History of the Israeli

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History of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict

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The history of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict has its roots in the late 19th century; this

conflict turned violent in 1920 and continues to the present day. The end of the 19th

century and the beginning of the 20th century are marked by the birth of two majornationalist movements among the Jews and among the Arabs, both geared towards

attaining sovereignty for their people in the Middle East.

Contents

1 Historical overview

o 1.1 Late 19th century-1920: Origins

1.1.1 National movements 1.1.2 WWI and its aftermath

o 1.2 192048: British Mandate of Palestine

o 1.3 194867

o 1.4 196793

o 1.5 19932000: Oslo peace process

o 1.6 20002005: Second Intifada

o 1.7 2005 to present: The strengthening of Hamas in the Gaza Strip

2 Demographic history

o 2.1 Jewish and Arab populations

2.1.1 19th century 1948 2.1.2 194967

2.1.3 1967-until today

o 2.2 Jewish and Arab populations in Jerusalem

3 See also

4 Notes

5 References

6 External links

Historical overview

See also: Muslim history in the region of Palestine and History of the Jews in the Land ofIsrael

Late 19th century-1920: Origins

National movements

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See also: Arab nationalism and Zionism

Before World War I, the Middle East region, including the Ottoman Syria (the southern

part of which are regarded as Palestine or the Land of Israel), was under the control of theOttoman Empirefor nearly 400 years.[1] Towards the end of the 19th century, Southern

Syria (or Palestine), divided between the Vilayets ofSyria and Beirut and the Mustafiyyetof Jerusalem, was inhabited predominantly by ArabMuslims, both farmersand Bedouin

(principally in theNegevand Jordan valley), with smaller numbers of Christians (mostlyArabs), Druze, Circassians and Jews (predominantly Sephardic).[2] At that time most of

the Jews worldwide lived outside of Palestine, predominantly ineastern and central

Europe,[3] with significant communities in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and theAmericas.

The delegates at theFirst Zionist Congress, held in Basel, Switzerland (1897).

Decree signed by the Ottoman SultanAbdul Hamid IIwhich opposes Jewish immigration

to the region of Palestine

The roots of the conflict can be traced to the late 19th century, with the rise of nationalmovements, including Zionism and Arab nationalism. Though the Jewish aspiration toreturn to Zion had been part of Jewish religious thought for more than a millennium, the

Jewish population of Europe and to some degree Middle East began to more actively

discuss immigration back to the Land of Israel, and the re-establishment of the Jewish

Nation, only during the 1859 to 1880s, largely as a solution to the widespread persecutionof Jews due to anti-Semitism in Russia and Europe. As a result, the Zionist movement,

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the modern movement for the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people, was

established as a political movement in 1897.

The Zionist movement called for the establishment of a nation-state for theJewish peoplein Palestine, which would serve as ahavenfor the Jews of the world and in which they

would have the right forself-determination.[4]

Zionists increasingly came to hold that thisstate should be in their historic homeland, which they referred to as the Land of Israel.[5]

The World Zionist Organization and the Jewish National Fund encouraged immigrationand funded purchase of land, both underOttoman rule and under British rule, in the

region of Palestine.[6] While Arab nationalism, at least in an early form, and Syrian

nationalism were the dominant tendencies along with continued loyalty to the Ottomanstate.

According to Benny Morris, among the first recorded violent incidents between Arabs

and Jews in Palestine was the accidental shooting dead of an Arab man inSafed, during a

wedding in December 1882, by a Jewish guard of the newly formed Rosh Pina. In

response, about 200 Arabs descended on the Jewish settlement throwing stones andvandalizing property.[7] Another incident happened in Petach Tikva, where in early 1886

the Jewish settlers demanded that their tenants vacate the disputed land and startedencroaching on it. On March 28, a Jewish settler crossing this land was attacked and

robbed of his horse by Yahudiya Arabs, while the settlers confiscated nine mules found

grazing in their fields, though it is not clear which incident came first and which was theretaliation. The Jewish settlers refused to return the mules, a decision viewed as a

provocation. The following day, when most of the settlement's men folk were away, fifty

or sixty Arab villagers attacked Petach Tikva, vandalizing houses and fields and carrying

off much of the livestock. Four Jews were injured and a fifth, an elderly woman with aheart condition, died four days later.[8]

By 1908, thirteen Jews had been killed by Arabs, with four of them killed in what Benny

Morris calls "nationalist circumstances", the others in the course of robberies and othercrimes. In the next five years twelve Jewish settlement guards were killed by Arabs.

