S1 E1 Israel and Palestine Revisited
[Plays Audio Clip from Associated Press. 2018, May 16]
“We condemn the appalling deadly violence in Gaza yesterday during which 58 Palestinians were killed and almost 1460 demonstrators were injured with live ammunition fired by the Israeli security forces... The rules on the use of force under international law have been repeated many times and appear to have been ignored again and again… We stress again that lethal force must only be used as a measure of last, not first, resort… and we are extremely worried about what may happen later today which is obviously an emotional day on all sides, as well as in the weeks ahead and we urge maximum restraint. Enough is Enough.”
[Host Speaking]
These are the words of condemnation from UN Human Rights Chief, Prince Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein of Jordan, issued in response to the outbreak of violence following the inauguration of the newly opened American embassy in the city of Jerusalem on May 14, 2018. With a number of injured in critical condition, the number of casualties continues to grow.
However, for some, after 70 years have passed between the establishment of Israel, a disconnect remains between the opening of an embassy and the international outrage and protests it sparked.
So today, we’re going to explore some history and some politics in order to revisit the conflict surrounding Jerusalem to better understand where we are at today and hopefully, where we are going tomorrow.
My name is Melissa Maples and I’ll be guiding you through the same maze that I’ve been exploring and introduce you to two young Americans whose narratives keep them connected to the events unfolding “Across an Ocean”.
First, I want to take a moment to talk about the deeply entrenched nature of religion and nationalism in this region. As a student of theology, I would be remiss to not pay particular heed to the significance of the religious differences, symbolism, and identity of the actors and their narratives that contribute to the conflict in Jerusalem. As the home to the most holy sites and a backdrop to the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim theology, Jerusalem’s significance goes beyond territory. Many of the decisions for control of this area have led to passionate appeals from sincere devotees on all sides. It is never easy to see the sacred through the secular lenses of international law or military intervention. This mismatch has served to catalyze tensions in negotiations as well as bring the attention of millions worldwide.
However, as many of the leading scholars in the study of this conflict have done, I’d like to ground my explanation in theories of nationalism taking root in Europe at the close of the 19th century. As you’ll see conflict does not lie between two ancient Abrahamic faiths competing over religious tenets. There is no gunfire being exchanged over which son’s lineage was legitimized or the appropriate religious scriptures to follow. Professor of Conflict Studies, Isak Svenson’s research, presented in the text: Ending Holy Wars, suggests that the dimensions of a religious conflict can be mapped out according to how religious components contribute to an armed conflict and suggest methods in which resolution can be best negotiated. By understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as one of competing nationalisms, we are more able to deescalate the religious factor of this dispute and hopefully, move closer towards a resolution.
Our story starts with Theodor Herzl and the anti-semitism he faced in Austria and France, culminating in a pamphlet released “Der Judenstaat” or “The Jewish State” promising that the Jews who wished for a State would have it”. Across Europe, Jews had faced persecution and had been looked at as outsiders within society. Zionism proposed a solution sending large numbers of European Jewish immigrants towards the ancient hills of Judea and Samaria.
My friend Jacob attends the University of Texas in Austin. He’s 22 years old, a member of a Spirit Group on campus, and on weekends spends time in the Texas sun floating the river with his friends. Jacob was born into a Jewish family and though his parents stressed the ancestral significance of his heritage, Jacob never felt personally connected to the Holy Land until he traveled abroad and experienced it as a part of his own narrative.
[Plays Interview excerpts with Jacob Speaking]
Under the Ottomans, populations of Muslims, Jews, and Christians shared Jerusalem. However, this precarious balance would be thrown into uncertainty following World War I, as the territories were secretly divided under British and French control with little regard to promises made to Russia to secure them as an ally and to the Sherif of Mecca who was promised backing of Arab independence in exchange for leading an uprising against the Turks known as the Arab Revolt. Britain further complicated the matter in a document supporting a growing Zionist movement within its own borders, the Balfour Declaration supported the establishment of a Jewish state within Palestine. Dissolution of British Imperialism serves an undercurrent to the understanding of many conflicts including the middle east, specifically Israel and Palestine, but also can be seen in it’s parallels to the tragic ethnic cleansing that arose from the partition of India and Pakistan along religious lines.
Broken promises aside, the British and French plans for the region drew elegant lines across the Ottoman empire dividing territory supposedly to please an omniscient graphic designer but negligent enough to shock any reasonable ethno-cartographer into an early retirement. This map, having designated Jerusalem as an international area, carved the middle east without regard to tribal or ethnic distinctions on the ground. For a closer look at this period, I suggest picking up a copy of “A Line in the Sand” by James Barr where he explores this short but tumultuous period whose misgivings echo through history.
Resulting from Zionist motivations and the increasing need for European Jews to flee Europe during World War 2, the years of the British Mandate of Palestine marked the arrival of over 300,000 Jewish immigrants. These years were also marked by revolts, uprisings, insurgencies, and unrest. Factions attempted to limit immigration to the region and alliances were made to undermine British control of the region by backing axis powers. The promises of the Balfour Declaration still resonated with the Zionist population. The British, losing their taste for complicated overseas territory, decided a resolution was to be undertaken by the newly established United Nations, who promptly drew their own map sparking the not-so-cleverly named 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
This rorschach map designated an independent Israel, Palestine, and an international zone for Jerusalem; Marking the first establishment of Israel, declaring independence with international legitimacy… an independence celebrated on May 14th. Following this date, on May 15th, Palestinians observe a much different event, the Nakba or the catastrophe that led to the expulsion of 700,000 Palestinian refugees into neighboring regions. Rejecting the UN plan, the Arab League launched a violent war wherein Israel seized control of the land designated to Palestine by the UN. The West Bank was relinquished to Jordanian control and Gaza to Egypt. The armistice lines drawn became known as the Green Line distinguishing the borders and dividing Jerusalem into Western (Israeli) and Eastern (Arab) districts. Those refugees from the war, with the exception of those in Jordan, became housed in refugee camps, denied citizenship in their host nations under the presupposition that retaining their Palestinian identity would secure their right to return.
