Known as  ‘Arabia Felix’ or Arabia’s ‘land of happiness’, Yemen has been hard hit by war and other misfortunes. The story, spanning at least 1,500 years, involves everything from early Islamic politics to Arab nationalism and the Cold War. Today, Yemen is the poorest country in the Middle East.

A Short and Superficial History

In part, the problems in Yemen mirror the schism that has divided Islam almost from its beginning. (For more detailed information on this topic, sign up for the Cold War Studies course on Islam.)

In brief, more than 13 centuries ago, the Muslim world split over who should rule it. Should the rulers of Islam be direct descendants of Mohammed? Or should they come from other tribally-based backgrounds? The Shi’a — always the minority in Islam, took the former view, while the majority group, the Sunnis, took the latter. Not surprisingly, there were further divisions within each of the larger groups.

The majority Sunnis became the establishment throughout most of the Islamic world. Many of their rulers were despots, so the Shi’a managed to position themselves not only as Mohammad’s descendants, but also as opponents of tyranny. Some Shi’a sects even began their life as revolutionary movements. One such sect established itself in Yemen and was known as Zaidism.

In Yemen, a succession of Zaidi states — ruled by their own imams — rose and fell.

Over the centuries of Ottoman occupation, some Zaidi rulers became nationalist leaders fighting foreign occupation.

Northern Yemen was never colonized by a foreign power and the Ottoman occupations were incomplete and temporary.

In the 1920s,  Yemen’s imamate was transformed into a hereditary monarchy. There were unsuccessful revolts in 1948 (when the imam was assassinated) and 1955.

The imamate system was overthrown in an army coup in 1962. A bitter 8 year civil war involving the Saudis, the British, the US, and Egyptian backed groups followed, costing at least 100,000 lives. Zaidi royalists were the losers.

Yemen’s Zaydi Shi’as take their name from the fifth imam, Zayd Ibn Ali. They are doctrinally distinct from Iran’s Twelver Shi’as.

Factoids

Until 1955, Soviet arms transfers had been small, scattered, and directed only to Communist alllies like North Korea. After 1955, the floodgates opened. In 1956, Syria and Yemen received arms supplies. In 1956, also, Czech and Soviet military advisers went to Yemen.

In 1962, a pro Nasser coup in Yemen brought an end to Yemen’s 1,000 year old Shi’a imamate. Nasser’s (Egyptian) army became involved in a prolonged intervention.

From November 1977 through February 1978, Cuban and East German troops appeared in South Yemen.

Upheavals in Yemen in 1978-1979 produced a pro-Soviet regime in south Yemen and pulled the traditionally more moderate North Yemen into a closer relationship with Moscow as well.

South Yemen was advised to thoroughly reorganize along Leninist lines with a centralized, dsciplined party, a broad political organization, a Marxist-Leninist ideology, a centrally planned economy, and a drive to squeeze out the private sector and any political pluralism. The Cuban and East German advisers, who helped organize a disciplined and loyal secret police, were especially valuable in the process of consolidating power.

In 1967, the left took control of South Yemen, a region that had been a British colony/protectorate for over a century. Two years later, the South moved further left and allied itself with the Soviet Union, China, and Cuba. The Soviet Union took over the military training of the South Yemeni army, and the South Yemen capital, Aden, became a Soviet naval base.

During the Cold War when the country was split, North Yemen faced multiple threats from the far left.

In the 1970s, the South — known as the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen — began arming and funding leftist rebels in North Yemen.

Despite this military build-up, peaceful relations were temporarily established and, in 1990 after 300 years, North and South were reunited as one country.

Four years later, southern leftists tried unsuccessfully to secede in a North/South civil war that cost several thousand lives.

Perceptions of external interference in Yemen  distract attention from the internal factors driving the brutal stop-start violence in the country. Looting, drug smuggling, gunrunning, people trafficking, and tribal feuds also contribute to the violence in some sectors of the country. Terrorist networks are, of course, a contributing factor.

Hopefully, the above recounting of Yemen’s turbulent history helps to put today’s happenings in context. It seems clear to me that Yemen could never be a stable “ally” of the United States — or anyone else for that matter. Internal schisms, the intrusion of terrorist networks, and external pressures have resulted, instead, in a country plagued by political and social instability and poverty.

For those of you who may be interested, here are a few selected resources for further research and study.

A History of Modern Yemen by Paul Dresch

The Birth of Modern Yemen by Brian Whitaker

A Tribal Order by Shelagh Weir

Yemen Chronicle by Stephen Caton

Peripheral Visions by Lisa Wedeen

For those of you who prefer fiction, why not try Nelson Demille’s  The Panther.

