Israel-Palestine Conflict Notes

Historic Moment

  • Events in Gaza are historic and being witnessed in real-time due to global connectivity.
  • Important to consider how to respond and explain our response to future generations.

October 7th Events

  • 1195 people killed.
  • Israelis were shocked.

Peacemaking

  • Peacemaking is most effective when done in the context of relationship. Even with people you have differences with.
  • Mourn for all who are mourning.
  • Important to have diverse relationships for a humanity that accounts for people.

The Response in Gaza

  • 52,000 people have been killed in Gaza so far.
  • Gaza is a small, densely populated territory.
  • 70% of Gaza is off-limits to its 2 million residents.
  • Humanitarian aid has been significantly restricted.

Principles and Practices of Peacemaking

  • Codified into six principles and six practices.
  • A commitment to nonviolence and understanding the limits of violence.
  • Hamas' actions on October 7th did not make Palestinians more free, nor has Israel's response made it more secure.
  • Responding to injustice with more injustice perpetuates a negative cycle.
  • Advocate for those in need, such as calling for a ceasefire, release of hostages, and delivery of humanitarian aid.

Holding Perspectives in Tension

  • Practice holding multiple experiences, and perspectives in tension.
  • The opposite of a profound truth may be another profound truth, two things can be true at once.
  • Important for understanding complex issues.

Context of October 7th

  • Understanding the context doesn't justify actions but provides understanding.
  • Gaza has been under blockade by Israel and Egypt for 17 years.
  • Governed by Hamas since 2007.
  • Gazans have endured four wars in the last 20 years, leading to a generation knowing only conflict and limited opportunity.

Hamas Origins

  • Hamas originated from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, critiquing Arab governments for being insufficiently Islamic.
  • It aims to align leadership and people with God's law as identified in the Koran and the Sharia.
  • Emerged in the late 1980s as an opposition to the Fatah-led Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO).

Competing Claims to Land

  • Both Israelis and Palestinians have deep, historic connections to the land.
  • This is a religious dimension with Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Origin of Conflict

  • Conflict is decades old.
  • Begins in Europe in the late 19th century.

19th Century Europe and Nationalism

  • Modern nationalism arose after the French Revolution, emphasizing commonalities among people.
  • Jewish people sought to integrate into national projects but faced antisemitism.

Anti-Semitism and Zionism

  • Anti-Semitism lead to denying Jews into countries where they live.
  • Britain in 1917.

British Involvement and the Balfour Declaration

  • In 1917, Britain, the world superpower, supported the Zionist movement through the Balfour Declaration.
  • This was viewed as European colonialism, intending to displace indigenous people and transfer population.

Post-World War I and British Mandate

  • The British given mandates by the union nations to govern Palestine in 1923.
  • Jews begin to try to leave Europe, but no one is willing to take them.

The Holocaust

  • From 1941 to 1945, half the world's Jewish population was murdered by the Nazis.
  • After the war, survivors did not feel safe in Europe.
  • In 1946, more than 100 Jewish survivors of the Holocaust were murdered in Poland when they tried to return.

1947 UN Partition Plan

  • 55% of the land would be a Jewish state and 45% would be an Arab state.
  • The Zionist movement was willing to take the land, but Arab population rejected the land.
  • Civil war began between militias, and Palestinians began to flee.

Creation of Israel and Subsequent Conflicts

  • On May 14, 1948, Israel declared independence and was quickly recognized by the United States.
  • Armies from neighboring countries attacked, but Israel defeated them.
  • In 1949, an armistice line was created, expanding Israel's territory to 78% of the land.

Palestinian Enclaves

  • Creates two Palestinian enclaves, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
  • West bank is West of the Jordan River.

Establishment of the State of Israel

  • Israel begins to absorb Jewish refugees.

PLO

  • Not until the nineteen sixties, the middle of the nineteen sixties, that Palestinians really organized themselves into a resistance national movement called the Palestine Liberation Organization, PLO.

Six-Day War in 1967

  • Israel takes control of the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria, and the West Bank, East Jerusalem security, you know, what's what's the right response to this.