“There is no such thing as a Palestinian.” Stated former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir after three fourths of one million Palestinians had been made refugees, over five hundred towns and cities had been obliterated, and a new regional map was drawn. Every vestige of the Palestinian culture was to be erased. Resolution 181, adopted in 1947 by the United Nations declared the end of British rule over Palestine (the region between the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River) and it divided the area into two parts; a state for the Jewish and one for the Arab people, Palestine. While Israel was given statehood, Palestine was not. Since 1947, one of the most controversial issues in the Middle East, and of course the world, is the question of a Palestinian state. Because of what seems a simple question, there have been regional wars among Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq, terrorist attacks that happen, sometimes daily, displacement of families from their homes, and growing numbers of people living in poverty. Granting Palestinian statehood would significantly reduce, or alleviate, tensions in the Middle East by defining, once and for all, the area that should be Palestine and eliminating the bloodshed and battles that has been going on for many years over this land.
Palestine (and Israel) is a small area in the Middle East that is on the coastline of the Mediterranean Sea and borders the nations of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. On May 14, 1948, the state of Israel was declared by the Jewish Peoples council. Following this act, the Arab people of the surrounding countries attacked the new Israeli state. However Israel prevailed, and took almost all of the land previously designated to be ...
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...ainst with forty one abstentions – the General Assembly accorded Palestine non-member Observer State status in the United Nations (General Assembly GA/11317). This is a great thing to happen to the Palestine case because it will help them achieve what they need. In order to pass the vote two thirds of the countries have to vote towards statehood and the vote was just barely over the amount needed. It is great that all those years of being so persistent and pushing is finally paying off and that they will get their state. However the Israeli ambassador wants to solve the conflicts with the Palestinians without help from the United Nations, which may push back the chances of having a resolution reached.
Overall, the ongoing dilemma between Israel and Palestine is slowly coming to a conclusion, where it looks like Palestine is finally going to be declared a state.
On November 29th, 2012, Palestine gained observer status to the United Nations with the General Assembly voting 138-9-41. With this accomplishment, the Palestinian people are one step closer to having their own state. However, Israel continues to build illegal settlements on Palestinian territory in the West Bank, which makes the creation of a separate Palestinian state more difficult. There have been many attempts in the past to try and create a peace solution between these two sides, as well as try to create a separate state for the Palestinian people. However, most, if not all these attempts have been unsuccessful. The question still remains; will there ever be a Palestinian state? The Palestinians want their state to consist of the Gaza Strip as well as the West Bank, which Israel gained after the 6-Day War in 1967. This would mean that the Palestinian state would coincide with Israel. Most countries in the world support this idea, including Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama. Some in Israel, however, have objected to this idea due the threat of terrorism that has come from the Palestinian side, mostly in the Gaza Strip, as well as the idea that all of the region is Israel’s God given land.
The fight between Israel and Palestine has been seen as an unfair battle, due to the high-tech supplies given to Israel by the US. Israel’s military is extremely strong and constantly growing, with people joining from all over the world, while Palestine’s main defense is a terrorist group called Hamas. Israel has been forced into building a wall surrounding the Gaza strip to stop these terror attacks from harming the citizens of Israel. Palestine believes that Israel’s fighting is too severe compared to Palestine’s attempts at attacking Israel. Gideon Levy wrote, “Once again, Israel’s violent responses, even if there is justification to them, exceed all proportion and cross every red line of humaneness, morality, international law, and wisdom (Document 5, Palestinian View)”. The Palestinians believe that the Israeli military is fighting too much and unfairly, and should not be allowed to take these measures against them.
Bob Hawke once said; “Unless and until something concrete is done about addressing the Israeli-Palestinian issue you won't get a real start on the war against terrorism.” Perhaps Hawke put into a few simple words one of the most complicated issues within our world today, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As Israel continues to strip the Palestinians of their land and fears it’s very existence because of the Palestinians terrorist acts, there seems to be no solution in sight. The world appears to be split and all over the place when it comes to this matter. According to The Middle East Institute for Understanding approximately 129 countries recognize Palestine as a state while many others do not. Over all the political matters within this issue not only affect Palestine and Israel but the world as a whole, as the Middle East and the West seem to disagree. This has had and will continue to have an enormous impact on many political affairs all over the world particularly in the current fight against terrorism. Personally I feel that the Israeli Palestinian conflict while being a very complicated matter has a simple solution. Within this issue I am a firm believer that the occupation of the West Bank by Israeli forces is extremely unjust and must come to an end. Once this is achieved a two state solution will be the most effective way to bring peace to the area. The occupation of the West Bank violates political and legal rights, human rights, and illegally forces Palestinians who have lived in the area for hundreds of years from their land. This conflict is at the height of its importance and a solution is of dire need as nuclear issues arise in the Middle East due to the tension between Israel and it’s surrounding neighbors, and the...
