The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Essay Example

How the man Palestine contributed to the rise of the conflict The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been an on ongoing dispute between the Israelites and Palestine and forms part of the wider Arab-Israeli conflict. Canaanite civilization covered what is referred today as Israel, Lebanon, the West Bank and much of Jordan and Syria between 3000 and 1100 B.C. Those who remained after the Romans expelled the Jews were mostly old Canaanite tribes, converts to Christianity and descendants of the Arabs (Haiduc-Dale, pp10). All the people who came to Canaan mostly the Arab invaders, made them Muslim converts and settled down as residents resulting to intermarriages. The roots of the conflict can be traced back to the late 19th century in which there was a rise in national movements, including Arab and Zionism nationalism. Zionism, a Jewish national movement, was seeking sanctuary when they sought to establish a Jewish State in Palestine (Seger, Tom, pp26). The mandate for Palestine was a historical League of Nations document. It contained the Jewish legal right of settling anywhere in western Palestine between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan river. Palestine became a trouble spot of competing territorial claims and also political interest by the early years of the twentieth century. While World War one was underway the British high commissioner, Sir Henry of Egypt corresponded secretly with the patriarch of Hashemite family and governor of Mecca and Medina. He convinced them to lead an Arab revolt against the empire of Ottoman aligned with Germany against Britain and France with the promise of the establishment of an independent Arab state (Price, Randal, pp20). In 1921 the British divided Jordan into two: the Emirates of Transjordan and the Palestine Mandate. Arabs were angered by Britain’s failure to fulfill the creation of an independent Arab state. The situation was most complicated in Palestine because of the promise to support the creation of a Jewish national home by the British. The Palestine Arabs opposed the British Mandatory because it threatened their aspiration for self-rule. Moreover, the massive immigration of the Jews threatened their position in their country. Clashes broke out between the Arabs and the Jews in 1920 and 1921 whereby roughly equal numbers from the two communities got killed. The Jewish National Fund purchased large portions of land from the absentee Arab landowners leading to their eviction. The displacements led to increasing tensions and violence between the Arab peasant tenants and Jewish settlers (Haiduc-Dale, pp34). According to the description in the Mandate it defines Palestine as a geographical area and not a nationality. Palestine is located on the western edge of the continent of Asia the north is bounded by Syria and Lebanon, on the east Transjordan and Syria, to the southwest Sinai and on the west Mediterranean. The mandate defined where Jews are permitted to settle or not permitted to settle. The Palestine mandate did not set final borders, but article six of the Mandate clearly states that the administration of Palestine shall aid Jewish immigration under proper conditions. It shall also encourage settlement of the Jews on that piece. The mandate for Palestine created a fourth Arab state east of Jordan River, that was realized in 1946 when independence was granted to the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan. The clauses concerning a Jewish National Home would not be applicable to this territory known as Transjordan of the original mandate. The creation of an Arabic state in eastern Palestine on the landmass of the original mandate intended for a Jewish national home ,did not inhibit their rights to settle anywhere in western Palestine. The Mandate is one of the last legally binding documents regarding the status of the West Bank and Gaza. The Memorandum of September 16, 1992 is also the last modification of official terms of the Mandate on record by the League of Nations. The consent of the League’s council is required for modification of the mandate terms (Price, Randal,pp45). The Mandate for Palestine differentiates between political rights of Jews and non-Jewish residents. Jewish self-determination defined an emerging polity with civil and religious rights and refers to guarantees of equal personal freedoms to non-Jewish entities, for example, Arabs. During the last three generations the Jews recreated in Palestine a community numbering to 80,000 of whom around a fourth are workers upon the land or farmers. The community has its own council, political organs and organization for the control of its schools. It also has elected Chief Rabbinate for the control of its religious affairs. Business is conducted in Hebrew as a vernacular language and has national characteristics as it has its own political, social and religious organizations and also its own language with its own life (Serger & Tom, pp50). There are two distinct issues which exist: the issue of the holy places, and that of Jerusalem. There was existing interests of the three religions and providing the necessary guarantees of their freedom of worship, access and religious administration as mandated in the Mandate of the Palestine. There was a dispute in establishment of an effective administration of the city that will protect rights of all its elements of its permanent population made up of Christian, Arab and Jewish and ensure governmental and physical stability. The Mandate of the Palestine’s continued to cause conflict. In 2002 all Arab states except Libya came up with a peace initiative proposed by Saudi Arabia offering an end to the conflict of Arab and Israel. The Prime Minister Sharon sanctioned the building of a barrier separating Israel and the conflicting side known as the west bank, which brought back conflict. On June 2002, the President W. Bush administration proposed a road map, including withdrawal from Palestinian cities and settlement freeze by Israel. However, this only led to more conflict with Sharon the Israelite leader. In 2005, Sharon sealed a wall closely to the Green Line restricting entry to Palestinians. There were also scores of suicide attacks by Palestinian terrorists claiming the lives of around 1,050 Israelites and 3,358 Palestinians. In August 2005, Israel begun the withdrawal of nine thousand Jews from settlement in Gaza. The Palestinian militant groups used the Gaza strip as ground for launching rocket attacks, and building underground tunnels into Israel. The dispute between Israelites and Palestinians over land went on, with both parties staging war on each other, while the negotiations went on to produce an agreement between the two.In 2014, teens were kidnapped in the west bank and Israel forces had so far rounded up more than 150 Palestinians which included the speaker Abdel Aziz(Price & Randal,pp60). In 2015 the conflict still continues between the Israelites and Palestinians through terrorism attacks, shootings, raiding and bombings. More lives are lost with both parties fighting over the control and settlement on land all this originating from the Palestinian Mandate document which until today has divided the inhabitants. Works cited Haiduc-Dale, Noah. Arab Christians in British Mandate Palestine: Communalism and Nationalism, 1917-1948. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2013. Print. Price, Randall. Fast Facts on the Middle East Conflict. Eugene, Or: Harvest House Pub, 2003. Print. Segev, Tom. One Palestine, Complete: Jews and Arabs Under the Mandate. , 2000. Internet resource. Read More