Since the Zionist movement began in the late 19th century, Jews have been treating the Palestinian people as a minority and have been pushing them out of Palestine in an effort to create a Jewish state. In his book “Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation”, Saree Makdisi, provides a detailed account of how Palestinian people living in Israel and its occupied territories are still unable to enjoy the same rights as Jewish people. He argues that Israel is oppressing the Palestinians and violating international law by restricting their movement, thereby slowly diminishing the Palestinian’s presence within Israel. Makdisi believes that the only viable option to ensure Palestinians have the same rights as the Jews is a one-state solution, which I am inclined to agree with.
The Israeli government has a bureaucratic process in place that oppresses Palestinians. Several different international and human rights organizations have submitted that Israel’s way of supporting the Palestinians oftentimes violates international law. Palestinians have an everyday struggle that Jews do not have to contend with, specifically due to Israel’s handling of permits, checkpoints, and zones, all of which are intended to break up Palestinian areas from each other (p. 29). As will be discussed in the following paragraphs, Israelis discriminate against Palestinians on a daily basis, grinding down their hope for peace and equal rights.
Israel has a prejudiced permit system, which makes
The west had been essential to the nation’s creation, and exerted its power in Israel. Israel’s leaders developed allegiances with western countries which had been essential in the formation of their country. Tension in the area grew, both inside and outside of the state, and violence was used against both sides. However, measures were not taken to undue the problems that had arisen from the unfair nature of the agreement. “Palestinians had been branded as ignorant, hostile, and violent” and non-Jewish groups found it difficult to practice their religion as they had before. Despite the obvious inequities that were growing, the west did little to alleviate the pain that it played a large part in creating. It seemed as if “People in the west seem so taken with material things, It’s as if they have nothing in their spirit, so they need to surround themselves
In this novel, Anna Baltzer documents her experiences in Palestine and her personal eyewitness accounts of the Palestine-Israel conflict. She describes heartbreaking events that she witnessed, such as the kidnapping of a farmer. Baltzer also describes how Israeli soldiers consider illegal matters legal when a Jew does it since they must “protect” themselves from harmful, innocent Palestinians. Although this novel is biased, it is useful since most of it is a primary source. It includes pictures, maps, a brief history and in-depth explanations of the complicated conflict.
We’ve so far established that It is no surprise that religion was a huge factor which triggered the creation of Israel but some individuals use the Israel Declaration of Independence to put forward the argument that ‘Israel may be a “Jewish state” in a cultural sense, but at least no more so than America can be called a “Christian state.”’ (Bird, 2014). Theoretically this argue seems valid because the Israeli Declaration of Independence ‘defines the state as granting equality of social and political rights, irrespective of religion, race or sex’ (Nawaz, 2009). Yet what these individuals are failing to acknowledge is no Israeli leadership has or is abiding by these norms and the only people who really are subjected to having these rights are
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.
The Gaza Strip was put into a state of distraught by the Israeli imposed blockade against the Palestinian territory. Israel's government has had control over the Gaza Strip ever since its victory back in 1967. Ruth Eglash constructed interviews with both Palestinians and Israelis to ask the simple question, is Gaza still occupied? It came to a conclusion, that there is proof and evidence that Gaza is still under the control of Israel, even if people say otherwise. One of her interviewees, Raji Sourani, stated, “ They are trying to highlight the gravity of the situation [in Gaza], where 65 percent of the people are unemployed, 90 percent live under the poverty line, 85 percent depend on [the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East]”(Eglash, Does Israel…).
