h rule had ended. Just six weeks before the annex of Turkey and Palestine, the Jews had learned of a British document called the Balfour Declaration. It was one of the most important documents ever written concerning the Holy Land. It announced that the British government favored the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and would do all it could to make it happen. Meanwhile throughout the world, but especially in Europe, Jews were persecuted and murdered. In the 1800s thousands of Jews fled persecution and returned to their native land. Many Arabs whom had already been living in Palestine were angered by what they saw as a Jewish invasion. They attacked Jewish farm settlements, villages and cities. The British troops occupying Palestine did not intervene between the Arabs and the Jews. Instead the British supported the Arabs against the Jews, and the Jews against the Arabs. (Silverman, 61-67) As more Jews arrived, the economy grew and attracted Arabs to immigrate to Palestine. However, while the Jews were returning to their homeland, Arab nationalism was growing. Palestine's Arabs rejected the Balfour Declaration, even though they themselves had little interest in a state of their own at the time. Before long, the Arabs opposed the establishment of any Jewish State in the Middle East. (Goldschmidt, 158) After 1945 and the Holocaust, which left 6 million Jewish men, women and children dead, the cause for a Jewish homeland, where Jews could be free of persecution gained momentum. In 1947, the United Nations voted to divide the Middle East between Jews and Arabs. The Jews agreed to this plan, while the Arabs rejected it. The Arabs would not recognize a Jewish State. Jordan and Syria also wanted Palestine to belong to them, and the Arabs of Palestine didn't see themselves as Palestinian, but instead as Arabs and wanted to be part of another Arab country. (Hiro, 65) The basic cause for confl...
