The Israeli and Palestinian Conflict - Many Questions, Few Answers
Unless the Israelis and Palestinians could not compromise, negotiate and come to an agreement, peace is impossible in the Middle East and even the security fence that Israel is now building will not solve the conflict nor stop terrorist actions by Palestinian extremists. The Israelis and Palestinians need to compromise and negotiate, as suggested by the words written on that wall, “Peace comes (with) agreement not separation.” The leaders of both sides of the conflict should think of the future generations. They should agree to disagree –meaning that they should come to terms and pour out all their grievances, the cause and root of their anger and go beyond that anger to think of a solution that both sides would agree upon. They should decide what is best for their people and the land they would both like and wish to call home.
Historically, the land being fought by the Israelis and Palestinians never experienced any peace at all. Palestine was occupied and fought by different groups, Ottoman and the Roman Empires, and the Crusaders. In late 19th century, the population of Palestine was mostly Arabs, nomads, and some Jews but that soon changed. In Europe, Jews were being persecuted so leaders of European Jews gathered in Switzerland to form the Zionist movement. The goal of Zionism was to “create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law.” The slogan, “A land without people for a people without land” by Dr. Chaim Weizmann, a Zionist leader successfully helped support the Zionist movement’s goal. And under the British government who occupied and governed Palestine at that time and with the Balfour Declaration, a Jewish homeland was established in Palestine.
The Balfour Declaration allowed migration of Jews to Palestine during World War I, which led to anti-Jewish riots by the Palestinians. The Palestinians felt more betrayed and reacted badly when more European Jews who were escaping Nazi persecution, were allowed to migrate to Palestine during and after the World War II. They demanded an independent Palestinian state. They attacked British troops and posts, as well as Jewish settlements. The settlers counterattacked and retaliated while at the same time, the British escalated its oppressive measures against the Palestinians by destroying their homes and sentencin...
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...e so-called leaders in Palestine and Israel and some here at the US don’t want peace in that land at all. They have their own agenda and interest to protect at all cost. The Palestinians’ hatred of Jews would extend even beyond Israel. Palestinian supporters from the Arab and Muslim world saw the biases, prejudice and injustice done to the Palestinian people. The United States with its support of Israel became a victim of this hatred and vengeance with the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001. Thousands of lives and billions of dollars of properties were lost.
Is peace possible in the Middle East? Would the wall being built by the Israeli government protect its people from Palestinians violence and terrorism? Is there a possibility of an independent Palestinian state? Could there be a solution to the Palestinian problem and its refugees? Could the illegal Israeli settlements of Palestinian lands be ever resolved or removed? Could the Palestinians and Israelis ever live together in peace? Would there be a leader on both sides who could lead their people to make peace to each other? These are the questions that are hard to answer with the ongoing situation in the Middle East.
“Many Jews were fleeing Europe from Hitler so that they can reclaim the land they believed was their Biblical birthright, (Document 4 Excepts from the Israeli Declaration of Independence). Leaders were petitioning Great Britain to allow Jewish people to begin migrating into Palestine, then in 194 8the formal state of Israel was formed. “The Balfour Declaration Britain promised a national home for the Jewish people as seen in” (document 2). However, people were already living there so the natives felt like they were getting there home taken away from
The time that Palestine was being controlled by the British, they were full of empty promises. In November of 1917, the Balfour Declaration was the start of those half-hearted promises. The Declaration called for Palestine to be the Jewish homeland. This seemed to be a lofty declaration by the Brits since Palestine was still technically Ottoman. As a result, revolts started to erupted between both the Palestinians and the Zionists. The British was able to quell the revolts, nonetheless they felt it as if this was becoming too much of a chore to rule over the Palestinians, so passed the issue over to the United Nations, which came up with the UN Partition Plan in 1947. This plan called for both Israel and Palestine to each take ownership of land whose masses would amount to be of equal size. However, the borders posed a major problem as the landscape of the borders created somewhat of a confusing puzzle. This resolution did not last long as the tensions boiled over to what became known as the Arab-Israel War. Shortly after the Israelis won an armistice was signed giving Israel a third more land than what was given in the United Nations Partition. Years later, the Israelis and other Arabs went to war which later became the Six-Day War. After the Israeli victory, they obtained
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-Palestinian conflict derived from the Zionist population. The Zionist wanted to colonize a piece of land that could be considered the Jewish homeland. As they immigrated to different parts of Europe, they eventually landed in Palestine. In the beginning, the Zionist's immigration was not a problem to the people that were already living in Palestine. But the problems presented themselves because the Zionists decided to take over Palestine, and turn it into a Jewish state. As the years went on and the wars continued, majority of Palestine was conquered by Israel. And as a result of the wars, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has remained prevalent throughout history.
