Tangled Roots (2019–2020): Season 1, Episode 4 - Tangled Roots - full transcript
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Northern Ireland, Vietnam,
Korea, Falkland Islands,
Bangladesh,
the Iran-Iraq War
the Greco-Turkish War,
the First and Second World Wars...
These are just some of the conflicts
that broke out and ended
while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
goes on and on.
What is it about our conflict
that won't enable it to end?
Is what happened between us
so unforgivable and unsolvable?
We deserve full rights!
Let's go back to this story again,
but we'll try to tell it
not like it's told in an argument,
but like it's told in... a lesson.
Let's call it a refresher lesson.
Let's call it a Homeland Lesson.
HOMELAND LESSON
Our conflict is not just
a territorial war.
It's also, and perhaps primarily,
a demographic confrontation,
a competition over
the size of populations,
an ongoing struggle between
majority and minority
in which the minority is always
striving to become the majority
and the majority tends to act
like a minority.
The Arab Revolt of 1936
was the pretest of a majority
that was afraid
of becoming a minority,
an attempt to stop the process
that increased the Jews' share
in the population
from 10 percent
at the beginning of the British Mandate
to 30 percent
when the revolt broke out.
Naturally, the Zionist interest
was the opposite,
to keep the gates of Mandatory Palestine
open to Jewish immigration
and complete
the demographic turnabout.
We're not aware of the fact
that in 1939
there were 18 million Jews worldwide
and one million Palestinian Arabs.
In other words,
the stronger the Zionist Movement gets,
this demographic balance
where we say,
okay, there's an Arab majority here,
70 percent - it will change.
It will change very fast.
There are human resources,
there are Jews,
loads of Jews. It's before the Holocaust,
there are loads of Jews,
The Arab Revolt was suppressed
by the British with a firm hand
and left the Palestinians exhausted,
impoverished and divided.
Nevertheless, some of the revolt's goals
were achieved
due to the deteriorating
international situation.
When we talk about 1938, 1939
thick clouds of war
are gathering over Europe,
it's obvious there will be a war
and that the political and military energies
of Europe must be brought together.
There's concern that the Arabs will support
the Germans if there's a war
because the Germans
are against the English.
They said:
We need the Arab world,
we need the oil,
we need the support
of the millions of Arabs
that are spread out
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf.
The English want
to iron out the problems
with the Arabs before the war.
In May 1939
the British iron out the problems.
They issue the White Paper
which announces the cessation of almost
all Jewish immigration to Palestine
and the prohibition
of almost all land-sales to Jews.
Britain announces its withdrawal
from the Balfour Declaration
and from the Peel Commission's idea
to partition the land.
It seems like the British
are willing to change their policy.
And for the Palestinians,
that is an achievement
that the British
had never been willing
to discuss before.
What were the demands of the revolt?
Suspending Jewish immigration,
suspending the transfer of land to Jews
and an Arab government.
The British say:
The Jews are not allowed to buy lands
in almost all of Palestine.
They divided it into zones A, B, C.
In zones A and B
the purchase of land by Jews is prohibited,
only in zone C,
where many Jews had already settled.
The British are willing to talk,
for the first time, to set an expiry date,
when independence will come.
They say:
You'll have independence within 10 years.
And a government made up of
the people of Palestine will be formed,
which meant it would be
an Arab government.
Why? Because there'd be
an Arab majority.
In the conditions that
were sketched there
and within the restrictions that were
imposed on Jewish immigration
it was clear that there wouldn't be
any demographic turnabout in Palestine,
which meant that within 10 years
an Arab state would be established here.
That wasn't the idea
of the Mandate for Palestine.
"A more evil, foolish
and nearsighted policy
"is unfathomable.
"Satan himself could not have created
a more distressing and horrible nightmare."
This is how Ben-Gurion sums up
the White Paper.
He declares: "a new chapter In Zionist history
is about to begin: Fighting Zionism."
"A Jewish state shall be establishes!"
"Immigration now!"
But in September
World War II breaks out
and Zionism is fighting,
but alongside Britain.
A policy that contained
a contradiction,
but it was the only thing
that was possible.
"We will fight the White Paper
as if there were no Hitler
"and we will fight Hitler
as if there were no White Paper.
The severe restrictions on Jewish immigration
were crucial for the Jews of Europe.
And the restrictions on land-sales
slowed down the Zionist momentum,
but the Arab Higher Committee
is not reconciled
Awni Abd al-Hadi assumes that...
"The British government
cannot accommodate the Arabs
"any more than they already have,"
And Colonial Secretary MacDonald says:
Malcolm McDonald, 1939
The Arabs must not miss
this golden opportunity."
But head of the Arab Committee,
Haj Amin al-Husseini,
living in exile in Beirut,
instructs his representatives
to reject the White Paper.
Most of the Arab
Higher Committee members
supported the White Paper.
Most of them supported it.
The Mufti, who was not in Palestine,
takes a firm approach
and imposes his opinion on some
of the Arab Higher Committee members
and the Palestinian leadership
rejects the White Paper.
At this point the Mufti gives up
on the possibility
of cooperating with the British.
He leaves Beirut and moves to Iraq
where he joins the anti-British
and pro-German opposition forces.
Within independent Iraq
there was a large group
of Nazi supporters,
German supporters.
The Mufti arrives in Baghdad
with very strong anti-British sentiments,
and the days are days of a world war,
so the alliance between him
and the German-Nazi leadership
comes naturally.
They said: "We'll help
the Germans fight the British
"and they'll help us."
In 1941 Haj Amin
takes part in a coup
that puts a pro-Nazi government
into power in Baghdad.
Within no time, the British invade Iraq
and once again the Mufti flees from them,
this time to Berlin.
