Below you will find links to hundreds of definitions of terms relevant to the Middle East and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Click the links below to view the terms alphabetically.
Alphabetical Listing
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ
Example Entries
ABSENTEE PROPERTY LAW - The law that states that land that was abandoned by Arabs in Palestine before the creation of the State of Israel, now belongs to the State of Israel.
ABU DIS- Arab neighborhood in East Jerusalem often offered as as the capital of a future Palestinian state. The Knesset (Israeli parliament) first approved this offer on May 15, 2000 by a vote of 56 to 48, but Arab riots which occurred soon afterwards postponed the transfer indefinitely.
ABU MAZEN-BEILIN PLAN- An agreement drawn up by Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas)of the Palestinian Authority and Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Yossi Beilin. The plan proposed Israel's annexation of 4-5% of the West Bank in exchange of an equal amount of Israeli territory to form a Palestinian state. The plan also called for the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu-Dis to be the capital of the new Palestinian state.
ABWEHR- German military intelligence organization which reported to the OKW (Overall High Command of Armed Services). Under the leadership of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the Abwehr became a chief area of operation for resisters, particularly in establishing contacts with outside nations.
ACHDUT HA'AVODAH- (Heb. Labor Union) Socialist-Zionist party that split from the Mapai party in 1944 under the leadership of Itzhak Tabenkin. It later rejoined the Labor party in 1968.
ACHI- Local haredi political group in Har Nof, Jerusalem.
ACHILLE LAURO- Italian cruise liner hijacked by the Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) on October 8, 1985. The four hijackers held all 400 passengers captive and threatened to blow up the ship if their demands to release 50 Palestinians from Israeli prisons were not met. To emphasize the seriousness of their demands the captors murdered a disabled American-Jewish passenger named Leon Klinghoffer by throwing him overboard. Following worldwide criticism, the hijackers later surrendered . In 2003 the leader of the PLF, Abu Abbas, was captured by U.S. led forces in Iraq but died in custody before being brought to trial for the murder of Leon Klinghoffer.
ACTIVE ORGANIZATION FOR THE LIBERATION OF PALESTINE- A medical aid organization established in 1967 by Dr. Isam Sartawi. It merged with Fatah for brief periods in 1967 and 1971. The organization dissolved in 1983 when Sartawi was killed.
ADHAN - (Arabic) A call to prayer for Muslims made five times a day. It is traditionally shouted by a man from a minaret (spire) of a mosque (a muezzin or muadhdhin in Arabic), but today is often broadcast from loudspeakers.
ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION- When a prisoner is arrested and kept without trial or charge for up to six months.
AF SHA'AL- (Heb. Not an Inch) Slogan used by opponents of the Israeli withdrawal from lands acquired by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967.
AGORAH- A monetary unit, 100 of which at various times have comprised an Israeli pound, sheqel, or a new sheqel.
AGRANAT COMMISSION- Special committee of inquiry established to determine the events that led to Israel's lack of preparedness for the Yom Kippur War. The committee was headed by Israeli Supreme Court Chief Justice Shimon Agranat and determined that Israeli forces were not adequately prepared for the war mainly due to a false conception that Egypt would not attack without first gaining air superiority. The commission report absolved Prime Minister Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan of direct responsibility for the military's lack of preparedness, pressed the establishment of a ministerial committee on security, and called on Major General Eliahu Zaira (Chief of Military Intelligence) and Lt. General David Elazar (Chief of Staff) to resign.
AGUDAT ISRAEL- Predominantly Ashkenazi haredi political party.
AHDUT HA-AVODAH- (Heb. Labor Union) Socialist-Zionist Labor party founded in Palestine in 1919. In 1930 it merged with Ha-Po'el ha-Za'ir and formed Mapai. It later seceded from Mapai in 1944 but reunited in 1968 as part of the Israeli Labor Party
AHNENERBE- (Ger. Ancestral Heritage) The Institute for the Scientific Study of Ends and Purposes, located in Berlin.
AHUZAT BAYIT- In 1907, Jewish residents of Jaffa formed a society by the name of Ahuzat Bayit, with a view towards establishing a neighborhood outside the congested city. With funds lent by the Jewish National Fund, land was purchased near Jaffa. The parcels were drawn by lot, and the foundations of the first building were laid in 1909. Ahuzat Bayit merged with two other new neighborhoods, Nahalat Binyamin and Geula, and they were together named "Tel Aviv," the title of Nahum Sokolow's Hebrew translation of Herzl's utopian novel, Altneuland.
