History of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search 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 major nationalist 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 of Israel

Late 19th century-1920: Origins

National movements

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 the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years.[1] Towards the end of the 19th century, Southern Syria (or Palestine), divided between the Vilayets of Syria and Beirut and the Mustafiyyet of Jerusalem, was inhabited predominantly by Arab Muslims, both farmers and Bedouin (principally in the Negev and Jordan valley), with smaller numbers of Christians (mostly Arabs), Druze, Circassians and Jews (predominantly Sephardic).[2] At that time most of the Jews worldwide lived outside of Palestine, predominantly in eastern and central Europe,[3] with significant communities in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and the Americas.

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

Decree signed by the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II which 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 national movements, including Zionism and Arab nationalism. Though the Jewish aspiration to return 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 persecution of Jews due to anti-Semitism in Russia and Europe. As a result, the Zionist movement,

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 the Jewish people in Palestine, which would serve as a haven for the Jews of the world and in which they would have the right for self-determination.[4] Zionists increasingly came to hold that this state 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 immigration and funded purchase of land, both under Ottoman 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 Ottoman state. 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 in Safed, 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 and vandalizing property.[7] Another incident happened in Petach Tikva, where in early 1886 the Jewish settlers demanded that their tenants vacate the disputed land and started encroaching 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 the retaliation. 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 a heart 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 other crimes. 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 Palestine region.[10] Certain developments, such as the acquisition of lands from Arab owners for Jewish settlements, leading to the eviction of the fellaheen from 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] Ottoman land 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 a result of a large immigration wave from the Russian 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 might undermine Turkish control in the region of Palestine. The main reason for this concern

was the dismantling of Ottoman authority in the Balkan region. 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 considered by 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 Jewish immigration 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 the acquisition 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 1917 which 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 Jewish population and the Arab population in Palestine to support the alignment of the United Kingdom, France, and Russia during World War I. In 1915, the Hussein-McMahon

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 Great Arab 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 nonJewish communities in Palestine." In 1916, the Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreement allocated 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 day Iraq. The Balfour Declaration was seen by Jewish nationalists as the cornerstone of a future Jewish homeland on both sides of 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 administration for the remainder of the war. On January 3, 1919, future president of the World Zionist Organization Chaim Weizmann and the future King Faisal I of Iraq signed the Faisal-Weizmann Agreement for Arab-Jewish cooperation in the Middle East in which Faisal conditionally accepted the Balfour Declaration based 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 by Faisal (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-Husseini See also: British Mandate of Palestine and 1936-1939 Arab revolt in Palestine After World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, in April 1920 the Allied Supreme Council meeting at San Remo granted to Britain the mandates for Palestine and Transjordan (the territories that include the area of present day Israel, Jordan, West Bank and 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] to cooperate. 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 a Jewish 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

passed administration of the eastern region of the British Mandate to the Hashemite Arab dynasty from the Hejaz region (a region located in present day Saudi Arabia) and on May 15, 1923 recognized it as an autonomous state, thereby eliminating Jewish national aspirations on that part of the Mandatory Palestine. The mandate over Transjordan ended on May 22, 1946, when the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan (later Jordan) gained independence. Palestinian nationalism was marked by a reaction to the Zionist movement and to Jewish settlement 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 the growth of anti-Semitism in Europe. Between 1919 and 1926, 90,000 immigrants arrived in Palestine because of the anti-Semitic manifestations, such as the pogroms in Ukraine in which 100,000 Jews were killed.[18] Some of these immigrants were absorbed in Jewish communities 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 fellahin tenant farmers with European Jewish settlers, causing Palestinian Arabs to feel dispossessed. Jewish immigration to Palestine was especially significant after the rise of the Nazis 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] Following this, 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 terror against the Jewish population. Arab gangs committed terrorism and murder against Jewish convoys and Jewish residents. From 1920, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni became the leader of the Palestinian Arab movement and played a key role in inciting religious riots against 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

Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa Mosque. He tried to gain control of the Western Wall (the Kotel), saying that it was sacred to the Muslims.[19] The first major riots against the Jewish population in Palestine were the Jaffa riots in 1921. 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 Kotel and 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 in Safed 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 Jews in various cities. In 1937 Amin al-Husayni, who was wanted by the British, fled Palestine and took refuge successively in Lebanon, Iraq, Italy and finally Nazi 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 the Galilee, while the Arab state would include Transjordan, Judea and Samaria, the Jordan Valley, and the Negev. The Jewish leadership in Palestine had differences of opinion regarding the proposal of the Peel Commission. The Arab leadership in Palestine rejected the 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 paper which 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 immigration which 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. These restrictions remained until the end of the mandate period, a period which occurred in parallel with World War II and the Holocaust, 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 of illegal immigration waves of Jews to the British Mandate of Palestine (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

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-Husayni meeting with Adolf Hitler in December 1941 During the 19361939 Arab revolt in Palestine ties were made between the Arab leadership in Palestine and the Nazi movement in Germany.[24] These connections led to cooperation between the Palestinian national movement and the Axis powers later on during World War II.[24] In May 1941 Amin al-Husayni issued a fatwa for a holy war against Britain. In 1941 during a meeting with Adolf Hitler Amin al-Husayni asked Germany to oppose, as part of the Arab struggle for independence, the establishment of a Jewish 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, serving with the Waffen SS in Bosnia and Yugoslavia.[19] In addition, during the war a joint Palestinian-Nazi military operation was held in the region of Palestine. These factors caused a deterioration in the relations between the Palestinian leadership and the British, which turned to collaborate with the Yeshuv during the period known as the 200 days of dread. After World War II, as a result of the British policies, the Jewish resistance organizations united and established the Jewish Resistance Movement which coordinated armed attacks against the British military which took place between 1945 and 1946. Following the King David 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 the illegal immigration and began to organize a massive immigration of European Jewish refugees to Palestine using small boats operating in secrecy, many of which were captured 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 of the Holocaust had a major effect on the situation in Palestine and propelled large support for the Zionist cause.

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 Committee proposed recommendations for consideration by the General Assembly that Palestine within 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 4,300 square 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. Jerusalem and 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 a noncontiguous 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 Arab leadership 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 in Palestine, reflecting the policies of the Arab League.

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 future government of Palestine, of the Plan 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 13 countries 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 International Court 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 that Independent Arab and Jewish States and the Special International Regime for the City of Jerusalem,should come into existence in Palestine 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 November 29, 1947 was approved. Shooting, stoning, and rioting continued apace in the following days. The consulates of Poland and Sweden, both of whose governments had voted for partition, were attacked. Bombs were thrown into cafes, Molotov cocktails were hurled at shops, 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 fighters from 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 escalating cycles 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 of Israel, May 14, 1948

On May 14, 1948, one day before the British Mandate expired, David Ben-Gurion declared the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. The declaration was stated to be by virtue of our natural and historic right and on the 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 freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy 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 Strip by 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 the Establishment 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 of Jordan, 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 restore law 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 legally constituted 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:

(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 by groups like the Irgun and Lehi such as at Deir Yassin and Lydda led to the exodus of large portions of the Arab masses.[citation needed] Factors such as the earlier flight by the

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 partition borders 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 Agreements with Israel. The remaining territories, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, were occupied by Egypt and Transjordan, respectively. Jordan also annexed[40] East Jerusalem while Israel administered West Jerusalem. In 1950, The West Bank was unilaterally incorporated into Jordan.[41] Due to the 1948 ArabIsraeli war, about 856,000 Jews fled or were expelled from their homes 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 expelled from the area that became Israel 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 of Transjordan, 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, and to 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 the Israeli-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. A variety of legal measures facilitated 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 Israel were 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 were deported. 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 of the 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]

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 reprisal raid, Rantis and Falameh reprisal raid. The Lavon Affair led 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 an Egyptian 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 37 Egyptian soldiers killed. Soon after, the Egyptian government began to actively sponsor, train and arm the Palestinian volunteers from Gaza as Fedayeen units, which committed raids into Israel.[49] In 1967, after years of Egyptian-aided Palestinian Fedayeen attacks stemming from the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian expulsion of UNEF, 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 a preemptive 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, the Gaza Strip from Egypt and the West Bank from Jordan (including East Jerusalem). Shortly after Israel seized control over Jerusalem, Israel asserted sovereignty over the entire city of Jerusalem 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. This meant 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 Fourth Accord of the Geneva Conventions and international law. Following the Six-Day War, the United Nations Security Council issued a resolution with a clause affirming "the necessity ... for achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem," referring to the Palestinian 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 Palestine through armed struggle.[51] The original PLO Charter stated the desire for a Palestinian state established within the entirety of the borders of the British 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 return and self-determination for Palestinians.

