THE ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT

Questions Covered:

1. What are the root causes of Israel Palestine Conflict? Discuss

2. Explain in detail about five decades of Israel Palestine Conflict.
3. India is trying to balance between its old ties with Palestine and growing
relations with Israel. Elaborate with examples

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 The Israel-Palestine conflict
Recently, Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in East Jerusalem,
leaving a reported 300 people injured. It came on a day Israel observes as Jerusalem Day, and
marked the fourth day of clashes at one of the most revered and the most contested sites of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict which has its roots in the late 19th century.

Beginning of the Conflict

 The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has its roots in the late 19th century when Jews fleeing anti-
Semitism in Russia and central Europe began immigrating to Palestine.
 Britain took control of the area known as Palestine after the ruler of that part of the Middle
East, the Ottoman Empire, was defeated in World War I. The land was inhabited by a Jewish
minority and Arab majority.
 Tensions between the two peoples grew when the international community gave Britain the
task of establishing a "national home" in Palestine for Jewish people.
 In 1917, during World War I, the British capture Palestine from the Ottomans and, in the
Balfour Declaration of November 2, promise the Jews a "national home" there.
 For Jews, it was their ancestral home, but Palestinian Arabs also claimed the land and
opposed the move. Hence opposition from the Palestinians first emerges at a congress in
Jerusalem in 1919.
 In 1922, the League of Nations sets out the obligations of a British mandate in Palestine,
including securing "establishment of the Jewish national home", the future Israel. Britain
crushes the great Arab revolt in Palestine of 1936-1939.
 Between the 1920s and 40s, the number of Jews arriving there grew, with many fleeing from
persecution in Europe and seeking a homeland after the Holocaust of World War II

Split of Israel- Palestine

 In 1947, the UN voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states, with
Jerusalem becoming an international city.
 The state of Israel is finally created on May 14, 1948, provoking an eight-month war with
Arab states.

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  That plan was accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by the Arab side and never
implemented.
 In 1948, unable to solve the problem, British rulers left and Jewish leaders declared the
creation of the state of Israel.
 More than 400 Palestinian villages are razed by Israeli forces and around 760,000
Palestinian refugees flee to the West Bank, Gaza and neighbouring Arab countries.
 Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes in what they
call Al Nakba, or the "Catastrophe".
 By the time the fighting ended in a ceasefire the following year, Israel controlled most of the
territory.
 In the split, Jordan occupied land which became known as the West Bank, and Egypt
occupied Gaza.
 Jerusalem was divided between Israeli forces in the West, and Jordanian forces in the East.
 Because there was never a peace agreement - each side blamed the other - there were more
wars and fighting in the decades which followed.
 The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is created in 1964.

Series of Wars and Occupation

 The Six-Day War of 1967 came on the heels of several decades of political tension and
military conflict between Israel and the Arab states.
 A series of border disputes were the major spark for the Six-Day War. By the mid-1960s,
Syrian-backed Palestinian guerillas had begun staging attacks across the Israeli border,
provoking reprisal raids from the Israel Defence Forces.
 In April 1967, the skirmishes worsened after Israel and Syria fought a ferocious air and
artillery engagement in which six Syrian fighter jets were destroyed.
 As the outcome of war, Israel defeats Egypt, Jordan and Syria and occupies east Jerusalem,
the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.
 Jewish settlement of the occupied territories starts shortly afterwards and continues in the
West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights
 Arab states attack Israel on October 6, 1973, the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. Israel
repels the attack.

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  Israel invades civil war-wracked Lebanon on June 6, 1982, to attack Palestinian militants
after initially sending in its forces in 1978.
 Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982 as part of a peace treaty and then
withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but it has continued to occupy and settle other
territory claimed in the Six-Day War, most notably the Golan Heights and the West Bank.
 Israeli-backed Lebanese militias kill hundreds in Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut. Israeli
troops remain in southern Lebanon until May 2000.

Present Scenario

 Most Palestinian refugees and their descendants live in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as
in neighbouring Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
 Neither they nor their descendants have been allowed by Israel to return to their homes -
Israel says this would overwhelm the country and threaten its existence as a Jewish state.
 Israel still occupies the West Bank, and although it pulled out of Gaza the UN still regards
that piece of land as part of occupied territory.
 Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians claim East
Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
 In the past 50 years Israel has built settlements in these areas, where more than 600,000 Jews
now live.

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  Palestinians say these are illegal under international law and are obstacles to peace, but Israel
denies this.