AKKADIAN- An ancient Near Eastern language that included the dialects of Assyrian and Babylonian; knowledge of Akkadian is the key to understanding the culture of ancient Mesopotamia.
AKTION- (Ger. Action). The code name of the operation that had as its goal the annihilation of the entire Jewish population of the Generalgouvernement, the portion of Poland occupied by Germany. The operation was dubbed "Aktion Reinhard" by SS men in honor of Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect of the Final Solution, who was assassinated by members of the Czech underground in June 1942. Three death camps were built to accomplish the mass murder: Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka. Aktion Reinhard began in mid-March 1942 and ended in November 1943, during which more than two million Jews were killed.
AKTION ERNTEFEST- (Ger. Operation Harvest Festival) Code name for the liquidation and mass killings of the remaining Jews in the Lublin area that occurred on November 3, 1943. An estimated 42,000 people were shot while loud music was played to drown out the shootings. Last Aktion of Aktion Reinhard.
AKTION REINHARD- (Ger.) Code name for the annihilation of European Jewry. Named after Reinhard Heydrich.
AKTION T-4 (TIERGARTEN STRASSE 4- (Ger.) Code name for the Euthanasia program. Name taken from the Reich Chancellery building's address.
AL AQSA FIRE- On August 21, 1969 a fire broke out in the Al Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem. The cause of the fire was never found out for certain, but it is widely believed to have been started by a deranged Australian Christian tourist named Dennis Michael Rohan. Though little damage was actually done, the fire provoked widespread concern in the Muslim world over the safety of Muslim shrines in Jerusalem and led to the Organization of the Islamic Conference and Jerusalem Committee, headed by King Hassan II of Morocco.
AL AQSA MARTYRS BRIGADE-A Palestinian terrorist organization linked to Fatah and established during the Second Intifada of 2000. Unlike previous Fatah linked terrorist organizations, the Ala Aqsa Martyrs Brigade often carries out suicide bombings (particularly on buses) and employs both men and women as suicide bombers.
AL AQSA MOSQUE-A mosque located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem where the Israelite Temple once stood. Constructed during the late seventh century, today control over the Ala Aqsa Mosque together with the Dome of the Rock and the rest of the Temple Mount is controlled by the Palestinian Muslim religious authority known as the Waqf, though Israel still maintains sovereignty over all of Jerusalem.
AL AQSA MOSQUE ATTACK- On April 11, 1982 a new American immigrant serving in the Israeli army named Allan Goodman shot 24 Arabs at the Al Aqsa Mosque, wounding 12 and killing 12 before being subdued by Israeli forces.
AL-HAMISHMAR- (Heb. On Guard) The official newspaper of the Mapam Party
ALAWIS (OR NUSAYRIS)- A Muslim offshoot of Shia Islam. Most of the Alawis live in Syria, where they form some 12 percent of the population. Once a marginal, rural, underprivileged community, Syrian Alawis have undergone a dramatic transformation in the past twenty years as members of the community advanced through the army and the Ba'thi party to positions of dominance (including the current President Hafez Assad).
ALGIERS DECLARATION- Declaration passed in Algiers by the 19th Session of the Palestinian National Congress (1988) declaring the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as it capital. The declaration recognized the 1947 UN Partition Plan (thereby granting de facto recognition to Israel) and demanded Israel withdraw to its pre-1967 borders.
ALLIES- The nations, including the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union, as well as the Free French of Charles De Gaulle, that joined in the war against Germany and the other Axis nations. The Soviet Union was an ally of the Nazis between August 23, 1939, when the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed, and June 22, 1941, when Hitler attacked Russia. Britain became an ally of the Soviet Union only after Stalin and Hitler went to war. The United States became an ally of the Soviet Union only after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Hitler, allied to Japan, declared war on the United States.
ALLON PLAN- A plan devised by Yigal Allon that involved a partial withdrawal from the disputed territories. Adopted by the Israeli government in 1968.
ALL-PALESTINE GOVERNMENT- The name for the Arab government of Palestine established on September 22, 1948. This government was only recognized by the Arab states.
ALPHA PLAN- A secret and failed peace initiative proposed in 1954 by the United States and Great Britain to bring about a solution to the Arab-Israeli Conflict. The initiative failed as no side was willing to make concessions.
ALTALENA- Ship carrying immigrants and ammunition from France to Israel in June, 1948 under the command of Etzel leader Menachem Begin. The shipment was a direct challenge to the ruling party's (Labor) authority, and the IDF was ordered to open fire, killing 21 on board and nearly sparking a civil war.
