The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), born David Grün in Płońsk, Poland, was a Zionist Israeli politician who played a pivotal role in the establishment of the State of Israel and became its first Prime Minister. Immigrating to Ottoman-ruled Palestine in 1906, Ben-Gurion soon became heavily involved in the Zionist Movement. By the 1930s, he was the leading Zionist figure in Mandatory Palestine. He was the leader of the State of Israel from 1948 until 1963.

Throughout his book, Pappé stresses Ben-Gurion’s central role in developing the Jewish paramilitary in the 1930s and 1940s, especially in conjunction with the hand-picked Zionist members of the unofficial advisory board known as the “Consultancy.” The other members of the Consultancy, including Yigal Allon, Yoseph Weitz, and Yigael Yadin, shared Ben-Gurion’s vision of an exclusively Jewish state. To achieve such a state, however, Ben-Gurion realized that the Zionists would need to achieve a much stronger presence in Palestine while expelling the country of its Indigenous Arab inhabitants. These Zionist goals—attested in Ben-Gurion’s detailed diary—culminated in Plan Dalet, ironed out in March 1948, which set the “blueprint” for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.

Pappé’s emphasis on Ben-Gurion’s role in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine offers an alternative to traditional Israel historical narratives, in which Ben-Gurion is remembered fondly as the founding father and hero of the State of Israel.

Abdullah I bin Al-Hussein (1882-1951) was the ruler of Jordan from 1921 until his assassination in 1951. He was the Emir of Transjordan from 1926 until 1946, and King of independent Jordan from 1946. The politically astute Abdullah served on the Ottoman legislature but aligned himself with the British during the First World War, during which he played a key role in the Great Arab Revolt (1916-1918) against the Ottomans. Abdullah’s role as Emir and later King of Jordan served to establish the Hashemite dynasty as the royal family of Jordan.

Abdullah played an important role in the Arab Israeli War of 1948, coming to an agreement with the Zionists to divide Mandatory Palestine between Jordan and the new State of Israel. Abdullah’s agreement with the Zionists violated the 1947 UN Partition Resolution, according to which the country was to be divided between the Jewish Zionists and the Palestinians. Pappé demonstrates that the agreement between Abdullah and the Zionists became one of the main factors deciding the fate of the Palestinians. In allowing Jordan to annex the West Bank, the Zionists succeeded in neutralizing the strongest army in the Arab world, Abdullah’s Arab Legion.

The British Empire, which reached its zenith in the 19th and early 20th centuries, was the largest empire in history, with territorial holdings across the world in Asia, Africa, the Americas, the Pacific, and the Caribbean. The British Empire became notorious for its economic exploitation of territories and peoples under its control as it moved to establish its commercial and political dominance. Britain’s construction of an extensive naval network facilitated global trade and communication.

After World War II, the British Empire began going into decline. This decline was accelerated by the occupation of the Empire’s holdings in East and Southeast Asia by Japan during the war, but also by the decline in British economic and military strength caused by the war and by the emergence of strong nationalist movements in many parts of the world. By the middle of the 20th century, the British were instituting a process of decolonization that granted independence to most of their imperial territories. Decolonization, however, often proved a messy process, with the British playing favorites or stirring tensions among local powers within the territories that were to be granted independence. Particularly notorious was the Empire’s departure from the Middle East, where British policies surrounding decolonization—for example, the notorious muddle that resulted in Palestine as a result of the British Mandate there—led to conflicts that have continued into the 21st century.

The United Nations (UN) is an international organization founded in 1945, after the end of World War II. Comprising 193 member states as of 2023, the UN serves as a global forum for diplomatic dialogue, cooperation, and conflict resolution. Its primary objectives include maintaining international peace and security, protecting human rights, providing humanitarian assistance, and upholding international law.

The UN operates through various specialized agencies, programs, and bodies, such as the General Assembly, the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, and the Secretariat. The General Assembly, where all member states have equal representation, discusses and coordinates international issues. The Security Council, with five permanent members possessing veto power, addresses matters of peace and security.

The UN’s mission of maintaining world peace has long been complicated by historical events and conflicts, such as the decades-long Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. The UN has also been criticized for its failure to adequately address the conflicts in the Middle East, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In fact, as Pappé highlights in his book, it was precisely the inadequacy of the UN’s Partition Resolution, passed in 1947, that made hostilities between the Zionists and Palestinians inevitable in 1948. Moreover, the UN’s failure to intervene in the conflict resulted in the dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. While the UN has sanctioned Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians and has continued to do so throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, they have not been effective at brokering any lasting peace in the region.