Talk:1948 Palestine war/Name

Wikipedia article history and archive debates on the name

 * Dec 2001: 1948 Arab–Israeli War article created 
 * Sep 2006: Talk:1948 Arab–Israeli War/Archive 11
 * May 2007: Talk:1948 Arab–Israeli War/Archive 11
 * Apr-Jul 2007: (a) 1948 Palestine war created, as effectively a disambiguation page ; (b) an 80kb article 1947-48 Palestinian Civil War was created to cover the first phase ; (c) the original 1948 Arab-Israeli war article had its scope changed 
 * Feb 2008: Talk:1947–1949 Palestine war/Archive 2 and Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Israel Palestine Collaboration/Current Article Issues/Archive 2
 * Jun 2009: Articles for deletion/1948 Palestine war
 * During 2010: 1948 Palestine war article was converted from disambiguation into a full article (from 6kb to 40kb)
 * Sep 2011: Talk:1947–1949 Palestine war/Archive 1
 * Jul 2014: Talk:1947–1949 Palestine war/Archive 2
 * Jan 2018: Talk:1947–1949 Palestine war/Archive 2
 * Jan-Apr 2018: Talk:1947–1949 Palestine war/Archive 3 and Talk:1947–1949 Palestine war
 * Jan 2019: Talk:1948 Arab–Israeli War

Motive to change the names

 * To have a common prefix per Consistency in article titles (There is an established now consensus on this issue, see )
 * To ensure most readers are reading the correct article, i.e. the story which scholars focus on. The below illustrates that they are currently going the wrong way, therefore only seeing part of it. The two names “1948 Palestine war” and “1948 Arab-Israeli war” are synonyms in common speech, so our unique way of treating it causes confusion to readers, as evidenced by the pageview stats.


 * The current situation is akin to having an article called the Great War, covering the period 1914-18, and then a sub article called World War I covering the period 1917-18, on the logic that it only became a world war after the entry of the United States.

Names under discussion

 * 1948 Palestine War (1947–1949 Palestine War)
 * 1948 Arab–Israeli War (1947–1949 Arab–Israeli War, First Arab–Israeli War)
 * 1948 War
 * 1948 Palestine–Israel War (1947–1949 Palestine–Israel War)

Other options excluded from the discussion per previous consensus:
 * Israeli War of Independence (Israeli POV)
 * Nakba/Al-Nakba (Palestinian POV)

Scholarly quotations on the debate over the name

 * Benny Morris, 1948: A History of The First Arab-Israeli War, Yale University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-12696-9: "The 1948 War – called by the Arab world the First Palestine War and by the Palestinians al-nakba (the disaster), and by the Jews the War of Independence (milhemet ha’atzma’ut), the War of Liberation (milhemet hashihrur) or the War of Establishment (milhemet hakomemiyut) – was to have two distinct stages: a civil war, beginning on 30 November 1947 and ending on 14 May 1948, and a conventional war, beginning when the armies of the surrounding Arab states invaded Palestine on 15 May and ending in 1949"
 * Ilan Pappe: The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947-1951, p.ix: "Finally, a note on the choice of an adequate name for the first Arab–Israeli war. Arabs and Jews describe the same event in contradictory ways...I have chosen to call the war by its calendar name - the war of 1948"
 * Benny Morris, 1948: A History of The First Arab-Israeli War, Yale University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-12696-9: "The 1948 War – called by the Arab world the First Palestine War and by the Palestinians al-nakba (the disaster), and by the Jews the War of Independence (milhemet ha’atzma’ut), the War of Liberation (milhemet hashihrur) or the War of Establishment (milhemet hakomemiyut) – was to have two distinct stages: a civil war, beginning on 30 November 1947 and ending on 14 May 1948, and a conventional war, beginning when the armies of the surrounding Arab states invaded Palestine on 15 May and ending in 1949"
 * Ilan Pappe: The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947-1951, p.ix: "Finally, a note on the choice of an adequate name for the first Arab–Israeli war. Arabs and Jews describe the same event in contradictory ways...I have chosen to call the war by its calendar name - the war of 1948"

Background to the war

 * The War was fought between 1 December 1947 to sometime in 1949, depending on the sources
 * The War is treated unanimously by historians as single topic, albeit divided into two distinct phases:
 * a civil war phase between the militias of the Jewish settlement of Palestine and the militias of Palestinian Arabs including Muslims and Christians, beginning on 1 December 1947 and ending on 15 May 1948, and
 * a conventional and international war phase, fought between the newly declared State of Israel and its new army, and the armies of all surrounding Arab states, especially Egypt and Jordan. This phase concluded with the war itself in 1949.
 * The War took place in a territory known as Palestine and was under the British Mandate. On 15 May 1948, Israel was declared on part of the territory; it was recognized by Western countries only after the end of the War in January 1949 (some Soviet-aligned and third world countries extended recognition beforehand)
 * The term "Arab" is complex; Palestinians consider it to be sensitive.

