Showing posts with label Paris Peace Conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Paris Peace Conference. Show all posts

Saturday, December 31, 2022

How Britain Started the Arab-Israeli Conflict

 Nadene Goldfoot                                               


The Paris Peace Conference was the formal meeting in 1919 and 1920 of the victorious Allies after the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers.  Britain, France, Russia, even Italy  and the USA were promised a chunk of land  including Palestine out of the Middle East.   It resulted in five treaties that rearranged the maps of Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands, and also imposed financial penalties.  The Ottoman Empire was being cut up for these countries.  The Ottoman Empire captured the region in 1516 and ruled it until Egypt took it in 1832. Eight years later, the United Kingdom intervened and returned the region to the Ottomans.  The Ottomans had held Palestine for about 400 years.                                  
               Watching videos at home on our history

The video, "How Britain Started the Arab Israeli Conflict," https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXfuqUhzESg, is certainly worthwhile watching.  I agree whole-heartedly that Britain started the conflict.  It seems that their left hand didn't know what their right hand was promising, and they promised land to everyone they wanted something from.   I did find a glaring misnomer, though.

It was about the name of the Arabs which are called Palestinians.  Nobody seems to realize its history in that both Jews and Arabs living in Palestine were called Palestinians.  

                             Aluf   Simon bar Kokhba

Palestine got its name from the Romans who lost Jerusalem for 3 years and had to fight bitterly to get it back.  This was when a Jewish general, Bar Kokhba, re-took Jerusalem in his attack in the year 132 and held it till he was killed in 135.  

The video mistakenly called the land Palestine because, as they commented, Palestinians lived there.    It's the land's name but never was a country.  

I can't say this enough times.  There never has been a country of Palestine.  It was the name of land that had once been Israel, King David's land from 1010 BCE on to 70 CE when the Romans burned down Jerusalem and its 2nd Temple of Solomon.  That was an over 1,000 years of belonging to the Jews.  In fact, the land went through a Civil War when Solomon, David's son, died in 920 BCE.  Judah was then the main state holding onto Jerusalem.  Israel and it's capital went to Samaria and Solomon's superintendent , Jeroboam,  became its king from 933 to 922 BCE.  Solomon's son, Rehoboam, became the king of Judah from 933-917 BCE.  In both areas, Jews were living.  Then the land's name was Israel, and later was Judah and Samaria, NEVER Palestine.

A country, not just land, includes having a leader such as a president or king.  Then it has a people who have a common language, and others that help to run the country.  They do things like have a census of their people in order to gather taxes.  They protect their people with an army.  

Misstating this fact leads readers and listeners to think that there once was a country called Palestine.  There never has been a country called Palestine.   The Arabs living in Palestine had come from surrounding places.  Most were looking for work because Jews there were building towns and cities and they were looking for jobs.  There were a few families there on land, but were so happy to finally be able to sell it to Jews who had newly arrived that paid the fantastic amounts they were asking.  Land was not stolen.  It was bought and paid for and the owners went off to Damascus, Cairo, other capitals of the world. 

                    Lord Arthur Balfour:  Balfour, who had known Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann since 1906, opposed Russian mistreatment of Jews and increasingly supported Zionism as a programme for European Jews to settle in Palestine.  However, in 1905 he supported the Aliens Act 1905, one of whose main objectives was to control and restrict Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe.  He said one thing while doing the opposite.

Misleading people were what the Brits did well.  Take the Balfour Declaration issued November 2, 1917.  It promised a Jewish Homeland but made sure that the Arabs were to remain put and even helped them enter Palestine when it should have been the Jews.  Both Jews and Arabs had high hopes of Palestine becoming their country. 

                                 Mark Sykes of Britain

The  Sykes-Picot Treaty was compiled in secret with Britain, France and Russia and later brought in Italy between 1914 and 1916. The Sykes-Picot Agreement was a private wartime treaty between Britain and France which was to determine the post-war partition of Arab Middle East lands. 2. It was named after its chief negotiators, Mark Sykes of Britain and Georges Picot of France. It pertained to the division of the Ottoman Empire and affected Palestine and Syria.  The Upper Galilee was to go to the French, Transjordan and the Negev to Britain, Haifa Bay to Britain, and Central Palestine (Nazareth to Hebron-Anglo-French-Russia).  Zionist leaders discovered this secret in 1917 and protested.   This treaty was partly responsible for the form of the post-war frontiers of Palestine.  

