Early Zionist movement

• Made up of passionate Jews, actively began to look for a region to create a new Jewish state

• Palestine was their preferred region

• The Zionists felt Palestine was their true home because their religion began there

• "For 3000 years the Jews had been persecuted and had constantly been forced to flee from region to region. The Zionists felt Palestine was their REAL home as it was the birthplace of their religion, with Jerusalem as their HQ" (Israel/Palestine Issue)

Balfour Declaration

• Began as a letter

• Contents of letter became known as the Balfour Declaration

• Arthur Balfour promised a new home for Jews and Arabs

• Their "new home" was picked to be Palestine and that infuriated them

• Arabs had that land to begin with and Jews wanted their own state

• Extreme terrorist groups would fight for land

British Mandate and Immigration

• Jews seeking refuge in Palestine were turned away by Britain

• Britain closed borders in Eastern Europe

• Many Jews were sent back to their deaths which caused hatred towards Britain

• Britain felt guilty

UN Partition and Israel's Declaration

• The Arab League thought that Palestine was under threat from the Jewish influx

• They supported Palestinian terrorists against the Zionists

• Britain handed all control over to the UN

• The UN immediately started plans for dividing up Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state

• The UN felt that the world had a responsibility to support the Jews following WW2 and the Holocaust

• The UN carved up Pasestine, 55% of the land was given to the Jews and 45 for the Arabs

• Arabs declared war on Israel because Jews declared their land Israel

Arab-Israeli War and Refugee Crisis

• Israel won the war that lasted a year

• They won because the USA supported them, they had a do or die mentality and this was their last chance to have this land for good

• Arabs was left with the Gaza Strip and the West Bank

• Over 1 million Arabs were left as refugees and had to live at camps surrounded by other Arab refugees

• One of the poorest regions in the world

• Yasser Arafat was Palestinan leader, he got ready for the next war

• HAMAS and Hezbohhal came out as terrorists (mostly towards Israel)

• "For one, it includes people originally displaced from Palestine between 1946 and 1948, amid the creation of the state of Israel, as well as their children and other descendants" (Migration Policy Org)

Emergence of PLO and International Roles

• Goal was to unite Arab groups to create a liberated Palestine in Israel

• 750,000 Palestinians fleed their homeland after Israel became an independent state

  
  

Armistice Agreements

• Saudi Arabia and Iraq took part of the war

• Didn't sign anything with Israel

• Armistice agreements: interim arrangements until replaced by permanent peace treaties

Palestinian Refugee Situation

• About 5.9 million Palestinian refugees lived in the Middle East

• United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees: younger "refugees"

• Number of refugees has been going up for years and continues to

Cold War Influence and Settlements

• American policymakers thought that the Soviets wanted to exploit the Arab-Israeli conflict

• Wanted to do this to drive the West from the Middle East and take over the region

• Nixon administration wanted to end soviet influence

• "fearing American dominance and a war with the United States, the Soviets proposed a joint superpower-guaranteed or even imposed comprehensive peace settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict." (academic oup)

1993: Israel recognizes that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will eventually belong to Palestine. Plans begin to restore Palestine to the Arabs

Peace plan 2004: George Bush began phasing out Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. Plan over the next decade to gradually move out Israeli soldiers and people

2011: Protests mirrored other Middle Eastern nations and the passion of the Palestinians impressed Obama

Full agreement that Palestinians deserve their land (Israel doesn't like that)

October 7th

• Hamas terrorists waged the deadliest attack on Jews

• Slaughtering babies, raping women, burning families alive, and taking hundreds of innocent civilians hostage

• Since October 7 2023 more than 1,200 Israelis have been killed

• Terrorists still hold men and children captive

• "When the rockets began raining down over the Gaza-Israel border on 7 October 2023, some revellers at the nearby Nova music festival thought they were fireworks." (the gaurdian)