In Baghdad
the disappointed coup supporters
adopt another element
of European anti-Semitism
and take their frustration out
on the Jews of Baghdad
on the night of the Farhoud,
a pogrom, for all intents and purposes.
Both in real time
as well as in retrospect,
this is the event that symbolizes
the efmotional split
between Iraq's Muslim population
and the Jewish population,
because for many years
Iraqi Jews felt
they were full citizens in Iraq,
and the nationalistic factions
within the Iraqi National Movement says:
No, you don't belong here.
Meanwhile, the Mufti
finds his way to Italy
where he is warmly welcomed,
meets with Mussolini,
and then finally settles in Berlin.
He takes part in the Nazi
propaganda radio broadcasts in Arabic
and gets to meet
the Fuhrer himself.
He thought Germany would help him
get the English out of Palestine.
It was the continuation of his war
against the British in Palestine.
The saying,
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
can't be right in this case.
Joining forces with the archenemy
of the Jewish people
and one of the most horrific people
in human history
is an act that leaves its mark
on Jewish-Arab relations,
leaves its mark on
inner-Palestinian relations
and becomes part of the image of the Arabs
in the eyes of the Jews.
It was a bitter mistake
made by the Palestinian leader
that was used well
by the Palestinians' enemies.
Whether they support the British
or the Germans,
the Palestinians benefit,
just like the Jewish community,
from the fact that Mandatory Palestine
becomes an important home-front base.
The Arabs and Jews of Mandatory Palestine
build military bases for the British,
sew their uniforms,
pack canned goods
and entertain them
during their furloughs.
Between 1942 and 1943
Palestine became a flourishing garden.
The situation wasn't bad,
it wasn't good either,
it was fantastic.
But while the home-front in Palestine
is rejoicing,
the British situation on the front
gets worse and worse.
The Nazi threat approaches
the borders of Mandatory Palestine.
The Germans reached Greece and Crete,
approached the coast of Palestine,
Rommel was in North Africa
and the advancing pincer movement
could be felt in Palestine.
The spring of 1941 was the time
of the Germans' greatest successes.
The Jewish community
in Palestine lived in...
It turned out
there was no real risk of annihilation,
but the feeling was very real.
They know that if the British withdraw,
the Jewish community will be eradicated.
In response, young members of
the Jewish community enlist by the masses.
40,000 men and women,
10 percent of the Jewish population
enlist in the British army
or the local special strike units
that the British form.
Some of the Jewish recruits
take part in the victory over
the German army in El Alamein in 1942.
The danger of invasion subsides.
The Americans join the war
and the Zionist Movement
starts thinking about the day after.
The movement's leaders assemble
in the spring of 1942
at the New York Biltmore Hotel.
The terrible rumors
that come from Europe
about what the Nazis
are doing to the Jews
charge the Zionist idea
with a sense of urgency.
David Ben-Gurion says to the delegates
at the Biltmore Hotel:
David Ben-Gurion, 1942
"We thought we would be able
to take our time in building
"and returning to our homeland.
"After this war
we will find quite a different state of things.
"Zionism must organize mass immigration
on the largest possible scale.
The principal readjustment for a task
of such magnitude is a new regime.
"Only a Jewish administration
can carry out this role."
There is one direction,
"a Jewish Commonwealth,"
which ultimately is the same idea
as "a national home."
The demand was to establish
a Jewish state immediately.
What is "a Jewish state"?
A state is an administrative body,
it's a bureaucracy.
That's not what he meant to say.
He meant to say "Jewish sovereignty."
Territory, population, language.
The rumors of the extermination
of European Jewry
turn into facts,
but the British do not change
their no-immigration policy.
Ben-Gurion continues
to promote his plans
for the day after
the British are gone.
In Rehovot he assembles
the best scientists
and the directors of the Jewish community
in Palestine and presents them with a challenge.
"The question that I place
before the experts is:
What needs to be done so that we can bring
one million Jews at the same time,
"by marshaling a thousand ships
all at once,
"a thousand Jews on each ship.
at needs to be done for their conveyance, sustenance
embedding them in the economy."
David Ben-Gurion, 1942
The Planning Committee
included an agronomist,
a water expert, an agricultural expert,
a sanitation expert,
a doctor and so on and so forth,
a designer, an architect..
planning in detail
who will sleep where, for how long.
A rational bureaucratic plan
of social engineering.
Even if no one thought
it would actually happen like that,
because no one thought
it would actually happen like that,
this plan shows
a change in awareness.
A self-learning plan.
Embryonic ideas
that will ripen much later,
because in the late 1940s,
they do the big wave of immigration,
it was like, we've been there,
we've already discussed this,
we've already dreamed about it.
The utopian One Million Plan
will be pulled out of the drawer
and almost fully implemented
when the state is established.
But just before the end
of World War II
and before the magnitude
of the Holocaust is revealed
Ben-Gurion finds himself in a trap.
On one hand, the Holocaust
is horrific and unequivocal proof
of the righteousness
of Zionism's path.
On the other hand,
he writes:
David Ben-Gurion, 1943
"The extermination of European Jewry
is a catastrophe for Zionism.
"There will not be anyone
to build the country with."
It was obvious that
the demographic potential
to create a dramatic change
in the demographic balance in Palestine
between Jews and Arabs
had been lost.
Ben-Gurion still believes in
a drastic demographic change when he says:
If a fact is established that one million Jews
will be brought to Mandatory Palestine,
the conflict with the Arabs
will be over."
David Ben-Gurion, 1944
During 1945 he fills his diary
with calculations and stock-taking
in search of his one million.
