How Did Israel And Israelis Interact With The City Of Jerusalem From 1948-1967

Through examining how both Arabs and Israelis interacted with the city of Jerusalem from 1948-1967 it is evident that how each side felt about the city was essential in defining the nature of the conflict. The conflict that embroiled Jerusalem in bitter fighting in 1948 and 1967 was ultimately driven by the belief that both the Arabs and Israelis had an inalienable right to the city of Jerusalem. Consequently neither side was willing to capitulate any territory to the other in order to achieve peace, ultimately furthering the conflict until the Israelis were able to win out militarily. The clash of beliefs between the two sides is illustrated by the tensions and disputes that continued even after an armistice was reached in 1949. In their administration

Jerusalem however did not have the same cultural significance to the Jordanians and thus witnessed a decline in political and cultural importance after 1948. The 1967 war must thus be looked at as the culmination of the Israelis increased focus on the development of Jerusalem as the capital of their new state. In 1948 the impending end of the British mandate for Palestine, set for 15 May 1948, caused questions to arise as to what should be done with the contested territory in Israel/Palestine. The United Nations was aware that both the Israelis and the Arabs would attempt to gain control over territory once the mandate ended and thus hoped to implement their 1937 Plan of Partition to avoid a conflict. However, because the British did not allow UN forces to enter Palestine until just before the end of the mandate, the UN was unable to secure its authority, and, as war broke out between

The 1948 war resulted in a divided Jerusalem in which Israeli forces held the western half of Jerusalem while the eastern half was held by Arab forces and would come to be ruled by King Abdullah of Jordan. The overarching Arab aim in this stage of the conflict was to halt the formation of a Jewish state in Palestine by preventing the Israelis from occupying the land allocated to them in the UN partition plan, especially the holy city of Jerusalem. Abdullah, King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan sought to invade the whole of Jerusalem and annex it to the Jordanian state in this conflict but had been unable to overtake the western half of the city. King Abdullah’s motivation for this attempt at conquering Jerusalem was to assert his authority as “guardian of the Islamic Holy Places.” The Jewish motivation for occupying land in Israel, especially the city of Jerusalem, was also based on its religious and historical significance to the Jewish people. In their declaration of independence on 14 May 1948 the Israelis declared that the “spiritual, religious, and political identity” of the Jewish people had been shaped in Israel over two millennia ago and pointed to this as proof of their