Sykes had long agreed with the traditional policy of British Conservatives in propping up the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) as a buffer against Russian expansion into the Mediterranean. Britain feared that Russia had designs on India, its most important colonial possession. A Russian fleet in the Mediterranean might cut British sea routes to India. British statesmen such as Palmerston, Disraeli and Salisbury had held this view. Liberal Party leader, William Ewart Gladstone, was much more critical of the Ottoman government, deploring its misgovernment and periodic slaughter of minorities, especially Christian ones. A Liberal successor, David Lloyd George, shared a progressively disdainful attitude towards the 'sick man' of Europe.

Compounding Britain's difficulties, France sought to secure a Greater Syria, where there were significant minorities, that included Palestine. Another ally, Italy, advanced claims to the Aegean Islands offering protection to Christian minorities in Asia Minor. Then Russian claims had to be considered, particularly with respect to control of the Straits leading from the Black Sea to the Aegean and protection of the Christian population of Turkish Armenia and the Black Sea coast. Greece coveted historic Byzantine territories in Asia Minor and Thrace, claims that conflicted with those of Russia and Italy, as well as Turkey. David Lloyd George, favoured the Greek cause. Complicating this was the desire of Zionists to have a Jewish homeland in Palestine.

They say that money is the root of all evil.  All these countries wanted a piece of the pie that was the Ottoman Empire. The land meant money in their pockets.  Jews really needed their ancient land back as a place to live in.  Pogroms were happening all the time to them.  Talks had been going on during WWI as to the land.  

Resource:

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Palestine#:~:text=The%20Ottoman%20Empire%20captured%20the,the%20region%20to%20the%20Ottomans.

Monday, September 27, 2021

The Truth About Palestine and Palestinians

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                  

Palestine came about through the Romans who had been first occupying and taking over the lives of the Judeans in 63 BCE by the Roman General Pompey. Pompey the Great, Latin in full Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, (born September 29, 106 bce, Picenum, Italy—died September 28, 48 bce, Pelusium, Egypt), one of the great statesmen and generals of the late Roman Republic, a triumvir (61–54 bce) who was an associate and later an opponent of Julius Caesar.  Romans burned down the 2nd Solomon's Temple in 70 CE after being at war from 66 CE with the Judeans who were trying to regain their freedom.  By 132, the Judean General Bar Kokhba had rallied an army and took back Jerusalem, holding it for 3 years against the world's strongest army, the Romans.  In 135 he was killed.  The Romans were so angry at his strength against them, lasting against their army for 3 long years, that they in turn renamed the land after the strongest enemy of the Israelites, the Philistines.  The name was Palestine. 

                                           

Thereafter, all people living there, Arab and Judean, were called Palestinians.  During the 1st century, Jews were the majority population, having 2,500 people.  This would include those left after 70 and 135, major population disasters.  Jews maintained their majority population throughout the 4th century.  

From the 5th to the 11th century, the Christians were the majority population.  

Islam became the majority religion in Palestine for the Arabs by the 12th century, with acculturation of the locals into Arab identity and when Arabic became the lingua franca.  Muhammad had died in Medina in Arabia in 632, but Islam took its time reaching  Palestine. Many Jews had settled in Arabia.  

Before the Arab conquest, in fact, some rulers of Arabia "had indeed embraced Judaism," as Muslim historians attest (Joan Peters).                                               

In 132 CE, Bar Kokhba led a rebellion against Hadrian, a revolt connected with the renaming of Jerusalem as Aelia Capitolina. After four years of devastating warfare, the uprising was suppressed, and Jews were forbidden access to Jerusalem.

The Bar Kokhba revolt resulted in the extensive depopulation of Judean communities, more so than during the First Jewish–Roman War of 70 CE. According to Cassius Dio, 580,000 Jews perished in the war and many more died of hunger and disease, 50 fortresses and 985 villages were destroyed. In addition, many Judean war captives were sold into slavery. Some modern historians assert that Dio's numbers were somewhat exaggerated, but other researchers support Dio's claim of massive depopulation. The Jewish communities of Judea were devastated to an extent which some scholars describe as a genocide. However, the Jewish population remained strong in other parts of Palestine, thriving in Galilee, Golan, Bet Shean Valley, and the eastern, southern, and western edges of Judea. 

