Study Questions Set 3, September 14, 2009

1. What was Zionist policy in Palestine in the late 1930's?

The Zionist policy in Palestine was that the Jewish Agency would make decisions about Jewish settlements and the education of Jewish children. In 1937 for instance the Jewish Agency agreed to the British plan for partition (to give some of the land in Palestine to the Jews and some to the Arabs). In addition, the Jews supported the war effort.





2. How did Zionist policy change after the war?

Zionist policy called for an independent Jewish state that would not be ruled by Britain. The reason that this policy changed was because so many Jews had been killed in the Holocaust and the war made them tougher and they didn't want to negociate when they heard that Britain had decided there wouldn't be a separate Jewish state after all.






3. Why was US support so important for the Zionists?

The US was so important for the Zionists because of the large population of Jewish Americans that had all eventually become Zionists and supported the idea of a "Jewish commonwealth" in ALL of Palestine. Only the US could put the pressure on Britain needed to enable this Jewish commonwealth to be established, as the US was the other major superpower at the time.




4. Why and how did the Zionists resort to terrorism in Palestine?

The Zionists targetted the British in Palestine. Their goal was to obstruct the British and increase illegal Jewish immigration to Palestine. The reason for doing this was because the British stopped boatloads of illegal Jewish immigrants from reaching Palestine and because the British knew that if Jewish people kept immigrating, it would anger the Arabs and cause a civil war, they stopped Jewish immigration. This is what angered the Jews enough to resort to terrorism. The Jews wanted the British to leave Palestine and leave it to be governed by them.


5. What was the response to the UNSCOP report?
The Jewish Agency accepted the UN plan to give the areas of Palestine that were mainly Arab-populated to the Arabs and to give the areas of Palestine that were more Jewish-populated to the Jews. The Jews were pleased that they now had international support when it came to their concerns about having a Jewish state, but they were not happy that Jerusalem would be a part of the Arab state and that some areas that were populated by Jews to some extent would also. The Arabs did not like this and they wanted all of the land in Palestine to belong to them and weren't willing to divide the land.





6. Why was there a civil war in Palestine?
There was a civil war in Palestine because the Arab Higher Committee proclaimed a three-day strike and it led to violence against Jewish civilians. In 1948 when the British announced that they were leaving Palestine it only intensified the conflicts between the Arabs and the Jews. The problem got even worse when Arabs from Syria and Iraq crossed over into Palestine to assist the Arabs. The Jews fully expected this, knowing that the Palestinian Arabs and the other Arab countries would not be happy about the establishment of a Jewish state.


* I did not receive the documents in Google Docs when I checked yesterday at night, therefore I wasn't expecting the questions to have been due today, but it was most likely an error on my part.