PRE-STATE ISRAEL | Israel Insider

Jewish Towns Lost 1947-9

Apr 4, 2023 2:35 pm | Maps, PRE-STATE ISRAEL

When the War of Independence broke out in 1947, the Jewish community of Hebron fled. During the fighting, nine Jewish communities were captured by the Jordanian army – Kibbutz Beit Ha’arava and Kaliya north of the Dead Sea, four kibbutzim in Gush Etzion west of Bethlehem, Atarot and Neve Yaakov north of Jerusalem, and the Jewish Quarter of its Old City. Kfar Darom, in the Gaza strip, was captured by the Egyptian army.

UN Partition Plan of 1947

Apr 4, 2023 9:45 am | Maps, PRE-STATE ISRAEL

In 1947, Great Britain turned over Mandatory Palestine to UN responsibility. The General Assembly appointed a committee which after much study and discussion recommended partitioning the land into Jewish state and Arab states, with Jerusalem under international supervision. On November 29, the partition resolution was accepted by a vote of 33-13.

The British Mandate

Apr 4, 2023 9:39 am | Maps, PRE-STATE ISRAEL

The San Remo Peace Conference of 1920 delegated to Great Britain the authority to administer the Land of Israel and Transjordan, collectively called the Palestine Mandate. In 1921, the British severed the Jewish national home from Transjordan. In 1922, Churchill published a White Paper on this subject and, later that year, the League of Nations approved the changed mandate, effective 1923.

Setting the Northern Border

Apr 4, 2023 9:34 am | Maps, PRE-STATE ISRAEL

In May 1916, France and Great Britain signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement, in which the claims of both sides to the Levant were set down, determining areas of administration and influence. Until 1923, the sides were involved in hard bargaining, with the British insisting on two principles: control of the Biblical area “from Dan to Beer Sheba;” and control of its water sources, the Jordan River and Sea of Galilee.

Setting the Southern Border

Apr 4, 2023 9:21 am | Maps, PRE-STATE ISRAEL

Great Britain wanted to change the border with the Ottoman Empire, under strong German influence, to push the Ottomans further from the Suez Canal. In 1892, the Turks agreed to allow Egyptian guard stations near the Gulf of Eilat. In April of 1906, the Turks were pressed to set the border between Aqaba and Rafah.