The Arab-Israeli conflict resulted not from a century long feud between Islam and Judaism, but from “claims to the same territory by competing nationalist movements.” These two movements, Zionism and Arab Nationalism, showcase the emerging question of identity during the 19th and 20th centuries. The Arab states, long ruled by Western colonial powers, emerged from the Mandate system weak and powerless. Why British troops did not leave Palestine until May 1st, 1948. Prior to this, the British proclaimed their support for a Jewish state through the Balfour Declaration (1917). In 1947 the United Nations released resolution no. 181 which created two states, one Palestinian-Arab, and one Jewish, leaving Jerusalem and Bethlehem as an international zone. The state of Israel was officially established in 1948. The Arab states refused to recognize the legitimacy of Israel, prompting Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, to declare war (1947-1958). This decision proved embarrassing as Israel, winning the war, forced out 700,000 Palestinian refugees. In turn, Israel refused to recognize the Palestinian state. The Zionist movement gained the momentum it needed to strengthen the state of Israel.
Zionism was a minority movement until the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. Early immigration to Palestine (1800s), called the First Aliyah, was characterized by “agricultural communities called kibbutzim, [where] they developed their skills as famers and soldiers”* (Zionism). Later on,
David Ben-Gurion (the head of the world Zionist Organization) made Israel a nation-state, in may of 1948. The jews had a goal to create a homeland in the Palestine area for many years, this goal grew after WW2. The violence towards the Jewish in WW2, the united nations decided what the jews had control of. They decided that Palestine was going to be split into sections, one for the jews, one for the Arabs, and another for the jerusalem and bethlehem. A vote was taken, and soon everyone signed it. The Arab-Israeli war of 1948 was resulted in Israel's independence. The war was between the Arabs and israel. There was tension between the jews and the muslim Arab for control of “their” land. The dividing of Palestine caused the tension to end and civil war erupted. This caused many palestine Arabs to flee and become refugees and 700 000 jews flee to Israel, because they were expelled from their country. Israel's independence caused tension to form and created more problems for the
Ever since Zionists (an extremist part of the Jewish population) immigrated to Palestine In the late 1800s, violence has plagued the region. The sheer numbers of Zionists moving in to Palestine scared the Arab population already living there, and fighting began. In an attempt to stop the violence spreading through Palestine, the United Nations stepped in and divided the nation into two separate states, one for the Jewish residents, and one for the Arab population. The dividing of the nations made the Arab people feel cheated, due to a larger amount of land being given to the Jewish people, even though there were less of them. Britain, which had been in control of the nation, quickly withdrew after the separation.
The Jews took to Palestine to establish their homeland and the situation worsened until the Palestinian revolution against the Zionist movement and continued British and American support for the Jews until the United Nations decided to divide Palestine into a Jewish state and another Arab. The State of Israel was declared on the land of Palestine with American and British support. The Arabs rejected this decision, while the Jews who declared their state accepted it until a war broke out that the Arabs lost. This encouraged the Jews to expand and occupy more Palestinian land. Where the Zionist government stripped the Arabs of Palestine from their land.
The rise of Zionism and Arab Nationalism in the nineteenth century triggered major political tensions in the region of Palestine. The conflict among the Zionists and Arab Nationalists is primarily due to the politics of territory and is essentially not comprised of religious opposition. In fact, before the advent of Zionism and Arab Nationalism, Jews and Palestinians shared a local identity due to mutual tolerances. This identity, which took precedence over religion, created a vivacious community with its own unique set of traditions and customs shared among the Jews, Muslims and Christians. However, following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the Zionists whom were seeking a safe haven from Jewish prejudices in mainly Eastern Europe, proclaimed their return to Palestine. Zionists sought the territory of Palestine as the ‘official land of the Jews’ because of their ancient homeland ties. Furthermore, as Zionism progressed, Arabs Nationalists were threatened by the ideology and the vast Jewish immigration to Palestine. In the Arab point of view, Zionism emerged as a European movement, which appeared to be another attempt by Western imperialism to subordinate Muslims to Europeans. Although Arab Nationalism and Zionism were similar in nature, these two identities were destined to clash primarily due to their irreconcilable nationalistic aspirations and cultural characteristics.
In 1948, the British mandate announced their intentions to terminate its mandate in Palestine due to the conflict between the Palestinians and the Jews. Britain faced difficulties trying to bring peace to Palestine. After the British mandate left Palestine, the Jewish people declared the establishment of a Jewish state (Israel). On the same day, Jordan, Egypt, Syria, Iraq intervened and this marked the first Arab-Israeli war. After this war, over 800,000 Palestinian Arabs became refugees as a result of the independence of Israel. Also, Jews in the Arab countries were made to abandon their properties and flee.
