Israel and Palestinian Conflict Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Israel and Palestinian Conflict - Essay Example But for the last 100 years the Palestinians have brought immigration, exclusion and armed occupation, followed by an extensive and difficult journey of autonomy (Carter, 36). A group of people in Europe chose to settle in Palestine in the late 1800s. They were known as Zionists, they represented an extremist minority of the Jewish population (Shlaim, 37). They wanted to create a Jewish homeland. Before settling in Palestine, they had also considered locations in Africa and the America. In the beginning, this colonization did not create many problems but as more and more Zionists immigrated to Palestine the situation went out of order as many of them had the wish of taking over the land for a Jewish state. Ultimately, fighting broke out and this aggression resulted in increasing rate of violence. This Jewish immigration to Palestine had gained number after Hitler's rise in power along with Zionist activities and thus conflict rose (Klein, 32-37). The United Nations Special Commission on Palestine (UNSCOP) (Aruri, 15) recommended dividing Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state and hence called Jerusalem to be put under international administration. The plan gave a complicated proposal, divided the land into two approximately equal portions through zigzag borders. The UN General Assembly approved the plan on 29th November 1947 as UN Resolution (Carter, 69-73). The resolution was supported by both the US and the Soviet Union, and particularly by the US President Harry S. Truman. Various factors were the reason of Truman's decision to support partition, including family politics and intense Zionist lobbying (Klein, 17). The Jews accepted the UN decision, but the Arabs rejected it (Aruri, 40-46). There are two principal issues present at the heart of this growing conflict. First and foremost problem is trying to sustain a racially privileged state which has unavoidably threatening effect, above all when it is mainly of foreign origin. During the 1948 war, 75 0,000 Palestinians were aggressively expelled from their inherited homeland and converted them into refugees (Carter, 97-99). In spite of contributing 96 percent of total population, refugees which were Muslim and Christian are forbidden from returning to their homes in this self-proclaimed Jewish state. The villages were devastated by them completely or confiscated their lands, orchards, houses, businesses and personal possessions for the use of the Jewish population. This systematic discrimination is giving rise to number of other conflicts (Aruri, 101-114). Secondly, the cold-blooded activities of Israel, that is: its persistent military operation, amputation of land in the West Bank and trying to gain control of Gaza, are exceedingly tyrannical. Consequently Palestinians have negligible control over their lives. More than 10,000 Palestinian including men, women, and children are captives in Israeli prisons where brutality, physical violence, harassment and torture are common (Ar uri, 77-83). Only few of them are able to get a chance of a rightful trial. All Palestinian borders external as well as even internal are controlled by Israeli forces. Israeli forces break in almost daily. Innocent people are searched,