1948 War

In 1948, disputes over how to resolve the crisis of who would control Palestine after the withdrawal of the British Mandatory Power led to the first of five major wars between the State of Israel and the forces of Arab states in the region and the Palestinians.

The first Arab-Israeli war started in November 1947, as an immediate response of the local Palestinians to the Partition Plan decided by the General Assembly (Resolution 181), which they violently opposed. This immediately developed into a civil war between the two communities in Palestine. The second phase of the war started in mid-May 1948 with the invasion of the Arab armies on the morrow of Israel’s Declaration of Independence by David Ben-Gurion, head of the provisional government, before a twenty-four-member Provisional Council (later to become the Knesset). U.S. President Harry S. Truman gave de facto recognition of the state eleven minutes later. The Soviet Union quickly followed suit. Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Transjordan responded by sending their armies into Palestine.

Israeli forces, despite their limited numbers and lack of military equipment, gained an early and decisive advantage in the war, with Arab military forces being comparatively disorganized and largely ineffective. Israeli forces reopened the road toJerusalem, gained control of the Coastal Plain, secured the Upper Galilee, and made headway into the Negev. By the end of the war, Israel held 23 percent more land than was allotted to it under the 1947 Partition Plan. The remainder of the Palestinian territory was occupied by Egypt and Jordan, with Egypt gaining the Gaza Strip and Transjordan gaining the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

After occupying part of Jerusalem in 1948,Jordan wrongfully closed access to the Western Wall and other Holy Sites to Jews, thus increasing Israel’s motivation to occupy the city once King Hussein committed the blunder ofjoining the war against Israel in 1967. The armistice agreements of 1949 left Transjordan in control of the West Bank and “East Jerusalem,” and King Abdallah of Transjordan arranged for Palestinian elders to offer him leadership through a process called bafa, a pledge of allegiance. As a result, he annexed the West Bank and what is known as “Arab Jerusalem” to Transjordan, transforming that state into the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The illegal annexation of what was to be the territory of a Palestinian state was accepted by Israel, which favored dealing with the Hashemite monarchs rather than with the Palestinians. No independent Arab Palestinian state could thus be established in the area, as envisioned by the Partition Plan.

B.