INDEX
· Cover
· Concept of Zionism.
· History of Palestine.
·
Main events prior to the 1st World War.
· Balfour Declaration of 1947.
· Violation of UN borders.
· Sinai-Suez War.
· Six-Day War.
· Latest Israelite invasions.
· Creation of the intifada.
·
Attempts at peace in the aftermath of the
events of 11 September.
1. CONCEPT OF ZIONISM
Zionism emerged in Europe at the end
of the 1960s and its most representative figure was the journalist Theodor Hertz,
whose book "The Jewish State" gave rise to the Zionist movement.
Zionism consisted primarily of the
Jewish people's attempt to create a state of their own in Palestine.
In the year 70 of the Christians, the
Jews were expelled from Jerusalem, which was being occupied by the Romans. It
was this expatriation that dispersed the Jews to the four corners of the earth.
Since then and after the exile from Babylon and other expulsions of the Jewish
people, they have sought a return to the State of Israel, considering the Bible
"The homeland of the Jews", so the Zionist movement is a reaction of
Jewish society, hard hit by the wave of anti-Semitism, which had to move from
one country to another to escape persecution.
The ideological pillars of Zionism
consist mainly of:
·
The identification of Israel as a Jewish
state.
·
The justification for vindicating the
legitimacy of the installation of the State of Israel in Palestinian territory
that is found in the Bible and in history.
2. HISTORY OF
PALESTINE.
(Since
C. A. - 1914)
Palestine,
a coastal strip that stretches along the southern part of the eastern
Mediterranean coast, has been a crossroads of civilizations. Mesopotamian Gate,
it allowed contact between Egypt and the civilizations of the Mesopotamian
kingdoms. Palestine suffered conquests and military invasions from the
different empires, which was not an obstacle for the inhabitants of the country
to remain as a people. Since the seventh millennium BC, Palestine has possessed
the oldest urban facilities, including Jericho. From the fourth millennium B.C.
it has been densely inhabited and quite well exploited by its inhabitants. In
ancient times, Palestine was inhabited by several peoples, mostly of the
Semitic race. Of these peoples, the oldest of whom we have any knowledge is the
Canaanites and Philistines. However, Palestine has always been a land where a
multitude of kingdoms and empires have settled, this is how we have:
- The Assyrians
in 720 B.C.
- Persian
domination in 537 B.C.
- Conquest of
Alexander in 333, followed by Roman and Byzantine domination.
- After a
Christian period, during which the region converted to Christianity, the
Persians appeared, from 614 - 618 A.D.
- Islamic Period
from 638 A.D.
- Beginning of
the Crusades around 1,100 A.D.
- In 1260 the
region was devastated by the Mongols
2.1.MAIN EVENTS PRIOR TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR.
In the
decade before World War I, a small number of Polish and Russian Jews settled in
Palestine thanks to the financial help of American Jews. They acquired land
from the Arabs and built communities that soon flourished.
The Palestinians didn't mind it because they were paid well for the land and
offered jobs. These Jews were not interested in founding a state, but their
activities aroused the interest of Zionist Jews in England and Germany.
A group of Zionist
Jews in Germany incited Emperor Wilhelm II to negotiate with the Turks for the
acquisition of a part of Palestine. Suddenly, war broke out in Europe in August
1914. When Turkey and Bulgaria joined with Germany and Austria, the whole situation
changed. From the point of view of the Allies, Palestine was now enemy
territory.
|
In this letter, the British government
expressed its support for the "establishment of a nation for the Jewish
people in Palestine." Britain also pledged to make "every effort to
facilitate the attainment of this objective, bearing in mind that no action
should be taken which might prejudice the rights of non-Jewish Palestinian
communities, or the rights or political status enjoyed by members of the
Jewish community residing in other countries." |
4.LA BALFOUR
DECLARATION OF 1917.
After World War I,
the territories of Israel became part of Palestine. In a letter from the
British Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, addressed to the Jewish financier Lord
Rothschild, the British government expressed its intention to support the
creation of a Jewish nation in Palestine. This letter is popularly known as the
Balfour Declaration of 1917.
