1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine
The 1947–1948 civil war in Mandatory Palestine was the first phase of the 1947–1949 Palestine war. It broke out after the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution on 29 November 1947 recommending the adoption of the Partition Plan for Palestine.[4]
This article is about the initial civil war phase of the 1948 Palestine war. For the subsequent international phase, see 1948 Arab–Israeli War. For the entire conflict, see 1948 Palestine war.
During the civil war, the Jewish and Arab communities of Palestine clashed (the latter supported by the Arab Liberation Army) while the British, who had the obligation to maintain order,[5][6] organized their withdrawal and intervened only on an occasional basis.
At the end of the civil war phase of the war, from April 1948 to mid-May, Zionist forces embarked on an offensive later identified as Plan Dalet, conquering cities and territories in Palestine allocated to a future Jewish state as well as those allocated to the corpus separatum of Jerusalem and a future Arab state according to the 1947 Partition plan for Palestine.[7]
When the British Mandate of Palestine ended on 14 May 1948, and with the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, the surrounding Arab states—Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq and Syria—invaded what had just ceased to be Mandatory Palestine,[8] and immediately attacked Israeli forces and several Jewish settlements.[9] The conflict thus escalated and became the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.
Background
Under the control of a British administration since 1920, Palestine found itself the object of a battle between Palestinian and Zionist nationalists, groups that opposed both the British mandate and one another.
The Palestinian backlash culminated in the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, a deadly civil conflict that saw the deaths of nearly 5,000 Palestinian Arabs and 500 Jews, and resulted in much of the Palestinian political leadership, including Amin al-Husseini, leader of the Arab Higher Committee, being driven into exile. Britain also reduced Jewish immigration in response to the violence, as legislated by the 1939 White Paper. It also prompted the reinforcement of Zionist paramilitary groups.
After World War II and The Holocaust, the Zionist movement gained attention and sympathy. In Mandatory Palestine, Zionist groups fought against the British occupation. In the two and a half years from 1945 to June 1947, British law enforcement forces lost 103 dead, and sustained 391 wounded from Jewish militants.[10] The Palestinian Arab nationalists reorganized themselves, but their organization remained inferior to that of the Zionists.
The Haganah, a Jewish paramilitary organization, was initially involved in the post-war attacks against the British in Palestine but withdrew following the outrage caused by the 1946 Irgun bombing of the British Army Headquarters in the King David Hotel.
In May 1946, on the assumption of British neutrality in the future hostilities, a Plan C was formulated that envisaged guidelines for retaliation if and when Palestinian Arab attacks took place on the Yishuv. As the clock was ticking down, the Haganah implemented assaults involving the torching and demolition by explosives against economic infrastructures, the property of Palestinian politicians and military commanders, villages, town neighbourhoods, houses and farms that were deemed to be bases or used by inciters and their accomplices. The killing of armed irregulars and adult males was also foreseen.
On 15 August 1947, on suspicion it was a terrorist headquarters, they blew up the house of the Abu Laban family, prosperous Palestinian orange growers, near Petah Tikva. Twelve occupants, including a woman and six children, were killed.[11] After November 1947, the dynamiting of houses formed a key component of most Haganah strikes.[12]
Diplomacy failed to reconcile the different points of view concerning the future of Palestine. In early November, The Haganah began mobilizing for war, and issued an order that all men in the age range between 17 and 25 register.[13] On 18 February 1947, the British announced their withdrawal from the region and on 29 November, the General Assembly of the United Nations voted to recommend the adoption and implementation of the partition plan with the support of the big global powers, but not of Britain nor of the Arab States.
Violence kept intensifying with the intervention of military units. Although responsible for law and order up until the end of the mandate, the British did not try to take control of the situation, being more involved in the liquidation of the administration and the evacuation of their troops.[50][51] Furthermore, the authorities felt that they had lost enough men already in the conflict.
The British either could not or did not want to impede the intervention of foreign forces into Palestine.[52][53] According to a special report by the UN Special Commission on Palestine:[54]
This description corresponds to the entry of Arab Liberation Army troops between 10 January and the start of March:[41]
Fawzi al-Qawuqji, Field Commander of the Arab Liberation Army, arrived, according to his own account, on 4 March, with the rest of the logistics and around 100 Bosniak volunteers in Jab'a, a small village on the route between Nablus and Jenin. He established a headquarters there and a training centre for Palestinian Arab volunteers. In addition, roughly 100 to 200 British soldiers and police officers, many of whom had developed bitterness towards the Zionist movement and/or pity for the Palestinians over the course of the British counterinsurgency campaign against the Zionists, deserted to help the Palestinians. In contrast, only 17 deserters fought for the Zionists.[56]
Alan Cunningham, the British High Commissioner in Palestine, thoroughly protested against the incursions and the fact that "no serious effort is being made to stop incursions." The only reaction came from Alec Kirkbride, who complained to Ernest Bevin about Cunningham's "hostile tone and threats."[57]
The British and the information service of Yishuv expected an offensive for 15 February, but it would not take place, seemingly because the Mufti troops were not ready.[58]
In March, an Iraqi regiment of the Arab Liberation Army came to reinforce the Palestinian Arab troops of Salameh in the area around Lydda and Ramleh, while Al-Hussayni started a headquarters in Bir Zeit, 10 km to the north of Ramallah.[59] At the same time, a number of North African troops, principally Libyans, and hundreds of members of the Muslim Brotherhood entered Palestine. In March, an initial regiment arrived in Gaza and certain militants among them reached Jaffa.