2. • The Kingdom of
Israel in the
Ancient Middle
East – Jews left
the region after
the rebellion
against the
Romans in 65
C.E. (the
diaspora – “the
exile”) and
spread out
across Europe.
• However, every
year on
passover, they
would say : “next
year in
Jerusalem”
3. Origins: 19th Century
Nationalism
• Before WWI, Palestine was
under the control of the
declining and loosely
governed Ottoman Empire. As
part of a wider growing Arab
nationalism, local Palestinian
leaders began to demand self
determination and
independence from foreign
Turkish rule.
4. Origins: 19th Century
Nationalism
In response to growing anti-semitism in
Europe, Zionism, a Jewish nationalist
movement, grew in popularity.
Zionists wanted to create a Jewish
homeland based on the ancient land of
Israel in Palestine.
Theodor Herzl, the founder of Zionism,
encouraged Jews to move to Palestine
and buy land with the ultimate goal of
buying enough land to establish a state
within the Ottoman Empire.
Before WWI, the movement was small and
created a number of self-sustaining
communities based on socialist
principles of shared wealth called
khibbutzim that remained separate from
the local Palestinian population.
“Let us Jews be given
sovereignty over part of the
world big enough to satisfy
the rightful needs of a
nation” – Theodor Herzl
5. PROMISE: During WWI, Arabs
supported Allied efforts against
the Ottomans in return for the
promise of the Sykes-Picot
agreement giving them their own
countries after the war.
REALITY: After WWI and the destruction of
the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France
divided up the middle east into mandates that
they controlled directly. This included the
territory of Palestine where British officials, in
the Balfour Declaration, had supported
growing Jewish migration from Europe
6. Palestine under the Mandate
system: revolts on both sides
• From 1918 – 1948, Palestine was under British control,
but in constant conflict.
1. The local Palestinian population was angered by the
betrayal of the mandate system and growing Jewish
migration. Arab revolts began in 1929 and continued
throughout the 1930’s resulting in high Arab, British
and Jewish casualties.
2. In response to the rising fascist presence in Europe,
Jewish migration to Palestine intensified causing
internal tensions between Arabs and Jews. In
response, the British put limits on Jewish immigration
to Palestine to 10,000 in 1938. Local Jewish militias
formed demanding self determination and using violent
methods to achieve it.
7. World War II and
The Holocaust:
The Nazi attempt
to completely
destroy the
Jewish
population of
Europe left
Jews without a
homeland and
the global
community with
a sense of
responsibility in
creating a
homeland for
the survivors.
8. • 1946 – the
Destruction of the
King David Hotel
(British army
headquarters) in
Jerusalem by the
Stern Gang, a
Jewish militant
groups led by
David Ben Gurion
9. 1947: the British left & the UN
stepped in to create 2 countries.
In 1947, the British
government relinquished
control over Palestine to the
United Nations.
The United Nations created a
plan to create 2 countries in
Palestine: 1 for the Jews and
1 for the Palestinians.
Jerusalem would be an
international city
At the time:
The Non-Jewish population
was 66% (1, 237,000) and
the Jewish population was
33% (608,000)
10. 1948-1949 The First Arab-Israeli War
• The Day after Israel and
Palestine were both
created, 5 Arab nations
invaded Israel (Lebanon,
Syria, Jordan, Egypt and
Iraq).
• Despite being severely
out-numbered and
lacking in weapons and
military training, the
Israelis won their « war
of liberation »
11. Israel after the 1949 Armistice
Victory for the Israelis
meant the complete
disappearance of a
Palestinian state –
though some of the
land was also taken by
Egypt and Lebanon.
Now Palestinians had 2
choices –to stay in
Israel or to flee to Arab
countries in the region.
12. 1948: Palestinians become
a people without a
homeland
During 1948, over half of the
Palestine’s Arab population
fled their homes and farms
(726,000.) Controversy
surrounds their reasons for
leaving – Palestinians
argue that they were
terrorised by Jewish
settlers who wanted their
land. Many Jews argue that
they left of their own free
will and therefore do not
have the right to return.
13. Stage 1: the Arab nations vs. Israel
• From 1948 – 1973 Israel fought a series of wars
against it’s Arab neighbors who fought in the
name of the displaced Palestinans. Despite the
fact that the Arab nations outnumbered the
Israelis 6:1, Israel was victorious in each war
(with US military assistance)
These wars were as follows:
• 1956 Suez War
• 1967 Six Day War
• 1973 Yom Kippur War
14. In 1967, Israel occupied the territories of
Gaza, the West Bank and the Golan Heights
• After the third attack on
Israel from territories held
by Syria (the Golan
Heights), Egypt (Gaza
and Jordan (The West
Bank), The Israeli army
occupied these
mountainous regions for
defense purposes.
