Why were Palestinians against the establishment of Israel?

Answer 1

Answer 1

The Palestinian Arabs were greatly saddened by the creation of the State of Israel because they believed that the land that had physically belonged to their parents and grandparents should have been theirs for inheritance. In their minds, it did not make sense that a group of German, Polish, French, English, and Russian speaking people should claim land that their ancestors had not even visited for centuries. Even by the time of Israel's Declaration of Statehood, less than half of the land within the UN proscribed borders of Resolution 181 was owned by Jews. Therefore, the idea of Jewish State being even more physically expansive than the land already taken was alarming.

Answer 2

The entire idea of Israel is a modern colony in the Middle East. Prior to 1900, less than 10% of the population of what would become Mandatory Palestine was Jewish and the Fellahin or Settled Arabs were the majority. There were also a large percentage of Turks, Circassians, Bedouin, and Druze, but the Settled Arabs were still the majority. Zionist Jews or those Jews who desired to create a Jewish State cleverly manipulated the Great Powers, especially the United Kingdom into giving them the right to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine in large numbers without consulting the rights of the Fellahin. Additionally, Zionist Jews purchased large swaths of land from Turkish nobility without consulting the Fellahin who lived on that land for centuries but did not properly own it. As a result, numerous Fellahin were forced off of their land during the Yishuv period, Yishuv being the word for a Zionist Jewish settlement in Mandatory Palestine. The Jewish population in Palestine continued to rise until 1939 when the Fellahin successfully petitioned the British government to close off Jewish Immigration.

However, the Jewish minority had grown sufficiently large in Mandatory Palestine that this combined with the Holocaust was able to earn international sympathy for the Zionist cause of establishing a State for the Jews in a land where the Jewish population had literally "just" shown up. Compare this to Rhodesia which was a state that declared independence to be ruled by the White Settlers of Rhodesia in 1960 that had been on that land. Rhodesia was so vilified in the international community that in only 20 years, it reverted to become the African nation of Zimbabwe. However, in that case, the White Settlers had come to Rhodesia as early as 1860, which makes them far more "local" than the Zionist Jews in Palestine in 1948 (most of whom were in the country for less than 30 years). The attempt by the Yishuv to form a state could not be tolerated and the Arabs formed militias to prevent the Yishuv from asserting control over land that had been historically settled by the Arab people. As a result, war broke out between the Zionist Haganah, Palmach, Irgun, and Lehi militias and the Fellahin, represented by the Holy War Army and the Arab Liberation Army. The neighboring Arab countries joined in when the Yishuv declared independence to help to the Arab militias.

Answer 2

Arab Palestinians opposed the formation of Israel for many reasons.

1) Since the foundation of Islam, Muslims have viewed history as a process of expanding the territory ruled by their religion, or "Dominion of Islam" (vis-a-vis the "Dominion of the Sword", the rest of the world). Colonialism by the strong Western powers represented a reversal of this trend. When the Jews, the weakest and most hated stateless minority succeeded in establishing Israel in the heart of the Muslim world, it was the ultimate humiliation to Islam.

2) With the advent of nationalism in the Arab world, Palestinian Arabs viewed this territory as part of Syria (see the British Peel Comission). Later, however, Arab elites began to take steps towards an independent Arab state.

3) Most land in British Mandate Palestine was owned by a few families that lived in Damascus, Beirut and other cities. These landlords sold large amounts of land to the Zionists, displacing the Arab populations that lived on them. This created joblessness among the Arab population, which led to anger and opposition.

As a supplementary note, the Zionists split into two camps in their attitude towards the Arabs. Mainstream Zionism advocated coexistence with the Arab population, although strong Arab opposition made them abandon this goal. Revisionist Zionism, on the other hand, predicted this opposition from the beginning and advocated steps, sometimes aggressive, to counter this threat.

Answer 3

Many Palestinians who lived in it was called "Palestine" back then, thought that they had rights over the entire country and not just half as was decided.