Israeli and Palestinian Conflict

The roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict go back to the end of the 19th

century. The core of the dispute is the disagreement of whom the area between the Jordan River and on the shore of the Mediterranean belongs. After centuries of persecution of the Jews of Israel all over the world, the return to the land of their ancestors did not ensured peace and security. Since then Israel had many regional wars with its neighbors

1897 – First Zionist CongressThe first Zionist Congress was in

Basel, Switzerland . The journalist Theodor Herzl published a book called “Der Judenstaat” (The Jewish State) in 1896; and the Congress discussed the ideas of this book. Herzl was a Jew who lived in Vienna. He argued that Jews should establish their own state. He developed this idea particularly because of the anti-Semitism in Europe. At the end of the Congress, the so-called Basel Program was published.

This document implied the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and to achieve this goal the World Zionist Organization was founded.Very few Zionist immigrants already started to come to this region before 1897. At that time, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire.The British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour promised to establish a homeland in Palestine for the Jewish people in 1917. This promise was written in the letter which was sent to the Zionist leader Lord Rothschild. This letter is known as the Balfour Declaration.

1929-1936 Reflection of Arabs

Hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrated to Palestine under British mandate, as part of the Zionist project. This led to anger and rebellion in the Arab communities. The hostility between the Arabs and the Zionists turned into a bloody conflict in August 1929. 133 Jews were killed by Palestinians. UK police also killed 110 Palestinians.

In July 1937, the United Kingdom proposed to divide the region between a Jewish and an Arab state. The Jewish state should only cover one third of Palestine, which contains the Sea of Galilee and the coastal plains. Palestinian and Arab representatives rejected this offer. Instead they wanted to stop further Jewish migration and the establishment of a unitary state that respects minority rights. The United Nations wanted to solve the Israeli Palestinian Conflict in 1947, but they did not succeed.

1948 – Establishment of İsrael

The State of Israel was the first Jewish state founded after two thousand years. Israel was proclaimed in Tel Aviv on 14 May 1948. The Palestinians call the 15 May "El Nakba," "the Disaster." In 1948, Arab and Jewish forces attacked each other. Israel started to the take the land of the Palestinians, despite the part of land, which was designated to the Jewish State.

Jewish armies were victorious in many parts of Negev, the Sea of Galilee, West Jerusalem and the coastal plains.A day after the state of Israel was declared, the Jordanian, Egyptian, Lebanese, Iraqi and Syrian armies immediately began to occupy Israel, but they failed in that attempt.Egypt retained the Gaza Strip. Jordan annexed the area around Jerusalem and the now called West Bank. This lasted until the war in 1967.

1964 - Establishment of PLOThe Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was established in Jerusalem in 1964, and immediately recognized by the Arab states. These states wanted to have control over the PLO. But the Palestinians really wanted an independent organization, as well as Yasser Arafat, who gained the presidency of the organization in 1969. His five years ago secretly founded Fatah organization, earned a reputation with operations against Israel.

1967 WarThe rising tension between Israel and its Arab neighbors led to the 6 days Wars on June 5, 1967. The face of the Middle East conflict has changed in those six days. Israel took Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria. It defeated the Jordanian forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.The UN Security Council rejected the land acquisition during the war, and asked Israel to withdraw from these places.According to the UN, 500 thousand Palestinians had become war refugees; they migrated to Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

1973 Yom Kippur War

Yom Kippur, the "Day of Atonement," is the most important religious feast of the Jews. Egypt and Syria could not get back the territory they lost during the war in 1967 through diplomatic efforts, so they attacked Israel during the Yom Kippur holiday in 1973.

The United States, the Soviet Union and the United Nations reached a cease-fire agreement through diplomatic interventions. Egypt and Syria had lost a total of 8, 500 soldiers. Israeli lost 6,000 people. Immediately after the war, Saudi Arabia has launched an oil embargo on countries supporting Israel. Oil prices rose rapidly in the whole world and a global economic crisis erupted, the embargo lasted until March 1974.

1974 Arafat goes to the UN (United Nation)Organizations like the PLO led by Arafat, Abu Nidal, or Palestinian groups outside the PLO, committed a series of actions against Israel and other targets in the 1970s. Also known as Black September, Abu Nidal's organization, killed 11 Israeli athletes in action during the 1972 Munich Olympics. On the one hand, the PLO leader Arafat tried to liberate Palestine by force, on the other hand, he defended a peaceful resolution in his first speech in front of the UN.

He condemned the Zionist project, but added: "Today, an olive branch is in my one hand, and in my other hand is a gun of someone who has fought in the war of liberation. Don’t drop the olive branch." This speech has greatly contributed to the efforts of the Palestinians in getting international recognition

1979 – Peace between Israel and Egypt

Anwar Sadat became the Egyptian President. Egypt and Israel signed the peace treaty in Camp David in 1978. This peace treaty implied a framework for peace in the Middle East and the Palestinians should get a limited autonomy. Sadat and Begin signed a peace treaty in March 1979. Egypt was boycotted by the Arab states.In 1981, Anwar Sadat was assassinated by islamist elements of his own army.

