Ambujam Kishore
Palestine
It extends east to the Jordan River, north to the border between Israel and Lebanon, west to the Mediterranean, and south to the Negev desert, reaching the Gulf of Aqaba. The political status and geographic area designated by the term have changed considerably over the course of three millennia. The eastern boundary has been particularly fluid, often understood as lying east of the Jordan and extending at times to the edge of the Arabian Desert.
A land of sharp contrasts, Palestine includes the Dead Sea, the lowest natural point of elevation on Earth, and mountain peaks higher than 2,000 ft (610 m) above sea level. In the 20th and 21st centuries it has been the object of conflicting claims by Jewish and Arab national movements.
The region is sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Settled since early prehistoric times, mainly by Semitic groups, it was occupied in biblical times by the kingdoms of Israel, Judah, and Judaea. It was subsequently held by virtually every power of the Middle East, including the Assyrians, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, and Ottomans.
It was governed by Britain after the end of World War I (1914–18)—from 1922, under a League of Nations mandate—until 1948, when the State of Israel was proclaimed. Armies from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, and Iraq attacked the next day. They were defeated by the Israeli army.
Geographical Locations of Palestine
The land variously called Israel and Palestine is a small, (10,000 square miles at present) land at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. During its long history, its area, population and ownership varied greatly. The present state of Israel occupies all the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean ocean, bounded by Egypt in the south, Lebanon in the north, and Jordan in the East. The recognized borders of Israel constitute about 78% of the land. The remainder is divided between land occupied by Israel since the 1967 6-day war and the autonomous regions under the control of the Palestinian autonomy. The Gaza strip occupies an additional 141 square miles south of Israel, and is under the control of the Palestinian authority.
Palestine has been settled continuously for tens of thousands of years. Fossil remains have been found of Homo Erectus, Neanderthal and transitional types between Neanderthal and modern man. Archeologists have found hybrid Emmer wheat at Jericho dating from before 8,000 B.C., making it one of the oldest sites of agricultural activity in the world. Amorites, Canaanites, and other Semitic peoples related to the Phoenicians of Tyre entered the area about 2000 B.C. The area became known as the Land of Canaan
Israel
This country is officially known as State of Israel, Hebrew Medinat Yisraʾel, Arabic Isrāʾīl.
Area: 8,357 sq mi (21,643 sq km). Population (2009 est.): 7,128,000 (includes population of Golan Heights and east Jerusalem; excludes population of the West Bank). Capital (proclaimed): Jerusalem.
Jews constitute some four-fifths of the population and Arabs about one-fifth. Languages: Hebrew, Arabic (both official). Religions: Judaism; also Islam, Christianity. Currency: new Israeli sheqel (NIS).
Geographical Locations of Israel
It is a country in the Middle East, located at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded to the north by Lebanon, to the northeast by Syria, to the east and southeast by Jordan, to the southwest by Egypt, and to the west by the Mediterranean Sea. Jerusalem is the seat of government and the proclaimed capital, although the latter status has not received wide international recognition.
Israel can be divided into four major regions: the Mediterranean coastal plain in the west; a hill region extending from the northern border into central Israel; the Great Rift Valley, containing the Jordan River, in the east; and the arid Negev, occupying nearly the entire southern half of the country. Its major drainage system is the interior basin formed by the Jordan River; Lake Tiberias (Sea of Galilee) provides water to much of the country’s agricultural land.
Israel has a mixed economy based largely on services and manufacturing; exports include machinery and electronics, diamonds, chemicals, citrus fruits, vegetables, and textiles. Its population is nine-tenths urban and is concentrated largely in the Mediterranean coastal plain and around Jerusalem. It is a multiparty republic with one legislative house, the Knesset; its head of state is the president, and the head of government is the prime minister. The record of human habitation in Israel dates to the Paleolithic Period. Efforts by Jews to establish a national state there began in the late 19th century.
Britain supported Zionism and in 1923 assumed political responsibility for what was then called Palestine. Migration of Jews to Palestine, which increased during the period of Nazi persecution, led to deteriorating relations with Arabs. In 1947 the UN voted to partition the region into separate Jewish and Arab states.
