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Yuma Iwasaki
Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel, Fall 2016
Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel
Midterm 1, Study Guide
October 17, 2016
Creation of Israel
- League of Nations – after the dismemberment of the Ottoman empire, instead of lands being divided into French and British, they were held as “mandates”. This is different from a colony situation, since the Western powers are helping to rehabilitate the countries so that they can eventually gain independence.
???? Britain had mandate over Iraq and Palestine. This had a lot to do with the Suez Canal which was crucial to Britain as it was the passage to India, Britain’s source of labor. The Suez Canal was also important because Britain’s main business was importing & exporting.
- The Balfour declaration (November 1917) – also included in The Declaration of Palestine. In this document, Britain expressed their support for the creation of Palestine as a Jewish national home, as long as that doesn’t harm the interest of other non-Jewish population. *Notice here that the word “Arab” was never used, and they were only referred to as the “non-Jewish population”.
- White Paper (1939) – document issued by the British which limited the flow of Jewish refugees into Palestine. This contradicted the policy of Palestine being the “national home” of Jews. - UN partition plan (11/29/1947) – Britain wanted to give up mandate of Iraq and Palestine, since there were too many conflicts. Under UN supervision, Palestine was divided amongst the Arabs and the Jews; 44% of the land was allocated to the Arabs and 56% to the Jews, despite Jews being the minority. It was clear that this was part of the compensation for the persecutions the Jews received during WWII. We also discuss several other topics like Who is John Winthrop?
????Jews accepted this partition plan, but Arabs didn’t. Britain decided not to interfere, and left them fighting amongst themselves; the area fell into a bloody civil war.
- Declaration of Independence (5/14/1948) – issued by Ben-Gurion. This day is known for the Palestinians as “Nakba”, meaning “the catastrophe”.
Arab-Israeli War of 1948
- Due to the fact that there were far more Arabs than Jews in Palestine, in the beginning of the war, Arabs seemed to be winning. Around April of 1948, things started to change and Jews started gaining the upper hand.
- Names of Jewish armies: Haganah (defender) & Palamach (commander), Irgun (organization), Etzel (national army), Stern known in Hebrew as Lehi (fighters for the Israel freedom) intimidated Arab population Don't forget about the age old question of What do we mean by unintended consequences?
- Deir Yassin massacre (4/8/1948) – Irgun and Lehi attacks an Arab village called Deir Yassin in the outskirts of Jerusalem, located in the hills. The Jewish armies decided they wanted to clear away the Arab villages that were controlling the routes to Jerusalem. The Deir Yassin incident was both strategic and malicious. At the time, the Red Cross announced the killings to be around 240 people but in reality, there were much more. If you want to learn more check out What is cross-culutral method?
- November of 1948, Palestinian Arab resistant force begins to collapse, and Palestinian Jews overwhelm Arab forces. Jewish forces attempt to push the 45% of Arab population out of the Jewish state of Palestine.
Yuma Iwasaki
Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel, Fall 2016
- After the war, Jews ended up controlling 72% of the land in Palestine. Neither the Jews nor the Arabs wanted a Palestinian Arab state.
- Armistice agreement (1949) – set of armistice agreements signed between Israel and its neighboring countries to respect the armistice lines of Israel and Jordanian-Iraqi lines known as the “Green Line”. Didn’t work properly because of the existence of too many “no man’s land”; the borders weren’t clear
Figures from the War of 1948
- David Ben-Gurion – leader of Jewish community who became the first Israeli Prime Minister, also the longest residing PM in Israeli history. Also Minister of Defense, which means he’s in charge of the army. He was an activist, and believed that military responses would create the best responses. He left briefly in 1953 and came back, only to resign at 1954. He then was reinstated on 1956, resigns for good in 1963 – more or less pushed out by his own party.
- Moshe Sharett – BG’s right hand man, who became the Foreign Minister and devoted his life to solving the conflict between Arabs and Jews. Takes over as PM during Ben-Gurion’s leave in 1953. Compared to BG, he believed that diplomacy was the best solution to Israel’s border conflicts. After he became PM, he did not assume the role of Ministry of Defense. If you want to learn more check out What are the steps in the legislative process in Texas?
