There is a war-like situation between Israel and Palestine at the moment. The conflict between Israel and Palestine began in eastern Jerusalem on 7th May, killing and injuring a large number of people. The Israel-Palestine tension has turned into a violent confrontation leaving the international community worried.
The struggle between Israelis and Palestinians is one of the world’s most enduring conflicts. It claims to have its roots in 957 BC when King Solomon built the first temple in the Israelite kingdom. The temple was destroyed by Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylonia in 587/586 BC.
Though both the Jews and the Arab Muslims date their claims to the land back a couple thousand years, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century.
A timeline of the most controversial conflict:
In 1917, during World War I, the British capture Palestine from the Ottomans. The land was inhabited by a Jewish minority and Arab majority. Tensions between the two peoples grew when the international community gave Britain the task of establishing a “national home” in Palestine for the Jewish people. For the Jews, it was their ancestral home. However, the Palestinian Arabs also claimed the land and opposed the move.
The Jews, fleeing persecution in Europe and seeking a homeland after the Holocaust of WWII, arrived in huge numbers between the 1920s and 1940s. The swelling numbers led to violence between the Arabs and the Jews and resentment against the British rule.
In 1947, the United Nations voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem becoming an international city. That plan was accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by the Arab side and never implemented.
British rulers failed to establish peace between the Muslims and Jews and thus, declared the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
Palestinians objected and a war followed. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes in what they call Al Nakba, or the “Catastrophe”.
By the time the fighting ended in a ceasefire the following year, Israel controlled most of the territory. The war led to over 700,000 Palestinians becoming refugees.
Jordan occupied land, which became known as the West Bank, and Egypt occupied Gaza.
Jerusalem was divided between Israeli forces in the West, and Jordanian forces in the East.
Since there was never a peace agreement, each side blamed the other and wars and conflicts continued.
The most significant one among them was fought in 1967, when Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as most of the Syrian Golan Heights, and Gaza and the Egyptian Sinai peninsula.
Today’s lines largely reflect the outcomes of two of these wars, one waged in 1948 and another in 1967.
Tensions are always high between Israel and Palestinians living in East Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank.
Gaza is ruled by a Palestinian militant group called Hamas, which has fought Israel many times.
Israel and Egypt tightly control Gaza’s borders.
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank say they’re suffering because of Israeli actions and restrictions. Israel say it is only acting to protect itself from Palestinian violence.
Most Palestinian refugees and their descendants live in Gaza and the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.
Neither they nor their descendants have been allowed to return to their homes by Israel.
Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state.
Israel says allowing Palestinians to return to their homes would overwhelmingly threaten its existence as a Jewish state.
It still occupies the West Bank, and although it pulled out of Gaza, the United Nations still regards it as part of occupied territory.
Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital.
In May 2010, pro-Palestinian Turkish activists were killed as Israelis boarded a ship while trying to break a blockade of Gaza.
In November 2012, Israel launched a seven-day military campaign against Gaza-based groups that had for months launched rocket attacks against Israeli cities.
In July and August of 2014, Israel responded to attacks by armed groups in Gaza with a military campaign by air and land.
In September 2016, the U.S. provided Israel with a military aid package worth $38 billion.
In February 2017, the Israeli Parliament passed a law that retroactively legalized dozens of Jewish settlements that had been built on private Palestinian land in the West Bank, and four months later, work began on the first new Jewish settlement in the West Bank in more than 25 years.
President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in December 2017. Palestine and the rest of the Arab world signaled their disapproval. Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
In 2019, the US said it no longer considered Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal.
Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process but to no avail.