According to Amazon:

Anti-Terrorist Task Force agent John Corey and his wife, FBI agent Kate Mayfield, have been posted overseas to Sana’a, Yemen-one of the most dangerous places in the Middle East. While there, they will be working with a small team to track down one of the masterminds behind the USS Cole bombing: a high-ranking Al Qaeda operative known as The Panther. Ruthless and elusive, he’s wanted for multiple terrorist acts and murders-and the U.S. government is determined to bring him down, no matter the cost. As latecomers to a deadly game, John and Kate don’t know the rules, the players, or the score. What they do know is that there is more to their assignment than meets the eye-and that the hunters are about to become the hunted.

Filled with breathtaking plot turns and told in John Corey’s inimitable voice, THE PANTHER is a brilliant depiction of one of the most treacherous countries in the world and raises disturbing questions about whether we can ever know who our enemies – or our allies – really are.

Photo by Gareth Williams.

In 1979, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, one of the seminal events in Cold War history. But Afghanistan’s problems actually began long before this happening. And the repercussions of the Soviet intervention — and later American actions — haunt us today as concerns about terrorism spread. Perhaps a look back will increase our understanding of today’s events.

19th century: The colonial rivalry between Britain and Russia over Afghanistan becomes known as the “Great Game.” Both countries treat Afghanistan as a crucial buffer and there are repeated incursions by both powers.

The Russians fear chronic instability in Central Asia. They see their influence in Afghanistan as a way to distract the British and keep them off balance in India. The Afghans, meanwhile, fend for themselves as best they can.

When the Bolsheviks replace the tsars, they continue the Great Game.

Late 19th century: Afghanistan’s boundaries are set by British and Russian accords, ignoring tribal and economic patterns and sowing the seeds of constant instability.

Mid-1930s: All Soviet civilian and military technicians leave Afghanistan, but Afghan-Soviet relations remain distant. The Soviets preach respect for Afghan independence, but mutual suspicions run deep.

1940s – 1950s: Afghanistan seeks arms and economic aid from the US, but they are rebuffed. The US sees Afghanistan as “of little or no strategic importance to the United States” and as inevitably in the Soviet sphere of influence.  The US commits to Pakistan instead, and the Afghans turn reluctantly back to the Soviets, hoping to achieve some kind of accommodation. However, the Afghans do receive some modest token of economic aid from the US.

After 1950: Afghan rulers seek Soviet and American aid for major infrastructure projects. The scale of US aid and, therefore, US political influence remains low. Soviet road building in the north of the country brings direct lines of communication from the Soviet Union to Afghanistan’s core, reorienting trade and gaining not only economic and political influence but strategic access. What the Soviets (and Americans) built well serves the logistical needs of the Soviet invasion force in 1979-1980.

November and December 1955: Premier Nikolai Bulganin and Party First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev of the Soviet Union make a highly publicized one month tour of India, Burma, and Afghanistan.

1962: Mohammad Naim Khan, Afghanistan’s foreign minister (and the younger brother of Prime Minister Mohammad Daoud), visits President Kennedy at the White House and asks for help in developing westward trade routes through the shah’s Iran to lessen dependence on the Soviet Union. Kennedy thinks this is too expensive and tells Naim to improve ties with Pakistan. Kennedy says, “the United States is a long way off and even though it is very anxious to help it can at best play a limited role.”

1965: The People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) — Afghanistan’s Communist party — is formed. Within 2 years it splits into several factions, the most important being the Khalq group and the more Moscow oriented Parcham, headed by Babrak Kamal.

1970s: Afghanistan serves as a neutral buffer state and makes another effort to reduce its dependence on the Soviet Union, and to move toward truer nonalignment.

1973: Mohammad Daoud deposes his cousin (the last king) Zahir Shah and becomes the strongman-president of Afghanistan.

Mid-1970s: As President Daoud broadens Afghanistan’s international options, he seeks to consolidate his power at home. He quashes coup plots against him from both the Right and Left; he creates a new political party to back him and seeks to weaken all rival parties; he begins purging untrustworthy elements from government and the armed forces.

1974: Daoud sends Naim to Beijing to assure the Chinese (with whom Afghanistan shares a tiny stretch of border) that Afghanistan is neutral in the Sino-Soviet conflict.

November 1974: Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visits Afghanistan. Daoud is turning to pro-Western Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait for economic aid.

1975: Daoud visits the shah in Tehran and receives a pledge of up to $2 billion over a 10 year period as well as a quick loan of $400 million on easy terms.

June 1976: President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan visits Kabul; Daoud reciprocates with a visit to Islamabad 2 months later.

August 1976: Kissinger visits Afghanistan again. Daoud and Naim assure Kissinger that Afghanistan will stop its efforts to destabilize Pakistan.

July 1977: A common desire to get rid of President Daoud leads the Khalq and Parcham to reunite.

