Routledge

Chapter Resources

Chapter 5: The Origins of the Arab–Israeli Conflict, 1900–48

Debates

Debating the 1948 war

Maps

UN partition plan for Palestine, 1947

Post-war Israel, 1948

Discussion Questions

  1. Why did Theodor Herzl advocate a Jewish state?
  2. How and why do the Arab and British interpretations of the Hussein-McMahon correspondence differ?
  3. Was there a Palestinian nationalism before the British Mandate?
  4. Assess Britain's Palestine policy.
  5. What was Zionist strategy to establish a state before the First World War, between the world wars, and after the Second World War?
  6. What were the problems with Arab institution- and state-building?
  7. To what extent were Zionist-Arab relations hostile from the beginning?
  8. What were the causes, course and consequences of the 1948 war?
  9. What were the causes of the Palestinian refugee problem?
  10. Why did the Palestinians fail to achieve a state?

Weblinks

Good websites on the Arab-Israeli conflict as a whole which have a comprehensive library of documents as well as timelines and short analyses include:
http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/govpubs/us/arabisrael.htm
http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/avalon.htm
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook54html#Israel%20and%20Palestine
http://www.mideastweb.org

There are also two very good websites dedicated to maps of different parts of Palestine during the mandate period. For maps on Arab Palestine see:
www.al-bab.com/arab/maps/palestine.htm

For maps on the Yishuv see:
www.jewishagency.org/JewishAgency/English/Jewish+Education

Documents on the web

Excerpts from Herzl's 1896 The Jewish State can be found at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1896herzl.htm

The 1915 Hussein McMahon Correspondence is available at:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1915mcmahon.html

For the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement see:
http://yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/sykes.htm

The 1917 Balfour Declaration can be found at:
http://yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/balfour.htm

The 1947 Partition Resolution UNGA 181 is available at:
http://mideastweb.org/181.htm