BY ISADORA KAUFMAN
The purpose of this article is to provide a brief, objective explanation of the complex history leading up to the recent events in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Due to the word limit, the article is not able to include every event in detail, but should serve as a reliable source of information for those looking to educate themselves on the issue who are unfamiliar with the historical context and origins of the conflict dating back to the early 20th century.
The origins of the Israeli-Palestine conflict date back to the early 1900s, when Palestine was still under the control of the Ottoman empire, as it had been for several centuries under the occupation of the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman Empire was one of the Central Powers in World War I, meaning they were on the opposing side of the Allied Powers that included countries such as Great Britain. During the war, Great Britain made a commitment to the Arab Palestinians that they would help them to gain independence and self-determination in exchange for the Arab Palestinians being against the Ottoman Turks. Brittannica states that the Hussein-McMahon correspondence, a series of letters between the emir of Mecca at the time and a British commissioner, “effectively traded British support of an independent Arab state for Arab assistance in opposing the Ottoman Empire.”
However, the promises of Great Britain were not seen through, as Great Britain was utilizing Arab nationalism to win the war, but did not in fact plan on granting Palestine full freedom as a sovereign state.
Near the end of the war, as the Ottoman Empire was defeated and facing dissolution, the Sykes-Picot agreement served as a way for the Allied powers of Britain and France to divide “most of the Arab lands under the rule of the Ottoman Empire,” according to The History Channel. This directly contradicted the terms of the Hussein-McMahon correspondence, leaving Arab Palestinians frustrated that they were not given full independence.
As World War I ended, Great Britain was granted control over Palestine as a Mandatory Power in the Mandates system instituted by the League of Nations, the first intergovernmental organization whose goal was to establish peace and security at an international level.
In the British mandate, Palestine was given “provisional independence while still subject to Allied administrative control,” according to Britannica. The British mandate also included the desires of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, a public pledge by Britain that argued for Palestine to also serve as “a national home for the Jewish people.” And, as paraphrased by the Economic Cooperation Foundation, the Declaration would also “ensur[e] that the rights and positions of other communities in Palestine, as well as holy places, be preserved.” Instead of becoming a sovereign state, Palestine became what is known as “internationalized.” The term internationalized refers to when a region is put under international control.
The desire for a “national home for the Jewish people,” as stated in the declaration, stemmed from the growing Jewish nationalist movement at the time, also known as Zionism. This was a result of Jews’ historical and religious connection to the land of Palestine, as it is considered the most religious site in the world for Jewish people. The area also includes Western Wall within it , and Jews have ancestors who lived in the land “two thousand years earlier before dispersing in the ‘Diaspora,’” according to the United Nations.
Jerusalem is also considered a holy land for Arab Palestinians, most of whom are Muslim. The city of Jerusalem is also of extreme religious importance to those who follow Islam because within it lies the “Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in the world for Muslims,” according to the Washington Post.
From 1922 to 1947, Britain facilitated the migration of thousands of Jews to Palestine. A number of Jews also immigrated to flee Nazi persecution in the 1930s. According to Al Jazeera, “By 1936, Jews from outside Palestine made up more than a third of the population in Palestine.” Tensions grew, particularly between Zionists and Arab Palestinians, as there were not only religious disagreements regarding the holy land, but growing competition for the ownership of land.
In 1936, the “first sustained violent uprising of Palestinian Arabs in more than a century” occurred, according to Britannica. This was a result of Arab resistance to both Jewish immigration and Palestinians’ continued desire for an independent state that had not been given to them. Many were frustrated with the fact the British government was making efforts to create a “national home for the Jewish people” within Palestine, while neglecting Palestinian’s desire to have a country or state to call their own. Several political parties united, forming the Arab Higher Committee, demanding “a general strike, nonpayment of taxes, and the closing of municipal governments…and demanded an end to Jewish immigration, a ban on land sales to Jews, and national independence,” according to Britannica.
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The revolt quickly escalated into a volatile situation at a national level. Great Britain began to consider different ways to end the violence occurring on both sides, but eventually, in 1947, turned the conflict over to the United Nations. According to the United Nations, “After looking at alternatives, the UN proposed terminating the Mandate and partitioning Palestine into two independent States, one Palestinian Arab and the other Jewish, with Jerusalem internationalized.” This proposal was adopted and known as the Resolution 181 or Partition Plan.
