In 1948, after six decades of waves of immigration, or aliyah, from Europe to the British Mandate in Palestine by the Jewish population, the Jewish Agency, which had been functioning as the government for the Jewish population in Palestine, declared the independence of the Jewish state of Israel, claiming the territory of Palestine as the territory of Israel. Given previous violence in 1947 and earlier in 1948 between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine, and the reaffirmation by local Arab states that the Arab Palestinians had a right to self-determination, which they had said when opposing the UN partition plan to split the territory of Palestine into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a to separate the city of Jerusalem as its own entity, passed in 1947 (a map of this proposition is below), the results were relatively predictable: international war broke out.
Neighboring Arab nations, such as Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan marched its armies into Israel/Palestine, and the Israelis mobilized to meet them, in the process displacing or expelling Palestinians from their homes amidst the combat. Ultimately, the Israelis managed to succeed, claiming victory and territory in 1948, and with it, the homes of hundreds of thousands of Arab Palestinians, which were later granted to Jewish Israeli families. Following 1948, several more Arab-Israeli Wars broke out in 1956, 1967 (in which Israel captured yet more territory, starting a “territory for peace” policy with neighboring Arab countries, which the UN opposed strongly), and 1973. Israel won all of them, and has control over the territories granted to the Palestinians to this day, establishing illegal (per the UN) settlements in said territories for more Israeli families.
Stories by individuals such as Lila Abu-Lughod and Ghassan Kanafani describe the trouble and emotional pain that Palestinians face upon their return to places that used to be home to them, seeing what they’ve become under Israeli rule, how their own houses have been occupied by Israeli families, and the treatment they receive by the state of Israel and its people. That groups in Palestine such as Hamas carry on the promises made by Arab leaders in the middle of the 20th century – to sweep Zionism into the sea, to erase the state of Israel for the sake of Palestine – should not be a surprise to anybody. While international warfare has not taken place for over forty years, what can be considered “domestic” violence between Israel and the Palestinian territories (West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights, all captured during the 1967 War) still takes place, with strikes as recent as December 2017.
The only way for peace to be established is by the commitment of the international community to enforce a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, following a variation on the seventy-year-old 1947 plan. Both nations, Israelis and Palestinians, must have equal and sovereign states, and show a commitment to cooperation and peace between the two.
