The Consequences of Israel-Palestine Conflict - Coursework Example

Israel-Palestine Conflict: Gaza Conflict The Israel-Palestine conflict isa modern preoccupation that dates back to the nineteenth century. The conflict occurs along historical events regarding the land of Palestine in which Israel is perceived to oppress Palestinian Arabs. The recent conflict of 2014 between Palestinian militia group Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip is part of the continuing Israel-Palestine war. Israel seized the Gaza strip in the Middle East war in 1967 and pulled out its settlers and troops in 2005 but still retained control of most of Gazas waters, air space, and borders. Moreover, the Gaza strip is one of the main causes of the perpetual conflict between Israel and Palestine even although there are other underlying causes that revolve around political occurrences in Palestine, which makes the conflict a regional and global concern. This research paper examines the Israel-Hamas 2014 conflict from the perspective of the historical events on the land of Palestine contributing to the conflict by analyzing some of the specific causes, players to the conflict, its implications on international diplomacy in the Middle East and the impact the conflict has had on both regional and global events. Historical Events leading to the Conflict In the nineteenth century, a trend emerged in Europe where people began to demand national rights, self-determination and sovereignty. Thus, the Palestinians and the Jews began to develop a national consciousness and started organizing themselves to achieve national goals. However, since Jews were scattered all over the world, a Jewish National Movement (Zionist trend) sought for a place where Jews from different parts of the world could settle and thus, Palestine seemed to be the ideal region/place for this settlement since it was the place of Jewish origin. Thus, the Zionist movement started in 1882 with a group of migrants moving into Palestine at a time when Palestine was under the the Ottoman Empire rule. However, because the Jews who were living in Palestine before the beginning of 20th century observed traditional religious practices as opposed to national values, they did not engage in or support the Zion movement that started in Europe. However, the immigrants from Europe were more secular and determined to establish a modern Jewish sovereign Nation; they continued migrating into Palestine and before the World War I erupted in 1914, the Jewish population had significantly risen even though the Arabs still dominated the population (Beinin and Hajar 1-2). Therefore, during the early years of the 20th century, Palestine become chaotic as territorial claims & political interests dominated. The Ottoman Empire began crumbling as the European powers tightened their control over the region along the Mediterranean and Palestine. Moreover, as the World war escalated during 1915-1916; the British government conspired with some leaders from the Ottoman Empire to initiate a rebellion against Ottoman Empire, which was affiliated and supporting Germany in a war against Britain and France by promising to support the rebel leaders create a sovereign Arab state under their rule in the Ottomans Arab provinces and Palestine. Therefore, Britain in alliance with the rebels defeated Ottomans, and Britain gained much control over the region (Beinin and Hajjar 2- 3). However, in 1917, Britain announced support for the creation of a national home for the Jewish in the land of Palestine and secretly arranged with France to carve up Ottoman Empire’s Arab provinces by dividing and ruling the region. This conflicted with the previous Ottoman rebels who had struck a deal with Britain and rebelled against the Ottoman Empire. Thus, after the war, France and Britain successfully convinced the New League of Nations (United Nations today) in which they dominated to give them quasi-colonial powers over the former Ottoman Empire’s territories and as a result France obtained control over Syria, setting up Lebanon as a separate nation with a few Christian majorities while Britain obtained control over Iraq, and the area that constitutes Gaza, West Bank, Jordan and Israel today, which they later divided into two parts, East of Jordan River and West of the Jordan River in 1921. The latter part became a Palestine territory and for the first time, Palestine in the modern history became a unified/one political entity (Beinin and Hajjar 3-4). However, throughout the area the Arabs became resentful to Britain’s breach of the promise to establish an independent state of Arab and many rebelled in the British and French controlled regions claiming a violation of Arabs rights to self-rule. In Palestine, the mood was more of grief due to Britain’s breach of its promise and support for the creation of a Jewish national