The Balfour
Declaration has generally been regarded as a unilateral commitment made by the
British government. Its purpose was to enlist the support of the Jewish people,
other warring nations, and neutral countries, such as the United States, for
the Allied cause during World War I. The reason for British policy was the
importance of Palestine as a strategic point for sea and land routes to India
from the oil-producing regions of the Middle East. On July 24, 1922, the
declaration was incorporated into the League of Nations mandate for Palestine,
which set out the conditions under which Britain was entrusted with the
temporary administration of Palestine on behalf of its Arab and Jewish
citizens. An indirect consequence of the Balfour Declaration was the proclamation
of Israel as an independent state in 1948 in the area under British
supervision.
2.3.LA UN
DECLARATION (1947).
The United Nations
General Assembly voted on November 29, 1947, to partition Palestine into a
Jewish and an Arab state. The Jews would receive what appears on the map marked
in blue. More than 75% of the territory given to the Jews was desert. Desperate
to find a refuge from the excesses of European Jewry after the Holocaust, the
Jewish population accepted the plan that had granted them a diminished state.
The Arabs, trying to avoid any kind of Jewish entity in Palestine, rejected it.
The
State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14, 1948, in accordance with the UN
partition plan (1947). Less than 24 hours later, the armies of Egypt, Jordan,
Syria, Lebanon and Iraq invaded it, forcing Israel to defend the sovereignty it
had regained in its homeland. In what came to be known as Israel's War of
Independence. During the first months of 1949, direct negotiations were held,
under the forecast of the UN, between Israel and each of the invading
countries. The result was truce agreements that reflected the situation at the
end of the fighting. The coast, the Galilee, and the entire Negev came under
Israeli sovereignty, Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) came under Jordanian
rule, the Gaza Strip under Egyptian administration, and the city of Jerusalem
was divided, with Jordan controlling the eastern part, including the Old City,
and Israel controlling the western sector.
Once the war was over, Israel focused its
efforts on building the state it had fought for
3.1.SINAI - SUEZ WAR
The
years of state-building were marred by serious security problems. The truce
agreements of 1949 not only failed to pave the
way for a permanent peace, but were constantly violated. In
contradiction to the UN Security Council resolution of September 1, 1951,
Israeli ships and shipping were prevented from passing through the Suez Canal;
the blockade of the Straits of Tiran was tightened; incursions by terrorist
gangs into Israel from neighboring Arab countries to commit murder and sabotage
were carried out with increasing frequency; and the Sinai Peninsula was
gradually turned into a huge Egyptian military base.
After
the signing of a military alliance between Egypt, Syria and Jordan (October
1956), the imminent threat to Israel's existence intensified. In the course of
an eight-day campaign, the Israel Defense Forces seized the Gaza Strip and the
entire Sinai Peninsula, stopping 10 miles east of the Suez Canal. The decision
of the United Nations to post a UN Emergency Force (UNEF) along the border
between Israel and Egypt, and the granting of Egyptian assurances regarding
free navigation in the Gulf of Eilat, led Israel to accept a phased withdrawal
(November 1956 to March 1957) from the areas conquered a couple of weeks
earlier. The Straits of Tiran were opened, allowing the country to develop
trade with countries in Asia and East Africa,
as well as import oil from the Persian Gulf.
3.2.LA SIX-DAY WAR.
The Six-Day War is the
attack committed by the Israeli army in June
1967 against the Arab countries, Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
This
war began on the fifth of June. The first attack took place against the three
Arab countries respectively.
The
Egyptian army looks useless because of military destruction by Israeli
aviation. Jordan, faced with this situation, accepted the ceasefire, a step
that was followed by Syria on June 9.
The
results of the war were striking, Israel occupies the West Bank, Gaza
Strip and Jerusalem, the remaining 22%
of Palestinian territory, as well as the Sinai Peninsula (Egypt) and the Golan
Heights (Syria).
As a
result of the war, the Arab regime was seen as incapable of resolving the problem of the Palestinian
question.
Faced
with defeat, the president of Egypt
presented his resignation, which was rejected by the Egyptian people and the other Arab peoples, seeing that this
was one of Israel's objectives, the resignation of the president made millions
of Arabs take to the streets demanding
its continuation, and dedicating a war economy to face the situation.
In the
Palestinian milieu, this people was the most affected by this war, which
fostered the creation of new Palestinian resistance organizations, independent of the Arab regimes, which once inside the
PLO, turned it into a bureaucratic front, dependent on a vanguard framework of
Palestinian decision-making fully identified with the masses inside and outside
occupied Palestine.
