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Israeli and Palestinian Dispute: Is There
Any Solution?
Breena Bustle
Professor Danny Fuerstman
INR 2002
15 June 2016
Word Count: 3,165
Introduction
Palestine, located in the Middle East, has long been the place of numerous disputes. For
decades, a serious effort on the part of the International Community has engaged in an effort to
bring peace and non-violence to the problematic region. Nonetheless, each time peace
accords seem to be moving forward, everything falls apart. So, to completely perceive the hate
that keeps inflicting peace talks to fail, one should examine the source from which this conflict
originates from. The source of this dispute, as well as the arguments on each of the sides, are as
diversified and complex as the dispute itself. If the source of the matter is clearly developed,
then movements towards peace within the region are way more compact. The Arab-Israeli
dispute is one of the most brutal and lengthy conflicts of not only present-day history, but in the
ancient world as well. It is to my understanding that unless there is a resolution to this dispute,
there will never be peace in the Middle East which will, in turn, be a threat to world’s peace and
stability. So, is such a solution to this dispute possible?
Throughout many centuries, Arabs and Jews have developed deep historical roots in
Palestine and strong emotional ties towards it. In the nineteenth century, out of those entangled
roots and affections, there emerged two nationalisms- Political Zionism and Arab
nationalism- each declaring the same land, being Palestine. It was the confrontation of the two
conflicting nationalisms that made the troublesome “Palestine question” of earlier years, the
bitter Arab-Israeli hostility, disputes, and wars of more recent years, and also the dangerous
Israeli-Palestinian dispute that is challenging the world today.
Historical Overview
The birth of the Arab- Israeli dispute dates back to the First Zionist Congress in Basel,
which was in 1897, when a program for the colonization of Palestine by Zionist settlers was
approved to lay the foundations for the creation of a solely Jewish state. The Zionist plan was
begun with total negligence for the rights of the domestic Palestinians, who had been under
Ottoman rule for 400 years. Its citizens were mainly Arabs. The three religious communities had
historically lived together in peace. Colonization by European Zionists began to increase rapidly
during this period, working up protests to the Ottoman Empire (Turkish) by the Palestinian
Arabs, who were well aware of the threat to their security posed by Zionism. The Zionists
claimed that Palestine was a “Land without people” and a natural home for the Jews who, they
claimed; were a “People without land,” referring to “The Jewish state” written by Theodore
Hertzel, who was the founder of Zionism. During and after World War 2, the horrific slaughter
and killing of the Jews under Nazi rule gave sympathy to the Zionist movements’ claims. With
the outbreak of World War I, Britain promised independence for the Arab lands under Ottoman
rule, including Palestine in return for the Arab rebellion against Turkey. However, in 1916,
Britain and France signed an agreement that would divide the Arab region into zones of
influence and Palestine was to be internationalized, or controlled. In 1917, the British army and
the Arab Legion entered Palestine, welcomed by the Palestinians, many of whom had joined the
Arab forces to fight with Britain. In exchange for fulfilling their portion of the MacMahon
Agreement, the Palestinians pleaded for their independence. But, in London, Britain changed its
support to the Zionists, and vowed to use its efforts to assist the establishment in Palestine of a
national home to the Jewish people. The Palestinians ordered their first national conference and
proclaimed their opposition to the Balfour Declaration. Palestinian identity was strengthened
through the struggle for the land, and many political institutions were established and organized
in the structure of yearly congress. 1 The Zionist point of view believes that Palestinians are only
Arabs that have never had a sense of identity that was specific to them. [ CITATION Ais \l
1033 ]
With Palestine under the control of Britain, the fifth Palestine National Conference in
1922 rejected a British White Paper suggesting a legislative Council as a denial of Palestinian
rights to independence. “Palestinian opposition to the Zionist threat extended throughout this
period, notable of which was the General Strike of 1936, when the British government raised the
quota for Jewish immigration into Palestine. The strike required extra British forces to be drafted
into Palestine to put down the uprising. With the outbreak of World War 2, and the ongoing
