From Balfour to Oslo

The Balfour Declaration

02 Palestine 1914

By the Balfour Declaration in 1917, the British committed themselves to encourage the establishment of a national Jewish homeland in Palestine, facilitating immigration and the transfer of state lands to the Yishuv (the Jewish community in Palestine before the creation of the State of Israel).

Since 1920, under the British Mandate, Palestine became object of fighting between Jewish Zionist and Arab Palestinian nationalists who opposed to each other and to the British occupiers. The struggle culminated in the Palestinian uprising of 1936-1939. The reaction of the Zionist organizations was violent and UK repression bloody : 5000 dead on the Arab side and 500 on the Jewish side. Most members of the Palestinian political elite were arrested and forced into exile.

01 Partition Map

After the Second World War and the genocide of Shoah, the Zionist movement had the support of Europeans while Palestinian nationalists claims were taken over by the newly formed Arab League. In Palestine, the Zionist militias led violent terrorist campaigns against the British occupation. On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations proposed a partition plan for Palestine (resolution 181) between a Jewish state and an Arab state, Jerusalem and the holy places being under international control. The Palestinians were not consulted. The plan was rejected by the Arab League, Palestinian nationalists and Zionist militias. The civil war intensified.


The creation of the Israeli State

03 Palestine 1948

The state of Israel was created on May 14, 1948 at the end of the British Mandate and the Arab neighbors intervened in the war.

April 3, 1949, the Armistice Line (Green Line) divided Palestine into three parts: the State of Israel was recognized on the conquered territories, West Bank controlled by Jordan and the Gaza Strip by Egypt.

In 16 months of war, 750,000 non-Jews Palestinians were expelled (an-Nakbah – the disaster) to become refugees.

The colonization

After the victory against the Arab coalition during the Six Day War in 1967, Israel occupied the Golan Heights (Syria), the West Bank, the Sinai (retroceded to Egypt against a peace agreement in 1979) and Gaza (decolonized in 2005). While the Security Council of the UN called for the withdrawal from the occupied territories (resolution 242 of 22 November 1967), the first settlement Kfar Etzion was born in the West Bank and the government developed strategic plans to colonize the Jordan Valley and Judaize East Jerusalem. Large areas were confiscated by public necessity, classified military zones, or state land. The establishment of large colonies began in 1974 with the creation of the religious nationalist movement Faith Block -Gush Emunim,  supporter of Great Israel Eretz Israel : Judea and Samaria (West Bank) are historical landmarks of the old Jewish nation and belong to the Jews under a divine decision. Like the pioneers of the Yishuv, the new settlements took up the fight for the redemption of the land. From arrival at power of Likud in 1977, this ideology guide most of Israeli policies: strengthening territorial colonial domination and increase number of settlers to impose « exclusive Israeli sovereignty » over as much land in the West Bank.

Since the Oslo Accords in 1994, 82% of the West Bank is controlled by Israel (areas B & C), the most densely areas populated by Palestinians receiving relative autonomy (18% : area A). Since 2002, 15% of the territory was annexed by the separation wall.

The Palestinian state that has obtained (2012) an observer status at the UN exerts a civil and administrative authority over multiple autonomous Palestinian enclaves covering 18% of the West Bank. The Gaza Strip is governed by Hamas since 2005. In March 2013, Barack Obama, on his arrival in Israel began his speech by saying in Hebrew: « It’s good to be back here in Israel ». He relied on terminology, biblical references and turns of phrase similar to those used by ardent Zionists. He made no mention of the Palestinians or Israel’s 46-year military occupation of the West Bank.

In 2012, Israel had 7.8 million inhabitants (including 1.9 million Palestinian Muslims and Christians). 2.7 million Palestinians and more than 500,000 settlers (150 settlements) live in the West Bank. 1.5 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip. There are 5 million refugees and descendants of Palestinian refugees in about ten countries (including 2 million in Jordan).