Global Conflicts Checkpoints

1. Global Conflicts Checkpoints Play Explore Learn

2. The Global Conflicts Course Overview • Step 1: Introductionto the conflict – the religious, political, historical reasons behind it • Step 2: Play the online 3D game, where you get to experience the conflict first hand • Step 3: Discussion and/or assignments • Understanding the origins of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict requires understanding its complex and often contested history.

3. Chapter 1 A short summery of the conflict

4. Introduction to the Israeli-Palestine conflict • The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the ongoing dispute between Israelis and Palestinians. • The remaining key issues: mutual recognition, borders, security, water rights, control of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, Palestinian freedom of movement and legalities concerning refugees. • The violence resulting from the conflicts has prompted international actions, as well as other security and human rights concerns, both within and between both sides, and internationally. • Many attempts have been made to broker a two-state solution, which would entail the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside an independent Jewish state.

5. The two-state solution A majority of Israelis and Palestinians prefer the two-state solution over any other solutions as a means of resolving the conflict. Furthermore a majority views the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an acceptable location of the hypothetical Palestinian state in a two state solution. However, there are significant areas of disagreement over the shape of any final agreement and also regarding the lever of credibility each side sees in the other in upholding basic commitments. As an alternative is the one-state, whereby all of Israel, the Gaza strip, and the West Bank would become a bi-national state with equal rights for all.

6. The violence Fighting has been conducted by regular armies, paramilitary groups, terror cells and individuals. Causalities have not been restricted to the military, with a large number of fatalities in civilian population on both sides. Casualty figures from OCHAoPt

7. The Hamas, The Fatah & Hezbollah • Since 2003, the Palestinian side has been fractured by conflict between the two major factions: • 1. Fatah: the traditionally dominant party, the left wing of the spectrum; it is mainly nationalist, although not predominantly socialist. Its main goal is the “complete liberation of Palestine” • 2. Hamas: a Palestinian Islamic socio-political organization which includes a paramilitary force. • Following Hamas’ seizure of power in the Gaza strip in June 2007, the territory controlled by the Palestinian National Authority is split between Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. • Hezbollah: An organization that controls most of Southern Lebanon and regularly attacks Northern Israel.

8. Chapter II Timeline of recent developments

9. Recent developments - Timeline • 1993 - Oslo Accords: After months of negotiations outside the Norwegian capital, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) agree to a Declaration of Principles, resulting in each side officially recognizing the other and renouncing the use of violence. The so-called Oslo Accords establish the Palestinian Authority, which receives limited autonomy in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank. • July 1994 - Arafat Returns to Gaza: After twenty-seven years in exile, Yasir Arafat returns to Gaza, taking the reins of the newly formed Palestinian Authority. • September 1995 - Oslo II: Israeli and Palestinian negotiators reach an agreement aimed at giving Palestinians more autonomy without compromising Israeli security. • November 1995 - Rabin Assassination: Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is gunned down as he leaves an election rally supporting the Oslo peace process. He becomes a symbol for the Israeli peace movement.

10. Timeline Part II • 1996 – Another Flare-up in Lebanon: Responding to increased Hezbollah attacks near the Lebanese border, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres orders a sixteen-day bombardment of Lebanon, code-named “operation Grapes of Wrath”. Hezbollah militants retaliate, firing rockets at populated areas of northern Israel. On April 18, an Israeli shell hits a UN post in Qana, killing about 100 Lebanese civilians. Violence end with a written agreement. Both sides fail to live up to the deal. • May 1996 – Peres’ Electoral Defeat: Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres suffers electoral defeat to Benjamin Netanyahu. Peres campaigned on a platform of further implementation of the Oslo Accords. A torrent of suicide bombings by Palestinian militant movement Hamas in the preceding months had helped sour the Israeli public on further concessions to the Palestinians. • 1997 – Tension with Jordan: Israeli agents posing as Canadian tourists in Jordan botch an attempt to poison KhaledMeshal, a top leader of the Palestinian militant organization Hamas. A crisis ensues between Israel and both Jordan and Canada. In order to defuse the situation, Israel must deliver a life-saving antidote to Meshal and release the imprisoned Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

