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Palestinian Issue

Palestinian issue which is broadly considered as the Arab Israel issue is basically an issue
between Muslim Arabs of Palestine and the Jewish community of the region which has further
dragged the whole Muslim world in favour of the Muslim Palestinians to have their independent
sovereign state in Palestine. The conflict in the present form started in 1948 when UN created the
Israel state in Palestine which the adjoining Arab states refused to recognize.
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Geographically Palestine is an area between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan. The
Jewish people consider the territory of Palestine as their historical homeland whereas the
Palestinian Arabs also consider the same as their own genuine homeland. On the other hand,
Palestine is considered extremely sacred land by all the three communities, i.e. Muslims, Jews
and Christians equally and they have supporting religious arguments for their uncompromising
positions.
Historical background:
In the history it remained in the control of Israelites, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks,
Jews, Romans, Byzantines, Umayyad’s, Abbasids, Ottomans, and the British. The Ottomans
(Turkish Empire) controlled it from 1516 till the end of the World War I in 1919. However, after
the defeat of Ottomans in the First World War, it came under the control of The British. It was
under the British that the Jews started pouring into Palestine from all over the world. Muslim
Arab population was not happy over this influx of Jews in Palestine which resulted in many
violence incidents most notably during 1936-1939.
The influx of Jews speeded up near the start of the Second World War due to Jewish
persecution by Hitler in Germany. Accordingly, violence also increased in the territory. The
ongoing violence and the massive cost of World War forced the British to take up the issue of
Palestine UNO in 1947. The UNO voted for partition of Palestine into an Arab state and Jewish
one. The Jews accepted the partition plan immediately and declared the creation of the
independent state of Israel in 1948. But the Arabs rejected the plan; and armies from five
neighboring Arab countries namely Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded Israel
resulting in the 1948 Arab-Israel war. The Arab forces could not enter into Israel but did result in
the exodus of around one million Palestinians from Israel into the neighboring Arab countries.

Israel
Boundaries defined in the UN partition plan of 1947
Blue - Area assigned to a Jewish state - Green & Red - Area assigned to an Arab state; Pink -
Corpus separatum of Jerusalem (neither Jewish nor Arab).
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1956 Egypt - Israel war:

Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal Company in 1956 and also closed the canal and strait of
Tiran for Israeli ships. Israel invaded Egypt by sending its troops into the Sinai Peninsula. Britain
and France were in support of Israel. As a result of the war, Israel captured the Gaza Strip and
the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt. However, through the auspices of UNO and USA Israel agreed
to withdraw the forces from the Sinai Peninsula and Egypt agreed to allow the Israeli ships to
navigate in the Suez Canal. United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) was deployed on the
Egypt Israel border to ensure cease fire.
June 1967 Arab- Israel War:
The Palestinians formed the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964 to liberate
Palestine from the Zionist occupation. The movement was going on when Egypt on May 19,
1967, expelled UNEF and again closed the Strait of Tiran for Israeli ships. Jorden signed a
mutual defense agreement with Egypt on May 30, 1967. Israel attacked Egypt on June 5 and
destroyed most of the Egyptian air Force including Jordanian, Syrian and Iraqi Air forces. The
war continued only for six days. Israel captured whole the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt including
Gaza Strip, Golan Heights of Syria, East Jerusalem and Western part of River Jordan from
Jordan. This war changed the geopolitical configuration of the region.
1973 Arab – Israel War:
Security Council passed resolution 242 in November 1967asking Israel to withdraw from the
occupied Arab territories, but Israel did not oblige. The result was that Arabs became desperate
and were compelled to hit back to regain their lost territories. Resultantly both Syria and Egypt
launched a simultaneous attack on October 6, 1973. As a result of this war, Egyptian forces
entered into the Sinai desert after repulsing the Israeli forces by crossing the Suez Canal. This
action, on the part of Egypt, the first time shattered the invincibility of Israel. But Syria failed to
regain the Golan Heights.
Egypt–Israel Camp David Accord 1978:

