1.
Mandatory Palestine
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Mandatory Palestine was a geopolitical entity under British administration, carved out of Ottoman Southern Syria after World War I. British civil administration in Palestine operated from 1920 until 1948, further confusing the issue was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, promising British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine. At the wars end the British and French set up a joint Occupied Enemy Territory Administration in what had been Ottoman Syria, the British achieved legitimacy for their continued control by obtaining a mandate from the League of Nations in June 1922. The civil Mandate administration was formalized with the League of Nations consent in 1923 under the British Mandate for Palestine, the land west of the Jordan River, known as Palestine, was under direct British administration until 1948. The land east of the Jordan, a region known as Transjordan, under the rule of the Hashemite family from the Hijaz. The divergent tendencies regarding the nature and purpose of the mandate are visible already in the discussions concerning the name for this new entity. As a set-off to this, certain of the Arab politicians suggested that the country should be called Southern Syria in order to emphasise its close relation with another Arab State. During the British Mandate period the area experienced the ascent of two major nationalist movements, one among the Jews and the other among the Arabs, following its occupation by British troops in 1917–1918, Palestine was governed by the Occupied Enemy Territory Administration. In July 1920, the administration was replaced by a civilian administration headed by a High Commissioner. The first High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel, a Zionist recent cabinet minister, arrived in Palestine on 20 June 1920, following the arrival of the British, Muslim-Christian Associations were established in all the major towns. In 1919 they joined to hold the first Palestine Arab Congress in Jerusalem and its main platforms were a call for representative government and opposition to the Balfour Declaration. The Zionist Commission was formed in March 1918 and was active in promoting Zionist objectives in Palestine, on 19 April 1920, elections were held for the Assembly of Representatives of the Palestinian Jewish community. The Zionist Commission received official recognition in 1922 as representative of the Palestinian Jewish community, Rutenberg soon established an electric company whose shareholders were Zionist organizations, investors, and philanthropists. Palestinian-Arabs saw it as proof that the British intended to favor Zionism, when Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Kamil al-Husayni died in March 1921, High Commissioner Samuel appointed his half-brother Mohammad Amin al-Husseini to the position. Amin al-Husseini, a member of the clan of Jerusalem, was an Arab nationalist. As Grand Mufti, as well as the influential positions that he held during this period. In 1922, al-Husseini was elected President of the Supreme Muslim Council which had created by Samuel in December 1921. The Council controlled the Waqf funds, worth annually tens of thousands of pounds, in addition, he controlled the Islamic courts in Palestine
2.
Sinai Peninsula
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The Sinai Peninsula or simply Sinai is a peninsula in Egypt, situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, serving as a land bridge between Asia and Africa. It is the part of Egyptian territory located in Asia. Sinai has an area of about 60,000 km2. The bulk of the peninsula is divided administratively into two of Egypts 27 governorates, the Sinai Peninsula has been a part of Egypt from the First Dynasty of ancient Egypt. In periods of occupation, the Sinai was, like the rest of Egypt, also occupied and controlled by foreign empires, in more recent history the Ottoman Empire. Israel invaded and occupied Sinai during the Suez Crisis of 1956, on 6 October 1973, Egypt launched the Yom Kippur War to retake the peninsula, which was the site of fierce fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces. Today, Sinai has become a tourist destination due to its setting, rich coral reefs. Mount Sinai is one of the most religiously significant places in Abrahamic faiths, in addition to its formal name, Egyptians also refer to it as Arḍ ul-Fairūz. The ancient Egyptians called it Ta Mefkat, or land of turquoise, Sinai is triangular in shape, with northern shore lying on the southern Mediterranean Sea, and southwest and southeast shores on Gulf of Suez and Gulf of Aqaba of the Red Sea. It is linked to the African continent by the Isthmus of Suez,125 kilometres wide strip of land, the eastern isthmus, linking it to the Asian mainland, is around 200 kilometres wide. The peninsulas eastern shore separates the Arabian plate from the African plate, the southernmost tip is the Ras Muhammad National Park. Most of the Sinai Peninsula is divided among the two governorates of Egypt, South Sinai and North Sinai, together, they comprise around 60,000 square kilometres and have a population of 597,000. Three more governates span the Suez Canal, crossing into African Egypt, Suez is on the end of the Suez Canal, Ismailia in the centre. The largest city of Sinai is Arish, capital of the North Sinai, other larger settlements include Sharm el-Sheikh and El-Tor, on the southern coast. Inland Sinai is arid, mountainous and sparsely populated, the largest settlements being Saint Catherine, Sinai is one of the coldest provinces in Egypt because of its high altitudes and mountainous topographies. Winter temperatures in some of Sinais cities and towns reach −16 °C, the mines were worked intermittently and on a seasonal basis for thousands of years. Modern attempts to exploit the deposits have been unprofitable and these may be the first historically attested mines. According to the Hebrew Bible, the peninsula was crossed by the Israelites during the Exodus from Egypt and this included numerous halts over a 40-year period of travel sometime towards the end of the Bronze Age
3.
Southern Lebanon
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Southern Lebanon is the geographical area of Lebanon comprising the South Governorate and the Nabatiye Governorate. The two entities were divided from the province in the early 1990s. The Rashaya and Western Beqaa Districts, the southernmost districts of the Beqaa Governorate, the main cities of the region are Sidon, Tyre, Jezzine and Nabatiyeh. The cazas of Bint Jbeil, Tyre, and Nabatieh in Southern Lebanon are known for their large Shia Muslim population with a minority of Christians. Sidon is predominantly Sunni, with the rest of the caza of Sidon having a Shia Muslim majority, with a considerable Christian minority, the cazas of Jezzine and Marjeyoun have a Christian majority and also Shia Muslims. The villages of Ain Ebel, Debel, Qaouzah, and Rmaich are entirely Christian Maronite, the caza of Hasbaya has a Druze majority. Southern Lebanon has also featured prominently in the Israel-Lebanon conflict, in October 2010 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited South Lebanon. This was his first visit to Lebanon since he first assumed office in Tehran in 2005, both Israel and the United States condemned the trip as being provocative
4.
1948 Palestinian exodus
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The 1948 Palestinian exodus, also known as the Nakba, occurred when more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Palestine war. Between 400 and 600 Palestinian villages were sacked during the war, the term nakba also refers to the period of war itself and events affecting Palestinians from December 1947 to January 1949. The causes are also a subject of disagreement between historians. And an unwillingness to live under Jewish control, later, a series of laws passed by the first Israeli government prevented them from returning to their homes, or claiming their property. They and many of their descendants remain refugees, the expulsion of the Palestinians has since been described by some historians as ethnic cleansing, while others dispute this charge. The events of 1948 are commemorated by Palestinians both in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere on 15 May, a date now known as Nakba Day. The history of the Palestinian exodus is closely tied to the events of the war in Palestine, which lasted from 1947 to 1949, and to the political events preceding it. In the first few months of the war the climate in the Mandate of Palestine became volatile. According to historian Benny Morris, the period was marked by Palestinian Arab attacks and Jewish defensiveness, simha Flapan pointed out that attacks by the Irgun and Lehi resulted in Palestinian Arab retaliation and condemnation. Jewish reprisal operations were directed against villages and neighborhoods from which attacks against Jews were believed to have originated, the retaliations were more damaging than the provoking attack and included killing of armed and unarmed men, destruction of houses and sometimes expulsion of inhabitants. Their attacks on British forces reduced British troops ability and willingness to protect Jewish traffic, General conditions deteriorated, the economic situation became unstable and unemployment grew. Rumours spread that the Husaynis were planning to bring in bands of fellahin to take over the towns, some Palestinian Arab leaders sent their families abroad. Yoav Gelber claims that the Arab Liberation Army embarked on an evacuation of non-combatants from several frontier villages in order to turn them into military strongholds. Arab depopulation occurred most in villages close to Jewish settlements and in neighborhoods in Haifa, Jaffa. The poorer inhabitants of these neighborhoods generally fled to parts of the city. Those who could afford to fled away, expecting to return when the troubles were over. By the end of March 1948 thirty villages were depopulated of their Palestinian Arab population, approximately 100,000 Palestinian Arabs had fled to Arab parts of Palestine, such as Gaza, Beersheba, Haifa, Nazareth, Nablus, Jaffa and Bethlehem. Some had left the country altogether, to Jordan, Lebanon, other sources speak of 30,000 Palestinian Arabs
5.
Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim countries
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A number of small-scale Jewish exoduses began in many Middle Eastern countries early in the 20th century with the only substantial aliyah coming from Yemen and Syria. Prior to the creation of Israel in 1948, approximately 800,000 Jews were living in lands that now make up the Arab world, a further 200,000 lived in Pahlavi Iran and the Republic of Turkey. The first large-scale exoduses took place in the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from Iraq, Yemen, in these cases over 90% of the Jewish population left, despite the necessity of leaving their property behind. Two hundred and sixty thousand Jews from Arab countries immigrated to Israel between 1948 and 1951, accounting for 56% of the immigration to the newly founded state. Later waves peaked at different times in different regions over the subsequent decades, the peak of the exodus from Egypt occurred in 1956 following the Suez Crisis. The exodus from the other North African Arab countries peaked in the 1960s, Six hundred thousand Jews from Arab and Muslim countries had reached Israel by 1972. In total, of the 900,000 Jews who left Arab and other Muslim countries,600,000 settled in the new state of Israel, and 300,000 immigrated to France and the United States. In 2009, only 26,000 Jews remained in Arab countries, the history of the exodus has been politicized, given its proposed relevance to the historical narrative of the Arab–Israeli conflict. At the time of the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, ancient Jewish communities had existed in parts of the Middle East. Jews under Islamic rule were given the status of dhimmi, along with certain other pre-Islamic religious groups, as such, these groups were accorded certain rights as People of the Book. During waves of persecution in Medieval Europe, many Jews found refuge in Muslim lands, though in times and places, Jews fled persecution in Muslim lands. The French began the conquest of Algeria in 1830, the decree began a wave of Pied-Noir-led anti-Jewish protests, which the Muslim community did not participate in, to the disappointment of the European agitators. Though there were cases of Muslim-led anti-Jewish riots, such as in Constantine in 1934 when 34 Jews were killed. Neighbouring Husainid Tunisia began to come under European influence in the late 1860s, around a third of Tunisian Jews took French citizenship during the protectorate. Morocco, which had remained independent during the 19th century, became a French protectorate in 1912, French penetration into Morocco between 1906 and 1912 created significant Morocco Muslim resentment, resulting in nationwide protests and military unrest. During the period a number of anti-European or anti-French protests extended to include anti-Jewish manifestations, such as in Casablanca, Oujda and Fes in 1907-08, the Alliance Israelite Universelle, founded in France in 1860, set up schools in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as early as 1863. During World War II, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya came under Nazi or Vichy French occupation, in Libya, the Axis powers established labor camps to which many Jews were forcibly deported. In other areas Nazi propaganda targeted Arab populations to incite them against British or French rule, national Socialist propaganda contributed to the transfer of racial antisemitism to the Arab world and is likely to have unsettled Jewish communities
6.
1949 Armistice Agreements
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The United Nations established supervising and reporting agencies to monitor the established armistice lines. In addition, discussions related to the enforcement, led to the signing of the separate Tripartite Declaration of 1950 between the United States, Britain, and France. In it, they pledged to take action within and outside the United Nations to prevent violations of the frontiers or armistice lines. It also outlined their commitment to peace and stability in the area, their opposition to the use or threat of force and these lines held until the 1967 Six-Day War. On 6 January 1949, Dr. Ralph Bunche announced that Egypt had finally consented to start talks with Israel on an armistice, the talks began on the Greek island of Rhodes on 12 January. Shortly after their commencement, Israel agreed to the release of a besieged Egyptian brigade in Faluja, at the end of the month, the talks floundered. Israel demanded that Egypt withdraw all its forces from the area of Mandate Palestine. The deadlock culminated on 12 February 1949 with the murder of Hassan al-Banna, Israel threatened to abandon the talks, whereupon the United States appealed to the parties to bring them to a successful conclusion. On 24 February the Israel–Egypt Armistice Agreement was signed in Rhodes, the Egyptian forces besieged in the Faluja Pocket were allowed to return to Egypt with their weapons, and the area was handed over to Israeli military control. A zone on both sides of the border around Uja al-Hafeer was to be demilitarized, and became the seat of the armistice committee. The agreement with Lebanon was signed on 23 March 1949, the main points were, The provisions of this agreement being dictated exclusively by military considerations. The armistice line was drawn along the boundary between Lebanon and Mandatory Palestine. Israel withdrew its forces from 13 villages in Lebanese territory, which were occupied during the war, the agreement with Jordan was signed on 3 April 1949. Jordanian forces remained in most positions held by them, particularly East Jerusalem which included the Old City, Jordan withdrew its forces from their front posts overlooking the Plain of Sharon. In return, Israel agreed to allow Jordanian forces to take over positions previously held by Iraqi forces, exchange of territorial control, Israel received control in the area known as Wadi Ara and the Little Triangle in exchange for territory in the southern hills of Hebron. The operation allowed Israel to renegotiate the cease fire line in the Wadi Ara area in an agreement reached on 23 March 1949. The green line was redrawn in blue ink on the southern map to give the impression that a movement into green line had been made. The events that led to a change in the Green Line was an exchange of land in the Bethlehem area to Israeli control
7.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
8.
