the Palestinian issue is one of the complex international issues that spans for many decades, a historical issue related to the rights of Palestinians and their existence in their occupied state of Palestine and the Middle East region.this issue is related to a series of events and developments that the region has witnessed over the decades and is the focus of a bloody grinding conflict that affected the lives of millions of people.
Here we discuss the details of the most important events and milestones in the history of the Palestinian issue and review the most important developments and challenges to resolve this complex conflict from a neutral and realistic perspective of the issue with a view to a deeper understanding of the problem and its impact in the region and the world.
The cause of the Palestinian issue
This dispute is mainly related to the establishment of Zionism, Jewish immigration to Palestine, settlement in this region and the role played by major countries in those events.the issue of Palestine revolves around the issue of Palestinian refugees and the legitimacy of the state of Israel and its occupation of the Palestinian territories through several different historical stages.
The roots of the Palestinian issue
The roots of the Palestinian issue go back to many historical and political factors, most notably:
The emergence of Zionism and its organs
In the Eighties of the nineteenth century, Western Jews began to adopt new theories of colonization in the territory of Palestine, and these theories were based on the idea of replacing peaceful or civilian efforts with armed control.one of the most prominent supporters of this theory was the World Zionist movement, which declared: "the day of building one Jewish battalion will be the day our state will be established".
In the middle of the XIX century, the "lovers of Zion" movement was founded in Europe and this movement was directed towards the realization of the dream of establishing a special state for the Jews.there was a belief by prominent Zionists that the optimal location for this state should be in the historical land of the Jewish people and this land is known as Palestine. at that time, Palestine belonged to the Ottoman Empire and was under local rule (Ottoman mandate) and was inhabited mainly by Arab Palestinians, while the Jewish minority represented less than 8% of the population until 1920.
The Zionist project aroused great discontent among the Palestinians, and was categorically rejected by various political and religious figures at that time, among these figures were the grand mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini and Ezzedine al-Qassam, and later Abdul Qadir al-Husseini, in addition to other political, religious and military leaders, this period witnessed the emergence of popular resistance in Palestine, where manifestations of resistance against the Zionist project varied.
The positions of Arab figures and Arab rulers differed in the face of this project, some of them supported the rights of Palestinians to achieve their destiny, while some opposed the rights of the Palestinian people or were content with silence.
On the other hand, the Western countries welcomed the Zionist project in Palestine and provided financial, military and logistical support to it, these countries knew that the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine serves their interests in the region, and that is why they provided support to the Zionists and this support came from large countries such as Britain, the United States and France.
The stage of the British Mandate
In 1917, the British army occupied Palestine and Transjordan in cooperation with the Arab revolution led by Sharif Hussein, this revolution was aimed at achieving the independence and unity of the Arab states, and based on the Sykes-Picot Treaty, Jordan and Palestine were subjected to the British Mandate.
In this letter, Balfour pledged British support for the establishment of a national homeland for the Jewish people in Palestine, but the pledge also included the observation that this support would not adversely affect the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish population of Palestine, including Arabs and Christians.
This is what later became known as the "Balfour Declaration" and is one of the key events in the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Palestinian Nakba and the tragedy of the refugees
During and after the British Mandate over Palestine, the Zionist movement carried out a series of pre-planned measures aimed at deporting Palestinians and carrying out ethnic cleansing in Palestine.these measures included terrorist attacks on Palestinian villages and cities carried out by Zionist organizations such as the Haganah, the Irgun and the stern. these pre-planned strategies were discussed by a number of famous historians such as Ilan babeh, Benny Morris and Walid Khalidi.
These operations led to the occupation by Jews of about 78% of the area of historical Palestine, and unfortunately resulted in the death and displacement of approximately 750 thousand to one million Palestinians by force to neighboring countries and other parts of Palestine.this mass displacement contributed to the formation of a new nucleus for the Palestinian cause, as the Palestinian refugees who left the areas occupied by Israel became a key element in this conflict.
Between 1947 and the 1948 war, about 750,000 Palestinian Arabs were displaced from their towns, and after the end of the war, the mandate area was divided into areas ruled by Israel, Jordan and Egypt, granting Israeli citizenship only to those who remained within Israel's borders and refusing the return of displaced Arabs from outside these borders.
