What people lived in Israel before World War II?

Question

From my understanding is that the Jews from Poland migrated to Israel their and other peoples holy land and the Jewish people claimed it for their own and push the people who lived there out such as the Lebonise people, and the way I see it it is like the canadians just moved in the northern half of the united states claimed it for themselves and we had no rights to stop them from just taking our freedom of where we want to live away from us.

Answer 1

~No, they didn't push the Lebanese out of Palestine, nor did they push out the Christians and other non-Arabs who were living there. They "pushed" only the Palestinian Arabs (who had lived there for centuries) out of Palestine in order to make the Jewish State of Israel. It was done in several stages and was considered by some to be legal and moral because of the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate which made Israel an independent and Jewish state. There were four stages, from 1947 to 1948, to the removal of Palestinian Arabs, and each stage targeted a different part of Palestine.

During the first stage, over 100,000, mostly middle and upper class Palestinians, fled from the urban areas in panic to other parts of Palestine hoping to survive the civil war (British, French, and Jews against Palestinians). The only official expulsion at this time took place at Qisarya, south of Haifa, where Palestinian Arabs were "evicted" and their houses destroyed.

Many Palestinian Arabs fled in fear and panic after the Deir Yassin massacre that took place in the second stage. Some fled when their homes and crops were burned down and when their wives and daughters were raped before their eyes. It has been estimated that between 250,000 to 300,000 Palestinians became refugees during this stage.

During the third stage, many Palestinian Arabs in the urban areas were simply told (at gunpoint) that they had to pack up their belongings and leave. The largest single expulsion began in Lydda and Ramla when 60,000 Palestinian Arab inhabitants of the two cities were forcibly expelled on the orders of Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin. The third stage added another 100,000 Palestian refugees to the list of homeless.

The fourth stage took place mainly around Galilee and the surrounding villages and saw some of the heaviest Palestinian resistance. But eventually, those Arabs families were "evicted" by force. Approximately 200,000 to 230,000 more Palestinan Arabs became refugees.

All in all, in a two year period, a minimum of 650,000 Palestinian Arabs were forced to leave the only place they had known as "home."

In 1950, the Absentee Property Law was passed in Israel. It provided for confiscation of the property and land left behind by departing Palestinians, the so-called "absentees". Even Arabs who never left Israel, and received citizenship after the war, but left their houses and stayed for a few days in a nearby village had their property confiscated. About 30,000-35,000 Palestinians became "present absentees" - persons present at the time but considered absent.

How much of Israel's territory consists of land confiscated with the Absentee Property Law is uncertain. According to the Israeli Custodian of Absentee Property, it could amount to 70% of the territory. And that is the percentage that the Israelis acknowledge they took from the Palestinian Arabs.

By 1950, according to United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), the number of registered refugees was 914,000.

UN General Assembly Resolution 194, which was passed on December 11, 1948, and REAFFIRMED EVERY YEAR SINCE 1948, called for Israel to let the refugees wishing to return to their homes be permitted to do so at the earliest practical date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Israelis. Although UN Resolution194 has been reaffirmed every year, it has been ignored.

Not once since its passage in 1948, has a western UN member nation demanded that the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 resolution be implemented.

As an non-Arab American, I can certainly understand why the Islamic Resistance Movement, the PLO, Force 17, Hamas, Fatah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah, al Qaeda, Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, and many other "terrorist" groups came to be.

If the Canadians came in and confiscated or burned my home and my family business, massacred my family, forced me to leave at gunpoint, then were told by the UN to let me move back in and pay me for the property they stole and they refused to do it, I'd be really ticked off at the Canadians...and all the nations that backed the Canuks.

Gee, I might even become a terrorist. Now do you understand why 9/11 happened?

Answer 2

Hallelujah! At last people are starting to look at the situation in the Middle East with a critical eye. The Western world thought the creation of Israel was a good idea, due to our misplaced guilt over the Holocaust. (Not that we could have done much about it)
But the remedy is worse than the illness. Before the establishment of the State of Israel, Jews lived in the region (Palestine) in relative peace with their neighbours. (Arabs)
The problem started when they (Israelis) became the majority.
Their inherent arrogance (all this baloney about being the 'Chosen People') quickly polarised the region, and there hasn't been peace since. Let's be honest, if a people (the 'Palestinians') have been living in a land for 2,000 years it is theirs. And if 'foreign powers' then give your land to a minority, (to salve their collective consciences') you fight to regain what is yours! Israel has been provoking it's neighbours for decades, and when they retaliate, the Israelis shout: Look what these damn 'terrorists' are doing to us! (with the loudest screamers in the halls of power of the US) This 'problem' will not go away until the whole world looks at, and solves the central problem in the Middle East, which is the 'imposition' of Israel on the region. I am not suggesting the destruction of Israel, we cannot turn back history, but Israel must be made to stop it's subversion in the area.

To the answerer above:
Quote:
The analogy is more like if you are a property owner and grant your property to someone, but the people living in the house decided they didn't like your decision, whether you owned the property legally or not, and decided to fight the new owners.

This was the situation the new owners of Palestine found themselves in and have found themselves in since their independence in 1948.
Unquote.

The British were also the 'owners' of many other countries, e.g. Nigeria, Australia, South Africa, India, New Zealand, et al.
Imagine what would have happened if they decided to 'grant' a portion of these countries to the Jews? I'll tell you, exactly the same as what is happening in the Middle East now! Instead, these countries are independent. One country cannot 'own' another, much less 'grant' it to a people! It's been tried throughout history, (The Roman and British Empires, The USSR, etc) and has always failed!