1948 Palestine War
This name is used by several historians of several opinions, sides and narratives.

Why choose this name:

 * The War was fought on a land known politically as "Palestine", as it was part of a League of Nations Mandate given to the United Kingdom.
 * The War was fought on a land known historiographically in English as "Palestine"
 * There are many sources that use it.

Why not to choose this name:

 * Might mistakenly imply Palestinian POV to readers (modern use of the term "Palestine" refers to the State of Palestine, in 1948 it referred to Mandatory Palestine).

Why choose this name:

 * It is used by some sources to refer to the entire war
 * Although Israel was not declared until May 1948, it is not a problem. The Invasion of Poland is the beginning of World War II despite the war not being a "world war" yet.
 * It is straight forward for readers.
 * It has been the title for the second phase for years and draws most of the readers already.

Why not to choose this name

 * Few sources use this title as their primary name for the event as a whole
 * When the war began, and throughout the first phase of the war, there was no "Israel" as it was declared only in May 1948

Sources (Usage definitively referring to the "Whole Period")
'''Note: Because the second phase of the conflict was accurately described as Arab-Israeli in nature, care must be taken to avoid sources which are referring to the second phase (we are trying to identify an appropriate name for the whole period). The below shows only sources which are definitively referring to the whole period.'''
 * Dan Kurzman: ''Genesis 1948: The First Arab-Israeli War": "This book tells for the first time the full epic story of the initial Arab- Israeli war and the events leading up to it. Lasting from November, 1947, to March, 1949, that conflict gave birth not only to the State of Israel after 2,000 years of Jewish dispersion, but to one of the most explosive international problems since World War II"
 * Kirsten E. Schulze: The Arab-Israeli Conflict p.v: "The first Arab–Israeli War"

1948 Palestine–Israel War
This name was proposed by Wikipedians.

Why choose this name:

 * It is purely geographic. The territory of the war was named Palestine, and during the war Israel was declared

Why not to choose this name

 * It is not widely used in the sources
 * It implies a war between Israel and Palestine but Palestine, as an Arab entity, didn't exist yet, just like Israel.

Why choose this name

 * It is, by far, the most common title for the War.
 * It is straight forward
 * It is completely neutral and solves all POV disputes
 * The War is the most known war fought in 1948

Why not choose this name

 * It is not specific enough and relevant only to the context of the Israeli-Palestinian or Israeli-Arab conflicts and Middle Eastern history.
 * The war was fought also in 1947 and 1949.
 * There are other wars fought in 1948 such as the Costa Rican Civil War and the First Kashmir War

Sources (in title only, not in passing as a nickname)
'''Note: Because of the simplicity of this name, some sources use the term as a shorthand rather than a title. The below shows only those who use the term in the title.'''
 * Saleh Abdel Jawad, The Arab and Palestinian Narratives of the 1948 War, in Robert I. Rotberg, Israeli and Palestinian Narratives of Conflict, Indiana University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0-253-21857-5.
 * Benny Morris, 1948: A History of The First Arab-Israeli War, Yale University Press, 2008, ISBN 978-0-300-12696-9: "The 1948 War – called by the Arab world the First Palestine War and by the Palestinians al-nakba (the disaster), and by the Jews the War of Independence (milhemet ha’atzma’ut), the War of Liberation (milhemet hashihrur) or the War of Establishment (milhemet hakomemiyut) – was to have two distinct stages: a civil war, beginning on 30 November 1947 and ending on 14 May 1948, and a conventional war, beginning when the armies of the surrounding Arab states invaded Palestine on 15 May and ending in 1949"
 * Motti Golani & Adel Manna: Two Sides of the Coin: Independence and Nakba 1948. Two Narratives of the 1948 War and Its Outcome [English-Hebrew Edition], p.83: "...in the context of the 1948 war"
 * Ilan Pappe: The Making of the Arab-Israeli Conflict, 1947-1951, p.ix: "Finally, a note on the choice of an adequate name for the first Arab–Israeli war. Arabs and Jews describe the same event in contradictory ways...I have chosen to call the war by its calendar name - the war of 1948"
 * Shlomo Aloni: Israeli Air Force Operations in the 1948 War: Israeli Winter Offensive Operation HOREV, 22 December 1948 - 7 January 1948
 * Avraham Sela & Alon Kadish: The War of 1948: Representations of Israeli and Palestinian Memories and Narratives
 * "Thus, it is for reasons of practicality, that this book will refer to the civil war and military and ethnic cleansing operations that took place between late 1947 to January 1949 by its popular title, the ‘1948 war’"
 * Tanya Reinhart, Israel/Palestine: How to End the War of 1948, Seven Stories Press, 2014.

