Friday, November 30, 2007

November 29:


1947 : U.N. votes for partition of Palestine

Despite strong Arab opposition, the United Nations votes for the
partition of Palestine and the creation of an independent Jewish
state.

The modern conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine dates back to
the 1910s, when both groups laid claim to the British-controlled
territory. The Jews were Zionists, recent emigrants from Europe and
Russia who came to the ancient homeland of the Jews to establish a
Jewish national state. The native Palestinian Arabs sought to stem
Jewish immigration and set up a secular Palestinian state.

Beginning in 1929, Arabs and Jews openly fought in Palestine, and
Britain attempted to limit Jewish immigration as a means of appeasing
the Arabs. As a result of the Holocaust in Europe, many Jews illegally
entered Palestine during World War II. Radical Jewish groups employed
terrorism against British forces in Palestine, which they thought had
betrayed the Zionist cause. At the end of World War II, in 1945, the
United States took up the Zionist cause. Britain, unable to find a
practical solution, referred the problem to the United Nations, which
on November 29, 1947, voted to partition Palestine.

The Jews were to possess more than half of Palestine, though they made
up less than half of Palestine's population. The Palestinian Arabs,
aided by volunteers from other countries, fought the Zionist forces,
but the Jews secured full control of their U.N.-allocated share of
Palestine and also some Arab territory. On May 14, 1948, Britain
withdrew with the expiration of its mandate, and the State of Israel
was proclaimed by Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion. The next
day, forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded.

The Israelis, though less well equipped, managed to fight off the
Arabs and then seize key territories, such as Galilee, the Palestinian
coast, and a strip of territory connecting the coastal region to the
western section of Jerusalem. In 1949, U.N.-brokered cease-fires left
the State of Israel in permanent control of those conquered areas. The
departure of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs from Israel
during the war left the country with a substantial Jewish majority.

history.com/tdih.do




General Interest
1947 : U.N. votes for partition of Palestine
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=5558

1929 : Byrd flies over South Pole
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=7096

1950 : Chinese overwhelm Allies in North Korea
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5559

1963 : Johnson establishes Warren Commission
history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihArticleCategory&id=5560

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