Conflict between Jews and Palestinians?

Question

Why is there religious conflict between Jews and the Palestinians? (I would greatly appreciate it if you didn't go into too much detail)

Answer 1

It is not so much a religious conflict as it is a territorial conflict.  The Jews left Canaan around 3000BC.  Then the Palestinians moved in.  When the jews returned around 2000 BC they fought for the land because they believe ans still believe that it was promised to them by their god.  The Jews use religion on their side of the conflict, but it is still mostly over the territory itself and not a crusade.

Answer 2

One of the biggest misconceptions about this conflict is that it's some deep seeded thousand year feud.  That is absolutely false.  Matter of fact, over the centuries the Jews and Arabs have often lived in harmony.  The conflict really started in the late 1940's as the UN started thinking about giving the Jews a homeland in Palestine.  Palestine was an English colony for a long time but Arabs have occupied the region for hundreds of years.

It really comes down to the fact that land was taken away from the Arabs and given to Israel. The Arabs weren't compensated for the land, they were basically told to get out - it was not a fair thing at all.  I think many Jews understand that.  Really, it was one town in particular - Haiffa and the surrounding land along the coast that caused the most problems.  The area had approximately 200,000 people that need to get relocated.

The rest of the area given to the Jews to form Israel was nothing but desert and the Israeli's have done an amazing job building there country. Tel Aviv as nothing back in 1948, not it's a capital city,

Today, the issue has gotten much more complicated.  There are a lot of things that are mixed in a pot that has generated the anger between the 2 sides.  Ironically, most of it comes from outside forces.  The other Arab nations in the region use the Palestinians has a pawn for there own political agendas.  

Answer 3

Until about 1900, Palestine/Israel was inhabited by people of Arab origin. Palestine was a British colony, taken over from the French after Napoleon was defeated (pls check this before you submit it to teacher!).

During the 1800s and 1900s, a movement started among Jews in Europe called Zionism. Zionists argued that Jews would never be safe in Christian states, and they had to fulfil their Biblical destiny by returning to establish a country in the Holy Land. To this end, many Jews started moving to Palestine until they became a large minority of the population.  This created conflict and violence in the 1910s, 20s and 30s. The Arabs resented the invasion and the British just wanted things to be settled and quiet.

After World War II, the Jews in Palestine began an intensive terrorist campaign against the British, while simultaneously fighting with the Arabs. Because of the Holocaust and guilt in the Western World and Jewish influence in the United States, the UN agreed to give the Jews a state in Palestine, called Israel and created in 1948.

Instantly this state was attacked by neighbouring Arab states, but the Jews fought well and survived. After this, Arab disunity allowed Israel to win successive wars and make peace with the neighbouring Arab states of Syria, Jordan and Egypt. But always the problem of the Palestinians, who lost their country in 1948, remained. These people have no real homeland and are saddled with a militaristic and simplistic warrior culture- at least among their leadership.

The creation of Israel in 1948 was a terrible mistake but given the country has now existed for 60 years and most militant Palestinians deny its right to exist, it is difficult to see an end to this problem, which is why it goes on and on.

Answer 4

It's more about territory than religion.

The jews obviously have their own religion of Judaism whereas the Palestinians are Christian and Muslim but the problem is that the jews claim that their sky god gave them the Palestinians land thousands of years ago and therefore they are entitled to it today.

The State of Israel was formed from Palestinian territories in 1948 by illegal jewish immigrants from Europe after a long campaign of terror against the Christian and Muslim population and the British who were adminstering Palestine at that time.

Basically the British just gave up and went home and the UN divided Palestine to try to stop the bloodshed against the wishes of the Christians and Muslims.

Once the jews got some territory they grabbed more and the Palestinians were forced into refugee camps in neighbouring countries where they have been ever since.

Answer 5

Jerusalem had always been sacred to Jews, Christians, & Muslims. Many politicians on both sides use religion for their propaganda. Religion had proven to be a great motive. It’s not that religious issues aren’t real, but many politicians who use religion make things worse.

Answer 6

From 1517-1917 Turkey's Ottoman Empire controlled a vast Arab empire, a portion of which is today Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine. During World War I (1914-1918), Turkey supported Germany. When Germany was defeated, so were the Turks. In 1916 control of the southern portion of their Ottoman Empire was "mandated" to France and Britain under the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided the Arab region into zones of influence. Lebanon and Syria were assigned (mandated) to France... and "Palestine" (today's Jordan, Israel and "West Bank") was mandated to Great Britain.

