Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is an ongoing dispute between the State of Israel and the Palestinians and
is part of the wider Arab–Israeli conflict. At present, major polls show the vast majority of Israelis and
Palestinians agree a two-state solution is the best way to end the conflict. Most Palestinians view the
West Bank and Gaza Strip as their future state, and most Israelis agree.
The
negotiating parties have been the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The official negotiations are mediated by an international contingent known as the Quartet on the Middle
East (the Quartet) represented by a special envoy that consists of the United States, Russia, the
European Union, and the United Nations. The Arab League, another important actor, has proposed an
alternative peace plan. Egypt, a founding member of the Arab League, has historically been a key
participant. The United States has been an ardent supporter of Israel often taking positions against UN
Resolutions condemning the actions of Israel.
Since 2006, the Palestinian side has been fractured by conflict between the two major factions: Fatah, the
largest party, and Hamas. As a result, the territory controlled by the Palestinian National Authority (the
Palestinian interim government) is split between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza strip.
Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States although it won the
Palestinian elections of 2006; therefore, it has not been allowed to participate in official negotiations. The
Palestinians are an occupied people living in refugee camps often without sufficient food, potable water,
electricity, adequate medical care, or work. Peace negotiations began at nnapolis, Maryland, United
States, in November 2007. No final solution occurred. The parties agree there are six 'final status' issues
which need to be resolved: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security, borders and water.
Causes of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
The Palestinian--Israeli conflict stems from competing Jewish and Arab claims to the land in Palestine
(the Zionist occupation of Palestinian land), conflicting promises by the British in the forms of the Hussein-
McMahon Correspondence and the Balfour Declaration of 1917, and several outbreaks of violence
between Jewish and Arab residents of the region of Palestine.
The roots of the conflict can be traced to the late 19th century, which saw a rise in national movements,
including Zionism and Arab nationalism. Zionism, the Jewish national movement, was established as a
political movement in 1897, largely as a response to Russian and European anti-Semitism. It sought the
establishment of a Jewish Nation-State in Palestine so that they might find sanctuary and selfdetermination
there. The World Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund encouraged
immigration and funded purchase of land under Ottoman rule and under British rule in the region of
Palestine.
In the 1870s, a wave of anti-Semitism spurred a new migration from central Europe, and in 1898,
Theodore Hertzl organized a Zionist international movement to establish in Palestine a home for the
Jewish People secured by public law. Thousands of Palestinians were already living in Palestine as their
descendants had done so for centuries.
In 1917, Arthur James Balfour, as Foreign Secretary, authored the Balfour Declaration, which supported
the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration pledged England’s support
of Zionist goals in order to win support of international, especially American, Jews to the Allies during
World War I. In 1916, one year prior to the Balfour Declaration, a secret agreement was made between
the British War Cabinet and Zionist leaders promising the latter a “national home” in Palestine in
consideration of their efforts to bring the United States into World War I on the side of Great Britain.
Following World War I and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine came under the control of the
United Kingdom through the Sykes-Picot Agreement and a League of Nations mandate. During the
mandatory period, the British made conflicting promises to both populations in the forms of the Hussein-
McMahon Correspondence and the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The Paris Peace Conference and
subsequent conferences made Palestine a British mandate. The League of Nations approved, and more
Jews entered Palestine. Palestine Arabs resented this “immigration” into their homeland. Tensions
between Arab and Jewish groups in the region erupted into physical violence--the 1920 Palestine riots,
the 1921 Palestine riots, the 1929 Hebron massacre and the 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine.
The British tried to maintain a precarious peace, but Hitler’s anti-Semitic policy increased the influx of
Jews into Palestine and caused further Arab resentment. The Jewish population rose to nearly half a
million in 1935. The Arab rebellion started in 1936 and continued to expand until a major British Military
effort suppressed it two years later.
The British proposed a failed partition plan, while the White Paper of 1939 established a quota for Jewish
immigration set by the British in the short-term and by the Arab population in the long-term. Both Arab
and Jewish groups directed violence against the British in order to expel the mandatory government,
which was held in contempt by both sides. In 1942, Zionist leaders met in New York’s Biltmore Hotel to
devise the Biltmore Program which called for unlimited immigration of Jews to Palestine which, after the
war, would become a Jewish commonwealth state.
In May 1945, after the German surrender, the Jewish Agency wrote Prime Minister Churchill demanding
the full and immediate implementation of the Biltmore resolution, the cancellation of the White Paper, the
establishment of Palestine as a Jewish state, Jewish immigration to be an Agency responsibility, and
reparation to be made by Germany in kind beginning with all German property in Palestine. The
Palestinians seemed to have no say in any of this.