• However, they also
correspond with regions
that were promised to the
Israelites in the Bible so
this occupation also
pleased relgious Israelis
who began moving into
the areas.
• At the same time, Israel
took control of the regions
that contained the largest
number of Palestinian
refugees.
15. Stage 2: The Israelis begin to be
accepted by their neighbors
• After 1973, Arab
governments changed
their policies towards
Israel and began the slow
process of making peace,
despite the resistance of
their people.
• The first step was the
Camp David accords in
1979, when US President
Carter brought President
Sadat of Egypt together
with Prime Minister Begin
of Israel
• Soon after the peace
talks, Sadat was
assassinated
16. Stage 2: Palestinians vs. Israel
• After the 1973 war, Palestinians
began their own war against the
Israeli state, but they did not have a
government or an army, so their war
was conducted using the methods of
freedom fighters (from their
perspective) or terrorists (from the
Israeli perspective.
• For at least 2 decades, Palestinian
militant groups conducted attacks on
Israeli targets both inside Israel and
outside to bring attention to their
cause.
• Notable incidents included the
kidnapping of Israeli athletes in
Munich in 1972 resulting in the
deaths of the athletes and the
terrorists. This attention brought some
support from the Arab world, but
condemnation from the rest.
17. The P.L.O.: The Palestinian
Liberation Organization
• The PLO was one group that
emerged as the political voice
of the Palestinian people led by
Yasser Arafat; in the 1970’s
they were actively involved in
terrorist attacks on Israelis.
• However, the political wing of
the group (Fatah) did not
openly support acts of terrorism
and in 1988 they acknowledged
the existence of Israel.
• However, this act lost them
support from within the
Palestinian community and
created militant wings like
Hamas and Islamic Jihad that
continue to use terrorist tactics
including suicide bombings.
18. 1978 & 82: The Israeli Invasion of Lebanon
• Since 1948, Palestinians had lived in refugee
camps in Southern Lebanon in desperate
poverty.
• Once the PLO began their campaign against
the Israeli government, many of the attacks
came from these refugee camps. As Lebanon
was in a civil war itself, there was no police
presence in the refugee camps to stop the
attacks
• In 1980, the Israeli Defense Forces invaded
Southern Lebanon to remove the threat of raids
on Northern Israel.
• Their invasion led to an occupation that lasted
until the early 1990’s as well as the massacre of
Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila
refugee camps by local Lebanese militants.
• In response to the occupation, another
important player emerged: Lebanese Sh’ia
terrorist group Hezbollah.
• While Hezbollah’s goal was to remove Israel
from Southern Lebanon, it continued to bomb
Northern Israel until 2004 when Israeli forces
attacked Lebanon again.
19. 1993 -5 The Oslo
Accords
• After years of violence, in 1993,
representatives of the Israelis
and the PLO began negotiating
a peace accord in Oslo.
• This peace agreement allowed
for a limited progress towards
autonomy for Palestinians in
the West Bank and Gaza
(under the control of Fatah and
the PLO) in return for their
agreement to renounce
violence and acknowledge the
existence of Israel.
• The agreements were hailed as
a victory by moderate Israelis
and Palestinians, but angered
militants on both sides
culminating in the assasination
of Prime Minister Rabin of
Israel by an Israeli in 1995
20. Israeli
Settlements
• Israelis have been settling
in the West Bank and Gaza
(the Occupied Territories)
since the early 1980’s.
These settlements cause
the most important
stumbling block to peace in
the region as an
autonomous Palestinian
authority can not provide
protection to Israeli settlers.
As a result, Israeli soldiers
are stationed amongst
Palestinian settlements to
protect Israeli settlers.
• To date, there are over
250,000 Israeli settlers in
the areas that have been
designated for a Palestinian
state in the Oslo
agreements.
21. Gaza
• Gaza has been considered one of the most difficult places to control in the
world. It has very little natural resources; the unemployment rate in Gaza is
65%, and poverty is 80%. In 2006, the militant Palestinian group, Hamas,
won control of the region in local elections based on the fact that they were
the only organization providing social services to the population. They began
bombing southern Israel with rockets on a daily basis at that time as well as
endorsing suicide bombers as they moved from Gaza into Israel.
• In response, Israel closed the borders of Gaza and enforced a full embargo
on the territory.
• The conflict rose to a new height in December of 2008 when Israeli forces
both bombed Hamas targets and conducted a land invasion in an attempt to
eradicate Hamas
22. Stage 3:
PEACE?? :
Can an Israel
and a
Palestine
co-exist?
• Today, most Israelis and Palestinians long for the peace
necessary to conduct a normal life and build prosperity
for their region.
• At the same time, they long for en end to the violence
and have lost faith in the many attempts made by foreign
governments to broker a peace.
• Is a solution possible?
