Would you agree that the creation of Israel in May 1948 has been the most important event in shaping the present situation in the Arab Israeli conflict?

One cause of the current conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis is the creation of Israel in 1948. There are lots of other important factors, which have contributed to this major area of dispute and hostility between the Arabs and Israelis; a dispute is still far from conciliation.

In 1947 the UN discussed the future of Palestine and a decision was attained to separate the land into two states: Jewish and Arab. The Jewish leader agreed with this idea but the Arabs rejected it as there were less Jews than Arabs and yet the Jews were to be given more land. Even though both sides didn’t agree to the creation of Israel it went ahead. Despite having done nothing wrong, the partition left the Arabs feeling punished. They were determined that they would regain the land wrongfully taken from them. Since that day the Arabs and Jews have fought over whom the land rightfully belongs to. Source 1 shows what the creation of Israel has caused to occur in today’s society. Israeli soldiers treat the body of the Palestinian man they had just murdered as a trophy. That is one example of the horrendous atrocities the creation of Israel is causing at the present.

Another cause of the conflict in the Middle East today is that both sides have strong claims to the land. The Jews believe the land belongs to them for mainly religious reasons. The Old Testament preaches that Palestine is the Jewish ‘promised land’. Their whole history revolves around Palestine and many of their religious buildings, such as The Temple Of Solomon in Jerusalem, are there. Even though, after a revolt in 135 AD, they had no homeland they still kept their pride as Jews and aimed to return to Palestine one day. Zionism increased this desire in the 19th century.

The Muslims also believe Palestine is their homeland because their religion tells them that they are descended from Abraham’s son Ismael. Additionally, the Mosque of Omar and many other important mosques are found in Jerusalem. The Arabs felt their homeland had been taken from them without any justification. Source 2 shows what devastation is being caused by two different groups of people who have opposite, enthusiastic views and strong feelings on the predicament they face.

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One of the most catastrophic and inexplicable controversy to come out of dividing the Arabs and Israelis is the Palestinian refugees. Over one and a half million live in exile, most in refugee camps. The numbers in the camps have grown due to the continual Arab exodus from Israel. The Arabs and Israelis argue about who was responsible for making the Arabs leave and what has happened to the refugees. What is undeniable though is the impact this has on the current situation. The Arabs believe that Israel caused the problem by forcing the Arabs out, whereas the Israelis are convinced it is entirely the Arabs fault and that they chose to leave. Refugees are still there today. The Arabs want to go back to their homeland, which is the only place they want to be and that is why they have stayed in refugee camps. The Jews don’t want them back. Their opinion is it isn't their responsibility, it is the other Arab countries fault they remain refugee camps. The Arab refugees have nothing. Therefore they have nothing to lose and are prepared to dies for their country.

The Arabs that remained in Israel claim that ever since Israel has been created the Jews have treated them immorally making their lives unbearable. The Jews consider the Arabs to be backward people who are unworthy of any equality or justice of any kind. The Jews have used mass extermination to try to wipe out Arab culture. The Arabs are forced to learn Hebrew. They receive racial discrimination. Statistics from 1996 show this:

Key: Arabs

Israelis

Overcrowding Proportion of welfare budget

Average number of pupils in classroom

The Arabs are treated as second-class citizens in their own country. They are forbidden to form any political parties or any other representative groups. Their housing conditions are poor compared to the Jews. Source 3 shows the impact this has on today. Arguments are caused (like the one in source 3) which clearly shows us that the Arabs and the Israelis cannot live harmoniously together. Due to the conditions the Arabs live in, either in camps or as non-citizens in Israel they are prepared to give up their lives to forward the struggle of fellow Arabs to return to Palestine.

Another cause of the current conflict between the Arabs and the Israelis is terrorism. When the wars failed to destroy Israel, the Palestinians set up their own organisation to defend Palestinian rights and fight wars against Israel. Yasser Arafat set one of these terrorist groups up in 1959. It was called the Fatah. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation was set up in 1964 to represent the Palestinian people. Yasser Arafat had become the leader of the PLO by 1969.The PLO wanted to destroy the Israelis as they felt they had no right to exist. Eventually the PLO branched off into other smaller terrorist groups within the PLO itself. Arafat hadn’t got the power to control them. The PLO has used several ways of attacking Israel. Here are some of them:

