This document provides background information on the conflict between Palestinians and Jews over land in Palestine/Israel. It discusses:
- The competing claims of Jews and Palestinians to the land, with Jewish claims based on biblical and historical ties and need for refuge, and Palestinian claims based on continuous residence and being the demographic majority.
- The development of national identities and movements among Jews (Zionism) and Palestinians in the late 19th/early 20th century, with Zionism seeking to establish a Jewish state in Palestine through immigration.
- The population of Palestine under Ottoman rule in the late 19th century, which included Muslims, Christians and Jews, with the great majority of Arabs living in rural villages and Jews concentrated in
This document provides background information on the conflict between Palestinians and Jews over land in Palestine/Israel. It discusses:
- The competing claims of Jews and Palestinians to the land, with Jewish claims based on biblical and historical ties and need for refuge, and Palestinian claims based on continuous residence and being the demographic majority.
- The development of national identities and movements among Jews (Zionism) and Palestinians in the late 19th/early 20th century, with Zionism seeking to establish a Jewish state in Palestine through immigration.
- The population of Palestine under Ottoman rule in the late 19th century, which included Muslims, Christians and Jews, with the great majority of Arabs living in rural villages and Jews concentrated in
This document provides background information on the conflict between Palestinians and Jews over land in Palestine/Israel. It discusses:
- The competing claims of Jews and Palestinians to the land, with Jewish claims based on biblical and historical ties and need for refuge, and Palestinian claims based on continuous residence and being the demographic majority.
- The development of national identities and movements among Jews (Zionism) and Palestinians in the late 19th/early 20th century, with Zionism seeking to establish a Jewish state in Palestine through immigration.
- The population of Palestine under Ottoman rule in the late 19th century, which included Muslims, Christians and Jews, with the great majority of Arabs living in rural villages and Jews concentrated in
The conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Jews is a mod-
ern phenomenon, which began around the turn of the :cth century. Although these two groups have different religions (Palestinians include Muslims, Christians and Druze), religious differences are not the cause of the con- flict. It is essentially a struggle over land. Until :,, the area that both groups claimed was known internationally as Palestine. But following the war of :,-,, this land was divided into three parts: the state of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River) and the Gaza Strip. This is a small area: approximately :c,ccc square miles, or about the size of the state of Maryland. The competing claims are not reconcilable if one group exercises exclusive political control over the total territory. Jewish claims to this land are based on the biblical promise to Abraham and his descendants, on the fact that this was the historical site of the Jewish kingdom of Israel (which was destroyed by the Roman Empire), and on Jews need for a haven from European anti-Semitism. Palestinian Arabs claims to the land are based on continuous residence in the country for hundreds of years and the fact that they represented the demographic majority. They reject the no- tion that a biblical-era kingdom constitutes the basis for a valid modern claim. If Arabs engage the biblical argument at all, they maintain that since Abrahams son Ishmael is the forefather of the Arabs, then Gods promise of the land to the children of Abraham includes Arabs as well. They do not believe that they should forfeit their land to compensate Jews for Europes crimes against them. The Land and the People In the :,th century, following a trend that began earlier in Europe, people around the world began to identify themselves as nations and to demand national rights, foremost the right to self-rule in a state of their own (self- determination and sovereignty). Jews and Palestinians both began to develop a national consciousness, and mo- bilized to achieve national goals. Because Jews were spread across the world (in diaspora), their national movement, Zionism, entailed the identification of a place where Jews could come together through the process of immigration and settlement. Palestine seemed the logical and optimal place, since this was the site of Jewish origin. The Zionist movement began in :: with the first wave of European Jewish immigration to Palestine. At that time, the land of Palestine was part of the Otto- man Empire. However, this area did not constitute a single Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conict A Primer By Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar Palestinians do not believe that they should forfeit their land to compensate Jews for Europes crimes against them. M I D D L E E A S T R E S E A R C H & I N F O R M A T I O N P R O J E C T 2 WWW.MERIP.ORG political unit. The northern districts of Acre and Nablus were part of the province of Beirut. The district of Jerusa- lem was under the direct authority of the Ottoman capital of Istanbul because of the international significance of the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem as religious centers for Muslims, Christians and Jews. According to Ottoman records, in :; there were o:,o, subject inhabitants of the Jerusalem, Nablus and Acre districts: c,,;,, Muslims (including Druze), ,,o,, Christians and :,,c:: Jews. In addition, there were perhaps :c,ccc Jews with foreign citizenship (recent immigrants to the country), and several thousand Muslim Arab nomads (bedouin) who were not counted as Ottoman subjects. The great majority of the Arabs (Muslims and Christians) lived in several hundred rural villages. Jaffa and Nablus were the largest and eco- nomically most important Arab towns. Until the beginning of the :cth century, most Jews living in Palestine were concentrated in four cities with religious significance: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safad and Tibe- rias. Most of them observed traditional, orthodox religious practices. Many spent their time studying religious texts and depended on the charity of world Jewry for survival. Their attachment to the land was religious rather than na- tional, and they were not involved in or supportive of the Zionist movement which began in Europe and was brought to Palestine by immigrants. Most of the Jews who immigrated from Europe lived a more secular lifestyle and were committed to the goals of creating a Jewish nation and building a modern, independent Jewish state. By the outbreak of World War I (:,:), the population of Jews in Palestine had risen to about oc,ccc, about ,,,ccc of whom were recent settlers. The Arab population in :,: was o,,ccc. Zionism Zionism, or Jewish nationalism, is a modern political movement. Its core beliefs are that all Jews constitute one nation (not simply a religious or ethnic community) and that the only solution to anti-Semitism is the concentra- tion of as many Jews as possible in Palestine/Israel and the establishment of a Jewish state