Why Do Israel and Palestine fight?
Israel first appears near the end of the 13th century BC, referring apparently to a people inhabiting what was then “Canaan.” A few centuries later in that region, we find two sister kingdoms: Israel and Judah.
In about 722 BC, the kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian empire, centred in what’s now Iraq. So, “Israel” was no more.
Roman Empire
Less than a century and half later, Judah was overthrown. Its capital Jerusalem was sacked, the Jewish Temple destroyed and many of Judah’s inhabitants were exiled to Babylonia.
In AD 135, following a failed Jewish revolt, Roman Emperor Hadrian expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and decreed that the city and surrounding territory be part of a larger entity called “Syria-Palestina.”
The Romans killed large numbers of Jews, suppressed several Jewish rebellions, and forced many others to leave their homeland in an exodus called “The Diaspora.” Some Jews remained in the area and the Arabic-speaking Muslims became the dominant ethnic group.
Subsequent to the Islamic conquest of the Middle East in the seventh century, Arabs began to settle in the former “Palestina.” Apart from about 90 years of Crusader domination, the land fell under Muslim control for just under 1,200 years. Although Jewish habitation never ceased, the population was overwhelmingly Arab.
Zionist Movement
In the late 1800s, after the Napoleonic era and the Spring of Nations (1848), Jews in Europe were persecuted to a greater degree and had been subject to heinous antisemitism for many centuries.
A Jewish journalist, Theodor Herzl, got inspired by the rising nationalism (many modern nation-states were in the process of forming). He determined that Jews were not just followers of the religion of Judaism, but a “nation” that needed their own homeland, just as the French have France.
Herzl started the Zionist movement which was met with acclaim from many Jews, neutrality from many others, and strident opposition from many others.
According to records of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled Palestine for several centuries, in the year 1900, the population of Palestine was 600,000, of which 94% were Arabs. Almost all Palestinians were Muslim or Christian.
As antisemitism grew, Zionist Jews from Europe began immigrating to Palestine. They united with the local Jewish community and began to establish new villages from lands they bought from the Arabs.
While many Arabs were willing to sell land to the incoming Jews and many welcomed the influx of money, and superior technology in critical areas like health and agriculture, many other Palestinian Arabs were worried about becoming a minority in a country they considered their own.
Balfour Declaration
World War I happened. The Ottoman empire was on the losing side, and control of Palestine went to the British. In 1917, Zionists solicited the “Balfour declaration”, which was written in a letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community.
The text of the Balfour Declaration: “His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine.”
Despite the clarity concerning the rights of non-Jews in Palestine, many Zionist immigrants from Europe took the text of the declaration as indicating British support for a Jewish state in Palestine, which was not the case. The declaration called for the establishment of a state for the Jews after no European country agreed to accept the Jews as equal citizens.
The British conquered Palestine from the Ottomans. To the Arabs surprise, the British suddenly withdrew their offer of giving independence to the Arabs and called for the establishment of a state for the Jews. This made many Arabs angry.
In the early 20th century, anti-Ottoman sentiments were strong in the Arab world, and many dreamt of a united Arab entity. Some saw it as a kingdom, some saw it as a state, but they wanted independence. This caused the nationalists to dislike the Jewish migrants because they feared that the Jews would eventually create their own state, on what they regarded as “Arab lands”, or to some, “Muslim lands”.
Clashes between Jews and Arabs
This led to the first clash between Jews and Arabs. In 1920, many Arab leaders made speeches against the Jews during the Nabi Musa festival. They portrayed the Jewish immigrants as allies of the British occupiers, and the enemy of Arab independence.
Following the speeches, Arabs ransacked Jewish neighbourhoods in Jerusalem and clashes erupted, leading to the death of five Jews and four Arabs. From this moment, hostility officially began.
Another major riot occurred in Jaffa in 1921, 47 Jews and 48 Arabs were killed. The Jewish community did not believe the Arabs were hostile to them. This led to the creation of the Hagenah, a Jewish paramilitary organization, to guard Jewish areas.
In 1929 another major riot occurred all over Palestine and this time it included two massacres against Jews, one in Hebron, where 67 Jews out of the Jewish quarter of 400 residents were killed, while in Safed, 29 Jews were killed. It was obvious that the anti-Jewish sentiments were stronger.
In the 1930s, the Islamist leadership in Palestine began conducting terrorist attacks against the Jews and the British. This eventually led to the three yearlong Arab Revolt in Palestine, in which 5,000 Arabs were killed, mostly in riots against the British, and some 250 Jews were also killed. This bittered the relations between Jews and Arabs and began a significant anti-Arab sentiment among the Jews.
The British put down the revolt with the help of Jewish militias, but the fighting and hostility never really ended between the Jews and Arabs. The British government explicitly clarified its positions in its 1939 white paper on Palestine -
“His Majesty’s Government now declare unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State. They would indeed regard it as contrary to their obligations to the Arabs under the Mandate, as well as to the assurances which have been given to the Arab people in the past, that the Arab population of Palestine should be made the subjects of a Jewish State against their will.”
This Zionist Jews considered a literal tragedy.
In 1947, a combination of British financial woes, inability to govern in such an intractable situation, and due to the horrific motivations of what were, at the time, massive terrorist attacks by Zionist terrorist groups, the British decided to abdicate their governance of Palestine, and left relevant decisions for the newly formed United Nations to make.
