Whose Land is It? Israel and Palestine …

Claims and counter claims retell the story to refute each other. Can clarity be gained?

If pictures can be worth more than words, try maps.

When the Ottoman Empire collapsed after WWI it was divided into forty-three different countries, including 17 Arab states.

All of these huge land mass countries have recognized borders and few disputes about their right to exist. Israel is that tiny blue sliver.

How did the State of Israel come to be?

Map2. The Jewish Homeland under the Balfour Declaration. 1917. [Pictured In Blue] While the official name in English was the Mandate for Palestine, on official documents written in Hebrew the name would include the initials for Eretz Yisrael. Folks who lived there were Palestinians (Jews and Arabs)— from the name of the land. It was not a STATE. It was a …”we haven’t solved this yet “ … territory, governed by the British.

Map 3. In 1922, the territory for the Jewish Homeland was reduced by 77% from the original Mandate. The whole new entity of Trans Jordan was drawn onto the map.

MAP 4. NEXT came The Peel Commission, 1936, to study borders. Their Recommendation in 1937 is Map 4. The pink area — An Arab State. The Blue area a Jewish State. The Report, after being accepted by the British Government, was rejected by the Arabs. Arab states did not want to see a Jewish state in ‘their’ neighborhood.

MAP 5. When the United Nations Charter was adopted in 1945, Article 80 of the Charter maintained the rights to a Jewish homeland under the Mandate. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending the partition of Palestine into to two states, one Jewish and one Arab with Jerusalem to be governed by an international regime. (See map below)

While the UN partition plan reduced the Jewish Homeland even further, it was accepted by the Jewish side, but not by the Arabs. The Arabs immediately launched a war of annihilation against the Jewish state.

Maps courtesy of https://www.jfedsrq.org/crconnect-section/did-jews-take-israel-away-from-palestinians