Shirin S's List: Palestine/Israel Conflict

• Statistics Last Updated: February 23, 2009

       

  Israeli and Palestinian Children Killed September 29, 2000 - Present
  123 Israeli children have been killed by Palestinians and 1,487 Palestinian children have been killed by Israelis since September 29, 2000. (View Source)

• Israelis and Palestinians Killed
  September 29, 2000 - Present

       

  1,072 Israelis and at least 6,348 Palestinians have been killed since September 29, 2000. (View Source)

• Israelis and Palestinians Injured
  September 29, 2000 - Present

   

  8,864 Israelis and 39,019 Palestinians have been injured since September 29, 2000. (View Source)

     

• UN Resolutions Targeting Israel and the Palestinians
  1955 - 1992

   

  Israel has been targeted by at least 65 UN resolutions and the Palestinians have been targeted by none. (View Source)

     

• Current Number of Political Prisoners and Detainees

       

  1 Israeli is being held prisoner by Palestinians, while 10,756 Palestinians are currently imprisoned by Israel. (View Source)

• Demolitions of Israeli and Palestinian Homes
  1967 - Present

   

  0 Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians and 18,147 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967. (View Source)

     

• Current Illegal Settlements on the Other’s Land

   

  Israel currently has 223 Jewish-only settlements and ‘outposts’ built on confiscated Palestinian land. Palestinians do not have any settlements on Israeli land. (View Source)

     

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• After World War II, the newly formed United Nations (which then had less developing countries as members) recommended the partition of Palestine into two states and the internationalization of Jerusalem. The minority Jewish people received the majority of the land.
• The Arabs would get 43 percent of the land, the Jews 57 percent

  • An unfair division based on favoritism.
• The Jewish portion was better land; by the end of 1947 the percentage of Palestine purchased by Jews was less than 7 percent; Jewish land purchases accounted for only 10 percent of the proposed Jewish state; and Jews made up less than one-third of the population of Palestine. Moreover, the Jewish state was to include 497,000 Arabs, who would constitute just under 50 percent of the new state's population.
• partition violated both U.S. and UN principles of self-determination.
• The State of Israel was proclaimed on May 14 1948, but the Arab states rejected the partition of Palestine and the existence of Israel. The armies of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Egypt attacked but were defeated by the Israeli army.
• In 1948 for example, Palestinians were driven out of the new Israel into refugee camps in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and other regions. At least 750,000 people are said to have been driven out (or ethnically cleansed, as some have described it). However, this aspect is not usually mentioned by mainstream media when recounting various historical events.

  • Remember to mention that history is always written by the winning side. The media would have been controlled by the Israelis, who neglected to mention this.
• In 1956, Britain, France and Israel invaded the Sinai peninsula after Egypt nationalized the Suez canal because these waning empires feared further loss of power
• In 1967, Israel simultaneously attacked Egypt, Syria and Jordan in a “pre-emptive strike” against the Arab troops along its borders. Israel captured key pieces of land, such as the strategic Golan Heights to the north on the border with Syria, to the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza strip from Egypt. In fact, Israel more than doubled its size in the six days that this war took place. Since then, negotiations have been around returning land to pre-1967 states, as required by international law and UN resolutions.
• In 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur to attempt to regain their lost land, but failed.

  • Do NOT say, but keep just in case someone else mentions it.
• In 1978, the Camp David accords was signed between Israel, Egypt and the US, and Israel returned Sinai back to Egypt in return for peace between them. To many in the Arab world, Egypt had sold out to US pressure. To the US and Israel, this was a great achievement
• In 1978, due to rising Hezbollah attacks from South Lebanon, where many Palestinian refugees still were, Israel attacked and invaded Lebanon. In 1982, Israel went as far up Lebanon as Beirut, as bloody exchanges followed between Israeli attempts to bomb Yasser Arafat’s PLO locations, and Hezbollah retaliations.

  • Israelis attempted to bomb the location, and the Hezbollah only re-acted, appropriately, I might add.
• In 1985, Israel declared a strip of South Lebanon to be a Security Zone (never recognized by the UN, and hence Israel was always occupying this other nation.) Many civilians were killed on both sides. Israeli forces were accused of massacres on many occasions. After 22 years, Israel withdrew in May 2000

  • Israel occupied Lebanon for TWENTY-TWO years!
• Young Palestinians confronted Israeli troops with nothing more than sling shots and stones. Thousands were killed by the Israeli military. Many suicide activists killed Israeli soldiers and caused other damage. Many innocent civilians were killed on both sides.
• 1993 saw the Oslo Peace Accord, whereby Israel recognized the PLO and gave them limited autonomy in return for peace and an end to Palestinian claims on Israeli territory. This has been largely criticized as a one-sided accord, that benefits only Israel, not the Palestinian people. It resulted in Israeli control of land, water, roads and other resources.

  • This "agreement" was strongly biased, and only leaves room for Israeli control. Now would be a good time to mention that over 70 UN resolutions aide Israel, but none help Palestine.
• In April 1996, Israeli forces bombed Lebanon for 17 days, with Hezbollah retaliating by firing upon populated areas of Northern Israel.