Because no other peoples had ever established a national homeland in "Palestine" since the Jews had done it 2,000 years before, the British "looked favorably" upon the creation of a Jewish National Homeland throughout ALL of Palestine. The Jews had already begun mass immigration into Palestine in the 1880's in an effort to rid the land of swamps and malaria and prepare for the rebirth of Israel. This Jewish effort to revitalize the land attracted an equally large immigration of Arabs from neighboring areas who were drawn by employment opportunities and healthier living conditions. There was never any attempt to "rid" the area of what few Arabs there or those Arab masses that immigrated into this area along with the Jews!

In 1923, the British divided the "Palestine" portion of the Ottoman Empire into two administrative districts. Jews would be permitted only west of the Jordan river. In effect, the British had "chopped off" 75% of the originally proposed Jewish Palestinian homeland to form an Arab Palestinian nation called Trans-Jordan (meaning "across the Jordan River"). This territory east of the Jordan River was given to Emir Abdullah (from Hejaz, now Saudi Arabia) who was not even an Arab-"Palestinian!" This portion of Palestine was renamed Trans-Jordan. Trans-Jordan and would again be renamed "Jordan" in 1946. In other words, the eastern 3/4 of Palestine would be renamed TWICE, in effect, erasing all connection to the name "Palestine!" However, the bottom line is that the Palestinian Arabs had THEIR "Arab Palestinian" homeland. The remaining 25% of Palestine (now WEST of the Jordan River) was to be the Jewish Palestinian homeland. However, sharing was not part of the Arab psychological makeup then nor now.

Encouraged and incited by growing Arab nationalism throughout the Middle East, the Arabs of that small remaining Palestinian territory west of the Jordan River launched never-ending murderous attacks upon the Jewish Palestinians in an effort to drive them out. Most terrifying were the Hebron massacres of 1929 and later during the 1936-39 "Arab Revolt." The British at first tried to maintain order but soon (due to the large oil deposits being discovered throughout the Arab Middle East) turned a blind eye. It became painfully clear to the Palestinian Jews that they must fight the Arabs AND drive out the British.

The Palestinian Jews were forced to form an organized defense against the Arabs Palestinians.... thus was formed the Hagana, the beginnings of the Israeli Defense Forces [IDF]. There was also a Jewish underground called the Irgun led by Menachem Begin (who later became Prime Minister of Israel). Besides fighting the Arabs, the Irgun was instrumental in driving out the pro-Arab British. Finally in 1947 the British had enough and turned the Palestine matter over to the United Nations.

The 1947 U.N. Resolution 181 partition plan was to divide the remaining 25% of Palestine into a Jewish Palestinian State and a SECOND Arab Palestinian State (Trans-Jordan being the first) based upon population concentrations. The Jewish Palestinians accepted... the Arab Palestinians rejected. The Arabs still wanted ALL of Palestine... both east AND west of the Jordan River.

Our Palestinian Cousins started the '48 war, and in so doing released the warlike appetites of a nation of survivors, a people with no place to run, who had repressed their rage for millennia, and had now earned full title to it!

On May 14, 1948 the "Palestinian" Jews finally declared their own State of Israel and became "Israelis." On the next day, seven neighboring Arab armies... Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen... invaded Israel. Most of the Arabs living within the boundaries of the newly declared "ISRAEL" were encouraged to leave by the invading Arab armies to facilitate the slaughter of the Jews and were promised to be given all Jewish property after the victorious Arab armies won the war. The truth is that 70% of the Arab Palestinians who left in 1948 – perhaps 300,000 to 400,000 of them – never saw an Israeli soldier! They did not flee because they feared Jewish thugs, but because of a rational and reasonable calculus: the Jews will be exterminated; we will get out of the way while that messy and dangerous business goes forward, and we will return afterwards to reclaim our homes, and to inherit those nice Jewish properties as well. They guessed wrong; and the Arab Palestinians are still tortured by the residual shame of their flight. Their shame is so great because in their eyes running from Jews was like running from women. So much for the blatant lie about Jews throwing out all the [Palestinian] Arabs!

The remaining 30% either (1) saw for themselves that these Jews would fight and die for their new nation and decided to pack up and leave or (2) were driven off the land as a normal consequence of war.

When the 19 month war ended, Israel survived despite a 1% loss of its entire population! Those Arabs who did not flee became today's Israeli-Arab citizens. Those who fled became the seeds of the first wave of "Palestinian Arab refugees."

The Arab propagandists and apologists almost never mentioned that in 1948, Arab armies launched a war against a one-day-old Israel. Instead he focused on the main consequence of that war: the creation of Arab refugees, stating that Israel "short of genocide" expelled 800,000 of them. This not only disagrees with UN estimates of a bit over 400,000 refugees but also ignores the fact that most of the Arabs/Palestinians were encouraged to leave by the Arab World itself!