The situation was further exacerbated when despite Arab rejection, the United Nations approved a plan to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states on November 29, 1947.
While preparing for their withdrawal, the British paid little attention to the turmoil to which Palestine had fallen prey.
On May 14, 1948, General Alan Cunningham, the last British high commissioner, left what was known then as the mandate of Palestine.
John Marlowe wrote of the last few minutes of British rule in the book, The Seat of Pilate: “The Union Jack was lowered and with the speed of an execution and the silence of a ship that passes in the night British rule in Palestine came to an end.”
On the same day, David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, announced the independence of the state of Israel, established on the land granted to the Jews by the Partition Plan.
Mobilised for defeat
IN DEPTH
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Special report – 60 Years of Division
Special report – Crisis in Gaza
Israel: Rise of the Right
PLO: History of a Revolution
Within a day, forces from the armies of several Arab countries, including Egypt and Transjordan, attacked the new state of Israel.
Underestimating the power of the fledgling state, Arab rulers thought they were heading towards an easy victory that would quiet post-World War II domestic unrest and – perhaps – gain them more territory.
“The advisors to President Quwatli and King Farouq, for example, were telling them that this will be a piece of cake for the Syrians and Egyptians [respectively],” Sami Moubayed, a Syrian political analyst and author of Shukri al-Qawatli’s biography, The George Washington of Syria, said.
The scenario of defeating defenceless Israel turned out to be a far-fetched one.
The forces of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Transjordan suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the Israeli military which was a combination of Jewish militias, such as the right-wing Irgun Tzvei Le’umi and the more extreme Stern Gang.
The reasons behind the crushing defeat are still the subjects of many heated debates.
Radwan al-Sayyid, a Lebanese political thinker, told Al Jazeera that there was not enough awareness among Arabs that an ill-timed and poorly-executed military campaign could end up totally losing Palestine.
“The Jews, who constituted only around 20-25 per cent of the population, were not perceived as a serious threat by most of the Arabs,” he said.
Disunited, Arabs fall
Another factor that contributed to the 1948 defeat was inter-Arab political rivalries.
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Jewish settlers and members of the
pre-state Haganah in 1938 [GETTY]
While Arab leaders claimed to be fighting for Palestine, they were also engaged in a war of interests in which the warring parties had different agendas and often conflicting goals.