All-Palestine Government
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The All-Palestine Government was established by the Arab League on 22 September 1948 during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War to govern the Egyptian-controlled enclave in Gaza. It was soon recognized by all Arab League members except Transjordan, though jurisdiction of the Government was declared to cover the whole of the former Mandatory Palestine, its effective jurisdiction was limited to the Gaza Strip. The Prime Minister of the Gaza-seated administration was Ahmed Hilmi Pasha, shortly thereafter the Jericho Conference named King Abdullah I of Transjordan King of Arab Palestine. The Congress called for the union of Arab Palestine and Transjordan, the other Arab League member states opposed Abdullahs plan. The All-Palestine Government is regarded by some as the first attempt to establish an independent Palestinian state and it was under official Egyptian protection, but it had no executive role. The government had political and symbolic implications. Its importance gradually declined, especially after the relocation of its seat of government from Gaza to Cairo following the Israeli invasion in late 1948, though the Gaza Strip remained under Egyptian control through the war the All-Palestine Government remained in exile in Cairo, managing Gazan affairs from outside. Egypt, however, both formally and informally renounced any and all claims to Palestinian territory. At the end of World War I, Great Britain occupied the Ottoman territory of Palestine, the boundaries of the occupied land were not well defined. Britain and France, the main Allied Powers with a long-term interest in the area, Britain sought to legitimize the occupation by obtaining the British Mandate of Palestine from the League of Nations. In the mandated territory, Britain set up two separate administrations - Palestine and Transjordan - with the objective that they would in the course of time become fully independent. There was opposition from the Arab population of Palestine to the set out in the mandate. Various attempts were made to reconcile the Arab community with the growing Jewish population without success, the United Nations proposed the Partition Plan of 1947 which proposed that the Gaza area would become part of a new Arab Palestinian state. The Arab states rejected the United Nations plan, which heralded the start of the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, some countries continued to dispute its independent status. Israel declared its independence on 14 May 1948, the day before the expiration of the Mandate, on 15 May 1948, the Egyptian army invaded the territory of the former British Mandate from the south, starting the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. An Egyptian Ministerial order dated 1 June 1948 declared that all laws in force during the Mandate would continue to be in force in the Gaza Strip. On 8 July 1948, the Arab League decided to set up a civil administration in Palestine. This plan was opposed by King Abdullah I of Transjordan and received only half-hearted support from the Arab Higher Committee
9.
Jordanian annexation of the West Bank
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Jordanian annexation of the West Bank refers to the occupation and consequent annexation of the West Bank by Jordan in the aftermath of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. At the end of hostilities, Jordan was in control of the West Bank. Following the December 1948 Jericho Conference, and the 1949 renaming of the country from Transjordan to Jordan and it was recognized by the United Kingdom, Iraq and Pakistan. Jordan transferred its citizenship to the residents of the West Bank, prior to hostilities in 1948, all of the country known as Palestine had been under the British-controlled Mandate Government of Palestine, since 1917. Prior to that time, the country had been under Ottoman Turk occupation since 1517, toward the expiration of the British Mandate, Arabs aspired for independence and self-determination, as did the Jews of the country. On 14 May 1948, David Ben-Gurion, on behalf of the Jewish leadership, declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, on 22 September 1948, the All-Palestine Government was established in Gaza captured by Egypt. On 30 September, the First Palestine Congress, which saw Palestine as part of Syria, the December 1948 Jericho Conference, a meeting of prominent Palestinian leaders and King Abdullah, voted in favor of annexation into what was then Transjordan. By the end of the war, Jordanian forces had control over the West Bank, on 3 April 1949, Israel and Jordan signed an armistice agreement. The main points included, Jordanian forces remained in most positions held in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Jordan withdrew its forces from its front posts overlooking the Sharon plain, in return, Israel agreed to allow Jordanian forces to take over positions in the West Bank previously held by Iraqi forces. The committee was never formed, and access to the Holy Places was denied to Israelis throughout the Jordanian occupation, the remainder of the area designated as part of an Arab state under the UN Partition Plan was partly occupied by Egypt, partly occupied and annexed by Israel. The intended international enclave of Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan, the Jordanians immediately expelled all the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem. All but one of the 35 synagogues in the Old City were destroyed over the course of the next 19 years, either razed or used as stables, many other historic and religiously significant buildings were replaced by modern structures. The United States, together with the United Kingdom favored the annexation by Transjordan, Jordan formally annexed the West Bank on 24 April 1950, giving all residents automatic Jordanian citizenship. West Bank residents had received the right to claim Jordanian citizenship in December 1949. Jordans annexation was regarded as illegal and void by the Arab League. A motion to expel Jordan from the League was prevented by the votes of Yemen. On 12 June 1950, the Arab League declared the annexation was a temporary, practical measure, on 27 July 1953, King Hussein of Jordan announced that East Jerusalem was the alternative capital of the Hashemite Kingdom and would form an integral and inseparable part of Jordan
10.
East Jerusalem
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East Jerusalem or Eastern Jerusalem is the sector of Jerusalem that was not part of Israeli-held West Jerusalem at the end of the 1948–1949 Arab–Israeli War. Despite its name, East Jerusalem includes neighborhoods to the north, east and south of the Old City and this arrangement was formalized in the Rhodes Agreement in March 1949. A week after David Ben-Gurion presented his partys assertion that Jewish Jerusalem is an organic, inseparable part of the State of Israel in December 1949 and these decisions were confirmed respectively in the Knesset in January 1950 and the Jordanian Parliament in April 1950. On being captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, East Jerusalem, with expanded borders, in the Palestine Liberation Organization s Palestinian Declaration of Independence of 1988, Jerusalem is stated to be the capital of the State of Palestine. East Jerusalem has been occupied by Israel since 1967 and was annexed by Israel in 1980. On 27–28 June 1967, East Jerusalem was integrated into Jerusalem by extension of its borders and was placed under the law. In a unanimous General Assembly resolution, the UN declared the measures trying to change the status of the city invalid, following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jerusalem was divided into two parts. The western portion, populated primarily by Jews, came under Israeli rule, while the eastern portion, populated mainly by Muslim and Christian Palestinians, following the 1967 Six-Day War, the eastern part of Jerusalem came under Israeli rule, along with the entire West Bank. Shortly after the Israeli takeover, East Jerusalem was annexed to West Jerusalem, in November 1967, United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 was passed, calling for Israel to withdraw from territories occupied in the recent conflict in exchange for peace treaties. This declaration was determined to be null and void by United Nations Security Council Resolution 478, East Jerusalem is a term heavy with political implications. Israelis call the Arab populated part of the city East Jerusalem because of its location in the part of the single larger Jerusalem city unit. The term East Jerusalem is ambiguous and may be used to refer to either of the following, Jerusalem was to be an international city under the 1947 UN Partition Plan. It was not included as a part of either the proposed Jewish or Arab states, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, the western part of Jerusalem was captured by Israel, while East Jerusalem was captured by Jordan. The war came to an end with the signing of the 1949 Armistice Agreements, upon its capture, the Jordanians immediately expelled all the Jewish residents of the Jewish Quarter. The ancient Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives was desecrated, Jordan also destroyed the Jewish villages of Atarot and Neve Yaakov just north of Jerusalem. East Jerusalem absorbed some of the refugees from West Jerusalems Arab neighborhoods that came under Israeli rule, thousands of Arab refugees who were displaced from their homes in Israeli-held West Jerusalem were settled in the previously Jewish areas of East Jerusalem. In 1950 East Jerusalem, along with the rest of the West Bank, was annexed by Jordan. During the period of Jordanian rule, East Jerusalem lost much of its importance, as it was no longer a capital and it even saw a population decrease, with merchants and administrators moving to Amman
11.
Sea of Galilee
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The Sea of Galilee, also Kinneret, Lake of Gennesaret, or Lake Tiberias, is a large freshwater lake in Israel. It is approximately 53 km in circumference, about 21 km long and its area is 166.7 km2 at its fullest, and its maximum depth is approximately 43 m. At levels between 215 metres and 209 metres below sea level, it is the lowest freshwater lake on Earth, the lake is fed partly by underground springs although its main source is the Jordan River which flows through it from north to south. The Sea of Galilee is situated in northeast Israel, between the Golan Heights and the Galilee region, in the Jordan Rift Valley, the caused by the separation of the African and Arabian Plates. Consequently, the area is subject to earthquakes, and in the past and this is evident by the abundant basalt and other igneous rocks that define the geology of the Galilee. The lake has been called by different names throughout its history, with changing fate of the towns, the lakes name also changed. This name was found in the scripts of Ugarit, in the Aqhat Epic. Kinneret was listed among the cities in Joshua 19,35. A persistent, though likely erroneous popular etymology of the name presumes that the name Kinneret may originate from the Hebrew word kinnor, the scholarly consensus though is that the origin of the name lies with the important Bronze and Iron Age city of Kinneret, excavated at Tell el-Oreimeh. However, there is no evidence that the city of Kinneret itself was not named after the body of water rather than vice versa, or for the origin of the towns name. Sea of Ginosar The Babylonian Talmud, as well as Flavius Josephus mention the sea by the name Sea of Ginosar after the fertile plain of Ginosar that lies on its western side. Ginosar is yet another name derived from Kinneret, Sea of Tiberias is also the name mentioned in Roman texts and in the Jerusalem Talmud, and was adopted into Arabic as Buhairet Tabariyya, Lake Tiberias. This is the name employed by the medieval Persian and Arab scholars Al-Baladhuri, Al-Tabari, in 1989 remains of a hunter-gatherer site were found under the water at the southern end. Remains of mud huts were found which are the oldest known buildings in the world, the Sea of Galilee lies on the ancient Via Maris, which linked Egypt with the northern empires. The Greeks, Hasmoneans, and Romans founded flourishing towns and settlements on the lake including Hippos. The first-century historian Flavius Josephus was so impressed by the area that he wrote, Josephus also reported a thriving fishing industry at this time, with 230 boats regularly working in the lake. Archaeologists discovered one such boat, nicknamed the Jesus Boat, in 1986, much of the ministry of Jesus occurred on the shores of Lake Galilee. In those days, there was a ribbon development of settlements and villages around the lake and plenty of trade
12.
Yishuv
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The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv Ha-Ivri is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in the land of Israel prior to the establishment of the State of Israel. The term is used in Hebrew even nowadays to denote the Pre-State Jewish residents in the Land of Israel. A distinction is drawn between the Old Yishuv and the New Yishuv, The Old Yishuv refers to all the Jews living there before the aliyah of 1882 by the Zionist movement. The Old Yishuv residents were religious Jews, living mainly in Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias, smaller communities were in Jaffa, Haifa, Pekiin, Acre, Nablus, Shfaram and until 1779 also in Gaza. In the final centuries before modern Zionism, a part of the Old Yishuv spent their time studying the Torah and lived off Maamodot. The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the southern Syrian provinces in the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I. The Old Yishuv developed after a period of decline in Jewish communities of the Southern Levant during the early Middle Ages. The oldest group consisted of the Ladino-speaking Sephardic Jewish communities in Galilee, a second group was composed of Ashkenazi and Hassidic Jews who had emigrated from Europe in the 18th and early 19th centuries. A third wave was constituted by Yishuv members who arrived in the late 19th century. Apart from the Old Yishuv centres in the four cities of Judaism, namely Jerusalem, Hebron, Tiberias and Safed, smaller communities also existed in Jaffa, Haifa, Pekiin, Acre, Nablus. Petah Tikva, although established in 1878 by the Old Yishuv, Rishon LeZion, the first settlement founded by the Hovevei Zion in 1882, could be considered the true beginning of the New Yishuv. The Ottoman government was not supportive of the new settlers from the First and Second Aliyah, the Yishuv relied on money from abroad to support their settlements. In 1908 the Zionist Organization founded the Palestine Office, under Arthur Ruppin, for acquisition, agricultural settlement and training. The first Hebrew high schools were opened in Palestine as well as the Technion, hashomer, a Zionist self-defence group, was created to protect the Jewish settlements. Labor organizations were created along with health and cultural services, all coordinated by the Jewish National Council. By 1914, the old Yishuv was a minority and the new Yishuv began to express itself, the Zionist movement tried to find work for the new immigrants who arrived in the Second Aliyah. However, most were middle class and were not physically fit or knowledgeable in agricultural work, the Jewish plantation owners had previously hired Arab workers who accepted low wages and were very familiar with agriculture. The leaders of the Zionist movement insisted that plantation owners only hire Jewish workers, the conquest of labor was a major Zionist goal
13.