- Mufti Haj Amin al-Hussaini – most important Palestinian political leader. He aligned himself with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany during WWII. Very controversial character. - Emir Abudullah of Jordan – king of Jordan (Transjordan); he and the Jewish military had an armistice agreement. He was killed by a Palestinian Arab.
- John Glubb – British officer who lead the Arab region, and is also responsible for a lot of the Arab fighting against the Jews.
- Ralph Bunche – an African-American diplomat who negotiated the armistice agreement between Jordan & Israel, Syria & Israel, and Syria & Jordan. First American winner of the Nobel peace prize.
Mass Immigration
Before the Declaration of Independence:
- In 1921, Britain creates new rule to restrict the number of refugees allowed into Palestine with respect to economic absorbing capacity. This means that the number of Jews allowed in Palestine will be limited to the economic capacity in a way that won’t create any unemployment of the Arabs. This was Britain’s way of pleasing the Arab population. If you want to learn more check out when did bacon's rebellion happen?
???? granting immigration became a selective process, where the young & healthy were favored over the old & sick, right wing supporters over left wings, and those who are interested in agriculture over urban dwellers
- Divide between Ashkenazi Jews (which refers to Jews from European countries) and Sephardi Jews also known as Mizrahi Jews (which refers to Jews in other parts including Spanish Jews, North-African Jews and Oriental Jews). Their languages differed as well: Ashkenazis spoke Yiddish, a mixture of German and Hebrew, while Sephardis in the Ottoman empire spoke Ladino, a mixture of Spanish and Hebrew. We also discuss several other topics like What is the decline in the general level of prices in an economy?
- Divide between the traditional & the untraditional Jews. Ashkenazi Jews were the one that built up the Yishuv; Sephardi Jews never faced the Jewish enlightenment and therefore Ashkenazi Jews are more religious.
Yuma Iwasaki
Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel, Fall 2016
- Many illegal immigrants found their way to Palestine. The famous boat exodus carried Holocaust survivors from France. Upon being discovered by Britain, the passengers were deported back to Europe which caused an international outcry. In other cases, illegal immigrants were sent to Cyprus.
After the Declaration of Independence:
- Approximately 300,000 Holocaust survivors sought refuge in Israel
- With decolonization, Jews became persecuted again, as in the case of Iraqi Jewry. While it was under Western forces, Jews had good standing socially and economically because they possessed the local knowledge but also spoke European languages. Iraqi Jews were the most severely persecuted as Iraqi soldiers came back from Palestine defeated by Jews.
- Many Jews living in northern Africa had to seek refugee as they were attacked in their home countries
- Ma’abarot – transit camps, which served as the basis of major “development towns”. These towns failed. They were sociologically disastrous (perpetuated poverty), had no jobs or schools, and had a huge divide between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews. These towns were funded by taxation, exports, international loans, support from outside, and sterling silver balances.
- As a result of this mass immigration, Israel suspends immigration for 2 years and resumes in 1954 in a more orderly fashion. By 1954, Israel was in a far better economic situation due to German liberation.
State and Religion
State
- Election happens every 4 years; new policy every 4 years makes an unstable government. - Proportional representation – if the party gets 30% of the votes, that party gets 30% of the seats. No winner-take-all situation which was designed to represent as many diverse group as possible. - Mapai – labor party of Israel (socialist). Remains the strongest political group. - Herut – nationalist party, Mapai’s opposition and second biggest party. Merged with other small parties and formed a big party called Likud which means “union” in Hebrew. This is the present government of Israel.
- Mahi – communist party. This was a party of Arab-Jews, but eventually split. - First government of Israel was formed with Mapai, United Religious Front, Progressive Party and the Sephardi Party. This government lasted about 2 years.
- Israeli politics is egalitarian.
- Mapam – liberal worker’s party
Religion
- Several religions are officially recognized in Israel including Judaism Islam, Christianity, Druze, and Baha’l. The state supports religious clergy and religious institutions; each community is entitled to conduct its own affairs in certain spheres.