there. The World Zionist Organization, established by Theodor Herzl in :,;, de- clared that the aim of Zionism was to establish a national home for the Jewish people secured by public law. Zionism drew on Jewish religious attachment to Jerusa- lem and the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel). But the politics of Zionism was influenced by nationalist ideology, and by colonial ideas about Europeans rights to claim and settle other parts of the world. Zionism gained adherents among Jews and support from the West as a consequence of the murderous anti-Jewish riots (known as pogroms) in the Russian Empire in the late :,th and early :cth centuries. The Nazi genocide (mass murder) of European Jews during World War II killed over six million, and this disaster enhanced international support for the creation of a Jewish state. There are several different forms of Zionism. From the :,:cs until the :,;cs, the dominant form was Labor Zion- ism, which sought to link socialism and nationalism. By the :,:cs, Labor Zionists in Palestine established the kib- butz movement (a kibbutz is a collective commune, usu- ally with an agricultural economy), the Jewish trade union and cooperative movement, the main Zionist militias (the Haganah and Palmach) and the political parties that ulti- mately coalesced in the Israeli Labor Party in :,o. The top leader of Labor Zionism was David Ben-Gurion, who became the first Prime Minister of Israel. David Ben-Gurion reading the proclamation of Israels establishment, May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv. The photo is of Theodor Herzl. A second form of Zionism was the Revisionist move- ment led by Vladimir Jabotinsky. They earned the name Revisionist because they wanted to revise the boundar- ies of Jewish territorial aspirations and claims beyond Palestine to include areas east of the Jordan River. In the :,:cs and :,,cs, they differed from Labor Zionists by declaring openly the objective to establish a Jewish state (rather than the vaguer formula of a national home) in Palestine. And they believed that armed force would be required to establish such a state. Their pre-state organi- zations that included the Betar youth movement and the ETZEL (National Military Organization) formed the core of what became the Herut (Freedom) Party after Israeli independence. This party subsequently became the cen- tral component of the Likud Party, the largest right wing Israeli party since the :,;cs. Although many Jews became Zionists by the early :cth century, until the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany and the institution of a Final Solution to exterminate world Jewry, most Jews were not Zionists. Most orthodox Jews were anti-Zionist. They believed that only God should re- unite Jews in the Promised Land, and regarded Zionism as 3 PALESTINE, ISRAEL AND THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: A PRIMER a violation of Gods will. Some Jews in other parts of the world, including the United States, opposed Zionism out of concern that their own position and rights as citizens in their countries would be at risk if Jews were recognized as a distinct national (rather than religious) group. But the horrors of the Holocaust significantly diminished Jewish opposition or antipathy to Zionism, and following World War II most Jews throughout the world came to support the Zionist movement and demand the creation of an independent Jewish state. Although orthodox Jews continued to oppose the cre- ation of a Jewish state for several more decades, they sup- ported mass settlement of Jews in Palestine as a means of strengthening and protecting the community. And following the :,o; Arab-Israeli War, most orthodox Jews who previously had resisted Zionism adopted the belief that Israels overwhelming victory in the war was a sign of Gods support, and a fulfillment of Gods promise to bring about the Messianic era. The areas captured and oc- cupied in :,o;, especially the West Bank, were important to religious Jews because they are the core of the biblical Land of Israel (Judea and Samaria). Consequently, Israels victory in :,o; gave rise to a more religious variation of Zionism. Some existing political parties representing or- thodox Jews came to embrace religious nationalism, and new parties and movements formed to advocate Israels permanent control and extensive Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza. The religious-nationalist parties and groups that constitute the far right of the Israeli political spectrum maintain a hard line on matters relating to territory and the Arab-Israeli conflict. They have allied with the Likud Party. Although the Labor Party also has supported Jew- ish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza, a key differ- ence is a willingness to consider a territorial compromise with Palestinians as a means of ending the conflict. The Likud and its allies oppose any territorial withdrawal. In :,;;, the Likud won the national election, for the first time unseating the Labor Party that had governed Israel since independence. Since then, Likud and Labor have alternated as the governing party, sometimes forming coalition governments when neither could achieve a clear electoral victory. A minority of Jewish Israelis belongs to left-wing Zion- ist parties, which formed a political coalition known as Meretz in the :,cs. Meretz often joins Labor-led govern- ments. Leftist Zionists are fully committed to maintaining Israel as a Jewish state, but tend to be more willing than the Labor Party to compromise on territorial issues, and have relatively greater sympathy for Palestinian national aspirations for a state of their own. A tiny minority of ultra-leftist Jewish Israelis identify themselves as non- or anti-Zionists. Some of them aspire to see all of Israel/ Palestine transformed into a single state with citizenship and equal rights for all inhabitants, and others advocate the creation of a Palestinian state in all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The British Mandate in Palestine By the early years of the :cth century, Palestine was be- coming a trouble spot of competing territorial claims and political interests. The Ottoman Empire was weakening, and European powers were entrenching their grip on areas in the eastern Mediterranean, including Palestine. During :,:,-:o, as World War I was underway, the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry McMahon, secretly corresponded with Husayn ibn `Ali, the patriarch of the Hashemite family and Ottoman governor of Mecca and Medina. McMahon convinced Husayn to lead an Arab re- volt against the Ottoman Empire, which was aligned with Germany against Britain and France in the war. McMahon promised that if the Arabs supported Britain in the war, the British government would support the establishment of an independent Arab state under Hashemite rule in the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including Palestine. The Arab revolt, led by T. E. Lawrence (Law- rence of Arabia) and Husayns son Faysal, was successful in defeating the Ottomans, and Britain took control over much of this area during World War I. But Britain made other promises during the war that conflicted with the Husayn-McMahon understandings. In :,:;, the British Foreign Minister, Lord Arthur Balfour, issued a declaration (the Balfour Declaration) announc- ing