Beer Sheva - Auja highway was cleared, and Israeli territory was completely liberated from Egyptian troops.
Advancing west and northwest from Auja, on the heels of the retreating Egyptians, Israeli troops entered the Sinai. After fierce fighting, Abu Agheila, located 48 km west of the border established by the UN, and El Arish in Egypt were taken. Despite the Egyptian air raids, part of the Israeli armed forces continued to move deep into the Sinai Peninsula. However, at that moment, diplomatic pressure was put on the Israeli government, as a result of which the Israeli command was ordered to leave the Sinai until January 2, 1949.
Operations continued within Mandatory Palestine. Within a few days the Golani brigades and X Ar'el, with the support of the Negev brigade and armored units, fought heavy battles in the Rafah region. A stubborn struggle went on for several outposts, which passed from hand to hand. Pushing the enemy back to the coast, the Israeli army was preparing to attack Rafah, but did not have time to carry out this operation, since at noon on January 7, a ceasefire agreement came into force. On this day, Israeli aircraft shot down five British fighters. Later it turned out that they were mistaken for Egyptian warplanes, which bombarded Israeli positions on a daily basis. The Alexandroni brigade acted against the Egyptian formation, which was surrounded in the Faluja area. This formation, under the command of Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser, in the near future the President of Egypt, was withdrawn from the encirclement only after the conclusion of a truce between Israel and Egypt on February 24 on the island of Rhodes. Israeli soldiers saw off the soldiers of this brigade with military honors, paying tribute to their resilience. In early March, the Negev and Golani brigades launched an attack on the southern Negev from both sides, which, according to the plan for the partition of Palestine, was assigned to the territory of the State of Israel. At noon on March 10, 1949, the Israeli flag was raised over several buildings abandoned by the Transjordanian unit on the northern shore of the Aqaba (Eilat) Gulf of the Red Sea, west of Aqaba. The port city of Eilat soon grew on this site, then known as the Umm Rashrash point.
On April 3, 1949, an armistice agreement was signed with Transjordan in Rhodes. March 23 at Rosh- X a-Nikra, an armistice agreement was signed with Lebanon, on July 20 - an agreement with Syria. These acts formally ended Israel's war for its independence.
As it became clear about the decision to create the country of Israel, a real undeclared war began on the part of the Zionists: even before the declaration of the country, about 250 thousand Palestinian Arabs left their homes. The League of Arab States did not recognize Israel and declared "jihad" (holy war) on the Jews.
At midnight on May 14, 1948, the British Mandate for Palestine ended. Immediately after Ben-Gurion on May 14, 1948 announced the development of the country of Israel, the troops of the Arab League states: Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon begin military operations against Israel. Saudi Arabia and Yemen also declared war on Israel. 40 thousand The troops of the Arab League, led by the ruler of Jordan, were opposed by 30,000. the armed forces of the Hagan organization, armed with Czech weapons (the Russian department was informed about the state of affairs in Israel by NKVD employees working under cover Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee. and they concealed the intentions of the leaders of Israel to defect to the United States, to become an outpost of America in the Middle East; Help from the USSR, which came through Czechoslovakia, the Zionists accepted, and the Russian Alliance was simply "thrown." — V.R.).
The armies of the Arab countries occupied a number of territories in southern and eastern Palestine that were not intended for Jews, and also captured a small Jewish quarter in the old part of Jerusalem. The Israelis, meanwhile, took control of the strategic road to Jerusalem, going through the mountains, took up defensive positions and repulsed all attacks of the Arabs. On May 20, 1948, the UN called on the parties to a truce, but the proposed settlement plan was unacceptable to both parties.
Despite the fact that at the initial step the military actions developed in favor of the Arabs, the situation soon changed. Arab unity was undermined by sharp contradictions. The Palestine Liberation Army was subordinate to the Mufti of Jerusalem, among all the Arab states, only Jordan had efficient army- The Arab Legion, commanded by the British - General Glubb. The Israelis were armed with modern weapons.
