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| You are here -> HOME - RETROVILLE - 1949 | - In the News - Palestinian Cease Fire | ||||||||||||
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| Welcome to Retroville! It's 1949! | |||||||||||||
| When Israel received its independence, as recognized by the United Nations, on May 14, 1948, the first full-scale war began between the Israelis and their Arab neighbors. Armed conflicts between Jews and Arabs had been going on since 1920, when Great Britain received a mandate from the League of Nations to establish Palestine.
Beginning in 1945, Zionists waged a guerilla war against British troops and Palestinian Arabs supported by the Arab League. By 1948, they had made substantial gains. The 1948-1949 War was a reflection of the opposition of the Arab states to the formation of a Jewish state--Israel--in what the Arabs perceived to be Arab territory. When Israel's independence was declared, backed not just by the UN, but by Great Britain, France, and the United States, Arab forces in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded Israel. The Egyptians had some luck gaining territory in the South, and the Jordanians took Jerusalem's Old City, but the rest of the Arab forces were soon stalled. In June, the UN succeeded in establishing a four-week truce. But by July, Israelis had reclaimed much of the lost territory before another truce was in place. In August, the fighting began again and continued sporadically through the end of 1948. In January 1949, isolated Egyptian forces were cornered by the Israelis and the UN established another cease fire on January 7. Protracted peace talks led to the signing of armistice agreements between Israel, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan in July, but there was still no formal peace. The continuing conflicts left 400,000 Palestinian Arabs who had fled from Israel, homeless, scattered, and spread through refugee camps near Israel's border. Their status remains a source of constant conflict. It should be noted that the myth of "no Palestine" is just that--a myth. Palestine was, in fact, a recognized state following the League of Nations mandate to Great Britain in 1920. At that time, Great Britain had held all of that territory under the British Crown, only releasing partial control to Arab rulers, much as they had slowly removed themselves from India and parts of Northern Africa throughout the 1900's. |
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