A Palestinian woman walks past an Israeli soldier outside the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem Everyone knows it’s bad, that it’s been going on for a long time, and that there is a lot of hatred on both sides. But you may find yourself less clear on the hows and the whys of the conflict.
What are Israel and Palestine?
Israel is an officially Jewish country located in the Middle East.
- Palestine is a set of two physically separate, ethnically Arab and mostly Muslim territories alongside Israel: the West Bank, named for the western shore of the Jordan River, and Gaza.
- There is no internationally recognized line between the two countries, but the borders are disputed.
How is the conflict going to end?
There are three ways the conflict could end
- One-state solution: erase the borders and put Israelis and Palestinians together into one equal, pluralistic state
- Arabs would soon outnumber Jews and would vote to dismantle Israel
- Destruction of one side: one side outright vanquishing the other
- Israel annexes the West Bank and Gaza entirely, turning Palestinians into second-class citizens in the manner of apartheid South Africa or expelling them en masse
- Two-state Solution: allow both sides to have their own independent states
Why are Israelis and Palestinians fighting?
The conflict is over who gets what land and how it is controlled.
- Both sides have squandered peace and perpetuated conflict, but palestinians today bear most of the suffering Those two dimensions of the conflict are made even worse by the long, bitter, violent history between these two peoples.
Why is there fighting today between Israel and Gaza?
Israeli forces periodically attack Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza, typically with air strikes but also with ground invasions.
- The latest round of fighting was sparked when members of Hamas in the West Bank murdered three Israeli youths who were studying there on June 10, sparking an Israeli response that resulted in the arrest of large numbers of Hamas personnel, and air strikes against the group in Gaza.
How did this conflict start in the first place?
The conflict has been going on since the early 1900s, when the mostly-Arab, mostly-Muslim region was part of the Ottoman Empire and, starting in 1917, a “mandate” run by the British Empire
- In 1947, the United Nations approved a plan to divide British Palestine into two mostly independent countries, one for Jews called Israel and one for Arabs called Palestine
- Arab leaders in the region saw it as European colonial theft and, in 1948, invaded to keep Palestine unified
- Israeli forces won the 1948 war, but they pushed well beyond the UN-designated borders to claim land that was to have been part of Palestine, including the western half of Jerusalem
Why does this violence keep happening?
The simple version is that violence has become the status quo and that trying for peace is risky
- Leaders on both sides seem to believe that managing the violence is preferable, while the Israeli and Palestinian publics show less interest in pressuring their leaders to take risks for peace
- Israel’s blockade on Gaza, which strangles economic life there and punishes civilians, helps produce a climate that is hospitable to extremism
- Palestinian leaders compare Hamas to Palestinian leaders in the West Bank, who have emphasized peace and compromise and negotiations – only to have been rewarded with an Israeli military occupation that shows no sign of ending
Why is it so hard to make peace?
The one-state solution is hard because there is no viable, realistic version that both sides would accept
- Jerusalem: Both sides claim Jerusalem as their capital; it’s also a center of Jewish and Muslim (and Christian) holy sites that are literally located physically on top of one another, in the antiquity-era walled Old City that is not at all well shaped to be divided into two countries
- West Bank borders: There’s no clear agreement on where precisely to draw the borders, which roughly follow the armistice line of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war
- Refugees: There are, officially, seven million Palestinian refugees, who are designated as such because their descendants fled or were expelled from what is today Israel; places like Ramla and Jaffa
- Security: For Palestinians, security needs are simple: a sovereign Palestinian state
- For Israelis, it’s a bit more complicated: Israelis fear that an independent Palestine could turn hostile and ally with other Middle East states to launch the sort of invasion Israel barely survived in 1973
Why is Israel occupying the Palestinian territories?
Israel says the occupation is necessary for security given its tiny size: to protect Israelis from Palestinian attacks and to provide a buffer from foreign invasions.
- But that does not explain the settlers.
- Settlers are Israelis who move into the West Bank. They are widely considered to violate international law, which forbids an occupying force from moving its citizens into occupied territory.
Can we take a quick music break?
Take a step back and appreciate aspects of a people and culture beyond the conflict that has put them in the news
- Music has also been an important medium by which Israelis and Palestinians deal with and think about the conflict
- DAM from Palestinian hip-hop
- The Arab Israeli experience comes through in their music
- Avishai Cohen from Israel’s wonderful jazz scene
