ISRAEL- PALESTINE CONFLICT
All India Human Rights Association (AIHRA)
ISRAEL- PALESTINE CONFLICT:
A BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Written
By: ABHIRA SHUKLA
B.Sc.,
LL.B
DR.
BHIM RAO AMBEDKAR UNIVERSITY, AGRA
EDITED
BY: Yash Jain
5th Year B.B.A. LL.B.
Amity Law School, Noida
INTRODUCTION
Recently we have witnessed violence in the
turf of Israel and Palestine on May 6, 2021. As per the sources around 250 and
more Palestinians were slaughtered in the violence and two thousand were
wounded, on the other side at least 13 Israelis causalities in the violence for
11 days. According to a report by the UN surmise that more than 72,000
Palestinians were compelled to displace by the violence.
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a
hundred years old conflict of what happens when two people claim inalienable
rights to the same piece of land. The whole chaos was done when the British
made a complete muddle of things with their post-world war I nation-building
exercise in the Middle East, and opportunities for peace have been missed
neglected since.
Israel-Palestine Conflict: A Critical
Analysis:
The dispute between Israel and Palestine
revert to the end of the 19th century when in 1947, the UN adopted Resolution
181, the Partition Plan. The plan was to divide the British authority of
Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. The rise of Israel instigated the war as
the Israel set up on May 14, 1948, which leads to the first war between Arabs
and Israelis but when the war ended it impacted 750,000 Palestinians who were
displaced and scattered. The whole state was divided into three zones which
are: The state of Israel, The West Bank (of the Jorden River), and The Gaza
Strip.
In 1967 war broke out again which resulted
Israel in possession of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both were home to a large
Palestinian population which is utmost important for today’s conflict. The West
bank since then is under Israeli possession but is indirectly controlled by the
Palestinian authority. On the other hand, ‘Hamas’, an Islamist fundamentalist
party has its influence and control over Gaza and is under Israeli blockade but
not ground troop occupation.
The inference drawn in short is that first,
Palestine wants Israel to stop all expansionary activities and pull back to pre-1967
borders as Palestine intends to form a sovereign state in the West Bank and
Gaza accompanied by East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel contrastingly wants
is to be identified as a Jewish state and wants the Palestine refugees to
return only to Palestine, not to Israel.
v
GEOGRAPHICAL IDENTITY:
If we talk about Palestine, it is in the
Eastern Mediterranean region and the Palestinian lands of the Gaza strip; alongside
the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and the West Bank (west of the Jorden
River). The Palestinian region is recognised as the sanctified land and is sacrosanct
among Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The Plain of Akko i.e. Acre region on
the north side mostly elongate with a breadth of 5 to 9 miles (8 to 14 km) for
about 20 miles (32 km) from the Lebanon border within the north to the Carmel
promontory, In Israel, within the south, where it tapered to a mere 600 feet
(180 metres);”[1].
The word derives from the Greek word ‘Philistia’ as to the land of the
Philistines. In the 2nd century, CE Romans called it “Syria
Palaestina” as it is in the southern portion of the province of Syria.
Israel is a small, semi-arid country sited
in the Middle East, along the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea,
bordered by Lebanon, Syria, Jorden and Egypt. This small country is a junction
to the three continents i.e. Europe, Asia and Africa. About 35 centuries ago
Jewish people give up their peripatetic life and settled in the land and become
a nation. “Israel is about 290 miles (470 km) in length and 85 miles (135 km)
in breadth at its widest point;”[2]
v
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
"One side features a state, the opposite
one does not,” said Doctor Serpil Atamaz who is a professor in the Department
of History and Director of the Middle East and Islamic Studies Program at
California State University in Sacramento. He said, it is not only about land but
also about having the proper right to self-determination. It is not a friction
between Jews and Muslims or Jews or Arabs said the professor. It doesn't return
to the biblical times or the Old Testament in the least. This is relatively a
modern conflict;”[3]
Ancient History:
The Israel-Palestine is the most and the
world’s longest-running conflict. The tension affirmed to be rooted date back
to 957 BC when King Solomon built the first temple in the Israeli kingdom which
was destroyed by the Nebuchadrezzar-II of Babylonia in around 587-586 BC. In
538 BCE, the Babylonians empire, the ancient Akkadian speaking state were defeated
by the Achaemenid empire whose king Cyrus allowed the Jews to go back to ‘Judah’
the place in the south, where they rebuilt second temple of Solomon. Later in
70 CE the Romans looted the second temple of Solomon and destroyed it.
Afterwards the Bar Khokba Revolt of 132-136 AD, ‘Hadrian’ the roman emperor
expelled all Jews from Jerusalem. He to a greater extend by eliminating traces
of Jewish presence in the province and rename it from Judah to Syria
Palestine. He outlaw the practice of the
Jewish faith and destroyed the association of Jews.
