Inside the Resistance

- Vidhyalakshmi K
Why, what's the matter,
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?
- William Shakesphere, Much ado about nothing.
The objective of this article is to trace the origins of Palestinian Israeli conflict. A struggle which
extended over sixty years flooded the land with blood, deprived the old nobility, and destroyed a
hundred thousand lives.
I
Palestine is a Middle East region situated between Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. In 1517,
Palestine sheltered about 5000 Jews and 2,95,000 Arab Palestinians. Palestine was ruled by Turks since
1517 until World War I. By the end of World War I in 1918, the British took control of Palestine from
Turks and governed until 1948 under league of Nations mandate.
Zionist and Jewish circles were happy about the conferment of the mandate of Palestine to British.
Zionists are the followers of Zionism, a movement organized by Theodor Herzl since 1897. Herzl
promoted the Jewish migration to Palestine claiming the title to the land area of Palestine on behalf of
Jews, based on the promises found in Hebrew biblical references (the original old testament) God
promised the land to the patriarch Abraham. He propagated that the Jewish ancestry is traced back to
the biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
These propagandas made Jews believe that, Palestine was a divine land promised to the Jews by God
and therefore the descendants (Jewish) has the right to claim the land area of Palestine that belong to
them. However, the Hebrew biblical references does not claim the whole of the Palestine is promised by
God. The Zionists were responsible for establishing twenty new settlements in Palestine between 1870
and 1897. By 1882, Palestine sheltered about 24,000 Jews and 2,76,000 Arab Palestinians. By 1918,
Palestine sheltered about 60,000 Jews and 6,00,000 Arab Palestinians. The Jewish population increased
from 1.5 per cent in 1517 to 8.1 per cent in 1918.
Who are Jews?
Jews are the descendants of Turko - Mangolian tribe known as the Khazars. Origins of the Khazers were
traced to Asia. Because of non-cordial relations and war-mindedness of the Khazars, they were driven
out of Asia. The Khazars invaded southern half of eastern Europe (Ukraine, Hungary, Poland and
Lithuania) and ruled for more than a century. The Khazers were indulged in phallic worship till seventh
century. In seventh century, King Bulan abolished phallic worship. After a historic session with
representatives of Christianism, Islam and Judaism, he selected Judaism as religion of the Khazers.
Before converting to Judaism, the Khazers used primitive Asiatic languages as a mode of communication
which has no written form. After seventh century, King Bulan decreed Hebrew as the language of the
Jews to provide a means for written communication.
After the conquest of the Khazar kingdom by Russia in 965 AD, people migrated across Europe. The Jews
referred to themselves as Yiddish instead of Russian, Polish, Galician, Lithuanian, Romanian, Hungarian
or by the nation of which they were citizens. The Jews adapted words from the German, the Slavonic
(Russian and Polish) and the Baltic languages. The Germans had a much more advanced civilization than
their Jewish neighbors and the Jews sent their children to German schools and universities. Even after
many adaptations and changes, Yiddish language uses the same characters as that of Hebrew. Yiddish
language of olden days served as a common cultural denominator for the Jews.
Historically, the Jews are not racially connected with Palestine. But, the Jewish tradition allows the
converts of Judaism to have a status within the Jewish ethnos equal to those born into it.
Herzl propagated that The Jews on earth will never stand erect until all Jews can stand with head
erect. The day will never come on which the Jews all can stand with head erect until there be a land. The
land where Jews were the hosts and not the guests. Zionist movements played a key role in
immigration of many European Jews to Palestine.
II
Till 1918, official policy of Turks restricted foreigners to purchase lands in Palestine. By 1920, millions of
Jews became weary wanderers driven from tortured Europe to places unknown. They became
homeless. Jewish people started to settle in Palestine. From 1922 till 1928, the Jews and Arabs co-
existed and collaborated together. Palestine has seen development in all streams.
