This is just an entry for my notes to understand the Israel-Palestine conflict and its history.
The main source of this content is this series of podcasts: Ep1, Ep2; Ep3, with the hyperlinks added by me as the keys to enter the rabbit hole.
Here is a detailed reading on the history of Palestine.
Another good summary, I found later.
Major Points to note:
70 AD: Romans take over Jerusalem, destroy King Herod's temple and Jews are dispersed.
1516 AD: Ottoman conquest of Palestine. Population: Roughly 5000 Jews and 295000 non-Jews at this time.
1896: Theodor Herzl brought his famous pamphlet, mentioning that to ensure the safety of the Jews, a national homeland was needed and the migration to the then Palestine was encouraged and supported (funded by Zionist organisations).
1916-1918: By the end of the First World War - The population in Palestine: approx 60K Jewish and 600K non-Jewish. The United Kingdom had agreed in the McMahon–Hussein Correspondence that it would honour Arab independence if the Arabs revolted against the Ottoman Turks, but in the end, the United Kingdom and France divided the area under the Sykes–Picot Agreement—an act of betrayal in the eyes of the Arabs. Further complicating the issue was the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which Britain promised its support for the establishment of a Jewish "national home" in Palestine. At the war's end the British and French formed a joint "Occupied Enemy Territory Administration" in what had been Ottoman Syria. The British achieved legitimacy by obtaining a mandate from the League of Nations in June 1922. One objective of the League of Nations mandate system was to administer areas of the defunct Ottoman Empire "until such time as they are able to stand alone"
1940s - 1970s: About 850,000 Jews from the Arab world immigrated ("made Aliyah") to Israel. (They were also still suffering persecution, mainly in Europe)
1947: UN adopted the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine. The resolution recommended the creation of independent Arab and Jewish States and a Special International Regime for the city of Jerusalem. The proposed plan is considered to have been pro-Zionist by its detractors, with 56% of the land allocated to the Jewish state despite the Palestinian Arab population numbering twice the Jewish population. the partition plan was accepted by most Zionist factions who viewed it as a stepping stone to territorial expansion at an opportune time. The Arab leaders rejected it on the basis that in addition to the Arabs forming a two-thirds majority, they owned a majority of the lands. They also indicated an unwillingness to accept any form of territorial division, arguing that it violated the principles of national self-determination in the UN Charter which granted people the right to decide their own destiny. They announced their intention to take all necessary measures to prevent the implementation of the resolution. Subsequently, a civil war broke out in Palestine and the plan was not implemented.
1948-50: The British Mandate ended on 15 May 1948 and just a day before, the World Zionist Organisation declared an independent state of Israel, which was immediately recognised by both USA and USSR and subsequently by other countries. However, this resulted in the start of the Arab-Israeli war. In 10 months of war, the State of Israel controlled the area that the UN had proposed for the Jewish state, as well as almost 60% of the area proposed for the Arab state. Transjordan took control of East Jerusalem and what became known as the West Bank, annexing it the following year, and the Egyptian military took control of the Gaza Strip.
So, by the end of the war, three countries would divide historical Palestine among themselves. Israel,Gaza Strip under Egypt, and West Bank & East Jerusalem under Jordan.
Around 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes in the area that became Israel, and they became Palestinian refugees in what they refer to as the Nakba ("the catastrophe"). A similar number of Jews moved to Israel during the three years following the war, including 260,000 from the surrounding Arab states.
1956: Invasion of Egypt and Gaza Strip by Israel, leading to the Suez Crisis. Eventually, Israel faced heat globally, even from the US and Russia and had to retreat.
1964-65: The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) was formed, and a year later, the Fatah political party was established.
1967: The Egyptian president announced that the Straits of Tiran would again be closed to Israeli vessels. He subsequently mobilized the Egyptian military into defensive lines along the border with Israel and ordered the immediate withdrawal of all UNEF personnel. As the UNEF was in the process of leaving the zone, Israel launched a series of airstrikes against Egyptian airfields and other facilities beginning the six-day war. Egyptian forces were caught by surprise, and nearly all of Egypt's military aerial assets were destroyed, giving Israel air supremacy. Simultaneously, the Israeli military launched a ground offensive into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as well as the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. After some initial resistance, Egypt ordered an evacuation of the Sinai Peninsula; by the sixth day of the conflict, Israel had occupied the entire Sinai Peninsula. At the time of the cessation of hostilities, Israel had seized Syria's Golan Heights, the Jordanian-annexed West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula as well as the Egyptian-occupied Gaza Strip. With the sole exception of Sinai, Israel retains control of all the seized territories to this day. Around 280,000 to 325,000 Palestinians and 100,000 Syrians fled or were expelled.
Settlement construction began in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. A two-tier system was created with Jewish settlers afforded all the rights and privileges of being Israeli citizens whereas Palestinians had to live under a military occupation that discriminated against them and barred any form of political or civic expression.
