Israeli–Palestinian conflict: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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With the commitment to establishing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, the creation of the British Mandate in Palestine after the end of the first world war would allow for large-scale Jewish immigration. This would be accompanied by the development of a separate Jewish controlled sector of the economy which was supported with large amounts of capital from abroad.<ref name="Rashid Khalidi2">{{cite book |author=Rashid Khalidi |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXlwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA |title=The Hundred Years' War on Palestine |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-62779-854-9 |pages= |chapter=Introduction}}</ref> The more ardent Zionist ideologues of the [[Second Aliyah]] would become the leaders of the [[Yishuv]] starting in the 1920s and believed in the separation of Jewish and Arab economies and societies. During this period, the exclusionary nationalist ethos would grow to overpower the socialist ideals that the Second Aliyah had arrived with.<ref name="Benny Morris"/>

The return of several hard-line Palestinian Arab nationalists, under the emerging leadership of [[Haj Amin al-Husseini]], from Damascus to [[Mandatory Palestine]] marked the beginning of [[Palestinian nationalism|Palestinian Arab nationalist struggle]] towards establishment of a national home for Arabs of [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]].<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Sela |editor-first=Avraham |editor-link=Avraham Sela |chapter=Palestine Arabs |title=The Continuum Political Encyclopedia of the Middle East |location=New York |year=2002 |publisher=Continuum |isbn=978-0-8264-1413-7 |pages=664–673}}</ref> Amin al-Husseini, the architect of the Palestinian Arab national movement, immediately marked [[Zionism|Jewish national movement]] and [[Aliyah|Jewish immigration to Palestine]] as the sole enemy to his cause,<ref name="al-Husseini">{{harvnb|Sela|2002|p=361|loc="al-Husseini, Hajj (Muhammad) Amin"}}<blockquote>He [Husseini] incited and headed anti-Jewish riots in April 1920. ... He promoted the Muslim character of Jerusalem and ... injected a religious character into the struggle against [[Zionism]]. This was the backdrop to his agitation concerning Jewish rights at the Western (Wailing) Wall that led to the bloody riots of August 1929...[H]e was the chief organizer of the riots of 1936 and the rebellion from 1937, as well as of the mounting internal terror against Arab opponents.</blockquote></ref> initiating large-scale riots against the Jews as early as 1920 [[1920 Nebi Musa riots|in Jerusalem]] and in 1921 [[Jaffa riots|in Jaffa]]. Among the results of the violence was the establishment of the Jewish paramilitary force [[Haganah]]. In 1929, a series of violent [[1929 Palestine riots|riots]] resulted in the deaths of 133 Jews and 116 Arabs, with significant Jewish casualties in [[1929 Hebron massacre|Hebron]] and [[1929 Palestine riots#Safed massacre, 29 August|Safed]], and the evacuation of Jews from Hebron and Gaza.<ref name="SelaConflict"~~>{{harvnb|Sela|2002|loc="Arab-Israel~~ ~~Conflict"|pp=58–121}}<~~/~~ref~~>

=== 1936–1939 Arab revolt ===

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==Attempts to reach a peaceful settlement==

The PLO's participation in diplomatic negotiations was dependent on its complete disavowal of terrorism and recognition of Israel's "right to exist." This stipulation required the PLO to abandon its objective of reclaiming all of historic Palestine and instead focus on the 22 percent which came under Israeli military control in 1967.<ref name="hc baconi"/> By the late 1970s, Palestinian leadership in the occupied territories and most Arab states supported a two-state settlement.<ref name="mishal sela">{{cite book|author=Shaul Mishal, Avraham Sela|title=The Palestinian Hamas|url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=xBRWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA|year=2000|publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-11674-9|pages=}}</ref> In 1981, Saudi Arabia put forward a plan based on a two-state settlement to the conflict.<ref>Yehuda Lukacs, ed., The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A documentary record, 1967–1990 (Cambridge: 1992), pp. 477–79.</ref> This plan received the support of the Arab League. The PLO continued to maintain the ceasefire they had negotiated with Israel that same year.<ref name="ft Chomsky" /> Israeli analyst Avner Yaniv describes Arafat as ready to make a historic compromise, while the Israeli cabinet continued to oppose the existence of a Palestinian state. Yaniv described Arafat's willingness to compromise as a "peace offensive" which Israel responded to by planning to remove the PLO as a potential negotiating partner in order to evade international diplomatic pressure.<ref name="Avner Yaniv">{{cite book|author=Avner Yaniv|title=Dilemmas of Security|url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=NIVtAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA|year=1987|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-504122-4|pages=}}</ref>