Haganah
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Haganah was a Jewish paramilitary organization in the British Mandate of Palestine, which became the core of the Israel Defense Forces. The evolution went step by step from Bar-Giora, to Hashomer, to Haganah, the Jewish paramilitary organisations in the New Yishuv started with the Second Aliyah. The first such organization was Bar-Giora, founded in September 1907 and it consisted of a small group of Jewish immigrants who guarded settlements for an annual fee. At no time did Bar-Giora have more than 100 members and it was converted to Hashomer in April 1909, which operated until the British Mandate of Palestine came into being in 1920. Hashomer was an elitist organization with narrow scope, and was created to protect against criminal gangs seeking to steal property. During World War I, the forerunners of the Haganah/IDF were the Zion Mule Corps, after the Arab riots against Jews in April 1920, the Yishuvs leadership saw the need to create a nationwide underground defense organization, and the Haganah was founded in June of the same year. During World War II the successor to the Jewish Legion of World War I was the Jewish Brigade, at the beginning of the ensuing 1948-49 full-scale conventional war against regular Arab armies, the Haganah was reorganised to become the core of the new Israel Defense Forces. Believing that they could not rely on the British administration for protection from these gangs, in addition to guarding Jewish communities, the role of the Haganah was to warn the residents of and repel attacks by Palestinian Arabs. In the period between 1920–1929, the Haganah lacked a central authority or coordination. Haganah units were very localized and poorly armed, they consisted mainly of Jewish farmers who took turns guarding their farms or their kibbutzim, following the 1929 Palestine riots, the Haganahs role changed dramatically. It became a larger organization encompassing nearly all the youth and adults in the Jewish settlements. It also acquired foreign arms and began to develop workshops to create hand grenades and simple military equipment, many Haganah fighters objected to the official policy of havlagah that Jewish political leaders had imposed on the militia. Fighters had been instructed to defend communities and not initiate counterattacks against Arab gangs or their communities. This policy appeared defeatist to many who believed that the best defense is a good offense, in 1931, the more militant elements of the Haganah splintered off and formed the Irgun Tsvai-Leumi, better known as Irgun. During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, the Haganah worked to protect British interests and to quell Arab rebellion using the FOSH, at that time, the Haganah fielded 10,000 mobilized men along with 40,000 reservists. The battle experience gained during the training was useful in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, by 1939, the British had issued the White Paper, which severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine, deeply angering the Zionist leadership. In reaction to the White Paper, the Haganah built up the Palmach as the Haganahs elite strike force, approximately 100,000 Jews were brought to Palestine in over one hundred ships during the final decade of what became known as Aliyah Bet. The Haganah also organized demonstrations against British immigration quotas, in 1940 the Haganah sabotaged the Patria, an ocean liner being used by the British to deport 1,800 Jews to Mauritius, with a bomb intended to cripple the ship
14.
Palmach
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The Palmach was the elite fighting force of the Haganah, the underground army of the Yishuv during the period of the British Mandate for Palestine. The Palmach was established on 15 May 1941, by the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War it consisted of over 2,000 men and women in three fighting brigades and auxiliary aerial, naval and intelligence units. With the creation of Israels army, the three Palmach Brigades were disbanded and this and political reasons compelled many of the senior Palmach officers to resign in 1950. The Palmach contributed significantly to Israeli culture and ethos, well beyond its military contribution and its members formed the backbone of the Israel Defense Forces high command for many years, and were prominent in Israeli politics, literature and culture. The Palmach was established by the Haganah High Command on 14 May 1941 and its aim was to defend the Palestinian Jewish community against two potential threats. Firstly the occupation of Palestine by the Axis in the event of their victory over the British in North Africa, secondly, if the British army were to retreat from Palestine, Jewish settlements might come under attack from the Arab population. Yitzhak Sadeh was named as Palmach commander, initially the group consisted of around one hundred men. In the early summer of 1941 the British military authorities agreed to joint operations against Vichy French forces in Lebanon, the first action was a sabotage mission against oil installations at Tripoli, Lebanon. Twenty-three Palmach members and a British liaison officer set out by sea but were never heard of again, on 8 June mixed squads of Palmach and Australians began operating in Lebanon and Syria. The success of operations led the British GHQ to fund a sabotage training camp for three hundred men at Mishmar HaEmek. Since the Palmach consisted of volunteers, the funding was used to cover the needs of twice that number of men. When the British ordered the dismantling of Palmach after the Allied victory at the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942, the organization went underground. Since British funding had stopped, Yitzhak Tabenkin, head of the kibbutz union HaKibbutz HaMeuhad, each kibbutz would host a Palmach platoon and supply them with food, homes and resources. In return the platoon would safeguard the kibbutz and carry out such as agricultural work. The proposal was accepted in August 1942, when it was decided that each month Palmach members would have eight training days,14 work days. The program of combined training, agricultural work and Zionist education was called Hachshara Meguyeset הכשרה מגויסת. Later, Zionist youth movements offered members aged of 18–20 an opportunity to join groups for agricultural settlement that became the basis for the Nahal. Basic training included physical fitness, small arms, mêlée and KAPAP, basic training, topography, first aid
15.
Irgun
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The Irgun was a Zionist paramilitary organization that operated in Mandate Palestine between 1931 and 1948. It was an offshoot of the older and larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah, when the group broke from the Haganah it became known as the Haganah Bet, or alternatively as haHaganah haLeumit or Hamaamad. Irgun members were absorbed into the Israel Defense Forces at the start of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, the Irgun is also referred to as Etzel, an acronym of the Hebrew initials, or by the abbreviation IZL. The Irgun policy was based on what was then called Revisionist Zionism founded by Zeev Jabotinsky, the Irgun has been viewed as a terrorist organization or organization which carried out terrorist acts. Irguns tactics appealed to many Jews who believed that any action taken in the cause of the creation of a Jewish state was justified, the Irgun was a political predecessor to Israels right-wing Herut party, which led to todays Likud party. Likud has led or been part of most Israeli governments since 1977, members of the Irgun came mostly from Betar and from the Revisionist Party both in Palestine and abroad. The Revisionist Movement made up a backing for the underground organization. Zeev Jabotinsky, founder of Revisionist Zionism, commanded the organization until he died in 1940 and he formulated the general realm of operation, regarding Restraint and the end thereof, and was the inspiration for the organization overall. An additional major source of inspiration was the poetry of Uri Zvi Greenberg. The number of members of the Irgun varied from a few hundred to a few thousand, most of its members were people who joined the organizations command, under which they carried out various operations and filled positions, largely in opposition to British law. Most of them were people, who held regular jobs. Therefore, the Irgun tended to ignore the decisions made by the Zionist leadership, the Irgun put out numerous advertisements, an underground newspaper and even ran the first independent Hebrew radio station – Kol Zion HaLochemet. As members of an armed organization, Irgun personnel did not normally call Irgun by its name. In the first years of its existence it was primarily as Ha-Haganah Leumit, and also by names such as Haganah Bet, Irgun Bet, the Parallel Organization. Later on it became most widely known as המעמד, the anthem adopted by the Irgun was Anonymous Soldiers, written by Avraham Stern who was at the time a commander in the Irgun. Later on Stern defected from the Irgun and founded Lehi, the Irguns new anthem then became the third verse of the Betar Song, by Zeev Jabotinsky. The Irgun gradually evolved from its origins into a serious. The movement developed a hierarchy of ranks and a sophisticated command-structure and it developed clandestine networks of hidden arms-caches and weapons-production workshops, safe-houses, and training camps
16.
Lehi (group)
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Lehi, often known pejoratively as the Stern Gang, was a Zionist paramilitary organization founded by Avraham Stern in Mandatory Palestine. It was initially called the National Military Organization in Israel, upon being founded in August 1940, according to Jean E. Rosenfeld, the group admitted to have used terrorist attacks. Lehi split from the Irgun militant group in 1940 in order to fighting the British during World War II. Believing that Nazi Germany was a enemy of the Jews than Britain. During World War II, it declared that it would establish a Jewish state based upon nationalist, after Sterns death in 1942, the new leadership of Lehi began to move it towards support for Joseph Stalins Soviet Union. In 1944, Lehi officially declared its support for National Bolshevism, Lehi and the Irgun were jointly responsible for the massacre in Deir Yassin. Lehi assassinated Lord Moyne, British Minister Resident in the Middle East, after the assassination, the new Israeli government declared Lehi a terrorist organization, arresting and convicting some 200 members. Just before the first Israeli elections, an amnesty to Lehi members was granted by the government. In 1980, Israel instituted a decoration, an award for activity in the struggle for the establishment of Israel. Former Lehi leader Yitzhak Shamir became Prime Minister of Israel in 1983, Lehi was created in August 1940 by Avraham Stern. Stern had been a member of the Irgun high command, zeev Jabotinsky, then the Irguns supreme commander, had decided that diplomacy and working with Britain would best serve the Zionist cause. World War II was in progress, and Britain was fighting Nazi Germany, the Irgun suspended its underground military activities against the British for the duration of the war. Stern argued that the time for Zionist diplomacy was over and that it was time for armed struggle against the British, like other Zionists, he objected to the White Paper of 1939, which restricted both Jewish immigration and Jewish land purchases in Palestine. For Stern, no difference existed between Hitler and Chamberlain, between Dachau or Buchenwald and sealing the gates of Eretz Israel, Stern wanted to open Palestine to all Jewish refugees from Europe, and considered this as by far the most important issue of the day. Therefore, he concluded, the Yishuv should fight the British rather than them in the war. When the Irgun made a truce with the British, Stern left the Irgun to form his own group, Stern and his followers believed that dying for the foreign occupier who was obstructing the creation of the Jewish State was useless. They differentiated between enemies of the Jewish people and Jew haters, believing that the former needed to be defeated, in September 1940, the organization was officially named Lehi. In 1940, the idea of the Final Solution was still unthinkable, in December 1940, Lehi even contacted Germany with a proposal to aid German conquest in the Middle East in return for recognition of a Jewish state open to unlimited immigration
17.
Bedouin
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The term contrasts against Hathar which refers to the city or town dwellers in the Arabic language. Bedouin means Badiyah dwellers in the Arabic language, as Badyah means literally the visible land, the Bedouins identify themselves as Arabs or by the names of their tribes. City dwellers in Arabia who descended from known tribes refer to themselves as Bedouins to recognize their origin to Arabia. Bedouin territory stretches from the vast deserts of North Africa to the sands of the Middle East. They are traditionally divided into tribes, or clans and share a culture of herding camels. The Bedouin form a part of, but are not synonymous with, Bedouins have been referred to by various names throughout history, including Qedarites in the Old Testament and Arabaa by the Assyrians. They are referred to as the Araab in the Koran, traditions like camel riding and camping in the deserts are also popular leisure activities for urbanised Bedouins who live within close proximity to deserts or other wilderness areas. The term Bedouin derives from a form of the Arabic word badu. The Arabic term badu literally translates in Arabic as Badiyah dwellers, the word bādiyah means visible land such as plain or desert. The term Bedouin therefore means those in bādiyah or those in the desert, in English usage, however, the form Bedouin is commonly used for the singular term, the plural being Bedouins, as indicated by the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition. The term Bedouin also uses the root word as the Arabic noun for the beginning, بداية. The Arabs believe the Bedouins to be the predecessors to the settled Arabs, disputes are settled, interests are pursued, and justice and order are maintained by means of this frame, according to an ethic of self-help and collective responsibility. The individual family unit typically consisted of three or four adults and any number of children, when resources were plentiful, several tents would travel together as a goum. These groups were linked by patriarchal lineage, but were just as likely linked by marriage, acquaintance, or no clearly defined relation. The next scale of interaction within groups was the ibn ʿamm or descent group, whilst the phrase descent group suggests purely a lineage-based arrangement, in reality these groups were fluid and adapted their genealogies to take in new members. The largest scale of tribal interactions is the tribe as a whole, the tribe often claims descent from one common ancestor—as mentioned above. The tribal level is the level that mediated between the Bedouin and the governments and organizations. Distinct structure of the Bedouin society leads to lasting rivalries between different clans
18.