196793
See also: Battle of Karameh, Palestinian insurgency in South Lebanon, 1982 Lebanon War, and First Intifada

Palestinian Fedayeen militants in Jordan belonging to the PFLP, 1969 The defeat of the Arab countries in the Six-Day War prompted fractured Palestinian political and militant groups to give up any remaining hope they had placed in panArabism. In July 1968 armed, non-state actors such as Fatah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine achieved the majority of the Palestinian National Council votes, and on February 3, 1969, at the Palestinian National Council in Cairo, the leader of the Fatah, Yasser Arafat was elected as the chairman of the PLO. From the start, the organization used armed violence against civilian and military targets in the conflict with Israel. The PLO tried to take over the population of the West Bank, but the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) deported them into Jordan, where they began to act against the Jordanian rule (Palestinians in Jordan comprised about 70% of the total population, which mostly consisted of refugees) and from there attacked Israel numerous times, using the infiltration of terrorists and shooting Katyusha rockets. This led to retaliations from Israel. In the late 1960s, tensions between Palestinians and the Jordanian government increased greatly. In September 1970 a bloody military struggle was held between Jordan and the Palestinian armed organizations. King Hussein of Jordan was able to quell the Palestinian revolt. During the armed conflict, thousands of people were killed, the vast majority of whom were Palestinians. The fighting continued until July 1971 with the expulsion of the PLO to Lebanon. A large number of Palestinians immigrated to Lebanon after Black September and joined the tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees already there. The center of PLO activity then shifted to Lebanon, where they established bases to stage attacks on Israel and launch an international terror campaign, largely aimed at abducting airplanes. The 1969 Cairo agreement gave the Palestinians autonomy within the south of the country, increasing the Palestinian control of the area. The area controlled by the PLO became known by the international press and locals as "Fatahland", which created tensions with local Lebanese and contributed to the 19751990 Lebanese Civil War. The PLO took advantage of its control southern Lebanon in order to launch Katyusha rocket attacks at Galilee villages and execute terror attacks on the northern border. At the beginning of the 1970s the Palestinian terror organizations, headed by the PLO and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine waged an international terror campaign against Israelis, primarily in Europe. In an attempt to publicize the Palestinian cause, frustrated Palestinian guerrilla groups in Lebanon attacked Israeli civilian 'targets' like schools, buses and apartment blocks, with occasional attacks abroadfor example, at

embassies or airportsand with the hijacking of airliners. The peak of the Palestinian terrorism wave against Israelis occurred in 1972 and took form in several acts of terrorism, most prominently the Sabena Flight 572 hijacking, the Lod Airport massacre and the Munich massacre. On March 15, 1972 King Hussein of Jordan unveiled his plan for a "United Arab Kingdom", which will be a federation consisting of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and a federal district in the West Bank which was formerly under Jordan's control. According to King Hussein's proposal each state would have its own parliament and would be united under one monarch. Hussein conditioned the establishment of th UAK on a treaty between Jordan and Israel in which Israel would concede the control of East Jerusalem to the Jordanian-Palestinian federation so that it would become the capital of the Palestinian-Arab federal district. The plan was eventually ruled out after the PLO and other Arab states strongly opposed the plan and after Israel rejected the notion of transferring the control of East Jerusalem to such a federation.[53][54][55]

Coastal Road massacre: The charred remains of the hijacked Egged coach, at the Egged museum in Holon. 38 Israeli civilians were killed in this PLO attack. The Munich massacre was perpetrated during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. 11 members of the Israeli team were taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists. A botched German rescue attempt led to the death of all 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. Five of the terrorists were shot and three survived unharmed. The three surviving Palestinians were released without charge by the German authorities a month later. The Israeli government responded with an assassination campaign against the organizers and a raid on the PLO headquarters in Lebanon. Other notable events include the hijacking of several civilian airliners, the Savoy Hotel attack, the Zion Square explosive refrigerator and the Coastal Road massacre. During the 1970s and the early 1980s, Israel suffered attacks from PLO bases in Lebanon, such as the Avivim school bus massacre in 1970 and the Ma'alot massacre in 1974 in which Palestinians attacked a school in Ma'alot killing twenty-two children. In 1973 The Syrian and Egyptian armies launched the Yom Kippur War, a well-planned surprise attack against Israel. The Egyptians and Syrians advanced during the first 2448 hours, after which momentum began to swing in Israel's favor. Eventually a Disengagement of Forces agreement was signed between the parties and a ceasefire took effect that ended the war. The Yom Kippur War paved the way for the Camp David Accords in 1978, which set a precedent for future peace negotiations.

In 1974 the PLO adopted the Ten Point Program, which called for the establishment of a national authority "over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated" with the aim of "completing the liberation of all Palestinian territory". The program implied that the liberation of Palestine may be partial (at least, at some stage), and though it emphasized armed struggle, it did not exclude other means. This allowed the PLO to engage in diplomatic channels, and provided validation for future compromises made by the Palestinian leadership. In the mid-1970s many attempts were made by Gush Emunim movement to establish outposts or resettle former Jewish areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Initially the Israeli government forcibly disbanded these settlements. However, in the absence of peace talks to determine the future of these and other occupied territories, Israel ceased enforcement of the original ban on settlement, which led to the founding of the first settlements in these regions.

The site of Operation Entebbe In July 1976, an Air France plane carrying 260 people was hijacked by Palestinian and German terrorists and flown to Uganda. There, the Germans separated the Jewish passengers from the Non-Jewish passengers, releasing the non-Jews. The hijackers threatened to kill the remaining 100-odd Jewish passengers (and the French crew who had refused to leave). Israel responded with a rescue operation in which the kidnapped Jews were freed. The rise of the Likud party to the government in 1977 led to the establishment of a large number of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. On March 11, 1978, a force of nearly a dozen armed Palestinian terrorists landed their boats near a major coastal road in Israel. There they hijacked a bus and sprayed gunfire inside and at passing vehicles, killing thirty-seven civilians. In response, the IDF launched Operation Litani three days later, with the goal of taking control of Southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. The IDF achieved this goal, and the PLO withdrew to the north into Beirut. After Israel withdrew from Lebanon, Fatah forces resumed firing rockets into the Galilee region of Israel. During the years following operation Litani, many diplomatic efforts were made which tried to end the war on the Israeli-Lebanese border, including the effort of Philip Habib, the emissary of Ronald Reagan who in the

