The Israel-Palestine conflict is longer and more complex that most Western media outlets would have you believe. This is Brig‘s account of the past, present and future of the conflict.
DISCLAIMER: This article covers an ongoing and as yet unresolved series of events. All information is correct at time of writing.
Roundup: What’s it all about?
The Israeli territories in red, the Palestinian majority territories in pink.
Though the political conflict began in the early 20th century, both sides cite their claims to the land as a couple of thousand years old. This is largely because of the religious significance of the land to both the Jewish and Palestinian Arab communities. The Palestinian Arabs come from the land Israel now controls.
The core of the conflict is who gets what land, and how it will be controlled.
The current state of affairs
The current conflict comes as the result of an increase in settler attacks on Gaza that displaced hundreds of people, and an escalation at the end of 2023 culminating in 1,264 Palestinians being held in Israeli detention without charge.
This is the highest figure ever.
This sparked an uptick in protests in the West Bank, culminating in Hamas (the military group that governs parts of the Gaza strip) launching a rocket attack on Israel on October 7th 2023. This is reported as unprecedented.
However, an investigation done by the New York Times offers evidence that the Israeli government was warned by Egypt and the US, and received a detailed plan of the assault a year prior to it happening. Military reports of restlessness were also supposedly ignored.
Investigation of war crimes
The grounds for the war crimes tribunal largely comes from the IDF launching strikes on specifically protected areas. This includes designated roads, hospitals, refugee camps, cemeteries, educational and religious sites.
There are now no functional hospitals left in the Gaza strip, and only 6 ambulances.
Investigations launched have found evidence this was deliberate.
Israel has also been blockading food, water, electricity and medical supplies, and invading hospitals disguised as medical workers, or in traditional Muslim dress.
The charges come from South Africa, a signatory along with Israel of the Genocide Convention.
They argue that the actions have been carried out “are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”
There is also evidence to show that the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) have been bulldozing cemeteries in Gaza, exhuming bodies and removing their organs.
Since, in the Muslim faith, a body has to be buried completely intact, this is being brought up on grounds of crimes against religion, a humanitarian issue as well.
The South Africa claim is specifically being cited in the International Court Of Justice. However, the International Federation of Human Rights, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and the United Nations Human Rights Council have sent letters and applications to the same effect.
This investigation into the current Israeli action comes from a 2014 mandate for the ICJ to investigate their actions in Gaza.
But what about Hamas?
Investigations into action committed by Hamas will follow a different set of laws, as Hamas is an independent military organisation. Hamas are considered a terrorist group by the Israeli government and the EU.
Therefore, investigation will likely be in line with that.
The recent proposal of ceasefire
A week ago, Hamas proposed a ceasefire plan in three stages as a counter-offer to a plan proposed by the US and Israel.
The proposal was organised in three stages over 135 days,
- Offering the exchange of hostages on both sides,
- the return of the bodies of Palestinian victims to Gaza,
- and the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the plan ‘delusional,’ and has said that Israeli forces will not rest until they have achieved ‘total victory.’
That is the situation as it currently stands. But it is far from the whole story.
A Moment Of Context
It is important to understand that the current conflict is not a moment at all.
The situation between Israel and Gaza goes back almost a century. The most recent spike, if you will, started on the 7th of October 2023.
Here is Brig’s summary of key events that have fed the most recent clash.
The Balfour Declaration
In 1917, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour wrote a letter to Lionel Walter Rothschild (a prominent figure in the Jewish community in the UK), that promised the British government would ensure “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people” and to facilitating “the achievement of this object”. At this time, Palestinian Arabs made up more than 90% of the area’s population.
Settlement
Between 1923-1948, The British Government began to facilitate the mass immigration of Jews, many displaced by Nazism, to Palestine. To make room, the British confiscated Palestinian lands and handed them to the Jewish settlers, resulting in a series of protests and strikes from the local Palestinians.
The Arab Revolt
In 1936, the Arab National Council called for Palestinians to launch a general strike and withhold taxes in protest. During the six months that lasted, the British launched a campaign of home demolitions and mass arrests.
By the second half of 1939, the British army had 30,000 troops in Gaza, and were bombing villages, imposing curfews, and carrying out mass arrests and executions.
It was at this point that the British began working with the Jewish settler community in the area, forming armed groups called the Special Night Squads. Following the establishment of weapons factories, these groups became the Haganah, a paramilitary group that later formed the core of the Israeli army.
