Israel and Palestine- origins and history

If you are just like me, dear reader, you probably have always heard on the news about the never-ending conflict between Israel and Palestine or maybe just people around you chatting. But what is it actually about? Why do they seem to always bring it into the discussion in some way or another?

The truth is that the violence of the conflict in a region rich in culture, historic, and religious matters which were already the subject of numerous conferences dealing with security, social and economic affairs, unequivocally caught the international eye and interest, growing in popularity.

While there are several urban myths about it, its roots are all about religious matters. Later on, the central conflict escalated between two groups of people fighting over the same land. It has even been referred to as the world's "most intractable conflict," with the ongoing Israeli occupation of both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank reaching 54 years.

The narrative goes way back in time, during the early 1900s when the region had been under Ottoman occupation. Just as the saying that "With great power comes great responsibility", with such a broad area, variety didn't hesitate to appear. It was religiously diverse, including mostly Muslims and Christians, yet also a small number of Jews, all of them generally living in harmony.

Palestine's Point of view

Palestine was predominantly inhabited by Arabs, while most Jews worldwide lived outside Palestine, mostly in Europe. More people in the region were developing a sense of being not just ethnic Arabs, but Palestinians, a valid national identity. After being taken under British administration, both before and after the first World War, they certainly had enough. Arab nationalism was a movement going around at that time, either by claiming independence from their colonizers or by creating a single Arab state. This context represented an enormous factor in the Palestinian decision of unwillingly wanting their independence.

Israeli's Point of view

At the same time, more and more Jews were joining a movement called Zionism who came to their aid, saying that Judaism was not just a religion but a nationality deserving of a land. For more than a millennium, the tempting thought of "return to Zion" grew and now caught life. With the immigration back to the Land of Israel and the re-establishment of the Jewish Nation, the Jews saw their historic homeland in the Middle East as their best hope for establishing it, after rasping times when they had been persecuted.

Simultaneously, these two hefty wishes clashed, leading to the start of a long series of fights for the same piece of land. After the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration which declared British support for the establishment in Palestine of a "national home for the Jewish people", enthusiasm was received from the Jewish side, while opposition came from the Arab leaders that were siding up. Palestinian nationalism was being provoked by Zionist movements, the Jewish settlements in Palestine, as well as by a desire for self-determination by the Arab population in the neighbourhood. They were constantly opposing the growing number of Jewish people. While the Arabs refused to hire the new neighbours, in return the Jews refused to give up the newly received land.

Beginnings

The first serious protests started in 1921, resulting in the creation of "Haganah" the primary military defence of the Jews. Between 1919 and 1926, 90,000 immigrants arrived in Palestine because of the anti-Semitic manifestations, causing the worsening of relations between the Jewish and Arab populations.

The first solution came in 1937, whereby Palestine would be divided into two states: one Arab state and one Jewish state. While the Jews accepted, the Palestinians rejected it, since they refused by any means whatever meant sharing land with Jews. Seeing this, another one came in two years later, with a one-state solution that reduced the number of Jewish immigrants in Palestine, setting on a long term the Arab Leadership. This remained until the start of the Holocaust.

WW2 and aftermath

During the Second World War, a bond was made between Nazi Germany and Arab Palestine over their common hostility towards the Jews. This later united Palestine with the Axis, allowing them to ask the Nazis for a favour regarding the stopping of the British initiative of Jewish national home in Palestine. Adolf Hitler agreed, leading to serious alterations of the British-Palestinian relations and the colonizers uniting with a Pro-Jewish Group, Yishuv .

After the war, as a result of British policies, the Jews turned around their arms towards them, considering the large numbers of immigrants that arrived in Palestine and were caught by British authorities. They were now fighting at two fronts. With the Holocaust movement on board, large support for the Zionist movement was provided, since it was considered a taboo subject.

As hostilities between Arabs and Jews grew back, the United Nations approved a plan to divide British Palestine into two separate states, one for each while leaving Jerusalem an international district. The plan was seemingly pleasing both the Jewish wish for land and the Palestinian wish for independence. While the Jews accepted and declared their independence as Israel, the Arabs in the realm thought of the UN plan as just more European colonialism.

Just after recently gaining their independence, countries throughout the Middle East sided up and declared war on Israel. They lost, causing Israel to push their borders further, stepping over Palestinian territories and expelling many of them, causing more refugees over time.

Two of the strongest Palestinian points were now either controlled by Egypt (the Gaza Strip) or Jordan (the West Bank), leaving the rest of the territory to Israel.

That's when it started.

The climax

In Arab-majority districts, Jews were ousted, until 1967. Arab states fought another war won by Israel, which had seized all of its initial territories including those that were at its neighbours the last time. This left Israel governing over the whole Palestinians that were constantly protesting. Israel gradually made peace with the other Arab States, without any peace treaty whatsoever, while still keeping Gaza and the West Bank, two Arab-dominated areas, under their authority. Either for political or financial reasons, Israelis started to move in, making it almost impossible for Palestinians to get together with their people.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) appeared in the scene. Initially claiming that they wanted the destruction of the Israeli state, yet subsequently they settled for a division of the land.

Later on, during the 1980s, the Palestinian frustration reached maximum odds, causing the first Intifada. It began with mostly protests and boycotts but soon became violent and Israel responded with harsh forces. Around the same time, a group of Palestinians in Gaza considered PLO too mild and founded their organization, Hamas, with their established scope of ruining Israel.

During the next decade, both sides signed the Oslo Accords, meaning the first step towards a middle ground. These papers gave the Palestinian Authority permission to govern certain localities. While members of Hamas launch suicide bombings to sabotage the process, rallies are calling the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin a traitor and a Nazi. He will, later on, be assassinated just after signing them, showing how terrorism can affect both sides irreparable, destroying the road towards peace with violence. The Second Intifada is risen, as a result of the Arabs 'despair about nothing changing. This one brings more victims than the first one, with 1,000 Israelis and 3,200 Palestinians estimated dead.

As a consequence, Israeli people become even more sceptical, shifting their politics to a more defensive way towards Palestine, controlling their movements, and seemingly just managing the situation, without solving it. Gaza is liberated a bit, allowing Hamas to step in, but this only makes Israeli people restrict them even more. This later results in a rate of 40% of unemployment and an overall poverty disposition.

Present day

The conflict arrives in its current state as of today, with spiritless periodic protests and Israeli militia stopping them and preventing their people from knowing details about these circumstances.

It is not war, nor peace. Just confusion.

Needless to say, this complex conflict certainly influenced numerous areas of both parties involved, leaving them with pain, victims, lethargy, and a never-ending situation that seems to affect their lives for a long time still. What will come next is uncertain since both groups already know each other and seem to have given up, yet, it is in Israeli's character to have unstable governance, this potentially leading to something much worse in the near future. It remains to be seen whether the need for assertiveness will win over the sufferings of the people.

Who knows? A third Intifada? The collapse of the Palestinian authority? We don't know. But the public eye will certainly watch it closely.