===The Peace Process===

The term "peace-process" refers to the step-by-step approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Having originally entered into usage to describe the US mediated negotiations between Israel and surrounding Arab countries, notably Egypt, the term "peace-process" has grown to be associated with an emphasis on the negotiation process rather than on presenting a comprehensive solution to the conflict.<ref name="homp pappe">{{cite book|author=Ilan Pappe|title=A History of Modern Palestine|url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=rrttEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2022|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-24416-9|pages=}}</ref><ref name="William B. Quandt">{{cite book|author=William B. Quandt|title=Peace Process|url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=6Jm0YNKvQsAC&pg=PA|year=2005|publisher=Brookings Institution Press |isbn=978-0-520-24631-7|pages=}}</ref><ref name="hyw">{{cite book|author=Rashid Khalidi|title=The Hundred Years' War on Palestine|url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=Mzm5uwEACAAJ&pg=PA|year=2020|publisher=Henry Holt and Company |isbn=978-1-62779-855-6|pages=}}</ref> As part of this process, fundamental issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict such as borders, access to resources, and the Palestinian right of return, have been left to "final status" talks. Such "final status" negotiations along the lines discussed in Madrid in 1991 have never taken place.<ref name="hyw"/>

The Oslo Accords of 1993 and 1995 built on the incremental framework put in place by the 1978 Camp David negotiations and the 1991 Madrid and Washington talks. The motivation behind the incremental approach towards a settlement was that it would "build confidence", but the eventual outcome was instead a dramatic decline in mutual confidence. At each incremental stage, Israel further entrenched its occupation of the Palestinian territories, despite the PA upholding its obligation to curbing violent attacks from extremist groups, in part by cooperating with Israeli forces.<ref name="mwe slater">{{harvnb|Slater|2020|loc=Chapter 14}} "On the contrary, in August 1996 the PLO honored its commitment to revoke its original charter, which had denied the legitimacy of Israel and called for the armed liberation of all of Palestine. As well, by 1996 the PA and its police forces had become increasingly successful in their efforts to end the terrorism of Hamas and other Islamic extremists, even cooperating with the Israeli forces. As a result, there were now far fewer terrorist attacks than in the preceding few years.."</ref> At the same time, the PA repeatedly violated its obligations to curb incitement<ref>{{harvnb|Watson|2020|pp=211–236}}: "The Palestinian side has repeatedly run afoul of its obligation to refrain from incitement and hostile propaganda."</ref> and its record on curbing terrorism and other security obligations under the [[Wye River Memorandum]] was, at best, mixed.<ref>{{harvnb|Watson|2020|pp=211–236}}: "the Palestinian record of compliance with these obligations is at best mixed...the PA’s record on security cooperation has been mixed... The PA has a mixed record on fighting terror group"</ref> Meron Benvinisti, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, observed that life became harsher for Palestinians during this period as state violence increased and Palestinian land continued to be expropriated as settlements expanded.<ref name="iw shlaim">{{cite book |first=Avi |last=Shlaim |title=The Iron Wall |url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=CW7GbiUkri0C&pg=PA |year=2001 |publisher=[[W. W. Norton & Company]] |isbn=978-0-393-32112-8 |pages=Chapter 12}}</ref><ref name="pop christison">{{cite book |first=Kathleen |last=Christison |title=Perceptions of Palestine |url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=H6UwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2000 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-21718-8 |pages=290}}</ref><ref name="homme">{{cite book |first1=William L. |last1=Cleveland |first2=Martin |last2=Bunt |title=A History of the Modern Middle East |url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=hnzxzqau3a8C&pg=PA |year=2010 |publisher=ReadHowYouWant.com, Limited |isbn=978-1-4587-8155-0|pages=}}</ref><ref name="mwoe">{{harvnb|Slater|2020|pp=}}{{on|date=June 2024}}</ref> Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami described the Oslo Accords as legitimizing "the transformation of the West Bank into what has been called a 'cartographic cheeseboard'."<ref name="sowwop">{{cite book |first=Shlomo |last=Ben-Ami |title=Scars of War, Wounds of Peace |url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=x72ZEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA |year=2007 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-532542-3 |pages=241}}</ref> Core to the Oslo Accords was the creation of the Palestinian Authority and the security cooperation it would enter into with the Israeli military authorities in what has been described as the "outsourcing" of the occupation to the PA.<ref name="hc baconi">{{cite book |first=Tareq |last=Baconi |title=Hamas Contained |url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=Jd9ftAEACAAJ&pg=PA |year=2018 |publisher=[[Stanford University Press]] |isbn=978-1-5036-0581-7 |pages=POLITICIDE, CONTAINMENT, AND PACIFICATION}}</ref> Ben-Ami, who participated in the Camp David 2000 talks, described this process: "One of the meanings of Oslo was that the PLO was eventually Israel’s collaborator in the task of stifling the Intifada and cutting short what was clearly an authentically democratic struggle for Palestinian independence."<ref name='sowwop'/>