summer of 1981 managed to arrange a lasting cease-fire between Israel and the PLO which lasted about a year. Israel ended the ceasefire after an assassination attempt on the Israeli Ambassador in the Britain, Shlomo Argov, in mid-1982 (which was made by Abu Nidal's organization that was ostracized from the PLO). This led Israel to invade Lebanon in the 1982 Lebanon War on June 6, 1982 with the aim to protect the North of Israel from terrorist attacks. IDF invaded Lebanon and even occupied Beirut. To end the siege, the US and European governments brokered an agreement guaranteeing safe passage for Arafat and Fatah guarded by a multinational force to exile in Tunis. During the war, Israeli allied Phalangist Christian Arab militias carried out the bloody Sabra and Shatila Massacre in which 700-3,500 unarmed Palestinians were killed by the Phalangist militias while the Israeli troops surrounded the camps with tanks and checkpoints, monitoring entrances and exits. For its involvement in the Lebanese war and its indirect responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila Massacre, Israel was heavily criticized, including from within. An Israeli Commission of Inquiry found that Israeli military personnel, among them defense minister and future prime minister Ariel Sharon, had several times become aware that a massacre was in progress without taking serious steps to stop it, leading to his resignation as Israel's Defense Minister. In June 1985, Israel withdrew most of its troops from Lebanon, leaving a residual Israeli force and an Israeli-supported militia in southern Lebanon as a "security zone" and buffer against attacks on its northern territory. Meanwhile, the PLO led an international diplomatic front against Israel in Tunis. Following the wave of terror attacks including the murder on MS Achille Lauro in October 1985, Israel bombed the PLO commandership in Tunis during Operation Wooden Leg. According to information obtained from the Israeli Department of Defense, Israel revoked the residency status of more than 100,000 residents of the Gaza Strip and of around 140,000 residents of the West Bank during the 27 years between Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.[56] Working in secret, the Israeli government revoked the residency status of Palestinians who studied or lived abroad for longer than a period of time and the revocations have barred nearly a quarter of a million Palestinians and their descendants from returning to Israel/Palestine. Israel is now employing a similar residency right revocation procedure for Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem.[56] The first Palestinian Intifada (uprising) erupted in December 1987 and lasted until the Madrid Conference of 1991, despite Israeli attempts to suppress it. It was a partially spontaneous uprising, but by January 1988, it was already under the direction from the PLO headquarters in Tunis, which carried out ongoing terrorist attacks targeting Israeli civilians. The riots escalated daily throughout the territories and were especially severe in the Gaza Strip. The Intifada was renowned by its stone-throwing demonstrations by youth against the heavily-armed Israeli Defense Forces.[57] Over the course of the First Intifada, a total 1,551 Palestinians and 422 Israelis were killed.[citation needed] In 1987, Ahmed Yassin co-founded Hamas with Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi. Since then, Hamas has been

involved in what it calls "armed resistance" against Israel, which includes mainly terrorist acts against Israeli civilian population. On November 15, 1988, a year after the outbreak of the first intifada, the PLO declared the establishment of the Palestinian state in Algiers. The proclaimed "State of Palestine" is not and has never actually been an independent state, as it has never had sovereignty over any territory in history. The declaration is generally interpreted to have recognized Israel within its pre-1967 boundaries, and its right to exist. Following this declaration, the United States and many other countries recognized the PLO.[58] During to the Gulf War in 199091, Arafat supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait and opposed the US-led coalition attack on Iraq. The PLO support stance for Saddam led to the expulsion of 400,000 Palestinians from Kuwait within a week in the aftermath of the war an unprecedented move by an Arab government against any Arab population. Arafat's decision also severed relations with Egypt and many of the oilproducing Arab states that supported the US-led coalition. Many in the US also used Arafat's position as a reason to disregard his claims to being a partner for peace. After the end of hostilities, many Arab states that backed the coalition cut off funds to the PLO and bringing the PLO to the brink of crisis.[59] In the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf War, the coalition's victory in the Gulf War opened a new opportunity to advance the peace process. The U.S launched a diplomatic initiative in cooperation with Russia which resulted in the October 1991 Madrid peace conference. The conference was hosted by the government of Spain and co-sponsored by the USA and the USSR. The Madrid peace conference was an early attempt by the international community to start a peace process through negotiations involving Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Arab countries including Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. The Palestinian team, due to Israeli objections, was initially formally a part of a joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation and consisted of Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza without open PLO associations.[60]

19932000: Oslo peace process

Main article: Oslo Accords

Yitzhak Rabin, Bill Clinton, and Yasser Arafat during the Oslo Accords on September 13, 1993.

In January 1993, Israeli and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) negotiators began secret negotiations in Oslo, Norway. On September 9, 1993, Yasser Arafat sent a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, stating that the PLO officially recognized Israel's right to exist and officially renouncing terrorism.[61] On September 13, Arafat and Rabin signed a Declaration of Principles in Washington, D.C., on the basis of the negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian teams in Oslo, Norway. The declaration was a major conceptual breakthrough achieved outside of the Madrid framework, which specifically barred foreign-residing PLO leaders from the negotiation process. After this, a long process of negotiation known as the "Oslo peace process" began. During the Oslo peace process throughout the 1990s, as both sides obligated to work towards a two-state solution, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization negotiated, unsuccessfully, and tried to reach to a mutual agreement. One of the main features of the Oslo Peace Process was the establishment of the autonomous governmental authority, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its associated governing institutions to administer Palestinian communities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. During the Oslo peace process throughout the 1990s, the Palestinian Authority was ceded authority from Israel over various regions of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This process gave it governmental and economic authority over many Palestinian communities. It also gave the PA many of the components of a modern government and society, including a Palestinian police force, legislature, and other institutions. In return for these concessions, the Palestinian Authority was asked to promote tolerance for Israel within Palestinian society, and acceptance of Israel's right to exist. One of the most contentious issues surrounding this peace process is whether the PA in fact met its obligations to promote tolerance. There is specific evidence that the PA actively funded and supported many terrorist activities and groups.[62] Palestinians stated that any terrorist acts stemmed from Israel not having conceded enough land and political power to win support among ordinary Palestinians. Israelis stated that these acts of terrorism were because the PA openly encouraged and supported incitement against Israel, and terrorism. There was increasing disagreement and debate among Israelis about the amount of positive results and benefits produced by the Oslo process. Supporters said it was producing advances leading to a viable Palestinian society which would promote genuine acceptance of Israel. Opponents said that concessions were merely emboldening extremist elements to commit more violence in order to win further concessions, without providing any real acceptance, benefits, goodwill, or reconciliation for Israel in return. In February 1994 during the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre a follower of the Kach movement killed 25 Palestinian-Arabs at the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. As an act of revenge to the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, in April 1994, Hamas launched suicide bomber attacks targeting Israeli civilian population in many locations throughout Israel, however, once the Hamas started to the use these means it became a regular pattern of action against Israel.

On September 28, 1995, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat signed the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in Washington. the agreement marked the conclusion of the first stage of negotiations between Israel and the PLO. The agreement allowed the PLO leadership to relocate to the occupied territories and granted autonomy to the Palestinians with talks to follow regarding final status. In return the Palestinians recognized Israel's right to exist and promised to abstain from use of terror. However the agreement was opposed by the Hamas and other Palestinian factions, whom at this point were already committing suicide bomber attacks throughout Israel. Tensions in Israel, arising from the continuation of terrorism and anger at loss of territory, led to the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin by a right-wing Jewish radical on November 4, 1995. Upon Rabin's assassination, the Israeli prime minister's post was filled by Shimon Peres. Peres continued Rabin's policies in supporting the peace process. In 1996, increasing Israeli doubts about the peace process, led to Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party winning the election, mainly due to his promise to use a more rigid line in the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority. Netanyahu raised many questions about many central premises of the Oslo process. One of his main points was disagreement with the Oslo premise that the negotiations should proceed in stages, meaning that concessions should be made to Palestinians before any resolution was reached on major issues, such as the status of Jerusalem, and the amending of the Palestinian National Charter. Oslo supporters had claimed that the multi-stage approach would build goodwill among Palestinians and would propel them to seek reconciliation when these major issues were raised in later stages. Netanyahu said that these concessions only gave encouragement to extremist elements, without receiving any tangible gestures in return. He called for tangible gestures of Palestinian goodwill in return for Israeli concessions.