On September 17, 1978, a peace accord was signed between Egypt and Israel in Camp David
under the auspices of USA. The salient features of the Accord were as under:
1. Egypt recognized Israel.
2. Israel agreed to withdraw its forces from the Egyptian soil.
3. It was decided that inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza strip would be allowed to elect
self-government to replace Israeli administration.
4. Israel was allowed free passage of its ships through Suez Canal.
Jorden being under the influence of USA also ended hostilities with Israel after
concluding an agreement in 1994.
Lebanon:
King Hussein of Jordan developed disagreements with PLO and expelled it from
Jordan in 1970. The PLO shifted to Lebanon, from where it managed raids into Israel. Syria
allied with the PLO. Resultantly Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982. After a ceasefire
agreement between Israel and Lebanon in 1983, Israel withdrew its forces up to 15 KM inside
Lebanon. However, the conflict went on a lower scale, but Israel launched a major operation in
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Lebanon in 1996 against the Shiite militia of Hezbollah being a significant threat to Israel. The
Hezbollah gave a tuff time to Israel and Israel preferred to abandon the 15 km wide southern
strip of Lebanon in 2000.
Hezbollah continued cross-border raids into Israel compelling Israel to launch air strikes on
Hezbollah strongholds in Southern Lebanon in 2006. This war resulted in the creation of a buffer
zone in Southern Lebanon and the deployment of Lebanese troops there. Hezbollah withdrew its
fighters from the border areas, and Israel eventually turned over its occupied areas in Lebanon to
UN peacekeepers.
Intifada:
It was the uprising of the Palestinians against the Israeli occupation. The immediate reason
behind starting Intifada was to make for the absence of challenge to Israel after the Camp David
accord, to attract world attention to the forgotten issue of Palestine after the other Arab countries
had opted to remain silent for long and the superpowers having neglected issue altogether, hence
making it necessary that the challenge must come from within the Palestinian territories occupied
by Israel.
Faced by this successful challenge and the international pressure (Chiefly US pressure) after
the Gulf war 1991 Israel sought to get rid of this problem which was going to cripple its
economy and demoralize its armed forces. Israel, therefore, went to peace talks culminating in
the Israel-PLO agreement in1993 in Oslo (Norway).
However, disgruntled by the PLO leadership and its submissive attitude the radical elements
like Hams within Intifada were continuing the movement. That helped the PLO leadership to get
more for the Palestinian rights. Because Israel preferred to deal with moderate PLO than other
radical elements like Hamas and Hezbollah.
Oslo Accords (1993 & 1995):
In mid-1993, Israel and PLO engaged in peace talks in Oslo, Norway in 1993 and signed
an Accord Oslo I, according to which Israel recognized PLO as the legitimate representative of
the Palestinian people while the PLO recognized Israel. Under Oslo II signed in 1995
Palestinians were granted the civilian control along with internal security in western part of River
Jordan and Gaza strip (shown in green in the map). These were the areas Israel captured during
the June 1967 war from Jordan and Egypt respectively. This was a ‘land for a peace agreement,’
in which PLO was asked to create peace in the occupied territories to get more land in return for
their civil administration. Whereas the fate of the Al-Quds was to be decided later on. It is still
the main issue between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as the Palestinians want to make Al-
Quds the capital of the Palestinian state whereas Israel does not want to give to the Palestinians.
During talks in Camp David in the year 2000 Israel was ready to hand over al Aqsa mosque
and a corridor to reach it along with few suburbs of al-Quds to the Palestinian authority but not
the East Al-Quds it captured during the June 1967 war from Jordan as demanded by the
Palestinians.
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Roadmap 2003:
Aftermath the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq, allied powers responding to the world
pressure to address to the core issue of the middle east instead of venturing into the surrounding
countries like Iraq, came out with a roadmap to the Palestinian issue. After having launched a
preemptive war on Iraq in defiance to UNO and the world opinion Washington needed to
rehabilitate its image as the upholder of just and peaceful world order. Accordingly, US president
along with Israeli and Palestinian Prime ministers had a meeting at Aqba, a Jordanian port on the
Red Sea on June 4, 2003, supporting a two-state solution and to give the Palestinian a contiguous
territory for their state. According to the roadmap, Israel was to create the provisional state of
Palestine with provisional borders in the year 2005. Israel was to freeze Jewish settlements
expansion in the occupied territories and Palestinians were to end attacks on Israelis and also put
a check on the extremist movements of Hamas and Islamic jihad against Israel. The issue of Al-
Quds, Arab and Jewish refugees were to be decided later on.
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Under this roadmap, Israel was to retain about half of the occupied territory, major Jewish
settlements, and over 80% of the West banks water reserves. There was no mention about the
Syrian Golan Heights.
Hamas and other radical elements rejected the roadmap, and the violence continued.
2004 onward:
Israel withdrew its forces from the Gaza Strip leaving it to the Palestinians to exercise full
civil control in 2005. However radical elements continued attacks on Israelis. In July 2006,
Hezbollah fighters crossed the border from Lebanon into Israel, attacked and killed eight Israeli
soldiers, and abducted two others as hostages. A war between Israel and Lebanon started which
caused much destruction in Lebanon. UN intervened, and a ceasefire went into effect on August
14, 2006. This conflict killed over a thousand people, mostly Lebanese civilians, and severely
damaged Lebanese civil infrastructure.
In Gaza, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in a violent civil war with rival Fatah.
Israel placed restrictions on its border with Gaza borders and ended economic cooperation with
the Palestinian leadership based there. Egypt also imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip since
2007. Israel maintains that the blockade is necessary to limit Palestinian rocket attacks from
Gaza and to prevent Hamas from smuggling advanced rockets and weapons capable of hitting its
cities.
Israel increased settlement construction in the West Bank which was criticized by the
Palestinians and USA as the same was considered very detrimental to the peace process. But
with no effect on Israel.
Analysis:

It is widely felt among Israelis that Palestinians did not promote acceptance of Israel's right
to exist. One of Israel's major reservations in regards to granting Palestinian sovereignty is its
concern that there is not genuine public support by Palestinians for co-existence and elimination
of terrorism and incitement.

