The History of Palestine

1. The History of Palestine By Raghad Kurdi

2. How did the conflict Start ? For Centuries there was no suchconflict. In the 19th century the land ofPalestinewas inhabited by a multiculturalpopulation – approximately 86 percentMuslim, 10 percent Christian, and 4 percentJewish – living in peace.

3. Zionism In the late 1800sa group in Europe decidedto colonize this land. Known as Zionists,this group consisted of an extremist minorityof the Jewish population. They wanted to createa Jewish homeland, and considered locationsin Africa and the Americas, before settlingonPalestine. Atfirst, this immigration created no problems.However, as more and more Zionists immigrated to Palestine – many with the express wish of taking over the land for aJewish state – the indigenous populationbecame increasingly alarmed.

4. Zionism continued… Eventually,fighting broke out, with escalating waves ofviolence. Hitler’s rise to power and Nazi atrocities (extreme cruelty),combined with Zionist activities to sabotageefforts to place Jewish refugees in westerncountries, led to increased Jewish immigrationto Palestine, and conflict grew.

5. UN Partition Plan Finally in 1947 the United Nations decidedto intervene. However, rather than allowing the people themselves to create their own state and system ofgovernment, the UN voted for the land to be divided up and put under the governance of different nations. Under considerable Zionist pressure, theUN recommended giving away 55 percent ofPalestine to a Jewish state – despite the fact thatthis group represented only about 30 percent ofthe total population, and owned under 7 percentof the land.

6. 1947-1949 War While it is widelyand correctly reportedthat the resulting war eventually included fiveArab armies, less well known is the fact thatthroughout this war. Zionist forces outnumbered all Arab and Palestinian combatants (people taking part in war) combined (–often by afactor of two to three). Also contrary to popular belief, Arab armiesdid not invade Israel – virtuallyall battles werefought on land that was to havebeen thePalestinian state.

7. Finally, it is significant to note that Arabarmies entered the conflict only after Zionistforces had committed 16 massacres, includingthe horrible massacre of over 100 men, women,and children at Deir Yassin. Future IsraeliPrime Minister MenachemBegin, head of oneof the Jewish terrorist groups, called this a“splendid act of conquest,” and stated: “As inDeir Yassin, so everywhere, we will attack Andsmite the enemy. God, God, Thou has chosenus for conquest.”Zionist/Israeli forces committed33 massacres altogether.

8. By the end of the war, Israel had conquered 78 percent of Palestine; three-quarters of a million Palestinians had been made refugees; over 500 towns and villages had been destroyed; and a new map was drawn up, in which every city, river and hillock received a new, Hebrew name, as all vestiges of the Palestinian culture were to be erased. For many decades Israel denied the existence of this population, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once saying: “There is no such thing as a Palestinian.”

9. 1967 War & USS Liberty IN 1967, Israel conquered still more land.Following the Six Day War, in which Israeliforces launched a highly successful surpriseattack on Egypt, Israel occupied the additional22 percent of Palestine that had eluded it in1948 – the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since,according to international law it is unacceptable to acquire territory by war, these are occupiedterritories and do not belong to Israel. Italso occupied parts of Egypt (since returned)and Syria (which remain under occupation).

10. Also during the Six-Day War, Israelattacked a US Navy ship, the USS Liberty,killing and injuring over 200 American servicemen.President Lyndon Johnson recalled rescueflights, saying that he did not want to "embarrassan ally." (In 2004 a high-level commissionchaired by Admiral Thomas Moorer, formerChairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, found thisattack to be “an act of war against the UnitedStates,” a fact few news media have reported).

11. Current Conflict There are twoprimary issues at the core ofthis continuing conflict. First, there is the unavoidable destabilizing effect of trying to maintainan ethnicallypreferential state, particularlywhen it is largely of foreign origin – the original population of what is now Israel was 96PercentMuslim and Christian. Yet, Muslim andChristian refugees are prohibited from Returningto their homes in the self-described Jewish state. (And those within Israel are subjected to systematic discrimination.)

12. Current Conflictcontinued… Second, Israel’s continued military occupationand confiscation of privately owned land inthe West Bank, and control over Gaza, are beingresisted by Palestinian inhabitants. It is theseoccupied territories that, according to the Oslopeace accords of 1993, were going to become aPalestinian state. However, when Israel continuedto confiscate land in these areas and to moveits citizens onto it, the Palestinian population rebelled. (The Barak offer, widely reputed to begenerous, was anything but.) This uprising,called the “Intifada” (Arabic for “shaking off”) began in the fall of 2000.

13. U.S. Involvement Largely dueto one-sided special-interestlobbying, U.S. taxpayers give Israel an averageof $7 million per day, and since its creationhave given more U.S. funds to Israel than toany other nation. As Americans learn Abouthow Israel is using our tax dollars, many arecalling for an end to this expenditure.

15. Conclusion • Palestinians in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967. The settlements that Israel has built in the West Bank are home to around 400,000 people and are deemed to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this. • Israel evacuated its settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and withdrew its forces, ending almost four decades of military occupation. However, after the militant Islamic group Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, Israel intensified its economic blockade of the Strip. • In 1979 Egypt and Israel signed a peace agreement, but it wasn't until the early 1990s, after years of an uprising known as the intifada, that a peace process began with the Palestinians. Despite the handover of Gaza and parts of the West Bank to Palestinian • control, a "final status" agreement has yet to be reached. • The main stumbling blocks include the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees and Jewish settlements.