Palestine-Israel Conflict - Essay Example

Palestine-Israel Conflict Introduction: The history of the Arab world has been a stressful one. With the end of the Second World War it has been really challenging for the academia to neglect the conflicts between the Arab society and the Israel. The case of Palestine in particular has been more exigent. It is often confused with either a set of people or a nationality. Hence, writing about it implies going either against one party or another with reference to the self-determination that the small community has in pulling itself out of the shackles of the Zionist movement. The history goes as far as the time of Moses and his followers but that will be too lengthy to trace. However, one can connect to the issue at hand by recalling the incidents of the late nineteenth century which caused a stir among the Palestinian community and the Muslim World at large. Since 1948, the struggle over Palestine between the Jews and the Arabs became an inter-state issue. The state of Palestine was removed from the map and the Arabs consider it their duty to retrieve it and restore its fame. With the end of the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union also got involved in the growing complexities of the conflict which the Britain could no longer handle. For the Arabs, Zionism was an eccentric intrusion in the Palestinian politics. It felt incomplete without the independence of Palestine and resists the imperialists’ and colonial motives of the West to date (McDowall 40). Relying on a specific super-power will not yield solutions to the never-ending tyranny that the Palestinians have to face with the passage of time. The conflict needs to be reassessed in order to understand the intricacies of the situation and evolve a collective solution in order to allow the people of Palestine to live freely and not be imposed by either the Arabs or the Jews in any way. Palestine-Israel Dissent: The conflict between the two nations, Palestine and Israel arose from the time when the Israelis, mainly the Jews, realized that it was theirs from the beginning. They denied the exile and wished to return to their holy land with the spirit to start afresh. It was the need which pushed them off the limit, which was immediately realized by the neighboring Arab states and they raised their voice against the oppression. With the passage of time, the Zionist immigrants planned on settling in the Jewish region by establishing their businesses as agriculturalists in order to acquire their lost land. When the Arabs learnt about this cause, they severely opposed the intensions of the Israeli movement. Establishment of a Jewish state meant for the Arabs going against the law ordained by God. For the Muslims in particular, they understood the exile of the Jews from Palestine as a decree by God. The oppositional cry, however, was neglected and the Zionists continued towards settling other Jews by developing a Jewish National Fund, Keren Kayemeth in 1901 under the World Zionist Organization. The Fund intended to buy land in Syria Palestine, various parts of Turkey and regions of Sinai (Quigley 4). It was only to be given to the Jews for the purpose of settlement and nobody else had the right over these lands. The lands were purchased at extremely high price but the Zionists were determined to keep them and never return them at any cost. Most of the agricultural land was owned by farmers for generations and the property was recognized by the customary law. But nothing could be done at such a great loss. Situation became more complicated when a British traveler observed that a Fund purchased land was labored by Arab farmers. A question was raised whether displacing them would mean a silent exchange of land with gold or a rebellion against intolerance over the land’s possession by aliens who suddenly started claiming it. The Jews wanted the land to be labored by their own people but situation could not have lasted long because of less number of Jews as compared to the land they had purchased. Hence, the policy of Jewish workers could not be uniformly implemented and the Arab workers started complaining and demanding rights. The Zionists intended to excavate Arabs from Palestine by employing them in the transit countries. This process was planned very inconspicuously and vigilantly. They would do anything to avoid the Palestinian Arabs to rise against them (Quigley 5). “Relations with the Palestinians have been the key factor in foreign and security policy. The Palestinians in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967. The settlements that Israel has built in the West Bank are home to nearly 500,000 people and are deemed to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this” (BBC 2011). The ideology behind the organization of Zionism was the motif of colonialism. From the moment it gained access over majority of the lands in Palestine, it started looking for international aid from Britain and eventually the United States. Britain was always interested in the land. In 1839, Lord Palmerston, the former secretary inaugurated a consulate in Jerusalem in order to protect the Jews. Next year he requested the Ottoman Empire to allow the European Jews to settle in their land and report against Ottoman officials any complaints through the British Embassy. The second mission could not be fulfilled but the consulate continued to assist