Spring 1978: Daoud pursues genuine nonalignment. He visits India, Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia. An economic accord is signed with China. The shah of Iran is scheduled to visit Kabul in June 1978, and Daoud announces plans to visit President Carter in Washington.

April 1978: Daoud begins preparing a crackdown on Communists in Afghanistan.

April 27, 1978: Communist military officers overthrow Daoud in a coup d’etat. He is murdered along with his entourage and his family, including Naim. The new regime proclaims itself the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Some accounts suggest that the Soviets were caught by surprise.

April 27-30, 1978: The role of the Soviet Union in the April 1978 coup is disputed. TASS refers to the event as a military coup, not as a “socialist revolution.” Still, within a few days, Moscow warmly embraces the new regime and begins pouring in economic and military assistance and scores of civilian and military advisers.

The Carter administration takes the new regime’s professions of non-alignment at face value, partly to avoid triggering provisions of US law that prohibit US aid for any “Communist” country. Aid continues, including a Peace Corps contingent and a small military training program. It is hoped that the “new regime would act more like ‘national communists’ than like Soviet clients” Existing economic aid ties were maintained.

NOTE: Our next post on Afghanistan will focus on the 1978 coup.

BOOK LIST:

J. Bruce Amstutz, Afghanistan: The First Five Years of Soviet Occupation (Washington DC: National Defense University, 1986)

Henry S. Bradsher, Afghanistan and the Soviet Union (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1983)

Gregorian, Vartan, The Emergence of Modern Afghanistan: Politics of Reform and Modernizaation, 1880 – 1946 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1969).

Eric Miller, Beyond Afghanistan: Changing Soviet Perspectives on Regional Conflicts (Alexandria, VA: Center for Naval Analyses, undated)

Photo: Abdurahman Warsame

COUNTRIES WHICH HAD BEEN ANCIENT EMPIRES BUT WERE NEVER OFFICIALLY COLONIZED

Turkey:  Head of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century on. Controlled parts of Europe, much of North Africa, all of the Fertile Crescent, none of the Gulf. Lost its imperial domains when it was defeated by European powers in World War I after having lost (most) North African provinces by the end of the 19th century. Turkey itself remained independent throughout. The Republic was re-established under Attaturk in 1923.

Iran: Earlier (Persian) empire became part of the Islamic Empire. Served as a bridge to the Indian subcontinent in the Moghul expansion to India. During the 19th century it became subdivided into “spheres of influence” with Russia dominant in the north and Britain dominant in the south. Iran remained ostensibly independent throughout. Constitutional government was established circa 1905. A Republic was established under Reza Shah circa 1925. His son, the “baby” Shah was overthrown in the late 1970s.

THE HEAVILY COLONIZED COUNTRIES OF NORTH AFRICA

Egypt: British colony from 1882. British protectorate 1914. Constitutional monarchy under British tutelage from 1922 onward. More “autonomy” from 1936 onward. Last British troops depart from the Suez Canal Zone in 1956.

Sudan:  From 1899 onward, under British control as part of Egyptian-Sudanese condominium. Independent after 1956.

Tunisia: French colony from 1881. Independent 1956.

Algeria:  French conquest began in 1830. Won war of independence from France in 1963.

Morocco: French protectorate imposed in 1912. Became independent in 1956.

Libya:  Italian colony from 1911. When Italy lost in World War II, she also “lost” Libya. A monarchy was established in 1951. Overthrown in 1969.

THE LIGHTLY COLONIZED COUNTRIES OF THE FERTILE CRESCENT

These countries had been part of the Ottoman Empire until World War I. The Sykes-Picot Agreement partitioned the area between Britain and France.

Syria: Colonized by France in 1918, became independent in 1946.

Iraq: Occupied by Britain in World War I. Nominally independent after 1932.

Jordan:  British Mandate territory after 1918. Decolonized in 1946.

Palestine:  British Mandate territory after 1918. Lost to Israel 1948-1967.

Lebanon: French Mandate after 1918. Decolonized in 1943 with National Pact. (Before 1918, Jordan, Palestine, and Lebanon were all part of Greater Syria.)

THE NEW STATES OF THE GULF AND THE ARABIAN PENINSULA

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates:  With the exception of Saudi Arabia, these are mostly “new States” that came into existence in the 1960s and 1970s, carved out of a region that had been under British military and naval “protection” from the 1830s onward. Present Saudi Arabia dates from the 1930s. Kuwait dates from the 1950s when it emerged from under Iraqi-British tutelage. Colonization was not important for these states because they had no resources that anyone wanted. This changed with the discovery of oil.

THE POOR COUNTRIES OF THE ARABIAN PENINSULA

South Yemen:  Results from the ex-British colony at Aden and a Marxist-Leninist revolution.