Aftermath of the Jaffa Road bus bombings. 26 people were killed in the Hamas suicide attack.

In January 1996 Israel assassinated the chief bombmaker of Hamas, Yahya Ayyash. In reaction to this, Hamas carried out a wave of suicide attacks in Israel. Following these attacks the Palestinian Authority began to act against the Hamas and oppress their activity. In January 1997 Netanyahu signed the Hebron Protocol with the Palestinian Authority, resulting in the redeployment of Israeli forces in Hebron and the turnover of civilian authority in much of the area to the Palestinian Authority. In 1997, after two deadly suicide attacks in Jerusalem by the Hamas, Israeli secret agents were sent to Jordan to eliminate the political head of the Department of Hamas, Khaled Mashal, using a special poison (See the assassination attempt on Khaled Mashal). Nevertheless, the operation entangled and the secret agents were captured. In return of their release Israel sent over the medicine which saved his life and freed a dozen of Palestinian prisoners including Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. This release and the increase of the security forces of the Palestinian Authority, led to a cease-fire in the suicide attacks until the outbreak of the Second Intifada. Eventually, the lack of progress of the peace process led to new negotiations, which produced the Wye River Memorandum, which detailed the steps to be taken by the Israeli government and Palestinian Authority to implement the earlier Interim Agreement of 1995. It was signed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, and on November 17, 1998, Israel's 120 member parliament, the Knesset, approved the Wye River Memorandum by a vote of 7519.

Ehud Barak, Bill Clinton, and Yasser Arafat during the 2000 Camp David Summit In 1999, Ehud Barak was elected prime minister. Barak continued Rabin's policies in supporting the peace process. In 2000, 18 years after Israel occupied Southern Lebanon in the 1982 Lebanon War, the occupation ended as Israel unilaterally withdrew its remaining forces from the "security zone" in southern Lebanon. As the violence increased with little hope for diplomacy, in July 2000 the Camp David 2000 Summit was held which was aimed at reaching a "final status" agreement. The summit collapsed after Yasser Arafat would not accept a proposal drafted by American and Israeli negotiators. Barak was prepared to offer the entire Gaza Strip, a Palestinian capital in a part of East Jerusalem, 73% of the West Bank (excluding eastern Jerusalem) raising to 9094% after 1025 years, and financial reparations for Palestinian refugees for peace. Arafat turned down the offer without making a counter-offer.[63]

20002005: Second Intifada

See also: Second Intifada, Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, Israeli West Bank barrier, GazaIsrael conflict, and 20082009 IsraelGaza conflict

The approved West Bank barrier route as of May 2005

Israeli soldiers deployed in Nablus during Operation Defensive Shield, April 2002 After the signing of the Oslo Accords failed to bring about a Palestinian state, in September 2000 the Second Intifada (uprising) broke out, a period of intensified Palestinian-Israeli violence, which has been taking place until the present day. The Second Intifada has caused thousands of victims on both sides, both among combatants and among civilians, and has been more deadly than the first Intifada. Many Palestinians[who?] consider the Second Intifada to be a legitimate war of national liberation against foreign occupation, whereas many Israelis consider it to be a terrorist campaign.
[64]

The failure of the peace process and the eruption of the Second Intifada, which included increased Palestinian terror attacks being made against Israeli civilians, led much of the Israeli public and political leadership to lose confidence in the Palestinian Authority as a peace partner. Due to an increase in terror attacks during the Second Intifada, mainly carried out by Hamas against Israeli civilians, Israeli troops began conducting regular raids and arrests inside the West Bank. In addition, Israel increased the selective

assassinations against Hamas operatives. Initially this policy was aimed at active militants but later on it was also aimed at the Hamas leadership as well, including Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. This policy spurred controversy within Israel and worldwide. After the collapse of Barak's government, Ariel Sharon was elected Prime Minister on February 6, 2001. Sharon invited the Israeli Labor Party into the coalition to shore up support for the disengagement plan. Due to the deterioration of the political situation, he refused to continue negotiations with the Palestinian Authority at the Taba Summit, or under any aspect of the Oslo Accords. At the Beirut Summit in 2002, the Arab League proposed an alternative political plan aimed at ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Later on the proposal was formulated as a political plan widely accepted by all Arab states as well as the Arab League. As part of plan, all Arab states would normalize their relations with Israel and bring to an end to the Israeli-Arab conflict in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip and West Bank (including East Jerusalem). In addition, the plan required Israel to allow the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and, what the plan describes as a "just solution" for the Palestinian refugees in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Israel rejected the wording of the initiative, but official spokespersons expressed gladness about an Arab initiative for peace and Israel's normalization in the region.[citation needed] Following a period of relative restraint on the part of Israel, after a lethal suicide attack in the Park Hotel in Netanya which happened on March 27, 2002, in which 30 Jews were murdered, Sharon ordered Operation Defensive Shield, a large-scale military operation carried out by the Israel Defense Forces between March 29 until May 10, 2002 in Palestinian cities in the West Bank. The operation contributed significantly to the reduction of Palestinian terror attacks in Israel. As part of the efforts to fight Palestinian terrorism, in June 2002, Israel began construction of the West Bank Fence along the Green Line border. After the barrier went up, Palestinian suicide bombings and other attacks across Israel dropped by 90%.[65] However, this barrier became a major issue of contention between the two sides. Following the severe economic and security situation in Israel, the Likud Party headed by Ariel Sharon won the Israeli elections in January 2003 in an overwhelming victory. The elections led to a temporary truce between Israel and the Palestinians and to the Aquba summit in the May 2003 in which Sharon endorsed the Road Map for Peace put forth by the United States, European Union, and Russia, which opened a dialogue with Mahmoud Abbas, and announced his commitment to the creation of a Palestinian state in the future. Following the endorsing of the Road Map, the Quartet on the Middle East was established, consisting of representatives from the United States, Russia, EU and UN as an intermediary body of the IsraeliPalestinian conflict. On March 19, 2003, Arafat appointed Mahmoud Abbas as the Prime Minister. The rest of Abbas's term as prime minister continued to be characterized by numerous conflicts

between him and Arafat over the distribution of power between the two. The United States and Israel accused Arafat of constantly undermining Abbas and his government. Continuing violence and Israeli "target killings" of known terrorists[citation needed] forced Abbas to pledge a crackdown in order to uphold the Palestinian Authority's side of the Road Map for Peace. This led to a power struggle with Arafat over control of the Palestinian security services; Arafat refused to release control to Abbas, thus preventing him from using them in a crackdown on militants. Abbas resigned from the post of Prime Minister in October 2003, citing lack of support from Israel and the United States as well as "internal incitement" against his government.[66] In the end of 2003, Sharon embarked on a course of unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, while maintaining control of its coastline and airspace. Sharon's plan has been welcomed by both the Palestinian Authority and Israel's left wing as a step towards a final peace settlement. However, it has been greeted with opposition from within his own Likud party and from other right-wing Israelis,[who?] on national security, military, and religious grounds. In January 2005, Sharon formed a national unity government that included representatives of Likud, Labor, and Meimad and Degel HaTorah as "out-ofgovernment" supporters without any seats in the government (United Torah Judaism parties usually reject having ministerial offices as a policy). Between August 16 and 30, 2005, Sharon controversially expelled 9,480 Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank. The disengagement plan was implemented in September 2005. Following the withdrawal, the Israeli town of Sderot and other Israeli communities near the Gaza strip became subject to constant shelling and mortar bomb attacks from Gaza with only minimal[clarification needed] Israeli response.

