In 1948, the UN split the land in half – to outside countries it seemed like the perfect solution. The Palestinians were furious that their land could be taken away from them with such ease and wanted it all back, while the Israelis were out to get as much as they possibly could. War broke out as surrounding Arab countries also invaded in the hopes of taking the land back – but to no avail. Palestine lost even more land and the Arabs became refugees in their own country.
All of this brought about the events of the Munich Massacre. The Munich massacre was the organised killing of Israeli athletes at the Olympics in Germany by Palestinian terrorists in 1972. During these attacks, 11 Israeli athletes were killed as well as a German Police Officer. These terrorists were part of a group of militant Palestinian extremists known as Black September. They had originally been a part of Fatah but broke away due to ‘ineffective tactics against Israel’. They felt that more force was necessary and were not prepared to wait for numerous years in order to come to a peaceful resolution. Fatah was founded by Yasser Arafat, who was also chairman of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation.
The athletes were initially held hostage and the terrorists demanded the safe passage of 200 Palestinians and non Arabs who had been jailed in Israel as well as 2 German terrorists being held by the Germans. Israel immediately refused to negotiate with terrorists and after unplanned and rushed rescue attempts the hostages were killed as well as five of the eight terrorists involved.
One of the main reasons Black September had for orchestrating such an attack was not only for the safe passage of 200 Palestinian prisoners, but also to make the world aware of the growing problem in the Middle East. The overcrowding and unhealthy refugee camps were Palestinians were staying after being removed from their own homes for almost 20 years now was a huge reason for the terrorists to decide to attack.
Black September was formed in 1970, September 16th, after King Hussein of Jordan removed the Palestinian militant organisations from his country through fear of retaliating attacks from Israel. He tried to achieve this by taking over the refugee camps, but the Palestinians resisted, which resulted in many of them being killed by the Jordanian army, while the rest fled to other Arab countries like Lebanon and Syria. The BSO were extremely angry at this turn of events and took revenge by killing the Jordanian Prime Minister in Egypt.
In general, the BSO wanted all of Palestine back as quickly as possible. Within their agenda, there was no room for Israel to exist and they felt that violence was the only way forward.
Britain has not aided matters with this conflict, if anything their attempts at helping the situation only made matters worse. During World War one, they promised the Arabs their country back if they fought against their Turkish rulers. Only to then turn around and create the Balfour Declaration, promising to help the Jews create a homeland – effectively angering both parties with promises that could not and would not be kept.
Since the founding of Israel, this has not been the only attack. There have been many others including hijacks of planes and other hostage takings – but the Munich massacre remains one of the greatest terrorist atrocities to hit this conflict.
- Why did Israel withdraw from the Gaza strip?
In December 2003 Prime Minister Ariel Sharon announced that ‘quitting the Gaza Strip was the only way forward.’ This was a heavily political move as most Israeli’s agreed with him, but he was faced with the unusual problem of having little support within his own party. Source C shows that most of the Israeli citizens believed that it was the right to move to make in order to reduce conflict between the two. In their opinion, Palestinians no longer had anything to demonstrate about in the Gaza Strip meaning the security would be strongly improved. Despite this, the settlers in West Bank and East Jerusalem are ‘to stay exactly where they are’ insinuating that this relief in resources at the Gaza Strip, will be used to tighten measures in those areas.
There is also the factor of money and resources to consider as the few Jews living in Gaza ‘are surrounded by some 1.3 million Palestinians.’ This in itself puts a strain on the Israeli army and security measures which may be better used elsewhere. Security which could be offered to these Jews would also increase if they moved to an area where there was larger Israeli population.
Israel was also facing heavy pressures from other countries, especially the USA to reduce hostilities between itself and Hamas, the Palestinian elected party. This move had ‘the backing of President Bush’ and so in order to keep American support which had helped with military equipment and international support in the past, it was an important move to make.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continues to face opposition from his own party as they see it as a victory for Hamas. Many cabinet members are only reluctantly endorsing the plan as they feel that with this solution, Israel has made all of the concessions. ‘They believe any pullout should be the result of negotiations between Israel and Palestine rather than a unilateral move.’
Source D shows how the Gaza withdrawal is motivated by self-preservation. Many Jewish residents of Gaza are unhappy with having to move and despite any sympathies that others may have for them, it is strongly felt that ‘the wasted money, the moral price’ are no longer worth paying for such a minority of people. Source A shows the force being used on members of the Israeli Army who refused orders in this matter.
