On the first day of the 20th century, Israel did not exist where today’s state of Israel is located. In that region, which was affiliated with the Ottoman Empire, there was the state of Palestine, which was affiliated with the Ottoman Empire. From that day on, while the Palestinian state disappeared in the 48-year period, the Israeli state was born. Let’s summarize how this happens in short headings.
The road to the disappearance of Palestine
The series of events that changed the fate of Palestine began with the construction of the Damasco (Damascus) – Medina railway at the beginning of the 20th century.
This was not an ordinary railway.
Its official name is the Hejaz Railway, but in reality it meant money and wealth for the Palestinians.
The railway, whose construction started in 1900 and reached the Palestinian territories in 1908, had the following features, according to Business Insider magazine:
“Palestine had a successful import and export industry at the beginning of the 20th century.
“The expansion of railways across Palestine to neighboring countries has helped grow the region’s business community.”
“When railways began to be built in Palestine in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, connections became easier and faster and employment opportunities increased.
Trains connected Palestine to neighboring African, Asian and European markets in a different and faster way than ports could.
Products were sold in open-air markets or processed in factories to be sold.
Investments from neighboring countries consolidated a strong trading economy.
The produce was plentiful and could be purchased on a small or large scale.
People would come to work for trade in the city or on the railroads.
“Local people ran food markets and bakeries.”
There was only one country against the Hejaz Railway: England.
In the late 1800s and from 1901 onwards, a group from the Quiker sect in England opened courses under the name of Friends of Ramallah.
Various trainings were given here. Additionally, at the established Women’s Institute, women of different ages would come together to knit and spin wool.
In those years, Egypt was under British control. After the First World War started in 1914, when the Ottomans started the Suez operation and wanted to remove the British from Egypt, the Palestinians began to defy the Ottoman army, even though it was none of their business.
They overturned the train wagons coming from Istanbul and started killing our soldiers, but actually the soldiers of their own state.
In 1917, Palestinians betrayed their own state and found themselves in a position where they stabbed their own soldiers in the back.
However, the Hejaz railway improved the economic situation of many of them, and Palestinian merchants became rich thanks to the trade made by trains.
That year, 1917, when the Ottoman army was withdrawing from Palestine, Palestinians were demonstrating with British flags.
“Twenty years have passed since Israel was established in Palestinian lands.”
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