History of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Template:Campaignbox Arab-Israeli conflict The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict covers from the end of the 19th century to the present day. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict centers on conflicting, mutually exclusive claims to the area called Palestine by the Palestinians and the Land of Israel by Israelis.

Historical overview

The historical overview below is divided into the main six time periods of the conflict which fundamentally differ from each other (see The periods of the conflict).

Late 19th century-1920: Origins

See also: Zionism, Palestinian nationalism, Balfour Declaration of 1917, and McMahon-Hussein Correspondence

The roots of the conflict can be traced to the late 19th century, with a rise in national movements, including Zionism and Arab nationalism. Zionism, the Jewish national movement, was established as a political movement in 1897, largely as a response to anti-Semitism in Russia and Europe. While Arab nationalism, at least in an early form, and Syrian nationalism were the dominant tendencies along with continued loyalty to the Ottoman state, Palestinian nationalism was marked by a reaction to Zionism. The Zionist movement called for the establishment of a Jewish nation-state in Palestine so that they might find sanctuary and self-determination there. Zionists increasingly came to hold that this state should be in their historic homeland, which they referred to as the Land of Israel. The World Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund encouraged immigration and funded purchase of land, both under Ottoman rule and under British rule, in the region of Palestine.

French and British influence and control (Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916)

Before World War I, the Middle East region, including Palestine, was under the control of the Ottoman Empire nearly 400 years. Towards the end of the 19th century, Palestine and the area beyond was inhabited predominantly by Arab Muslims, Bedouin (principally in the Negev and Jordan valley) with smaller numbers of Christians (predominantly Arab), Druze, Circassians and Jews (predominantly Sephardic). At that time most of the Jews worldwide lived outside of Palestine, predominantly in eastern and central Europe as a result of the expulsion or emigration from Palestine during the Jewish Diaspora.

Zionist ambitions were increasingly identified as a threat by Palestinian Arab leaders. Cases of land purchases by halutzim and the eviction of fellaheen that followed, aggravated the issue. Ottoman land purchase regulations were brought in after local complaints in opposition to increasing immigration. Ottoman policy makers in the late 19th century were apprehensive of the growing penetration into the region by Russian and the central European powers, through intrusion of émigrés from the Russian Empire who were principally loyal to Russia. The reason being it followed the dismantling of Ottoman authority in the Balkan region. The initial hostility, in the 1880s, to Jewish immigration was on the grounds of them being Russian and European, not as Jews, it was seen as a threat to the cultural make-up of the region. The significance, to the region, of the anti-Jewish riots (pogroms) in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and anti-immigration legislation being enacted in Europe was that Jewish immigration waves started to arrive to Palestine (see First Aliyah and Second Aliyah). The Palestinian Arab protests against land purchases led to the Ottoman authorities banning land sales to foreigners in 1892 as the extent of the various Zionist enterprises became apparent. By 1914 the population of Jews in Palestine had risen to 60,000, with around 33,000 of these being recent settlers.

In World War I, Turkey sided with Germany. As a result, it was embroiled in a conflict with Great Britain. The promise to release Palestine from the control of the Ottoman Empire, led the Jewish population and the Arab population in Palestine to support the alignment of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia during the World War I. In the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence there was an undertaking to form an Arab state in exchange for the Great Arab Revolt and in the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to " favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, but that nothing should be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine." In 1916, the Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreement allocated to the British Empire the area of present day Jordan, the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, and Iraq. The Balfour Declaration was seen by Jewish nationalists as the cornerstone of a future Jewish homeland on both sides of the Jordan River. The Balfour Declaration increased the Arab concerns.

By 1914 the population of Jews in Palestine had risen to 60,000, with around 33,000 of these being recent halutzim.Between 1919 and 1926, 90,000 immigrants arrived in Palestine because of the growth of anti-Semitism, such as in the Ukraine where 100,000 Jews were killed. This notable increase caused Palestinian Arab resentment of British policies on Jewish immigration. Zionist agencies legally purchased land from absentee landlords, such as the Jezreel Valley from the Sursuk family of Beirut, and replaced the fellahin tenants with European halutzim which caused the Palestinian Arabs to feel dispossessed.

Eventually, in 1917, the British forces managed to defeat the Ottoman Turkish forces and occupied Palestine. The land remained under British military administration for the remainder of the war.

The Balfour Declaration of 1917 which supported the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine and protected the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities.

On January 3, 1919, future president of the World Zionist Organization Chaim Weizmann and the future King Faisal I of Iraq signed the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement for Arab-Jewish cooperation in the Middle East in which Faisal conditionally accepted the Balfour Declaration based on the fulfillment of British wartime promises of development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Faisal's agreement with Weizmann led the Palestinian Arab population to reject the Syrian-Arab-Nationalist movement led by Faisal (in which many previously placed their hopes) and instead to agitate for Palestine to become a separate state, with an Arab majority.

At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles, Turkey's loss of its Middle East Empire was formalized.

1920-48: British Mandate of Palestine

See also: British Mandate of Palestine, 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine, and Declaration of Independence (Israel)

After World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, in 1920 the League of Nations formally assigned the Palestine mandate to the United Kingdom, endorsing the terms of the Balfour Declaration and additionally requiring the creation of an independent Jewish Agency that would administer Jewish affairs in Palestine.

The Jewish immigration to Israel continued to grow significantly during the period of British Mandate due to the growth of anti-Semitism in Europe. Between 1919 and 1926, 90,000 immigrants arrived in Palestine because of the growth of anti-Semitism, such as in the Ukraine where 100,000 Jews were killed. This notable increase caused Palestinian Arab resentment of British policies on Jewish immigration. Zionist agencies legally purchased land from absentee landlords, such as the Jezreel Valley from the Sursuk family of Beirut, and replaced the fellahin tenants with European Jewish settlers which caused the Palestinian Arabs to feel dispossessed. The Jewish immigration to Palestine was especially significant after the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany – following which the Jewish population in Palestine was doubled.

