Israeli-Palestinian conflict
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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a part of the greater Arab-Israeli conflict, is an ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinians.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is by no means a simple two-sided conflict with all Israelis (or even all Israeli Jews) sharing one point of view and all Palestinians another. In both communities, there are individuals and groups who advocate total territorial removal of the other community, those who advocate a two-state solution, and those who advocate a binational solution of a single secular state encompassing present-day Israel and the Gaza strip and the West Bank.
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Since the Oslo Accord, the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) have been officially committed to an eventual two-state solution. The main unresolved issues between these two bodies are:
- The status and future of the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, which Israel considers in dispute and Palestinians as well as most of the international community consider occupied
- Israeli security from attacks against Israeli targets, which Israel considers acts of terrorism and Palestinians as legitimate resistance against an illegal occupying force
- Palestinian security from Israeli military attacks.
- The nature of a future Palestinian state.
- The fate of the Palestinian refugees.
- The settlement policies of Israel, and the ultimate fate of settlements.
The refugee issue arose as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. The issue of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem arose as a result of the Six-Day War in 1967.
People who sympathize with Palestinians tend to view the conflict as an illegitimate military occupation of Palestine, supported with military and diplomatic assistance from the U.S. Many tend to view the armed Palestinian resistance within the West Bank and Gaza Strip as a right granted by the Geneva conventions and the United Nations Charter, and some extend this view to justify attacks, frequently against civilians, within Israel proper.
| PLO | Fatah | Hamas | PIJ |
| Missing image Plo_emblem.png | Missing image Fateh-logo.jpg | Missing image HamasLogo.jpg | Missing image PIJ_emblem.png |
| The emblems of all major Palestinian organizations include a map of the land they claim as Palestine (roughly, present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.) Significant minority groups within Israel believe that the Jewish State should encompass part or all of the West Bank and Gaza | |||
Those sympathetic to Israel tend to view the conflict as a campaign of terrorism perpetrated by Palestinian groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah and others, and supported by other states in the region and the majority of the Palestinians. They also cite the Geneva conventions and the United Nations Charter to support Israel [1] (http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005245). Many tend to believe that the control of part or all of the territory is necessary for the security of Israel. This sharp contrast of views on the nature of the conflict has been a key obstacle to resolution.
Israel_and_Palestine_Peace.png
One current peace proposal is the Road map for peace presented by the Quartet of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States on September 17, 2002. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has also proposed a controversial disengagement plan. According to plans submitted to the United States, Israel has stated that it will remove its entire "permanent ... civilian and military presence" in the Gaza Strip, but will "supervise and guard the external envelope on land, will maintain exclusive control in the air space of Gaza, and will continue to conduct military activities in the sea space of the Gaza Strip." The Israeli government argues that "as a result, there will be no basis for the claim that the Gaza Strip is occupied territory", while others argue that, should the disengagement happen, the only effect would be that Israel "would be permitted to complete the wall [that is, the Israeli West Bank Barrier] and to maintain the situation in the West Bank as is" [2] (http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3331.shtml) [3] (http://www.fmep.org/documents/disengagement_plan_of_Sharon.html).
With the unilateral disengagement plan, the Israeli government's stated intent is to allow Palestinians to create a homeland with minimal Israeli interference while extricating Israel from a situation it believes to be too costly and strategically unsound to maintain over the long run. Many Israelis, including a significant portion of Sharon's own Likud Party are worried that the lack of Israeli military presence in the Gaza Strip will lead to an increase in suicide attacks on Israel. A specific concern is that Palestinian militant groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or the PFLP may emerge from the power vacuum of a post-disengagement Gaza as the political powers in the Gaza Strip.
Many have raised concerns about the spirit and consequences of unilateral disengagement. Tanya Reinhart, an Israeli scholar and activist, cast doubt on the intentions of the Israeli government, noting that "while the world believed that Rabin promised to eventually end the occupation and dismantle the settlements, the number of Israeli settlers actually doubled during his rule" [4] (http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3331.shtml). The disengagement, she contends, is simply a way to deflect international criticism, as opposed to a genuine effort to progress toward peace.
History
See history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for an account of events of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict beginning in the 1880s and continuing to present day.