- Millet system – refers to a system in which each religious communities of Israel have governance over their affairs such as marriage, divorce and birth policies. Many Orthodox Jews were against this system, since they had a strong sense of what marriage/divorce should be.
Yuma Iwasaki
Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel, Fall 2016
- For Jews, Rabbis determined who can get married and who can’t. Couples could go to Cyprus to get married and come back to Israel as husband and wife, which some couples did as a protest against Orthodox Jewish rules.
- Haredi community – a group of Orthodox Jews who lead the country’s independence. They believe that Jews could only be returned to Israel by God, and think any other ways of return was presumptuous; because of this belief, they are not supporters of the Zionist movement. They also believe that man’s ultimate goal is to become closer to God, which can only be achieved by education; therefore, women can work but men has to study. Haredi mean “to be anxious” in Hebrew.
- Hasidic Jews – a smaller group of Haredi Jews who believe that learning is not the only path to God, that being happy and enjoying life is also a path to God.
- Jews don’t believe that you have to be a Jew in order to be saved; they do not look for converts. - Status Quo Agreement (July 1947) – an arrangement demanded by the Haredi community. • No public transportation on Sabbath (with exception for emergencies)
• Public institutions serve only kosher food
• Chief Rabbinate courts are responsible for marriage and divorce, and conversion • Best rabbinical (Yishuva) students be exempted from military service
• Religious girls be exempt from military service – women in army camps is a huge issue to religious people. Bible says women are not allowed to handle weapons
- Divorced women can remarry, but only if there’s a document called “a get” from the ex-husband. Men can remarry without documents.
Diaspora Jewry
- Creation of Israel heavily depended on the diaspora. Once there was a sovereign state, Israel supported Jews in diaspora. Those that were in Israel saw themselves as vanguards (elites) of the Jewish people.
- American Jewish Committee – headed by Jacob Blaustein, this committee was an organization of the elite Jews in America such as lawyers, bankers and businessmen. It represented the American Jewish community but were not appointed. They went to Washington to protect the American Jew’s interests.
- American Zionist movement – headed by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver. He thought that he should be entitled to a status in Israel and that the government should listen to him. He was disliked by officials in Israel.
- Ingathering of the exiles – diaspora was believed to be a dangerous thing that will cause the ultimate demise of the Jewish people either by persecution or assimilation.
- Creation of the Israeli state depended on the Zionist movements outside of Israel such as in USA and the UK. The leaders of the American Zionist movement demanded some sort of recognition in the creation of Israel.
- Dual loyalty – the members of the AJC were afraid of being accused of dual loyalty to the US and the state of Israel. They claimed that their ancestors were treated well in America, and their political allegiance lay 100% with the government of the United States.
- Ben-Gurion-Blaustein agreement (August 1950) – Blaustein agrees to fund Ben-Gurion in exchange for a promise that Ben-Gurion will not make public speeches calling American-Jews to Israel. Blaustein also demanded Ben-Gurion to accept that the Israeli government do not speak
Yuma Iwasaki
Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel, Fall 2016
for Jews outside of Israel, and that the American Jews are not in “living in exile” therefore have no obligation to immigrate to Israel. In order to get on the good side of Blaustein’s group whom were all extremely wealthy, Ben-Gurion became a non-Zionist which angered many Zionists in Israel. The AJC raised $300 million which is almost $40 billion in today’s value between 1945- 1950, and used it to help Jews in the Holocaust and the Jews in Palestine.
- Aliyah – the Hebrew word for "ascent". Term used after the establishment of the State of Israel to name the mass immigration of diaspora Jewry to Israel, a central aspect of Zionism. Aliyah is considered either a voluntary immigration to the land, or refuge from persecution in another land. Prime Minister Ben-Gurion pushed Aliyah heavily on the Jewish diaspora because he felt immigration would be key in yielding development and prosperity in the new state. Between 1948 and 1951, the concept of Aliyah led to a doubling in the Jewish population in Israel from 650 thousand to more than 1.3 million people.
