This is the history of Israel & Palestine.
Through the centuries, the land we now call Israel and Palestine changed hands many times
as different groups of people battled for control of the area. Over time, the establishment
of the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religions made the land - especially the city of Jerusalem
- a uniquely holy place. For about 1,000 years in the middle ages, the Arabs almost always
held control of the area, and actually lived relatively peacefully with the Jews. In fact
it was the Christians during their brief rule, who massacred and persecuted both the Jews
and Muslims.
At the turn of the 20th century, around 1900, the idea of statehood had firmly taken root
around the world and so, naturally, many Jews wanted a country of their own, but in the
2,000 years since the founding of Judaism, most Jews had left the promised land and spread
throughout the world. But with the goal of creating their own country now achievable,
large numbers of Jews started to come back and settle in Palestine. World War 1 brought
the defeat of the Ottoman Empire at the hands of the British, French, and Russians, giving
them control of the Middle East. They divided it up, and the British were given a mandate
over Palestine. With the more sympathetic British now in control, these Jewish Zionists,
as they were called, seized the opportunity to accelerate their plan for statehood. But,
creating a state for the Jews wasn’t really the goal of the British, who just wanted to
create a government in Palestine where power could be shared peacefully by the different
groups living there. And there were the Arabs who didn’t trust the British or the Jews,
because many of the Arab leaders thought the British would favor the Jews. So the Arabs
refused to form any government that included Jewish participation, but before long this
stubbornness grew into frustration at not being represented, so some within the Arab
community turned to violence and carried out bombing attacks against Jewish settlers and
started to destroy the crops the settlers were growing on their farms.
About a decade later, World War II broke out, and millions of Jews were killed by the Nazis
in the Holocaust. After the American, British, and allied forces defeated the Germans, hundreds
of thousands of Jews came to Palestine, and the UN General Assembly passed a fateful plan
to divide up Palestine into independent Arab and Jewish states, with the all-important
city of Jerusalem placed under International control, but the five members of the Arab
league didn’t want the Jews to control any part of the land, so they all voted against
the plan.
In May, 1948, after much planning and covert arms acquisition, the Jewish leadership went
ahead and declared the establishment of the State of Israel, and quickly convinced the
US Government, the Soviet Union and many other countries to officially recognize it. As expected
by the Israelis, the Arab countries invaded Palestine immediately, but the Israelis were
ready and were more disciplined, better trained and well-armed, and were too strong for their
Arab enemies. When the dust settled, after 10 months of fighting and peace agreements
were signed, Israel not only kept the whole area under the original UN plan, it controlled
almost 60% of the land that had been planned for the Arab state. More than 700,000 Palestinian
Arabs had also fled the fighting or were kicked out of their homes, and about the same amount
of Jews migrated into Israel from Arab lands. So, you had about 1.5 million people basically
switching places, making the population of Israel much more Jewish. A generation later,
in 1967, tensions were again reaching a boiling point. There had been some deadly, cross border
attacks from both the Israelis and the Arabs, so Israel decided to launch a surprise invasion,
and in six days, won control of the Gaza Srip and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, took the West
Bank and East Jerusalem away from Jordan, and kicked Syria out of the Golan Heights.
Fewer than 1,000 Israeli troops were killed in the short war, but over 20,000 Arab soldiers
died, went missing, or were captured. And - just like in the 1948 war - hundreds of
thousands more Palestinian Arabs left.
Since then, Israel’s really built up its security capabilities and constructed many
settlements in these newly occupied territories, even though the UN and the International Court
of Justice declared the settlements illegal under International Law. Ten years after the
war, Israel returned the Sinai peninsula to Egypt, and in 2005 pulled its troops and the
settlers out of the Gaza Strip, but there are around 750,000 Jewish settlers in the
West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
In 1993, Israel struck a deal with the leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organization
- Yasser Arafat - and agreed to allow the Palestinians to set up a government and rule
themselves in the Gaza Strip and the city of Jericho in the West Bank, in exchange the
PLO recognized the right of Israel to exist. This new Palestinian government, headed by
Arafat, became known as the Palestinian Authority and was controlled by its majority party,
Fatah. But not all Palestinians - especially people in the Gaza Strip - liked Arafat’s
more moderate approach and so a split took place, leading to the rise of the more extremist
Islamic party, Hamas, whose leaders refused to negotiate with Israel or recognize its
right to exist. In 2006, Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary election, but Fatah refused
to be a minority party and a violent power struggle between Hamas and Fatah played out
in the streets of Gaza.