The State of Israel was proclaimed in 1948, and Egypt, Transjordan (later Jordan), Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq immediately declared war on it. Israel won that war as well as the 1967 Six-Day War, in which it occupied the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights, and east Jerusalem.
Another war with its Arab neighbours followed in 1973, but the Camp David Accords led to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in 1979. Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 to expel the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from that country, and in late 1987 an uprising broke out among Palestinians of the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Peace negotiations between Israel and the Arab states and Palestinians began in 1991. Israel and the PLO agreed in 1993 to a five-year plan to extend self-government to the Palestinians of the occupied territories. Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan in 1994. Israeli soldiers and a Lebanese militia, Hezbollah, clashed throughout the 1990s. Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, and negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians broke down amid violence that claimed hundreds of lives. In an effort to stem the fighting, Israel in 2005 withdrew its soldiers and settlers from parts of the West Bank and from all of the Gaza Strip, which came under Palestinian control.
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is the ongoing dispute between Israelis and Palestinians, an enduring and explosive conflict. The conflict is wide-ranging, and the term is also used in reference to the earlier phases of the same conflict, between Jewish and Zionist yishuv and the Arab population living in Palestine under Ottoman or British rule. It forms part of the wider, and generally earlier, Arab–Israeli conflict. The remaining key issues are: mutual recognition, borders, security, water rights, control of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, Palestinian freedom of movement and legalities concerning refugees. The violence resulting from the conflict has prompted international actions, as well as other security and human rights concerns, both within and between both sides, and internationally.
Zionism
In the late 1800s a group in Europe decided to colonize this land. Known as Zionists, they represented an extremist minority of the Jewish population. Their goal was to create a Jewish homeland, and they considered locations in Africa and the Americas, before settling on Palestine.
Initially, this immigration created no problems. However, as more and more Zionists immigrated to Palestine – many with the express wish of taking over the land for a Jewish state – the indigenous population became increasingly alarmed. Eventually, fighting broke out, with escalating waves of violence. Hitler’s rise to power, combined with Zionist activities to sabotage efforts to place Jewish refugees in western countries, led to increased Jewish immigration to Palestine, and conflict grew.
UN Partition Plan
In 1947 the United Nations decided to intervene. However, rather than adhering to the principle of “self-determination of peoples,” in which the people themselves create their own state and system of government, the UN chose to revert to the medieval strategy whereby an outside power divides up other people’s land.
Under considerable Zionist pressure, the UN recommended giving away 55% of Palestine to a Jewish state – despite the fact that this group represented only about 30% of the total population, and owned under 7% of the land.
1947 – 1949 War
Throughout this war, Zionist forces outnumbered all Arab and Palestinian combatants combined – often by a factor of two to three. Moreover, Arab armies did not invade Israel – virtually all battles were fought on land that was to have been the Palestinian state.
Finally, Arab armies entered the conflict only after Zionist forces had committed 16 massacres, including the grisly massacre of over 100 men, women, and children at Deir Yassin. Future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, head of one of the Jewish terrorist groups, described this as “splendid,” and stated: “As in Deir Yassin, so everywhere, we will attack and smite the enemy. God, God, Thou has chosen us for conquest.” Zionist forces committed 33 massacres altogether.
By the end of the war, Israel had conquered 78 percent of Palestine; three-quarters of a million Palestinians had been made refugees; over 500 towns and villages had been obliterated; and a new map was drawn up, in which every city, river and hillock received a new, Hebrew name, as all vestiges of the Palestinian culture were to be erased. For decades Israel denied the existence of this population.
1967 War & USS Liberty
In 1967, Israel conquered still more land. Following the Six Day War, in which Israeli forces launched a highly successful surprise attack on Egypt, Israel occupied the final 22% of Palestine that had eluded it in 1948 – the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since, according to international law it is inadmissible to acquire territory by war, these are occupied territories and do not belong to Israel. It also occupied parts of Egypt (since returned) and Syria (which remain under occupation).
Also during the Six Day War, Israel attacked a US Navy ship, the USS Liberty, killing and injuring over 200 American servicemen. President Lyndon Johnson recalled rescue flights, saying that he did not want to “embarrass an ally.