In 1930, the Jewish population increased to 16.9 per cent from 8.1 per cent in 1918, followed by massive
land purchases in Palestine by the Jews through various Jewish organizations. Until World War II in 1939,
the anti-Semitic legislation served to encourage and ultimately force a mass immigration of German
Jews. The German authorities reduced bureaucratic hurdles for immigration. In the late 1930s, a severe
worldwide economic depression reinforced across Europe which driven Jews out of Europe in search of
land resulted in Jewish immigration to Palestine.
Arabs reaction
In early eighteenth century, European Jews were regarded as colonialist and imperialist threats.
However, the Palestinian and Jewish communities in the early eighteenth century, was assimilated into
Arab culture.
In those days, the newcomers were too few for their presence to be felt, by Arabs. Initially, it did not
signal any general pattern of opposition to the idea of a Jewish home in Palestine. But, over time, the
resistance for Zionists grew. Every new Jewish settlements had property disputes with neighbors, even
when efforts were made to agree for demarcation of property lines.
Arabs from neighboring villages attacked central districts such as Petah Tikva in 1886, Gedara in 1888,
Yesud Hamalah in 1890, Rehovot in 1892, 1893 and 1899, Kastina in 1896, Jewish Jaffa in 1906 and
Sajera in 1909. The pattern shows the Arab population was hostile toward Jewish settlement in
Palestine. In June 1891, 500 notable Arabs in Jerusalem sent a petition to Constantinople demanding a
halt to all Jewish immigration and land sales to Jews.
On March 1, 1899, after the establishment of the World Zionist Organization by T. Herzl, the Arab
opposition to Zionist settlement came with increasing frequency. Herzl reconciliated with Arabs by
responding the jewish settlements would bring benefits to the existing non-Jewish population. In the
same year, Tahir al-Husayni, the leader of Mufti of Jerusalem, a group of Muslim educated class who
takes care of religious places and monuments at Palestine, proposed that all Jews who had entered the
Jerusalem since 1891 should be expelled, and that terror is the means to achieve that end.
In the last decade of World War I, western pressures intensified and the Arab Zionist conflict went
public. However, the struggles from both the sides were at embryonic stage. Palestinians and other
Arabs, had reached a consensus about the project of a Jewish return to their ancestral land. Yishuv Jews
have enjoyed the status of dhimmi (protected non-Islamic subjects in Islamic lands) in Islamic lands, so
long they assimilated with the Arabs culturally. Infested Zionists from Europe with the colonialist
mentality had no intention to adjust to Palestinian culture. Whereas, Arabs were unwilling to accept a
non Muslim state in the heart of Arab and Islamic worlds. This gave rise to an irreconcilable conflict
between the Arabs and the Zionists.
By 1914, the Zionist population overshadowed the old Yishuvs (the traditional non-Zionist and anti-
Zionist Jews). However, the Zionist movement lacked the framework to execute the mass immigration.
Most Jews fleeing from Russia continued to pick other destinations owing to hostile Turkish policy.
Zionists tried consistently to break into Palestine and failed.
Meanwhile, Turks made few bad decisions and the important one is choosing to side with central
powers (Austria-Hungary, Germany and Bulgaria) in World War I. In 1914, the Allies Britain, France and
Russia held discussions on division of Ottoman Empire ruled by Turks. In 1915, Britain and Russia signed
an agreement secretly which gave the right to Russia to annex Constantinople and a crucially important
strait (connecting Mediterranean sea and Black Sea) Dardanelles and the Gallipolli peninsula. In return,
Russia agreed to British claims on other areas of the former Ottoman Empire and central Persia,
including the oil-rich region of Mesopotamia.
In 1916, Sykes Picot agreement handed the control of Syria, Lebanon and Turkish Cicilia to French and
Palestine, Jordan, central Mesopotamia, areas around Persian Gulf and Baghdad to the British after
World war I. The agreement was entered secretly between two French and British diplomats. As per the
agreement, Palestine would have an international administration, as other Christian powers, namely
Russia, held an interest in this region. A huge area including modern-day Syria, Mosul in northern Iraq,
and Jordan - would have local Arab chiefs under French supervision in the north and British in the south.