In those three years, 5,000 Palestinians were killed, 15,000-20,000 wounded, and 5,600 imprisoned.
The UN Partition Plan
By 1947, the Jewish population had grown in Palestine to around 33%, but only owned 6% of the land.
It was at this point that the UN decided to implement Resolution 181, and partition historic Palestine into an Arab state, a Jewish state, and the City of Jerusalem, a ‘neutral zone’ (or ‘corpus separatum,’ to be diplomatic) under international control.
The Palestinians rejected the plan, as it allowed for the allocation of 55% of Palestine to the Jewish state, including most of the fertile coastline. Widespread Arab protests escalated into war, and the particular plan was never implemented on the ground.
Nakba
As the conflict stemming from the partition spilled over into 1948, Zionist (meaning those in favour of the establishment of a single Jewish state) paramilitary groups launched a full-scale assault on Palestinian villages, to expand their territory. From 1947-49, over 500 villages, towns and cities were destroyed, and 15,000 Palestinians died.
The Zionist forces captured 78% of historic Palestine. The remaining 22% was split into two areas, the West Bank and the Gaza strip. An estimated 750,000 people were moved from their homes into these areas. Later, they were spread out into refugee camps in Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.
In May of 1948, the Israeli state was officially established.
After the Nakba, 150,000 Palestinians lived in Israel under military occupation for 20 years, before receiving Israeli citizenship.
Egypt took over the Gaza strip, and Jordan began control of the West Bank
Naksa
Israel occupied the rest of historic Palestine in 1967, including the Gaza strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights (Syria), and Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and the Palestinians living there were displaced again. Israel built settlements in these areas and kept Palestinians under strict military control. Later that year, a number of left wing groups formed in these areas, launching attacks on Israel that, for the first time, drew the world’s attention to the conflict.
The Intifadas
The first Intifada was carried out in 1987 by Palestinian young people, coordinated by the United National Leadership of the Uprising (a coalition of Palestinian political groups acting to end the Israeli occupation and establish an independent Palestine), beginning in Gaza and spreading to the West Bank.
The movement responded to the deaths of a group of Palestinian workers after an Israeli truck collided with their transport. The movement consisted of general strikes, protests, and civil disobedience.
During this time, 1,070 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces, including 237 children. Over 175,000 Palestinians were arrested.
In this year, Hamas, (an armed resistance group moving off from the Muslim Brotherhood), was established.
The Intifada ended in 1993 with the signing of the Oslo Accords (an interim agreement between Israel and Palestine).
The Palestinian Authority (PA) was established, and granted limited control in some parts of Gaza and the West Bank. Israel had control of 60% of the West Bank, and most land and water resources.
The PA was supposed to make way for an elected Palestinian Government, but this never materialised.
Critics have even argued it was little more than a tool of the Israeli state.
After this, Israel built walls and electric fences around Gaza, cutting it off from other Palestinian territories.
The Second Intifada
The second Intifada took place in September 2000. The visit of Israeli politician Ariel Sharon to the al-Asqa mosque with a large armed security detail, sparked protests.
An armed response from Israel resulted in the deaths of five Palestinians and the injuries of 200 more over two days.
Israel began reoccupying Gaza and constructed new settlements, including settler-only roads and infrastructure.
It ended in 2005, Israeli troops withdrew, and the settlements were disbanded. Palestinians voted in a general election for the first time in 2006.
Hamas won by a majority.
A civil war broke out between Hamas and Fatah (what remained of the PA). It lasted months and killed hundreds of Palestinians. Hamas expelled Fatah from Gaza.
In 2007, Israel instituted a full blockade of Gaza (including food, water, medical and construction supplies), and branded Hamas a terrorist organisation.
Israel has since launched four main assaults on Gaza, and have continued the blockade.
The solution supported by governments internationally is a ‘two-state’ solution. With the current consensus, this would establish the West Bank and Gaza as an independent Palestinian state, leaving Israel with everything else.
Both sides (aside from some factions within each) generally support the two-state solution. The actual division of land and resources is what is being so heavily contested.
This is why the conflict has taken so long to resolve.
The alternative is a one-state solution. The whole territory would all become Israel, all becomes Palestine, or a combined state called something else.
However, the war in the region has left peace negotiations on a shelf, particularly following Israel’s most recent assault on Rafah.
The global attention on the conflict has divided opinion and support for each region even more. The future is uncertain.
Featured Image Credit: Niamh Brook
