History of the Middle East Conflict

"The past isn't dead; it isn't even past." William Faulkner.

"No two historians ever agree on what happened, and the damn thing is they both think they're telling

the truth." Harry S. Truman.

• The Arab-Israeli conflict has its roots 4000 years ago in the Biblical land of Canaan

• Their histories have been interconnected since the time of Abraham the father of both the Jewish and Arabic peoples through his two sons Ishmael(Arabs) and Isaac(Jews).

– Abraham is considered to be an important religious figure by Jews, Christians and Muslims

• This is why this area is known as The Holy Land

• Both groups were conquered by the Romans over 2000 years ago.

• In 70 C.E. the Romans drove most of the Jews out of Israel and renamed it Palestine.

• This time was known as the Diaspora, or Jewish dispersion throughout the rest of the Middle East and Europe.

• From that time until the 1900s Palestine was mostly inhabited by Arab Muslims and Christians.

http://www.worldreligions.psu.edu/world_religions18.htm

Modern Times

• At the end of the 1800s many Jews living in Europe were influenced by colonialism and nationalism.

• They wanted to return to the “Promised Land” of the Bible, land that was now owned by the Palestinians.

• This movement was called Zionism from an old Biblical name for Israel.

ZIONISM

• The World Zionist Organization was formally established in 1897 in Switzerland.

• The new land of Israel was to be a place of protection for Jews from all over the world.

• At this time most of the Holy Land was controlled by the Ottoman/Turkish empire who were allies of Germany.

https://jspivey.wikispaces.com/file/view/ottoman-17century.jpg/34311705/ottoman-17century.jpg

THE BRITISH MANDATE

• During World War I the British took control of Palestine away from the Ottomans.

• In 1920 Syria and Lebanon were given to France and Britain gained control of Palestine.

• The British soon began to allow Jews into Palestine even though the lands they were settling on were traditionally owned by Arab Palestinians.

Between the Wars

• During the 1920s there were a series of violent protests on the part of Arabs against both the Jewish settlers and British imperialists.

• In 1919 Jews made up 10% of the population of Palestine, by 1934 this had risen to 34%.

• Even so in 1935 there were 65 000 new Jewish settlers allowed into Palestine.

http://www.gettyimages.ca/detail/2658935/Hulton-Archive?language=en-US&location=CAN

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_epEVgyrQMRY/SorOmJwwfCI/AAAAAAAABRY/WUy4zxqcwac/s1600-h/demonstration-Arab.jpg

Between the Wars

• In July of 1937 the British government accepted the report of the Peel Commission that recommended that

– Palestine be divided into two parts- a Jewish homeland and Arab/Palestinian state

– The Arabs in the Jewish section were to be forcibly removed and their land given to Jewish settlers.

– There were 960 000 Arabs in Palestine at this time.

A land without a people for a people without a land.

• This sparked even more violence and the British put down the uprisings severely.

– 3074 were killed

– 6000 arrested

– 110 hanged

• By 1939; the Palestinian problem was overshadowed by the war in Europe.

• The Zionist leaders in Palestine became frustrated with the British and turned to the Americans for help in 1942.

• In that year the Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion organized a hugely successful conference in New York.

– He got support for unrestricted Jewish immigration and money the Haganah (Zionist army)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Haganah-1947.jpg

POST World War 2

• When Europeans and North Americans realized what the Nazis had done to the Jews, there was overwhelming support for creation of Israel as a Jewish homeland.

• The “slogan” of this time was “NEVER AGAIN” would the Jews of the world be forced to live in other countries that could become dangerous to them.

• At the Potsdam Peace Conference President Truman insisted that 100 000 Jews be allowed to emigrate to Palestine which was still under British control.

• This caused conflict between the British and American leaders.

• Britain said it would only allow more Jewish settlers into Palestine if the Haganah and other Jewish armies were disbanded.

• The Zionist leadership decided to make it difficult and expensive for the British army in Israel through various terrorist acts. – The railway system was blown up

– Bridges were destroyed

– British army camps were attacked

– Airplanes were sabotaged

– In July 1946 92 people (mostly British) were killed in an attack on their headquarters.

• All of this led to a loss of support for the Zionist cause in Britain and they wanted to turn the whole matter over to the United Nations

• The Zionist leaders looked even more to the US for support. – The US army sells the Haganah leftover WW2

military supplies very cheaply and most of the money to buy them was provided by Jews living in America.

• In 1947 the UN recommended that Palestine be divided into two states: Arab and Jewish, and Jerusalem become an international city.

• These recommendations were approved by two thirds of the UN countries; including the US and USSR ( one of the few things they agreed on during this early Cold War period)

• Immediately after the UN decision two important events occurred – the British announced they were leaving Palestine

– A bloody war broke out between the Arabs and the Jews, with over 2000 casualties and whole villages destroyed on both sides.

• On April 13th 1948 the British announced that they would leave by August 1.

• Over the next few months 700 000 Arabs fled Palestine in terror.

http://kanan48.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/the-plight-of-the-palestinians-a-long-history-of-destruction/

ISRAEL’S INDEPENDENCE

• The Zionist army realized that this was there chance to take over the whole country and used their American weapons to defeat the weak Palestinian resistance.

• On May 14th 1948 the British left Palestine, and the State of Israel was proclaimed by the Zionists – The US immediately recognized the new country.

• On May 15th the Arab countries surrounding Israel (Syria, Trans-Jordan, Iraq and Egypt) invaded the new Jewish state.