Israel Defense Forces
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The Israel Defense Forces, commonly known in Israel by the Hebrew acronym Tzahal, are the military forces of the State of Israel. They consist of the forces, air force, and navy. It is the military wing of the Israeli security forces. The IDF is headed by its Chief of General Staff, the Ramatkal, subordinate to the Defense Minister of Israel, Lieutenant general Gadi Eizenkot has served as Chief of Staff since 2015. The number of wars and border conflicts in which the IDF has been involved in its history makes it one of the most battle-trained armed forces in the world. The Israel Defense Forces differs from most armed forces in the world in many ways, differences include the mandatory conscription of women and its structure, which emphasizes close relations between the army, navy, and air force. Since its founding, the IDF has been designed to match Israels unique security situation. The IDF is one of Israeli societys most prominent institutions, influencing the economy, culture. In 1965, the Israel Defense Forces was awarded the Israel Prize for its contribution to education, the Uzi submachine gun was invented in Israel and used by the IDF until December 2003, ending a service that began in 1954. The Israeli cabinet ratified the name Israel Defense Forces, Tzva HaHagana LeYisrael, literally army for the defense of Israel, the other main contender was Tzva Yisrael. The name was chosen because it conveyed the idea that the role was defense, and because it incorporated the name Haganah. Among the primary opponents of the name were Minister Haim-Moshe Shapira, the IDF traces its roots to Jewish paramilitary organizations in the New Yishuv, starting with the Second Aliyah. The first such organization was Bar-Giora, founded in September 1907 and it was converted to Hashomer in April 1909, which operated until the British Mandate of Palestine came into being in 1920. Hashomer was an elitist organization with narrow scope, and was created to protect against criminal gangs seeking to steal property. During World War I, the forerunners of the Haganah/IDF were the Zion Mule Corps, after the Arab riots against Jews in April 1920, the Yishuvs leadership saw the need to create a nationwide underground defense organization, and the Haganah was founded in June of the same year. The Haganah became a defense force after the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine with an organized structure. During World War II the successor to the Jewish Legion of World War I was the Jewish Brigade, the IDF was founded following the establishment of the State of Israel, after Defense Minister and Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion issued an order on 26 May 1948. The order called for the establishment of the Israel Defense Forces, although Ben-Gurion had no legal authority to issue such an order, the order was made legal by the cabinet on 31 May
19.
Sword Battalion
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The IDF Sword Battalion, formerly known as Unit 300 and as the IDF Minorities Unit, is an Arabic-speaking unit of the Israel Defense Forces. Serving throughout the IDF, non-Jewish minorities commonly also serve in the Druze Reconnaissance Unit, the Minorities Unit was formed in the early summer of 1948 by incorporating a unit of Druze defectors from the Arab Liberation Army and small numbers of Bedouin and Circassians. The unit was attached to the Oded Brigade and fought in Operation Hiram in October 1948 and it has fought in every war since. Today, most members of the unit are Druze, but there are also Bedouins, Circassians and Christian, the unit has produced several generals. The Minorities Unit has a small elite Sayeret special forces branch, Druze and Circassian men are subject to mandatory conscription to the IDF. In the mid-1950s, the Druze leadership appealed to David Ben-Gurion, then Minister of Defense, the State Defense Act of 1949, which called for drafting all individuals in the country, allowed the minister to issue exemptions for certain groups. The Druze asked that their exemption be canceled, originally, they served in the framework of a special unit. Since the 1980s, Druze soldiers have joined regular combat units, attaining high ranks,83 percent of Druze boys serve in the army according to IDF statistics. According to the Israeli army,369 Druze soldiers have killed in combat operations since 1948. There is a government policy of encouraging Bedouins to volunteer. In some Bedouin communities a military career is seen as a means of social mobility, Muslim and Christian Arabs are also accepted as volunteers. In 1987, Unit 300 was officially renamed Sword Battalion, in May 2015 the IDF published plans to disband Sword Battalion, after research revealed the vast majority of recruits would rather integrate into the rest of the army. Israeli Druze Circassians in Israel Negev Bedouins in the IDF Parsons, the Druze and the birth of Israel. In Eugene L. Rogan and Avi Shalim, Battalion of Arab- The History of the Minorities Unit in the IDF from 1948 to 1956. Ben Shemen, Israel, Modan Publishing, in cooperation with Maarachot
20.
Mahal (Israel)
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Mahal were both Jewish and non-Jewish volunteers who went to Israel to fight in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, including Aliyah Bet. About 4,000 volunteers from all over the world came to fight on the Israeli side, Mahal made up a small fraction of the Israeli forces, except for the Air Force, where they were dominant. Mahal was disbanded after the war, and most volunteers left Israel, some, however, made their immigration permanent. The Hebrew term מחל is an acronym of מתנדבי חוץ לארץ, the volunteers were referred to as Machalniks. The Machalniks were mostly World War II veterans from United States, in various circumstances they were invited, or heard of the Jewish states struggle for independence and volunteered. In some cases those who enlisted had no military experience. There were Jews and Christians, both supporters of Zionism and mercenaries. The 1948 Arab-Israeli War saw approximately 3500 foreign volunteers from 58 countries among the Jewish forces, out of an estimated 29, a total of 123 Mahalniks were killed in battle. One of the most senior Machal personnel was Mickey Marcus, a Jewish United States Army colonel who assisted Israeli forces during the war, Marcus wartime experience was vital in the 1948 Battle for Jerusalem. Other important Mahalniks were Canadian officer Ben Dunkelman and U. S. pilot Milton Rubenfeld, another personality involved in the recruitment of US volunteers was Major Wellesley Aron, an English-born Palestinian Jew who had commanded a unit in the British Army during World War II. In 1947, while on a tour of the United States. Cargo flights flown by Mahal air crews transported weapons and supplies to Palestine from Europe, the national Israeli airline El Al was partially founded by Mahal veterans. The integration of Mahal personnel into the Israel Defense Forces did not proceed without difficulty and this culminated in the disbandment of the Air Transport Division, following an industrial action by its Mahal personnel over pay conditions. The division was re-established with Israeli personnel, logistic support of the founding of the IAF was provided by various diaspora groups which procured planes in the critical months of 1948-9. One important such activity in Australia led to the export to Israel of six planes, a few hours before the final cease-fire on 7 January 1949, a flight of four British RAF Spitfires bypassed the southern Israeli border on a reconnaissance flight. They were attacked by a pair of Israeli Air Force Spitfires, the Israeli Spitfires were flown by Mahal volunteers Slick Goodlin and John McElroy. Both were former US Army Air Forces and Royal Canadian Air Force pilots, after the end of the war in 1949, the majority of the Mahal returned to their home countries. Some remained to live in Israel, the village of Kfar Daniel near Lod was founded by Mahal veterans from North America, then Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion said the Mahal Forces were the Diasporas most important contribution to the survival of the State of Israel
21.
Army of the Holy War
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The Army of the Holy War or Holy War Army was a Palestinian Arab irregular force in the 1947-48 Palestinian civil war led by Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and Hasan Salama. The force has been described as Husaynis personal army, Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni arrived in the Jerusalem sector in December 1947 and by March 1948 had about 128 men. He established his headquarters at Bir Zeit and started to conduct a blockade of Jerusalem by attacking the Jewish convoys to the city. Hasan Salama, with 950 men of the Jihad and 228 irregulars, took responsibility for the operations in the Lydda and Ramle sectors, husayni was killed during the battle for control of Qastal Hill on the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem road, on 8 April 1948. His forces captured Qastal from the Haganah, which had occupied the village at the start of Operation Nachshon six days earlier with a force of about 100 men and they retreated to the Jewish settlement of Motza. Palmach troops recaptured the village on the night of 8–9 April, most of the houses were blown up, Husaynis death was a factor in the loss of morale among his forces. When the All-Palestine Government was formed on 22 September 1948, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, it revived the Holy War Army, however, the Government had no money of its own, and operated only under the supervision of Egypt, and was generally ineffective. In October 1948, Jordan gave an order to its forces, sacred Landscape, The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948. ISBN 0-520-23422-7 Hourani, Albert Habib, Philip S. Khoury, the Modern Middle East, A Reader. Politics in Palestine, Arab Factionalism and Social Disintegration, 1939-1948, albany, State University of New York Press. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited,1948, A history of the first Arab-Israeli war. The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947-51, armed Struggle and the Search for State, The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993. ISBN 978-0-19-829643-0 Simon, Reeva S. Philip Mattar, Richard W. Bulliet, encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East 1, A - C. Elusive Victory—The Arab-Israeli war 1947–1974, New York, N. Y.10022
22.
Arab Liberation Army
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The Arab Liberation Army, also translated as Arab Salvation Army, was an army of volunteers from Arab countries led by Fawzi al-Qawuqji. The target figure for recruitment was 10,000, but by mid-March 1948 the number of volunteers to have joined the Army reached around 6,000, the actual number deployed might have been as low as 3,500, according to General Safwat. Its ranks included mainly Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and a few hundreds of Iraqis, Transjordanians, Bosniaks, Muslim Brothers from Egypt, there were also a few German, Turkish and British deserters. The Arab League Military Committee, with headquarters in Damascus, was responsible for the movements, the Committee consisted of General Ismail Safwat, General Taha al-Hashimi, Colonel Shuqayri, Colonel Muhammed al-Hindi and Colonel Abd al-Qadir al-Jundi. All of the countries represented related to King Abdullahs long-held plans to re-form Greater Syria and this Greater Syria Plan had been supported by the British Empire throughout the thirties and forties. This section is sourced from Joshua Landis, Syria and the 1948 War in Palestine, Syria’s reasons for building the Army of Liberation were several. Egypt was to pay for 42% of the costs, Syria and Lebanon 23%, Saudi Arabia 20%, just as important as the financial reasons for building an Arab League force was the need to protect the Syrian army itself. If the volunteer army were defeated, the loss and embarrassment would be borne by the Arab League in general, another advantage to an irregular army was that it could be sent into Palestine well before the British officially withdrew from their mandate on 15 May 1948. None of the Arab states were willing to declare war openly on the British, thus, Syria would not officially be opening hostilities against the British troops, who still bore responsibility for security in Palestine. It would retain leverage in Palestine and be able to tell the Syrian public that it had more than the other Arab countries to help the Palestinians. Most importantly, however, the ALA was to be used as an instrument to nip Abdullahs Greater Syria plan in the bud, the evolution of President Quwatlis military objectives in Palestine is recorded in the diaries of Taha al-Hashimi. Hashimi was an Iraqi pan-Arab nationalist and long-time intimate of Quwatli, Hashimi was ultimately appointed Inspector General of the ALA and placed in charge of recruitment and training of the troops at the Qatana headquarters. His office was in the Syrian Ministry of Defense and he met daily with Syria’s political, because of this I have ordered the Syrian army to move to the Syrian–Palestinian border. The force which has taken up there is 2,500 men. Also Lebanon will send 1000 men to its border, as soon as the forces of Iraq and Jordan enter Palestine, we will enter and take al-Nasira and the North. Quwatli’s strategy in Palestine was designed from the outset to prevent Abdullahs possible advance north to Damascus, in the best case, Quwatli hoped to acquire some of northern Palestine for Syria. A second reason for Quwatlis hesitation to commit Syrian military troops was that he had failed in his efforts to reform the army and questioned the loyalty. Quwatli was fully aware of the problems in his military, the real problem is to reform the Syrian army and to solve the problem of its leadership, he confided to Taha al-Hashimi in September 1947
23.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
24.
Kingdom of Egypt
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The Kingdom of Egypt was the independent Egyptian state established under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1922 following the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence by the United Kingdom. Between 1936-52, the British continued to maintain military presence and political advisors, in line with the change in status from sultanate to kingdom, the Sultan of Egypt, Fuad I, saw his title changed to King. The kingdoms sovereignty was subject to limitations imposed by the British, who retained enormous control over Egyptian affairs. Throughout the kingdoms existence Sudan was formally united with Egypt, however, actual Egyptian authority in Sudan was largely nominal due to Britains role as the dominant power in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Other political forces emerging in this included the Communist Party, and the Muslim Brotherhood. King Fuad died in 1936 and Farouk inherited the throne at the age of sixteen, alarmed by Italys recent invasion of Abyssinia, he signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, requiring Britain to withdraw all troops from Egypt, except in the Suez Canal Zone. The kingdom was plagued by corruption, and its citizens saw it as a puppet of the British and this, coupled with the defeat in the 1948-1949 Palestine War, led to the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 by the Free Officers Movement. Farouk abdicated in favour of his infant son Fuad II, in 1953 the monarchy was formally abolished and the Republic of Egypt was established. The legal status of Sudan was only resolved in 1954, when Egypt, in 1914, Khedive Abbas II sided with the Ottoman Empire and the Central Powers in the First World War, and was promptly deposed by the British in favor of his uncle Hussein Kamel. A group known as the Wafd attended the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 to demand Egypts independence, included in the group was political leader, Saad Zaghlul, who would later become Prime Minister. When the group was arrested and deported to the island of Malta, from March to April 1919, there were mass demonstrations that turned into uprisings. This is known in Egypt as the First Revolution, British repression of the anti-occupation riots led to the death of some 800 people. In November 1919, the Milner Commission was sent to Egypt by the British to attempt to resolve the situation, in 1920, Lord Milner submitted his report to Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, recommending that the protectorate should be replaced by a treaty of alliance. As a result, Curzon agreed to receive an Egyptian mission headed by Zaghlul, the mission arrived in London in June 1920 and the agreement was concluded in August 1920. In February 1921, the British Parliament approved the agreement and Egypt was asked to send another mission to London with full powers to conclude a definitive treaty, Adli Pasha led this mission, which arrived in June 1921. The mission returned to Egypt in disgust, in December 1921, the British authorities in Cairo imposed martial law and once again deported Zaghlul. British influence, however, continued to dominate Egypts political life and fostered fiscal, administrative, Britain retained control of the Canal Zone, Sudan and Egypts external protection. Representing the Wafd Party, Zaghlul was elected Prime Minister in 1924 and he demanded that Britain recognize the Egyptian sovereignty in Sudan and the unity of the Nile Valley
25.
