Since the 6 Day War of 1967, Israel has occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Palestinian economy has become extremely dependent on the richer economy of Israel. Many thought that the signing of the Oslo accords in 1993 would relieve the constraints on the growth of Palestinians would be removed since peace would give them the opportunity to implement their own economic priorities. However, because of the second Intifada, the retraction of the peace process brought West Bank and Gaza Strip to a worse condition than it already was in. Today, the Palestinian economy is still directly tied to Israel’s economy. With the failure of Oslo accords, the divided Palestinian territories separated between Israeli and Palestinian authorities led way to the development of an Israeli system of permits and passes for Palestinians to travel within the occupied territories. This was the start of many policies against Palestine. The Palestinian economy is now isolated from world markets, and also from the restriction of moving goods and people between the West Bank, Gaza Strip, as well as cutting off transit between Palestinian population centers within the Palestinian territories. This policy of closure is said to have been established as a security measure to prevent or reduce the chances of a Palestinian attack on Israeli citizens or security. My sense of the Closure Policy is not only did this policy restrict movements of people and good, the external closure (limiting Palestinian
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 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
ME> Public opinion polls among Palestinians consistently show high levels of support for the two-state solution, which averaged 82-87% in 2000-07, while 73-77% favored reconciliation between the two peoples and 66-71% joint economic ventures between an Israeli and Palestinian state (Dowty, p. 190). At the same time, the majority of Israeli's supported the two-state solution, although 30-40% remained opposed for religious, nationalist or security reasons. Palestinians supported ongoing attacks against Israel not to overthrow the government or take over the country and drive out the Jews, or because of irrational hatred of Jews and Israel, but only because of the continuing military occupation and expansion of settlements.
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.
The big question we ask ourselves today is, will Israel and Palestine ever agree to stop fighting? The conflict between Israel and Palestine has been traced all the way back to 1948 through 2005 in The Israel Palestine Land Settlement Problem, written by Charles Rowley and Jennis Taylor. However, this conflict did not end in 2005. This article was written in 2006, so anything within the last 10 years is not included. The conflict between the two counties still continues to this day and still remains a major problem. Israelis and Arabs have been fighting over Gaza on and off for decades now. The three issues laid out in this article are the four major wars that took place, the refugee problem, and the conflict between religions. It concludes with the road map to peace. Throughout his whole book, The Israel-Palestine Conflict, Gelvin speaks of the same historical events that occurred between Israel and Palestine, while the article reveals there are still other conflicts, the land settlement problem has been the major conflict between Israel and Palestine since 1948.
A common misconception about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that it is deeply rooted in religion. However, it instead is a dispute over claims on the same land. Israelis believe that they are entitled to the land now known as Israel, while the Palestinians believe that they are entitled to this same land in which they call Palestine instead. Religion does, however, come into play as both sides believe that their God actually gave them this land, and giving it away would simply be unjust. After viewing both articles, The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Mark Tessler, and Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict A primer by Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar, I believe that truly understanding the Israeli-Palestinian and its entirety means breaking it down in a historically
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
The year 1948 witnessed the national independence for Israelis and “Al-Nakbah the disaster” (Sa'di 177) for Palestinian Arabs. Jewish Holocaust, Zionist movement, British interference, Arab awakening, religious conflict and disputes over territory built up into this catastrophic war. In consequence, on the one hand, millions of Palestinian Arabs fled into neighboring Arab countries, refugee camps and western countries (Mattar 395). On the other hand, militarization and securitization in Israel disrupted the normal life of its citizens (Éigeartaigh and Getty 18).
The popular ‘two-state solution,’ she illustrates is indeed practically infeasible. Between Israeli strategic considerations, and issues in communication between Israeli and PLO representatives, the likelihood of compromise seems small. If nothing else, the last twenty-eight years (1988-2016) of fruitless negotiations reinforce her disillusion with the ‘two-state solution.’ In addition, her appeal to data to prove that Israeli rule of the Arab population has had beneficial socio-economic effects in Judea and Samaria is extremely effective. In Part II, Glick brings forth data that proves that there is a correlation between Israeli control and standard of living improvement among the Arab populations of Judea and Samaria. Since these communities fell under the Palestinian Authority after the Oslo Accords of the mid 1990s, these standards either plateaued or fell. In addition, her examination of the legal standing of Judea and Samaria, also appears to be thorough taking into consideration her solid credentials in the field of international diplomacy. In addition to international journalism, Glick has studied international relations at the Kennedy School of Government, and has served as foreign policy advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin
Demolitions, since 1967, Israel has demolished more than 26,000 Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied Palestinian territory.” Additionally, between 1967 and 2011 over 14,000 Palestinians had their residency rights in Jerusalem revoked and have thus permanently lost their right to live in or even visit the city of their birth.” The disruption of life “as normal” has a drastic influence the cultural underpinnings of the nation. Very different from their former life, Israel now has legal control over their holdings and they live constantly wary of further negative influence “…in addition to the official 300-meter restricted access area, Israeli forces conduct regular raids one and two kilometers into Gaza and constantly monitor all areas up to two kilometers into Gaza. The land included in the restricted access area accounts for 17 percent of the total Gaza land area and includes 35 percent of Gaza’s agricultural land.” These problems do not simply breed bad feelings between the nations now but the constant state of tension between Palestine and Israel creates a long lasting state of aggression in the future generations which facilitate more violence and chaos than before. “Research conducted by Save the Children UK in 2009 found that up to 70 percent of all households living near the restricted access area had been displaced at least once since 2000”. Now, children are being shifted from their homes and stability to an unstable climate. As these social issues became
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.
However, this is not the end to the struggle between the two states. Though some controversies, such as land, are fairly straightforward, others are not. Apprehensions about security and refugees are main concerns of Israel. Allowing refugees could result in a possible change of demographic to a Palestinian majority. As a people that have been persecuted throughout history, the Jewish have an extremely legitimate reason to have safety and security a top priority. They desire a homeland free of jeopardy. Palestinian organizations in the past (and present, involving rejectionist groups such as the Hamas) have wanted the destruction of Israel as a state (“Negotiations). Israel accuses Palestine of not taking action against these terrorist groups, and fears that in the future, a Palestinian state could be overtaken by one. Palestine believes that a two state solution is actually necessary for security. Though both sides have many concerns, to make decisions and statements based on general, wide assumptions is also incredibly dangerous for both sides, and prevents progress. All
After more than 50 years of war, terrorism, peace negotiation and human suffering, Israel and Palestine remain as far from a peaceful settlement as ever. The entire Middle Eastern region remains a cauldron waiting to reach the boiling point, a potent mixture of religious extremism, (Jewish, Christian and Islamic), mixed with oil and munitions.