WHEN HAMAS operatives invaded Israel from the land, sea and air on Saturday, October 7, it was the latest and strongest demonstration yet to indicate that the Palestinians will not stop until they have driven Israeli out of Palestine. For, the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict is about land and the right to occupy it.
The disputed territory is now bordered by Lebanon and Syria in the north, Jordan in the east, Egypt at the southwest, and the Mediterranean Sea at the northwest. The Arabs, who are mainly Muslims, and Jews all believe they have a divine right to this ‘Holy Land’, thus the term, The Holy War, which perhaps has been raging even before the birth of Christ, and, up to press time, the latest episode was still exploding.
“Superficially, the conflict is about who has sovereignty in Israel … . On a deeper level, however, it is about jihad, a religious obligation in Islam that many interpret as a demand to destroy Israel. That is the core and heart of Palestinianism,” Moshe Dann writes in a Jerusalem Post online article titled ‘Holy War’ – A Perspective of the Arab-Israeli Conflict’, on May 13, 2021.
“From this perspective, the Arab-Israeli conflict is not only national, i.e., the desire for a state; it is fundamentally a religious conflict. Islamists consider Palestine to be part of the house of Islam, and Jews as ‘dhimmis’, a subject religious community, not a nation … Violence waged by Islamists against Israel, therefore, is not only over enclaves, neighbourhoods or territory; it is also a struggle over ideology, Zionism (Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people) and Palestinianism, which advocates Israel’s destruction,” Dann also says.
The seeds of the modern-day zeal to destroy Israel were planted by the occupation of Palestine after World War I by Britain, and its withdrawal in 1948. As part of the settlement ending World War I, the Ottoman Empire was dismantled, and Britain governed Palestine with a League of Nations mandate. Under the British, Jewish migration into Palestine steadily increased, causing much discomfort for the Arabs. Riots and random acts of violence broke out between the Arabs and the Jews, as both sides claimed the region is their homeland.
The tension germinated right up to World War II as more Jews from the European diaspora continued to populate the space. It got more intense when Britain announced in 1947 that it would withdraw in the spring of 1948, and asked theUnited Nations for a solution. The United Nations stepped in and adopted a plan calling for the division of Palestine into two states, one for the Palestinians and one for the Jews, while the UN itself would control Jerusalem. The Jews rejoiced and prepared themselves for more violence, as Arabs throughout the Middle East rejected Britain’s plans.
When Britain finally withdrew in May 1948, Israel proclaimed itself an Independent Jewish state, sending the entire Middle East up in arms against the move. Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Syria and Lebanon led the war against Israel, which was better armed and organised. The Arab-Israeli conflict as we know it was now born.
The Israelis, outnumbered by the Arabs, swept across Palestine, seizing more land and uprooting 750,000 Palestinians. After the 1948/49 war ended, Palestine was divided by the Jordanians who occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River and East Jerusalem, Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip, and Israel, West Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine. The roots of the Arab-Israel conflict were not firmly anchored.
And they spread far and wide by the time 1967 unfolded. Early that year, Syria and Egypt were preparing to attack Israel. But Israel pre-empted them. On June 5, it was the first to strike. Egypt’s forces were overrun, the Israelis seizing the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip. When Jordan shelled Tel Aviv and West Jerusalem, Israel retaliated and captured all of Arab-held Jerusalem and the West Bank. Further north, Israel took the Golan Heights from Syria. A few months later, the UN passed Resolution 242, which called for Israel to withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories in exchange for peace.
Since then, there have been many wars between the Israelis and the Palestinians/Arabs, thousands of lives lost, many more injured, much bloodshed, widespread damage to infrastructure and properties, reoccupation of Palestinian spaces, refugee situations, meetings, summits, ceasefires, treaties, etc. Several anti-Israeli groups have been established, with Palestine having the support of over 21 other Arab nations. The United States is Israel’s biggest supporter, and it has been so perhaps since the start of the conflict. President Biden’s recent trip to Israel, to pledge America’s support for Israel, says it all.
Now, since Hamas’ October 7 bravado, Gaza has been under constant bombardment from Israel. Many lives on both sides have been lost. There seems to be no end in sight, as Israel is determined to root out Hamas from Palestine forever. Israel’s entry and occupation of Gaza to annihilate Hamas “might be a mistake”, President Biden remarked midweek, but Israel is adamant that the “slaughter” of October 7, 2023 will never happen again. Time will tell. For now, the Middle East is in turmoil once again, over land.