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

Main articles: Gaza-Israel conflict, Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, Palestine 194, and United Nations General Assembly resolution 67/19 Following the November 2004 death of long-time Fatah party PLO leader and PA chairman Yasser Arafat, Fatah member Mahmoud Abbas was elected President of the Palestinian National Authority in January 2005. One key allegation which emerged against the PA after Arafat's death was that over the years Arafat and Fatah officials had received billions of dollars in aid from foreign nations and organizations and had never used this money to develop Palestinian society. It was alleged that the money was used for Arafat's personal expenses. These allegations gradually grew in prominence, which increased Palestinian popular support for the group Hamas, which was often perceived by the Palestinian society as being more efficient and honest, primarily because it had built various institutions and social services. Hamas also stated clearly that it did not recognize Israel's right to exist and did not accept the Oslo peace process nor any other peace process with Israel. in addition, Hamas has openly stated through the years that it has encouraged and organized acts of terrorism against Israelis over the years. The strengthening of the Hamas organization amongst the Palestinians, the gradual disintegration of the Palestinian Authority and the Fatah organization, and the Israeli

disengagement plan and especially the death of Yasser Arafat led to the policy change of the Hamas movement in early 2005 which started putting greater emphasis to its political characteristics of the organization. In 2006 Palestinian legislative elections Hamas won a majority in the Palestinian Legislative Council, prompting the United States and many European countries to cut off all funds to the Hamas and the Palestinian Authority,[67] insisting that the Hamas must recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace pacts.[68] Israel refused to negotiate with Hamas, since Hamas never renounced its beliefs that Israel has no right to exist and that the entire State of Israel is an illegal occupation which must be wiped out. EU countries and the United States threatened to hold an economic boycott on the PalesA if Hamas will not recognize Israel's existence, not renounce terrorism and shall support the peace agreements signed between the PLO and Israel in the past. Hamas officials have openly stated that the organization does not recognize Israel's right to exist, even though the organization expressed openness to hold a long-term truce. Hamas is considered by Israel and by many other countries to terrorist organization and therefore is not entitled to participate in formal peace negotiations.

Footage of a rocket attack in Southern Israel, March 2009 In June 2006 during a well-planned operation, Hamas managed to cross the border from Gaza, attack an Israeli tank, kill two IDF soldiers and kidnap wounded Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit back into the Gaza Strip. Following the incident and in response to numerous rocket firings by Hamas from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, fighting broke out between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip (see 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict). In the summer of 2007 a FatahHamas conflict broke out, which eventually led Hamas taking control of the Gaza strip, which in practice divided the Palestinian Authority into two. Various forces affiliated with Fatah engaged in combat with Hamas, in numerous gun battles. Most Fatah leaders escaped to Egypt and the West Bank, while some were captured and killed. Fatah remained in control of the West Bank, and President Abbas formed a new governing coalition, which some critics of Fatah said subverts the Palestinian Constitution and excludes the majority government of Hamas. In November 2007 the Annapolis Conference was held. The conference marked the first time a two-state solution was articulated as the mutually agreed-upon outline for

addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The conference ended with the issuing of a joint statement from all parties.

A Qassam rocket fired from a civilian area in Gaza towards southern Israel, January 2009 A fragile six-month truce between Hamas and Israel expired on December 19, 2008.[69] Hamas and Israel could not agree on conditions to extend the truce.[70] Hamas blamed Israel for not lifting the Gaza Strip blockade, and for an Israeli raid on a purported tunnel, crossing the border into the Gaza Strip from Israel on November 4,[71] which it held constituted a serious breach of the truce.[72] Israel accuses Hamas of violating the truce citing the frequent rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli cities.[73]

An explosion caused by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza during the 20082009 IsraelGaza conflict. The Israeli operation began with an intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip,[74] targeting Hamas bases, police training camps,[75] police headquarters and offices.[76] Civilian infrastructure, including mosques, houses, medical facilities and schools, were also attacked. Israel has said many of these buildings were used by combatants, and as storage spaces for weapons and rockets.[77] Hamas intensified its rocket and mortar attacks against targets in Israel throughout the conflict, hitting previously untargeted cities such as Beersheba and Ashdod.[78] On January 3, 2009, the Israeli ground invasion began.[79][80] The operation resulted in the deaths of more than 1,300 Palestinians.[citation needed] The IDF released a report stating that the vast majority of the dead were Hamas militants.[81] The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported that 926 of the 1,417 dead had been civilians and non-combatants.[82]

Since 2009, the Obama administration has repeatedly pressured the Israeli government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to freeze the growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and reignite the peace process between Israel and the Palestinian people. [83] During President Obama's Cairo speech on June 4, 2009 in which Obama addressed the Muslim world Obama stated, among other things, that "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements". "This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop." Following Obama's Cairo speech Netanyahu immediately called a special government meeting. On June 14, ten days after Obama's Cairo speech, Netanyahu gave a speech at Bar-Ilan University in which he endorsed, for the first time, a "Demilitarized Palestinian State", after two months of refusing to commit to anything other than a self-ruling autonomy when coming into office. The speech was widely seen as a response to Obama's speech.[84] Netanyahu stated that he would accept a Palestinian state if Jerusalem were to remain the united capital of Israel, the Palestinians would have no army, and the Palestinians would give up their demand for a right of return. He also claimed the right for a "natural growth" in the existing Jewish settlements in the West Bank while their permanent status is up to further negotiation. In general, the address represented a complete turnaround for his previously hawkish positions against the peace process.[85] The overture was quickly rejected by Palestinian leaders such as Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, who called the speech "racist".[84] On November 25, 2009, Israel imposed a 10-month construction freeze on all of its settlements in the West Bank. Israel's decision was widely seen as due to pressure from the Obama administration, which urged the sides to seize the opportunity to resume talks. In his announcement Netanyahu called the move "a painful step that will encourage the peace process" and urged the Palestinians to respond.[86] However, the Palestinians rejected the call[87] and refused to enter negotiations, despite Israeli appeals to do so. Eventually, on September 2, United States launched direct negotiations between Israel and the PA in Washington. Nevertheless, soon afterwards, when Israeli partial moratorium on settlement construction in the West Bank was about to expire, the Palestinian leadership announced that they plan to leave the negotiations if the moratorium is not renewed. Israel state that it would not renew this gesture of goodwill and urged the Palestinian leadership to continue the negotiations. Later on Israel offered to renew the moratorium in exchange for a PA recognition of Israel as the national homeland of the Jewish people. This request was rejected by the Palestinians leadership.

During 2011, as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange, 1,027 Palestinians and ArabIsraeli prisoners are released in exchange for the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. During September 2011 the Palestinian Authority (PA) led a diplomatic campaign aimed at getting the recognition of the 66th Session as the UN in the State of Palestine within the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.[88] On September 23 President Mahmoud Abbas submitted a request to recognize the State of Palestine as the 194th UN member to the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. The Security Council has yet to vote on it. The decision was been labeled by the Israeli government as a unilateral step.[89]

In October 2011, a deal was reached between Israel and Hamas, by which the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit would be released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinians and Arab-Israeli prisoners, of them 280 were sentenced to life in prison for planning and perpetrating various terror attacks against Israeli targets.[90][91] The military Hamas leader Ahmed Jabari was quoted later as confirming that the prisoners released as part of the deal were collectively responsible for the killing of 569 Israeli civilians.[92][93]

