Palestine,
Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict
A Primer
By
Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar
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Introduction
The
conflict between Palestinian Arabs and Jews is a modern phenomenon,
which began around the turn of the 20th century. Although these
two groups have different religions (Palestinians include Muslims,
Christians and Druze), religious differences are not the cause of
the conflict. It is essentially a struggle over land. Until 1948,
the area that both groups claimed was known internationally as Palestine.
But following the war of 1948-49, this land was divided into three
parts: the state of Israel, the West Bank (of the Jordan River)
and the Gaza Strip.
This
is a small area: approximately 10,000 square miles, or about the
size of the state of Maryland. The competing claims are not reconcilable
if one group exercises exclusive political control over the total
territory.
| Palestinians
do not believe that they should forfeit their land to compensate
Jews for Europe's crimes against them. |
Jewish
claims to this land are based on the biblical promise to Abraham
and his descendants, on the fact that this was the historical site
of the Jewish kingdom of Israel (which was destroyed by the Roman
Empire), and on Jews' need for a haven from European anti-Semitism.
Palestinian Arabs' claims to the land are based on continuous residence
in the country for hundreds of years and the fact that they represented
the demographic majority. They reject the notion that a biblical-era
kingdom constitutes the basis for a valid modern claim. If Arabs
engage the biblical argument at all, they maintain that since Abraham's
son Ishmael is the forefather of the Arabs, then God's promise of
the land to the children of Abraham includes Arabs as well. They
do not believe that they should forfeit their land to compensate
Jews for Europe's crimes against them.
The
Land and the People
In
the 19th century, following a trend that began earlier in Europe,
people around the world began to identify themselves as nations
and to demand national rights, foremost the right to self-rule in
a state of their own (self-determination and sovereignty). Jews
and Palestinians both began to develop a national consciousness,
and mobilized to achieve national goals. Because Jews were spread
across the world (in diaspora), their national movement, Zionism,
entailed the identification of a place where Jews could come together
through the process of immigration and settlement. Palestine seemed
the logical and optimal place, since this was the site of Jewish
origin. The Zionist movement began in 1882 with the first wave of
European Jewish immigration to Palestine.
At
that time, the land of Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire.
However, this area did not constitute a single political unit. The
northern districts of Acre and Nablus were part of the province
of Beirut. The district of Jerusalem was under the direct authority
of the Ottoman capital of Istanbul because of the international
significance of the cities of Jerusalem and Bethlehem as religious
centers for Muslims, Christians and Jews. According to Ottoman records,
in 1878 there were 462,465 subject inhabitants of the Jerusalem,
Nablus and Acre districts: 403,795 Muslims (including Druze), 43,659
Christians and 15,011 Jews. In addition, there were perhaps 10,000
Jews with foreign citizenship (recent immigrants to the country),
and several thousand Muslim Arab nomads (bedouin) who were not counted
as Ottoman subjects. The great majority of the Arabs (Muslims and
Christians) lived in several hundred rural villages. Jaffa and Nablus
were the largest and economically most important Arab towns.
Until
the beginning of the 20th century, most Jews living in Palestine
were concentrated in four cities with religious significance: Jerusalem,
Hebron, Safad and Tiberias. Most of them observed traditional, orthodox
religious practices. Many spent their time studying religious texts
and depended on the charity of world Jewry for survival. Their attachment
to the land was religious rather than national, and they were not
involved in -- or supportive of -- the Zionist movement which began
in Europe and was brought to Palestine by immigrants. Most of the
Jews who immigrated from Europe lived a more secular lifestyle and
were committed to the goals of creating a Jewish nation and building
a modern, independent Jewish state. By the outbreak of World War
I (1914), the population of Jews in Palestine had risen to about
60,000, about 33,000 of whom were recent settlers. The Arab population
in 1914 was 683,000.
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2 | Zionism
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