Jordan
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Jordan, officially The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is an Arab kingdom in Western Asia, on the East Bank of the Jordan River. Jordan is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the east and south, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north, Israel, Palestine and the Dead Sea to the west, Jordan is strategically located at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe. The capital, Amman, is Jordans most populous city as well as the countrys economic, what is now Jordan has been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period. Three stable kingdoms emerged there at the end of the Bronze Age, Ammon, Moab, later rulers include the Nabataean Kingdom, the Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. After the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottomans in 1916 during World War I, the Emirate of Transjordan was established in 1921 by the then Emir Abdullah I and became a British protectorate. In 1946, Jordan became an independent state known as The Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. Jordan captured the West Bank, which it later lost in 1967, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Jordan is a founding member of the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, and is one of two Arab states to have signed a peace treaty with Israel. The country is a monarchy, but the king holds wide executive and legislative powers. Jordan is a relatively-small, semi-arid, almost-landlocked country with a population numbering at 9.5 million, Sunni Islam, practiced by around 92% of the population, is the dominant religion in Jordan. It coexists with an indigenous Christian minority, Jordan is considered to be among the safest of Arab countries in the Middle East, and has avoided long-term terrorism and instability. The kingdom is also a refuge to thousands of Iraqi Christians fleeing the Islamic State, while Jordan continues to accept refugees, the recent large influx from Syria placed substantial strain on national resources and infrastructure. Jordan is classified as a country of high human development with a middle income economy. The Jordanian economy, one of the smallest economies in the region, is attractive to foreign investors based upon a skilled workforce, the country is a major tourist destination, and also attracts medical tourism due to its well developed health sector. Nonetheless, a lack of resources, large flow of refugees. Jordan is named after the Jordan River, where Jesus is said to have been baptized, the origin of the rivers name is debated, but the most common explanation is that it derives from the word yarad, found in Hebrew, Aramaic, and other Semitic languages. Others regard the name as having an Indo-Aryan origin, combining the words yor and don, another theory is that it is from the Arabic root word wrd, as in people coming to a major source of water. The name Jordan appears in an ancient Egyptian papyrus called Papyrus Anastasi I, the lands of modern-day Jordan were historically called Transjordan, meaning beyond the Jordan River. The name was Arabized into Al-Urdunn during the Muslim conquest of the Levant, during crusader rule, it was called Oultrejordain
26.
Iraq
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The capital, and largest city, is Baghdad. The main ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds, others include Assyrians, Turkmen, Shabakis, Yazidis, Armenians, Mandeans, Circassians, around 95% of the countrys 36 million citizens are Muslims, with Christianity, Yarsan, Yezidism, and Mandeanism also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish, two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation. It was here that mankind first began to read, write, create laws, the area has been home to successive civilisations since the 6th millennium BC. Iraq was the centre of the Akkadian, Sumerian, Assyrian and it was also part of the Median, Achaemenid, Hellenistic, Parthian, Sassanid, Roman, Rashidun, Umayyad, Abbasid, Ayyubid, Mongol, Safavid, Afsharid, and Ottoman empires. Iraqs modern borders were mostly demarcated in 1920 by the League of Nations when the Ottoman Empire was divided by the Treaty of Sèvres, Iraq was placed under the authority of the United Kingdom as the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. A monarchy was established in 1921 and the Kingdom of Iraq gained independence from Britain in 1932, in 1958, the monarchy was overthrown and the Iraqi Republic created. Iraq was controlled by the Arab Socialist Baath Party from 1968 until 2003, after an invasion by the United States and its allies in 2003, Saddam Husseins Baath Party was removed from power and multi-party parliamentary elections were held in 2005. The American presence in Iraq ended in 2011, but the Iraqi insurgency continued and intensified as fighters from the Syrian Civil War spilled into the country, the Arabic name العراق al-ʿIrāq has been in use since before the 6th century. There are several suggested origins for the name, one dates to the Sumerian city of Uruk and is thus ultimately of Sumerian origin, as Uruk was the Akkadian name for the Sumerian city of Urug, containing the Sumerian word for city, UR. An Arabic folk etymology for the name is rooted, well-watered. During the medieval period, there was a region called ʿIrāq ʿArabī for Lower Mesopotamia and ʿIrāq ʿajamī, for the region now situated in Central and Western Iran. The term historically included the south of the Hamrin Mountains. The term Sawad was also used in early Islamic times for the region of the plain of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. In English, it is either /ɪˈrɑːk/ or /ɪˈræk/, the American Heritage Dictionary, the pronunciation /aɪˈræk/ is frequently heard in U. S. media. Since approximately 10,000 BC, Iraq was one of centres of a Caucasoid Neolithic culture where agriculture, the following Neolithic period is represented by rectangular houses. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gypsum, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations
27.
Kingdom of Iraq
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The Kingdom of Iraq was founded on 23 August 1921 under British administration following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the Mesopotamian campaign of World War I. The kingdom of Iraq was granted independence in 1932, following the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty. The independent Iraqi Kingdom under the Hashemite rulers underwent a period of turbulence through its entire existence, establishment of Sunni religious domination in Iraq was followed by Assyrian, Yazidi and Shia unrests, which were all brutally suppressed. In 1936, the first military coup took place in the Kingdom of Iraq, multiple coups followed in a period of political instability, peaking in 1941. During World War II, the Iraqi regime of Regent Abd al-Ilah was overthrown in 1941 by the Golden Square officers, the short-lived pro-Nazi government of Iraq was defeated in May 1941 by the allied forces in the Anglo-Iraqi War. Iraq was later used as a base for allied attacks on the Vichy-French-held Mandate of Syria, at the same time, the Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani led a rebellion against the central government in Baghdad. After the failure of the uprising Barzani and his followers fled to the Soviet Union, in 1945, during the final stages of World War II, Iraq joined the United Nations and became a founding member of the Arab League. In 1948, massive violent protests, known as the Al-Wathbah uprising broke out across Baghdad as a demand against the government treaty with the British. More protests continued in spring, but were interrupted in May, with the martial law, in February 1958, King Hussein of Jordan and Abd al-Ilāh proposed a union of Hāshimite monarchies to counter the recently formed Egyptian-Syrian union. The resulting Arab Federation, formed on 14 February 1958 was short-lived and it ended in 1958, when the monarchy was overthrown in a military coup, led by Abd al-Karim Qasim. The territory of Iraq was under Ottoman dominance until the end of World War I, Faisal ibn Husayn, who had previously been proclaimed King of Syria by a Syrian National Congress in Damascus in March 1920, was ejected by the French in July of the same year. The civil government of postwar Iraq was headed originally by the High Commissioner, Sir Percy Cox, British reprisals after the murder of a British officer in Najaf failed to restore order. British administration had yet to be established in the mountains of north Iraq, the most striking problem facing the British was the growing anger of the nationalists. With the signing of the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty and the settling of the Mosul Question, thus, despite a constitution and an elected assembly, Iraqi politics was more a shifting alliance of important personalities and cliques than a democracy in the Western sense. The absence of broadly based political institutions inhibited the early nationalist movements ability to make inroads into Iraqs diverse social structure. The new Anglo-Iraqi Treaty was signed in June 1930 and it provided for a close alliance, for full and frank consultations between the two countries in all matters of foreign policy, and for mutual assistance in case of war. Iraq granted the British the use of air bases near Basra and at Al Habbaniyah, the treaty, of twenty-five years duration, was to come into force upon Iraqs admission to the League of Nations. This occurred on October 3,1932, in 1932, the Kingdom of Iraq was granted independence under King Faisal I
28.
Syria
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Syrias capital and largest city is Damascus. Religious groups include Sunnis, Christians, Alawites, Druze, Mandeans, Shiites, Salafis, Sunni Arabs make up the largest religious group in Syria. Its capital Damascus and largest city Aleppo are among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, in the Islamic era, Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital of the Mamluk Sultanate in Egypt. The post-independence period was tumultuous, and a number of military coups. In 1958, Syria entered a union with Egypt called the United Arab Republic. Syria was under Emergency Law from 1963 to 2011, effectively suspending most constitutional protections for citizens, Bashar al-Assad has been president since 2000 and was preceded by his father Hafez al-Assad, who was in office from 1970 to 2000. Mainstream modern academic opinion strongly favours the argument that the Greek word is related to the cognate Ἀσσυρία, Assyria, in the past, others believed that it was derived from Siryon, the name that the Sidonians gave to Mount Hermon. However, the discovery of the inscription in 2000 seems to support the theory that the term Syria derives from Assyria. The area designated by the word has changed over time, since approximately 10,000 BC, Syria was one of centers of Neolithic culture where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world. The following Neolithic period is represented by houses of Mureybet culture. At the time of the pre-pottery Neolithic, people used vessels made of stone, gyps, finds of obsidian tools from Anatolia are evidences of early trade relations. Cities of Hamoukar and Emar played an important role during the late Neolithic, archaeologists have demonstrated that civilization in Syria was one of the most ancient on earth, perhaps preceded by only those of Mesopotamia. The earliest recorded indigenous civilisation in the region was the Kingdom of Ebla near present-day Idlib, gifts from Pharaohs, found during excavations, confirm Eblas contact with Egypt. One of the earliest written texts from Syria is an agreement between Vizier Ibrium of Ebla and an ambiguous kingdom called Abarsal c.2300 BC. The Northwest Semitic language of the Amorites is the earliest attested of the Canaanite languages, Mari reemerged during this period, and saw renewed prosperity until conquered by Hammurabi of Babylon. Ugarit also arose during this time, circa 1800 BC, close to modern Latakia, Ugaritic was a Semitic language loosely related to the Canaanite languages, and developed the Ugaritic alphabet. The Ugarites kingdom survived until its destruction at the hands of the marauding Indo-European Sea Peoples in the 12th century BC, Yamhad was described in the tablets of Mari as the mightiest state in the near east and as having more vassals than Hammurabi of Babylon. Yamhad imposed its authority over Alalakh, Qatna, the Hurrians states, the army of Yamhad campaigned as far away as Dēr on the border of Elam
29.
Lebanon
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Lebanon, officially known as the Lebanese Republic, is a sovereign state in Western Asia. It is bordered by Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, Lebanons location at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian hinterland facilitated its rich history and shaped a cultural identity of religious and ethnic diversity. At just 10,452 km2, it is the smallest recognized country on the entire mainland Asian continent, the earliest evidence of civilization in Lebanon dates back more than seven thousand years, predating recorded history. Lebanon was the home of the Canaanites/Phoenicians and their kingdoms, a culture that flourished for over a thousand years. In 64 BC, the region came under the rule of the Roman Empire, in the Mount Lebanon range a monastic tradition known as the Maronite Church was established. As the Arab Muslims conquered the region, the Maronites held onto their religion, however, a new religious group, the Druze, established themselves in Mount Lebanon as well, generating a religious divide that has lasted for centuries. During the Crusades, the Maronites re-established contact with the Roman Catholic Church, the ties they established with the Latins have influenced the region into the modern era. The region eventually was ruled by the Ottoman Empire from 1516 to 1918, following the collapse of the empire after World War I, the five provinces that constitute modern Lebanon came under the French Mandate of Lebanon. The French expanded the borders of the Mount Lebanon Governorate, which was populated by Maronites and Druze. Lebanon gained independence in 1943, establishing confessionalism, a unique, foreign troops withdrew completely from Lebanon on 31 December 1946. Lebanon has been a member of the Organisation internationale de la francophonie since 1973, despite its small size, the country has developed a well-known culture and has been highly influential in the Arab world. Before the Lebanese Civil War, the experienced a period of relative calm and renowned prosperity, driven by tourism, agriculture, commerce. At the end of the war, there were efforts to revive the economy. In spite of troubles, Lebanon has the highest Human Development Index and GDP per capita in the Arab world. The name of Mount Lebanon originates from the Phoenician root lbn meaning white, occurrences of the name have been found in different Middle Bronze Age texts from the library of Ebla, and three of the twelve tablets of the Epic of Gilgamesh. The name is recorded in Ancient Egyptian as Rmnn, where R stood for Canaanite L, the name occurs nearly 70 times in the Hebrew Bible, as לְבָנוֹן. The borders of contemporary Lebanon are a product of the Treaty of Sèvres of 1920 and its territory was the core of the Bronze Age Phoenician city-states. After the 7th-century Muslim conquest of the Levant, it was part of the Rashidun, Umyayad, Abbasid Seljuk, with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Greater Lebanon fell under French mandate in 1920, and gained independence under president Bechara El Khoury in 1943
30.
