Great Clarendon Street, Oxford, OX2 6DP,
United Kingdom
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries
© Martin Bunton 2013
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First Edition published in 2013
Impression: 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by licence or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
ISBN 978–0–19–960393–0
Printed in Great Britain by
Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire
The Palestinian–Israeli Conflict: A Very Short Introduction
Very Short Introductions available now:
ADVERTISING • Winston Fletcher
AFRICAN HISTORY • John Parker and Richard Rathbone
AGNOSTICISM • Robin Le Poidevin
AMERICAN POLITICAL PARTIES AND ELECTIONS • L. Sandy Maisel
THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY • Charles O. Jones
ANARCHISM • Colin Ward
ANCIENT EGYPT • Ian Shaw
ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY • Julia Annas
ANCIENT WARFARE • Harry Sidebottom
ANGLICANISM • Mark Chapman
THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE • John Blair
ANIMAL RIGHTS • David DeGrazia
ANTISEMITISM • Steven Beller
THE APOCRYPHAL GOSPELS • Paul Foster
ARCHAEOLOGY • Paul Bahn
ARCHITECTURE • Andrew Ballantyne
ARISTOCRACY • William Doyle
ARISTOTLE • Jonathan Barnes
ART HISTORY • Dana Arnold
ART THEORY • Cynthia Freeland
ATHEISM • Julian Baggini
AUGUSTINE • Henry Chadwick
AUTISM • Uta Frith
BARTHES • Jonathan Culler
BESTSELLERS • John Sutherland
THE BIBLE • John Riches
BIBLICAL ARCHEOLOGY • Eric H. Cline
BIOGRAPHY • Hermione Lee
THE BOOK OF MORMON • Terryl Givens
THE BRAIN • Michael O’Shea
BRITISH POLITICS • Anthony Wright
BUDDHA • Michael Carrithers
BUDDHISM • Damien Keown
BUDDHIST ETHICS • Damien Keown
CAPITALISM • James Fulcher
CATHOLICISM • Gerald O’Collins
THE CELTS • Barry Cunliffe
CHAOS • Leonard Smith
CHOICE THEORY • Michael Allingham
CHRISTIAN ART • Beth Williamson
CHRISTIAN ETHICS • D. Stephen Long
CHRISTIANITY • Linda Woodhead
CITIZENSHIP • Richard Bellamy
CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY • Helen Morales
CLASSICS • Mary Beard and John Henderson
CLAUSEWITZ • Michael Howard
THE COLD WAR • Robert McMahon
COMMUNISM • Leslie Holmes
CONSCIOUSNESS • Susan Blackmore
CONTEMPORARY ART • Julian Stallabrass
CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY • Simon Critchley
COSMOLOGY • Peter Coles
THE CRUSADES • Christopher Tyerman
CRYPTOGRAPHY • Fred Piper and Sean Murphy
DADA AND SURREALISM • David Hopkins
DARWIN • Jonathan Howard
THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS • Timothy Lim
DEMOCRACY • Bernard Crick
DESCARTES • Tom Sorell
DESERTS • Nick Middleton
DESIGN • John Heskett
DINOSAURS • David Norman
DIPLOMACY • Joseph M. Siracusa
DOCUMENTARY FILM • Patricia Aufderheide
DREAMING • J. Allan Hobson
DRUGS • Leslie Iversen
DRUIDS • Barry Cunliffe
THE EARTH • Martin Redfern
ECONOMICS • Partha Dasgupta
EGYPTIAN MYTH • Geraldine Pinch
EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN • Paul Langford
THE ELEMENTS • Philip Ball
EMOTION • Dylan Evans
EMPIRE • Stephen Howe
ENGELS • Terrell Carver
ENGLISH LITERATURE • Jonathan Bate
EPIDEMIOLOGY • Roldolfo Saracci
ETHICS • Simon Blackburn
