Israel

In Europe in the 1880s, there was a lot of anti-Semitism, which is a strong dislike of Jewish people. Many white Europeans believed Jews were an inferior race who didn’t deserve equal rights as citizens. This anti-Semitism led to a lot of violence against European Jews. In Russia, for example, anti-Jewish “pogroms” led to the looting of Jewish businesses and attacks against Jewish people.

Anti-Semitism in Europe led to a movement called Zionism, created by Theodore Herzl. Zionists encouraged Jews all over the world to move to a country called Palestine in the Middle East. They believed this was the historic Jewish homeland, and thought it should become a new cultural center of Jewish life where Jews could live safely and peacefully.

The problem with Herzl’s plan was that the area was controlled by a country called the Ottoman Empire, and most people living there were Palestinian Arabs, who did not want European Jews to own the land. The United Kingdom wanted to destroy the Ottoman Empire. During WWI (1914 - 1918), the U.K. promised both Arabs and Jews they would get their own nation if they helped attack the Ottomans so they would lose WWI.

The Ottoman Empire was defeated during WWI, and thanks to the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the United Kingdom (Great Britain) got what it wanted - they were give control over Palestine.

The United Kingdom controlled Palestine for the next few decades, breaking their promise to both Arabs and Jews that they would get control over their own nation. More Jews continued to move there, especially during the Holocaust. Conflicts between Arabs and Jews in the region increased. Palestinian Arabs didn’t want Palestine to become a Jewish country. There were many anti-Zionist riots during the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1947, the newly created United Nations got involved and tried to get Arabs and Jews to agree to split up Palestine and create two separate countries. The Zionists (Jews) agreed, but the Palestinians (Arabs) rejected the plan. The following year, in 1948, the Zionists declared their independence as the nation of Israel, using the borders the UN had proposed in 1947. Thus, Israel as a country was founded.

Palestinian Arabs and the surrounding Arab countries, like Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon, immediately declared war on Israel. Israel won the Arab-Israeli War and captured more Palestinian land. Many Palestinian Arabs fled from the region. The war ended with a cease-fire treaty, but none of the Arab countries recognized Israel as an independent nation.

Over the next twenty years, conflicts between Arabs and Israelis continued. One conflict was over the Suez Canal, called the Suez Crisis. Britain and France paid to build the Suez Canal in Egypt and therefore controlled it. In 1956, the President of Egypt took it over and blocked Israel from using it, so Israel invaded Egypt, with help from France and Britain. A cease-fire was signed between Egypt and Israel in 1957 which ended the fighting and gave Israel control over a new piece of land called the Gaza Strip, plus access to the canal.

Arabs in Palestine and the surrounding countries continued to attack Israel during the 1960s. In 1967, Israel attacked its neighbors in the “Six Day War”, and within six days it had captured a huge amount of new territory from Egypt and Palestine. This war led to more violence between Israel and the PLO, or Palestine Liberation Organization, which was based in Jordan and fought for Palestinians to take back their land.

In 1977, US President Jimmy Carter persuaded Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat to join him at Camp David, Maryland to negotiate peace. The “Camp David Accords” ended a 30-year war between Egypt and Israel and established diplomatic relations so they could trade and communicate peacefully. Israel agreed to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula, and Egypt agreed to let Israel use the Suez Canal.

In 1982, Israel began bombing Lebanon and Beirut to attack the PLO bases that were established there. In 1987, a Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip led to the deaths of several hundred Palestinians. Violence between Israel and its Arab neighbors occurred throughout the 1980s.

During the 1990s, the U.S. started an Iraq War, Israel showed unusual restraint and chose not to get involved in the fighting. This made its Arab neighbors willing to meet to discuss peace negotiations. A conference was held in Madrid, Spain in 1991 between representatives from Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria. The peace talks were successful and opened up all countries involved to more communication.

After the Madrid Conference, Israel and the PLO agreed to the Oslo Accords. Israel recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people, and agreed to allow Palestinians control over the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The PLO agreed that Israel had a right to exist. The three leaders who negotiated the plan for peace were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

In the years since the Oslo Accords, relations between Israel and Palestine have been up and down. Israeli and Palestinian leaders still disagree on some key issues. In 2015, the leader of the PLO, Mahmoud Abbas, made a speech to the UN and accused Israel of not keeping up their promises in the Oslo Accords. Because of that, he said the PLO wouldn’t follow the Accords anymore either.