The majority of Arab Palestinains were against this plan because “they regarded it as favorable to the Jews and unfair to the Arab population that would remain in Jewish territory under the partition,” according to the US Department of State. Zionists, on the other hand, were pleased, as there would now be a state specifically for the Jewish people.
Arab resistance increased as Zionists “mobilized their forces and redoubled their efforts to bring in immigrants,” according to Britannica. Neighboring Arab countries and Arab Palestians attached to the Arab Liberation Army “launched their attacks against Jewish cities, settlements, and armed forces,” according to the US Department of State. Civil war broke out in 1948, known as the Arab-Israeli war, following the Jewish state’s, Israel, declaration of independence. The level of violence between the two groups concerned the United States, who expressed the desire for more peaceful negotiations and that the partition should not be forcibly established.
The Zionists became anxious as the United States changed their policy, as they had previously agreed to the Partition plan, and began making a rapid effort to establish the Jewish state before the US interfered. During the 1948 War (the Arab-Israeli war), the Israeli side acquired more land than previously mandated to them in the Partition Plan. According to the United Nations, the Israel state “expanded to 77 percent of the territory of Mandate Palestine, including the larger part of Jerusalem.” Arab Palestinians efforts to stop this partition proved futile, as they were “divided, badly led, and reliant on the regular armies of the Arab states, [and] became demoralized.”
The war ended in 1949 as Israel was victorious due to their superior military tactics and more united front, and as many countries around the world were already recognizing it as a sovereign state. The land was divided into three territories: The West Bank, the State of Israel and the Gaza Strip. According to Britannica, after the territorial expansion of Israel the “remaining 2,000 square miles (5,200 square km) were divided between Transjordan and Egypt,” and declared as the Arab State. However this Arab State still did not establish Palestine as its own sovereign state, as Israel was. Transjordan acquired the lands on the West Bank of the Jordan River and Egypt acquired the Gaza strip.
A number of Palestinians were displaced following the creation of Israel, as they were “either… driven out by Zionist military forces before May 15, 1948, or by the Israeli army after that date or fled for fear of violence by these forces,” according to Britannica. The Global Conflict Tracker, run by the Council on Foreign relations, an American non-governmental research organization, states approximately 750,000 Palestinians were displaced and United Nations states “over half of the Arab population fled or were expelled.” Palestinians’ lives were changed as some ended in refugee camps, and their villages disappeared, or left Palestine entirely. The numbers of Palestinians displaced are heavily disputed among historical sources.
When the Israeli state was found, approximately 150,000 Arabs remained in Israel. Palestinians living in Israel technically had the same rights as Israelis living there, but Britannica states that the “military jurisdiction imposed severe restrictions on their political options and freedom of movement.”
By 1956, tensions rose in the region as a result of the Suez Crisis. The location of the Suez Canal, running across Egypt and connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Seas, allows for efficient trade between Europe and Asia, making it valuable to international trade. From 1869 to 1956, the canal had mainly been under French and British control, and according to the History Channel, “Europe depended on it as an inexpensive shipping route for oil from the Middle East.”
In 1956, the president of Egypt at the time, Gamel Nasser, nationalized the canal, hoping to make money from charging tolls that could be used to construct a massive dam on the river. Israel, with the military support of Britain and France, responded to this by invading the area around the Suez Canal.
At the same time of the Suez crisis, the Cold War was occuring, a nuclear arms race and fight for global dominance mainly between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union wanted to gain control of the Middle East, so they supplied weapons to Egypt. The leader of the Soviet Union at the time, Nikita Khrushchev, was against the Israeli invasion and threatened to use nuclear power on Western Europe if the military forces of Israel, France, and Britain did not stop their invasion.
The threat of use of nuclear power and involvement of the Soviet Union caused the United States to involve themselves in the Suez Crisis as well. President Eisenhower warned Khrushchev that threats of using nuclear power would only exacerbate the situation and asked the French, British, and Israeli troops to withdraw from Egypt. According to the History Channel, the US responded to the actions Israel, Britain, and France by “threaten[ening] all three nations, [Israel, Britain, and France], with economic sanctions if they persisted in their attack.” These threats were successful: all three nations gave control of the Suez Canal back to Egypt.
