The
Middle East Conflict - Explained The Palestinians argue that Israel took their land, robbed their children of their birthright, and punished their people for generations to come. Israeli Jews argue the land was theirs for millennia and they simply returned to claim their own birthright after hundreds of years in exile. With the two sides entrenched in their position that this tiny strip of land along the Mediterranean coast circulates in the blood of their ancestors, it would seem the only solution is to make peace and live along side one another. However, extremist movements on both sides have declared they will not be satisfied until the other leaves. Thus creating an ongoing and seemingly irresolvable conflict. While the answer to the problem here is almost infinitely complex, and each side has a number of political factions with a range of approaches, there are really three fundamental issues that require resolution. Jewish Settlements The second key Palestinian demand is that Israel withdraws the settler populations from the hilltops of the West Bank and Gaza. Settlements are Jewish enclaves built on Palestinian land. They are often built on hilltops for strategic reasons, but sometimes they are crowded into downtown neighborhoods of Palestinian cities such as Hebron. The Settlers are considered the most politically right wing and militant among the Israelis. There is popular sentiment among mainstream Israelis that the army should not protect the Settlers, and that if they were withdrawn from the occupied Palestinian land, the latest Intifada may quickly come to an end. The Palestinian Authority argues that the settlers infringe on the right of free movement of Palestinians on their own land, and that they have illegally confiscated Palestinian land. The United Nations supports the Palestinian demand for the withdrawal of settlements, along with the demand for the right of return from refugee camps. However, Israel routinely ignores UN resolutions it disagrees with, and this is no exception. The Israeli settler movement is based on a theory that all the land between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea is Jewish land, gifted by God to the Jews thousands of years ago. Currently the most famous settler in Israel is Ariel Sharon, the nation's Prime Minister. Sharon is identified as a settler in Israel and identifies himself with the settler movement. Despite a strong call for Israel to at least freeze settlement growth in the Mitchell Commission Report on violence in the Middle East, Sharon personally refused to freeze growth on the settlements. And his Housing Minister Natan Sharansky has provocatively announced 7,100 new Settlement homes will be built with government money. There are between 100,000 and 200,000 settlers living on occupied Palestinian land. The number varies because many of them do not live in their homes but keep them for political reasons. Also, the government has built so many homes that approximately one third of them sit vacant awaiting tenants. The Right of Return The Palestinian Authority demands that all Palestinians, who became refugees at the birth of Israel in 1948 and again during the occupation of the West Bank in 1967, be allowed to return to their land. Israel's basic position is that this demand threatens its existence and is therefore unreasonable. Israel says if all the Palestinians were allowed to return, Jews would become a minority. In the decades since Palestinians were forced to move those hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees begot children, and even grandchildren, and now number close to six million. Israel's only reconciliation on this issue has been to at times agree to allow the return of a few thousand Palestinians, but no more. Yet it's an issue that is crucial for Yasser Arafat. For more than 50 years Palestinian refugees have been living in camps in the surrounding nations of Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, as well as within the West Bank and Gaza. Two generations have only known life in these camps. They are not permitted to leave, or to work. For them life is an endless welfare existence. It is from these camps that Yasser Arafat recruited his support for the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Jerusalem Ownership of the holy city of Jerusalem is the third key issue preventing the end of violence, and is perhaps the most controversial. Both sides claim the city as their own. Jerusalem is the seat of monotheistic religion on this planet. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam all lay claim to it. The argument over this tiny patch of land singularly sums up the issue here as one of who has the right to live where. The "Mount" is the stone foundation of the second Temple of Judaism, destroyed by the Romans two thousand years ago. The western wall of the foundation is all that remains. It has been excavated and is now known as the "Wailing Wall" where Jews pray. It is considered the most holy place on earth for Jews. The Palestinians feel the same ownership. For the past five hundred years an Islamic mosque has occupied the location. Currently the Al Aqsa, which is at the center of the Intifada because this is where Ariel Sharon took his provocative walk that sparked the riots that steamrolled into the Intifada. The mosque sits atop a giant stone platform, that is called Haram al Sharif, which translates, into the Noble Sanctuary. This is the third most holy site in all of Islam. During the ill-fated tenure of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak all three of these issues were being discussed at regular meetings between the two sides. Even after the Intifada broke out, talks were periodically taking place. However since Israeli's voted Barak out of his chair in favour of Sharon the two sides have only spoken with violence. A language that has become increasingly loud, angry and intense as the two sides move further away from the notion of peace than they have been in decades. |