the Jews. The movement, however, intended to carry out this mission even after the death of their leader Herzl. Chaim Weizmann, primarily a research chemist who aided Britain in military research during World War I became the next leader of Zionism and claimed that if the British force allowed the Jews to enter the territory of Palestine under its supervision, then there would be more than two to three million Jews working in the land toward bringing back the civilization they had lost years ago. When the Ottoman Empire was being taken by the Britain after the First World War, Weizmann continued to assert his position in acquiring Palestine. At this point even the president of the Zionist Federation of America claimed Palestine to be rightfully owned by the Zionists. He wished it to be developed by the Jews. A Britain’s Palestinian expert saw Zionism a vehicle for extending the British influence over Middle East (Quigley 10). Ironically the Jews promised to live together with the Arabs in Palestine on the basis of equality. This was merely a publicity displayed by the Zionist movement which opposed the reality of the situation. The policies adopted towards the Arab minority were autocratic and completely unconstitutional. Majority of the historians viewed Zionism as an offshoot of Western colonialism and imperialism of the nineteenth century. The post-1967 occupied Palestine was a vast area occupied by the Jews unjustly and only way to remove the Palestinian-Israeli conflict was to establish a bi-national secular state where the people of Palestine could live in freedom. But this was not tolerable for the Jews who wanted the land for themselves. The Arab-Jewish problem can only be resolved through proper education according to Zureik, author of the book Palestinians in Israel (Zureik 191). One might argue that the Zionist movement along with the British presence in Palestine has been successful in reality if not in verbal context. Weizmann had a unique way of convincing the British counterpart of his purpose to regain power in Palestine. The reason for the decline of the proposal by the Arabs was 89 percent dominant population of Muslims and Christians in Palestine. The Arabs considered the entrance of the Jews as invasion of aliens on their land. The attitude of the Zionist settlers in Palestine was more or less the same as the white settlers in Africa and other regions of the world. The Zionist colonization was portrayed different characteristics as compared to the classical colonialism because they were known to have been exiled from the land which they demanded to own later. The lands were originally tilled by the Arab social classes which stood independent of any need (Zureik 197). “There is a clear nexus connecting the de-Arabization of the country with the marginalization of the Mizrahim, who—culturally and geographically—have been positioned between Arab and Jew, between Israel and its hostile neighbours, between a ‘backward’ Eastern past and a ‘progressive’ Western future. But, we should remember, the depth and extent of discrimination against Palestinians and Mizrahim has been quite different, with the latter included in Jewish-Israeli nation-building project as active participants in the oppression of the former.” (Yiftachel 1999) Ever since September 1997, the government of Israel has announced variously new techniques to avoid the invasion of Arabs in the premises of the Green Line. They are making a conscious effort to abstain the Bedouin residence and grazing in that region. They do not want them to concentrate in small towns so that they can become a majority in times of crisis. Mostly the Bedouins reside in the designated towns in the Negev and Galilee. By pressurizing these people to move away from these towns, would allow the Jews to settle freely on their independent lands. This idea was proposed by an immigrant from former Soviet Union, director of the Prime Minister’s office, Avigdor Lieberman, who was settled in a Jewish Occupied Territories (Yiftachel 1999). “A central aspect of land transfer was its legal unidirectionality. Israel created an institutional and legal land system under which confiscated land could not be sold. Further, such land did not merely become state land, but a joint possession of the state and the entire Jewish people. This was achieved by granting extraterritorial organizations, such as the Jewish National Fund, the Jewish Agency, and the Zionist Federation, a share of the state’s sovereign powers and significant authority in the areas of land, development and settlement. The transfer of land to the hands of unaccountable bodies representing the ‘Jewish people’ can be likened to a ‘black hole’, into which Arab land enters but can never be retrieved.”