Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict - Assignment Example

Both of these articles actually called for the need to establish a homeland for the Jewish people, given that they have been experiencing discrimination in the different countries where they are scattered (Schulze 7). In addition, both of these papers also emphasized that the establishment of such a homeland for the Jewish people would make them preserve their cultural traditions and solidify their national identity as Jews.

The establishment of the World Zionist Organization is important, for it spearheaded the creation of a Jewish homeland in Israel, which was the same territory of the Ottoman Empire controlled Islamic Palestine (Schulze 8). It is said that Palestine was chosen as the land where the Jewish homeland would be established because it is here where the ancient kingdom of Israel and Judah were located. These kingdoms are the only Jewish states which have existed in history. Seen as the origin of the Jewish people, the Zionist movement saw the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine as essential in the nation-building process of the Jews who were historically scattered and in Diaspora.

Another important event is the publishing of The Awakening of the Arab Nation (Naguib Azoury), which called for resistance against increasing Jewish encroachment upon Palestine (Schulze 10). As the Zionists increasingly began an aggressive policy of immigration and settlement in Palestinian lands, especially under the period of the British mandate, Arabs living in the area saw this situation as a case of encroachment against the Palestinian people. In this case, the writings of Azoury actually focused on awakening the nationalist sentiments of Palestinian Arabs, as well as defending their land against the encroachment of the Jews.

Finally, of course, the most important event was that of the establishment of the State of Israel, wherein Muslim inhabitants (who were the majority) were not consulted and that the original boundaries set up by the United Nations for two states in Palestine were not followed (Schulze 15-100). Originally, the United Nations actually provided for the establishment of two states in the Palestinian region—the state of Israel and the state of Palestine. However, this was not realized—on the contrary, Arab states including Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Iraq all declared war on Israel on its founding. With Israel winning the war, the new state occupied more territory than what the UN partition plan called for, while the territories that were supposed to be under the state of Palestine was occupied by Jordan (the West Bank), Egypt (Gaza Strip), and Syria (Golan Heights).