Also, Britain and France would retain free passage and trade in the other's zone of influence. Neither
British nor French owned these territories by the time the agreement was entered.
In 1916, Arab Revolt was instigated by British headed by Hussain bin Ali, the Sheriff of Mecca, with an
aim to secure independence from Turks and to create a single unified Arab nation spanning from Aleppo
in Syria to Aden in Yemen.







The Sykes Pikot agreement was in contradiction to Mc Mohan Hussein Agreement entered between
the Sheriff of Mecca and Sir Henry Mc Mohan, accepted by Palestinians in October 1915, as a promise
by the British that after World War I, land previously held by the Turks would be returned to the Arab
nationals who lived in that land.
In October 1917, following the Bolshevik Revolution, the Tsars in Russia were overthrown and Russian
SFSR was created. The Bolsheviks led by Vladimir Lenin exposed the agreement from Russian
Government archives. The contradictory pacts made the British traitors in the eyes of Arabs.
III
Balfour Declaration
The support for a "national home" for the Jews in Palestine from the British was in part a fulfillment of
the efforts and scheming of Herzl. Britain was also courting the Zionist movement as a means of winning
Jewish support in Russia. Herzl submitted draft proposals to Baron Rothschild, the leader of British
Zionist Federation, a wealthy British Jewish Banker and Politician, who played a key role in formulating
the draft declaration for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. For several years, Zionism was considered an
ally of the British Government, and every help and assistance was forthcoming from each government
department.
Sir James Balfour, British foreign secretary in a declaration to Baron Rothschild, the leader of British
Zionist Federation confirming the support from British Government to establish Palestine as a National
Home for Jews, on November 2
nd
, 1917. The declaration is as follows:

Foreign Office, November 2nd, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have much pleasure in conveying to you on behalf of His Majesty's Government the following
declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations, which has been submitted to and approved by
the Cabinet:
"His Majesty's Government view with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the
Jewish people, and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being
clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of
existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any
other country."
I should be grateful if you would bring this Declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour.
By the time the war ended in 1918, two premises prevailed across Palestine.
1. That the British had promised Palestine to the Arabs after the war had ended in return for their
support to the Allies in the war.
2. That the British had agreed to give their support to the Jews for a homeland in Palestine as laid
out in the Balfour Declaration of 1917.
By the time when all these events happened, the country was still a part of Turkey. To paraphrase
Arthur Koestler here - "One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.
The Balfour Declaration was only a statement of British policy, but it became legally enacted when it was
written into the British Mandate for Palestine by the League of nations.
IV
Wailing Wall Uprising
The 1929 riots were watershed in exacerbating the Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine, catalyzing social
and political changes, reshaping strategies and setting new parameters of political action for both sides
involved. On the local level, the riots generated a process of rapid social, geographical, and political
separation between the two rival political communities whose relations became hostile. On a regional
basis, the 1929 crisis and its consequences precipitated a structural change of Palestine conflict, turning
it from an inter-communal into a regional one, and heralded a reassessment of Britishs Zionist policy.
These riots had different angles such as development of Arab-Palestinian national movement under the
British mandate, it had impacts on British policy and importantly the transformation of the Palestinian
Question from a local dispute into a Pan- Islamic and Pan- Arab issue.


Wailing Wall or Western Wall is one of the holiest places of Jewish prayers. The Jews considered the
place as a part that enclosed Second Temple. Muslims considered the place as a part of Al-Aqsa Mosque,
the third holiest site in Islam where prophet Muhammed tied his horse before his night journey to
heaven. As a part of Temple Mount, the Western Wall was under the control of Muslim Religious Trust,
the Waqf.
