A Century of Conflict

I recently attended a talk by a volunteer who had spent three months in Israel, working in solidarity with the Palestinian people whos land is being taken from them by Israeli authorities. Although much of the discussion relates to the more current occurences in the region, it helped me to gain an insight into the tension which exists. The volunteer had worked with ordinary people, seen how the conflict influences children on their way to school, husbands denied the papers they need to see their wives, men refused entry to the city to find work and subsequently being forced to live in poverty. The empathy I encountered was definitely angled towards Palestinian citizens. I couldn't help but wonder if I was getting the full story. Beyond the lines of Israeli troops, surely, there are Israeli children, Israeli husbands and Israeli citizens who are just trying to get by.

After the First World War the Levant region was divided between British and French rule after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. During the war a promise had been made to the Jewish people to develop a Jewish homeland in Palestine. However, the Zionist and Arab movements were unwilling to co-operate and so when the British  passed the adminstration of the Eastern area of the region to the Arab dynasty (Hashemite) it was recognised as an autonomous Arab state and Jewish hopes of a Zionist state were eliminated.

With the rise of the Nazi party, the number of Jewish immigrants soared. Many were absorbed into legal settlements but the Arabs percieved the influx as a threat to their national identity. Between 1920 and 1950, tension rose and conflict increased dramatically. Arab leaders incited religious riots against the Jews and many were killed. The British responded with numerous inquests and reports; one of which was The Peel Commission of 1937 which proposed a two-state solution in which the region would be divided into two states.  Jewish immigration and land-purchasing rights were restricted. At the same time Arab leaders made deals with the Nazi party who promised to eliminate any Jews from the region once Germany had gained victory. However, after Germany's defeat and news of the holocaust spread, support for the Zionist cause increased.

In Chapter VI of the UN report of 1947, the majority of the Committee proposed recommendations for consideration by the General Assembly that Palestine within its present borders, following a transitional period of two years from 1 September 1947, shall be constituted into an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem.

There was a mixed recpetion to such a plan and the approval sparked attacks carried out by Arab irregulars against the Jewish population in Palestine. The Arab-Israeli war then ensued. The war resulted in an Israeli victory, with Israel gaining territory beyond the partition borders for a proposed Jewish state. The Gaza strip and West Bank were occupied by Egyptian and Transjordan armies respectively. Many Jews had fled the surrounding countries during the conflict and reached Israel for seeking security. However, the Arab who fled the region itself were not welcomed by neighbouring countries; they became known as the Palestinian refugees.

"In 1949, Israel offered to allow some members of families that had been separated during the war to return, to release refugee accounts frozen in Israeli banks, and to repatriate 100,000 refugees. The Arab states rejected this compromise, at least in part because they were unwilling to take any action that might be construed as recognition of Israel. As of today, most of them still live in refugee camps and the question of how their situation should be resolved remains one of the main issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."

After years of conflict, the Palestinian Liberation Organization was established (1964) and sought to  purge the Zionist presence from Palestine and called for the right to return for Palestinian refugees. Eygpt, which was still occupying the Gaza strip, began to train Palestinian fighters who carried out raids on Israel. This prompted an attack on Eygpt by Israelis called the six-day war. Israel had captured, among other territories, the Gaza Strip from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan (including East Jerusalem). Shortly after Israel seized control over Jerusalem, Israel asserted sovereignty over the entire city of Jerusalem and the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem were given a permanent resident status in Israel. Because Palestine was never award the status of "state" Israel was not technically guilty of occupying it illegally under the Geneva Conventions or international law.