his governments support for the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. A third promise, in the form of a secret agreement, was a deal that Britain and France struck between themselves to carve up the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire and divide control of the region. After the war, Britain and France convinced the new League of Nations (precursor to the United Nations), in which they were the dominant powers, to grant them quasi-colonial authority over former Ottoman terri- tories. The British and French regimes were known as mandates. France obtained a mandate over Syria, carving out Lebanon as a separate state with a (slight) Christian majority. Britain obtained a mandate over the areas Britain made other promises dur- ing the war that conicted with the Husayn-McMahon understand- ings. 4 WWW.MERIP.ORG which now comprise Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jordan. In :,::, the British divided this region in two: east of the Jordan River became the Emirate of Transjordan, to be ruled by Faysals brother Abdullah, and west of the Jordan River became the Palestine Mandate. This was the first time in modern history that Palestine became a uni- fied political entity. Throughout the region, Arabs were angered by Britains failure to fulfill its promise to create an independent Arab state, and many opposed British and French control as a violation of their right to self-determination. In Palestine, the situation was more complicated because of the Brit- ish promise to support the creation of a Jewish national home. The rising tide of European Jewish immigration, land purchases and settlement in Palestine generated increasing resistance by Palestinian Arab peasants, jour- nalists and political figures. They feared that this would lead eventually to the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. Palestinian Arabs opposed the British Mandate because it thwarted their aspirations for self-rule, and op- posed massive Jewish immigration because it threatened their position in the country. In :,:c and :,::, clashes broke out between Arabs and Jews in which roughly equal numbers of both groups were killed. In the :,:cs, when the Jewish National Fund pur- chased large tracts of land from absentee Arab landowners, the Arabs living in these areas were evicted. These displace- ments led to increasing tensions and violent confrontations between Jewish settlers and Arab peasant tenants. In :,:, Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem began to clash over their respective communal religious rights at the Wail- ing Wall (al-Buraq in the Muslim tradition). The Wailing Wall, the sole remnant of the second Jewish Temple, is one of the holiest sites for the Jewish people. But this site is also holy to Muslims, since the Wailing Wall is adjacent to the Temple Mount (the Noble Sanctuary in the Muslim tradition). On the mount is the site of the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, believed to mark the spot from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven on a winged horse. On August :,, :,:,, members of the Betar youth move- ment (a pre-state organization of the Revisionist Zionists) demonstrated and raised a Zionist flag over the Wailing Wall. Fearing that the Noble Sanctuary was in danger, Ar- abs responded by attacking Jews throughout the country. During the clashes, sixty-four Jews were killed in Hebron. Their Muslim neighbors saved others. The Jewish commu- nity of Hebron ceased to exist when its surviving members left for Jerusalem. During a week of communal violence, :,, Jews and ::, Arabs were killed and many wounded. European Jewish immigration to Palestine increased dramatically after Hitlers rise to power in :,,,, leading to new land purchases and Jewish settlements. Palestin- ian resistance to British control and Zionist settlement climaxed with the Arab revolt of :,,o-,,, which Britain suppressed with the help of Zionist militias and the com- plicity of neighboring Arab regimes. After crushing the Arab revolt, the British reconsidered their governing poli- cies in an effort to maintain order in an increasingly tense environment. They issued a White Paper (a statement of political policy) limiting future Jewish immigration and land purchases. The Zionists regarded this as a betrayal of the Balfour Declaration and a particularly egregious act in light of the desperate situation of the Jews in Europe, who were facing extermination. The :,,, White Paper marked the end of the British-Zionist alliance. At the same time, the defeat of the Arab revolt and the exile of the Palestin- ian political leadership meant that the Palestinian Arabs were politically disorganized during the crucial decade in which the future of Palestine was decided. The United Nations Partition Plan Following World War II, escalating hostilities between Arabs and Jews over the fate of Palestine and between the Zionist militias and the British army compelled Britain to relinquish its mandate over Palestine. The British request- ed that the recently established United Nations determine the future of Palestine. But the British governments hope was that the UN would be unable to arrive at a workable solution, and would turn Palestine back to them as a UN trusteeship. A UN-appointed committee of representatives from various countries went to Palestine to investigate the situation. Although members of this committee disagreed on the form that a political resolution should take, there was general agreement that the country would have to be divided in order to satisfy the needs and demands of both Jews and Palestinian Arabs. At the end of :,o, :,:o,,ccc Arabs and oc,ccc Jews resided within the borders of Mandate Palestine. Jews had acquired by purchase o to percent of the total land area of Palestine amounting to about :c percent of the arable land. On November :,, :,;, the UN General Assembly voted to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish and the other Arab. The UN partition plan divided the country in such a way that each state would have a majority of its own population, although some Jewish settlements would fall within the proposed Palestinian state and many Palestinians would become part of the proposed Jewish state. The territory designated to the Jewish state would be slightly larger than the Palestinian state (,o percent and , percent of Palestine, respectively) on the assumption that increasing numbers of Jews would immigrate there. According to the UN partition plan, the area of Jerusalem and Bethlehem was to become an international zone. Publicly, the Zionist leadership accepted the UN parti- tion plan, although they hoped somehow to expand the 5 PALESTINE, ISRAEL AND THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: A PRIMER borders allotted to the Jewish state. The Palestinian Arabs and the surrounding Arab states rejected the UN plan and regarded the General Assembly vote as an interna- tional betrayal. Some argued that the UN plan allotted too much territory to the Jews. Most Arabs regarded the proposed Jewish state as a settler colony and argued that it was only because the British had permitted extensive Zionist settlement in Palestine against the wishes of the Arab majority that the question of Jewish statehood was on the international agenda at all. Fighting began between the Arab and Jewish residents