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The Palestinian-Israeli conflict

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict. WHAT IS THE CONFLICT?. LAND. 3,000-2,000 years ago: At times the Kingdom of Israel, always Jewish occupied land. 1,400 years ago: Became Palestine and fell under the control of the Islamic Empire. WHAT WAS THE ANCIENT LAND OF PALESTINE/ISRAEL?.

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The Palestinian-Israeli conflict

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  1. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict

  2. WHAT IS THE CONFLICT? • LAND. • 3,000-2,000 years ago: At times the Kingdom of Israel, always Jewish occupied land. • 1,400 years ago: Became Palestine and fell under the control of the Islamic Empire.

  3. WHAT WAS THE ANCIENT LAND OF PALESTINE/ISRAEL? • It included Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and much of Jordan.

  4. DOES PALESTINE/ISRAEL HAVE RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE FOR BOTH JEWS AND ARABS? • Jerusalem: • For Jews: East Jerusalem, the "Old City," and the Western Wall, and that is the focal point of Jewish prayer today. • The Temple Mount, above the Western Wall, holds two ancient Muslim holy places: the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. • Christians venerate Israel/Palestine as the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem.

  5. WHEN DID THIS CONFLICT BEGIN? • The conflict followed the creation of a Jewish national movement known as Zionism. • The World Zionist Organization was created in 1897. • In their view, only Jews had the right to build a country in Palestine.

  6. HOW WAS THE ZIONIST MOVEMENT ABLE TO ESTABLISH ITSELF IN PALESTINE? • The Balfour Declaration: signed by Britain during World War I. • The statement was worded so that only Jews would have political rights in Palestine

  7. WHAT TYPE OF CONTROL WAS ESTABLISHED FOR PALESTINE AND OTHER REGIONS? • Britain and France awarded themselves "mandates" over the Arab lands of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. • Palestine would achieve independence only after enough Jews had entered the country so that a Jewish majority had been created. • British rule was designed to deprive Palestinians of the self-determination expected by Arabs under the other mandates.

  8. HOW LONG DID THE MANDATE LAST? • The Palestine mandate lasted, officially, from 1922 to 1948 when the state of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948.

  9. WHAT WERE THE MAJOR EVENTS EXPERIENCED BY JEWS AND ARABS DURING THE MANDATE? • 1929: Arabs riot over fears about Jewish changes to laws concerning the Western Wall which is in Arab territory. Adolf Hitler's accession to power in Germany in 1933. • Arab Revolt from 1936-1939, a major upheaval finally crushed by massive British force on the eve of World War II.

  10. Partition Plans • 1947: The United Nations supports awarding Jews land in Palestine. • Jews accepted the awarding of a state • Arabs viewed it as deciding the fate of the majority population without their consent and rejected the partition

  11. WHAT HAPPENED? • The state of Israel was declared on May 14, 1948. • The vast majority of Palestinian Arabs, about 700,000, became refugees.

  12. WHAT WAS THE FATE OF THE PALESTINIAN REFUGEES? • Jordan gave them citizenship. No other Arab state did so.

  13. IN VIEW OF THE ACCUSATIONS THAT PALESTINIANS ARE TERRORISTS, DID ISRAELIS ENGAGE IN TERRORISM? • Yes, specific groups such as the Irgun, led by Menachem Begin, and LEHI, of which Yitzhak Shamir was one leader, engaged in terrorist acts.

  14. WHEN DO PALESTINIANS REAPPEAR AS A FACTOR IN MIDDLE EAST POLITICS? • The period after 1948 saw the emergence of the Arab-Israeli conflict, a state conflict with several wars. • The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was formed in 1964.

