Palestinian Conflict essays

The Origins of Israeli/Palestinian Conflict essays The origins of the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict For most of the past century, Middle East has been the center of violence and carnage. The Palestinians and the Israelis-two peoples fighting over one land. Most of us has grown up watching and hearing about these two groups and their clashes. We hear about the invasion and the massacre of the Palestinian territory and people by the Israeli soldiers. Or we hear about the suicide bombings carried out by Palestinian men, women, and even children these days. With all the anger and animosity that exists between these two people, one might wonder if this mess will ever be resolved. But before we begin looking for solutions, lets look at how it all started. The roots of the problem dates back to late 1800s with the creation of a movement called Zionism. The movement started mainly among European and Russian Jews who called for a national home for Jews in Palestine. The concept of Zionism was brought up by a Viennese journalist named Theordor Herzl in 1896. In his book, Der Judenstaat, he brought to the worlds attention that the Jews should have their own sovereign nation-state. (Schafer) Jewish claims were that the Palestinian lands were promised to them by God and that they have a right to return to their promised land. Thus, they started migrating to Palestine. Huge pieces of land were bought by wealthy European Jews which allowed them to built communities. Slowly but steadily the number of immigrants increased to the point that they were faced with opposition from the Palestinians. (Schafer) At the beginning of World War I, the British empires dependency on Suez canal and Persian Gulf increased with their presence in India. They were faced with opposition when the Ottoman Empire, who controlled the Middle East region, joined forces with Germany. Thus, the British, in order to strengthen its position in the region, looked for support from Jewish i...