of Palestine days after the adoption of the UN partition plan. The Arab military forces were poorly organized, trained and armed. In contrast, Zionist military forces, although numerically smaller, were well organized, trained and armed. By the spring of :,, the Zionist forces had secured control over most of the territory allotted to the Jewish state in the UN plan. On May :,, :,, the British evacuated Palestine, and Zionist leaders proclaimed the state of Israel. Neighbor- ing Arab states (Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Iraq) then in- vaded Israel claiming that they sought to save Palestine from the Zionists. In fact, the Arab rulers had territorial designs on Palestine and were no more anxious to see a Palestinian Arab state emerge than the Zionists. During May and June :,, when the fighting was most intense, the outcome of this first Arab-Israeli War was in doubt. But after arms shipments from Czechoslovakia reached Israel, its armed forces established superiority and con- quered territories beyond the UN partition plan borders of the Jewish state. In :,,, the war between Israel and the Arab states ended with the signing of armistice agreements. The country once known as Palestine was now divided into three parts, each under separate political control. The State of Israel encompassed over ;; percent of the terri- tory. Jordan occupied East Jerusalem and the hill country of central Palestine (the West Bank). Egypt took control of the coastal plain around the city of Gaza (the Gaza Strip). The Palestinian Arab state envisioned by the UN partition plan was never established. The Palestinian Arab Refugees As a consequence of the fighting in Palestine/Israel between :,; and :,,, over ;cc,ccc Palestinian Arabs became refugees. The precise number of refugees, and questions of responsibility for their exodus are sharply disputed. Many Palestinians have claimed that most were expelled in accordance with a Zionist plan to rid the country of its non-Jewish inhabitants. The official Israeli position holds that the refugees fled on orders from Arab political and military leaders. One Israeli military intelligence docu- ment indicates that at least ;, percent of the refugees left due to Zionist or Israeli military actions, psychological campaigns aimed at frightening Arabs into leaving, and direct expulsions. Only about , percent left on orders from Arab authorities. There are several well-documented cases of mass expulsions during and after the military opera- tions of :,-, and massacres and atrocities that led to large-scale Arab flight. The best-known instance of mass expulsion is that of the ,c,ccc Arabs of the towns of Lydda and Ramle. The most infamous atrocity occurred at Deir Yasin, a village near Jerusalem, where estimates of the number of Arab residents killed in cold blood by Israeli fighters range from about ::, to over :,c. Palestinians Today this term refers to the Arabs Christian, Muslim and Druze whose historical roots can be traced to the territory of Palestine as defined by the British mandate borders. About , million Palestinians now live within this area, which is divided between the state of Israel, and the West Bank and Gaza; these latter areas were captured and occupied by Israel in :,o;. Today, over ;cc,ccc Palestin- ians are citizens of Israel, living inside the countrys :,, armistice borders. About :.: million live in the West Bank (including :cc,ccc in East Jerusalem) and about one mil- lion in the Gaza Strip. The remainder of the Palestinian people, perhaps another , million, lives in diaspora, out- side the country they claim as their national homeland. The l argest Pal estinian diaspora community, ap- proximately :., million, is in Jordan. Many of them still live in the refugee camps that were established in :,,, although others live in cities and towns. Lebanon and Syria also have large Palestinian populations, many of whom still live in refugee camps. Many Palestinians have moved to Saudi Arabia and other Arab Gulf countries to work, and some have moved to other parts of the Middle East or other parts of the world. Jordan is the only Arab state to grant citizenship to the Palestinians Girls at school in a refugee camp. 6 WWW.MERIP.ORG who live there. Palestinians in Arab states generally do not enjoy the same rights as the citizens of those states. The situation of the refugees in Lebanon is especially dire; many Lebanese blame Palestinians for the civil war that wracked that country from :,;,-,:, and demand that they be resettled elsewhere in order for the Leba- nese to maintain peace in their country. The Christian population of Lebanon is particularly anxious to rid the country of the mainly Muslim Palestinians because of a fear that they threaten the delicate balance among the countrys religious groups. Although many Palestinians still live in refugee camps and slums, others have become economically successful. Palestinians now have the highest per capita rate of uni- versity graduates in the Arab world. Their diaspora expe- rience has contributed to a high level of politicization of all sectors of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian Arab Citizens of Israel In :,, only about :,c,ccc Palestinian Arabs remained in the area that became the state of Israel. They were granted Israeli citizenship and the right to vote. But in many respects they were and remain second-class citizens, since Israel defines itself as the state of the Jewish people and Palestinians are non-Jews. Until :,oo most of them were subject to a military government that restricted their movement and other rights (to speech, association and so on). Arabs were not permitted to become full members of the Israeli trade union federation, the Histadrut, until :,o,. About c percent of their lands were confiscated by the state and used for development projects that benefited Jews primarily or exclusively. All of Israels governments have discriminated against the Arab population by allocat- ing far fewer resources for education, health care, public works, municipal government and economic development to the Arab sector. Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel have had a difficult struggle to maintain their cultural and political identity in a state that officially regards expression of Palestin- ian or Arab national sentiment as subversive. Until :,o;, they were entirely isolated from the Arab world and were often regarded by other Arabs as traitors for living in Is- rael. Since :,o;, many have become more aware of their identity as Palestinians. One important expression of this identity was the organization of a general strike on March ,c, :,;o, designated as Land Day, to protest the continu- ing confiscation of Arab lands. The Israeli security forces killed six Arab citizens on that day. All Palestinians now commemorate it as a national day. Many Palestinian Arabs have also come to understand that their political status as Israeli citizens and their pro- tracted contact with Israeli society has differentiated them from other Palestinians. Although most of them support the establishment of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, few would pursue the possibility of relocating there if such a state comes into existence. The June 1967 War After :,,, although there was an armistice between Israel and the Arab states, the conflict continued and