11. Timeline Part III • 1998 – Wye River Memorandum: Under intense pressure from U.S. President Bill Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Yasir Arafat seek to revive the stalled Oslo peace process with the Wye River Memorandum. The deal outlines measures Palestinians should take to help guarantee Israel’s security. As each requirement is met and verified, with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency assigned the role of monitor, Israel agrees to transfer a specified percentage of land promised to the Palestinians. The final handover of territory isn’t set to occur until March 2000. Implementation problems with the deal lead to the collapse of the Netanyahu coalition. • July 2000 – Camp David: In July, U.S. President Bill Clinton hosts two weeks of intense Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at Camp David. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offers substantial concessions, including withdrawal from more than 90 percent of the occupied territories, possible partition of Jerusalem’s Old City, and a Palestinian state in the area of withdrawal. According to U.S. negotiators involved, Palestinian President Yasir Arafat turns down the deal.

12. Timeline Part IV • September 2000 – New Violence Erupts: Ariel Sharon, the head of the Likud Party and formal opposition leader, makes a September visit to the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem—also the site of Islam’s third-holiest site, the al-Aqsa Mosque. Sharon’s presence provides the spark that ignites a round of fighting, dubbed the “second intifada” by Palestinians. Unlike the 1987 rising, however, this conflict is marked from the beginning by fewer mass demonstrations and a much greater use of firearms and suicide bombs. This, in turn, leads to harsh preventive measures by Israel, including the reoccupation of parts of the West Bank, air strikes, targeted killings, and the construction of a barrier separating Palestinians from Jewish population centers in the West Bank. • January 2001 – New U.S. Strategy: U.S. President Bill Clinton leaves office, and President George W. Bush announces he will not appoint a Middle East envoy, consciously disengaging from the diplomatic process.

13. Timeline Part V • 2001 9/11 – Terrorist Attacks: The 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States force Washington to rethink its posture toward the Middle East. • 2002: Arafat Besieged, Barrier Takes Shape: Two days after a Hamas suicide bomber kills twenty-eight Israelis celebrating Passover, the Israel Defense Forces launch an assault on the West Bank, seizing control of the city of Jenin and laying siege to Palestinian President Yasir Arafat’s compound for five weeks. Palestinian militants take refuge in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, resulting in a thirty-eight-day standoff with Israeli troops. In June, Israel begins construction of a barrier separating Israel from the West Bank. A second assault on Arafat’s headquarters in September reduces most of the compound to rubble. • April 2003 – Road Map for Peace: With Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat isolated, MahmoudAbbas—a longtime Arafat advisor—is appointed Palestinian prime minister, though Arafat remains president. The next week, with the region in flux due to the invasion of Iraq, U.S. President George W. Bush outlines the “Road Map for Peace,” which seeks to restart the peace process by outlining specific benchmarks for progress.

14. Timeline Part VI • 2004 – Death of Yassir Arafat • January 2005 – Suicide attacks: Though the so-called second intifada never officially comes to an end, violence abates in 2005. Scores of suicide attacks by Palestinian terrorists, plus preventive and punative measures by Israeli security forces, have taken a heavy toll on both sides. • August 2005 – Gaza Withdrawal: Israel begins a unilateral withdrawal of nine thousand Jews from settlements in Gaza in August. Some settlers accept government compensation and leave voluntarily, while others are forcibly removed by the Israel Defense Forces. The move is designed to diminish attacks on Israel, though Israel soon begins taking rocket fire from Gaza. • January 2006 – Hamas Victory: Hamas scores a victory in Palestinian Authority elections in January, causing the United States, the European Union, and other international donors to suspend aid to the Palestinian Authority.

15. Timeline Part VII • July 2006 – Summer War: Hamas and Hezbollah guerrillas infiltrate Israel and abduct Israel Defense Forces soldiers, prompting Israel to invade both Gaza and Lebanon. • 2007 – Palestinian Movement Split: Formation of a joint Fatah-Hamas government, brokered by Saudi Arabia, prompts resumption of some of the foreign aid that was suspended after the Hamas election victory. Neither the European Union nor the United States, however, agrees. In June, after months of sporadic clashes, the Hamas-Fatah deal collapses and Hamas militants drive Fatah from Gaza. Palestinian Authority President MahmoudAbbas denounces the violence as a “Hamas coup” and appoints a new government in Ramallah, which is quickly recognized by the United States and European Union. Aid is resumed, and Israel releases Palestinian tax revenues collected but not delivered to the Palestinian Authority since Hamas took office. Gaza remains under Hamas control, and southern Israeli towns are subjected to almost daily rocket attacks, prompting frequent Israeli retaliation.