North Yemen: Results from a “loyalist” hold-out. Region is now almost a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia. The two Yemens merged in 1990, but the legacy of divisions remains, resulting in reoccurring crisis situations and instability.

This post is drawn from material provided by Janet Abu-Lughod.

Want to learn more about colonialism and decolonization? Check out our latest post: The Cold War: Decolonization and Conflict in The Third World.

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NOTE: THIS IS THE FIFTH IN A SERIES OF POSTS PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE. 

 PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE: 1948-1967

1948-1951: Israel’s population increases from about 650,000 to slightly over 1.3 million, the result of an influx of some 684,000 immigrants. About half of the new immigrants are Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe.  Others come from long-established Jewish communities in such Arab countries as Egypt, Iraq, Yemen and Morocco. Israeli authorities take over vacant Palestinian villages, urban dwellings, and farmland to house and feed the immigrants. The absorption of Palestinian land property into the Israeli economy makes it next to impossible for Israel to consider the repatriation of the Palestinians.

1948-1956: Overall, about 450,000 Sephardic (Oriental) Jews from Arab countries arrive in Israel. This group becomes an impoverished sector of the Israeli population.

1948-1958: The Israeli government expropriates thousands of acres of Israeli Arab land and forcibly relocates the displaced inhabitants; Arabs also face wage and employment discrimination.

1948-1966: Arab areas in Israel are placed under the authority of a Military Administration that requires Israeli Arabs to carry special identity cards and to obtain travel permits to go from one village to another.

1948-1967: Palestinian exiles place their hopes for repatriation on outside forces, tying the recovery of Palestine to external Arab regimes.

1949: The main features of Israel’s political system are established: a parliamentary democracy with a unicameral legislature (called the Knesset). All citizens receive suffrage at age 18. The prime minister and cabinet have a particularly strong role in policy formulation and decision making; the presidency is primarily ceremonial.

1949: Chaim Weizmann becomes Israel’s first president.

1950: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is founded to oversee the welfare of the refugee camps; 960,000 Palestinians are registered for relief. Opportunities in host countries vary. Restrictions on freedom of movement are harsh in Egypt and Lebanon.  Syria, Iraq, and Jordan allow Palestinians to work and open businesses. Only Jordan allows refugees to become citizens.

1950: The Law of Return becomes a foundational principle of the new Israeli state, giving every Jew in the world the right to immigrate to Israel.

1950s: The Israelis adopt the doctrine of retaliation in force, sometimes referred to as “Ben-Gurionism.” The core principle of this doctrine is that every act of Arab aggression against Israel will be met by an armed response well out of proportion to the original act itself.

1952: The Knesset passes the Nationality Law which, in addition to granting automatic citizenship to any Jewish immigrant, awards Israeli citizenship to those Arabs who can prove their long-standing residence in Palestine. (160,000 Palestinian Arabs remain within the post-1949 borders of the Jewish state.) Measures are designed to keep this group from developing cohesive representative organizations.

1953: Jewish religious courts are recognized as part of the formal judicial system of Israel and are awarded exclusive jurisdiction over matters of personal status. The courts are under the supervision of the Supreme Rabbinical Council which is exclusively controlled by the Orthodox rabbinical establishment.

February 1955: Israel attacks the Gaza Strip; 38 Egyptians are killed and Egypt’s military weakness is exposed.

Late 1950s: Palestinian resistance organizations begin to form. One of these groups is Al-Fatah, founded by a group of young Palestinian university graduates working in Kuwait. Al-Fatah emphasizes Palestinian nationalism above all else. Palestinian guerrillas based in Syria conduct raids into Israel through Jordanian territory; Israel retaliates against targets in Jordan.

1960s: Frequent clashes erupt along the Jordanian-Israeli border.

1964: The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is founded under the auspices of the Arab League. Based in Cairo, the organization is an attempt by the Arab states to restrict Palestinian resistance activity and to prevent the Palestinian movement from operating independently. The Arab governments select Ahmad Shuqayri, a lawyer from one of Palestine’s notable families, to be chairman of the organization. The majority of the PLO’s executive council are from the traditional Palestinian nobility. Their lives are far removed from the lives of those in the refugee camps.

May 1967: Soviet and Syrian intelligence services report (erroneously) that Israel is preparing a large-scale military operation against Syria for its sponsorship of Palestinian guerrilla activities.

Nasser – in an effort to bolster his Pan-Arab leadership role — responds to the (perceived) threat to Syria by deploying troops in the Sinai Peninsula. Pro Nasser, anti-Israeli demonstrations break out in several Arab cities. Nasser requests that all UN forces be withdrawn from the Sinai. UN forces that had formed a shield between Egypt and Israel are evacuated.