the region remained imperiled by the prospect of another war. This was fueled by an escalating arms race as countries built up their military caches and prepared their forces (and their populations) for a future showdown. In :,,o, Israel joined with Britain and France to attack Egypt, ostensibly to reverse the Egyptian governments nationalization of the Suez Canal (then under French and British control). Israeli forces captured Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, but were forced to evacuate back to the armistice lines as a result of UN pressure led by the US and the Soviet Union (in an uncharacteristic show of cooperation to avert further conflict in the Middle East). By the early :,ocs, however, the region was becoming a hot spot of Cold War rivalry as the US and the Soviet Union were competing with one another for global power and influence. In the spring of :,o;, the Soviet Union misinformed the Syrian government that Israeli forces were massing in northern Israel to attack Syria. There was no such Israeli mobilization. But clashes between Israel and Syria had been escalating for about a year, and Israeli leaders had publicly declared that it might be necessary to bring down the Syrian regime if it failed to end Palestinian commando attacks against Israel from Syrian territory. Responding to a Syrian request for assistance, in May :,o; Egyptian troops entered the Sinai Peninsula bordering Israel. A few days later, Egyptian president Gamal Abdel- Nasser asked the UN observer forces stationed between Israel and Egypt to evacuate their positions. The Egyptians then occupied Sharm al-Shaykh at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula and proclaimed a blockade of the Israeli port of Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba, arguing that access Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel have had a difficult struggle to maintain their cultural and politi- cal identity in a state that ofcially regards expression of Palestinian or Arab national sentiment as sub- versive. 7 PALESTINE, ISRAEL AND THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: A PRIMER to Eilat was through Egyptian territorial waters. These measures shocked and frightened the Israeli public, which believed it was in danger of annihilation. As the military and diplomatic crisis continued, on June ,, :,o; Israel preemptively attacked Egypt and Syria, de- stroying their air forces on the ground within a few hours. Jordan joined in the fighting belatedly, and consequently was attacked by Israel as well. The Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian armies were decisively defeated, and Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria. The :,o; war, which lasted only six days, established Israel as the dominant regional military power. The speed and thoroughness of Israels victory discredited the Arab regimes. In contrast, the Palestinian national movement emerged as a major actor after :,o; in the form of the political and military groups that made up the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). The Occupied Territories The West Bank and the Gaza Strip became distinct geo- graphical units as a result of the :,, armistice that divided the new Jewish state of Israel from other parts of Mandate Palestine. From :,-o;, the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was ruled by Jordan, which annexed the area in :,,c and extended citizenship to Palestinians living there. During this period, the Gaza Strip was under Egyptian military administration. In the :,o; war, Israel captured and occupied these areas, along with the Sinai Peninsula (from Egypt) and the Golan Heights (from Syria). Israel established a military administration to govern the Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank and Gaza. Under this arrangement, Palestinians were denied many basic political rights and civil liberties, including freedom of expression, freedom of the press and freedom of political association. Palestinian nationalism was criminal- ized as a threat to Israeli security, which meant that even displaying the Palestinian national colors was a punishable act. All aspects of Palestinian life were regulated, and often severely restricted by the Israeli military administration. For example, Israel forbade the gathering wild thyme (za`tar), a basic element of Palestinian cuisine. Israeli policies and practices in the West Bank and Gaza have included extensive use of collective punishments such as curfews, house demolitions and closure of roads, schools and community institutions. Hundreds of Pales- tinian political activists have been deported to Jordan or Lebanon, tens of thousands of acres of Palestinian land have been confiscated, and thousands of trees have been uprooted. Since :,o;, over ,cc,ccc Palestinians have been imprisoned without trial, and over half a million have been tried in the Israeli military court system. Torture of Palestinian prisoners has been a common practice since at least :,;:, and dozens of people have died in detention from abuse or neglect. Israeli officials have claimed that harsh measures and high rates of imprisonment are neces- sary to thwart terrorism. According to Israel, Palestinian terrorism includes all forms of opposition to the occupa- tion (including non-violence). Israel has built hundreds of settlements and permitted hundreds of thousands of its own Jewish citizens to move to the West Bank and Gaza, despite that this constitutes a breach of international law. Israel has justified the violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention and other international laws governing military occupation of foreign territory on the grounds that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are not technically occupied because they were never part of the sovereign territory of any state. Therefore, according to this interpretation, Israel is not a foreign occupier but a legal administrator of territory whose status remains to be determined. The international community has rejected the Israeli official position that the West Bank and Gaza are not occupied, and has maintained that international law should apply there. But little effort has been mounted to enforce international law or hold Israel accountable for the numerous violations it has engaged in since :,o;. Jerusalem The UN partition plan advocated that Jerusalem become an international zone, independent of both the proposed Jewish and Palestinian Arab states. In the :, Arab-Is- raeli War, Israel took control of the western part of Jeru- salem, while Jordan took the eastern part, including the old walled city containing important Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious sites. The :,, armistice line cut the city in two. In June :,o;, Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan and almost immediately annexed it. It reaf- firmed its annexation in :,:. Jewish settlement on a hill top in the West Bank. 8 WWW.MERIP.ORG Israel regards Jerusalem as its eternal capital. Arabs consider East Jerusalem part of the occupied West Bank and want it to be the capital of a Palestinian state. