This article outlines the pre-historic agreements, formation of Israeli State, Palestinian Nakba, the revolution and formation of Palestinian Authority.
Here is the true history of Israeli Palestinian conflict. The Arab-Zionist conflict commenced with the beginning of the weakening of the Ottoman Empire. It was ruling the Arab region in the late nineteenth century. In 1897, the Basel Conference, the first Zionist Congress was held in Switzerland, during which a decision was made. It was to establish a homeland for the Jews in Palestine.
Several countries were chosen by the Zionist movement. However, hey chose Palestine at the end. Thus, it was the spark that the Zionist movement set off and encouraged immigration to Palestine. Here, they entered as merchants, businessmen and investors.
In 1916, there was an Agreement, called Sykes-Picot, a secret convention made during World War I. This agreement was between Great Britain and France, with the assent of imperial Russia. It was for the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire. So, they divided the Arab territories of the former Ottoman Empire into spheres of influence. Britain would take Palestine.
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Britain’s Role in Israeli Palestinian Conflict
In 1917, the British issued the Balfour Declaration before the start of the British Mandate (1920-1947). It was a promise to help the “establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine”. Essentially, vowing to give away a country that was not theirs. The British Mandate for Palestine ran until 1948. Through these years, Britain has greatly contributed to the empowerment of the Zionists in Palestine by different policies. These include arming the Zionists gangs as well as issuing decisions and laws that are in favor of them.
Besides helping them to establish their institutions and agencies in Palestine, they also paved the ways for Zionists to take over the Arab properties. At the time, they prevented Arabs from purchasing lands. Further, they facilitated lands transporting to the Zionists agencies and corporations. Furthermore, they suppressed all the Palestinian demonstrations that were against the British Mandate Authority’s policy. Following this, they started a new phase against the Palestinian existence in Palestine.
The Zionists militias carried out several brutal actions that endeavored to expel the indigenous people of Palestine from their towns and villages by cleansing them ethnically and terrorizing them.
Palestinian Nakba
Nakba, or “catastrophe”, refers to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the near-total destruction of Palestinian society in 1948. Actually, 14 May, 1948 was the date when the State of Israel came into being. The creation of Israel was a violent process that entailed the forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people of Palestine from their homeland to establish a Jewish-majority state, as per the aspirations of the Zionist movement.
Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians from a 1.9 million population were made refugees beyond the borders of what is called the state of Israel. The Zionist forces had taken more than 78 per cent of historic Palestine, ethnically cleansed and destroyed about 530 villages and cities, and murdered about 15,000 Palestinians in a series of mass atrocities, including more than 70 massacres. Especially in Kafer Qasim and Dair Yaseen where the unarmed people, women, children and elderlies were slaughtered and buried in mass graves. Several towns and villages were destroyed and left uninhabitable.
Yet Israel got away with its crimes and it gets stronger day by day. It also enjoys generous funds from western countries, especially the USA. So, this phase ended with the fall of Palestine under the Israeli occupation.
In 1967, the Israelis occupied what remained of Palestine i.e. the Gaza strip, the occupied West Bank and what is called East Jerusalem, after the Israeli occupation defeated the Arabs’ armies. The two wars of 1948 and 1967 left thousands of Palestinian refugees and emigrants inside occupied Palestine and diaspora. They suffered being far away from their homeland and losing all their properties. They are deprived of their most basic human rights guaranteed by international laws and humanitarian law.
The Revolution of Palestinian people
With this, Palestinians revolute against the Israeli occupation. In 1976, the Land Day marked a turning point in Palestinian nationalism and popular resistance, as Palestinians demonstrated inside Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territories. The unrest lasted for months with 48 Palestinians estimated to have been murdered in the first round of the protests.
In 1987, Another Palestinian Uprising erupted. It began with the killing of four unarmed Palestinian laborers from the Jabalya refugee camp in Gaza, who were run over by Israeli soldiers. This was the beginning of the First Intifada (Uprising) where Palestinians used demonstrations and throwing stones at the Israeli soldiers who storm their towns and villages. According to the United Nations, over 1,000 Palestinians were killed from 1987-1993.
Establishment of the Palestinian Authority
The Palestinian Authority “PA” was created through the Oslo Accords of 1993 – a series of agreements concluded between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel. The PA was created as an interim governing body while Palestinians and Israelis were negotiating a final resolution of their conflict – which should have occurred by 1999 under the accords. .
During the years of negotiation between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, the latter refuses to recognize Jerusalem as the Capital of Palestine, and even it rejects the right of return and compensation for the refugees. It also refuses to release Palestinian detainees held in their prisons, even those in difficult humanitarian and health conditions.
It also deprives the Palestinians of their right to resist the occupation to obtain their legitimate rights, so as their right to freedom of opinion and election. Resultantly, the people in the Gaza Strip were punished for electing the Islamic resistance movement, Hamas during the 2006 legislative elections. Israel punished the innocent Palestinians by imposing a suffocating siege for fourteen years during which the humanitarian conditions worsened. And 70% of the population of the Gaza Strip lived under the poverty line, living on humanitarian aid, and facing several humanitarian problems such as long hours of electricity cut, pollution of 79% of its water, and prohibition of freedom of movement.
During the 14 years of the Israeli siege on Gaza so far, the Israeli authorities launched at least three aggressions on the most populated area in the world. These aggressions left more than 4,000 Palestinians murdered in cold blood by the Israeli airstrikes.
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