Arabs & Jews in Palestine - Session 05 - The Founding of the State of Israel
Brief
Develop awareness of the international support for Israel’s establishment and the founders’ readiness to compromise in the name of peace. Foster discussion about the importance of security, peace, and international acceptance. Help chanichim try to think in the mindset of Jews (and others) in the late 1940s.
Equipment
Resource:
Appendix IX (1 copy for the madrich/a)
Appendix X (1 copy)
Appendices XI and XII (1 copy per every other chanich/a)
Optional: map of the world with colored push pins or sticky notes
Activity length: 45 minutes
Age Groups
Elementary, Middle School
Topics
Zionism
Shabbat Apropriate
Download for Printing
Program
Appendix IX will provide the madrich/a with a great deal of background information and should be read prior to the session.
This session should begins with the madrich/a explaining that by the late 1940s there were hundreds of thousands of Jews living in Palestine and, in the aftermath of the Holocaust, the Zionists were more determined than ever to achieve statehood. A brief discussion should ensue about the question of the impact of the Holocaust on the Zionist movement:
Was there a need for an independent Jewish state before the Holocaust?
Would the Holocaust have happened if there had been an Israel?
How did the Holocaust change the Zionist agenda or how the world viewed it?
The madrich/a should explain that in 1947 the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two states, one for the Jews and one for the Arabs.
Show the map of the UN’s proposed plan (Appendix X).
Points to stress in discussion:
The UN drew its lines on the map based on where Jews and Arabs lived. The goal was to create a Jewish state that was home to as many of the Jews in Palestine as possible and as few of the Arabs as possible. Stress that the UN had come to understand that the Jews and Arabs were unlikely to get along well, so this was seen as a good solution.
Ask the chanichim to analyze the map. What do they like about the plan? What do they dislike?
Explain that Jerusalem was to be internationalized. What do they think of the Jewish state having no direct access to Jerusalem?
Distribute copies of the Partition Plan and the Voting Record (Appendices XI and XII) and read through them with the chanichim.
Ask the chanichim what they think of the Partition Plan. Remind them that at the time it was passed, there was no Jewish state – and there had not been one in nearly 2,000 years!
Encourage dialogue and debate in the group, and then explain that the Jews of the yishuv opted to accept the plan, while the Arabs rejected it.
Sikkum discussion points:
Ask the chanichim to read aloud the list of countries that voted for and against creating a Jewish state.
Consider hanging a map of the world on the wall, and have one chanich/a flag how each country voted (with colored pushpins or sticky notes).
Once all votes have been announced, ask campers to assess the support the Jewish state received.
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