In late 1928, disputes surfaced about the rights of Jewish worship over access to the Wailing Wall in
Jerusalem. This led to the outbreak of Wailing Wall Uprising in 1929. During the week of riots, 133 Jews
were killed by Arabs and 339 others were injured, while 110 Arabs were killed by British police and 232
others were injured.

It was a result of factional struggle for power within the Arab-Palestinian community, combined with a
growing anxiety at the recovery of the Zionist movement after a few years of decline. The Arab-
Palestinian appeal to the Muslim and Arab world and the Arabs response can be seen as an attempt to
counter-balance the perceived gap of political capabilities in the favor of Zionists and the Yishuvs which
had come in fore in 1929. These events made Zionists sought to come in terms with Pan-Arab leaders in
the neighboring countries rather than the local Palestinian leadership.
In the start of 1926, the Zionist enterprise was stuck with by economic depression in Palestine and
terrible earthquake resulted in the number of Jewish immigrants exceeding the number of new arrivals
in 1927. Widespread Jewish unemployment resulted in intensified struggle for Jewish Labor which
further aggravated the relations with Arab working class. The crisis made the Zionists to seek support
from its allies such as American Jewry and Britain Zionist Federation.
Meanwhile, Arab Palestinians leadership faced split in the political communities headed by Husains
and Nashashibis. The decline of Hussains made Amin al-Hussaini, the head of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem,
a major central power among Arab population at Palestine. The mufti was criticized for
misappropriation of Waqf funds and in April 1928, 39 Muslim opposition notables presented Chancellor
with a petition which effectively called for curtailing the Muftis power by reducing their term of
presidency and promoted public supervision of Waqf funds. The state of division and disarray that
prevailed in the Palestinian national movement in the years 1924-27 called for an urgent change in the
old-guard leadership. New political groupings emerged such as Jaffa based Liberal Party in late 1927,
followed by formation of Young Mens Muslim Association on a country wide basis. The new
organizations attracted members of the newly emerged middle-class such as journalists, lawyers,
merchants and teachers. They brought a radical change in the strategy of Arab-Palestinian national
movement, towards civil disobedience and armed revolt against Britain itself.
As a result of 1929 riots, Arabs gained public attention, boosting the national consciousness and political
radicalism and the division in political leadership within the Palestinian-Arab community came in
limelight.
The British arranged Shaw commission about the inquiry of 1929 riots which recommended for an
immediate statement of British Palestine intentions, a re-examination of immigration policy, the
establishment of a scientific inquiry into land usage and potential, and a clarification of the Zionist
Organization's relationship with the Mandate.
Following Shaw commissions recommendations, Hope-Simpson committee was appointed to
investigate the economic absorptive capacity of Palestine. Hope-Simpson was particularly concerned
with Palestine's potential for agricultural development. He concluded that Jewish land purchase was
resulting in a growing population of landless Arabs. He argued, therefore, that Jewish immigration and
land purchase should be restricted.
In October 1930, the British colonial secretary, Lord Passfield issued a White Paper imposing restrictions
upon the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine.
From 1933-1945, the Nazis headed by Hitler annihilated about 6 Million Jews including 4,500,000 from
Russia, Poland, and the Baltic; 750,000 from Hungary and Romania; 290,000 from Germany and Austria;
105,000 from the Netherlands; 90,000 from France; 54,000 from Greece. Meanwhile between 1933 -
1947, under the Mandate, Jewish immigration, although limited by the authorities, increased the Jewish
population seven-fold ~ 600,000 because of Holocausts (1933), Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) and
other series of difficulties faced by Jews.
These events gave a significant rise in immigration of Jews to Palestine. In 1939, the British issued
another whitepaper declaring an independent Arab state would be created within 10 years, and that
Jewish immigration was to be limited to 75,000 for the next five years, after which it was to cease
altogether. It also forbade land sales to Jews in 95 percent of the territory of Palestine. The Arabs,
nevertheless, rejected the proposal.
