How did the Arab Israeli Palestinian problem come into existence?

Answer 1

it came into existence when hitler started killing the jews so the jews started fleeing into palestine from the mediternean sea from the late 1800's , and in 1948 the jews wanted to make themselves a state in palestine

Answer 2

The Arab-Israeli Conflict has its origins in the confrontation between immigrant Zionist Jews in the Mandate of Palestine and their interaction with the indigenous Arabs in the 1920s and 1930s. Before that point, the Immigration into the land had been a small trickle and Arabs were not terribly concerned. However, the Jewish immigration in the 1920s was quite large and disruptive. By the mid 1930s, both sides had developed militias which they used both to attack British colonial institutions and each other. Jews also flooded back to the Holy Land following World War II, since they felt that they would always be persecuted in countries where they were the minority. In 1947, as UN Resolution 181 was being debated, a full-scale war erupted between the Jewish militias and the Arab militias. When Israel declared its independence in 1948, the Arab States joined in the War which caused it to be internationally recognized and called the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9. The on and off conflict that has remained unresolved for over half a century now.

Therefore, if we use the terms Israeli and Palestinian retroactively to those people who would eventually identify or would be identified as Israelis or Palestinians, the conflict started during the 1920s. If we require that these terms be strictly applied, then the conflict started in 1948 when Israel declared its independence.

Answer 3

The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict has its origins in the confrontation between immigrant Zionist Jews in the Mandate of Palestine and their interaction with the indigenous Arabs in the 1920s and 1930s. Before that point, the immigration into the land had been a small trickle and Arabs were not terribly concerned. However, the Jewish immigration in the 1920s was quite large and disruptive. By the mid 1930s, both sides had developed militias which they used both to attack British colonial institutions and each other. In 1947, as UN Resolution 181 was being debated, a full-scale war erupted between the Jewish militias and the Arab militias. When Israel declared its independence in 1948, the Arab States joined in the War which caused it to be internationally recognized and called the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-9.

Therefore, if we use the terms Israeli and Palestinian retroactively to those people who would eventually identify or would be identified as Israelis or Palestinians, the conflict started during the 1920s. If we require that these terms be strictly applied, then the conflict started in 1948 when Israel declared its independence.

Answer 4

Answer 1

The principal reason was that the creation of Israel displaced the Palestinians, who had a great deal of support among Middle Eastern Arab countries.

Answer 2 - Israeli Perspective:

The creation of Israel (as a safe haven to harbor the streams of those from Europe who knew from a lifetime of experience what 'displaced' really means) displaced few. The bulk of those "Palestinians" who departed did so at the behest of the powers that surrounded Israel, in order to keep them out of harm's way until those powers finished their planned mopping-up operation, after which they would be welcomed back and handed the homes and possessions of the Jews. When it didn't work out that way, the 'support among Middle Eastern Arab countries' for their 'displaced' brothers manifested itself in the form of refugee camps and citizenship denied, while those who remained in Israel kept their property and possessions, and got citizenship, schools, jobs, towns, the vote, and proportional representation in an elected government.

Answer 3 - Arab Perspective:

The entire idea of Israel is a modern colony in the Middle East. Prior to 1900, less than 10% of the population of what would become Mandatory Palestine was Jewish and the Fellahin or Settled Arabs were the majority. There were also a large percentage of Turks, Circassians, Bedouin, and Druze, but the Settled Arabs were still the majority. Zionist Jews or those Jews who desired to create a Jewish State cleverly manipulated the Great Powers, especially the United Kingdom into giving them the right to immigrate to Mandatory Palestine in large numbers without consulting the rights of the Fellahin. Additionally, Zionist Jews purchased large swaths of land from Turkish nobility without consulting the Fellahin who lived on that land for centuries but did not properly own it. As a result, numerous Fellahin were forced off of their land during the Yishuv period, Yishuv being the word for a Zionist Jewish settlement in Mandatory Palestine. The Jewish population in Palestine continued to rise until 1939 when the Fellahin successfully petitioned the British government to close off Jewish immigration.