16. Timeline Part VIII • November 2007 – Annapolis Conference: U.S. President George W. Bush hosts a conference aimed at restarting the peace process. • January 2009 – War in Gaza: In late December 2008, just days after a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas expired, Israel mounts an incursion into the Gaza Strip with the stated goal of preventing rocket fire on nearby Israeli towns. First using air strikes, and later a ground assault, Israel inflicts heavy casualties among Hamas' ranks, destroys hundreds of rockets, and eliminates many of the tunnels that Hamas used to smuggle supplies—including weapons—into Gaza. Throughout the 22-day campaign, Palestinian militants continue to fire rockets into Israel. The fighting also produces hundreds of civilian casualties in Gaza and draws sharp criticism from the international community. Though Israel appears to have achieved military victory, the larger strategic implications remain unclear.

17. Chapter III The Checkpoints

18. The Checkpoints • A Israeli Defense Force checkpoint, usually called an Israeli checkpoint, is a barrier erected with the stated aim of enhancing the security of Israel and Israeli settlements and preventing those who wish to do harm from crossing. • Most of the checkpoints in the West Bank are not located on the boundary between Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, but rather throughout the West Bank. • IDF checkpoints may be manned by the Israeli Military Police, who perform security checks on Palestinians.

19. IDF Viewpoint • According to program director Col. TriberBezalel, the IDF employs humanitarian officers at various checkpoints: • “(to) provide understanding, helping hand to the Palestinians. Their job is to make life easier for those who cross the borders. To assist women who are holding babies and children, aid the elderly and sick and provide an open ear to Palestinian professionals who have special problems. These are Israel’s ambassadors to our Palestinian neighbors and they perform brilliantly” • The IDF has stated that during 2008, it has removed the crossing joints, 140 roadblocks and eight central checkpoints “in an effort to improve freedom of movement for the civilian Palestinian population in Judea, Samaria and the Jordan Valley.” • As of July 2009, Israeli authorities report that 27 checkpoints and 140 roadblocks have been removed.

20. Criticism • Many Palestinians, especially residents of the West Bank, claim that despite the checkpoints’ intended use, in practice they violate Palestinians’ rights to transportation and other human rights. • Palestinians complaints of abuse and humiliation are common. • The United Nation has stated that is is becoming apparent that the checkpoints, which Israeli authorities justified from the beginning as a temporary military response to violent confrontations and attacks on Israeli civilians, is evolving into “a more permanent system of control” that is steadily reducing the space available for Palestinian growth and movements for the benefit if increasing Israeli settler population. (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2009)

21. The ambulance controversy • Since a 2002 incident when explosives were found in a Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance, medical vehicles have not been immune to searches. • In 2008, an Israeli soldier in command of a checkpoint outside Nablus was relieved from duty and imprisoned for two weeks after he refused to allow a Palestinian woman in labor to pass through. The woman gave birth to a stillborn baby at the checkpoint. • Between 2000 and 2006, 68 Palestinian women gave birth at Israeli checkpoints, five of whom died and 35 miscarried. (Source: BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7612887.stm)

22. Now Play! www.globalconflicts.eu

23. Game-play You: Freelance journalist Goal: Create the best article Means: Find informants, build trust, get their stories, identify the best quotes and put your article together Win: Highest journalistic level

24. Educational layers and learning objectives • Israeli-Palestinian conflict (Content) – Experience everyday life in the conflict through real personal accounts on the conflict’s core issues • Human rights, terrorism & media’s role (Theme) – Learn about the role of human rights, terrorism, and the media in global conflicts • Source criticism & writing article (Skills/Methods) – Learn to be aware of the right angle, the agenda of sources, and article writing • Perspective-taking, critical thinking & bias awareness (Competences) – Learn to shift between perspectives while thinking critically of bias as you are presented with a variety of perspectives on the same events and issues

25. Be a journalist After completing an episode, you can write an article on the Global Conflicts web-portal and publish it in the online community, where students all over the world can read, rate and discuss your work.