2005

The Palestine Problem: A Brief History

Raja Bahlul

The Palestine Problem is one of the most difficult problems of recent history. It is over a century old now, and it has been the subject of innumerable resolutions and inquiries by the League of Nations, the United Nations, and other international bodies. Up till now, it shows no sign of impending resolution. If anything, it seems to be getting more and more complicated, as it is becomes entangled with Islamism, terrorism, and American (Western) hegemony in world affairs.

In major outline, the facts of the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are not in dispute, although many disagreements and differences of interpretation are encountered when one goes into the finer details of this history. In 1897, when the First Zionist Congress was held in order to discuss the establishment of a national homeland for the Jewish people, Palestine had about 600,000 inhabitants, about 95% of whom were Arabs, while about 5% only were Jews. Palestine was then part of the Ottoman Empire, the "Sick Man of Europe" which was to be dismembered by the victorious Allies after the end of World War I.

In 1922, the League of Nations granted Great Britain mandatory power over Palestine. This was done with the proviso that Britain was to aid in the establishment in Palestine of a national homeland for the Jews, who suffered from a long history of European anti-Semitism.

Jewish immigration into Palestine, which started before World War I, continued unabated in the years leading up to World War II. But it reached peak levels after the end of World War II, when the extent of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi regime against European Jewry became apparent. By the year 1947, on the eve on UN decision to partition Palestine between Jews and Palestinian Arabs, there were around 1.35 million Palestinian Arabs and about 650,000 Jews, who had acquired roughly 6% of the mandated area of Palestine. Yet the General Assembly saw fit to give the Jews around 56% of the territory of Palestine for a Jewish State.

The Palestinians and their Arab brethren in the neighboring Arab countries refused to accept the UN partition resolution. They waged war on the new state of Israel and lost. In the aftermath of 1948 defeat (which witnessed the birth of the State of Israel), close to half the Palestinian population (around 750,000) became refugees, inside and outside what remained of their own country. They number more than 3 millions now, with no hope of returning to their former homes, and with little chance of being integrated in the neighboring Arab countries where most of them live.

After their defeat in 1948, Arab states continued to wage wars on Israel, and they continued to lose them. Finally, "the era of peace" arrived. It was ushered by Camp David Agreement with Egypt in 1978, which was followed by the Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1993. The Oslo Accords lie in tatters as we speak now (2003), and it is not likely that they will be much relevant to the final status that is being contemplated by Israel, America and other strong players in the conflict. The Israelis have continued their habit of building settlements in conquered territory which regard as their own "biblical homeland", and Palestinians continue to resist, increasingly in ways which most of the world has come to regard as terrorist.

More than two years of Intifada (uprising) and massive Israeli retaliation have brought almost unbearable suffering for the Palestinians, whose social, political, educational, and economic life has come to a virtual halt. The present writer remembers well the novelty of traffic lights, which were first introduced to Palestinian streets after the start of the Oslo Peace Process. To some that signified "progress", the hope that Palestinian life, frozen for so many years under occupation, was finally starting all over again. Now there are no functioning traffic lights in Palestinian cities, and the infrastructure, modest at the best of times, has been almost completely demolished.

Of all the aspects of deterioration that has affected Palestinian life, probably nothing is more worrisome than what is happening in the sphere of education, because it is not easy to make up for losses in this area. Repeated closures which affect movement of people between cities and towns have disrupted academic schedules and lowered the quality of learning and teaching all around. In addition, economic hardship, detentions, and the constant humiliation which students face at Israeli military checkpoints which have divided Palestinian territories into so many Bantustans, have created an angry generation of young people who do not believe in the possibility of peace.

Israelis, of course, have many tales of woe to tell, about Palestinian terrorism on Israeli streets and buses, about the inability of Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians to accept their right to exist within safe and recognized boundaries. Undoubtedly, there are many question of right and wrong to discuss here. There are many things that cannot be undone, and many things that can be done. It is hoped that the present forum will present useful ideas and materials for understanding and change.