  15. WHAT WERE THE OUTSTANDING POLITICAL ISSUES IN THE MIDDLE EAST? • The major questions centered on United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, issued in November 1967, that called for negotiations to lead to peace agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

  16. WHAT WAS THE PLO POSITION REGARDING ISRAEL AND THE WEST BANK? • It changed. Initially, based on the 1968 Charter, the PLO called for the destruction of Israel by armed force. • After the 1973 War, the PLO position gradually shifted toward seeking recognition of a two-state solution

  17. WHAT WAS THE UNITED STATES’ POSITION? • It sought negotiations between Arab states and Israel but supported Israel’s total opposition to any Palestinian state or discussion with Palestinians.

  18. WHAT CHANGED THE AMERICAN POSITION? • The Israeli hard-line policy, the “Iron Fist,” toward Palestinian resistance in the West Bank led to the Palestinian uprising, the intifada, in December 1987.

  19. At the same time, Arab states had officially recognized the Palestinians’ right to a state and the right to negotiate for that state, backing Arafat’s position.

  20. DID THIS NEW APPROACH LEAD DIRECTLY TO THE 1993 OSLO ACCORD? • No. The Arab-Israeli negotiations following the Gulf War, the Madrid talks, led nowhere. • Rabin and Peres hoped to quell Palestinian violence led by Islamic groups, such as Hamas, which were popular because of ongoing settler activity and Israeli occupation.

  21. WHAT WAS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE? • 1. On the Palestinian side, Yasser Arafat signed a letter recognizing the right of Israel to exist as a state. • But, Yitzhak Rabin did not sign a letter recognizing the right of Palestinians to have a state — he said he would negotiate with the PLO, which represented the Palestinian people.

  22. 2. On the Israeli side, followers of Rabin saw the agreement as a major victory. • But, Oslo I did contain plans for gradual Israeli withdrawals from other areas..

  23. WHAT HAPPENED? • Implementation of Oslo I procedures was so slow that Arafat began to lose further face. • Right-wingers saw these concessions as leading to a Palestinian state and loss of settlements. Ultra-orthodox rabbis called for Rabin’s assassination, which occurred in November 1995.

  24. WHAT HAPPENED THEN? • Rabin’s successor, Peres, lost upcoming elections to Binyamin Netanyahu of Likud who sought to delay if not derail the Oslo Accords. • Ehud Barak was elected to replace Netanyahu in spring 1999.

  25. WHAT WERE BARAK’S GOALS? • He appears to have sought a peace agreement, but he feared assassination by right-wing settler groups.

  26. WAS CAMP DAVID SIGNIFICANT? • Very, but not positively. • Barak went further in offering peace terms than any Israeli leader had done • The talks collapsed with Arafat being blamed

  27. WHAT RESULTED AFTERWARDS? • With Israeli politics destabilized, Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount in late September 2000 with 800 journalists to publicize Israeli control of the site against Barak’s offers to the Palestinians.

  28. HOW COULD IT ESCALATE AS IT HAS? • 1. The administration of President George W. Bush and his closest aides, are very sympathetic to Israel and right-wing politics generally. Therefore, the Bush administration took a “hands-off” approach to the issue, to permit Sharon, now in office, to quell the uprising.

  29. 2. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States created more sympathy in the Bush administration for Israeli defense against Palestinian attacks, many of which became increasingly terror suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

  30. IS ARAFAT AS RESPONSIBLE AS THE ADMINISTRATION AND ISRAEL CLAIM? • No. The uprising after Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount was spontaneous, as much a reflection of rage against Arafat as against Israel • Arafat can condemn terrorism but he cannot stop it.

  31. WHY DOES BUSH DEMAND HE STOP IT? • It’s a way to simplify the situation for people in the Bush administration, especially the Pentagon, who are sympathetic to Likud expansionism in the West Bank and for Christian conservatives who back Bush and the Israeli takeover of the West Bank.

  32. HOW DOES THE WORLD VIEW THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S APPROACH? • We are almost completely isolated with Israel in a stance of open partisanship. • The consensus outside the United States is that there must be a Palestinian state and that appearing to tolerate Sharon’s methods is not the way to achieve it.

  33. WHAT CAN WE EXPECT? • More violence, not only in the Middle East, but possibly directed against us because of our policies.

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