Settlers began to speak more and more of Arab "hatred" and "nationalism" lurking behind

the increasing depredations, rather than mere "banditry". [9]

Zionist ambitions were increasingly identified as a threat by the Arab leaders in Palestineregion.[10]Certain developments, such as the acquisition of lands from Arab owners for

Jewish settlements, leading to the eviction of the fellaheenfrom the lands which they

cultivated as tenant farmers, aggravated the tension between the parties and caused the

Arab population in the region of Palestine to feel dispossessed of their lands. [11] Ottomanland purchase regulations were brought in after local complaints in opposition to

increasing immigration. Ottoman policy makers in the late 19th century were

apprehensive of the increased Russian and European influence in the region, partly as aresult of a large immigration wave from theRussian Empire. The Ottoman authorities

feared that the loyalty of immigrants was primary to their country of origin, Russia, with

whom the Ottoman Empire had a long history of conflicts, and therefore it mightundermine Turkish control in the region of Palestine. The main reason for this concern

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was the dismantling of Ottoman authority in the Balkanregion. The main reason for the

initial hostility, in the 1880s, towards the Jewish immigration was on the grounds of their

being Russian and European, rather than Jewish. European immigration was consideredby local residents as a threat to the cultural make-up of the region.[12]The regional

significance of the anti-Jewish riots (pogroms) in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th

centuries and anti-immigration legislation being enacted in Europe was that Jewishimmigration waves began arriving in Palestine (see First Aliyah and Second Aliyah).[13]

As a result of the extent of the various Zionist enterprises which started becoming

apparent,[12] the Arab population in the Palestine region began protesting against theacquisition of lands by the Jewish population. As a result, in 1892 the Ottoman

authorities banned land sales to foreigners. By 1914 the Jewish population in Palestine

had risen to over 60,000, with around 33,000 of these being recent settlers.[14]

WWI and its aftermath

Main articles: Balfour Declaration of 1917 and McMahon-Hussein Correspondence

French and British influence and control (Sykes-Picot Agreement, 1916)

The Balfour Declaration of 1917which supported the establishment of a Jewish

homeland in Palestine and protected the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish

communities.

As a result of a mutual defense treaty that the Ottoman Empire made with Germany,during World War I the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers and therefore the

Ottoman Empire was now embroiled in a conflict with Great Britain and France. The

possibility of releasing Palestine from the control of the Ottoman Empire led the Jewishpopulation and the Arab population in Palestine to support the alignment of the United

Kingdom, France, and Russiaduring World War I. In 1915, theHussein-McMahon

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Correspondence was formed as an agreement with Arab leaders to grant sovereignty to

Arab lands under Ottoman control to form an Arab state in exchange for the GreatArab

Revolt against the Ottomans. However, the Balfour Declaration in 1917 proposed to"favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, but that

nothing should be done to prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-

Jewish communities in Palestine." In 1916, the Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreementallocated to the British Empire the area of present day Jordan, the area of present day

Israel and the West Bank, and the area of present dayIraq. The Balfour Declaration was

seen by Jewish nationalists as the cornerstone of a future Jewish homeland on both sidesof the Jordan River, but increased the concerns of the Arab population in the Palestine

region.

In 1917, the British succeeded in defeating the Ottoman Turkish forces and occupied the

Palestine region. The land remained under British military administrationfor theremainder of the war.

On January 3, 1919, future president of the World Zionist OrganizationChaimWeizmann and the future KingFaisal I of Iraq signed theFaisal-Weizmann Agreement

forArab-Jewish cooperation in the Middle East in which Faisal conditionally acceptedthe Balfour Declarationbased on the fulfillment of British wartime promises of

development of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Faisal's agreement with Weizmann led

the Palestinian Arab population to reject the Syrian-Arab-Nationalist movement led byFaisal (in which many previously placed their hopes) and instead to agitate for Palestine

to become a separate state with an Arab majority.