Israel was conquered and ruled by a series
of Persians, Romans, Greeks, Arabs, Fatimids, Seljuk Turks, Crusaders,
Egyptians, Mamelukes and finally the Ottomans.
Modern History:
The Modern history of Israel-Palestine
starts with the Ottoman Empire which reigned much of West Asia including the
Israeli region from 1517 to 1917. “Theodor Herzl, Austro-Hungarian born who was
a Jewish and journalist by profession somewhere near in the nineteenth century,
implant the thought of a Jewish motherland for the Jewish people in Palestine.
This thought came to be referred to and spread as Zionism, which found many
followers among the Jews in Europe, where Jews were facing discrimination and
even pogroms;”[4]
British government during the first World
War in the hope to gain support from the Jewish section in 1917 announced the
‘Balfour Declaration’ which promised that “the Jewish people can establish a
nation-home for them in Palestine” but this whole offer was contradictory to
what British had already assert to ‘Sharif Hussain’ the ruler of the Mecca in
1915 that he would take over the region of Palestine region if he led an Arab
rivalry against the Ottomans which he did accordingly.
After World War I:
When the world war was over, the British
established a dependency in Palestine until the Palestinians were ready to be
in-charge themselves. They called it ‘Mandatory Palestine’ as per the League of
Nations mandate. When the Jews were compelled to expel from Europe, they in the
hope and expectation of creating their homeland marched to Palestine. It was
recorded that from 1920 to 1930 the population of Jews in Palestine increased
by hundreds of thousands. In 1936 the Palestinian Arabs outbreak against the
British but it was suppressed by them with the help of Jews. World War II broke
out and during it, many Jews escape from the Holocaust. They were brought to
Palestine illegally by the Jewish organisations. It all gets off from the
British and nothing can be resolved by the British, they decided to hand over
the problem to the United Nations proposed to partition and divide Palestine by
separating it into one for Palestine and another for the Jewish state, but it
was rejected by the Arabs.
v
FACTORS OF
ISRAEL-PALESTINE CONFLICT:
There are several reasons for the
Israel-Palestine conflict dating a century back, but the roots were grown when
the British government implemented a Mandate for Palestine for the
establishment in Palestine of a homeland for Jewish people. This grows into Jews-Arabs
sectarian quarrel. However. When we study the conflict the factors which can be
inferred from it are Ethnic, National, Historical and Religious. We will study
the factors under these heads to have an understanding of the conflict.
Ethnic Factor:
The exodus of Jews to Palestine due to the
execution of the Zionist movement in 1882 to establish a homeland for Jewish
people. This leads to the war between Jews and Palestinians in 1948, which rise
the whole state of Israel. In the war of 1948, many Palestinians were forced to
leave Palestine and took shelter in Arab countries and become refugees, while
other Palestinians had to become Israeli citizens. “According to Arian et al. (2008), 87%
of the Israeli
survey claims that
the relationships between the
Jews and Arabs
in Israel are
the main problem facing
the Israeli society (next comes the relationship between rich-prosperous and poor people and in the
last, third place the seculars and religious);”[5]
National Factor: It
is paramount for today’s scenario as Israel in possession of the West Bank and
Gaza strip after the war of 1967, the two lands home to a large Palestinian
population. The Israeli troops implement Israeli security restrictions on Palestinian
movement, and activities and Jews settlers expanding their faction in the West
Bank to rebut the land to Palestinians. In addition to this, Gaza is controlled
by Hamas, an Islamist fundamentalist party that is under the blockade of
Israel.
What is the solution to this long-running conflict,
“a two-state theory or one state which can be either big Israel or one big
Palestine”?
