|
Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict - History Overview
Origins
In the 1880s, the Zionist movement was initiated in Europe. This
movement held that the Jewish people had a right to a state of their
own; most Zionists specifically held that the state should be in a part
of their historic homeland, the area then known as Palestine. At that
time Palestine was a part of the Ottoman Empire. Under Ottoman rule,
Palestine had substantial regional independence, and the area was
inhabitated predominantly by Palestinian Arabs (about 95%, mostly
Muslims, some Christians), and Jews (about 5%).
In 1917 the British army took control of Palestine and Transjordan from
the Ottomans. In that year, its government issued the Balfour
Declaration, viewing "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". In the same period,
the British were giving contradictory assurances to the Palestinian
Arabs.
The Zionists interpreted that as a promise from the British that they
would help them build a state in Palestine, in part because of divided
opinions in British government, with some endorsing that view and some
not.
Signed in January 1919, the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement promoted
Arab-Jewish cooperation on the development of a Jewish National Homeland
in Palestine and an Arab nation in a large part of the Middle East.
In 1920, the San Remo conference largely endorsed the 1916 Anglo-French
Sykes-Picot Agreement, allocating to Britain the area of present day
Jordan, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea and
Iraq, while France received Syria and Lebanon. In 1922, the League of
Nations formally established the British mandate for Palestine and
Transjordan, at least partially fulfilling Britain's commitments from
the 1915-1916 Hussein-McMahon Correspondence by assigning all of the
land east of the Jordan River to the Emirate of Jordan, ruled by
Hashemite King Abdullah but closely dependent on Britain, leaving the
remainder west of the Jordan as the League of Nations British mandate of
Palestine.
Arabs opposed the division of their lands into multiple territories
under the control of various European powers, arguing that it was unjust
and imperialist. Some of them—led by Grand Mufti Muhammed Amin al-Husseini—also
opposed the idea of turning part of Palestine into a Jewish state,
objecting to any form of Jewish homeland. This was the source of much of
the Palestinian and Arab resentment against British rule. It also
extended to the growing number of Jews immigrating to Palestine.
See the related articles on the British Mandate of Palestine and the
History of Jordan.
Jewish immigration
Initially, the trickle of Jewish immigration emerging in the 1880s met
with little opposition from the local population. However, in the 1920s
and 1930s, as Anti-Semitism grew in Europe, Jewish immigration began to
increase markedly, causing Arab resentment of British immigration
policies to explode. Zionist agencies purchased land from absentee
landlords and replaced the Palestinian Arab tenants with European Jewish
settlers. In addition, the influental Jewish trade union Histadrut
demanded that Jewish employers hire only Jews. As a result, Arabs feared
that they would become alienated.
As many European Jews entered Palestine illegally, British attempts at
immigration restrictions were largely ineffective. Arab resentment
towards the British continued to grow.
The Great Uprising
In 1936, the British proposed a partition of Palestine between Jews and
Arabs. The partition was rejected by both the Arabs and the Zionist
Congress.
The Great Uprising in Palestine. A Jewish bus equipped with wire screens
to protect against rock and grenade throwing
Enlarge
The Great Uprising in Palestine. A Jewish bus equipped with wire screens
to protect against rock and grenade throwing
During the years 1936-1939 there was an upsurge in militant Arab
nationalism that later became known as the "Great Uprising". The
uprising came as Palestinian Arabs felt they were being marginalized. In
addition to non-violent strikes and protests, some resorted to acts of
violence targeting British military personnel and Jewish civilians. The
uprising was put down by the British forces.
The British placed restrictions on Jewish land purchases in the
remaining land in an attempt to limit the socio-political damage already
done. Jews alleged that this contradicted the League of Nations Mandate
which said:
... the administration of Palestine ... shall encourage, in cooperation
with the Jewish Agency ... close settlements by Jews on the land,
including State lands and waste lands not acquired for public purposes.
Jews argued that the British had allotted twice as much land to Arabs as
Jews instead of the same amount. Arabs held that the contract was
disproportionately in favour of Jewish settlement when the relative size
of the two populations at the time was considered.
World War II and its aftermath
During the war and after, the British forbade European Jews entry into
Palestine. This was partly a calculated move to maximize support for
their cause in World War II among Arabs. That the Zionists would support
the anti-semitic Axis was unlikely (though attempts at cooperation were
not entirely unheard of: see Lehi) and the British government considered
it worth sacrificing Jewish sentiment in an attempt to gain Arab
support. The immigration policy was also in response to the fact that
security in Palestine had begun to tie up troops much needed elsewhere.
After Operation Agatha, the June 29, 1946 arrest by British authorities
in Palestine of about 2700 Jewish activists and fighters, on July 22,
1946, members of the Jewish underground military organization Irgun
Tsvai-Leumi bombed the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, which was the base
for the British Secretariat, the military command and a branch of the
Criminal Investigation Division (police). 91 people were killed, most of
them civilians: 28 British, 41 Arab, 17 Jewish, and 5 other. Around 45
people were injured. This escalation of violence may have decreased
British resolve to continue their presence in Palestine.
The Zionist leadership decided to begin an illegal immigration (haa'pala)
using small boats operating in secrecy. About 70,000 Jews were brought
to Palestine in this way between 1946 and 1947. A similar number were
captured at sea by the British and imprisoned in camps on Cyprus.
