The Origins of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Part 1

Dear reader,

We are covering the origins of the conflicts between Israelis and Palestinians. It's a two-part series that presents a detailed account of the dispute. It's a must-read for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of the conflict leading to the current Israeli-Hamas war.

Israel is a Middle Eastern country with a majority Jewish population that shares borders with Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and Egypt. Its conflicts with Arab neighbors have been ongoing for generations since the establishment of Israel in 1948, leading to hostilities with Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon.??

After World War I, the Ottoman Empire dissolved and paved the way for the creation of Palestine. Palestine, a part of the Ottoman Empire, is a vast expanse of land placed under the administration of Britain as part of the League of Nations mandates. It had a minority Jewish population (between 3% to 7%) of the total population, a Muslim majority, and a Christian minority.

In 1917, out of geopolitical calculations to counter the influence of France and Russia in the region, the British government issued the Balfour Declaration, which supported establishing a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine, thus creating its sphere of influence. This declaration paved the way for increased Jewish immigration to Palestine, which in turn led to growing tensions with the Arab population already there.

In 1947, the British Mandate in Palestine ended. The United Nations (UN) put forward a partition plan for Palestine, outlining three divisions: one each for Jewish and Arab states and an autonomous Jerusalem, which the UN would administer. The partition plan proposed the land allocation:

·???????? 56 percent for the proposed Jewish State

·???????? 42 percent allocated to the Arabs

·???????? 2 percent for independent Jerusalem to be administered by the United Nations.

The Muslim Arabs rejected the plan based on their numerical strength in the region. They questioned the sanity of allocating 56% of the lands to a proposed Jewish State with only 3%-7% of the entire population—a British census of 1918 estimated 700,000 Arabs and 56,000 Jews.?It must be noted that the British government, in 2017, alluding to Palestinian agitation, acknowledged that the Balfour Declaration in 1939 did not protect the Palestinian Arabs’ political rights.

However, the Jewish Agency for Palestine, which would later become the Jewish Agency for Israel, accepted the proposal for partitioning Palestine but demanded more Jewish resettlement in the territory, to which the Arabs, who claimed majority ownership of the lands, disagreed.?It created a rancor amongst the inhabitants.

In 1948, while the UN partitioning plan was still pending, the Jewish Agency for Israel unilaterally declared the State of Israel, and the Arabs, therefore, resisted it, which led to the First Arab-Israeli civil war in Palestine and the displacement of a significant number of Palestinians most of whom could not return to their land.

In 1967, Israel, in a brief (six days) yet consequential war with the Arab nations, captured and occupied the Gaza Strip and Sinai from Egypt, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Golan Heights from Syria. Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005 but still controls its territorial waters and airspace.?

After the 1967 war had ended and Israel began occupying the seized territories, on March 22, 1979, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 446, condemning Israeli occupation and declaring the built settlements in the Palestinian territories since the 1967 occupation as illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention.? The convention, adopted in 1949, established that settlements by an occupying power in territory captured during armed conflict are considered a violation.

In addition to Resolution 446, the UN passed other Resolutions 242 and 338, citing the inadmissibility of acquiring territory through force and urging Israel to withdraw from the territories. However, Israel's persistent occupation of the seized territories has met with Palestinian tenacious resistance, including widespread terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Islamic militant groups.

The Oslo Accords

The Oslo Accords, the first of which was executed on September 13, 1993, comprised a series of agreements that mutually recognized Israel and Yasser Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) leader. The accords officially acknowledged Israel's right to exist and saw Yasser Arafat renounce the use of terrorism and violence. In reciprocity, Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. Importantly, it is inaccurate to state that Palestinians under Yasser Arafat did not accept Israel's right to exist. Arafat did so and renounced terrorism as a means to realize their statehood goal.

The first Oslo Accord, signed by both Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, marked a significant deviation from PLO's prior long stance on the nonexistence of Israel. The agreements also paved the way for establishing the Palestinian Authority and pursuing a negotiated, two-state solution to the conflict.

On September 25, 1995, Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat signed another agreement called Oslo Accord II, which stipulated Palestinian self-rule in parts of the West Bank and the mode of elections in the territory. It further divided the West Bank into three areas: Area A – exclusively under Palestinian control; Area B – under Palestinian administrative control, but Israel controls security; and Area C – controlled by Israel exclusively. As the Knesset approved the plan, the conservative Likud Party vowed to topple it. Tragically, Yitzhak Rabin, who signed the accords, was assassinated by an Israeli extremist opposed to the peace process in 1995.

Shimon Perez succeeded Rabin as prime minister of Israel on December 8, 1995. He met with Arafat to reaffirm the Oslo Accords. Israel began the withdrawal of its troops from Palestinian cities. Both hardliners in the Israeli government and Hamas opposed the progress of the accords and vowed to end it. The Israeli hardliners do not want to share the lands with Palestinians, and Hamas does not recognize Israel's existence. So, either party is always incentivized to throw a monkey wrench in the wheel of progress-- they are constantly working against a two-state solution.

