the arab-israeli conflict

THE ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvkI8pJJdEU (Waving Flag Freedom w/pixs 4:07)

Respond to the pictures seen on the video.

Basics

• Who: The Israelis and the Palestinians

• What: conflict over land (freedom, justice, equality, rights, better living conditions, economic issues, ability to educate youth)

• Where: Jerusalem, West Bank and the Gaza Strip

Who is who????

• Israelis– Citizens of Israel– Some live in the West

Bank– Mostly Jewish

• Palestinians– Live in Gaza, West

Bank– Some live in Israel

with limited rights– Mostly Muslim

Jewish and Muslim------religion

Israeli and Palestinian-----nationality

Arab----ethnicity

Ancient Palestine

• Modern day Israel

• Home to the Jews and the Palestinians for 1,000s of years

• Diaspora- Roman Empire conquers area causing Jewish exile from Palestine

• Palestinians remain

Zionism• Jewish dream of returning to the ancestral

homeland in the region of Palestine (today called Israel)

Jewish Immigration into Palestine

• 1914- 10% of Palestine is Jewish

• 1916- British take control of Palestine

• 1917- Balfour Declaration- British support the “establishment in Palestine of a National Home for the Jewish people”– Palestinian Arabs not consulted – Jewish immigration increases

Increasing Tensions

• 1936- Arab revolt

• British planned to divide Palestine into 2 states- one Jewish, one Arab

• Arabs forced to live in refugee settlements

• 2 states……………unsuccessful….

World War II and the Holocaust

• After WWII and the Holocaust thousands of Jews fled from Europe to Palestine

• Jewish people wanted to create a Jewish state in Palestine

• 1947- British turn to the UN

• Mid 1940s: 1,300,000 Palestinians; 600,000 Jews

United Nations Intervenes

• UN partition of Palestine– Jewish state (51%)– Arab state (44%), – UN administered international

zone of Jerusalem (5%)

– Jews rejoiced, Arabs outraged….WHY?

1948- A BIG YEAR….PAY ATTENTION!!!

• Jewish State- Israel 51%• Arab State- Palestine 44%• THE COUNTRY OF ISRAEL WAS ESTABLISHED

(1948)• Next day, Arab states (Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon,

Egypt, and SA) attack Israel• By the end of 1948- Israel captures additional Arab land• Many Palestinians fled to the Gaza strip (Egypt) and the

West Bank (Jordan)• Israel began occupying former Palestinian villages• Palestinians demanded to return or be compensated for

lost land- Israel said they had rightfully won it.

1967 War

• Israel vs. Arab States

• Israel made a pre-emptive strike and captured…– The Gaza Strip & the Sinai

from Egypt– The West Bank & East

Jerusalem from Jordan

• Many Palestinians fled to other Arab countries, others remained in the Gaza Strip and West Bank

The Yom Kippur War 1973

• Syria and Egypt surprised Israel on Judaism’s Holiest day

• Why?- Take back land gained from the Six Day War

The Intifadas

• Palestinians violently confront Israeli forces- rock throwing, guns, hand grenades

• Israel responded violently- demolishing homes, arresting thousands of people

• 1st 3 years of intifada- 1000 Palestinians died, 37,000 wounded; 56 Israelis killed

Martyrs

• Someone who sacrifices their life in order to further a cause or belief for many

• http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/wideangle/lessonplans/dyingto/index.html

Palestinian Responses and

Recent Events

Palestine Liberation OrganizationPLO

• Representative of the Palestinian people

• Desire: Two-state solution

Hamas

• Palestinian militant group

• Anti-Israel, anti-Semitic

• Calls for destruction of Israel and creation of Palestine Islamic State in Israel’s land

• Terrorist group

• As of January 2007, Hamas controls the Gaza Strip

Camp David Accords

• Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin on September 17, 1978 at the White House with President Jimmy Carter

• GOAL: Peace between Israel and Egypt

CURRENT

• Gaza Strip– International territory controlled by the

Palestinians and Hamas

• West Bank – Majority Palestinian – Under Israeli military occupation since 1967– Many Jewish settlements – THE DISPUTED TERRITORY

Recent Events

• Peace attempts- 1978, 1993, 2001, 2010• 2003 - Israeli Prime Minister begins to withdrawal from the

Gaza Strip. • 2005- Israel out of Gaza • 2008- On Dec. 24th, Hamas fired rockets into Israel-

causing 1 death and much panic– Dec. 27th Israel launched a counteroffensive- airstrikes in Gaza

leaving 195 dead and many wounded– Hamas threatened more bombing and increased suicide

bombings- The “Third Intifada” • 2010- Increased violence due to increased Jewish

settlement building in the West Bank (proposed Palestinian territory)– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE87ZbHGq4w (wall building

3:36)

Life for Palestinians

What is it really like?

