This is a very short history of a very long and ongoing problem.
The current humanitarian crisis in Gaza is the result of many questionable and often deceitful actions by individuals and western governments over many years. In fact, it all started nearly four thousand years ago when Moses led the Israelites out of their captivity in Egypt. After forty years wandering in the wilderness, Moses finally arrived in the land of Canaan and told his people that God had given them this land. It was their “Promised Land.” Over several Milenia Canaan became Palestine.
There was no Jewish invasion or dispossession of the indigenous people of Canaan. The Israelis just set up homes in that area and tended their farm animals and crops and mingled with the people already living there. They flourished. In time the Israelis became a dominant social and religious force in that area.
Then the Romans came and ruled over their land, leading to much
unrest and finally revolt. Eventually, in 70 AD, the Romans destroyed the
Temple and Jerusalem became a Roman city. The great Jewish diaspora began,
spreading the Jewish people throughout Europe.
The first World War of 1914-18 had a huge influence on subsequent Jewish/Palestinian history. Three different actions bear dramatically on the current tragic situation. In 1916, Britain and France signed the secret Sykes-Picoult Treaty (with Russian approval). This treaty was a mutual agreement to divide the Arab lands between Britain and France when the war ended. At the same time, Britain wanted to defeat the Ottoman Empire, centred in Turkey, that had joined Germany in the Great War. In an effort to get Arab leaders to join the allies in fighting the Ottoman Empire, Britain told them that after the war they would be given national sovereignty. T.E. Lawrence of Arabia galvanised the Arabs to help defeat the Ottomans. In 1917, to get British banks to support the war effort, Foreign Secretary, Lord Balfour, wrote to powerful British Banker, Lord Rothschild, telling him, among other things, that when the war was over Palestine could be “a national home for the Jewish people.”
Did someone say, “Perfidious Albion?”
Between the WW1 and WW2 efforts continued to find a Jewish
homeland. In 1939 there was even an attempt to purchase 7 million acres of land
in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. The state premier, John Willcock,
was keen. So was the Durack family which had huge land holdings in the Kimberley region. Discussions were
conducted before newly appointed Prime Minister, John Curtin, skittled the
idea by saying Australia was one country on one continent and no foreign country would ever be established on its soil.
In the Holocaust of World War 2, the Jewish people suffered unspeakable misery and death as the Nazis attempted to exterminate them. People in many countries were sympathetic to Jewish refugees as long as they did nor settle in their country. In 1946, Jewish refugees throughout Europe were seeking a new homeland. Palestine seemed the most likely place. After all, according to their Bible, God had given them their "Promised land" over four thousand years ago. They flooded in to Palestine through the Palestinian port of Haifa.
Aneurin Bevan was the British Foreign Minister charged with the administration of British mandated Palestine. Two years after the end of WW2, Bevan, along with the British people, Bevan was frustrated and angry that British soldiers were being killed in Palestine by Jewish activists and terrorist organisations such as the Stern Gang.
Frustrated, Bevan eventually said he would not allow any more Jewish refugees to land at Haifa. At the same time, US President, Harry Truman, said that a Jewish homeland in Palestine seemed like a good idea. Far away in the Kremlin, Josef Stalin noted this apparent rift between his two implacable enemies. Stalin had previously not allowed anyone, including Jews, to migrate out of Russia. Stalin's view was that you worked for Mother Russia or you died. However, Stalin saw a great opportunity to force a wedge between his two enemies, the UK and the USA. He allowed over 700 000 Jews to migrate to Palestine. Not only that, through communist Czechoslovakia, he provided arms and ammunition to these refugees. Israelis successfully used these weapons in fighting to establish an Israeli state and in the subsequent 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war.
After two thousand years, Jews from all over Europe flooded back to their “promised land.” With huge numbers of Jewish refugees now pouring in to Palestine, the UK told the United Nations that it could use a part Palestine to establish a Jewish Free State. (The Balfour Declaration). This was very generous of the Britain, considering Palestine was not Britain's to give. However, western governments deemed it to be a very satisfactory situation because it gave the homeless Jews a homeland, but not in their land. Naturally, Palestinians were not happy because this new Jewish homeland had been their homeland for many millenia.
In 1948, the United Nations partitioned Palestine, giving 56% of it to the Jews to form the free state of Irael, populated by people from all around the globe. The ancestors of these Jewish refugees had not lived on that land since biblical times but the refugees were happy to claim it as their own land. The State of Israel gave civil rights to Jews. Unfortunately, there were no such civil rights given to the Palestinians, who now found themselves living in their homeland which had suddenly become a foreign country. Palestinians protested but their land was given away. A fundamental mistake was made 80 years ago when the United Nations did not establish a Palestinian Free State at the same time as Israel was founded.
In 1948, 750 000 Palestinians were forced to leave their former homeland, leaving their property and possessions behind. The 1948/9 Arab/Israeli war enabled Israel to acquire 78% of Palestine. In the war of 1967 Israel increased it share of Palestine when it acquired the West Bank, The Gaza StripThe Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula. It gave the Sinai Peninsula back to Egypt in 1979. Today, Israel controls just about 98% of what was once Palestine and, in contravention of United Nations rulings, has established Jewish settlements on these occupied lands.
Naturally, the Palestinian people who, over the last 100 years, have been lied to, tricked, cheated and dispossessed of their stolen homeland, are angry at the way they have been treated. Quite Understanadble, as they now have no rights to the land they have always lived on. Naturally, they do not place much trust in western powers in their quest for Justice.
At present,Israel is attacking Hamas because of the atrocities it commited in October 2024 and because Hamas still holds Jewish hostages. In waging war on Hamas, Israel has almost obliterated Gaza, the last Palestinian territory which is now a heaving sea of human despair. There are some who believe the Israeli government would be quite happy if all the Palestinians left Gaza and went to live somewhere else. Indeed, two Israeli government ministers have stated that is their chief objective for the present conflict.
This would be a tragic and unjust outcome for Palestinians who had more than half of their homeland taken from them and then suffered the loss of the rest of it from one sided battles against Israel that were heavily subsidised by the United States of America. Justice is not delivered by the philosophy of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." As somebody once said, that philosophy will only lead to a land of blind and toothless people.
The past is the past and cannot easily be undone. There must be justice for the Palestinians who have been treated shamefully. Because of that shameful treatment, some Palestinians have also behaved shamefully. The retaliation must cease on both sides and Justice must be given to the Palestinians.
Justice will only come if the Palestinians and the Arab states recognise Israel as a fait accompli, despite its unnatural birth and the displacement of the indigenous Palestinians. Justice will only come if Israel surrenders the occupied territories on which it has built many illegal settlements.. Perhaps the Israelis could remember that the Palestinians lost 56% of their land in 1948. It may give Israelis a greater understanding as to why most Palestinians are still aggrieved at the loss of their homeland. The illegal Jewish settlements on this currently occupied land will be a huge obstacle. But it could be solved if the State of Israel and a new State of Palestine had constitutions not based on religious beliefs but on the premise that all citizens are equal. It's not a new concept!
