PALESTINE- BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE ARAB WORLD-

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has an important significance because

it's not only a territorial dispute, but also a cultural and religious one. The issue of recognition

of the State of Palestine it's a problem hard to analyse considering the history of the

belligerents and their argument about being hegemonic.

The conflict emerged in 1917 when the Balfour Declaration gave Israelis

permission to establish in Palestine and was soon followed by a Palestinian manifesto in

1933, but the dispute became military in 1948 when the civil war turned in the First Arab-

Israeli War won by the Zionists with the help of the West. This followed the Declaration of

the Establishment of the State of Israel by David Ben-Gurion, the executive head of the

World Zionist Organization. The armistice in 1949 led to a disjointed Palestine, with an Arab

population of which half was made up of refugees. For twenty years, since the proclamation

of the State of Israel and until the Six-Day War, Palestinians were reduced to silence under

the occupation of Nasser's Egypt. As for the few who chose not to live under the occupation

of Zionists, they were considered a mass of refugees under the protection of UN and

UNRWA. In 1950, UNRWA was taking care of 957.000 Palestinians. On the other hand,

Israel's population nearly doubled.

This state of coercion, fear and insecurity led to the birth of The Palestine

Liberation Organization by the Arab League in Cairo (1964) which brings into the open the

political wishes of the Palestinians.  It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of

the Palestinian people" by over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has

enjoyed observer status at the United Nations since 1974.

 The PLO was considered by the United States and Israel to be a terrorist

organization until the Madrid Conference in 1991. In 1993, the PLO recognized Israel's right

to exist in peace, accepted UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, and rejected

"violence and terrorism"; in response, Israel officially recognized the PLO as the

representative of the Palestinian people.

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Shuqairi's PLO was fallowed by the creation of al-Fatah, by Yasser Arafat, Abu

Jihad and Abou Iyad as an independent movement to accomplish the unity of the Arab states.

For al-Fatah, the only way to break loose was using military force and guerrilla warfare. This

was the very moment when the dimension of the Palestinian conflict crossed the border of the

state to become a matter of international terrorism. In 1968, the news about rejecting

retaliation coming from Israel made PLO become the most powerful and wealthy

organisation for liberation. This is the reason why PLO turned from the only democratic

institution in the Arab world into a bureaucratic organization.

But there is the other side of the coin. PLO became well-known world-wide

because of it's debatable method of acknowledging power. In 1968, a plain belonging to

Israeli's ''El Al'' was attacked in Athena by a group of fedayi. Terrorism was knocking on the

international scene. In 1972 another tragedy sprang up: during the Summer Olympics in

Munich, Germany, eleven Israeli athletes were taken hostage and eventually killed, along

with a German police officer, by the Palestinian group Black September. The Israeli come

back wasn't less murderous: they killed almost 200 refugees in Syria and Lebanon. Another

important element taking part in this deadly cocktail was the involvement of many states in

this terrorist scene. Egypt, Iraq, Algeria helped Palestinian fighters giving them logistic base.

In 1973, as a result of the casualties in the Six Days War began the Yom Kippur

War, named so to stress the religious importance of the day. The war began when the Arab

coalition launched a joint surprise attack on Israeli positions in the Israeli-occupied

territories on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, which also occurred that year during

the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

 Egyptian and Syrian forces crossed ceasefire lines to enter the Sinai

Peninsula and Golan Heights, which had been captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Both the United States and the Soviet Union initiated massive resupply efforts to their

respective allies during the war, and this led to a near-confrontation between the two nuclear

superpowers. As an effect, at the end of Kippur war, PLO was able to mark a new,

advantageous political line. The purpose was to find a compromise based on the recognition

of certain rights like determination.

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The PLO's choice for political realism was symbiotic with a few diplomatic

strikes. Yasser Arafat received support from various countries like France, Italy and even

URSS where he usually came bearing an olive branch and a gun. But in fact, PLO was a

agglutination of heterogamous organizations looking for unity. Under the influence of the

bloody attempts, the Israeli conservative governments kept comparing PLO with a band of

assassins. In 1982, the Lebanon war had as a main purpose the destruction of the PLO

governance. In 1983, Arafat, beset at Tripoli had to leave Lebanon once again which left

PLO without a headquarter. This is the reason why in 1985 it wasn't capable of countering

the Israeli raid against Tunis. In Middle-East, PLO was practically reduced to numbness.

In December 1987 took place First Intifada. After twenty years of occupation and

military destructions, despair and repulse for an insupportable situation represented the base

for the riot. Intifada broke spontaneously and caught on the wrong foot PLO and Israel. The

lack of futurity led to bursting radical mindsets. A confirmation on this assumption is a rising

Hamas movement encouraging Israel's destruction. Using Intifada as a propagandistic tool,

PLO decided to recognize in 1988 UN's resolutions on Palestine and Israel's right to exist.

Once again, no agreement was reached because of intransigence on both sides, triggering the

Gulf War and the exclusion of PLO from the Madrid Conference of 1991.

The radicalization of Intifada forced  the Declaration of Principles, an attempt

in 1993 to set up a framework that would lead to the resolution of the ongoing Israeli–

Palestinian conflict.

It was the first face-to-face agreement between the government of Israel and

the Palestine Liberation Organization . Negotiations concerning the agreement, an

outgrowth of the Madrid Conference of 1991, were conducted secretly in Oslo, Norway.

In 1996, because of another wave of terrorist attempts Benjamin Netanyahu, an

antagonist of the Declaration of Principles takes power in Israel. After a short period of

peace Netanyahu makes a declaration, sustaining the expansion of Israel. His intransigence

was justified by the necessity of maintaining cohesion with the extremist Sharon. Although

The Wye Plantation Agreement (1999-200) denoted a change politics, caused the downfall

of Netanyahu.

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The second Intifada started in September 2000, when Ariel Sharon made a visit

to the Temple Mount, seen by Palestinians as highly provocative and took both Israelis and

Palestinians in an impasse after 52 years of confrontation.

Despite the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan and the generally existing

cease fire, the Arab world and Israel generally remain at odds with each other. Israel and a

number of other countries do not recognise Palestine. The main issues currently obstructing

an agreement are: borders, security, water rights, the status of Jerusalem and freedom of

access to religious sites, ongoing Israeli settlement expansion, and legalities

concerning Palestinian refugees including the right of return.

As of 30 October 2014, 135 of the 193 member states of the United Nations

have recognised the State of Palestine. Many of the countries that do not recognise the State

of Palestine nevertheless recognise the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.

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