CLASS 7 | The Conflict of Creation
ISRAEL INSIDE/OUT
CLASS 7
the conflict of creation
Goals (students will be able to):
• Understand the State of Israel’s legal right to exist
• Describe the escalation of violence, beginning with Arab attacks and leading to
the Jewish response
• Identify the three main Jewish organizations that reacted to Arab violence: Lehi,
Irgun and the Haganah
Intro
(1 minute)
In the last class, we discussed the importance of the Balfour Declaration and Herzl’s founding of the
Zionist movement. We talked about the British Mandate and the 1922 division of the Mandate of Palestine and the creation of Transjordan. Today we will look at the steps that led to the establishment of
the State of Israel in 1948, including the 1937 Peel Commission and the Partition Plan.
Play “the conflict of creation”
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(16 minutes)
ISRAEL INSIDE/OUT
Discussion
CLASS 7
(4 minutes)
Question: What were the main points of the film?
• We learned about the British response to Arab pressure
• The Evian Conference and White Paper limited immigration,
preventing Jews from fleeing Europe during WWII. The Peel
Commission created fur ther immigration quotas .
• As Arabs continued to attack Jews , there were extremist Jewish
Possible
Answers
reprisals.
• Illegal Jewish immigration led to British blockades .
• The British-appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, creating an
alliance with Hitler.
• Jewish militia organizations were formed to defend the Jewish
population.
• The King David Hotel was bombed.
• The UN par tition plan divided the Mandate of Palestine according to
demographics.
• The State of Israel was born.
Note to Teacher: The Evian Conference (1938) was attended by 31 countries
to discuss the issue of increasing Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Most
countries refused to take refugees or increase their immigration quotas, including
the US and the British Mandate of Palestine.
The White Paper (1939) was a British government policy paper that agreed
to divide Palestine into two separate countries for Arabs and Jews, each in
proportion to the 1949 population. It also limited Jewish immigration from 1940
to 1944, with further immigration dependent on Arab permission, and restricted
the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs.
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ISRAEL INSIDE/OUT
CLASS 7
Question: What were the reasons for British accommodation to the Arabs?
Answer: The reasons include appeasement in reaction to violence , and political and
economic interests , including oil.
Question: How did the Jewish and Arab communities respond to the partition plan?
Answer: The Jewish community was willing to compromise in order to end the
fighting and gain a Jewish Homeland. They were also in a desperate situation, as many
were fleeing the Holocaust. Many in the Arab community would have been willing to
compromise , but extremists within their leadership made them unwilling to compromise
on the creation of any Jewish State to ompromise on the creation of any Jewish State .
THIS SIMULATION demonstrates the different purposes each group served and the different
kinds of supporters each attracted.
Simulation
(25 minutes)
Divide the class into three groups. Assign each group to an organization, and give each
member the corresponding handout, either “HANDOUT I – LEHI,” “HANDOUT II –HAGANAH,”
or “HANDOUT III – IRGUN.”
Every student should also get “HANDOUT IV – YOUR ORGANIZATION.” Allow 5 minutes for
the students to read their handouts individually, and about another 5 minutes to fill out Handout
IV in their groups. Give each group 5 minutes to present their organization to the class and tr y
to recruit other students to join. After each group has presented, ask the students to vote with
raised hands for the organization they would most like to join.
Conclusion: After the State of Israel declared its independence, the Haganah changed its name
and became the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Lehi and Irgun were disbanded and their members
joined the IDF.
3
ISRAEL INSIDE/OUT
discussion
CLASS 7
(4 minutes)
Discussion: How are today’s Palestinian extremists different from the groups that fought for
Israel’s independence?
• Cer tain Jewish groups did condone violence, but this was
the exception rather than the norm, and was universally
condemned by Jewish leadership.
• Even with the violence , there was a respect for the sanctity
of all human life (e .g., warning before blowing up the King
Possible
Answers
David Hotel). The IDF followed this example by sending
warnings to civilian areas before targeting terrorists .
• Most Jewish militia groups were founded to defend, not
to attack. In fact, most of them functioned as par t of the
Haganah, which translates as “defense.”
• Many Jews were fighting to save thousands of lives for whom
the Holocaust-era British immigration policy was a death
sentence .
The bottom line is that terrorists intentionally target non-combatants, while the policies of the
mainstream groups fighting for Israel’s independence focused on combat groups, not innocent
civilians.
Resources:
1) The White Paper of 1939 - http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/06/the_white_paper_of_1939.html
2) The Revolt is Proclaimed by the Irgun - http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/irgunrevolt.html
3) Principles of the Irgun - http://www.eretzisraelforever.net/IrgunZvaiLeumi/Principals.asp
4) Principles of LEHI - http://www.eretzisraelforever.net/Lechi/Principals.asp
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