Ammar Awad/Reuters
The Israel-palestinian feud is one that had lasted a century and yet, it remains unresolved. This ugly trend had continued unabated with the international community left with little or no achievements in restoring peace to the war-torn territory.
During the world war 1, the land of Palestine was inhabited by a Jewish minority and an Arab majority, Britain took control of the area after the ruler of that part of the middle east, Ottoman Empire was defeated.
The Jews considered the area as their ancestral home while the Palestinian Arabs also claimed the land and consequently, were opposed to the task committed to Britain by the international community to create a "national home" for the Jews in Palestine, this resulted in growing tensions between the Jews and Arabs.
Jews began to relocate to Palestine between the 1920s and 1940s, as many fled from persecution in Europe and sought a homeland after the Holocaust of WWII which was reported to have claimed the lives of over six million Jews.
As a means of resolving the emerging imbroglio, the UN in 1947, voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem becoming an international city but the plan no matter how lofty it sounds, failed to see the light of the day, as it met with a disharmonious front; It was accepted by the Jewish leaders while the Arab bloc strongly rebuffed it.
British rulers left the territory in 1948 when they did not make a headway in solving the riddle. Taking things in their own hands, Jewish leaders declared the creation of the state of Israel. Many Palestinians objected and a war followed. Troops from neighbouring Arab countries invaded. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes in what they call Al Nakba, or the "Catastrophe".
By the time the fighting ended in a ceasefire the following year, Israel controlled most of the territory. Jordan occupied land which became known as the West Bank, and Egypt occupied Gaza. Jerusalem was divided between Israeli forces in the West, and Jordanian forces in the East.
Because there was never a peace agreement - each side blamed the other - there were more wars and fighting in the decades which followed.
In another war in 1967, Israel annexed East Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as most of the Syrian Golan Heights, and Gaza and the Egyptian Sinai peninsula.
Israel still occupies the west bank and the Gaza is still regarded by the UN as part of the occupied territories, even though Israel had pulled out. Israel claims the whole of Jerusalem as its capital, a set up which was consolidated by an Executive order recognizing it as Israel's Capital by former US President Donald Trump, while the Palestinians claims East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian State.
In the past 50 years Israel has built settlements in these areas, where more than 600,000 Jews now live. Palestinians say these are illegal under international law and are obstacles to peace, but Israel denies this.
The recent conflict in Israel is an admixture of religious, cultural and political differences. It goes on between; the Jews and the Arabs, Israel and Palestinians in East Jerusalem, Israel and Gaza Strip. The major power brokers being Israeli Prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, the Hamas which rules Gaza and President of the Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbass.
JEWS AND PALESTINIANS IN EAST JERUSALEM.
Palestinians were legal occupants of East Jerusalem before it was captured in 1967 by the Israeli Army. Most of them became citizens of Israel just to have occupying power and to avoid being at risk of eventual eviction.
However, recent happenings are revealing that the Palestinians are becoming marginalized. It started with the loudspeaker incidence at the Aqsa mosque, which Israeli police raided on April 13, the first day of the holy month of Ramadan. The police reportedly barged into the mosque and disconnected the cables of the loudspeaker on the pretext that sounds from it would drown the Presidential Speech going on at the western wall just below the mosque.
The Palestinians in East Jerusalem have reacted to this action, labelling it as a means of eliminating their presence from the territory. While that was still be rippling, the Police went ahead and closed down the popular Plaza at the Damascus gate, one of the main entrances to the ancient city of Jerusalem. The young Palestinians gather here at night during Ramadan.
This was again seen as a slight and a desecration of the holy month of Ramadan. What followed was a series of nightly clashes between the Police and men who wants to reclaim the place.
“It made it feel as though they were trying to eliminate our presence from the city,” said Majed al-Qeimari, a 27-year-old butcher from East Jerusalem. “We felt the need to stand up in their faces and make a point that we are here.”, New York times reported.
The recent upheavals were obviously the explosion of the numerous faggots of grieviances that had become built up over the years.