For example: In total
there are 10,408,000 Jews worldwide
according to the following distribution:
1. Mandatory Palestine - 550,000.
2. Anglo-Saxon Jewry - 5,750,000.
3. Eastern Europe -
approximately 3,000,000.
4. Western Europe - 253,000.
5. Jews from Muslim countries -
855,000.
We must bring all of bloc 5
as soon as possible.
Mizrahi Jews
The Holocaust brought about
the recognition
that they had to turn more
to the Jews from Islamic countries
because it was the human reservoir
that had hardly been damaged.
But again,
the hierarchy was clear.
It wasn't a plan that started off
with the Jews in Arab countries
but only with Europe.
The Mizrahi Jews became Zionists
only when they became
subjects of immigration to Israel.
In their eyes
as well as in the eyes of others.
At the First Zionist Congress
there wasn't a single Mizrahi Jew,
etc., etc.
Mizrahi Jews were not
a part of this story.
Not everyone likes the idea of recruiting
the Jews from Islamic countries
into the Zionist enterprise.
For example, Moshe Sharett says:
"This is a big question,
not only of quantity but also of quality.
What does it mea
to bring at once
"hundreds of thousands of Jews
from the Levant, as they are,
"not as we would like to see them
after education and acculturation."
Moshe Sharett, 1945
The Palestinian side
also tries to reorganize
after World War II.
Haj Amin al-Husseini,
whom the British prevent
from returning to Palestine,
gets a little closer
when he arrives in Egypt in 1945.
But although he is in Cairo,
the Mufti is not invited
to take part in a conference
that takes place there in March 1945,
the founding conference of
a new and significant body: The Arab League.
The Arab League is an organization
that unites the Arab states.
It has a pan-Arab dimension.
but on the other hand
it recognizes
the unique identity
of each state.
Therefore Palestine cannot
be a part of it,
because there is
no Palestinian state.
Because the Palestinians
don't have a state
they take part in the new
League's discussions only as observers.
Their problem, however,
is a key theme in the League's discussions.
The existence of Palestine/the Land of Israel
breaks up the land contiguity
between Arab states called the Maghreb,
from Egypt to North Africa,
and the Mashreq,
which is Syria, Lebanon,
Iraq and Transjordan.
So there's a creature here
that's chopping up the Arab world.
So naturally it's an issue
for the Arab League.
Right after World War II
we find the Palestinian leadership
divided, torn, exiled.
Due to the weakness
of the Palestinians
the Arab League's involvement became
stronger and more necessary
and in fact took away the leadership
from the hands of the Palestinians.
Already in 1945
the Arab League understands
the dramatic effect the Holocaust will have
on the question regarding Mandatory Palestine.
"
e are second to none in regretting
"the woes which have been inflicted upon
the Jews of Europe
"by European dictatorial states.
"But the question of these Jews
"should not be confused with Zionism,
"for there can be
no greater injustice and aggression
"than solving the problem
of the Jews of Europe
"i.e., by inflicting injustice
on the Arabs of Palestine.
The Arab League, 1945
The Arabs of Palestine
and the Arab world in genera
Some felt more empathy
for the Jews in the Holocaust,
some felt less empathy,
some were gloating,
some felt their pain,
but their main argument was:
The Holocaust took place in Europe,
it is a European crime,
the Europeans should solve the problem
and not at the expense of the Arabs.
The Holocaust reawakens
the Zionist struggle to open the gates
of immigration to the Land of Israel.
The Bricha Movement places
hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors
in refugee camps,
which were called "displaced persons camps."
The camps are financed
by the Americans
who join the Zionist pressure
on Churchill
to issue at least
100,000 immigration visas immediately.
Although Churchill was
a long-time pro-Zionist,
he also starts getting tired.
"We should not take the responsibility upon
ourselves of managing this very difficult place
"while the Americans sit back and criticize.
"I am not aware of the slightest advantage
which has ever accrued to Great Britain
"from this painful and thankless task.
"Somebody else
should have their turn now.
Winston Churchill, 1945
He looked after Britain's interests.
Britain couldn't impose a solution,
the parties don't want a solution
and don't want Britain to remain there
and the British will save
a lot of money by leaving.
The Zionist Movement
does everything possible
to make the British fed up
of remaining in Palestine.
They send illegal immigrant boats
that are almost all seized,
but cause the British
a great deal of embarrassment.
They also launch a military struggle.
The Palmach, which was established
under the auspices of the Mandate,
will now fight against it
as part of the United Resistance Movement,
an alliance of the Zionist paramilitary
organizations Haganah, Irgun and Lehi.
The British respond with the same force
they responded with
against the Arab Revolt
a decade before.
They impose a curfew in the cities,
conduct raids at kibbutzim,
arrest and deport leaders.
The underground movements
respond by escalating the fight.
The killing of 90 people,
a third of whom were British
at the King David Hotel,
the kidnapping of the two British sergeants
in 1947 by the Irgun near Netanya.
It had a huge impact
and the British administration
realized they had to get out of here,
that they couldn't keep fighting
against the Jews
who got so much sympathy
due to the Holocaust.
On the other hand, it's impossible
to solve the Jewish-Arab problem,
so let's just get out of here.
While the impoverished empire
prepares to pull out of India,
the jewel in the crown,
leaving Palestine
is practically inevitable.
A joint committee
of English and Americans
still tries to find
an interim solution,
but in February 1947
Britain announces to the UN...
His Majesty's government have determined
that they must lay down the Mandate.
ln the absence of a settlement
they must plan for an early withdrawal
of British forces from Palestine.
The United Nations General Assembly
decides to create UNSCOP,
to make recommendations concerning
the future of Palestine.
UNSCOP arrives in Palestine
in June 1947
and finds 1.2 million Arabs
and 650,000 Jews.
