Travelling Through Time in Palestine

       

Historical Background 

 
Palestine, a small region at the intersection of Asia and Africa, has been paramount to a huge chunk of ancient as well as Middle-Eastern yesteryears. Palestine provides holy refuge to some major religions of the world, assuming importance in their history and heritage. 

With ever changing geography on the map due to dissension, Palestine today frequently encounters political conflicts and violence. Palestinian Arabs and Jews remain at a constant strife to maintain an upper hand on the partially recognised nation state, with only 135 UN members recognising the sovereignty of Palestine.
To understand is truly going on today, let us travel back in time.

The Beginnings

It is believed by scholars that Philstines, who partly occupied the region in 12th Century B.C. gave the reference of “Philistia”, from which the name Palestine was derived.

It went on to be ruled by numerous clans, like the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Seljuk Turks, Fatimids, Crusaders, Egyptians and Mamelukes.

The Ottoman Empire conquered majority of its region and ruled it from 1517 to 1917, approximately 401 years. Despite many layers and rounds of defences, Ottomans lost Palestine to the British, who took control of it, circa 1917. Among the series of battles, the British won the third Gaza battle, which opened the gates of the Holy city, Jerusalem, for them. 

They began their governance in 1922. This administrative control was asserted further through issuance of a British mandate by the League of Nations, which also gave Britain the power to establish a Jewish national homeland, going into effect in 1923.

What is Palestine Today?

After the British took over Palestine, till 1948, Palestine geographically referred to the area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Since the beginning of 20th century, the Arab residents of this land have been called Palestinians, although a majority of this land is now constituted in Israel.

Fast forward to today, Palestine is now the geographical region constituting the West Bank (area between Jordan and preset-day Israel) and the Gaza Strip (area bordering Egypt and present-day Israel). However, these geographical borders remains a reason for political disruption, with areas claimed by Palestinians being occupied by its neighbour, Israel for decades.

Given its partial recognition, Palestine faces opposition to be identified as an independent state, since Israel, US and some other countries reject to recognise its status. 

UN Partition Plan for Palestine

The end of World War II meant depleted resources globally. In April 1947, Britain then expressed its decision to withdraw from the Middle-East and sought aid regarding Palestine from the UN. 

United Nations Resolution 181, passed by the UN General Assembly in 1947, came up with the UN Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP), constituting 11 nations, established to sanction a proper course of action.

UNSCOP announced its two proposals; the majority recommended two separate states with joint economies, the city of Jerusalem given the status of corpus separatum, or a separate entity with special jurisdiction of an international body; and the second suggestion being the formation of a single binational state constituting autonomous Jewish and Palestinian areas.

First proposal saw approval from the Jewish community while the Arabs opposed both. They instead came up with a counterproposal, with a provision that those Jews who had arrived in Palestine before the Balfour Declaration (and their descendents) would be citizens of the state, which did not receive Jewish approval.
The lack of a conclusive solution resulted almost immediately in violence.

The Becoming of Israel

In this period of drastic changes, May, 1948 marked the withdrawal of Britain from Palestine while Israel declared its sovereignty, hinting its inclination towards the UN Partition Plan. Seeing this as a threat, Arab military forces intervened to prevent the establishment of Israel, marking the beginning of a war.

The violence saw Israel on one side, and Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq and Syria on the other. As the war ended in July 1948, Israel steered more than 2/3rd of the former British territory and Jordan had West Bank, Egypt and the Gaza Strip under its control.

This war further soured the relations of Jews and Arabs in Palestine and neighbouring regions, putting strain on their diplomatic, economic and political equations.

Events That Followed

Palestine Liberation Organisation, an organisation originally formed for the destruction of Israel in 1964, was reshaped, aiming to establish a Palestinian Arab state on the former land of British Mandate, illegitimately occupied by Israel.

April 1967 witnessed worsened clashes of Israel and Syria, due to diplomatic tensions between Israel and neighbouring states. This is known as the Six-Day War, wherein Israel launched aerial attacks on Egypt on June 5, 1967, stretching till June 10, also involving Jordan and Syria.

The war only resulted in expansion of land under Israel’s control and conflicts that would continue to persist.

The two Intifadas, one in 1987 and the other in 2000, saw Palestinian anger regarding Israel’s control of Gaza and the West Bank. As a result of the second Intifada, Israel was forced to withdraw its forces from Gaza.

Oslo Peace Accords were an attempt to put hold on the violence, that ultimately failed as Israel and Palestine could not be brought on a consensus.
Hamas and Fatah are two Islamist groups existing in Palestine that agreed to form a unified national government in 2014.

What’s Going On Today?

Palestine continues to struggle for recognition as an official state by all countries.
Israel may have stepped back from certain key areas of Gaza and the West Bank, but many Israelis, through support from their government, continue to settle in that area. With no clear distinction of borders, conflicts persist.

Increased harassment is being faced by Palestinian journalists in Israel occupied West Bank, since the ongoing protests from June 24, 2021. The protests were set off after the death of Nizar Banat in June, an activist in the custody of Palestinian Authority.

The violence prevails but Palestinians continue to pray for a peaceful homeland, free of bloodshed and instability. The matter of Palestine remains in priority discussions of the world leaders, hoping to figure out a middle ground to establish a congenial diplomacy for the partially-recognised state.
 
Written by- Prabhdeep Kaur

Edited by- Isha Singh