Two peoples, one land

Two national movements

Around 1880, about half a million people lived in this part of the Ottoman Empire: mostly Arab Muslims and Christians, and a few tens of thousands of Jews.

In Europe, Jews faced discrimination and deadly attacks. In 1896 the journalist Theodor Herzl argued that Jews would only be safe in a state of their own. The ZionistZionism✕The movement, born in Europe in the late 1800s, to create a Jewish national home in the Land of Israel, where Jews trace their origins. 'Zion' is a biblical name for Jerusalem.Most Israelis: the national liberation movement of a persecuted people returning to its ancient homeland.Most Palestinians: a settler-colonial movement that took their land and pushed them out.All words explained → movement brought immigrants who bought land, built farms and revived the Hebrew language.

Palestinian Arabs, with their own growing sense of identity, feared that the Zionists wanted to become the majority and take the country. When big landowners who lived far away sold land to Jewish buyers, the Arab farmers who worked it were sometimes forced out.

Britain's promises

In the First World War, Britain told Arab leaders it would support Arab independence; whether this included Palestine is still disputed. In 1917 Britain also promised "a national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine — the Balfour DeclarationBalfour Declaration✕A 1917 letter in which the British government supported 'a national home for the Jewish people' in Palestine, as long as nothing harmed the rights of the 'existing non-Jewish communities' — who were about 90% of the population.All words explained →. It protected only the "civil and religious rights" of the "existing non-Jewish communities", who were 90% of the people, and promised them no state. Britain ruled Palestine from 1920 to 1948, under a League of Nations mandate that included the Balfour promise.

Who lived in Palestine under British rule

Share of the population

• Arabs (Muslims, Christians) and others
• Jews

1922

89%

1931

83%17%

1946

67%33%

Show as table

	Arabs (Muslims, Christians) and others	Jews
1922	88.9%	11.1%
1931	83.1%	16.9%
1946	67.1%	32.9%

Jewish immigration grew as Jews fled Nazi Germany. Violence grew too — between the two communities, and against the British. In the HolocaustHolocaust✕The murder of about six million Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies during the Second World War (1941–1945). It convinced many countries that the Jewish people needed a state of their own.All words explained →, Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews; afterwards, much of the world supported a Jewish state. In 1947 Britain handed the problem to the new United Nations.

Go deeper · optionalMore: the Balfour Declaration, and violence under British rule▾

In 1929, riots over Jerusalem's holy places spread. Arab rioters killed 133 Jews, 67 of them in a massacre in Hebron; 116 Arabs were killed, most of them by British police. From 1936 to 1939, Palestinian Arabs revolted against British rule and Jewish immigration; Britain crushed the revolt, and about 5,000 Arabs were killed. In 1939 Britain limited Jewish immigration and land purchases and promised an independent Palestine within ten years — just as Jews were trying to escape Nazi Europe. After the Second World War, Jewish armed groups attacked the British; in 1946 one of them, the Irgun, bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, killing 91 people.

His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people … it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.

The UN Partition Plan (1947)

On 29 November 1947 the UN voted for the Partition PlanUN Partition Plan✕The United Nations' 1947 plan to divide Palestine into a Jewish state, an Arab state and an international zone around Jerusalem. Jewish leaders accepted it; Arab leaders rejected it. It was never carried out.All words explained →: a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone around Jerusalem.

The Jewish state would get 56% of the landHow the 1947 UN Partition Plan divided the land✕Jewish state 56% · Arab state 43% · Jerusalem area 1%As of 29 November 1947Much of the proposed Jewish state was the Negev desert. It would have had about 498,000 Jews and 407,000 Arabs. The Arab state would have been almost entirely Arab.Source: UN General Assembly — Resolution 181 (II): Future government of Palestine (the Partition Plan) (29 Nov 1947), much of it desert — and about 400,000 Arabs, nearly half its people. Jews were a third of the population and privately owned about 6–7%Land owned by Jews before 1948✕about 6–7%As of 1945–1947Of the total land of Mandate Palestine. Much of the rest was owned by Arabs, or was state land or land with unclear ownership. Jews were about one third of the population.Source: United Nations — Land ownership in Palestine, 1945 (based on the Mandate's Village Statistics) (1945) of the land; Arabs owned much of the rest, and much of the Negev desert was state land.

Two views

Was the Partition Plan fair?

Many Palestinians say

No. It gave most of the land to a minority that owned less than 7% of it, without asking the Arab majority. Why should Palestinians pay for Europe's crimes against the Jews? They wanted one independent state for everyone living there.

Many Israelis say

It was a painful compromise. The Jewish side accepted a small state in pieces, much of it desert, without Jerusalem. After the Holocaust, Jews needed a state. If the Arab side had said yes, there would have been two states — and no war.

These are widely held views, not the views of every Israeli or every Palestinian. Both societies argue about these questions among themselves.

The day after the vote, Arab gunmen attacked Jewish buses; Jewish militias struck back, and fighting spread.