1936-39 Arab revolt in Palestine

The Arab population in the Palestine opposed the immigration increase of the Jewish population because they perceived the massive influx of Jewish immigrants as a real threat to their national identity and to their attribution to the surrounding Arabic countries. Following this, during the 1920s the relations between the Jewish populations of the Arab population deteriorated and the hostility between the two groups intensified. The Arab population of the Palestine region whom opposed the Yishuv and the British Pro-Zionist policies started to use means of violence and terror against the Jewish population. Arab gangs started committing terror act and murder acts against the Jewish convoys and Jewish residents.

From 1921 to 1948 the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni became the leader of the Palestinian national movement and played a key role in the Palestinian opposition, causing religious riots against the Jewish population in Palestine. The Mufti stirred religious passions against Jews by alleging that Jews were seeking to rebuild the Jewish Temple on the site of the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque and responded by trying to gain control of the Western Wall (the Kotel), saying that it was sacred to the Muslims.

The first major riots held against the Jewish population in Palestine were the Jaffa riots which occurred in 1921. As a result of the Jaffa riots, the Haganah was founded as a defense force for the Jewish population of the British Mandate for Palestine. Religious tension over the Kotel and the escalation of the tensions between the Arab and Jewish populations led to the 1929 Palestine riots. In these religious-nationalist riots, Jews were massacred in Hebron, and the survivors were expelled from the town. Devastation also took place in Safed and Jerusalem. In 1936, as Europe was preparing for war, the Supreme Muslim Council in Palestine, led by Amin al-Husayni, instigated the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine in which Palestinian Arabs rioted and murdered Jews in various cities. In 1937 Amin al-Husayni, which was wanted by the British, fled Palestine and took refuge successively in Lebanon, Iraq, Italy and finally Nazi Germany.

The British responded to the outbreaks of violence with the Haycraft Commission of Inquiry (1921), the Shaw Report (1930), the Peel Commission of 1936-1937, and the White Paper of 1939. The Peel Commission proposed a failed partition plan, while the White Paper sought a one-state solution, established a quota for Jewish immigration set by the British in the short-term and by the Arab population in the long-term and placed restrictions on the rights of Jews to buy land from Arabs in an attempt to limit the socio-political damage. These restrictions remained until the end of the mandate period, a period which occurred in parallel with World War II and the Holocaust during which many Jewish refugees tried to escape Europe. As a result, during the 1930s and 1940s the leadership of the Yishuv arranged a couple of illegal immigration waves of Jews to the British Mandate of Palestine (see also Aliyah Bet), which caused even more tensions in the region.

Ben-Gurion said he wanted to "concentrate the masses of our people in this country [Palestine] and its environs." When he proposed accepting the Peel proposals in 1937, which included a Jewish state in part of Palestine, Ben-Gurion told the twentieth Zionist Congress, "The Jewish state now being offered to us is not the Zionist objective. [...] But it can serve as a decisive stage along the path to greater Zionist implementation. It will consolidate in Palestine, within the shortest possible time, the real Jewish force, which will lead us to our historic goal. In a discussion in the Jewish Agency he said that he wanted a Jewish-Arab agreement "on the assumption that after we become a strong force, as a result of the creation of the state, we shall abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine."

During the 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine ties were made between the Arab leadership in Palestine and the Nazi movement in Germany. These connections led to cooperation between Palestinian national movement and the Axis powers later on during World War II. In May 1941 Amin al-Husayni issued a fatwa for a holy war against Britain. In 1941 during a meeting with Adolf Hitler Amin al-Husayni asked Germany to oppose, as part of the Arab struggle for independence, the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. He received a promise from Hitler that Germany would eliminate the existing Jewish foundations in Palestine after the Germans would gain victory in the war. During the war Amin al-Husayni joined the Nazis, serving with the Waffen SS in Bosnia.

After World War II, as a result of the British policies, the Jewish resistance organizations united and established the Jewish Resistance Movement which coordinated armed attacks against the British military which took place between 1945 and 1946. Following the King David Hotel bombing (in which the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of the British administration) which shocked the public because of the deaths of many innocent civilians, the Jewish Resistance Movement was disassembled in 1946. The leadership of the Yishuv decided instead to concentrate their efforts on the illegal immigration and began to organize a massive immigration of European Jewish refugees to Palestine using small boats operating in secrecy, many of which were captured at sea by the British and imprisoned in camps on Cyprus. About 70,000 Jews were brought to Palestine in this way between 1946 and 1947. Details of the Holocaust had a major effect on the situation in Palestine and propelled large support for the Zionist cause. In addition, the British government which tried to resolve the issues through the years in the means of diplomacy eventually decided to return the written mandate of Palestine to the Council of the United Nations.

UN 1947 partition plan for Palestine

The newly formed United Nations recommended that Mandatory Palestine be split into three parts, a Jewish State with a majority Jewish population, an Arab State with a majority Arab population, and an International Zone comprising Jerusalem and the surrounding area where the Jewish and Arab populations would be roughly equal. Resolution 181 decided the size of land allotted to each party. The Jewish State would be roughly 5,700 square miles (15,000 km²) in size and would contain a sizable Arab minority population. The Arab state would comprise roughly 4,300 square miles (11,000 km²) and would contain a tiny Jewish population. Neither state would be contiguous. Jerusalem and Bethlehem were to be put under the control of the United Nations. Neither side was satisfied with the Partition Plan. The Jews disliked losing Jerusalem - which had a majority Jewish population at that time - and worried about the tenability of a noncontiguous state. However, most of the Jews in Palestine accepted the plan, and the Jewish Agency (the de facto government of the Yishuv) campaigned fervently for its approval. The more extreme Jewish groups, such as the Irgun, rejected the plan. The Arab leadership argued that it violated the rights of the majority of the people in Palestine, which at the time was 67% non-Jewish (1,237,000) and 33% Jewish (608,000). Arab leaders also argued a large number of Arabs would be trapped in the Jewish State. Every major Arab leader objected in principle to the right of the Jews to an independent state in Palestine, reflecting the policies of the Arab League.

