NZFOI: Here, Caitlin Hicks has produced a potted history of the Middle Eastern conflict for readers of the Victoria University of Wellington weekly student paper, the Salient. The self-described “objective” history omits some key data. These omissions will inevitably skew the naïve reader toward concluding that Israel is the “bad guy” and is inflicting an injustice on the “Palestinian” good guys. Can you spot the omissions?

Israel—Palestine

This week’s column returns to its roots in attempting to simplify the trickiest of global issues. This week, I’ve attempted to summarise what has been described as the most “intractable” conflict in history. Two pages barely scratch the surface of a heavy issue, but in any case, I’ve departed from my typical jovial tone to deliver an objective and (very!) brief outline.

Two Groups, One Land

Although ‘Palestinian’ encompasses anyone with roots in the land now referred to as Israel, it is commonly used to reference Arabs. Israelis are predominantly Jewish.

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict as we know it today began in the early 20th century. At its core are two groups who lay claim to the same land. Jews, fleeing persecution in Europe, hoped to establish a homeland in what was then a British-controlled territory. This territory wasn’t a country, but an area called ‘Palestine’, occupied by Arabs and Jews: both hoped to claim the land as their own state.

Jews occupying and immigrating into this territory considered it a return to their ancestral homeland, and hoped to establish an independent Jewish state. Palestinians resisted, claiming the land as rightfully theirs, asserting that it was a state by the name Palestine. In 1947, the UN attempted to avoid disputes by apportioning the land to both, but this failed and lead to conflict—the consequences of which still linger.

1948 Israeli War of Independence

In 1948, Israel was declared an independent state by the Jewish Authority. This began an Arab–Israeli struggle rendering 700,000 Palestinian civilians refugees. By the end of the war, Israelis possessed 77% of the disputed territory. Each side views the events of 1948 differently—Palestinians recount a premeditated Israeli ethnic cleansing campaign against Arabs, and Israelis claim that the mass exodus was owed to spontaneous Arab fleeing, exacerbated by collateral wartime tragedies. Today, over seven million Palestinians (those originally displaced and their descendants) remain uprooted. A Palestinian right to return remains a critical condition of any future settlement.

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