Foreign Policy
- Israel had hostile geographic border relations. The Jerusalem corridor is a narrow peninsula going into the West Bank and surrounded by Jordanian territory.
- Jordanians occupied ancient part of Jerusalem, but a series of no-man’s lands separated the Jordanians and the Jews. UN decided that Jerusalem would be an "international city", under neither Israeli nor Jordanian control, but in January 1950: Israel claims Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Jordan offered citizenship to Palestinians living in East Jerusalem.
- Cold war – Israel didn't want to break its ties with the Soviet Union, but also wanted to be close with the US. There were several neutral countries (mostly third world), but these non-allied countries didn't like Israel because they sympathized with the Arabs. First government of Israel was divided by how Israel should align itself. Within the country, there were a large group of people seriously sympathetic with the Soviet Union, especially members of the Mapai. Why:
o Israel was strongly influenced by socialist views
o Red Army liberated almost ALL camps in WWII while the Western armies were ignorant to the situation of concentration camps
o Stalin was considered to be a "hero" because they supported the independence of Israel in 1947
o The Soviet was very friendly to Israeli's ambassador (Golda Meir); when she visited Moscow, she was welcomed by Russian Jews whom were all very happy about the independence of Israel – this in turn scared the Russian government and questioned the Russian-Jews' loyalty to Russia
Nevertheless, Israel decided that if they ever had to choose, they would go with the democratic Western block.
- Korean War (1950) – US convinces UN to intervene and push the communist line (north Korea and China) back. This war was a decisive point in which all countries were forced to show their allegiance.
- Early 1952, shortly after the breakout of Korean war, the communist party in Czech arrests their own leader for being a Jew and eventually executes him. After this, in all of Eastern Europe, Jews were executed for being a Jew.
Yuma Iwasaki
Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel, Fall 2016
- Stalin became increasingly paranoid and accused doctors for trying to kill him. KGB arrests dozens of Jewish doctors who were about to be executed but weren't because of Stalin’s sudden death, and his successors didn't kill the doctors.
????Soviet Union exhibits an Anti-Jewish attitude.
- In Israel, a bomb gets dropped next to the Russian embassy for the wrongful imprisonment of Jewish doctors in Moscow – Israeli-Soviet Union relationship starts to get bad.
- Israel under economic blockade – Suez Canal was blocked to prevent materials from being imported into Israel (lifted in 1957). The blockade overall didn't have a negative effect in Israel.
Reparations
- Reparations refers to payments that the victor imposes on the loser of the war as punishment. Germany was divided into two nations as a result of the war.
- Allies occupied Germany until 1954, and they wanted to reconstruct the German government and exterminate the Nazi influences. Unconditional surrender by the German government happened at the end of the 1954.
- As compensation for the major economic damages Germany had created during WWII, a $300 billion reparation was imposed. This was to be paid to several countries. The US and UK gave up their entitled reparations because they knew Germany couldn’t afford it, but the Soviets never did and stripped away German’s resources to get their $150 billion worth of reparations. Israel wasn’t included in this because Israel was not a state at the time of WWII.
- German reparations to Israel: the assets of Jews which wrongfully seized by the Nazis were returned. 150,000 pieces of real-estate were reclaimed and there were many frauds where people would claim property that weren’t theirs Many owners were murdered by the Nazis and didn’t have any surviving heirs.
- JRSO – Jewish Resolution Successor Organization – buys the houses with no surviving heirs and sells them, and uses the profits to help Holocaust survivors.
- Israel asks US to impose financial reparations on Germany to help Holocaust survivors in Israel. Many people in Israel protested the negotiation process with Germany, as they believed that any compensation would be “blood money”. There were riots and bombings protesting the negotiation.
1950, Reparation negotiation starts
- Negotiation is difficult even with the new German government because many of the officials used to align themselves with the Nazis. Germany never officially apologized for their atrocities, which made negotiation difficult.
- 1951, Germany formerly acknowledges the “unspeakable crimes done in the name of German people”. Which shows the first sign of remorse, and on September 25th of 1951 German chancellor offers reparations not so that they can be forgiven, but so that it could be a step towards reconciliation. The relation between Germany and Israel improves.
