the Arab-Israeli conflict is one rife with contradiction and confusion. What started it? Who started it? Why does it continue to this day? For the most part those people who were educated in Westernized schools like most students in the United States learn about this conflict from the perspective of the Israelis, Europeans and Americans that came up with the idea of a Jewish state in the Middle East. This fact has skewed the perception of the conflict in the western world. The way we have been taught about the advent of the Jewish state for the most part has been that it was a great victory for the oppressed Jewish people of the world which in a sense it was. In the aftermath of World War II and the atrocities of the Holocaust the surviving Jewish people of Europe were for the most part living in refugee camps and had no homes to return to. If their homes in their native countries had by chance survived the destruction it was more than likely that their family had not. When the world and specifically the allied powers saw the problem posed by an entire social group without homes they began to entertain the idea of a Jewish state which had been tossed around by the Zionist branch of Judaism for some years.
The problem represented by the establishment of a Jewish state in the Middle East is that the place they wanted to put it was already inhabited by a large Arab Islamic population in the state of Palestine. The ancient homeland of the Jews was the Kingdom of Israel which according to the Torah was given to the Jews by God when Moses led them out of Egypt. There was a prominent Jewish population in this part of the world for hundreds of years before the population spread out across the world. During this time most Jews were of Arab ancestry but when they left the population that grew in their place was primarily Arab Islamic. These people established a community that would eventually become the state of Palestine.
In the aftermath of World War I the state of Palestine became a British Mandate so when the Jewish people needed a homeland after World War II the British were able to help that happen. What is shown by the Abu-Lughod and Kanafani articles is the viewpoint of the Arab peoples who were already living in the area. When the British left Palestine in 1948 Israeli forces moved in and forcibly evacuated the Arab citizens of Palestine creating the state of Israel. In this new state Arabs were discriminated against heavily, and as time went on and resistance by Arab inhabitants increased a two state solution was attempted. The partition made the Gaza Strip and West Bank as well as Jerusalem Arab controlled. Although this “solution” returned some land to its previous Arab owners, but still restricted them heavily from returning to their former homes before the Israeli Occupation.
The question created by this situation is who actually has the right to return to Israel/Palestine? Do the Jewish people have the right to the land due to their covenant with God and if so does this give them the right to evacuate an entire population that had been living there for 2000 years? On the other hand do the Arab people who have inhabited the land have the right to return to their ancestral lands after being forcibly evacuated?
file:///C:/Users/Hunter18/Downloads/L%20Abu-Lughod,%20Return%20to%20Half-Ruins%20-%20Memory,%20Postmemory,%20and%20Living%20History%20in%20Palestine,%20in%20Nakba%20-%20Palestine,%201948,%20and%20the%20Claims%20of%20Memory,%20eds.%20Ahmad%20H.%20Sa%E2%80%99di%20&%20Lila%20Abu-Lughod%20(2007).pdf
file:///C:/Users/Hunter18/Downloads/G%20Kanafani,%20Returning%20to%20Haifa%20(2000).pdf
I agree with you it is really hard to figure out who or why the Arab-Israeli conflict began, I like that your blog is focused on trying to address many questions that have a variety of complex answers. While it is hard to deny that the Jewish people needed a homeland where they would no longer experience persecution it is unfortunate to think that the actual establishment of a homeland led to more strife and conflict. Unfortunately, it caused conflict between two religious groups that is still going on today.
I liked that your blog brought up a lot of interesting and difficult questions about the Palestine-Israeli conflict. I thought you gave a good background about both sides in the conflict. I also liked that you brought up how the western world views the creation of Israel in a positive light since it was partially their idea. Do you think all westerners agreed about the creation of Israel for the Jewish population in Palestine? In response to your question about the Arabs being allowed to return to their homeland, I think that they should be allowed back. The Arabs were forced out of their home when the Jews took over Israel and now it is very difficult for them to return home. I think that Israel should loosen its policy on letting Palestinians back in who want to return to their homeland since they were forced to leave and had to live in refugee camps. Also we mentioned in class that some of the Palestinians who lived in refugee camps still have descendants in these camps, so I think that the Palestinians who were forced to flee should be allowed back in.
Bringing in our innate pro-Israel bias via place of birth and education is important as it also explains how and why so many Americans are unbudging on their position in this discussion; they learned pro-Israel information in grade school and may not have furthered education in this area. This makes answering your questions at the end of your post difficult, as not everyone who’s decision matters is working with the same information and many may be using misinformation and propaganda without even knowing it.