What was the ‘Nakba’?
The ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs through their violent displacement and dispossession of land, property, and belongings,
When was Israel made a state?
May 1948
What were the consequences of the war?
- Israel was there to stay and now had a continuous and defensible
border - Arab states had increased their own territory
- The Palestinians had lost all hope of their own independent state
- The Palestinian Refugee problem
- The defeat of the Arab states had domestic repercussions-
de-legitimising the existing regimes and leading to revolutions
What was the ‘Law of Return’, 1950?
Said that any Jew in the world had the right to come to Israel and become an Israel citizen
How many Jewish immigrants came to Israel due to the ‘Law of Return’? Where did they come from?
Population was almost doubled to 1.5 million
- Many came from Europe, either Holocaust survivors or east Europeans seeking asylum from Soviet control
Impact of 1948 war on Israelis
- 6000 died
- had access to Jerusalem
- Jerusalem was named the capital of Israel
- Retained the land allocated to them in the partition plan and also gained 50 percent of the Arabs allocated land
Key characteristics of the IDF
- Israeli defence force
- From 1949, every non- Arab 19 year old male had to serve in the IDF for 30 months and woman was 18, formed the bulk of the IDF
- Has a small core of professional soldiers
- Purchased their weapons from France or created them themselves
What did David Ben Gurion agree with West Germany?
Reparations agreement - agreed to pay Israel 845 million over 14 years as compensation for the property the Nazis stole from Jews
Apart from Germany, what did Israel rely on for support?
Private Zionist sympathisers abroad
- Exodus - Americans
- European Jews helped as well
What was Israel’s relationship like with Egypt?
- Arab League boycotted all trade with Israel
- Egypt searched all ships in the Suez and confiscated anything that could be from/for Israel
What was the Palestinian Arab population before November 1947?
900,000
Number of Palestinian Arabs who fled during the war?
400,000
Number of Palestinian Arabs who fled during the Civil War of November 1947- May 1948?
300,000
How many Palestinian Arab refugees were there in Lebanon?
100,000
How many Palestinian Arab refugees were there in Jordan?
70,000
How many Palestinian Arab refugees were there in the the West bank?
280,000
How many Palestinian Arab refugees were there in Gaza?
190,000
What was the Arab League?
An organisation of Arab countries, set up in 1945, which promoted closer relations between Arabs
Why did the Arab League deny citizenship to Palestinian refugees?
So that Palestinians would keep their identity and protect their ‘right to return’ to their homeland
What was the Fedayeen?
They were freedom fighters/ terrorists depending on perspective, they were Arab