The Major Problems between Israel and Palestine

 There are a number of issues which Israel and the Palestinians cannot agree on.These include
 What should happen to Palestinian refugees,
 Whether Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank should stay or be removed,
whether the two sides should share Jerusalem,
 Perhaps most tricky of all - whether a Palestinian state should be created alongside Israel

Abortive peace process

 In 1993, Israel and the PLO sign a declaration on principles for Palestinian autonomy after
six months of secret negotiations in Oslo, launching an abortive peace process.
 Oslo Accords are a series of two agreements such as
 Oslo I (1993) is formally known as the Declaration of Principles (DOP). The pact
established a timetable for the Middle East peace process. It planned for an interim
Palestinian government in Gaza and Jericho in the West Bank.
 Oslo II is officially called the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank
and Gaza (1995), expanded on Oslo I.
 PLO leader Yasser Arafat returns to Gaza in July 1994 to create the Palestinian Authority.
Self-rule is established for the first time in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of
Jericho.
 Unfortunately, any momentum gained from the ratification of the Oslo Accords was short-
lived.
 In 1998, Palestinian officials accused Israel of not following through on the troop
withdrawals from Gaza and Hebron called for in the Oslo Accords.
 In September 2000, Palestinian militants declared a “Second Intifada,” calling for increased
violence against Israelis after Sharon, who as prime minister visited the Al-Aqsa mosque
compound in east Jerusalem, a site holy to Muslims and Jews, who refer to it as the Temple
Mount
 The period of violence on both sides that ensued dashed any hopes of lasting peace, and the
Israelis and Palestinians have not held substantive negotiations since.

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 Recent Conflict

 Tensions are often high between Israel and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, Gaza and
the West Bank.
 Gaza is ruled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which has fought Israel many times.
Israel and Egypt tightly control Gaza's borders to stop weapons getting to Hamas.
 Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank say they're suffering because of Israeli actions and
restrictions. Israel say it is only acting to protect itself from Palestinian violence.
 Things have escalated since the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in mid-April
2021, with nightly clashes between police and Palestinians.
 The threatened eviction of some Palestinian families in East Jerusalem has also caused rising
anger
 Israeli armed forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Haram esh-Sharif in Jerusalem, ahead
of a march by Zionist nationalists commemorating Israel’s capture of the eastern half of the
city in 1967.
 More than 300 Palestinians were injured in the raid. In retaliation, Hamas, the Islamist
militant group that runs Gaza, have fired over a thousand rockets into Israel.
 Finally, a ceasefire came into force in the Gaza Strip after Egypt brokered an agreement
between Israel and Hamas to halt 11 days of conflict.

Two-State Solution

 Two states is a framework developed by International Relations theorists and diplomats in

which the independent States of Israel and Palestine exist in harmony
 The two-state solution has for decades been the primary focus of efforts to achieve peace in
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
 It is was only after the mediation of the US, in the 1991 Madrid Peace conference a two-state
solution was agreed to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
 According to the United Nations, only a two-state solution that realizes the legitimate
national aspirations of Palestinians and Israelis can lead to sustainable peace.

India’s Stand over Israel Palestine Conflict

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  In 1948, India was the only non-Arab-state among 13 countries that voted against the UN
partition plan of Palestine in the General Assembly
 In 1975, India became the first non-Arab country to recognise the PLO as the sole
representative of the Palestinian people
 Along with Political support, India has been contributing material and technical assistance to
the Palestinian people.
 The balancing approach began with India’s decision to normalize ties with Israel in 1992,
which came against the backdrop of the break-up of the Soviet Union, and massive shifts in
the geopolitics of West Asia on account of the first Gulf War in 1990.
 Inspite of increased development with Israel, India had also reiterated India’s position on the
city as the capital of an independent Palestine.
 India had “de-hyphenated” the Israel-Palestine relationship for the first time in 2018 and
had decided to deal with each state separately.
 Even in recent conflict, India wad striving to maintain balance between India’s historic ties
with Palestine and its blossoming relations with Israel.

The Way ahead

 Several countries such as China, UK and India support a two-state solution and even in
recent statements have made their stance clear that the two-state solution is the way forward,
however, violence makes it harder to pursue a two-state solution
 What is also important is the human side of the conflict. Many Palestinians are refugees
within Palestine, surrounding countries and abroad.
 Further in recent normalization agreements between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, and
Morocco, known as the Abraham Accords, are further proof that the only way to achieve
genuine peace is through direct negotiations.

Conclusion

This is a five-decade old conflict and is still ongoing. Israel and Palestine are at
loggerheads over various issues like mutual recognition, borders, security, control of Jerusalem,
Israeli settlements. Resuming negotiations is the need of the hour. Hence the world at large needs
to come together for a peaceful solution

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 Important for Beginners!

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