Essay So far(updated)

 

Christopher Smalls

ENG 103

Prof. Salamat

Research Paper

Palestinian-Israeli Conflict

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a war that has been going on since after WWII ended. Israel claims that they own land that is inhabited by Palestine. Palestine claims that Israel has no rights to the land. The results of these claims have been an ongoing conflict between the two groups. During this conflict, Israel has maintained the upper hand. Palestine has stayed strong despite this and has not backed down. To this day, no end for this conflict is within sight. Who is right and who is wrong?

Israel and Palestine are two nations that have a long history. Their history dates back to biblical times. According to the Bible and Torah, Israel was founded by former enslaved Jews. These religious texts claim that with the help of God and Moses, their first prophet, Moses was able to lead the Jews to freedom. The Jews at the time were slaves of the Egyptians.

God had promised Jews a promise land and chose Moses to lead them. Moses led them through the desert for many years however he would never make it to the promise land. The Jews would eventually make it to the promise land and establish Israel. Since then, Israel would change hands of leadership from Jews, Romans, and Ottomans.

Modern day Israel was established on May 14, 1948, three years after WWII ended. Britain at the time had the mandate over Israel/Palestine and gave it up to the UN to establish a Jewish and Arab state. The UN handed over 56% percent of Palestine however Jerusalem was not part of the territory. This new measure was opposed by Arabs, however Jews accepted it. After many debates and propositions The State of Israel was established. This would trigger the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. The Arab states which consisted of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded Israel.

After the war ended, Israel kept most of the land given to them by the UN and 60% of the land given to the Palestinians for the proposed Arab state.  Also as a result of this no Palestinian Arab state was established. Between 600,000 and 760,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from the area that became Israel and they became Palestinian refugees. The war and the creation of Israel also triggered the Jewish exodus from Arab lands. In the three years following the war, about 700,000 Jews immigrated to Israel, residing mainly along the borders of the State. With these events, modern day Israel was created and the beginning of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict started to bloom.

As stated, Palestine has a long history dating back to biblical times. Israel’s ancient history is Palestine’s history. The “Holy Land” is now called Israel, was once before and by some today, called Palestine. The histories of Palestine and Israel divulge and intertwine around the time discussions of a Jewish and Israeli state began. The Palestinians were promised 45% of the land in order to create an Arab State. This however displeased Arabs. Arabs for a long time did not want to split the land with Jews. They wanted it to remain as an Arab state.

When the State of Israel was establish, Arabs did not declare a state of their own. Instead, as stated before Arab countries united and invaded Israel. After the Arab-Israeli war, Palestinians only managed to keep 40% of the land that was promised to them. Despite all of this, an Arab state was still not established. Instead, many Palestinians became refugees. The refugees fled to other Arab nations or established camps in what was left of the land given to them by The UN.

The road to an independent State of Palestine would be a long journey. In 1967 another war broke out. This war would be known as The Six-Day War. Between June 5th and 10th, the war was fought, in which Israel, defended itself against attacks from surrounding countries, As a result of this war, Israel seized control of the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. With this Israel took more land however it would eventually return the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt. As a result of these wars, Palestinian territory further shrunk.

During the 70’s The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) began to rise in power. The PLO was established on May 24, 1964, with the goal of creating an independent Palestinian state. The PLO was recognized as the representatives for the Palestinian people. They wanted the right to return and self-determination. This meant that they wanted The Palestinian refugees be allowed to return to Palestine. They also wanted to govern themselves without the help or involvement of other nations.

This would be a change because in the past, Palestinians got help from the other Arab nations. This caused a rift with other Arab nations and made them drop all involvement with the Palestinian people. For once the Palestinian became masters of their own destiny. During these early times The U.S. supported Palestinian autonomy in political union with Jordan. In 1985 Jordan gave up West Bank to Palestine. Then in 1988 The PLO made a declaration of Independence. With this a Palestinian State was finally establish. The State of Palestine recognized themselves as an Arab country and declared Jerusalem as their capital. By 1989 after a UN meeting had taken place, many states recognized The State of Palestine. With this modern Palestine was established.

From their beginnings we can see why there would be a conflict between Israel and Palestine. Palestine and Israel have always fought against each other. With the establishment of The State of Palestine things only got worse. Before that however things were terrible throughout the 60’s and 70’s. During the 60’s The PLO tried to take West Bank from The State of Israel. The PLO was deported into Jordan by the Israel Special Defense Forces (IDF). In Jordan the PLO acted against Jordanian rule. From Jordan the PLO infiltrated Israel using terrorist and launch rockets. Israel in turn retaliated these attacks. Throughout the 70’s The PLO terrorist activities intensified. They launched attacks against Jordan and later Lebanon. These resulted in the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and many more refugees.

Attacks against Israeli Jews also continued. During the 1972 Olympics Palestinian terrorists captured Israeli athletes as hostages. In a botched rescue operation all the athletes were executed. Israel once again retaliated for these attacks. These sorts of actions were not unique. Several events had happened in which resulted in more Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After the State of Palestine was establish, the conflict became more political rather than retaliation against acts of terror.

The 90’s would become a new era for The Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In 1993, peace negotiations finally began. The negotiations were referred to as The Oslo I Accords. The Accord provided for the creation of a Palestinian interim self-government, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). The Palestinian Authority would have authority over the territory under its control. Israel would also withdraw the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) from parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. With this Palestine was given parts of the Gaza Strip and West Bank to Govern. Israel also agreed to recognize The PLO as the representives of the Palestinian people. In return, the PLO recognized The State of Israel’s right to exist and renounce all acts of terror, violence, and desire for the destruction of Israel. Palestine now had a proper State and government. It was a move towards a legitimate Palestinian State.  

Although this move was supposed to be the beginning of a friendship between the two nations, things did not get better. Israel and Palestine still had some issues among each other that would only continue to escalate. Israel still occupied territory that belonged to the Palestinians. Palestine also had thousands of refugees who being prevented from returning to Palestine.

Other problems have the continued presence of Palestinian terrorist.  Although The PLO renounced terrorism it has not stopped it. To this day Israel is still being attacked by Palestinian terrorist. From 1993–2003, 303 Palestinian suicide bombers attacked Israel. This has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Israeli militants and civilians. In turn Israel has often had to retaliate against these terrorist.

In response to terrorist’s actions, Israel built a wall along the West Bank. Discussing of a wall was brought up in 1994. Construction began in 2000, by May 2006; the construction of the wall was complete. This wall separates West Bank with the rest of Israel. As a result of this wall, Palestinians have reduced freedoms, reduction of the number of IDF checkpoints, road closures, loss of land, increased difficulty in accessing medical and educational services in Israel, restricted access to water sources, and economic effects. This left many Palestinian to continue of suffering.