Quick Review of the Conflict

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpP6o7-beNc (Rachel Maddow show up to interview

about 4:25)

Israeli Settlements in the West Bank

• Relations between the Israeli government and the Obama administration have become tense lately over the issue of growing Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Nearly 300,000 Israelis now live in such settlements, alongside some 2.5 million Palestinians. The tense disputes over the settlements touch on religious and historical claims, local and international laws, and, of course political disagreements. The settlements range in size and permanence from "wildcat" outposts made of plywood shacks to established cities of tens of thousands. The international community views over 100 of the settlements as illegal under international law. Despite calls from the U.S. for a complete freeze on expansion, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that, though Israel would not build any new settlements and would dismantle unauthorized outposts, it would still allow building within existing settlements to accommodate "natural growth." Collected here are some scenes from West Bank settlements over the past few months.

Palestinian Said Eid stands next to his house, not seen, as construction continues on a new housing development in the Jewish neighborhood of Har Homa in east Jerusalem, background, Wednesday,

June 3, 2009.

The Jewish settlement of Har Homa at sunset in east Jerusalem on June 3, 2009.

Jewish settlers build a makeshift synagogue in the unauthorised outpost of Maoz Esther, near the Jewish settlement of Kokhav Hashahar, northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah June 4, 2009, after Israeli authorities demolished similar structures at the outpost on Wednesday.

Israeli border police officers walk together after the demolition of the Maoz Esther outpost (part of which is seen in background) near the Jewish settlement of Kokhav Hashahar, northeast of the West Bank city of Ramallah May 21, 2009. Israeli police broke up the unauthorized settler outpost in the occupied West Bank, bulldozing seven makeshift cabins that day, police said.

A Palestinian man tries to put out a fire in Palestinian fields that were set by Jewish settlers outside the village of Hawara and the Yitzhar settlement in the north of the occupied West Bank June 1,

2009.

Dust kicks up in a stone quarry owned by an Israeli company near the West Bank settlement of Anatot, near Jerusalem on Wednesday, May 20, 2009. Israel has ordered a freeze on the expansion of Israeli-run stone and gravel quarries in the West Bank and says it will examine the legality of the industry, the Justice Ministry said on May 20th. The government's decision was made in response to a petition file by the Yesh Din human rights group on behalf of West Bank Palestinians who say their land is being illegally exploited.

Masked Jewish settlers from the Yitzhar settlement prepare to hurl stones towards Palestinian stonethrowers on the outskirts of Hawara village, just south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank on June 1, 2009. Jewish settlers rampaged in the West Bank, wounding four Palestinians, as they

vented fury that Israel may answer US calls and dismantle outposts in the territory, officials said.

A Palestinian shepherd sits with his sheep in front of a Jewish settlement near Jerusalem known to Israelis as Har Homa and to Palestinians as Jabal Abu Ghneim on June 14, 2009.

Israeli soldiers scuffle with Palestinian and foreign peace activists after they erected a tent next to settlers who constructed an illegal outpost on a land owned by Haddar Palestinian family, near the village of Yatta, southern the West Bank city of Hebron, on June 6, 2009.

Video Clips

• Growing Up in Gaza

• Palestinian Parkour

• Gaza's Summer Escape

• 1967 Border Perspectives

SOLUTION??1967 Borders

• 1967 Border Perspectives (Borders and Barriers)(1) What areas do the Palestinians want to be part of their

country? (Gaza, West Bank, East Jerusalem)(2) According to the UN, what should these new borders be

based on? (3) According to President Obama, what should the border

be? (4) Who currently controls the West Bank? (5) Why won’t Israel agree to these borders? (6) What other obstacle is there? (7) Besides bases, what else does Israel have inside the

West Bank? (8) Why is the Old City of Jerusalem problematic?