Figure 1.--These Jews fleeing the Arab bombing of Ben Yehuda Street, a Jewish area in Jerusalem (February 22, 1948). Ben Yehuda Street was a main street in Jerusalem. As a busy thoroughfare, it has been a prime target for terrorist bombings. Ben Yehuda Street (רחוב בן יהודה‎‎) is today known as the 'Midrachov' (מדרחוב‎‎) and is a major street in downtown Jerusalem. It joins with Jaffa Road and King George Street to form the Downtown Triangle central business district. It is now a pedestrian mall and closed to vehicular traffic. The street runs from the intersection of King George Street to Zion Square and Jaffa Road. The street is named after the founder of Modern Hebrew, Eliezer Ben-Yehuda.

The response to the U.N. partition vote was very different among the Jewish an Arab communities. The Jews were generally delighted, although there were some critics. The Arabs uniformally were enraged. The Britis had asked the Uited Nations to craft a sollution to the conflict and a furture for an indepndent Palestine. The General Assembly did just that with the Partition Plan. The result was an escaltion of violence as para-milutary groups on both sides prepared for partition which in the case of the Arabs meant war. The Jews akso prepared for war knowing what the Arabs were planning. In the meantime violence of all kinds escalated. There was low level violence like sniping, biut also inter-communl violence and bombing. Sorting out just what hppend is duffucultvas each side blames the other. The violence resulted in population movemnts. Jews in the Arab designated areas mobed to the Jewish designated areas. Arabs akso mived nd heir is a great debate as to weher they fled or were expelled. Some of both occurred. This occurred both before and after Israel declared independence. A factor here is that because of the war that the Arabs launched to destroy the Jewish state they lost a substantial part of the territory that the U.N. partition plan had designated for the Arabs. This was a factor motivating many Arabs to move. In addition. Arab leaders ordrig their armies into Palestine instructed Arabs to flee so that their armies 'could drive the Jews into the sea'. Some how Arabs clearly adopting a policy of ethnic cleansing suddenly saw ethnic cleansing as a great evil when their armies failed and it was the Arabs that were impacted.

Jews

Most Jews were overjoyed with the U.N. vote. Partition mean that a Jewish state was possible. It was not a a very close vote, thanks largely to the United States. merivan support made partition possible, but there was no U.S. Government support for either the Jews are Arabs in Plestine. While not all Jews were delighted, the vast majority of Jews in Palestine and around the world greeted the news enthusiastically. Jews assembled in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem to celebrate the U.N. resolution. This went on all night into the wee hours. Roaring bonfires were lit at kibutzes throughout Palestine. Several cafes in Tel Aviv reportedly served free champagne. One historian writes, "The night of 29–30 November passed in the Yishuv’s settlements in noisy public rejoicing. Most had sat glued to their radio sets broadcasting live from Flushing Meadow. A collective cry of joy went up when the two-thirds mark was achieved: a state had been sanctioned by the international community." [Morris, p.75.] Mainstream Zionist leaders reacted soberly understanding the realities the Jews in Palestine faced. There were references to the 'heavy responsibility' of building a Jewish State, two millenia after the Romans expelled the Jews from Palestine. Some offered to working towards a peaceful coexistence with the region's other communities. Jewish groips in America which after the Holocaust had the largest Jewish community in the world were also entusiastic with the United Nations action. Few believed, however, that the U.N. partition vote settled the Palestinian problem. Revisionist Zionists rejected the U.N. partition plan as larger areas were left in Arab hands. ['Jewish units ...'] The Irgun Tsvai Leumi, led by Menachem Begin, and the Lehi (Stern Group or Gang) the two Revisionist-groups with armed underground fighters reject the U.N. plan.

Arabs

The Arabs and other Muslim countries voted against and rejected Resolution 181. This was understandable. They were a majority in Palestine and without partition, they would control any government after the British departed. Their rejection, however, essentially is the cause of today's Isreali-Palestinian conflict today and the Palestinian refugee problem. Partition was unacceptable to either the Palestinians or the neighboring Arab states. The Arabs threatened to invade if the Jews moved to establish a Jewish state and threatened to drive the Jews into the sea. Arab leaders threatened blood would flow. There was not the slightest doubt among most Arab leaders that they had the capability of irdicating any Jewish state. Azzam Pasha, the General Secretary of the Arab League told an Egyptian newspaper, "Personally I hope the Jews do not force us into this war because it will be a war of elimination and it will be a dangerous massacre which history will record similarly to the Mongol massacre or the wars of the Crusades." [Akhbar el-Yom.] Pasha also told Alec Kirkbride: "We will sweep them [the Jews] into the sea". Syrian president, Shukri al-Quwatli, assured the Syrian people, "We shall eradicate Zionism". [Morris, p. 187.] Egyptian King, Farouk assured the American Ambassador in his country that in the long run the Arabs would decisively defeat the Jews and drive them out of Palestine. [Morris, p. 410.] The frontline Arab states did not invade after the partition vote. They made it clear, however, that they would invade if the Jews declared independence. Within Palestine there were two responses. We see a sharp ecaltion of attack on Jews. And we see the movement of Arab civilians from areas awarded tonJews in the U.N. Partition Plan. Attacks by irregular forces escalated. Armed irregulars, both Palestinian and other Arabs, immediately began to attack Jewish communities. The Arab Higher Committee declared a 3-day general strike in Palestinen the following day. This proved to be the beginning of the violence. [Norris, pp. 76-77.] Low level attacks comtinued as the British withdrawl from Palestine approached. These were mostly Arab attacks on Jews. The attacks largely occured in areas where were small Lewish populations in heavily Arab areas. Attacks also occurred from Arab villages astride roads connecting Jewish areas. The Mufti was intent on heading the envisioned Arab state". [Cohen, p. 236.]

Christians

The discussion of Palistinian history largely focuses on the Muslim and Jewish community. Often lost in the argument was the Christians in Palestine mostly Arabs. Christian Arabs tended to join their Arab compatriots and opposed partition and the subsequent creation of a Jewish state. Palistinian Arabs were primarily Muslim, but there was a substabtial Christian minority, perhaps as much as 20 percent. And Christian Arabs were mostly urbanized and well educated. They thus included inflential Palistinian spolesmen. Opposing partition may have been a serious mistake given subsequent history. Israel has protected minority groups to a considerable extent while Cgustians in the areas under Palistinian control have come under ttack and the number of Christins in the West Bank and Gaza has fllen to very low levels. There was also a small number of Armenian Christians as a result of the Turkish Genocide (1915). Many of the Armenians pparently migrated to the Armenian SSR in the Soviet Union. I am unsure if thy came under attack duriung the wave of violence following the U.N. vote.

Sources

Cohen, Hillel. Army of Shadows: Palestinian Collaboration with Zionism, 1917-1948 (University of California Press: 2008).

Morris, Benny. 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War (Yale University Press: 2008).

"Jewish units here hail action by the U.N." New York Times (November 30, 1947).

Akhbar el-Yom (October 11, 2011), p. 9.

Created: 1:58 PM 11/3/2017
Last updated: 1:58 PM 11/3/2017