===Oslo Accords (1993, 1995)===

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In 1993, Israeli officials led by [[Yitzhak Rabin]] and Palestinian leaders from the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] led by [[Yasser Arafat]] strove to find a peaceful solution through what became known as the Oslo peace process. A crucial milestone in this process was Arafat's letter of recognition of Israel's right to exist. Emblematic of the asymmetry in the Oslo process, Israel was not required to, and did not, recognize the right of a Palestinian state to exist. In 1993, the [[Declaration of Principles]] (or Oslo I) was signed and set forward a framework for future Israeli–Palestinian negotiations, in which key issues would be left to "final status" talks. The stipulations of the Oslo agreements ran contrary to the international consensus for resolving the conflict; the agreements did not uphold Palestinian self-determination or statehood and repealed the internationally accepted interpretation of [[UN Resolution 242]] that land cannot be acquired by war.<ref name="pop christison" /> With respect to access to land and resources, Noam Chomsky described the Oslo agreements as allowing "Israel to do virtually what it likes."<ref name="ft Chomsky">{{cite book |first=Noam |last=Chomsky |author-link=Noam Chomsky |title=Fateful Triangle |url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=aHphMCIkhK0C&pg=PA |year=1999 |publisher=[[Pluto Press]] |isbn=978-0-7453-1530-0 |pages=Chapter 10}}</ref> The Oslo process was delicate and progressed in fits and starts.