Unlike the demographic gap
that is gradually closing,
the Jews own just
a million and a half dunams of land
as opposed to 12.5 million dunams
owned by Arabs.
There are 300 settlements
in this small area of Jewish land,
86 of which were established
since and despite the restrictions
of the 1939 White Paper.
Like previous committees, UNSCOP
gathers testimonies and goes on tours.
On one of them
Jewish Agency officials bring
some committee members
to the port of Haifa
right when
the illegal immigrant ship Exodus anchored.
When Holocaust survivors were
taken off the ship that was seized at sea
and some were injured or ever? killed
the UNSCOP members
witnessed the events.
The Yugoslavian delegate
is shocked and summarizes:
"This is the best testimony of all."
Unlike the Zionist effort to impress
and influence the committee,
the Palestinians choose
to boycott its hearings.
Haj Amin's supporters threaten to kill
anyone who testifies before them.
Zionist leaders realize that UNSCOP
is the decisive committee
in terms of
possible international recognition
for establishing or not establishing
a Jewish state.
The Arabs didn't get it,
they thought it was just another committee
like in 1946 or the Peel Committee in 1937.
You could skip it,
you could pass it over,
you could boycott it
and nothing would happen.
The Palestinian perspective
doesn't exist
because they don't meet
with this committee or impact it,
even though some of its members
were sympathetic
to the Palestinian cause.
The Arab leadership was in
a very problematic political position.
They didn't prepare enough
and they didn't work enough.
The Palestinians were always suspicious
of international committees,
British committees,
which they perceived as anti-Arab.
Certainly since the Balfour Declaration
and the first 20 years of the Mandate,
during which the British administration
was pro-Zionist.
And we must keep
the Holocaust in mind,
which was both in the background
and the foreground of everything.
These people come
with guilt feelings
and with the need
to find a solution.
Despite the Arab boycott
the committee meets with Arab leaders,
off the record,
and then sits down to decide.
They explored all other options
and reached the conclusion that
This was the least of the evils.
That Partition is the only solution
that will give each side something,
While other solutions were
either unpractical or morally wrong.
And the holocaust overshadowed it all.
Meaning that the committee could not decide
on anything that would be anti-jewish.
In September 1947
UNSCOP publishes its recommendations:
The termination of the Mandate and
the partition of Palestine into two states
with an economic union.
45 percent of the land
will become an Arab state,
55 percent will be a Jewish state.
The Jerusalem area will remain under
the control of an international trusteeship.
The Arab state will include
the Lower Galilee,
Judea and Samaria
and the Gaza Strip.
The Jewish state will include
the Upper Galilee,
the Coastal Plain and the Negev.
The partition borders
ultimately express the idea
that we're dealing with
two national movements, two nations
that have national aspirations,
although opposing,
but their national aspirations
are validated.
The committee didn't regard
the partition of Palestine
as the most just, moral solution.
They say:
It's the most practical solution.
Only partition will allow each side
to live with half of what
they wanted to achieve.
The UN Partition Plan
gave the Jews 55 percent
of Palestine for their state.
Within that 55 percent
there were supposed to be
500,000 Jews
more than 400,000 Arabs.
So the state was
almost bi-national
based on the UN's vision.
And that wasn't too desirable.
Every area in which
there's a Jewish entity
is annexed to the Jewish state.
And it's so scathing
so much that the Jewish state has
a Palestinian minority of 45 percent.
"It would truly be
the beginning of the Redemption.
"All through our entire history
the Jewish people has never achieved
"in one moment
what has been achieved now.
"There is a new history
that is beginning now."
David Ben-Gurion, 1947
This is Ben-Gurion's official response
to the Partition Plan.
In private the Jewish community's leaders
had a more sober attitude.
In 1946-1947
Zalman Shazar goes around giving lectures
to convince people
to accept the partition,
because there's
a political debate over it.
What does he say
No one ever said
that partition is a wonderful idea.
He says:
All of the Land of Israel is ours.
We didn't give up
on Transjordan either,
but we now have a chance
to get independence.
A nation that aspires to a life
that has a chance to get independence
takes independence
even if it's not on all the territory.
Because what changes the mindset
of a nation is independence
and not the territorial perimeter.
While Shazar claims:
"A nation that aspires to a life chooses
independence and compromises on territory"
Haj Amin al-Husseini declares:
"A nation that aspires to a life
does not accept the partition of its homeland."
The Palestinians considered the plan
adding insults to injuries.
They're not only giving
the Jews a state,
but most of the land too,
even though the Jews
are the minority in Palestine.
The idea of partition
was not accepted by the Palestinians.
They believed that
the place called Palestine is theirs
and they don't want to share it.
If there had been
a consolidated Palestinian leadership
that has the confidence
to say things that the street
doesn't want to hear...
but there was no such leadership.
was weak, exhausted.
On the night
of November 29th, 1947
the UN General Assembly decides
to partition Palestine into two states.
The resolution of the Ad Hoc Committee
for Palestine
was adopted by 33 votes,
13 against and 10 abstain.
The Jews in Palestine, the US and
the displaced persons camps in Europe
listen in suspense
to the radio broadcast of the voting
and at its end
they are beside themselves with joy.
Jamal al-Husseini,
head of the Arab Higher Committee, says:
"Blood will spill like water
in the Middle East."
Jamal al-Husseini, 1947
Yes, blood did spill like water
in the Middle East.
It's still spilling like water.
More than 70 years
after the Partition Plan
the big question
of November 1947
is still waiting for an answer:
Does a nation aspiring to a life
choose independence
and compromises on territory
or does a nation aspiring to life
not accept the partition of its homeland?
Palestinians are still
contemplating that question.
