Israel-Palestine

A Brief History of the Israel-Palestine Conflict

The History

Ottoman Period

Israel and Palestine are two names for the same place, claimed by both the Zionist and Palestinian national movements. Despite often heard claims, this is not an ancient problem. For hundreds of years of Ottoman rule, the ethnic and religious groups here lived together in relative peace. In the 19th century, not only was there no Jewish-Arab conflict, the two terms were not seen as mutually exclusive, and members of the Mideastern Jewish communities might well identify themselves as Arab-Jews, just like Arab-Muslims or Arab-Christians.

The modern Israeli Palestinian conflict is a national conflict, and like nationalism itself was imported here from Europe. Zionism, the national movement of the Jews, arose in a late 19th century Europe, largely as a reaction to rising political anti-semitism. Zionists held that Jews were not just a religious or ethnic group but a nation that should have its own nation-state in Palestine. The movement was officially founded in 1897 but had little success in purchasing land or settling immigrants in Palestine as long as the Ottomans were in power.

Theodor Herzl and the birth of political Zionism

Arabia After WW1

British Mandate

In 1917 the British conquered the region and through a League of Nations Mandate, governed the area now known as Jordon, Israel, the West Bank, and Gazam defining a geographic area as ‘Palestine’ for the first time since the Roman era. The British also issued the Balflour Declaration, which begins: ‘His Majesty’s government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” The British allowed the Zionists to buy large area of land from feudal absentee landlords and permitted the new Jewish owners to evict the Arab tenant farmers.

With British support, the Zionists set about creating “facts on the ground” – acquiring and settling as much land as possible along strategic lines, aiming for water resources, ports and fertile land. Exclusive Jewish villages and neighborhoods were built, where only Jews were employed and, where possible, only Jewish produced goods were consumed.

The perceived threat of Zionism led to the founding of what would become the Palestinian national movement – an attempt to unite the many religious, ethnic and social groups of the country. The Palestinians went to the British demanding limits set on Jewish immigration and land purchases, as well as legal protection for tenant farmers.

Following the uprising of Palestinian Arabs in the summer of 1929, the British set some limits on land purchase and immigration. The Zionists saw this as a betrayal – political anti-semitism was on the rise in Europe, and Palestine was one of the few places Jews could still go. The British found themselves caught between the two national movements.

The problem was further exacerbated in 1933 when the Nazis came to power in Germany, and large numbers of German Jews immigrated to Palestine, doubling the Jewish population in just a few years. The Great Arab Revolt in Palestine broke out in 1936, targeting primarily the British rule. Within the next 3 years some 400 Jews, 200 British and over 5000 Palestinians were killed, as the British, with Zionist help, brought down the revolt with huge force. This included also the exile of most prominent Palestinian leaders, leaving Palestinians with little political leadership.

In the aftermath of the 2nd World War and the horrors of the Holocaust, Zionism was strengthened and the movement brought Jewish survivors to Palestine in large numbers, further stiffening Arab opposition to immigration. Thousands of Jewish soldiers were demobilized by the British and added a trained professional core to the Zionist militias such as Hagana, Palmach and the Irgun Zevai Leumi.

In 1947 the British formally announced that they were leaving and the UN adopted resolution 181: the country would be divided in two non contiguous entities, Jewish and Arab, while Jerusalem and Bethlehem would become an international zone. The exiled Palestinian leadership rejected partition, while the Zionists, also unsatisfied with the proposal, chose to formally accept it.

The 1948 War

As the British started their pullout, fighting broke out. In the first part of the war, the Zionists, although fewer, had the clear advantage, being better armed and much better organized. On May 15th 1948, the last British soldiers left and the surrounding Arab countries sent in forces, nominally in order to help the Palestinians.

However, after the 1948 war, at the Rhodes armistice talks, Palestinians were not invited. Here the Green Line was drawn, making most of what had been British Palestine (78%) the state of Israel, while the parts conquered by the Jordanian and Egyptian armies stayed under those countries’ control. The city of Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan.

The 1948 War, known in Hebrew as the War of Independence and in Arabic as The Catastrophe (Nakbah). 750,000 people, more than half the Palestinians, became refugees and were settled in camps in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and surrounding Arab countries. Some of those were actively chased out, most fled in fear. None were allowed to return at the end of the war. Their land and homes were appropriated by Israel under the Absentee Property Law. The few Palestinians who remained within Israeli borders were given citizenship but were placed under military government and much of their remaining lands were confiscated.

