The History of Israel and Palestine “reasons of conflicts between them”

Picture Courtesy: https://imwpost.com/mediation-in-the-israel-palestine-conflict/

This article was written by Aditya Kohli, a student of Dharmashastra National Law University, Jabalpur, M.P.

Introduction

Let’s understand why the issue of Israel and Palestine is so intricate. Before 1946, the entire region was under Palestine, but the emerging conflicts in 1947, the United Nations had divided that area into two parts, Israel for Jews and Palestine for Palestinians. Till today most countries and international organizations consider that split map. The first area is named West Bank, and the second area is the Gaza Strip, which formed with Palestine. The Arab countries did not like the UN proposal and said that the entire region would be Palestine with no division. While the Jews had no problem with this division, they established their country in 1948, named ‘Israel’. The Israeli war between Israel and Arab countries continued for the next 30 years to set its civil rights in the Middle East, which changed the map of the Middle East. For example, in 1947-1948, more than seven lakhs’ Palestinians had to leave their homes and take place as refugees to nearby Arab countries. This event is known as the NAKBA (1948), and after the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel acquired the surrounding Arab countries and tripled their original size. There has always been a war in the Middle East, no there has also been some peace treaty like Camp David accords, Oslo accords, etc. And every peace treaty changed the map of Israel and Palestine. Therefore, to understand the conflicts of the present times, we need to understand the history of these two countries, who is right or wrong.

Ottoman Empire

It was one of the longest-running dynasties, founded around the 12th century. Always the leaders of this Empire had the same goal is to expand. Israel, Turkey, Egypt, Greece, Macedonia, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Bulgaria, Hungary and parts of North America were under the Ottoman Empire. This empire expanded so much because other countries not organized, while on the other hand, the Ottoman Empire had an advanced army in the 18th and early 19th centuries. But due to social and political instability and poor leadership within the empire, the Ottoman Empire had to leave many of its territories.

Though, Ottoman Empire had control over Palestine from 1516-1917. Palestine has religious diverse land where Christians, Jews and Muslim lived together. The Jews started the ‘Zionism’ movement during the 19th century, founded in 1897 by Theodore Herzl. It decided to make Jews a homeland in Palestine. But at that time, this movement did not get much support as the number of Jews in Palestine was just 8 per cent. At the same time, Palestinians wanted an independent country. Zionism and Palestine wanted their independent country. Then there is the entry of Britain, who wanted to use this situation for themselves.

McMahon-Hussein Correspondence and Balfour Declaration.

In 1915 British representative henry Manmohan’s had come to the Arab leaders with this proposal. He said that Britain would agree on Independence for the Arab countries if Arab nations fight against Ottoman Empire with Britain. Later, in 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote a letter to the leading figure of the Jewish community, Walter Rothschild, under which Britain promised to make Jews Homeland in Palestine. Thus, it is called Balfour Declaration.

So here Britain made two promises: First, the promise of independence to the Arab people living in Palestine and, on the other hand, the promise of making the motherland to the Jews in Palestine. The British government issued a public statement in 1917 stating that we would establish a national home in Palestine for the Jewish community, and thus, the Balfour Declaration supported Zionism. But this declaration caused much confusion as if the term National Homeland was used in that letter, meaning that such a term was never used in international law. Consequently, it could not be said whether there would be a separate Jewish country or not. To support Palestine, Britain said that the Jewish national house would not cover the entire Palestine region. Also, it will not affect the civil and political rights of non-Jewish communities. So, by this declaration Palestine region became Israel and Palestine territory. It was the first time a conflict between Israel and Palestine had started.

UN Partition Plan of 1947 and 181 Resolution 

Palestine was still under the control of Britain and could not handle its spread of confusion so, Britain ceded Palestine to the newly created United Nations in 1948. Under the 181 resolutions, the United Nations had passed the “Palestine Partition Plan 1947”. This Partition divided independent Arab and Jews state. Thus, Palestine divided into eight parts: Three areas for Arab, Three areas for Jews, One region for Jaffa and the last Jerusalem (a Neutral territory). When the United Nations was voting, 33 countries voted in favour of partition. At the same time, 13 countries including, India, voted against partition, and ten countries did not vote. The Arab nations withdraw from the General Assembly opposing this division. He said that the population of almost all people living in Palestine is double, so they should have got a preference, but in the end, this division is admitted.

1^st Arab Israel war, Nakba, and Partition of Israel and Palestine 1947-1948.

The next day of hearing the UN’s peculiar decision, civil war broke out in Palestine between Arabs, Jews and the British Army. Therefore, it called the first Arab Israeli war. Britain had little control over Palestine at that time, but Britain intervened only to prevent Palestinian violence. When the British left Palestine on 14 May 1948, the Jews had no more problem. Therefore, on 14 May 1948, on the last day of the British, Jews declared independent country Israel, which Russia and America recognized as a country.

For the Arab countries, this division of the United Nations felt a kind of deception because the Arabs wanted the whole of Palestine. The next day, after the declaration of the Jews on 15 May 1949, all seven Arab territories formed their union and sent their forces to Palestine to declare war against Israel. But after this ten-month war, Israel gained 60 per cent of the territory of the Arab nations and won the battle. Due to this war, about 7 million Palestinians left their place and became refugees in their own country and remember the incident as the Palestinian NAKBA. In the wake of Nakba, the United Nations passed Resolution 181 stating that Palestinians who wish to return may come and those who do not, should be compensated in return for their property. But to date, those refugees 1948 have not been compensated. After the end of the war, several ceasefire agreements were signed. These are the agreements in which the fighting party wants to end the fight. As such as Israel signed a ceasefire agreement in 1949 to end the war with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Therefore, before the first Arab-Israeli war, Palestinian Arabs owned 43 per cent of the land, and Jews had 56 per cent of the land. But Israel got 78 per cent of the area after the war.

