All language subtitles for 2018 And There Was Israel (Et Israël fut)

And there was Israel...

The real Jews, the real Judaism,
the real mass organization,

were against Zionism.

On the 80 German Chief Rabbis,

78 signed to say they didn’t want

a Zionist anti-Jewish Congress

to happen in Germany.

The poor Herzl had to organize the congress
in a casino in Basle.

With all the respect, a casino in Basle

everything started from a casino in Basle.

This brings us back to

Judeo-Christian mythology,

to strong and very evocative images,

at least in Europe
and Northern America:

As one opposes
a sedentary Jewish farmer

to the nomadic tribal Arab.

So one opposes the civilized world

to barbarians and a primitive world.

And this brings us to
the stereotypes of Abel and Cain.

Abel, the sedentary farmer,

and Cain, the nomad,
who will be killing Abel.

This is perhaps
what is most important.

How to transform
a religious mythology

into a historical or
political-historical mythology?

Why am I insisting here?

In Israel’s Declaration of
Independence in 1948

they introduce the myth in which
the Jewish People was exiled

by the Romans during the 1st century of our era.

So I decided to look for
research reports on this act of exile.

But there was no exile,

there was no political act of exile.

The Jews were not exiled.

Judaism had started to spread,

to come to Rome etc.,

but the Jews were
never exiled from this land.

However, the birth of Zionism

needed this idea of return,

based on the concept of exile.

The crystallization of nationalism

with a racist imagination

is typical of the end
of the 19th century.

Everyone went crazy
about nationalism at that time,

which will later lead
to World War 1.

One cannot understand WW1

without the idea of nationalism
which is spread everywhere.

You cannot understand Zionism...

it is also an imitation of every
other form of nationalism in Europe.

During WW1,

Britain and its allies are going
to fight on different battlefields,

in particular on the Arab peninsula,
the Middle East.

In order to uphold
their imperialist goals,

the British used diverse strategies
and several palace intrigues,

and made three
contradictory promises.

First,
the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence:

in exchange for their alliance
with the British Empire,

the Hashemite would receive

a soon-to-be Arabic realm,
undefined,

at the end of WW1.

The second secret negotiations

were the famous
Sykes-Picot Agreement

concerning a temporary division

of areas of influence

in the Middle East
between France and England

after the war.

Lastly, the Balfour Declaration

in which the Foreign Secretary,
Lord Balfour,

declares Britain’s support to

the creation of
a Jewish national home.

Now, very important:

the other countries,

the other imperialistic
or colonialist powers,

supported this project
in order to have a role

in the Middle East changes.

One must think
like someone in 1917:

the Middle East will soon
become a land

in the hands of Westerners.

From a legal point of view,
the declaration only committed Britain

and no one else from the Allies.

We’ll have to wait for 1922

for the Balfour Declaration
to be integrated into

the charter of the
Mandate for Palestine

and to become a piece
of international legislation.

The League of Nations

At the end of WW1,

the creation of
the League of Nations

is a great project of hope
and will to promote peace.

The League of Nations brings,
at least,

two very important
and new approaches.

The first focuses on
the matter of transparency,

on stopping the practices
that prevailed in treaties

and international agreements
until then.

The second very important element

is the matter of self-determination
of free peoples.

And this will have consequences,

especially on the development

of the British Mandate of Palestine
and of its outcomes.

One has to understand
one thing with this Zionist process.

Between 1880 up to 1924,

there are 2.5 million Jews,
especially the Yiddish people,

that are immigrating
towards the West.

They stop in Germany,
they are pushed further on;

they stop in France and
they are pushed further on;

they stop in London and
they are pushed further on,

so they end up in San Francisco.

On 2.5 million people,

only 100'000 people

decided to immigrate to Palestine.

The number of Zionists
among the Jews is very low.

Now, why 1924?

Because in 1924 there is
a very strong anti-Jewish and

anti-immigration resentment
in the US.

And there is the Johnson law
that decides to cut off immigration.

Therefore immigration and colonization
increase here, in this land of Palestine.

So everything is going
to be transformed from 1933

because of Hitler’s rise to power,

which engages this time
a relatively massive immigration,

about 40’000 or 50’000 people each year,

towards Palestine.

And here, you have the feeling that
the numerical ratio of people

is radically changing in favor
of the Zionist movement.

In Palestine, the situation
remains extremely tense.

Serious disturbances are occurring
in many areas of the territory

and the number of
terrorist attacks is increasing.

Sent in emergency
to restore peace,

new British forces
have landed in Jaffa.

Confronted with the need of stopping
the bloody activity of the rebels,

the British authority was forced
to use strong measures.

In 1938,

between 15 to 20% of the British army
in the world is in Palestine

to stop the Palestinian revolt.

This means that at the time
of the Munich Agreement,

1 British soldier out of 5
is in Palestine,

which is totally unacceptable.

And when Europe starts moving
towards the war,

the British freeze the situation
in Palestine

through the White Paper of 1939

which limits and then forbids

the Jewish immigration
into Palestine.

England and the Mediterranean

The freedom of the Mediterranean

is essential for the security
of the maritime route

that links Britain to
its colonial Empire.

In the Eastern Mediterranean,

England has to defend
the Palestinian coast

and the populations placed
under its protectorate,

as well as the port of Haifa,

the terminus for the pipeline
that brings from Mosul

the oil needed
for its national defense.

From 1941 to 1943,

Palestine is a rear base for
the British army in the Middle East

and develops its economy
in every sector,

because they had to feed and dress
1 million British soldiers

that were fighting
in the Egyptian desert.