Tensions never ceased following the Arab-Israeli war and in 1967 fighting again erupted between Israel and Arab neighbors, beginning with Egypt. As a result of this Six-Day War, Israel had gained territory increasing its borders to include the West Bank, Gaza, the Sinai Peninsula, part of Syria, and Eastern Jerusalem. Victory over Eastern Jerusalem secured access to the Holy sites of the Old City previously restricted to Israelis under Jordanian rule. Resulting peace talks between Egypt, Syria, and Jordan resulted in the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Egyptian and Syrian territory. The Gaza strip was to be self governed, though Israel maintained a presence there until 2005. Authority over the West Bank remains precarious today, The Palestinian Liberation Organization, founded in 1964, gained partial administration rights to the West Bank as Jordan officially withdrew from the areas west of the Jordan River in 1988. However, according to the UN, East Jerusalem still remains “occupied territory”.
Occupied is the word that crushes hope says Matt, a Palestinian refugee who grew up in Texas, when he explains the pressure he experienced in Jerusalem last year. His given name is Mohannad and he was the sole Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim at a rival school to mine and I remember watching him play sports without water in the Texas sun during Ramadan. Now approaching 30, Mohannad returned to his family’s village in the West Bank where he met his wife.
[Plays Interview excerpts with Matt speaking]
Sovereignty over Jerusalem has been a crucial factor in peace talks undertaken throughout the 1990s and continuing today. The Oslo Accords made significant headway culminating in the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prizes in 1994. US President Bill Clinton invested significantly in diplomatic negotiations at Camp David, however, fell short of achieving a lasting agreement. Parties on both sides, as well as the international community have continued to work towards viable solutions. However, as this process has stretched on Hamas, a radical fundamentalist organization, with an original opposition to the existence of the Jewish state retained control of the Gaza Strip, launching violent attacks into Israel and challenging the legitimacy of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. Sanctions and embargoes by its neighbors have cut Gaza off from the outside world, walls have been erected, and the region has been destabilized for almost 2 million residents. Hamas has been widely popular in Gaza recruiting within desperate socio-economic conditions and launching social service support for schools, clinics, orphanages, and mosques. With ever increasing violence, terrorism, and militancy of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Israel has answered pressure with violent outbursts of its own, both with claims of self-defense.
Which leads us to May 14, 2018, Israeli Independence Day commemorating it’s 70th year… and the eve of the Nakba for Palestinians… US President Donald Trump addresses the crowd gathered to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem, acknowledging it as the Israeli capital and breaking ranks with leaders worldwide. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu announces an undivided “Jerusalem” in a move that for many Palestinians dims the hope they will see and end to restrictions under foreign occupation as they watch territory in the West bank slip further from their grasp as new Jewish settlers, an approximate 400,000, establish communities and neighborhoods the International community deems illegal. Yet, for many, establishing a Jewish presence along the West Bank of the Jordan is part of their long journey home to no longer live as outsiders.
In a two-state solution, acknowledgement of a right of both to exist, control over Jerusalem, a cessation and denunciation of terroristic activities and support, security for both Israel and Palestine, access to water, shared economic interests, amicable borders and land swaps, and a right of refugees to return all are important issues that must be addressed if a peaceful resolution is to be achieved.
For Matt and Jacob in Texas, watching the ribbon cutting at the US Embassy in Jerusalem evoked very different emotions. Unquestionably for both, legitimacy of their narrative is an important key to understanding and in moving forward.
James Gelvin (2013) Israel Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War: Cambridge University Press.
Isak Svensson (2012) Ending Holy Wars: Religion and Conflict Resolution in Civil Wars. University of Queensland Press.
Cohn, Henry J., "Theodor Herzl's Conversion to Zionism," Jewish Social Studies, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Apr. 1970), pp. 101-110, Indiana University Press.
Büssow, Johann (2011-08-11). Hamidian Palestine: Politics and Society in the District of Jerusalem 1872-1908. Brill. p. 5.
Yesilyurt, Nuri (2006). "Turning Point of Turkish Arab Relations:A Case Study on the Hijaz Revolt". The Turkish Yearbook. XXXVII: 107–8.
Mathew, William M. (2013). "The Balfour Declaration and the Palestine Mandate, 1917–1923: British Imperialist Imperatives". British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. Routledge. 40 (3): 231–250
Morris, Benny (2003). The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press., p. 604.
Joseph Ginat and Edward Joseph Perkins (2001). The Palestinian Refugees: Old Problems – new Solutions. University of Oklahoma Press. p. 140.
Encyclopedia Brittanica (2018) Six Day War. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/event/Six-Day-War
Matthew Levitt (2007) Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, Yale University Press p.44.
Ruth Eglash (2018) Under the Banner of Peace: US Opens Embassy in Jerusalem: Washington Post article. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/jerusalem-gears-up-to-embrace-the-new-us-embassy/2018/05/14/1d6707dc-5558-11e8-a6d4-ca1d035642ce_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5a1cc0432eae
Harriet Sherwood (2014) Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks: The Key Points. The Guardian. Retrevied from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/30/israel-palestinian-peace-talks-key-issues