Palestinian Jews and Arabs lived together throughout history,  ruled by numerous groups  including the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Fatimids, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders, Egyptians and Mamelukes. From about 1517 to 1917, the Ottoman Empire ruled much of the region.                             

Jews in diaspora.  In Germany, forced to wear ridiculous clothing, "the better to spot you by, my dear."  This truly was in the "dark ages."  

                                             

Arch of Titus in Rome depicts Jewish slaves marched from Jerusalem to Rome with gold and silver loot from Temple before burning.  

Jews were forced out of their native land of Judea by the Romans under penalty of death in 70 CE, yet managed to return later.  The Jewish diaspora at the time of the Temple's destruction, according to Josephus, was in Parthia (Persia), Babylonia (Iraq), Arabia, as well as some Jews beyond the Euphrates and in Adiabene (Kurdistan). In Josephus' own words, he had informed "the remotest Arabians" about the destruction. Jewish communities also existed in southern Europe, Anatolia, Syria, and North Africa. Jewish pilgrims from the diaspora, undeterred by the rebellion, had actually come to Jerusalem for Passover prior to the arrival of the Roman army, and many became trapped in the city and died during the siege. According to Josephus, about 97,000 Jewish captives from Judea were sold into slavery by the Romans during the revolt. Many other Jews fled from Judea to other areas around the Mediterranean. Josephus wrote that 30,000 Jews were deported from Judea to Carthage by the Romans.

                                               

Cossacks riding to invade Jewish shtetl, destroy and many kill some Jews

Jews were living in Russia and other parts of eastern Europe, and it is here that pogroms against Jews took place far too often.  By the 1880s, the 1st group of Jews returned to Palestine even though the Ottoman Empire held the land.  They were able to meet their criteria and settle.  In all, about 5 Aliote took place with Jews returning to Palestine from then on.                                      

This is all recorded in the book, "FROM TIME IMMEMORIAL" by Joan Peters. "The massive research Ms. Peters did...would have daunted Hercules.  In the course of it she turned up a great deal of interesting material from Ottoman records, the reports of Western consular officers and observant travelers and other sources.--New York Times Book Review.  It seems that there were not enough jobs for Arabs living in their own countries, and so migrated to Palestine when they heard of the Jews' return and rebuilding, hoping to get jobs in doing this.  Many came from Syria, as they actually were called the Syrian Palestinians.  Others came from near and far as Joan shows in her book.  

There has never been a country or empire called Palestine.  It's the Roman renaming of the ancient empire of Israel, a renaming that took place out of spite and fury by the Romans in their anger against Judea. 

Up until May 14, 1948, everyone living in "Palestine" was a Palestinian.  Then the  Jews could call themselves Israelis as the land of Israel was born again.                                 

The genetic profile of Palestinians has, for the first time, been studied by using human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene variability and haplotypes. The comparison with other Mediterranean populations by using neighbor-joining dendrograms and correspondence analyses reveal that Palestinians are genetically very close to Jews and other Middle East populations, including Turks (Anatolians), Lebanese, Egyptians, Armenians, and Iranians. Archaeologic and genetic data support that both Jews and Palestinians came from the ancient Canaanites, who extensively mixed with Egyptians, Mesopotamian, and Anatolian peoples in ancient times. Thus, Palestinian-Jewish rivalry is based in cultural and religious, but not in genetic, differences. The relatively close relatedness of both Jews and Palestinians to western Mediterranean populations reflects the continuous circum-Mediterranean cultural and gene flow that have occurred in prehistoric and historic times. This flow overtly contradicts the demic diffusion model of western Mediterranean populations substitution by agriculturalists coming from the Middle East in the Mesolithic-Neolithic transition.