THE EUROPEAN UNION • John Pinder and Simon Usherwood
EVOLUTION • Brian and Deborah Charlesworth
EXISTENTIALISM • Thomas Flynn
FASCISM • Kevin Passmore
FASHION • Rebecca Arnold
FEMINISM • Margaret Walters
FILM MUSIC • Kathryn Kalinak
THE FIRST WORLD WAR • Michael Howard
FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY • David Canter
FORENSIC SCIENCE • Jim Fraser
FOSSILS • Keith Thomson
FOUCAULT • Gary Gutting
FREE SPEECH • Nigel Warburton
FREE WILL • Thomas Pink
FRENCH LITERATURE • John D. Lyons
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION • William Doyle
FREUD • Anthony Storr
FUNDAMENTALISM • Malise Ruthven
GALAXIES • John Gribbin
GALILEO • Stillman Drake
GAME THEORY • Ken Binmore
GANDHI • Bhikhu Parekh
GEOGRAPHY • John Matthews and David Herbert
GEOPOLITICS • Klaus Dodds
GERMAN LITERATURE • Nicholas Boyle
GERMAN PHILOSOPHY • Andrew Bowie
GLOBAL CATASTROPHES • Bill McGuire
GLOBAL WARMING • Mark Maslin
GLOBALIZATION • Manfred Steger
THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE NEW DEAL • Eric Rauchway
HABERMAS • James Gordon Finlayson
HEGEL • Peter Singer
HEIDEGGER • Michael Inwood
HIEROGLYPHS • Penelope Wilson
HINDUISM • Kim Knott
HISTORY • John H. Arnold
THE HISTORY OF ASTRONOMY • Michael Hoskin
THE HISTORY OF LIFE • Michael Benton
THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE • William Bynum
THE HISTORY OF TIME • Leofranc Holford-Strevens
HIV/AIDS • Alan Whiteside
HOBBES • Richard Tuck
HUMAN EVOLUTION • Bernard Wood
HUMAN RIGHTS • Andrew Clapham
HUME • A. J. Ayer
IDEOLOGY • Michael Freeden
INDIAN PHILOSOPHY • Sue Hamilton
INFORMATION • Luciano Floridi
INNOVATION • Mark Dodgson and David Gann
INTELLIGENCE • Ian J. Deary
INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION • Khalid Koser
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS • Paul Wilkinson
ISLAM • Malise Ruthven
ISLAMIC HISTORY • Adam Silverstein
JOURNALISM • Ian Hargreaves
JUDAISM • Norman Solomon
JUNG • Anthony Stevens
KABBALAH • Joseph Dan
KANT • Roger Scruton
KEYNES • Robert Skidelsky
KIERKEGAARD • Patrick Gardiner
THE KORAN • Michael Cook
LANDSCAPES AND CEOMORPHOLOGY • Andrew Goudie and Heather Viles
LAW • Raymond Wacks
THE LAWS OF THERMODYNAMICS • Peter Atkins
LEADERSHIP • Keth Grint
LINCOLN • Allen C. Guelzo
LINGUISTICS • Peter Matthews
LITERARY THEORY • Jonathan Culler
LOCKE • John Dunn
LOGIC • Graham Priest
MACHIAVELLI • Quentin Skinner
MARTIN LUTHER • Scott H. Hendrix
THE MARQUIS DE SADE • John Phillips
MARX • Peter Singer
MATHEMATICS • Timothy Gowers
THE MEANING OF LIFE • Terry Eagleton
MEDICAL ETHICS • Tony Hope
MEDIEVAL BRITAIN • John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths
MEMORY • Jonathan K. Foster
MICHAEL FARADAY • Frank A. J. L. James
MODERN ART • David Cottington
MODERN CHINA • Rana Mitter
MODERN IRELAND • Senia Paseta
MODERN JAPAN • Christopher Goto-Jones
MODERNISM • Christopher Butler
MOLECULES • Philip Ball
MORMONISM • Richard Lyman Bushman
MUSIC • Nicholas Cook
MYTH • Robert A. Segal
NATIONALISM • Steven Grosby
NELSON MANDELA • Elleke Boehmer
NEOLIBERALISM • Manfred Steger and Ravi Roy
THE NEW TESTAMENT • Luke Timothy Johnson