The British stalled, and the Haganah (the Jewish voluntary militia organized in local units primarily for
local defense) engaged in extensive smuggling. In October 1945, Haganah’s clandestine radio station,
Kol Israel, declared the beginning of “The Jewish Resistance Movement”. On October 31, 1945 the Jews
in Palestine engaged in an extensive “terrorist” campaign and attacked three small naval craft, wrecked
railway lines, and attacked a railway station and an oil refinery. In June 1946, Jewish terrorists committed
more sabotage in Palestine. They destroyed twenty-two RAF planes at one airfield. The Haganah
agreed to an Irgun (terrorist group offshoot of Haganah) attack on British headquarters in the King David
Hotel in Jerusalem. The bombings killed ninety-one British, Arab, and Jewish people and wounded fortyfive.
The British retaliated by raiding the Irgun headquarters in Tel Aviv. By the end of 1946 the Irgun-
Sternist groups had killed 373 persons. The Haganah and the terrorists continued to operate with at least
tacit support of a large part of the citizenry.
This violence and the heavy cost of World War II led Britain to turn the issue of Palestine over to the
United Nations. In 1947, the U.N. approved the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into two
states: one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish leadership accepted the plan, but Palestinian Arab leaders,
supported by the Arab League, rejected the plan, and a civil war broke out. Israel quickly gained the
upper hand in this inter-communal fighting, and on May 14, 1948 declared its independence. Five Arab
League countries (Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Transjordan and Iraq), then invaded Palestine, starting the
1948 Arab-Israeli War. The war resulted in an Israeli victory, with Israel capturing additional territory
beyond the partition borders, but leaving Jerusalem as a divided city. The territory Israel did not capture
was taken over by Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Transjordan (now Jordan). The war also resulted in the
1948 Palestinian exodus, known to Palestinians as Al-Naqba.
For decades after 1948, Arab governments had refused to recognize Israel and in 1964 the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded with the central tenet that Palestine, with its original Mandate
borders, is the indivisible homeland of the Arab Palestinian people. In turn, Israel refused to recognize the
PLO as a negotiating partner.
In the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip from Egypt, and
East Jerusalem including the Old City and its holy sites, which Israel annexed and reunited with the
Western neighborhoods of Jerusalem. The status of the city as Israel's capital and the occupation of the
West Bank and Gaza Strip created more conflict between the parties.
In 1970, the PLO was expelled from Jordan, in what was known as the Black September. Large numbers
of Palestinians moved into Lebanon after the Black September, joining the thousands already there. In
1973 a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria launched the Yom Kippur War against Israel. The
Egyptians and Syrians advanced during the first 24–48 hours, after which momentum began to swing in
Israel's favor. Eventually a cease-fire took effect that ended the war. This war paved the way for the
Camp David Accords in 1978, which set a precedent for future peace negotiations.
Status of the occupied territories
Occupied Palestinian Territories is the term used by the UN to refer to the West Bank and Gaza Strip—
territories which Israel conquered from Egypt and Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War—in the conflict. The
Israeli government uses the term “Disputed Territories”, to indicate its position that some territories cannot
be called occupied as no nation had clear rights to them and there was no operative diplomatic
arrangement when Israel acquired them in June 1967.
Israeli settlements
The Israeli settlements in the West Bank and, until 2005, the Gaza Strip, have been an obstacle to a
peaceful resolution of the conflict. The international media, the international political community (including
the US, the UK, and the EU), the International Court of Justice, and international and Israeli human rights
organizations who have also called the settlements illegal under international law. In the years following
the Six-Day War, and especially in the 1990s during the peace process, Israel re-established
communities destroyed in 1929 and 1948 and established numerous new settlements on the West Bank.
Most of these settlements of about 350,000 people are in the western parts of the West Bank, while
others are deep into Palestinian territory, overlooking Palestinian cities. These settlements have been the
site of much inter-communal conflict.
Jerusalem
The three largest Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—claim Jerusalem in their
religious and historical narratives. Israel asserts that the city should not be divided, and should remain
unified within Israel's political control. Palestinians claim at least the parts of the city which were not part
of Israel prior to June 1967. As of 2005, there are 465,000 Jews mostly living in West Jerusalem, and
there are 232,000 Muslims mostly living in East Jerusalem.
Palestinian refugees
There are about four million Palestinians and their descendants who were expelled or fled from Israel
following its creation. Palestinian refugees were chased out or expelled by the actions of Zionist terrorist
organizations--the Haganah, Lehi, and Irgun.
Palestinian negotiators have so far insisted that refugees, and all their descendants, from the 1948 and
1967 wars have a right to return to the places where they lived before 1948 and 1967, including those
within the 1949 Armistice lines, citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and UN General
Assembly Resolution 194, adopted in 1948, which says:
"the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted
to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those
choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or
in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible." UN Resolution 3236
"reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which
they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return". Resolution 242 from the UN affirms
the necessity for "achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem".
Osama bin Laden told Peter Arnett a reason why his Al Qaeda may have had a motive to attack the US
was the illegal occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people by Israel also strongly supported by
the US.