Yemen
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Yemen, officially known as the Republic of Yemen, is an Arab country in Western Asia, occupying South Arabia, the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen is the second-largest country in the peninsula, occupying 527,970 km2, the coastline stretches for about 2,000 km. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea to the south, although Yemens constitutionally stated capital is the city of Sanaa, the city has been under rebel control since February 2015. Because of this, Yemens capital has been relocated to the port city of Aden. Yemens territory includes more than 200 islands, the largest of these is Socotra, Yemen was the home of the Sabaeans, a trading state that flourished for over a thousand years and probably also included parts of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. In 275 AD, the region came under the rule of the later Jewish-influenced Himyarite Kingdom, Christianity arrived in the fourth century, whereas Judaism and local paganism were already established. Islam spread quickly in the century and Yemenite troops were crucial in the expansion of the early Islamic conquests. Administration of Yemen has long been notoriously difficult, several dynasties emerged from the ninth to 16th centuries, the Rasulid dynasty being the strongest and most prosperous. The country was divided between the Ottoman and British empires in the twentieth century. The Zaydi Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was established after World War I in North Yemen before the creation of the Yemen Arab Republic in 1962, South Yemen remained a British protectorate known as the Aden Protectorate until 1967 when it became an independent state and later, a Marxist state. The two Yemeni states united to form the modern republic of Yemen in 1990, Yemen is a developing country, and the poorest country in the Middle East. Under the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen was described as a kleptocracy, according to the 2009 international corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, Yemen ranked 164 out of 182 countries surveyed. President Saleh stepped down and the powers of the presidency were transferred to Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the transitional process was disrupted by conflicts between the Houthis and al-Islah, as well as the al-Qaeda insurgency. In September 2014, the Houthis took over Sanaa, later declaring themselves in control of the government in a coup détat, since then, a Saudi-led intervention has taken place, however, it could not stop the civil war. Instead, the Saudis and the others have destroyed some hospitals, schools and homes, Yemen was mentioned in Old South Arabian inscriptions as Yamnat. In Arabic literature, the term includes much greater territory than that of the republic of Yemen. It stretches from the northern Asir Region in southwestern Saudi Arabia to Dhofar Governorate in southern Oman, one etymology derives Yemen from yumn, meaning felicity, as much of the country is fertile. The Romans called it Arabia Felix, as opposed to Arabia Deserta, al-Yaman significantly plays on the notion of the land to the right, when in Mecca facing the dawn, complementary to Al-Sham, the Land to the Left, referring to the Levant
31.
Morocco
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Morocco, officially known as the Kingdom of Morocco, is a sovereign country located in the Maghreb region of North Africa. Geographically, Morocco is characterized by a mountainous interior, large tracts of desert. Morocco has a population of over 33.8 million and an area of 446,550 km2 and its capital is Rabat, and the largest city is Casablanca. Other major cities include Marrakesh, Tangier, Tetouan, Salé, Fes, Agadir, Meknes, Oujda, Kenitra, a historically prominent regional power, Morocco has a history of independence not shared by its neighbours. Marinid and Saadi dynasties continued the struggle against foreign domination, the Alaouite dynasty, the current ruling dynasty, seized power in 1666. In 1912 Morocco was divided into French and Spanish protectorates, with a zone in Tangier. Moroccan culture is a blend of Arab, indigenous Berber, Sub-Saharan African, Morocco claims the non-self-governing territory of Western Sahara as its Southern Provinces. Morocco annexed the territory in 1975, leading to a war with indigenous forces until a cease-fire in 1991. Peace processes have thus far failed to break the political deadlock, Morocco is a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament. The King of Morocco holds vast executive and legislative powers, especially over the military, foreign policy, the king can issue decrees called dahirs which have the force of law. He can also dissolve the parliament after consulting the Prime Minister, Moroccos predominant religion is Islam, and the official languages are Arabic and Tamazight. The Moroccan dialect, referred to as Darija, and French are also widely spoken, Morocco is a member of the Arab League, the Union for the Mediterranean, and the African Union. It has the fifth largest economy of Africa, the full Arabic name al-Mamlakah al-Maghribiyyah translates to Kingdom of the West, although the West in Arabic is الغرب Al-Gharb. The basis of Moroccos English name is Marrakesh, its capital under the Almoravid dynasty, the origin of the name Marrakesh is disputed, but is most likely from the Berber words amur akush or Land of God. The modern Berber name for Marrakesh is Mṛṛakc, in Turkish, Morocco is known as Fas, a name derived from its ancient capital of Fes. The English name Morocco is an anglicisation of the Spanish Marruecos, the area of present-day Morocco has been inhabited since Paleolithic times, sometime between 190,000 and 90,000 BC. During the Upper Paleolithic, the Maghreb was more fertile than it is today, twenty-two thousand years ago, the Aterian was succeeded by the Iberomaurusian culture, which shared similarities with Iberian cultures. Skeletal similarities have been suggested between the Iberomaurusian Mechta-Afalou burials and European Cro-Magnon remains, the Iberomaurusian was succeeded by the Beaker culture in Morocco
32.
Saudi Arabia
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Saudi Arabia is bordered by Jordan and Iraq to the north, Kuwait to the northeast, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates to the east, Oman to the southeast and Yemen to the south. It is separated from Israel and Egypt by the Gulf of Aqaba and it is the only nation with both a Red Sea coast and a Persian Gulf coast and most of its terrain consists of arid desert and mountains. The area of modern-day Saudi Arabia formerly consisted of four regions, Hejaz, Najd and parts of Eastern Arabia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was founded in 1932 by Ibn Saud and he united the four regions into a single state through a series of conquests beginning in 1902 with the capture of Riyadh, the ancestral home of his family, the House of Saud. Saudi Arabia has since been a monarchy, effectively a hereditary dictatorship governed along Islamic lines. The ultraconservative Wahhabi religious movement within Sunni Islam has been called the predominant feature of Saudi culture, with its global spread largely financed by the oil and gas trade. Saudi Arabia is sometimes called the Land of the Two Holy Mosques in reference to Al-Masjid al-Haram and Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, the state has a total population of 28.7 million, of which 20 million are Saudi nationals and 8 million are foreigners. The states official language is Arabic, petroleum was discovered on 3 March 1938 and followed up by several other finds in the Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia has since become the worlds largest oil producer and exporter, controlling the second largest oil reserves. The kingdom is categorized as a World Bank high-income economy with a high Human Development Index and is the only Arab country to be part of the G-20 major economies. However, the economy of Saudi Arabia is the least diversified in the Gulf Cooperation Council, the state has attracted criticism for its treatment of women and use of capital punishment. Saudi Arabia is an autocracy, has the fourth highest military expenditure in the world. Saudi Arabia is considered a regional and middle power, in addition to the GCC, it is an active member of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. Following the unification of the Hejaz and Nejd kingdoms, the new state was named al-Mamlakah al-ʻArabīyah as-Suʻūdīyah by royal decree on 23 September 1932 by its founder, Abdulaziz Al Saud. Although this is translated as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in English it literally means the Saudi Arab kingdom. Its inclusion expresses the view that the country is the possession of the royal family. Al Saud is an Arabic name formed by adding the word Al, meaning family of or House of, in the case of the Al Saud, this is the father of the dynastys 18th century founder, Muhammad bin Saud. There is evidence that human habitation in the Arabian Peninsula dates back to about 125,000 years ago
33.
Sudan
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Sudan, also known as North Sudan since South Sudans independence and officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northern Africa. It is the third largest country in Africa, the River Nile divides the country into eastern and western halves. Before the Sudanese Civil War, South Sudan was part of Sudan, Sudan was home to numerous ancient civilizations, such as the Kingdom of Kush, Kerma, Nobatia, Alodia, Makuria, Meroë and others, most of which flourished along the Nile. During the pre-dynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were identical, by virtue of its proximity to Egypt, the Sudan participated in the wider history of the Near East inasmuch as it was Christianized by the 6th century, and Islamized in the 15th. As a result of Christianization, the Old Nubian language stands as the oldest recorded Nilo-Saharan language, Sudan was the largest country in Africa and the Arab world until 2011, when South Sudan separated into an independent country, following an independence referendum. Sudan is now the third largest country in Africa and also the third largest country in the Arab world and its capital is Khartoum, the political, cultural and commercial centre of the nation. It is a representative democratic federal republic. The politics of Sudan are regulated by an organization called the National Assembly. The Sudanese legal system is based on Islamic law, the countrys place name Sudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān, or the lands of the Blacks, during the fifth millennium BC migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture. The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed social hierarchy over the centuries become the Kingdom of Kush at 1700 BC. The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile and White Nile, and the Atbarah River and it was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, centered at Napata in its early phase. After King Kashta invaded Egypt in the eighth century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt for a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians. At the height of their glory, the Kushites conquered an empire that stretched from what is now known as South Kordofan all the way to the Sinai, pharaoh Piye attempted to expand the empire into the Near East, but was thwarted by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Sennacheribs successor Esarhaddon went further, and invaded Egypt itself, deposing Taharqa, Taharqa fled back to his homeland where he died two years later. Egypt became an Assyrian colony, however, king Tantamani, after succeeding Taharqa, Esarhaddon died while preparing to leave the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in order to eject him. However, his successor Ashurbanipal sent an army into southern Egypt and routed Tantamani. During Classical Antiquity, the Nubian capital was at Meroë, in ancient Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Ethiopia
34.
Pakistan
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Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a federal parliamentary republic in South Asia on the crossroads of Central Asia and Western Asia. It is the sixth-most populous country with a population exceeding 200 million people, in terms of area, it is the 33rd-largest country in the world with an area covering 881,913 square kilometres. It is separated from Tajikistan by Afghanistans narrow Wakhan Corridor in the north, Pakistan is unique among Muslim countries in that it is the only country to have been created in the name of Islam. As a result of the Pakistan Movement led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and it is an ethnically and linguistically diverse country, with a similarly diverse geography and wildlife. Initially a dominion, Pakistan adopted a constitution in 1956, becoming an Islamic republic, an ethnic civil war in 1971 resulted in the secession of East Pakistan as the new country of Bangladesh. The new constitution stipulated that all laws were to conform to the injunctions of Islam as laid down in the Quran. Pakistan has an economy with a well-integrated agriculture sector. The Pakistani economy is the 24th-largest in the world in terms of purchasing power and it is ranked among the emerging and growth-leading economies of the world, and is backed by one of the worlds largest and fastest-growing middle classes. The post-independence history of Pakistan has been characterised by periods of military rule, the country continues to face challenging problems such as illiteracy, healthcare, and corruption, but has substantially reduced poverty and terrorism and expanded per capita income. It is also a member of CERN. Pakistan is a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement, the name Pakistan literally means land of the pure in Urdu and Persian. It is a play on the word pāk meaning pure in Persian and Pashto, the letter i was incorporated to ease pronunciation and form the linguistically correct and meaningful name. Some of the earliest ancient human civilisations in South Asia originated from areas encompassing present-day Pakistan, the earliest known inhabitants in the region were Soanian during the Lower Paleolithic, of whom stone tools have been found in the Soan Valley of Punjab. The Vedic Civilization, characterised by Indo-Aryan culture, laid the foundations of Hinduism, Multan was an important Hindu pilgrimage centre. The Vedic civilisation flourished in the ancient Gandhāran city of Takṣaśilā, the Indo-Greek Kingdom founded by Demetrius of Bactria included Gandhara and Punjab and reached its greatest extent under Menander, prospering the Greco-Buddhist culture in the region. Taxila had one of the earliest universities and centres of education in the world. At its zenith, the Rai Dynasty of Sindh ruled this region, the Pala Dynasty was the last Buddhist empire, which, under Dharampala and Devapala, stretched across South Asia from what is now Bangladesh through Northern India to Pakistan. The Arab conqueror Muhammad bin Qasim conquered the Indus valley from Sindh to Multan in southern Punjab in 711 AD, the Pakistan governments official chronology identifies this as the time when the foundation of Pakistan was laid
35.
David Ben-Gurion
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David Ben-Gurion was the primary founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel. Ben-Gurions passion for Zionism, which early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader. On 14 May 1948, he proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces, subsequently, he became known as Israels founding father. Following the war, Ben-Gurion served as Israels first Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, as Prime Minister, he helped build the state institutions, presiding over various national projects aimed at the development of the country. He also oversaw the absorption of vast numbers of Jews from all over the world, a centerpiece of his foreign policy was improving relationships with the West Germans. He worked very well with Konrad Adenauers government in Bonn, in 1954 he resigned as both Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, although he remained a member of the Knesset. However, he returned as Minister of Defense in 1955 after the Lavon Affair resulted in the resignation of Pinhas Lavon, later in the year he became Prime Minister again, following the 1955 elections. He stepped down from office in 1963, and retired from life in 1970. He then moved to Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the Negev desert, posthumously, Ben-Gurion was named one of Time magazines 100 Most Important People of the 20th century. David Ben-Gurion was born in Płońsk in Congress Poland – then part of the Russian Empire and his father, Avigdor Grün, was a lawyer and a leader in the Hovevei Zion movement. His mother, Scheindel, died when he was 11 years old, Ben-Gurions birth certificate, when rediscovered in Poland in 2003, indicated that he had a twin brother who died shortly after birth. At the age of 14 he and two formed a youth club, Ezra, promoting Hebrew studies and emigration to the Holy Land. In 1905, as a student at the University of Warsaw and he was arrested twice during the Russian Revolution of 1905. Ben-Gurion discussed his hometown in his memoirs, saying, For many of us, I personally never suffered anti-Semitic persecution. Płońsk was remarkably free of it, nevertheless, and I think this very significant, it was Płońsk that sent the highest proportion of Jews to Eretz Israel from any town in Poland of comparable size. We emigrated not for reasons of escape but for the positive purpose of rebuilding a homeland. Life in Płońsk was peaceful enough, there were three main communities, Russians, Jews and Poles
36.
