Roots of Contemporary Conflict: The Palestinian-Israeli conflict - Essay Example

The idea of creating separate Arab and Jewish states in Palestine firstly emerged in the 30s. In 1937, the British Royal Commission proposed a partition plan mandated territory into three parts. The first, covering the territory of northern Palestine, was intended for the Jewish state. The second sector was to serve for the creation of an Arab state. Finally, the third sector, according to the Commission, was mandated to remain neutral under British control. The implementation of this plan was prevented by the outbreak of World War II1.

Thus, the British promised Palestine both the Jews and the Palestinians. UK pursued its own interests in the region. It was trying to strengthen its position in the Middle East, continuing to incite the Arabs against the Jews and vice versa. Zionism is based on the belief that the national home of the Jews people must be on the land of their ancestors. Throughout the 19th century, the Zionist movement sought to create and protect the national home of Palestine Jews. Today it supports the State of Israel.

There are three factors that determined the emergence of the Zionist movement. Firstly, it is a centuries-old hope of the Jews to return to their ancestral land. Another reason is increased national self-consciousness in the 19th century. And the last, but not the least reason is anti-Semitism dissemination. Modern Zionism may be regarded as a national liberation movement of the Jewish people – it comes to be related with the "spring of nations" in Europe. Indeed, works of the fathers of Zionism have many references to the national struggle of other peoples.

Liberal nationalism usually sought to achieve two main goals - freedom from foreign yoke and unity of the nation in cases when it was split into many political entities. When the first clashes between Arabs and Jews took place, Zionist immigrants hardly accepted that they again faced with the need to fight for life and death. That is why Zionists could