The UN General Assembly voted on the Partition Plan on November 29, 1947. Thirty-three states voted in favor of the Plan, while 13 countries opposed it. Ten countries abstained from the vote. The Yishuv accepted the plan, but the Arabs in Palestine and the surrounding Arab states rejected the plan. The Arab countries (all of which had opposed the plan) proposed to query the International Court of Justice on the competence of the General Assembly to partition a country against the wishes of the majority of its inhabitants, but were again defeated. The division was to take effect on the date of British withdrawal from the territory (15 May 1948).

The approval of the plan sparked attacks carried out by Arab irregulars against the Jewish population in Palestine. Those attacks consisted mainly of ambushes against logistical convoys and traveling Jews. As the British evacuation from the region progressed, both parties started fighting openly against each other over the control of the strategic transportation routes in the Palestine.

Ben-Gurion expected a violent reaction to the UN partition plan and so he and his commanders mobilized the Haganah on 30 November 1947. "At the same time," Benny Morris wrote, "IZL and LHI acting independently beginning in early December 1947 reverted to their 1937-1939 strategy of placing bombs in crowded markets and bus stops. The Arabs retaliated exploding bombs of their own."

The violence became more prevalent. Murders, reprisals, and counter-reprisals came fast on each other's heels, resulting in dozens of victims killed on both sides in the process. The sanguinary impasse persisted as no force intervened to put a stop to the escalating cycles of violence. During the first two months of the war, around 1,000 people were killed and 2,000 people injured. By the end of March, the figure had risen to 2,000 dead and 4,000 wounded. These figures correspond to an average of more than 100 deaths and 200 casualties per week in a population of 2,000,000. The Yishuv gained the upper hand in the later stages of inter-communal fighting where "Jewish forces exceeded the UN-proposed boundaries for the Jewish state, which were militarily indefensible .... Part of Palestine had now become Israel, while the area to be known as the West Bank ... was annexed by Jordan ..., and what became the Gaza Strip ... remained militarily governed by Egypt."

David Ben-Gurion publicly pronouncing the Declaration of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948

On the May 14, 1948 David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of the State of Israel. The declaration of the state referred to the decision of the UN General Assembly as a legal justification for the establishment of the state. The declaration stated that the Arabs whom would remain within the State of Israel would be granted equal rights and representation in the state’s institutions.

1948-67

See also: 1948 Arab–Israeli War, 1948 Palestinian exodus, Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt, Rule of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan, 1949–1956 Palestinian exodus, Jewish exodus from Arab lands, Palestinian fedayeen, and Six-Day War

The termination of the British mandate over Palestine and the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel sparked a full-scale war (1948 Arab–Israeli War) which erupted after May 14, 1948. On 15-16 May, the four armies of Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Iraq invaded the newly self-declared state followed not long after by units from Lebanon. While in some areas, Arab commanders ordered villagers to evacuate for military purposes, there is no evidence that the Arab leadership made a blanket call for evacuation. Many rumors of awful acts which were committed by Jewish fighters as well as a number of serious actions taken by Jewish forces led to a growing number of fleeing Arab population.

The 1949 Green Line borders

The war resulted in an Israeli victory, with Israel annexing territory beyond the partition borders for a proposed Jewish state and into the borders for a proposed Palestinian Arab state. Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt signed the 1949 Armistice Agreements with Israel. The remaining territories, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, were occupied by Egypt and Transjordan, respectively. Jordan also annexed East Jerusalem while Israel administered west Jerusalem. In 1950, The West Bank was unilaterally incorporated into Jordan.

Due to the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, about 856,000 Jews fled or were expelled from their homes in Arab countries and most were forced to abandon their property. Jews from Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and North Africa left due to physical and political insecurity, with the majority being forced to abandon their properties. 260,000 reached Israel in 1948-1951, 600,000 by 1972.Additionally, due to the war, between 700,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from the area that became Israel and became what is known today as the Palestinian refugees. The Palestinian refugees were not allowed to return to Israel and most of the neighboring Arab states, with the exception of Transjordan, denied granting them - or their descendants - citizenship. In 1949, Israel offered to allow some members of families that had been separated during the war to return, to release refugee accounts frozen in Israeli banks, and to repatriate 100,000 refugees. The Arab states rejected this compromise, at least in part because they were unwilling to take any action that might be construed as recognition of Israel. As of today, most of them still live in refugee camps and the question of how their situation should be resolved remains one of the main issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

While most of the Palestinian Arab population that remained in Israel after the war was granted an Israeli citizenship, Arab Israelis were subject to a martial law up to 1966. A variety of legal measures facilitated the transfer of land abandoned by Arabs to state ownership. In 1966, security restrictions placed on Arab citizens of Israel were lifted completely, and the government set about dismantling most of the discriminatory laws and Arab citizens of Israel were granted the same rights as Jewish citizens.

After the 1948 war, some of the Palestinian refugees whom lived in camps in the West Bank within Jordanian, controlled territory, the Gaza Strip Egyptian controlled territory and Syria tried to return by infiltration into the Israel’s territory, and some of those Palestinians who had remained in Israel were declared infiltrators by Israel and were deported. Ben-Gurion emphatically rejected the return of refugees in the Israeli Cabinet decision of June 1948 reiterated in a letter to the UN of 2 August 1949 containing the Text of a statement made by Moshe Sharett on 1 August 1948 where the basic attitude of the Israeli Government was that a solution must be sought, not through the return of the refugees to Israel, but through the resettlement of the Palestinian Arab refugee population in other states.