Nasser reoccupies the UN positions at Sharm al-Shaykh and (bluffingly) announces a blockade on Israeli shipping passing through the Straits of Tiran.

May 30, 1967: King Hussein of Jordan flies to Cairo to sign a mutual defense pact with Egypt. Iraq joins the pact a few days later.

June 5, 1967: The Israeli air force attacks air bases throughout Egypt and destroys most of the Egyptian air force while it is still on the ground. The Syrian and Jordanian air forces are also destroyed.

Israeli forces defeat the Egyptian army in thr Sinai and advance to the east bank of the Suez Canal.

Jordan engages Israeli forces in the Jerusalem area and is driven out of East Jerusalem and across the Jordan River, abandoning the West Bank to Israeli occupation. The Jordanian army is temporarily out of action as a fighting unit. Jordan receives 300,000 new refugees fleeing the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army wrests the Golan Heights from Syrian control; 80,000 inhabitants are uprooted.

Israel finds itself administering a new Arab population of 1.5 million people.

June 9, 1967: Egypt and Israel sign a cease-fire agreement. Egypt’s losses include 12,000 men and 80% of its air force and armor.

June 11, 1967: Cease-fire is agreed to on the Golan front; 2,500 Syrians are dead.

1967: The Arab defeat in the June 1967 war serves as the catalyst that transforms the PLO into an independent resistance organization devoted to armed struggle against Israel. Also, several small Palestinian guerrilla organizations become active in the Gaza Strip and Jordan. The most successful, Al-Fatah, headed by Yasir Arafat, had recently moved its operation to Jordan from Kuwait. Al-Fatah rapidly emerges as the most formidable of the independent commando organizations.

1967: Israel annexes Arab East Jerusalem.

1967: Egypt’s air force and armor are restored to their prewar levels by the end of the year, largely due to an extensive Soviet effort. Egypt is now totally dependent on the Soviet Union for its military survival.

Late 1967: The West Bank (2270 square miles) is now inhabited by an estimated 596,000 Palestinian Arabs; the Gaza Strip (140 square miles) has nearly 350,000 Palestinian inhabitants, most of them refugees.

November 22, 1967: Resolution 242 is adopted by the UN Security Council. It calls for a just and lasting peace based on the withdrawal of Israeli forces from territories occupied in the June War and the acknowledgment of the right of every state in the area to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries. It also affirms the need to achieve a just settlement of the refugee problem. Egypt, Jordan, and Israel endorse the resolution. Syria and the Palestinian organizations reject it. The resolution is ambiguous and fails to provide a consensual basis for a peace settlement.

Check out Part I of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

Check out Part 2 of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

Check out Part 3 of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

Check out Part 4 of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

NOTE: THIS IS THE FOURTH IN A SERIES OF POSTS PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE.

British wartime policy in Palestine was intended to keep the mandate tranquil. The British administration placed restrictions on Arab political activity and refused to allow exiled Arab leaders to return.

The Yishuv committed itself to the British war effort against Hitler; it also attempted to subvert the White Paper of 1939 (see our previous post) and prepared for armed confrontation with Britain once Germany was defeated.

In support of the Allied cause, thousands of Jewish volunteers joined the British forces, eventually forming a Jewish Brigade. These troops provided the Haganah (a Jewish defense force)  with a cadre of trained veterans for fighting against Britain after 1945.

The Haganah, although technically illegal in Palestine, was allowed by the British administration to acquire weapons openly. When the Axis threat subsided after 1942, Haganah members retained their arms along with their intimate knowledge of the British military network in Palestine.

Leaders of the Yishuv continued to regard the British presence in Palestine  as the primary obstacle to their dream of establishing a Jewish national home.

The Jewish Agency mounted a concerted effort to rescue European Jews and bring them into Palestine illegally.

PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE: 1942-1948

1942: A meeting of US Zionists adopts a set of resolutions titled the Biltmore Program, calling for open immigration to Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth there.

1944: Jewish irregular armed units — Irgun and Lehi (the Stern Gang) — operating independently of Jewish Agency control (but at times with its tacit approval) launch a campaign of terror against British personnel and Arab civilians.

1945: The Jewish Agency joins the conflict.

1945-1947: Yishuv mounts a campaign of sabotage against the British administration in Palestine designed to achieve the immediate establishment of a Jewish state.

1945-1948: US President Harry Truman publicly endorses and promotes the Biltmore Program, demonstrating not only humanitarian concerns but also an awareness of the growing power of the Zionist lobby within the Democratic Party.

1946: Irgun blows up a wing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.

February 1947: British Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, recognizing that Britain has lost control of the situation in Palestine, refers the matter to the United Nations. The General Assembly creates a UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) and charges it with investigating conditions in Palestine and submitting recommendations.

