PALESTINE

- BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE ARAB WORLD-

The conflict between Israel and Palestine has an important significance because
it's not only a territorial dispute, but also a cultural and religious one. The issue of recognition
of the State of Palestine it's a problem hard to analyse considering the history of the
belligerents and their argument about being hegemonic.
The conflict emerged in 1917 when the Balfour Declaration gave Israelis
permission to establish in Palestine and was soon followed by a Palestinian manifesto in
1933, but the dispute became military in 1948 when the civil war turned in the First ArabIsraeli War won by the Zionists with the help of the West. This followed the Declaration of
the Establishment of the State of Israel by David Ben-Gurion, the executive head of the
World Zionist Organization. The armistice in 1949 led to a disjointed Palestine, with an Arab
population of which half was made up of refugees. For twenty years, since the proclamation
of the State of Israel and until the Six-Day War, Palestinians were reduced to silence under
the occupation of Nasser's Egypt. As for the few who chose not to live under the occupation
of Zionists, they were considered a mass of refugees under the protection of UN and
UNRWA. In 1950, UNRWA was taking care of 957.000 Palestinians. On the other hand,
Israel's population nearly doubled.
This state of coercion, fear and insecurity led to the birth of The Palestine
Liberation Organization by the Arab League in Cairo (1964) which brings into the open the
political wishes of the Palestinians. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of
the Palestinian people" by over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has
enjoyed observer status at the United Nations since 1974.
The PLO was considered by the United States and Israel to be a terrorist
organization until the Madrid Conference in 1991. In 1993, the PLO recognized Israel's right
to exist in peace, accepted UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, and rejected
"violence and terrorism"; in response, Israel officially recognized the PLO as the
representative of the Palestinian people.

Shuqairi's PLO was fallowed by the creation of al-Fatah, by Yasser Arafat, Abu
Jihad and Abou Iyad as an independent movement to accomplish the unity of the Arab states.
For al-Fatah, the only way to break loose was using military force and guerrilla warfare. This
was the very moment when the dimension of the Palestinian conflict crossed the border of the
state to become a matter of international terrorism. In 1968, the news about rejecting
retaliation coming from Israel made PLO become the most powerful and wealthy
organisation for liberation. This is the reason why PLO turned from the only democratic
institution in the Arab world into a bureaucratic organization.
But there is the other side of the coin. PLO became well-known world-wide
because of it's debatable method of acknowledging power. In 1968, a plain belonging to
Israeli's ''El Al'' was attacked in Athena by a group of fedayi. Terrorism was knocking on the
international scene. In 1972 another tragedy sprang up: during the Summer Olympics in
Munich, Germany, eleven Israeli athletes were taken hostage and eventually killed, along
with a German police officer, by the Palestinian group Black September. The Israeli come
back wasn't less murderous: they killed almost 200 refugees in Syria and Lebanon. Another
important element taking part in this deadly cocktail was the involvement of many states in
this terrorist scene. Egypt, Iraq, Algeria helped Palestinian fighters giving them logistic base.
In 1973, as a result of the casualties in the Six Days War began the Yom Kippur
War, named so to stress the religious importance of the day. The war began when the Arab
coalition launched a joint surprise attack on Israeli positions in the Israeli-occupied
territories on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, which also occurred that year during
the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Egyptian and Syrian forces crossed ceasefire lines to enter the Sinai
Peninsula and Golan Heights, which had been captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Both the United States and the Soviet Union initiated massive resupply efforts to their
respective allies during the war, and this led to a near-confrontation between the two nuclear
superpowers. As an effect, at the end of Kippur war, PLO was able to mark a new,
advantageous political line. The purpose was to find a compromise based on the recognition
of certain rights like determination.

The PLO's choice for political realism was symbiotic with a few diplomatic
strikes. Yasser Arafat received support from various countries like France, Italy and even
URSS where he usually came bearing an olive branch and a gun. But in fact, PLO was a
agglutination of heterogamous organizations looking for unity. Under the influence of the
bloody attempts, the Israeli conservative governments kept comparing PLO with a band of
assassins. In 1982, the Lebanon war had as a main purpose the destruction of the PLO
governance. In 1983, Arafat, beset at Tripoli had to leave Lebanon once again which left
PLO without a headquarter. This is the reason why in 1985 it wasn't capable of countering the
Israeli raid against Tunis. In Middle-East, PLO was practically reduced to numbness.
In December 1987 took place First Intifada. After twenty years of occupation and
military destructions, despair and repulse for an insupportable situation represented the base
for the riot. Intifada broke spontaneously and caught on the wrong foot PLO and Israel. The
lack of futurity led to bursting radical mindsets. A confirmation on this assumption is a rising
Hamas movement encouraging Israel's destruction. Using Intifada as a propagandistic tool,
PLO decided to recognize in 1988 UN's resolutions on Palestine and Israel's right to exist.
Once again, no agreement was reached because of intransigence on both sides, triggering the
Gulf War and the exclusion of PLO from the Madrid Conference of 1991.
The radicalization of Intifada forced the Declaration of Principles, an attempt
in 1993 to set up a framework that would lead to the resolution of the ongoing Israeli
Palestinian conflict.
It was the first face-to-face agreement between the government of Israel and
the Palestine Liberation Organization . Negotiations concerning the agreement, an
outgrowth of the Madrid Conference of 1991, were conducted secretly in Oslo, Norway.
In 1996, because of another wave of terrorist attempts Benjamin Netanyahu, an
antagonist of the Declaration of Principles takes power in Israel. After a short period of
peace Netanyahu makes a declaration, sustaining the expansion of Israel. His intransigence
was justified by the necessity of maintaining cohesion with the extremist Sharon. Although
The Wye Plantation Agreement (1999-200) denoted a change politics, caused the downfall
of Netanyahu.

The second Intifada started in September 2000, when Ariel Sharon made a visit
to the Temple Mount, seen by Palestinians as highly provocative and took both Israelis and
Palestinians in an impasse after 52 years of confrontation.
Despite the peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan and the generally existing
cease fire, the Arab world and Israel generally remain at odds with each other. Israel and a
number of other countries do not recognise Palestine. The main issues currently obstructing
an agreement are: borders, security, water rights, the status of Jerusalem and freedom of
access

to religious

sites,

ongoing Israeli

settlement expansion,

and

legalities

concerning Palestinian refugees including the right of return.

As of 30 October 2014, 135 of the 193 member states of the United Nations
have recognised the State of Palestine. Many of the countries that do not recognise the State
of Palestine nevertheless recognise the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people.