- Claims conference – Israel demands reparation cost of rehabilitating the refugees from when Hitler came to power till Israel was created. On March 12, 1951 Morshe Sharett submitted a claim. For each person, Israel demanded $3k and $1.5 billion in total. This was the global claim which was to be paid to the state and not the individual. The Jewish diaspora also claimed a global claim of $500 million.
Yuma Iwasaki
Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel, Fall 2016
- Indemnification – payments to all individuals who suffered damage in refugee camps, in hiding, and in concentration camps, etc.
- Wassenaar – place of negotiation in the Netherlands (March 1952)
Germany asks the reparation to to be reduced to $1 billion, and offers to pay 75% of it since West Germany is 75% of all Germany. They would pay in industrial goods since they didn’t have enough funds, and it would be paid over the course of 12 years.
- Germany also owed commercial debt to the rest of the world from the war which was discussed during the London debt conference.
- Israel demanded to be prioritized over other reparations.
- Kari Böhm – anti-Nazi German
- Menachem Begin – a member of the Likud party who opposed negotiating with Germany for reparations due to “religious reasons”. However, Begin was never truly religious and this move was thought to be more of a tactic to gain votes and push Ben-Gurion out.
- Goldmann understood Germans can't afford to pay Israel and diaspora, so tells Germany to pay $720 million to Israel and $500 million DM to diaspora (which was around $140 million) - Unlike reparations, the indemnification payments actually improved over time. German reparations were a huge factor in the upbringing of Israel. Germans were, to everyone's surprise, scrupulous in honoring the terms of the reparations. Because of this, relationship between Germans and Jews became dramatically better, especially in the young generation. - 1965, Israel recognized Germany diplomatically and they exchanged ambassadors.
Impact of the Holocaust
Attitude during the Holocaust
- General feeling (during the Holocaust) in the Jewish community in Israel of "we told you so". The Zionists told the world that diaspora was dangerous and told Jews all over the world to come to Israel but they didn’t. This attitude derived from the fact that not a lot of people knew about the seriousness of the situation of Holocaust.
- Many wondered how it was possible that 6 million Jews were murdered without fighting. Jews in Palestine fought against the Arabs and British, so why didn't the Jews in Europe do so? – such claims are absurd as there were countless revolts against the Nazis in concentration camps and other places.
- General concern that Jews in Europe would turn their backs on Jews in Palestine once liberated because Palestinian Jews didn't help European Jews during the Holocaust. However, the reaction of the Holocaust survivor to Israel wasn't hostile at all, in contrary they wanted to migrate to Israel.
Consequences of the Holocaust
- Kapo – Jewish prisoners in Nazi concentration camps who collaborated with the Nazis. Some of them survived the Holocaust and was trialed later in Israel for crimes they've committed in Europe. There were 160 cases of people going to the police with sightings of kapos, of which 24 people were found guilty.
- Nazi and Nazi Collaborators Punishment Law (1950) – designed to bring Nazis and their proxies to justice.
- Yad Vashem (1953) – the state of Israel creates "Yad Vashem", a Holocaust martyrs’ and heroes’ remembrance. Israel tried to give those who died in Holocaust citizenship so that they could be
Yuma Iwasaki
Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel, Fall 2016
considered "Israelis", but this didn't happen due to opposition. Yad Vashem also honors those who aren’t Jewish but risked their lives to protect Jews and didn't expect anything in return. Those people were given Israeli pensions.
Incidents relating to Holocaust memory
- Adolf Eichmann – a.k.a. "Mr. Holocaust": was in charge of logistics of concentration camps. He organized the concentration camps, trains and people. The driving force behind the actual genocide. Eichmann’s war crimes were trialed in Jerusalem where he was found guilty and eventually executed.
- Kurt Becher – a.k.a. "asset stripper": was in charge of grabbing assets from Jews. Holocaust was the greatest asset-seizing operation in history.
