On November 2, 1917, Britain's Foreign Secretary, Arthur Balfour, wrote a letter that would set off a conflict still being fought more than 100 years later. His Majesty's government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement
of this object. When Balfour wrote of his government's intent to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine, 90% of the people living there were not Jewish. Just 31 years
later, most of them were gone. This is the story of the British promise that led to the destruction of Palestine and the creation of the State of Israel. Let's start with the obvious question: Why were the British making promises
about other people's countries? Short answer? Empire is one hell of a drug. This was World War I, and the British were making lots of promises. In addition to promising
a Jewish homeland in Palestine, They promised Arab leaders independence if they rose up against Brit
ain's enemy,
the Ottoman Empire. The Arabs did. Hollywood even made a movie about it. - Arabia's for the Arabs now. - That's what I've told them anyway. That's what they think. That's why they're fighting. Oh, surely. A month after Balfour's letter, British troops took Palestine, ending 400 years of Ottoman rule. The people who lived
there were Arabs, mostly Muslims, but they were Christian and Jewish minorities too. There was also a tiny number of European Jews who in the late 1800s had starte
d
building small colonies there. At a time when many Jews were suffering
horrific persecution in Europe, they felt Palestine could be an escape. The idea of building up a Jewish presence
in Palestine became known as Zionism, but it stayed a fringe movement
among European Jews. Many of them felt they shouldn't have to leave
their countries to avoid persecution. But Zionism, as a political movement,
took a big step forward with an Austrian man called Theodor Herzl. And this guy is a very importan
t name
in this story. In 1896, he published “Der Judenstaat” - or in English, “The Jewish State.” In it, he said, the only way for Jews to avoid Europe's anti-Semitism was not just to leave, but to have their own country. And Herzl didn't just write. The next year he organized a conference
in Basel, Switzerland: The First Zionist Congress. The attendees agreed on a program which sought, among other things, to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine and promote Jewish settlement in Palestine. Fr
om here on out, the Zionist movement became very active, setting up funds to promote Jewish immigration to Palestine, companies to buy land there, and recruiting representatives to advocate for their cause with different governments. A few days after the conference, Herzl
wrote this in his diary. He was only off by one year. Ok, so that is a lot of history, but it's important because the Zionist movement is a critical
part of the story going forward. Especially after it found a friend in
the Bri
tish government where a lot of high ranking officials supported Zionism,
sometimes for unexpected reasons. Prime Minister Lloyd George, for example,
was a Christian zealot who believed gathering the Jewish people in Palestine
would bring Jesus Christ back to earth. Others, like Balfour,
believed that getting the Jewish people out of Europe and into their own country
would be a good thing. Herzl was pretty visionary when he wrote that the anti-Semitic nations will become our allies. Meanwhile, th
e Zionist assured Britain that their future country would be a reliable ally. So, that's the back story of how European anti-Semitism, Zionism and British imperialism all led to the Balfour Declaration. This British promise to build a homeland for Jews in Palestine. Now we're going to look at how Britain did that. World War I had been a conflict between rival empires and the winners set up the League of Nations to distribute the losing side's
territories between them. They called it the Mandate
System - putting territories once controlled by by the Ottoman and German empires under the, until they became independent. Hm. Britain was given the mandate over Palestine, but the Palestinian people
were never asked what they wanted or what independence
would look like to them. Listen to what Balfour wrote to one of his colleagues. Instead, it was the Zionists
who were consulted about what their vision for Palestine was. And so the mandate ended up incorporating
not just the Balfour Declarati
on, but several clauses requiring Britain
to ensure the establishment of a Jewish home in Palestine. British rule was very accommodating
to the Zionist project. The Jewish community in Palestine
grew with big waves of immigration. They had their own schools and factories
and even their own militia, the Haganah. And they were led
by the Polish-born David Ben-Gurion, the leader of their representative
body, the Jewish Agency. To the Palestinians, it was clear that Britain wasn't delivering
them i
ndependence. It was delivering their country to other people. In 1936, they went on strike. British forces tried to break the strike with arrests, torture, mass punishment
and executions. Leaders were exiled, weapons
confiscated and houses blown up. Palestinian fighters attacked
British and Jewish targets, while British and Haganah forces would carry out joint raids on Palestinian villages. Something had to change. The British government sent a commission
called the Peel Commission to figure it
out,
but their proposed solution was typical: Just draw another British line on the map. Divide the country, give this part to the Jews
and this part to the Palestinians and make that part of
Transjordan next door. Oh, and because the Palestinians
were a majority in the country, 250,000 of them would have to
be removed by force to make the Jewish state viable. Remember, these were the proposals
that were meant to calm things down. Spoiler: they didn't. Instead, the revolt continued until 193
9,
by which time about 10% of Palestine's adult male population had either been
killed, injured, arrested or exiled. The British government really needed a solution - so here comes another report. The commission is studying