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) The Arab League established the PLO in :,o as an ef- fort to control Palestinian nationalism while appearing to champion the cause. The Arab defeat in the :,o; war enabled younger, more militant Palestinians to take over the PLO and gain some independence from the Arab regimes. The PLO includes different political and armed groups with varying ideological orientations. Yasser Arafat is the leader of Fatah, the largest group, and has been PLO chair- man since :,o. The other major groups are the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Demo- cratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and, in the occupied territories, the Palestine Peoples Party (PPP, formerly the Communist Party). Despite factional differences, the majority of Palestinians regard the PLO as their representative. In the :,ocs, the PLOs primary base of operations was Jordan. In :,;c-;:, fighting with the Jordanian army drove the PLO leadership out of the country, forcing it to relocate to Lebanon. When the Lebanese civil war started in :,;,, the PLO became a party in the conflict. After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in :,:, the PLO leadership was expelled from the country, relocating once more to Tunisia. Until :,,,, Israel did not acknowledge Palestinian na- tional rights or recognize the Palestinians as an indepen- dent party to the conflict. Israel refused to negotiate with the PLO, arguing that it was nothing but a terrorist orga- nization, and insisted on dealing only with Jordan or other Arab states. It rejected the establishment of a Palestinian state, insisting that Palestinians should be incorporated into the existing Arab states. This intransigence ended when Israeli representatives entered into secret negotia- tions with the PLO, which led to the Oslo Declaration of Principles (see below). UN Security Council Resolution 242 After the :,o; war, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution ::, which notes the inadmissability of the acquisition of territory by force, and calls for Israeli with- drawal from lands seized in the war and the right of all states in the area to peaceful existence within secure and recognized boundaries. The grammatical construction of the French version of Resolution :: says Israel should withdraw from the territories, whereas the English ver- sion of the text calls for withdrawal from territories. (Both English and French are official languages of the UN.) Israel and the United States use the English version to argue that Israeli withdrawal from some, but not all, the territory occupied in the :,o; war satisfies the require- ments of this resolution. For many years the Palestinians rejected Resolution :: because it does not acknowledge their right to national self-determination or to return to their homeland. It calls only for a just settlement of the refugee problem. By call- ing for recognition of every state in the area, Resolution :: entailed unilateral Palestinian recognition of Israel without recognition of Palestinian national rights. The October 1973 War After coming to power in Egypt in late :,;c, President Anwar Sadat indicated to UN envoy Gunnar Jarring that he was willing to sign a peace agreement with Israel in exchange for the return of Egyptian territory lost in :,o; (the Sinai Peninsula). When this overture was ignored by Israel and the US, Egypt and Syria decided to act to break the political stalemate. They attacked Israeli forces in the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights in October :,;,, on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. The surprise attack caught Israel off guard, and the Arabs achieved some early military victories. This prompted American political intervention, along with sharply increased mili- tary aid to Israel. After the war, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger pursued a diplomatic strategy of limited bilateral agreements to secure partial Israeli withdrawals from the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights while Palestinians in Ramallah demonstrating against Israeli ocuppation forces. 9 PALESTINE, ISRAEL AND THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: A PRIMER avoiding negotiations on more difficult issues, including the fate of the West Bank and Gaza. By late :,;, these efforts had exhausted their potential, and there was no prospect of achieving a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace settlement. In late :,;;, Sadat decided to initiate a separate overture to Israel. His visit to Jerusalem on November :,, :,;; led to the Camp David accords and the signing of an Egyp- tian-Israeli peace treaty in :,;,. Camp David I In September :,;, President Jimmy Carter invited Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to Camp David, a presidential retreat in Maryland. They worked out two agreements: a framework for peace between Egypt and Israel, and a general framework for resolution of the Middle East crisis, i.e. the Palestinian question. The first agreement formed the basis of the Egyptian- Israeli peace treaty signed in :,;,. The second agreement proposed to grant autonomy to the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and to install a local administra- tion for a five-year interim period, after which the final status of the territories would be negotiated. Only the Egyptian-Israeli part of the Camp David ac- cords was implemented. The Palestinians and other Arab states rejected the autonomy concept because it did not guarantee full Israeli withdrawal from areas captured in :,o; or the establishment of an independent Palestin- ian state. In any case, Israel sabotaged negotiations by continuing to confiscate Palestinian lands and build new settlements in violation of the commitments Menachem Begin made to Jimmy Carter at Camp David. The Intifada In December :,;, the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza started a mass uprising against the Israeli occupation. This uprising, or intifada (which means shaking off in Arabic), was not started or or- chestrated by the PLO leadership in Tunis. Rather, it was a popular mobilization that drew on the organizations and institutions that had developed under occupation. The intifada involved hundreds of thousands of people, many with no previous resistance experience, including children, teenagers and women. For the first few years, it involved many forms of civil disobedience, including massive demonstrations, general strikes, refusal to pay taxes, boycotts of Israeli products, political graffiti and the establishment of underground schools (since regu- lar schools were closed by the military as reprisals for the uprising). It also included stone throwing, Molotov cocktails and the erection of barricades to impede the movement of Israeli military forces. Intifada activism was organized through popular com- mittees under the umbrella of the United National Lead- ership of the Uprising. The UNLU was a coalition of the four PLO parties active in the occupied territories: Fatah, the PFLP, the DFLP and the PPP. This broad-based resis- tance drew unprecedented international attention to the situation facing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and challenged the occupation as never before. Under the leadership of Minister of Defense Yitzhak Rabin, Israel tried to smash the intifada with force, power and blows. Army commanders instructed troops to break the bones of demonstrators. From :,; to :,,: Israeli forces killed over :,ccc Palestinians, including over :cc under the age of sixteen. By :,,c, most of the UNLU