Operation Pillar of Defense

On November 29, 2012 the UN General Assembly approves a motion granting Palestine non-member observer state status. UN observer state status voting results were: In favour Against Abstentions Absent Non-members On November 14, 2012 Israel began Operation Pillar of Defense in the Gaza Strip with the stated aims being to halt the indiscriminate rocket attacks originating from the Gaza Strip[94][95] and to disrupt the capabilities of militant organizations.[96] The operation began with the targeted killing of Ahmed Jabari, chief of Hamas military wing. The IDF stated it targeted more than 1,500 military sites in Gaza Strip, including rocket launching pads, smuggling tunnels, command centers, weapons manufacturing, and storage buildings.[97] According to Palestinians sources civilian houses were hit and[98] Gaza Health officials state that 167 Palestinians had been killed in the conflict by November 23. The Palestinian militant groups fired over 1,456[99] Iranian Fajr-5, Russian Grad rockets, Qassams and mortars into Rishon LeZion, Beersheba, Ashdod, Ashkelon and other population centers; Tel Aviv was hit for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War, and

rockets were aimed at Jerusalem.[100] The rockets killed four Israeli civilians three of them in a direct hit on a home in Kiryat Malachi two Israeli soldiers, and a number of Palestinian civilians. By November 19, over 252 Israelis were physically injured in rocket attacks.[101] Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted about 421 rockets, another 142 rockets fell on Gaza itself, 875 rockets fell in open areas, and 58 rockets hit urban areas in Israel.[97][99][102] A bomb attack against a Tel Aviv bus that wounded over 20 civilians received the "blessing" of Hamas.[103] On November 21 a ceasefire was announced after days of negotiations between Hamas and Israel mediated by Egypt. In 2012 the Palestinian Authority applied for admission as a United Nations non-member state, which requires only a vote by the United Nations General Assembly. Hamas also backed the motion.[104] The draft resolution was passed on November 29, 2012 by a vote of 138 to 9, with 41 abstentions.[105][106] Regardless of the UN recognition, as of this writing, no Palestinian state exists except on a symbolic level. Israel indicated that an actual, real-world Palestinian state can only come into existence if Palestinians succeed in negotiating peace with Israel.[107]

Demographic history
Jewish and Arab populations
The following section presents the demographic history of the Jewish and Arab populations in Palestine, Israel and the Palestinian territories spaning through the last two centuries which has been taken from census results and official documents which mention demographic composition. See Demographics of Israel and Demographics of the Palestinian territories for a more detailed overview of the current demographics. 19th century 1948 Demographics in Palestine[15][108] Year Jews Arabs Total 1800 6,700 268,000 274,700 1880 24,000 525,000 549,000 1915 87,500 590,000 677,500 1931 174,000 837,000 1,011,000 1936 > 400,000 < 800,000 1,200,000 1947 630,000 1,310,000 1,940,000 UN Partition Plan (1947)[109] Area allotted for the Jewish state Area allotted for the Arab state Jews Arabs Jews Arabs 498,000 407,000 10,000 725,000 194967

Demographics in the Egyptian occupied Gaza Strip and in the Jordanian occupied West Bank[111] Egyptian Jordanian occupied occupied Year Total Gaza Strip West Bank 1 Jews Arabs Jews Arabs The decrease in the Arab population ? 240,000 ? 765,000 ? between 1947 and 1949 is due to the 1948 1950 1960 ? 302,000 ? 799,000 ? Palestinian exodus. 1967-until today Demographics in Israel[110] Israel Year Total Jews Arabs 1967 2,383,6002 392,700 2,776,300 1973 2,845,0002 493,200 3,338,200 1983 3,412,5002 706,100 4,118,600 1990 3,946,7002 875,000 4,821,700 1995 4,522,3002 1,004,900 5,527,200 2000 4,955,4002 1,188,700 6,144,100 2006 5,137,800 1,439,700 6,652,896
2

Demographics in Israel[110] Israel Year Total Jews Arabs 1949 1,013,900 159,1001 1,173,000 1961 ? ? ?

data which currently includes the Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as well.

Demographics in the Israeli occupied Gaza Strip and in the Israeli occupied West Bank[112] Israeli Israeli occupied occupied Gaza West Bank Year Total Strip Jews Arabs Jews Arabs 1970 ? 368,000 ? 677,000 ? 1980 ? 497,000 ? 964,000 ? 1985 ? 532,288 ? 1,044,000 ? 1990 ? 642,814 ? 1,254,506 ? 1995 ? 875,231 ? 1,626,689 ? 2000 ? 1,132,063 ? 2,020,298 ? 2006 0 1,428,757 255,600 2,460,492 4,144,849

Jewish and Arab populations in Jerusalem

See also: Demographics of Jerusalem Demographics of Jerusalem[40] Year Jews Arabs Total 1860 6,000 6,000 12,000 1892 26,000 16,000 42,000 1922 34,000 29,000 63,000 1942 86,000 54,000 140,000 1948 99,830 65,170 165,000 1967 (July) 200,032 65,968 266,000 1995 417,000 174,400 591,400 2000 437,240 220,260 657,500

See also

Israeli-Palestinian conflict Israeli-Palestinian conflict timeline Peace process in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict Israeli views of the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict History of the Arab-Israeli conflict History of the Jews in the Land of Israel Palestinian political violence Fedayeen (Palestinian) Israeli settlement Israel and the United Nations Zionist and Palestinian Arab attitudes before 1948 Israeli casualties of war Palestinian casualties of war

Notes
1. 2009. 2. ^ Sephardi & Mizrahi Peter Y. Medding, Makhon le-Yahadut zemanenu a. sh. Avraham Harman (2008) Sephardic Jewry and Mizrahi Jews Oxford University Press US, ISBN 0-19-534097-3 pp 37 Alfassa.com Sephardic Contributions to the Development of the State of Israel By Shelomo Alfass ^ The Jewish Diaspora Viktor Kardy (2004) The Jews of Europe in the Modern Era: A Socio-historical Outline Central European University Press, ISBN 9639241-52-0 Ch 1 (Diaspora in Europe and the World in Numbers) pp 13 William Brustein (2003) Roots of hate: anti-Semitism in Europe before the Holocaust Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-77478-0 p 3 ^ Hattis Rolef, Susan (Sheila) and Avraham Sela. "Zionism." The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. Ed. Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002. pp. 928932. ^ Smith, Charles D. "Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict." Google Book Search. April 1, 2009. ^ Mark Tessler. A History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994), p. 53. ^ Morris, Benny, Righteous Victims. p.42. http://books.google.com/books?id=jGtVsBne7PgC&pg=PA47&dq= %22rosh+pina %22+1882+killed&hl=en&ei=HAZHTP6aLceNnQfYzfnaAw&sa=X&oi=book_r esult&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDwQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=in %20december%201882&f=false ^ Morris Benny, Righteous Victims, p.54. ^ Morris, Benny, Righteous Victims. p.54 ^ "Palestine: Ottoman rule." Britannica Online Encyclopedia. April 1,

3.

4. 5. 6. 7.

8. 9.

10.

^ Virginia Page Fortna (2004) Peace time: cease-fire agreements and the durability of peace Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-11512-5 p 97 11. ^ Quigley John B. (2006) The case for Palestine: an international law perspective Duke University Press, ISBN 0-8223-3539-5 p 6 12. ^ a b Gudrun Krmer, Graham Harman (2008) A history of Palestine: from the Ottoman conquest to the founding of the state of Israel Princeton University Press, ISBN 0-691-11897-3 p 121 13. ^ Russian Pogroms, Demonstrations, anti-immigration legislation and emigration "The Zionists had no following of any consequence at that time in the Jewish working class movement. The Zionist press had besides accused the revolutionary movement in Russia of being in a way to blame for the pogromist activity of the Russian Government." Rudolf Rocker, Colin Ward (2005) The London Years, AK Press, ISBN 1904859-22-4 p 86 Arthur Hertzberg (1959) The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader, Doubleday, p 42 "Between 1905 and 1914, the years in which more than a million Jews emigrated to the United States, 24,000 made the journey from Russia to Palestine." Martin Gilbert (1984) The Jews of hope, Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-36625-5 p 79 "Only a minority of Jewish leader favoured emigration [from the Russian Pale] the issue was debated in the Jewish press for several years. An estimated 80 percent of those who emigrated went to the United States; between 1881 and 1890 the number of Russian Jews to enter the United States totalled 135,000 (S. Jospeph. Jewish immigration to the United States from 18811910 [New York, 1914], p 93) for the Jewish intellectuals who favoured emigration the main issue was: America or Palestine." Paul R. Mendes-Flohr, Jehuda Reinharz (1995) The Jew in the modern world: a documentary history Oxford University Press US, ISBN 0-19-507453-X p 414 14. ^ Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Primer Middle East Research and Information Project 15. ^ a b c d e f "Arab-Israel Conflict." The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. Ed. Avraham Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002. pp. 58121. 16. ^ MidEast Web Feisal-Weizmann Agreement 17. ^ Gelvin, James L. " Google Books" (accessed March 24, 2009). The Israel-Palestine Conflict:100 Years of War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-61804-5. p 93 18. ^ a b Berry, M. and Philo, G., Israel and Palestine: Conflicting Histories, London: Pluto Press (2006) 19. ^ a b c "al-Husseini, Hajj (Muhammad) Amin." The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. Ed. Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002. p. 361.

