A few, non antisemitic questions about the formation of Israel?

The answers to your questions are well known and are supplied by some of the answerers (except for Clyde, whose "facts" are not). But in addition, since you ask, there are some facts that you probably did not know.

Once the partition of Palestine was approved by the United Nations on November 29, 1947, the violence against the Jews intensified. The equivalent of a Red Cross medical convoy comprising non-combatants -- including doctors, nurses and university faculty and students -- was ambushed by Arabs in the Sheikh Jarrah section of Jerusalem.

Although The British High Commissioner and the British Secretary of State personally gave their assurances that these convoys would be protected by British troops and police, seventy-eight Jews were murdered by the Arabs.

The attack, which lasted seven hours, began at 9:30 a.m. and took place less than 600 feet from the British military post. The British watched from the sidelines. Jewish appeals for help were ignored until mid-afternoon. But by then the Jews had either been burned alive in buses or shot. There were 28 survivors, only eight had no injuries.

Among the dead were the founders of the new faculty of medicine, a physicist, a philologist, a cancer researcher, the head of the university’s department of psychology, and an authority on Jewish law. A doctor who waited four years to marry the nurse he loved was killed when he went to say good bye to his patients before leaving on his honeymoon.

One victim, a doctor, treated the Arab peasants in the village of Isawiyyeh on Mount Scopus two weeks prior to the attack. Yet Arabs claimed that the ambush was a heroic act, and the British had no business intervening even at the last-minute: They did not want a single Jewish passenger to remain alive.

Thousands of furious Jews attended the funeral and lined the streets of the procession. British indifference was responsible for this loss of life. Official Arab response was that they had heard that Jewish gangs were assembled near Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University.

R.M. Graves, the British appointed Chairman of the Jerusalem Municipal Commission, said “…the Arabs do not realize that the killing of doctors, nurses and university teachers was a dastardly outrage.”

Despite this sad and bloody piece of history, Hadassah has endured through hundreds of terrorist attacks and always has been there for the health of Jews and Arabs in the region.

And the Arabs who are treated there get the best medical care in the Middle East, despite their terrorist leanings, affiliations and crimes.

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You obviously expect certain answer, because your questions are base on certain assumptions.

Although your assumptions did sound correct, they are are wrong.

1. Who was previously occupying the land? Which country did it belong to?

There is Turkish census os 1900. According to this census about 350,000 People lived in Palestine, including East Palestine, which is today called Jordan. In West Palestine ( Israel, West Bank ang Gaza) lived about 200,000 people. 80,000 of them were Jews and 120,000 Christians and Muslims. In Jerusalem alone were about 35,000 Jews. Many say that total number Jews was about00,000 since many of them were not Ottoman citizens.

2. Did the U.N. ask the indigenous population permission to make a new country in the land?

Again you assume that all Arabs were indigenous to the land. That not true. Jews did not come alone to the land. Together with Jews, investments, development, jobs and 500,000 Arabs came to Palestine. So about half of the people, that you call indigenous are not indigenous at all. And UN did ask local people. King Faisal represented Arabs in 1919, not 1948 as you think, Because officail descision to create Israel was in 1922. That was condition of the British mandate.

3. What happened to the indigenous population after the country was formed? Were they forced to move out? Did they do so voluntarily?

Again 50% of them are not indigenous. And not all of them forced to move by Jews. Some of them did it voluntary in order to make room for Arab armies to attack Israel.

4. If they were forced to move out, how were they compensated?

Good question. About 600,00 Arabs lmoved out from Israel. And about 900,00 Jews moved from Arab counries. Jews are relativelly rich. Why Arabs did not compensate Palestinians using Jewsh property?

1. Who was previously occupying the land? Which country did it belong to?

Palestine was formerly a part of the Ottoman Empire which was destroyed in WWII. The UK took over the area known as the "Palestinian Mandate".

2. Did the U.N. ask the indigenous population permission to make a new country in the land?

There was going to be two states, but the Arabs refused and didn't get a state.

3. What happened to the indigenous population after the country was formed? Were they forced to move out? Did they do so voluntarily?

