Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a complicated issue that is made up of many factors, has many reasons, and involves many people. This conflict is a fight over a home that both the Palestinians and the Israelis claim as their own. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been going on for many years; since the crusades in 1096 in my opinion. A solution has yet to be discovered. This conflict is an important problem to a lot of the world. Even the U.S., Britain, and the Arab countries are involved. The Palestinians and Israelis both want the land that is holy to them; it is the Holy Land or Palestine.
First, a factor that pushes the Palestinians and Israelis to fight for the Holy Land is the ancient religious history that makes the land holy. Many centuries before the birth of Christianity and Islam, the Jews, Muslims and Christians all had the same beliefs. Later they split into three separate faiths. All three religions believe that a man named Abraham made a covenant with God, promising Canaan (ancient Palestine) to his people and descendants. All three religions believe that they are Abraham’s descendants. How can the land be promised to all three peoples? The city of Jerusalem; located in the Holy Land, is also important to the three religions. A great Jewish temple was built there, it is the third holiest city in the world to Muslims, and it is the birthplace of Christianity and believed to be the place where Jesus Christ will return. Centuries later, in 1096, the crusades began. The three religions battled for Jerusalem. Religious history is an important motive for the Palestinians and Israelis to fight for the Holy Land.
Religion encourages certain choices on both sides of the conflict. Since the Palestinians and the Israelis both believe that God (Allah to Muslims) promised them the Holy Land, both are stubborn about giving up. The Christian religion is more similar to the Jewish religion, so they are on the side of the Jews. Most of the more powerful countries are mostly Christian, so the Jews have more help. Religion may not be the most important factor in the conflict, but it does affect the choices for the Palestinians and Israelis.
Starting in the eighteenth century, a new belief called Zionism began. Zionism means the belief that Jews should have their own nation in the Holy Land. There was much anti-Semitism (prejudice against Jews) in Europe and Russia at that time. Western Europe and Russia were pushing Jews out of their countries into Eastern Europe. The Jews kept getting pushed out of countries and they decided that they should go to Palestine. For they would be a minority anywhere else they decide to go. A specific Zionist group was Hovevei Zion, the Russian Jew Organization. The organization lobbied other countries to support the Jewish state and help Jews settle in the Holy Land. The British ruled Palestine at the time. They controlled the immigration of the Jews to Palestine. The British had promised the Jews a nation. As time went by, the Jews did not believe that the British would keep their promise, so they put pressure on the British by becoming a country in everything but name. They set up a pseudo-government, bought land, had their own military, and developed their native language of Hebrew. As the Zionists were putting pressure on the Brits to give them a country, the Palestinians were putting pressure on them to not. They killed Zionists and British soldiers. Also, they fought and protested against the Zionists and British. This led to a period of great violence. Both wanted the Holy Land more than anything.
A very important historical event that greatly affected the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was the Holocaust. The Holocaust was period of time in Europe when Jews were treated horribly and inhumanely. After the Holocaust, many of the Jews escaped to Palestine because the U.S. and most European countries wouldn’t let more than a certain number of Jews in. Later on, the U.S. helps the new Jewish nation of Israel because of their guilt from the Holocaust. This made the Zionists believe that Jews were even in more need of a home in Palestine.
Soon after the Holocaust, the British left Palestine for the United Nations (UN) to take care of. The UN thought that drawing borders for the Palestinians and Jews would be a good solution to the fighting. After the borders were drawn, the Palestinians were angry. The Palestinians believed that Zionists were stealing Palestine from them. The borders were horribly drawn. The Palestinians had more fertile land and the borders twisted through the country. The Jews were happy to at least have some land. The Zionists and Jews both fought and the Zionists gained more land.
