National University Of Modern Languages Islamabad
PALESTINIAN ISSUE
Submitted to: Ma’am Uzma Malik
Submitted BY: Arifullah (Bs 5th Semester Pakistan Studies)
Roll Number :1810
Subject: Human Rights
Submitted Date :3rd July,2020
Introduction-
From its beginnings, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been more than a local fight between two groups
who want the same piece of land. It has confounded the expectations of the great powers trying to resolve
it and created unintended consequences that have had a substantial impact beyond the region. Arguably
no conflict on earth combines so complex a mixture of religious fervor, national aspirations, historical and
economic grievances, territorial rivalry, and geopolitical impact. For Palestinians, and for Arabs and
Muslims around the world, the conflict with Israel is viewed through a prism of anger at past humiliations
- the bloody crusades of medieval times, centuries of domination of Jerusalem and the Arab world by
European colonialists, and a belief that predominantly Muslim Palestinians have been forced to pay with
their homeland for the sins of Europeans during the Holocaust. For Israelis, and for the global Jewish
diaspora, the conflict's narrative grows out of centuries of anti-Semitism and abuse at the hands of
Christians and Muslims alike.
Seeds of the Conflict-
During the World War I, Britain encouraged the Arab tribes to rebel against the Ottoman Empire, which
sided with the Germany. In exchange, British officers pledged support for an independent Arab state in
the region, though the promise was vague and the boundaries were disputed. The Arab Revolt triggered in
1916. The next year, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour expressed official support to
Britain's Jewish community for a Jewish "national home" in Palestine. The Balfour Declaration spurred
Jewish immigration and laid the foundation for the eventual establishment of modern day Israel.
World War II & the Holocaust-
During World War II, Germany systematically slaughtered 6 million Jews living in Europe. The
Holocaust, had major implications on the entire Middle East. Many survivors of the holocaust immigrated
to Palestine. After the war, many nations being horrified by the mass murder became more sympathetic to
the idea of a Jewish national home. Jews made their way to Palestine. In 1945 survey by the Anglo-
American Committee of Inquiry found out that the population of Israel increased by 0.6 million during
the war era.
The Establishment of Israel State-
By 1947, the British had made plans to leave and the mandate chalked by them was engulfed by civil
conflict. Each side accused the other of atrocities. The fledgling United Nations passed resolution, calling
for separate Jewish and Arab states in Palestine. Arabs objected to the partition plan, which provided
more land to the Jews. Fighting intensified, and when the British completed their withdrawal in 1948,
Israel declared itself an independent state. The next day, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq invaded
it, but ultimately lost much of the land the UN had set aside for Arabs. Egypt and Jordan were left in
control of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, only.
Six days War-
As the military and diplomatic crisis between Arab states & Israel continued, Israel preemptively attacked
Egypt and Syria, destroying their air forces on the ground within a few hours. Jordan joined in the
fighting belatedly, and consequently was attacked by Israel as well. The Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian
armies were decisively defeated, and Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan, the Gaza Strip and the
Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria.
The 1967 war, which lasted only six days, established Israel as the dominant regional power. In contrast,
the Palestinian national movement emerged out as a major actor after 1967 in the form of the politico-
military group, which was heavily under the influence of Egypt, vowed to use material, military &
spiritual means to resist Zionism & form a Palestinian state.
Yom Kippur War-
During the month of Ramadan, Egypt and Syria mounted a surprise attack on the Sinai and the Golan
Heights during the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur. The war played a substantial role in bringing US and
USSR closed to an open confrontation, which was followed by an oil embargo to all the western nations,
who supported Israel. The embargo played a considerable role in shift by France and several other leading
European states towards a more pro-Arab stance. After early military gains during the war, the Arab
forces were driven back by UN, however it restored the confidence in the Arab Militia.
The First Intifada-
In December 1987, the Palestinian population in the West Bank and Gaza began a mass uprising against
the Israeli occupation. This uprising, or intifada (which means “shaking off” in Arabic), was not started or
orchestrated by the PLO leadership in Tunis. Rather, it was a popular mobilization that drew on the
organizations and institutions that had developed under occupation.
The intifada involved hundreds of thousands of people, many with no previous resistance experience,
including children and teenagers. For the first few years, it involved many forms of civil disobedience,
including massive demonstrations, general strikes, refusal to pay taxes, boycotts of Israeli products,
political graffiti and the establishment of underground freedom schools. This broad-based resistance
drew unprecedented international attention to the situation facing Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza,
and challenged the occupation as never before.
In contrary to that, Israel engaged in massive arrests; during this period, Israel had the highest per capita
prison population in the world. Israel tried to smash the intifada with force, power and beatings. Army
commanders instructed troops to break the bones of demonstrators. From 1987 to 1991, Israeli forces
killed over 1,000 Palestinians, including over 200 under the age of 16. During the first intifada, Israel
instituted a secret policy of targeted killing in the Occupied Territories. To evade war crimes allegations,
for years Israel’s targeted killing policy was staunchly denied.