At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and Treaty of Versailles, Turkey's loss of its Middle

East Empire was formalized.

192048: British Mandate of Palestine

Main articles: Palestinian nationalism and Haj Amin al-HusseiniSee also: British Mandate of Palestine and 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine

AfterWorld War I and the collapse of theOttoman Empire, in April 1920 the Allied

Supreme Council meeting at San Remo granted to Britain the mandates forPalestine and

Transjordan (the territories that include the area of present day Israel, Jordan, West Bankand the Gaza Strip), endorsing the terms of the Balfour Declaration.[15] In August 1920,

this was officially acknowledged in the Treaty of Svres. Both Zionist and Arab

representatives attended the conference, where they met and signed an agreement[16]

tocooperate. The agreement was never implemented. The borders and terms under which

the mandate was to be held were not finalized until September 1922. Article 25 of the

mandate specified that the eastern area (then known as Transjordan or Transjordania) did

not have to be subject to all parts of the Mandate, notably the provisions regarding aJewish national home. This was used by the British as one rationale to establish an

autonomous Arab state under the mandate, which it saw as at least partially fulfilling the

undertakings in the Hussein-McMahon Correspondence. On April 11, 1921, the British

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passed administration of the eastern region of the British Mandate to the HashemiteArab

dynasty from the Hejazregion (a region located in present day Saudi Arabia) and on May

15, 1923 recognized it as an autonomous state, thereby eliminating Jewish nationalaspirations on that part of the Mandatory Palestine. The mandate over Transjordan ended

on May 22, 1946, when the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan(laterJordan) gained

independence.

Palestinian nationalism was marked by a reaction to the Zionist movement and to Jewishsettlement in Palestine as well as by a desire for self-determination by the Arab

population in the region.[17] Jewish immigration to Palestine continued to grow

significantly during the period of the British Mandate in Palestine, mainly due to thegrowth of anti-Semitism in Europe. Between 1919 and 1926, 90,000 immigrants arrived

in Palestine because of the anti-Semitic manifestations, such as thepogroms in Ukraine in

which 100,000 Jews were killed.[18] Some of these immigrants were absorbed in Jewishcommunities established on lands purchased legally by Zionist agencies from absentee

landlords. In some cases, a large acquisition of lands, from absentee landlords, led to the

replacement of the fellahintenant farmers with European Jewish settlers, causingPalestinian Arabs to feel dispossessed. Jewish immigration to Palestine was especially

significant after the rise of theNazis to power in Germany, following which the Jewish

population in Palestine doubled.

1936-39 Arab revolt in Palestine

The Arab population in Palestine opposed the increase of the Jewish population because

they perceived the massive influx of Jewish immigrants as a real threat to their national

identity and to their attribution to the surrounding Arabic countries. [citation needed] Followingthis, during the 1920s relations between the Jewish and Arab populations deteriorated and

the hostility between the two groups intensified. The Arab population of the Palestine

region who opposed the Yishuv and the British Pro-Zionist policies began to use violence

and terroragainst the Jewish population. Arab gangs committed terrorism and murderagainst Jewish convoys and Jewish residents.

From 1920, the Grand Mufti of JerusalemMohammad Amin al-Husayni became the

leader of the Palestinian Arab movementand played a key role in inciting religious riotsagainst the Jewish population in Palestine.[19] The Mufti stirred religious passions against

Jews by alleging that Jews were seeking to rebuild the Jewish Temple on the site of the

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Dome of the Rockand Al-Aqsa Mosque. He tried to gain control of theWestern Wall

(the Kotel), saying that it was sacred to the Muslims.[19]

The first major riots against the Jewish population in Palestine were theJaffa riotsin1921. As a result of the Jaffa riots, the Haganah was founded as a defense force for the

Jewish population of the British Mandate for Palestine. Religious tension over the Koteland the escalation of the tensions between the Arab and Jewish populations led to the

1929 Palestine riots. In these religious-nationalist riots, Jews were massacred in Hebron.Devastation also took place inSafed and Jerusalem. In 1936, as Europe was preparing for

war, the Supreme Muslim Council in Palestine, led by Amin al-Husayni, instigated the

19361939 Arab revolt in Palestine in which Palestinian Arabs rioted and murdered Jewsin various cities. In 1937 Amin al-Husayni, who was wanted by the British, fled Palestine

and took refuge successively in Lebanon, Iraq, Italy and finallyNazi Germany.

