The Israel-Palestine Conflict Essay

For ages the Jewish population did not have a place to call home. They had been wandering around deserts, were once slaves in Egypt, but didn’t have any land to their name. Following the Holocaust, after many Jews had been persecuted by Hitler and the Nazis, a good portion of the overall amount of Jews in the world let alone Europe had been exterminated. As a result, Harry Truman and the UN suggested Israel, a homeland for the Jews. Tensions had been growing throughout the beginning of the 20th Century regarding the Palestinian area in the Middle East. This area was off to the side of Asia, near Africa. When the Jews and Arabs were offered part of this land, war broke out and still continues today. Even though a war happened as a result

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

Despite current misconceptions of the tensions between Muslims and Jews, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century. The Palestinians, both muslims and christians, lived in peace for centuries. Control of the city had historically, since 637 AD, been under Muslim control with guarantee of Christians’ safety, right to property, and right to practice religion. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire led to European nations colonizing many of its former lands, and the British gained control of Palestine. Social and political issues prompted European jews to flee from political unrest from their homes in Europe, and migrate to Palestine. Seeing the influx of Jews as a European colonial movement, the Arabs fought back. The British couldn’t control the violence, and in 1947 the United Nations (UN) voted to split the land into two countries. The continued political unrest in the Middle East is the cause of United States involvement.

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.

er the war, as the years went on the Jewish population in Palestine grew tremendously. The growth created a lot of violence between Jews and Arabic’s. This violence ultimately led to Britain to make a big decision on the future of Palestine. This with the fueling of World War II and the Holocaust caused international support for Zionism. So, in 1948 they established official declaration of the State of Israel (Cohen, 2003; Levin, 1974.)

During the time of the Mandatory Palestine, the Balfour Declaration signed in 1917, stated that the government of Great Britain supported the establishment of a "Jewish national home" in Palestine. This exacerbated tensions between the Arabs living in Mandate Palestine and the Jews who emigrated there during the Ottoman period. Signed in January 1919, the Faisal–Weizmann Agreement promoted Arab-Jewish cooperation on the development of a Jewish national homeland in Palestine and an Arab nation in a large part of the Middle East, though this event had little to no effect on the conflict.

Over the next 20 years, the number of Jews immigrating to Palestine increased due to the Zionist movemnt, and so did Arab-Jewish tensions. From 1936-1939, a large group of Arabs revolted. This revolt was led by leaders who were unwilling to give any Palestine land for the establishment of a Jewish nation (Cottrell 32-35). After this revolt and the growing Zionist movement, it would have seemed apparent to the United Nations that the Arabs and Jews in Palestine needed to be separated. So although the United Nations did pass Resolution 181 which essentially created the Jewish nation, Israel, the United Nations merely carried out the legislature that was promised from the Balfour Declaration of the British government. By not being able to peacefully live together, the Arabs and Jews of Palestine themselves ended up playing a role in the separation and partition of Palestine

On May 4, 1948, the Middle East changed as we knew it. Israel had become an official nation in the land where Palestinians once resided. Jewish people needed a place to reside after the persecution of over six million Jews. The British government, because it was in control of Palestine, allowed the Jewish people to reside in Palestine. This caused great tensions in the Middle East. In 1948-1949, there was a war between Israel and the Arab states. This war resulted in 700,000 Palestinian refugees. The Palestine-Israel conflict has been in effect since May 15, 1948. In 1967, Israel controlled 78% of what was Palestine, and the number is even higher today. (http://auphr.org/index.php/news/5100-palestinian-loss-of-land-1946-2012) Auphr (Americans

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

Two Different Grups The iSrealis and the plasines had a graet conflict because they both needed land and they were bothe fighting for the same land. This time was a hard time for both the two groups. At this time theer were many jews going the Zionists which means that jews should have a nation of its own to call home. Jews believe making a home in middle east was theer best hope of a land, so many jew begain to move there. After World War one the ottmen Empire collapsed and The britsh and French empires beagin to dived up the middle east, the britsh took over a pice of land that would be a place for the jews and arbs to imigrat there. But as more jews arrived theer was tenchoion that started between the Rabs and the jews, and then there was violent acts of between the two. There was a plan to divide it up into two countrys, Isreal and Palestine.

For hundreds of years prior to this, the land was inhabited by a large multi-cultural population, however, the Zionists wanted to create a Jewish homeland in that area. In the beginning the migration did not cause much of a problem, but as more and more Zionists immigrated to Palestine, the current population became wary and defensive. As many of the Zionists migrated to that land with the express desire to take over the land and convert it to a jewish state, fighting broke out with the indigenous population. The violence continued for years, and when Hitler began to rise up in Germany, many Jews fled their European countries and headed for safety in Palestine. With the ever increasing Jewish population, the fighting and violence continued to increase as well. In 1947 the United Nations decided to try and bring an end to the violence by dividing up the land, giving fifty-five percent of Palestine to the Jews. Since the Jewish people only owned about 7 percent of this land, even more fighting broke out. This evolved into the Arab-Israeli war, where Zionist forces took on several Arab armies. The Zionists greatly outnumbered the Palestinians, and when the fighting was done, Israel had taken about seventy-eight percent of Palestine. In 1967, Israeli forces were able to take the remaining twenty-two percent of Palestine that they were not able to take during the Arab-Israeli war.

According to Jeanne Kuebler, a journalist for CQ Researcher states, “The first World Zionist Congress, … spurred the Return movement; the aim of the congress … was to create a national home in Palestine for the Jewish people”(Kuebler). Prior to the Congress, Jewish people fled their former homeland of Palestine for various reasons. Following the Return movement and World War II, support for this resurgence would be recognized by various countries. Great Britain colonized Palestine, to push forth the plans of the Balfour Treaty, which insisted that Palestine would be a nation for Jewish people. Since the declaration was made, a mass emigration to Palestine was immediate. Although there was a cap of 75,000 Jewish immigrants, others found ways around the system finding ways to Palestine leading to a higher number of immigrants in Palestine than the maximum allowed by Great Britain. As Palestinians demanded their own dependence from the Jewish nation, Great Britain was unable to create this which led to a series of terrorist attack against the Jewish residents. Great Britain sought the help of the Leagues of Nations, which suggested a split into two nations (Brewer).

In 1917, thanks to the efforts of Chaim Weizmann, a passionate Zionist, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, issued a proclamation that was to going to make Theodore Herzl’s dream of a Jewish homeland come true. The Zionists’ goal seemed within reach for Great Britain issued the famous Balfour Declaration. This document, issued on November 2, 1917, was a statement to the effect that Britain would support the creation in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. It was probably the most wonderful thing that happened to the Jews in eighteen hundred years. (Barker 9)

In the Middle East region, there is a single country that stands out from the rest, a beacon of light on the very edge of civilization; that country is Israel. A country surrounded on all sides by its sworn enemies, determined to bring about its downfall. These resilient people have not only survived this tumultuous area but have prospered, and in this short essay paper, we will examine the reasons why this is by primarily examining their culture. We are going to do this by taking a close look at several of the key components of their society; the geographical influences of the region, civil considerations of the people and their government and the military conflicts that not only shaped their country from the moment of its inception

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.