Let us have ambitions; ambitions to move beyond the violence and occupation, to the day when two states, Palestine and Israel, can live together side by side in peace and security. ~King Abdullah II. In the country of Israel there are two conflicting ethnic/religious groups, the Israelis and the Palestinians. Israelis have most of the power, and run the actual state of Israel, whereas Palestinians have only inconsequential amounts of authority outlined by the Oslo Accords, for this reason, there has been ongoing conflict amongst Israelis and Palestinians. This conflict began when the Romans expelled Jews from this area in 31 BCE, which
In the 2014 book, The Israeli Solution: A One State Plan for Peace in the Middle East, Caroline B. Glick, an American-Israeli journalist and author, examines Israeli administration of the contested territories known as Judea and Samaria - also know as the West Bank - since the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Glick’s work criticises the current state of Israeli policy regarding the administration of the territory, posits a policy recommendation, and discusses challenges in implementing such a method. By appealing to human rights, and Jewish legal and historical rights, Glick suggests that Israel annex the entirety of Judea
Movement in Palestine has been becoming increasingly restricted. These restrictions have occurred through the creation of countless checkpoints, installments of roadblocks, construction of isolating walls, and ever-growing settlement connecting roads. Dividing land and decelerating movement among Palestinians has ultimately resulted in debilitating the Palestinian economy and compelling Palestinians to flee or turn to resistance methods. (Bornstein, 106) While these
Cleavages across the Palestinian diaspora as well as within particular segments of it are complex, due largely to the tortuous history of the Palestinian case. The initial response of neighbouring host states to the Nakba or catastrophe of 1948 was to offer Palestinian refugees protection and assistance, without prejudicing their claim to return home. Two ultimately incompatible policies were adopted by these states: giving Palestinians residency rights, while at the same time opposing full integration as being inimical to return to Palestine (Weighill 1999). Commitment to residency rights among host states has waned over time, partly as a result of the threat that Palestinians were held to pose for host states (ibid; Shiblak 1996). Israeli
Throughout the period of World War II, many Jewish people had fled to Israel seeking a place for sanctuary due to Hitler’s reign of terror, but who knew that one of the most largest movements in the history of Europe would cause one of the biggest renowned issues that still remains today. We can easily conclude that both Palestinian and Israeli people both believe that Israel is a land of sacred, where both religions had made history in this land. Although one of the biggest issues that still remains today is who really deserves the land the most. The Palestinian people currently live in the land of Israel before the Jews had made their movement, but after letting in countless Jewish refugees into their land, the Jewish people had realized
Since the establishment of Israel in 1948, there has been constant fighting between Israelis and Arabs. The Israelis have the right to live peacefully in Israel, but there is a conflict because the Palestinians feel that Israel is their land. During recent years the conflict in the Middle East had been exploded on to our television screens. Day after day images of violence and suffering have dominated the news. Scenes of heavily armed Israeli soldiers facing young Palestinian children hurling stones with slingshots- like Goliath facing David- have evoked dismay and confusion. The vehemence of the Palestinian reaction is a result of years of pent-up anger and frustration. The Israeli response has been swift and determined: Palestinian towns
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
In many countries around the world, many acts of injustice are being committed at this very moment. And the saddest part of this matter is that it has remained static for a very long time. Right now in Israel, thousands of Palestinians are suffering from arbitrary arrest and detention; which is when an individual is arrested or imprisoned when there is no evidence or even the possibility that they’ve committed a crime or when there is no regular administration of the law where no citizen may be denied their rights(“Detention and Imprisonment”). These Palestinians once lived normal, and happy lives until they were taken from their homes and transported to odious facilities where they were detained for months or even years. It was in these facilities
The Israeli-Palestinian issue has been an ongoing conflict since 1917. This conflict started right after the Holocaust as a huge number of Jews fled to Palestine. Later on, the Israeli forces almost occupied the whole land over the years. Currently, the Palestinians own about 11-15% of the land, while Israelis own the rest of the land (Farah 40). As of today, there are about five million Palestinian refugees in foreign camps and they are unable to return (Farah 40). Not only the Israeli forces occupied the land and forcibly evicted millions of Palestinians, they also operate a two-tiered system in the country that gives better treatment to Israelis while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians. For example, Israeli civilians are allowed to
The status of the Arab minority (Palestinian Arab) in Israel has been a persistent question since the 1948 war, or as the Arab minority identifies it, “Al-Nakba” or “Catastrophe.” While Israel self-identifies as the nation state of the Jewish people, approximately twenty percent of people within its borders identify as Arab — yet, it often unclear what their rights and roles are in a state that has historically discriminated against them and treated them as second class citizens.The fight for collective rights has been a decades long struggle, hindered in part due to the divisions within the Arab community, which is made up of Druze, Christians, Bedouins, and Muslims, groups with different political interests and priorities. The lack of unification has kept them from gaining collective rights or significant political clout within Israel. Thus, to this day, Arab citizens are disproportionately impoverished, unemployed, and uneducated compared to their Israeli peers. However, the path to a solution is complicated by both external and internal Israeli security concerns and a desire to maintain the character of a Jewish State. Thus, while the alienated Palestinian minority poses a legitimate challenge to the future of Israel, the status quo is unlikely to change. Since the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, the Arab minority has been subject to policies and attitudes, in the name of Israel’s security, that have engendered inequality, discrimination, and divisions