Why 1948

 * This is the most common way to refer to the general date of the war by historical sources:
 * This is the most common way to refer to the general date of the war by primary sources (politically motived sources).
 * The war lasts from December 1948 (1 month), the whole of 1948 (12 months) and up to either late March (Last military actions, 2 and a half months) or June (Armistice, 6 months), so at best the official time of the war is between 1.3 years or 1.7 years, and most of it is in 1948.
 * The armistice agreement is not relevant to the end of the War, because the warfare ended in March and the armistices came gradually after, and not with all fighting parties, as Iraq never signed an armistice with Israel.
 * Regardless of the official dates to the end of the warfare, the main months of warfare were between late March 1948 (during the civil war phase) and March (during the conventional war phase) so the War mostly refers to less than a year, most of it in 1948.
 * Most of the big battles were fought in up to the third truce in October 1948.
 * There are other examples, most prominent is War of 1812, starting officially in mid-1812 and ending officially in 1815. Another similar example is the Hundred Years' War (116 years).

Why 1947–1949

 * This an article about the War which began in late 1947 and officially ended in early 1949. All of the reasons above don't change it.
 * Changing the title to this might make readers realize the war was not only fought in 1948.

Arab—Israeli War: Ambiguous usage which may be referring to the "Whole Period" or just the "Second Phase"

 * Michael R. Fischbach: Records of Dispossession: Palestinian Refugee Property and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, p.xxi "in the aftermath of the first Arab–Israeli war of 1948..."
 * Bernard Reich: An historical encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli conflict, from book's description: "...the Palestine partition plan in November 1947, the first Arab-Israeli War up to the Israel-PLO Declaration of Principles and subsequent agreements..."
 * Avi Shlaim‏ & William Roger Louis: The 1967 Arab-Israeli War: Origins and Consequences p.4: "The main losers of the first Arab–Israeli war were the Palestinians".
 * Laura Zittrain Eisenberg‏ & Neil Caplan: Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace, Second Edition: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities, p.16: "...the first Arab–Israeli war ended in early 1949..."
 * Hemda Ben-Yehuda‏, Shmuel Sandler‏: Arab-Israeli Conflict Transformed, The: Fifty Years of Interstate and Ethnic Crisis, p.69: "Two of these crises were full scale wars cases——1947–1949 first Arab–Israeli war..."
 * Moshe Naor: ''Social Mobilization in the Arab/Israeli War of 1948: On the Israeli Home Front
 * Slade A. Brewer: ''The 1948 Arab-Israeli War
 * Clark Dumont Neher: The Role of the United Nations Mediator in the Arab-Israeli War of 1948
 * David Tal: The Forgotten War: Jewish–Palestinian strife in Mandatory Palestine, December 1947–May 1948 p.3: "...the historiography of the 1948 Arab–Israeli war..."

Arab—Israeli War: Usage definitively referring to just the "Second Phase"

 * Ian J. Bickerton‏: The Arab-Israeli Conflict: A History, p.67: (see "The Proclamation of Israel and First Arab—Israeli War" chapter )
 * Joshua Landis & Michael Doran The Arab-Israeli War Of 1948: Inter-Arab Rivalry and the Making of the Middle Eastern State System
 * Maʻn Abū Nūwār: The Jordanian-Israeli War, 1948-1951: A History of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. From book's description: "Special reference is made to the Arab-Israeli War of 1948 and its consequences".

1948 War: Usage in passing (as abbreviation or nickname)

 * Elisha Efrat: Jerusalem: Partition Plans for a Holy City. p.239: "After the 1948 war the city was partitioned..."
 * David Tal: The Forgotten War: Jewish–Palestinian strife in Mandatory Palestine, December 1947–May 1948 p.3: "...the actual state of research on the 1948 war..."
 * David Tal‏: War in Palestine, 1948: Israeli and Arab Strategy and Diplomacy p.21: "The 1948 War was over Palestine..."