Palestine and Israel Conflict

Denise Delgado 11F

Explain why the Six Day War of 1967 continues to be important in shaping the Israeli-Palestine conflict today?

Some say that we’re still living the 7th day of the 6th day war, as the 6 day war continues to be very important in shaping the Arab-Israeli conflict today. There are still serious problems, such as land disputes, as the Israeli government encouraged other Jews to migrate to Palestine/Israel to occupy the land which was illegal, this left Palestinian’s with no homes as they were being forced out, also led to terrorist attacks from the Palestinians because terrorism was the only way they could fight back and be heard. Israeli security barriers that protect civilians from Palestinian terrorist groups such as Hamas but it also restrict Palestinians from life outside the West Bank.  All of these things are still big problems as they have recently led to the summer conflict in 2014 which is proof that things haven’t changed after 47 years of conflict.

The earlier origins of the conflict, was Zionists (Jews who considered Palestine their homeland) decided they wanted Palestine and made friends with British government officials as at the time they were seen as world leaders. When Britain won the war they forced out the Turkish out and Palestine went under British Mandate and because Jews had influence on the British Government it helped when Jews migrated into Palestine but this began to cause fights and anti-Semitism between the Arabs and Jews and the main goal of the British Mandate was to protect the Palestinians so the British government banned Jewish immigrants from entering Palestine but this became impossible as the British government had already signed the Balfour declaration. British government appeased both sides but when the British Mandate ended in 1948 war broke out between the Arabs and Jews. In May 1948, Israel became an independent state after Israel was recognised by the United Nations as a country in the Middle East. After it being granted its independence, it was attacked by a number of Arab Nations. This affected Arab states because Israel would now be more difficult to get rid off as they’ve been recognised and this also created Arab aggression towards Israel as they were being given land.

Source A is a metaphor which shows this because it shows the Arab and Israeli tension and the tension will only be broken when the lid (British mandate) pops off.  The glass bottle has a Palestinian near Palestine and an Israeli with a gun pointing it to the Palestinian which suggests that a war will break out (which it did) so there was frustration from both sides.

The UN partition plan was also an origin of the conflict because the Israeli’s began to claim land that they couldn’t claim to create an Israeli State which was illegal and caused problems between Israeli’s and Palestinians. The UN partition plan was put in order because the Israeli’s originally had nowhere to be put geographically but now today the tables have turned for Palestine as they’re now in the same position Israeli’s were years ago.  Source B shows the partition map that was made for the Israeli’s and Palestinians by the UN which divides the land in half for both sides and in Source G it shows Palestine today which is unequally divided after the 6th day because most of the land was conquered. Foreign investments from countries such as America also caused problems because they were funding Zionists and that meant they could buy land from Palestinians for more than the land is worth to continue to create the Israeli State. They were given a large part of Palestine, which they considered their traditional home but the Arabs who already lived there and in neighbouring countries felt that was unfair and didn't accept the new country as the declaration of Israel was illegal which it was.