Israel-Palestine Conflict Explained

Table of Contents

The Israel-Palestine conflict was the first matter presented to the United Nations and still has not been resolved which shows how complex this conflict is, this conflict has impacted the world throughout the period from 1946 to present days and will impact until resolved so to be a citizen who is well equipped with the world affairs it becomes important to understand this conflict.

This article with dwell in depth of the Israel-Palestine conflict and will be talking about how the issue started, worlds reaction to the issue, impact on India , present situation and way forward for the peace.

This topic is important for UPSC GS2 and PSIR optional paper

Israel Geography

Israel is a small country and lies in the Asian continent.
Israel is the only Jewish nation in the world.
Neighbouring countries of Israel include Lebanon and Syria to the north, The west bank and Jordan to the east, Mediterranean Sea to the west and Gaza strip, Egypt and Red sea to the South.
Israel claims Jerusalem as its capital. (Not recognized by India, we will discuss further)

Now that we have clarity on the geography of Israel we should study further about what was here before Israel existed it will help us understand about the Israel-Palestine conflict more clearly.

Before The Israel

Israel came to existence in the 1948.
The land today known as Israel was under control of Britain between 1918-1948
Before World war 1 this land came under the rule of Ottoman Empire
When Ottoman empire was defeated in the World War 1 Britain took control of this land.
In 1890 World Zionist Organization was formed to demand a country for Jews

World Zionist Organization

Formed in 1890
Played key role in establishing Israel.
Formulated the Aliyah Policy.
Aliyah is a Hebrew word for immigration, of Jewish diaspora to the historic land.(Note: Israel-Palestine Conflict is a complex topic and requires understanding of every fact as every thing goes interconnected, we will explain the term historic land further in the article)

Aliyah Policy

For historical conflicts many Jewish were forced to leave the Israeli land.
In the late 19th century only 2-3% of the the Jews lived in the Jerusalem, while 97% Jewish population lived in other countries.
World Zionist Organization in the initial phase gave reference to the Jews to come back to the historic land, this was particularly on the religious lines.
First Aliyah (1882-1902) – approximately 35000 Jews came back and immigrated to ottoman palestine.
Under the Aliyah Policy Jews were offered land for agriculture the revenue of which was shared among them equally.
First Aliyah was followed by Second Aliyah(1904-1914), Third Aliyah(1919-1923), Fourth Aliyah(1924-1929) and Fifth Aliyah(1929-1939)
But as we discussed earlier after the defeat of Ottoman Empire in world war 1 ths land was under British control and because of the Aliyah Policy the British feared a rebel from the Muslim population.
Most of the Aliyah immigrants used the waterways for the travel
British who feared the rebel from the muslim community started to limit the immigration to the palestine.

Now that we have an idea of the modern history of the land of Israel-Palestine conflict, to understand the reference for the term historic land we will have to dwell in the ancient history for this land, it will help you understand the sentiments of the population and the reason why this was selected as the Jewish state Israel.

Ancient History of Israel-Palestine Conflict

In the sixth century BCE, Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians, who took control of Judah.
The First Temple was destroyed and the Jews were expelled to Babylon.
In 538 BCE, the Babylonians were conquered by the Achaemenid Empire
Cyrus, Emperor of Achaemenid Empire allowed the Jews to go back to Judah, where they rebuilt Solomon’s Temple (Second Temple).
In 70 CE, Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by the Romans.
Roman Emperor Hadrian expelled all Jews from Jerusalem
Hadrian renamed Judah to Palaestina with the aim to destroy the presence of Jewish.
The Solomon’s Temple was a sacred to the Jews.
When the Romans destroyed the temple in 70 CE, the support wall survived, today it is known as The Western Wall.

This is the reason why this was referred as historic land for Jewish, by now you would have understood the the reason of Jewish settlement in the region, now we will study further about the World war 2 and the existence of Israel-Palestine conflict

World War-II and Israel

Jewish people during the world war II were brought to the Palestine illegally because of the immigration limit we discussed above.
This illegal immigration was mainly carried out by the World Zionist Organization and other Jewish communities to rescue the Jews from the Europe Holocaust and other areas of world.
As this matter got the escalated the matter was handed hover to the newly formed United Nation as we discussed in the beginning.

Formation of Israel

In 1948, Israel was declared independent by the United Nation.
David Ben Gurion became first Prime Minister of the Israel.
UN presented a plan for the partition of the Palestine to form Israel.
The image below shows the Israel map as per the UN plan and today

Though both Jewish and the Palestine people were not happy with the partition plan.
The part given to Israel was mostly the desert of Negev Desert, with no permanent settlement.
With this map the Gaza Strip and West Bank came into the existence, West Bank lies west to the Jordan river that’s why the name comes to be west bank.
With formation of Israel, war broke out with five Arab states, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt invading Israel the very next morning of the formation of Israel.

Now That we have understood the formation of the Israel we will study about the Israel’s War and its foreign relation with other countries as it will help us understand the expansion of Israel and we will also study about the India’s stance over Israel-Palestine conflict.

Isarel-Arab War

With the formation of Israel, war broke out with five Arab states, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt invading Israel the very next morning of the formation of Israel.
Israeli call this the war of independence
Palestinian call it as Naqba, when many Palestinians were displaced by the creation of the new state of Israel.
Many of the Jews had fought in the second world war because of which they had the training and Golda Meir, one of the prominent leader who also became 2nd Prime Minister of Israel, had arranged the the support for Israel after 2nd world war and along with other leaders the weapons for future wars.
With the above mentioned preparation the newly formed state was able to sustain the attack from 5 states, not only sustained but also defeated them.
Took control of the portion of Gaza Strip and Golan Heights by defeating Egypt in Gaza Strip and Syria in Golan Heights and Cease Fire was established.

Note – Till 1967 Palestine is not established as a country, because during this war the areas of Gaza Strip came under Egypt Control and West Bank was under Jordan’s control

After the Israel- Arab War the next major event in the Israel and Palestine conflict came up in 1968 with another war, popularly known as the 6 day war.

1968, The Six Day War

Was primarily fought between Israel and the arab coalition of Egypt, Syria and Jrodan from June 5 to June 10.
During the Suez Crisis of 1956, Israel invaded Egypt
Both Egypt and Jordan agreed for the cease fire on 8th June and Syria on 9th June and was signed with the Israel on 11th June.
With the cessation Israel had seized Syria’s Golan Heights, the Jordanian annexed west bank and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.
Israel established military occupancy in the annexed areas and established settlements in the west bank area, providing tax benefits to settlers.