Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Student Officers: President: Mohamed El Habbak Chairs: Adam Beblawy, Ibrahim Shoukry

Forum: Security Council Issue: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict Student Officers: President: Mohamed El Habbak Chairs: Adam Beblawy, Ibrahim Shoukry Introduction: Beginning in the mid-20th century, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the still continuing dispute between Israel and Palestine and part of the larger Arab-Israeli conflict, and is known as the world’s “most intractable conflict.” Despite efforts to reach long-term peace, both parties have failed to reach a final agreement. The crux of the problem lies in a few major points including security, borders, water rights, control of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, Palestinian freedom of movement, and Palestinian right of return. Furthermore, a hallmark of the conflict is the level of violence for practically the entirety of the conflict, which hasn’t been confined only to the military, but has been prevalent in civilian populations. The main solution proposed to end the conflict is the two-state solution, which is supported by the majority of Palestinians and Israelis. However, no consensus has been reached and negotiations are still underway to this day. The gravity of this conflict is significant as lives are on the line every day, multiple human rights violations take place frequently, Israel has an alleged nuclear arsenal, and the rise of some terroristic groups and ideologies are directly linked to it. Key Terms: Gaza Strip: Region of Palestine under Egyptian control. Balfour Declaration: British promise to the Jewish people to create a sovereign state for them. Golan Heights: Syrian territory under Israeli control. West Bank: Palestinian sovereign territory under Jordanian protection. Focused Overview: To understand this struggle, one must examine the origins of each group’s claim to the land. The land in question has been a hotbed for settlement for thousands of years, primarily due to it being the crossroads of the three continents of the old world: Africa, Asia, and Europe. Thus, it has been settled by different cultures and peoples. It all started when the Canaanites built city states in the region around 2000 BCE. Over time, sematic belief grew in the region, giving rise to the Jewish religion and culture. However, the land started seeing conquests from different kingdoms. This started with the Assyrians, then the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, then the Romans who proceeded to destroy Jerusalem and raze the Jewish temple to the ground, then exiled the Jewish people from the land. This is significant as Christianity started and prospered during the Roman rule in the region, causing Jerusalem to become a major center for Christians as it started there. Furthermore, Jerusalem has a very important position in Islamic belief as well. As can be seen, the area, especially Jerusalem, was the epicenter for three of the world’s most significant religions. The Arabs then proceeded to conquer the region from the Romans, which saw several different dynasties rule the region. Then, the region started switching rulers for a few centuries. This started with the Seljuk Turks, followed by Christian European crusaders, then the Arab took it back, then the Mongols, then the Arabs took it back yet again, then the Ottoman Turks took it back once again, before the Arabs took it back for the fourth time, until the British came and gave it back to the Turks. As can be seen, the region was a mess of rulers, kingdoms, cultures, and religions for the majority of its existence. Thus, a lot of people have a lot of claims for why this land should be theirs. Fast forward to the 19th century, things get more complicated. The new global Zionist movement brought many Jewish migrants to the region, who are looking to escape from the increasing persecution of Jews in Europe. Thus, the demographics of the land begin to become more complex after centuries of rule under the Ottomans. This leads to the British finding themselves against the Ottomans in the First World War, and they issue the Balfour Declaration of 1917. This declaration pledged British support for the creation of a national homeland for the Jewish people in this land. Shortly thereafter, the British win the war and cease a bunch of land from the Turks, including the region of modern-day Palestine and Israel. Under British rule, the land sees an even greater influx of Jewish people to it from Europe. This massive migration of Jews from Europe to this land across the 1920s, 30s, and 40s, along with British colonial rule, lead to widespread violence between the Jews, who wanted a homeland after the horrors of the Holocaust, and the Arabs, who had been there for over a thousand years by that time and felt like they were being displaced from their ancestral home by European colonialism, which raised an era of Palestinian national identity. Seeing this, the British announced their withdrawal from the land in the 1947 after starting the problem so that they don’t get mixed up even further. The newly formed UN recommended the partition of this land into two new independent states: one Arab state, and one Jewish state, topped with an international government that would hold control over Jerusalem itself. The problem at the time was that the Jews and the Arabs were already fighting a war against each other while the British were still ruling it. This led to the UN Partition Plan not lasting for long. The Palestinian Arabs refused the whole thing as they saw it as the partitioning of their ancestral land by foreign colonial powers. On the other hand, the Jews, who wanted a country of their own, accepted it and declared the independence of the State of Israel in 1948, the same day the British officially withdrew. Immediately after that, the Arab states of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq all intervened on the behalf of the Palestinian Arabs, and attacked the State of Israel after the British left everyone to figure out this problem for themselves. Roughly a year later though, Israel emerges as the surprise victor in the conflict, and ends up taking way more territory than was envisioned by the UN Partition Plan. Nearly 80% of the Palestinian Arab populations get driven out of the territory that Israel took over in this conflict and were never allowed to return, in the event that became known as the Catastrophe to the Arabs. Over the following decades, nearly a million more Jews would migrate into the State of Israel, either by choice or by force. This war created a situation where peace was agreed upon, but none of the Arab stated would recognize the existence of the State of Israel as a country. As a result, Israel’s borders were entirely legally undefined, and all the ceasefire lines with the surrounding countries became the de facto borders instead. Only two parts of this land remained under Arab control after the Israelis emerged victorious in 1949: The West Bank, so called because it is west of the Jordan River, which was annexed by the Arab Jordanians, and the Gaza strip, which was occupied by the Arab Egyptians. This situation continued until 1967, when the State of Israel once again entered into war with the combined forces of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. Both sides accused the other of starting this conflict. But either way, Israel once again decisively won this war and took over even more territory, absorbing the West Bank and the Gaza Strip along with the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt and the Golan Heights from Syria. Despite international objections, Israel started to colonize all of these occupied territories with Israeli settlers, which began to affect the local demographics pretty substantially. In 1973, Egypt and Syria once again joined forces to fight Israel in another war, and this time it was more of a draw. After this conflict, Israel agreed to return the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt and evacuate all their settlers from there in exchange for recognition and the normalization of relations with Egypt. Israel’s southern border with Egypt was now legally defined, but it still left Israel in occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, with the rest of their frontiers still delineated by the 1949 Armistice Lines. In the early 1980s, Israel officially annexed East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights into the State of Israel, which is widely unrecognized by anybody in the international community other than for the United States. In 1988, the Arab State of Palestine was declared with claimed territory consisting of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, still under Israeli occupation. In 1994, Jordan also recognized the State of Israel, causing Israel’s Eastern boundary to become legally defined as well. This takes us into the situation that strip of land finds itself in today. In 1994, the Palestinian National Authority, or PA, was created as an interim body to run parts of Gaza and the West Bank until a final solution to the problem can be agreed upon. However, the Pas authority over the West Bank was severely limited to just 165 scattered so-called islands of sovereignty that only spanned 30% of the West Bank’s entire territory. The remaining 70% of the West Bank continue to this day to be governed and administrated by Israel. Over 400,000 Israeli settlers have since moved into these zones over the decades since, along with 200,000 more into East Jerusalem. This, in total, has brought the West Bank’s population up to nearly 18% Israeli at this point. The PA maintained authority over Gaza until 2007, when the Islamist faction Hamas took power over there.

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