Background
Identifying the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is itself a matter of contestation. One starting point might be British intervention in the region. In 1917 the British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour made the famous Balfour declaration of British support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. At the same time, the British government was making promises of independence to emerging Arab nationalist movements - securing their commitment to fight against the rapidly crumbling Ottoman Empire. With Zionism and ongoing anti-Semitism in Europe came an increase in immigration of Jewish people to Palestine. Immigration rapidly increased with the rise of Hitler, during and after WW2. In 1948, the UN upheld the Balfour Declaration and divided Palestine into a state for the Jews and a state for the Arabs. The British army left on May 14th 1948 and a war between Jewish militant groups and six neighbouring Arab states began, resulting in the displacement of more than 750,000 Palestinians and massive loss of Jewish and Palestinian life. The urban classes generally fled to foreign climes and the rural village communities found refuge in what is now Gaza and the West Bank, also in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt - living in camps, initially in tents - intending to return to their homes within weeks. These refugee camps exist to this day, house 1.3 million people and are administered by a specially formed UN agency. In the 1948 war some Palestinians stayed in their homes and now form an Arab minority inside Israel.
Conflict continued over the following decades. The Six Day War in 1967 was pre-empted by Israel's alarm at Arab states' preparation for war with Israel and by the formation of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (in 1964) - the PLO, later led by Yasser Arafat. Israel invaded the West Bank, Egypt and Syria, subsequently withdrawing from Egypt and Syria after other wars in the 1970s, but staying as an occupying force in the West Bank and Gaza. In 1982 Israel entered Lebanon to intervene in and prevent attacks coming from Palestinians in refugee camps there. In 1987 the first Intifada (uprising) in the Palestinian territories led to the peace process in the early 1990s between Israel and the PLO, which resulted in a declaration of Palestinian self-determination and administration in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. However, talks deteriorated over the issues of the right of return of Palestinian refugees, the status of Jerusalem, and Jewish settlements inside the Palestinian territories.
In 2000 the Israeli opposition leader, Ariel Sharon's, visit to the Al-Aqsa mosque was seen as a provocation by Palestinians and sparked the second Intifada. Clashes between the Israeli Army and Palestinian militants were widespread, as were suicide bombings by Palestinians within Israel's borders. Since 2000 Israel has been engaged in'â€~Operation Defensive Wall' which has involved building a 27 foot high concrete barrier between itself and the West Bank. The wall has been condemned by successive human rights groups and the International Court of Justice, the judicial body of the UN. In 2006, Israel again invaded Lebanon to address and deter attacks originating from within Lebanonâ€Ts borders. The conflict is ongoing.
