VOA新闻杂志2023--How Did the Israel-Palestinian Conflict Start?

How Did the Israel-Palestinian Conflict Start?

The fighting between Israelis and Hamas militants¹ is the latest clash in a conflict that some people believe dates back to events described in the Bible.

Over the weekend, Hamas launched a surprise attack in Israel from the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Hamas gunmen killed more than 1,200 people, including women and children. The group also took more than 150 people as hostages.

Israel answered with airstrikes of what it said were Hamas targets in Gaza. Officials in the Palestinian-controlled area said more than 1,000 have been killed, including some children. Thousands have also been wounded on both sides.

What started the conflict?

The modern conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is mainly a territorial² dispute in Palestine, an area now known as Israel, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank. Parts of the land are also considered the holiest places to Jews, Christians³ and Muslims.

The Roman Empire controlled the area at the time Jesus was believed to have been born in Bethlehem. Following the death of Rome's ally, King Herod, the land was divided into five locally administered areas under Rome.

Later, the land then came under the Ottoman Empire's control for about 400 years until the end of World War I. After World War I, Britain controlled the area it called Palestine and expressed support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people."

In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution dividing the British-ruled area of Palestine into two states, one Jewish and one Arab, with Jerusalem under a UN administration. On May 14, 1948, the modern State of Israel was established for Jews fleeing persecution⁴ and seeking a homeland.

Arab countries rejected the UN plan, arguing that it was unfair and violated the UN Charter. In the war that followed, some 700,000 Palestinians, half the Arab population in Palestine, fled or were driven from their homes. They ended up in Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria as well as in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem.

Israel denied that it sought to drive Palestinians from their homes. The new country said it was attacked by five Arab states the day after its creation. Armistice⁵ agreements halted the fighting in 1949, but there was no official peace treaty.

Palestinians call the creation of Israel the "Nakba" in Arabic. It means a disaster, or catastrophe⁶, that resulted in mass displacement⁷ and blocked their dreams of statehood.

Other major wars

In 1967, Israel launched the Six-Day War against Egypt and Syria. Israel has occupied the West Bank, Arab East Jerusalem, which it captured from Jordan, and Syria's Golan Heights ever since.

In 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israeli positions along the Suez Canal and Golan Heights, beginning the Yom Kippur War. Israel pushed both armies back within three weeks.

Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982 aiming to remove Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) fighters under Yasser Arafat. In 2006, war erupted in Lebanon again when Hezbollah militants captured two Israeli soldiers and Israel retaliated⁸.

What is Hamas?

In 1987, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian refugee living in Gaza, during the first intifada, or uprising, founded Hamas. The name in Arabic means the Islamic Resistance Movement.

The group does not recognize Israel's right to exist. It has launched many deadly attacks, including suicide bombings against Israelis. In 1997, the U.S. State Department named Hamas a terrorist organization. So has the European Union and other Western countries.

In 2005, Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, which it had captured in 1967. Hamas won the 2006 parliamentary elections over the Palestinian Authority and took control of Gaza. The Palestinian Authority still administers the semi-autonomous, or partly self-ruling, areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Israel answered the Hamas takeover with a blockade on Gaza. It restricted the movement of people and goods to keep the group from developing weapons. Over the years, Hamas received support from many Arab countries. Recently, it has moved closer to Iran and its allies.

Current issues

For over 40 years, efforts have aimed to bring peace to the area.

In 1979, Egypt and Israel signed a peace treaty. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO chief Arafat agreed in 1993 to set up Palestinian autonomy in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The following year, Israel signed a peace treaty with Jordan.

In 2002, an Arab plan offered Israel normal ties with all Arab countries in return for a full withdrawal⁹ from the lands it took in the 1967 Middle East war, the creation of a Palestinian state, and a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees.

The two sides, however, are far apart on most issues.

Hamas has rejected the two-state solution. It has sworn to destroy Israel. Israel has increasingly built new Jewish settlements on occupied land over Palestinian objections.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of the Palestinian state. East Jerusalem has areas that are holy to Muslims, Jews, and Christians. But Israel has established "indivisible" Jerusalem as the country's capital.

Today about 5.6 million Palestinian refugees still live in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians have long demanded that refugees should be permitted to return home. But Israel says any resettlement of Palestinian refugees must take place outside of its borders.

Words in This Story

armistice –n. a truce¹⁰; and agreement to stop fight

blockade –n. when a country uses force to block trade, supplies or people from entering another country

autonomy –v. the right of a country to rule itself

1 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

2 territorial   

adj.领土的，领地的

参考例句：

• The country is fighting to preserve its territorial integrity.该国在为保持领土的完整而进行斗争。
• They were not allowed to fish in our territorial waters.不允许他们在我国领海捕鱼。

3 Christians   

n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Christians of all denominations attended the conference. 基督教所有教派的人都出席了这次会议。
• His novel about Jesus caused a furore among Christians. 他关于耶稣的小说激起了基督教徒的公愤。

4 persecution   

n. 迫害,烦扰

参考例句：

• He had fled from France at the time of the persecution. 他在大迫害时期逃离了法国。
• Their persecution only serves to arouse the opposition of the people. 他们的迫害只激起人民对他们的反抗。

5 armistice   

n.休战，停战协定

参考例句：

• The two nations signed an armistice.两国签署了停火协议。
• The Italian armistice is nothing but a clumsy trap.意大利的停战不过是一个笨拙的陷阱。

6 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

7 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。

8 retaliated   

v.报复，反击( retaliate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• When he once teased her for her inexperience, she retaliated. 有一次，他讥讽她没有经验，她便反唇相讥。 来自辞典例句
• The terrorists retaliated by killing three policemen. 恐怖分子以杀死三名警察相报复。 来自辞典例句

9 withdrawal   

n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销

参考例句：

• The police were forced to make a tactical withdrawal.警方被迫进行战术撤退。
• They insisted upon a withdrawal of the statement and a public apology.他们坚持要收回那些话并公开道歉。

10 truce   

n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束

参考例句：

• The hot weather gave the old man a truce from rheumatism.热天使这位老人暂时免受风湿病之苦。
• She had thought of flying out to breathe the fresh air in an interval of truce.她想跑出去呼吸一下休战期间的新鲜空气。