As for Jordan, Jordanian citizenship was provided to residents of the West Bank, including refugees who arrived there, while residents of the Gaza Strip and refugees who arrived there remained without citizenship as they were refused Egyptian citizenship.
Currently, Palestinian refugees make up about half of the entire Palestinian people, and their number is approaching 4.6 million people according to statistics in 1995.
The difficult day and the official declaration of the establishment of the state of Israel in Palestine
After the end of World War II in 1945, the attacks of Zionist gangs against British troops in Palestine intensified, this situation prompted Britain to transfer the issue of Palestine to the United Nations.on April 28, the session of the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) began, which included 11 members. this committee submitted its report on September 8. most of its members supported the idea of dividing Palestine, while some members proposed a federal solution.
The Arab High Commission rejected the partition proposal, while the Jewish Agency approved it, and the United States and the USSR also declared their support for the idea of partition, on October 29 the British government announced its intention to leave Palestine within six months if no solution acceptable to the Arabs and Zionists was reached.
In the period following this decision, the pace of military operations increased from all parties involved in the conflict, the Zionists had well-executed plans that they carefully implemented as they took advantage of the opportunity to control the areas from which the British troops withdrew, and in this context the Arabs faced military challenges due to their delay in building strong regular Arab forces capable of defending Palestine.
Zionist forces succeeded in occupying more areas than those allocated to them according to the partition decision, and during this period large numbers of Palestinians were forced to leave their cities and villages as a result of Jewish battles and pogroms.
On May 13 Haim Weizmann sent a letter to US President Harry Truman asking him to fulfill his promise to recognize the state of Israel.
On May 14, the establishment of the state of Israel was announced in Tel Aviv at four o'clock in the afternoon, the British High Representative left his official residence in Jerusalem for Britain, and in the first minutes of May 15, the British Mandate in Palestine ended and the declaration of the establishment of the state of Israel became effective, the United States recognized the state of Israel ten minutes after that time, and yet disputes and conflicts continued between Israel and neighboring Arab countries.
With the end of the war, Israel became a reality, and captured more areas than those that were planned for it according to the decision to divide Palestine, and occupied the entire coastal plain of Palestine except the Gaza Strip, which was controlled by the Egyptians, and also captured the Negev, Galilee and northern Palestine, while East Jerusalem and the West Bank became part of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and thus began a new chapter in the history of the conflict as the conflict front with the Arab countries developed.
The Deir Yassin massacre in Palestine
The village of Deir Yassin is a Palestinian village located west of Jerusalem. on April 9, 1948, a terrible massacre occurred in this village by the Zionists, specifically the Irgun and stern organizations, 14 days after the signing of a peace treaty requested by Jewish leaders and approved by the residents of the village of Deir Yassin.
Estimates of the number of victims vary, as it is stated in Arab and Palestinian sources that the number of dead ranged from 250 to 360 people, while Western sources stated that the number did not exceed 107 dead.
The Deir Yassin massacre exacerbated the state of terror among civilians and significantly affected Palestinian migration to other areas of Palestine and neighboring Arab countries, and also increased the state of hostility between Arabs and Israelis.
Palestinian uprisings in the face of aggression
The Palestinian uprisings are a series of movements aimed at protesting the Israeli occupation, these uprisings express the desire of the Palestinians to achieve their national rights and independence, and Palestine has witnessed many of these uprisings over the decades, most notably:
Stone uprising
The PLO and other Palestinian factions contributed to igniting the 1987 intifada that brought the Palestinian issue back into the international spotlight after years of political neglect, this intifada had a significant impact on the political reality in the region and contributed to the reactivation of the Palestinian cause and the escalation of the Palestinian national movement.
This Intifada began as a result of the accumulation of many factors, but the decisive moment came on December 8, 1987, when an Israeli military vehicle deliberately ran over a group of Palestinian workers in front of a checkpoint in Beit Hanoun.this incident resulted in the death of 5 people and injured 7 others, all from Jabalia camp in the Gaza Strip. this camp is one of the busiest camps in the Strip. this incident led to the outbreak of anger throughout the Gaza Strip quickly and then in the cities and camps of the West Bank.
This intifada expresses the will of the Palestinian people to defend their rights and achieve freedom and independence and had a great impact in changing the course of events and re-informing the world about the question of Palestine.