After
the Six-Day War in 1967, the UN Security Council unanimously voted on a
resolution that came to be known as " Resolution 242 "
of November 22 , 1967.
In
this resolution, it called for the unconditional withdrawal of Israeli troops
from the territories occupied in the 1967 war (i.e., the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai
and the Golan Heights), reaffirming the right of all countries in the region to
live within secure borders and to reach a just settlement of the problem
of "Palestinian refugees"
In
1973, another Arab-Israeli war began, the third in 25 years. The objective
pursued by the Arab peoples (Syria, Egypt and Jordan) was to recover by force
what was taken from them by force, since after several peaceful and diplomatic
attempts by the Arab peoples, Israel would not give in. This is how this war
begins, which in the end would result in
the recovery of the territories conquered by Israel in the 1967 war, that is,
Egypt recovered the Sinai Desert. Syria was unable to regain the Golan Heights.
Zionist oppression of the Palestinians was maintained after the end of
the 1967 war, in which Israel repeatedly
violated the Palestinian people's own human rights . Israel, was repeatedly censured by
organizations such as the International Red Cross, the UN Commission on Human Rights, the UN Special Committee on the
Palestinian Question and by Amnesty International, among others.
3.3.LAST ISRAELITE
INVASIONS SINCE 1948.
1948
The British Mandate over Palestine ends on May 14 and the Jewish authorities
declare a new State of Israel. Many nations recognize the new country. An Arab
army invades Israel and fighting continues until early 1949, when all sides
sign a truce agreement establishing the borders of the new Jewish state.
1951Egypt
denies Israel access to the Suez Canal and blocks the use of the Strait of
Tiran, Israel's only direct access to the Red Sea. Palestinians begin invasions
on Israeli soil from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Israel invades the Sinai
Peninsula. They also took Gaza and Sharm el-Sheikh at the top of the Sinai Peninsula that
controls access to the Gulf of Acaba and the Indian Ocean. Israel withdrew in
1957, after its access to the Gulf was guaranteed by a United Nations ceasefire
agreement.
By
May 1967, Egypt had signed an alliance with Syria, Jordan and Iraq, and pushed
its troops into Sinai. The mobilization seemed to indicate an attack on Israel.
In response, Israel launched a military attack on Egypt, Jordan, and Syria,
known as the Six-Day War. Israeli troops took Gaza, Sinai, East Jerusalem, the
West Bank and the Golan Heights. The war ended on June 10, after the
intervention of the United Nations and the negotiation of a ceasefire.
Egypt
and Israel signed a peace treaty on March 26 known as the Camp of David
Agreement that formally ended the thirty-year state of war. The summit, led by
U.S. President Jimmy Carter at Camp David, led to Egypt's recognition of
Israel's rights to existence and the liberation of the Sinai Peninsula. The two
nations also established diplomatic relations.
In
June, Israeli troops launched the Galilee Peace Operation in southern Lebanon
to avenge years of assaults and provocations by the Palestine Liberation
Organization (PLO). The
Israeli army invaded Lebanon and encircled Beirut. After several weeks of
intense fighting, the PLO agreed to leave Beirut and move to other Arab
countries.
In
October, a peace conference was convened in Madrid to begin peace talks between
Israel and Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinians. Those negotiations
resulted in a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan, and a series of
agreements with the Palestinians.
Throughout
1992, the PLO and Israel held secret negotiations. The final result was the
signing of the peace agreement between the two in Washington in September 1993. The treaty guaranteed
self-rule for Palestinians in Jericho and Gaza, and smoothed the way for a
permanent treaty promising to resolve the status of Gaza and the West Bank.
1994
Tensions
were high, but Israel withdrew from Jericho in the West Bank and Gaza in May.
In July, Arafat returned to Gaza City after more than a quarter of a century of
Israeli occupation. Arafat then became the leader of the Palestinian Authority.
In October, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin
and King Hussein of Jordan signed a peace treaty in a ceremony attended by U.S.
President Bill Clinton.
1995
Israeli ultra-nationalist student Yigal Amir, who opposed the peace process,
assassinated Rabin at a peace meeting in Tel Aviv. A few weeks after his
assassination, Israeli troops marched out of the cities, giving the
Palestinians autonomy over six West Bank towns as part of the Oslo Accords.
