Elias Chocour's Blood Brothers Essay

The forcible eviction of the Palestinians and the denial of their right of return, has led to them becoming refugees, this has translated into the adoption of aggressive tactics and strategies to achieve their goal of a sovereign nation. Palestinian society is territorially disjointed by the divisions of the West Bank (administered by Fatah) and the Gaza area (administered by Hamas) creating a disharmony in interest articulation towards the goal of

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the one of the world’s oldest conflicts, and it is still an ongoing problem in the world. Zionists and Arabs: two groups with conflicting beliefs who both claim Israel as their own. In wake of the Holocaust the U.N decided to gift the Jews a homeland for the lives lost in the genocide. In 1947, the U.N Partition divided the land of Israel (Historic Palestine) into two separate states: Arab and Jewish. Since then, the state of Israel has been the center of conflict between the Arabs and the Zionists. As time passed the Zionists gained more land from winning the Six-Day War, and consequently the Palestinians had to live as refugees in other Arab countries. Additionally, more than 75% of the land belonged to

Any reference to conflict turns history into a reservoir of blame. In the presence of conflict, narratives differ and multiply to delegitimize the opponent and to justify one’s own action. Narratives shape social knowledge. The Israeli Palestinian conflict, both Jews and Muslims, view the importance of holding the territories through religious, ideological, and security lenses, based on belief that Palestine was given by divine providence and that the land belongs to either the Israelis or Palestinian’s ancestral home. Understanding these perspectives is required for understanding Palestinians’ and especially Israel’s strategy and role in entering the Oslo peace process. Despite

In addition, I will examine the current state of political and human rights in Israeli occupied West Bank and analyze how they are approaching a level of apartheid. Finally, I will summarize the effects of these social tensions between Israel and Palestinians in the terms of how potential open conflict could reignite.

Following the partition plan in 1947, the state of Israel was created in 1948. I will be discussing the extent to which the creation of Israel was a turning point throughout a hundred year period. The conflict can be split up into 3 different strands which include: Arab Israeli, Palestinian-Israeli, Western involvement. The Arab-Israeli conflict is the regional conflict that erupts in 1948 when the newly created Arab states invade Israel and is partially resolved by 1996. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is the local conflict throughout the 100 year period between the native Palestinians and the Israeli’s, it is still unresolved. Western involvement represents the foreign nations that were associated in the conflict. My main argument is that the creation of Israel was the principle turning point for the Arab-Israeli dispute strand because; it transformed a civil war to an interstate conflict. I also feel that it was the principle turning point for the Palestinian-Israeli strand because, it saw a huge change in policy and led to the dissolution of the Palestinian people with many fleeing into surrounding Arab nations, this is known as the Palestinian problem. The Suez crisis was the pivotal moment for the Western Involvement strand because it saw a new era with the start of the Cold War’s influence in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The investigation assesses demographic shifts to Palestine in the context of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. It more specifically inquires about the impact of Jewish immigration on Palestine in terms of the effects it had on Jewish-Arab relationships in Palestine. It seeks to determine the extent the third, fourth, and fifth aliyahs of 1919-1939 had on the economic development of the Israeli State and its social implications. Monographs and general texts will be used to provide background on the conflict, including the rise of Zionism, the British Mandate, the White Paper, and the Peel Commission. This context will also be used to critically analyze the role of Jewish immigration to Palestine and the role it played in land reforms, rioting, and the implementation of restrictions set by the British government on Palestine. Two secondary sources, William L. Cleveland’s A History of the Modern Middle East and Howard M. Sachar’s A History of

To a Palestinian that has been displaced from his/her long time homeland, completely displaced by a foreign power. The tone of victimization is easily created. But to an Israeli, that has found security from, long term discrimination, in Israel’s own borders, it is easy for an Israeli perspective to claim the Jewish people had a legitimate claim to the land. Accounts from the Palestinian narrative will often, as Sylvain Ehrenfeld a writer for Ethical Culture, writes “[F]ocus on victimhood, their suffering and dispossession and their deep sense of injustice at being punished because of Europe’s treatment of Jews.”. Moreover, he goes on to elaborate that the Israeli have also created a tone of an unfailing connection to its land, and argues legitimacy for claim to the land that was found in former Palestine, present day Israel. He goes on to mention that both sides are guilty of creating their perspectives so single-mindedly. Both sides will often misrepresent the reality of the situation to gain the support of historians. This distortion of reality will in often cases skew accuracy, therefore creating a limitation to the recording of history.