They were forced to leave by the Arab countries who said they could come back after they "pushed the Jews into the ocean". The indigenious population inclued Muslims, Christians, and Jews. There is no way you can get an unbiased percentage of each.

Here is a quote that proves that the Arabs forced the refugees out.

"Since 1948 it is we who demanded the return of the refugees... while it is we who made them leave.... We brought disaster upon ... Arab refugees, by inviting them and bringing pressure to bear upon them to leave.... We have rendered them dispossessed.... We have accustomed them to begging.... We have participated in lowering their moral and social level.... Then we exploited them in executing crimes of murder, arson, and throwing bombs upon ... men, women and children-all this in the service of political purposes .... [36]"

-- Khaled Al-Azm, Syria's Prime Minister after the 1948 war

4. If they were forced to move out, how were they compensated?

Some just stayed in Israel, some live in refugee camps in "Palestinian territory" which makes no sense considering they could be integrated into the population. They weren't really compensated.

There was a very few Jews and Southern Syrians at the time. All were offered the right to stay and be Israeli citizens.

The Arab nations declared an attack and told them to run for their lives. Many did.

They can't go back. The ones that stayed have lived good lives in a productive democracy and many have thrived.

There is plenty of info on the subject but a history book is always the best source.

"1. Who was previously occupying the land? "

In 636 arabs under the command of Chalif Umar invaded Palestine and occupied it.

"Which country did it belong to?"

Originally,Palestine belonged to Jews.There were two Jewish kingdoms there:Judea(with the capital in Jerusalem) and Israel(with the capital in Samaria).When Romans conquered Judea,they renamed it into Palestine.

"2. Did the U.N. ask the indigenous population permission to make a new country in the land?"

The indigenous population of Palestine are Jews.UN offered the State to them and to the arabs(it was a mistake;UN had to send arabs to where they came from,to Arabia).Jews agreed.Arabs refused - and started the war against Israel.This was how the confict began.

"3. What happened to the indigenous population after the country was formed?"

The indigenous population,i.e.Jews,remained in their land:Palestine.A part of arabs ran away-and became refugees.Other part of arabs stayed in Israel.Now they are the citizens of Israel.

Those who ran away are not entitled to any compensation because they ran on their own free will,nobody made them run.Those who stayed were not killed or oppressed or persecuted.

1] Before Israel was founded, the region loosely called Palestine was not a nation or even a province or administrative district. It belonged to the Ottoman Empire and had no government(s) of its own.

When the Ottoman Empire fell in WWI, there was no local authority to ask, so the League of Nations/UN appointed the UK to rule it and get it ready for self-government. It was naturally assumed that it would become a Jewish homeland because of the concentration of Jews in the region, and the fact that historically it had been the Jewish homeland. They called it the British Mandate of Palestine. It had not been called Palestine during 400 years of Ottoman rule.

Although it was thought that the M of P would become a Jewish homeland, in fact more than 75% ended up being used to form the country now called Jordan.

2] The region had no coherent government after the Ottoman Empire fell, so there was no way to ask the people what they wanted in an organized way. That is why the UK was put in charge, to make the region ready for self-rule.

3] Israel, when formed, invited all Arabs in the land to stay on as full Israeli citizens. Many did. But neighboring Arab countries made war on Israel because they objected to a Jewish state. They told the Israeli Arabs to leave Israel while they went in and conquered it, and they could come back when Israel was under Arab rule. But Israel won the war and continued to exist. It didn't allow the traitor Arabs to return. But those who had stayed, were indeed full Israeli citizens.

2] Since Israel did not force Arabs to move out, but many moved out at the behest of Israel's enemies, Israel had no obligation to compensate them. I'd say that the foreign Arabs who lured them out by promising them part of the booty, are the ones who owe them compensation. But they have not been forthcoming, and allowed the Arabs from Israel to languish in refugee camps without helping them.

1. Before Israel was formed about 1/3 of the people living in Palestine were European Jewish colonists or immigrants, who had arrived with the help of the British over the objections of the native people, now known as Palestinians but then known as Palestinian Arabs. The remaining 2/3 were Palestinians.

Within the pre-67 borders of Israel, a slight majority of the people were Palestinian Arabs prior to Israel's formation.

