Deck 13: The Palestine Mandate and the Birth of the State of Israel

Question 1

According to Herzl, if Jews acquired political sovereignty in a state of their own, which of the following problems would be solved?

A) anti-Semitism
B) the subordinate status of Jewish nationality
C) Jewish oppression
D) All of these answers are correct

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following is NOT true of Zionism?

A) It became a viable political movement once Britain guaranteed the Zionists a homeland in newly conquered Palestine
B) It was begun by Middle Eastern Jews in response to persecution by the Ottomans
C) It is Jewish nationalism
D) The father of the modern Zionist movement was Theodor Herzl

Answer 2

B

Question 3

The Palestine mandate was different from other mandates in the region because

A) it included people of different religions
B) the native population believed that the mandatory power was unjust
C) the native Arab population never assumed control when the European governors left
D) there was an uprising against the imperial power governing it

Answer 3

C

Question 4

Which of the following is NOT true of Jewish immigration in Palestine?

A) Building up the Jewish population of the mandate would give credibility to the claim of a national home
B) The waves of Jewish immigration into Palestine were called "aliyahs"
C) With some 170,000 Jews immigrating to Palestine, the size of the Yishuv doubled from 1933 through 1936
D) By 1936, the number of Jews in Palestine was greater than the number of Arabs

Question 5

The increasing impoverishment and marginalization of the Palestinian Arab peasantry was the result of ____________________.

A) the transfer of cultivated land from Arab to Jewish ownership
B) British taxation policies that pushed small land and farm proprietors into debt
C) the attitudes of Arab notables, who profited from the peasants' plight
D) All of these answers are correct

Question 6

The British dispatched many commissions to Palestine. Which of the following commissions did the British government accept and act upon in strict accordance with the report's recommendations?

A) the Hope-Simpson Commission of 1930
B) the Shaw Commission of 1929
C) the Peel Commission of 1937
D) None of these answers is correct

Question 7

What was the unique recommendation from the Peel Commission regarding the antagonism between Arabs and Jews?

A) It fully supported the Balfour Declaration
B) It recommended that the British mandate halt all immigration into Palestine
C) It recommended that Palestine be partitioned into separate Arab and Jewish states
D) It recommended establishing a Jewish homeland elsewhere

Question 8

The 1947 United Nations proposal recommended the partition of Palestine into two states, an Arab State and Jewish State, as well as ________________.

A) a French stronghold in Jericho
B) a British stronghold in Tel Aviv
C) the designation of Jerusalem as an internationalized district
D) All of these answers are correct

Question 9

Which of the following is NOT true of the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948?

A) The war resulted in the defeat of the Arab forces
B) The war resulted in the death of David Ben-Gurion
C) The war resulted in the enlargement of Israeli territory
D) The war resulted in the collapse of the UN proposal for a Palestinian Arab state

Question 10

What was Plan D, as implemented by the Haganah?

A) It was the plan for Israel to return to the outlined 1947 UN proposal should the Arab forces prove to be a powerful opponent
B) It was the plan to prevent a mass exodus of Palestinian Arabs
C) It was the campaign to undertake the systematic expulsion of Palestinian Arabs living within the area allocated to the Jewish state by means of conquest, permanent occupation, or leveling of Arab villages
D) None of these answers is correct

Question 11

Which of the following statements is NOT true of Theodore Herzl?

A) He believed legal emancipation of Jews insufficient for eliminating anti-Semitism
B) He originated the concept of Zionism in his book, The Jewish State
C) He believed the only solution to anti-Semitism was for Jews to acquire political sovereignty in their own state
D) He helped to convene the first Zionist council in Basel in 1897

Question 12

Which of the following most accurately describes the Histadrut?

A) The Jewish defense force formed in 1920 to defend the Jewish community against Arab attacks
B) The term used for the Jewish community residing in Israel
C) The world Zionist organization led by Chaim Weizmann
D) The federation founded in 1920 to promote Jewish trade unionism

Question 13

Following UNSCOP's report in September 1947, what did the United Nations vote to do in Palestine?

A) Create a federal state in Palestine for both Jews and Arabs
B) Divide Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states and accord Jerusalem international status
C) Divide Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, giving the Jewish state West Jerusalem and the Arab state East Jerusalem
D) Maintain Mandate Palestine under British supervision

Question 14

Which of the following most accurately describes aliyahs?

A) Jews who are born in Israel, rather than in the diaspora
B) Waves of Jewish immigration to Palestine
C) Jews who oppose the existence of a Jewish state in Palestine, as they believe it contradicts God's commandments in the Torah
D) Communal farms first established by Jews in Palestine in the early 1900s

Question 15

Which of the following is not true of Hajj Amin al-Husayni?

