The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been in the headlines frequently throughout the last few months, following the potential annexation of the West Bank, the claims that Palestine was removed from online maps, and an intensification in antisemitic hate crimes. After the genocide of six million Jewish people during WW2, Britain mandated that Palestine be a home for Jews. The decision received a lot of backlash, primarily because of the importance of the land for Muslims, who make up the majority of the Palestinian population. Furthermore, Jerusalem and nearby areas have religious significance for all of the major monotheistic religions. Britain handed over the Palestinian-Jewish conflict to the UN due to controversy, and in 1948, the state of Israel was officially created and further recognized by the US on May 15. Nonetheless, the conflict between Palestinians and Jews didn’t end there. For the next seven decades, wars and violent conflicts raged, along with many common misconceptions and arguments.
The history of the conflict is long and complicated. In 1948 during the Arab-Israeli War, five Arab armies invaded Israel just hours after its founding. Israel was the victor of this war, leading to the annexation of several surrounding areas. The estimated 750,000 Palestinian refugees migrated to the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Arab nations like Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. In these areas, they were treated as second-class citizens. According to the ADL, The Anti-Defamation League (a Jewish organization that fights against antisemitism by publishing reliable news), “Israel maintains that it is not responsible for the Palestinian refugee problem since it is the result of a war forced on Israel by invading Arab armies. However, Israel has stated that on humanitarian grounds it would participate in an international effort to resolve the situation.” The argument over Palestinian refugees continues to this day, and many Israelis commonly believe that the refugees should be allowed to return to their homes.
In 1995, the Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in Washington, DC. This 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 the use of terror” (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs).
Hamas (a Palestinian militant organization) and other factions opposed this agreement and many suicide bombings in Israel followed. Israel began construction of a West Bank barrier in 2002, and attacks on Israel consequentially dropped by 90 percent (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Palestine didn’t support the construction of this barrier because it was mostly on Palestinian land. In the next few years, steps were taken towards a two-state solution but were abruptly ended when Hamas gained political power, as Israel refused to negotiate with Hamas because of its stance that Israel does not have a right to exist.
The conflict in Gaza began in 2008, when Israel responded to rocket attacks on Israeli cities by using bombs. They targeted Hamas bases, police training camps, police headquarters, and offices. Civilian locations like mosques, houses, medical facilities, and schools were also attacked. Israeli authorities claimed that the vast majority of the casualties were Hamas militants, while Palestinian organizations said the opposite. Clearly, this issue has very different arguments and opinions coming from both sides.
Common Arguments:
1. Israelis are colonizers
A large part of this argument stems from the question, “Are Jews indigenous to the area that is now Israel?” 90 percent of Jews have genetics directly tracing them to the Levant, the area encompassing Israel, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Jordan (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Historical monuments show evidence of the Jews in Israel, like the Temple of David as early as 957 BCE. According to Joan Peters, a writer who dedicated her life to researching the Arabs and Palestinians of the region, “the vast majority of Palestinians are not indigenous to Palestine but rather descendants of the Arab economic migrants who arrived in the late 19th and 20th centuries.” After doing a series of calculations based on population growth and genetic testing, she concluded that “the other 95.7 percent of present-day Palestinians are those Arabs and their descendants who migrated to Israel between 1831 and 2015.” Being colonizers implies that Israelis were sent by a country to another country to establish political control. Because the Jews were supposedly returning to their homeland, some consider the definition not to be applicable.
- Israel is the only side using bombs and violence
Both Palestine and Israel have been bombing the other side. In March 2019, two rockets were launched into Tel Aviv from Palestine. In May, 600 rockets. In June, incendiary balloons caused wildfires and damaged farmlands. In November, 190 rockets were launched into Israel from the Gaza Strip, wounding several civilians, done in response to the targeted killing by Israel of senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad commander Baha Abu al-Ata in Gaza. Israel retaliated by carrying out airstrikes and artillery shelling in the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding several militants as well as civilians. Clearly, both sides are engaging in violence. Statistically, fewer Israeli citizens have died throughout this conflict. Israel’s protection against bombs and rockets, the Iron Dome, and the fact that Hamas is known for using human shields has made the number of casualties higher on the Palestinian side. There are many factors that go into the statistics that must be considered.
2. Palestine was removed from Google Maps
Recent posts on the internet have discussed Palestine being apparently removed from Google Maps. On the other hand, there are arguments that Palestine was supposedly never on these maps to begin with. In reference to a similar incident in 2016, Elizabeth Davidoff, spokesperson for Google Maps, stated there hadn’t been a label of “Palestine” on maps, while there are “West Bank” and “Gaza Strip” labels. These areas are usually separated from Israel with dotted lines to show both borders are not internationally recognized. She then said, “there’s no Google-wide effort to remove Palestine or anything like that” (New York Times).
3. The possible annexation of the West Bank is illegal and inhumane:
The proposal for the annexation of the West Bank by Israel has been widely protested throughout social media and news sources. The West Bank is split into three areas: A, B, and C, the last being the likely area Israel plans to annex. The West Bank contains several million Palestinians, and also has important religious and historical meaning to Israel and its Jewish population. Some believe Palestinians’ day to day life would be improved under Israeli authority. The Palestinian Authority (PA) has been accused countless times of illegally arresting and torturing its citizens. The PA also has control over all Palestinian social media and news, and hasn’t held an election in over a decade. The last presidential election was in 2005, and even though Mahmoud Abbas has finished his four year term and has not been reelected, he still holds power. The Palestinians have limited free speech, democracy, and basic human rights. The lives of the people in these annexed areas could possibly be greatly improved by Israel, and the rest of the West Bank that Israel has expressed no plans of annexing would continue to belong to the Palestinians.
An annexation of the West Bank may be illegal and unfair to the occupants of the area, especially since the UN argues that this would go against international law. According to the Geneva Convention, the West Bank’s annexation is only illegal if it is occupied land, while Israel believes the West Bank should be seen as disputed territory, not occupied territory. There is also an argument to be made that Palestinians should have a right to decide whether or not they are annexed, because for many, the West Bank is their home. In other cases of annexation, like Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the citizens of Crimea were given a vote. In this case, the logistics of organizing a free and fair vote for the Palestinians living in Area C are complicated due to the possible manipulation of the vote by the PA.
Recent developments have officially halted this annexation. Israel and the United Arab Emirates signed a peace deal in which they agreed to have diplomatic ties if Israel stops all annexation of the West Bank. It is unclear if this will prevent annexation in the future, but the agreement is a step towards peace in the Middle East. The deal is the first peace agreement between Israel and another Middle Eastern country in twenty years, and will potentially benefit both countries economically and socially. However, the PA is unhappy with the peace deal, as the agreement doesn’t guarantee that annexation will never happen.
Another complicated part of the conflict is the disagreement over what Zionism is and how it relates to antisemitism. Zionism is defined as “the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel.” It has no relation to the current government of Israel, and doesn’t mean one completely supports the actions of Israel against Palestine. To many, being a Zionist is understanding how important the state of Israel is for the safety of Jews around the world, and does not mean one can’t disagree with Israel’s actions. The conflict between Israel and Palestine is very controversial and there are many arguments from both sides surrounding it. Overall, Israel and Palestine both arguably have a right to exist, especially because of the historical and religious importance of the land in question. Hopefully, strides towards a two-state solution will be made in the foreseeable future.
