The Israeli-Palestinian conflict

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict began at the turn of the century. The Partition Plan, agreed by the
United Nations in 1947, attempted to divide the British Mandate of Palestine into Arab and
Jewish states. The State of Israel was established on May 14, 1948, igniting the first Arab-Israeli
War. Although Israel won the war in 1949, 750,000 Palestinians were expelled, and the land was
divided into three parts: the State of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River), and the Gaza
Strip. Tensions in the region increased during the ensuing years, particularly between Israel and
Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Egypt, Jordan, and Syria signed agreements on mutual defense after
the 1956 Suez Crisis and Israel's invasion of the Sinai Peninsula in preparation for a potential
Israeli force deployment. Following a series of moves by Egyptian President Abdel Gamal
Nasser, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Syrian and Egyptian air defenses in June
1967, igniting the Six-Day War. Following the conflict, Israel seized control of the Golan
Heights from Syria, the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and the Sinai Peninsula and
Gaza Strip from Egypt. Six years later, in what is known as the Yom Kippur War or the October
War, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on two fronts in an attempt to retake territory they had lost.
Although neither Egypt nor Syria gained much from the conflict—neither did Israel or Syria—
Egyptian President Anwar al-Sadat hailed the conflict as a success for Egypt because it gave the
two countries the opportunity to negotiate over their former cessions. The thirty-year battle
between Egypt and Israel was finally put an end in 1979 when, after a number of cease-fires and
peace talks, officials from both countries signed the Camp David Accords. The Camp David
Accords strengthened ties between Israel and its neighbors, but they did not address the issue of
Palestinian self-determination and self-government. The first intifada, which began in 1987, saw
hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip rebel against the Israeli
authorities. A foundation for Palestinian self-governance in the West Bank and Gaza was formed
by the 1993 Oslo I Accords, which also made it possible for Israel's government and the newly
constituted Palestinian Authority to mutually recognize one another. The Oslo II Accords, which
were added in 1995, enlarged on the original accord by requiring Israel to withdraw entirely from
6 cities and 450 communities in the West Bank. Palestinians began the second intifada in 2000,
which would last until 2005. It was partly sparked by Palestinian complaints about Israel's
control over the West Bank, a stalled peace process, and former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon's visit to the al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam. In response, the Israeli
government authorized building a wall around the West Bank in 2002, in defiance of the
International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.