2^nd Arab Israel war, and Suez Canal war.

The war was caused by the Suez Canal built by France in Egypt in 1956. The Suez Canal is an important international trade point for the ownership of which this war took place. On one side, Israel, Britain and France for the ownership of the Suez Canal and on another side, Egypt supported by the Soviet Union for the ownership of the Suez Canal. In this conflict, Russia threatened a nuclear attack on Western Europe, and on the other hand, the US urged to end the war else, the US will impose economic sanctions on them. Egypt won this war and Abdul Naseer emerged as a powerful leader. The power that the world power Britain and France gained due to this war has now been transferred to the United States and the Soviet Union, it can be said that the world power has shifted. Where America established its status as a friend of Israel.

1976 Six Day War.

In 1967, another war fought between Israel and the Arab nations in which Israel emerged victoriously. So, what happened in this war was that it began on 13 May 1967 when the Soviet Union gave intelligence to Egypt that Israel was preparing its army for the invasion of Syria. The Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser sent his army to Syria to save Syria from invasion. Israel invaded Egypt and destroyed its airspace, thus destroying Jordan, Iraq and Syria. Finally, Israel captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank and conquered the Suez Canal, Egypt’s Gaza Strip, and the Sinai Peninsula. Therefore, this war tripled its original size in Israel.

Camp David Accord- Israel and Egypt.

Following the resignation of Abdel Nasser in 1970, the new Egyptian President Anwar al-Saadat invaded Israel in 1973 on Yom Kippur, also known as the Day of Atonement, a very holy day for Jews and in this battle also, Israel won. Therefore, in 1978, the Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli PM Menachem Begin, and President Jimmy Carter signed the Camp David Accord Agreement. It had decided that Israel would return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, and Egypt would allow the Suez Canal for Israel. Thus, Egypt was the first Arab country to recognize Israel as a country. Following this agreement, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli PM Menachem Begin were awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 for this peace treaty. So, from now on, whatever Arab conflicts were, they became Islamic Palestine conflicts.

1^st Intifada, Israel- Palestine conflict.

Intifada is an Arabic term that means to shake off (Uprising) sense use by Palestine. 1st intifada was conducted (1987-1993), which have less violence but a major conflict. For a long time, terrorist attacks on the Israeli border continued, so Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza became violent, aiming to withdraw their territory from Israel, which Israel had acquired in the 1967 war. Then the birth of Hamas group killed an Israeli military officer, and then Hamas entered the Israeli army and killed six soldiers, which supports the Palestinians to fight against Israel. Consequently, Israel was under attack, and the Israeli army was trained to fight only with soldiers, not civilians. But Palestine had no army of its own, yet the citizens of Palestine protested and rioted. Therefore, to control these things, the Israeli military used tear gas, smoke etc. Instead of using weapons. For the first time, Palestinians saw Israel as a tyrant, and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) grew from a terrorist organization into a political organization.

Oslo Accord, Israel- Palestine Peace Agreement.

Therefore, by this incident, PLO leader Yasser Arafat became popular, and Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin spoke of peace talks, for which the Oslo Accords were signed in September 1993. Hence, Bill Clinton (US President), Yitzhak Rabin (Prime Minister of Israel) and Yasser Arafat (leader of Palestine) signed the Oslo Accords. The Oslo Accords were a group of agreements that established the Palestine government and divided the West Bank into three parts.

• Area A- 18% of West Bank which had under control of the Palestine government.
• Area B- 22% of the West Bank where the Palestine government rules but with the Israeli military, namely security controls under Israel.
• Region C- 60% of the West Bank which was under the control of Israel.

Therefore, after the Oslo Accords, another confusion map emerged of Israel and Palestine. But this agreement opposed by both Israel and Palestinian.

2^nd Intifada, Suicide Bombings, and Ariel Sharon.

Israel’s new PM Benjamin Netanyahu has always been against the Oslo Accords. At that time, terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad were emerging in Palestine. The second lasted to Intifada (2000–2005), violent than the First Intifada. Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon goes to Temple Mount, the holy place of the Jews, where the two Islamic landmarks are the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is a very sensitive site for both religions. All Palestinian leaders forbade them to visit that site, but Ariel Sharon still goes there. That makes the Palestinians angry and go there to protect their site and start throwing stones. In response, the Israeli police used tear gas and rubber bullets to control the crowd. In the four years of the second intifada, 3000 Palestinians and 1000 Israelis died, 73 suicide bombings were witnessed by Israeli citizens, resulting in the deaths of many Israelis from these bombings.

Operation Defensive Shield

Israel launched Operation Defensive Shield in 2002 in response to the second intifada. Israel’s sole purpose under this was to withdraw all territories given to Palestine after the Oslo Accords. Because all of those areas were becoming terrorist camps under the control of Palestine, and this operation led Israel to reduce suicide bombings by 70 per cent. After this operation, Israel started to build a wall in the West Bank so that no terrorist could enter Israeli territory. At the same time, because of this wall, Israeli security was improved, and there was no bombing after the construction of this wall, however, after the second intifada, the Oslo Accords were terminated.

Conclusion        

After knowing the history of Israel and Palestine, we learned that the main reason for the conflict between the two countries is the region and Jerusalem. Even before Israel’s recent attack on Palestine, there have been some wars in which Israel has always won the war. So, the Middle East was always the focus of Western nations, so they made several attempts to occupy the Middle East, resulting in the partition of Israel and Palestine and war or peace between the two. When there were war or peace treaties between the two countries, people had to leave their homes and live as refugees, the map changed, and things from both countries went to each other, then to take back the things they keep fighting to take revenge, to eliminate terrorism.