1982 – Israel invades LebanonIsrael send troops to the south of Lebanon to protected the settlements near the border of Lebanon. But Defense Minister Ariel Sharon's led his up to the capital Beirut; he displaced the PLO out of this country. The withdrawal of Israeli troops in the Sinai peninsula was two months ago. The invasion of Lebanon was launched on the initiative of the assassination of Israel's ambassador in London by the Abu Nidal organization. Hundreds of Palestinians were killed. It was one of the bloodiest massacres for the Middle East of the almost a century of conflict

1987-93 Mass UprisingIntifada (mass uprising) against Israeli occupation started in the Gaza Strip; and in short time it spread to the West Bank. The protests took the form of civil disobedience. General strikes were organized, Israeli products were boycotted, walls were written on and barricades were built on the roads. But only the Palestinians who threw stones at the heavily armed soldiers during this protest gained attention in the media. The Israeli army responded to this uprising; they killed a very large number of Palestinian civilians. During thes protests, which lasted until 1993, more than thousand people lost their lives.

1988 - PLO going to PeaceDespite the great military power of Israel, they could not stop the intifada which started in 1987. All these protests were supported by the Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.After the PLO was expelled from Lebanon in 1982 and settled in Tunisia, these uprisings were a sign of danger. The attention in the Palestinian "revolution" was now on the occupied territories instead of the PLO and the diaspora. The PLO feared to lose its position as leader.The Palestinian National Council served as a government-in-exile; they assembled in Algiers in November 1988, and accepted the “two-state” solution of the United Nations from the year 1947.

1993 - Oslo Peace ProcessIn June 1992, Israel left wing, the Labour Party came to power and started a very strong peace process.Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was a hardliner and Shimon Peres and Yosi Beilin, who were shown as "dove", formed a team that was very convenient to talk peace with the Palestinians. The PLO, whose position was weakened during the Gulf War, had hoped to see the results of this peace negotiating.

On 20 January 1993 secret Oslo lanes were opened. Unprecedented progress has been made in the town of Sarpsborg in Norway. The Palestinians agreed to recognize the state of Israel if Israel starts to withdraw gradually from occupied land.These talks brought the Declaration of Principles. This document was signed in Washington DC, the historic handshake between Arafat and Rabin were witnessed by 400 million people live.

1994 - Establishment of the Palestinian AuthorityIsrael and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the Declaration of Principles on how to implement the agreement in Cairo on 4 May 1994.Israel was leaving most of the Gaza Strip. Only the Jewish settlements and the area around them Israel would show a presence. Only the town Jericho in the West Bank was left to the Palestinians. These negotiations were conducted with difficulties and the massacre of Hebron in the West Bank nearly led to the end of the peace talks. The Jewish settler Baru Goldstein, who opened fire with a machine gun on the Palestinians during the morning prayer in the historical Ibrahim Mosque, was shot after killing 29 people.

There were also difficulties to be overcome in the agreement. The five -year transition period in the text contained the stages of withdrawal of the Israeli army. But these were results made through very tough negotiations. These were issues about the foundation of the Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem, the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories, and the future of 3.5 million Palestinian refugees, who were forced to leave their homeland in 1948 and 1967. Palestinian National Authority, Yasser Arafat was the head of the self-government. The election in 1996 confirmed this.

1995 - Second Oslo and the Rabin assassinationPalestinian militants killed dozens of Israelis through bombing. Even in this situation, the peace talks were pushed forward, but the preassigned steps of the peace treaty were hardly met. On 2 September, the so-called Second Oslo agreement was signed in separate ceremonies in Taba, Egypt and Washington, DC.This agreement divided the West Bank into three parts:1 - A Zone: This zone makes up 7 percent of the West Bank, major settlements except East Jerusalem and Hebron were left to the Palestinian authority.2 - B Zone: This zone makes up 21 percent of the West Bank and was left to the joint control of Israel and Palestine.3 – C Zone: Israel keeps this zone under control, but it would release Palestinian prisoners

The second Oslo agreement did not excite many Palestinians. The “Jewish fundamentalists” were outraged that Jewish territory was given up. Anger and a target campaign against the Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin led to his assassination by a Jewish extremist on 4 November. His assassination shocked the world. Shimon Peres, who was called the “Dove” and was one of the architects of the never ending peace processes, became prime minister.

2000 - Second usufructaryA new Wye River agreement was signed in September 1999. But it was not possible to continue the process to withdraw from occupied territories. Because the negotiations about the status of Jerusalem, the refugees, the settlements and the borders were fruitless. The Palestinian population were tired with the peace negotiations because nothing was solved after the five-year peace process.

2002 - West Bank under occupation

Israel occupied the West Bank. Israeli forces entered the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. The Palestinians claimed that a massacre was committed in the camp by the Israeli forces. Amnesty International declared that the Israeli military committed war crimes during the operations in Jenin and Nablus.

2004 - Arafat diesThis year passed with Israeli air strikes and suicide bombings by Palestinian militants. The killings of the spiritual leader of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yasin and the leading figure of the organization, Abdulaziz el Rantisi by Israel, caused an up-roar of the Palestinians. The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat became sick in late October, and died on 11 November in France, where he was taken for treatment. Mahmoud Abbas became the leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

2005 – Withdrawal from Gaza

Mahmoud Abbas won the elections as president of the autonomous government in January. Ariel Sharon got the approval of the government for the Gaza withdrawal plan. Settlers in Gaza were evacuated by force

2007

Hamas gained control over Gaza in June after fights with Fatah. Hamas formed a government in Gaza, Mahmoud Abbas, on the other hand, formed a government which controls the West Bank.The Palestinian conflict still remains with certain political crisis.

The EndThe End