The Tragedy of Palestine

Once again, as I write, there is conflict in Palestine. Israeli armed forces are pounding Palestinians in the Gaza strip in a massively disproportionate response to rocket attacks on Israeli territory. These pin prick attacks carried out by ‘terrorists’, currently called Hamas, are said to traumatize one tenth of the population of Israel.

There was a time up to 1947 when Jews were 'terrorists'. Britain was administering Palestine, mandated to do so by the League of Nations. It certainly was not a British colony. There was a British Governor who had at his disposal a small military force which was a brigade strong in Jerusalem. There were others in Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa and elsewhere. He also had an excellent Palestine Police recruited largely from police forces in the UK, though there were locals as well. This force, which was armed, spoke both native languages, dealt impartially with the population and was respected by them.

Palestine was at peace apart from a small number of Jews who opposed the mandate and sought to establish a Jewish State by methods which were copied by the IRA in Northern Ireland.

In 1946 the population of Palestine was one third Jewish and two thirds Palestinian who, incidentally, objected to being referred to as Arabs and insisted that they were Palestinians.

Jerusalem itself was run like any borough in the United Kingdom. There was a Jewish mayor responsible for Jewish areas and a Palestinian mayor who answered for his compatriots. Both were responsible to the Governor. Even the street furniture was the same. British soldiers could feel quite at home except that, from time to time, they were subjected to bomb attacks.

The worst of these were the planting of explosives under part of the King David Hotel which caused some loss of life, and the detonation of a 3 ton truck loaded with explosives on the pavement outside the Officers Club in Julians Way. This occurred on a Saturday afternoon and caused some 80 casualties.

Disruption of the railway was common. Passenger trains leaving Jerusalem were routinely preceded by another engine carrying a team of Royal Engineers whose task was to find and neutralize any explosive device, to replace broken rails and so on.

British forces were targeted in a variety of ways. Three RAF men were found hanging in an orange grove. Remotely controlled explosions aimed at passing vehicles similar to what happens today in Iraq and Afghanistan were commonplace.

It should be remembered that the Second World War had recently ended. One of the most horrific episodes of that war was the murder, by the Germans, of millions of Jews. This had engendered considerable sympathy for Jews around the world. That was harnessed by the Zionists to their demand for the establishment in Palestine of a Jewish State. There was powerful support for this project from influential Jewish elements in the USA.

Conflicting promises had been given by western leaders to both Jews and Arabs. All were swept aside by the United States’ determination to establish, in Palestine, a Jewish State which became Israel. An independent State of Israel was declared in 1948, immediately recognized by the USA which gave it international protection.

A short lived and futile intervention by Jordan led to the flight of Palestinians into Jordan where today they form the majority of the population in that country. Many also fled into refugee camps in Lebanon and in Gaza where they remain to this day.

That is the nature of the conflict in Palestine between the usurper and the dispossessed. The tragedy is that only one of the protagonists can see it in those terms. Both claim to be in the right. Palestinians point to centuries of occupation. Jews claim that this was the land given to them by Jehovah. There is a further complication. A Muslim mosque, the Dome of the Rock, has been built on the site of the ancient Jewish temple. It is sacred to Muslims because it is alleged that from this spot Mohammed ascended into heaven. Between these extremes there can be no willing compromise.

This was the problem which the League of Nations mandate sought to resolve. Because the two elements were irreconcilable and because it was not possible for both to own the territory it was decided that neither should, but that they should live at peace with one another under a competent benign administration. That is what the mandate was and that may be the only solution now.

Effectively the USA inserted an unwanted alien state into a region populated by 20 million Arabs whose great weakness is that they cannot for long agree amongst themselves. We are however where we are. Israel is a heavily armed state supported with military hardware and finance by the United States. It is determined to pursue its own agenda in its own way regardless of its neighbours.

The Palestinians are the victims powerless in terms of their own resources but supported in their opposition to the State of Israel by regional forces which aim to, but do not yet, match the US in strength. The USA maintains (wouldn’t they?) that if only the Palestinians would accept things as they are there would be no problem. True though that may be it is not a very likely outcome. If the United States were to become embroiled with a force of similar or greater size it is not difficult to see that Israel would have a problematic future.

This action of the USA in creating Israel, just as much as its perceived imperialism, is responsible for Muslim hostility expressed in the events of 9/11 and less spectacular attacks on its allies. Muslims see themselves as under threat and react in ways that they find possible.

Just as George III’s redcoats could not cope with sharpshooters, with an enemy who could not be distinguished from the civil population, who was not prone to appear as an organized body of men who could be confronted and defeated, so the US and its allies find it hard to cope with an enemy who is everywhere and nowhere.

It is doubtful that the situation in Palestine could be restored. The Jewish problem was not resolved by giving them their own territory. A far greater problem has been created with the potential to destroy the serenity of countless ordinary people far from the scene of conflict.