(Yiftachel 1999) The “black hole” referred by Yiftachel is a sarcastic remark directed towards the Jewish people against whom the Arab world is taunting and pointing its finger. After the war of 1948 fought between the Arabs and the Jews, the Palestinians migrated to other Arab countries to seek protection and eventually became a minority in their own homeland (Zureik 197). This was the motive of the war. The unlawful and violent apartheid-like attitude of the Israel force caused enough bloodshed and damage to a nation was running at a average income before the conflict arose. Israel was interested in the land and not the people. Immediately after the war the United Nations intervened for a “peace process.” (Finkelstein xvi). The war of 1967, however redefined the bond between the Arabs and the Israel. The main aim of the Israel attack on the King Hussein was to punish him for Palestinian infiltration. However, prior to the Samu attack, the king himself arrested most of the Palestinian Liberation Organization members in Amman, eventually closing its offices. The Arab world was undergoing a major decay of foreign relationships. Tension between Syria and Israel increased when six planes from Syria were shot, one of which fell in Damascus. Israel was in a menacing mode, warning any further indulgence in Damascus, leading to the downfall of the Syrian government (Finkelstein 125). Palestine Profile: Palestine is originally a part of the Turkish Empire in Asia regarded by the entire globe as a place of inquisitiveness mainly because of the religious and historical significance attached to it. It was the kingdom of David and Solomon later governed by the pashas of Acres and Damascus. It was surrounded by river Euphrates in the north-east and some part of Syria. There were almost five million Israeli women and children during the time of David residing in this region (Conder 40). The land was rich in resources and David had many strong kingdoms under his dominion such as Egypt, Tyre and Assyria. Since the year the land of Israel fell in 721 BC till the temple burnt under Nebuchadnezzar in 588 BC, the people experienced a strange decline in their lives. From that time onwards till the arrival of Alexander the Great, Palestine was governed by the Chaldean, Median and various Persian dynasties. During the Christian era Palestine was divided into five provinces namely: i. Judea ii. Samaria iii. Galilee iv. Perea v. Idumea Jerusalem was first revived of its holy name by the empress Helena in fourth century but this rule was brief and was taken over by the Saracens. The Crusade recaptured the land in the twelfth century only to remain an injured land until Saladin conquered Judea in 1187 AD. Palestine has since then been a blend of variety of nationalities and religions such as the “Turks, Syrians, Bedouin Arabs, Jews, Latin, Greek, and Armenian Christians, Copts and Druses.” Each of these has acquired a post in the governance of the land such as the Turks are found in civil and military positions whereas the Greeks are dominating in population. Palestine is geographically mutilated since the original appearance because of the enduring wars taking place in that zone. It is, however the most fertile region of Syria known for figs, vines and olives plantation (Conder 42). In the process of defining such an elaborate history of Palestine, one might ask what role the Jews have to play in its development or recession owing to the conflict which came to be the sole reference point when discussing anything about Palestine. Jews mainly lived on the edge of Mount Zion. Their attachment to Jerusalem is so strong that they would want to be buried in this land even if they reside in any part of the world. No matter how guilty they might collectively feel to be exiled from this land, it is equally significant for a Christian and Muslim because it is the place where Jesus Christ was crucified. No Scripture informs the people of the exact location of his death except for the fact that it was a cave, but the land itself has its beauty to be shared with the rest of the world and not possessed or oppressed by any single tribe or religion (Conder 365). Israel: The only state with majority of Jews living in it, Israel is a densely populated area on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It has been targeted for occupying the holy land by the Arabs because it has been in conflict with the Palestinians over their rights ever since. It was mainly the creation of the Zionist group that led to the development of the Israeli state under the mandate of Britain after the World War II. The Zionist Movement’s main aim was to acquire a separate land for the Jews as they were shunned by almost all the communities for their iniquity since after the death of Jesus Christ. Over the past sixty years, Israel has developed into an industrial state with powerful economy which was initially merely an agrarian nation (BBC 2011). “Much of the history of the area since that time has been one of conflict between Israel on one side and Palestinians - represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation - and Israel's Arab neighbours, on the other. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced in the fighting in 1948, during which Israel's Arab neighbours came to the aid of the Palestinian Higher Council. Israel lost one percent of its population in the fighting, which ended in a series of uneasy armistices.” (BBC 2011) Many prophets were sent upon the tribe of Israel including Moses and Jesus. Each worked relentlessly to pull the Israelis out of the troubled duality they often found themselves in, in the presence of the idolatry. After the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 BC and the exile of the Israel tribe from the earth, which marked its history, the Israelis fought and rebelled against the population to re-establish its name. They were treated as non-existent in the sense that they were neither imprisoned nor free. They could build houses and run agricultural business but they could not own a land under their name. Being exiled from Palestine was not technically a painful process as life in Babylon seemed much more comfortable and gave opportunities to many Jews to become rich and start businesses. Some Jews even went to settle in Egypt (Bright 348). “A similar segregationist logic was also used to legitimize the creation of segregated neighborhoods and localities for ultra-orthodox and orthodox Jews, the more recent Russian immigrants, and Palestinian-Arabs. In other words, the uneven segregationist logic of the ethnocratic regime has been infused into spatial and cultural practices, which have worked to further ethnicize Israeli society.”