Over the next ten years, from 1956 to 1967, the United States attempted to prevent violence and attacks between Israel and the Arab state by trying to ensure there was not too much of an imbalance of power between the two regarding the amount of nuclear weapons they owned. The Soviet Union was selling arms to “left-leaning Arab states”, according to the US Department of State, posing a threat to “Israel’s military superiority.” In addition, “Johnson’s advisors worried that if the United States did not offset this shift in the balance of power, Israel’s leaders might launch a preventive war or develop nuclear weapons.”
The United States’ goal of keeping a balance of power between the Israel and Arab states proved futile as a result of continued attacks on Israeli villages by Palestinian guerilla organizations such as Fatah. That group was initially created in the 1950s to achieve the goal of gaining self-determination for Palestine and eliminating Israel control over Palestine by “waging low-intensity guerilla warfare,” according to Britannica. (Merriam-Webster defines guerilla warfare as “irregular military actions (such as harassment and sabotage) carried out by small usually independent forces.”)
By the late 1960s, Fatah became centered in the neighboring country of Jordan, causing it to be the target of an Israeli attack on a village that caused both Jordanian and Israeli casualties.
In 1967, Palestinian guerilla groups , who based themselves in Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, increased attacks and bombardments on Israel. The Israeli Air Force responded by shooting down six Syrian jets. President Nasser of Egypt responded to Israel by “mobiliz[ing] his forces near the Sinai border, dismissing the UN force there, and he again began to blockade Elat.” Elat was an important port city, valuable to Israeli trade. According to the Global Conflict Tracker, “In June 1967, following a series of maneuvers by [Egypt], Israel preemptively attacked Egyptian and Syrian air forces, starting the Six-Day War.”
Israel was victorious in the Six-Day War, as they “gained territorial control over the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip from Egypt; the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan; and the Golan Heights from Syria,” according to the Global Conflict Tracker. The war weakened the Arab states immensely, as “Egypt’s casualties numbered more than 11,000, with 6,000 for Jordan and 1,000 for Syria, compared with only 700 for Israel,” according to Britannica. Israel, on the other hand, now had complete control over the Jewish holy places in Jerusalem. The results of the war marked the beginning of the Israeli occupation of land previously held by other Arab states besides Palestine. in Arab states.
Following the Six-Day War, there was “sporadic fighting,” which eventually “developed into full-scale war in 1973,” according to Britannica, also known as the Yom Kippur War. The war began with a surprise attack by Egypt and Syria on Israel to regain the territory they lost in the Six-Day War. Egypt and Syrian forces crossed the Suez Canal and Golan Heights. The Arab States had improved military tactics, resulting in heavy Israeli casualties. While the Arab States did not gain back a significant amount of the land they had lost, “Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat declared the war a victory for Egypt as it allowed Egypt and Syria to negotiate over previously ceded territory,” according to the Global Conflict Tracker.
In 1974, a formal ceasefire was signed between Israel and the Arab states of Egypt and Syria, requiring “Israeli withdrawal into the Sinai west of the Mitla and Gidi passes, while Egypt was to reduce the size of its forces on the east bank of the canal,” according to Britannica. Following the ceasefire, there were also peace negotiations led by the United Nations.
In 1979, Egypt and Israel both signed a peace treaty, marking the end of thirty years of war. The treaty was based on the terms of the Camp David Accords, agreements regarding the division of land signed by Israel and Egypt in 1978. The terms of the peace treaty declared that Israel had to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, and Egypt had to recognize the right of Israel to exist as a nation. While this improved diplomatic relations between the two countries, “the question of Palestinian self-determination and self-governance remained unresolved,” according to the Global Conflict Tracker.
On June 5, 1982, as a result of increased tensions between Israel and Palestine, Israel bombed areas where the “Palestinian Liberal Organization had a number of strongholds,” according to Britannica. The PLO was created by multiple Palestinian groups to achieve self-determination for Palestine and used a variety of tactics, including guerilla warfare, to attempt to regain the territory. Within the same month of attacking the strongholds, Israel halted their attempt to eliminate the PLO and instead a ceasefire was arranged.
