Middle East Summit
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The Arab-Israeli conflict has been brewing ever since the Zionist movement was formed in Israel at the end of the 19th century. The tension has increased to a violent conflict following the UN declaration regarding the creation of the Sate of Israel in May 1948. Since then, an ongoing Arab-Israeli dispute was transformed to an ongoing conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors about land, rights, and religion. This ongoing clash revolves around many issues including border security, water, and land rights, control of Jerusalem, and legalities concerning refugees. Many attempts have been made to try to solve this conflict, however, because it is so deep-rooted, the conflict proves tougher to mend than many thought or wished to believe.
Following the Balfour Declaration in 1917, Palestine was granted to Britain as a League of Nations mandate to build a national home for all Jewish people. As a result, the surrounding Arab countries resented the Jews for encroaching upon their land. Increasing violence and the heavy cost of World War II led Britain to turn the issue of Palestine over to the United Nations. In 1947, the U.N. approved the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine into two states: one Jewish and one Arab. The Jewish leadership accepted the plan, but Palestinian Arab leaders rejected it and a civil war broke out between Israeli and Palestinian militias.
Israel quickly gained the upper hand in this inter-communal fighting, and on May 14, 1948, the UN declared the creation of the State of Israel. As a result, an all-out war erupted between Israelis, Palestinians, and Arab military and semi-military forces. Consequently, a large population of Palestinians ran away or were deported from their villages and towns, and settled in neighboring Arab states (Jordan, Lebanon, and Egypt) where they were never accepted as citizens and granted civilian rights, constantly discriminated against and treated as refugees.
Israelis and Palestinians have experienced the 1948 war in opposite terms. Despite a massive loss of life, Israelis have experienced the conflict as a War of Independence, and their victory against Arab and Palestinian forces as a veritable miracle in which the Jewish community succeeded in thwarting attempts by the Arab states to destroy their young state. Palestinians however, have perceived the war as the "nakba" - the catastrophe, the trauma, the disaster.
About 726,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled their homes in 1948 in the war that followed the creation of Israel, and additional Palestinians fled during the 1967 war. As a result, there are now about 4 million Palestinian refugees – many living in crowded refugee camps with miserable conditions in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. Palestinians demand that these refugees should have the right to return to their homes in Israel under UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Israelis, on the other hand, note that an almost equal number of Jews fled Arab lands to Israel in 1948. Thus, Israelis oppose return of the refugees because that would create an Arab Palestinian majority within the State of Israel and would put an end to Israel as a Jewish state. Most Palestinian groups, including the Fatah, agree, and openly proclaim that resolution of the refugee issue by granting right of return would mean the end of Israel.
For decades after 1948, Arab governments had refused to recognize Israel and in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded with the central tenet that Palestine, with its original Mandate borders, is the indivisible homeland of the Palestinian people. In turn, Israel refused to recognize the PLO as a negotiating partner and, as a result, wars broke out every couple of years and hostilities were heightened.
The border dispute over Jerusalem fuels the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam include Jerusalem as a critical site for their religious and historical narratives, and as a result, both the Palestinians and Israeli’s feel deeply connected to the city. Jerusalem was to have been internationalized under the UN Partition plan. Both sides have claims on the eastern part of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the ancient capital of Judea and site of the Jewish holy temple, of which only the Western Wall remains. It is also the site of the Al-Aqsa mosque, regarded as the third holiest site in Islam.
In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip from Egypt, and East Jerusalem including the Old City and its holy sites, which Israel annexed and reunited with the Western neighborhoods of Jerusalem. The status of the city as Israel's capital and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip created more bitter conflict between the parties. In 1970, the PLO was expelled from Jordan, in what was known as the Black September. Large numbers of Palestinians moved into Lebanon after the Black September, joining the thousands already there. In 1973, a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria launched the Yom Kippur War against Israel. The Egyptians and Syrians advanced during the first 24 hours, after which momentum began to swing in Israel's favor. Eventually a cease-fire took effect that ended the war. This war paved the way for the Camp David Accords in 1978, which set a precedent for future peace negotiations.
Yet, despite great involvement of the US and European countries in mediating the negotiations between the parties, a lasting piece was never achieved. Moreover, both the Israelis and the Palestinians are clearly divided among themselves with regard to the importance of solving the conflict. Both sides became increasingly extreme, and therefore less wiling to compromise. Since the murder of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 for his willing to compromise, and the take over of Gaza strip by Hamas, both sides entered a stalled phase in which no progress is recorded, and periodically violent events erupt between the sides (e.g., Israel Gaza war 2008-2009).
To date, the Obama administration is highly invested in advancing negotiations. Yet, very little progress is achieved. The dynamics of the Arab-Israeli conflict, and Israel's relative military superiority, invariably affect the thinking of all the Arab/Palestinian communities in the region. Even without Israel, there are inter-Arab and regional rivalries that provide motivation for proliferation. It seems that in order to achieve lasting piece, greater efforts are needed.