Historical and Religious Factors:
In above we have already briefly discussed the historical factor in the brief
history of the conflict, we will discuss the religious factor which has
impacted the conflict till today. Zionist are so-called extremists of Israel,
who see themselves as guardians and definers of the Jewish state. In Jewish and
biblical history Jerusalem also has its importance as it was the capital of
Israel in the reign of King David.
“From 1920 to ‘30s, Mufti of Jerusalem named
‘Muhammad Amin al-Hussayni’ strived to stop Jews from buying Arab land by
persuading Arabs to donate their land to an Islamic holy trust, known as a ‘Waqf’,
bequest has been made by a Muslim for a religious, educational, and charitable
cause, where the land would be withdrawn from purchase by Jews. Without a known
authority for its truth, Al-Hussayni spread the word that Jews were going to
take over the Temple Mount and Haram al-Sharif and that stirred up animosity
among the Arabs. This was one of the leading causes of the riots of 1929, where
Jews were attacked in Hebron, Safed and Tel Aviv;”[6] “Religious morale build up greatly after the
1967 war, because of Israel’s military victories over its Arab enemies.
Religious Jews began to believe that their victories were a sign from God that
the Messiah was on His way. They believed their victory was a sign from above
to redouble their efforts in settling all the land that was part of ancient
Israel, from the Mediterranean to the Jorden;”[7]
v
INVOLVEMENT OF
SUPER-POWERS:
USA:
The United States of America had played a
crucial role in the Israel-Palestine conflict for more than half a century. USA
involvement is after World War II with the UK relocating the Holocaust survivor
to Palestine. It was the USA that initially gave recognition to Israel as a
sovereign nation in 1948. The USA also mediated along with other super nations
like France, Russia and Britain after the 1967 Six-Day war. “The United States
foreign policy changed in the war of 1973 because Arab oil producers were
imposed a ban on due to harmful oil production as per the notification by the
US, and it brought the United States—which supported Israel—and the Soviet
Union—which armed Egypt and Syria—close to a nuclear confrontation after a
period of détente. The war of 1973 was proved to be a boon for recognition of
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for Palestinian cause along with Arab
League.”[8]. American
President Mr Joe Biden has supported a two-state solution, the Israel and
Palestine state same as existed before the 1967 war.
RUSSIA:
Russia on a diplomatic level always portrayed
itself as a peacemaker and fundamental actor in the conflict. Israel has a
great influence in Russia as the powerful Jewish lobby and investors in Russia built
pressure on the lobby. On the other hand, many Russians live in Israel which is
also a matter of concern for President Putin. “The head of the Foreign
Relations Council of the Russian Federation, Mikhail Margelov on September 10, 2004,
articled, which is titled ‘Middle East Horizons of Russian Politics: Russia
returns to one of the world’s key regions’, wrote:
President of Russia Mr Vladimir Putin
called for the revival of contracts with the countries with which Russia maintained
long friendly relations and invested a lot of material and intellectual
resources. The Arab countries are one of those friendly and large parts of
those counties. ... In general, the stand of Russia and the majority of Arab
countries on key issues of development of the political situation in the region
coincide with each other.”[9]
“Russia designate West Jerusalem as
Israel’s capital as per the sources of Al Jazeera, Russia stand for both the
opposing sides in the Israel-Palestine conflict which is not bias and not at
all diplomatic.”[10]
INDIA:
India’s policy has always shift from
pro-Palestine initially for four decades and later three-decade-old bonds with
Israel. Now at present, India’s position has been perceived as pro-Israel. In
1992 India normalise its relationship with Israel after the break-up of the USSR
and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation’s best clout in the Arab world. In
1992 India also establish its embassy in Tel Aviv, which marked the end of four
decades of tension between Israel and India. “PM Jawaharlal Nehru’s argument
for the decision to recognise Israel was that it was an absolute fact that not
doing so would create enmity between two UN members.”[11]
India was one of the countries which voted
against the Partition Plan at the UN General Assembly in 1948 as that time
India’s energy-dependent on the Arab countries and also they had to look after
the Muslim sentiments. In 1967 & 1973 India openly opposed Israel and
lashed out. Narassimha Rao govt. established a diplomatic relation and policy
with Israel by opening a Representative Office in Gaza.
