Palestine Crisis: An Unholy War For A Holy Land

The recent crisis in the Middle East between Israel  and Palestine may at the surface appear to be started due to the killing of the three youth of Israel but its root causes are different from what appears at the surface.Two Nations Israel and Palestine are fighting the battle of self determination and dominance over the disputed Holy Land of Jerusalem.The dispute between people of Palestine and Israel over the Jerusalem city ,Gaza Strip and West Bank areas is century old .To solve this problem in 1947 the UNSC  recommended that Western Palestine should be partitioned into a Jewish State,an Arab dominated Palestine State and a UN controlled Territory around Jerusalem. It led to declaration of creation of the State of Israel and the same day United Armies of seven Arab States invaded Israel but they were badly defeated and Israel annexed the territory more than what it was proposed for Jewish State.

 In 1949 Jordon,Syria,Lebnon and Egypt signed Armistic Agreement with Israel under which Gaza Strip,West Bank were occupied by Egypt and Jordon annexed East Jerusalem.This War led to exodus of 711000 Palestine Arabs from the area.Later on Israel passed several laws to prevent Palestinians to return their home land and claiming property and even Arab States also denied rights of people of Palestine to return which created a problem of Palestine Refugees .In Israel it is known as Ethnic Cleansing through which it legally and ilegally allowed Jewish settkements in occupied areas of Palestine.The war also led to return of 850000 jews from Arab world. And it created a permanent flash point between Israel and Palestine and further led to the second Arab-Israel War in 1971.The people who deserted their home land are claiming their rights on West Bank ,Bolan hights and Gaza Strips but Israel claims that the area belongs to it and as a result people of Palestine have formed Palestine Liberation Organization(PLO) led by Yasser Arafat to fight for their rights.

                                    Map of Israel and Palastine
But the fight between Palestine and Israel has its another historical dimensions.The roots of the present day fight can be traced back to 19th century with the rise of Nationalist Movements like Zionism andArab Nationalism.The word Zionism is derived from the name of a hill called Zion near Jerusalem.The main cause of beginning of Zionism movement in Europe and other parts of the world was Anti Semitism which led to execution of Jews population all over the Europe.Therefore Zionist movement called for the establishment of a nation State.Zionism movement was started by Theodor Herzl in 1897. Jewish State in Palestine,considered to be located on the Holy Land and serve as a Haven for the Jewish people. According to Judaism,Christianity and Islam Erets Israel is a land promised by God to the Jews ;therefore they have a duty to fulfill God's will.

The Jews who were expelled from Palestine by Roman but they have also suffered when Babyloinians

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captured Israel in 586BC and they also destroyed the First Temple of Jews.As a result Jews went to all over the world for their survival but whenever policy of the State was anti Jews they suffered the worst kind of massacre,execution and humiliation. The historical references of establishment of Zionist State in Jerusalem has been an strong religious desire of Jewis movement for more tgan a millenium,but it was also in conflict with Arab Nationalism.As a result there have been anti Jews attacks and riots in 1882 onwards. An adventurous Jew Cresson established the first Jews settlement near Jerusalem in1850 by puchasing land.Surprisingly he was contested to be a lunatic by his wife and children.In 1903 Zionist Congress declined a British offer for establishing Jewish home land in Uganda.Russian Jews  forced Britain to reconsider the demand for establishment of Jewish home land in Palestine and it came in the form Balfour Declaration in 1917 and in 1922 the League of Nations adopted the Declaration and granted mandate to Britain the Palestine Mandate.

                       The First meet of World Zionist Organistion
Growth of Zionism  in Palestine has been a matter of contention between Jews and Arabs abd Amin al Husayni the leader of Supreme Muslim Council instigated anti Jews riots in Hebron and Safed in which thoudand of Jews were killed and their property was vandalised. Duringthe 1936-39  Arab revolt in Palestine Amin al Husaynee joibed Nazi military operation in the region of Palestineand even Hilter promised that he would eliminate the existing Jewish foundations in Palestine after the victory in the war. IIin resulted into appointment of many commissions out of which the Peel Commission for the first time reconmended two state solution.After the World War UN tried to solve the ussue if Palestine but situation got worse because Fedayeen groups were formed to fight againt Israel.Fedayeen used the technique of pelting stones.

