I. Introduction
There has been a long tradition of conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis, though religion and ethnic differences have not been the ultimate causes of the conflict, like most civil unrests. The struggle has been mainly over an important religious, historical, and economical piece of land. Until 1949, the territory of land that has brought a lot of conflicts between the groups was known internationally as Palestine. However, Jews and Palestinians went to war in 1948, the outcome was to divide the land into three parts: the state of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The Jewish claims to the land are based on a biblical promise to Abraham and his descendants, claiming that the land was a historical site of the Jewish kingdom of Israel. Palestinians would disagree claiming that they’re the true keepers of the land, based on continues residence in the territory, for hundreds of years.
As the Zionism movement begin to spread rapidly, many Jews decided that Palestine would be a great and proper place for their homeland. Zionism is the belief that Jews should have their own homeland, and in 1917 the British decided to back Zionism with The Balfour Declaration. The Balfour Declaration was a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild that made it public that the British were in support of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. After the Balfour Declaration the Jewish people started massive immigration to Palestine and the Arabs living in Palestine strongly objected to this Jewish immigration.
Though both sides have long been going through a tough peace process, neither state has agreed to a final peace agreement that would put an end to the conflict. The violence from the confl...
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...lation of about 2.3 million. Israel’s consumption of water has decreased since the occupation of the West Bank, however it still consumes the majority of available water. In 1995 Israel consumed 95% of water output from the Western Aquifer, and 82% of that produced by the Northeastern aquifer. The water is from shared ground water located in both Palestine’s and Israel territory. In the Oslo II Accord each side agreed to maintain "existing quantities of utilization from the resources." The Palestine Authority established legality of Israel’s water production in the West bank. Israel would obligated itself in an agreement to water supplement to Palestine production, as well as allowing further drilling in the Eastern Aquifer. However many Palestinians re not happy with the extent of the Oslo II, claiming that it doesn’t go far enough to solve long term problems.
Imperialism, Colonialism, and war had a huge impact on the Middle East, and it can also be thought of as the source of conflict. According to the map in Document A, it shows that the size of the Ottoman Empire grew smaller after the first world war, along with this change came new boundaries. These borders were created by the victorious European countries that won World War I, and made different ethnic and religious groups separated and grouped together with others. Great Britain's took over Palestine mandate and developed the Balfour Declaration that promised Jews support in making a home in Palestine. Most of the Palestine land was populated with Arabs. As soon as Jewish immigration increased, so did the tension between the two groups because each felt like they deserved the Palestine land. Zionism began early in the history of Judiasm and it was the movement for the Jews to establish a home in Palestine, and return to their holy land. During the Holocaust, six million Jews were killed and the deep-seeded hatre against them increased
Late into the 19th century, Zionism (a biblical name for Jerusalem) started to rise when Theodor Herzl published an article that concluded Jewish assimilation and emancipation could not work in Europe. It was this that started plans for the creation of a Jewish statehood. During this time, the population of Jews were spread out across different countries, and in each of these countries, they had represented a minority. Throughout this period, they had longed for a state in which they called Eretz Israel, the land of Israel. Herzl’s proposed solution was for the revival of a Jewish homeland where they could set up a state belonging to themselves. Following his publishings, the First Zionist Congress was held in Switzerland. The program state that “The aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a homeland in Palestine secure by public law”. Much of the Jewish community at this point held mixed views about this movement but it was this time period of the late 19th ce...
Since the Arabs were living in Palestine when the Ottoman Empire control it. Since the Arabs defeated the Ottoman Empire with the help of from Germany, “Just short of 6 months the Palestinians were crushed, militarily and psychologically” (document 8) On the other hand, Israel grew beyond the partition lines, gained more defensible borders and they destroyed Arab homes reducing their population. The Palestinians rightly felt that the Israelis were taking over the area and were pushing out of lands promised to them in both the Balfour Declaration and the UN 1947 Partition.