Answer 3

Jews did not start to move to the British Mandate Palestine after WWII. Also, most (although many came from Jews there do not originate in Poland (there are a lot of other countries). There were large Jewish immigrations to that area since the 19th century. The area had a Jewish majority long before WW ONE was a twinkle in the German's eyes. Do I need to mention that there was no such thing as the country of Lebanon thus no Lebanese? Even Hezbollah doesn't claim Israel as being "Lebanese lands".

Please, please, open a freakin' history book, or if you are too lazy from that, look it up in Wikipedia like everyone else.

Answer 4

Your analogy is incorrect, because the US is a sovereign nation run by the electorate of the people. The US would have had to grant the land to the Canadians.

Turkey controlled much of that area until the 1st World War when they sided with the Axis Powers. As a result of that war the British took over. It could have remained in British hands but they gave it to the Jewish people with the hope that with a homeland the Jewish people would never suffer genocide again.

From Wikiopedia:

At the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire following WWI, the victorious European states sought to divide the Middle East into political entities according to their own needs, and, to a much lesser extent, according to deals that had been struck with other interested parties. Lebanon and Syria came under French control, while Iraq, Palestine and Transjordan came under British control. Most of these territories achieved independence during the following three decades without unusual difficulty, but the case of Palestine remained problematic.

The future of Palestine was contentious from the beginning of the Palestine Mandate since it had been promised as the site of a Jewish homeland (see Balfour Declaration 1917) yet most of the population were Arabs (though in some regions of the territory, most of which are now under Israeli control, Jews formed a majority). It was also, according to one common view, the subject of British promises to the Arabs during WWI.

Back to this commentary:

The reason that at this time the land was in mostly Arab hands was because the Ottoman Empire (Turkey) ruled it. Arab nations had sided with Turkey during the war. Thus Arab people were granted preferred status. Jews did live there however as well as Christians and other religious sects.

The reason the Jewish people after being granted the land had to fight for their independence was that once the British pulled out the Arab population attacked.

The analogy is more like if you are a property owner and grant your property to someone, but the people living in the house decided they didn't like your decision, whether you owned the property legally or not, and decided to fight the new owners.

This was the situation the new owners of Palestine found themselves in and have found themselves in since their independence in 1948.

And the perpetual war over this legal mandate continues on and on and on....

Answer 5

, in 1948 the Jews were given a place in Israel to feel secure to its own State, they were refuges from the war a lot of them then, now Jews make up a small portion of Israel they are in general Arabic. The Jews retain the most wealth though, and more often than not the Jews are not well liked by their own country men.. Many times it is said by the orthodox Christian they need another Hitler, So do not assume all is peace and love among the Israelis.

Answer 6

As others have mentioned, Isreal became a 'State' in 1948 signed into effect by President Harry Truman. Many in the area, and the US, didn't like the idea of the Jews having their own state, but Truman signed it anyways; So many of the Wars (I think 4 already, soon to be 5) that the Jews have fought has been because the Islamics still don't think Isreal should exist.

Answer 7

First they were called the Canaanites. Then Jews, by their God's leading, mostly wiped them out. Eventually they sinned, so God incited sinful neighboring dictators to wipe out and enslave the Jews. While some Jews spread Christianity to the Gentile nations, many Jews rejected this teaching. Being scattered by the Romans during the first century of the Christian era, various groups (including later Muslims) lived on that property. As racial hatred for the displaced Jews grew they were increasingly persecuted. After the atrocities committed against them during WWII, many began campaigning for a land of their own, so history wouldn't repeat itself. Some of the victors of WWII agreed to provide land in what was formerly the Promised Land for the Jews, thus zionism cleared the way for Jews to have a land they called their own.

Answer 8

Jews have always been living in Israel. A large portion of Israelis are Jews who escaped from persecution in Arab lands.

Zionist development of the land really got underway in the mid-1800s, through a process of buying up swamps and wasteland and developing it. The modern State of Israel was built through Jewish blood, sweat and tears.

Answer 9

The most important thing to bear in mind is that there is no such place in the world as Palestine. Except for a city in Texas. The actual word "Palestine" came from the Romans, not the Arabs, and there has never been an independent country or state of Palestine, nor a Palestinian rule. Yet we are led to believe that there are Palestinians and then there are Arabs. In August 11, 1919 in a memorandum to Lord Curzon, Lord Balfour stated that "whatever be the future of Palestine, it is not now an 'independent nation,' nor is it yet on the way to becoming one". Professor of history Reverend James Parkes wrote in Whose Land that "before 1914, ... the mass of the population [in Palestine] had no real feeling of belonging to any wider unit than their village, clan or possibly confederation of clans". He stressed the point that "up to that time it is not possible to speak of the existence of any general sentiment of nationality". There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians (another recent invention), Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. Keep in mind that the Arabs control 99.9 percent of the Middle East lands. Israel represents one-tenth of 1 percent of the landmass. As long as the Arabs refuse to accept a Jewish state in the Middle East, the conflict will remain unresolved. Israel must completely and totally defeat the Arabs, so that a peace treaty can be signed and enforced.

Answer 10

There were many Palestinians living there. This is like if the native Americans decided to take back the USA and were backed by a super power. I just don't understand why we are continuing to support Israel. Clearly they were looking for an excuse to tear into Lebanon. :( I can see them going after the Hezbollah (can't spell that one, sorry)... but the Lebanese people are not a bunch of terrorists. :(