In July 1947, a passenger ship destined for Palestine and named the Exodus was stopped and boarded
by the British navy. The ship was crowded with Holocaust survivors determined to make a new life for
themselves in British-controlled Palestine. The British, facing Zionist terrorism and trying to keep
promises made to the Palestinian Arabs to limit Jewish immigration, were determined to stop it.
Accordingly, when the Royal Navy boarded the ship 20 miles out from Haifa, a full-scale battle ensued.
When the ship entered open waters, a British battleship pulled alongside and followed it all the way to
the coast of Mandate Palestine. When it reached a distance of 40 kilometers from the coast of Tel Aviv,
six British destroyers blocked its progress. British sailors boarded the ship, and a battle broke out
between the British and the immigrants. The immigrants used iron bars, pegs, screws, nails, bottles, and
cans of food, which they threw at the British. The British fired on them, and many immigrants were
killed and wounded.




V
Termination of the British Mandate and the rise of Key Extremists
In 1946, Trans-Jordan got independence and was headed by King Abdullah. The reasons for the British
departure are a matter of considerable debate amongst historians. There are those who believe that the
British evacuated Palestine as a result of the acts of violence committed by some or all of the Jewish
military organizations. In particular, the bombing of the King David Hotel (July 1946) and the hanging of
the two sergeants (July 1947) - both perpetrated by the Etzel (Irgun) - are said to have undermined
British resolve to remain in the region. There are others who believe that the British left Palestine due to
the Haganah's operation of illegal immigration which became a source of considerable embarrassment
to the British government.
On May 14, 1948, the British Mandate ended and the State of Israel was established. Within 24 hours,
Israel was invaded by the armies of five Arab nations: Egypt, Syria, Transjordan (later Jordan), Lebanon
and Iraq. After 15 months of war, the newly formed Israel Defense Forces (IDF) prevailed, but more than
6,000 Israeli lives - roughly 1 percent of the population was wiped out.
In the period of 1929-1948, Palestine gave rise to extremists from both sides. I have discussed the key
groups here.
Irgun A Zionist paramilitary group formed in 1931 founded by Jabotinsky. They were responsible for
King David Hotel bombings in Jerusalem in 1946. Their policies involves kidnapping and bombings.
Haganah A Jewish paramilitary group formed in 1920 founded by Ahdut ha-Avodah and later came
under the control of Histadrut headed by David Ben-Gurion the first Prime Minister of Israel. The
Haganahs were involved in bombing bridges, rail lines, and ships used to deport illegal Jewish
immigrants. The Haganahs mobilized Jewish youth for military training, established officers' courses, and
set up arms depots and underground small arms factories.
The Stern Gang A Zionist militant group formed by Avraham Stern in 1940. It was initially called
National Military Organization in Israel. They got splitted from Irgun and sought alliance with Fascist Italy
and Nazi Germany offering to fight against British in favor for a national home for Jews at Palestine in
return.
Haj Amin al-Husseini He was responsible for killing 347 Jews in 1920-21 period through riots. Under
him, the mobs attacked Jerusalem, Jaffa, Safed, and Kfar Darom in 1929. The ancient Jewish community
of Hebron was destroyed, with 67 Jews murdered. The rest fled. British authorities reported incidents of
rape, torture, beheadings of babies and mutilation. In total, 135 Jews were killed and 350 were
wounded. With support from Nazi Germany, He led a three-year Great Arab revolt against the British
and their allies to force an end to Jewish immigration and land purchases. An estimated 415 Jews, 200
British and 5,000 Arabs were killed.
Fedayeen Voluntary Arab militant group, trained and equipped by Egypt, repeatedly attacked Israeli
civilians from bases in Lebanon, Gaza (then controlled by Egypt) and Jordan. Thirteen hundred Israelis
were killed or wounded.
Hamas An Islamic Resistance movement jihadists, founded by Ahmed Yassin in 1987, at Gaza they
controlled Gaza since 2007. They were responsible for development of lives of Palestinians at Gaza.
Their regimes traces back to Syria and Iran.