Current Conflict
There are two primary issues at the core of this continuing conflict. First, there is the inevitably destabilizing effect of trying to maintain an ethnically preferential state, particularly when it is largely of foreign origin. The original population of what is now Israel was 96 percent Muslim and Christian, yet, these refugees are prohibited from returning to their homes in the self-described Jewish state (and those within Israel are subjected to systematic discrimination).
Second, Israel’s continued military occupation and confiscation of privately owned land in the West Bank, and control over Gaza, are extremely oppressive, with Palestinians having minimal control over their lives. Over 10,000 Palestinian men, women, and children are held in Israeli prisons. Few of them have had a legitimate trial; Physical abuse and torture are frequent. Palestinian borders (even internal ones) are controlled by Israeli forces. Periodically men, women, and children are strip searched; people are beaten; women in labor are prevented from reaching hospitals (at times resulting in death); food and medicine are blocked from entering Gaza, producing an escalating humanitarian crisis. Israeli forces invade almost daily, injuring, kidnapping, and sometimes killing inhabitants.
According to the Oslo peace accords of 1993, these territories were supposed to finally become a Palestinian state. However, after years of Israel continuing to confiscate land and conditions steadily worsening, the Palestinian population rebelled. (The Barak offer, widely reputed to be generous, was anything but.) This uprising, called the “Intifada” (Arabic for “shaking off”) began at the end of September 2000.
Quite a few attempts have been made to broker a two-state solution, which would mean the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside an independent Jewish state or next to the State of Israel (after Israel’s establishment in 1948). In 2007, a majority of both Israelis and Palestinians, according to a number of polls, stated a preference for the two-state solution over any other solution as a means of resolving the conflict.
Also, a majority of the Jewish public sees the Palestinians’ demand for an independent state as just, and thinks Israel can agree to the establishment of such a state. A majority of Palestinians and Israelis view the West Bank and Gaza Strip as an acceptable location of the hypothetical Palestinian state in a two-state solution. However, there are significant areas of disagreement over the shape of any final agreement and also regarding the level of credibility each side sees in the other in upholding basic commitments. An alternative is the one-state or binational solution, whereby all of Israel, the Gaza Strip, and West Bank would become a bi-national state with equal rights for all.
Within Israeli and Palestinian society, the conflict generates a wide variety of views and opinions. This highlights the deep divisions which exist not only between Israelis and Palestinians, but also within each society.
There are prominent international actors involved in the conflict. The two parties engaged in direct negotiation are the Israeli government, currently led by Benjamin Netanyahu, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), currently headed by Mahmoud Abbas. The official negotiations are mediated by an international contingent known as the Quartet on the Middle East (the Quartet) represented by a special envoy that consists of the United States, Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations. The Arab League is another important actor, which has proposed an alternative peace plan. Egypt, a founding member of the Arab League, has historically been a key participant.
Since 2003, the Palestinian side has been fractured by conflict between the two major factions: Fatah, the traditionally dominant party, and its later electoral challenger, Hamas. Following Hamas’ seizure of power in the Gaza Strip in June 2007, the territory controlled by the Palestinian National Authority (the Palestinian interim government) is split between Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The division of governance between the parties has effectively resulted in the collapse of bipartisan governance of the Palestinian National Authority (PA).
A round of peace negotiations commenced at Annapolis, Maryland, United States, in November 2007. These talks were aimed at having a final resolution by the end of 2008. The parties agree there are six cores, or ‘final status,’ issues which still need to be resolved.
Palestinians sceptical of talks – 1.09.2010
The stage is set for the revival of peace talks on 1.09.2010 in Washington between Israel and the Palestinians amid scepticism in the Palestinian territories that the latest round of international diplomacy that seeks to establish an independent Palestinian state will make much headway.
U. S. President Barack Obama will preside over the relaunch of talks on 1.09.2010 attended by Palestinian Authority ( PA) President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The 22- nation Arab League backs these talks.