Many wars happened throughout the years. In 1947, after the UN drew the borders, the Zionists and Palestinians battled in a large war over land. In the end, the Jews claimed most of the Palestinian’s land. The pieces of land that the Palestinians were left with were called the Occupied Territories, Gaza and the West Bank. On May 14, 1948, the Jewish people became the independent nation of Israel. The Palestinians and other Arab nations were furious. In June 1967, the Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs fought the Six-Day War. They fought over the Occupied Territories and an area called Golan Heights. The Palestinians fought because they wanted to keep their land, but the Arabs only fought because they believed that Palestine was Arab land. When the war was over, Israel had claimed all of the Occupied Territories and Golan Heights. The Israelis were winning their battles more times than the Palestinians because they had British military training, money from the U.S., better weapons, and, after the Six-Day War, they controlled all of the weapons being delivered o the Palestinians. They were also under the lead of a great president, David Ben-Gurion. The Palestinian’s leader had run away during the Holocaust. Over the years, many more small-scale and large-scale wars happened.
It would have been very hard for the Palestinians and Israelis not to fight. Palestine is a very small area and there are millions of people occupying it. When there are that many people in such a small area, it is very hard to avoid wars. It is especially hard because their properties are surrounding and winging through each other. The Palestinians and Israelis are in close proximity to each other. Either one can easily attack at any moment. Sometimes, the sides make preventative strikes so they aren’t attacked, but if the other side really was not about to attack, then they would be even angrier. This close coexistence is a very important geographical factor in the conflict.
In the West Bank, there are groups of Jewish settlers called Settlements. The Settlements are illegal because they are in Palestinian territory and they have no permission to be there. They choose to settle in the west Bank because of the rich land on the west bank of the Jordan River. The Settlements build walls through Palestinian land. To travel from Settlement to Settlement, these Settlers build bypass roads. They build roads through Palestinian houses and farmland. Along with that, the roads have large buffer zones on either side that no one can develop. These zones prevent attacks. The Settlements are unfair to the Palestinians, and the Palestinians are angry.
Resources are split unequally between the Palestinians and Israelis. In the original UN borders, the Palestinians got the better and richer land. Later, the Settlements started taking most of the Palestinians’ water. Technically, the Palestinians did not even have enough water to survive. Also, walls and bypass roads for the Settlements cut through Palestinian farmland. The Israelis control the borders of the Palestinian land. Because of that, the Palestinians cannot have any valuable weapons or resources delivered to them. Along with that, Israelis have enough power to take Palestinian resources if they wanted to. The Israelis also have powerful allies like the U.S. The Israelis have many more resources than the Palestinians.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a very complicated one and it there have been no successful solutions. The world can still learn how to avoid and solve future conflicts. Ever since the split of the original religion that followed Abraham and ever since the Diaspora (the deportation of Jews) and the Palestinians moved into the Holy Land, I do not think that this conflict could have been avoided. I believe that the conflict is mostly caused by a common desire for the Holy Land. “Even though Israeli-Palestinian conflict is primarily a political dispute between two nations over a common homeland, it has religious aspects that needs to be addressed in any effective peacemaking strategy” (Landau, 2003). The history of the Jews and Palestinians is, to me, the most important facto in the conflict. If it were not for the three separate religions or the Holocaust or the prejudice against Jews, then I think the conflict might have been avoided. Also, the conflict might have ended sooner if it were not for the prejudice against the Jews. The prejudice against the Jews pushed them into the Holy Land, leading to more problems between the different peoples. At least the world will have an idea of what to do to avoid major conflicts. The people will know what makes each other angry. Some people may think that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict looks foolish from the outside, but that will only help us so much more to avoid future conflicts. The world has tried and failed many times at finding a solution, but now we know what solutions will not work. Both, the Palestinians and Israelis, know what they want and they will not rest until they get it. As David Ben-Gurion said, “There is a fundamental conflict. We want the same thing; we both want Palestine” (Frank, 2005).
Sources
Frank, Mitch. Understanding the Holy Land. New York: Penguin Group, 2005.
“The Israeli Settlement Movement.” 4 November 2008. Palestine Monitor. 23 January 2009
Is Peace Out of Reach?. Dir. Bob Simon. 60 minutes, CBS News, 26 January 2009.
“Six-Day War.” 11 February 2009. Wikimedia. 11 February 2009
“The Six-Day War Causes and Consequences.” 2007. CAMERA. 11 February 2009
Landau, Yehezkel. “Peaceworks.” August 2003. United States Institute of Peace. 22 February 2009
Yes. This is written by me. I had the need to show it because I worked very hard. Thanks for reading it!