The course of the war changed already in July 1948, when the 10-day coming of the Jews neutralized the offensive forces of the Arabs; and the final arrival of the Jews in October led to the fact that by the beginning of 1949, the Israelis were able to occupy the entire territory of Palestine close to the border with Lebanon and the Dutch heights in the north and the Gulf of Akkab and the Sinai Peninsula in the south, except for the Gaza Strip (withdrew to Egypt). In this way, Israel captured 6.7 thousand km of the territory of Palestine, which, according to the decision of the UN General Assembly of November 29, 1947, was intended for the Arab country, and western part Jerusalem. The remaining part of Palestine, allotted to the Arab state, and the eastern part of Jerusalem were annexed by Jordan. From the area captured by Israel, St. 900 thousand Arab inhabitants who settled in the Arab world, and from the Arab states, in turn, about 567 thousand Jews were deported, some of whom went to Israel.
On January 13, 1949, negotiations began between the two sides in Rhodes, which led to a truce. Armistice agreements were concluded: with Egypt on February 24, with Jordan on April 3, with Syria on July 20. These truce agreements did not resolve the Middle East conflict that emerged as a result of the Arab-Israeli war. They had a temporary character and did not solve completely territorial issues. Thus, due to the war, the Palestinian Arabs were unable to exercise their right to create their own country, which became a victim of Jewish extremism. The war only marked the beginning of the next conflicts in the region.
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Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO), an organization of the Palestinian liberation movement that fights for the realization of legitimate state rights Arab people Palestine.
Haganah sabotage on the Palestine railway 1947.
The change in the alignment of world powers in the system of international geopolitics began to be clearly manifested by the end of World War II.
The victory of the forces of the anti-Hitler coalition simultaneously put on the agenda the question of the place of each of the allied countries in the post-war hierarchy international relations. It is obvious that the US and the USSR began to put forward claims for leadership, despite the fact that Great Britain was a part of the coalition (France joined them later). The fact that London is losing its important (and in some matters decisive) role, giving way to its former colony - the United States - has become obvious to British politicians. In the post-war world, Washington and Moscow come to the fore, and it is they who will make world politics as centers of new geopolitical systems (which later took shape in the North Atlantic Alliance and the Organization Warsaw Pact). This became clear even to such a wise politician as Winston Churchill, who, in his famous Fulton speech in 1946, openly declared that a new geopolitical reality was coming - the Cold War, and Western countries to resist such a force as the socialist camp led by the USSR.
The Cold War also led to the end of the colonial system. It also meant a departure from a relic of the era of the League of Nations - the mandate system. Britain, which had ruled Palestine by mandate since 1922, now had to decide what to do with the region. profitability geographical location Palestine made it unthinkable for Britain to leave Jerusalem. However, London needed to get the right to own this region, because in the new realities of international relations, the old system of dividing the world after the First World War began to be revised. This was well understood in the UK. This was well understood by those in Palestine who wanted the British to leave the region. The struggle for Palestine has become one of the main pages of the post-war history of Asia, and in this article the question will be considered: what made the British leave Palestine - a region whose possession for thirty years provided Great Britain with control over the Middle East?
Palestine until 1948. Agricultural workers had to carry weapons with them at all times.
The fact that the British did not plan to leave Palestine is understandable if we analyze such a fact as the appearance of the post of Commissioner for the Reconstruction of Palestine (Douglas Harris was appointed to this post on March 22, 1943). His duties included the implementation of plans for the post-war development of the agro-industrial complex of Palestine and the implementation of its internal security. Moreover, the plan for the restoration of Palestine was designed for a period of more than twenty years. That is, we see that Great Britain did not plan to leave Palestine. And for the British it was obvious that it was necessary to consolidate their right to own Palestine, already taking into account the changing alignment of international forces.
But in addition to the Great Powers, Great Britain had to take into account the opinion of the Jewish and Arab communities of Palestine, whose political organizations began to play an important role not only within the region, but also at the international level. This was especially true of the Jewish national movement.
