Causes of Arab-Israeli Conflict - Essay Example

When Jews left their homeland, they dispersed to different European areas while carrying their identity with them. They ended up being quite successful and their success resulted in anti-Jewish sentiments.

The Jewish community experienced rejection throughout the world and during 638 AD, the land recognized as Jerusalem was taken over by the Ottoman Empire, and Muslim rule was observed in this area. Later in 1517, the region of Palestine was captured by the Ottoman Empire, and in 1897 the Congress of the Zionists started protesting for a homeland for the Jewish community in the region of Palestine. Later during World War I, the British obtained support from the Arab community by promising them a separate land which even included Palestine in return for their support during the war to defeat Turkey which was supporting the Germans in the war. Three years later, the British even promised Jews for a separate homeland in the region of Palestine. Before this promise, the region was divided between France and Britain. In this division, France secured the regions of Syria and Lebanon and Britain secured the regions of Iraq and Jordon while an agreement was made to internationalize the region of Palestine. After the war, the British failed to keep their promises and Jews started migrating to the region of Palestine. Due to this the Arabs felt threatened and started attacking the Jews and matters got out of the hands of the British and the land was divided into Arab and Jewish regions by the United Nations in which Jews were provided with a larger portion of the region (Gordon 9). Arabs did not appreciate the division as they were larger in size and more amount of land was assigned to the Jewish community because of sympathies the UN had for Jews due to their experience during the Holocaust.

The first wave of war that took place between Arabs and Jews was an outcome of the creation of an independent state from the Jews and this region was recognized as Israel. Due to this Arabs started fighting against Israel and took hold of a small region recognized as the Old City of Jerusalem. This war led to a ceasefire, but after the first four weeks of this Ceasefire, the Jews made advancements and another cease-fire took place. Then in the August of 1948, the war started again and a cease-fire was observed in 1949. Due to this, Arab refugees gained refugee in camps created on the borders of Israel which is another cause of the entire conflict. This led to the division of the entire region into three parts with Jews covering a major portion of the region. In 1956 Jews again started a war over Egypt and later cease-fire took place but by that time Jews had taken over the Gaza Strip along with Sharm el Sheikh. Later Jews returned these pieces of land by getting into an agreement through which they could access the Gulf of Aqaba (Tucker 850). The Jews even banned the return refugees and this is one of the long-term reasons why Arabs hate the Jews to date. Later more land was captured by Jews in 1967, but it was later returned as enforced by United Nations.

Approximately 20 years later, Palestinian uprisings started to take place in the region of the Gaza Strip and these uprisings were called as Intifada. These uprisings were conducted by people of all ages and in these uprisings, the Israeli army was stoned by the protestors. As feedback, the Israeli army started killing children who were protesting and a three-year protest ended as arrests of the protestors took place. Later the PLO declaration was signed between the two societies and Israel was ordered to withdraw itself from the Gaza Strip and west bank (Sela 307). As a result of the PLO Palestinian Authority was created to ensure that Israel withdrew from the areas as stated in the declaration.