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Mrs. Melad's History Site
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History The Zionist movement of the late 19th century stimulated Jewish migration to Palestine (then largely populated by Muslims) and this was further bolstered by the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which Great Britain formally (though vaguely) pledged support to the notion of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The Zionist dream was finally fulfilled in 1947. In the wake of the unimaginable atrocities of the Holocaust, the UN decided to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state, with Jerusalem being an international city. The following year, the Jewish state of Israel was created, an event that caused rejoicing in Jewish communities across the world, yet an event that Palestinians remember as "al-Nakba" or "the catastrophe. Since then,the region has been mired in conflict, with Israelis fighting to protect their nation (which guaranteed safety of Jews to live free of persecution), and Palestinians (along with neighboring Arab nations) fighting to regain land that Palestinians felt was rightly theirs, or, in more extreme cases, to drive Israel from the area. In the years that followed, the nation of Israel acquired more Palestinian territory, and with it Palestinian people who have been since living in a permanent state of refugee status. While many tend to view the conflict as one of religion, it is important for students to understand that the conflict is primarily one over land. At the same time, it is also important for students to realize the magnitude of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict--although it is a very small region of the world, the conflict has a very large impact on the whole of the middle east, and also on relations between the United States and middle eastern nations. Many notable scholars and journalists have stated that until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved, there can be little hope for stability in the Middle East or for greater harmony or understanding between the United States and the nations of the Middle East.
You can access detailed timeline histories of the conflict on the following sites: BBC News: A History of Conflict NPR's "The Mideast: A Century of Conflict" |
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Email: melade@doversherborn.org |