Israel, which chose an answer in 1947,
is re-contemplating.
---
Northern Ireland, Vietnam,
Korea, Falkland Islands,
Bangladesh,
the Iran-Iraq War
the Greco-Turkish War,
the First and Second World Wars...
These are just some of the conflicts
that broke out and ended
while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
goes on and on.
What is it about our conflict
that won't enable it to end?
Is what happened between us
so unforgivable and unsolvable?
We deserve full rights!
Let's go back to this story again,
but we'll try to tell it
not like it's told in an argument,
but like it's told in... a lesson.
Let's call it a refresher lesson.
Let's call it a Homeland Lesson.
HOMELAND LESSON
Our conflict is not just
a territorial war.
It's also, and perhaps primarily,
a demographic confrontation,
a competition over
the size of populations,
an ongoing struggle between
majority and minority
in which the minority is always
striving to become the majority
and the majority tends to act
like a minority.
The Arab Revolt of 1936
was the pretest of a majority
that was afraid
of becoming a minority,
an attempt to stop the process
that increased the Jews' share
in the population
from 10 percent
at the beginning of the British Mandate
to 30 percent
when the revolt broke out.
Naturally, the Zionist interest
was the opposite,
to keep the gates of Mandatory Palestine
open to Jewish immigration
and complete
the demographic turnabout.
We're not aware of the fact
that in 1939
there were 18 million Jews worldwide
and one million Palestinian Arabs.
In other words,
the stronger the Zionist Movement gets,
this demographic balance
where we say,
okay, there's an Arab majority here,
70 percent - it will change.
It will change very fast.
There are human resources,
there are Jews,
loads of Jews. It's before the Holocaust,
there are loads of Jews,
The Arab Revolt was suppressed
by the British with a firm hand
and left the Palestinians exhausted,
impoverished and divided.
Nevertheless, some of the revolt's goals
were achieved
due to the deteriorating
international situation.
When we talk about 1938, 1939
thick clouds of war
are gathering over Europe,
it's obvious there will be a war
and that the political and military energies
of Europe must be brought together.
There's concern that the Arabs will support
the Germans if there's a war
because the Germans
are against the English.
They said:
We need the Arab world,
we need the oil,
we need the support
of the millions of Arabs
that are spread out
from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf.
The English want
to iron out the problems
with the Arabs before the war.
In May 1939
the British iron out the problems.
They issue the White Paper
which announces the cessation of almost
all Jewish immigration to Palestine
and the prohibition
of almost all land-sales to Jews.
Britain announces its withdrawal
from the Balfour Declaration
and from the Peel Commission's idea
to partition the land.
It seems like the British
are willing to change their policy.
And for the Palestinians,
that is an achievement
that the British
had never been willing
to discuss before.
What were the demands of the revolt?
Suspending Jewish immigration,
suspending the transfer of land to Jews
and an Arab government.
The British say:
The Jews are not allowed to buy lands
in almost all of Palestine.
They divided it into zones A, B, C.
In zones A and B
the purchase of land by Jews is prohibited,
only in zone C,
where many Jews had already settled.
The British are willing to talk,
for the first time, to set an expiry date,
when independence will come.
They say:
You'll have independence within 10 years.
And a government made up of
the people of Palestine will be formed,
which meant it would be
an Arab government.
Why? Because there'd be
an Arab majority.
In the conditions that
were sketched there
and within the restrictions that were
imposed on Jewish immigration
it was clear that there wouldn't be
any demographic turnabout in Palestine,
which meant that within 10 years
an Arab state would be established here.
That wasn't the idea
of the Mandate for Palestine.
"A more evil, foolish
and nearsighted policy
"is unfathomable.
"Satan himself could not have created
a more distressing and horrible nightmare."
This is how Ben-Gurion sums up
the White Paper.
He declares: "a new chapter In Zionist history
is about to begin: Fighting Zionism."
"A Jewish state shall be establishes!"
"Immigration now!"
But in September
World War II breaks out
and Zionism is fighting,
but alongside Britain.
A policy that contained
a contradiction,
but it was the only thing
that was possible.
"We will fight the White Paper
as if there were no Hitler
"and we will fight Hitler
as if there were no White Paper.
The severe restrictions on Jewish immigration
were crucial for the Jews of Europe.
And the restrictions on land-sales
slowed down the Zionist momentum,
but the Arab Higher Committee
is not reconciled
Awni Abd al-Hadi assumes that...
"The British government
cannot accommodate the Arabs
"any more than they already have,"
And Colonial Secretary MacDonald says:
Malcolm McDonald, 1939
The Arabs must not miss
this golden opportunity."
But head of the Arab Committee,
Haj Amin al-Husseini,
living in exile in Beirut,
instructs his representatives
to reject the White Paper.
Most of the Arab
Higher Committee members
supported the White Paper.
Most of them supported it.
The Mufti, who was not in Palestine,
takes a firm approach
and imposes his opinion on some
of the Arab Higher Committee members
and the Palestinian leadership
rejects the White Paper.
At this point the Mufti gives up
on the possibility
of cooperating with the British.
He leaves Beirut and moves to Iraq
where he joins the anti-British
and pro-German opposition forces.
Within independent Iraq
there was a large group
of Nazi supporters,
German supporters.
The Mufti arrives in Baghdad
with very strong anti-British sentiments,
and the days are days of a world war,
so the alliance between him
and the German-Nazi leadership
comes naturally.
They said: "We'll help
the Germans fight the British
"and they'll help us."
In 1941 Haj Amin
takes part in a coup
that puts a pro-Nazi government
into power in Baghdad.
Within no time, the British invade Iraq
and once again the Mufti flees from them,
this time to Berlin.