Like any of Britain's colonies Palestine was not an independent state prior to Israel's formation. Most of the land was owned by Palestinians, some privately (slightly under 50% of the total was owned privately by Palestinians) and some owned communally (e.g., land owned by villages, religious land), or used traditionally by the native people (e.g. bedouin grazing land) although not formally registered as belonging to them. About 6-7% of the territory of Palestine was owned by European Jewish immigrants.

2. No, the UN didn't ask the permission of the native people. They made the proposal to form Israel from part of the territory to Palestinian negotiators, who adamantly rejected the idea.

3. The native people were forced out, for the most part. The Zionist founders of Israel conducted a well-orchestrated campaign of terror and massacres* to get them to leave. In many cases, the native people were ordered out at gunpoint, the Zionists also laid siege to major Arab towns and urban neighborhoods.

4. They weren't compensated, for the most part. There was a lot of talk about offering compensation, and the UN passed resolution 194 to that effect, and also formed a conciliation commission which estimated the losses which managed to get some of the funds Palestinians had left in bank accounts released. Israel balked however, perhaps at the high cost, or perhaps it didn't want to admit any responsibility.

1) There were Palestinian Christians and Muslims and also Jews who were living peacefully together on that land. It was called The British Mandate of Palestine, or Palestine for short (Falasteen or Flisteen in Arabic.)

2) I'm not sure, but if they did ask, they probably didn't care about the people's answers or opinions.

3) My grandmother is Palestinian and she was from a city called Jaffa (Yafa). Everyone from Jaffa was forced to leave their city and only take a few belongings with them. Afterwards, they reached a checkpoint and any valuables that they had on them (such as jewelry) were taken away. My grandmother ended up moving to Lebanon.

4) They were forced to move out, but my grandmother's family wasn't compensated. Like I said, they were only allowed to take a few belongings and their valuables were stripped away at the checkpoint.

I don't care if the Jews wanted to come to Palestine and live there. The only thing that makes me angry is that they forced so many people out of their homes and out of their country and now, the Palestinians are oppressed as a result.

EDIT: If the Palestinians were not forced out of their homes as some people here think, then WHY else would they leave their homes to live in refugee camps and lead a life of humiliation living as second-class citizens in different countries?

if you read the bible, and i'm not getting all religious on you, though i am christian. technically the bible is a history book accepted by secular history. the Hebrew Israelites were there before the arabs, as arabs were the descendants of abraham and his servant girl, while the 12 tribes of israel were his descendants with his wife. so technically the israelites have been all over the middle east longer than the arabs have. jerusalem today is where it's been for thousands of years and the borders of israel probably arent too far, but i'm no cartographer so i couldn't say for sure. so i'd say they have rights to the whole middle east. and although people try to say the israelis aren't of hebrew blood, they're full of crap. though there are along of jews of european descent.

1. Who was previously occupying the land? Which country did it belong to?

Jews and Arabs. Jews lived mostly on the west and arabs lived mostly on the east.

2. Did the U.N. ask the indigenous population permission to make a new country in the land?

Yes, an arab and jewish state was proposed 3 times.......once before 1937, once in 37 and once in 48. Jewish autonomy was denied by arabs 3 times. Jews accepted arab autonomy all 3 times. Arabs never proposed what to call the state either, Palestine was not one of the choices.

3. What happened to the indigenous population after the country was formed? Were they forced to move out? Did they do so voluntarily?

After the Jewish state was declared independent of the British Mandate and before, arab violence towards Jews both in the arab state and the Jewish state increased. In 1947 rockets were shelled at Tel Aviv and Haifa at the jewish population. The Haganah and Irgun reacted by taking control of the areas where these rockets/shells came from. As a result, many were forced (300,000) and many left (300,000).

4. If they were forced to move out, how were they compensated?

Those who were forced to move out were at first allowed to return but Ben Gurion argued that since the arabs attacked first there is no point to allow for return if its a security risk. Israel built apartment buildings in Gaza and west bank for refugees but many are out of use now.

I agree these questions are not anti-semitic. The fact that you mentioned they were not speaks volumes of its "anti-semitism".