Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: From Mandates to War

Post-WWI Mandates and the Rise of Zionism

At the end of the First World War, the Ottoman Empire was dismantled. The Arab territories that formed part of it came under French and British administrations or mandates. The Arabs aspired to create one great nation, and their project was supported by the French.

However, in the 1920s, Zionist nationalism, which demanded the creation of a Jewish state in the Middle East, encouraged the emigration of Jews from all over the world to Palestine, one of the territories left under the British mandate. This project was supported by Great Britain, as expressed in the Balfour Declaration.

The Balfour Declaration (1917)

The British Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, sent a note to Baron Rothschild expressing his support for the Zionist plan to create “a Jewish homeland” in Palestine. Although it was only a promise, the Jews considered the Balfour Declaration the first recognition of their rights and one of the pillars upon which the State of Israel was founded.

Interwar Tensions and Post-Holocaust Pressure

In the interwar period, the Middle East became the site of confrontations between Western powers due to the economic and strategic importance of the region, which held large reserves of oil.

After the Nazi Holocaust in the Second World War, Jewish pressure on the British increased significantly. This pressure was exerted through their influential community in the United States and a strategy of riots and terrorist attacks in Palestine, intended to make the British relinquish control to the US.

UN Partition and the First Arab-Israeli War (1948)

Overwhelmed by the events, Great Britain delegated the resolution of the conflict to the UN, which in 1947 proposed the partition of Palestine into two states.

A year later, Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel and assumed the post of prime minister. This declaration immediately caused the First Arab-Israeli War (1948), in which the Arabs were defeated and left divided. Consequently, the planned Palestinian state disappeared, and Israel expanded into its territory.

Subsequent Arab-Israeli Conflicts

The Arab-Israeli conflict remained unsettled, leading to new armed confrontations used by Israel to extend its borders and put pressure on the Palestinians. These conflicts included:

• The Suez Crisis (1956)
• The Six-Day War (1967)
• The Yom Kippur War (1973)