However, Israel’s refusal so far to extend its moratorium on fresh construction in occupied Palestinian territories, which expires on September 26, 2010 threatens to disrupt Washington’s new initiative. The international “ Quartet” group, which also includes Russia, the European Union ( EU) and the United Nations as members, backs the resumption of negotiations. The Palestinians have threatened to walk out of direct talks, unless Israel extends the freeze on new housing, which can impact on the nature of the future Palestinian State. The Palestinians want that the West Bank and Gaza Strip should comprise their future state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The Palestinian Hamas which runs the Gaza Strip has strongly rejected the talks. However, imparting a positive spin to the prospects of talks, U. S. State Department spokesman P. J. Crowley said the Obama administration visualised that negotiations could achieve success “ within a one- year time frame”. “That is what our goal is,” he said on 30.08.2010.
Israel-Palestine: Are the talks meant to fail?
Held in Washington at the instigation of President Obama, the first direct talks between Israel, represented by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and the Palestinians, represented by President Mahmoud Abbas, for 20 months were presaged with much fanfare.
The rhetoric before the meeting was certainly ambitious, with the main stated aim being the establishment of an independent Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. The only substantive result so far, however, is that the two sides will meet again on September 14, 2010 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh, and every fortnight thereafter. The U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, will attend on September 14, 2010 as will former Senator George Mitchell, who is now Mr. Obama’s special peace envoy to the Middle East.
The first key issue for the Palestinians is an end to the Israeli construction of settlements on the West Bank of the Jordan, which Israel occupied in the 1967 war. Another is the right of return for millions of displaced Palestinians, both the victims of that war and those expelled by Israel in 1948; huge numbers still languish in camps around the region and in Gaza. A third point is the status of Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as a shared capital with Israel.
For his part, Mr. Netanyahu has said bluntly that the legitimacy and security of Israel are paramount. According to him, the demand for a nation-state for the Palestinian people must be matched by a Palestinian recognition that Israel is the nation-state for the Jewish people, though he adds that the million or more non-Jews living in Israel have full civil rights.
A major problem is that Israel is not even dealing with Hamas, the elected majority representatives of the Palestinians. It may be trying to pretend that Hamas does not exist, though it is prepared to go to war with it; Israel has also imposed an economic stranglehold upon Gaza which amounts to nothing less than the collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians, and it continues to bomb supply tunnels in southern Gaza. The physical departure of Israeli settlers and Israeli forces from Gaza over the last few years is therefore almost an irrelevance, and ordinary Palestinians’ hostility to the reopening of talks is entirely unsurprising.
There is therefore virtually no prospect that the reopened contacts between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas can succeed. If Israel shows any willingness to make concessions, the Palestinian President will be under severe international pressure to accept, but will alienate his own supporters even further; if the talks break down for any reason, Mr. Netanyahu can blame the Palestinians.
All the evidence is that that is exactly what Israel wants. The next Israeli chief of military staff is to be Major-General Yoav Galant, who led the 2008-09 offensive in Gaza, during which 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed, and in respect of which the U.N. fact finding report said there had been war crimes on both sides. Israeli rights groups have called for an examination of Galant’s actions in Gaza, but, as is so often the case in such matters, those at the top can be sure they will escape, however tainted they are. In effect, Israel is ruling out any possibility that its own security could be ensured by a fair, just, and equitable settlement with all Palestinians. It clearly will not accept a tenable two-state solution, but a one-state solution would annul its claim to being a Jewish state. So Israel may well be moving towards the creation of a permanently demonised and subjugated other, which may be essential for the very preservation of the idea of a Jewish, or in more extreme terms Zionist.
Israel must be recognised as Jewish state: Netanyahu -13.09.2010
Israel’s Prime Minister says peace will be possible only if the Palestinian leadership agrees to recognise Israel as a Jewish state — a demand the Palestinians have long rejected. Benjamin Netanyahu says such recognition will be the “real basis” for peace and that he regrets the Palestinians have not agreed.
He spoke on 12.09.2010 at his Cabinet’s weekly meeting, ahead of talks in the coming week with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mr. Netanyahu has made recognition of Israel’s Jewish character a central demand, suggesting the Palestinians’ failure to do so means they have not come to terms with Israel’s existence.
The Palestinians say they will not extend such recognition because it would compromise the rights of Palestinian refugees and Israel’s Arab minority.
The battle goes on……
Dream Dare Win
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