The buildup of the conflict along the Jordanian border went through gradual stages. Building up from small Israeli raids with Palestinian counter raids through to the major Israeli incursions, Beit Jalla, Qibya massacre, Ma'ale Akrabim massacre, Nahalin reprisal raid, Rantis and Falameh reprisal raid. The Lavon Affair led to a deeper distrust of Jews in Egypt, from whose community key agents in the operation had been recruited, and as a result Egypt retaliated against its Jewish community. It was only after Israel's raid on an Egyptian military outpost in Gaza in February 1955 that the Egyptian government began to actively sponsor, train, and arm the Palestinian volunteers from Gaza as Fedayeen units which committed raids into Israel.

Following years of attacks by the Palestinian Fedayeen, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was established in 1964. Its goal was the liberation of Palestine through armed struggle. The original PLO Charter stated the desire for a Palestinian state established within the entirety of the borders of the British mandate prior to the 1948 war (i.e. the current boundaries of the State of Israel) and claimed it to be a "national duty ... to purge the Zionist presence from Palestine." It also called for a right of return and self-determination for Palestinians.

An Israeli raid on an Egyptian military outpost in Gaza in February 1955, resulted in 37 Egyptian soldiers killed. Soon after, the Egyptian government began to actively sponsored, trained and armed the Palestinian volunteers from Gaza as Fedayeen units, which commited raids into Israel. In 1967, after years of Egyptian-aided Palestinian Fedayeen attacks stemming from the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian expulsion of UNEF, Egypt's amassing of an increased number of troops in the Sinai Peninsula, and several other threatening gestures from other neighboring Arab nations, Israel launched a preemptive strike against Egypt. The strike and the operations that followed became known as the Six-Day War. At the end of the Six-Day War, Israel had captured, among other territories, the Gaza Strip from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan (including East Jerusalem). Shortly after Israel seized control over Jerusalem, Israel asserted sovereignty over the entire city of Jerusalem and the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem were given a permanent resident status in Israel. The status of the city as Israel's capital and the disputed status of the West Bank and Gaza Strip created a new set of contentious issues in the conflict. This meant that Israel controlled the entire former British mandate of Palestine that under the Balfour Declaration was supposed to allow a Jewish state within its borders. The fact that Palestine was never a sovereign state gave the Israelis subsequent support for their argument that they did not occupy these territories, and therefore did not break the Fourth Accord of the Geneva Conventions and international law. Following the Six-Day War, the United Nations Security Council issued a resolution with a clause affirming "the necessity ... for achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem," referring to the Palestinian refugee problem.

1967-93

See also: 1978 South Lebanon conflict, 1982 Lebanon War, and First Intifada

The defeat of the Arab countries in the Six-Day War prompted fractured Palestinian political and militant groups to give up any remaining hope they had placed in pan-Arabism. In July 1968 armed, non-state actors such as Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine achieved the majority of the Palestinian National Council votes, and on February 3, 1969, at the Palestinian National Council in Cairo, the leader of the Fatah, Yasser Arafat was elected as the chairman of the PLO. From the start, the organization used armed violence against civilian and military targets in the conflict with Israel. The PLO tried to take over the population of the West Bank, but the IDF forces deported them into Jordan where they began to act against the Jordanian rule (the rate of Palestinians in Jordan was about 70 percentage of the total population, which was mostly consisted of refugees) and from there attacked Israel numerous times, using the infiltration of terrorists and shooting Katyusha rockets. This led retaliation from Israel.

In the late 1960s, tensions between Palestinians and the Jordanian government increased greatly. In September 1970 a military struggle was held between Jordan and the Palestinian armed organizations. King Hussein of Jordan was able to quell the Palestinian revolt. During the armed conflict, tens of thousands of people were killed, the vast majority of whom were Palestinians. The fighting continued until July 1971 with the expulsion of the PLO to Lebanon. A large number of Palestinians immigrated to Lebanon after Black September and joined the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees already there. The center of PLO activity then shifted to Lebanon, where the 1969 Cairo agreement gave the Palestinians autonomy within the south of the country. The area controlled by the PLO became known by the international press and locals as "Fatahland" and contributed to the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War.

The PLO took advantage of its control southern Lebanon in order to launch Katyusha rocket attacks at Galilee villages and execute terror attacks on the northern border. At the beginning of the 1970s the Palestinian terror organizations, headed by the PLO and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine waged an international campaign against Israelis, primarily in Europe. In an attempt to publicize the Palestinian cause, frustrated Palestinian guerrilla groups in Lebanon attacked Israeli civilian 'targets' like schools, buses and apartment blocks, with occasional attacks abroad—for example, at embassies or airports—and with the hijacking of airliners. The peak of the Palestinian terrorism wave against Israelis occurred in 1972 and took form in several acts of terrorism, most prominently the Sabena Flight 572 hijacking, the Lod Airport massacre and the Munich massacre.

File:Ap munich905 t.jpg

Image of one of the masked terrorists looking over the balcony of the Israeli team quarters. This is the most widely recognizable and iconic photo of the Munich Massacre.

The Munich massacre was perpetrated during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. 11 members of the Israeli team were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists. A botched German rescue attempt led to the death of all 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. Five of the terrorists were shot and three survived unharmed. The three surviving Palestinians were released without charge by the German authorities a month later. The Israeli government responded with an assassination campaign against the organizers and a raid on the PLO headquarters in Lebanon. Other notable events include the hijacking of several civilian airliners, the Savoy Hotel attack, the Zion Square explosive refrigerator and the Coastal Road massacre. During the 1970s and the early 1980s, Israel suffered attacks from PLO bases in Lebanon, such as the Avivim school bus massacre in 1970 and the Ma'alot massacre in 1974 in which Palestinians attacked a school in Ma'alot killing twenty-two children.

