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1897-1945 | 1946-1963
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| Map of Israel, the West Bank,
and the Gaza Strip. Courtesy of The General Libraries, The University
of Texas at Austin. |
Introduction
The conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Jews began around the turn
of the 20th century. Although these two groups have different religions,
religious differences are not the cause of the conflict. It is essentially
a struggle over land. Until 1948, the area that both groups claimed was
known internationally as Palestine. But following the war of 1948-49,
when Israel defeated the Palestinians and surrounding armies, this land
was divided into three parts: the state of Israel, the West Bank (of the
Jordan River), and the Gaza Strip. This is a small area: approximately
10,000 square miles, or about the size of the state of Maryland. Claims
to this land begin with events from ancient times.
Israel: Jews emphasize their direct descent from the patriarch
Abraham and accounts recorded in the Old Testament. Solomon built the
First Temple in Jerusalem which became the center of Jewish faith. By
600 B.C., the Assyrians and Babylonians had overthrown the Israelite kingdom,
and many invaders followed, including Greeks, Egyptians and Syrians, Romans,
Persians, Muslims, Christian Crusaders, and Ottoman Turks. When the Romans
expelled the Jews, they scattered all over the world.
Palestine: Palestinian Arabs' culture and faith were shaped by
the Arabs and Muslims who ruled the Palestine region, with brief interruptions,
for more than a thousand years beginning in the 7th century A.D. Except
for a small minority, Palestinians practice Islam, the religion of the
prophet Muhammad, who was born in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, around 570 AD His
successors conquered surrounding areas, spreading their faith. Muslims
entered Jerusalem and in 637, built a mosque where the Jewish temple may
have stood. This became the al-Aqsa. Later, the Dome of the Rock, where
Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to heaven, was built. The two shrines,
known as the Noble Sanctuary, are among Islam's holiest.
1897-1945
- In the late 1890s, as the Jewish people were facing severe poverty,
persecution, and anti-Semitism in Europe, there were questions as to
how they could overcome this. The biblical "Promised Land"
led to a political movement, Zionism, to establish a Jewish homeland
in Palestine, that Jews believe God had promised Abraham. Some Jews
escaped and settled in Palestine in the late 19th century, joining a
small Jewish community that had remained in the area for more than a
thousand years.
- The first Zionist Congress was held in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897
with the official goal "To create for the Jewish people a home
in Palestine."
- After World War I, Britain and France convinced the new League of
Nations (precursor to the United Nations), in which they were the dominant
powers, to grant them quasi-colonial authority over former Ottoman territories.
The British and French regimes were known as mandates. Britain obtained
a mandate over the areas which now comprise Israel, the West Bank, the
Gaza Strip, and Jordan. Arabs made up 90 percent of the area's population
at the time.
- From 1920 to 1947, the British Empire maintained their mandate over
Palestine. The increasing number of Jewish people immigrating to the
"Holy Land" increased tensions in the region with bombings
and murders beginning in the 1920s.
- In the 1930s, as Nazi atrocities convulsed Europe, a tide of Jews
pressed into Palestine. Britain restricted immigration several times,
but many Jews found obscure routes into Palestine, mostly by ship.
- From 1936 to 1939, the Arabs revolted against British rule and the
Jewish newcomers. Britain responded with full military force, and thousands
of Arabs were killed or jailed. By 1939, many Jews as well as Arabs
resented the British for breaking perceived promises.
- During these years, Britain devised several partition plans, but the
Arabs opposed division, insisting that Britain had no right to carve
up the area.
1946-1963
- Security in Palestine continued to deteriorate, and in 1946, armed
clashes cost the lives of 212 Arabs, Jews, and British soldiers. As
the horrors of the Holocaust came to light, Jews received sympathy from
around the world, and more Jews sought refuge in Palestine.
- In November 1947, after World War II, the newly formed United Nations
called for the division of Palestine into Jewish and Palestinian states
and for the internationalization of Jerusalem. The minority Jewish people
received the majority of the land.
- On May 15, 1948, Britain gave up its mandate, and Israel declared
statehood. But the Arab states rejected the partition of Palestine and
the existence of Israel. The armies of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Trans-Jordan,
Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Egypt attacked but were defeated by the Israeli
army.
- Israel and the Arab states agreed to a cease-fire in April 1949.
The country once known as Palestine was now divided into three parts,
each under separate political control. The State of Israel encompassed
over 77 percent of the territory. Jordan occupied East Jerusalem and
central Palestine (the West Bank). Egypt took control of the coastal
plain around the city of Gaza (the Gaza Strip). The Palestinian Arab
state envisioned by the U.N. partition plan was never established. Israel
had gained more territory than provided under the UN plan and there
was no internationalization of Jerusalem.
- During this time, more than 750,000 Palestinians were driven out of
the new Israel into refugee camps in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, and other
regions. Many who were pushed out of their homes became refugees in
Gaza and the West Bank. To this day, there are 3.6 million U.N.-registered
Palestinian refugees.
