The Israeli-Palestinian issue has been an ongoing conflict since 1917. This conflict started right after the Holocaust as a huge number of Jews fled to Palestine. Later on, the Israeli forces almost occupied the whole land over the years. Currently, the Palestinians own about 11-15% of the land, while Israelis own the rest of the land (Farah 40). As of today, there are about five million Palestinian refugees in foreign camps and they are unable to return (Farah 40). Not only the Israeli forces occupied the land and forcibly evicted millions of Palestinians, they also operate a two-tiered system in the country that gives better treatment to Israelis while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians. For example, Israeli civilians are allowed to …show more content…
Basically, the two-state solution suggests that the land should be divided into two, an area for the Palestinians and an area for the Israelis. The two-state solution would guarantee Palestinians an independent state and would also allow them to gain their full human rights (Francis). The two-state solution has been planned since decades but it is not being applied because it is not gaining enough support from powerful countries such as United States (Talhami 468). Powerful countries which are members of the United Nations, like USA, UK, China and Russia would have a huge influence on the Israeli authorities to consider applying the two-state solution. People should sign petitions in favor of the two-state solution. There is a petition called “Immediate Two State Solution” that could be found on a website called “moveon.org”. This website could be extremely effective because the main goal of this website is to help millions of people mobilize together to fight for and realize a more just society where everyone can thrive, which is what exactly needed for the Palestinians. If this petition gets signed by many people it would raise awareness to the world, and a powerful neutral side, such as the UN, could apply this
Many Palestinians are religious, and when the Israelis seized their homeland, they took away many of their sacred sites. Palestine is home to a multitude of sacred sites such as Jerusalem. As you can see by the changes from Document 1 to Document 2, in the span of about sixty years, Palestine has endeavored many changes. Palestine originally was composed of predominately Israeli occupied territories, but that fact is not correct today. Both, Jews and Muslims find Jerusalem sacred, which could lead to future problems. When attempting to establish a peace settlement, there will be vast conflict about it; neither group of people would be willing to give up such a holy city where so many vital biblical events have occurred. Religion is extremely powerful and important in places such as these, so it would be difficult and highly unlikely for one group to compromise. If anything, this may result in further violence. Thus, people’s religion contributes a large factor to the reason why there is a small chance for a peaceful settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The best solution to all the continuous wars and problems is a two-state solution; making a Jewish state and a Palestinian state and making Jerusalem neutral to both groups. The conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians will only end when both of the groups get an equal amount of land, and also when both of the groups start to recognize each other as a
Since the UN partition of Israel and Palestine in 1947, Israel has been placed in many instances of conflict between the Jewish migrants to the region and the Palestinian natives. Several conflicts resulted in open, declared war, such as the First Arab-Israeli War of 1948-1949, and the Yom Kippur War of 1973. In addition, Israel has been involved in the occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip. After the last open war, Israel’s occupation of the West Bank has been marked by the military governorate, taking political and institutional control of the region that is ethnically and religiously different than the population that resides in the Jewish state of Israel.
Due to the 80% of citizens reporting a Jewish faith, it is clear to say that Judaism has had a large role in handling conflicts. In the Torah, it is repeatedly shown through figures like Moses, that the most effective means of conflict resolution is through peace and mutual gain(Sacks). However, Israel shouldn’t back down on its morals. The steadfast attitude shown in both Israel and Palestine has clearly made mutualism harder to achieve, delaying the problem(Countries and Their Cultures). Finally, I was curious to know “ How have Israelis viewed the seemingly eternal conflict?”. Though most people have conflicting views on the complex issue, the general agreement between both Palestinians and Israelis is that the conflict is degrative towards both parties. Itamar Rabinovich - president of the Israeli Institute, former Ambassador to the United States, and former chief negotiator. - was quoted by the New York Times saying “Both Israelis and Palestinians pay dearly for the impasse. Keeping the settlement project in the West Bank saps Israel’s resources, compromises its international legitimacy and injects negative norms into Israel proper”. This is clear to many people, with the most pragmatic solution proposed being a two-state system. This would entail Jerusalem serving as a dual capital and Paste revoicing much of the west back as
Let us have ambitions; ambitions to move beyond the violence and occupation, to the day when two states, Palestine and Israel, can live together side by side in peace and security. ~King Abdullah II. In the country of Israel there are two conflicting ethnic/religious groups, the Israelis and the Palestinians. Israelis have most of the power, and run the actual state of Israel, whereas Palestinians have only inconsequential amounts of authority outlined by the Oslo Accords, for this reason, there has been ongoing conflict amongst Israelis and Palestinians. This conflict began when the Romans expelled Jews from this area in 31 BCE, which
Since 1948 an going conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and all because it was thought necessary to
Before anyone can comprehend the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, one must understand the theory of Zionism. Theodor Herzl was the first Jew to have the idea of creating Israel. He was a witness of the Dreyfus affair, in which a Jewish officer was accused of treason, solely because he was Jewish. Herzl also witnessed mobs of people shouting “Death to the Jews”. This was the last straw for Herzl. Herzl decided that there needed to be a change so he made it one of his life goals to create a successful movement in which Jews founded a Jewish state. One of his main arguments was that discrimination against Jews could be eliminated if they had their own Jewish State, and so modern Zionism was formed. The idea of modern Zionism is so pertinent to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because much of the reason for Israel becoming a Jewish state is behind the fact that Jews were perpetrated throughout the years before Zionism even came into play of the situation.