In Baghdad
the disappointed coup supporters
adopt another element
of European anti-Semitism
and take their frustration out
on the Jews of Baghdad
on the night of the Farhoud,
a pogrom, for all intents and purposes.
Both in real time
as well as in retrospect,
this is the event that symbolizes
the efmotional split
between Iraq's Muslim population
and the Jewish population,
because for many years
Iraqi Jews felt
they were full citizens in Iraq,
and the nationalistic factions
within the Iraqi National Movement says:
No, you don't belong here.
Meanwhile, the Mufti
finds his way to Italy
where he is warmly welcomed,
meets with Mussolini,
and then finally settles in Berlin.
He takes part in the Nazi
propaganda radio broadcasts in Arabic
and gets to meet
the Fuhrer himself.
He thought Germany would help him
get the English out of Palestine.
It was the continuation of his war
against the British in Palestine.
The saying,
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
can't be right in this case.
Joining forces with the archenemy
of the Jewish people
and one of the most horrific people
in human history
is an act that leaves its mark
on Jewish-Arab relations,
leaves its mark on
inner-Palestinian relations
and becomes part of the image of the Arabs
in the eyes of the Jews.
It was a bitter mistake
made by the Palestinian leader
that was used well
by the Palestinians' enemies.
Whether they support the British
or the Germans,
the Palestinians benefit,
just like the Jewish community,
from the fact that Mandatory Palestine
becomes an important home-front base.
The Arabs and Jews of Mandatory Palestine
build military bases for the British,
sew their uniforms,
pack canned goods
and entertain them
during their furloughs.
Between 1942 and 1943
Palestine became a flourishing garden.
The situation wasn't bad,
it wasn't good either,
it was fantastic.
But while the home-front in Palestine
is rejoicing,
the British situation on the front
gets worse and worse.
The Nazi threat approaches
the borders of Mandatory Palestine.
The Germans reached Greece and Crete,
approached the coast of Palestine,
Rommel was in North Africa
and the advancing pincer movement
could be felt in Palestine.
The spring of 1941 was the time
of the Germans' greatest successes.
The Jewish community
in Palestine lived in...
It turned out
there was no real risk of annihilation,
but the feeling was very real.
They know that if the British withdraw,
the Jewish community will be eradicated.
In response, young members of
the Jewish community enlist by the masses.
40,000 men and women,
10 percent of the Jewish population
enlist in the British army
or the local special strike units
that the British form.
Some of the Jewish recruits
take part in the victory over
the German army in El Alamein in 1942.
The danger of invasion subsides.
The Americans join the war
and the Zionist Movement
starts thinking about the day after.
The movement's leaders assemble
in the spring of 1942
at the New York Biltmore Hotel.
The terrible rumors
that come from Europe
about what the Nazis
are doing to the Jews
charge the Zionist idea
with a sense of urgency.
David Ben-Gurion says to the delegates
at the Biltmore Hotel:
David Ben-Gurion, 1942
"We thought we would be able
to take our time in building
"and returning to our homeland.
"After this war
we will find quite a different state of things.
"Zionism must organize mass immigration
on the largest possible scale.
The principal readjustment for a task
of such magnitude is a new regime.
"Only a Jewish administration
can carry out this role."
There is one direction,
"a Jewish Commonwealth,"
which ultimately is the same idea
as "a national home."
The demand was to establish
a Jewish state immediately.
What is "a Jewish state"?
A state is an administrative body,
it's a bureaucracy.
That's not what he meant to say.
He meant to say "Jewish sovereignty."
Territory, population, language.
The rumors of the extermination
of European Jewry
turn into facts,
but the British do not change
their no-immigration policy.
Ben-Gurion continues
to promote his plans
for the day after
the British are gone.
In Rehovot he assembles
the best scientists
and the directors of the Jewish community
in Palestine and presents them with a challenge.
"The question that I place
before the experts is:
What needs to be done so that we can bring
one million Jews at the same time,
"by marshaling a thousand ships
all at once,
"a thousand Jews on each ship.
at needs to be done for their conveyance, sustenance
embedding them in the economy."
David Ben-Gurion, 1942
The Planning Committee
included an agronomist,
a water expert, an agricultural expert,
a sanitation expert,
a doctor and so on and so forth,
a designer, an architect..
planning in detail
who will sleep where, for how long.
A rational bureaucratic plan
of social engineering.
Even if no one thought
it would actually happen like that,
because no one thought
it would actually happen like that,
this plan shows
a change in awareness.
A self-learning plan.
Embryonic ideas
that will ripen much later,
because in the late 1940s,
they do the big wave of immigration,
it was like, we've been there,
we've already discussed this,
we've already dreamed about it.
The utopian One Million Plan
will be pulled out of the drawer
and almost fully implemented
when the state is established.
But just before the end
of World War II
and before the magnitude
of the Holocaust is revealed
Ben-Gurion finds himself in a trap.
On one hand, the Holocaust
is horrific and unequivocal proof
of the righteousness
of Zionism's path.
On the other hand,
he writes:
David Ben-Gurion, 1943
"The extermination of European Jewry
is a catastrophe for Zionism.
"There will not be anyone
to build the country with."
It was obvious that
the demographic potential
to create a dramatic change
in the demographic balance in Palestine
between Jews and Arabs
had been lost.
Ben-Gurion still believes in
a drastic demographic change when he says:
If a fact is established that one million Jews
will be brought to Mandatory Palestine,
the conflict with the Arabs
will be over."
David Ben-Gurion, 1944
During 1945 he fills his diary
with calculations and stock-taking
in search of his one million.
For example: In total
there are 10,408,000 Jews worldwide
according to the following distribution:
1. Mandatory Palestine - 550,000.
2. Anglo-Saxon Jewry - 5,750,000.
3. Eastern Europe -
approximately 3,000,000.