On November 29, 1947, the United Nations voted for a partition resolution that led to the establishment of the nation of Israel in May, 1948. This was great news for Jews in Palestine and the diaspora as it meant the fulfillment of the quest for the rebirth of their nation in their previous homeland after many years of wandering (Pappe, 2006, p. 12). However, their Palestinian Arab counterparts opposed to the establishment from the start felt cheated by the international community and remained categorical that the final answer to the Jewish problem would only be solved in blood and fire (Karsh, 2002, p. 8).
Since the inception of an Israeli nation-state in 1948, violence and conflict has played a major role in Israel’s brief history. In the Sixty-One year’s Israel has been a recognized nation-state, they have fought in 6 interstate wars, 2 civil wars, and over 144 dyadic militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) with some display of military force against other states (Maoz 5). Israel has been involved in constant conflict throughout the past half century. Israel’s tension against other states within the Middle East has spurred vast economic, social, and political unity that has fostered a sense of nationalism and unity in Israel not seen in most other states. Over the next several pages I will try and dissect the reasons for why the nation state of Israel has been emerged in constant conflict and how this conflict has helped foster national unity and identity among the people of Israel.
After World War II, the United Nations handed the Jewish people a piece a land so they could live together. This land known as Israel has holy places for the Jewish religion and is surrounded by Muslim countries. Before the United Nations relinquished the land to the Jewish people it belonged to the Palestinian Muslims. This land is important to the Muslims as they consider it holy. There is a religious belief among Palestinians to regain control of East Jerusalem as part of lasting peace region. Also Palestinians are in an occupied nation with Israelis have military rule. The Palestinians have retaliated with a terrorist network to attack innocent Israeli civilians. Israelis believe they must control the Palestinians with military force to protect against terrorism.
The Israeli-Palestine conflict is an event that has been well documented throughout the course of Middle-Eastern history. The conflict dates back as far as the nineteenth century where Palestine and Zionist, will later be known as Israel, are two communities each with different ideologies had the same overwhelming desire to acquire land. However, what makes this clash what it is, is the fact that both of these up and coming communities are after the same piece of land. The lengths that both sides went to in order obtain they believed was theirs has shaped the current relationship between the two nations today.
One of the major issues between Palestinians and the Israelis is the unresolved issue of Palestinians not having an independent homeland. The Palestinians will continue to resist Israel until they have obtained a land of their own separate from Israel. In 1947, the United Nation proposed a Partition Plan that would separate the land between the Jews and the Arabs. The Arabs turned the United Nation down, even though that would have resulted in them gaining their own land. In return the Jews decided to declare their own independent state, Israel. After declaring its self an independent state a war broke out between Israel and Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Palestinian, and Iraq. During the...