the 20 year old Jewish settlements in British-mandated Palestine. The 1939 White Paper created a conflict between the British and the Zionists for the first time, because it rejected partition and said the solution was for Palestine
to gain independence within 10 years, with
everyone
living there sharing it together. Crucially,
it also imposed severe limits on Jewish land purchases and immigration. To the Zionists, this felt like a betrayal. In response, some set off bombs across the
country, killing dozens of Palestinians. But soon everyone was distracted by something much bigger. More than 60 million
people were killed in World War II, including 6 million Jews murdered
in Nazi death camps. Jewish survivors fled Europe with a large number of them
trying to find sa
fety in Palestine, despite the British limit on Jewish
immigration. This set off a more direct confrontation
between the Zionists and the British, with Palestinians often targeted as well. The Zionists knew two things: The Zionists knew two things: Militarily, they were stronger than the Palestinians and Britain was exhausted by World War II, so it wouldn't have the stomach
to keep fighting in Palestine. They were right. In 1947, after 30 years of occupation,
Britain announced it was quitting Pa
lestine and asked the newly formed
United Nations to clean up its mess. Alright, 1947 and 1948
are the most pivotal years in this story. So let's take a look
at how things are lining up. During British rule, Jews had gone from 10% to 30% of the population. and owned about 6% of the land. Under Ben-Gurion's leadership,
the Jewish Agency was pretty much functioning
as a government for the Jewish community, And the Zionist militias
had tens of thousands of soldiers, modern weapons and officers
who
had already fought in World War II. On the other side, the Palestinians hadn't been allowed to develop
their own administration or military. But as they waited for the UN’s solution, they were still the majority all over the country. In November 1947, the UN - then only made up of a fraction
of the world's countries - voted to partition Palestine. This plan marks off 55% of the country for a Jewish state. But the UN never explained how it could be a Jewish state when half the people in its terri
tory were Palestinian. To nobody’s surprise Palestinians - and in fact all Arabs - rejected the UN’s plan. Ben-Gurion and the Zionist leadership accepted, but they saw an opportunity.
With the British on the way out, the Zionists knew they would have
the strongest military in Palestine. Their forces were instructed
to seize more territory than they'd been awarded by the UN
and to do what was necessary to reduce the number of Palestinians
in it. In cities like Haifa, the militias set off
car bomb
s in Palestinian neighborhoods. They attacked villages
and forced residents out. - Haganah troops have driven the Arabs out
of the beleaguered city, taking many prisoners. After inspecting parts of western
Jerusalem that have been emptied
of Palestinians, Ben-Gurion said: One of the events that helped speed up
these changes took place on April 9, 1948, when the village of Deir Yassin scene was attacked. A British government report to the United Nations describes the scene. 250 people were kille
d in circumstances
of great savagery. Women and children were stripped, lined up, photographed
and then slaughtered by automatic firing. The story of what happened at Deir Yassin set off panic all over the country. As news spread, people fled, fearing they would be next. Historians have recorded dozens
of similar massacres during this period. Each time they would result in
entire communities fleeing. By the time Britain ended its mandate
on May 15th, 1948, 250,000 Palestinians had fled. The nig
ht before David Ben-Gurion
announced the founding of the State of Israel, with himself as its first prime minister. He was standing under a giant
portrait of Herzl, 51 years after Herzl had predicted
this very moment. The Zionist militias came together
as the newly formed Israel Defense Forces, but the fighting wasn't over. With the British out of the way, soldiers from several Arab
countries entered Palestine, but the Israeli army was better equipped,
better organized and, unlike the Arab armi
es, had a unified command and backing
from several European countries. Israeli forces pushed into places
that the UN had assigned to the Palestinian state, like the towns of Lydda and Ramleh. 50,000 people were forced to flee
from there, many on foot, in what became known as the
Lydda Death March. After being emptied, the towns were given
Hebrew names: Lod and Ramla. Like in many other empty
towns, the buildings and homes were taken over by the new Israeli state
and given to Jews. By the time th
e UN secured an armistice, three quarters of the Palestinian people
had become refugees. In Arabic, they call this the Nakba - literally, the catastrophe. The new state of Israel made up 78%
of what had been Palestine. The remaining parts were annexed by Jordan
or taken over by Egypt. A year later, the UN passed a resolution calling for all Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return home. They never have been. Palestine had been erased. In the decades since, attempts to resolve this conflict
h
ave again tried to partition the land. With each successive attempt,
the territory offered to Palestinians in their historic homeland shrinks
even more. Ironically, Israel is still struggling
to maintain the population advantage it gained in 1948
when it forced all those people out because in 1967,
it occupied the West Bank and Gaza, bringing all the Palestinians living
there under its rule. And so today, the population of Jews and non-Jews in this land is roughly equal. But those living under o
ccupation
have no rights, no citizenship
and no prospect of independence. The Nakba era tactics of settlement, home
demolitions and expulsion are still used against them. Israel has taken the land but wants nothing to do with
the millions under its rule. International, Israeli
and Palestinian human rights groups say this system is a form of apartheid. To see if that's an accurate
description of Israel more than 100 years after Balfour’s promise, watch this video here.
