Jerusalem was supposed to be independent of both Israel and the Palestinians, likely to avoid such conflicts. Does anyone know exactly why that didn’t happen?
My guess, that fell through after the 6-day war that captured Palestine.
Actually, no. It dates back to the Israeli War of Independence in 1948-49. When WW1 ended, the Ottoman Empire was broken up. Since they had sided with the Germans, they suffered the loss of territory. The British were awarded Palestine (aka Southern Syria) as well as Iran/Iraq. (The French were awarded the territory later called Lebanon.) Iran/Iraq was called “British Mandated Mesopotamia” and Israel was called “British Mandated Palestine.” A month before the British conquered/liberated Jerusalem, the Balfour Declaration was promulgated by HRH. This declared the British determination to establish a Jewish Homeland in Palestine. The Declaration and the establishment of British Mandated Palestine was approved by the League of Nations.
Fast forward to just after WW2. The British are tired of having to occupy this land and continue making concessions to the Arabs to ensure the free flow of British oil. (It doesn’t help that every time they try to come up with a way of dividing the land into Jewish and Arab sections results in the Arabs rioting and destroying everything Jewish they can find.) The British announce the end of the Mandate and put the problem into the lap of the newly-minted UN. After a lot of negotiations, Palestine is divided into the area to be called Israel and the Arab portion, who don’t bother naming their share because they’re really pi**ed off that ANY Jews are allowed to live in the region. Jerusalem was declared to be an independent region administered by the UN.
The end of the Mandate was supposed to be on 14 May 1948. Every other place where the British had left (such as India) there had been some ceremony passing control over to the leaders of the newly created countries. With Israel, though, the British literally lowered the flag, got on the boats, and left without even saying goodbye and good luck. That evening, the Provisional Government of the Modern State of Israel signed their Declaration of Independence, fulfilling Isaiah 66:8.
Two days later, all the Arab nations around Israel started attacking and invading. The Kingdom of Jordan quickly captured Jerusalem. After almost a year of fighting, Israel negotiated an armistice with each of their surrounding neighbors. No matter what they did, the Israelis were unable to retake Jerusalem or the regions of Judea and Samaria. These two regions became known as “The West Bank” and Jordan officially became known as “Transjordan”.
(cont.)
