- TAKING THE LONG WAY HOME.
- The Balfour Declaration, issued by the British government in 1917, announced Britain’s promise of a national home for the Jewish people—Palestine had been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. This appeased the Zionist movement, which believed in the Jewish right to the land of Jerusalem. They could go home again. This caused thousands of Jewish civilians to migrate to Palestinian lands in the 1920s and 1930s. Jews were escaping life in the ghettos and leaving their settlements in the Pale (The Bolshevik Revolution had opened the gates of the Pale). After the Nazi Holocaust during World War II, Jews got back to where they once belonged.
- In 1947, The United Nations adopted a resolution that split Palestine into two independent states — a Jewish State and an Arab State with Jerusalem under UN trusteeship. This two-state solution never happened. Three Monotheistic religions claim Jerusalem as their own. (Jews, Christians, and Muslims). Palestinians refused to recognize the resolution, and violent conflict between all three groups continued.
- On May 15, 1948, Israel declared independence, thus beginning the Israeli-Arab War, with five Arab states fighting against the creation of the state.
- The Arab-Israeli War of 1948 broke out when five Arab nations invaded territory in the former Palestinian mandate immediately following the announcement of the independence of the state of Israel on May 14, 1948. The day after the declaration, a coalition of Arab armies attacked and started what Israel calls its War of Independence. Israel, backed by foreign powers, won the war, and the territory was divided into three parts — Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Egypt and Jordan retained the Gaza Strip and the West Bank until 1967. The Gaza Strip is a 140 square mile land along the Mediterranean Sea surrounded by Israel and Egypt. It is currently home to roughly 2 million people. The West Bank is a landlocked 2,200 square mile region bordered by Israel and Jordan with about three million people.
- Palestinians were forced off their lands andfled en masse.
- 1. 1948. The War of Independence. 2. Sinai, 1949 – OPERATION AYIN.
- 3. 1956. Campaign in Sinai. 4. The Six-Day War, 1969. 5. The Golan Heights Campaign Suez Canal Area, 1973. Campaign in Sinai, 1973. 6.2023 Israel-Hamas War.
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- 6.2023 Israel-Hamas War.
- The first yearslong uprising from Palestinian forces in their struggle for self-determination began in 1987. It ended in 1993. The PLO’s Yasir Arafat signed the Oslo Accords in 1993.
- A second Intifada (2000) from Palestinian forces, which ended in 2005, led to the Palestinian people’s autonomous control of the West Bank and Gaza. In 2005, Israel disengaged from the Gaza Strip, uprooting its settlements in the region. In 2006, Hamas won an election to control the Gaza Strip, kicking out representatives of the PLO. Hamas’s armed takeover of Gaza in 2007 prompted Israel to impose a blockade on Gaza. Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip. Palestinians were denied adequate housing and access to services while subjected to forced evictions and movement restrictions. The UN states that 81% of the population in Gaza lives in poverty-69% of Gaza citizens live with food insecurity. The unemployment rate is 46.6%. 20,000 Gaza citizens have work permits to work in Israel.
- About 6,400 Palestinians and 300 Israelis have been killed in the ongoing violence since 2008. Israel engaged in significant, large-scale military operations, including the 22-daylong 2008 Operation Cast Lead, the 2012 Pillar of Defense eight-day operation, and the Protective Edge operation in 2014.
- In October 2023, the terrorist group Hamas Invaded Israel; Israel was attacking with missiles and preparing for a land invasion.