home. Moreover, because of the increasing numbers of Jews who were migrating from Europe, settling and purchasing land in Palestine, the resistance by the Palestine Arabs escalated for that the increasing number of Jewish migrants would ultimately lead to creation of a Jewish State hence thwarting their aspirations for sovereignty (Beinin and Hajjar 3-4). Consequently, in 1920 fighting erupted between the Jews and the Arabs. However, in the late 1920s, the Jewish National Fund bought vast tracts of land from absent Arab land owners and this lead to eviction of Arabs from the area leading to escalation of tensions and violence between the Jewish settlers and Arab tenants and peasants. In addition, in 1928, Jews and Muslims started clashing over rights of communal religious at the western wall that is the sole remnant of the 2nd Jewish Temple and the most consecrated site of the Jewish religious tradition and Muslims who perceive it as the Noble Sanctuary. However, on August, 1929, a Jewish youth movement protested and raised a Zionist (Israel) flag over the western wall and fearing for their Noble Sanctuary, the Arabs responded, attacking Jews in the cities of Jerusalem, Safed and Hebron resulting to a week of communal violence in which many Jews and Arabs died (Beinin and Hajjar 2). Following Hitler ascension to power in 1933 and his subsequent massive killing and persecution of Jews, European Jewish migration to Palestine rapidly increased leading to more purchases of land and settling of Jews in the region. Thus, this lead to the escalation of the Palestinians resistance to British colonial rule and Zionist movement thus, culminating to the Arab uprising of 1936-1939 conflict. After quelling the conflict, the British reevaluated their policies in order to restore order in the increasingly tense environment; hence, in 1939, they banned future Jewish immigration and purchasing of land in Palestine, promising independence after ten years that would lead to the establishment of a majority Arab Palestine. However, this ban meant betrayal of the Zionists movement hence marking the fall of the British-Zionist alliance. Conversely, the downfall of the Arab uprising and exiling of key Palestinian political leaders during this era meant that Palestinians were politically disadvantaged at a time when the Palestine’s future was decided (Beinin and Hajjar 2-3). United Nations Partition Plan After the World War II, the hostility between the Jews and the Arabs over the destiny of Palestine, the British rule and the Zionist militia triggered Britain to give up its rule over Palestine making it requesting the newly formed United Nations to decide the future of the state. However. The UN resolved that the country ought to be split in order satisfying the needs and interests of the Palestinian Arabs and Jews. Thus, by the end of the year 1946, there were 1.26 million Arabs and 608000 Jews who had purchased about 20% of the Palestinian Arable land. On 29 of November 1947, the UN General Assembly voted dividing Palestine into two countries one for the Arabs and the other for the Jewish in such a way that each side would constitute majority of its own population. However, the plan resulted to a few Jewish settlements falling within the suggested Arab state while thousands of Arabs from Palestinian side also fell under the suggested Jewish state. In addition, the plan by the UN postulated that the Jewish nation should be slightly bigger than the Arab state on the presumption that many Jews would migrate there and that the cities of Bethlehem and Jerusalem should be international zones (Ben-Dror 997-1008). Therefore, the Zion leadership conceded to the UN partition plan but contemplated to expand the Jewish nation. On the other side, the Palestinian Arabs & the neighboring Arab states dismissed the UN partition plan terming the vote by the General Assembly as the height of international betrayal with some claiming that too much territory had been allocated to the Jewish. Conversely, majority Arabs regarded the suggested Jewish state as an immigrant colony and contended that it was only due to Britain allowing wide settlement of Jews in Palestine against the will of the majority of Arabs hence terming the Jewish statehood an international concern (Beinin and Hajjar 4-5). Therefore, because of this UN plan fighting began between the Arabs & the Jews in Palestine following the adoption of the plan and by the early of 1948, Zionist forces had secured most of the territories reserved for the Jewish state under the United Nation plan and further began conquering the regions allocated to the Arab state after the British left and Zionist leaders finally, announced the Israel state. However, the neighboring Arab States (Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Jordan) then attacked Israel in order to “rescue” Palestine from Zionists