Nadene Goldfoot
In a new town in northern Palestine, Joseph Trumpeldor ate breakfast on March 1, 1920, when he heard that nearby in Tel Hai, Jews were being attacked by Arabs. He saw his own gate open, so ran outside, and was shot and killed at age 40. Arabs retreated, but attacks had started after the cooperation of Emir Feisal and the Balfour Declaration.
Feisal admitted that Arab who approved of Zionism were "especially the educated among us." By 1920, they had given up hoping for peace, as they felt betrayed by England, France, and the Jews.
The OTHER reason for England having issued the Balfour Declaration betrayed even Balfour himself. Britain was at war and this gained Jewish support for the BRITISH CAUSE. Britain also wanted Arab support because they made up mover half the population of the Ottoman Empire, so they offered independence to Arabs so they would fight the Turks. The Jews and Arabs had been used. Now, just what did INDEPENDENCE mean? To Arabs, it meant Arab control of Palestine. They wanted the whole pie, not a slice of it.
Then, the British secretly agreed with the French to divide control of the Middle East. England took Palestine and Iraq, and France took Syria and Lebanon. All the agreements that Feisal had made with Weizmann were forgotten, as all this made Feisal furious. Now the Arabs demanded total control of the Middle East.
The League of Nations refused to GIVE Palestine to Great Britain. Instead, they gave them THE DUTY TO DEVELOP PALESTINE AS A JEWISH HOMELAND, and called it THE BRITISH MANDATE.
Why did Jews need a homeland? The League of Nations knew the history of the Jews, that they had been ousted of their native homeland in the year 70 by the Romans, and that they prayed 3 times a day since then for the return to their ancient homeland. Jews had been waiting for 1,850 years for this moment.
Between you and me, the Palestinian Arabs had never had a country called Palestine anywhere! They were Arabs, not native people, from Arabia, and had roamed into Palestine. They had been living in the surrounding countries as their citizens, and came into the Jewish towns when they heard they were building, such as Tel Aviv, looking for better paying jobs.
If, if, if---If Britain had fulfilled the duties under the Mandate, the Middle East might have known peace. Instead, Britain and France made a tragic mistake. They decided to keep control of the whole Middle East, except for PALESTINE--- which they would give, as a gift, to the Arabs.
Here's the rub. Even before the terms of the Mandate were final, British Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, split off all of Palestine east of the Jordan River and gave it to the Hashemites, a powerful family from the Arabian Peninsula. this was 4/5 of the land that was to have been the Jewish homeland. This new Arab country was known as Transjordan until 1949, and then became the Kingdom of Jordan. Today the 1/5 left for Jews has been divided again, called the West Bank, but contains Judea and Samaria. Jews got the Negev Desert and a little northern coastland and Jerusalem.
Many Palestinian Arabs made this new country their home. the 1st British High Commissioner for Palestine was SIR HERBERT SAMUEL, an English Jew. He established law and order. The years under his government were fairly peaceful. Even so, sir Herbert was under orders to make peace with the Arabs and to do as little as possible toward creating the promised Jewish National Home. I'm afraid that following those rules shows that he was more of a Hellenized Jew.
By 1921, the 1st Palestinian Arab riots against the Jews began, mainly in Jerusalem and Safed. These were poorly organized, and were contained by British authorities. Tell that to the Jews who suffered in them, though. Sir Herbert left Palestine in 1925, and British favoritism toward the Arabs became more open. By 1929,the Arabs decided to show their power. Riots in Jerusalem, Hebron and Safed went on longer, and were more brutal, than in 1921.
Rioters didn't attack the armed Jews of the kibbutzim. They attacked the unarmed in the cities. 133 Jews were massacred. Several hundred were wounded. Jewish property was destroyed. It was a true pogrom!
The British did nothing to punish rioters, or to prevent more riots. Naturally, the Arabs became even bolder.
Years of violence reached a climax in 1936. A symbol of Arab success was the holy city of Hebron(Kiriath Arba) which lies 18 miles south of Jerusalem. The Jews there were killed or driven out. Once it was King David's capital. Hebron is the burial place of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs---the fathers and mothers of the Jewish people---Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah. Now, for the first time in thousands of years, there were no Jews in Hebron.
Back in Europe in 1936, Germans were getting very bold. WWII was about to break out in 3 years. Jews had been feeling anti-Semitism a lot.
1935
- May 31: Jews barred from serving in the German armed forces
- September 15: "Nuremberg Laws": first anti-Jewish racial laws enacted; Jews no longer considered German citizens; Jews could not marry Aryans; nor could they fly the German flag.
- November 15: Germany defines a "Jew": anyone with three Jewish grandparents; someone with two Jewish grandparents who identifies as a Jew.
- 1936
- March 3: Jewish doctors barred from practicing medicine in German institutions.
- March 7: Germans march into the Rhineland, previously demilitarized by the Versailles Treaty.
- June 17: Reichführer SS Himmler (chief of the SS units) appointed the Chief of German Police.
- July 12: Sachsenhausen concentration camp opens.
- October 25: Hitler and Mussolini form Rome-Berlin Axis.
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