The story will take you back to the late 19th century when the Ottoman Empire controlled major parts of Europe. With time, the Ottoman empire started losing its grip from several regions in Europe due to the rise in nationalist sentiments among people, where people wanted to form their own countries based on their identity in the late 19th century.
From here came the first spark of what was about to become the most challenging world affair in the next 100 years.
A product of nationalism in Europe was the “Zionist movement”. The Zionist movement encouraged Jews to move back to their holy land where their religion was established 3000 years back defined as the historic Land of Israel (roughly corresponding to the Holy Land or the region of Palestine) Apart from nationalism in Europe, one more reason why Zionist movement became so ‘influential’ was the persecution of Jews all over Europe. Jewish people were persecuted, killed and tortured in large scale mostly in eastern European countries, and this even further urged Jews to become a part of the Zionist movement.
From the late 19th century to early 20th century, Jews started migrating to Palestine in small number. Then came the involvement of the biggest colonial power of the world Britain. Here, I would like to trace the political and social movements that contributed to the issue as it stands today.
Balfour Declaration, 1917
This declaration is supposedly known as the start of the Israel/Palestine conflict. UK foreign minister Arthur Balfour declared in 1917 that, as soon as World War I ends the UK will support and assist Jews who would migrate to Palestine and endorsed the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1917
Playing the double game, The British secretly signed an agreement with France and Russia by effectively promising them several regions of the Middle East after the war ends. France was ‘given’ Syria/Jordan, and parts of Turkey to Russia and the UK kept Palestine for itself.
At the same time, the British promised handing over Palestine to Arabs after the war ends, to gain their support fighting the Ottoman empire.
1920: British Mandate of Palestine
The Mandate for Palestine, a League of Nations mandate for the British to administer parts of the defunct Ottoman Empire saw that after the end of World War 1, the British controlled Palestine as per the Sykes-Picot agreement. As per the Balfour Declaration, Jews start migrating to Palestine. Jews started purchasing land from poor local Arabs in very large scale, this practice was known to be Jewish settlements. As a result, the population of Jews rose up to 30% from 3% in Palestine.
Arab revolt against British, 1936
After watching the migration of Jews on such a large scale, Arabs started revolting against the British for supporting the Jewish settlements. As a result, the British imposed restrictions on the number of Jews migrations to Palestine.
World War II, 1939
As World War II began, we saw the biggest genocide of Jews by Hitler. This event is also referred to as the Holocaust witnessed the death of more than 42 lakh Jewish people. During this period, through the Zionist movement, Jews started migrating to Palestine in enormous numbers, as Palestine was the only place they acknowledged as their homeland and a place where they were safe.
After World War II, the scenario in Palestine got even worse. Jews started overthrowing local Palestine from their land which resulted in clashes between Jews and Arab Palestine. Witnessing this, UK steps back and let newly formed United Nations (UN) take control of the situation.
The Two-State ‘Solution’
After the UN intervention in Palestine, the 1947 UN Partition plan straightaway ‘recommended’ a separate state for Jews known as Israel and a separate state for Palestinian Arabs. The distribution of the land was done on the basis of the majority of the population living in the area. In a region where the majority of the population belongs to Jews, that area would be given to Israel and vice versa. This resulted in a large humanitarian crisis, as Palestinians Arabs who were in minority had to leave their home and migrate to neighboring Arab countries. Almost 7 lakh Palestinians had to leave their home and relocate as refugees.
The only region excluded in this agreement was Jerusalem, due to its mixed population and its spiritual importance in all the three religion i.e Jews, Islam and Christianity. International control was accorded for Jerusalem.
Arab-Israeli War, 1948-49
As soon as the 1947 agreement came out and Israel got recognition as a Country from the United Nation, the neighboring Arab countries like Syria, Egypt, Iraq attacked Israel.
Israel resisted the attack and conquered many parts of Palestine. Whereas, Egypt conquered Gaza and Jordan conquered West bank. Palestine size was reduced to half after the 1948-49 war.
Six-Day War, 1967
Once more, Israel waged preemptive strikes against Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. As a result, Israel occupied Gaza and Sinai peninsula from Egypt and Golan Heights from Syria. Israel tripled its size by conquering several regions of neighboring Arab nations.
Yom Kippur War, 1973
On the occasion of the Jews’ holy festival of Yom Kippur, Egypt and Syria planned an attack against Israel to regain lost territories from 1967. As a result, Israel suffered a major setback initially and then came out with a stronger attack against Egypt. The highlight of the war was Egypt and Israel coming down to the table to reach a settlement.
1978: Camp David Accords
Finally, the first peaceful negotiation took place between Israel and an Arab state. Here, the Sinai peninsula was returned to Egypt by Israel which was taken by them during the 1967 war, as a result, Egypt became the first Arab nation to recognize Israel as a country. Egypt faced a lot of criticism over this agreement by fellow Arab nations, as a result, Egypt’s president Mr. Anwar Sadat was assassinated out of anger in the following year.
Palestine Liberation Organisation(PLO)
1st Intifada, 1987-1993
Intifada means to revolt. This Intifada was started by Palestine under the influence of PLO against Israel. During this uprising, several clashes occurred and a lot of violence took place. As a result, hundreds of Jews and thousands of Palestinians lost their lives. This gave a motive and sense of revenge to several independent organizations in Palestine. A product of such revolt is ‘Hamas‘, which is an extremist and more nationalist organization of Palestine, which is based on the idea of independent Palestine but through terror tactics and demolishing the name of Israel from the map of the Middle East.
Oslo Accord, 1993
This agreement initially took place in Oslo but finally was signed in Washington. This agreement took place between Israel and the PLO. The agreement stated that PLO will give recognition to Israel as a country, in return Israel will give PLO recognition as the representative of Palestine people.
The 2000 Camp David Summit
After the Oslo Accord in 1993, one more peace talk took place in 2000 which is known as Camp David Summit. Israel and Palestine failed to come on any common grounds because of which the peace talks failed.
2nd Intifada, 2000-2005
The violence started in 2000 when Ariel Shanon visited Temple Mount with 1000 security forces. This temple was considered to be a holy sight among Palestine’s, infiltrated with anger Palestinians start an uprising, which led to violence on a large scale. As a consequence, thousands of Jews and 3500 Palestinians lost their lives.
Elections in Gaza, 2006
After the 2nd Intifada , Israel backed off from Gaza. Post that, Gaza conducted elections and Hamas comes out as the most influential party. Due to differences in ideologies of PLO and Hamas, PLO rejects Hamas admission in the Palestinian government.
Hamas takeover of Gaza, 2007
In 2007, post the elections in Gaza and breakdown in talks between Hamas and Fatah to form a Palestine authority in Gaza, a civil war started. Fatah (Political party of PLO) and Hamas fought with each other over Gaza. Hamas came out to be more powerful and till today, Hamas has a firm grip over Gaza.
Hamas’ handling of Gaza is very different from the PLO, and it believes in military actions which led to violence and regular attacks over Israel. As a result, Israel has blocked most humanitarian support to Gaza from all over the world. Till today, three wars have been fought in Gaza i.e. 2008,2012 and 2014, which has killed thousands of civilians. Today Gaza is considered to be one of the most conflicted places to live in.