Although during the Second World War the Zionist leadership of the Yishuv supported Great Britain, despite the fact that the White Paper of 1939 dealt a significant blow to Zionism, nevertheless, the Zionists were not going to give up their political goals (this is most clearly demonstrated by the words of David Ben-Gurion: “We will fight Hitler as if there were no White Paper, and we will fight the White Paper as if there were no Hitler”). In 1942, the Biltmore Program was adopted, which essentially called for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. David Ben-Gurion believed that if the First World War gave the Jewish people the opportunity to create a national home in their historical homeland, then the Second World War will make it possible to build a national state. The importance of the Biltmore Program lies in the fact that, adopted in New York under active participation American Zionists meant a reorientation of Zionism from Great Britain to the United States. If earlier, mainly because of the Anglophile sentiments of the President of the World Zionist Organization, Chaim Weizmann, the Zionists advocated active cooperation with Great Britain, then new leaders, such as Ben-Gurion, believed that it would no longer be possible to hope for the support of London, since the previous twenty years the rule of the British in Palestine showed that the opportunities for the existing British policy of creating a Jewish state are less and less. According to historian Sergei Shchevelev, back in 1938, the Jewish Agency in Palestine set a course for a reorientation towards the United States. The choice in favor of Washington can be explained by the high degree of influence of American Jews on their own government, and by their financial power. Ben-Gurion understood that the world would change after the Second World War, and the Jews should use these changes for their own purposes. Therefore, his radical demand for the immediate creation of a Jewish state (the Biltmore program said that "Palestine must become a Jewish community integrated into the structure of a new democratic world", which was a camouflaged demand for the transformation of all of Palestine into a Jewish state; the same demand was enshrined at the XXII Congress World Zionist Organization in Basel in 1946) contrasted sharply with the position of Chaim Weizmann, who considered negotiations the only way to achieve the goals of Zionism. But, as historian Irina Zvyagelskaya noted, “life has shown that Ben-Gurion’s line, despite unconditional radicalism, turned out to be more viable and more in line with immediate political tasks.”
Palestine 1947-48. A Palestinian police officer armed with a Ross-Enfield M1917 rifle (according to other sources
"Mauser-Enfield") The end of the British Mandate.
The existing cooperation between Great Britain and the military organizations of political Zionism in Palestine was a forced measure (specifically with the Haganah), but in London they looked at it with great concern, since the military experience that the Haganah fighters could get could later be used against the British themselves, which then in fact, it took place in the course of the terror unfolded with the blessing of Ben-Gurion against the British administration. On October 1, 1945, the future first Prime Minister of Israel sends an encrypted telegram to the Chief of the Haganah General Staff, Moshe Sne, ordering him to start an armed uprising against the British administration in Palestine. The end of 1945 and the whole of 1946 passed in Palestine against the backdrop of Jewish terror against the British. At that time, among the Jewish military organizations, the Haganah (controlled by the Jewish Agency and the socialist Mapai party), the Irgun (the military organization of the revisionists) and the Lehi (the most radical far-right organization) were engaged in terrorist activity. The weight and capabilities of each of the military organizations depended on the weight and capabilities of the political parties that stood above them, and vice versa. The reality of Mandatory Palestine was a situation where, as historian Irina Zvyagelskaya writes, “political parties were closely associated with trade unions and relied on kibbutz federations and military organizations, which predetermined not only strong political influence in military formations, but also the fact that political the weight of the party was largely determined by the power of the military group that it controlled.
Palestine until 1948. British paratroopers in the cordon.
Among the most notorious acts of terrorism organized by the fighters of the Jewish military underground was a large-scale sabotage on November 1, 1945, during which 153 explosions were carried out on railways Palestine, and the explosion of the King David Hotel on July 22, 1946 in Jerusalem, which housed the British administration. And although the political leadership of the Yishuv officially condemned such and other terrorist attacks, the British quite rightly believed that it was involved in these events. Despite the repressive measures taken by the British against Jewish terrorism (on June 29, 1946, martial law was introduced in Palestine, the institutions of the Jewish Agency, Vaad Leumi, the Land Fund, etc. were sealed, and in 1947, by order of the British Foreign Minister Ernst Bevin, 4,500 Jewish refugees were expelled, who, in his opinion, were a source of instability), the course of an armed uprising against the British by the radical leader of Zionism (and by radical we here mean the demand for the creation of a Jewish state and absolutely free immigration of Jews to Palestine) did not canceled, and the actions of the British only increased anti-British sentiment.
Palestine until 1948. Mounted outfit of the Palestinian police.