THE NEW TESTAMENT AS LITERATURE • Kyle Keefer
NEWTON • Robert Iliffe
NIETZSCHE • Michael Tanner
NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITAIN • Christopher Harvie and H. C. G. Matthew
THE NORMAN CONQUEST • George Garnett
NORTHERN IRELAND • Marc Mulholland
NOTHING • Frank Close
NUCLEAR WEAPONS • Joseph M. Siracusa
THE OLD TESTAMENT • Michael D. Coogan
PARTICLE PHYSICS • Frank Close
PAUL • E. P. Sanders
PENTECOSTALISM • William K. Kay
PHILOSOPHY • Edward Craig
PHILOSOPHY OF LAW • Raymond Wacks
PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE • Samir Okasha
PHOTOGRAPHY • Steve Edwards
PLANETS • David A. Rothery
PLATO • Julia Annas
POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY • David Miller
POLITICS • Kenneth Minogue
POSTCOLONIALISM • Robert Young
POSTMODERNISM • Christopher Butler
POSTSTRUCTURALISM • Catherine Belsey
PREHISTORY • Chris Gosden
PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY • Catherine Osborne
PRIVACY • Raymond Wacks
PROGRESSIVISM • Walter Nugent
PSYCHIATRY • Tom Burns
PSYCHOLOGY • Gillian Butler and Freda McManus
PURITANISM • Francis J. Bremer
THE QUAKERS • Pink Dandelion
QUANTUM THEORY • John Polkinghorne
RACISM • Ali Rattansi
THE REAGAN REVOLUTION • Gil Troy
THE REFORMATION • Peter Marshall
RELATIVITY • Russell Stannard
RELIGION IN AMERICA • Timothy Beal
THE RENAISSANCE • Jerry Brotton
RENAISSANCE ART • Geraldine A. Johnson
ROMAN BRITAIN • Peter Salway
THE ROMAN EMPIRE • Christopher Kelly
ROUSSEAU • Robert Wokler
RUSSELL • A. C. Grayling
RUSSIAN LITERATURE • Catriona Kelly
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION • S. A. Smith
SCHIZOPHRENIA • Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone
SCHOPENHAUER • Christopher Janaway
SCIENCE AND RELIGION • Thomas Dixon
SCOTLAND • Rab Houston
SEXUALITY • Véronique Mottier
SHAKESPEARE • Germaine Greer
SIKHISM • Eleanor Nesbitt
SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY • John Monaghan and Peter Just
SOCIALISM • Michael Newman
SOCIOLOGY • Steve Bruce
SOCRATES • C. C. W. Taylor
THE SOVIET UNION • Stephen Lovell
THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR • Helen Graham
SPANISH LITERATURE • Jo Labanyi
SPINOZA • Roger Scruton
STATISTICS • David J. Hand
STUART BRITAIN • John Morrill
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY • Stephen Blundell
TERRORISM • Charles Townshend
THEOLOGY • David F. Ford
THOMAS AQUINAS • Fergus Kerr
TOCQUEVILLE • Harvey C. Mansfield
TRAGEDY • Adrian Poole
THE TUDORS • John Guy
TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITAIN • Kenneth O. Morgan
THE UNITED NATIONS • Jussi M. Hanhimäki
THE U.S. CONCRESS • Donald A. Ritchie
UTOPIANISM • Lyman Tower Sargent
THE VIKINGS • Julian Richards
WITCHCRAFT • Malcolm Gaskill
WITTGENSTEIN • A. C. Grayling
WORLD MUSIC • Philip Bohlman
THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION • Amrita Narlikar
WRITING AND SCRIPT • Andrew Robinson
Available soon:
MANAGEMENT • John Hendry
FOOD • John Krebs
MODERN WAR • Richard English
SOCIOLINGUISTICS • John Edwards
FRACTALS • Kenneth Falconer
VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS
VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide.