1996
But once Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu approved a new project to house Jews east of Jerusalem, new acts of violence followed.
A Palestinian extremist group called Hamas claimed responsibility for a
terrorist act that killed 15 people and wounded 170. The Israeli Cabinet reacted
by threatening to cease peace talks until the terrorist actions ended.
1999Israeli
voters elected Ehud Barak as
prime minister, who won a majority victory over Netanyahu. Barak vows to
continue withdrawing troops from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In September,
Barak and Arafat signed an agreement to implement the Wye River Agreement.
Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners and ceded control of West Bank land
to the Palestinians. In May, Barak, Arafat and Clinton met in Oslo and agreed
to continue the peace process.
3.4.CREATION
OF THE INTIFADA.
The
intifada (Palestinian popular movement) began on 8 December 1987 in the
occupied territories. This uprising has brought about radical changes in the
political map of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The emergence of the
intifada can be seen as a sign of the constant desire of Palestinian children
to live out their childhood in peace and security, free from the dangers of
military occupation. The young people who started the Intifada are the young
people who were born and have lived
under Israeli repression characterized by discrimination, persecution, land grabbing, home demolitions and violation
of their rights as human beings.
On the
political level, the intifada, soon after it began, succeeded in further
strengthening the PLO's role at the diplomatic level. The most important
achievement has been the declaration of independence of the Palestinian state
on November 15, 1988, achieving immediate recognition by more
than 105 countries. One of the current fruits of the intifada has been the
creation of Palestinian autonomy in the occupied territories, an achievement that
will undoubtedly lead the Palestinian
people to full independence.
One
cannot talk about the intifada without mentioning its precursor, the martyr
Khalil El-Wazir (Abu-Jihad) killed by Israeli commandos in Tunisia in front of
his wife and children. It has always been said that Abu-Jihad was and will
continueto be the man of the first
bullet and the first stone, for being the initiator of the Palestinian revolution as well as for being the Father of the Intifada.
4. NEW ATTEMPTS AT PEACE
IN THE WAKE OF THE EVENTS OF 11 SEPTEMBER.
Conflicts
between Israelis and Palestinians have intensified unabated since late
September last year and meanwhile, relations between Arab countries and Israel
are also worsening with each passing day. In the aftermath of the September 11
terrorist attacks in the United States, Israel stepped up its repression
against the Palestinians, provoking outrage in the Arab world, but at the same
time Israel is also striving to prevent further worsening of relations with
Arab countries. As long as the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts continue and the
peace process cannot break the deadlock, Israel and the Arab countries maintain
a state of cold peace (neither war nor peace.
For
the past ten years, the Middle East peace process has barely progressed. Jordan
signed the peace agreement with Israel after Egypt, and other Arab countries
also began to improve their relations with Israel. However, after September
last year when Israeli-Palestinian conflicts erupted, Arab countries sided with
the Palestinians. In protest against Israel's atrocities, Egypt recalled its
ambassador in Tel Aviv, Qatar closed the office of Israel's trade
representatives in their country, while other Arab countries declared a freeze
on the process of normalizing their relations with Israel.
After
the terrorist attacks of 11 September, the situation became more serious.
Israel described the Palestinian struggle against the occupation as terrorist
acts and redoubled its invasion of Palestinian autonomous areas. Meanwhile,
violent incidents frequently occurred that resulted in serious civilian
casualties, up to the assassination of the Israeli Minister of Tourism.
The
Arabs showed a moderate attitude to this situation. Palestinian Authority (PA)
President Yasser Arafat ordered a ceasefire to all forces on September 17. The
leaders of the Arab countries exchanged visits for consultations on the
situation between Israel and the Palestinians and warned Israel not to pursue
State terrorist policies towards the Palestinians to combat terrorist
organizations, while urging the international community to make greater efforts
to save the peace process in the Middle East.
U.S.
President George W. Bush said on Oct. 2 that the United States will support the
creation of a Palestinian state if Israelis' right to coexist is respected.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on November 19 urged Israelis and
Palestinians to resolve their clashes based on the principle of peaceful
coexistence and corresponding United Nations resolutions.