leaders had been arrested and the intifada lost its cohesive force, although it continued for several more years. Political divisions and violence within the Palestin- ian community escalated, especially the growing rivalry between the various PLO factions and Islamist organiza- tions (HAMAS and Islamic Jihad). Palestinian militants killed over :,c Palestinians suspected of collaborating with the occupation authorities and about :cc Israelis during this period. Although the intifada did not bring an end to the oc- cupation, it made clear that the status quo was untenable. The intifada shifted the center of gravity of Palestinian political initiative from the PLO leadership in Tunis to the occupied territories. Palestinian activists in the oc- cupied territories demanded that the PLO adopt a clear political program to guide the struggle for independence. In response, the Palestine National Council (a Palestin- ian government-in-exile), convened in Algeria in No- vember :,, recognized the state of Israel, proclaimed an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and renounced terrorism. The Israeli government did not respond to these gestures, claiming that nothing had changed and that the PLO was a ter- rorist organization with which it would never negotiate. The US did acknowledge that the PLOs policies had changed, but did little to encourage Israel to abandon its intransigent stand. The Madrid Conference US and Israeli failure to respond meaningfully to PLO moderation resulted in the PLOs opposition to the US-led attack on Iraq during the :,,: Gulf War. The PLO did not endorse Iraqs annexation of Kuwait, but it saw Saddam Husseins challenge to the US and the Gulf oil-exporting states as a way to alter the regional status quo and focus attention on the question of Palestine. After the war, the PLO was diplomatically isolated. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia cut off financial support they had been providing, bring- ing the PLO to the brink of crisis. 10 WWW.MERIP.ORG After the Gulf War, the US sought to stabilize its po- sition in the Middle East by promoting a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Despite their turn against the PLO, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were anxious to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict and remove the potential for regional instability it created. The administration of President Bush felt obliged to its Arab allies, and pressed a reluctant Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to open negotiations with the Palestinians and the Arab states at a multilateral conference convened in Madrid, Spain, in October :,,:. Shamirs conditions, which the US accepted, were that the PLO be excluded from the talks and that the Palestinian desires for independence and statehood not be directly addressed. After the 1991 Gulf War, the PLO was diplomatically isolated and on the brink of crisis. In subsequent negotiating sessions held in Washing- ton, DC, Palestinians were represented by a delegation from the occupied territories. Participants in this del- egation were subject to Israeli approval, and residents of East Jerusalem were barred on the grounds that the city is part of Israel. Although the PLO was formally excluded from these talks, its leaders regularly consulted with and advised the Palestinian delegation. Although Israeli and Palestinian delegations met many times, little progress was achieved. Prime Minister Shamir announced after he left office that his strategy was to drag out the Washington negotiations for ten years, by which time the annexation of the West Bank would be an accomplished fact. A new Israeli Labor Party government led by Yitzhak Rabin assumed office in June :,,: and promised rapid conclusion of an Israel-Palestinian agreement. Instead, the Washington negotiations became stalemated after December :,,:, when Israel expelled over cc Pales- tinian residents of the occupied territories who were accused (but not tried or convicted) of being radical Islamist activists. Human rights conditions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip deteriorated dramatically after Rabin assumed office. This undermined the legitimacy of the Palestinian delegation to the Washington talks and prompted the resignation of several delegates. Lack of progress in the Washington talks and de- terioration of the economic and human rights condi- tions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip accelerated the growth of a radical Islamist challenge to the PLO. Violent attacks against Israeli targets by HAMAS (Is- lamic Resistance Movement) and Islamic Jihad further exacerbated tensions. Ironically, before the intifada, Israeli authorities had enabled the development of Islamist organizations as a way to divide Palestinians in the occupied territories. But as the popularity of Islamists grew and challenged the moderation of the PLO, they came to regret their policy of encouraging political Islam as an alternative to the PLOs secu- lar nationalism. Eventually, Yitzhak Rabin came to believe that HAMAS, Jihad and the broader Islamic movements of which they were a part posed more of a threat to Israel than the PLO. The Oslo Accords The weakness of the PLO after the Gulf War, the stalemate in the Washington talks, and fear of radical Islam brought the Rabin government to reverse the long-standing Israeli refusal to negotiate with the PLO. Consequently, Israel initiated secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway directly with PLO representatives who had been excluded from the Madrid and Washington talks. These negotiations produced the Israel-PLO Dec- laration of Principles, which was signed in Washington in September :,,,. The Declaration of Principles was based on mutual recognition of Israel and the PLO. It established that Israel would withdraw from the Gaza Strip and Jericho, with additional withdrawals from further unspecified areas of the West Bank during a five-year interim pe- riod. During this period, the PLO formed a Palestinian Authority (PA) with self-governing (i.e. municipal) powers in the areas from which Israeli forces were re- deployed. In January :,,o, elections were held for a Palestinian Legislative Council and for the presidency of the PA, which was won handily by Yasir Arafat. The key issues such as the extent of the territories to be ceded by Israel, the nature of the Palestinian entity to be established, the future of the Israeli settlements and settlers, water rights, the resolution of the refugee problem and the status of Jerusalem were set aside to be discussed in final status talks. The PLO accepted this deeply flawed agreement with Israel because it was weak and had little diplomatic sup- port in the Arab world. Both Islamist radicals and local leaders in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip challenged Arafats leadership. Yet only Arafat had the prestige and national legitimacy to conclude a negotiated agreement with Israel. The Oslo accords set up a negotiating process with- out specifying an outcome. The process was supposed to have been completed by May :,,,. There were many delays due to Israels reluctance to relinquish control 11 PALESTINE, ISRAEL AND THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT: A PRIMER over the occupied territories, unwillingness to make the kinds of concessions necessary