The process took a turning point at the [[assassination of Yitzhak Rabin]] in November 1995 and the election of Netanyahu in 1996, finally unraveling when Arafat and [[Ehud Barak]] failed to reach an agreement at Camp David in July 2000 and later at Taba in 2001.<ref name="homp pappe" /><ref name="giim norman">{{cite book |first=Norman G. |last=Finkelstein |author-link=Norman Finkelstein |title=Gaza |url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=qo84DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA |year=2018 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-29571-1 |pages=Chapter 2}}</ref> The interim period specified by Oslo had not built confidence between the two parties; Barak had failed to implement additional stages of the interim agreements and settlements expanded by 10% during his short term.<ref name="p kimmerling">{{cite book |first=Baruch |last=Kimmerling |author-link=Baruch Kimmerling |title=Politicide |url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=TE8oCW2J2F4C&pg=PA |year=2003 |publisher=[[Verso Books]] |isbn= ~~978-1-85984-517-2~~|pages=The Road to Sharonism}}</ref> The disagreement between the two parties at Camp David was primarily on the acceptance (or rejection) of international consensus.<ref name="pwh ben-ami">{{cite book |first=Shlomo |last=Ben-Ami |title=Prophets Without Honor |url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=hnhXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA |year=2022 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-006047-3 |pages=e-book section 38 |quote=Camp David failed because of the two sides' conflicting interpretations of the terms of reference of the peace process. The Israelis came to the negotiations with the conviction inherent in the letter of the Oslo Accords that this was an open-ended process where no preconceived solutions existed and where every one of the core issues would be open to negotiation so that a reasonable point of equilibrium between the needs of the parties could be found. The Palestinians saw the negotiations as a step in a journey where they would get their rights as if this were a clear-cut process of decolonization based on "international legitimacy" and "all UN relevant resolutions."}}</ref>{{sfn|Finkelstein|2007|pp=352}} For Palestinian negotiators, the international consensus, as represented by the yearly vote in the UN General Assembly which passes almost unanimously, was the starting point for negotiations. The Israeli negotiators, supported by the American participants, did not accept the international consensus as the basis for a settlement.<ref>{{harvnb|Finkelstein|2007|pp=352}} "In a letter to President Clinton, who presided over the proceedings, Palestinian representatives stated that their aim was implementation of U.N. Resolution 242 and that "[w]e are willing to accept adjustments of the border between the two countries, on condition that they be equivalent in value and importance." Repeatedly the Palestinian negotiators asked: "Will you accept the June 4border [as the basis of discussion]? Will you accept the principle of the exchange of territories?" The Israeli position was that "[w]e can’t accept the demand for a return to the borders of June 1967as a pre-condition for the negotiation," while Clinton "literally yells," in response to the Palestinian view that "international legitimacy means Israeli retreat to the border of June 4,1967," that "[t]his isn’t the Security Council here. This isn't the U.N. General Assembly.""</ref> Both sides eventually accepted the Clinton parameters "with reservations" but the talks at Taba were "called to a halt" by Barak, and the peace process itself came to a stand-still.<ref name='giim norman'/> Ben-Ami, who participated in the talks at Camp David as Israel's foreign minister, would later describe the proposal on the table: "The Clinton parameters... are the best proof that Arafat was right to turn down the summit’s offers".<ref name="pwh ben-ami"/>

===Camp David Summit (2000)===

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In July 2000, US President Bill Clinton convened a peace summit between Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Barak reportedly put forward the following as "bases for negotiation", via the US to the Palestinian President: a non-militarized Palestinian state split into 3–4 parts containing 87–92% of the West Bank after having already given up 78% of historic Palestine.{{efn-ua|Three factors made Israel's territorial offer less forthcoming than it initially appeared. First, the 91 percent land offer was based on the Israeli definition of the West Bank, but this differs by approximately 5 percentage points from the Palestinian definition. Palestinians use a total area of 5,854 square kilometers. Israel, however, omits the area known as No Man's Land (50 km2 near Latrun), post-1967 East Jerusalem (71 km2), and the territorial waters of the Dead Sea (195 km2), which reduces the total to 5,538 km2}} Thus, an Israeli offer of 91 percent of the West Bank (5,538 km2 of the West Bank translates into only 86 percent from the Palestinian perspective),{{sfn|Pressman |2003 |pp=16–17}} including Arab parts of East Jerusalem and the entire Gaza Strip,<ref name="Karsh">{{cite book |author-link=Efraim Karsh |last=Karsh |first=Efraim |title=Arafat's War: The Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest |location=New York |publisher=[[Grove Press]] |date=2003 |page=168 |quote=Arafat rejected the proposal}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Morris |first=Benny |title=Camp David and After: An Exchange (1. An Interview with Ehud Barak) |journal=New York Review of Books |language=en |issn=0028-7504 |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2002/06/13/camp-david-and-after-an-exchange-1-an-interview-wi/|access-date=2022-03-05 |archive-date=5 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305205559/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2002/06/13/camp-david-and-after-an-exchange-1-an-interview-wi/|url-status=live}}</ref> as well as a stipulation that 69 Jewish settlements (which comprise 85% of the West Bank's Jewish settlers) would be ceded to Israel, no right of return to Israel, no sovereignty over the Temple Mount or any core East Jerusalem neighbourhoods, and continued Israel control over the Jordan Valley.{{sfn|Pressman |2003 |pp=7, 15–19}}<ref name="nybooks.com">{{cite journal |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2001/08/09/camp-david-the-tragedy-of-errors/ |title=Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors |first1=Robert |last1=Malley |first2=Hussein |last2=Agha |journal=[[New York Review of Books]] |access-date=5 September 2018 |date=2001-08-09 |volume=48 |issue=13 |archive-date=6 September 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180906052533/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2001/08/09/camp-david-the-tragedy-of-errors/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