Details of the Holocaust (through which the German Nazi government was
responsible for the deaths of approximately six million European Jews)
had a major effect on the situation in Palestine. It propelled large
support for the Zionist cause and led to the 1947 UN Partition plan for
Palestine.
The 1947 partition plan
The United Nations, the successor of the League of Nations, tried to
solve the dispute between Zionists and Palestinians. The UN appointed a
committee, UNSCOP, and considered two main proposals. The first called
for the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states in Palestine,
with Jerusalem and its surroundings to be placed under international
supervision. The second called for the creation of a single federal
state containing both Jewish and Arab constituent states. Seven out of
ten UNSCOP delegates voted in favour of the first proposal.
The partition plan was rejected by the Palestinians and the surrounding
Arab states because they felt it was unfair that the Zionists should
receive half of Palestine when they owned less than 6% of land and
constituted only one third of the population. The official Zionist
leadership accepted the plan, but some notable Zionists, such as Irgun
leader Menachem Begin, rejected it.
The war for Palestine
Following November 29, 1947, the Yishuv was attacked by Arab irregulars.
This "battle of roads" consisted mainly ambushes against logistical
convoys and traveling Jews. Jewish underground groups carried out some
raids in retaliation (including some apparently deliberate attacks on
civilians, such as the Deir Yassin massacre), but full scale war erupted
only after the British had left and Israel declared herself an
independent Jewish state.
On May 14, 1948, the Zionists announced the Declaration of the
Establishment of the State of Israel. Palestine's five Arab neighbour
states then attacked Israel.
The 1949 Armistice Agreements that Israel signed with its neighbours
left 78% of Palestine (17.5% of the 1921-1946 territory of the Mandate
which included Transjordan) in its hands. The remaining territories, the
Gaza Strip and the West Bank were occupied by Egypt and annexed by
Transjordan, respectively.
Additionally, the war created about 750,000 Palestinian refugees who had
lived inside Israel's borders. It also brought about the arrival of
hundreds of thousands of Jews from Arab lands to Israel.
In 1949, Israel offered to allow families that had been separated during
the war to return, to release refugee accounts frozen in Israeli banks
(these were eventually released in 1953), to pay compensation for
abandoned lands, and to repatriate 100,000 refugees (about 15% of those
who had fled). This number would have included some 35,000 refugees
whose return had already been negotiated and was underway. The Arabs
rejected this compromise, at least in part because they were unwilling
to take any action that might be construed as recognition of Israel.
They made repatriation a precondition for negotiations, which Israel
rejected. [Palestine Conciliation Commission, September 1949; Prittie,
1975].
In the face of this impasse, Israel didn't allow any of the Arabs who
fled to return and, with the exception of Transjordan, the host
countries where they ended up did not grant them — or their descendants
— citizenship. As of 2004, most of them, and their offspring, still live
in refugee camps. The question of how their situation should be resolved
remains one of the main issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
About 900,000 Jews either were expelled from or voluntarily left their
Arab homelands in the Middle East and North Africa. Roughly two thirds
of these came to Israel. (See Jewish refugees.)
The founding of the PLO
In 1964, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded. It
was the first Palestinian organization that worked for the right of
Palestinian refugees to return, and, initially, for the destruction of
Israel. From the start, the organization used armed struggle in the
conflict with Israel. From 1969 to 2005 the PLO was led by Yasser
Arafat.
At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, the Palestinian Black September
group, a militant faction of the PLO, carried out the Munich massacre,
resulting in the deaths of eleven Israeli Olympic athletes. It was among
the first Palestinian attacks to become world news.
Since this period, the PLO has officially renounced armed struggle. It
was recognized as "the sole legitimate representative" of the
Palestinian people at the Arab League meeting in Rabat, Morocco in 1974.
The Six-Day War
During the Six-Day War (June 5-June 11, 1967), Israel conquered the West
Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai from Egypt, and the Golan
Heights from Syria. Sinai has since been returned to Egypt in a phased
withdrawal in 1979–82, but as of 2004 the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
are still occupied. These areas have become known as the "Occupied
Territories". The war also created a new wave of 200,000 to 300,000
Palestinian refugees. They also have neither been allowed to return nor
granted citizenship in their host countries.
1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon
After the PLO was ousted from Jordan, its previous base, in 1970 it
relocated to southern Lebanon. From there it carried out attacks into
Israel. Ending these attacks was one of the reasons given for the 1982
Israeli invasion of Lebanon as a result of which the PLO was forced to
relocate to Tunisia.
During the war, the bloody Sabra and Shatila Massacre took place. It was
carried out by Phalangist Christian Arab militias, allied to Israel, on
September 16-17, 1982. The International Committee of the Red Cross
counted 2,750 victims. For its involvement in the Lebanese war and its
indirect responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila Massacre, Israel was
heavily criticized, including from within. An Israeli Commission of
Inquiry found that Israeli military personnel had several times become
aware that a massacre was in progress without taking serious steps to
stop it.
Main article: 1982 Lebanon War
The first intifada
The First Intifada began in 1987. It was a partially spontaneous
uprising among Palestinians in the Occupied Territories against Israeli
repression. Daily, the riots escalated throughout the territories and
were especially severe in the Gaza Strip. The intifada soon became an
international concern. On December 22 that year the UN Security Council
passed United Nations Security Council Resolution 605 which condemned
Israel's handling of the first Intifada.
From:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Israeli-Palestinian_conflict
Back to Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
|
|