In 1973 The Syrian and Egyptian armies launched the Yom Kippur War, a well-planned surprise attack against Israel. The Egyptians and Syrians advanced during the first 24–48 hours, after which momentum began to swing in Israel's favor. Eventually a Disengagement of Forces agreement was signed between the parties and a ceasefire took effect that ended the war. The Yom Kippur War paved the way for the Camp David Accords in 1978, which set a precedent for future peace negotiations.

In the mid-1970s many attempts were made by Gush Emunim movement to establish outposts or resettle former Jewish areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Initially the Israeli government forcibly disbanded these settlements. However, in the absence of peace talks to determine the future of these and other occupied territories, Israel ceased enforcement of the original ban on settlement, which led to the founding of the first settlements in these regions.

In July 1976, an Air France plane carrying 260 people was hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists and flown to Uganda. There, the Germans separated the Jewish passengers from the Non-Jewish passengers, releasing the non-Jews. The hijackers threatened to kill the remaining 100-odd Jewish passengers (and the French crew who had refused to leave). Israel responded with a rescue operation in which the kidnapped Jews were freed.

The rise of the Likud party to the government in 1977 led to the establishment of a large number of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

On March 11, 1978, a force of nearly a dozen armed Palestinian terrorists landed their boats near a major coastal road in Israel. There they hijacked a bus and sprayed gunfire inside and at passing vehicles, killing thirty-seven civilians. In response, the IDF launched Operation Litani three days later, with the goal of taking control of Southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. The IDF achieved this goal, and the PLO withdrew to the north into Beirut. After Israel withdrew from Lebanon, Fatah forces resumed firing rockets into the Galilee region of Israel. During the years following operation Litani, many diplomatic efforts were made which tried to end the war on the Israeli-Lebanese border, including the effort of Philip Habib, the emissary of Ronald Regan who in the summer of 1981 managed to arrange a lasting cease-fire between Israel and the PLO which lasted about a year.

Israel ended the ceasefire after an assassination attempt on the Israeli Ambassador in the Britain, Shlomo Argov, in mid-1982 (which was made by Abu Nidal's organization that was ostracized from the PLO). This led Israel to invade Lebanon in the 1982 Lebanon War on June 6, 1982 with the aim to protect the North of Israel from terrorist attacks. IDF invaded Lebanon and even occupied Beirut. To end the siege, the US and European governments brokered an agreement guaranteeing safe passage for Arafat and Fatah – guarded by a multinational force – to exile in Tunis. During the war, Israeli allied Phalangist Christian Arab militias carried out the bloody Sabra and Shatila Massacre in which 700-3,500 unarmed Palestinians were killed by the Phalangist militias while the Israeli troops surrounded the camps with tanks and checkpoints, monitoring entrances and exits. For its involvement in the Lebanese war and its indirect responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila Massacre, Israel was heavily criticized, including from within. An Israeli Commission of Inquiry found that Israeli military personnel, among them defense minister and future prime minister Ariel Sharon, had several times become aware that a massacre was in progress without taking serious steps to stop it, leading to his resignation as Israel's Defense Minister. In June 1985, Israel withdrew most of its troops from Lebanon, leaving a residual Israeli force and an Israeli-supported militia in southern Lebanon as a "security zone" and buffer against attacks on its northern territory.

Meanwhile, the PLO led an international diplomatic front against Israel in Tunis. Following the wave of terror attacks including the murder on MS Achille Lauro in October 1985, Israel bombed the PLO commandership in Tunis during Operation Wooden Leg.

File:First intifada.jpg

Media coverage of the first Intifada (1987-1992) often focused on young Palestinians throwing stones at tanks and Israeli soldiers.

The continuing establishment of the Israeli settlements and continuing Israeli occupation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip led to the first Palestinian Intifada (uprising) in December 1987 which lasted until the Madrid Conference of 1991, despite Israeli attempts to suppress it. It was a partially spontaneous uprising, but by January 1988, it was already under the direction from the PLO headquarters in Tunis, which carried out ongoing terrorist attacks targeting Israeli civilians. The riots escalated daily throughout the territories and were especially severe in the Gaza Strip. The Intifada was renowned by its stone-throwing demonstrations by youth against the heavily-armed Israeli Defense Forces. Over the course of the First Intifada, a total 1,551 Palestinians and 422 Israelis were killed. In 1987, Ahmed Yassin co-founded Hamas with Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi. Since then, Hamas has been involved in what it calls "armed resistance" against Israel, which includes mainly terrorist acts against Israeli civilian population.

On November 15 1988, a year after the outbreak of the first intifada, the PLO declared the establishment of the Palestinian state in Algiers. The proclaimed "State of Palestine" is not and has never actually been an independent state, as it has never had sovereignty over any territory in history. The declaration is generally interpreted to have recognized Israel within its pre-1967 boundaries, and its right to exist. Following this declaration, the United States and many other countries recognized the PLO.

Prior to the Gulf War in 1990-91, Arafat supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and opposed the US-led coalition attack on Iraq. Arafat's decision also severed relations with Egypt and many of the oil-producing Arab states that supported the US-led coalition. Many in the US also used Arafat's position as a reason to disregard his claims to being a partner for peace. After the end of hostilities, many Arab states that backed the coalition cut off funds to the PLO and bringing the PLO to the brink of crisis.