1973: To take back their territory of the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, with the help of the Arab coalition, jointly launched a surprise attack against Israel. However, the Israelis again had military success and encircled the Egyptian Army and Suez City, bringing them within 100 kilometres of the Egyptian capital of Cairo. This development led to dangerously heightened tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, and a second ceasefire was imposed to officially end the war.
1974-1979: This paved the way for the Israeli–Palestinian peace process. At the 1978 Camp David Accords that followed the war, Israel returned the entire Sinai Peninsula to Egypt, which led to the subsequent 1979 Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty, marking the first instance that an Arab country recognized Israel as a legitimate state. Following the achievement of peace with Israel, Egypt continued its drift away from the Soviet Union and eventually left the Soviet sphere of influence entirely.
After its founding in 1964 and the radicalization among Palestinians which followed the Six-Day War, the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) became a powerful force, then centred in Jordan. There had been continual violence near the Lebanon-Israel border between Israel and the PLO, starting from 1968; this increased following the relocation of PLO bases to Lebanon after the civil war in Jordan.
1982: After various incidents, Israel invaded Lebanon, put a siege on Beirut and forced PLO to move out. In a vacuum left by the eradication of PLO, the disorganized Islamic militants in South Lebanon began to consolidate. The emerging Hezbollah soon became the preeminent Islamic militia.
Israel unilaterally withdrew completing its troop withdrawal to the security zone on 5 June.
(Despite this being considered the end of the war, conflict would continue. Hezbollah continued to fight the IDF and SLA in the South Lebanon conflict until Israel's final withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000.)
1987-1993: A series of protests and riots (The First Intifada) erupted in the Gaza Strip in December 1987 after four Palestinians were killed when an Israeli truck collided with two vans carrying Palestinian workers. The Israeli army’s response was encapsulated by the “Break their Bones” policy advocated by then-Defence Minister. It included summary killings, closures of universities, deportations of activists and destruction of homes. It also led to the establishment of the Hamas movement.
1993: Signing of the Oslo Accords and the formation of the Palestinian Authority (PA), an interim government that was granted limited self-rule in pockets of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The PLO recognised Israel on the basis of a two-state solution and effectively signed agreements that gave Israel control of 60 percent of the West Bank, and much of the territory’s land and water resources. The PA was supposed to make way for the first elected Palestinian government, running an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with its capital in East Jerusalem, but that has never happened. Critics of the PA view it as a corrupt subcontractor to the Israeli occupation that collaborates closely with the Israeli military in clamping down on dissent and political activism against Israel.
1995: Israel built an electronic fence and concrete wall around the Gaza Strip, snapping interactions between the split Palestinian territories. The West Bank was divided into 3 areas:
While no date was agreed, the Israeli PM agreed to a statehood to Palestinians and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. However, he was assassinated by a right-wing extremist. Peres took over the role and continued the peace process.
1996: Peres called for an early election as there was wide support for a 2-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, but possibly due to some Terrorist attacks done in the subsequent months, public sentiment shifted towards Benjamin Netanyahu who won the election and became the PM.
1997-2000: Hamas continued to carry on attacks and Netanyahu attacked back and reneged from the Oslo accords. PLO was still committed to Oslo agreements, but they didn't have any real power to enforce them. This led to the second Camp David negotiations in 2000. The summit ended without an agreement (PLO wanted refugees to be allowed to return to their ancestral home, which Israel refused as it would have disturbed the demographics) and its failure is considered one of the main triggers of the Second Intifada, along with Israeli Opposition leader's provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa compound and subsequent hard put-down of the protests and riots.
The incident led to a widespread armed response. During the Intifada, significant damage was inflicted on the Palestinian economy and infrastructure. Israel reoccupied areas governed by the Palestinian Authority and initiated the construction of a separation wall. This, in addition to ongoing settlement construction, had a profound impact on Palestinian livelihoods and communities. Settlements are a subject of legal dispute under international law. Over the years, many Jewish settlers have established communities on land that has been a source of conflict with Palestinians. The situation has resulted in a reduction of available space for Palestinians due to settler-only roads and infrastructure, which has divided the occupied West Bank, leading to the isolation of Palestinian cities and towns. At the time of the signing of the Oslo Accords, there were slightly over 110,000 Jewish settlers residing in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Presently, the number has exceeded 700,000 people living on more than 100,000 hectares (390 square miles) of land, which has been a matter of contention with the Palestinian population.
2004-2005: Yasser Arafat died in 2004 and the Intifada ended in 2005. Owing to various security concerns and International pressure, Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were dismantled, and Israeli soldiers and 9,000 settlers left the enclave.
2006: Palestinians voted in a general election for the first time. Hamas won a majority. However, a Fatah-Hamas civil war broke out, lasting for months, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians. Hamas expelled Fatah from the Gaza Strip, and Fatah – the main party of the Palestinian Authority – resumed control of parts of the West Bank.
2006-2007: Hamas continued with the armed attacks and Israel imposed a land, air and naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.
-- The Violence continues