In 2006, Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council, where it remains the
majority party. Hamas openly stated that it completely opposed Israel's right to exist.

Israel cites past concessions—such as Israel’s disengagement from the Gaza Strip in
August 2005, which did not lead to a reduction of attacks and rocket fire against Israel—as an
example of the Palestinian people not accepting Israel as a state. Some Israelis argue that PLO
provides tacit support for militants via its relationship with Hamas and other Islamic militant
movements.

According to a May 2011 poll carried out by the Palestinian Center For Public Opinion
that asked Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank including East Jerusalem, "which
of the following means is the best to end the occupation and lead to the establishing of an
independent Palestinian state", 5.0% supported "military operations", 25.0% supported non-
violent popular resistance, 32.1% favored negotiations until an agreement could be reached,
23.1% preferred holding an international conference that would impose a solution on all parties,
12.4% supported seeking a solution through the United Nations, and 2.4% otherwise.
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Israel does not wish the Palestinians to build up an army capable of offensive operations,
considering that the only party against which such an army could be turned shortly is Israel itself.
However, Israel has allowed for the creation of Palestinian police that can conduct police
operations and also carry out limited-scale warfare. Palestinians have argued that the Israel
Defense Forces, will pose a direct and pressing threat to the sovereignty of any future Palestinian
state.

Since 2006, the United States has been training, equipping, and funding the Palestinian
Authority's security forces, which have been cooperating with Israel at unprecedented levels in
the West Bank to quell supporters of Hamas, the main Palestinian Islamist group that opposes
direct negotiations with Israel.

With Obama coming into power the sale of advanced weapons to Israel has been stopped,
and it has been demanded that Israel must withdraw from the entire West bank so that Palestinian
state could be set up. Obama spoke for two states solution in his speech on June 4, 2009,
addressed to the Muslim world in Cairo in these words:
"For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a
painful history that makes compromise elusive. It is easy to point fingers – for Palestinians to
point to the displacement brought by Israel’s founding, and for Israelis to point to the constant
hostility and attacks throughout its history from within its borders as well as beyond. But if we
see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth: the only
resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and
Palestinians each live in peace and security."
On June 14, 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorsed the establishment
of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River with no control of its own borders, military,
airspace, or foreign relations, and no Palestinians be allowed right of return to the property in
Israeli territory. Netanyahu also repeatedly called on the Palestinians to recognize Israel as a
Jewish state. But he stated that "United Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and the
State of Israel." Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat countered that "[Netanyahu] knows very
much that there will never be peace between Palestinians and Israelis without East Jerusalem
being the capital of the Palestinian state."
Ground realities also prompted both Fatah and Hamas to go for reconciliation agreement
with Israel that would allow for the formation of a unity government, but Israel has repeatedly
stated that it will not negotiate statehood with a Palestinian government that includes Hamas.
President Obama stated that the 1967 borders with mutually agreed upon certain changes
should be the basis of the final agreement. The EU said that they would back the United States
position.

The Situation onward:

At present the primary obstacle to the issue is the deep mistrust between the two
communities. The radical elements like Hamas and Hezbollah are not willing to give Israel the
right to exist. Whereas Israel is not willing to establish a sovereign Palestinian state in its vicinity
as the same could be a security threat for it. Israel’s continued expansion of Jewish settlements in
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the Western part sufficiently speaks that it is not willing to give this part of Palestine to the
Palestinian state. Moreover, it is also quite evident that Israel is also not willing to hand over
East Jerusalem to the Palestinian state. This all adds to the support of radical elements and
continued unrest in the region.
Under the present situation, Israel with the support of the USA and its allies is quite strong,
and the Arabs are too weak to bow down Israel to their terms particularly when the governments
in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq are pro American. The OIC is also not strong and united
enough to intervene except to pass resolutions in this context. The civil war in Syria has made it
still further weak hence minimizing the chances of getting back the Golan Heights from Israel.
This all speaks that the status quo will continue at least in the foreseeable future. The situation
has gone further worse with Israel declaring of Jerusalem as its capital and US under President
Donald Trump announcement to shift its embassy to Jerusalem in support of Israel. With the
weakening of Arabs and OIC on account of Iran-Saudi Arabia proxy wars in Syria and Yemen,
Israel has got sufficiently encouraged to adopt a more uncompromising stand against the
Palestinians.