but the war ended with Israel conquering more territories and acquiring about 77% of the region; Jordan occupied the hill country of Palestine (West Bank) and East of Jerusalem while Egypt occupied the Gaza strip resulting to the abolishment of the creation of the intended Palestinian Arab state. Moreover, the fighting resulted into displacement of Arabs from the Israel occupied areas and in 1967, Israel captured and occupied West Bank, Gaza and Sinai Peninsula from Egypt (Greenhut, Aker and Heller 111). United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 After the war of the year 1967 that lead to Israel capturing, Gaza, West bank and the Sinai Peninsula, the UN Security Council took on resolution 242 that noted inadmissibility of acquiring territories by force and thus, since then pressure has been mounting on Israel to evacuate the occupied areas. Moreover, the French version of the resolution 242 states that Israel should evacuate the territories while the English version calls for evacuation of some territories. Thus, because of the French and English version of Resolution 242 grammatical ambiguity, Israel, and its ally the US, contend that Israel should evacuate some but not all the territories. Further, the Palestinians also refused to recognize the Resolution 242 on the grounds that it does not recognize Palestine as a state resulting to Israel demanding that Palestine be integrated into the existing Arab countries (Beinin and Hajjar 6). The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) The movement was established in 1964 by the Arab league in order to cater for the Palestinian nationalism. It was taken over by young militant Palestinians following the Arab countries defeat by Israel in the 1967 war. The movement was composed of different armed groups and political parties with Yasser Arafat being the movements leader, in addition to, being the leader of the largest group in PLO, before his death in 1964. Therefore, most Palestinians regarded the PLO as their representative in spite of the leadership differences within the movement until 1993, when it started losing support significantly after the creation of the Oslo Accords 1993, which created the Palestinian Authority in 1994. The Hamas is an Islamist group that emerged in the late 80s leading to the diminishing of the power of PLO, which all along, Israel had not recognized because it regarded it as a terrorist group before agreeing to negotiate with it in the year 1993 (Celso 67-84). The Oslo Accords As stated above, Israel did not recognize Palestine Liberation Organization. However, in fear of radical Islam, Israel commenced secret negotiations with PLO leaders in Oslo Norway. The talks culminated to the Israel-PLO Declaration Principles that were signed in September 1993 in Washington. The Declaration of the Principles was built on mutual recognition of the PLO and Israel. Under the declaration, Israel was supposed to evacuate the Gaza strip, West Bank and other territories within a period of five years by removing Israeli settlers from the region and surrendering settlements, water rights among other things, which were to be discussed in the final status talks. Therefore, the PLO formed a PA (Palestinian Authority) in 1994 with a self-governing status equivalent to a municipal and in the year 1996, elections were conducted for the presidency and legislative council of the Palestinian Authority in which Yasser Arafat and Fattah won respectively after the PLO accepted the raw deal that was offered by Israel because it was perceived to be weak and lacking international support (Celso 67-84). Emergence of Hamas Islamic radicals & some local leaders defied Arafats rule and dismissed the negotiations under the Oslo Accords. Therefore, the Hamas was born, and it started suicide bombing tactics during this period. Some attacks were in vengeance for attacks by Israel in what was partially seen as attempts to delay implementations of the Oslo accords, which was supposed to end by May 1999. However, the final status for the Oslo Accord did not yield a consensus between Palestine and Israel because Israel insisted on maintaining the sovereignty over the territories it had captured. (Beinin and Hajjar 9-11). Withdrawal of Israel from Gaza However, in the year 2005, Israel repatriated some 7800 Jewish settlers in Gaza following its decision to evacuate the area. However, it still maintains control the entry and exit of people & goods into and out of the Gaza Strip & waters at the coast (Hilal 1). The Rise of the Hamas In 2006, Palestinian Authority legislative elections left Hamas as the largest party. The Islamic group does not recognize Israel’s right of existence as a nation. Subsequent to the elections, Hamas formed an administrative coalition with the moderate and previous ruling Fattah. However, in June 2007, tensions rose between