The origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

Résumé du document

The origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been the subject of numerous debates. The complexity of their development over centuries has led historians to consider events as early as the biblical enmity between Abraham's two sons, Isaac and Ishmael to be an appropriate starting point. The present state of Israel encompasses a substantial portion of what was once called Palestine. The names 'Israel' and 'Palestine' derive from two people who entered the region at approximately the same time, in the twelfth century before the Christian era. Palestine refers to Philistine, a person of Greek origin who settled in the coastal plains of the area at about the same time the Jews took over the country in the interior. The Jews, who called themselves Bnei Israel, 'the tribe of Israel', believed that the land had been given to them by God. After two hundred years, they succeeded to defeat and subjugate the people of Palestine. As a consequence, the first kingdom of Israel was established about 3000 years ago. Saul and David, its early sovereigns, led the Jews to the conquest and capture of Jerusalem which became a religious sanctuary, sacred to all who worshipped Yahweh. The period of political unity lasted only seven years from about 1000 B.C to 927 B.C, but the northern kingdom of Israel survived until 722 B.C, until it was conquered by the Assyrians. The southern kingdom of Judah resisted until it was absorbed into the Babylonian Empire in 586 B.C. Jews stayed in Palestine after their defeat but they became a minority whose conditions of life were made difficult.

Extraits

[...] A quarrel in front of the Wailing Wall resulted in the death of 133 Jews and 116 Arabs. Subsequently, the death-toll was further compounded with the massacre of most of the Jewish residents of Hebron. At that moment British policy started to shift to from the “status of umpire to that of advocate and finally paternal defender of Arab rights[31]”, in particular with the issue of a White Paper blaming the Jewish Agency land purchase for the disturbances. Restrictions on Jewish immigrants were consequently tightened. [...]

[...] Following the establishment of the Zionist Organisation and the convening of the First Zionist Congress in 1897 in Basle, immigration to Palestine started to gain momentum. But it is with the second Aliyah in 1904, when immigrants of Russian origin fled the persecutions that the movement really developed. estimated 2.5 million Jews left Russia at that time, of which 60.000 settled in Palestine[20]”. Zionism as a modern movement came into direct competition with Arab nationalism and later Palestinian nationalism, as both Jews and Arabs laid claims to the same territory. [...]

[...] Israel/Palestine: the Black book. Sterling: Pluto Press in association with Reporters Without Borders Roy, Sara. “Hamas and the Transformation of Political Islam in Palestine”, Current History. no.102 vol.660. (January 1993). Schafer, David. “Origins of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict: The Defining Moment”, The Humanist. no.63 vol.1. (January/February 2003). Shahin, Mariam. New Chapter Begins”, Middle East. no.365. [...]

[...] Since the Ottoman empire had entered the war on the side of Germany, “Britain started to cultivate local Arab allies who could aid its war effort”[23]. In 1915, the British High Commissioner in Cairo, sir Henri Mac-Mahon, negotiated the support of the Hashemite leader Sharif Hussein in return for the promise of future Arab independence[24]. The Arab territories of the Ottoman empire would be returned to Arab sovereignty, with the exception of the districts west of Damascus, Homs, Hama and Aleppo. The lot of Palestine was left unclear, although Britain later claimed it was included in the exceptions. [...]

[...] Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Ibid. Kenneth W. Stein, The Land Question in Palestine, 1917-1939 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984). Schulze, The Arab-Israeli Conflict. Schulze, The Arab-Israeli Conflict. Ibid. Ibid. [...]