On the streets of Jerusalem, in the rubble of Ramallah, in synagogues, in mosques, in the hearts and minds of millions in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the remainder of Israel, Israelis and Palestinians are locked in a clash of civilizations. In his masterful work, The Clash of Civilizations, Samuel L. Huntington outlines a theory which approaches international politics on the scale of civilizations. However, he circumvents discussion about Israel. Huntington cautiously describes Israel as a “non-Western” (Huntington 90) country, but identifies the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as one along a fault line between civilizations (267). Though he chooses to avoid the issue, Huntington’s theory provides a groundwork for analyzing the
Before anyone can comprehend the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one must understand the theory of Zionism. Theodor Herzl was the first Jew to have the idea of creating Israel. He was a witness of the Dreyfus affair, in which a Jewish officer was accused of treason, solely because he was Jewish. Herzl also witnessed mobs of people shouting “Death to the Jews”. This was the last straw for Herzl. Herzl decided that there needed to be a change so he made it one of his life goals to create a successful movement in which Jews founded a Jewish state. One of his main arguments was that discrimination against Jews could be eliminated if they had their own Jewish State, and so modern Zionism was formed. The idea of modern Zionism is so pertinent to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because much of the reason for Israel becoming a Jewish state is behind the fact that Jews were perpetrated throughout the years before Zionism even came into play of the situation.
The Arab-Israeli Conflict The Arab Israeli conflict has gone on for many years. There have been many wars, terrorist attacks and peace treaties between Israel and the Arab countries. Through war and Treaties Israel has gained and lost alot of land. There have been 4 major wars between Israel and The Arab countries, as well as terrorist attacks.
The current conflict in the Middle East between the Israeli Jews and the Palestinian Arabs has many historical roots. Several events in the history of this conflict have been very important and also have a strong connection with the current situation between the two sides. One of these important events was the Nazi Holocaust. During the Second World War the Jews were persecuted by the Nazis and sent to concentration camps.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has a long and storied history. Israel was created in response to European anti-Semitism, with the ethno-nationalist vision of a Jewish territory of their own. By 1948, approximately 522,000 Jews had migrated to Palestine, most arriving during Hitler’s reign of terror that against Jews. Largely, Palestinians resented being expelled from their lands and bearing the burden of the persecution of European Jews. Consequently, the 1947 UN partition sparked aggression between Jewish and Palestinian militias, which escalated following Israel’s independence in 1948. This marks the beginning of conflict between two distinct populations seeking self-determination. Since then, numerous wars, uprisings and terrorist
In 1948, Zionist forces, due to their military pre-eminence, gained control over the territory which the UN designated to the Jews in the failed partition plan. On 14 May 1948, they declared Israeli independence and established the Israeli state (Fawcett, 2005; 221). The US recognised Israel quickly as a state and soon after that the Soviet Union did the same. The Arab League, formed out of six Arab states, did not recognise Israel as a state, because they felt the land belonged to the Arabic state of Palestine, not to the Jews. Subsequently, the six Arab forces (Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Syria) attacked the Israeli military. The Lebanese, Syrian, Iraq and Saudi Arabian forces did not produce many offensive operations, but they managed to block the Israeli’s march. The ‘real’ fighting came from the Egyptian and Jordan forces. In the beginning, the Arabs had an advantage of weapons and air-power, whilst Israel had problems with their strategy. However, after a few months Israel was provided with war supplies from Czechoslavakia. This included both weapons for using on the mainland and aircrafts. Due to these supplies,
in 1918 britain aided by the arabs captured palestine from the the ottoman turks but britain had now made too many promises that hey couldn't keep . Many Arabs opposed British troops because of England's failure to fulfill its promise and were also getting angry about the increase of jewish migrating to palestine. Arabs became concerned that Jewish immigration would threaten their position in Palestine which lead to large scale attacks on the jews. At the time of Hitler's dictatorship in Germany, Jewish immigration increased dramatically in 1933. An Arab revolt started which Britain suppressed with the help of Zionist militias. Zionist settlements climaxed in 1936. In 1947, Britain forbid Jewish refugees from nazi concentration camps to land in Palestine to prevent war between Jews and Arabs, which resulted in worldwide criticism of Britain. Britain withdrew itself from the situation handing over the mandate over Palestine, leaving the United Nations to deal with the situation. The United Nations proposed that Palestine was divided into two states, one for the Arabs and one for the Jews, however the Arabs opposed this idea claiming that the UN plan allotted too much territory to the Jews. the arabs thought it was unfair that the jews should get more land because the arabs were by far the larger population but because of the holocaust the was a lot of sympathy for the jews and this may be why the got more land.
problem have failed. The only way left for us is war. I will have the
The Middle East has long been home to very deep-rooted conflict. For too long, the citizens of the Middle East have lived in the central of death and fear. The animosity between few, takes the hope of hundreds. The Arab-Israeli-Palestinian conflict is most notably the largest issue preventing peace in the Middle East, but it is by no means the only issue. The issue of bankrolling and foreign aid are also issues preventing peace; because the U.S provides so much funding and foreign aid to certain countries, it is in some sense encouraging them to continue acting the way they act now and not change for the better of the region. It is also making the U.S look biased and can potentially cause issues for America in the long run, if they haven’t already. There is also the conflict of the Persian Gulf; the importance of these “new” resources and how it could affect the world economy and also the balancing of powers in the Persian Gulf; The U.S and the Middle Eastern nations will need to work to together to bring about security and stability into the Persian Gulf and hopefully it can overflow to the Middle East as well.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine is just one of the many facets that have shaped modern day politics in the Middle East. It is a conflict rooted in generations of violence, discrimination and prejudice that is complicated by a history older than any of the modern day superpowers. Ever since the creation of the state of Israel by the 1947 UN partition of Palestine