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Introduction

Lee Campbell Arab-Israeli Conflict: Task 2 Causes of Conflict Attempts to make peace since 1948 between the Israelis and Arabs have so far failed. Peace talks can't reach agreements despite intervention from President Clinton. Recently violence has broken out again. The Rival claims to Palestine is a long-term problem, which has gone on for centuries. The Israelis claim that it is there land because god had promised them the land to them in 'The Bible'. The Arabs have a claim for the land because they have been living there for the last 13 centuries because in about the 7th Century the Jews went to Europe. Jerusalem is also a long-term problem because the Jews believe they should own it all because Jesus Christ preached in the city. King David made it his capital. Solomon also built a temple there and these people are all very important to the Jews. Solomon's temple is even more important to Jews now because all there is left of it is the Western or Wailing Wall. People come from thousands of miles around to see it. Arabs believe that they should have some of Jerusalem because in the city is the spectacular mosques of Al-Aqsa and the Golden Dome mosque. Muslims have a special word for Jerusalem it is 'Al-Quds' which means the Holy Place in Arabic. ...read more.

Middle

The schools that the Arabs go to do not teach Arab History and they have to learn Hebrew, this is so they will feel they are not Arabians. Education in Arab schools also ends at an early stage, this would be so Arabs don't get that better job and therefore they will not get as much money. The Arabs are also not allowed to represent themselves. The Arab workers are also paid less than the Israeli workers are. So Overall the Israelis are treating the Arabs like the Nazis treated them. Since the Arabs do not get many rights this causes conflict. The Intifada is a short-term problem. In December 1987 4 Arab Palestinians were killed in a road accident. This was the start of the Intifada. Before this incident the group were only shouting out slogans. After the accident the protests became violent. The Israeli source says that Israeli soldiers were attacked with rocks, but increasingly with knives and petrol bombs. The Israeli source also says that the Arabs did not allow the Israeli soldiers into their villages and Arab school children were encouraged to attack the Israelis, this is probably because there education stops at an early age. It says that the Israeli soldiers only used plastic and rubber type bullets and only in extreme cases did they use live ammunition, the use of ammunition may create wars and people may have to move because of them. ...read more.

Conclusion

The problem though now is that the PLO and Yasser Arafat are starting to loose control of some of the other Arab groups. Extremists on both sides are not willing to compromise peace on these terms. The hard line Jews say that they will not give in to Arab terrorism and are not giving up the West Bank or the Gaza Strip. Extreme Palestinian Arabs claim that they are only getting little bits of land and they will carry out attacks until they get more land. The Israeli government will not negotiate Jerusalem. Palestinian Arabs say there will be no end to the conflict unless they regain the Arab half of Jerusalem back again. With the 2 extremist sides wanting totally opposite things there will be always tension between them, which may spill over into conflict. Overall to me it is clear that Jerusalem is the most important issue. This is because if Jerusalem was sorted out there would probably be no more violence and a major war would be avoided if Jerusalem were sorted out. The Refugee camps are also quite an important issue to sort out because from the sources on the Refugee Camp it sounds like people are treated bad there. I think most of the other problems would sort themselves out because the PLO have said that if the Arab part of Jerusalem is given back to them they would deliver peace. ...read more.

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