In the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, the coalition's victory in the Gulf War opened a new opportunity to advance the peace process. The U.S launched a diplomatic initiative in cooperation with Russia which resulted in the October 1991 Madrid peace conference. The conference was hosted by the government of Spain and co-sponsored by the USA and the USSR. The Madrid peace conference was an early attempt by the international community to start a peace process through negotiations involving Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Arab countries including Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The Palestinian team, due to Israeli objections, was initially formally a part of a joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation and consisted of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza without open PLO associations.

1993-2000: Oslo peace process

Main article: Oslo Accords

Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton, and Yasser Arafat during the Oslo Accords on 13 September 1993.

In January 1993, Israeli and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) negotiators began secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway. On September 9, 1993, Yasser Arafat sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, stating that the PLO officially recognized Israel's right to exist and officially renouncing terrorism. On September 13, Arafat and Rabin signed a Declaration of Principles in Washington, D.C., on the basis of the negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian teams in Oslo, Norway. The declaration was a major conceptual breakthrough achieved outside of the Madrid framework which specifically barred foreign-residing PLO leaders from the negotiation process. After this, a long process of negotiation known as the "Oslo peace process" began.

During the Oslo peace process throughout the 1990s, as both sides obligated to work towards a two-state solution, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization negotiated, unsuccessfully, and tried to reach to a mutual agreement.

One of the main features of the Oslo Peace Process was the establishment of the autonomous governmental authority, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its associated governing institutions to administer Palestinian communities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. During the Oslo peace process throughout the 1990s, the Palestinian Authority was ceded authority from Israel over various regions of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This process gave it governmental and economic authority over many Palestinian communities. It also gave the PA many of the components of a modern government and society, including a Palestinian police force, legislature, and other institutions. In return for these concessions, the Palestinian Authority was asked to promote tolerance for Israel within Palestinian society, and acceptance of Israel's right to exist.

One of the most contentious issues surrounding this peace process is whether the PA in fact met its obligations to promote tolerance. There is specific evidence that the PA actively funded and supported many terrorist activities and groups. Palestinians stated that any terrorist acts stemmed from Israel not having conceded enough land and political power to win support among ordinary Palestinians. Israelis stated that these acts of terrorism were because the PA openly encouraged and supported incitement against Israel, and terrorism. There was increasing disagreement and debate among Israelis about the amount of positive results and benefits produced by the Oslo process. Supporters claimed it was producing advances leading to a viable Palestinian society which would promote genuine acceptance of Israel. Opponents claimed that concessions were merely emboldening extremist elements to commit more violence in order to win further concessions, without providing any real acceptance, benefits, goodwill, or reconciliation for Israel in return.

In February 1994 during the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre a follower of the Kach movement killed 25 Palestinian-Arabs at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. As an act of revenge to the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, in April 1994, Hamas launched suicide bomber attacks targeting Israeli civilian population in many locations throughout Israel, however, once the Hamas started to the use these means it became a regular pattern of action against Israel.

In September 28, 1995, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip on in Washington. the agreement marked the conclusion of the first stage of negotiations between Israel and the PLO. The agreement allowed the PLO leadership to relocate to the occupied territories and granted autonomy to the Palestinians with talks to follow regarding final status. In return the Palestinians recognized Israel's right to exist and promised to abstain from use of terror. However the agreement was opposed by the Hamas and other Palestinian factions whom at this point were already committing suicide bomber attacks throughout Israel.

Tensions in Israel, arising from the continuation of terrorism and anger at loss of territory, led to the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin by a right-wing Jewish radical on November 4, 1995. Upon Rabin's assassination, the Israeli prime minister's post was filled by Shimon Peres. Peres continued Rabin's policies in supporting the peace process.

In 1996, increasing Israeli doubts about the peace process, led to Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party winning the election, mainly due to his promise to use a more rigid line in the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu raised many questions about many central premises of the Oslo process. One of his main points was disagreement with the Oslo premise that the negotiations should proceed in stages, meaning that concessions should be made to Palestinians before any resolution was reached on major issues, such as the status of Jerusalem, and the amending of the Palestinian National Charter. Oslo supporters had claimed that the multi-stage approach would build goodwill among Palestinians and would propel them to seek reconciliation when these major issues were raised in later stages. Netanyahu claimed that these concessions only gave encouragement to extremist elements, without receiving any tangible gestures in return. He called for tangible gestures of Palestinian goodwill in return for Israeli concessions.

In January 1996 Israel assassinated the chief bombmaker of Hamas, Yahya Ayyash. In reaction to this, Hamas carried out a wave of suicide attacks in Israel. Following these attacks the Palestinian Authority began to act against the Hamas and oppress their activity.

In January 1997 Netanyahu signed the Hebron Protocol with the Palestinian Authority, resulting in the redeployment of Israeli forces in Hebron and the turnover of civilian authority in much of the area to the Palestinian Authority.

In 1997, after two deadly suicide attacks in Jerusalem by the Hamas, Israeli secret agents were sent to Jordan to eliminate the political head of the Department of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, using a special poison (See the assassination attempt on Khaled Mashal). Nevertheless, the operation entangled and the secret agents were captured. In return of their release Israel sent over the medicine which saved his life and freed a dozen of Palestinian prisoners including Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. This release and the increase of the security forces of the Palestinian Authority, led to a cease-fire in the suicide attacks until the outbreak of the Second Intifada.

Eventually, the lack of progress of the peace process led to new negotiations which produced the Wye River Memorandum which detailed the steps to be taken by the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority to implement the earlier Interim Agreement of 1995. It was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, and on November 17, 1998, Israel's 120 member parliament, the Knesset, approved the Wye River Memorandum by a vote of 75-19.

In 1999, Ehud Barak was elected prime minister. Barak continued Rabin's policies in supporting the peace process. In 2000, 18 years after Israel occupied Southern Lebanon in the 1982 Lebanon War, the occupation ended as Israel unilaterally withdrew its remaining forces from the "security zone" in southern Lebanon.

