Israel-Palestine: The Conflict & Its Reality
A century-old Issue
The history of the region of Israel is long. No one’s arguing whether the most important prophets descended from Abraham’s son Issac, or his son Ismael. It’s not about whether to fast during Yom Kippur or Ramadan.
It’s about land. Portraying the conflict as eternal or as religious makes it feel intractable. Let’s begin as most historians did in the late 19th century.
Ok, so in the late 19th century the Ottoman Empire ruled over what now we know as Palestine. According to Ottoman records, the population there was 87% Muslim, 10% Christian, and 3% Jewish. Everybody spoke Arabic as a daily language. In short, Ottoman Palestine was a piece of land where different religious faiths lived peacefully together.
Zionism In Action
The late 19th century was the ‘Golden Age of Nationalism’ in Europe, and no place was crazier than the Hapsburg Austro-Hungarian Empire. And in that hyper-nationalistic empire, a Jewish journalist named Theodor Herzl hoped that jews could assimilate into European nations. But soon became convinced that Jewish people needed to leave Europe and settle in their own state. The concept of Jewish nationalism came to be known as ‘Zionism’.
These Zionists were secular Jews, so they imagined Israel as a state for Jews rather than a Jewish state. In 1917, the British government, hoping to gain the support of the Jewish people, issued the Balfour Declaration. Promising,
“The establishment in Palestine of a national home for Jewish people.”
When World War I ended in 1918, the British took control of Palestine. The League of Nations issued a British mandate for Palestine — a document that gave Britain administrative control over the region and included provisions for establishing a Jewish national homeland in Palestine — which went into effect in 1923.
The New State: Israel
In 1947, after more than two decades of British rule, the United Nations proposed a plan to partition Palestine into two sections: an independent Jewish state and an independent Arab state. The city of Jerusalem, which was claimed as a capital by both Jews and Palestinian Arabs, was to be an international territory with a special status.
In May 1948, Britain withdrew from Palestine and Israel declared itself an independent state. Neighboring Arab armies moved in to prevent the establishment of the Israeli state. The 1948 Arab-Israeli War that ensued involved Israel and five Arab nations — Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon. The Israelis won, and when an armistice was signed in 1949, Israel occupied a third more land than they would have had under the UN proposal. Meanwhile, Jordan took control of the West Bank, and Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip.
Over the next 18 years, nothing changed territorially, and in 1967, Israel and several Arab states went to war again. By the end of the war, Israel had taken control of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights.
The Bloodbath Commences
In 1987, the First Intifada broke out, which literally means ‘shaking off’. Military groups revolted, and hundreds of people were killed.
In September 2000, the Second Palestinian Intifada began. One of the triggers for the violence was when Ariel Sharon, a right-wing, Jewish Israeli, who would later become Israel’s prime minister, visited the Muslim holy site at the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Many Palestinians felt this was an offensive move, and they protested.
We know, to Muslims Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam, while in Judaism it is the holiest. So, in short, it's a pretty touchy place to march to with a thousand armed guards. Riots, suicide bombings, and other attacks subsequently broke out, which eventually resulted in the death of 3,000 Palestinians and 1,000 Israelis.
Hamas
In 2006, Hamas, a Sunni Islamist militant group, won the Palestinian legislative elections. Hamas and Israel fought each other in several bloody wars, including Operation Cast Lead in December 2008, Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012, and Operation Protective Edge in July 2014.
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank verbally express they’re suffering because of Israeli actions and restrictions. Israel expresses it is only acting to forfend itself from Palestinian brutality.
What’s Happening Right Now?
To now, whatever I wrote was all that the world knows, and what we call history. Things are surging again. Since the start of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan in mid-April 2021, Israel and the Palestinians are mired in their worst conflict as Israel pounds the Gaza Strip with airstrikes and artillery. The world is witnessing, yet hushed.
After this entire archive, let’s come to the point.
Israel is not a legitimate state, and this statement is not Anti-Semitic. This statement is purely political. According to Human Rights International Law, Israel is an illegitimate state. Why?! Because it was made by European Jewish people who came from Europe and settled in Palestine, kicking out the local people who were living there for hundreds of years.
To this day, a European person can claim citizenship of Israel within days, while a local Palestinian is not allowed to even visit the land which belongs to them.
Israel-Palestine is not a religious issue. To all those who say it is a religious issue; do your research. Muslims have ruled historically over Jerusalem for hundreds of years. And there never was any injustice done to any Jew, Christian, or any other religious group.
To make it confusing to the entire world, Israel, and the US call it a complicated issue while it is a super-super-simple issue. The issue is ‘Colonialism’ in its most raw.
The utter manipulation, backstabbing, conniving plans of the British were the driving forces of severe injustices which happened to the local people of Jerusalem. And today, UK has sidelined itself as if it never was there.
In 1897, Jerusalem was made up of 3% Jews, 85–90% Muslims. These are the people who originally belonged to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was their home. A hundred years later, in 1997, Jerusalem was a Jewish population. And even more today. Wonder how that happens?
Under US law, any person who claims that Israel is an illegitimate state is
Anti-Semitic. This is a very effective tool of manipulation in keeping people quiet when they question the legitimacy of Israel. To show it to the world that it is a religious war is very easy as opposed to being exposed as tyrants who have snatched the land of innocent locals, who kill their children regularly and cruelly. Imagine, the massacre of children!!! And claim it’s a religious complicated issue???
Educate yourself, and the next time anyone says “Israel Palestine is a complicated issue” tell them there is nothing complicated about it.
Israel is an apartheid state. And the International Human Rights Law says that, not us. And tell them, there is no conflict. There is only oppression and massacre done by Israel, and oppressed and massacred are the Palestinians. It is as simple as that.
