2. Events since 1948
After the Partition Plan was enforced in 1948, the Jews were given 14760km2 of fertile land. It had taken the Zionists 70 years to purchase 7% of Palestine, and now the UN was offering them another 50%. The plan was rejected by all Arab governments. However, the Zionists were not completely happy either, as Jerusalem was excluded as a Jewish state. The Zionists believed that all Jews should move back to Palestine, and wanted to strengthen Jewish territory and drive the Arabs out. With the backing of the American Jews and the government, Israelis now had a huge military. However, many Jewish extremists still carried out terrorist activities. In 1948, when war broke out between Israel and neighbouring Arab countries, the Israeli army was outnumbered 3 to 1, but they still won. The Arab states wouldn’t negotiate until all Arab refugees were allowed back into Palestine, but Israel insisted that they left of their own accord. 900,000 Arabs had fled from their homes seeking refuge in neighbouring countries. After the war in 1967, 181,300m2 of land was taken by Israel, and 1,115,000 Palestinian refugees were living in neighbouring countries, resulting in the formation of the PLO and Hamas in refugee camps. They had no permanent homes and no government of their own. Gaza Strip, West Bank and Jerusalem were now occupied territories.
When Israelis began to occupy the West Bank after 1967, Arabs were either forced out or worked as a lower class with Israeli machinery working of agricultural land production trebling. Israeli presence increased the number of refugees in the West Bank. Jerusalem was included in this area. Settlers angered the Arabs as they felt it violated the negotiation that if Israeli state was recognised, Arabs could have land back. Land was used for industry, especially weapon construction. There were many settlements in the West Bank at this time. Jerusalem will always be a point of argument as it is holy to both sides, and politically neither is willing to concede. This led to numerous acts of terrorism. There was a lot of tension felt by the occupants of Jerusalem due to the constant clash over the state. Refugee camps highlighted Israeli ‘harshness’ to the rest of the world as they stopped Arabs returning and so the Arabs continued carrying out terrorist attacks. The refugees took manual labour in cities, but the camps drained funds of the areas in which they were set up. This mass of refugees was caused by the war, and also attributed to settlement. There were several peace agreements from both sides in the 1990s. Israel wanted recognition of state, and they got this when Yasser Arafat took over. They also wanted an end to all terror and violence, but still did not want Arab refugees returning. They wanted to keep territory, and wanted Jerusalem to be an occupied area. On the other hand, Palestine also sought more land, and wanted recognition too. They wanted their previous territory back (Gaza Strip, West Bank), and wanted Jerusalem to be an open city. Finally, they wanted the refugees to be allowed to return. Both sides broke the 1993/5 peace agreement.
3. Recent Events and the Current Situation
In September 2000, Ariel Sharon visited Al-Aqsa mosque, causing much anger among Palestinians. The and emerged from this incident. The Intifada was the uprising against the Israeli occupation of and . Through 2005 the level of violence sunk to a level which has made many declare the Intifada is coming to an end. Others define the Intifada to be ongoing even in 2006. From the Palestinian side, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Martyrs’ Brigades, performed several attacks on Israeli interests, largely suicide bombings. Towards the end of 2000, a wall dividing Jewish and Palestinian territory starts being constructed, solely placed on Palestinian land, by which Palestinian territory is effectively annexed by Israel. In fairness, the construction of this wall did decrease the number of suicide bombings. In February 2004 Sharon declared a plan to remove all Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. However, this did not end the violence.