"He [Husseini] incited and headed anti-Jewish riots in April 1920 .... He promoted the Muslim character of Jerusalem and ... injected a religious character into the struggle against Zionism. This was the backdrop to his agitation concerning Jewish rights at the Western (Wailing) Wall that led to the bloody riots of August 1929. ... [H]e was the chief organizer of the riots of 1936 and the rebellion from 1937, as well as of the mounting internal terror against Arab opponents." 20. ^ Sachar, Howard M. A History of Israel: From the Rise of Zionism to Our Time. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976. p. 238 21. ^ Y. Gorny, (1987), 'Zionism and the Arabs, 18821948', p. 216 22. ^ Y. Gorny, 1987, 'Zionism and the Arabs, 18821948', p. 259 23. ^ Simha Flapan, 'Zionism and the Palestinians', 1979, ISBN 0-85664-4994, p.265 24. ^ a b Sachar, A History of Israel, 1976. p. 210-211 25. ^ Lewis, Bernard. The Jews of Islam, Princeton University Press, Princeton 1984, ISBN 0-691-00807-8 26. ^ Christopher Browning, with Jrgen Matthus, The Origins of the Final Solution: The Evolution of Nazi Jewish Policy, September 1939 March 1942. University of Nebraska Press, 2004 p.406, drawing on David Yisraeli, The Palestine Problem in German Politics, 18891945 p. 310. In his note to the text p.539 n.107, Browning records that Fritz Grobba's recollection is slightly different and less specific: 'At the moment of Arab liberation, Germany had no interest there other than the destruction of the power protecting the Jews(die Vernichtung der das Judentum protegierenden Macht).ISBN 0803213271 27. ^ "The Jewish Resistance Movement." Jewish Virtual Library. November 12, 2011. 28. ^ A/RES/106 (S-1)15 May 1947: Special Committee on Palestine: Retrieved 18 April 2012 29. ^ UNITED NATIONS: General Assembly: A/364: 3 September 1947: OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE SECOND SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY: SUPPLEMENT No. 11: UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON PALESTINE: REPORT TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLYL VOLUME 1: Lake Success, New York 1947: Chapter VI: RECOMMENDATIONS (II): Part I. Plan on partition with economic union: Recommendations: A. Partition and independence: 1. 30. ^ Mid east web Report of UNSCOP 1947 31. ^ "A/RES/181(II) of 29 November 1947". domino.un.org. 1947. Retrieved April 19, 2012. 32. ^ Special UN commission (April 16, 1948), II.5 33. ^ Yoav Gelber (2006), p.85 34. ^ Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Declaration of Establishment of State of Israel: 14 May 1948: Retrieved 19 April 2012 35. ^ a b Nafez Nazzal (1978) The Palestinian exodus from Galilee, 1948 Institute for Palestine Studies, pp 18 & 36

36.

^ PDF copy of Cablegram from the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States to the Secretary-General of the United Nations: S/745: 15 May 1948: Retrieved 12 June 2012 37. ^ Benny Morris, Righteous Victims (New York: Vintage Books, 2001), 256 38. ^ Benny Morris, The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 269f 39. ^ Baylis Thomas (1999) How Israel was won: a concise history of the Arab-Israeli conflict Lexington Books, ISBN 0-7391-0064-5 p xiv 40. ^ a b Sela, Avraham. "Jerusalem." The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. Ed. Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002. pp. 491498. 41. ^ Peter Bouckaert, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Watch (Organization), Clarisa Bencomo (2001) Center of the storm: a case study of human rights abuses in Hebron district Published by Human Rights Watch, ISBN 1-56432-260-2 p 15 42. ^ a b Malka Hillel Shulewitz, The Forgotten Millions: The Modern Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands, Continuum 2001, pp. 139 and 155. 43. ^ Malka Hillel Shulewitz, The Forgotten Millions: The Modern Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands, Continuum 2001, pp. 139 and 155. 44. ^ Schwartz, Adi. "All I wanted was justice" Haaretz, January 10, 2008. 45. ^ ^ Ada Aharoni "The Forced Migration of Jews from Arab Countries, Historical Society of Jews from Egypt website. Accessed February 1, 2009. 46. ^ UNITED NATIONS General Assembly: A/1367/Rev.1: 23 October 1950: UNITED NATIONS: GENERAL PROGRESS REPORT AND SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONCILIATION COMMISSION FOR PALESTINE Covering the period from 11 December 1949 to 23 October 1950: GENERAL ASSEMBLY OFFICIAL RECORDS: FIFTH SESSION SUPPLEMENT No. 18 (A/1367/Rev.1): New York, 1951: Retrieved 6 June 2012 47. ^ UN Doc. IS/33 2 August 1948 Text of a statement made by Moshe Sharett on August 1, 1948 48. ^ "Records show that until the Gaza raid, the Egyptian military authorities had a consistent and firm policy of curbing infiltration...into Israel...and that it was only following the raid that a new policy was put in place, that of organizing the fedayeen units and turning them into an official instrument of warfare against Israel." Shlaim, p. 128-129. 49. ^ "Records show that until the Gaza raid, the Egyptian military authorities had a consistent and firm policy of curbing infiltration...into Israel...and that it was only following the raid that a new policy was put in place, that of organizing the fedayeen units and turning them into an official instrument of warfare against Israel." Shlaim, p. 128-129. 50. ^ Eran, Oded. "Arab-Israel Peacemaking." The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. Ed. Avraham Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002, page 127.

51.