Palestinian Islamic Jihad It was formed in 1979, by Fathi Shaqaqi and other radical Palestinian youth in
Egypt who got splitted from those at Gaza strip. Their ideology involves uniting muslims and arabs into
an unified state.
Fatah Formerly known as Palestinian National Liberation Movement, a leading political party and is
responsible for maintaining large faction of militant groups. Fatah had been closely identified with the
leadership of its founder Yasser Arafat, until his death in 2004.
Palestinian Liberation Organization One of the largest extremist group in the world created in 1964 by
Arab League and the organization functions with a main goal to obtain liberation of Palestine.
Recommended reading for the string of events organized by the extremists:
http://www.ifcj.org/site/PageNavigator/sfi_about_war_terrorism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1948_Arab%E2%80%93Israeli_War
VI
Since 1948

The British Authorities turned over the issue of Palestine in 1947 to the United Nations. The UN General
Assembly voted the original partition of the land in November 1947 and the UN deployed its first
peacekeeping operation to monitor the ceasefire lines after the war of 1948. For many years, successive
Israeli governments refused to consider a Palestinian state, while most Arabs denied the legitimacy of
Israel and increased their settlements at Gaza. In the 1970s both sides began to recognize the need for
compromise. The Palestinians proposed a separate state, claiming as their homeland the territories
outside the 1948 ceasefire lines, territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. This idea found
widespread support in the international community, and Israel was called on to withdraw from this land,
as affirmed in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. The Palestinian and other Arabs challenged
the United Nations legal competence to partition Palestine. Moreover, they argued that Palestine was
to be included in the Arab territories that had been promised independence through agreement with
Britain in 1915 in exchange for Arab support in confronting the allied Ottomans and Germans during
World War I in the Arab region. The Arabs were overridden, and the partition plan passed.
The partition plan was totally lopsided in favor of the then Jewish minority in Palestine. Jews were
allotted 55% of Palestine, although they owned less than 7% of the land and were still only one third of
the population in 1947. This was the reality even after the influx of Holocaust survivors, many of who
were not given the option of resettling elsewhere due to Zionist pressure. Increasing the Jewish
population in Palestine was crucial to transforming Palestine into a Jewish state. The Palestinians were
allotted 45% of Palestine, although they owned the bulk of the land and constituted two-thirds of the
population.
The proposed Jewish state had a population of 499,000 Jews, and 438,000 Palestinians. Jaffa, an Arab
city of 71,000 Palestinians, located immediately south of Tel Aviv, was included in the Palestinian state,
although it was totally surrounded by what was to be the Jewish state. Later, Jaffa and Tel Aviv was
unified and was absorbed by Jewish community.
In which case, the Palestinian population would have immediately outnumbered the Jewish population
in the proposed Jewish state. In a democratic society, which the Zionists claimed their state, Israel would
be, it could not then be a Jewish state. The Zionists had long strategized on how to effect the transfer
of the Arab population out of Palestine in order to have Jewish dominance there. Immediately after the
November 29, 1947 partition resolution, the Zionists began to move their forces into the designated
Jewish state areas and beyond.
Even before the May 15, 1948 Zionist Declaration of Jewish statehood, and before the 1948 war, Zionist
forces had managed to cleanse 200,000 Palestinians from the areas they controlled militarily through
Plan D, a plan designed by Haganah. The 1948 war itself between the military forces of the declared
state of Israel and the Palestinian and other Arabs saw an additional 550,000 Palestinians dispersed and
dispossessed. These 750,000 Palestinians became the diaspora Refugees, now numbering approximately
five million.
Moreover, the partition plan additionally gave to the Jewish state the best lands, i.e., the fertile coastal
plans, and their interior plains. It was from these areas that Palestinians had produced their major
export crops, and main income. Forty percent of Palestinian industry and the main sources of Palestines
electrical supply fell within the envisaged Jewish State. On the other hand, Palestinians were allocated
the least productive land for a population of 818,000 Palestinians and 10,000 Jews. The Palestinians felt
their country was being appropriated without their consent.