Despite the fact that the Intifada started by the Palestinians was peaceful and weapons were not used in it, the Israeli army escalated its cruelty towards it, as its leaders issued orders to suppress it by all possible means, and planes began dropping smoke bombs and tear gas to disperse thousands of demonstrators, and the occupation soldiers imposed intensive shooting, which led to many casualties in the early days of this intifada, this revolution was later known as the "intifada".
Al-Aqsa Intifada
The Al-Aqsa Intifada broke out in September 2000 as a result of the visit of Ariel Sharon, who was involved in massacres against the Palestinian people, including the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982, this intifada included the participation of various Palestinian resistance factions and caused significant human and material losses to Israel, the Israeli government accused one of these factions, Fatah and its affiliated al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, of terrorist activities, and the US administration also described these factions as terrorist organizations and included them in the list of organizations required to fight and dismantle, this bilateral pressure placed the organization between Israeli strikes and pressure American.
Maximum flood:
On the seventh of October 2023, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades and its allies launched a large-scale military operation against Israel, in which they used thousands of rockets, boats, gliders, ATVs and motorcycles, with the aim of liberating Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem and the occupied territories. They called the operation the "flood of Al-Aqsa", after the First Intifada that broke out in 1987.
The operation shocked and stunned Israel, which did not expect this sudden and coordinated attack, and was not ready to face it. During the first days of the operation, the Resistance managed to kill and capture hundreds of Israeli soldiers and settlers, destroy and injure many military and civilian sites and installations, and cut off communications, electricity and water to most settlements near Gaza. It was also able to fire rockets at distant targets such as Dimona, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa, creating panic and chaos inside Israel.
Israel responded violently and indiscriminately, launching air, land and sea strikes on the Gaza Strip, targeting civilians, infrastructure, government, media, health, education and humanitarian facilities. These raids led to the martyrdom and injury of thousands of Palestinians, the destruction and damage of many homes, buildings, mosques, schools, hospitals and camps. Israel also declared a state of emergency and general mobilization, called up hundreds of thousands of reserve soldiers, sent military reinforcements to the borders with Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, and requested international and special assistance from the United States of America.
On the one hand, many Arab, Islamic and international countries and organizations expressed their solidarity with the Palestinian people and their support for their right to resistance and self-defense, and demanded an end to the Israeli aggression, lifting the blockade on Gaza and ending the occupation, settlement and Judaization.
Some Arab and Islamic countries have also witnessed mass demonstrations and protests condemning the Israeli aggression and demanding immediate intervention to stop it. On the other hand, some Western countries and organizations, especially the United States and its allies, have tried to intervene to stop the conflict and mediate between the parties, while preserving Israel's right to defend itself and its commitment to a peaceful and negotiated solution. These countries and organizations also provided military, political, economic and humanitarian assistance to Israel, and tried to prevent any interference by Iran, Hezbollah or any other party supporting the Palestinian resistance.
Since the beginning of the operation until today, the confrontations between the Palestinian resistance and the Israeli occupation continue, without either of them achieving a decisive victory or giving up their demands. According to the latest statistics،
The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory for Human Rights revealed on Sunday shocking figures resulting from 100 days of the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip, referring to the "death and injury of 100 thousand Palestinians".
"There are 100 thousand Palestinians among the dead, wounded and missing on the 100th day of the Israeli genocide crime against the Gaza Strip,"the Observatory said in a statement.
"Israel has committed horrific war crimes, killing an average of 1,000 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip every day, in the bloodiest statistic in the modern history of wars,"he said.
Announcement
"About 92% of the victims in Gaza are civilians, including 12,345 children, 6,471 women, 295 health workers, 41 Civil Defense personnel and 113 journalists,"he said.
According to the Observatory, "one million and 955 thousand Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes and areas of residence in the Gaza Strip, without the availability of safe shelter for them, which is 85% of the total population".
They continue to deliberately target schools and hospitals, cut off humanitarian aid from food, drink, medicine and health care, strip civilians of their orchards, mass murder, kidnapping and theft of property, even in the West Bank, and they keep repeating all this under trivial arguments that do not justify terrorism, such as ( victims of war ) ( they use them as human shields ) ......
It is the duty of every reasonable and most importantly humane person to know and search for the truth and advocate for the right, Gaza and Palestine
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