According to the Oslo Accords, on January 20, 1996, elections took place in the territory, and Hamas called for a boycott. Consequently, Arafat's Fatah group won in landslides. A few weeks later, Israel killed a Hamas chief terrorist, and Hamas retaliated with suicide attacks, which also killed many Israelis. Arafat condemned the act of terrorism and arrested hundreds of the Islamic militants. Inevitably, his actions were not enough as the opposition to the peace process grew in Israel, prompting Benjamin Netanyahu to throw himself into the ring for the premiership.??

Hezbollah is an Iran-backed militant group. Between April 11-18, 1996, it fired missiles into Israel, to which Israel responded massively and inadvertently hit the United Nations compound in Kana, killing over 100 people. The tension grew among Israelis decrying Islamic militants, blaming Perez's policy, and Israeli-Arabs, who condemned Israel's retaliatory actions against Hezbollah, which had killed many Arabs, also accused Perez. So, both sides vowed not to support Shimon Perez in the upcoming elections in Israel.

Benjamin Netanyahu won the election against Perez within a margin of error. Israeli Arabs, who constituted 20% of the population, boycotted the election, paving the way for the narrow win for Netanyahu. Upon taking office, Netanyahu met with Arafat in a make-believe posture with a handshake but made no progress at the meeting.

?Several weeks later, against the advice of his security chiefs, Netanyahu opened the ancient tunnel that runs along the wall of Al Aqsa Mosque, a critically sensitive memorial to both Muslims and Jews, to provoke the Palestinians. For the first time since signing the Oslo Accords, chaos erupted with demonstrations as the Israeli army fired on the demonstrators, leaving Israelis and more Palestinians dead. It led to another peace meeting between Netanyahu and Arafat at the White House, culminating in revisiting the Oslo Accords. Netanyahu came back and ordered a withdrawal from the rest of Gaza and the West Bank, which angered the Jewish settlers who did not want to leave the settlements.

Before his death, former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin made a promise - although not stipulated in the Oslo Accords -not to build any additional settlements in the Palestinian lands. On March 18, 1997, Netanyahu ordered the construction of new settlements in the contested Jerusalem surroundings. A few days later, Hamas carried out a suicide mission that killed some Israelis. In another twist, Netanyahu ordered Jewish settlers to occupy houses in the Arab locale of Jerusalem. In what seemed a betrayal by Netanyahu – ceding more lands to Palestinians than they had wanted, the Knesset called an extraordinary meeting and removed Netanyahu as prime minister.

?In a new election, Ehud Barak of the opposition party, who campaigned on “peace reconciliation with Palestinians,” won in a landslide. Netanyahu was out.? At the time, it seemed the Israelis deliberately elected Barak to foster the peace process. However, Barak, who genuinely wanted to make peace, began to witness signs to the contrary, so he made another proposal to Palestinians in which Israel would cut the West Bank into three and would continue the settlements. The Palestinians rejected the idea.

Ehud Barak, a man with the mission to bring peace and security to Israel, made another move; he ended the 22-year occupation of Southern Lebanon to make peace with Hezbollah. Barak’s reconciliatory action irked the Israeli hardliners, who wanted his head on the platter. Barak decided to fast-track the peace process and requested US President Clinton to call for a summit at Camp David to resolve all the issues, leading to a final resolution. However, the summit took place, and no resolution was made. In the meantime, there were uprisings, culminating in widespread condemnation of Barak's policy and demanding a change. Ariel Sharon of the Likud Party, a hardliner, decided to run on the platform of “security” for Israel.

Realizing the widespread shift against his policy, Ehud Barak resigned as prime minister. Still, he had 60 days to stand for reelection and hoped to regain public support for his policy. Barak summoned his team to renew and enhance previous offers to Palestinians to secure a final agreement on the peace process. However, it became inevitably too late as US President Clinton was out of office, and the election at home was in two weeks. On February 6, 2001, in a landslide, Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister of Israel.

Ariel Sharon, in the face of widespread Palestinian uprisings leaving hundreds of Palestinians dead, decided to retake the West Bank and authorized the construction of a 217-mile fence along the West Bank to shield the Israelis from Palestinian attacks. Sharon also confined Arafat to his compound for three years, during which Arafat died on November 11, 2004. In an election on January 9, 2005, Mahmoud Abbas was elected to replace Arafat.

Please Stay tuned for Part 2, in which we will go deeper into contemporary issues, including settlements, land confiscation, human rights challenges, and our unbiased editorial opinion.?

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The Editorial Board

Moderate Voices of America

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