As fighting continues in the Middle East, a new genetic study shows that many Arabs and Jews are closely related. More than 70% of Jewish men and half of the Arab men whose DNA was studied inherited their Y chromosomes from the same paternal ancestors who lived in the region within the last few thousand years.  These are new findings.  There ae many Jews and Palestinian men bearing J1 haplogroup.  

The results match historical accounts that some Moslem Arabs are descended from Christians and Jews who lived in the southern Levant, a region that includes Israel and the Sinai. They were descendants of a core population that lived in the area since prehistoric times. And in a recent study of 1371 men from around the world, geneticist Michael Hammer of the University of Arizona in Tucson found that the Y chromosome in Middle Eastern Arabs was almost indistinguishable from that of Jews.                          

                         Hebrew University in Jerusalem

Intrigued by the genetic similarities between the two populations, geneticist Ariella Oppenheim of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, who collaborated on the earlier study, focused on Arab and Jewish men. Her team examined the Y chromosomes of 119 Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews and 143 Israeli and Palestinian Arabs. Many of the Jewish subjects were descended from ancestors who presumably originated in the Levant but dispersed throughout the world before returning to Israel in the past few generations; most of the Arab subjects could trace their ancestry to men who had lived in the region for centuries or longer. The Y chromosomes of many of the men had key segments of DNA that were so similar that they clustered into just three of many groups known as haplogroups. Other short segments of DNA called microsatellites were similar enough to reveal that the men must have had common ancestors within the past several thousand years. The study, reported here at a Human Origins and Disease conference, will appear in an upcoming issue of Human Genetics.    

Hammer praises the new study for "focusing in detail on the Jewish and Palestinian populations." Oppenheim's team found, for example, that Jews have mixed more with European populations, which makes sense because some of them lived in Europe during the last millennium.                                             

Abraham was the father of Ishmael by Hagar, Sarah's Egyptian maid, and Isaac by Sarah, his wife and niece.  Ishmael is considered to be the father of the Arab peoples.  His daughter married Esau.  Isaac was the father of twins, Jacob and Esau.

When the Jews returned to their homeland, they had plans to include the Arabs who were living there as well.  It was an Arab, Haj Amin al-Husseini, who had been made the Sherif of Jerusalem by the Jewish British man in charge, who turned on the Jewish settlers because he was afraid of losing his status and position.  Husseini was a big fish in a little pond.  He caused the deathly riots in 1929 against Jews.  During the week of riots, from 23 to 29 August, 133 Jews were killed by Arabs, and 339 Jews were injured, most of whom were unarmed. There were 116 Arabs killed and at least 232 wounded, mostly by the Mandate police suppressing the riots. Around 20 Arabs were killed by Jewish attackers and indiscriminate British gunfire. 

After the riots, 174 Arabs and 109 Jews were charged with murder or attempted murder; around 40% of Arabs and 3% of Jews were subsequently convicted. During the riots, 17 Jewish communities were evacuated.  Why charge the Jews with murder when they were defending themselves against the attackers?  

    Paris Peace Conference 1919-1920 of the victorious Allies after the end of World War I to set the peace terms for the defeated Central Powers. Dominated by the leaders of Britain, France, the United States and Italy, it resulted in five controversial treaties that rearranged the map of Europe and parts of Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands and imposed financial penalties. Germany and the other losing nations had no voice which gave rise to political resentments that lasted for decades.  There were 20 million deaths and 21 million wounded. The total number of deaths includes 9.7 million military personnel and about 10 million civilians. The Entente Powers (also known as the Allies) lost about 5.7 million soldiers while the Central Powers lost about 4 million.
                                            

Arab countries seemed to react in shock to the Jews' return to their land.  The World War I (1914-1918) wiped out the Ottoman Empire's 400 year rule in the area and changed land and people.  The Ottomans had backed the Axis of Germany in the war.   Jewish leaders were speaking with the Allies and planning on their return legitimately and rebirth of Israel.   Meetings with Emir Feisal who became king of Iraq and king of Syria were conducted with Jews and the British who were given a 30 year mandate over Palestine.  Feisal was all for the Jewish return and hoped to see his Arab charges become more educated because of it.  Husseini, who had no powerful ancestors like Feisal, would have none of this and thwarted all the good that the Jews planned for.  