The Oslo Years

The 1993 Oslo Accords, signed under American and European auspices, created a new “temporary” situation. The “core issues” – permanent borders, Jewish settlements, Palestinian refugees, water resources, airspace and Jerusalem – were left aside for a later date. Then the Israeli army pulled out of less than 20% of the West Bank, mostly the larger Palestinian cities and towns, and took positions around and in-between them. The Palestinian Police was to maintain order within the cities, ensuring there was no more intifadas.

The Israeli government then built an extensive system of bypass roads around and between the islands of Palestinian autonomy, connecting the Israeli settlements to each other and to Israel. At the same time, the municipal boudaries of the settlements were extended to allow them quick growth. Palestinians would administer the non-Jewish population, while Israel maintained control over the land, water, border and airspace.

The situation was supposed to be temporary, and in the Camp David Summit of the year 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak made his famous “generous offer”: the Palestinian Authority would control most of the West Bank and Israel would annex the “settlement blocks”. No map was ever publicly presented, the blocks indicated continued Israeli control of movement inside the West Bank, of access to the Western Mountain Aquifer and of the Jordan Border. In other words, the offer was of a Palestinian “state” where Israel would control the airspace, water resources, internal movement and borders.

Second Intifada and Beyond

Shortly after the failure of the summit and another round of negotiations in Taba, there broke out the second intifada. What started as a popular uprising was met with live bullets and soon turned into a campaign of guerrilla warfare and suicide terror attacks. In reaction, Israel launched a major attack, reconquering the cities of the West Bank, and began construction of a separation barrier. With the barrier (fence/wall) Israel unilaterally created a truncated and utterly dependent Palestinian entity, where Israel controls everything.

The military attack, along with the economic stranglehold, brought at end to the second intifada. After the death of PA leader Yasser Arafat, Mahmoud Abbas was appointed in his place. Abbas adapted a policy of complete compliance with Israeli demands on the ground – an end to violence and PA action against those trying to continue resistance. This approach was popular with Israel, the US and Europe, less so with the Palestinian public.

In the 2006 elections, Hammas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, won most of the seats in the Palestinian Parliament. Though international observers declared the elections free and fair, the new Hammas government was boycotted by Israel and the Western countries. Aid payments were stopped and the PA could no longer pay its employees, plunging the territories into economic crisis.

Armed conflict broke out between Fatah and Hammas forces, with Fatah receiving American and British training, weapons and encouragement. The fighting eventually resulted in a split – with Fatah administering the West Bank and Hammas the Gaza Strip.

Israel declared a siege on the Strip until Hammas resigned from power or complied with Israeli demands. Hammas fired some homemade missiles at Israel and Israel retaliated with assassinations of Hammas leaders, bombing attacks and eventually a massive bombing and military incursion in Dec 2008. Despite a prisoner exchange deal in 2011, Hammas and Israel have no official dealings with each other, and Israel maintains a siege of Gaza.

Israel, the US and the EU will accept only Abbas and his PA as representing Palestinians. This entity, the Palestinian Authority, is completely dependent on Israeli permits and on American and European financial aid for its survival. Settlement building, land confiscation and house demolitions continue in the West Bank.

Today, some still advocate a two-state solution with borders along the Green Line, while others consider that such a division is no longer possible, claiming that the political issues will have to be resolved within one political entity. A third option, a Federation of two states is now also gaining traction.

People + Terms

Yasser Arafat – founder of the PLO

Mahmoud Abbas – Arafat’s successor

PLO – Palestinian Liberation Organization
PA – Palestinian Authority
Intifada – Uprising
Hammas – Islamic Resistance Movement
Fatah – Arafat’s Palestinian political party

Zionism
- An idea created by Theodor Herzl that the Jewish people should have a state
Theodor Herzl – Founder of political Zionism
Ben Gurion
Yitzak Rabin
Menachem Begin – was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of the State of Israel.
Bejamin Netanyahu
Ariel Sharon
Hagana, Palmach and the Irgun Zevai Leumi
- Zionist militias/Israeli secret police
Camp David Accords