Obviously this is also the case
in Egypt, in Iraq,

the whole region is working
for the British army.

Then, in spring 1942,
the Germans and the Italians

were chased from North Africa
with the seizure of Tunis.

Then WW2 pulls away
from the Middle East.

And here again,

you have distinct attitudes
among the Zionist movements.

The official Zionism

continues to collaborate
with the British by eventually

creating a Jewish squad
that would fight alongside

the British army.

But in 1944
the Zionist Right starts

a series of terrorist attacks
against the British in Palestine.

So the official Zionism collaborates
and takes parts in the war effort

against the Nazi Germany,

but the Irgun is blocking thousands
of British soldiers in Palestine,

which were supposed to be fighting
against the Nazis.

The Irgun does not disarm.

Here are the images taken
seven minutes after the attack

of the Goldsmith of Jerusalem
in which 30 British perished.

Acknowledging attacks of all sorts

– 48 in this month –

the British authorities
declared martial law

in the 5 most populated areas
of Jewish Palestine.

The brand new
United Nations Organization

is going to take over
the Palestinian problem.

The UNSCOP is going
to make 2 propositions.

The first is for a single State,
a Federal State

composed of several districts,

such as Arab-Palestinian districts
and Jewish ones.

This proposition won’t obtain
the majority of the votes.

Whereas the second proposition,

presented as the solution,

voted by the majority,

is precisely the creation
of two States.

One Palestinian and one Jewish,

on a majority of the historic
Palestinian territory,

and 1% of this territory
is dedicated to Jerusalem

and its conurbation with Bethlehem

under an international status.

Among all those who approved
the division of Palestine

into two independent States,

none ever really wanted to tackle

the legal or juridical
side of the question.

In the way it was prepared
and conceived,

by the intrigues made around it,

and by the contrivance
that are blindingly obvious

and that served to present it
to the public opinion

as a humanitarian-only project;

this project will remain

the biggest political scandal
of the century.

When one examines
the votes at the UN,

the divide is very clear

between those favorable
to the Jewish State,

generally the Christian countries,

and those that refuse it,
the non-Christian countries

except for some countries
from South America

that are opposed to the division.

I think the decision of 1947

resulted from a guilty conscience.

Between 1945 and 1948,

every Westerner has two things
weighting on his conscience:

First,

the suffering of the Jews
during WW2 was atrocious,

that’s one thing.

And secondly,

what were we to do
with all these refugees

from Poland, Hungary,
and elsewhere,

that are in camps in Germany?

The US don’t want them
in their country,

neither do France,
nor Great Britain.

Joy of Israel

In Jerusalem,

the Israelites give free rein
to their legitimate joy.

They celebrate with exuberance
the decision taken by the UN

to divide Palestine into
a Jewish state and an Arab state.

Without satisfying entirely
the aspirations of Zionist leaders,

this solution constitutes nevertheless
for the Jewish people

an indisputable success.

The situation in Palestine
suddenly deteriorated.

The Arab population reacted
violently to the UN decision

to divide Palestine between
the Jews and the Arabs.

Immediately incidents broke out

and fires devastated the Jewish
neighborhoods of Jerusalem.

In Jerusalem, the tensions between
Arabs and Jews increase every day.

The Semiramis Hotel,
headquarters of the Arab Forces,

has been dynamited by members of
the Jewish terrorist group, Haganah.

Insecurity prevails.

In the Jewish districts,

every town tries hard
to ensure its own defense

and every village,
in fact every farm,

transforms its inhabitant,
men or women,

in potential fighters.

Arabs and Jews
enlisted terror and hatred.

So we have a myriad of events,

situations differ

depending on the regions
and periods in Palestine.

So it is very difficult

to say whether or not there was
a coordinated expulsion policy.

We can debate about
the conditions of expulsion,

but it is undeniable that
from the very beginning,

returning was forbidden.

So the coordinated
and voluntary policy

decided by the Israeli Government
of that time,

was to dynamite villages,
burn harvests,

shoot on sight anyone
trying to return.

Crossing Amman,
the Transjordan capital,

the Iraqi armies are setting off

to help their race brother
grappling with the Jews.

The Transjordan army

has crossed the Jordan

and has seen dawn
break on the horizon

of the fortifications of Jerusalem.

In Palestine, Arabs and Jews
started fighting again.

Despite the intervention of
the Egyptian Air Force,

the Israeli forces
have managed to occupy

the main points of reference
of the Negev Desert

in Southern Palestine,

including Beersheba,

located on the road
to Egypt and Jerusalem.

Once again

the pitiable spectacle of the war
ends up on this land

that was once the center of
men’s great hope.

And the world is looking in vain

for a reasonable solution

to the Palestinian problem.

It’s through the writing
of the history

of this war and its consequences,

and also the memoirs

that the official story
has often dismissed,

that a common ground
must be found.

A part of the conflict’s resolution

resides in the negotiation
of this relation with the past,

of this history and
of these memoirs,

a fine-tuned combination

of what to remember and what to forget.

Clinical Professor of Law at the Boston University

Professor of Political Sociology at the Geneva Graduate
Institute of International and Development Studies

Historian and Political Scientist in Amman

Professor and Chair holder of Contemporary Arab History
at the Collège de France in Paris

Professor of History and Director of the European Centre
for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter

Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History and Director of
St Antony's College Middle East Centre at the University of Oxford

Professor Emeritus of History at the Tel Aviv University