Realizing that terror, whatever its scale, would not force the British to leave Palestine, the political leadership of the Yishuv undertook to "put pressure" on Great Britain through its allies in Anti-Hitler coalition, whose international weight increased by the end of the Second World War so much that Great Britain has now moved to third place in the unspoken hierarchy of the Great Powers. As we have already noted, the choice initially in favor of the United States as a country that will “put pressure” on the UK was explained strong influence American Jewry to their own government. In the USSR, the political activity of the Jewish lobby was completely absent. It is worth adding here that the position of the USSR in relation to the Palestinian problem in the pre-war years was not in favor of the Zionists: “In the 1920-1930s, active anti-Zionist propaganda was conducted in the Soviet press ... The Zionist solution Jewish question, despite the fact that the position of European Jewry was recognized by Moscow as catastrophic, was still considered "a trick of British imperialism." The way out of the situation in Palestine was seen by the Soviet leadership only on the path of "rallying the Arab and Jewish working masses of Palestine, creating a united front of all progressive anti-fascist (both Arab and Jewish) elements of the country" . And it is obvious that politicians like David Ben-Gurion and even Chaim Weizmann could not be satisfied. Therefore, the choice between the USSR and the USA was made in favor of the latter. True, we add that to help Soviet Union the political leadership of the Yishuv returned to the decisive years of 1947-1948 for Zionism.
The British in the cordon 1946-1947
During the reign of F. Roosevelt, the United States adhered to the principle of the need to prevent the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine unilaterally. Roosevelt believed that "Palestine should be placed under the joint guardianship of Christians, Muslims and Jews." However, during the 1944 presidential election, Roosevelt, in an effort to get "Jewish" votes, supported the creation of a Jewish state and free immigration to Palestine for Jews. However, during a meeting with the rulers of the Arab countries, he assured them that the problem of Palestine could be solved only taking into account the opinions of its multi-confessional population. Such an ambiguous position of Roosevelt can be explained by an elementary unwillingness to spoil relations with each of the parties: the Jews should be told what they want to hear, and the Arabs should know that the American president is not on the side of the Jews.
However, the next American president, Harry Truman, was much more loyal to the Zionist project. It was he who began to demand from Great Britain to place Jewish refugees from Europe in Palestine, and to cancel the White Paper of 1939, sharply restricting immigration, since it was adopted without discussion in the League of Nations. It was precisely the pressure that the Americans began to exert on Great Britain that prompted the latter to come forward on November 13, 1945, with a proposal to create an Anglo-American Committee on Palestine. The fact that the British included only Americans in this working commission suggests that Great Britain did not want any other international players, such as the USSR, to interfere in Palestinian affairs (which in London were considered purely internal to the United Kingdom). The Anglo-American Committee on Palestine was the first international organization to set about solving the Palestinian problem after the war. The obligatory presence of the British in it is explained by the confidence of Great Britain that this committee will decide the question of Palestine in favor of continuing the mandate administration.
Palestine 1947-48. Sabotage of the Jewish underground workers on the railway.
The hopes of the British were justified. The Anglo-American Committee on Palestine opposed the granting of independence to Palestine, and it does not matter in what form it will be: whether Palestine remains united or whether it is divided - any of these plans were rejected, and therefore it would be better to leave Palestine under the British Mandate. Although the American side of the committee raised the issue of the immediate immigration of 100,000 European Jews to Palestine, however, British Foreign Secretary Ernst Bevin rejected this demand, citing the fact that new immigrants could join the ranks of the Zionist military organizations, and therefore pose a threat to the British administration in the region .
In order to somehow solve the problem of Palestine, but at the same time not to involve other countries in this, and since the proposals of the Anglo-American Committee on Palestine did not suit official London, the Morisson-Grady plan was developed, named after Herbert Morisson and Henry Grady, who led the British and the American Panel of Experts of the Anglo-American Committee on Palestine, respectively.
The essence of this plan was that the territory of Palestine was to be divided into four provinces: Arab, Jewish and two British. The central authority in all of Palestine remained with the British, who left behind the issues of foreign trade, the monetary system, defense, and communications. The rest of the provinces had autonomy. The main purpose of creating an Arab and Jewish province is to shift the problems of immigration that irritate Britain so much. After the creation of the Jewish province, it could receive an unlimited number of Jewish immigrants. And thus, the British believed that the demands of the Zionists for immigration would be satisfied, the Arabs would receive their own province, in which Jewish refugees from Europe would not penetrate, and in fact all control over Palestine would still be in the hands of Great Britain.
As you can see, the Morisson-Grady plan was another attempt by the British to somehow retain possession of Palestine, especially since such important economic issues as foreign trade and the monetary system remain under the jurisdiction of Great Britain.