- After 1949, although there was an armistice between Israel and the
Arab states, the conflict continued and the region remained imperiled
by the prospect of another war. This was fueled by an escalating arms
race as countries built up their military caches and prepared their
forces (and their populations) for a future showdown. In 1956, Britain,
France, and Israel invaded the Sinai peninsula after Egypt nationalized
the Suez Canal (then under French and British control). Israeli forces
captured Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, but were forced to evacuate back
to the armistice lines as a result of UN pressure led by the U.S. and
the Soviet Union.
1964-today
- The new Israel was weak and struggled to absorb immigrants by the
thousands. Palestinians lived in exile and felt wronged. In 1964, the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was founded, with the express
goal of destroying the state of Israel. Palestinian guerrillas launched
raids against Israel from Egypt and Jordan, and Syrian artillery bombarded
Israeli villages in the north.
- In 1967, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt, Syria,
and Jordan, the Arab troops along its borders. Within six days, Israel
more than doubled its size by capturing the Sinai from Egypt, the Golan
Heights from Syria, and the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) from
Jordan. One million Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip
came under Israeli occupation.
- In November 1967, the United Nations, in Resolution 242, called on
Israel to withdraw "from territories occupied in the recent conflict"
and for "a just settlement of the refugee problem." Since then, negotiations
have been around returning land to pre-1967 states, as required by international
law and UN resolutions.
- During the next decade, Palestinian militants launched airliner hijackings
and bombings around the world in an effort to publicize the claim to
their homeland. The assault on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics
in 1972 was among the most dramatic attacks.
- In 1978, the Camp David accords were signed between Israel, Egypt
and the United States, and Israel returned Sinai back to Egypt in return
for peace between them. To many in the Arab world, Egypt had sold out
to US pressure. To the United States and Israel, it was an achievement
to ensure Egypt an ally, not an adversary.
- In 1978, due to rising Hizbollah attacks from South Lebanon, where
many Palestinian refugees still were, Israel attacked and invaded Lebanon.
In 1982, Israel went as far up Lebanon as Beirut, as bloody exchanges
followed between Israeli attempts to bomb Yasser Arafat's PLO locations
and Hizbollah retaliations. In a deal for partial Israeli withdrawal,
the PLO was exiled to Tunisia.
- During this time, Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and
Gaza Strip grew rapidly. Only about 1,500 Jews lived in settlements
among Palestinians in 1972, but there were almost 29,000 by 1983.
- In the late 1980s came the Palestinian uprising — the Infitada.
The Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza started a mass
uprising against the Israeli occupation. Under the leadership of Minister
of Defense Yitzhak Rabin, Israel tried to smash the infitada with force.
From 1987 to 1991 Israeli forces killed over 1,000 Palestinians, including
over 200 under the age of sixteen. By 1990, the infitada lost its cohesive
force, although it continued for several more years.
- The 1993 Oslo Accords laid the groundwork for Palestinian self-rule
and included Israel-Palestinian mutual recognition. Israel recognized
the PLO and gave them limited autonomy in return for peace and an end
to Palestinian claims on Israeli territory. This has been largely criticized
as a one-sided accord, that benefits only Israel, not the Palestinian
people. It resulted in Israeli control of land, water, roads, and other
resources.
- In 1994, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip and Jericho, ending twenty
seven years of occupation. The Palestinian Authority was formed to replace
them. Later accords gave Palestinians full or partial control over 40
percent of the West Bank and most of Gaza.
- In 1995, then Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, who had been
involved in the latest peace processes, was assassinated by a Jewish
extremist.
- In April 1996, Israeli forces bombed Lebanon for 17 days, with Hizbollah
(an anti-Zionist Islam struggle movement) retaliating by firing upon
populated areas of Northern Israel. Israel also shelled a UN shelter
killing about 100 out of 800 civilians sheltering there. The UN claimed
it was intentional.
- October 1998 saw the Wye River Memorandum, outlining partial Israeli
withdrawal from the West Bank. But Israel suspends it in January 1999
due to internal disagreements on its implementation. Further attempts
through to the beginning of 2000 are made at continuing the Wye River
accord, but kept breaking down due to Palestinian protests of continued
new Israeli settlements.
- The Camp David summit in 2000 also fails to come up with solutions
on Jerusalem. As peace stalled, Palestinians again rebelled against
Israeli occupation in 2000. Suicide attacks against Israeli civilians
have become Palestinians' most potent weapon. Israel's military invasion
of Palestinian cities and refugee camps has weakened the Palestinian
Authority.
- Throughout 2001 and in 2002, violence in the Israeli region continues
with unsuccessful attempts at intervention to date from the United States
and other countries.
Information courtesy of the Washington
Post, Globalissues.org,
and the Middle
East Research and Information Project.
Links to Recent
News and Important Information on the Conflict
Profiles
of the Key Players in the Conflict
PBS features bios on those who hold key roles in the Middle East conflict,
including Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Palestinian Authority President
Yasser Arafat, the United States government, the Palestinian group Hamas,
and the moderate Israeli Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres.
The
PBS Online NewHour — Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Provides the most recent news and updates on the Middle East turmoil.
Also provides maps and other enhanced features.
Yahoo
News: Middle East
Provides the latest developments, news stories, and relevant links concerning
the Middle East, specifically Israel and Palestine.
The
Palestinian National Authority
The official Web site of the Palestinian National Authority.
The
Government of Israel
The Israeli Government's Official Web site, by the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs.
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