Related articles
Ethnicity
- Arab -- Jew -- Palestinian -- Armenian
Religion
- Islam -- Judaism -- Christianity
Geography
Places
- Jerusalem -- Ma'alot -- Hebron -- Bethlehem -- Church of the Nativity -- Gaza City -- Jenin -- Jericho
History
Until 1949
- Balfour Declaration 1917
- 1922 Text: League of Nations Palestine Mandate
- British Mandate of Palestine
- 1947 UN Partition Plan
- Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, May 14, 1948
- 1948 Arab-Israeli War
- 1949 Armistice Agreements
- Palestinian exodus
1949-1967
- 1956 Suez War
- 1967 Six Day War
- Khartoum Resolution
- Occupation of the Gaza Strip by Egypt
- Occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan
1967-1993
- 1970 War of Attrition
- 1973 Yom Kippur War
- 1978 Camp David Peace Accords between Egypt and Israel
- 1982 Lebanon War
- 1990/1 Gulf War
- 1993 Oslo Peace Accords between Palestinians and Israel
- first Intifada
1993-present
- al-Aqsa Intifada
- Camp David 2000 Summit between Palestinians and Israel
- Road map for peace
- Violence against Israelis
- Israel's unilateral disengagement plan
- Jabalia Offensive in the fall of 2004
Ideology and ideas
Media coverage
- New Historians
- Promises, an Oscar-nominated documentary
- Media coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Charles_Enderlin
- Muhammed_al-Dura
Elements of the conflict
- Partial_list_of_Palestinian_terrorist_acts
- Palestinian refugees
- Israeli settlements
- Israeli West Bank barrier
- Child suicide bomber
- Al-Aqsa Intifada
- Violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- Peace Process in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Organizations and armed forces
- Israel Defense Forces
- Anti-Israel Movements
- Fatah
- Hamas
- PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine)
- Hezbollah
- Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development
- Palestinian Authority
- Palestine Liberation Organization
- Palestinian Islamic Jihad
People
Israeli
- David Ben-Gurion -- Menachem Begin -- Shimon Peres -- Yitzhak Rabin -- Ariel Sharon -- Chaim Weizmann
Palestinian
- Mahmoud Abbas -- Hanan Ashrawi -- Yasser Arafat -- Marwan Barghouti -- Haj Amin Al-Husseini -- Dalal Mughrabi -- Nabil Shaath -- Ahmed Shukairy -- Sheikh Ahmed Yassin -- Ahmed Qurei
Others
- King Hussein -- Anwar Sadat -- Colin Powell -- Anthony Zinni
Related conflicts
Further reading
- Pearlman, Wendy, Occupied Voices: Stories of Everyday Life from the Second Intifada, ISBN 1560255307.
- Chomsky, Noam,The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians, ISBN 0896081877.
- Safran, Nadav, The United States and Israel, ISBN 0674924908.
- Ross, Dennis, "The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the fight for Middle East Peace", ISBN 0374199736
- Bard, Mitchell, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflict", ISBN 0028644107
- Dershowitz, Alan,The Case for Israel, ISBN 0471679526
External links
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (http://www.washingtoninstitute.org)
- Legal Status of West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem (http://www.globalpolitician.com/articles.asp?ID=132)
- Middle East Policy Council - Conflict Statistics (http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/resources/mrates.asp)
- HonestReporting (http://www.honestreporting.com/)
- Sharm El-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee Final Report (Mitchell Report) (http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/mitchell.htm)
- Government of Israel (http://www.gov.il/)
- Palestinian Maps Omitting Israel (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/palmatoc1.html) and Maps of "Palestine" as a means to instill fundamentally negative messages regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/sib/maps11_03/maps.htm)
- IndyMedia (Israel) (https://israel.indymedia.org/)
- Palestine Independent Media Center (http://jerusalem.indymedia.org)
- Electronic Intifada (http://electronicintifada.net/)
- P10K (Palestine 10,000) - a peoples peace-keeping force (http://www.P10K.net)
- Palestinian Negotiation Team (http://www.nad-plo.org)
- "Barak's Generous offer" (http://www.gush-shalom.org/media/barak_eng.swf) from Gush Shalom
- Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza (http://www.jsource.org/jsource/Peace/settletoc.html)
- Myths and facts online: a guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths/mftoc.html) A pro-Israeli view
- meta:Solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- What next? By Sari Nusseibeh (http://www.sfcg.org/cgnews/menarticleframe.cfm?articleid=148)
- Israeli newspaper editorial mentioning Mr. Nusseibeh (http://www.sfcg.org/cgnews/menarticleframe.cfm?articleid=176)
- Current breakdown of fatalities in conflict (http://www.ict.org.il/casualties_project/stats_page.cfm)
- The Origin of the Palestine - Israel Conflict (http://www.cactus48.com/truth.html), Published by Jews for Justice in the Middle East
- Two Peoples, One State (http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/04/opinion/04tarazi.html?oref=login) The PLO's Michael Tarazi outlines a proposed solution to the conflict (New York Times, 4 October 2004)
- The Jerusalem Post (http://www.jpost.com/)
- Haaretz - English Edition (http://www.haaretzdaily.com/)
- "There must be peace between symbols" (http://www.thinking-east.net/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=81&Itemid=56) - Thinking-East analysis (open to comments)
- "Monsters in the shadows of a Palestinian plebiscite" (http://www.thinking-east.net/site/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=79&Itemid=56) - Another Thinking-East analysis (open to comments)
- Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salaam (http://www.nswas.com) aka The Oasis of Peace, an experimental Palestinian-Israeli cooperative village near Jerusalem.
- Directories
- LookSmart - Israel-Palestine Conflict (http://search.looksmart.com/p/browse/us1/us317836/us317916/us147927/us269889/us290317/us290303/us290378/)
- Open Directory Project - Israel-Palestine Conflict (http://dmoz.org/Society/Issues/Warfare_and_Conflict/Specific_Conflicts/Middle_East/Israel-Palestine/)
- Yahoo - Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (http://dir.yahoo.com/Regional/Regions/Middle_East/Government/Politics/Israeli_Palestinian_Conflict/)ar:قضية فلسطينية
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