The History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The war in Gaza has absorbed the attention of the international community, and for good reason. The humanitarian disaster there is an abhorrent consequence of the tactical reality in Gaza. The conflict, while a current event, is directly connected to the region's complex history. The history of Israel’s creation in the West is an unknown and often misunderstood story of tragedy, political strife, war, and intervention. It is a 20th-century phenomenon that stretches beyond the two central nations themselves. This article does not seek to assert an opinion on this issue but offers an accessible history to serve as a contextual backdrop to the origins of the ongoing conflict. The focus will be on the events leading up to the creation of Israel and how it connects to today.
Palestine has been inhabited by a diversity of ethnicities and religions for millennia. For over 800 years, a series of Islamic Caliphates, the last of which was the Ottoman Empire, controlled the region. The Ottoman defeat in the First World War meant England and France partitioned all of the empire's territory outside of its home region of Turkey. Through this process, Palestine wound up under British control.
During the First World War, English official Sir Henry MacMahon promised wide-sweeping Arab independence, presumably including Palestine. Despite sharing in Islamic convictions, the Arab world was oppressed under the boot of the Ottomans, and so many obliged the English plea for alliance in the war. This promise of independence, made within the McMahon-Hussein correspondence, was contingent on Arab collaboration in the war and an Allied victory.
Meanwhile, in England, the Zionist movement had become increasingly popular with certain politicians and prominent members of society. Zionism is a Jewish nationalist movement founded in 1897 by Theodor Herzl that had spread to many intellectuals of the European Jewish diaspora and sympathetic Gentiles. Its fundamental aim was to escape rising European antisemitism and re-establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Zionist claim to Palestine can be traced to biblical times, to the ancient kingdom of the Israelites.
Completion of the Zionist project would be mutually exclusive from the promises of Arab independence in Palestine. Its facilitation would also require oversight from a sympathetic government, like England, to enforce this extraordinary regional political and demographic shift.
In the aftermath of the First World War, promises of Arab independence were thrown to the wayside after the Ottoman defeat. The Balfour Declaration was a public statement that proclaimed England would retain control of the region and “facilitate the achievement” of a Jewish home in Palestine (Balfour Declaration, 1917). Originally, the declaration was a letter from Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour addressed to Zionist leader and prominent political figure Walter Rothchild, notifying him of the movement's success in parliament.
Arabs, inside Palestine and out, were outraged at the perceived duplicity of the English government. The promise of self-determination and statehood had been undermined by what was seen by Arabs as European imperialism. Today, this topic is a source of conflict for historians and political commentators alike. As Jewish immigration to the region began, England's military presence in Palestine and much of the Middle East served as a deterrent to prevent any political animosity from erupting into conflict.
Jews from all around the world began to immigrate to British Palestine in 1919, and eventually, resentment of the Palestinian Arabs grew into a three-year minor insurgency in 1936-1939 that claimed thousands of lives. However, the largest influx of Jewish immigrants came after the conclusion of the Second World War. Nazi Germany had imprisoned and/or murdered more than half of the Jewish population of Europe, leaving millions of suffering survivors in its wake. Many of these survivors immigrated to Israel after the traumatic and horrific experiences of the Second World War.
The economic devastation of the Second World War saw the British Empire reduced to a Commonwealth, in which many nations once a part of the Empire became independent states. In 1947, aware of the impending end of England’s mandate in Palestine, the UN issued a two-state solution, one Jewish and one Arab. Splitting Palestine into a checkerboard of soon-to-be sovereign territories based on historical demographics and land ownership. This compromise upset both sides and initiated a civil war within Palestine. One Jewish paramilitary group even struck English targets, culminating in the bombing of the British Army Headquarters in Palestine. Both Arab and Jewish militias began to mobilize and take action, claiming the lives of hundreds in the region. The Haganah, the main Zionist paramilitary force, began to train and enlist a large portion of the military-age Israeli population. Arab organizations were not as effective or homogenous, which left the faction in an inferior military situation.
In 1948, the British Mandate of Palestine ended, and on April 29th of that year, England passed a bill recognizing the end of its responsibility for Palestine. On May 14, it took effect, and that day, the nation of Israel’s newly elected government declared independence.
What followed was a several-year conflict involving the combined forces of Egypt, Transjordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen, backing the Palestinians against the forces of Israel. This war is known as the First Arab-Israeli War or the 1948 Palestine War. It lasted over nine months and claimed the lives of over 25,000 fighters and civilians combined. Israel’s war objective was to simply survive the Arab assaults. At the same time, the Arab faction sought to prevent the continuation of the Jewish state in Palestine and retain control of Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest city. When the dust settled, Israel had won its continuation of existence through blood, and to protect Arab civilians, Egypt occupied Gaza while Jordan occupied the West Bank (The Arab-Israeli War of 1948, 4-5).
Since then, eight more wars have been fought by or against Israel in the region. All have been against Arab coalitions, individual nations, or autonomous paramilitary organizations. All have been costly to human life and have only worsened hostilities and regional stability. Each of these wars had a separate origin, objective, and outcome, yet they are all connected by quarrels over the establishment of Israel and the war of 1948. Since Israel’s establishment, war has all but dissolved the UN’s two-state solution. Instead, Israel has become an apartheid state that increasingly infringes on the political sovereignty of Palestinians, justifying this through reasons of security. The Arab population of Israel has been largely forced to relocate to Jordan, Gaza, or the West Bank and is not free to travel even within what is claimed to be Palestinian jurisdictions.
Hamas, the leading political party in Gaza and a paramilitary organization, has resorted to terror tactics due to its inferior tactical capacity. Launching unguided rocket barrages toward Israel, and on October 7th, 2023, heading an attack and hostage collection operation on Israeli soil that killed 1400 civilians. Israel responded with an Invasion of Northern Gaza, as well as indiscriminate bombing of its most densely populated areas. The civilian death toll is likely well above 20,000 and rising.
Israel is backed by the US, as it is a key ally in the region. This explains why once-supportive Arab states do not act on behalf of Palestine, as they will face severe US economic and potentially military ramifications for doing so.
The current conflict is another tragic chapter in the story of the region. Israel states it seeks to destroy Hamas, while Hamas looks to prevent Israel’s increasing recognition by powerful regional states like Saudi Arabia and Iran. As has been the case since 1948, both Israel and Palestine tragically perceive the fighting as existential in nature.
Works Cited
“Balfour Declaration: Text of the Declaration.” Text of the Balfour Declaration, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/text-of-the-balfour-declaration. Accessed 14 Dec. 2023.
“Israel: Immigration to Israel.” Immigration to Israel Table of Contents, www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/immigration-to-israel. Accessed 14 Dec. 2023.
Period 7-1-1: Britain’s Promises to Arabs and Jews, www.bu.edu/mzank/Jerusalem/p/period7-1-1.htm. Accessed 14 Dec. 2023.
U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, \history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/arab-israeli-war. Accessed 14 Dec. 2023.
“University of Central Arkansas: UCA.” Government Public Service and International Studies, uca.edu/politicalscience/home/research-projects/dadm-project/middle-eastnorth-africapersian-gulf-region/british-palestine-1917-1948/#:~:text=The%20British%20Mandate%20under%20the,were%20displaced%20during%20the%20conflict. Accessed 14 Dec. 2023.