The State of Israel, one of the youngest countries in today’s world, is no stranger to conflict. Prior to the removal of the British Mandatory Palestine tension between the Palestinians and the Jews were high as immigrants from Europe flooded into Palestinian territory.
Furthermore Israel’s extreme control will not allow the two sate solution happen henceforth not letting peace happen because of their selfishness. On the other hand Israel has extreme control because they deserve that land. In today’s world Palestine and Israel have a constant battle because of the fact that Israel controls almost every decision when it comes to the change in the government. In fact “Israel controls more than half of the west bank and all of east Jerusalem” (Abu) confirming that Israel is not ready to give up the land that belongs to Palestine. However the majority of those who live in east Jerusalem are Jewish. For that reason “Sources such as Water are to be kept under Israeli authority” (Abu), not only controlling the life style of the Palestinians but also controlling the agricultural in
If the Palestinian people outnumbered the Jewish people by double the population, it’s not very fair or negotiable that half of the land should belong to the Jews. In “The 1948 War” it shows the United Nations partition plan of the 1947 and how it devastated the Arabs. “The Jewish state included 51 percent of Palestine, the Arab state 44 percent, and Jerusalem 5 percent. The Jews rejoiced over the creation of a state, while the Arabs expressed outrage at the division of their homeland.” Even when the Palestinian people clearly outnumbered the Jewish people by double the number, the plan was to divide the two into a two state country where it resulted in the Jews receiving more land than the Arabs. The land at the time, belonged to the Arabs and when they were letting in Jewish refugees, they didn’t really expect them to take over half of their land. Even though the Arabs wanted to go to war and lost, it’s still unnecessary for the Jewish people to own more than half of the country. It should be split into a ratio based on their population size, which is 30 percent Jewish state, 60 percent Arab state, and 10 percent administered international zone of Jerusalem closely monitored by the United Nations. This is the most logical and fair way for both states to receive the land they want, and they should be able to visit each other's land for religious
The conflict between Israel and Palestine is just one of the many facets that have shaped modern day politics in the Middle East. It is a conflict rooted in generations of violence, discrimination and prejudice that is complicated by a history older than any of the modern day superpowers. Ever since the creation of the state of Israel by the 1947 UN partition of Palestine
The Israel-Palestine Conflict The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a part of the greater Arab-Israeli long-running conflict in the Middle East. The main point of this conflict is the existence of the state of Israel and its relations with Arab states and with the Palestinian population in the area. The idea and concept of Israel was born in the mid 19th century. Jews of Europe and America wanted a place for their homeland, where they could go and be with others of the same race and religion. Palestine was chosen because of its religious routs from The Bible as the “promised land” from God, and the motherland of Jews fled, known as the Diaspora.
The Arab-Israeli conflict displaced 750,000 Palestinians, and they are still not allowed to return to their home (AFSC, n.d.) . About 1.6 million Israeli Arabs (Abdalla, 2012), in Lod, have citizenships of Israel, but they don’t have the equal rights to Jewish people. (BBC, 2009).
After listening to the Israel-Palestine panel, it became clear to me that a two-state solution is the only viable option. The panelists from Friends of Israel, J Street U, and Jewish voices for peace all clearly stated their support for and belief in the two-state solution. From discussion during the panel, I gathered that a two-state solution would include Israel as a Jewish, democratic state that will coexist peacefully alongside and independent Palestinian state. Borders in this solution would be based on pre-1967 lines with agreed land-swaps to allow each state to incorporate large population centers on the other side, and of course, there would be compromises over Jerusalem, as well as mutual access to all holy sites.
The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict begins around 1880 whenever the original Zionist movement, creation of a homeland for Jews in Palestine, was first formed and thousands of Jews migrated to the then Ottoman Empire occupied Palestine. At the end of World War I, in 1918, the British controlled the Palestine area and encouraged Jewish migration to the newly British mandated Palestine. Throughout the following years, up to 1939, violent riots or revolts, depending on who was describing them, would break out killing many. After World War II ended, and the United Nations was formed, in 1947 the U.N. gathered the General Assembly to attempt to solve the problems in Palestine creating two separate states, one for Jews and another for Arabs. War breaks out as the nearby Arab states reject the plan. When the war ended 700,000 Palestinians fled, Jordan controlled the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip (Shikhmanter).