However, this plan was rejected both by the members of the Arab League at the Bluedan Conference (September 9, 1946), and by the Palestinian Higher Arab Committee (London Conference in September 1946 - February 1947) and the World Zionist Organization (XXIII Zionist Congress in Basel 1947).
The failure of the Morisson-Grady plan did not stop the desire of the British to look further for possible ways to solve the Palestinian problem in their favor. In February 1947, Foreign Minister Ernst Bevin put forward his plan for overcoming the Palestine crisis, known as the Bevin Plan. The essence of Bevin's plan was to ensure that Palestine remains under the control of Britain for five years, during this period elections to a local single parliament take place, which will decide the fate of Palestine. This plan was opposed by both Arabs and Jews. The Arabs were not satisfied with the fact that the question of Palestine was again postponed, even if for five years, and the Jews did not want to have a minority in the parliament that might meet in the event of an election, since the number of Jews was significantly lower than the Arab population of Palestine.
Ultimately, the British, unable to solve the Palestinian problem on their own, nor with the help of their Western allies- the Americans, neither with the help of the Arabs, nor with the help of the Jews (both of them wanted the British to leave, which, of course, did not suit London), decided to submit the discussion of the fate of Palestine to the discretion of the United Nations. The logic of the British government is quite understandable: since by 1947 it was clear to the naked eye that relations between the US and the USSR, each of which sought to create its own military-political bloc, was already in such a state of confrontation that Washington and Moscow would hardly be able to agree on the same solution of the Palestinian problem. As a result, playing on the contradictions between the US and the USSR, the British hoped that the UN would simply prolong Britain's mandate, perhaps by changing the terms of ownership, but in fact leaving control over Palestine to London.
Palestine until 1948. Mobile parts of the Palestinian police.
By February 1947, when Great Britain referred the issue of considering the Palestinian problem to the UN, all states in the Middle East had independence. Only one Palestine still remained under the British mandate. The UN General Assembly decided to create the UN Special Commission on Palestine (UNSCOP; established on May 13, 1947), which included eleven representatives of neutral states (Canada, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Guatemala, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay, Iran, India, Yugoslavia and Australia). UNSCOP visited Palestine, where they held meetings with members of the Jewish Agency. The Arab Higher Committee refused to cooperate with this UN organization, which was a mistake. During the work of UNSCOP, its members witnessed the operation of the British to forcibly deport 4,500 Jewish refugees (including 400 pregnant women) who arrived in Palestine on the Exodus ship. This action made an impression on UNSCOP members. Seeing such a difficult situation, the commission, eventually divided in opinions about the fate of Palestine, decided by a majority of votes on the need to divide Palestine into three parts: one was assigned to the Jewish state, the other to the Arab state, and the third to the UN (Jerusalem and its environs). ). This option, in principle, suited the Zionists with the proviso that they wanted a large part of the territory of Palestine under their state, which was offered to them by the commission. However, this process required a transitional period. The US proposed (and the British supported) that during this transitional period Palestine should continue to be under British rule. That is, apparently, the British still remained in Palestine.
The British confiscate illegal weapons in one of the kibbutzim Palestine 1946
Since the Palestinian problem, from a purely local one, began to acquire an international character, the USSR showed interest in this region. The desire of the Soviet Union to oust the British from the Middle East and, if possible, to gain a foothold there, forced them to change their position. Initially, Moscow advocated the abolition of the mandate and the formation of an independent Palestine without dividing it into two states. However, in the future, seeing that such an option is impossible, the USSR stakes on the division of Palestine. After all, the Kremlin believed that the formation of a Jewish state would harm the interests of Great Britain, since the Arab states surrounding Palestine were under strong British influence. The emergence of a Jewish state, the unthinkability of which was perceived by almost all Arab countries (an exception can be made in relation to Transjordan, whose emir actively negotiated with the Zionists), harmed British policy in the Middle East. Despite hostility to Zionism as an ideology, the USSR supported the partition of Palestine and actually advocated the formation of Israel.
As a result, at the initiative of the USSR, a draft resolution on the division of Palestine, the formation of two states on its territory and the termination of the British mandate was submitted for discussion by the UN General Assembly. The British, who believed that the USSR and the USA would not find common solution and as a result, the resolution will not be adopted, and then the UN will actually prolong the British mandate. Moreover, the United States has already made such a proposal.