Resource:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Palestine_(region)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_diasporattps://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11543891/ DNA abstract

https://www.science.org/news/2000/10/jews-and-arabs-share-recent-ancestry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1929_Palestine_riots


 


Sunday, May 30, 2021

A Muslim Leader of the Civilized Peoples of the World : Emir Faisal

 Nadene Goldfoot                                           

Emir Faisal was an important leader of the Arab world in 1918. Sherif Hussein, the leader of the Arab world during World War I,, was his father.   "Faisal was born in Mecca, Ottoman Empire (in present-day Saudi Arabia), in 1885, the third son of Hussein bin Ali, the Grand Sharif of Mecca. He grew up in Istanbul and learned about leadership from his father. In 1913, he was elected as representative for the city of Jeddah for the Ottoman parliament.                                   

Following the Ottoman Empire's declaration of war against the Entente (WWI Allies, joining Hitler )  in December, 1914, Faisal's father sent him on a mission to Constantinople to discuss the Ottomans' request for Arab participation in the war. Along the way Faisal visited Damascus and met with representatives of the Arab secret societies al-Fatat and Al-'Ahd. After visiting Constantinople Faisal returned to Mecca via Damascus where he again met with the Arab secret societies, received the Damascus Protocol, and joined with the Al-Fatat group of Arab nationalists."

The Damascus Protocol was a document given by the leaders of two Arab secret societies, Al-Fatat and Al-Ahd, to Hashemite prince Faisal, son of Hussein, Sharif of Mecca, on 23 May 1915. The document contained the demands the Arab leaders wanted Hussein to present to the British in return for the Arabs revolting against the Ottoman Empire. 
The demands included: British recognition of Arab independence over most of today's Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories; the abolition of the capitulation regime, granting exceptional rights to foreigners; a defensive alliance between the British and the Arab state; and the "granting of economic preference" to the British. The Damascus Protocol later served as a basis for British-Arab negotiations contained in the McMahon-Hussein Letters.

         Dr. Chaim Weizmann b: 1874 and Emir Faisal b: 1885
Emir is a title.  An emir, sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, can refer to a king or an aristocratic or noble and military title of high office used in a variety of places in the Arab countries, West Africa, Afghanistan and in the Indian subcontinent.

Faisal and Dr. Weizmann came to a written agreement on January 3, 1919.  The Faisal–Weizmann Agreement was a 3 January 1919 agreement between Emir Faisal, the third son of Hussein ibn Ali al-Hashimi, King of the short-lived Kingdom of Hejaz, and Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader who had negotiated the 1917 Balfour Declaration with the British Government, signed two weeks before the start of the Paris Peace Conference. Together with a letter written by T. E. Lawrence in Faisal's name to Felix Frankfurter in March 1919, it was one of two documents used by the Zionist delegation at the Peace Conference to argue that the Zionist plans for Palestine had prior approval of Arabs.  Weizmann would later become the 1st President of Israel.  The Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz was a state in the Hejaz region in the Middle East, the western portion of the Arabian Peninsula ruled by the Hashemite dynasty.                     
The agreement was presented to Faisal in his room at the Carlton Hotel on 3 January in English, which Faisal could not read, and its contents were explained to Faisal by Lawrence as the sole translator. Faisal signed the document in the same meeting, without consulting his advisors awaiting him in a separate room, but added a caveat in Arabic next to his signature, such that Faisal considered the agreement was conditional on Palestine being within the area of Arab independence. The Zionist Organization submitted the Agreement to the Paris Peace Conference without the caveat.

Yoav Gelber described the document as "of propaganda value only", since it quickly became clear that Faisal's conditions would not be met.  (Hebrew: יואב גלבר‎; born September 25, 1943) is a professor of history at the University of Haifa, and was formerly a visiting professor at The University of Texas at Austin.

Faisal participated in meetings in Paris at the Paris Peace Conference of the League of Nations and met with Jewish leaders about a Jewish Homeland.  He said in 1919, "We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement.  We will wish the Jews a hearty welcome home ll....our two movements complement one another."  The movement is national and not imperialistic. There is room in Syria for us both. Indeed, I think that neither can be a success without the other.” (Quoted by UN Ambassador Chaim Herzog, November 10, 1975 in response to the Zionism is racism resolution.) Faisal had said this as an important leader of the Arab world, probably THE most important.  

