1.
Anti-Zionism
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Anti-Zionism is also defined as opposition to the modern State of Israel as defined as a Jewish and democratic state. Others, such as Steven M. Cohen and Todd Gitlin, opposition to a Jewish state has changed over time and has taken on a diverse spectrum of religious, ethical and political positions. There is a tradition of Jewish anti-Zionism that has opposed the Zionist project from its origins. The Bundists, the Autonomists, Reform Judaism and the Agude regarded both the rationale and territorial ambitions of Zionism as flawed, Orthodox Jews also opposed the creation of a Jewish state prior to the appearance of the messiah, as contradicting divine will. By contrast, reform Jews rejected Judaism as a national or ethnic identity, other objections relate to the maintenance of a Jewish majority within the present state of Israel. Post-Zionism, a term, has been criticized as being equivalent to anti-Zionism. The legitimacy of anti-Zionist views has been disputed to the present day, including the more recent, other views regarding the various forms of anti-Zionism have also been discussed and debated. Hope for return to the land of Israel is embodied in the content of the Jewish religion, aliyah, the Hebrew word meaning ascending or going up, is the word used to describe religious Jewish return to Israel, and has been used since ancient times. From the Middle Ages and onwards, many rabbis and often their followers returned to the land of Israel. These have included Nahmanides, Yechiel of Paris, Isaac Luria, Yosef Karo, for Jews in the Diaspora Eretz Israel was revered in a religious sense. They prayed, and thought of the return, as being fulfilled in a messianic age, return remained a recurring theme for generations, particularly in Passover and Yom Kippur prayers, which traditionally concluded with, Next year in Jerusalem, as well as the thrice-daily Amidah. Following Jewish Enlightenment however, Reform Judaism dropped many traditional beliefs, including aliyah, support for aliyah does not always equal immigration however, as a majority of the world Jewish population remains within the Diaspora. Support for the modern Zionist movement is not universal and, as a result, non-Zionist Jews are not necessarily anti-Zionists, although some are. Many Hasidic rabbis oppose the creation of a Jewish state, the leader of the Satmar Hasidic group, Rabbi Joel Teitelbaums book, VaYoel Moshe, published in 1958, expounds one Orthodox position on Zionism, based on a literal form of midrash. In the early history of Zionism many traditional religious Jews opposed ideas of nationalism, which they regarded as a secular ideology, most Orthodox religious groups have accepted and actively support the State of Israel, even if they have not adopted Zionist ideology. The World Agudath Israel party has at times participated in Israeli government coalitions, most religious Zionists hold pro-Israel views from a right-wing viewpoint. The Jewish community is not a united group and responses vary both between and within Jewish groups. One of the divisions is that between secular Jews and religious Jews
2.
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
3.
Hasan Salama
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Hasan Salama or Hassan Salameh was a commander of the Palestinian Holy War Army in the 1948 Palestine War along with Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni. Salama was born in the village Qula in 1913 during the Ottoman rule over Palestine and he was one of the leaders of the armed Arab groups who fought against the British and the Jewish community, known at the Yishuv, in Mandatory Palestine. He participated in the violent 1933 Jaffa demonstrations during the 1933 Palestine riots, at the beginning of the Revolt in early May 1936 he was assigned to command the Lod - Ramla - Jaffa area. He planned and led a number of military operations against the British mandatory forces. These operations included blowing up railway tracks and electrical poles, severing lines of communication. In 1938 Salama was wounded when he blew up the Lod-Haifa train, after the Arab revolt in Palestine Salama traveled to Lebanon and Syria and joined the Mufti of Jerusalem Hajj Amin al-Husseini to Kingdom of Iraq. When he was in Syria in 1939, Salameh offered his services to the British whom he had been fighting, in Iraq Salama took a tank commanders course at the Military College. Salama supported Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, and led a group of 165 Palestinian fighters and he participated in the Rashid Ali coup of 1941 and, during the subsequent Anglo-Iraqi War. The Germans trained Salama to be a paratrooper, Salama was as a member of a special commando unit of the Waffen SS in Operation ATLAS, which was jointly operated by German Intelligence and Grand Mufti al-Husseini. During the night of October 6,1944 Salama and four other commandos parachuted from a German Heinkel HeS3 airplane into Mandatory Palestine over the Jericho region in Wadi Qelt. Their equipment reportedly included explosives, submachine guns, and dynamite, the mission was intended to supply local Palestinian Arab resistance groups with resources and arms, and to direct sabotage activity primarily at Jewish targets. The force has been described as Abd al-Qadir al-Husaynis personal army, at the meeting held in Damascus on 5 February 1948, to organize the Palestinian Field Commands, Salama was allocated the Lydda district. Salama commanded the forces in Jaffa, the plain, Ramle. Salama was a member of the Palestine Arab Party, Salama was killed by the IDF in the battle of Ras al-Ein on 2 June 1948. He was the father of Ali Hassan Salameh, chief of Black September and the man chiefly responsible of the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics
4.