The British responded to the outbreaks of violence with the Haycraft Commission of

Inquiry (1921), the Shaw Report (1930), the Peel Commission of 1936-1937, the

Woodhead Commission (1938) and the White Paper of 1939.

The Peel Commission of 1937 was the first to propose a two-state solution to the conflict,

whereby Palestine would be divided into two states: one Arab state and one Jewish state.

The Jewish state would include the coastal plain,Jezreel Valley, Beit She'an and theGalilee, while the Arab state would include Transjordan,Judea and Samaria, the Jordan

Valley, and theNegev. The Jewish leadership in Palestine had differences of opinion

regarding the proposal of the Peel Commission. The Arab leadership in Palestine rejectedthe conclusions and refused to share any land in Palestine with the Jewish population.

The rejection of the Peel Commission's proposal by both parties led to the establishment

of the Woodhead Commission, which rejected the non-applicable proposal of the Peel

Commission.

In May 1939 the British government released a new policy paperwhich sought to

implement a one-state solution in Palestine, significantly reduced the number of Jewish

immigrants allowed to enter Palestine by establishing a quota for Jewish immigrationwhich was set by the British government in the short-term and which would be set by the

Arab leadership in the long-term. The quota also placed restrictions on the rights of Jews

to buy land from Arabs, in an attempt to limit the socio-political damage. Theserestrictions remained until the end of the mandate period, a period which occurred in

parallel with World War II and theHolocaust, during which many Jewish refugees tried

to escape from Europe.[20] As a result, during the 1930s and 1940s the leadership of the

Yishuv arranged a couple ofillegal immigrationwaves of Jews to theBritish Mandate ofPalestine(see also Aliyah Bet), which caused even more tensions in the region.

Ben-Gurion said he wanted to "concentrate the masses of our people in this country

[Palestine] and its environs."[21] When he proposed accepting the Peel proposals in 1937,which included a Jewish state in part of Palestine, Ben-Gurion told the twentieth Zionist

Congress, "The Jewish state now being offered to us is not the Zionist objective. [...] But

it can serve as a decisive stage along the path to greater Zionist implementation. It will

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consolidate in Palestine, within the shortest possible time, the real Jewish force, which

will lead us to our historic goal.[22] In a discussion in the Jewish Agency he said that he

wanted a Jewish-Arab agreement "on the assumption that after we become a strong force,as a result of the creation of the state, we shall abolish partition and expand to the whole

of Palestine."[23]

Haj Amin al-Husaynimeeting with Adolf Hitlerin December 1941

During the 19361939 Arab revolt in Palestine ties were made between the Arab

leadership in Palestine and theNazi movementin Germany.[24] These connections led to

cooperation between the Palestinian national movement and the Axis powers later onduring World War II.[24]In May 1941 Amin al-Husayni issued afatwafor aholy war

against Britain. In 1941 during a meeting with Adolf HitlerAmin al-Husayni asked

Germany to oppose, as part of the Arab struggle for independence, the establishment of aJewish national home in Palestine.[25]He received a promise from Hitler that Germany

would eliminate the existing Jewish foundations in Palestine after the Germans had

gained victory in the war.[26] During the war Amin al-Husayni joined the Nazis, servingwith the Waffen SS in Bosnia and Yugoslavia.[19] In addition, during the war ajoint

Palestinian-Nazi military operation was held in the region of Palestine. These factorscaused a deterioration in the relations between the Palestinian leadership and the British,

which turned to collaborate with theYeshuvduring the period known as the 200 days ofdread.

After World War II, as a result of the British policies, the Jewish resistance organizations

united and established the Jewish Resistance Movementwhich coordinated armed attacks

against the British militarywhich took place between 1945 and 1946. Following theKingDavid Hotel bombing (in which the Irgun blew up the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the

headquarters of the British administration), which shocked the public because of the

deaths of many innocent civilians, the Jewish Resistance Movement was disassembled in

1946.[27] The leadership of the Yishuv decided instead to concentrate their efforts on theillegal immigration and began to organize a massive immigration of European Jewish

refugees to Palestine using small boats operating in secrecy, many of which werecaptured at sea by the British and imprisoned in camps on Cyprus. About 70,000 Jews

were brought to Palestine in this way in 1946 and 1947. Details ofthe Holocaust had a

major effect on the situation in Palestine and propelled large support for the Zionist

cause.

