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CHAPTER 5 ETHNIC CRISES IN A COMPOUND CONFLICT A compound conflict exhibits violence on both the interstate and ethnic-state as well as the interethnic levels. Our analysis thus far has focused primarily on the former. But an assessment of the Palestinian-Israeli domain since the late 1960s undoubtedly requires the incorporation of ethnonational features, particularly since the interethnic conflict preceded the interstate one in Palestine. Our framework distinguishes among interstate, ethnic-state, and interethnic crises. The state centric ICB data-set supports analysis of the ethnic-state episodes, but not of the interethnic incidents, which pre-date the establishment of the Israeli state. We shall consider these crises in a qualitative manner in accordance with CMI parameters. Our interest in mapping the direction of the Arab-Israeli conflict as indicated by crisis behavior leads us to explore two interrelated questions: (1) Are there distinct profiles for interstate and ethnic-state type crises in terms of their core crisis attributes? and (2)What is the impact of the ethnic dimension on the conflict as a whole? The chapter will advance along three distinctive periods: the interethnic period: 1917–1947, the interstate period: 1947–1973; and the ethnic-state period :1974–2000. INTER-ETHNIC CRISES IN THE 1917-1947 PERIOD The year 1917 serves an appropriate point of departure for the outset of the Jewish-Palestinian conflict.1 The Balfour Declaration, making the establishment of a Jewish National Home in Palestine part of British policy, was followed by 117 THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT TRANSFORMED 118 the British occupation of Palestine.The two events suggested to both Jews and Arabs that the Zionist agenda was not merely a vision but could become a reality in world politics. There is scholarly debate as to the birth of a Palestinian Arab communal identity, but Britain’s mandate to prepare Palestine for statehood left no doubt but that a race for control of the new state had begun.2 Both the Jewish and Arab communities harbored ethnonational aspirations. In the rivalry for political power that ensued, ethnic violence several times reached crisis level. The interethnic interaction of the conflict was determined by the nonsovereign nature of the opposing parties. The characteristics of this indigenous communal conflict bear some similarity to the dynamics of international disputes . An interethnic crisis denotes, however, hostile interaction ranging through demonstrations, strikes, economic boycott, riots, terrorism, civil uprising , revolt, and ultimately interethnic war.The demise of the dual authority system was determined by the maldistribution of resources between Jews and Arabs, the equivalent of the distribution of power in international politics.3 The Arab community developed several national institutions, including the Arab Executive (later replaced by the Arab Higher Committee) and the Supreme Muslim Council, the latter founded in 1922.4 The Jewish national institutions included two branches: theWorld Zionist Organization and also the Jewish Agency, since 1929, on the one hand, and Knesset Israel and its affiliated organizations on the other hand. Each community founded its own political parties, trade unions, and illegal paramilitary organizations.5 Structurally, Jews and Arabs functioned equally as “Palestinians” within the British Mandate Palestine but they were separated from each other by social, linguistic, and religious barriers. The 1917–1947 period witnessed three consecutive waves of interethnic crisis involving Jewish and Arab-Palestinian non-state actors. According to the definition provided in chapter 1, an international crisis required two conditions: increase in disruptive interactions and the threat of an incipient structural change in the regional or global system. The first of these interethnic crises involved three zones of Arab-Jewish confrontations between 1919 and 1921. The separation of Palestine from the French Syria mandate in the summer of 1919 provoked violent Arab-Jewish skirmishes in northern Palestine. The crowning of the Emir Faisal as king of Syria in April of 1920 prompted a second Arab-Jewish outbust in Jerusalem.The third incident occurred in Jaffa in May 1921, triggered by Winston Churchill's confirmation of the British commitment to the Balfour Declaration.6 In total, the 1919–1921 wave of ethnic disturbances qualified as a crisis due to the sudden increase in the use of organized and severe violence.7 Moreover, the Arab goal of abolishing the Balfour Declaration implied an existential threat for the Zionist side, hence implying an incipient structural change in the region.The involvement of Britain as the Mandatory power provided a change in the interethnic conflict: convergence with great power politics.The events in ETHNIC CRISES IN A COMPOUND CONFLICT...

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