| Subject: Israel? Palestine?...Who's The Enemy Here? |
Author:
Patrick McGee
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 07/14/06 10:02am
Israel? Palestine?...Who's The Enemy Here?
This is excerpted from a 1946 volume of 'The Book of Knowledge'
...As time went on, there was rioting in the Holy Land.
In May, 1939, the British offered a plan to put an end to the strife between Arabs and Jews; this plan was set forth in a document called a 'White Paper'.
The British proposed to allow 75,000 Jews to enter the country over a period of five years. After that time there would be no more Jewish immigration.
The British would then set up an independent Palestine, bound by treaty to Great Britain.
The Jews were to have full political rights in this new state.
World War II Postpones The Problem Of Palestine
The 'White Paper' satisfied meither the Arabs or the Jews but, in September, 1939, World War II broke out and the British postponed furhter discussion of the Palestine question.
During the war, the Jews of Palestine supported the 'Allied Cause' wholeheartedly.
They sent their young men to fight against 'The Axis'; their industries helped supply the Allied troops in the Middle East.
With the end of the war, the matter of the future of Palestine came up again.
An important Jewish body, The Jewish Agency,laid a definite plan before the British Government.
Among other things, the agency demanded a Jewish State be set up in 'The Holy Land' and that unrestricted Jewish immigration be permitted.
In August, 1945, this program was approved unanimously by the 'World Zionist Conference' meeting in London. (Zionists are Jew that support the Jewish colonization movement in Palestine.)
Conflict Develops Over Jewish Immigration Into Palestine
The 'Jewish Agency' program was a long range affair.
In order to meet immediate needs of Jewish refugees in the war-torn areas of Europe, the Zionists demanded that 100,000 Jews be admitted at once into Palestine.
The British refused but, announced, however, that 1,500 Jewish immigrants a month would be admitted.
The Zionists declared that this offer was entirely unsatisfactory.
The Arabs of Palestine were bitterly opposed to the program as set forth by 'The Jewish Agency'.
They received the firm support of their fellows Arabs in other lands.
In March, 1945, the states of Egypt, Syria, Labanon, Transjordania, Iraq and Saudi Arabia has adopted the charter of a new 'Arab League'.
The League vowed thet it would not permit the setting up of a Jewish state in Palestine.
To show their support of Palestinian Arabs, Arab mobs in Cairo, Alexandria, Tripoli and other cities north of Africa looted Jewish stores, damaged synagogues and attacked Jews.
On November 14, 1945, President Harry Truman and Foreign Minister Bevin of Great Britain announced a British-American agreement on the subject of Palestine.
They proposed to set up a 'Joint Committee of Inquiry' to examine the problem of Eurpoean Jews and Palestine.
Bevin added that Palestine would become a 'Trustee State' of the United Nations Organization and that it would have self-government in time.
It seems liklely that ther will be no futher official movement in the matter until the Joinr Committee of Inquiry makes its report.
One reason why the 'Palestinian Question' is such a difficult one is the neither Great Britain nor the United States is willing to make enemies of the nation belonging to the Arab League.
There are vast oil deposits in Iraq and Saudi Arabia and other othere Arab States in the Middle East and both the British and the Unites States Are vitally interestewd in those oil deposits.
And so the vast continent of Asia is in turmoil but, the situation is not hopeless. There is still hope-a real peace-if the reasoanble hopes of native peoples are fulfilled and if purely national interests give way to the world family of nation
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
Feedback: 