4. Western Europe - 253,000.
5. Jews from Muslim countries -
855,000.
We must bring all of bloc 5
as soon as possible.
Mizrahi Jews
The Holocaust brought about
the recognition
that they had to turn more
to the Jews from Islamic countries
because it was the human reservoir
that had hardly been damaged.
But again,
the hierarchy was clear.
It wasn't a plan that started off
with the Jews in Arab countries
but only with Europe.
The Mizrahi Jews became Zionists
only when they became
subjects of immigration to Israel.
In their eyes
as well as in the eyes of others.
At the First Zionist Congress
there wasn't a single Mizrahi Jew,
etc., etc.
Mizrahi Jews were not
a part of this story.
Not everyone likes the idea of recruiting
the Jews from Islamic countries
into the Zionist enterprise.
For example, Moshe Sharett says:
"This is a big question,
not only of quantity but also of quality.
What does it mea
to bring at once
"hundreds of thousands of Jews
from the Levant, as they are,
"not as we would like to see them
after education and acculturation."
Moshe Sharett, 1945
The Palestinian side
also tries to reorganize
after World War II.
Haj Amin al-Husseini,
whom the British prevent
from returning to Palestine,
gets a little closer
when he arrives in Egypt in 1945.
But although he is in Cairo,
the Mufti is not invited
to take part in a conference
that takes place there in March 1945,
the founding conference of
a new and significant body: The Arab League.
The Arab League is an organization
that unites the Arab states.
It has a pan-Arab dimension.
but on the other hand
it recognizes
the unique identity
of each state.
Therefore Palestine cannot
be a part of it,
because there is
no Palestinian state.
Because the Palestinians
don't have a state
they take part in the new
League's discussions only as observers.
Their problem, however,
is a key theme in the League's discussions.
The existence of Palestine/the Land of Israel
breaks up the land contiguity
between Arab states called the Maghreb,
from Egypt to North Africa,
and the Mashreq,
which is Syria, Lebanon,
Iraq and Transjordan.
So there's a creature here
that's chopping up the Arab world.
So naturally it's an issue
for the Arab League.
Right after World War II
we find the Palestinian leadership
divided, torn, exiled.
Due to the weakness
of the Palestinians
the Arab League's involvement became
stronger and more necessary
and in fact took away the leadership
from the hands of the Palestinians.
Already in 1945
the Arab League understands
the dramatic effect the Holocaust will have
on the question regarding Mandatory Palestine.
"
e are second to none in regretting
"the woes which have been inflicted upon
the Jews of Europe
"by European dictatorial states.
"But the question of these Jews
"should not be confused with Zionism,
"for there can be
no greater injustice and aggression
"than solving the problem
of the Jews of Europe
"i.e., by inflicting injustice
on the Arabs of Palestine.
The Arab League, 1945
The Arabs of Palestine
and the Arab world in genera
Some felt more empathy
for the Jews in the Holocaust,
some felt less empathy,
some were gloating,
some felt their pain,
but their main argument was:
The Holocaust took place in Europe,
it is a European crime,
the Europeans should solve the problem
and not at the expense of the Arabs.
The Holocaust reawakens
the Zionist struggle to open the gates
of immigration to the Land of Israel.
The Bricha Movement places
hundreds of thousands of Holocaust survivors
in refugee camps,
which were called "displaced persons camps."
The camps are financed
by the Americans
who join the Zionist pressure
on Churchill
to issue at least
100,000 immigration visas immediately.
Although Churchill was
a long-time pro-Zionist,
he also starts getting tired.
"We should not take the responsibility upon
ourselves of managing this very difficult place
"while the Americans sit back and criticize.
"I am not aware of the slightest advantage
which has ever accrued to Great Britain
"from this painful and thankless task.
"Somebody else
should have their turn now.
Winston Churchill, 1945
He looked after Britain's interests.
Britain couldn't impose a solution,
the parties don't want a solution
and don't want Britain to remain there
and the British will save
a lot of money by leaving.
The Zionist Movement
does everything possible
to make the British fed up
of remaining in Palestine.
They send illegal immigrant boats
that are almost all seized,
but cause the British
a great deal of embarrassment.
They also launch a military struggle.
The Palmach, which was established
under the auspices of the Mandate,
will now fight against it
as part of the United Resistance Movement,
an alliance of the Zionist paramilitary
organizations Haganah, Irgun and Lehi.
The British respond with the same force
they responded with
against the Arab Revolt
a decade before.
They impose a curfew in the cities,
conduct raids at kibbutzim,
arrest and deport leaders.
The underground movements
respond by escalating the fight.
The killing of 90 people,
a third of whom were British
at the King David Hotel,
the kidnapping of the two British sergeants
in 1947 by the Irgun near Netanya.
It had a huge impact
and the British administration
realized they had to get out of here,
that they couldn't keep fighting
against the Jews
who got so much sympathy
due to the Holocaust.
On the other hand, it's impossible
to solve the Jewish-Arab problem,
so let's just get out of here.
While the impoverished empire
prepares to pull out of India,
the jewel in the crown,
leaving Palestine
is practically inevitable.
A joint committee
of English and Americans
still tries to find
an interim solution,
but in February 1947
Britain announces to the UN...
His Majesty's government have determined
that they must lay down the Mandate.
ln the absence of a settlement
they must plan for an early withdrawal
of British forces from Palestine.
The United Nations General Assembly
decides to create UNSCOP,
to make recommendations concerning
the future of Palestine.
UNSCOP arrives in Palestine
in June 1947
and finds 1.2 million Arabs
and 650,000 Jews.