the two parties culminating to an armed conflict. Hamas forcefully seized control of the Gaza Strip leaving Fatah administration in control of the West Bank. Thus, following Hamas seizure, the Israeli government imposed several restrictions on the Gaza, which disallowed the people of Gaza leaving the territory. Consequently, on April 2014, Fatah and Hamas announced a formation of a reconciliation agreement, which resulted to the creation of a coalition government after a few weeks with Jurisdiction over both the Gaza and the West Bank. However, although the coalition government has official jurisdiction over both the Gaza and West Bank, Hamas remains in actual control of the Gaza Strip. Thus, because Hamas does not recognize Israel, Israel also snubbed the coalition hence suspending its direct talks with Palestine, which had been underway since 2013 under brokerage of the United States (3). Specific issues surrounding the Gaza 2014 Conflict The conflict involved the Israel government and the Hamas militias as the key players. Their composition contrasts the two sides. Israel is a Jewish, military powerful state with UN recognition and has support from the United States. Hamas, on the other hand, is a Muslim group formed in 1980s with the object of fighting for sovereignty of Palestine. Outside Palestine and the neighboring Arab nations, Hamas has a tag of Jihadist, similar to that of ISIS as perceived by Israel and its allies (Halevy 30-32). Therefore, most of the causes of the conflict originates but are not limited to the historical events outlined above. First the conflict should be viewed from the lens of failure of the Oslo Accords to lead to the creation of a Palestinian state in the Gaza strip & the West-Bank. The accord did not alter Israel’s policy toward the Gaza strip in terms of building of settlements and control of important aspects of this area. Given that an Arab nation ought to have been established in the 1930s as stipulated in the UN partition plan and given the fact that the Arab nation was never established following a series of wars that Israel won, leaves the majority of Muslims resentful about Israel. Thus, they feel deceived and betrayed as indicated by the Hamas refusal to recognize Israels right of existence as a nation. In addition, the old feeling of the Arabs that Israel does not belong to the Middle East, given that majority Jews were immigrants from Europe who occupied Palestine lands at the expense of the Arabs still linger in their minds. Therefore, going by these facts, Hamas would attack Israel at the slightest opportunity (Hilal 1). Secondly, the conflict can also be looked at from the backdrop of the 2005 Israel’s unilateral evacuation from Gaza and its blockade on the strip, which it tightened after 2006 Hamas win in the Legislative council elections. Palestinians view the move as Israels attempt to separate the political structure of the West Bank & Gaza to allow it (Israel) focus its efforts on colonization of the West Bank (Hilal 1). Secondly, the offensive was the third in a span of six years, coming after Israeli’s attack on Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, which challenged Israel’s deterrent capability. Therefore, Israel needed to reaffirm its capability in the Gaza since West Bank had been "obedient” since 2005. The first offensive by Israel occurred after the split of Fatah and Hamas and subsequent takeover of Gaza by Hamas and its (Hamas) formation of a government pugnacious to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Thus, Israel, given the opportunity would launch attacks against Gaza as part of a strategy to impart the consciousness among Palestinians that it is still in control (Hilal 1). Thirdly, given the strained relations between Hamas and Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas sympathizer) following the overthrow of the latter’s government in Egypt, offered Israel a good chance to attack Gaza since most Arab nations were at that time preoccupied with internal conflicts and Israel thus, with support of the United States, most governments in the EU and existence of an enabling environment, Israel could easily attack Gaza for its own interests (Hilal 2). The abduction & murder of three Israeli youths in the West Bank was widely cited as the cause of Israeli and Hamas group conflict even though Hamas initially denied responsibility for the murders. Consequently, Israeli army invaded Palestinian-controlled regions purporting to arrest the suspects for the murders. However, this incursion by Israel sparked protests from ordinary Palestinians, which became violent resulting to several Palestinians being killed by the Israel army. Moreover, a Palestinian boy was also murdered in a suspected vengeance attack by Israeli radicals hence giving Hamas a justification to engage Israel in a war (4). Hamas rocket attacks on