He also wrote this in a letter. His introduction said more: 

 Letter from Emir Feisal (Son of Hussen Ibn Ali, Sharif of Mecca) to Felix Frankfurter, associate of Dr. Chaim Weizmann:  DELEGATION HEDJAZIENNE

Paris Peace Conference         

March 3, 1919 

Dear Mr. Frankfurter:         

I want to take this opportunity of my first contact with American Zionists to tell you what I have often been able to say to Dr. Weizmann in Arabia and Europe.

We feel that the Arabs and Jews are cousins in having suffered similar oppressions at the hands of powers stronger than themselves, and by a happy coincidence have been able to take the first step towards the attainment of their national ideals together.  Then came the section above.  He continued.  

With the chiefs of your movement, especially with Dr. Weizmann, we have had and continue to have the closest relations. He has been a great helper of our cause, and I hope the Arabs may soon be in a position to make the Jews some return for their kindness. We are working together for a reformed and revived Near East, and our two movements complete one another. The Jewish movement is national and not imperialist. Our movement is national and not imperialist, and there is room in Syria for us both. Indeed I think that neither can be a real success without the other.

People less informed and less responsible than our leaders and yours, ignoring the need for cooperation of the Arabs and Zionists, have been trying to exploit the local difficulties that must necessarily arise in Palestine in the early stages of our movements. Some of them have, I am afraid, misrepresented your aims to the Arab peasantry, and our aims to the Jewish peasantry, with the result that interested parties have been able to make capital out of what they call our differences.

I wish to give you my firm conviction that these differences are not on questions of principle, but on matters of detail such as must inevitably occur in every contact of neighbouring peoples, and as are easily adjusted by mutual good will. Indeed nearly all of them will disappear with fuller knowledge.

I look forward, and my people with me look forward, to a future in which we will help you and you will help us, so that the countries in which we are mutually interested may once again take their places in the community of civilised peoples of the world.

Believe me, 

Yours sincerely, 

(Sgd.) Feisal 

"Faisal I bin Al-Hussein bin Ali Al-Hashemi (Arabic: فيصل الأول بن الحسين بن علي الهاشمي‎, Fayṣal al-Awwal bin al-Ḥusayn bin 'Alī al-Hāshimī; 20 May 1885[1][2][4] – 8 September 1933) was King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria or Greater Syria in 1920, and was King of Iraq from 23 August 1921 to 1933. He was the third son of Hussein bin Ali, the Grand Emir and Sharif of Mecca, who was proclaimed as King of the Arabs in June 1916. He was a 38th-generation direct descendant of Muhammad, as he belongs to the Hashemite family.  Today's King of Jordan also belongs to the Hashemite family.  

Faisal fostered unity between Sunni and Shiite Muslims to encourage common loyalty and promote pan-Arabism in the goal of creating an Arab state that would include Iraq, Syria and the rest of the Fertile Crescent. While in power, Faisal tried to diversify his administration by including different ethnic and religious groups in offices. However, Faisal's attempt at pan-Arab nationalism possibly contributed to the isolation of certain groups."

                                                     

On 7 March 1920, Faisal was proclaimed King of the Arab Kingdom of Syria (Greater Syria) by the Syrian National Congress government of Hashim al-Atassi. ... Following a plebiscite showing 96% in favour, Faisal agreed to become king.    By April 1920, the San Remo conference gave France the mandate for Syria, which led to the Franco-Syrian War. In the Battle of Maysalun on 24 July 1920, the French were victorious and Faisal was expelled from Syria.  He had been king for a little over 4 months.   It was while under the mandate in 1920 that Jews obtained equal rights, but these were infringed during World War II under the Vichy regime.  The Jewish population in 1943 was 30,000.  By 1947 between immigration to Lebanon, USA and Israel, it was 14,000.                                    