Zionism also sought to assimilate with the modern world but due to ethnic cleaning approach ,UNO in 1975 passed a resolution declaring Zionism as a form of Racism and Racial Discrimination but later on in 1991 the resolution was removed.The unholy story of formation of Israel continued and fight for Home Land of Palestine people also became more bloody.In 1973 the Syrian and Egyptian armies started a surprise attack on Israel and in the first two days they made good advances butlater on the momentum shifted in the favor of Israel and on UN intervention a ceasefire was signed to end the war.It also led to Camp David Accords in 1978 for future negotiations. 

The PLO and other terrorist organization also hijacked an Air France Plane in 1976and flown to Uganda where they threatened to kill 100Jews but in a commando operation Israel not only rescued its people but killed all the hijackers.Again in 1978 more than one dozen Palestinians terrorist entered through sea in Israel and they hijacked a bus and killed thirty seven civilians.Israel finally ended the ceasefire when an assassination attempt was made on its Ambassador in Britain in1982and attacked Lebnon to protect its boarder in the North.Israel captured Beirut ,the capital of Lebnon and finally under international pressure it allowed Arafat and Fahat to go to Tunis.During the war Israel and Phalangist Christan Arab Militia carried out the bloody Sabra and Shatila Massacre killing about three thousand innocent Palestine people.The Palestine further suffered a jolt when 200000 Palestinians were ordered to leave Kuwait after Gulf War due to association of Arafat with Saddam Hussein and it also led cutting of the funds to PLO which brought PLO to the brink of a crisis.

                           Israeli PM with Cliton and Arafat



In the meantime Hamas was founded  as an alternatve organisation by Ahmed Yassin andAbdel Aziz al-Rantissi to lead armed resistance against Israel.In1993US president Bill Clinton ,Israel PM Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat met  in Oslo and decided to work on the two nation theory.It led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority over Gaza Strip and West Bank and many components of a modern day government were formed.In the return the Palestinians were asked to show more tolerance towards Israel.But due to pressure at both the sides ,there were many attacks and counter attacks.Once again  on September 28,Robin and Arafat signed the Israel-Palestine Intrime Aggreement on the area of West Bank and Gaza Strip but in the Israel there was great opposition to the concessions given to Palestine and it led to Assassination of PM Rabin on 4thNovember 1995. In 1996 elections Benjamin Netanyahu became the PM and he was opposed to concessions to be made to the Palestine and the status of Jerusalem.In 1999 Barak became PM of Israel who continued the policy of Rabin .Barak ,Bill Clinton and Arafat once again met in July 2000 atCamp David and here Arafat failed to make a historical move despite given a good opportunity to settle the issue.

After the death of Arafat ,the whole PLO movement came under hardliners of Hamas who are fighting against Israel through arms  and funds supplied by Iran,Syria and other Arab countries.A fragile six months truce was signed between Hamas and Israel a d it ended in 2008.The Israeli arny started once again targeting civilians.And present day fights are outcome of this continued war. No doubt killing of three Israeli yougths is bad but what Israel is doing is barbaric.More then 300 innocent civilians have died in rocket attacks and many more injured.Both the Supper Powers US and Russia are watching the ongoing fight and UN has simply requested to refrain from violence.

                                             Hamas leader killed by Israel

The crux of the problem is that Israel has its geographical designs and the people of Palestine have their fundamental and basic problem of home land lost to a coutry which is not listening to the world community.Israel has dropped leaflets asking residents to leave the cities of West Bank and GazaStrip as it suspects thst the terrorists are firing rockets from these areas and therefore Israel will launch attacks.Recently  the number of casualties of children has increased creating shockwaves in the world and acts of Israel is being criticised by human right organisations.