Modernization and the Rise of Ethnic Nationalism

One of the least recognized tendencies of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries has been the rise of states of based upon common ethnic inheritance. Put differently, unlike the United States, there has been a world-wide tendency for the nation and the state to become one.

Palestine was one of the countries in which that tendency became manifest. When the Palestine Mandate was created after World War I, the British had no idea that two states might arise in Palestine. Nevertheless, as a result of the Arab Revolt that began in 1936, a Royal Commission under the Chairmanship of Sir William Peel was set up to explore ways of arriving at a viable political solution to the conflict between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. In July 1937, the Commission issued its report which advocated that Palestine be partitioned into Jewish and Arab lands, save for a small "corridor" stretching from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean south of Jaffa. The Commission also recommended a "transfer of populations" based on the model of the transfer of populations between Turkey and Greece in the 1920s because "The gulf between the races is thus already wide and will continue to widen if the present Mandate is maintained."

Although the Jews received the smaller land area, they decided to accept the Peel proposal. The Arabs vehemently rejected it. Both sides were seeking to create an ethnic-nationalist state. They differed on the extent of territory each sought. In the 1990s the PLO proposed to establish a secular state in Palestine consisting of Muslims, Jews, and Christians. This was unacceptable to Hamas that sought a religiously legitimated Muslim state. It was also unacceptable to the Jews who believed they had no reason to trust their safety and security to Palestians.

One of the fundamental reasons for the rise of the ethic-national state was the fact that, more often than not, people concluded that if they could trust anyone, it could only be members of their own kinship group which is basically what an ethnic -national state is, rightly or wrongly, taken to be. Jerry Muller, Professor of History at the Catholic University of America, has written an essay, "Us and Them: The Enduring Power of Ethnic Nationalism," in Foreign Affairs, March/April 2008 explaining why he believes that ethnic nationalism "will drive global politics for generations to come." Required reading for WR Rel 374.