"Peacekeeping and Peacemaking." Reading and Remembrance . N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Jan. 2014. . (tags: none | edit tags)
The ideas of David, Reuven and other reform Jews sparked new interest in the notion of a Hebrew state in Palestine. Zionism was an idea with a long history, but it starts to involve the characters of The Chosen and picks up intensity after the Holocaust.
Rethinking Violence: States and Non-state Actors in Conflict. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 2010. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed April 22, 2014).
Zionism is a group of individuals that believe they deserve a Jewish homeland, a place of sanctuary where they would live freely.
...of the situation, "The position of the Jews in liberated countries is desperate. The political pressure in Palestine is becoming unbearable. And so is my personal position as President of the Jewish agency. This is the hour to eliminate the British White Paper, to open the doors of Palestine and to proclaim the Jewish state" (Ganin). The British negative attitude gave the militant Zionists who wanted a new policy towards England and for new activist leadership a reason to take action. They felt, "...it's astonishing how fast they forgot about that..." (Silverberg). The Zionist leaders saw that after World War Two, Britain was exhausted economically and psychologically. British power had weakened because of the war. The Jewish community realized that they would not be able to rely on Britain for help and so they turned all their attention to the United States (Ganin).
Zionism is a political organization that dated back in the Jewish and Judaism history; however, after 1897, Theodor Herzl is said to have redefined it the political Zionism, hence he is referred by historians as the father of political Zionism. From 1870 to 1897, the Hovevei Zion are said to have created the original 20 Jewish settlement in Palestine. Prior to the incident of the Holocaust, political Zionism main objective was to create a Jewish National Home along with a cultural center within Palestine, this was to assist in Jewish Migration; however, following the Holocaust, it changed its goals into formation of a Jewish State, with this objective being realized through the formation of Israel in 1948.
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.
Since 1967, numerous illegal Israeli settlements have been built on Palestinian land and the occupied territory, “housing more then 400,000 Jewish settlers.” Even since 1967, there has been a lot of divergence, unrest, bereavement, war and obliteration on both sides. There was a war in 1973 and two intifadas Palestinian uprising one that began in 1987 and one that began in 2000 that brings us into the 21st century. There have been many attempts in resolving conflicts however; the conflict is a matter of whether the Palestinians should be permitted to form their own independent country and government in an area that was once theirs yet now occupied and currently the nation of Israel. The Arab- Israeli conflict is historically a fuse that ignites regional battle due to the occupation of Palestine.
On November 2 1917 the Balfour Declaration was issued from Arthur James Balfour to Lord Rothschild conveying a promise to the Zionist Federation of a national home in Palestine. This appeared to be a step closer towards materially realising the early Zionist aspirations as previously articulated by Theodor Herzl in August 1897 when he envisioned “the creation of a home for the Jewish people in Palestine to be secured by public law.” Although professing to be a “declaration of sympathy with the Jewish Zionist aspirations” in reality the reasons behind the Balfour Declaration surpassed Zionist efforts in British politics or genuine pro-Zionist sympathies. Despite many Zionists becoming increasingly active in British politics, the formation of a Jewish state was not the intended consequence of the declaration; rather it was primarily in provision of British own interests in Palestinian territory. This land, to which the Balfour Declaration referred had been part of the Ottoman Empire since the 16th century and included contemporary Israel and a small section of present-day Jordan. It occupied a prime strategic position dividing two French colonies, Syria and Lebanon, and the British colony in Egypt whilst harbouring jurisdiction over the prized Suez Canal. Simultaneously British had imperialistic motives to take advantage of the power vacuum left vacant by the slow death of the Sick Man of Europe, the Ottoman Empire. The Balfour Declaration also temporarily allowed the Britain to hold the balance of power between the two opposing nationalist movements in Palestine however it did obligate them to both sides proving a future problem. It was also hoped that propagating a future national home to the Zionists at large would secure the ...
“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.
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