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Israeli-Palestinian conflict

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Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip are at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip are at the center of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a part of the greater Arab-Israeli conflict, is an ongoing conflict between the State of Israel and Palestinian Arabs.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not 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, some individuals and groups advocate total territorial removal of the other community, some advocate a two-state solution, and some advocate a binational solution of a single secular state encompassing present-day Israel, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

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History

Since the Oslo Accords, 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 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.

There has been both literal prolonged violent conflict, with various levels of intensity, and the underlying conflict of ideas, goals and principles. On both sides, there have at various times been parties who differ in the degree to which they advocate or use the violent tactics, active non-violence, etc. There are people who sympathize with the goals of one or the other side, without necessarily embracing the tactics that have been used on behalf of those goals; further, there are those who embrace at least some of the goals of both sides. And to refer to "both" sides is, itself, a simplification: Fatah and Hamas are far from agreement over goals for the Palestinians; the same could be said for the various Israeli political parties, even if discussion is limited to the Jewish Israeli parties.

PLO Fatah Hamas PIJ PFLP
The emblems of major Palestinian organizations include a map of present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. (Significant populations of Palestinians and Israelis alike claim a right to the entire region).

Those qualifications mean that any rapid summary of the nature of the conflict is bound to be very partial. That said, those who advocate violent Palestinian resistance generally justify doing so as legitimate resistance to an illegitimate Israeli military occupation of Palestine supported by military and diplomatic assistance from the United States. 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. Another popular justification is based on Islamic (some call it Islamist) religious views.

Conversely, those sympathetic to Israeli military action and other Israeli measures against the Palestinians tend to view these actions as legitimate Israeli self-defense against 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 by the majority of the Palestinians, at least those Palestinians who are not Israeli citizens. 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 legitimacy of the actions of each party to the conflict has been a key obstacle to resolution.

A peace movement poster: Israeli and Palestinian flags and the words Salaam in Arabic and Shalom in Hebrew. Similar images have been used by several groups proposing a two-state solution to the conflict.
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A peace movement poster: Israeli and Palestinian flags and the words Salaam in Arabic and Shalom in Hebrew. Similar images have been used by several groups proposing a two-state solution to the conflict.

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. Israel has also accepted the road map but with 14 "reservations". The current Palestinian government rejects the proposal. Israel is currently implementing a controversial disengagement plan proposed by former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. So far, Israel has removed all of its civilian and military presence in the Gaza Strip, (namely 21 Jewish settlements there, and four in the West Bank), but continues to supervise and guard the external envelope on land excepting a border crossing with Egypt, which is jointly run by the Palestinian National Authority in conjunction with the European Union. Israel also maintains exclusive control in the air space of Gaza, and continues to conduct military activities, including incursions, in the territory. 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 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" [1] [2]. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has stated that further unilateral withdrawals from some West Bank settlements may be undertaken if the peace process continues to be stalled.

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 former Likud Party are worried that the lack of Israeli military presence in the Gaza Strip will lead to an increase in rocket launching activity towards Israeli towns around Gaza [citation needed].

Palestinians want Gaza and the West Bank to become part of a (preferably contiguous) future state. Since the Gaza withdrawal, the future of the West Bank (known to many Israelis as historical Judaea and Samaria), containing several hundred thousand Israeli settlers, is yet to be determined. Israel currently plans on expanding existing large West Bank settlement blocs, and maintains the current impasse in the peace process —negotiations toward a permanent peace treaty featuring a two-state solution— cannot be restarted until the Palestinian government dismantles what Israel describes as terrorist groups. This is further complicated by Hamas's victory in the latest Palestinian legislative elections.

Map of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, showing areas of formal Palestinian authority in dark green and Israeli-administered areas in light green.
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Map of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, showing areas of formal Palestinian authority in dark green and Israeli-administered areas in light green.

See History of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for an account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict beginning in the 1880s and continuing to the present day.

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See also

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Ethnicity

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Religion

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Geography

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History

Until 1949

1949-1967

1967-1993

1993-present

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Ideology and ideas

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Media coverage

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Elements of the conflict

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Organizations and armed forces

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Peace Organizations

There are numerous organizations, both in Israel and Palestine, and around the world, that work toward a just peace by social, cultural, economic and political means. Some of these groups are:

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Proposals to end the conflict

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People

Israeli

Palestinian

Others

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Related conflicts

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Further reading

General History

  • Bregman, Ahron (2002). Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28716-2
  • Bard, Mitchell. The Complete Idiot's Guide to Middle East Conflict. 2nd ed. (Alpha, 2002), ISBN 0-02-864410-7
  • Bickerton, Ian J. and Carla L. Klausner. A Concise History of the Arab–Israeli Conflict. 4th ed. (Prentice Hall, 2001), ISBN 0-13-090303-5
  • Cohn-Sherbok, Dan. The Palestine-Israeli Conflict: A Beginner's Guide (Oneworld Publications, 2003), ISBN 1-85168-332-1
  • David, Ron. Arabs & Israel for Beginners (Writers and Readers Publishing, Inc. 1996), ISBN 0-86316-161-8
  • Dowty, Alan. Israel/Palestine (Polity, 2005), ISBN 0-7456-3202-5
  • Fraser, T. G. The Arab–Israeli Conflict. 2nd ed. (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), ISBN 1-4039-1338-2
  • Gelvin, James L. The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War (Cambridge University Press, 2005), 0521618045
  • Harms, Gregory with Todd M. Ferry. The Palestine-Israel Conflict: A Basic Introduction (Pluto Press, 2005), ISBN 0-7453-2378-2
  • Hirst, David. The Gun and the Olive Branch. 3rd ed. (Nation Books, 2003), ISBN 1-56025-483-1
  • Hurewitz, J. C. The Struggle for Palestine (Shocken Books, 1976), [out of print]
  • Khouri, Fred J. The Arab–Israeli Dilemma. 3rd ed. (Syracuse University Press, 1985), ISBN 0-8156-2340-2
  • Morris, Benny. Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist–Arab Conflict, 1881–2001 (Vintage Books, 2001), ISBN 0-679-74475-4
  • Mandel, Neville J. The Arabs and Zionism Before World War I (University of California Press, 1976), [out of print]
  • Roraback, Amanda. Palestine in a Nutshell or Israel in a Nutshell (Enisen Publishing, 2004), ISBN 0-9702908-4-5
  • Safran, Nadav. Israel: The Embattled Ally (The Belknap Press, Harvard, 1978), [out of print]
  • Smith, Charles D. Palestine and the Arab–Israeli Conflict. 5th ed. (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004), ISBN 0-312-40408-5
  • Sykes, Christopher. Crossroads to Israel (Cleveland: The World Publishing Company, 1965), [out of print]
  • Tessler, Mark. A History of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict (Indiana University Press, 1994), ISBN 0-253-20873-4
  • Thomas, Baylis. How Israel Was Won (Lexington Books, 1999), ISBN 0-7391-0064-5
  • Wasserstein, Bernard. Israelis and Palestinians (Yale University Press, 2003), ISBN 0-300-10172-4

Analytical / Focused

Peace proposals

  • A Comparison Of Three Drafts For An Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreement [3], by Adam Keller [4]
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External links


Middle East conflict

Arab-Israeli conflict | Israeli-Palestinian conflict | Jordan-Syria tensions | North Yemen Civil War | Dhofar War | Lebanese civil war | Libya-Egypt conflict | Iraq-Kuwait clashes | Iran-Iraq War | Gulf War | Iraq War
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