The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an issue that stretches further back than either side is willing to admit. There have been intermittent times of peace and war between the Jewish and Arab people throughout history. However, the current conflict arises from the creation of the Israeli state in 1948. The UN took land from the Arab people with no consultation and installed a Jewish government.
Whilst many moderates have been elected to power following the outbreaks of violence, each time they have not been able to negotiate peace, which has left the door open for extremism to thrive and with the wests support, Israel have colonisers in power.
Recognising the needs of Palestine
Progress has since been made after Interpol voted in favour of accepting Palestine as a member over significant objections from Israel. The Palestinian Foreign Minister, Riyad al-Maliki said, "This victory was made possible because of the principled position of the majority of Interpol members." However, Israel argued that Palestine was not a state, therefore not able to join Interpol and Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed that membership contravenes signed agreements with Israel.
The Israeli government has been slowly colonising more land from Palestine and their aim is to see the end of the Palestine altogether and Netanyahu's statement confirms this. With significant abuses towards the Palestinian people by the Israeli government under Netanyahu, the UN must recognise that his party are far-right extremists.
In 2008, Israel formed a blockade to stop UN aid from getting through to the Gaza Strip.
A summary of history
Since the inception of Israel, the governments have largely placed restrictions on Palestinian people, unlawfully killing them, abusive detention and other systemic abuses of the Palestinian population's rights. Prior to the creation of Israel, there hadn't been a Jewish majority in the region for over 1800 years, the history tells us that Jewish Palestine effectively ended in 137 CE.
The creation was centred around Zionism but traditionally whilst Jerusalem remained the holy site, the creation of a physical state was never the original teachings. In fact, it was a spiritual endeavour to find home with oneself. It wasn't until the late 19th and early 20th century that Theodor Herzl coined the term Zionism and began to take on the form as we know it today.
But despite the good intentions, the Israeli government are close to coloniser rather than religious Zionists. Heinrich Heine described the Bible as "the portable fatherland of the Jews, the portable Jerusalem". From this idea and the sanctity of Jerusalem, it became the chosen city and Palestine became the chosen land which was embraced by both Christian and Muslim communities.
This idea of Zionism is largely a romantic idea perpetuated by western enthusiasm and guilt over anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. But the reality is that Palestine and the city of Jerusalem have been places of continuity, as explored by Simon Sebag-Montefiore in Jerusalem: The Biography. He explores Jerusalem and that its evolution from a one-faith city to a three-faith city and how it avoided the nationalist narratives of modern times as a place of multiple cultures and histories in harmony.
The steps by Interpol indicate a clear desire to come to a peace agreement but with Benjamin Netanyahu's continuation as Prime Minister and his party's unwillingness to recognise the Arab peoples, there is still significant progress to be made.