When voting on the Soviet resolution began on November 25, 1947, the opinions of the UN members (then there were 57 countries) were so divided that for another four days it was necessary to debate the Palestinian question (the voting went like this: 25 UN members voted for the division of Palestine, departure of the British and the formation of the Jewish and Arab states, 13 against, 17 abstained, 2 were absent; for a decision to be made, it was necessary to gain two-thirds of the positive votes). As a result, after a second vote on November 29, 1947, resolution No. 181 / II was adopted, according to which Palestine was to be divided into 8 parts, where 3 - under the Jewish state, 3 - under the Arab state, 1 - the Arab enclave of Jaffa on the territory Jewish state and 1 - the city of Jerusalem and its environs under the control of the UN. Britain was to withdraw its troops and leave Palestine no later than August 1, 1948.
Palestine until 1948. The landing of British troops. Haifa.
It would seem that the possibilities of the British to stay in Palestine - an important region of the Middle East from the point of view of strategic communications - have been exhausted. Although the British government, after the UN decision, announced that it would leave Palestine on May 15, 1948, the actions of the mandate administration in the second half of 1947 somehow do not speak of this. Yes, the researchers noted that in relation to Palestine, the years from 1945 to 1948. can be characterized as a period of gradual curtailment of mandate power structures and a sharp escalation of interethnic tension, which led to a full-scale war between the newly proclaimed State of Israel and all the Arab countries bordering it. But how can one explain the fact that even in the autumn of 1947 the British continued to build military fortifications in the Gaza Strip? Why build (and therefore invest a lot of money in it) something if you have to leave it all?
According to historian Dmitry Prokofiev, the British planned to create, at least in this part of Palestine, a huge military base, where British troops withdrawn from the territories of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq will be redirected. This is first.
Secondly, the UN commission, which was supposed to monitor the implementation of resolution No. 181 / II, was unable to travel to Palestine. The British declared that they were not going to help her in her work, and also did not guarantee her security at all in the conditions of the civil war that had actually begun in Palestine between Jews and Arabs. The latter circumstance led to the fact that the commission never left for Palestine, but carried out its work while sitting in New York. It is clear that her absence in Palestine still meant that the power in this region was in the hands of the British.
Thirdly, it remains very curious that, having transferred the solution of the Palestinian problem to the UN, Great Britain in February 1947 adopted a secret memorandum, according to which it would be beneficial for the British to have Palestine come under the rule of Transjordan, which was under strong British influence. This was argued by the fact that it is necessary "to secure the corridor from the Red Sea through the Negev desert and Gaza to the Mediterranean Sea." This would enable Great Britain to consolidate "prevailing British military and political influence in an area of great strategic importance» .
Illegal immigrants detained by the British Palestine 1947.
Fourth, started Civil War between the Jews and the Arabs of Palestine after the adoption of resolution No. 181 / II, when both sides wanted to expand the borders of their own future state, Great Britain did not interfere in the Arab-Jewish clashes and did not try to somehow stop them. The reason is that London felt that the inevitable Arab-Jewish war would serve as a pretext for bringing back British troops in order to restore order. The last High Commissioner, Allen Cunningham, was ordered not to interfere in the conflict between Jews and Arabs. Moreover, the British began to withdraw troops ahead of schedule in order to bring a real war closer as soon as possible. The logic of the British proceeded from the fact that during a really big war, the victory would be for the Arabs due to their large numbers. However, this did not prevent the British administration from selling ammunition and equipment to the Haganah.
Fifthly, in February 1948, the Prime Minister of Transjordan visits London, to whom the British declare that after the expiration of the mandate, Jordanian troops under the command of British General John Glubb should enter that part of Palestine, which, according to resolution No. Arab state.
Sixth, when bloody military clashes began between Jews and Arabs (among them, the tragedy in the Arab village of Deir Yassin on April 8-9, 1948 is worth noting), the League of Arab States demands that a UN Special Session dedicated to the Palestinian problem be convened. Seeing already the scale of the beginning of the war, voices are beginning to be heard in the UN for the transfer of Palestine under its guardianship. The United States was in favor of keeping the British military presence in the region, believing that the British would be able to restore the necessary order. The British representative to the UN supported this proposal, saying that London is ready to increase its military contingent in Palestine. This is another proof that the British really wanted to stay in Palestine.