In the case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict the result still has not been resolved. Palestine was a land that both Jews and Arabs inhabited. Israel, West Bank of the Jordan River, and the Gaza strip. The Arabs and Jews are still fighting now for that the land that they once felt like is theirs. The Jews had that land since the time of “Adam”. The Jews wanted their land back because they once were the rightful owners. However, the other son Ishmael feels like he is the owner. The Palestinians have been there since the Ottoman Empire, but they are arguing that the Arabs have been there for the whole time. But they both have valid reasons for why they feel that they are the rightful owners. The Conflict still goes on today. Israel is fighting for land that they feel has been taken from them. The United States is allied with Israel. Today in Israel people are getting stabbed, due to their rights being taken and President Trump said “that this conflict is easy to solve”. Ironically the issue has not been solved for thousands of years. Now the United States government shows their support to ally israel with gifts such as ammunition and bombs. “The inability of the United States to build on the obvious shared interests of Palestinians and Israelis is, at best, damning testimony to the incompetence of those Americans who have made a career of processing peace without ever delivering it.” according to
Since the declaration of an Israeli state in 1948 and all the Arab-Israeli conflicts that have followed, the Palestinians have gradually lost their grip on what used to be their homeland and are still fighting for it today. As stated above, many fled to neighboring countries for safety, but many stayed within Israel and its Occupied Territories. According to Ewan W. Anderson, (2000, p. 112 ) after the 1967 conflict and the acquisition of more Palestinian land by the Israelis, 1.1 million Arabs fell under Israeli rule in their Occupied Territories (450,000 in the Gaza Strip and 650,000 in the West Bank). Regardless of where the Palestinian people settled, either in Israel's occupied territories or in neighboring Arab countries; they do not have a proper state and in turn have become the largest group of refugees on the planet (Brynan, unpublished, 1998). The Palestinian population in Israel and its occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip alone number over the 4 million mark (de Blij and Miller, 2000, p.315). Many involved in the peace process today believe the Palestinian refugee crisis is the main problem stand...
The War of 1948, also known as the War of Independence, was fought between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The war began May 15, 1948 when units from the armies of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq invaded Israel launching a war that lasted until December 1948.# The war resulted in the defeat of the Arab forces and the success of Israel as a newly established state. It is evident that the Arab forces were not successful in the first Arab-Israeli war because the Arab army lacked motivation, education, and proper equipment.# Despite the support from Arab states outside of Palestine, the Arabs were unable to gain enough strength to overcome the Israeli forces. In contrast, the Israeli army was able to succeed because they had unconditional support from the Jewish community, efficient infrastructures, and modern equipment. Israel also used significant strategies that proved lethal against the competing Arab forces. With the Arab communities unorganized attempt to go to war in 1948, it was inevitable that Israel would come out of the war as the victor.
Ariel Sharon, as a strong advocate for the right of Israel to exist, thrive and find equilibrium with its regional neighbors, worked tirelessly throughout his life to position Israel for official recognition by the United Nations and defense of the fledgling state thereafter. His views often put him in direct conflict with those who would have Israel erased, or at a minimum, dissolved into irrelevance.
Bunche was successful in negotiating an armistice agreement between Israel and Egypt in February 1949 (Waage, 2011). Bunche, however, faced many difficulties during the mediation process because he lacked leverage against the Israel (the stronger disputant), and Israel also received unparalleled support from those with the ability to affect the direction of the negotiations (Waage, 2011). Although the armistice designed by Bunche set the groundwork for further negotiations in the Arab-Israeli conflict, it did not lead to peace between Israel and her Arab neighbours (Waage, 2011). Israel had not only won the war against the Arabs but had strong and biased support from US president (Harry S. Truman) and the UN secretary-general (Trygve Lie). Truman at the time as he sought the votes of Jewish Americans and Israel sympathisers in order to win the next US presidential election while Lie had strong personal sympathy for Israel and wanted the negotiations to end in their favour (Waage, 2011).
In September 2015, Palestinian President Muhammad Abbas proclaimed that the state of Palestine was no longer under any obligation to follow the Oslo Accords crafted over two decades prior. Citing Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Abbas argued that Palestine had been the only side upholding the terms of the once-heralded agreement, and that they were tired of being exploited as a “state under occupation.” How could the state have gotten here from the wide-spread optimism following the Oslo Accords ? The answer lays in both what the accords did and didn’t state, as well as the general opposition amongst Israelis towards the agreement. Overall, the Oslo Accords were, in a sense, doomed from the start, and created more in hope of an easy fix
When Yasser Arafat addressed the United Nations General Assembly, he tried to articulate the actions the Palestinian Liberation Organization had taken and to justify those actions. Arafat points out that the struggles with Imperialism and Zionism began in 1881 when the first large wave of immigrants began arriving in Palestine. Prior to this date, the Muslims, Jews (20,000) and Christians all cohabitated peacefully (pop. 1/2 million). In 1917, the Belfour Declaration authorized increased immigration of European Jews to Palestine. 1 From 1917 to 1947, the Jewish population in Palestine increased to 600,000 and they rightfully owned only 6% of the Palestinian arable land. Palestine population at this time was now up to 1,250,000. 1