Arafat rejected this offer,.<ref name="Karsh" /> ~~which~~[[Norman Finkelstein]] argues that Palestinian negotiators, Israeli analysts and Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami described the offer as "unacceptable".<ref name="giim norman"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Shlomo Ben-Ami|title=Prophets Without Honor|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hnhXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2022|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-006047-3|pages=|quote="I myself am on record as having said, “If I were a Palestinian, I would have rejected what was offered at the Camp David Summit.” This book stands by this assertion."}}</ref> According to the Palestinian negotiators the offer did not remove many of the elements of the Israeli occupation regarding land, security, settlements, and Jerusalem.<ref name=JPressman/>

After the Camp David summit, a narrative emerged, supported by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and his foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, as well as US officials including Dennis Ross and Madeleine Albright, that Yasser Arafat had rejected a generous peace offer from Israel and instead incited a violent uprising. This narrative suggested that Arafat was not interested in a two-state solution, but rather aimed to destroy Israel and take over all of Palestine. This view was widely accepted in US and Israeli public opinion. Nearly all scholars and most Israeli and US officials involved in the negotiations have rejected this narrative. These individuals include prominent Israeli negotiators, the IDF chief of staff, the head of the IDF's intelligence bureau, the head of the Shin Bet as well as their advisors.<ref name="Jerome Slater">{{harvnb|Slater|2020|pp=}}:{{pn|date=June 2024}} "After Camp David, a new mythology emerged perpetrated by Barak and his foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, with the support of Dennis Ross, Clinton’s secretary of state Madeleine Albright, and to a considerable extent Clinton himself. The mythology holds that at Camp David, Barak made a generous and unprecedented offer to the Palestinians, only to be met by a shocking if not perverse rejection by Arafat who then ordered a violent uprising at just the moment when the chances for peace had never been greater.

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==Issues in dispute==

The following outlined positions are the official positions of the two parties; however, it is important to note that neither side holds a single position. Both the Israeli and Palestinian sides include both moderate and [[Extremism|extremist]] bodies as well as [[Political dove|dovish]] and [[War Hawk|hawkish]] bodies.

The core issues of the conflict are borders, the status of settlements in the West Bank, the status of east Jerusalem, the Palestinian refugee right of return, and security.<ref>{{cite book | last=Stern-Weiner | first=Jamie | title=Moment of Truth | date=November 2017 | isbn=978-1-68219-114-9 | page=}}</ref><ref name="pop christison" /><ref name="William B. Quandt" /><ref name="Shlomo Avineri">{{cite book|author=Shlomo Avineri|title=The Making of Modern Zionism|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=N1UovgAACAAJ&pg=PA|year=2017|publisher=Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-09479-0|pages=}}</ref> With the PLO's recognition of Israel's right to exist in 1982,<ref name="ft Chomsky" /> the international community with the main exception of the United States and Israel<ref>{{cite book|author=Shlomo Ben-Ami|title=Prophets Without Honor|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=hnhXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2022|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-006047-3|pages=|quote=The Israelis came to the negotiations with the conviction inherent in the letter of the Oslo Accords that this was an open-ended process where no preconceived solutions existed and where every one of the core issues would be open to negotiation so that a reasonable point of equilibrium between the needs of the parties could be found. The Palestinians saw the negotiations as a step in a journey where they would get their rights as if this were a clear-cut process of decolonization based on “international legitimacy” and “all UN relevant resolutions.” }</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Norman G. Finkelstein|title=Gaza|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=qo84DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2018|publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-29571-1|pages=|quote=“I was the Minister of Justice. I am a lawyer,” Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told her Palestinian interlocutors during a critical round of the peace process in 2007, “but I am against law—international law in particular.”