Israel marked the climax of the tension between Israel and Hamas. Therefore, Israel was forced to respond to the attacks; hence launched a big military operation in Gaza, which started with air strikes followed by ground intensive operations by the Israel army with major targets being the Hamas militia bases and the infrastructure used to launch air strikes into Israel. Specifically, Israel aimed at destroying underground tunnels stretching from Gaza to Israel (5). Significance of the Israel-Palestine Conflict in regards to the international relations of the Middle East The perpetual conflict between Israel and Palestine (Hamas) is a matter of concern in the diplomacy of the Middle East. The offensive attacks by Israel are seen to have support of most western nations and in particular the United States as they are purported to be Israelis self-defense against the surrounding hostile Arab-dominated countries as was evidenced by the facts of the Israeli-Arab War where Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Jordan ganged up against Israel (Amnesty International 2). This means that the mainly historical issues underlying the conflict are lost in self-defense claims; consequently, jeopardizing the international relations in the war-torn Middle East region. Thus, there cannot be peace if the root causes of the conflict are not properly addressed. Secondly, diplomacy in the Middle East is in threat due to the conflicting parties’ breach of peace agreements. Notably, the crumble of the Oslo Accords and the 2013 US-brokered peace agreement that could have resulted into creation of a Palestine state is a clear indication that Israel disregards agreements with Palestine. However, the developments of the Israel-Palestine conflict set a precedent for other Middle East countries to deal with conflicts (Hilal 2). Impact of the Conflict on Regional and Global Events Palestine relies on donations from the US, UN, humanitarian organizations and the neighboring Arab nations for survival. The war-damaged infrastructure; businesses and homes imply that donors from the region and all over the world will have to spend a lot in rebuilding the damaged Gaza. In addition, the war led to deaths, casualties and displacement of most Palestinians hence making the conflict a global concern which has generated and continues to generate conflicts between Israel, US, EU and human right groups such Amnesty International. For instance, the human Rights Council Resolution S-21/1 was adopted with 29 countries voting in favor; the US voted to the contrary while 17 other countries including all EU members abstained during a commissioning, which was aimed at investigating all international law violations, by both Israel and Palestinian militia in the Israel occupied territories including Gaza in view of the June 2014 conflict (Amnesty International 1). In summary, the Gaza 2014 war between Israel and Palestinian Hamas was a culmination of historical events that are centered on the Palestine land issue particularly the failure of establishment of an Arab nation following Israel’s occupation of the territories allocated for the envisioned Arab state over the years since 1948. Further, the failure of Israel to honor subsequent agreements such as the Oslo accords that would have resulted to the establishment of an independent Palestine state, and its blockade on the Gaza strip following its unilateral withdrawal constitutes some of the root causes of the conflict. The superficial causes of the conflict were killings of Israel teens by Hamas, the latter rocket firing into Israel and the subsequent retaliations by Israel. Therefore, the perpetual conflict is a regional and global concern, and that jeopardizes international relations in the Middle East. Works Cited Amnesty International,. Amnesty International Public Document-Israel/Gaza Conflict, July 2014. Amnesty International, 2014. Print. Beinin, Joel, and Lisa Hajjar. Israel, Palestine And The Arab-Israeli Conflict- A Primer. Middle East Research and Information Project, 2014. Print. Ben-Dror, Elad. How The United Nations Intended To Implement The Partition Plan: The Handbook Drawn Up By The Secretariat For The Members Of The United Nations Palestine Commission. Middle Eastern Studies 43.6 (2007): 997-1008. Web. Celso, A. N. The Death of The Oslo Accords: Israeli Security Options In the Post-Arafat Era. Mediterranean Quarterly 14.1 (2003): 67-84. Web. Greenhut, Jeffrey, Frank Aker, and Mark Heller. October 1973: The Arab-Israeli War.. Military Affairs 50.2 (1986): 111. Web. Halevy, Efraim. Bring Hamas Into The Political Process. New Perspectives Quarterly 26.2 (2009): 30-32. Web. Hilal, Jamil. Gauging the July-August 2014 Gaza War. The Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Center, 2014. Print. Page, Rob. Gaza Ceasefire Agreement. House of Commons Library, 2014. Print. Read More