The continuous bombing in Gaza, insufficient food and water supply, the killing of women and children, and the constant increase in mortality rates are taking over the internet like wildfire. Currently, Palestine is under a complete siege and constant bombing now and then. With Israel putting a stop to all sorts of aid and the natives surviving in only 45km2 of land after Israel’s evacuation order, the Palestinians are helplessly dying.
But what started all of this? Why is Israel attacking the people who have no army of their own? In this article, we will take you down the road back to the 1900s and tell you how this conflict started.
The History Of Palestine
The area along the eastern Mediterranean was under the control of the Ottoman Empire long back in the 1900s, with distinct religions such as Christians, Muslims, and a small number of Jews. During that time, the Jews started a movement called Zionism. They claimed that Judaism wasn’t just a nationality and that they deserved a united nation. In order to build up their nation, they started targeting Palestine. Just as time passed by, by 1910, the Jewish population was huge in number. After the First World War, the Ottoman Empire sagged and was apportioned, falling into the hands of the British. The Zionists took advantage of the happenings and started encouraging the Jewish immigrants to cause tension among the Arabs. This resulted in outbreaks of violence, which eventually led to the conflict that stays unresolved to date.
Skipping to 1947, the violence grew, and the UN Nations proposed the ‘partition plan’ to split British Palestine into two states. The land that was occupied by Muslims was called Palestine. The area taken over by Jews was named Israel. Meanwhile, Jerusalem remained a UN-controlled zone since it had sacred temples and holy places having sentimental value for both Muslims and Jews. On the street, Rothschild Boulevard, it was declared that Jews would ‘strive to develop the land for the benefit of its residents, based on principles of liberty, justice, and peace.’ Furthermore, Israel pledged to ‘guarantee social and political rights to all its citizens without discrimination based on race or gender. The British granted both the Muslims and the Jews clear independence and walked out of the picture.
The Arab-Israel to Unite Palestine in 1948
However, fury remained in the Arabs, and they planned to unite British Palestine. In order to do so, they needed to drive Israel out. Soon, Muslim forces started driving out from Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq and started striding toward Palestine to execute and surround the Israelis. But fate wasn’t with the Arabs this time. The British entered once again and declared a four-week cease-fire, which turned out to be favorable for the Jews. They disregarded the UN arms embargo, imported weapons from Czechoslovakia, used sufficient time to reassemble, and prepared for their major comeback.
This was when the tables turned for the Arabs. The moment the cease-fire came to an end, Israel did a disruptive counterblow on the Arabs. It took Lydda and Ramla, the two tactical cities under their territory, making 70,000 people living there flee from their residing places. Israel still didn’t stop. The Jews kept spreading their control and occupied the areas under the Arab control that were designated to them by the UN. Avi Shlaim, an Israeli-British Historian, stated that the Arab armies lacked coordination and were comparatively not responding as well as they did in the first attack.
At the beginning of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Gaza was controlled by Egypt, and Palestinians in Gaza formed their own government. King Abdullah of Jordan wanted to expand his territory, but this was prevented. As things got more intense, Israel became stronger and used airplanes in the fighting. Egypt asked other Arab countries for help, but they were hesitant. By the end of the year, Egypt’s forces in Gaza had lost. By this time, Egyptians were in desperate need of help to secure their homeland and prevent it from falling apart, so they reached out to the British, who took out a solution as ‘An armistice’ which was signed between Israel and other Arab states to preserve their contiguity of the area.
This was still the end. More crises followed, including the Six-Day War of 1967. The main reason for the occurrence of the war was a series of tense crises and military strikes. The Soviet Union rumored that Israel was planning a campaign against Syria, and Israel launched a precautionary strike against Egypt and Syria, marking the beginning of the six-day war. They tackled and turned off Egypt’s air attacks and captured the territories of Egypt, Syria, and Jordan.
Outcomes Of the War- The Control Over of Palestine
Consequently, Israel had gained over 78% of the control over British Palestine. Furthermore, they gained an Egyptian naval presence along with Jordan and accomplished the West Bank for showing its loyalty to the Zionists. On the contrary, more than 700,000 Palestinians were driven out of their residing place.
70 years have passed, yet this calamity couldn’t be settled. People living in the tiny South Gaza Strip are still brutally being killed without any mercy after the evacuation order while the land continues to shrink.