  • One again Israel acted violently, FORCING the hezbollah to react.
• In all this time then, the Palestinian people have been without any nation, and have had limited rights, while suffering from poverty. Israel continued to increase and expand their settlements into occupied territories, giving up less and less land compared to what was promised. Many Palestinians (that are not Israeli Arabs since 1948) living in Israel do not have the right to vote, or have limited rights, while paying full taxes. For over 3 decades, the Palestinian people have been living under a military occupation.

  • Injustice and clear violation of civil rights.
• Palestinian frustration has spilled into extremism in some cases as well. Many militant groups from Palestine and other areas of the Middle East have therefore sprung up in recent years as well as past decades, performing acts of what the West and Israel describe as terrorism and what the groups themselves justify as freedom fighting (though achieving freedom through terrorist actions could arguably still be called terrorist organizations, despite claimed motives).

  • The violence is caused by Israeli refusal to grant them their rights.
• In 2002, Israel started construction of a large defensive security fence in the West Bank supposedly to stop terrorists from making their way in to Israeli cities and settlements. While it mostly seems to have worked, those large fences have drawn international criticism for going quite far into Palestinian land not Israeli land. Israel also continued controversial settlement programs in disputed areas.

  • Oh, the irony! The build a wall for "protection from terrorists" and manage to invade even more of Palestine in the process.
• Arafat himself and his ruling fatah party are also being seen increasingly as corrupt and ineffective by Palestinians themselves.

  • They are also burdened with a corrupt government
• In the same year, the US (who, together with Israel refused to negotiate directly with the President, Yasser Arafat), backed Arafat’s selection for Palestinian Prime Minister, Mahmoud Abbas, and they all pushed for a road map peace plan towards a two-state solution. While Palestinian militants announced a ceasefire, Israel continued to assassinate militant leaders.

  • Israel and the United States specifically refused negotiations - no wonder violence exists!
• Throught the recent years, anger and frustration has mounted as the larger, but poorer Palestinian population also find themselves with the less prestine land. This has been further fuelled by Israeli bull-dozing of many homes and attempts to kill extremist leaders which often end in death or capture of innocent civilians (including women and children).
• In addition, while Israel demanded that the ineffective Palestinian National Authority do something to crack down on suicide bombers and other terrorist elements within its territories, it continued bombing official buildings and compounds (making any attempts to crack down on such elements futile).

  • Violence in the racent past!
• Hamas has been listed by many countries as a terrorist organization, though others see it as an independence movement. However, its means are certainly terrorist in nature, often employing suicide attacks on Israeli civilians.
• In addition to its military wing, the so-called Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigade, Hamas devotes much of its estimated $70-million annual budget to an extensive social services network. It funds schools, orphanages, mosques, healthcare clinics, soup kitchens, and sports leagues. “Approximately 90 percent of its work is in social, welfare, cultural, and educational activities,”

  • Hamas is not evil!
• While the UN Security Council has attempted to pass numerous resolutions critical of Israel the United States has vetoed almost all of them. Nevertheless, there have been some resolutions demanding that Israel return land that was captured in the 1967 war etc (such as UN Resolution 242)

  • Pro-Palestine resolutions aren't being passed because the strongly pro-Palestine US keeps vetoing them!
• Often the international community is critical of Israeli inaction, but the US veto prevents anything coming of it. Instead, Israeli land expansion and settlements have continued.
• That led to an escalation of conflict, with air strikes by Israel against Lebanon and Hezbollah, destroying much of the main infrastructure. Hezbollah retaliated with many rockets being fired into cities and towns in Israel. Both sides witnessed massive internal displacement of people and terror.

  • Israel has once again managed to start it!
• An additional source of frustration for the Palestinian people is that the land that is being settled by Israelis are usually prime land, and hence the various peace negotiations usually leave Palestine with the less usable land. Israel also thereby controls water sources.

  • Israel also controls Palestinian water sources.

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• Much of the history of the region since that time has been one of conflict between Israel on one side and Palestinians, represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, and Israel's Arab neighbours, on the other. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced, and several wars were fought involving Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
• Palestinians in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, have lived under Israeli occupation since 1967. The settlements that Israel has built in the West Bank are home to around 400,000 people and are deemed to be illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
• Israel evacuated its settlers from the Gaza Strip in 2005 and withdrew its forces, ending almost four decades of military occupation. However, after the militant Islamic group Hamas seized control of Gaza in June 2007, Israel intensified its economic blockade of the Strip.
• Despite the handover of Gaza and parts of the West Bank to Palestinian control, a "final status" agreement has yet to be reached.
• In February 2007, Hamas and Fatah agreed to form a government of national unity.
• However, in June 2007 Hamas took control of the Gaza strip, seriously challenging the concept of a coalition, which Abbas subsequently dissolved.
• Many analysts regard Mahmoud Abbas as a moderate. He has condemned the armed Palestinian uprising and favours the resumption of negotiations with Israel

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