AMAL- (Arabic acronym formed from the words "Lebanese Resistance Detachment" which together form the word "Hope") A militant Lebanese Shia organization founded in 1975 with links to Iran, it was formed to protect and reassert the Shia population residing mostly in Southern Lebanon and to fight off Western influences. The Iranian revolution and the first Israel-Lebanon war helped strengthen AMAL's influence, though in recent years its influence has dissipated considerably.
AMANA- A right wing Israeli settler movement associated with Gush Emunim and dedicated to establishing settlements in all of Eretz Yisrael.
AMAN- (Heb. acronym. Intelligence Corps) Israeli Military Intelligence
AQABA SUMMIT- Meeting held in the Jordanian city of Aqaba in 2003 between U.S., Israeli, and Arab officials. Upon endorsement by the Quartet (U.S., Russia, E.U., and the U.N.), a plan was announced which would create an independent and demilitarized Palestinian state by the year 2005.
ARAB BOYCOTT- Formally declared by the newly formed Arab League Council on December 2, 1945. The boycott consists of the primary boycott, which prohibits direct trade between Israel and the Arab nations, the secondary boycott, which is directed at companies that do business with Israel and the tertiary boycott, which involves the blacklisting of firms that trade with other companies that do business with Israel.
ARAB HIGHER COMMITTEE- Umbrella organization formed in 1936 by Haj Amin al-Husseini, mufti of Jerusalem, to organize Palestine Arabs. The committee was often used as a platform to instigate riots against both the Jews and British.
ARAB LEAGUE- Organization of Arab states founded in 1945 with the goal of uniting all Arab nations (pan-Arabism) and destroying Israel.
ARAB LIBERATION FRONT- Left-leaning terrorist organization within the PLO. The ALF is a pan-Arabist organization sponsored by the Iraqi Ba'ath party and based in Iraq.
ARAB PALESTINE CONGRESS- A gathering held in the Old City of Jerusalem in 1964 to announce the formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
ARAB REVOLT (1916-1918)-A British sponsored Arab uprising against the Ottoman Turks in Arabia
ARAMCO- In 1933, Saudi Arabia permitted Standard Oil of California (SOCAL, now Chevron) to prospect for oil. SOCAL created a subsidiary to carry out the exploration, the California Arabian Standard Oil Company (CASOC). In 1936, the Texas Company (later Texaco) bought half of CASOC and in 1944 the company was renamed Aramco. In 1948, the two companies that later merged to form ExxonMobil joined the partnership. The Saudi government purchased the company in 1980 and, in 1988, renamed the company the Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco).
ARAVA- Stretch of depressed land between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Eilat.
ARMISTICE AGREEMENTS- Israel's War of Independence ended in July 1949 by armistice (cease fire) agreements with Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
ASWAN DAM- Egyptian dam designed to provide large amounts of hydro-electric power. It was initially financed in part by the U.S. and Britain with the hope of winning Egypt over to their side during the Cold War and using such influence to establish peace between Israel and Egypt. Though Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser initially agreed to Western conditions in order to receive funding, pressure to accept the Alpha Plan and seek peace with Israel led to the end of the agreement. In need of funds, Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal which prompted the Suez War in 1956.
AYALON-NUSSEIBEH PROPOSAL- Plan proposed by Israeli Ami Ayalon (former head of the Shabak- the Israeli internal security agency), and Palestinian Sari Nusseibeh (President of Al Quds University) in 2003 during the Second Intifada. The proposal called for: two states based on the pre-1967 borders, all border modifications to be based on equal territorial concessions, the West Bank and Gaza to be demilitarized and connected, all Jews to be removed from the territory that would become the future Palestinian state, Jerusalem to be an open city and the joint capital with neither side in charge of holy sites, Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return only to the Palestinian state, an international fund to be set up to provide for Palestinian refugees, and a cessation of all violence.
AZZAM AFFAIR- A 1996 scandal in which Israeli-Druze Azzam Azzam was arrested in Cairo on charges of spying for Israel and sentenced to 15 years in prison. In 2004 Azzam was released as part of an agreement between Israel and Egypt in which Israel agreed to release 6 Egyptian students charged with plotting to kill Israeli soldiers.
For more information on any of these topics, contact us at jenniferp@theisraelproject.org or call Jennifer Packer at 202-857-6657 in our Washington DC office with your requirements and we will get back to you within 24 hours. You can also view our sources page.
This glossary was written by Dr. Mitch Bard, of the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.