After more than 100 people died in the fighting, Hamas controlled the area, so Arafat’s successor,
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, essentially cut the Gaza Strip loose from
the Palestinian Authority and set up an emergency Fatah-controlled government in the West Bank.
So today, there are two fairly different Palestines: One is the West Bank, led by Abbas and his
Fatah party, who more or less coexist peacefully with their many Jewish neighbors, although
Israel is in the process of building a 400 mile-long barrier along the border.
It is Abbas who is engaged in ongoing negotiations with Israel and the international community
about reaching a solution to the conflict that would allow Palestine to become an independent
country.
The other Palestine is the Gaza Strip, which is essentially poor and mostly cut off from
the rest of the world by Israel’s sea embargo and a wall that divides it from Israel and
Egypt, leaving its people without many basic necessities including clean drinking water.
Gaza is very dependent on the UN and the rest of the International community for aid and
is controlled by Hamas. Khaled Mashal is the chairman of Hamas, and has led the party since
the 2004 assassination of the Hamas leader al-Rantisi. Mashal though lives in Qatar.
In 1997 Israel tried, but failed, to assassinate him in retaliation for the bombing of a market
in Jerusalem that Hamas claimed responsibility for.
It’s Hamas who has been the target of repeated Israeli military actions recently - including
this year’s Operation Protective Edge, which was a response to a number of attacks by Hamas
against Israelis, including kidnappings and rocket attacks, both of which have been aided
by the digging of many tunnels under both the Gaza-Israeli border and Gaza’s southern
border with Egypt. Hamas uses these tunnels to smuggle in weapons and money that it gets
from others in the region who have an interest in destabilizing Israel’s security, like
Iran. In its response to Hamas, Israel has taken heavy criticism for its destructive
and vengeful air strikes that kill a high number of civilians.
There are generally two ideas for how to end the conflict and give Palestinians statehood.
The first, is a two state solution, where Israel and Palestine would be two sovereign
countries living side-by-side.
This is the strategy embraced by many in the International community including US President
Obama and is embraced by people like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud
party. But time after time, negotiations around this solution fail because of the many issues
it has to confront and resolve like what to do about the three-quarters of a million Jewish
settlers in Palestinian areas, the instability of the Gaza Strip, the fact that the Gaza
strip and the West bank aren’t even connected, and of course, who would control Jerusalem?
These obstacles have given rise to a second, alternative solution that’s embraced by
many Arab Israelis and even Jewish politicians like the newly elected President of Israel,
Reuven Rivlin.
They think the only practical way to go is a one-state solution compromise where neither
the Palestinians nor the Jewish people get exactly what they want, but would instead
be unified in one single state that would ensure equal rights for all of its citizens.
Proponents of this plan think it would solve one of the world’s toughest problems and
remove the entire area from the criticism of the modern world. The main argument from
Israelis against the one-state solution is that it would instantly end the idea of a
Jewish state and would make Jews a minority again, but looking at the numbers, in a combined
Arab-Israeli state, Jews would number 6.6m and Arabs around 5.6m. Of course that’s
before the issue of people migrating back to this unified country is settled.
Another issue that would require a creative solution is the wealth gap between the technologically-driven
and very prosperous economy of Israel, and the much more challenged economic situation
of the Palestinian territories.
Thanks for watching. Hopefully this video helps you see the situation with clearer eyes
the next time it’s in the news.
But I want to know what you think, how should the Israeli-Palestinian conflict be solved?