iii. Israel -Palestine conflict
- The Balfour Declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 during the First World War announcing support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.
- According to a history written by the University of Central Arkansas, over 60,000 Jews departed in 1935 and approximately 75,000 Jews went to Palestine between 1922 and 1926.
- It also states that Palestinian Arabs urged the UK to stop Jewish emigration, but that the UK disregarded their requests. There were violent episodes that resulted in 500 fatalities.
- In 1936, the UK government recommended the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states.
- The UN developed a partition plan after receiving a referral from Britain over Palestine in 1947.
- Israeli independence was proclaimed in May 1948.
- Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Syria were the first Arab nations to invade the newly constituted nation.
- After the conflict, Israel reclaimed some of the territories that had been given to Palestinian Arabs by the 1947 UN decision.
- The two-state solution refers to an arrangement where Israeli and Palestinian states co-exist in the region.
- However, such a solution has not materialized over the decades.