^ Sela, Avraham. "Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)." The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. Ed. Avraham Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002. pp. 58121. 52. ^ Qtd. in Sela, "Palestine Liberation Organization ...," p. 53. ^ Kamal Salibi, The Modern History of Jordan (I. B. Tauris, 2006), pp251252 54. ^ The Milwaukee Journal Google News Archive Search 55. ^ [1] 56. ^ a b Haaretz, June 12, 2012, "Israel Admits It Revoked Residency Rights of a Quarter Million Palestinians: Many of Those Prevented from Returning Were Students Or Young_Professionals, Working Aboard to Support Their Families," http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-admits-it-revokedresidency-rights-of-a-quarter-million-palestinians.premium-1.435778 57. ^ BBC: A History of Conflict 58. ^ "Mr. Shultz Understands the Politics of Arafat; Grasp at Algiers". The New York Times. December 8, 1988. Retrieved April 2, 2010. 59. ^ Aburish, Said K. (1998). From Defender to Dictator. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 201228. ISBN 1-58234-049-8. 60. ^ Haberman, Clyde (October 22, 1991). "Palestinian Says His Delegation Will Assert P.L.O. Ties at Talks". The New York Times. Retrieved April 2, 2010. 61. ^ Israel-PLO Recognition Embassy of the United States in Tel Aviv 62. ^ "Palestinian Authority funds go to militants." BBC News. November 7, 2003. June 4, 2008. 63. ^ Camp David Proposals for Final Palestine-Israel Peace Settlement 64. ^ "Israel, the Conflict and Peace: Answers to FAQ." Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. November 3, 2003. April 20, 2009. 65. ^ Townhall.com:Israel's fence, with all its implications, is an absolute necessity 66. ^ Palestinian prime minister Abbas resigns (CNN) 67. ^ "Online NewsHour: Palestinian Authority Strapped for Cash." PBS. February 28, 2006. January 5, 2009. 68. ^ Internal Palestinian violence in Gaza threatens to torpedo Israeli peace efforts The Associated Press. December 11, 2006 69. ^ "TIMELINE Israeli-Hamas violence since truce ended". Reuters. January 5, 2009. 70. ^ "Hamas 'might renew' truce in Gaza". BBC. December 23, 2008. Retrieved January 5, 2010. 71. ^ Anthony H. Cordesman, THE GAZA WAR: A Strategic Analysis, Center for Strategic & International Studies, February 2009 p.9 72. ^ Israeli Airstrike on Gaza Threatens Truce with Hamas, Fox News, November 4, 2008 73. ^ Ibrahim Barzak; Amy Teibel (2009-01-0s). "World leaders converge on Israel in push for truce". Maine Sunday Telegram. 74. ^ Byers, David; Hider, James (December 28, 2008). "Israel Gaza blitz kills 290 as ground troops mobilise". The Times (London). Retrieved April 2, 2010.

75.

^ Israeli Gaza strike kills more than 200, International Herald Tribune, 2008-12-27. 76. ^ Yaakov Katz. "A year's intel gathering yields 'alpha hits'". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved December 28, 2008. 77. ^ McCarthy, Rory; David Batty and agencies (January 2, 2009). "Israeli warplanes destroy Gaza houses and mosque as air strikes continue". London: Guardian. Retrieved 2009-01-05. 78. ^ "Rockets reach Beersheba, cause damage". YNET. December 30, 2008. 79. ^ "Israel Confirms Ground Invasion Has Started". MSNBC. January 3, 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-04.[dead link] 80. ^ BARZAK, IBRAHIM; JASON KEYSER (January 4, 2009). "Israeli ground troops invade Gaza to halt rockets". Associated Press. Retrieved 2009-0104.[dead link] 81. ^ Lappin, Yaakov (March 26, 2009). "IDF releases Cast Lead casualty numbers". JPost. Retrieved 2009-03-26. 82. ^ Associated Press (March 19, 2009). "Rights group names 1,417 Gaza war dead". Washington Times. Retrieved March 19, 2009. 83. ^ "Obama Settlement Demands Stir Rising Tensions in Israel". Fox News. FOX News. June 3, 2009. 84. ^ a b Federman, Josef (June 14, 2009). "Netanyahu endorses Palestinian independence". Associated Press. Retrieved June 18, 2009. 85. ^ Federman, Josef (June 14, 2009). "Netanyahu Peace Speech: Israeli Prime Minister Appeals To Arab Leaders For Peace". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2009-06-14. 86. ^ Sofer, Roni (November 25, 2009). "Cabinet votes on 10-month building freeze". Ynetnews. Retrieved 2009-12-14. 87. ^ "Palestinians reject Netanyahu's offer of partial settlement freeze". France 24. November 26, 2009. Retrieved 2009-12-14. 88. ^ Schell, Bernhard (July 31, 2011). "UN will count 194 members if Palestine gets in". InDepthNews. Retrieved 2011-08-01. 89. ^ Ashkar, Alaa; Bannoura, Saed (September 9, 2011). "UN SecretaryGeneral Supports Full Palestinian Membership". IMEMC News (International Middle East Media Center). 90. ^ Hamas to gain politically from prisoner swap deal. News.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved on 2011-10-20. 91. ^ Mishra, Harinder (October 12, 2011). "Israel to release 1,027 prisoners for its lone soldier". IBN Live (Jerusalem). Retrieved October 16, 2011. 92. ^ Army Radio newscast, October 20, 2011 93. ^ Haaretz, 2011-10-20 94. ^ Stephanie Nebehay (November 20, 2012). "UN rights boss, Red Cross urge Israel, Hamas to spare civilians". Reuters. Retrieved November 20, 2012. 95. ^ Al-Mughrabi, Nidal (November 16, 2012). "Jerusalem and Tel Aviv under rocket fire, Netanyahu warns Gaza". Chicago Tribune. 96. ^ "Israeli air strike kills top Hamas commander Jabari". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved November 14, 2012.

^ a b "Operation Pillar of Defense: Summary of Events". Israel Defense Foces. November 22, 2012. Retrieved November 24, 2012. 98. ^ "Factbox: Gaza targets bombed by Israel". reuters.com. November 21, 2012. Retrieved November 24, 2012. 99. ^ a b Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General (November 21, 2012). "Secretary-General's remarks to the Security Council [as delivered"]. Tel Aviv. Retrieved November 22, 2012. ""Overall, in that same time period, more than 1,456 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel. 142 have fallen inside Gaza itself. Approximately 409 were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system. (...) Since Israel's targeted assassination from the air, on 14 November, of Ahmed Jaabari, chief of Hamas' military wing, and with Israel's offensive in Gaza in its eighth day, the Israel Defense Forces publicly reported that it has conducted strikes at more than 1,450 targets in Gaza."" 100. ^ Lappin, Yaakov; Lazaroff, Tovah (November 15, 2012). "Gaza rocket hits area south of Tel Aviv for first time". The Jerusalem Post.} 101. ^ 70 Israelis injured in rocket attacks in last 24 hours, Jerusalem Post November 15, 2012 102. ^ Levinson, Charles; Adam Entous (November 26, 2012). "Israel's Iron Dome Defense Battled to Get Off the Ground". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 26, 2012. 103. ^ "Israel-Gaza crisis: 'Bomb blast' on bus in Tel Aviv". BBC. November 21, 2012. Retrieved November 21, 2012. 104. ^ Vick, Karl (November 22, 2012). "Why Palestine Will Win Big at the UN". Time. Retrieved November 29, 2012. 105. ^ "Palestinians win implicit U.N. recognition of sovereign state". Reuters. November 29, 2012. Retrieved November 29, 2012. 106. ^ "UN makes Palestine nonmember state". 3 News NZ. November 30, 2012. 107. ^ Dorell, Oren. "Palestinian 'state' not real until peace with Israel." USA Today. November 30, 2012. December 2, 2012. 108. ^ Y. Gorny, 1987, 'Zionism and the Arabs, 18821948', p. 5 (italics from original) 109. ^ "UN Special Committee on Palestine, Recommendations to the General Assembly." Jewish Virtual Library. September 3, 1947. April 3, 2010. 110. ^ a b Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics "Statistical Abstract of Israel, No. 55, 2004", and "Statistical Abstract of Israel 2007: Population by district, subdistrict and religion" ICBS website 111. ^ Justin McCarthy "Palestine's Population During the Ottoman and the British Mandate Periods" 112. ^ U.S. Census Bureau "International Data Base (IDB), Country Summary: West Bank and Gaza Strip" 97.

References

Palestine Conciliation Commission, Fourth Progress Report, A/922, September 22, 1949

"Arab-Israel Conflict." The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East. Ed. Avraham Sela. New York: Continuum, 2002. Terence Prittie, "Middle East Refugees," in Michael Curtis, et al., The Palestinians: people, history, politics, (NJ: Transaction Books, 1975, ISBN 087855-597-8), pp. 6667, as referenced at [2] "A Brief History of the Arab-Israeli Conflict" by Jeremy Pressman

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