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Palestinian-Arab fighters, 1947

Haganah fighters, 1947

On May 15, 1947, the General Assembly of the newly formed United Nations resolved

that a committee, (United Nations Special Committee on Palestine), be created to

prepare for consideration at the next regular session of the Assembly a report on the

question of Palestine. The Committee was to consist of the representatives of Australia,Canada, Czechoslovakia, Guatemala, India, Iran,Netherlands, Peru, Sweden, Uruguay

and Yugoslavia.[28]

In Chapter VI of the report of September 3, 1947, the majority of the Committeeproposed recommendations for consideration by the General Assembly thatPalestinewithin its present borders, following a transitional period of two years from September 1,

1947, shall be constituted into an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State,

and the City of Jerusalem.[29] The Arab state was supposed to comprise roughly 4,300square miles (11,000 km2) and would contain a tiny Jewish population. The Jewish State

was supposed to be roughly 5,700 square miles (15,000 km2) in size and was supposed to

contain a sizable Arab minority population. Neither state would be contiguous. Jerusalemand Bethlehem were to be put under the control of the United Nations.[18] Neither side

was satisfied with the Partition Plan. The Jews disliked losing Jerusalemwhich had a

majority Jewish population at that timeand worried about the tenability of anoncontiguous state. However, most of the Jews in Palestine accepted the plan, and the

Jewish Agency (the de facto government of the Yishuv) campaigned fervently for its

approval. The more extreme Jewish groups, such as the Irgun, rejected the plan. The Arableadership argued that it violated the rights of the majority of the people in Palestine,which at the time was 67% non-Jewish (1,237,000) and 33% Jewish (608,000).[30] Arab

leaders also argued a large number of Arabs would be trapped in the Jewish State. Every

major Arab leader objected in principle to the right of the Jews to an independent state inPalestine, reflecting the policies of the Arab League.

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On November 29, 1947, the General Assembly adopted a resolution recommending to

the United Kingdom, as the mandatory Power for Palestine, and to all other Members of

the United Nations the adoption and implementation, with regard to the futuregovernment of Palestine, of thePlan of Partition with Economic Union, (a slightly

amended version of the plan in Chapter VI of the report of September 3, 1947), as

Resolution 181(II) ). Thirty-three states voted in favor of the resolution, while 13countries opposed it. Ten countries abstained from the vote.[31] The Yishuv accepted the

plan, but the Arabs in Palestine and the surrounding Arab states rejected the plan. The

Arab countries (all of which had opposed the plan) proposed to query the InternationalCourt of Justice on the competence of the General Assembly to partition a country

against the wishes of the majority of its inhabitants, but were again defeated.[citation needed]

The Plan (PART I A., Clause 3.) provided thatIndependent Arab and Jewish States and

the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem,should come into existence inPalestine two months after the evacuation of the armed forces of the mandatory Power

has been completed but in any case not later than October 1, 1948. .. .

The approval of the plan sparked attacks carried out by Arab irregulars against the Jewish

population in Palestine. Fighting began almost as soon as the Resolution of November29, 1947 was approved. Shooting, stoning, and rioting continued apace in the following

days. The consulates ofPoland and Sweden, both of whose governments had voted for

partition, were attacked. Bombs were thrown into cafes,Molotov cocktails were hurled atshops, and a synagogue was set on fire. As the British evacuation from the region

progressed, the violence became more prevalent. Murders, reprisals, and counter-reprisals

came fast on each other's heels, resulting in dozens of victims killed on both sides in the

process. The Deir Yassin massacre took place on April 9, 1948, when around 120 fightersfrom the Irgun Zevai Leumi and the Stern Gang Israel Zionist paramilitary groups

attacked Deir Yassin near Jerusalem, a Palestinian-Arab village of roughly 600 people.The sanguinary impasse persisted as no force intervened to put a stop to the escalatingcycles of violence. During the first two months of the war, about 1,000 people were killed

and 2,000 injured.[32] By the end of March, the figure had risen to 2,000 dead and 4,000

wounded.[33]