A) He was appointed Mufti of Jerusalem in 1921
B) He was appointed president of the Supreme Muslim Council in 1922
C) He adamantly refused to work with the British administration in Palestine
D) He was active in anti-Zionist demonstrations in the immediate post-World War I period

Question 16

Which of the following accurately describes the Revisionists?

A) A group of Jewish intellectuals seeking to redefine historical claims to a Jewish homeland
B) A group of Arabs seeking to revise the Balfour Declaration
C) A group of Arabs and Jews seeking compromise with one another
D) A splinter group of the Yishuv that called for massive Jewish immigration into Palestine and immediate proclamation of a Jewish homeland

Question 17

Which of the following accurately describes the activities of the Jewish National Fund?

A) Zionist organization responsible for negotiating land purchases
B) Along with British taxation policy, it forced the Arab peasantry to borrow funds at high interest rates from local moneylenders
C) It led to eviction of tenant farmers, leading to greater unemployment rates
D) All of these accurately describe the Jewish National Fund

Question 18

Which of the following explains the significance of the Great Revolt of 1936-1939?

A) In addition to its anti-British, anti-Zionist thrust, this locally-led Arab revolt contained elements of a peasant social revolution against the established Arab notability
B) It resulted in the White Paper of 1939
C) It led to Britain effectively dismantling the Palestinian Arab leadership
D) All of these answers are correct

Question 19

Which of the following does NOT accurately describe the Biltmore Program?

A) It was a set of resolutions adopted at a meeting of US Zionists calling for open immigration to Palestine and the establishment of a Jewish commonwealth
B) It was the most forceful shift in official US position towards Zionism
C) It came prior to the White Paper of 1939
D)It was a British-led effort in revising Zionist policies

Question 20

Which of the following is true of the Arab Higher Committee?

A) Britain repealed it after the district commissioner for Galilee was murdered in October 1937
B) It was created in the wake of the General Strike in 1936, in which Arabs demanded Britain restrict immigration and land sales and grant a democratic government
C) It was a belated attempt to unify Arab factions, but it failed to direct popular opinion
D) All of these answers are correct

Question 21

David Ben-Gurion was the first prime minister of Israel.

Question 22

The rise of Palestinian nationalism was largely a response to Zionist settlement.

Question 23

The British consistently backed the Jews over the Palestinian Arabs.

Question 24

The Black Letter of 1931 confirmed Arabs' belief in the ability of Zionist pressure groups to influence the decisions of the British government.

Question 25

After visiting Palestine in 1947, the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) unanimously recommended that British control of the mandate should continue, as the territory was not yet prepared for independence.

Question 26

The __________________ claims to the same territory inhabited by Palestinian Arabs lies at the root of the conflict over Palestine.

Question 27

In his book _____________, Herzl posits that the existence of a Jewish nationality and the absence of a Jewish state made the Jews aliens in the lands in which they lived.

Question 28

By the late 1930s, representatives from the __________________ played an important role in the deliberations of the World Zionist Organization, and private contributions from this country made up a significant portion of the funds donated to the Zionist cause.

Question 29

The __________________ was the Jewish community in Palestine before the establishment of modern Israel.

Question 30

On May 15, 1948, units from the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, and __________________ invaded Israel.

Question 31

Briefly describe the premise on which the mandate for Palestine was founded. Who were the parties involved? What were their conflicting interests?

Question 32

Describe the organizational prowess (or lack thereof) of the Arab and Jewish communities in Palestine in the 1920s/1930s.

Question 33

Describe the three phases in the postwar period that brought the state of Israel into being.

Question 34

Explain what Charles Smith means when he writes of the 1947 two-state solution vote, "Whatever the nature of the Zionist accomplishment in Palestine, the victory at the United Nations was essentially won in the United States."

Question 35

Describe some of the factors leading to an Arab defeat in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.

Question 36

Identify and explain the significance of the Balfour Declaration.

Question 37

Briefly explain the relationship between Great Britain and the Zionist leadership in Palestine during World War II.

Question 38

How were the conditions Western European Jews faced during the nineteenth century different than those experienced by Jews in Eastern Europe? What effects did this have on the development of Zionism?

Question 39

Identify and explain the significance of what Arabs commonly refer as the "Black Letter"?

Question 40

Narratives of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War often depict Israel as a defenseless, newborn state facing off against the onslaught of a combined Arab army. How well does this reflect the reality of the conflict? Explain.

Question 41

How well established were political institutions in Palestine at the time of Britain's withdrawal from the territory in 1948? How did they compare with the systems of governance that Britain had established in its other mandates?

Question 42

How did Britain's policies toward Jewish immigration to Palestine change during the mandate period? Provide examples of key documents that highlight this change.