Chaim Weizmann
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Chaim Azriel Weizmann D. Sc, Sc. D, LL. D was a Zionist leader and Israeli statesman who served as President of the Zionist Organization and later as the first President of Israel. He was elected on 16 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952, Weizmann convinced the United States government to recognize the newly formed state of Israel. Weizmann was also a biochemist who developed the fermentation process. His acetone production method was of importance for the British war industry during World War I. He founded the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel and was instrumental in the establishment of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Weizmann was born in the village of Motal near Pinsk in Belarus. He was the third of 15 children born to Oizer and Rachel Czermerinsky Weizmann and his father was a timber merchant. Until the age of 11, he attended a traditional cheder, at the age of 11, he entered high school in Pinsk. In 1892, Weizmann left for Germany to study chemistry and he began his studies at the Polytechnic Institute of Darmstadt. In 1894, he moved to Berlin to study at the Technische Hochschule Berlin, in 1897, he moved to Switzerland to complete his studies at the University of Fribourg. In 1899, he was awarded a PhD in organic chemistry, in 1901, he was appointed assistant lecturer at the University of Geneva and, in 1904, senior lecturer at the University of Manchester. In 1910, he became a British citizen, and held his British nationality until 1948, when he renounced it to assume his position as President of Israel. Chaim Weizmann and his family lived in Manchester for about 30 years in 1904, senior lecturer at the University of Manchester, while in Britain, he was known by many as Charles Weizmann, a name under which he registered about 100 research patents. Of Chaim Weizmanns fourteen siblings, twelve survived to adulthood, the majority of his family emigrated to Palestine, and two were also chemists, Dr. Anna Weizmann worked in his Daniel Sieff Research Institute lab, registering several patents in her name. His brother, Prof. Moshe Weizmann, was the head of the Chemistry Faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, however, two siblings remained in the Soviet Union following the Russian Revolution, a brother, Shmuel, and sister, Maria. Shmuel Weizmann was a dedicated Communist and member of the anti-Zionist Bund movement, during the Stalinist Great Purge, he was arrested for alleged espionage and Zionist activity, and executed in 1939. His fate only became known to his wife and children in 1955, another sister, Maria, was a physician who fell victim to Stalins fabricated Doctors plot in 1952 and was sentenced to five years imprisonment in Siberia. She was released following Stalins death in 1953, and was permitted to emigrate to Israel along with her husband in 1956, Weizmann was married to Dr. Vera Khatzmann. The younger one, Flight Lieutenant Michael Oser Weizmann, fought in the Royal Air Force during World War II, while serving as a pilot in No.502 Squadron RAF, he was killed when his plane was shot down over the Bay of Biscay in February 1942
37.
Yigael Yadin
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Yigael Yadin was an Israeli archeologist, politician, and the second Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. Yadin was born in 1917 to noted archeologist Eleazar Sukenik and educationalist and he joined the Haganah at age 15, and served there in a variety of different capacities. In 1946, however, he left the Haganah following an argument with its commander Yitzhak Sadeh over the inclusion of a gun as part of standard squad equipment. He was a university student when, in 1948, shortly before the State of Israel declared its independence and he was Head of Operations during Israels War of Independence, and was responsible for many of the key decisions made during the course of that war. In June 1948 he threatened to resign during the Generals Revolt during which he accused Ben-Gurion of attempting to transform the army as a whole into an army of one political party. Yadin was appointed Chief of Staff of the IDF on 9 November 1949, following the resignation of Yaakov Dori, by age thirty-five, he had completed his military career. Upon leaving the military, he devoted himself to research and began his lifes work in archeology, in 1956 he received the Israel Prize in Jewish studies, for his doctoral thesis on the translation of the Dead Sea Scrolls. As an archeologist, he excavated some of the most important sites in the region, including the Qumran Caves, Masada, Hazor and he considered the Solomonic Gate at Tel Gezer to be the highpoint of his career. He was sometimes forced to deal with the theft of important artifacts, occasionally by prominent political, even as an archeologist, Yadin never completely abandoned public life. Furthermore, Dash was a response to the sense of frustration and despair in the aftermath of the 1973 war. Many people regarded Yadin, a warrior and a scholar, as the prototype of the ideal Israeli, untainted by corruption. In the 1977 elections, which transformed the Israeli political landscape, as a result of the election, Likud party leader Menachem Begin was initially able to form a coalition without Dash, significantly lowering the bargaining power of Dash. Dash joined the coalition after a few months and he retired from politics in 1981. Yadin was married to Carmela, who worked with him throughout his career in translating and editing his books and he died in 1984 and was buried in the military cemetery in Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. The Israeli actor Yossi Yadin was his brother, Jerusalem, International Publishing Company J-m Ltd,1959. The Art of Warfare in Biblical Lands, Masada, Herods Fortress and the Zealots’ Last Stand. Silberman A Prophet from Amongst You, The Life of Yigael Yadin, Soldier, Scholar, Yigael Yadin on the Knesset website Photographs and film footage of Yadin and his archaeological excavations Interviews with the late Professor Yigael Yadin related to his archeological discoveries
38.
Yaakov Dori
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Yaakov Dori was the first Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces. Born in the present day Ukraine as Yakov Dostrovsky, son of Tzvi and Myriam, upon completing high school at the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, he enlisted in the Jewish Legion of the British Army during World War I. Following the war he studied engineering at the University of Ghent, when he returned to Palestine in 1926 he joined the Haganah and adopted the underground name of Dan. In Haganah he was the commander of the Haganah Forces of Haifa, in 1939, Dori was appointed Chief of Staff of the Haganah, a position he held until 1946. As CoS Haganah it was Yaakov Doris duty to take the Haganah from a diffuse self-defense organisation to a model army, from 1946 to 1947 he also headed the Palestinian Jewish delegation sent to purchase arms in the United States. When the IDF was formed, Dori took over as its first Chief of Staff and he completed his term as Chief of Staff on November 9,1949 and retired from the military. He was succeeded by his deputy, Yadin, even after his release from the army, however, he continued to wear the officers pin he was awarded when he first became a second lieutenant. Upon leaving the IDF, Dori was appointed chairman of the Science Council and he was later appointed president of the Technion in Haifa, a position he held until 1965. Yaakov Dori was since 1929 married to the teacher Badana, born Pintov and his son, Yerachmiel Dori, served as commander of the IDFs Engineering Corps. His daughter, Etana Padan, is a biochemist and a professor of ecology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His youngest son, Zvi Dori, was a Chemistry Professor at the Technion, Israel Dostrovsky, physical chemistry and former President of the Weizmann Institute of Science, was his first cousin. The Israel Defense Forces base at Tel HaShomer, one of the largest in Israel, is named after Yaakov Dori, a prominent road in Haifa and a street in Beersheba are both named after him. Yaakov Doris biography, IDF Spokespersons Unit Media related to Yaakov Dori at Wikimedia Commons
39.
David Shaltiel
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He was born in Berlin into a Portuguese orthodox Jewish family settled in Hamburg. as oldest son of Benjamin Sealtiel and Helene Wormser. At 16, Shaltiel joined the Zionist youth movement Blau Weiss, however, he was not happy there, and returned to Europe in 1925. From 1925-1930 he was enlisted in the French Foreign Legion, in 1934 he returned to Palestine. There he started working for the Haganah, being charged with buying arms in Europe, in 1936 he was captured in Aachen, Germany, by Gestapo. Shaltiel spent the three years in prisons/ concentration camps, including Dachau and Buchenwald. When he was sent to Berlin in 1939 the Haganah succeeded in freeing him and he then went back to Palestine. There he was at first condemned to death for murder by the British, Shaltiel was married twice - first to Inge, then in 1942 to Yehudit, born Judith Irmgard Schonstedt, psychologist and daughter of a rabbinic family from Berlin. Shaltiel and Yehudit adopted a girl, Tamar, who had to be returned to her biological mother. He died in Jerusalem in February 1969, in 1942-43, he was the Haganah Commander in Haifa. Later, as Haganahs link to these organizations, Irgun, helped them coordinate several missions with the Haganah, among them the widely condemned attack at Deir Yassin. At first Shaltiel did not agree with attacking Deir Yassin, but after a day he surrendered and he was also the mastermind behind Operation Kedem, which had the goal of capturing East Jerusalem. The mission was carried out July 8,1948 by Irgun troops and was a total failure, from that moment, he was, disgraced and his name was erased from official Israel history. Between June 11 and July 21,1948, he had a series of meetings, mediated by the UN, with Abdullah el Tell, the commander of Arab Legion troops in the Old City. On July 7 they signed the Mount Scopus Agreement which stated that the Jewish enclave at Mount Scopus should be de-militarized, on July 15 the Haganah and Irgun launched a massive bombardment on the Old City which was followed by infantry attacks on the New, Jaffa and Zion Gates. These failed to gain their objectives, on 21 July Shaltiel and el Tell signed a formal cease-fire based on the existing positions of their forces. After the end of the Independence War, David Shaltiel founded the Border Corps of the Israeli army, Heyl Hasfar, and was its first commander. Later, because of problems, he recommended the transfer of these units into the frame of the Israeli Police. Dayan, Moshe, The Story of My Life, hamburger- Fremdenlegionär - Diplomat - Verteidiger von Jerusalem
40.
Moshe Dayan
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Moshe Dayan was an Israeli military leader and politician. He was the child born on the first kibbutz, but he moved with his family in 1921. In the 1930s he was trained by Orde Wingate to set traps for Palestinian-Arabs fighting the British, Dayan was close to David Ben-Gurion and joined him in setting up Rafi in 1965 with Shimon Peres. They eventually rejoined Mapai becoming Defence Minister in the 1967 Six-Day War, Moshe Dayan was born on 20 May 1915 on Kibbutz Degania Alef, near the Sea of Galilee in what was then Ottoman Syria or Palestine, within the Ottoman Empire. Dayans parents, Shmuel and Devorah Dayan, were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine, Kibbutz Degania Alef, with 11 members, was the first kibbutz, and would become part of the State of Israel. Dayan was the child born at Degania, after Gideon Baratz. He was named Moshe after Moshe Barsky, the first member of Degania to be killed in an Arab attack, soon afterward, Dayans parents moved to Nahalal, the first moshav, or farming cooperative, to be established. Dayan attended the school there. He spoke Hebrew, Arabic, and English, at the age of 14, he joined the Jewish defence force Haganah. In 1938, he joined the British-organised irregular Supernumerary Police and led a small motorized patrol, one of his military heroes was the British pro-Zionist intelligence officer Orde Wingate, under whom he served in several Special Night Squads operations. On 3 October 1939, he was the instructor for Haganah Leaders courses held at Yavniel when two British Palestine Police officers discovered a quantity of illegal rifles. Haganah HQ ordered the camp evacuated, leading a group of 43 men through Wadi Bira, early the following morning,12 to 15 Arab members of the Transjordan Frontier Force arrested them. Questions were asked about how such a force was arrested by a much smaller one. Moshe Carmel, the deputy commander, was also critical of Dayans willingness to talk to his interrogators in Acre prison. On 30 October 1939, most of the group were sentenced to 10 years in prison, seven months later, Dayan was replaced as the prisoners representative after it was discovered that moves were being made to get him an individual pardon. On 16 February 1941, after Chaim Weizmanns intervention in London, Dayan was assigned to a small Australian-Palmach-Arab reconnaissance task force, formed in preparation for the Allied invasion of Syria and Lebanon and attached to the Australian 7th Division. Using his home kibbutz of Hanita as a base, the unit frequently infiltrated Vichy French Lebanon, wearing traditional Arab dress. On 7 June 1941, the night before the invasion of the Syria–Lebanon Campaign, Dayans unit crossed the border and secured two bridges over the Litani River
41.
Yisrael Galili
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Yisrael Galili was an Israeli politician, government minister and member of Knesset. Before Israels independence in 1948, he had served as Chief of Staff of the Haganah, Galili was born in the town of Brailov in the Russian Empire. His family immigrated to Palestine when he was three years old, and settled in Tel Aviv, Galili attended school there and apprenticed with a printer. Galili began his career in 1927, when he enlisted in the Haganah. He was appointed to the leadership committee in 1935, and was later placed in charge of Acquisitions. During the Second World War, he was involved in preparations to counter an anticipated German invasion of Palestine. He was appointed Chief of Staff of the Haganah in 1946, Galili was also a founder of the HaNoar HaOved youth group, and of Naan, a kibbutz where he lived until his death. He served briefly as Minister of Information and was Minister without Portfolio in several governments, yisrael Galili on the Knesset website
42.
