The dispute arose from the CONFLICTING CLAIMS TO THE LAND. The land that the Jewish people considered their ancestral homeland and sought to reestablish as a Jewish state was also regarded as historically belonging to the Palestinians by the Arabs.

The crisis was triggered on 6 May when Palestinians protested in East Jerusalem over an anticipated decision of the Supreme Court of Israel on the eviction of six Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah.

There have been several major consequences of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. One main obvious consequence was of course the destruction and loss of life. Not only was there the loss of life from soldiers in both sides, but also innocents were murdered.

What was a primary cause of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians? (5 points) The state of Israel was established in an area already inhabited by Palestinians. The Zionist movement rejected the idea of a Jewish state, leaving Palestinians to establish borders.

1940s – Nazi Holocaust of the Jews in Europe prompts efforts at mass migration to Palestine. Jewish armed groups in pursuit of independent Jewish state fight British authorities.

The central issues are territory, refugees, compensation and the status of Jerusalem.

The Jews then proclaimed the State of Israel on May 14, 1948. Its Arab neighbors saw the creation of Israel as a betrayal of Palestinian Arabs, a majority of whom were Muslim. Outraged, several Arab countries invaded Israel. The invasion failed, but the Arab states refused to recognize the state of Israel.

1) Israel, Gaza Strip, West Bank combine and form one democratic country. Israel is against this because the Arabs would outnumber the Jews therefore removing Israels identity as a Jewish state. 2) Israel annexing Palestinian territory with Israels denying Palestinians’ ability to vote and other rights.

Civil war in Mandatory Palestine

• Area assigned for a Jewish state.
• Area assigned for an Arab state.
• Planned Corpus separatum with the intention that Jerusalem would be neither Jewish nor Arab.
• Israeli controlled territory from 1949.
• Egyptian and Jordanian controlled territory from 1948 until 1967.

Palestine became a center of conflict with Balfour Declaration. This stated that the British supported Jewish immigration and Palestine had to create their own homeland. The Declaration being announced threatened those who were living in Palestine since they already had been promised their independence.

It was divided so that each state would have a majority of its own population (although some Jewish land would be in the proposed Arab state and hundreds of thousands of Arabs would become part of the Jewish state), and the Jewish state was proposed as larger than the Arab state to account for immigration.

How has Hamas impacted the Israeli-Palestinian crisis? They have derailed peace talks through violent terrorist attacks.

Palestine – made of what are now Israel, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Jordan – was controlled by Britain in what was called “the British Mandate.” The mandate included both Palestine (which was supposed to be a national home for the Jewish people) and Transjordan (which is now Jordan).

The conflict started after World War II ended, but escalated into violence after 1948. Why: Jerusalem (the homeland of the Jews) is in Palestine and Arab and Jewish settlers have been living in this region, which was a part of the Ottoman Empire before World War I, for over 2,000 years.

the British

In modern times, the area was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, then the United Kingdom and since 1948 it has been divided into Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The region was among the earliest in the world to see human habitation, agricultural communities and civilization.

Israel returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt in 1982 as part of a peace treaty and then withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, but it has continued to occupy and settle other territory claimed in the Six-Day War, most notably the Golan Heights and the West Bank.

Taking the Israeli Defense Forces by surprise, Egyptian troops swept deep into the Sinai Peninsula, while Syria struggled to throw occupying Israeli troops out of the Golan Heights. Israel counterattacked and recaptured the Golan Heights. A cease-fire went into effect on October 25, 1973.

The Six-Day War ended with Israel capturing the Sinai Peninsula, the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Presently, most of the West Bank is administered by Israel though 42% of it is under varying degrees of autonomous rule by the Fatah-run Palestinian Authority. The Gaza Strip is currently under the control of Hamas.

Israel has cited several reasons for retaining the West Bank within its ambit: a claim based on the notion of historic rights to this as a homeland as affirmed in the Balfour Declaration; security grounds, internal and external; and the deep symbolic value for Jews of the area occupied.