September 1947: Britain announces that the Palestine mandate will be terminated on May 15, 1948. Palestine is plunged into intercommunal war. Irgun massacres the 250 civilian inhabitants of the village of Dayr Yassin near Jerusalem. In retaliation, an Arab unit ambushes a Jewish medical relief convoy on the outskirts of Jerusalem and kills a number of doctors.

November 29, 1947: The UN General Assembly approves the partition of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states and accords international status to Jerusalem. The Arab League and its member states (especially Egypt, Syria, and Iraq) adopt a hard-line stance on the Palestinian issue as a means of demonstrating their anti-imperialism and asserting their newfound independence in foreign policy. They reject all attempts at compromise, including the UN partition plan. Britain refuses to assist in the implementation of the UN partition plan.

Spring 1948:  Major centers of Arab population falling into the proposed Jewish state are in Jewish control. About 400,000 Palestinians have fled.

April 1948: Haganah authorizes a campaign – called Plan D — against potentially hostile Arab villages.

May 14, 1948: The last British high commissioner, General Alan Cunningham, quietly leaves Haifa. The Union Jack is lowered and British rule in Palestine comes to an end. Palestine is without a government and without political institutions.

May 14, 1948: David Ben-Gurion proclaims the independence of the state of Israel. The new state is immediately recognized by the United States and the Soviet Union.

June 1948: Units of Haganah are reorganized as the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and are placed under the authority of the civilian minister of defense. Two dissident military organizations, the Irgun (led by Menachem Begin) and the smaller Lehi, refuse to give up their autonomy and continue to conduct independent military operations. Eventually, though, all remaining autonomous military units are absorbed into the IDF, ensuring that the central state exercises control of all military forces.

June 1948: The ship Altalena arrives off the Israeli coast with a shipment of arms destined for the Irgun. Ben-Gurion orders the IDF to prevent the arms from being unloaded. An armed struggle ensues, the Altalena sinks, and several members of the Irgun are killed or wounded. Ben-Gurion and Menachem Begin (the leader of Irgun) become deep-seated enemies.

May 15, 1948:  Units from the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, and Iraq invade Israel.

May 15-June 11, 1948: First round of fighting.

June 1948: First UN armistice.

July 9-18, 1948: Second round of combat.

July 1948: Second armistice.

December 1948: Arab forces are defeated, there is an enlargement of Israeli territory, and the UN proposal for a Palestinian Arab state collapses.

1948-1949: Incidents of forced expulsion of Arabs continue.

1948-1949: Over a 12 month period, each of the belligerent Arab states concludes an armistice agreement with Israel. They do not recognize Israel or accept cease-fire borders as final. Palestine is basically partitioned among Israel,Egypt (which remains in occupation of the Gaza Strip), and Transjordan (which has taken the old city of Jerusalem). There is no Palestinian Arab state and over 700,000 people are now refugees.

1948: David Ben-Gurion is a popular choice as Israel’s first prime minister. He holds the offices of prime minister and minister of defense for most of the period from 1949-1963.

Check out Part I of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

Check out Part 2 of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

Check out Part 3 of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

NOTE: THIS IS THE THIRD IN A SERIES OF POSTS PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE. 

The last post (Palestine-Israel Timeline: 1917-1929) ended as Britain was sending another commission of inquiry to Palestine. Today we’ll pick up where we left off at the end of 1929.

PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE:1930-1939

 1930: The Hope-Simpson Commission conducts its investigation and publishes a statement of policy known as the Passfield White Paper. The Commission declares that Palestine has a limited absorptive capacity and proposes restrictions on further Jewish immigration. Zionists mount a concerted effort to have the entire document withdrawn.

1930: Two labor groups merge to form the Mapai Party, a group that dominates the political life of the Yishuv and the state of Israel until 1977. The party represents the socialist egalitarian ideal, holding the view that the interests of labor and of Zionism are identical. David Ben-Gurion becomes the party’s leader.

February 1931: Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald repudiates the Passfield White Paper, known to Arabs as the Black Letter.

1933: The Revisionists form a separate movement within Zionism and set up their own military force in Palestine, the Irgun, a fiercely nationalistic organization. The group calls for massive Jewish immigration into Palestine and the immediate proclamation of a Jewish commonwealth.

1933-1936: The fifth aliyah brings about 170,000 Jews to Palestine, doubling the size of the Yishuv and creating widespread alarm within the Arab community.

1935: David Ben-Gurion is elected chairman of the Jewish Agency. In conjunction with his leadership of the Mapai Party, he is the acknowledged leader of the Yishuv.

1936: The Jewish community in Palestine numbers about 382,000, up from 93,000 in 1922; the Arab population grows from 700,000 to 983,000 in the same timeframe. The ownership of arable land becomes contentious as the population of Palestine increases by more than 400,000 in 15 years.