The Palestinians had a robust social, political, and class identity within Palestine; however, after the nakbah this life was systematically dismantled and reconstituted along national, radical, and traditionalist lines, the result of which is the new Palestinian-ness to which the national movement is oriented. Of course the Palestinian people existed before the nakbah, however, their consciousness was typical of agrarian peasants, based not in a national identity, but upon kinship ties, regional networks, and limited class solidarity (Sayigh, R., 13). This identity was perpetuated through many traditions and familial conditioning, which also formed the basis of extended kinship-solidarity networks (ibid.

The conflict between the nations of Palestine and Israel holds a lot of significance in today’s current events, and is a greatly debated and controversial topic. The conflict, commonly attributed to Jewish Zionism movements and forward settlement in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, is often seen as a two sided, illogical aggression between the neighbouring states. However; the conflict has roots that reach back to the age of imperialism, and to the conflict of World War I.

The State of Israel formerly known as Palestine is known as one of the most conflict infected areas. Problems between the Palestinian Arab population and the Israeli one constantly happen. But how did this come to be? Palestine was an area that was home to an Arab majority prior to World War II, but do to many factors the Jewish population increased. These factors included heavy migration into Palestine after the establishment of the British mandate and the Balfour Declaration, which was signed in 1917. Migration increased as well due to anti-Semitism in Europe and the Holocaust. Due to Britain’s lack of control of migration, and problems arising in the region as well, the decision was given to the U.N. It was a partition plan in 1947 between the Arabs and the Jewish population, but soon after that Israel declared its independence.

Each period of the conflict was characterized by either escalation or reduction of tension, but since it’s not the main concern of this research, we will only consider some of the agreements signed by the opposing sides, in order to show what attempts had been made to resolve the conflict before Palestine turned to the UN for assistance.

On one side of the wall is one of the largest growing economy and one of the most powerful nations in the world, Israel. Israel’s President is Shimon Peres; but the real power of the country lies with its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. After the 1967 war Israel gained control over the Gaza strip, the West Bank, the Sinai, and the Golan Heights. However, Israel gave back the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in a peace agreement and later on gave back sole control of Gaza to the Palestinians while keeping control over the West Bank and Golan Heights. Israel is a vast country with many ideologies on varying issues concerning how to act toward the Palestinians. In this paper I will be explaining the Israeli’s Government and military theory’s and fundamental belief system pertaining to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The settlement of the Israeli started with the ideology of Zionism, which is to found a Jewish-majority nation that serves as the safe heaven for all Jewish identifying population over the world, in its most sacred place: the father land. After the long battle against anti-Semitism and the most traumatic experience of the Holocaust, the Jewish population was compelled to find a nation that it would provide a safe place; such sentiment and obligation to the both physical and social survival of the population is sound and legitimate. However, Israel, as a nation, is in a tough spot: geologically, it is located in the Middle East, sitting on what used to be considered Palestinian territory; due to the Diaspora, new—not wholly new, but post-Diaspora new—groups settled in the region, and the founding of the nation is inherently in conflict with the both settler’s right to live. Due to the Middle Easternism and its hostility to the West and the Israelites originating from the West in concept [sic], Israel’s fundamental existence is threatened (Drake, ). As a result, whereas the Palestine-Israel conflict is situated in post-Cold War era that marks the decline in the physical military front, the foreign policy of Israel for the most part still adopts classical concept of security; alas, Israeli government always tried to incorporate human security concerns to be dealt during the peace processes with surrounding Middle Eastern countries, however short, which shows that the Israeli

Following the Six-Day War, Israeli settlement and presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip formed a constant tension and unrest between Israelis and Palestinians. It is also important to recognise the climate of economic adversities and low quality of living conditions for the Palestinians due to Israeli focused government policies. This essay will discuss the importance of land ownership in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as the source of mounting frustration by Palestinians against the Israelis. It will also discuss the rekindling of Palestinian nationalism that was especially prominent throughout the Intifada.

The Arab-Israeli Conflict, and the struggle for a religious homeland, is a complex and somewhat mystified conflict. The tensions between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples can be traced back to Biblical times, when Abraham allocated for one of his sons, Isaac, to lay claim to Judea or modern day Israel. Muslims claimed that the elder son Ishmael had been allocated the region in the Qur’an. Although many historians believe otherwise, these claims are still the more popular historical context amongst monotheistic practitioners.