                            Coronation of Prince Faisal as King of Iraq

On 23 August 1921, he was made king of Iraq. It happened that  in March 1921, at the Cairo Conference, the British decided that Faisal was a good candidate for ruling the British Mandate of Iraq because of his apparent conciliatory attitude towards the Great Powers and based on advice from T. E. Lawrence, more commonly known as Lawrence of Arabia. But, in 1921, few people living in Iraq even knew who Faisal was or had ever heard his name. With help of British officials, including Gertrude Bell, he successfully campaigned among the Arabs of Iraq and won over the popular support of the minority Sunni. However, the Shia majority were lukewarm about Faisal, and his appearance at the Shia port of Basra was met with indifference.

The British government, mandate holders in Iraq, were concerned at the unrest in the colony. They decided to step back from direct administration and create a monarchy to head Iraq while they maintained the mandate. Following a plebiscite showing 96% in favour, Faisal agreed to become king. On 23 August 1921, he was made king of Iraq. Iraq was a new entity created out of the former Ottoman vilayets (provinces) of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. Ottoman vilayets were usually named after their capital, and thus the Basra vilayet was southern Iraq. Given this background, there was no sense of Iraqi nationalism or even Iraqi national identity when Faisal took his throne.

Faisal successfully stabilized the kingdom's bureaucracy, and his reign had significant popularity among Saudi Arabians despite his reforms facing some controversy. Fayṣal I, Fayṣal also spelled Faisal, (born May 20, 1885, Mecca—died Sept. 8, 1933, Bern), Arab statesman and king of Iraq (1921–33) who was a leader in advancing Arab nationalism during and after World War.  

In July 1933, right before his death, Faisal went to London where he expressed his alarm at the current situation of Arabs that resulted from the Arab-Jewish conflict and the increased Jewish immigration to Palestine, as the Arab political, social, and economic situation was declining. He asked the British to limit Jewish immigration and land purchases.King Faisal died of a heart attack on 8 September 1933 in Bern, Switzerland.[2] He was 48 years old at the time of his death. Faisal was succeeded on the throne by his eldest son Ghazi. (update 5/31)  Sherif Hussein, King Faisal's father, had four wives, fathered five sons and three daughters with three of his wives: Faisal's brother was Abdullah, who was the first king of Transjordan/Jordan, grandfather of today's King Abdullah of Jordan.  

It was another Faisal king, Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, a cousin of Faisal from his father's 1st wife,  (Arabic: فيصل بن عبدالعزيز آل سعود‎ Fayṣal ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd; 14 April 1906 – 25 March 1975) was King of Saudi Arabia and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques from 2 November 1964 to 25 March 1975.

Faisal was the third son of King Abdulaziz.  His mother, Tarfa, was a member of the Al ash-Sheikh family which has produced many prominent Saudi religious leaders. Faisal emerged as an influential royal politician under his father and his half-brother King Saud. He was the Saudi foreign minister from 1930 and prime minister from 1954 until his death, except for a two-year break (1960–1962) in both positions. Faisal was crown prince of Saudi Arabia after Saud's accession in 1953, and in that position he outlawed slavery in Saudi Arabia. He persuaded King Saud to abdicate in his favour in 1964 with the help of other members of the royal family and his relative, Grand Mufti Muhammad ibn Ibrahim Al ash-Sheikh.


In 1975, he was assassinated by his nephew Faisal bin Musaid.                                          

On 25 March 1975, Faisal bin Musaid went to the Royal Palace in Riyadh, where King Faisal was holding a meeting, known as a majlis. He joined a Kuwaiti delegation and lined up to meet the king. 

Faisal's nephew, Faisal bin Musaid,  and girlfriend 

The king recognized his nephew and bent his head forward, so that the younger Faisal could kiss the king's head in a sign of respect. The prince took out a revolver from his robe and shot the King twice in the head. His third shot missed and he threw the gun away. King Faisal fell to the floor. Bodyguards with swords and submachine guns arrested the prince. The king was quickly rushed to a hospital but doctors were unable to save him. Saudi television crews captured the entire assassination on camera.

Initial reports described Faisal bin Musaid as "mentally deranged". He was moved to a Riyadh prison. However, he was later deemed sane to be tried.

A sharia court found Faisal guilty of the king's murder on 18 June, and his public execution occurred hours later. His brother Bandar was imprisoned for one year and later released. Cars with loudspeakers drove around Riyadh publicly announcing the verdict and his imminent execution, and crowds gathered in the square. Faisal was led by a soldier to the execution point and was reported to have walked unsteadily. Wearing white robes and blindfolded, Faisal was beheaded with a single sweep of a gold-handled sword.

