DerekC
Established Member
I post this thread because it seems right that the subject should have an airing on the Forum, but I appreciate that I am skating on thin ice. Whilst thinking about it and trying to find out more last night, I found the following video from "Jewish Voice for Peace" which seems to me to summarise the background very nicely.
The introductory page is at:
https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/israeli-palestinian-conflict-101/
Sooner or later this round of fighting will come to an end - until the next time, and the next. It has gone on since before most of the people posting on this forum were born. One day it must be resolved - but how?
The introductory page is at:
https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/israeli-palestinian-conflict-101/
Q: WHAT IS THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE PALESTINIANS ABOUT?
The violence between Israelis and Palestinians is often falsely presented as a conflict between two equal sides with irreconcilable claims to one piece of land.
In reality, this is a conflict over territory between a nation-state, Israel, with one of the world’s most powerful and well-funded militaries, and an indigenous population of Palestinians that has been occupied, displaced, and exiled for decades.
Q: WHAT EXACTLY IS “THE OCCUPATION”?
The “Occupation” generally refers to the lands captured by Israel during the 1967 war that remain under Israeli military control, including the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Golan Heights, and Gaza. Despite the partitioning of the West Bank into areas A, B and C following the Oslo accords to give some agency to the Palestinian Authority, Israel retains full military control over the territory, which is also home to nearly half a million settlers.
While Israeli settlers were withdrawn from Gaza in 2005, Israel retains control over the borders and airspace of the territory, restricting what is allowed in and out, and periodically engaging militarily in the territory.
More broadly, the Israeli Occupation can be understood as a system of military rule under which Palestinians are denied civil, political and economic rights and subjected to systematic discrimination and denial of basic freedom and dignity.
Q: WHAT IS THE NAKBA?
The Nakba refers to the forced displacement of Palestinians that began with Israel’s establishment, and that continues to this day. Arabic for ‘catastrophe,’ Nakba is the word Palestinians use to describe the traumatic events of 1948 which resulted in the displacement of over 700,000 Palestinians.
It is impossible to understand the Israel Palestine conflict without understanding its context.
Q: HOW ARE PALESTINIANS TREATED IN ISRAEL’S DEMOCRACY?
Although Palestinian citizens of Israel are entitled to vote and participate in Israeli political life, and several Palestinians are members of the Knesset (the Israeli parliament), they do not receive the same treatment as the Jewish citizens at the hands of the government. Israel still applies over 50 laws that privilege Jews over Arabs (as documented by Adalah: the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights).
For example, the 1950 Law of Return grants automatic citizenship rights to Jews from anywhere in the world upon request, while denying that same right to Palestinians. Government resources, meanwhile, are disproportionately directed to Jews and not to Arabs, one factor in causing the Palestinians of Israel to suffer the lowest living standards in Israeli society by all economic indicators. Nearly 25% of Israel’s population is not Jewish.
Sooner or later this round of fighting will come to an end - until the next time, and the next. It has gone on since before most of the people posting on this forum were born. One day it must be resolved - but how?