THE BASIS OF CONFLICT BETWEEN ISRAEL AND PALESTINE.

THE IGNITION OF THE PROBLEM BEFORE THE BEGINNING OF WORLD WAR 1:

The conflict actually began as the struggle over the land but not on the basis of difference of religion. The biblical history of Jews say that they were the descendants of the land( present day Israel) since decades but Palestinians claim their continuous residence since recognized by the world.

The conflict took its roots when after the European hegemony, few countries started to recognize themselves and needed national identity. And such one diaspora came together forming a Jewish community from all the corners of the world leading to the Zionist movement in 1882 and demanded for their historical land to the east of Mediterranean sea. 

At the same time, the Palestine was under the ottoman empire. There were approximately 10000 Jews staying there with foreign citizenship.

THE CONDITIONS WHICH FURTHERED THE CONFLICT BETWEEN THEM AFTER WORLD WAR 1:

HENRY MAC MOHAN AGREEMENT:

The British manipulated the Arabs in the east Mediterranean region to fight against the ruling ottoman empire and a separate nation would be established for them. Thus Arabs supported by Britain and France waged a war against the Ottoman empire aligned with Germany. The Arabs won the war.Thus the whole land under ottoman empire came under the control of Britain and France. They divided the land and started administering them saying they were the defunct parts of the ottoman empire and are needed some support until they stand up themselves.

BALFOUR DECLARATION:

At the same time, the British declared a separate state for the Jews in the east if Mediterranean sea which was against the interest of population there. this declaration is called Balfour declaration of 1919.

RECOGNITION OF PALESTINE:

The British divided the entire land of their control in the middle east into two parts:

1) East of river Jordan as Emirate of Transjordan

2) West as mandatory Palestine.

These two states were recognized by the league of nations in 1921.

This was the first time when Palestine was recognized as a separate political entity.

ARAB UPRISING AGAINST THE BRITAIN:

Arabs were very much annoyed withe British as they did not keep up their word of providing independence to the Middle East but kept the entire land under their control. This uprising was intense in the Palestine region as the British accepted for the partition of the Palestine for Jewish land according to Balfour Declaration.

THE BEGINNING OF THE OPPOSITION  TO JEWISH IMMIGRATION:

Through Balfour Declaration, an open Jewish immigration was encouraged. They were give the freedom of speech, religion and assembly. Many of the Palestinian peasants, journalists and political figures opposed the jewish immigration aspiring for a self rule and massive immigration threatened their position in the country.

COMMUNAL RIOTS:

The period of 1920's experienced many of the riots between the Arabs and the Jews, each supporting their own national identity. The Nebimusa riots, the outcome of the Nabimusa festival is considered the soul reason for the war of 90 years between the Palestinians and Jews. There were enormous killings of both the parties in the riots.

POPULATION FIGURES OF JEWISH COMMUNITY WHICH AROUSED PALESTINIANS:

In 1922 - The Jewish population was 11% of the total population.

In 1931 - The Jewish population increased to 16.9%

1932-36 - The doubling of Jewish population due to the rise of Hitler in Europe.

1937-45 - Palestine saw many additional immigrants into their land.

Palestinians felt that their land was being stripped away by the outsiders and thus revolted against them.

AFTER THE WORLD WAR 2:

REVOLT OF 1936-39:

The rise of Hitler in 1930's led to the movement of Jews from different parts of the world to Palestine. The resistance by the Arabs led to the ARAB revolt of 1936-39. The phase of the revolt was posed by the elite which was immediately suppressed by the British. The second phase was violent and serious, led by the peasants. There were many deaths and causalities. The British and the Palestine police force later suppressed it with the help of Zionists.

ISSUE OF WHITE PAPER DECLARATION:

In 1939, the British, in order to keep the situation under control, issued a statement for government policy called white paper declaration restricting further immigration of Jews and promising independence to Palestine in 10 years.

This agreement was considered as a betrayal to the Jews by the British which was against the Balfour declaration.

THE FORMATION OF UNITED NATIONS ORGANISATION IN 1945:

After the world war 2, Britain handed over the problem of Palestine to UN and it came up with a partition plan.

There were approx 2 lakh Arabs and 6 lakh Jews in that particular land in 1946. Thus the partition plan declared for the Arab state with 43% of the land and Jewish state with 56% of the land.

Jerusalem was remained a common place for both of them.

This plan was accepted by the Jews and was rejected by the Arabs.

THE CLASHES OR FIGHTS OVER THE PARTITION PLAN:

Thus opposing the partition plan, Arabs revolted against the Jews. But this time, Jews did not keep quiet. They revolted back. Arab military which was poorly organised, trained and armed was defeated by the Jewish small number of well organised, trained and armed militants. Thus Zionists expanded their land after the defeat of Arabs. 

Finally, they themselves announced their own state called, ISRAEL in 1948.

THE PERIOD AFTER THE FORMATION OF ISRAEL IN 1948:

1948 WAR AND ITS CONSEQUENCES:

The Arab states invaded into Israel to save Palestine after the declaration of Israel state. There was a doubt of emergence of a war, which made Israel import the arms from Czechoslovakia. This continued for 10 days and came to an end signing Armistice agreements with Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon. The boundaries were drawn called a GREEN LINE. The Israel occupied 78 % of the land and the Gaza strip came under the control of  Egypt and the west bank under Jordan rule.