In 1947, a UN committee, comprised of people, suggested a partition of Palestine into three: a Jewish State, an Arab State and an international Jerusalem.
The Jews comprising, roughly 30% of the population of Palestine, would be granted 55% of the total land (they had purchased between 5%-7% of available land). The Jews accepted the plan, but the Arab Muslims and Christians rejected it and a civil war started.
The State of Israel
After 6 months of a civil war between the Jews and the Arabs, the British officially left Palestine in 1948. On 15 May 1948, Jews in Palestine declared the independence of the new State of Israel.
Then, wanting a Jewish state with a significant Jewish majority of Jews, Zionist forces proceeded to empty roughly 400 Palestinian villages by force, displacing over 750,000 people.
Zionists declared Israel to be a nation, which caused rag-tag forces from the Arab countries around them to attack — a set of skirmishes the Zionists easily won, due to superior forces, armaments, and military training. This took the territory of Israel from 55% of historical Palestine to 74%.
Al- Nakba
The neighbouring Arab nations of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded Israel to aid the Palestinian Arabs who were fighting to create their own nation.
The Arabs lost that war, and the Palestinian diaspora began. Some 700,000 Palestinians fled the new nation of Israel and moved to neighbouring Arab nations to live as refugees.
They were told by the Arab states that they will return to their land and so they began waiting, seeing Israel as a usurper of their land.
This loss and the exile of these Palestinians is known in the Arabic world as “al-Nakba,” or “The Cataclysm.”
Israel contests the assertion it drove Palestinians from their homes and points out it was attacked by five Arab states the day after its creation.
Gaza Strip
Gaza is a narrow strip of land — just 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide -sandwiched between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea. It has a short southern border with Egypt. It has more than two million inhabitants and is one of the most densely populated places on Earth.
Two significant parts of the old Palestine did not become part of the new Israel: the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. After the war ended in 1949, Egypt took over the Gaza Strip, while Jordan took control of the West Bank. Israel occupied Gaza in the 1967 war and stayed until 2005, during that time building Jewish settlements.
Israel withdrew its troops and settlers in 2005, though it retained control over its airspace, shared border and shoreline. The UN still considers the territory occupied by Israel.
Population
As of March 2023, Israel’s population stands at approximately 9.73 million. (0.973 crore/ 97 lakhs)
Jews make up the majority at 73.5% (about 7.145 million individuals). The Arab community, spanning various religions excluding Judaism, accounts for 21% (around 2.048 million).
The current population of Palestine is — 5.4 lakhs (0.54 crores/ 0.54 million). It has total land area — 6,020 Km2 (2,324 sq. miles)
Do you know that Israelis and Palestinians are blood brothers?
Narrative 1
Israel has recognized the Palestinian state and the Palestinians’ right for a state of their own.
The British, in 1937 suggested 2 states to be set: the Jews accepted the offer, the Palestinians rejected it (they could not accept the idea of a Jewish state).
As fighting grew after WW2, they turned to the newly born UN for help. They hoped the UN would approve them to stay and control the area, but the UN (1947) voted for the establishment of 2 states: one Palestinian, one Jewish.
The British had to leave the area (on May 14, 1948), and on that same day the Jewish state of Israel was declared. But no Palestinian state was declared, even though they had all of the possibilities, abilities and recognition. The entire world waited for them to set up their own state. They did not need Israel’s recognition. But they did not. They did not do this because they did not accept Israel exist at all.
So, they joined Arab armies (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq etc.), whose armies invaded the country, to try and physically annihilate each and every Jew. They thought that when Israel is wiped out — they would establish their state instead.
That war ended in 1949 in a state where the Gaza strip became part of Egypt and the West Bank of the Jordan. But no Palestinian state was declared on those territories. No one thought such a state should be — they all anticipated the coming destruction of Israel.
In 1990s, Israel and the Palestinian Authority negotiated to find a solution. Israel stated its acceptance of a Palestinian state. These talks eventually failed because of an unbelievable eruption of murder actions initiated by the Palestinians.
In 2001, Prime Minister Ehud Barak of Israel proposed a very generous offer to the Palestinians in return for mutual recognition and end of conflict -but it was rejected again.
It’s not about Israel recognizing a Palestinian state. Palestinians were and are not ready to accept Israel, negotiate and have mutual compromises made, once and for all.
Hence all the trouble.
Narrative 2
International law forbids acquisition of territory by force, and Israel showed no sign of ending its occupation. A binding UN Security Council resolution was issued, requiring Israel to comply with international law. Israel ignored this resolution, and every resolution since, and is still occupying all those territories (Gaza via land, air and sea blockade).
As with the “too many non-Jews” within the borders of Israel that was addressed via ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in 1948, Israel has faced that same problem in the occupied territories, which it fully intends to annex permanently.
This demographic disparity has been addressed, and is being addressed in an accelerated manner, by moving Jews into settlements (illegal under international law) in the occupied Palestinian territories, which are governed as though they are part of Israel, and which are connected by roads that non-Jewish Palestinians are not allowed to access or use.
The international community has grown more emphatic that these settlements are both illegal, and a major obstacle to any possible permanent peace in the region. Israel has continued to ignore the international community.
Some people feel that Israel may one day end the occupation — — but that doesn’t seem to be even a remote possibility, who ultimately have the demonstrated power to enforce their will over time.
Palestinians and the international community all say, “this situation is illegal and untenable”, while the Israeli government says, “mind your own business; all of Palestine is ours.”
Hence all the trouble.