However, the Jewish minority had grown sufficiently large in Mandatory Palestine that this combined with the Holocaust was able to earn international sympathy for the Zionist cause of establishing a State for the Jews in a land where the Jewish population had literally "just" shown up. Compare this to Rhodesia which was a state that declared independence to be ruled by the White Settlers of Rhodesia in 1960 that had been on that land. Rhodesia was so vilified in the international community that in only 20 years, it reverted to become the African nation of Zimbabwe. However, in that case, the White Settlers had come to Rhodesia as early as 1860, which makes them far more "local" than the Zionist Jews in Palestine in 1948 (most of whom were in the country for less than 30 years). The attempt by the Yishuv to form a state could not be tolerated and the Arabs formed militias to prevent the Yishuv from asserting control over land that had been historically settled by the Arab people. As a result, war broke out between the Zionist Haganah, Palmach, Irgun, and Lehi militias and the Fellahin, represented by the Holy War Army and the Arab Liberation Army. The neighboring Arab countries joined in when the Yishuv declared independence to help to the Arab militias.

Answer 5

Prior to the Conflict
Up until the early 1800s, most Jews in Europe had little to do with Arabs and most Jews in the Arab World lived as second class citizens in the Dhimmi System. The Dhimmi, or non-Muslim under Muslim occupation was required by the Pact of Omar to pay a number of taxes that were connected with his Dhimmi status. The most famous was the jizya, which was a tax that Dhimmi had to pay for Muslims for the right to not be killed where they stood for not acknowledging Mohammed's Prophecy; it was a form of humiliation. Additional taxes included the kharaj, which was a tax on non-Muslim land-holdings in the Muslim World. The kharaj was so untenable that most Dhimmi were forced to live in the cities where the tax would not be applicable. (Muslims often note that kharaj did apply to Muslims, but do forget that the rate at which the kharaj applied to Muslims was far lower than for non-Muslims and therefore did not have these adverse effects.) Dhimmi were also unequal as concerns justice. On paper, a Christian or Jew could testify against a Muslim, but in reality, such testimony was not acceptable and the attempt to defame a Muslim would receive retribution. Christians and Jews were not allowed to build new houses of worship, restore old houses of worship, proselytize in any way (this included religious debate or dialogue), or allow wine or pigs to be shown in public.

Foreign Imperialism in the Arab World
As the 1800s began, European leadership began to colonize much of the Old World, especially Africa and southern Asia. Most of the Islamic World was not under direct colonial authority, but was on a short leash maintained by colonists. As a result, the segregated Dhimmi System gave way to a new, modern bureaucratic system where Europeans were the dominant class and natives, regardless of their religion were second-class, unless they became part of the bureaucracy. To do this, a person would require an education in order to become literate and be able to successfully perform functions in the Arab World.

Many Jewish groups (like Alliance Israélite Universelle) along with similar Christian groups came to the Arab World with European educations and European perspectives. They met up with their co-religionists and began to educate them so that they could become part of the new colonial bureaucracy. This created a fundamental imbalance from the way Arab society had been traditionally structured. Now it was the Muslims who were underrepresented in government, who were less educated, who were less free to practice their faith, and who were humiliated with laws passed against their interests. This would lead to many Arab Muslims painting the Jews and Christians who were native to their countries as foreign imperialists and usurpers. The hatred of Christians would eventually wane and remain marginal as Christians fled the Middle East in massive numbers in the 1920s and 1930s never to return. As the Jews had no intent of leaving, the hatred felt for them would only grow.

Arab Nationalism and Anti-Semitism
The European concept of a nation-state was beginning to become more and more popular in the Arab World since nationalism was the term used for resisting colonial and imperial authorities. It had worked for most of the countries in the Balkans of Europe, it had led to the independence on several Eastern European States, and it was internationally accepted as a legitimate form of resistance. Nationalism, however, is not terribly kind to minorities within any nation-state's area, since the concept of the "nation" was dependent on the idea that all of the people in any particular nation were of the same ethnic stock and heritage. Jews in the Arab World were branded by this system to be "the Other" and were regarded as traitors, spies, thieves, and fifth columns.