However,
in view of the statements issued by the two sides and other Arab countries,
neither wants the situation to continue to worsen. The Palestinian authorities
strongly condemned the attacks on Israeli civilians, declared a state of
emergency in the territories of their autonomy and arrested more than 120
extremists. For its part, although Israel declared the PA an "entity that
supports terrorism," it signals at the same time that the PA can
"really stop the violence and rigorously punish terrorists," the
Israeli government will change its rating of the PA.
The
leaders of the Arab countries also did not use radical words in condemning
Israel's military operations and calling on the international community to
intensify its efforts to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Diplomats accredited here considered that, in view of the current situation in
the Middle East, the Arab countries and Israel will maintain an impasse of cold
peace, that is, neither war nor peace, for a certain period of time.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Filmography
In the Palestinian film filmed in the West BankParadise Now ofHany
Abu-Assad, 2005, a critique of
themodus
operandi of
the Palestinians against Israel. In the film, two boys are recruited to carry
out a suicide bombing attack inTel Aviv. Khaled and Said set off for the border with
explosives attached to their bodies.50 51 52
You can also watch other films that offer other points
of view, such as The Lemon
Tree or
Salt of This
Sea; in both there are
scenes where, for example, you can see the wall that Israel is building in the
West Bank. And the documentary Promises , which shows the point of view of four Israeli boys
and three Arabs who live twenty minutes away from each other, but grow up in
completely distant universes.
Bibliography
·
Anon.(Chatham
House Research Staff), Great Britain and Palestine 1915-1939. Londres,
1939.
·
Bard,
Mitchell G.: Myths and Realities. Available on the Internet.
·
Bastenier,
Michelangelo: Israel-Palestine: The House of War. Taurus,
2002 ISBN 978-84-306-0488-3
·
Ben Ami,
Shlomo; Zvi Medin: History
of the State of Israel. Madrid, Rialp, 3rd ed. 1992. ISBN 978-84-321-2093-0
·
Bethell,
N. (1979): The Palestine Triangle. London.
·
Cohen,
Michael J. (1982): Palestine and the Great Powers, 1945-1948. Princeton,
NJ.
·
Collins,
Larry and Lapierre, Dominique: Oh, Jerusalem. Planet.
2006 ISBN 978-84-08-06576-0
·
Culla, Joan
B. : The Most Contested Land: Zionism,
Israel, and the Palestine Conflict. Madrid, Alianza, 2005. ISBN 978-84-206-4728-9
·
Dershowitz,
Alan: The case for Israel.
·
Fisk, Robert: The Great War for Civilization, Destino,
Madrid, 2006 ISBN
978-84-233-3787-3
·
Fraser,
T. G.(1984): Partition in Ireland, India and Palestine: Theory and
Practice. Londres.
·
Fraser,
T. G.(1989): The US and the Middle-East since World War 2. Londres.
·
Fraser, T.G. (2005): The Arab-Israeli Conflict.
Palgrave McMillan.
·
Ganin,
Zvi (1979): Truman, American Jewry, and Israel, 1945-1948. New York.
·
Kirk, G.
(1954):The Middle East 1945-1950. Oxford.
·
Krämer,
Gudrun (2006): History of Palestine. From the Ottoman conquest to the
founding of the State of Israel. Madrid. ISBN 978-84-323-1274-8
·
Louis, W.
Roger (1984): The British Empire in the Middle East 1945-1951. Oxford.
·
Mattar,
P. (1988): The Mufti of Jerusalem. Nueva York.
·
Rogan, E.
y Shlaim, A. (2001): The War for Palestine. Rewriting the History of
1948. Cambridge.
·
Ricci, C.
and López Calvo, I. Paths to Peace: Israeli and Arabic Literature in Spanish.
Buenos
Aires: Corregidor, 2008. ISBN 978-950-05-1740-9
·
Sachar,
H. (1976):A History of Israel. Oxford.
·
Silver, E. (1984): Begin. London.
·
Schvindlerman,
Julian: Land for Peace, Land for War.
Ensayos
del sud.
·
Snetsinger,
John (1974): Truman, the Jewish Vote and the Creation of Israel. Stanford,
CA.
© 2010 by Paya Frank
(C) 2023 by Paya Frank
(English Version)
E-mail
Blog
http://paya-frank.blogspot.com