April 19, 1936: Local Arab resistance committees declare a general strike in protest against Britain and the Zionists.

April 25, 1936: Arab leaders form a national organization, the Arab Higher Committee, under the presidency of the mufti. In an effort to unify the factions within the Palestinian elite, the committee attempts to coordinate the general strike.

October 1936: After the deaths of 1,000 Arabs and 80 Jews, the general strike is terminated by order of the Arab Higher Committee.

1936: Violence (the Arab Revolt of 1936-1939)  sweeps through Palestine as a spontaneous popular reaction against Zionism, British imperialism, and entrenched Arab leadership.

July 1937: The (Lord) Peel Commission issues a report recognizing that the premise of the mandate is untenable. The report recommends that the mandate be terminated and that Palestine be partitioned into separate Arab and Jewish states. The Arab Higher Committee opposes partition as a violation of the rights of the Arab inhabitants of Palestine.

1937: The World Zionist Congress favors the idea of partition but regards the territory allocated to the Jewish state as inadequate. This amounts to a rejection of the Peel Commission report, and the idea of partition is allowed to fade away.

July 1937: Renewal of spontaneous and locally led violence.

September 1937: The Arab Higher Committee is banned by the Mandate administration.

October 1937: The British district commissioner for Galilee is murdered. Britain dissolves the Arab Higher Committee, arresting and deporting its members. Arab rebel bands – no more than 5,000 strong – are supported by the bulk of the rural population.

Summer 1938: Much of the countryside and several major towns are in rebel hands. Britain adopts harsh measures and pours 20,000 troops into  Palestine;  Jewish forces also engage in military action. 

1939: Some 5% of the total land in the British mandate, making up about 10% of total cultivable land, is Jewish owned. Transfer of cultivated land from Arab to Jewish ownership has had a devastating effect on the Palestinian peasantry which still make up 2/3 of the Arab population of the mandate.

February 1939: The Colonial Office convenes an Anglo-Arab-Jewish conference in London, but  the conference fails to break the deadlock. A Subsequent White Paper states that:

His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish state.

The document declares that Jewish immigration is to be limited, that land transfers to Jews are to be restricted, and that in 10 years Palestine will be granted independence.

March 1939: The British manage to restore order. More than 3,000 Arabs, 2,000 Jews, and 600 British have been killed; the economy of Palestine is in chaos, and the Arab leaders are in exile or under arrest.

Check out Part I of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

Check out Part 2 of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

Check out Part 4 of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

Photograph from the League of Nations of prayers at the Western or Wailing Wall in Jerusalem in 1929.  This image is from the collections of The British National Archives.

NOTE: THIS IS THE SECOND IN A SERIES OF POSTS PROVIDING A COMPREHENSIVE PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE.

With the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I, the British government established a mandate giving them power over the (Palestinian) territory for a period of 28 years (1920-1948). In essence:

A small territory that had been inhabited by an Arab majority for some 1,200 years was promised by a third party (Great Britain) as a national home to another people (the international Jewish community), the majority of whom lived in Eastern Europe.

The territory that became the Palestine mandate was not a distinctive administrative entity during the Ottoman era. It was regarded as part of southern Syria and was divided between the provinces of Beirut and Damascus and the special administrative unit of Jerusalem.

The territory was only slightly larger than the US State of Massachusetts. Still, since the inception of the mandate, it has generated 5 wars, created over 1 million refugees, and created misunderstanding and bitterness among almost everyone involved.

The last post (Palestine-Israel Timeline: The Beginning) ended with Britain’s issuance of the Balfour Declaration, declaring support for Zionist objectives in Palestine. Today we’ll pick up where we left off in 1917.

PALESTINE-ISRAEL TIMELINE:1917-1929

1917: The Zionist Organization of America is founded under the leadership of Louis Brandeis.

December 1917: The British capture Jerusalem and detach Palestine from Ottoman rule. The area is placed under British military occupation from 1917 to 1920.

1918-1919:  Local branches of Muslim-Christian organizations form in large Palestinian towns.

1919: Thirty or so delegates from local Muslim-Christian organizations gather in Jerusalem and constitute themselves as the first Palestinian Congress. The congress agrees to meet annually and adopts resolutions affecting relationships among the Arab community, the Zionists, and the British.

January 1919: Chaim Weizmann pledges that the Jewish community will cooperate with the Arabs in the economic development of Palestine. In return, Faisal of Syria – the leading Arab personality of the time — recognizes the Balfour Declaration. He consents to Jewish immigration so long as the rights of Palestinian Arabs are protected and Arab demands for the independence of Greater Syria are recognized. Faisal does not agree to the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine. When the French occupy Syria in 1920, the provisions of the Faisal-Weizmann agreement are violated and the document is rendered void.