Birzeit
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Birzeit, also Bir Zeit, is a Palestinian town north of Ramallah in the central West Bank. Its population in the 2007 census was 4,529, Birzeit is the home to the Birzeit University. Sherds from the Iron Age II, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, West of the town, at Khirbat Bir Zait, sherds have been found from Iron Age I to early Ottoman era. Here are the remains of a building which have dated to the Crusader era. Guérin first noted the remains of a buildings 50 paces on each side and he thought it could be from the Byzantine era, or later. The inhabitants of the paid taxes on wheat, barley, olive trees, vineyards, fruit trees. The French explorer Victor Guérin visited the village in July 1863 and he found it to have a population of 1,800 inhabitants, of those 140 were Latin Catholics, the others were schismatic Greeks and Muslims. The Catholic parish was administered by a young French missionary, Father Joly, the irrigated gardens were well grown, and the soil naturally fertile. It abounded in vines, figs and pears and he also noted some beautiful walnut trees. An official Ottoman village list sometime around 1870 listed Bir Zet as having 73 houses, of this,75 men in 20 houses were Muslim, while 175 men in 53 houses were Latin Christian. The red-tiled roof of the Latin Church on top of the ridge was a feature in the landscape. The disease quickly spread and within a week killed 30 people out of a population of 200-300, the epidemic ended when a village elder ordered the entire population to camp in their vineyards. Three men remained to bury the dead and there were no further victims, the author felt that the incident was notable as there was no European hand in it from first to last, and it shows what the Fellahin are capable of under wise and energetic native guidance. In the 1931 census, the village had 251 occupied houses, in 1945, the population was 1,560,570 Muslims and 990 Christians, while the total land area was 14,088 dunams, according to an official land and population survey. Of this,6,908 were allocated for plantations and irrigable land,2,414 for cereals, in the wake of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and after the 1949 Armistice Agreements, Birzeit came under Jordanian rule. After Six-Day War in 1967, Birzeit has been under Israeli occupation, the town has 200 historic buildings, including over 100 in the old part of town, some dating back to the Mamluk era. Birzeit University was formerly located there, dozens of buildings vacated by the universitys move to Ramallah were restored, reinvigorating social and economic development. There are three Christian churches in Birzeit, the second church is the Our Lady Queen of Peace - Guadalupe, which also runs a high school
5.
