"What are the long-term Jewish and Palestinian claims to the land of Israel?"

Nationalism also plays a key role in the long-term claims to the land. Nationalism is about being devoted to your countries interests and culture. So the Jews felt that they needed a country, which they could govern them selves for their safety, so they could follow their own religion and lifestyle. The Jews needed to feel safe after being attacked by many European countries, such as France and Russia, simply because of their anti-Semitic views. A book called "The Jewish State" was published which was the beginning of a political movement called Zionism. Zionism would allow the people to live safely in their own way. The Zionists made an agreement with the Sultan of Turkey, to allow the Jews to move into Palestine. By 1914 85,000 Jews were in Palestine. The Zionists not only wanted to be in Palestine to feel safe but also because they wanted to live in a Jewish area, with Jewish people. The Arabs wanted to rule the area them selves. They hated the idea of Turkish people interfering with their lives and customs. The Turks were making a massive empire, and when they ruled the Arabs country they gave them no independence, which is why the Arabs wanted to rule again. The Turks were making the Arabs lead the Turkish way of life. They made them speak Turkish, the made them follow the Turkish national dress, and they also persecuted any Arabs who resented the Sultan, or resented his allowance of Jewish immigration. This was likely to stop the idea of peace coming around quickly because the Arabs would want to leave the area, and they also wouldn't want to speak the same language as the Turks or wear the Turkish national dress. This meant that they would have to live with the Jewish people in peace who were obviously not going to let this good land go, but its not that simple as the Arabs would want to fight to get back their land.

Also, after the First World War both the Arabs and the Jews thought that they

had some sort of a claim to the land thanks to the promises of Britain during

the war. The promise to Arabs was made in October 1915, by the British high

commissioner, Sir Henry McMahon and he promised the Arab leader Sheriff

Hussein independence. He spoke about how "Great Britain was prepared to

recognise and support the independence of the Arabs". This was a great promise,

the Arabs would be longing for independence from the Turks who were making

them someone else. The Jews would be not too impressed with this decision by

McMahon, because if this plan was to go through then it would mean that the

Jews have less chance of having their own state as Palestine was being

promised to the Arabs by McMahon. But it wasn't only the Arabs who had a promise made to them by the British; in 1917 the British government issued the Balfour Declaration. Balfour was the British Foreign Secretary. The Declaration was a "declaration of sympathy with the Jewish Zionist aspirations. The statement basically said that "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". This clearly shows that the British people were promising the land of Palestine to the Jewish people despite previously promising it to the Arabs. This would make the Arabs feel betrayed by the English as the land they thought they would be getting has now got to be shared with the Jews, and the British government were making interfering decisions without the consent of the Arabs. When both sides has seen that Britain has been promising both sides land then this would make them less likely to make peace because Britain, potentially a peace making country is now ruled out of helping as both the Jews and the Arabs would hate the British, so would not want to communicate with them to make a new deal, especially after they betrayed and lied to them after World War one.

All of the above make peace harder to get to, the long term claims makes both sides believe that the land is already theirs, for religious reasons or just simply already being there. The nationalist argument means both the sides are wanting independence and would be willing to fight (there fore not being peaceful towards each other). And finally the war makes it even harder for the British especially to help make peace between the two countries.