In 1987, the first intifada occurred. Intifada is an Arabic word that refers to a civil uprising or resistance movement. According to the Global Conflict Tracker, “hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip rose up against the Israeli government.” According to BBC, both violent and non-violent protest tactics were used including stone-throwing against the occupation troops, civil disobedience, and the boycotting of Israeli goods. This was against the Israeli occupation of what used to be the territory of the Palestinians.
In 1993, the Oslo I Accords mediated the dispute, “setting up a framework for the Palestinians to govern themselves in the West Bank and Gaza, and enabled mutual recognition between the newly established Palestinian Authority and Israel’s government,” according to the Global Conflict Tracker. Israel recognized PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. The terms of the agreement determined that over the next five years, a Palestinian governance would be established over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
The delay in determining the exact terms of the agreement and implementing the changes, along with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s controversial visit to the Temple Mount complex and al-Aqsa mosque, led to the second intifada of Palestinians against the Israeli occupation in 2000, according to the Global Conflict Tracker. According to the BBC, “Sharon’s critics saw [the visit] as a highly provocative move.”
The Israeli government responded by constructing a barrier wall around the West Bank in 2002, defying the International Court of Justice, which declared the wall illegal. Discussion of a two-state solution began in the United Nations, and Israel did withdraw their troops from the Gaza strip, but still remained in control over the Arab state’s “borders, seashore and airspace,” according to the United Nations.
In 2006, the political and military organization Hamas won the Palestinian Authority’s parliamentary elections, ending Fatah’s long reign as the majority party. This gave Hamas control over the Gaza strip, while Fatah still had control over the West Bank.
Hamas was founded in 1987 and, while they wanted self-determination for Palestine, they disagreed with aspects of the PLO’s approach to achieving this. Unlike the PLO, Hamas was not willing to cede any part of Palestine and “embraced the act of violence, including acts of terrorism, as a means to achieve its goals,” according to Britannica.
Around the world, Hamas’ victory was not recognized by many countries, including the United States and European Union, as it “has been considered a terrorist organization since the late 1990s,” according to the Global Conflict Tracker. Following Hamas’ victory in the elections, tensions grew between Hamas and Fatah, resulting in violence.
Following the armed takeover of Gaza by Hamas in 2007, Israel imposed a blockade. Israel declared the Gaza Strip under Hamas a hostile entity and imposed multiple sanctions on the area, including “power cuts, heavily restricted imports, and border closures,” according to Britannica.
In 2011, after years of violent exchanges between Hamas and Fatah, according to Britannica, “Hamas and Fatah officials announced that the two sides had reached a reconciliation agreement in negotiations mediated by Egypt.” In 2014, Fatah became a unity government with Hamas.
The year 2014 saw a military confrontation in which Hamas fired thousands of rockets on Israel, and Israel responded with a large-scale offensive using aerial bombardment and missiles. According to Global Conflict Tracker, 73 Israelis and 2,251 Palestinians were killed in the violence, which ended with a ceasefire deal, mediated by Egypt, in August of 2014. The terms agreed upon required “cessation of rocket fire from the Gaza Strip [and] Israel agreed to loosen restrictions on goods entering the Gaza Strip, expand the fishing zone off the coast, and reduce the size of the security buffer it enforced in areas adjacent to the Israeli border,” according to Britannica.
In 2018, 183 Palestinians were killed and 6,000 were wounded after “some Palestinians stormed the perimeter fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and threw rocks during an otherwise peaceful demonstration,” according to Global Conflict Tracker. This resulted in more violent missile and rocket strikes between Israel and Hamas.
As a result, the US President at the time, Donald Trump, removed funding from the UN Relief and Works Agency, which provided aid to Palestinian refugees. He also relocated the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Contradicting decades of US policy, Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, infuriating Palestinians. According to Trump, this took “the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table.” Trump’s administration “has a peace proposal in the works,” according to Reuters.
In 2021, protests broke out in response to a court decision “in favor of the eviction of several Palestinian families from East Jerusalem properties,” according to Global Conflict Tracker. Israel police used force to stop the protestors. Hamas responded by launching hundreds of rockets into Israel and Israel retaliated with bombs and airstrikes. The fighting ended after 11 days with a ceasefire. While both sides claimed victory, Global Conflict Tracker states 72,000 Palestinians were displaced, 250 Palestinians and at least 13 Israelis were killed, and 2,000 others were wounded.
November 2023
The Prowler 