The primary reasons why Arabs do not support the creation of Israel are several underlying historical, political, and cultural issues. Since the Jewish claims were largely founded on ancient holy texts instead of actual occupation and rights of the existing Arabs, Arabs denied the notion that a Jewish nation should be established in a land the Palestinians had inhabited for thousands of years. They considered the Zionist enterprise to be an expansionist movement that was encroaching on their territory and sovereignty without their approval because of what they found wrong with the Zionist pursuits and unfulfilled promises, such as the Balfour Declaration and British colonial policies. Several historical, political, and cultural factors are the primary causes of Arab resistance to the establishment of Israel.
Since Jewish demands were largely founded on ancient sacred texts but not on the fact that current Arab communities occupied and used the land, Arabs did not accept the notion that a Jewish state had to be established on the land inhabited by Palestinians thousands of years ago. Due to unfairness and failure to fulfill their promises, such as the Balfour Declaration and British colonialism, they considered the Zionist effort as an expansionist movement that was encroaching on their land and sovereignty without their permission.
The impact of the Balfour Declaration and the British Mandate
Even though Israel is now a 75-year-old Jewish nation, the Arab people in the country have never been few. The Israeli Arab people are the largest minority group in Israel, as compared to the Arabs in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Although they are equal to Jewish citizens, most of them continue to endure socioeconomic challenges and discrimination. In the meantime, the two groups are segregated because of the Israel-Palestinian conflict over the decades and the theological and cultural differences. The situation is likely to erupt at times, and an epidemic of intercommunal violence in 2021 highlighted this fact.
They are overwhelmingly the descendants and the survivors of Arabs who stayed within the borders Israel had drawn after the Arab-Israeli War in 1948. The British Mandate of Palestine, which then contained approximately 1.2 million Arabs, was partitioned into the state of Israel. Approximately 150,000 of them continued residing in the territory of Mandatory Palestine that was to become the state of Israel following the displacement or exodus of more than 700,000 of them in what Arabs call the nakba, or catastrophe. They automatically became citizens and made up roughly half of Israel’s population. Israeli Arab citizens, in contrast to their Jewish counterparts, were ruled by the military until 1966.
The United Nations partition plan of 1947
When Israel annexed East Jerusalem a year later, it offered Israeli citizenship to the hundreds of thousands of Arab residents, but the majority of them turned it down. The land is regarded as occupied Palestinian territory by the UN. A few of the residents are Israeli citizens, and Arabs are included in both Israeli and Palestinian censuses. Approximately two million individuals, or 21% of Israel’s population, are Arab now. Except for a few hundred thousand people in East Jerusalem who are permanent residents and thus have fewer privileges, everyone is an Israeli citizen. Despite some of the Christians and Druze, who more often tend to be Israeli, Sunni Muslims constitute the greatest number of Arab citizens. The international news media usually use similar language to distinguish between these inhabitants and Arabs who live in the Palestinian territory. To demonstrate that they do not accept Israeli identification, most members of this community identify themselves as Palestinian citizens of Israel, though others identify as Palestinians. For a variety of reasons, some people would rather be called Arab citizens of Israel. This Backgrounder uses the phrase because it captures the political and legal reality of today.
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