Israeli- Arab Conflicts
At firs,t being introduce to the class I had almost no understanding of the highly discussed issues going into the class. All I had were preconceived notions that many Arab states disliked Israel of whom was backed by the U.S. and that Palestine has had a sever injustice placed upon them because of the lost of their homeland, little did I know.
The conflict between Palestinians and Israelis is more or less a contemporary conflict, which began around the turn of the 20th century. The opinions of the opposing sides are usually very differentiated, and many historical events continue to be a question of argument. At first I expected to learn about both the Israeli narrative and a Palestinian narrative representing the different perspectives on the conflict itself, but as I began to learn more about the conflict, I soon also learned that there are different views amongst both Israelis and Palestinians, nothing is black and white.
Zionism is a political movement. Its principal belief is that there should be a homeland for the Jewish people in the land of Israel. Therefore it forces upon the Jewish people an identity not simply just a sharing of religious or ethnic identity, but as a nationality who are in turn entitled to their own state. Zionism came as a reaction to European anti-Semitism. Theodor Herzl, considered the founder of modern Zionism, argued that the only way for Jews to be free from European anti-Semitism and for them to be able to create their own destiny was if they had a state.
The British Mandate took place after the First World War, Britain obtained a mandate over the areas of the crumbling ottoman empire which now known today as Israel/Palestine. There you will now find Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jordan. The number of Jews moving to Palestine abruptly increased. Some went as part of a belief in establishing a Jewish homeland and others went to escape anti-Semitic persecution found through the world. The world felt responsible for what had happened during the holocaust, whether its was the Strumma or turning back a ship of Jewish immigrants only to sentence them to their deaths.
Al nakba meaning disaster catastrophe in Arabic took place shortly soon after the establishment of Israel. What took place, is that the Arab military forces were poorly organized, trained and armed, in contrast to the Zionist military forces, which though numerically smaller, were well organized, trained and armed. On May 15, 1948, Zionist leaders announced the state of Israel. Armies from the neighboring Arab countries and Iraq entered Palestine, declaring that they were coming to the assistance of the Palestinians, but were not able to do much. The Palestinian Arab state envisioned by the UN partition plan was never established.
The outcome was hard years of injustice that has plague Palestine they lacked the right of returning to there homes, and have been segregated and unfairly treated relating to the apartheid of south Africa. Israel’s Law of Return grants any Jew in the world, as well as those of Jewish heritage, the right to move to Israel and accept Israeli citizenship. Palestinians feel that this is totally unfair that a Jew born in America, has the right to immigrate to Israel, while a Palestinian expelled many years ago or born in a refugee camp is condemned to exile often never to see their home again which can better be understood in the book Question of Palestine by Edward Said.
Through out the years there have been many attempted peace processes including Madrid peace process and the Oslo Peace process, but to no avail. Israel has illegally pushed settlements for into Palestinian territory and has used barrier and walls to keep the Palestinian people from natural resource and any way of developing themselves as people or an UN recognized nation. They have also instated checkpoints at various ill-conceived locations. It seemingly unfortunate that from Israel’s broken trotted past that now as a powerful established country in the middle east Israel as country not all its people, but country has conducted it self with such regard considering it not so distant past.