Comments
it's unbelievable that nobody mentions or blames the British for setting up the region for failure.
Watching a documentary that presents the formation of modern Israel in such a grim light is personally jarring for me. I had long held the view of Israel as a sanctuary for a people who had suffered immeasurable atrocities. To suddenly be confronted with the idea that its foundation is marred by acts of violence, terrorism, and potentially even genocide against Palestinians shakes the core of what I thought I knew. It's like experiencing a form of betrayal, where a narrative I held to be virtuous is revealed to have dark undertones. It's not just an intellectual exercise in reassessing history; it's a gut punch that makes me question the stories we're told and the stories we choose to believe. It's a painful reckoning with complexity in a world that's easier to navigate in black and white.
I'm blown away by the Jewish solder laughing when he was asked how many Palestinians he had killed. No loss of life should ever be met by laughter. This has truly troubled me
never let a british guy near a map and ask him to draw borders
As I say, you don't have to be a Muslim to feel the pain, you just have to be a human
That first Israeli soldier laughing about how he didn't count how many Palestinians he killed and that he had a 250 bullet clip.... Imagine if a former Nazi soldier gave an interview like that about their conduct during WW2. They'd be hauled off to the World Court and hanged. This guy.... Gets to hang out in polite society and live out his life in relative peace. Humans are insane. EDIT: It's insane to me how many people out there give cover to a holocaust being perpetuated upon a people, by another group of people who should f++king know better after they suffered a holocaust. There are Israeli politicians literally calling for another Nakba.
free palestine
This sounds similar to how British split India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Once they understood they couldn't trouble anymore actively, they left a passive trouble as a separation gift. The entire Indian Subcontinent is still enjoying that gift!
Finally! Someone shed a light on the historical factual of events. So everybody will be well informed.
What blows my mind is that after experiencing all the atrocities and persecution in Europe, Jewish people went and did pretty much the same thing to Palestinians.
I think the more you try to isolate yourself as ‘the chosen people’ based on your religious believes, the more you will always want to fight to stay separated from other nations. As long as that’s the belief, the war will never end. No one is too special or more equal than another, we are all mere human beings just passing by, just live in harmony with others.
How comes we were never taught this in our history lessons. I was only taught mostly about world war 2 and hitler. We never told this in cnn, sky I wonder why. Thanks for vid.
A lot of people are not informed about this history especially the younger generation. Knowledge is of great importance.
This was so crucial to learn with ease and records, gratitudes 🙏🏻🙏🏻
This is the reason us Irish 🇨🇮, proudly support the Palestinians and their cause but most people around the world fail to understand that or what this conflict is all about 😢.
So in other words the British stuck their noses in, and tried to "fix" something which wasn't broken. Chose a side, pitted one against the other, caused the conflict resulting in carnage, chaos and bloodshed. Then closed up shop and fled back to the mother land. The British are directly responsible for the snowball effect still happening today. I've learnt something new.
This should be shown in every school. Good work.
Everyone in America needs to be show this video.
Why is he laughing about killing soo many people he can’t remember what his kill count is? What a psychopath 😡
This video explains so succinctly the reason for the conflict. More people should watch this, it should have 100s of millions of views