First starting with the mutual recognition as political entities and through the interim period build trust and inter reliance needed for administrative and security arrangements. The hope was that through this process Israel and Palestine could build the momentum to tackle the more sensitive issues, referred to as “final status issues.” Among these difficult and complex issues were the borders and status of a Palestinian State, the claims and repatriation of Palestinian refugees, the fate of the Jewish settlements, and the disposition of East Jerusalem. While it may seem counter intuitive the Oslo Peace Accords did not actually address any of these issues. This was due to its purpose as a way to build the political framework that would allow for later negotiations and not as a permeant peace solution for the region.
In February 1947, Great Britain left their former colony in Palestine, leaving the mandate to the United Nations (UN). World War II just had ended, resulting in the systematic killing of six million Jews. The holocaust culminated in almost all Jews accepting that they needed a state of their own, what is basically the key idea of Zionism (Dowty, 2008; 80-81). The holocaust...
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 the 28th of September, of the year 2000, the second Palestinian Intifada took place. The main reason that sparked this Intifada was the provocative visit of Ariel Sharon, the current Israeli Prime Minister, to the Haram Al Sharif. Even though the visit was what set the ground on fire, these feeling of hatred and desire to rebel had been stirring inside the Palestinians ever since the declaration of the Israeli State, on the Palestinian land, back in 1948. This Palestinian frustration is due to their lack of trust and hope in a peace process that did not yield meaningful results. After seven years of peace talks and six agreements, Palestinians realized that Israel is not serious about peace. Since 1993, Israel has doubled settlements on confiscated Palestinian land, continued to imprison Palestinian prisoners and has implemented only 8 percent of what it agreed to implement in all the signed agreements.
This destroyed the way of life for many Palestinians. So, they rejected the idea. Then, several Arab states attacked the newly created Israel. Israeli forces then basically wiped over four hundred Palestinian villages and cities off the face of the earth, and to make matters more intense, when the Palestinians tried to return to their homes, they found that Israel had not only taken them over, but had barred the Palestinians from entering what had once been their homes. Those that had not left became second class citizens, and soon, the numbers of Palestinian refugees numbered in the millions. Most of the refugees went to, and still are in, the Gaza Strip, West Bank, or
The issue of Palestine and Israel is one that has been hotly contested for over a thousand years. The last fifty years have been especially important in the history of the Jewish people and Palestinians. Since the death of Yasser Arafat on the 11th of November 2004 , and the election of Mahmoud Abbas as his successor as leader of the Palestinian Authority, significant steps have been taken towards a lasting peace. This will hopefully lead to a conclusion of the second Palestinian intifada, which began in late September 2000, and to an end of the oppression of the Palestinian people by the Israeli Defense Forces. Both Jews and Arabs have suffered heavily from the conflict, thousands of innocent civilians have died on both sides, and peace is in the interests of all.
Palestine and Israel have a big fight that should of ended long ago. During the late nineteenth hundreds the standard Zionist began a movement into the promised land known as Palestine to reclaim their ancestral homeland (The Origin of..). After moving into Palestine Zionists started to create an exclusive Jewish state, however the Arab community caught on to the movement and opposed this by not allowing Jewish immigration into Palestine along with not permitting them to buy land. Thus one can see the struggle Palestine and Israel are involved in currently, which has transformed the Promised Land into a place with extreme terrorism and constant bickering between the Jews and Arabs. Now Palestine is fighting for the land that was once there’s and although many feel as though the two state solution will not work and because Israel has its own Jewish community in one state, this currently is the best solution as long as Israel learns to negotiate with Palestine.
Conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians has been occurring for quite some time now. Fighting each other and going to war multiple times is still not enough to end their conflict, which seems to be never-ending (“CrashCourse”). Operation Protective Edge was yet another baneful attack from Israel , this time on the Gaza strip (“One year on; Gaza”). Both Israel and Palestine have an atypical way of dealing with their differences. Their continuous fighting does not seem to be solving their problems.
No conflict has ever been quite as explosive or enduring as that between the Israelis and the Palestinians. With hundreds of years of alternating Israeli and Palestinian power within Palestine, the two cousins reach a conflict in the twentieth century. To whom does the land of Palestine truly belong to? This question has lead to years of bloodshed and terrorism. Solving an issue as complicated and intricate as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict requires an in-depth knowledge of the history of both sides. In my opinion, the best resolution to solve the conflict is to solve by the means of a peaceful, two state solution. Developing this solution can be described more easily if the conflict is broken down into solvable pieces.
The story is so much more complex then what was stated and tensions are growing even more. Is there hope for the Israelis and Palestinians? Will the people ever come to terms and accept peace? Rick Steves visited Israel to discuss the issue between these two "countries". Steves seemed very hopeful about the future between them. In The Holy Land: Israelis and Palestinians Today it states that many hope for peace in the future and that Palestinians wish to see their country as a whole, and not surrounded by a wall. Most people in Israel and Palestine want peace, but because there are constant "terrorist" attacks on either sides, it seems impossible for these countries to agree on
“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.