From 1992 the India-Israel relationship
continued to grow. BJP-led. PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee was in charge of the office
that deals ‘firmly’ with terrorists. In 2000, Advani was the first minister to
visit Israel and later followed by Jaswant Singh. Ariel Sharon was the first Israeli PM to
visit India, he visited India in 2003. Lately, we are familiar with the fact
that PM Modi has built a strong diplomatic relationship with Israel.
v HUMAN RIGHT VIOLATION:
The
Israel-Palestine conflict is going on for ages but the legal fight and physical
battles began in 1972, this happened when the Israeli settler group told
Palestinian families living in the city that they trespass on the land which is
owned by Jews. Accordingly to ‘Peace Now’ an activist group Palestinians are at
risk of expulsion and 20,000 Palestinian homes are in danger of being
demolished. According to the Human Right Watch, in East Jerusalem and other
areas, Israel have discriminatory policies which include confiscation of
property and containment of Palestinians, they forcefully push Palestinian from
their residence. “Illegal use of stun grenades, rubber-coated bullets, and
severe beatings by Israeli army soldiers was reported by the New York Times.”[12] “Many
mass arrests, unlawful force and detentions were imposed on peace-making
groups, people and activists in Palestinian region.”[13]
“Thirty-one
Palestinian which includes nine children were brutally killed by Israeli army
said Amnesty International in a report.”[14]. Reports
show that Palestinian civilians were punished collectively, detained unlawfully
and prohibited to cross-borders even in the need of medical emergencies. Recordings
of inhumane treatment of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in detention and
prisons have been found and telecast. Israel being condemned by Human
Right Watch for committing crimes against humanity, persecution and apartheid
against Palestinian in their own country.”[15].“The
murder rate against Palestinian citizens of Israel increased 25 times which is
proportional to the Jewish citizens of Israel, which constitute almost 80% of
the population.”[16],
“Hundred and ten Palestinian civilians were killed in 2021 by the Israeli army
which is recorded the highest of all in decades, reported an NGO named AMAN.”[17]
“Israel has illegally sheltered
approximately 41,327 refugees and asylum seekers which were mostly from the
Eritrean and Sudanese nationals which are designated as conflicted areas as per
the report of UN refugee agency UNHCR. Only 1% were granted refugee status.
These Asylum seekers had no legal access and fair status to be the part of
determination procedures, not even any means of economic support.”[18]
v CONFLICT
AND THE UNITED NATIONS:
United Nations is a peace establishing organisation
that prevents wars and conflicts among states. However, the Middle East
conflict imposes the UN initiatives for peace and are familiar with the fact
that the British when failed to keep up Mandatory Palestine they handover whole
conflict to United Nations. After the war of 1947-48 the origin of Israel and
the war between Arab and Jewish, the refugees wanted to come back to Palestine
and as per Resolution 194 UN granted the refugees. UN followed by recommended
Resolution 181 to separate the region into Jerusalem city, the Jewish state and
Arab Palestine but this has not been resolved till today. UN also tried to
mediate the conflict which can be listed as down below:
·
Partition Plan: UN
brought Resolution 181 to divide the Palestine in Arab and Jewish states.
· The
violence of peace: “This idea came from
Resolution 54, which protects the order of the usage of violence explaining
that any violation of peace will be obliged the UN to take further actions
against it. This resolution instead of enforcing, breach the peace and no actions
were taken.”[19]
· UN
Truce Consular Commission for Palestine (Conference in Lausanne): In
1949, the UN tried to negotiate on borderlines of the Palestine partition but
did not turn up on any conclusion, instead Israel got the chance to become a
member of the UN on May 11th, 1949.
· Security
Council Resolution 242: “UN proposed a mediation
proposal to cease the independence claims of all parties involved in the
conflict which was supported and accepted by Jordan, Egypt and Israel but Syria
and Palestine were against it and disapproved of it. As a result due to
disapproval of Syria and Palestine, the resolution 242 couldn’t be enforced.”[20]
These were some negotiating efforts that were
failed by the UN still it putting efforts to carry out its obligations to the
right of Palestine to self-determination. In the current scenario, UN has been
questioned about the failure of passing at least one resolution concerning
Israel-Palestine. “The UN Council is under threat of becoming a “silent witness
to the demise of the two-state solution said, the New Zealand Foreign Minister
Mr Murray Mccully.”[21]
UNSC is also seen as a failure to take any
action in resolving the conflict as no form of action has been seen from one
part of the council.
v HOW
THE CONFLICT CAN BE RESOLVED?