The Palestinians in the Israel region were granted Israel citizenship and Right to vote but treated as second class citizens. Above all, Israel declared itself a Jewish state where Palestinians were considered Non-Jews. Their movement and other rights were restricted. Their lands were used for the developmental purposes which exclusively benefited the Jews. They were discriminated in every field including education, health care, public work etc. Poor Palestinians found it very tough to keep up their cultural heritage and national identity.

FORMATION OF PALESTINIAN LIBERATION ORGANISATION:

The PLO was formed in 1964 with the sole objective of  creating a separate state of Palestine. It was earlier considered as the terrorist organisation. But in 1991, when it recognized the Israel's right to live in peace and accepted the UN resolutions of green line borders, there were negotiations made with it as a representative of people of Palestine. 

1967 WAR AND CONSEQUENCES:

In 1967, many of the Palestinians became aware of their identity. During this period, Egypt invaded Israel and this led to the 1967 war waged by Israel on Egypt and Syria. This war lasted for 6 days. Israel bore a victory again and occupied Gaza, Sinai peninsula, Golan heights and West bank .

The United Nations gave a resolution after the war that:

1) Israel should withdraw its forces as per the green line borders of 1948.

2) All the Middle East countries shall experience the right to live in peace within the recognized boundaries, free from threats.

1ST INTIFADA ( UPRISING) IN 1987:

After the 1967 war, greater part of the youth emerged to be a part of PLO thus leading to the Israel to smash the force with powerful beatings. There were many killings of Palestinian people and many others were arrested. And Israel objected to negotiate talks with the PLO considering it a terrorist organisation. There was another group sprouted called HAMAS in 1987 thinking that PLO is corrupted and supports Israel. Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation and was against the PLO and its decisions.

OSLO ACCORDS OF 1993:

Israel accepted to negotiate with the PLO and promised to pull out its military coup from the Gaza and West bank in return for no attacks from the Palestinians. They were not interested in talks about the other issues like Jerusalem, rights, refugee problems etc.

2ND INTIFADA IN 2000:

In the Oslo agreements, there were no faults found with the Israel violations against the Palestinian people and many important things were not discussed leading to the daily frustration and humiliation, thus leading to the protests in Jerusalem and strikes in the major cities. Israel police killed many of the protesters. the 2nd Intifada is considered bloodier than the first. The increased acts of aggression let Israel go for air attacks. later Hamas gave in for suicide bombings and and led to the death of many hundreds.

ROAD TO PEACE AGREEMENT IN 2003:

There were discussions about the West bank borders, Israeli security,Palestinian refugees, Jerusalem.  It was in favour of Israel. It restricted Palestine from many things.

In 2005, Gaza was set free but the there was an effective control of Israel over the land.

THE ROLE OF USA:

There are many reasons for US to remain pro Israel. They are:

1) During the cold war period, America considered Israel a tool to control the soviet control in the Middle East. So to attract the Israel interests, supported it with military and diplomatic help to pull Israel on their side.

2) After the cold war era, The US needed stability in the Middle East for the global oil market. Israel's fight for stability made the Americans stick to them firmly.

3)There are many political advantages like American navy ships usually dock in Haifa, Israel.

 Israel is an outsourcing to US.

Mutual security.

They know that Israel has stood by them in the sharing of technology, innovation and intelligence.

4) The emotional bonding of the Americans towards the Jews influenced their political support. Americans supported Jews because they shared similar ethos and character, human dignity, democratic politics and common objectives. As America experienced Racism, they cannot be against antisemitism.
 But the continued occupation of West bank by Israel is being a greatest threat to the relations with US.

THE ROLE OF INDIA:

India was one of the first countries to recognize the Palestine cause and PLO. Mahatma Gandhi supported Palestine saying that it was wrong and inhuman to impose Jews on their land. Later, in 1949, India voted against Israel's membership to UN. Such was a support of India to Palestine. But in 1992, The formal diplomatic ties with Israel began after what the Israel supported us in the war against Arab led Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir. Israel supplied us with arms during the kargil war. Both the countries are against the interests of ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hamas and Lashkar-e-toiba. Our Indian government started thinking that Israel can be a good partner to teach them about terrorism and were ideologically closer. Now India i the largest customer of Israeli military equipment and it is the 2nd largest military partner of India after Russia. Thus our government took a stand of maintaining equi-distance from both of them.

" We support fully the cause of Palestine while maintaining good relations with Israel" is the stand of India currently over this issue.

MY PERSPECTIVE:

Coming to the beginning of the problem, the Jewish immigration into Palestine can be considered to be legible as they had no other option but to fly off from Europe to save their lives. Migrating to other land for safety and settling there is preferred over having a large number of deaths.

But coming to the Palestinian's perspective,they felt that their cultural heritage and the national identity would be scattered and buried due to the increasing Jewish population over Arabs. Both were right at their point of argument.

The British overplayed the game manipulating the two parties. There should have been proper negotiations to sort out the problem. The land could have been divided equally explaining the Palestinians the need and importance of right to live. But there was no such approach. The partition plan of the UN would obviously raise the feeling of  nationalism in Palestine. And thus we had to witness destruction and deaths.

In the current scenario,Israel is bursting out on the Palestinians so badly leading to the death of thousands of innocent people. It is high time, the terror activities should come to an end. But HOW?, is the question aroused every mind. We know that Israel is so powerful and  small attack against them leads to a massive destruction with the latest technology from their side. Israel is the only one now which could do something about the problem to come to peace. The green line borders are to be made recognized by the whole world with proper demarcation and security. A separate state of Palestine is to be created to satisfy their feeling of self respect and save their cultural heritage.