David Ben-Gurion publicly pronouncing the Declaration of the State ofIsrael, May 14,

1948

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On May 14, 1948, one day before theBritish Mandateexpired, David Ben-Gurion

declaredthe establishment of aJewish StateinEretz-Israel, to be known as the State of

Israel. The declaration was stated to be by virtue of our natural and historic right and onthe strength of the resolution of the United Nations General Assembly. The Declaration

stated that the State of Israel would ensure complete equality of social and political

rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedomof religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard theHoly

Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the

United Nations.[34]

194867

See also: 1948 ArabIsraeli War, 1948 Palestinian exodus,Occupation of the Gaza Stripby Egypt, Rule of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by Jordan, 19491956 Palestinian

exodus, Jewish exodus from Arab countries, Palestinian fedayeen, and Six-Day War

Palestinian refugees in 1948

The termination of the British mandate over Palestine and the Declaration of theEstablishment of the State of Israel sparked a full-scale war (1948 ArabIsraeli War)

which erupted after May 14, 1948. On 1516 May, the four armies ofJordan, Syria,

Egypt and Iraq[35] invaded/interved in what had been the area of the British Mandate[15]followed not long after by units from[35]Lebanon.[15]

In the introduction to the[36] cablegram from the Secretary-General of the League of Arab

States to the UN Secretary-General on May 15, 1948, the Arab League gave reasons for

its intervention, On the occasion of the intervention of Arab States in Palestine to restorelaw and order and to prevent disturbances prevailing in Palestine from spreading into

their territories and to check further bloodshed,. Clause 10.(a) of the Cablegram

provided:-

10. Now that the Mandate over Palestine has come to an end, leaving no legallyconstituted authority behind in order to administer law and order in the country

and afford the necessary and adequate protection to life and property, the Arab

States declare as follows:

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(a) The right to set up a Government in Palestine pertains to its inhabitants under

the principles of self-determination recognized by the Covenant of the League of

Nations as well as the United Nations Charter;.

United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine 1947

The 1949 Green Line borders

While Arab commanders ordered villagers to evacuate for military purposes in isolated

areas,[37]there is no evidence that the Arab leadership made a blanket call for evacuation

and in fact most urged Palestinians to stay in their homes.[38] Assaults by the Haganah on

major Arab population centers like Jaffa and Haifa as well as expulsions carried out bygroups like the Irgunand Lehi such as at Deir Yassinand Lydda led to the exodus of

large portions of the Arab masses.[citation needed] Factors such as the earlier flight by the

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Palestinian elite and the psychological effects of Jewish atrocities (stories which both

sides propagated) also played important roles in the Palestinian flight.

The war resulted in an Israeli victory, with Israel annexing territory beyond the partitionborders for a proposed Jewish state and into the borders for a proposed Palestinian Arab

state.[39]

Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt signed the 1949 Armistice AgreementswithIsrael. The remaining territories, the Gaza Stripand the West Bank, were occupied by

Egypt and Transjordan, respectively. Jordan also annexed[40]East Jerusalem while Israeladministered West Jerusalem. In 1950, The West Bank was unilaterally incorporated into

Jordan.[41]

Due to the 1948 ArabIsraeli war, about856,000 Jews fled or were expelled from theirhomes in Arab countries and most were forced to abandon their property.[42] Jews from

Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon and North Africa left due to physical and political

insecurity, with the majority being forced to abandon their properties. [42] 260,000 reached

Israel in 19481951, 600,000 by 1972.[43][44][45] Additionally, due to the war,between

700,000 and 750,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelledfrom the area that becameIsrael and became what is known today as the Palestinian refugees.[46] The Palestinian

refugees were not allowed to return to Israel and most of the neighboring Arab states,with the exception ofTransjordan, denied granting them or their descendants

citizenship. In 1949, Israel offered to allow some members of families that had been

separated during the war to return, to release refugee accounts frozen in Israeli banks, andto repatriate 100,000 refugees.[15] The Arab states[15] rejected this compromise, at least in

part because they were unwilling to take any action that might be construed as

recognition of Israel. As of today, most of them still live in refugee camps and the

question of how their situation should be resolved remains one of the main issues of theIsraeli-Palestinian conflict.

