A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

It all began approximately two thousand years ago when the Babylonians took over the kingdoms of Judea and Israel around 586 BCE. Then came the Persian empire (539-332 BCE) and the Hellenists (332-141 BCE), and then it was briefly taken back by the Jews (The Maccabee army) and that’s what Hanuka is all about. But the return to power didn’t last for long, and in 63 BCE, the majority of the Jewish population was exiled by the Romans. They burned the Jewish Holy Temple, murdered thousands, and even renamed the land from Israel to “Palestina”.

Fast forward to 1948, the diaspora of the Jewish people was finally about to be over. After being spread across the world suffering horrific violence against them through the years, the Jewish people were finally able to return to their homeland. At this point, Palestina belonged to the British crown after it was conquered from the Ottoman Empire (in 1917) and the population was a mix of Brits (mostly soldiers), Arabs, and Jews.

Friday Noon, May 14, 1948, after a vote in the UN, in Dizengoff House, Rothschild Street 16 Tel-Aviv, David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel announces, to massive celebration nationwide, over the radio, the famous declaration: “We hereby declare the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel. This is the State of Israel” (English by Google translate).

Following that day there is a large-scale return of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. Of course, the local Arabs were furious, as they wanted this land to be Muslim and remain called Palestina. Like the Jews, they didn’t love the Brits being there but they wanted the place to become a Muslim country after the British mandate was over, not a Jewish one, just as it had been during the Ottoman empire. So they start a war.

This war was the first Israeli war, the war of independence or “Nakba” in Arabic. As we know today, despite the odds, even though there were fewer Jews and more Arabs, the Jews won the war, killing many – Hence the name Nakba, which in translation to English means tragedy. But the Arabs persevered (not just the local ones) and more wars followed suit. The Gulf war, The Yom-Kippur war, the Six-Days war, etc. Every war was lost by the Arabs, and Israel acquired more lands while the attackers retreated into places like Gaza, Jenin, and the West Bank.

Following the wars the local Arabs split into two main groups – those who decided to live in peace with the Jews and those who embraced the moniker Palestinians (After the Roman name of the land Palestina) and continued terrorizing the state of Israel, killing Jews, Arabs, and Christians alike.

The Israeli government offered peace countless times. They gave land and released prisoners (murderers with blood on their hands) to achieve peace, but the more they tried the harsher the response. For example, Gush-Katif used to be a Jewish settlement, it was given to the Palestinians as a peace offering and now it serves as a place where they launch rockets at Israeli civilians.

Following the Intifada of the 90s and early 2000’s where the Palestinians blew up buses, murdered, stoned, shot, stabbed, raped, burned, and kidnapped Israeli civilians, the new Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that enough is enough and so they bordered up dangerous areas with a fence preventing terrorists from attacking.

Of course, this didn’t completely stop terrorism from happening and horrific acts of violence including everything mentioned above plus rocket attacks on Israeli civilians and misinformation campaigns painting Israel as a Fascist state continued to this day, but the fence and increased military control of the borders did reduce the numbers somewhat up to the 7th of October 2023.

On October 7 2023 the Palestinians broke the fence and unleashed unimaginable violence against Israeli civilians including kidnapping, torturing, burning alive, physical and sexual violence against men women, and children, massive rocket attacks, destroying entire villages, and even taking over military bases murdering everyone in sight. On October 7 2023 the Palestinians murdered about 1500 Israeli civilians and kidnapped over 200. Following the attacks of October 7 began the HARAVOTH BARZEL (Iron Swords) war where Israel invaded Gaza with the primary goal of releasing civilian hostages and finally bringing down the rule of the terrorist organization HAMAS. The war is still ongoing and Israel is facing several fronts. HAMAS is attaching the South from Gaza, HEZBOLLAH is attacking the North from Lebanon, and Iran has so far unleashed one massive attack all over the country causing one major injury to a 7-year-old Bedouin girl. There have also been attacks from places like Syria, Jordan, and even Yemen. 

Aside from the physical attacks, there is also a massive misinformation campaign sponsored by Iran, and various terrorist organizations convincing even the most liberal people to actively support radical Islamic terrorism and the massacre of the Jewish people. The disinformation campaign portrays Israel as an Apartheid state where Arabs are racially segregated oppressed people with no human rights and no aid. In reality, Arabs within the Israeli borders live a free life and have more rights than in most Muslim countries, access to education, jobs, healthcare, and all the same privileges as Israeli Jews do; they even have a political party in the Knesset. Meanwhile, those who decided that they wouldn't accept the Israeli government chose for themselves a terrorist organization as a ruling body and of course are suffering the consequences of their choices.

Gaza has indeed suffered massive destruction following the recent Israeli invasion but they could have avoided that by simply using negotiations instead of warfare and crimes against humanity. There are indeed civilian casualties on both sides and like in any other war, casualties happen, but what choice did Israel have following the horrific violent attacks of October 7? What can a prime minister say to a mother whose 5-year-old child had been taken hostage and is now starved and abused by terrorists? That there is nothing he can do about it? What can the Israeli government offer to the broken families whose loved ones had been violently killed, kidnapped, tortured, and raped? Thoughts and prayers? Yes, there are casualties, and well, there were casualties in Germany in world war II as well, did the Nazis care? The care for the civilians is in the hands of the government, if the government chooses war when other alternatives are available, who is to blame?