Arab Nationalism made a link between Arab Identity and Muslim Practice. This alienated Jews, Christians, and other minority religions from really participating. These issues started cropping up in the early 20th century, especially after World War I (1914-1919). The anti-Semitic nature of Arab Nationalism was only increased when Nazism became prominent in Europe (1933-1945). Arab Nationalists opposed British and French Imperialism and saw the Nazis (who also opposed British and French interests) as an ally and ideological equivalent. As a result of the increasing Anti-Semitism, many Jews in the Arab World felt uncomfortable and a small wealthy minority of them were bullied, stolen from, and executed. This, naturally provoked Jewish reciprocal hatred of the Arabs who were treating them so barbarically.

European Jewish Response to European Nationalism and Nazism
The issue of Nationalism in Europe was quite similar to that in the Arab World, although Herzl recognized the issue before it had made it to the Arab World (but while it was very persuasive in Europe). However, European Jews believed that Europeans in general were culturally superior to other peoples and that it would be unnecessary to worry. When the Dreyfus Affair turned out marches in Paris that said "Death to the Jews" on account of a kangaroo court against a particular guiltless Jew, it became clear to Herzl and several like-minded individuals that the Jew could not be integrated into Europe. Jews formed Zionist Congresses that debated how, when, and where would be the best place to create a State specifically for Jews.

By the 1910s, the Zionists were well-organized and were able to effectively petition the British to declare His Majesty's intent to create a Jewish State in the southern Levant (where Israel is now). Jewish Settlers began to arrive in Mandatory Palestine and built an economy. There were local skirmishes between the Arab Natives and the European Jews and these would increase during the the 1930s and 1940s. Mandatory Palestine was still seen as a backwater and dangerous place by most European Jews who preferred to live in the European cities they knew and loved. They thought a Jewish State to protect the Jewish people was unnecessary, but the mass extermination of the Holocaust fundamentally changed this perspective. Jews worldwide aligned themselves with the Zionists and were able to capture enough sympathy to get UN Resolution 181 passed, which would permit the Declaration of Independence of a Jewish State (and an Arab State) in Mandatory Palestine.

Arab-Israeli Conflict
The Arab-Israeli War was the internationalization of the Jewish-Arab conflict in the British Mandate of Palestine. When the United Nations passed Resolution 181, allocating territory to Jewish State and to an Arab State (Palestine), the Arabs rejected the plan leading to skirmishes between Jewish Militias and Arab Militias. In 1948, when the British announced the end of the Mandate, the Jewish Settlement used the opportunity and the legal avenue opened by Resolution 181 to declare a State (Israel). The day after, seven Arab armies from neighboring countries joined with the Arab Militias already operating. As the fighting progressed, Israel was able to repel the invaders and claim about 78% of British Mandate of Palestine as the grounds of their new state. The War is considered by most to be an Israeli Victory.

Throughout the fighting (from 1947-1949) numerous Palestinians were forced from their homes inside what would become Israeli territory. Other Palestinians left in fear that they too could be attacked and forced to leave. This climate of fear and and desire to leave was increased by Arab leaders who encouraged such activities claiming that it would get civilians out of the way while the fighting occurred. After the War and the elimination of Israel, the Palestinians would return without issue. This did not happen as Israel was victorious. Palestinians call this event (the overall war and removal from their homes) the Nakba or Great Catastrophe. Israel has refused the Right of Return for Palestinians claiming that if it did so, it would no longer have a Jewish majority, putting the entire purpose of a Jewish State in jeopardy.

Answer 6

The key cause of the conflict was, and continues to be, those populations ... and
their governments that incite and egg them on ... who, for whatever reason, cannot
and refuse to abide, stomach, tolerate, or accept Israel's existence. Sadly for all parties,
conflict is likely to persist until they get used to the fact, since Israel is not going away.

Answer 7

It started in 1948 over land, although to be fair, the arab people were not called Palestinians until after 1967.