Palestine Israel Conflict
.... In 1915 the British had made an agreement with the Arabs that if they helped Britain fight the Ottomans "Great Britain was prepared to recognize and support the independence of Arabs in all the regions within the limits demanded by the Sharif of Mecca"(Farsoun, 68). The Palestinians had thought of this “declaration” as the beginning of their goal to gain independence; however the British backfired on this decision. They claimed the country of Palestine was not included in this agreement and this had really angered the Palestinians. By this time Jews were gaining widespread sympathy for their cause. The passing of the Balfour Declaration by British authorities in 1917, which called for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, was a major step towards the Zionist goal. Thousands of Jews took this opportunity to migrate to Palestine. The Balfour Declaration became a source of hope for Zionists throughout the world and a source of anger and frustration for the Arabs in Palestine and around the Arab world. The Arab leadership had not been consulted about the Balfour Declaration and they insisted that Palestine was a part of the land promised to them. The Holocaust was one of the worst episodes to take place in history and totally traumatized not only the Jewish people but also the whole world. The need for a Jewish state seemed inevitable. Despite British refusal Zionist organizations brought ships and transported Jews from Europe to Palestine. Tens and Thousands of Jewish immigrants had made their way through. The Jews felt the only way to escape the suffering and anti-Semitism they were facing was by establishing their own nation in the “Promised land” of Palestine. As Shipler points out many Arabs thought that the Jews just used the Holocaust as an excuse to take over Palestine and gain worldwide sympathy. Many of Shipler’s subjects from the Ansar camps compared their treatment by the Jews as their own holocaust. Religion plays a major role in the Arab/Israeli conflict. Both the Palestinians whom are mainly Muslims and the Israelis whom are mainly Jews have justified their claims to this land by referring to its religious importance for them. Both Jews and Muslims feel that only by working in the land of Palestine and being a part of it can they feel their connection with God. The Jews and Muslims have in the past and still do use their religious text to justify their treatments of each other. As Shipler points out in the Bible it is said: “It is also God’s command to drive out the aliens-the pagan idol worshippers-and to heed his warning that any who are allowed to remain “shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell” (123). Also in the Quran we can find verses against the Jews such as “Among the Jews are those who displace the words of their Scriptures… perplexing with their tongues, and wounding the faith by their reviling” (Shipler, 144). Many Jews and Muslims use the texts to fit their needs and justify their claims without looking at the context in which the verses were revealed. Most of the historical events recorded in the Old Testament took place in Palestine. For the Jews the holiest spot in Jerusalem is where the Wailing Wall stands. The Wailing Wall is the last remainder of the ancient temple of the Old Testament, which the Romans had destroyed. Not far from the Wailing Wall is the Dome of the Rock, the Muslim Holy Shrine. Muslims believe that the shrine was build over the rock from which Muhammad rose to heaven accompanied with the Angel Gabriel. The Holy sites have become a major issue and each side demands their right to take control over Jerusalem. Since the War of Independence in 1948 the disputes between Arabs and Israelis had escalated tremendously. The partition plan proposed by the United Nations on November 1947 was met with a lot of opposition from the Palestinians. Fifty seven percent of the land would be fixed to a Jewish state although they were a minority of the population at that time. The rest of the balance would be to an Arab state, with Jerusalem under the control of the United Nations due to its religious significance. The Arabs refused to accept this plan that gave away land they considered to be theirs and the land they had lived in for generations. Most Jews were pleased by this plan; some still believed that all of Palestine should be theirs. However they decided their goal of a greater Israel can be worked on slowly. On May 14, 1948 Israel was finally established. Relations between Arabs and Jews had become unbearably tense. In twelve days following the UN vote, the Arabs burned Jewish buses on the highways, looted Jewish shops and killed Jews. In response the Deir Yasin massacre took place living many Arabs dead and many homeless. The whole notion of nationalism and self-determination took a major role in the conflict as well. Both the Palestinians and Israelis had fought to be recognized as a people, as a nation, as a force. When Israel gained its independence it was the beginning of their statehood and for the Palestinians it was the beginning of their occupation. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled the Israeli owned areas, because they w...