As the violence increased with little hope for diplomacy, in July 2000 the Camp David 2000 Summit was held which was aimed at reaching a "final status" agreement. The summit collapsed after Yasser Arafat would not accept a proposal drafted by American and Israeli negotiators. Barak was prepared to offer the entire Gaza Strip, a Palestinian capital in a part of East Jerusalem, 73% of the West Bank (excluding eastern Jerusalem) raising to 90-94% after 10–25 years, and financial reparations for Palestinian refugees for peace. Arafat turned down the offer without making a counter-offer.

2000 until today: Second Intifada

See also: Second Intifada, Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, Israeli West Bank barrier, Gaza–Israel conflict, and 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict

The approved West Bank barrier route as of May 2005

In September 2000 the Second Intifada broke out, and has been more deadly than the first Intifada. Many Palestinians consider the Second Intifada to be a war of national liberation against foreign occupation, whereas many Israelis consider it to be a terrorist campaign.

The failure of the peace process and the eruption of the Second Intifada, which included increased Palestinian terror attacks being made against Israeli civilians, led much of the Israeli public and political leadership to lose confidence in the Palestinian Authority as a peace partner. Due to an increase in terror attacks during the Second Intifada, mainly carried out by Hamas against Israeli civilians, Israeli troops began conducting regular raids and arrests inside the West Bank. In addition, Israel increased the selective assassinations, initially aimed at active terrorist fighters and later on aimed at the terrorist leadership as well, including Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. This policy spurred controversy within Israel and worldwide.

On February 6, 2001, the lack of diplomatic progress by Prime Minister Barak caused Israeli voters to elect Ariel Sharon as his successor. Sharon refused to continue negotiations with the PA at the Taba Summit, or under any aspect of the Oslo Accords.

At the Beirut Summit in 2002, the Arab League proposed an alternative political plan aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but it was rejected by Israel (mostly because it demanded a Palestinian right of return).

In March 2002, in response to a terrorist attack known as the Passover Massacre, Sharon ordered Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale military operation carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in Palestinian cities in the West Bank. As part of the efforts to fight Palestinian Terrorism, in June 2002, Israel began construction of the West Bank Fence along the Green Line border. After the barrier went up, Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks across Israel dropped by 90%. However, this barrier became a major issue of contention between the two sides.

In 2003, Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon announced a controversial disengagement plan which aimed to remove the friction areas between Jews and Arabs in a one-sided way as Israel was to remove all of its civilian and military presence in the Gaza Strip (namely 21 Jewish settlements there, and four in the West Bank), but continue to supervise and guard the external envelope on land, except for a border crossing with Egypt. Israel also maintained exclusive control in the air space of Gaza. The disengagement plan was implemented in 2005. Following the withdrawal, the Israeli town of Sderot and other Israeli communities near the Gaza strip became subject to constant shelling and mortar bomb attacks from Gaza with only minimal Israeli response.

On March 19, 2003 Arafat appointed Mahmoud Abbas as the Prime Minister. The rest of Abbas's term as prime minister continued to be characterized by numerous conflicts between him and Arafat over the distribution of power between the two. The United States and Israel accused Arafat of constantly undermining Abbas and his government. Continuing violence and Israeli "target killings" of known terrorists forced Abbas to pledge a crackdown in order to uphold the Palestinian Authority's side of the Road Map for Peace. This led to a power struggle with Arafat over control of the Palestinian security services; Arafat refused to release control to Abbas, thus preventing him from using them in a crackdown on militants. Abbas resigned from the post of Prime Minister in October 2003, citing lack of support from Israel and the United States as well as "internal incitement" against his government.

Following the November 2004 death of long-time Fatah party PLO leader and PA chairman Yasser Arafat, Fatah member Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian National Authority in January 2005.

One key allegation which emerged against the PA was that Arafat and Fatah had received billions of dollars in aid from foreign nations and organizations and had never used this money to develop Palestinian society. It was alleged that the money was used for Arafat's personal expenses. These allegations gradually grew in prominence, which increased Palestinian popular support for the group Hamas, which was often seen as being more efficient and honest and had built various institutions and social services. Hamas also stated clearly that it did not recognize Israel's right to exist and did not accept the Oslo process nor any other peace process with Israel. It openly stated that it had encouraged and organized acts of terrorism and many attacks.

The strengthening of the Hamas organization amongst the Palestinians, the gradual disintegration of the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah organization, and the Israeli disengagement plan and especially the death of Yasser Arafat led to the policy change of the Hamas movement in early 2005 which started putting greater emphasis to its political characteristics.

In 2006 Palestinian legislative elections Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council, prompting the United States and many European countries to cut off all funds to the Hamas and the Palestinian Authority, insisting that the Hamas must recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace pacts. Israel refused to negotiate with Hamas, since Hamas never renounced its beliefs that Israel has no right to exist and that the entire State of Israel is an illegal occupation which must be wiped out.

Footage of a rocket attack in Southern Israel, March 2009

In June 2006 during a well-planned operation, Hamas managed to cross the border from Gaza, attack an Israeli tank, kill two IDF soldiers and kidnap wounded Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit back into the Gaza Strip. Following the incident and in response to numerous rocket firings by Hamas from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, fighting broke out between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip (see 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict).

In the summer of 2007 a Fatah–Hamas conflict broke out which eventually led Hamas taking control of the Gaza strip which in practice divided the Palestinian Authority into two. Various forces affiliated with Fatah engaged in combat with Hamas, in numerous gun battles. Most Fatah leaders escaped to Egypt and the West Bank, while some were captured and killed. Fatah remained in control of the West Bank, and President Abbas formed a new governing coalition, which some critics of Fatah said subverts the Palestinian Constitution and excludes the majority government of Hamas.