Guerilla warfare
Suicide bombings
Car bombings
Hijacking planes
11 Israeli athletes killed in Munich Olympics in 1972

After the PLO were forced out of the countries they were based in they tried to reach an agreement. The PLO didn’t agree with the USA’s proposed negotiation terms at first but this changed in 1987 due to the intifada. The intifada was a series of demonstrations by Palestinian citizens not terrorists. They protested against their poor living standards. These demonstrations drew worldwide attention to the plight of the Palestinians and pressure grew from the outside world, in particular the USA, to solve the problem. From this position the PLO took advantage and then agreed to the terms set by the USA. After Arafat agreed to reach a peace agreement with Israel a new terrorist group appeared called Hamas. This group continued using violence and terrorism not listening to Arafat who had guaranteed an end to terrorism so that peace negotiations could begin.

This still influences today by terrorist groups still attacking civilians. It is still preventing peace today. Any peace agreement asks for an end to terrorism, but terrorist groups such as the Hamas stop this peace easily by continued violence.

The intifada is another cause of current conflict. Palestinians began an uprising against Israeli rule in December 1987.For five years hundreds of young Palestinians confronted Israeli troops with violence. This is known as the intifada (Arabic for ‘shaking off’). Many demonstrators were shot dead. In the five years over a thousand of these Palestinian demonstrators were killed. The Israeli government responded by closing down Palestinian schools for two years. In 2000 the second intifada started again. This has lead to such a huge push for peace recently.

The influence of the Super powers has had a great effect on the current situation between the Arabs and the Israelis. The dispute between the Arabs and the Israelis is an issue of concern not only to the governments of the Middle East but also involves the counties of America and Russia. They have had considerable influence on the course of the conflict and have a huge possibility of effecting the hopefully near conclusion of this dispute. With the break up of Soviet Russia, America has become the most influential power in the Middle East. They have supported the Israelis and pushed them to try and negotiate peace with the Arabs. The impact of this on today is that they are still trying to get peace today. See source 4 (The Daily Mirror ‘Taking the peace’).

There have been several attempts at making a peace treaty. In 1979 Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David accord in the United States. It was the first peace deal between Israel and an Arab state and gave hope of a peaceful solution to the conflict. The Camp David accords, however, did nothing for Syria and only advanced the Palestinian cause. For these reasons, the Arab league expelled Egypt and the rest of the Arab world widely condemned the accords. In 1981 Sadat was assassinated by a group of Islamic fundamentalists within the Egyptian army who believed he had betrayed Islam.

Another peace treaty was the Oslo Peace Accord of 1994. The primary focus of the Oslo Accords was the Gaza Strip. The leaders involved in the negotiations, monitored by United States President Bill Clinton, were Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the Palestinian Authority, and Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister of Israel. The Oslo Accords set the stage for a general transfer of power in the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians. Following this angry Jews who didn’t agree that they should relinquish any power to the Palestinians assassinated Begin. The peace treaties showed that peace could be talked about which made people hope for peace. Following both peace treaty talks someone involved was assassinated by terrorists. Today they are still trying for peace but terrorists are still succeeding in stopping it.

Although the creation of Israel was an important factor in causing the conflict I believe all the things I have spoken about in this essay were also important. I think there were three main causes:

The Creation of Israel
Treatment of the Arabs by the Israelis
Terrorism

These three factors are interlinked with each other. First there was the creation of Israel. In 1947 the UN decided to separate Palestine into two states. This separation was done unfairly. An example of this unfairness was there were less Jews than Arabs and yet they got more land. The creation of Israel was the cause of the Israelis treating the Arabs as second-class citizens. Since 1948 the Arabs have felt they are the victims in the conflict. When the Israelis were victims they were given land. Why should the Arabs be treated differently? The treatment of the Arabs caused them to retaliate by using terrorism. Suicide bombings and many other forms of terrorism on both sides is preventing peace even today. When a peace agreement is near terrorists intervene with the use of violence. All of these factors have added to the conflict between the Israelis and the Arabs today. You can’t say that one is more important than the others because they have all contributed in some way to the atrocities we are witnessing today in the Middle East. To date over 350 people, about 90 percent of them Palestinian, have been killed in the violence this year. The outcome of the conflict is unclear but in this essay we have examined the causes of the dispute, which are needed as a basis to solve it for the needed peace in the Middle East.

By Emma Gathercole