}}</ref> has been in consensus on a framework for resolving the conflict on the basis of international law.<ref name="deluge">{{cite book|author=Colter Louwerse|title=Deluge|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=8U9V0AEACAAJ&pg=PA|year=|publisher=OR Books |isbn=978-1-68219-619-9|chapter=3}}</ref> Various UN bodies and the ICJ have supported this position;<ref name='deluge'/><ref name="William B. Quandt" /> every year, the UN General Assembly votes almost unamimously in favor of a resolution titled "Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine." This resolution consistently affirms the illegality of the Israeli settlements, the annexation of East Jerusalem, and the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war. It also emphasizes the need for an Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 and the need for a just resolution to the refugee question on the basis of UN resolution 194.<ref name="y303">{{cite book | last=Finkelstein | first=Norman G. | title=Knowing Too Much | publisher=OR Books | publication-place=New York : London | date=2012 | isbn=978-1-935928-77-5 | oclc=794273633 | page=}}</ref>

One of the primary obstacles to resolving the conflict is a deep-set and growing distrust between its participants. Unilateral strategies and the rhetoric of hardline political factions, coupled with violence and incitements by civilians against one another, have fostered mutual embitterment and hostility and a loss of faith in the peace process. Support among Palestinians for [[Hamas]] is considerable, and as its members consistently call for the destruction of Israel and [[Palestinian political violence|violence]] remains a threat,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-06-17 |title=The Current Situation: Current Situation: Israel, The Palestinian Territories, and The Region |url=https://www.usip.org/publications/2021/06/current-situation-current-situation-israel-palestinian-territories-and-region |access-date=2023-01-06 |website=[[United States Institute of Peace]] |language=en |archive-date=6 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230106023714/https://www.usip.org/publications/2021/06/current-situation-current-situation-israel-palestinian-territories-and-region |url-status=live }}</ref> [[#Israeli security concerns|security]] becomes a prime concern for many Israelis. The expansion of [[Israeli settlement]]s in the West Bank has led the majority of Palestinians to believe that Israel is not committed to reaching an agreement, but rather to a pursuit of establishing permanent control over this territory in order to provide that security.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news-basics.com/2011/israel-and-the-palestinians/ |title=Overview of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians |work=News Basics |access-date=13 February 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120424152450/http://news-basics.com/2011/israel-and-the-palestinians/ |archive-date=24 April 2012}}</ref>

Unilateral strategies and the rhetoric of hardline political factions, coupled with violence, have fostered mutual embitterment and hostility and a loss of faith in the possibility of reaching a peaceful settlement. Since the break down of negotiations, security has played a less important role in Israeli concerns, trailing behind employment, corruption, housing and other pressing issues.<ref name="Sara M. Roy">{{cite book|author=Sara M. Roy|title=The Gaza Strip extended 3rd edition|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=X8jsAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA|year=2016|publisher=Institute for Palestine Studies |isbn=978-0-88728-260-7|pages=}}</ref> Israeli policy had reoriented to focus on managing the conflict and the associated occupation of Palestinian territory, rather than reaching a negotiated solution.<ref name="Sara M. Roy"/><ref>{{cite book|author=Tareq Baconi|title=Hamas Contained|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=Jd9ftAEACAAJ&pg=PA|year=2018|publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-1-5036-0581-7|pages=}}</ref><ref name="William L. Cleveland and Martin Bunt, William L. Cleveland, Martin Bunt...">{{cite book|author=William L. Cleveland and Martin Bunt, William L. Cleveland, Martin Bunt...|title=A History of the Modern Middle East|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=hnzxzqau3a8C&pg=PA|year=2010|publisher=ReadHowYouWant.com, Limited |isbn=978-1-4587-8155-0|pages=}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Scheindlin | title=Moment of Truth | date=November 2017 | isbn=978-1-68219-114-9 | chapter=The shrinking Two-State Constituency}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Shlomo Ben-Ami|title=Prophets Without Honor|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=hnhXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2022|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-006047-3|pages=|quote=But the abject submission of the Palestinians and the ever deepening system of occupation and discrimination in the territories are Israel’s sole and exclusive responsibility. As brilliantly explained by Michael Sfard, this is a system built on three pillars: the gun, the settlements, and the law that formalizes the network of colonization.1 Under the mantle of security claims, the Jewish state has created in the Palestinian territories one of the most efficient occupation regimes in history, which is, moreover, also cost-effective, for it is the international community’s donor money to the Palestinian Authority that saves the occupier the burden of having to directly administer the territories. This leaves Israel free to cater to its insatiable security needs with draconic measures, such as limiting the Palestinians’ freedom of movement, erecting walls that separate communities, dotting roads with checkpoints where innocent people are manhandled, activating sophisticated intelligence mechanisms that control the lives of an ever growing number of suspects, conducting surprise searches of private houses in the middle of the night, and carrying out arbitrary administrative detentions. If this were not enough, vigilantes among the settlers, some known as “the Youth of the Hills,” constantly harass Palestinian communities, destroy orchard trees, and arbitrarily apply a “price tag” of punishments to innocent civilians for whatever terrorist attack might have been perpetrated by a Palestinian squad. Underlying this very serious problem of the unpardonable depravity of settlers’ extremism is the even more serious problem that has to do with the involvement of the entire Israeli body politic in maintaining and continuously expanding a regime of dominance in the territories. For too long, the peace process has served as a curtain behind which the policy of practical annexation has flourished.