• By December 1948, Israel had defeated the Arab forces.

• The peace treaty gave

– Israel control of 12 800 sq.km along the Mediterranean Sea.

– Trans-Jordan control of the land on the WEST BANK of the Jordan River

– Egypt control of the GAZA STRIP

• The land of Palestine ceased to exist.

• In 1949 Israel was allowed to join the United Nations and was recognized by 50 countries including Canada.

• This did not end the conflict in the Middle East

• The Arab states refused to recognize Israel or make peace with it.

• The Palestinians become a nation of refugees living in Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank

THE PLO

• The PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) is an political organization representing the Palestinian people in their drive for a Palestinian state.

• It was formed in 1964 to centralize the leadership of the various groups that represented the Palestinian people.

• In 1969 Yasser Arafat was elected chairman of the PLO.

http://www.whosdatedwho.com/topic/7920/yasser-arafat-time-magazine-13-december-1968.htm

http://www.france-palestine.org/IMG/jpg/YasserArafat.jpg

WARS

• Wars broke out in – 1956: Sinai War (Israel vs.Egypt)

– 1967 Six Day War (Israel vs. Egypt, Syria and Jordan) Israel acquired extensive territories - the Sinai desert, the Golan heights and the West Bank,

– 1973 Yom Kippur or October War (Israel vs Egypt and Syria)

– In 1978, Egypt led by Anwar Sadat, and Israel, led by Menahem Begin, signed the Camp David framework agreements, leading to a Peace treaty in 1979. • Israel withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982.

http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/filmi_sangeet/media/1967_6-Day_war.jpg

• 1982: War in Lebanon (Israel vs. the PLO)

• In all of these wars Israel is victorious due to the military and financial support it received from the US government and private citizens.

The Intifadehs

• Beginning in 1987, a revolt called the Intifadeh began in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

• The revolt was initiated by local residents and involved mostly low-level violence such as rock throwing, winning sympathy for the struggle of the Palestinians against the Israeli occupiers.

• By 1991 the Intifadeh had all but ended, but massive Israeli repression in this period laid the seeds for future violence

http://ivarfjeld.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/1987_intifada2.jpg

http://api.ning.com/files/A18cyxmPEEpa03q7w9u88nX-G3qaZ9Z4e3GyctUwUno_/F_Intifada_Palestine_003.jpg

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The Second Intifada

• 2000- present

• This has been an ongoing series of terrorist/liberation attacks by Palestinians in Israel.

• These were some of the first suicide attacks

• This ongoing conflict has left 1000s of Arabs and 100s of Jews dead.

• It has also led to the building of a wall around most of the Arab areas by the Israeli government.

• Israeli troops control the movement of all people and supplies in and out of the occupied territories

• This has led to massive unemployment and poverty among the Palestinian population who have been living like refugees since 1948.

Gaza Wall

THE WEST BANK WALL

Israel Today

• Israel's area is approximately ________________ square kilometers which includes 445 square kilometers of inland water.

• Israel stretches ________________ kilometers from north to south.

• In comparison Nova Scotia is ______________ square kilometres and __________ km long.

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• Israel’s population is 7,590,758

• The religious groups are

–Jewish 75.6%

–Muslim 16.9%

–Christian 2%,

–Other 5.5 %

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http://www.betterbytheyear.org/palestine/images/palestine_map.gif

THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

• The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, politically under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian National Authority and the Hamas Government in Gaza.

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The State of Palestine

• Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries to be part of the State of Palestine,

• As of 18 January 2012, 130 countries have recognized Israel’s independence.

• This status is not recognized by the United Nations, Israel and major Western nations, including the United States and Canada

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• In 1993, in the Oslo Accords, Israel acknowledged the PLO negotiating team as "representing the Palestinian people", in return for the PLO recognizing Israel's right to exist in peace.

• Yassar Arafat was elected president of Palestinian states in 1989.

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The Gaza Strip

• The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north.

• It is about 41 kilometers long, and between 6 and 12 kilometers wide, with a total area of 360 square kilometers

• Nova Scotia is the second-smallest province in Canada with an area of 55,284 square kilometres.

• The population is about 1,657,155 people, as of July 2009,most of them descendants of refugees.

• The population density is 3,880.9 people per square km.

• Nova Scotia has a population is 940,397 and the density is 17.3 people per sq. km

Other statistics

• Religious Groups

– Muslim 98.7%

– Christian 0.7%

• Over 70 percent of Gaza is without power and chronic food and water shortages are prevalent throughout the area

http://www.betterbytheyear.org/palestine/images/palestine_map.gif

The West Bank

• The West Bank has a land area of 5,640 km2 (including East Jerusalem), and 220 km2 water

• Its population is 4,152,102

– Muslim 75%

– Jewish 17%,

– Christian and other 8%

http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/Naji%20Al%20Ali%20Palestine%20cartoon.jpg

Cartoons and Pictures

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8618868.stm

• http://nigelparry.com/photos/jon-stewart-on-gaza.shtml

• http://www.alzaytouna.net/arabic/?c=584&a=83814 graphic photos

• http://sabbah.biz/mt/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/gazastrip.jpg

• http://israelsbirthday.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/latuff-gaza-blockade.jpg

• http://www.adl.org/Anti_semitism/gaza_cartoons.asp

• http://desertpeace.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/gaza-ghetto-bigger.jpg

Gaza Wall

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THE WEST BANK WALL

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• http://www.cbc.ca/news/interactives/shatila/