‘The British created a mess and then cleared off…’

In today’s Irish News Brian Feeney explores the background to the formation of Israel and its repercussions to this day. From the article:

Unionists feel an affinity with Israel. Sir Ronald Storrs, governor of the so called ‘Palestine Mandate’ 1917-26, welcomed the arrival of Jewish colonists into the region after the Balfour declaration advocating a Jewish homeland.

Arabs opposed the British mandate; they’d expected independence. Indeed, the British had led them to believe they would get it after the Turkish defeat. So Storrs hoped the more Jewish colonists the better because they would “form for England a little loyal Jewish Ulster in a sea of potentially hostile Arabism”.

That went well, didn’t it?

The Arabs, in whose lands the British encouraged Jews to live, never accepted the legitimacy of the British creation or its later emanation, Israel, following little loyal Jewish Ulster’s’ revolt against British rule. They never will. School atlases in most Arab countries don’t show Israel. The British created a mess and then cleared off. It’s what they do: India, Pakistan, Cyprus etc, etc.

They did it first in Ireland in 1921 after inventing the north with its northern parliament of Ireland’ as they called it. Hypocritically they claimed it was temporary until Dublin and Belfast politicians reached some agreement, but the British knew that would never happen. Like so many other places subsequently, they had done a colossal injustice to the inhabitants.

They didn’t care; they were gone.

Brian O'Neill

I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism, I am not a member of any political party. Oddly for a member of the Slugger team, I am not that interested in daily politics, preferring to write about big ideas in society. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.