}}</ref> The expansion of [[Israeli settlement]]s in the West Bank has led the majority of Palestinians to believe that Israel is not committed to reaching an agreement, but rather to a pursuit of establishing permanent control over this territory in order to provide that security.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news-basics.com/2011/israel-and-the-palestinians/ |title=Overview of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians |work=News Basics |access-date=13 February 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120424152450/http://news-basics.com/2011/israel-and-the-palestinians/ |archive-date=24 April 2012}}</ref>

===Status of Jerusalem===

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{{See also|Palestinian right of return|Palestinian refugee|1948 Palestinian exodus}}

[[File:Woman nakba dress jug.jpg|thumb|upright|Palestinian refugees, 1948]]

Palestinian refugees are people who lost both their homes and means of livelihood as a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli conflict<ref name="Efrat" /> and the 1967 [[Six-Day War]].<ref name=PD>{{cite book|last1=Peters|first2=Mohammed|last2=Dajani Daoudi|author-link2=Mohammed Dajani Daoudi |first1=Joel|title=The Israel–Palestine Conflict Parallel discourses|year=2011|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-203-83939-3|pages=26, 37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-ubfEsbawzoC&q=The+Israel-Palestine+Conflict+Parallel+Discourses|access-date=12 November 2020|archive-date=9 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231009012926/https://books.google.com/books?id=-ubfEsbawzoC&q=The+Israel-Palestine+Conflict+Parallel+Discourses#v=snippet&q=The%20Israel-Palestine%20Conflict%20Parallel%20Discourses&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> The number of Palestinians who ~~were expelled~~fled or ~~fled~~were expelled from Israel following its creation was estimated at 711,000 in 1949.<ref name="d">{{cite web |year=1950 |url=http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/93037e3b939746de8525610200567883!OpenDocument |title=General Progress Report and Supplementary Report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine, Covering the Period from 11 December 1949 to 23 October 1950 |publisher=United Nations Conciliation Commission for Palestine |access-date=20 November 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011203241/http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/93037e3b939746de8525610200567883%21OpenDocument |archive-date=11 October 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> ~~The descendants~~Descendants of ~~all~~these ~~refugees~~original ~~(not~~Palestinian ~~just~~Refugees ~~Palestinian~~are ~~refugees~~also ~~<ref>{{cite~~eligible ~~web~~for ~~|last1=Nations~~registration ~~|first1=United~~and ~~|title=Refugees~~services ~~|url=https://www.un.org/en/global-issues/refugees~~provided ~~|website=~~by the [[United Nations ~~|language=en}}</ref>)~~Relief ~~are~~and ~~considered~~Works byAgency for Palestine Refugees in the UNNear toEast]] ~~also~~(UNRWA), beand ~~refugees. As~~as of 2010 ~~there are~~number 4.7 million ~~Palestinian refugees~~people.<ref>{{Cite web|title=UNRWA|url=https://www.unrwa.org/|access-date=2022-03-05|publisher=United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees|language=en|archive-date=7 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107085923/https://www.unrwa.org/|url-status=live}}</ref> Between 350,000 and 400,000 Palestinians were displaced during the 1967 Arab–Israeli war.<ref name=PD/> A third of the refugees live in recognized refugee camps in [[Jordan]], [[Lebanon]], [[Syria]], the [[West Bank]] and the [[Gaza Strip]]. The remainder live in and around the cities and towns of these host countries.<ref name="Efrat" /> Most Palestinian refugees were born outside Israel and are not allowed to live in any part of historic Palestine.<ref name="Efrat">{{harvnb|Sela|2002|loc=Efrat, Moshe. "Refugees."|pp=724–29}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Rashid Khalidi|title=The Iron Cage The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=x5znEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2024|publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-86154-899-6|pages=|quote=Outside Palestine, meanwhile, live between 4 and 6 million Palestinians (reliable figures are not available). They exist in situations ranging from the utter misery (since 1982) of those in refugee camps in Lebanon,2 to a wide diversity of conditions, some of them quite comfortable, in various other Arab countries, Europe, and the United States. These Palestinians 'of the diaspora' (al-shatat in Arabic) possess a variety of passports, laissez-passers, and refugee documents, some of which are looked upon with great suspicion by certain states, and some of them face harsh restrictions on their movement in consequence. The largest single group of Palestinians of the diaspora, between 2 and 3 million, carry Jordanian passports, and most of them live in Jordan. What unites the overwhelming majority of these 4 to 6 million people is that they or their parents or grandparents were obliged to leave their homes and became refugees in 1948 or afterward, and that they are barred from living in any part of their ancestral homeland, Palestine.}}</ref>

