Beyond Intractability: The Israel-Palestine Conflict
Historical Background
The Israel-Palestine conflict to a greater extent
has to do with land possession between the Jewish and Arab population. To be
more exact, the land conflict is over a search for national identity and
self-determination. At the same time it also depicts a clash between a colonial
settler community and an indigenous population prevalent in many parts of the world
across generations. The contested territory covers a small area of 12,000
square miles and hosts various groups. However, these various groups have
usually been reduced to the rough dichotomy of Jews and Palestinians. Both
groups have good reasons to claim the land as their own based on long-term
textual, archaeological, and hermeneutical pieces of evidence.
Entry of Jews into Palestine
Until the late 19th century Palestine has
been predominantly inhabited by Arabs. The Jewish population of around 6
Million people as of 2010 had arrived in the former area of Palestine in
various immigration waves. The first wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine
took place between 1882 and 1903 and was composed almost entirely of Russian
and Polish Jews (about 25,000). These Jewish people experienced increasing
hostility and persecution in their home countries. The conclusion that
anti-Jewish sentiments were unlikely to disappear in Europe and Russia plus the
belief that Jewish people can never completely assimilate in a non-Jewish
society motivated them to leave their “home countries.” Many of them left for
the United States while a smaller group decided to move to their biblical
homeland, Palestine. It is important to note that a significant number of
immigrants were secular Jewish and had few political ambitions.
Political Zionism
Political Zionism, that is Jewish nationalism, can
be traced back to the writings of a Jewish author and journalist named Theodor
Herzl at the end of the 19th century. He proclaimed that the Jewish
people are ‘one people’ and henceforth have a right to an own state. During the
first Zionist congress in Basel, Switzerland in 1897, delegates concluded the
creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, which coincides with the biblical Land
of Zion. During the first decades of the 20th century the migration
to Palestine remained limited. However, both World Wars, especially the Second
World War led to a massive influx of Jews from Central Europe.
By 1939, Jews
almost doubled their population share in Palestine from 17 percent in 1931 to
31 percent in 1939. The mass influx of Jews and the subsequent increased
competition for land contributed to the Arab revolt of 1936-1939. Palestinians
protested against the Jewish aspiration to create a state on their territory
through non-violent and later on through violent means. By 1938 the region was
in complete turmoil, with Zionist, Palestinian, and British forces fighting for
control. The conflict ended with a tremendous loss for Palestine: part of the
Palestinian leadership was imprisoned and
another sent to exile, the population was demoralized thus ending the revolt. Between
1937 and 1948 Britain attempted to reconcile the Jews and Arabs of Palestine.
However, Britain failed to reach an agreement between the two conflicting parties
and hence turned its responsibility to the newly created United Nations.
The UN Proposals
The UN formed a special committee on Palestine which
worked out two proposals on how to end the conflict. The first proposal
suggested the establishment of two separate political entities in Palestine
which remain economically joined. The second proposal included the creation of
a single federal state containing autonomous Jewish and Palestinian areas. While
Zionists agreed to the first proposal, Palestinians rejected both as they would
mean to give up part of their sovereignty. As a response to this, the Arab
Higher Committee and the Arab League drafted their own proposal which called
for a single, unified state in Palestine that would be democratic and secular
with equal rights for all its citizens. This proposal has been rejected by
Zionists as it considers only Jewish people who have arrived in Palestine
before 1917 as citizens.
On the 29 November 1947 the U.N. General Assembly
voted in favor of UN Resolution 181 which affirmed the creation of independent
Jewish and Arab states within Palestine. The British were requested to leave
Palestine and the two states plus a Corpus
Separatum compromising the Jerusalem and Bethlehem areas were to be
established by 1 July 1948. The planned partition of the country clearly
favoured the Jewish population. The Jews were given 57 percent of Palestine
although at that time Jews constituted only about one third of the population
owning less than 10 percent of the land. This can partly be explained by the
risen sympathy for the Jews after the holocaust.
The State of Israel?
However, the UN imposed solution became part
of the problem. The well-organized and well-equipped Zionist military force used
the turmoil which took place between November 1947 and May 1948 to expand their
territory beyond the areas specified by UN Resolution 181. They took over areas
which they deemed important for their security and economic success of the
still-to-be declared State of Israel. The State of Israel was proclaimed by
David Ben Gurion on May 24, 1948. The Arabs in Palestine did not follow his
example and chose not to declare the independence of the Arab state. This can
be understood if one considers the areas the Arabs were left with after Israel
expanded its territory. The putative Arab
state, in turn, was now dismembered into three portions: the Gaza Strip, under
Egyptian occupation; the West Bank, under Jordanian occupation; and the rest, as
noted, incorporated by Israel.
Intractable Conflict
What happened between 1947 and 1949 is the real bone
of contention and not the outcome of the Six Day War in June 1967. During the
Six Day War Israel occupied the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan
Heights. Until today Israel and Palestine have been trapped in a conflict cycle
which evokes international involvement.
The latest phase in the conflict started with the first
Palestinian uprising or intifada in December 1987. This phase started with a
number of protests and other non-violent means to put Israel under pressure to
end its occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza
Strip. Israel used a disproportionate amount of force in order to end these
protests. In the 1990s the Palestinians started to fight for their right to
self-determination with violent means. Bombings, rocket fires and terror
attacks targeting Israel became more frequent. Shortly after the outbreak of
the Intifada, Hamas, an Islamic resistance organization, emerged in Gaza.
Palestinians started
inhabiting Gaza in 1948 after they had been expelled from their land by new
founded state Israel. Until Israel’s occupation of the Gaza strip in 1967, Gaza
belonged to Egypt. It had a flourishing economy trading in fish, fruits and
vegetables. However, after the occupation Israel imposed export restrictions on
Gaza and diverted its water to Israeli settlers. These economic policies hit
Gaza hard and reduced its gross domestic product to a fraction compared to what
it was before the occupation. The experience of economic hardship of Gaza can be
linked to the emergence of Hamas.
In 2005 Israel pulled its troops and settlers out
of Gaza which Israel describes at the end of occupation. However, Israel still
exercises control over most of Gaza’s borders, waters and airspace. In 2006
Hamas emerged as the winner of fair and free election conducted in the occupied
territories. The U.S., Israel and Fatah were not pleased with the choice of the
people and tried to overthrow Hamas. Hence, Hamas leaders have been arrested by
Israel and the West Bank was taken over by Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas. These
events eventually led to the civil war between Hamas and Fatah in 2006 out of
which Hamas emerged victorious and assumed leadership of Gaza.
Since Israel perceives Hamas as a terror
organization that constitutes a constant threat to its homeland security it
turned Gaza into something like a maximum security prison. Gaza’s inhabitants
are surrounded by cement walls, barbed wire barriers, a 500-meter wide no-man’s land, and watchtowers manned by Israeli
sharpshooters. On top of that, Israel controls everything that goes in or out
of Gaza and keeps necessities such as food and fuel to a minimum.
Since Hamas gained power in Gaza in 2007, the
conflict between Gaza and Israel has turned into a cycle of periodic outbreaks
of violence and subsequent cease-fire agreements. Israel has carried out four
major attacks on Gaza since 2007. These are: Operation Hot Winter (February
2008); Operation Cast Lead (December 2008-January 2009); Operation Pillar of
Defense (November 2012); and Operation
Protective Edge (July-August 2014).
Beyond Intractability: The Israel-Palestine Conflict
Reviewed by Ibrahim Magara
on
March 09, 2016
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