Ship with illegal immigrants Palestine 1947.
For thirty years of mandate rule, the British did not plan to lose such an important region in terms of strategic communications as Palestine. But seeing that the Versailles-Washington system that collapsed during the Second World War, according to which Great Britain received Palestine, as well as other countries, under its control, will inevitably lead to its revision after the war. The appearance on the international level of the two Great Powers of the USA and the USSR actually led to the fact that Great Britain found itself in the role of the third. And inevitably, two new world players will want to raise the issue of the territories inherited from the British from Ottoman Empire. In this regard, the desire of Great Britain to retain all or part of Palestine by any means looks quite natural. And seeing the course of the post-war history of the solution of the Palestinian problem, it becomes clear that the British absolutely did not want to leave the region, which they owned for thirty years. The vector of development of international relations in the beginning cold war inevitably pushed London out of the Middle East. And in the new geopolitical reality, Great Britain was forced to withdraw from Palestine.
"Why did the British leave?" - this question placed in the title of the article could also be specified: “Did the British want to leave Palestine?” Obviously not. The whole set of circumstances forced the British to leave the region. Their hope of returning to Palestine, even if with the help of the Arab armies, did not materialize. And this became clear by 1949, when the first Arab-Israeli war ended. This is most likely why Britain did not recognize Israel in the first year of its existence (diplomatic relations were established only in 1950). But the departure of the British did not solve the Palestinian problem the way the world wanted then. Israel appeared and exists for more than 60 years, and the Arab state in Palestine has not yet been formed. So the world community has not been able to fully solve the Palestinian problem yet.
Notes:
1. Palestine. A Study of Jewish, Arab and British Polices. Vol. II. New Haven: Yale University Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1947. P. 1061
2. Shevelev S.S. Palestine under British mandate (1920-1948). Simferopol: Tavria-Plus, 1999. P.221
3. Bar-Zohar M. Ben-Gurion. Rostov n/a: Phoenix, 1998. P.163
4. State of Israel. M.: Institute of Oriental Studies RAS, 2005. P.69-70
5. Bar-Zohar M. Ben-Gurion. P.194
6. Zvyagelskaya ID Zionist armed forces: goals and methods of capturing Palestine // Peoples of Asia and Africa. 1976. No. 6. p.123
7. Zadka S. Blood in Zion: How the Jewish Guerrillas drove the British out of Palestine. London-Washington: Brassey's Ltd, 1995. P.90-95
8. Agapov M.G. The Palestinian problem in the 1920-1930s in the coverage of the Soviet press // Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference on Jewish Studies. Part 2. Academic Series, Issue 18. M., 2005. S.430-433
9. Tarasov P.K. Positions of Great Britain and the United States of America in the Palestinian Question during the Second World War // Oriental Collection. Issue I. Simferopol: TEI, 1997. P.94
10. Kolobov OA United States of America and the problem of Palestine. Nizhny Novgorod: Publisher Nizhny Novgorod University, 1993
11. Shevelev S.S. Palestine under British mandate. p.230
12. The Rise of Israel. The Anglo-American Committee on Palestine 1945-1946 / ed. by M. J. Cohen. New York, 1987. P.136-218
13. El-Eini R. Mandated Landscape: British Imperial Rule in Palestine, 1929-1948. London: Routledge, 2006. P.360-365
14. Origins and history of the problem of Palestine. Part I. 1917-1947. New York: United Nations, 1978. p.86
15. United Nations. Official Records of the Second Session of the General Assembly. Resolution 16 September - 29 November 1947. 181 (II) Future Government of Palestine. New York, 1948. P.132-133
16. Epstein A., Uritsky M. Rule of the British Empire in Palestine (1917-1948): between Jews and Arabs // Cosmopolis. Journal of World Politics. 2005. No. 11. pp.107-108
17. Prokofiev D. The birth of the crisis // Asia and Africa today. 1988. No. 1. p.17
18. Medvedko L.I. Middle East: the longest "conflict of the century" // Questions of history. 1988. No. 6. p.138
19. Prokofiev D. The birth of the crisis. p.20
20. Shevelev S.S. Palestine under British mandate. p.266