In November 2007 the Annapolis Conference was held. The conference marked the first time a two-state solution was articulated as the mutually agreed-upon outline for addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The conference ended with the issuing of a joint statement from all parties.

A Qassam rocket fired from a civilian area in Gaza towards southern Israel, January 2009

A fragile six-month truce between Hamas and Israel expired on December 19, 2008. Hamas and Israel could not agree on conditions to extend the truce. Hamas blamed Israel for not lifting the Gaza Strip blockade, and for an Israeli raid on a purported tunnel, crossing the border into the Gaza Strip from Israel on November 4, which it held constituted a serious breach of the truce. Israel accuses Hamas of violating the truce citing the frequent rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli cities.

An explosion caused by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza during the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict.

The Israeli operation began with an intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip, targeting Hamas bases, police training camps, police headquarters and offices. Civilian infrastructure, including mosques, houses, medical facilities and schools, were also attacked. Israel has claimed many of these buildings were used by combatants, and as storage spaces for weapons and rockets. Hamas intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against targets in Israel throughout the conflict, hitting previously untargeted cities such as Beersheba and Ashdod. On January 3, 2009, the Israeli ground invasion began.

The operation resulted in the deaths of more than 1,300 Palestinians. The IDF released a report stating that the vast majority of the dead were Hamas militants. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported that 926 of the 1,417 dead had been civilians and non-combatants.

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  Graphic showing the number of Qassam rockets fired by Palestinians from Gaza Strip by month, from 2002 to 2007 according to Israeli Intelligence.
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  Casualties from conflict in Gaza in 2008 were heavily skewed towards Palestinians, according to B'Tselem

Demographic history

Jewish and Arab populations

The following section presents the demographic history of the Jewish and Arab populations in Palestine, Israel and the Palestinian territories spaning through the last two centuries which has been taken from census results and official documents which mention demographic composition. See Demographics of Israel and Demographics of the Palestinian territories for a more detailed overview of the current demographics.

19th century - 1948

Demographics in Palestine Year Jews Arabs Total 1800 6,700 268,000 274,700 1880 24,000 525,000 549,000 1915 87,500 590,000 677,500 1931 174,000 837,000 1,011,000 1936 > 400,000 < 800,000 1,200,000 1947 630,000 1,310,000 1,940,000 UN Partition Plan (1947) Area allotted for the Jewish state Area allotted for the Arab state Jews Arabs Jews Arabs 538,000 397,000 10,000 804,000

1949-67

Demographics in Israel Year Israel Total Jews Arabs 1949 1,013,900 159,1001 1,173,000 1961 ? ? ? 1The decrease in the Arab population between 1947 and 1949 is due to the rejection of the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine, the subsequent 1948 war and the 1948 Palestinian exodus.

Demographics in the Egyptian occupied Gaza Strip and in the Jordanian occupied West Bank Year Egyptian occupied Gaza Strip Jordanian occupied West Bank Total Jews Arabs Jews Arabs 1950 ? 240,000 ? 765,000 ? 1960 ? 302,000 ? 799,000 ?

1967-until today

Demographics in Israel Year Israel Total Jews Arabs 1967 2,383,6002 392,700 2,776,300 1973 2,845,0002 493,200 3,338,200 1983 3,412,5002 706,100 4,118,600 1990 3,946,7002 875,000 4,821,700 1995 4,522,3002 1,004,900 5,527,200 2000 4,955,4002 1,188,700 6,144,100 2006 5,137,800 1,439,700 6,652,896 2 - data which currently includes the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well.

Demographics in the Israeli occupied Gaza Strip and in the Israeli occupied West Bank Year Israeli occupied Gaza Strip Israeli occupied West Bank Total Jews Arabs Jews Arabs 1970 ? 368,000 ? 677,000 ? 1980 ? 497,000 ? 964,000 ? 1985 ? 532,288 ? 1,044,000 ? 1990 ? 642,814 ? 1,254,506 ? 1995 ? 875,231 ? 1,626,689 ? 2000 ? 1,132,063 ? 2,020,298 ? 2006 0 1,428,757 255,600 2,460,492 4,144,849

Jewish and Arab populations in Jerusalem

See also: Demographics of Jerusalem

19th century - 1948

Demographics of Jerusalem

Year	Jews	Arabs	Total
1860	6,000	6,000	12,000
1892	26,000	16,000	42,000
1922	34,000	29,000	63,000
1942	86,000	54,000	140,000
1948	99,830	65,170	165,000

1949-67

Demographics of Jerusalem (July 1967)

Jews	Arabs	Total
200,032	65,968	266,000

1967-until today

Demographics of Jerusalem

Year	Jews	Arabs	Total
1995	417,000	174,400	591,400
2000	437,240	220,260	657,500

See also

• Fedayeen (Palestinian)
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• History of the Arab-Israeli conflict
• Israeli-Palestinian conflict timeline
• Israel and the United Nations
• Palestinian political violence
• Peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Israeli views of the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
• Category:Palestinian politics
• Israeli Settlements in occupied Palestinian territories

Notes

there was a big rocket that went kaboom

References

• Palestine Conciliation Commission, Fourth Progress Report, A/922, 22 September 1949
• "Arab-Israel Conflict." The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. Ed. Avraham Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002.
• Terence Prittie, "Middle East Refugees," in Michael Curtis, et al., The Palestinians: people, history, politics, (NJ: Transaction Books, 1975, ISBN 0-87855-597-8), pp. 66–67, as referenced at [2]

Max was there he saw it all.

See also

• Zionist and Palestinian Arab attitudes before 1948

External links

• Yahoo News Full Coverage: Mideast Conflict
• BBC News, Mideast conflict