The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. The VSI library now contains more than 300 volumes—a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology—and will continue to grow in a variety of disciplines.
VERY SHORT INTRODUCTIONS AVAILABLE NOW
For more information visit our website www.oup.com/vsi/
Martin Bunton
THE PALESTINIAN–ISRAELI CONFLICT
A Very Short Introduction
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
List of illustrations
1 Ottoman Palestine 1897–1917
2 British Palestine 1917–37
3 Palestine partitioned 1937–47
4 Atzmaut and Nakba 1947–67
5 Occupation 1967–87
6 The rise and fall of the peace process 1987–2007
Conclusion
Chronology
References
Further reading
Index
Acknowledgements
Many colleagues, students, friends, and family members have contributed to this book, and it is a pleasure to acknowledge them. I am deeply indebted to Gregory Blue, Christopher Ross, and Michael Thornhill who read carefully through numerous drafts, correcting mistakes and offering suggestions. Special thanks also to Avi Shlaim for his support and judicious advice and Mouin Rabbani for generously sharing his wisdom. Many academic colleagues and friends at the University of Victoria have stimulated my thinking in various ways, including Paul Bramadat, Rod Dobell, Andrew Rippin, Gus Thaiss, and Andew Wender. And it is very important that I acknowledge the influence—direct and indirect�
�of the many scholars of the Middle East whose published works have guided me, and I have tried to recognize this debt in both the References and Further reading sections at the end of the book. Only the author, of course, bears any responsibility for errors in fact or interpretation. I also wish to thank the numerous undergraduate students in the University of Victoria History Department, as well as local community groups and organizations, with whom I have attempted over two decades to share my knowledge, and questions. I especially thank Martin Hoffman, Ezra Karmel, and Christina Winter for their astute observations and research assistance.
I am most grateful to Emma Ma for her patience and support at all stages of the publishing process. At OUP, I also thank Luciana O’Flaherty, Kerstin Demata, Andrea Keegan, Carol Carnegie, Prabha Parthiban, Kevin Doherty, and Mike at Chartwell illustrations.
As always, my very special thanks go to Eila, Peter, and Seth (and, yes, Cleo). That this book has finally seen the light of day is primarily due to the constant encouragement and love of my wife Saija.
Preface
Over the last 120 years the evolving Palestinian–Israeli conflict has had many facets, but none has been as pressing and tangible as the problem of sharing the land. Too often, general weariness with the seemingly unending cycle of violence between Israelis and Palestinians has reinforced an ahistorical notion of the conflict as an ancient and religious one. By contrast, this Very Short Introduction reduces it to a modern territorial contest: two nations, one land. The main challenge to resolving the conflict is essentially one of drawing borders.
Accordingly, this book focuses squarely on the constant but evolving challenge of sharing a relatively small but geographically varied strip of land sitting between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The six chapters of this book, organized chronologically, chart the failure of successive attempts to establish independent states that satisfy the claims of both Jewish and Palestinian nationalism to the same territorial space. Each section covers the span of a twenty-year (with the exception of one ten-year) period: 1897–1917; 1917–37; 1937–47; 1947–67; 1967–87; and 1987–2007. The chapters are organized around detailed examinations of pivotal historical junctions: the 1897 Basel Congress; the 1917 Balfour Declaration and British occupation of Palestine; the 1937 Peel partition plan and the violence of the Arab revolt; the 1947 United Nations (UN) partition plan and the outbreak of the war for Palestine; the 1967 war; and lastly, the 1987 intifada. At the risk of being overly linear, this approach ensures historical breadth. One of the main premises of this book is that there can be no assessment of the present, nor discussion of the future, without an understanding of how the conflict unfolded from the beginning. And by highlighting the many layers of complexity that have been added to the conflict over successive periods of time, focused attention on these bidecadal turning points also usefully reveals the cyclical nature of the conflict: these historical junctures gain much of their significance by the way they serve, somewhat paradoxically, as both spurs for potential resolution and motivations for further conflict—holding the promise to finally cut the Gordian knot of the territorial conflict, while at the same time tightening it.