(Yiftachel 1999). Israeli faith was based on a monotheistic religion which defied the many gods that the Greeks and Romans worshipped. Hence, the recollection from the ancient past allowed some of the Jews to question their exile as their God Yahweh’s wrath on them for constantly disobeying him and committing sins for his Yahweh had given them many chances. Being exposed to Babylon, the center of paganism with its “magnificent temples” made some of the Jews wonder whether Yahweh was really the God of the universe. As compared to the poor state of Jerusalem, the exposure to the cultures of the world after moving to Babylon was indeed a confusing state for them. However, they prayed for the restoration of the old nation and regaining of their power. But after the death of Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian rule eventually came to a decline. The Second Isaiah hoped for a return to Palestine and the Davidic state. He took it beyond this retrieval to a stage whereby he demanded the reconstruction of “Israel” as part of Yahweh’s future desire. Hence, since then, the return to the old land became a need of each of the Jews seen as a promise from Yahweh to bond with them once again (Bright 356). Resolution: With the ongoing crisis between the Israel and Arab world, the Zionist hegemony seems to rule till its last breath. A resolution to the problems of Palestinian Arabs can only be achieved through the bi-national existence of the two nations without harming any race for its existence. The problem keeps arising from the Muslim front in particular because they fail to see Israel owning a land when it has been taken away from them till the last day of earth. The Jews, however do not perceive their situation in the same light. They believe that their God Yahweh is going to bring them close to the Promised Land as the time approaches the end. The damage caused to the Palestinian people has forced the Israel to make necessary amends one of which would be the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state since the lives lost cannot be retrieved. This would not only help in ending the violence against Israel but also help the Palestinians gain power and space to live in freedom. The question that the Arab world seems to pose to the Israeli force is why they began this warfare in the first place? The United States intervention in this matter has been part of their obligation towards restoring human rights in a just manner. US, however continues to aid Israel financially and this is the only way that Israel is still able to occupy the Arab territories. It seems to be an indirect colonial act, where the Israel plays a role of mediator to reach out to the Arab world. Israel has its own purposes to fulfill. It should, however, abide by the law and withdraw to the borders defined in 1967. Chomsky rightfully states in his Peace in the Middle East?: “In the American Jewish community, there is little willingness to face the fact that the Palestinian Arabs have suffered a monstrous historical injustice, whatever one may think of the competing claims. Until this is recognized, discussion of the Middle East crisis cannot even begin.” (Chomsky 123) Israel can only live in a peaceful state by admitting its blameworthiness to the neighbors with whom it intends to live. The notion of being a Jew was related to high honorable character, which can only be restored by making amends. The ancient land can only be acquired through justice with people and by showing humanity and not culpability. As for the Palestinians, they need to learn more from their Jewish brethren in terms of transactions and business. This way they will learn to progress and become knowledgeable in the growing competing world. Works Cited BBC News Middle East. Israel Profile. BBC Mobile, 2011. Web. 9 Mar. 2012. Bright, John. A History of Israel. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1959. Print Chomsky, Noam. Middle East Illusions: Including Peace in the Middle East? : Reflections on Justice and Nationhood. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2003. Print Conder, Josiah. Palestine: Or, the Holy Land. London: J. Duncan, 1824. Print Finkelstein, Norman G. Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict. London: Verso, 2003. Print. McDowall, David. Palestine and Israel: The Uprising and Beyond. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Print. Quigley, John B. Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice. Durham: Duke University Press, 1990. Print. Yiftachel, Oren. "'ethnocracy': the Politics of Judaizing Israel/palestine." Constellations. 6.3 (1999): 364-390. Print Zureik, Elia. The Palestinians in Israel: A Study in Internal Colonialism. London: Routledge & K. Paul, 1979. Print. Read More