The long lasting conflict between the Palestinian and Israeli people has been an active and fatal issue in the Middle East for over one hundred years. It can be difficult to navigate and argue either side of the dispute since the competition dates back to biblical times. The Jewish people were said to have inhabited the region before 587 B.C.E. when they were exiled by the babylonians. Fast forward to the early nineteenth century when Palestinians had lived in the Israel-Palestine region since around 1099 C.E, a wave of Zionism crashed over European Jews and caused a migration to the soon to be British mandated and Arab run portion of the Ottoman Empire. In 1916, British officials encouraged an Arab uprising against the Ottoman Empire which ended in Arab control of Jordan, southern Syria, and a majority of the Arabian peninsula. It also gave Britain control over Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine. Then, in 1917, the British government urged European jews to flee persecution and Anti-Semitism by moving to Israel, their “ancesteral homeland”, which was then called British Palestine.This statement was name the Balfour Declaration and intended to provide a safe haven to jews facing violence and persecution. This declaration caused a large spike in violence between arabs living in Palestine previously and the immigrants fleeing Anti-Semitism.
As more Jewish people migrated to Palestine, clashes between Arabs and Jews continuously increased. A somewhat regular violent outbreak occurred in April of 1936 which quickly escalated into an Arab revolt against British mandate in Palestine. Despite the protest against Jewish Immigration, the British government continued to allow thousands of Jewish immigrants, provoking the general population of Palestine. The revolt ended with a collective total of 275 dead and 1,112 wounded between both Palestinian citizens and British military. Soon after during World War II, the migration to Palestine increased drastically as the Jewish people tried to escape Nazi Germany. Specifically after the Holocaust, Palestine was seen as a promised land for survivors or those who lost their relatives in the concentration camps. In this time, there was a Jewish rebellion against British mandate which solidified the view that both Jewish and Arab people of Palestine saw the British government as the enemy.
In November of 1947, the United Nations separated Palestine into two different Israeli and Palestinian states. Zionists reluctantly agreed to this compromise as they were hoping for full control of the nation. Palestinian Arabs, however, were infuriated and rejected this proposal, insisting that Palestine was being stolen from them as the Jewish people were foreigners taking over their home. Later the next year, Israeli forces attacked Deir Yassin, a Palestinian village just outside the newly identified border. This unprovoked attack became a symbol of war that Palestinians rallied behind, creating a large drive to take back Palestine as their own. It was used as evidence against Zionism and was used to prove that Zionists were “innately wicked.”
In May of 1948, Israel declared independence, promising equal rights to neighboring Arabs and Israeli citizens. Quickly following this declaration, five Arab nations invaded Israel and declared war, beginning the first Arab-Israeli war. Israel was able to defend the country and ended up not only protecting themselves, but also seizing more Arab land in the process. The rest of the Palestinian land was taken by Egypt and Jordan, leaving 726,000 homeless Palestinian refugees. These refugees fled to the parts of former Palestine ruled by Egypt and Jordan or to Lebanon and Syria. Throughout the next day, tensions and violence increased between the Arab and Jewish people partaking in the Second Arab-Israeli War and the Suez Crisis. Eventually in 1967, the 6 Day War occured when the president of Egypt, Gamal Nasser, declared that he himself was going to completely destroy the Jewish state. In response to this, Israel fired a surprise strike on Egypt. This war, much like the first, resulted in another couple hundred thousand of Arab refugees forced to find a new home.
After countless rebellions, drone strikes, failed peace talks, and back and forth attacks, the Israeli and Palestinian people have still failed to find peace with each other. The beginnings of this conflict are what has caused the dispute- who lived there first, whose region it is to have. The timeline of the conflict goes back to biblical ages and it is nearly impossible to fully decide which side deserves how much land. In the short twelve years from 2008 to 2020, 5,591 Palestinians and 251 Israelis have been killed due to attacks and major hostilities. This dispute has hurt more people than it has helped. In January of 2020, President Donald Trump put his “Peace to Prosperity” plan out in an attempt to settle the issue, which was rejected by the Palestinians because it supported sole Israeli ownership over the city of Jerusalem and Israeli annexation of the West Bank.
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