ISRAEL AND GAZA STRIP.
The Gaza Strip is a territory under the control of Hamas, a Palestinian militant group. Hamas had declared itself anti-Semitic and had clearly avowed that it was committed to the destruction of Israel. The group had been designated as a terrorist group by the European union, United States, United Kingdom and other bodies.
Hamas is a sworn enemy with Israel. It had carried out series of attacks via suicide bombings, rocket fires and other offensives against Israel. Israel and Egypt are closely guarding the Gaza borders to prevent weapons getting to Hamas.
Despite all efforts to decimate this militant group, it survived the numerous onslaught, although, not without a battered military strength.
Hamas had been in the Palestinian political system since 2006, when it won the legislative elections and reinforced its power in Gaza by ousting the President Mahmoud Abbass led Fatah faction.
However, Hamas influence over Gaza is reported to have been dwindling as the inhabitants are more concerned about the economy. Gaza is seriously suffering from Israel's blockade, which had grounded their economy with an unemployment rate of 50% as reported by Amnesty International. These has also left the area with poor and inadequate facilities like health,water and electricity. The global coronavirus pandemic had left the area more devastated.
With a legislative election coming up in March, all the major political factions in Gaza, especially the Hamas, are uptight in clinging to power. Therefore, when the Jerusalem uproar surfaced, Hamas saw the golden chance to perform his archery and score good political points- launching offensives against Israel to portray itself as the giant Palestinian defender.
Meanwhile, President of the Palestinian authority, Mahmoud Abbass had earlier cancelled the Palestinian elections on April 29. He was reportedly fearing a humiliating result, this made him look weak. Hamas saw the opportunity to reposition and represent itself as a militant defender of the Palestinians.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU.
Benjamin Netanyahu came into power after the first intifada that launched the Hamas into prominence in 1996. The Hamas took responsibility for the suicide bus bombings that claimed the lives of 61 Israelis between February and March 1996. This was done in retaliation for the assassination of Hamas bomb maker, Yahya Ayyash.
One thing similar between Hamas and Netanyahu is that they are both enemies of the peace agreement between Israel and Palestine. Meanwhile, an agreement had been set in motion in the early 1990s between Israel and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and so, Hamas bombings coupled with Netanyahu's opposition to the agreement made it die a natural death.
It will not be surprising to note that the only accord which Netanyahu endorsed was the "Abraham's accord" initiated by former US President Donald Trump; a deal that was described by Netanyahu as "the deal of the century" between Israel, UAE and Brahnia but not with Palestine!
The deal has been described by the Palestinians as one-sided and never got off the ground.
On the recent upheavals, Netanyahu has been indited to be spiking tensions in Jerusalem to achieve some political goals. He seems to be having a tough time getting through with the negotiation that would produce a coalition. The negotiation had ran for four times without a clear winner, so, for Neyanyahu to successfully form a coalition, he had to woo some extreme far-right lawmakers to join him.
And in a bid to get this done, he had been said to be in close talk with one of such lawmakers, Itamar Ben Gvir, a former lawyer for Lehava who considers expelling Arab citizens who are disloyal to Israel, and who until recently hung a portrait of Baruch Goldstein, a Jewish extremist who massacred 29 Palestinians in Hebron in 1994, in his living room.
A political commentator and biographer of the Prime minister, Anshel Pfeffer, had accused Netanyahu for pandering to the likes of Gvir and stoking and exploiting the tensions for political gain time and to rally Israelis around his leadership.
"Netanyahu didn’t invent the tensions between Jews and Arabs.They’ve been here since before Israel was founded. But over his long years in power, he’s stoked and exploited these tensions for political gain time and again and has now miserably failed as a leader to put out the fires when it boiled over.” said Anshel Pfeffer.
Mark Regev, a senior adviser to Mr. Netanyahu, debunked that analysis.
“Exactly the opposite is true,” Mr. Regev said. “He has done everything he can to try to make calm prevail.”
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