Israel-Palestine Conflict
Israel-Palestine Conflict
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The Israel-Palestine Conflict
The Israel-Palestine conflict originated more than a century ago when Zionist settlers came to Palestine to reclaim what they said was their ancestral homeland. Jews started buying land and building Jewish communities, much to the disdain of Arabs. The Zionists were attempting to completely dispossess the Arab community from their land, and, thus, were faced with a lot of opposition. By the beginning of the 20th century this land was becoming a trouble spot for competing territorial claims. Thus, the British government began to support the establishment of "a Jewish national home in Palestine.” This led to a series of clashes between Arabs and Jews that lasted for decades.
In 1967 a war broke out between Syria, Egypt and Jordan against Israel for the control of the West Bank, Gaza strip and the Golan Heights. The war lasted only a few days and Israel emerged victorious, establishing itself as the military power of the area, as well as gaining control of the above mentioned territories. Israel quickly began oppressing the Palestine population that lived in Gaza and the West Bank by forcing curfews, closing schools, and denying them of civil and political liberties. They also allowed Jewish settlers to build communities in these territories. This oppression has led to the emergence of the Palestine Liberation Organization and other Arab groups which resistance and plan a number of terrorist attacks against Israel. However, Israel counterattacks brutally against every single terrorist attack in what is known as state terrorism. The oppression led also to the intifada in 1987, a mass movement by Palestines against the Israel government and occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In response to this uprising and to avoid further conflict, the Palestine National Council, convened in Algeria in November 1988, recognized the state of Israel, proclaimed an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and renounced terrorism. The Israeli government did not respond to these gestures, claiming that nothing had changed and that the PLO was a terrorist organization with which it would never negotiate.
A number of U.S. and U.N. backed peace attempts followed, including Camp David II in 2000. The distance between the two parties, especially on the issues of Jerusalem and Palestine refugees, made it impossible to reach an agreement at the Camp David summit meeting in July 2000. Furthermore, Primer Minister Barak of Israel refused to abandon East Jerusalem, something that was unacceptable for Arafat and the rest of the Muslim community. Little was achieved in this conference. In September of 2000 a second Intifada ignited and lasted more than a year, costing hundreds of lives and resulting in further tensions and conflicts between the groups.
The latest moves by Israel included building a wall along the Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank to divide the Jewish community from the rest of the Palestinian population. This was seen as a violation of civil rights by many observers world wide and created many tensions. Furthermore, in August of this year the Israel government with the help of the military completely evacuated the Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and was preparing to hand over the territory to Palestine authorities, as the latest attempt to establish peace in the region.
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