Israel-Palestine Conflict

On 10th May 2021, a major outbreak of violence commenced between Israel and Palestine and continued until a ceasefire came into effect on 21st May 2021. The unfortunate events caused the deaths of 256 Palestinians and 13 Israelites. These tragic events brought into the limelight, a conflict that has been in effect for well over a hundred years.

Jerusalem is considered the holiest city for the world’s Jewish and Christian population and the third holiest city for Muslims, after Mecca and Medina. As a result of being such a prominent city to three of the most influential religions in the world, the city has been besieged 23 times, attacked 52 times and captured/recaptured 44 times.

The Temple Mount

From 1500 BC to 326 AD, the city of Jerusalem was mostly dominated by the Jews except for 196 years in between when it was ruled by the Greek pagans. It is during this period that the most legendary events of Judaism took place such as the Exodus and the rule of King David. In 326 AD however, Jerusalem came under Christian rule for the first time which resulted in the construction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus Christ was said to have been buried, thus making it an important site for the Christians.

Church of the Holy Sepulchure

In the year 636 AD, the holy city was conquered by the Muslims for the first time. Jerusalem is the last city visited by Prophet Muhammed and houses the third holiest site in Islam, the Al-Aqsa Mosque which is said to be the second mosque ever constructed. The Muslims would keep a stronghold of the city till the year 1099 AD.

Al-Aqsa Mosque

While Jerusalem was under Christian rule, the Jews were heavily persecuted whereas, under Muslim rule, they experienced tolerance and integration. Some historians even refer to this period as the “Golden Age” for the Jews. By the year 1850 AD, the city was equally divided between the Jews and the Muslims along with a significant Christian minority.

The friction between the two religions began following the defeat and eventual decline of the Ottoman Empire during World War 1. The Ottoman Empire had provided refuge to the Jews who were being forcefully converted to Christianity in the Iberian Peninsula during the Spanish Inquisition. In 1920, the city fell under the British Mandate.

British article after the fall of the Ottoman

The name given to the Mandate’s territory was Palestine, in accordance with the Palestinian Arab and Ottoman usage as well as European traditions. In 1917, The British government issued a public statement called the ‘Balfour Declaration’ which supported the establishment of a ‘national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

Although the declaration called for the safeguarding of the civil and religious rights of the Palestinian Arabs, it had the unintended effect of greatly increasing popular support for Zionism within Jewish communities worldwide. It is therefore considered a principal cause of the Israel-Palestine Conflict, often referred to as the world’s most intractable conflict.

The 1920s marked the beginning of the Palestinian Arab Nationalist Struggle which resulted in large-scale riots against the Jews in Jerusalem and Jaffa, under the leadership of Haj Amin al-Husseini. There were also massive Jewish casualties in Hebron and Safed leading to the evacuation of Jews from Hebron and Gaza.

The 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine however, was bloodily repressed by the British assisted by associated forces of the Jewish Settlement Police, the Jewish Supernumerary Police and Special Night Squads. With the eruption of World War 2, the situation in Mandatory Palestine calmed down.

On 29th November 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted Resolution 181(II) recommending the adoption and implementation of a plan to partition Palestine into an Arab state, a Jewish state and the City of Jerusalem. Following the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel on 14th May 1948, the Arab League decided to intervene on behalf of Palestinian Arabs, marching their forces into former British Palestine, beginning the main phase of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

The overall fighting, leading to around 15,000 casualties, resulted in cease-fire and armistice agreements of 1949, with Israel holding much of the former Mandate territory, Jordan occupying and later annexing the West Bank and Egypt taking over the Gaza Strip, where the All-Palestine Government was declared by the Arab League on 22 September 1948.

The 1956 Suez Crisis resulted in a short-term Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and exile of the All-Palestine Government, which was later restored with Israeli withdrawal and put under the authority of the Egyptian military administrator. The 1967 Six-Day War exerted a significant effect on Palestinian nationalism, as Israel gained military control of the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

The resolution for the City of Jerusalem, to be established as a corpus separatum (independent state), was accepted by the Jewish leadership but rejected by the Arabs in Palestine. It was thus agreed upon that Western Jerusalem would be a part of Israel-occupied territory and Eastern Jerusalem would be a part of Palestine-occupied territory. In 1980, Israel passed the Basic Jerusalem Law, declaring unified Jerusalem as Israel’s “eternal and indivisible” capital.

The first Palestinian uprising began in 1987 as a response to escalating attacks and endless occupation. By the early 1990s, international efforts to settle the conflict had begun, in light of the success of the Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty of 1982. Eventually, the Israeli–Palestinian peace process led to the Oslo Accords of 1993.

The signing of the Oslo Accords

The peace process also had significant opposition among radical Islamic elements of Palestinian society, such as Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, who immediately initiated a campaign of attacks targeting Israelis. Following hundreds of casualties and a wave of radical anti-government propaganda, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated by an Israeli fanatic who objected to the peace initiative.

Following several years of unsuccessful negotiations, the conflict re-erupted as the Second Intifada in September 2000 between the Palestinian National Security Forces and the Israel Defense Forces and lasted until 2005 leading to approximately 130 casualties. In 2006, Hamas, a Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist organization, won the Palestinian parliamentary election.

Hamas refused to accept Israel’s right to exist which caused Israel to impose a Naval blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2007. Tensions escalated until late 2008, when Israel launched operation Cast Lead upon Gaza, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties and billions of dollars in damage. By February 2009, a ceasefire was signed with international mediation between the parties, though the occupation and small and sporadic eruptions of violence continued.

The 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis has led to many unfortunate events such as the severing of an Al-Aqsa mosque speaker, turning away ten-thousands of people from Al-Aqsa mosque, ‘Death to the Arabs’ chants, 36 rockets launched in Southern Israel, stones thrown in the Al-Aqsa mosque and arresting of at least 61 Palestinian children.