- Rezso/Rudolph/Israel Kastner – a Hungarian Jew, a Zionist rescue committee, a Mapai member. He helped Jews escape from Europe during the Holocaust. Jews could escape to Hungary for a while because the government of Hungary decided not to send Jews to deportation camps, until Germany invaded Hungary in 1944. He was accused of collaborating with Becher and Eichmann in Israeli court and assassinated in 1957. He was also accused for not letting the Hungarian Jews know what was waiting for them at Auschwitz, which is ridiculous because at that point everyone already knew.
- The Kastner Train – Kastner convinced an SS officer Adolf Eichmann to let a train of Jews escape to Switzerland instead of sending them to Auschwitz in exchange for money. This train never made it to Switzerland.
- Trials in the social context: the kapo and Kastner trials happened during the years of Israel’s building of legal, economic and security infrastructure. These trials symbolize the steps Israel was taking to overcome the Holocaust. It was also an expression of postwar mass immigration that put its stamp on Israeli society. The Eichmann trial came after, which marks the beginning of Israel’s Golden Age. Having Eichmann found guilty and executing him was a huge step towards rehabilitating the Holocaust survivor’s souls and faith in humanity as well.
- Approximately half a million Hungarian-Jews were killed during a span of 2 weeks
Border Wars
- 1948: Israel decides if refugees in Israel left Palestine, they would not be allowed back. This means that if Palestinian-Arab left his property in Palestine, he would not be allowed back to Israel.
- Palestinian Right of Return (December 1948) – UN decides that refugees should be permitted to move back in to Palestine if they're willing to make peace with the neighbors – Israel agrees with this solution, as Israel always thought the condition of return was "peace".
- Family reunification policy – many Palestinian returned to Israel after this policy was enforced to reunite with family.
- Population exchange (1950-51) – Iraq compels Iraqi-Jews to leave which in turn leads Israel to freeze the family reunification policy and many Arab-Jews were compelled to leave Israel. - Large infiltration – abandoned refugee properties were seized by the state and were not returned. Palestinians who had their properties taken away would cross the border and try to retrieve their stuff.
- 50% of land in Israel was not owned by anyone; 25% were left by refugees (Arab farmers) – this land was the most agriculturally valuable; 25% belonged to present absentees
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Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel, Fall 2016
o *Present absentee – refers to Arabs who escaped during the civil war to another village which after the war belonged to another state. They were told not to return home and had to abandon their properties.
????they were compensated by water in the form of irrigation and knowledge on how to grow crops (which were both valuable in the desert), however most of them did not get compensated enough.
- Borders of Israel is non-geographic; they are only separated by thin barbed wires. Because of this, security in properties near the border declined due to substantial numbers of infiltration which lead to abandonment of properties near the border
- Ben-Gurion was an activist and was influenced by young activists who wants to use military retaliation to combat security threats near the border.
- July 1953: Ben-Gurion temporarily takes vacation and Moshe Sharett takes over; during his period, Arik Sharom, an extremist gains control over the military and uses military forces against Arabs which ultimately backfires.
????69 of the villagers die caught between cross-fire, and causes international outcry. Relations with Egypt
- Egyptian army occupies Gaza strip
- Gaza operation (2/28/1955) – a response to infiltration into Israel from Egypt. Moshe Sharett was acting Prime Minister at the time of the operation and did not account for the severity of it. His views paralleled that of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who believed that this was a turning point in military and political Middle Eastern history. Israel was seen as more aggressive and it was supported by the United States. This left Nasser to appeal to the Soviet Union for support leading to an arms deal between Egypt and Czechoslovakia.
- Lavon Affair – an embarrassing affair which left a nasty mark on Israel; the name Lavon comes from the Israeli Defense Minister Pinhas Lavon. It is also referred to as “Esek HaBish” or “The Mishap”. Young Egyptian-Jews spied for Israel against their home country but were eventually caught and went under severe torture and eventual death.
Israeli Arabs
Relationship of Arabs & the state of Israel:
- The Arab community in Israel is not unified, however, recently have started to express strong political trends. They live in rural villages, large Arab towns, and mixed cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Most live in the Southern part of the cities.
- Israel is self-aware of its status as a Jewish state (dominant Jewish culture). Israel is also a democratic state; everyone is equal under the law including Arabs.