Oslo Accords-
Exactly 23 years have passed since the Oslo accords were signed on the White House lawn. For all their
shortcomings and ambiguities, the accords constituted a historic breakthrough in the century-old conflict
between Jews and Arabs in Palestine. It was the first peace agreement between the two principal parties to
the conflict: Israelis and Palestinians.
(a)How did the Oslo Accords envisaged getting to peace?
The Oslo Accords were not a peace treaty. Instead, they established interim governance arrangements and
a framework to facilitate negotiations for a final treaty Oslo transferred control of the major Palestinian
cities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip from the Israeli military to a newly-created Palestinian Authority,
an interim structure to oversee administration and security in those areas. The hope was that limited
Palestinian self-government and incremental Israeli withdrawal would boost mutual trust that would
empower leaders on both sides to negotiate final-status agreements on the thorniest issues -- including
Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and Israeli settlements, borders and security.
(b)How did Israelis and Palestinians reacted to the Oslo Accords?
The agreement signed between Arafat and Rabin was controversial for many Israelis and Palestinians.
Israelis on the right opposed dealing with the PLO, a group it considered a terrorist organization. Israeli
settlers feared that Rabin's land-for-peace formula would result in their eviction from land they regarded
as theirs by Biblical right, even if the United Nations had ruled their settlements were a violation of
international law.
Among Palestinians, supporters of Arafat's Fatah movement accepted Oslo as an unfortunate, but
necessary, compromise. But rival groups such as Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine refused to recognize Israel, and warned that a two-state solution would betray the
aspirations of Palestinian refugees to return to land inside Israel lost in the 1948. There were skeptics on
both sides when the Oslo Accords were signed, and their number only grew as the process failed to
deliver on its promise.
(c)How did the Oslo Accords break down?
Oslo Accords saw a steady process of decline as both sides accused one another of failing to implement
key aspects of the agreements.1994 massacre by an Israeli settler fueled Palestinian anger, and then, in
1995, a right-wing Israeli gunman assassinated Rabin at a peace rally. The following year, after a series of
Hamas bomb attacks on civilian targets fueled outrage in Israel, Rabin was succeeded by Benjamin
Netanyahu, who had led opposition to Oslo & opposed the two state solution. Imbalance of power
between the two sides & failure of the United States to serve as a tough but impartial mediator as well as
growing influence of opponents of compromise played a significant role in the breakdown of Oslo
Accords.
The Second Intifada-
The problems with the “peace process” initiated at Oslo, combined with the daily frustrations and
humiliations inflicted upon Palestinians in the Occupied Territories converged to ignite a
second intifada in late September 2000. The second intifada was much bloodier than the first. During the
first three weeks of the uprising, Israeli forces shot 1 million live bullets at unarmed Palestinian
demonstrators. It was a conscious escalation in the use of force designed to avoid a protracted civil
uprising, like the first intifada, and the international sympathy it won the Palestinians. Israel characterized
the spreading protests as acts of aggression. Soon, the use of force expanded to include tanks, helicopter
gunships and even F-16 fighter planes. The Israeli army attacked PA installations & civilian
neighborhoods were subjected to shelling and aerial bombardment. The Benjamin Netanyahu dominated
Israeli politics & marked the end of the Oslo “peace process” for all practical purposes, since he
unequivocally opposed establishing a Palestinian state or making territorial compromises.
Israel announcement of Uni-lateral Withdrawal from the Gaza Strip-
Really???
The year of 2005 was marked with announcement by Israel to withdraw from the Gaza Strip in order to
strengthen Israel’s security, stability & reduce the burden on its economy. Despite official Israeli claims
that this unilateral disengagement transformed Gaza into “no longer occupied territory,” neither those
changes nor anything has happened. Israel’s occupation of Gaza continues to the present day because
Israel continues to exercise “effective control” over this area; because the conflict that produced the
occupation has not yet ended. In addition, Israel continues to control the Palestinian Population Registry,
which has the power and authority to define who is a “Palestinian” and who is a resident of Gaza.
Another manifestation of Israel’s continuing occupation of Gaza is its periodic incursions to arrest
residents and transport them into Israel. In the wake of Israel’s unilateral disengagement, the Israeli
administration enacted a new law to allow for the prosecution of Gazans in Israeli civil courts and their
imprisonment inside Israel.
Illegal Settlements- The telling tale of Injustice & Violation of International
Law
The West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip together constitute the Occupied Palestinian
Territories (OPT), which have been under Israeli military occupation since June 1967.Prior to Israeli
occupation, the West Bank was controlled by Jordan, and the Gaza Strip by Egypt. More than 300,000
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip became refugees during Israel’s conquest in June 1967; the
vast majority were unable to return. In 1967, Israeli forces ethnically cleansed and destroyed a number of
Palestinian villages in the OPT. The first West Bank settlement was established in September 1967,
supported by the then “left-wing Zionist” Labor-led government. There are at least 600,000 Jews now
living in illegal settlements the Occupied West Bank, including 200,000 in East Jerusalem.
