Essay about The Palestinian Liberation Organization

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

-Palestinians—most Palestinian organizations like Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) just want to have their own state and Israelis withdrawn from the occupied territories but extremist like Hamas wants to takeover the whole Israel and either make Jews as second citizens or push them to the sea.

The country of Palestine has a unique history that distinguishes it from other nations. In 1948, Israel became an independent nation, covering a large portion of another country called Palestine. Eventually, as time continued, Israel seized the rest of Palestine by 1967. This dominance resulted in the Palestinians lack of a homeland. Due to this, various altercations between both groups of people, the Israelis and the Palestinians, arose. The prospects for a peaceful settlement between both, Israelis and Palestinians, are minimal.

This essay will focus on how theorists of peace and conflict have analysed the conflict in recent history. Especially, the peace process after the first Palestinian intifada and the 1993 Oslo-agreements will be analysed. In addition, this essay will shed light on the involvement of the United States in the

Conflict in the Middle East has been prevalent for many years. The dispute between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is one that has yet to be resolved by the United Nations. Security Council Resolution 242 and 338 were presented in hopes of alleviating the situation. Security Council Resolution 242 established the principles that were to guide the negotiations for an Arab-Israeli peace settlement and "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war”. Security Council Resolution 338, adopted on October 22, 1973, called for a ceasefire in the Yom Kippur War, proposed jointly by the United States and the Soviet Union. The resolution demanded a ceasefire to take effect within twelve hours of the adoption of the resolution.

(History of Zionism Web). “The success of Zionism has meant that the percentage of the world's Jewish population who live in Israel has steadily grown over the years and today 40% of the world's Jews live in Israel. There is no other example in human history of a nation being reestablished after such a long period of existence as a diaspora.”(History of Zionism) That diaspora was cause by anti-Semitism and persecution, but the Jews managed to still thrive. Even with the creation of their own state there are still problems among them. “The 1967 war between Israel and the Arab states (the "Six-Day War") marked a major turning point in the history of both Israel and of Zionism. Israeli forces captured the eastern half of Jerusalem, including the holiest of Jewish religious sites, the Western Wall of the ancient Temple.” (History of Zionism Web) The Palestinians and the Jews fought for power over the state. The Zionist pursued and gain most land in Israel. They were not going to let their promised land go. They took power over the Gaza strip, Golan Heights and West Bank. In 1968 the “Jerusalem Program” was established as the start of modern

The Palestinian narrative is one of a stable society uprooted by European Jewish settlers and subsequently subject to unjustified Israeli violence, emphasising “the history of Palestine, the poignant testimonials of Palestinians living under grievous conditions of occupation or exile or imprisonment, [and] the betrayals by international and national leaders.” Take

Frequently, issues such as human rights violations occur around the world that people are not aware of. It is therefore a great importance to seek knowledge ourselves beyond mass media outlets and our own governments. Previous research suggests, the history of the Palestinian conflict goes back generations. In 1918 when World War 1 had ended, the British gained control of the Palestinian territory. The UN had no intention of displacing or changing anything within the land, but they decided that the Jews needed a safe place to reside after the holocaust. Therefore, many Jews immigrated to Palestine after the Balfour Declaration was issued in 1917. It stated that Palestine welcomed Jews into their homeland (Said, 1999). The fall of the Ottoman empire encouraged the number of immigrants to that in 1947, the total number of Jews in the area was “650,000” (Avineri, 1981; Said, 1999). The Palestinians were surely grateful for the number of people immigrating to their land because they needed their

There were other conflicts of varying degrees over the borders and in 1967 Israel took over the Gaza Strip, again displacing Palestinian Nationalists. (Higgins, 2009) These conflicts were focused on the national borders while not much attention was given to the religious developments from the Israelis. The political entity that rallied the Arabs and opposed the Israelis was called the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). They were driven from Gaza after the 1967 War with Egypt, while the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamic group with Egyptian roots flourished in the strip. Varying degrees of Palestinian political entities arose, cease fire agreements, and truces were formed and broken between Israel and Palestine over the next two decades.

Hamas’s origins stretch back decades through the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine; and Hamas took it current shape during the early years of the intifada. Hamas was not only formed to resist an Israeli state, but also was firmly against the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) dominance in the Palestinian National movement.

Israel successfully fought off the pan-Arab army while other Israeli combatants terrorized and depopulated the countryside. Ilan Pappe termed the depopulation of Palestinians as “ethnic cleansing” but can this phrase be properly used when discussing the events of 1947-1948? To answer this question one must determine if there is a well-established definition of the phrase ‘ethnic cleansing’ and also establish that this was the intent of the Zionists, both initially and subsequently. This can be determined by examining Zionist policy and action previous to the U.N partition plan and after, which will demonstrate that the term is appropriately applied to the situation by Pappe.

Both of these approaches would pave the way for Hamas’ seemingly bipolar tenure in Palestine. By the 1970’s, the Palestinian population was disillusioned by secularism, Westernization and materialism, and many looked toward the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic revival as an alternative . A drastic turn of events led to niche in Palestine that a more violent facet of the Muslim Brotherhood was willing to fill.

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

The PA resembles a classic authoritarian regime under the reign of Mahmoud Abbas even though it is supposed to be democratic. The PA government remains relatively stable under this structure. However, militant groups like Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad could be a credible external threat to the established governance of the PA. Since 2003, conflicts between the two major factions, the traditional dominant party, Fatah, and its subsequent electoral rival, Hamas, have fractured the Palestinian side. “After the Hamas took power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the territory controlled by the PA was split between Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.”[1] The estrangement between the parties has led to “the fall of bipartisan governance of the PA”[2].