1919-1923: The 3rd aliyah brings about 30,000 immigrants to Palestine, mainly from Eastern Europe. (Note: Jewish immigration to Palestine occurred in a series of waves called aliyahs. The first two aliyahs took place before World War I.)

1920: The San Remo Conference awards Britain the mandate for Palestine, and military government is replaced by a civilian administration.

1920: Sir Herbert Samuel, a Jew and an ardent Zionist, is appointed civilian high commissioner. Offering further encouragement to the Zionists, Samuel interprets his task as facilitating the establishment of the Jewish national home. The Zionists interpret the term national home to mean a Jewish state in Palestine. At this time, Arab inhabitants constitute over 85% of the Palestinian population, numbering 668,258 individuals.

1920: The Third Palestinian Congress establishes a standing executive under the presidency of Kazim al-Husayni, a former mayor of Jerusalem. Called the Arab Executive, the group claims to represent all Palestinians, but the British refuse to accept it and it fails to secure either mass support or formal access to the high commissioner’s office.

1920: A Jewish national assembly is constituted and is composed of some 300 delegates who select from among themselves the members of the national council or Va ad Leumi. The council is empowered to make administrative decisions on behalf of the Jewish community and is treated by the mandate government as the legitimate representative of Palestinian Jewry.

1920: Histadrut, the Federation of Jewish Labor, is founded to promote Jewish trade unionism, exerting a decisive influence on the ideology and politics of both the Yishuv (the name of the Jewish community in Palestine before 1948) and the future state of Israel. It institutes a boycott of Arab workers and Arab products.

1920: Haganah, a Jewish defense force, forms in response to Arab riots.

1920: The World Zionist Organization transfers its headquarters to London and Chaim Weizmann becomes its president.

1921: Samuel creates the Supreme Muslim Council as an autonomous body charged with the management of all Islamic institutions within the mandate.

1921: The World Zionist Organization creates the Palestine Zionist Executive.

1922: Hajj Amin, the mufti of Jerusalem and the most prestigious religious figure in Palestine, is elected president of the Supreme Muslim Council. He  acquires control of a vast patronage network and  transforms his religious authority into the most extensive Arab political organization in Palestine. The mufti urges restraint on his followers and demonstrates a willingness to cooperate with the British in seeking a negotiated solution to the question of Jewish immigration.

1922: The newly created League of Nationsgives formal sanction to the British Mandate and adds provisions that raise Zionist expectations and alarm Arab inhabitants. The terms of the League mandate incorporate the Balfour Declaration and recognize Hebrew as the official language in Palestine.

1922: Samuel proposes a constitution that calls for the creation of a legislative council composed of elected Muslim, Christian, and Jewish representatives plus 11 members nominated by the high commissioner. Arab leaders reject the plan, refusing to serve in any constitutional government that doesn’t annul the Balfour Declaration.

1922: The British government issues a White Paper that serves as the basis for a policy of dual obligation. The ‘paper’ says that the development of a ‘national home’ doesn’t mean the imposition of Jewish nationality on the inhabitants of Palestine as a whole. But it also says that the Jewish people have a right to be in Palestine and that Palestine should “become a center in which the Jewish people as a whole could take pride on the grounds of religion and race.”

1923: Samuel’s constitutional plan is shelved. He attempts to form an advisory council consisting of 10 Arab and 2 Jewish representatives nominated by the high commissioner.  Arab nominees refuse to serve.

1924-1926: The fourth aliyah brings 50,000 immigrants to Palestine, primarily from Poland.

1929: The Palestine Zionist Executive is reorganized as the Jewish Agency, a quasi-government of the Jewish community in Palestine. The Chairman of the Jewish Agency is provided regular access to the high commissioner and other British officials.

August 1929: A disturbance erupts over  Jewish right of access to the remains of the Western, or Wailing, Wall. Jews regard the wall as a holy site, but Muslims also have deep religious attachments to the wall and its immediate surroundings. At the time of the mandate,  the wall was placed under Muslim jurisdiction, but Jewish activists constantly challenge regulations governing its use.  Violent confrontations occur when Arab mobs, provoked by Jewish demonstrators, attack two Jewish quarters in Jerusalem and kill Jews. By the time British forces bring the violence under control, 133 Jews and 116 Arabs are dead.

September 1929: London sends the first of many royal investigative commissions, the (Walter) Shaw Commission, to Palestine. The commission concludes that the main source of tension is the creation of a landless class of discontented Arabs along with widespread Arab fear that continued Jewish immigration will result in a Jewish dominated Palestine. Instead of dealing with the Commission’s report, the British decide to send another commission of inquiry to Palestine.

Check out Part I of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

Check out Part 3 of the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.

Check out Part 4 of  the Palestine-Israel Timeline here.