                                        Picture 1 King Faisal (1964-1975)

The assassinated King Faisal had become King (of Saudi Arabia) in 1964 by forcing his elder brother King Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (King Saud) to resign. After his dethronement King Saud was exiled, and he went to Egypt, where he stood by the side of the socialist Egyptian dictator Gamal Nasser, who was fighting Saudi Arabia. For Gamal Nasser and Saudi Arabia see “The Intra-Arab War for Oil 1950-1970”.

There are various explanations about why the Prince murdered the King. According to one of them the Prince revenged the assassination of his brother Prince Khalid bin Musaid al Saud..There are various explanations about why the Prince murdered the King. According to one of them the Prince revenged the assassination of his brother Prince Khalid bin Musaid al Saud. Prince Khalid was shot by the Saudi police during demonstrations in the 60s, when many Saudis were demonstrating against the King’s decision to allow the use of tv in Saudi Arabia. The assassin and nephew of King Faisal was sentenced to death and publicly beheaded.

Update: 5/31/2021: 6:14am: Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (/sɑːˈuːd/;[1] Arabic: سعود بن عبد العزيز آل سعود‎ Suʿūd ibn ʿAbd al ʿAzīz Āl Suʿūd; 15 January 1902 – 23 February 1969) was King of Saudi Arabia from 9 November 1953 to 2 November 1964. After a period of internal tension in Saudi Arabia, he was forced from the throne and replaced by his brother Faisal.

After the war, when the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine appeared to be imminent, and leaders of the various Arab States met at Inshas in Egypt during 1946 in order to review the situation under the Chairmanship of King Farouk of Egypt, Saud was again selected by his father to represent him and his country, and participated in the adoption of the famous resolution that declared that: "The Palestinian cause is the cause of all Arabs and not merely the Palestinians". In 1947, Saud visited the United States and met with President Harry S. Truman, and also met with leaders in Britain, France, and Italy, in order to acquaint the policymakers with his father's views and the unacceptability of the infringement of the rights of the Palestinians.

Saud succeeded his father King Abdulaziz as King on 9 November 1953 upon the latter's death. He ascended the throne in a political climate very different from the time when his father Abdulaziz established his Kingdom.  

He maintained his support to the countries at war with Israel, and signed a ten-year agreement with the Egyptian and Syrian presidents and with King Hussein of Jordan to ease Jordan's financial burdens as a result of this conflict. The annual Egyptian and Saudi financial assistance added up to five million Egyptian pounds from each of the two countries.

A fierce struggle between Abdulaziz's most senior sons, Saud and Faisal, erupted immediately after Abdulaziz's death. The increase in oil revenues did not solve the financial problem associated with Saudi Arab debt, estimated to have been $US200 million in 1953. In fact, this debt more than doubled by 1958, when it reached $US450 million. The Saudi riyal lost half of its official value against the United States dollars. Both ARAMCO and international banks declined Saudi's demand for credit. Saud suspended the few government projects he had initiated but continued his spending on luxurious palaces. King Saud and Prince Faisal continued their power struggle until 1962 when Prince Faisal formed a cabinet in the absence of the King, who had gone abroad for medical treatment. Prince Faisal allied with Prince Fahd and Prince Sultan. Prince Faisal's new government excluded the sons of Saud. He promised a ten-point reform that included the drafting of the basic law, the abolition of slavery, and the establishment of a judicial council.

 Saud had 108 children and 3 wives at the time of his death. The family tree section on the King Saud Foundation Website contains the names of the wives, children, and grandchildren of Saud

Resource

Israel 101, Produced by StandWiothUs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal_I_of_Iraq

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/feisal-frankfurter-correspondence-march-1919

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal%E2%80%93Weizmann_Agreement

https://ecf.org.il/issues/issue/1222

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoav_Gelber

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal_bin_Musaid_Al_Saud

https://iakal.wordpress.com/2016/02/01/the-assassination-of-the-saudi-king-in-1975/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saud_of_Saudi_Arabia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal_I_of_Iraq--update