Disclaimer: The views presented within this article comes from the author and should not be associated with his affiliations in the past, present, or the future.
Religion has continuously been a way of living for humanity on this planet. Although Hinduism is termed to be the first religion flourishing in the entire world, it was followed by, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and other minority religions. There have been numerous riots in the past, most of which are flourished by conflicting religious views among people of different classes and mindsets. This trend continues in the present day too. Religion can be termed as the major root of the current conflict observed in the Mediterranean region, between the Palestine Administration and Israel.
The collective region of Israel and Palestine is inhabited by the Jews and the Muslims. To, dive deep into the conflict, that has been continuing for more than a century; a discrete background of Judaism and Jews is required. Judaism as a religion first appears in Greek records during the Hellenistic period (323–31 BCE). The ancient kingdom of Judah existed by at least mid 9th century BCE in the current region of Israel and neighboring region. The ancient kingdom of Judah was home to a large number of people following Judaism based on archaeological and historical evidence. During Babylonian Captivity, people from the region (then Jews) were forced to be captives in Babylon. Jerusalem, during this period of captivity, was utterly destroyed. Most of the people who moved out from this region never came back and started settling westward and northward, the current parts of Europe. After the fall of Babylon, some Jews returned to, the then ancient kingdom of Judah, but not all. As time passed, Islam flourished and the settlement of Muslims increased at a rapid pace, making the Jews, a minority in the Mediterranean region which once used to be a majority.
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| Ancient Judah |
Attacks on Jewish and hatred towards them were widely observed after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. A discrete fact about the real cause of hatred against Jewish is yet a mystery and various versions of the story move along with different classes of people. Jews migrated to various parts of Europe, which then started becoming a minority group after the crucifixion and flourishment of Christianity. An unknown reason which brought forward the concept of Antisemitism (hostility to, prejudice, or discrimination against Jews) initiated mass killings of Jewish in Europe, which was further agitated during the events of World War. Jews had no permanent home and believed that settlement back in the ancient kingdom of Judah (now Israel, West Bank, and Gaza) will solve all their problems. World Zionist Organization and Jewish National Fund started funding settlements of Jews in Palestine. This happened legally during the end of the Ottoman Empire and illegally during Britain's control over Palestine after the first world war.
After the first world war, Britain gained control over, all areas of old Palestine; the reason which brought the Balfour Declaration and aimed at establishing a home for the Jews in Palestine. However, during that period the Arabs were in majority in Palestine. The population of Jews skyrocketed from the year 1880-1947 AD. The population of Jews grew from 24000 in 1880 to 6,30,000 in 1947. The situation turned out that, further trading of real estate from the Jews to the Arabs (who had earlier been a majority in the Palestine region after Jews went away from ancient Judah) was not happening, with a mindset to create a permanent home for Jews and remove any further claims of Arabs from the land of Palestine. The uncontrolled settlement of Jews in Palestine forced Arabs to start agitation against it. They knew that the formation of Jewish land in Palestine will force them away from their homes and the extinction of entire Arabs from Palestine. UN in the year 1947 brought forward a two-state principle, which planned into dividing Palestine into an independent Arab State, an independent Jewish State, and the City of Jerusalem which would be under international control.
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| UN Partition Plan |
Jews favored the idea while the Palestinians rejected it. Jews claimed Palestine to be their natural home while the Arabs too did not leave the land and claimed it. The international community supported the Jews. It was in the year 1948 that Britain lifted its control over the area and Jews declared the creation of Israel. Although Palestinians objected, Jews did not back out which led to an armed conflict. The neighboring Arabs also invaded and were thrashed by the Israeli troops. This made thousands of Palestinians flee their homes and resulted in a decrease in the Arab Population from 13,10,000 in the year 1947 to 1,59,000 in the year 1949. An interesting fact was the increase of the population of Jews to 10,14,000, the same year from levels of 6,30,000 in 1947. Israel still is the country that provides citizenship to Jews from anywhere just based on the religion they follow.
Israel had gained maximum control over the territory after this came to an end. Jordan then went on a war with Israel and seized control over a part of the land which was called the West Bank, and Egypt occupied Gaza. Jerusalem was divided between Israel in the West and Jordan in the East. However, no formal peace agreement was signed, each side continued to blame each other for the tension and the region saw more wars. Even though Jordan and Egypt had negotiations with then, Palestine to help them get the West Bank and Gaza, it never happened and both countries thought of annexing part of the land they got in the war into their territory. The Jewish-backed Israel was not out of the game and was in a plan to acquire the areas captured by Jordan and Egypt.
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| West Bank and Gaza invaded by Jordan and Egypt |
Israeli forces captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank, various areas of Syrian Golan Heights, Gaza, and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula in the 6-day war that happened in the year 1967. At that time Palestinian refugees and families lived in Gaza and the West Bank, along, with the border areas of neighboring Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. They were not allowed to return after the Israeli forces captured the areas as they considered it a threat to Jews. To date, Israel has control over the West Bank and Gaza. However, the international community has continuously termed the control of Israel over the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem illegal and unethical occupation. The West Bank, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem form the new Palestine after the formation of Israel within the old Palestine. More than 130 countries are in support of the current form of Palestine. Palestine is a de jure sovereign state, while de facto misses due to the fact that there's not an actual government that has control over the land under the State of Palestine.
Oslo Accords from 1993, however, tried to solve conflicts between the two parties. The result of which, Israel has been controlling areas under Palestine, but has been reimbursing the taxes it collects from the region of Palestine under the accord to the Palestine Authority. Due to various internal reasons, the conflict between the two parties is not yet solved and the formation of the de facto and de jure state of Palestine has not been possible till now. The current conflict revolves around the same reason. There have also been demands to merge the two-state concept into a single state and let people live happily in a bigger and stronger nation. Something, which has not been possible due to internal reasons of both parties involved in seeking part of the land for their independent state.
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| The land loss Palestine has observed in all these years |
Antisemitism and religion forced jews to demand a permanent home for themselves. This pushed Arabs, already living in Palestine to seek a different home. All of this happened just because of the religious conflicts, which has been moving in the air even now, whatever be the advocacy of the current generation on religious neutrality. This conflict between the two states, explains how religion can bring more disadvantages than advantages if religion is brought above humanity in the hierarchy. The end to this problem and an amicable solution lies with the leaders of those states. This will happen only if self-interest is kept away from the perspective.
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