Finally, Jerusalem was designated as a corpus separatum to be administered by the United Nations, i.e.,
an international city. Before and during the 1948 war, Israel moved into West Jerusalem, expelled
Palestinian residents and appropriated their land and some 10,000 homes with furnishings and artwork.
VII
Israel conquered and occupied the remaining 22% of Palestine, the Syrian Golan Heights, and the
Egyptian Sinai in the June 1967 war. It was the next stage of Israeli expansion anticipated by Ben Gurion
when he accepted the notion of partition in 1937, and accepted the partition resolution, UNGA 181 (II)
of November 29, 1947.
The November 1967 UN Security Council Resolution 242 called for Israels withdrawal from the occupied
territories. However, Israel did not. It annexed East Jerusalem and incorporated it into West Jerusalem
as the eternal capital of Israel. It encouraged Jewish colonization of the conquered territories, leading
to 400,000 Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem, Gaza, and the West Bank, in violation of the Fourth Geneva
Convention, UN resolutions, and various other internationally recognized humanitarian laws. Israel was
establishing facts on the ground to secure control over all of Palestine, as well as the coveted Golan
Heights. In fact, the Zionists included the Golan Heights on their 1919 projected map of the area that
they felt should constitute a proposed Jewish state. The map was presented to the post - World War I
Versailles (France) Peace Conference.
Some 17,000 settlers presently live on the Syrian Golan Heights. The Sinai was returned to Egypt under
special security arrangements and in return for a peace treaty with Israel in 1978. Jordan relinquished
any claims to the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1988, leaving the Palestine Liberation Organization
responsible for them as Palestinian territory.
In 1991, encouraged by the United States, the Madrid/Oslo peace process was initiated. It was based
on acceptance by both parties of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242. To date, the process has failed,
and has led to greater bloodshed in the Israeli occupied Palestinian territories. The failure is clearly due
to the fact that Israel refuses to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.
Bottom line
In 2014, 75.2 per cent of Palestine is occupied by Jewish population.

Israel has started the bombing for third time in just five years on Gaza Strip. Hundreds of thousands of
civilians got killed. The Hamas is firing much more sophisticated rockets across Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel
Aviv. Israel can do militarily anything against the Hamas, since the Hamas are not open to any peaceful
negotiations. They are sitting on 10000 to 20000 rockets which takes much to destroy. Even if, Israel try
doing so, it would politically strengthen the position of Hamas in the strife. If Netanyahu wants to do
something great, he could split the collision between Fatah and Hamas which would basically weaken
the forces, but not a complete peaceful solution to the issue.
To paraphrase Zafon Memories are worse than bullets. Time goes faster the more hollow it is. Lives
with no meaning go straight past you, like trains that dont stop at your station. The distant memories
of war had put damper in the spirits of generations. People lost their sleeps to the sounds of hovering
drones. And, the world is watching. And, what we see and hear is there was inability from the Hamas to
identify the rights of Israel and Israels lack of ability to recognize the right of Palestinians to survive.
This endless senselessness from both the sides, stripped of all accessories aimed for the title of land is
an irreparable war waged on future generations. Nor could they do other than wonder at the courage of
their resolution, and the immovable contempt of death which so great a number of them had shown,
when they went through with such an action as that was. Even after, the war is over, the history
survives. Of which history, nevertheless how good the style may be, will be left to the determination of
the readers. After reading all these events quoted above, I felt a lump in my throat, lost for words and I
fell utterly silent.
References:
http://www.jamiiforums.com/international-forum/63107-gaza-humanitarian-ships-leave-
cyprus-attacked-by-israeli-commandos-3-print.html
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic1232564.files/Sela_1929.pdf
http://www.tari.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6&Itemid=7
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki
http://writinglikepunching.wordpress.com/
http://bbc.co.uk/
http://Jewishvirtuallibrary.org/
http://transcripts.cnn.com