Unlike the demographic gap
that is gradually closing,
the Jews own just
a million and a half dunams of land
as opposed to 12.5 million dunams
owned by Arabs.
There are 300 settlements
in this small area of Jewish land,
86 of which were established
since and despite the restrictions
of the 1939 White Paper.
Like previous committees, UNSCOP
gathers testimonies and goes on tours.
On one of them
Jewish Agency officials bring
some committee members
to the port of Haifa
right when
the illegal immigrant ship Exodus anchored.
When Holocaust survivors were
taken off the ship that was seized at sea
and some were injured or ever? killed
the UNSCOP members
witnessed the events.
The Yugoslavian delegate
is shocked and summarizes:
"This is the best testimony of all."
Unlike the Zionist effort to impress
and influence the committee,
the Palestinians choose
to boycott its hearings.
Haj Amin's supporters threaten to kill
anyone who testifies before them.
Zionist leaders realize that UNSCOP
is the decisive committee
in terms of
possible international recognition
for establishing or not establishing
a Jewish state.
The Arabs didn't get it,
they thought it was just another committee
like in 1946 or the Peel Committee in 1937.
You could skip it,
you could pass it over,
you could boycott it
and nothing would happen.
The Palestinian perspective
doesn't exist
because they don't meet
with this committee or impact it,
even though some of its members
were sympathetic
to the Palestinian cause.
The Arab leadership was in
a very problematic political position.
They didn't prepare enough
and they didn't work enough.
The Palestinians were always suspicious
of international committees,
British committees,
which they perceived as anti-Arab.
Certainly since the Balfour Declaration
and the first 20 years of the Mandate,
during which the British administration
was pro-Zionist.
And we must keep
the Holocaust in mind,
which was both in the background
and the foreground of everything.
These people come
with guilt feelings
and with the need
to find a solution.
Despite the Arab boycott
the committee meets with Arab leaders,
off the record,
and then sits down to decide.
They explored all other options
and reached the conclusion that
This was the least of the evils.
That Partition is the only solution
that will give each side something,
While other solutions were
either unpractical or morally wrong.
And the holocaust overshadowed it all.
Meaning that the committee could not decide
on anything that would be anti-jewish.
In September 1947
UNSCOP publishes its recommendations:
The termination of the Mandate and
the partition of Palestine into two states
with an economic union.
45 percent of the land
will become an Arab state,
55 percent will be a Jewish state.
The Jerusalem area will remain under
the control of an international trusteeship.
The Arab state will include
the Lower Galilee,
Judea and Samaria
and the Gaza Strip.
The Jewish state will include
the Upper Galilee,
the Coastal Plain and the Negev.
The partition borders
ultimately express the idea
that we're dealing with
two national movements, two nations
that have national aspirations,
although opposing,
but their national aspirations
are validated.
The committee didn't regard
the partition of Palestine
as the most just, moral solution.
They say:
It's the most practical solution.
Only partition will allow each side
to live with half of what
they wanted to achieve.
The UN Partition Plan
gave the Jews 55 percent
of Palestine for their state.
Within that 55 percent
there were supposed to be
500,000 Jews
more than 400,000 Arabs.
So the state was
almost bi-national
based on the UN's vision.
And that wasn't too desirable.
Every area in which
there's a Jewish entity
is annexed to the Jewish state.
And it's so scathing
so much that the Jewish state has
a Palestinian minority of 45 percent.
"It would truly be
the beginning of the Redemption.
"All through our entire history
the Jewish people has never achieved
"in one moment
what has been achieved now.
"There is a new history
that is beginning now."
David Ben-Gurion, 1947
This is Ben-Gurion's official response
to the Partition Plan.
In private the Jewish community's leaders
had a more sober attitude.
In 1946-1947
Zalman Shazar goes around giving lectures
to convince people
to accept the partition,
because there's
a political debate over it.
What does he say
No one ever said
that partition is a wonderful idea.
He says:
All of the Land of Israel is ours.
We didn't give up
on Transjordan either,
but we now have a chance
to get independence.
A nation that aspires to a life
that has a chance to get independence
takes independence
even if it's not on all the territory.
Because what changes the mindset
of a nation is independence
and not the territorial perimeter.
While Shazar claims:
"A nation that aspires to a life chooses
independence and compromises on territory"
Haj Amin al-Husseini declares:
"A nation that aspires to a life
does not accept the partition of its homeland."
The Palestinians considered the plan
adding insults to injuries.
They're not only giving
the Jews a state,
but most of the land too,
even though the Jews
are the minority in Palestine.
The idea of partition
was not accepted by the Palestinians.
They believed that
the place called Palestine is theirs
and they don't want to share it.
If there had been
a consolidated Palestinian leadership
that has the confidence
to say things that the street
doesn't want to hear...
but there was no such leadership.
was weak, exhausted.
On the night
of November 29th, 1947
the UN General Assembly decides
to partition Palestine into two states.
The resolution of the Ad Hoc Committee
for Palestine
was adopted by 33 votes,
13 against and 10 abstain.
The Jews in Palestine, the US and
the displaced persons camps in Europe
listen in suspense
to the radio broadcast of the voting
and at its end
they are beside themselves with joy.
Jamal al-Husseini,
head of the Arab Higher Committee, says:
"Blood will spill like water
in the Middle East."
Jamal al-Husseini, 1947
Yes, blood did spill like water
in the Middle East.
It's still spilling like water.
More than 70 years
after the Partition Plan
the big question
of November 1947
is still waiting for an answer:
Does a nation aspiring to a life
choose independence
and compromises on territory
or does a nation aspiring to life
not accept the partition of its homeland?
Palestinians are still
contemplating that question.
Israel, which chose an answer in 1947,
is re-contemplating.