Mandates and Zionism

The United Nations partition plan, 1947. United Nations

        In current times, Zionism is an integral part of Israel’s national ideology. The merging of Judaism as a nationality as well as a religion as well as the deserving of Jews of their own states are the aspects that make up the idea of Zionism. However, how was Zionism able to take hold within the region of Israel and Palestine with such conflicting ideas, ideologies, and religions being there for so many years? In the New York Times discussion, we hear from Leena Dallasheh that “The British mandate was crucial in laying the grounds for the creation of the state of Israel and the prevention of the creation of a Palestinian state” Furthermore, Dallasheh states that “Zionism was only able to take root in Palestine because the mandate recognized Zionist organization as representative of the Jewish population and as self-governing institutions” ( Bazelon 24’). From the discussion above, the foreign intervention from the British essentially stated the divisions between Israel and Palestine with almost little to no say from the actual people whose lands were being divided. 

Moving forward in the discussion, the discussion ends with Bawalsa stating “Any real discussion of what is going on today has to start with a century ago, with World War I, when Western powers redrew the Middle East for their own interests” (Bazelon 24’). This sentiment repeats what was said in the previous discussion regarding how Zionism was able to take a foothold within the region. From this, a question can be asked regarding the intersection of foreign powers in not only Israel and Palestine but also other regions around the world and how we place power in those foreign bodies that have no real significant ties to the land.