Yigal Allon
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Yigal Allon was an Israeli politician, a commander of the Palmach, and a general in the IDF. He served as one of the leaders of Ahdut HaAvoda party and the Israeli Labor party and he was a Knesset member and government minister from the third Knesset to the ninth inclusive. Yigal Peikowitz was born in Kfar Tavor and his father immigrated to Palestine in 1890. After graduating from Kadoorie Agricultural High School in 1937, Allon became one of the founders of Kibbutz Ginosar and their eldest daughter Nurit, was on the Autism spectrum. In 1950-1952, he studied philosophy and history at St Antonys College, Allon died of heart failure in Afula on 29 February 1980. He was buried on the shore of Sea of Galilee in the cemetery of Kibbutz Ginosar in the Northern District, the funeral was attended by tens of thousands of mourners, with condolences extended by many world leaders, including Egyptian president Anwar Sadat. Allon joined Haganah in 1931 and went on to commanded a field unit, during this period he participated in several operations of the Special Night Squads, under the command of Orde Charles Wingate and H. E. N. Bredin. In 1941 he became one of the members of the Palmach. In 1941 and 1942, he was a scout with the British forces who fought in Syria, in 1945, he became Commander in Chief of the Palmach. On 22 June 1948, at the climax of David Ben-Gurions confrontation with the Irgun over the distribution of weapons from the Altalena, Allon commanded the troops ordered to shell the vessel. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Allon led several of the operations on all three fronts, including Yiftach in the Galilee, Danny in the Centre, Yoav. His last major roles as commander were in October and December 1948, Operation Yoav towards the Hebron Hills. As Operational Commander of the Southern Command he was responsible for security along the borders with Egypt, on 4 June 1949 he declared a 8 kilometres wide closed military zone along the border. On 18 October 1949, while he was in a visit in Paris. Most of his Staff Officers resigned in protest and he retired from active service in 1950. In January 1948, Allon helped form the left-wing Mapam party, in December 1948, Mapam co-leader Meir Yaari criticized Allons use of tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees to achieve strategic goals. After ending his career, Allon embarked on a public political career. He became a prominent leader in Ahdut HaAvoda, which had split from Mapam in 1954, and was first elected to the Knesset in 1955, Allon served as the Minister of Labour from 1961–68
43.
Yitzhak Rabin
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Yitzhak Rabin was an Israeli politician, statesman and general. He was the fifth Prime Minister of Israel, serving two terms in office, 1974–77 and 1992 until his assassination in 1995, Rabin was born in Jerusalem to Ukrainian-Jewish immigrants and was raised in a Labor Zionist household. He learned agriculture in school and excelled as a student and he led a 27-year career as a soldier. As a teenager he joined the Palmach, the force of the Yishuv. He eventually rose through its ranks to become its chief of operations during Israels War of Independence and he joined the newly formed Israel Defense Forces in late 1948 and continued to rise as a promising officer. He helped shape the training doctrine of the IDF in the early 1950s and he was appointed Chief of the General Staff in 1964 and oversaw Israels victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Rabin served as Israels ambassador to the United States from 1968 to 1973 and he was appointed Prime Minister of Israel in 1974, after the resignation of Golda Meir. In his first term, Rabin signed the Sinai Interim Agreement and he resigned in 1977 in the wake of a financial scandal. Rabin was Israels minister of defense for much of the 1980s, in 1992, Rabin was re-elected as prime minister on a platform embracing the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. He signed several agreements with the Palestinian leadership as part of the Oslo Accords. In 1994, Rabin won the Nobel Peace Prize together with long-time political rival Shimon Peres, Rabin also signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. In November 1995, he was assassinated by an extremist named Yigal Amir, Rabin was the first native-born prime minister of Israel, the only prime minister to be assassinated and the second to die in office after Levi Eshkol. Rabin has become a symbol of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, Nehemiah Rubitzov was born in the shtetl Sydorovychi near Ivankiv in the southern Pale of Settlement. His father Menachem died when he was a boy, and Nehemiah worked to support his family from an early age, at the age of 18, he emigrated to the United States, where he joined the Poale Zion party and changed his surname to Rabin. In 1917, Nehemiah went to Mandatory Palestine with a group of volunteers from the Jewish Legion, yitzhaks mother, Rosa Cohen, was born in 1890 in Mogilev in Belarus. Her father, a rabbi, opposed the Zionist movement and sent Rosa to a Christian high school for girls in Gomel, early on, Rosa took an interest in political and social causes. In 1919, she traveled to the region on the steamship Ruslan, after working on a kibbutz on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, she moved to Jerusalem. Rabins parents met in Jerusalem during the 1920 Nebi Musa riots and they moved to Tel Avivs Chlenov Street near Jaffa in 1923
44.
Moshe Carmel
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You may be looking for Moshe Carmeli, an Israeli professor of theoretical physics at Ben Gurion University. Moshe Carmel was an Israeli soldier and politician who served as Minister of Transportation for eight years, born in Mińsk Mazowiecki in the Russian Empire, Carmel emigrated to Mandate Palestine in 1924 when he was 13 years old. He was a member of kibbutz Naan, and was active in the HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed youth movement. Between 1939 and 1941 he was imprisoned by the British authorities, during the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, he was commander of the Carmeli Brigade, which was especially known for Operation Hiram. He was elected to the third Knesset in 1955 as a member of Ahdut HaAvoda and was appointed Minister of Transportation, on 28 September 1956 he flew to Paris with Moshe Dayan, Shimon Peres and Golda Meir where they had meetings with French Foreign Minister Christian Pineau. The purpose of the meetings was to clarify, the possibilities of joint action against Egypt. On 29 October 1957 he suffered a broken arm after a Mills grenade was thrown into the chamber of the Knesset. David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir were also injured, the attack was carried out by Moshe Dwek, whose motives were attributed to a dispute with the Jewish Agency, though he was also described as mentally unbalanced. He retained his seat in the 1959 and 1961 elections, and was reappointed Minister of Transportation towards the end of the fifth Knesset in 1965. When Ahdut HaAvoda merged with Mapai to form the Alignment, Carmel joined the new party, Carmel remained a Knesset member until 1977, and published two books, Northern Campaigns and Between the Walls. He died in 2003 at the age of 92, Moshe Carmel on the Knesset website Obituary The Guardian
45.
John Bagot Glubb
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During the First World War, he served in France. Born in Preston, Lancashire, and educated at Cheltenham College, on the Western Front of World War I he received a serious wound – a shattered jaw. In later years this would lead to his Arab nickname of Abu Hunaik and he became an officer of the Arab Legion in 1930. The next year he formed the Desert Patrol — a force consisting exclusively of Bedouin — to curb the problem that plagued the southern part of the country. Within a few years he had persuaded the Bedouin to abandon their habit of raiding neighbouring tribes, in 1939 Glubb succeeded Frederick G. Peake as the commander of the Arab Legion. During this period, he transformed the Legion into the force in the Arab world. According to the Encyclopædia of the Orient, Glubb served his home country all through his years in the Middle East, Arab nationalists believed that he had been the force behind pressure that made King Hussein I of Jordan join the Baghdad Pact. Glubb served different high positions in the Arab Legion, the army of Transjordan, during World War II he led attacks on Arab leaders in Iraq, as well as the Vichy regime which was present in Lebanon and Syria. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War the Arab Legion was considered the strongest Arab army involved in the war, Glubb led the Arab Legion across the River Jordan to occupy the West Bank. Despite some negotiation and understanding between the Jewish Agency and King Abdullah, severe fighting took place in Kfar Etzion, Jerusalem, according to Avi Shlaim, Rumours that Abdullah was once again in contact with the Jewish leaders further damaged his standing in the Arab world. His many critics suggested that he was prepared to compromise the Arab claim to the whole of Palestine as long as he could acquire part of Palestine for himself. The internecine struggles of the Arabs, reported Glubb, are more in the minds of Arab politicians than the struggle against the Jews, azzam Pasha, the mufti and the Syrian government would sooner see the Jews get the whole of Palestine than that King Abdullah should benefit. Glubb remained in charge of the defence of the West Bank following the armistice in March 1949 and he retained the command of the Arab Legion until 1 March 1956, when King Hussein dismissed him. Hussein wanted to distance himself from the British and to disprove the contention of Arab nationalists that Glubb was the ruler of Jordan. Differences between Glubb and Hussein had been apparent since 1952, especially over defence arrangements, the promotion of Arab officers, despite his decommission, which was forced upon him by public opinion, Glubb remained a close friend of the king. He spent the remainder of his life writing books and articles, mostly on the Middle East, Glubb was appointed OBE in 1925, CMG in 1946, and KCB in 1956. In 1938, Glubb married Muriel Rosemary Forbes, the daughter of physician James Graham Forbes, the couple had a son, Godfrey born in Jerusalem in 1939, and another son was born in May 1940 but lived only a few days. In 1944, they adopted Naomi, a Bedouin girl who was three months old, and in 1948 they adopted two Palestinian refugee children called Atalla, renamed John, and Mary
46.
Habis al-Majali
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Despite acquiring modern skills, he never lost his Bedouin elan. King Husseins biographer, James Lunt, dubbed him the grand seigneur of Karak, Habis Pasha was the only Arab commander to win military victories against Israelis, Palestinians and Syrians alike. His baptism of fire came during the first Arab-Israeli war, when he defended the town of Latrun,17 miles west of Jerusalem. The Jewish state had declared independence on May 14,1948, the next day, the armies of five Arab nations invaded, among them the Transjordans crack Arab Legion, under the supreme command of Glubb Pasha. They immediately secured the West Bank, then rushed to fill the vacuum created by British troops leaving Jerusalem, Lieutenant Colonel Majali, the first Arab to head a legion regiment, occupied a strategic hill straddling the nearby Bab al Wad. His spies fanned the countryside, while he held a deserted British police fort, when the Haganah attacked on May 25, Majalis Fourth Regiment was ready. Their camouflaged mortars, machine-guns and cannon caught the mainly immigrant recruits on open ground, two months before his death, Habis claimed that he had caught a young Lieutenant Ariel Sharon in the battle. The new Israeli prime minister denied the claim, but Habis was adamant, Sharon is like a grizzly bear, he grumbled. I captured him for 9 days, I healed his wounds, few fellow high ranking Jordanian army officers testified in favour of this account, no others. On June 9, an Israeli Palmach strike-force attempted a raid on Latrun. This, too, faltered for want of reinforcements, only yards from Majalis command post, in mid-July, he repulsed a final assault - and returned to Amman a thrice-conquering hero. He restored a modicum of pride to Arabs, for whom 1948 spelt nakba, nonetheless, it was a Pyrrhic victory. Despite their losses at Latrun, the Haganah pinned down Jordanian troops who might have been fighting in Jerusalem, the Israelis also managed to build a makeshift bypass round Latrun and siphoned through vital arms, water and supplies. Majalis brigade commander, Colonel Ashton, forbade him from shelling their bulldozers, ultimately, Transjordanian troops, assisted by local Arabs, did capture the Old City and East Jerusalem and demolished the Jewish Quarter. It was in the Old City, three years later, that Habis Al-Majali experienced tragedy at first-hand, for two years, he had been the private escort to King Abdullah of Jordan. Then, on July 20,1951, as he was ushering the king to prayers at the Al Aqsa mosque, certainly, King Hussein found him indispensable. He ruthlessly tracked down the Hashemite rulers Nasserite enemies during the uprising of 1958, in 1960, he restored order after pro-Syrian agents had murdered his cousin, the Jordanian prime minister, Hazza al-Majali. Forced to relinquish command to Cairo on the eve of the Six-Day War in June 1967
47.
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni
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Husayni was born to the influential al-Husayni family of Jerusalem, son of Musa al-Husayni and the nephew of Amin al-Husayni. He graduated in chemistry at the American University in Cairo, a member of the Palestine Arab Party, he served as its secretary-general and became editor-in-chief of the partys paper Al-Liwa’ and other newspapers, including Al-Jami’a Al-Islamiyya. In 1938, Husayni was exiled and in 1939 fled to Iraq where he took part in the Rashid Ali al-Gaylani coup and he moved to Egypt in 1946, but secretly returned to Palestine to lead the Army of the Holy War in January 1948. Husayni was killed while personally reconnoitring an area of Qastal Hill shrouded by fog and his forces later captured al-Qastal from the Haganah, which had occupied the village at the start of Operation Nachshon six days earlier with a force of about 100 men. They retreated to the Jewish settlement of Motza, palmach troops recaptured the village on the night of 8–9 April, losing 18 men in the attack, most of the houses were blown up and the hill became a command post. Huseynis death was a factor in the loss of morale among his forces, ben Yehuda Street Bombing Benveniśtî, Mêrôn. Sacred Landscape, The Buried History of the Holy Land Since 1948, military Preparations of the Arab Community in Palestine, 1945-1948. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, building a Palestinian State, The Incomplete Revolution. Armed Struggle and the Search for State, The Palestinian National Movement, the role of the Palestinian peasantry in the Great Revolt
Pakistan[4]
David Ben-Gurion
Habis al-Majali
Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni †
Fawzi Al-Qawuqji
King Farouk I