- The Arabs who stayed in Israel after the civil war had their lives disrupted. In 1948, approximately 150,000 remained, and 400 Palestinian villagers were Arabs. State wanted to strengthen the border which included removing Arabs from border areas.
- How to deal with a minority group that is actively hostile to the state? – government restricted the movement of Arabs living outside of the city; if they wanted to move, they needed a permit from the Israeli government.
????Almost every party (both right & left) disagreed with this enforcement, which was a violation of basic rights.
General social policy
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Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel, Fall 2016
- Israel kept an egalitarian social policy
- Arabs were allowed to have their own school system where they could learn in their own language.
- 4 school systems in Israel. Largest school system in Israel: Hebrew language school system (represents 60% of the educational system). Second largest: Arab school system, followed by independent school system. Smallest: religious school system.
- Arab language is technically the second official language of Israel, which means it could be used in courts and has official standing.
Arab representation
- 1948: briefly, Ministry of Minority Affairs offered Arab representation but it quickly dissolved. - Historically, Arabs divided their votes to the communist party (which called for a bi-national state, and is also the Arab section of the labor party) and the satellite party (which spoke Arabic). - 1967: Israel occupied the Gaza strip which strengthened the Israeli community. Israeli Arabs acted as a go-between person of the large population of Arabs in the Gaza strip and the Israeli government.
- Palestinization – growing realization as a “Palestinian” amongst Arabs.
Demographic (data from about 10 years ago)
- Most Palestinian Arabs are loyal; only 2% believes in using violence against police forces - 50% of Arabs lived below the poverty line, as opposed to 20% of Jews
- 36 of the 40 poorest towns are Arabic towns
- 5-6% of civil servants are Arabs
- 9% of public companies have directors that are Arabs
Bedouin community
- 10-12% of Arab community
- Estimated large number of townships in desert not recognized by the government, mostly located in south of Israel in the desert area.
- Nomadic life styles: form tribes into extended families, and live together separate from everybody else. Do not want neighbors and do not want to live in cities.
- Who owns the land? Bedouin claims they own the large desert areas because they've traditionally moved & farmed there; the government claims they don't have any right or legal documents to support this.
Suez War
- Israel always felt that the Arab world had not accepted Israel's creation, and hadn't accepted that Israel had defeated the Arab world. Israel thought Arab was preparing for second ground to destroy Israel. There were numerous incursions leading up to the Suez War which resulted in many casualties.
- Syria claimed rights to Sea of Galilee, but Israel refused to accept this. Questions arose of no man's land along the armistice lines of Israel and Syria.
- Sharett believed that only diplomatic solution will be viable in solving these border problems. Egypt
- Egypt had a problem with the international community and how it handled Suez Canal. Although it had historically and geographically been part of Egypt, the Britain had control over it even though the Egyptian army was the one protecting it. Egypt called for the nationalization of the
Yuma Iwasaki
Cultures & Contexts: Modern Israel, Fall 2016
canal and the expulsion of the British army; Britain was doubtful that Egypt would be able to maintain the Suez Canal and the oil that runs in it due to their undeveloped technology. Eventually, Nasser seizes control of the canal and kicks the British out.
- Relationship between Nasser and Europe – In 1954 Algerian Nationalist movement began violent revolution against France. Egypt supported the Algerian Nationalists which deteriorated relationship with France.
- Eisenhower administration was the only administration that maintained good relations with Nasser. Nasser was not interested in America but more into Soviet Union. Nasser gives money to USSR to develop a dam in the Nile in Egypt (for better agriculture and cheaper electricity). This leads to Egypt leaning towards communism.
- Israel was in need of a weapon and mostly received their weapons from France and UK. In Mid 1950’s, the US, USSR and UK were the only countries with nuclear weapons.
- Czech arms deal (Sept 1955) – Egypt threatens to start a major arms race in the middle east. America backed Israel and said that if Egypt created a blockade against Israel’s arms import, it could be considered as a legitimate reason to go to war.
The notes for this class (Suez Canal) isn’t as thorough because the recording of the class is available online.