Palestine (region)
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Palestine is a geographic region in Western Asia between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is sometimes considered to include adjoining territories, the name was used by Ancient Greek writers, and was later used for the Roman province Syria Palaestina, the Byzantine Palaestina Prima, and the Islamic provincial district of Jund Filastin. The region comprises most of the claimed for the biblical regions known as the Land of Israel. Historically, it has known as the southern portion of wider regional designations such as Canaan, Syria, ash-Sham. The boundaries of the region have changed throughout history, today, the region comprises the State of Israel and the Palestinian territories in which the State of Palestine was declared. Modern archaeology has identified 12 ancient inscriptions from Egyptian and Assyrian records recording likely cognates of Hebrew Pelesheth, the term Peleset is found in five inscriptions referring to a neighboring people or land starting from c.1150 BCE during the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt. Neither the Egyptian nor the Assyrian sources provided clear regional boundaries for the term, approximately a century later, Aristotle used a similar definition for the region in Meteorology, in which he included the Dead Sea. The term is accepted to be a translation of the Biblical name Peleshet. The term is used in the Septuagint, who used a transliteration Land of Phylistieim different from the contemporary Greek place name Palaistínē. Following the Muslim conquest, place names that were in use by the Byzantine administration generally continued to be used in Arabic, Modern archaeologists and historians of the region refer to their field of study as Levantine archaeology. The region was among the earliest in the world to see human habitation, agricultural communities, during the Bronze Age, independent Canaanite city-states were established, and were influenced by the surrounding civilizations of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia, Minoan Crete, and Syria. Between 1550–1400 BCE, the Canaanite cities became vassals to the Egyptian New Kingdom who held power until the 1178 BCE Battle of Djahy during the wider Bronze Age collapse. The region became part of the Neo-Assyrian Empire from c.740 BCE, in 539 BCE, the Babylonian empire was replaced by the Achaemenid Empire. In the 330s BCE, Macedonian ruler Alexander the Great conquered the region and it ultimately fell to the Seleucid Empire between 219–200 BCE. In 116 BCE, a Seleucid civil war resulted in the independence of certain regions including the Hasmonean principality in the Judaean Mountains, from 110 BCE, the Hasmoneans extended their authority over much of Palestine, creating a Judaean–Samaritan–Idumaean–Ituraean–Galilean alliance. The Judaean control over the region resulted in it also becoming known as Judaea. Between 73–63 BCE, the Roman Republic extended its influence into the region in the Third Mithridatic War, conquering Judea in 63 BCE, and splitting the former Hasmonean Kingdom into five districts. The three-year Ministry of Jesus, culminating in his crucifixion, is estimated to have occurred from 28–30 CE, in 70 CE, Titus sacked Jerusalem, resulting in the dispersal of the citys Jews and Christians to Yavne and Pella
6.
Arab League
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The Arab League, formally the League of Arab States, is a regional organization of Arab countries in and around North Africa, the Horn of Africa and Arabia. It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members, Kingdom of Egypt, Kingdom of Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen joined as a member on 5 May 1945. Currently, the League has 22 members, but Syrias participation has been suspended since November 2011, the League has served as a platform for the drafting and conclusion of many landmark documents promoting economic integration. One example is the Joint Arab Economic Action Charter, which outlines the principles for economic activities in the region, each member state has one vote in the League Council, and decisions are binding only for those states that have voted for them. Furthermore, the signing of an agreement on Joint Defence and Economic Cooperation on 13 April 1950 committed the signatories to coordination of military defence measures. In March 2015, the Arab League General Secretary announced the establishment of a Joint Arab Force with the aim of counteracting extremism, the decision was reached while Operation Decisive Storm was intensifying in Yemen. Participation in the project is voluntary, and the army intervenes only at the request of one of the member states. The growing militarization of the region and the increase in violent civil wars as well as terrorist movements are the reason behind the creation of the JAF, financed by the rich Gulf countries. In the early 1970s, the Economic Council of the League of Arab States put forward a proposal to create the Joint Arab Chambers of Commerce across the European states and that led, under the decree of the League of Arab States no. Following adoption of the Alexandria Protocol in 1944, the Arab League was founded on 22 March 1945 and it aimed to be a regional organisation of Arab states with a focus to developing the economy, resolving disputes and coordinating political aims. Other countries later joined the league, each country was given one vote in the council. It was followed by the creation of a defence treaty two years later. A common market was established in 1965, the Arab League member states cover over 13,000,000 km2 and straddles two continents, Africa and Asia. The area largely consists of deserts, such as the Sahara. The area comprises deep forests in southern Arabia and parts of the worlds longest river, the Charter of the Arab League, also known as the Pact of the League of Arab States, is the founding treaty of the Arab League. Adopted in 1945, it stipulates that the League of Arab States shall be composed of the, starting with only six members in 1945, the Arab League now occupies an area spanning around 14 million km² and counts 22 members, and 4 observer states. The 22 members today include three of the largest African countries and the largest country in the Middle East, there was a continual increase in membership during the second half of the 20th century, with an additional 15 Arab states being admitted. Syria was suspended following the 2011 uprising, as of 2016, there are a total of 22 member states
7.
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
8.
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
9.
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
Arab League
