The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
By Meagan Dashcund
** A note on language: Arab and Israeli are not synonymous labels, both in reference to ethnicity and nationality. The term ‘Arab’ in ‘Arab-Israeli’ is utilized to convey the historical regional participation of surrounding countries in conflict with Israel. Similarly, not all Arab countries align against Israel or in solidarity with Palestine. There are Israeli-Arabs, Jewish Palestinians, Jewish Arabs, and Muslim Israelis. Therefore, designating this conflict as Israeli-Palestinian and designating some events throughout this conflict as Arab-Israeli are the most accurate ways to describe this conflict.
Political Zionism
1896
The concept began with Theodor Herzl and the document Der Judenstaat. Herzl argued that anti-Semitism in Europe and America could only be solved with the creation of a Jewish nation-state. Herzl didn’t choose a specific area of land, but later Zionists became enamored with the biblical land of Israel, which at the time, was the land of Mandate Palestine under British control.
The Balfour Declaration
11.02.1917
Arthur Balfour, British foreign secretary, sent a letter to Lord Rothschild, head of the British Zionist Organization. This letter would later be known as the Balfour Declaration. It declared the British government’s approval of a Jewish state in Mandate Palestine, but also noted that no actions taken in the creation of the state should hinder the “civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities.”
UN Resolution 181
1947
The UN General Assembly agreed on a Partition Plan to calm the tensions that had been rising between the Arab world and the Jewish population. The partition dedicated significant pieces of Palestinian land to a Jewish state. Depleted of resources from WWII, the British ended their mandate in May 1948. The afternoon the British forces left, World Zionist Organization leader David Ben Gurion declared a state of Israel.
Arab-Israeli War
1948
Referred to as the Israeli War of Independence and the Palestinian Nakba or The Disaster, this war followed Israel’s declaration of independence. Many Arab armies arrived in Israel to defend their Palestinian brothers, and in the midst of the devastation, approximately 726,000 Palestinian Arabs fled the conflict and were left homeless refugees. That was about 70% of the total Arab population in Palestine. By the end of the war, the Israelis had also taken over more land than had been granted by the Partition Plan.
The Second Arab-Israeli War
1967
The second Arab-Israeli war began and ended in 1967 when Israeli planes destroyed Egypt’s air forces on the ground. This war was known as The Naksa, or The Setback to Palestinian and the Six-Day War to Israelis. This was the beginning of Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. The land that was then held by the Israelis was three times larger than the land they had obtained in 1949. Israel has since withdrawn from the Sinai, but continues its occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, Golan Heights, and East Jerusalem.
Oslo Peace Accords
1993
Yasser Arafat, leader of the PLO and Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel signed the Oslo Peace Accords. These accords envisioned a transitionary period during which Palestinians would be allowed limited self government, followed by full Israeli withdrawal from the Occupied Territories and the creation of a sovereign Palestine state. Since then, Israel embarked on a policy of settlement in these territories.
Oslo Peace Accords II
1995
The first Oslo Peace Accords set the agenda for the follow-up agreement that discussed the future governance of Jerusalem, borders, security, and elections for the Palestinian Authority. These talks also began discussions regarding economic and political cooperation between the two sides’ recognized governing authorities. As once hoped, these accords did not result in a peace treaty due to a lack of cooperation on both sides.