While most of the Palestinian Arab population that remained in Israel after the war was

granted an Israeli citizenship, Arab Israelis were subject to martial law up to 1966. Avariety oflegal measuresfacilitated the transfer of land abandoned by Arabs to state

ownership. In 1966, security restrictions placed on Arab citizens of Israel were lifted

completely, the government set about dismantling most of the discriminatory laws, and

Arab citizens of Israelwere granted the same rights as Jewish citizens.

After the 1948 war, some of the Palestinian refugees who lived in camps in the West

Bank within Jordanian controlled territory, the Gaza Strip Egyptian controlled territory

and Syria tried to return by infiltration into Israeli territory, and some of those

Palestinians who had remained in Israel were declared infiltrators by Israel and weredeported. Ben-Gurion emphatically rejected the return of refugees in the Israeli Cabinet

decision of June 1948 reiterated in a letter to the UN of August 2, 1949 containing the

text of a statement made by Moshe Sharett on August 1, 1948 where the basic attitude ofthe Israeli Government was that a solution must be sought, not through the return of the

refugees to Israel, but through the resettlement of the Palestinian Arab refugee population

in other states.[47]

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The buildup of the conflict along the Jordanian border went through gradual stages.

Building up from small Israeli raids with Palestinian counter raids through to the major

Israeli incursions, Beit Jalla,Qibya massacre,Ma'ale Akrabim massacre,Nahalin reprisalraid, Rantis and Falameh reprisal raid. The Lavon Affairled to a deeper distrust of Jews

in Egypt, from whose community key agents in the operation had been recruited, and as a

result Egypt retaliated against its Jewish community. It was only after Israel's raid on anEgyptian military outpost in Gaza in February 1955 that the Egyptian government began

to actively sponsor, train, and arm the Palestinian volunteers from Gaza as Fedayeen

units which committed raids into Israel.[48]

An Israeli raid on an Egyptian military outpost in Gaza in February 1955, resulted in 37Egyptian soldiers killed. Soon after, the Egyptian government began to actively sponsor,

train and arm the Palestinian volunteers from Gaza as Fedayeenunits, which committed

raids into Israel.[49]In 1967, after years of Egyptian-aided Palestinian Fedayeen attacksstemming from the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian expulsion ofUNEF, Egypt's amassing of an

increased number of troops in the Sinai Peninsula, and several other threatening gestures

from other neighboring Arab nations, Israel launched apreemptive strike against Egypt.The strike and the operations that followed became known as the Six-Day War. At the

end of the Six-Day War, Israel had captured, among other territories, theGaza Strip from

Egypt and the West Bankfrom Jordan (including East Jerusalem). Shortly after Israel

seized control over Jerusalem, Israel asserted sovereignty over the entire city ofJerusalem and the Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem were given a permanent

resident status in Israel. The status of the city as Israel's capital and the disputed status of

the West Bank and Gaza Strip created a new set of contentious issues in the conflict. Thismeant that Israel controlled the entire former British mandate of Palestine that under the

Balfour Declaration was supposed to allow a Jewish state within its borders. The fact that

Palestine was never a sovereign state gave the Israelis subsequent support for their

argument that they did not occupy these territories, and therefore did not break the FourthAccord of the Geneva Conventionsand international law. Following the Six-Day War,

the United Nations Security Council issueda resolution with a clause affirming "the

necessity ... for achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem," referring to thePalestinian refugee problem.[50]

Following years of attacks by the Palestinian Fedayeen, the Palestine Liberation

Organization (PLO) was established in 1964. Its goal was the liberation of Palestinethrough armed struggle.[51] The original PLO Charter stated the desire for a Palestinian

state established within the entirety of the borders of theBritish mandate prior to the

1948 war (i.e. the current boundaries of the State of Israel) and said it is a "national

duty ... to purge the Zionist presence from Palestine."[52] It also called for a right of returnand self-determinationfor Palestinians.

196793

See also: Battle of Karameh, Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon,1982 Lebanon

War, and First Intifada