These settlements are illegal under international law and constitute a huge obstacle to peace. Building
civilian settlements beyond the demarcated territories does not violate the letter of the Oslo accords but it
most decidedly violates its spirit. As a result of settlement expansion the area available for a Palestinian
state has been steadily shrinking to the point where a two-state solution is barely conceivable. The so-
called security barrier that Israel has been building on the West Bank since 2002 further encroaches on
Palestinian land. Land-grabbing and peace-making do not go together: it is one or the other. Oslo is
essentially a land-for-peace deal. The rate of settlement growth in the West Bank and Israeli-annexed East
Jerusalem is staggering. Thousands more settlement homes are planned or under construction. Despite his
best efforts, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, failed to get the Netanyahu government to accept a
settlement freeze as a precondition for renewing the peace talks suspended in 2010. As long as Netanyahu
remains in power, it is a safe bet that no breakthrough will be achieved in the new round of talks.
Palestinian homes are routinely demolished by Israeli forces for “lacking the right permit;” yet more than
95 percent of Palestinian permit applications are rejected by Israeli military courts which are enforced in
the occupied West Bank. Sixty percent of the West Bank remains under full Israeli military and civil
control. In the rest of the West Bank, the Israeli military conducts raids at will. It is clear that if any other
nation had behaved in such a manner toward any other people, the international community would have
intervened militarily by now.
Recent UNSC Resolution & its Implications-
The recent resolution passed by a vote of 14-0 with the U.S. abstaining, describes Israel’s settlements in
the West Bank and East Jerusalem as illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians. It is the first
time U.S. declined to block a Security Council resolution that Israel considered hostile. Netanyahu
warned countries that backed the measure they would pay a diplomatic and economic price.
Will anything change for the Palestinians on the Ground?
Netanyahu has declared that Israel will not abide by the terms of the resolution. For the Palestinians,
Resolution is a moral victory and a symbolic victory, but at the end of the day nothing is really going to
change on the ground and Israel will continue with its settlement construction. Nearly 600,000 Jews now
live in the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem beyond the 1967 boundary.
How has Israel reacted to the resolution?
Netanyahu called the resolution shameful, reckless and destructive and said that he looks forward to
working with the Trump administration and allies in Congress to mitigate the damage. Netanyahu recalled
Israel’s ambassadors from New Zealand and Senegal, two of the resolution’s four co-sponsors and cut off
$7.9 million in funding to UN institutions.
How does this affects Peace Process?
Mr. Trump, soon after the resolution tweeted that, things will be different at the UN after he takes office
on Jan 20. The Oslo Accords that have guided peace efforts since 1993 say borders must be determined in
direct negotiations between the parties. However, talks have been frozen since 2014 and aren’t set to
resume anytime soon. Palestinians have really lost hope that bilateral negotiations will bring an end to the
Israeli occupation.
Two State Solution-Is It Applicable?
Keeping in view the unjust & illegal expansion by Israel, the area available for a Palestinian state has
been steadily shrinking to the point where a two-state solution is barely conceivable. The so-called
security barrier that Israel has been building on the West Bank since 2002 has further encroached on
Palestinian land. Land-grabbing and peace-making do not go together: it is one or the other. The two state
solution cannot be achieved, until and unless, Israel give up all the land characterized with illegal
settlements & land grabbing. The Oslo accords had many faults, chief of which was the failure to
proscribe settlement expansion while peace talks were in progress.
The Situation onward
At present the primary obstacle to the issue is the deep mistrust between the two
communities. The radical elements like Hamas and Hezbollah are not willing to give Israel the
right to exist. Whereas Israel is not willing to establish a sovereign Palestinian state in its vicinity
as the same could be a security threat for it. Israel’s continued expansion of Jewish settlements in
the Western part sufficiently speaks that it is not willing to give this part of Palestine to the
Palestinian state. Moreover, it is also quite evident that Israel is also not willing to hand over
East Jerusalem to the Palestinian state. This all adds to the support of radical elements and
continued unrest in the region. Under the present situation, Israel with the support of the USA and its
allies is quite strong, and the Arabs are too weak to bow down Israel to their terms particularly when the
governments in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq are pro American. The OIC is also not strong and
united enough to intervene except to pass resolutions in this context. The civil war in Syria has made still
further weak hence minimizing the chances of getting back the Golan Heights from Israel.
This all speaks that the status quo will continue at least in the foreseeable future. The situation
has gone further worse with Israel declaring of Jerusalem as its capital and US under President
Donald Trump announcement to shift its embassy to Jerusalem in support of Israel. With the
weakening of Arabs and OIC on account of Iran-Saudi Arabia proxy wars in Syria and Yemen,
Israel has got sufficiently encouraged to adopt a more uncompromising stand against the
Palestinians.