to reach a final status agreement, and periodic outbursts of violence by Palestinian opponents of the Oslo process, espe- cially HAMAS and Jihad. During the Likuds return to power in :,,o-,,, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu avoided engaging seriously in the Oslo process, which he distrusted and fundamentally opposed. A Labor-led coalition government led by Prime Minister Ehud Barak came to power in :,,,. Barak at first concen- trated on reaching a peace agreement with Syria. When he failed to convince the Syrians to sign an agreement that would restore to them less than all the area of the Golan Heights occupied by Israel in :,o;, Barak turned his at- tention to the Palestinian track. During the protracted interim period of the Oslo process, Israels Labor and Likud governments built new settlements in the occupied territories, expanded existing settlements and constructed a network of by- pass roads to enable Israeli settlers to travel from their settlements to Israel proper without passing through Palestinian-inhabited areas. These projects were un- derstood by most Palestinians as marking out territory that Israel sought to annex in the final settlement. The Oslo accords contained no mechanism to block these unilateral actions or Israels violations of Palestinian human and civil rights in areas under its control. Final status negotiations between Israel and the Pal- estinians were to have begun in mid-:,,o, but only got underway in earnest in mid-:ccc. By then, a series of painfully negotiated Israeli interim withdrawals left the Palestinian Authority with direct or partial control of some c percent of the West Bank and o, percent of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian areas were surrounded by Israeli-controlled territory with entry and exit con- trolled by Israel. The Palestinians expectations were not accommo- dated by the Oslo accords. The Oslo process required the Palestinians to make their principal compromises at the beginning, whereas Israels principal compromises beyond recognition of the PLO were to be made in the final status talks. Camp David II In July :ccc, President Clinton invited Prime Minister Barak and President Arafat to Camp David to conclude negotiations on the long-overdue final status agreement. Barak proclaimed his red lines: Israel would not return to its pre-:,o; borders; East Jerusalem with its :;,,ccc Jewish settlers would remain under Israeli sovereignty; Israel would annex settlement blocs in the West Bank containing some c percent of the :c,ccc Jewish set- tlers; and Israel would accept no legal or moral responsi- bility for the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem. The Palestinians, in accord with UN Security Council resolution :: and their understanding of the spirit of the Oslo Declaration of Principles, sought Israeli with- drawal from the vast majority of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, including East Jerusalem, and recognition of an independent state in those territories. The distance between the two parties, especially on the issues of Jerusalem and refugees, made it impos- sible to reach an agreement at the Camp David sum- mit meeting in July :ccc. Although Barak offered a far more extensive Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank than any other Israeli leader had publicly considered, he insisted on maintaining Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem. This was unacceptable to the Palestinians and to most of the Muslim world. Arafat left Camp David with enhanced stature among his constituents because he did not yield to American and Israeli pressure. Barak returned home to face political crisis within his own government, including the abandonment of coalition partners who felt he had offered the Palestinians too much. However, the Israeli taboo on discussing the fu- ture of Jerusalem was broken. Many Israelis began to realize for the first time that they might never achieve peace if they insisted on imposing their terms on the Palestinians. The Fall 2000 Uprising The deeply flawed peace process initiated at Oslo, combined with the daily frustrations and humiliations inflicted upon Palestinians in the occupied territories, converged to ignite a second intifada beginning in late September :ccc. On September :, Likud leader Ariel Sharon visited the Noble Sanctuary (Temple Mount) in the company of :ccc armed guards; in the context of Julys tense negotiations over Jerusalems holy places, and Sharons well-known call for Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem, this move provoked large Palestinian protests in Jerusalem. Israeli soldiers killed six unarmed protesters. These killings inaugu- rated over a month of demonstrations and clashes across the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. For a brief period, these demonstrations spread into Palestinian towns inside Israel. In rel ative terms, the second intifada is al ready bloodier than the first. As in the previous intifada, Pal- estinians threw stones and Molotov cocktails at Israeli soldiers, who responded with rubber-coated steel bul- lets and live ammunition. But both sides have employed greater force than in :,;-:,,:. The militant wing of Fatah, which has coordinated many street actions, now has a substantial cache of small arms and has fired often on Israeli troops. The Israeli military response escalated 12 WWW.MERIP.ORG dramatically after two soldiers, allegedly lost in the PA-controlled West Bank town of Ramallah, were killed October :: by a Palestinian mob returning from the funeral of an unarmed young man whom soldiers had shot dead the day before. The IDF attacked PA instal- lations in Ramallah, Gaza and elsewhere with helicopter gunships and missiles. Subsequently, the IDF has not always waited for Israelis to die before answering Pal- estinian small arms fire with tank shells and artillery, including the shelling of civilian neighborhoods in the West Bank and Gaza. For these actions and the use of live ammunition to control demonstrations of unarmed Palestinians, several international human rights organizations have condemned Israel for use of excessive force. The UN Security Council passed a similar condemnation, from which the US abstained, and on October :c, the UN General Assembly approved a resolution condemning Israel. Israel, the US and four Polynesian island na- tions voted no, and a third of the assembly abstained. Despite a truce agreement at Sharm al-Sheikh, a later agreement to quell violence between Arafat and Shi- mon Peres and Bill Clintons attempts to restart nego- tiations in January :cc:, the second intifada did not look like it would end soon. In December :ccc, Barak called early elections for prime minister to forestall a likely vote of no confidence in the Knesset. He will face Ariel Sharon in the February o election. To date over ,,c people, about ,c percent of them Palestinian, have been killed in the violence. While the outcome of the uprising is very unclear, it is probably impos- sible to resume the Oslo peace process without major modifications to its basic framework. The Palestinian street has definitively rejected Oslo, and top officials of the PA now say that UN resolutions must form the basis of future final status talks. Your donation can help offset the cost of this primer! 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