· Unilateral
Measure: After years of negotiations and no
solution, the possibility seems to call for unilateral action. The unilateral
action might be significant or can withdraw positive outcome, some may see it
as no final settlement but it shows the possibility to reserve the two-state
plan. “To preserve the two-state plan for future and prohibiting proactive
Israeli destruction plan and to withdraw its illegal occupation, The Institute
for National Security Studies have suggested some ‘co-ordinated unilateral’
plans for future benefits.”[22]
The
Positive impact of unilateral steps can be:
Ø Israel
may stop settlement expansion beyond the wall.
Ø Leniency
towards restrictions on Gaza.
Ø Re-designating
areas of West bank.
Ø Lift
the impediments to Palestinian economic development.
Ø Dislodge
the restrictions on Palestinian election in East Jerusalem, Gaza and West bank.
Ø Freeing
Palestine prisoners.
These measures may reserve the two-state
solution but at the same time, they can be dangerous or violent which automatically
hindered the peace in Israel-Palestine most likely in the Middle East.
· State-minus
Approach of Israel: The preponderance of the
Israeli conservative, right-wing favoured the “State-minus Approach” as the
two-state solution seems impossible to attain. This “State-minus Approach” is
some form of one-state outcome which was also supported by American President
Donal Trump but declined by the Palestine-Arab world. This approach will give
Israel control over the full territory which would cause prejudice to
Palestinians, discrimination and unequal rights for the Jewish or maybe the
binational state which has always been the subject of conflict and would not last
the peace in the state.
· Interim
Measures: The Interim measures are some kind
of ‘transitional arrangements’ which will present a two-state outcome without
guarantees to achieving a two-state solution. “In a session of UN General
Assembly, the representative of Palestine, President Mahmoud Abbas stated that
they will not accept any temporary solution or a fragmented state, he added.. ‘Palestine
has held a dignified position for many years and will continue to hold for the
foreseeable future’.”[23]
v CONCLUSION:
In this research we have studied the
conflict from its various dimensions and point of view, Israel-Palestine dispute is one of the
longest-running conflicts in the world whose solution or the endpoint is not
been drawn till today. We have studied the geo-political significance of
Palestine and how the whole conflict gave birth to a rising superpower Israel
in Western Asia as a whole new state. In this research, we have come across historical
aspect like the settlement of Jews, Muslims (Arab), and native Palestinians.
Ethnic, National, Historical and Religious factors play their part in the
conflict. We saw how superpowers like the USA and Russia time to time-shift their
diplomatic stands instead of resolving the conflict and how Indian diplomacy has
been over the decades. The United Nations, which speaks of human rights
violations in the Israel-Palestine conflict has always looked in a distressed
position and helpless to make a way out of it. The mediation process looks
impossible to happen and the UN is portrayed as the only chief spectator in the
whole conflict. The United Nations from the emergence of the unfortunate
conflict tried to resolve it in other ways too like Unilateral measures, the
State-minus approach of Israel and Interim measures as well but it seems like a
long wait until coming to any full and final endpoint.
[3] https://www.abc10.com/article/news/community/race-and-culture/need-to-know-the-israel-and-palestine-conflict/103-79ca68a9-31c4-4adb-9b74-99e26b16cebf
[5]https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265149829_Ethnicity_Ethnic_Conflict_and_Work_Values_the_Case_of_Jews_and_Arabs_in_Israel
[11] https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/palestine-israel-conflict-india-unsc-jerusalem-clashes-aqsa-7320652/
[12] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/12/world/middleeast/israeli-palestinian-conflict-gaza-hamas.html
[13] https://theowp.org/reports/the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-a-battle-over-homes-and-human-rights/
[14] https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/
[15] https://theowp.org/reports/the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-a-battle-over-homes-and-human-rights/
[16] http://web.archive.org/web/20220416105623/https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/
[17] https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/
[18] https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/
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