Galtung's Triangle: Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Fabrício Guerra

 Fabrício Guerra

Mr. Zhou

GPHC

13 February 2021

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

     Today the Middle East is often portrayed as a mess ruled by three main superpowers: Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. All of the instability of the area is mostly due to the world power's partitioning of the area after World War II, when decolonization was encouraged. They failed to make borders so that they were in accordance with cultural groups, and this led to governments having minorities, which always leads to instability. One of these more famous examples is the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, which began in 1947 as part of the United Nation's Resolution 181 which divided the British Mandate of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. In 1948, the State of Israel was created and this created the First Israeli-Palestinian War. The war ended in 1949 as a victory for Israel, but there ended up being over 750,000 displaces Palestinians, and so the territory was divided into three parts, The State of Israel, The West Bank, and The Gaza Strip. Since then there have been multiple conflicts domestically and internationally. Israel indulged in several wars involving other Arab countries, especially Egypt and Jordan. The most recent conflicts however have been domestic ones, such as the Intifadas, which were when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians violently protested the occupation of Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip due to diplomacy issues. There have been two intifadas, the first one in 1987 and the second in 2000. The first intifada was caused by the increased land expropriation and settlement construction which was enforced by the Likud Party when it was elected in 1977. There was also increased repression of Palestinian protests following the 1982 Israeli Invasion of Lebanon, and then finally on 1987 when an Israeli Army Vehicle struck two vans and killed four Palestinians. This was perceived as an act of revenge for a Jewish man who was killed in Gaza, and so the riots began. After about a year, the riots spiraled into was becoming a full on civil war, but the United States intervened and the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) accepted their terms, which was to reject terrorism and acknowledge Israel's right to exist. After the first intifada had calmed, there was still hostility between the PLO and the Israeli Government. The Likud's were still creating settlements in the West Bank and repressing the Palestinians, and in response the PLO began importing arms as a show of defiance. Then in 2000, as a show of Israeli sovereignty, the Likud prime minister candidate, Ariel Shanon, visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque with over 1,000 guardsmen. The Al-Aqsa Mosque is known as the third holiest site in all of Islam, and so this caused the second intifada to break out. After the violence had subsided in 2005, things were probably worse than they had started off as Israeli settlements continued but the economy stagnated, and the PLO was overthrown due to widespread corruption allegations and was replaced by Hamas.

     When analyzing this conflict, it isn't difficult to understand how it came to be. Let's begin with the latent causes. There are several attitudes and assumptions between the two states in conflict here. Israel believes that the Palestinian territories are rightfully theirs, but Palestine (and practically every other Arab nation in the Middle East) believes that Israel is a false state that doesn't have the right to sovereignty. Palestine also believes that the Israeli settlements in the West Bank are a form of assimilation of Palestinians into the Israeli society. Israel is much stronger and bigger militarily than Palestine, so Palestine depends on the interests of every other Arab nation to protect them. The main reason behind why these areas are so disputed is due to religion. The Old City of Jerusalem is home to three holy sites, one for Christianity, one for Judaism, and one for Islam. It would be extremely difficult to have a city where three major religions with similar founding co-exist harmoniously. Finally we have the behaviors of the two sides, as well as international interventions. Israel keeps on settling the West Bank, which inflames the thoughts of Palestinians. They also repress protests, sometimes with lethal force, and make shows of sovereignty over Palestinian territories, such as with what caused the Second Intifada. The Palestinians often use tactics of terror over Israel, which as we have learned from previous scenarios, does not deescalate a hostile situation. Israel is protected internationally by by it's former overlord Britain, as well as the United States who sells them weapons. Palestine is protected internationally by the Arab world both by weapons selling and for religious reasons.  

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