Most of these people were born outside Israel, but are descendants of original Palestinian refugees.<ref name="Efrat">{{harvnb|Sela|2002|loc=Efrat, Moshe. "Refugees."|pp=724–29}}</ref> Palestinian negotiators, such as [[Yasser Arafat]], have so far publicly insisted that refugees have a right to return to the places where they lived before 1948 and 1967, including those within the [[1949 Armistice lines]], citing the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] and [[UN General Assembly Resolution 194]] as evidence. However, according to reports of private peace negotiations with Israel they have countenanced the return of only 10,000 refugees and their families to Israel as part of a peace settlement. [[Mahmoud Abbas]], the current Chairman of the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] was reported to have said in private discussion that it is "illogical to ask Israel to take 5 million, or indeed 1 million. That would mean the end of Israel."<ref>{{cite news |title=Papers reveal how Palestinian leaders gave up fight over refugees |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/24/papers-palestinian-leaders-refugees-fight |work=The Guardian |access-date=24 January 2011 |location=London |first1=Ian |last1=Black |first2=Seumas |last2=Milne |date=24 January 2011 |archive-date=9 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130909114201/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/24/papers-palestinian-leaders-refugees-fight |url-status=live }}</ref> In a further interview Abbas stated that he no longer had an automatic right to return to Safed in the northern Galilee where he was born in 1935. He later clarified that the remark was his personal opinion and not official policy.<ref name=Ind>{{cite news |title=Mahmoud Abbas: Right to return quote was 'personal view|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/mahmoud-abbas-right-to-return-quote-was-personal-view-8281374.html|access-date=19 March 2013|newspaper=Independent|date=5 November 2012|archive-date=22 December 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222051338/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/mahmoud-abbas-right-to-return-quote-was-personal-view-8281374.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Israel has since 1948 prevented the return of Palestinian refugees and refused any settlement permitting their return except in limited cases.<ref name="ft Chomsky" /><ref >{{cite book|author=Jerome Slater|title=Mythologies Without End|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=y1AAEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2020|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-045908-6|pages=Refugees. Israel agreed that the refugee problem was a regrettable humanitarian issue, Barak stated, and would recognize the right of the Palestinians to return to their own state, but that “no right of return to Israeli territory would prevail.” However, he continued, Israel was prepared to admit several hundred refugees annually for a ten- to fifteen-year period, under a family unification program. In a later interview, Barak made it clear that the “family unification program” was not based on any Palestinian rights: “No Israeli prime minister will accept even one refugee on the basis of the right of return.”}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Michael Scott-Baumann|title=The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=OKJtEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2023|publisher=The Experiment |isbn=978-1-61519-951-8|pages=}}</ref> On the basis of the [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] and [[UN General Assembly Resolution 194]], Palestinians claim the right of refugees to return to the lands, homes and villages where they lived before being driven into exile in 1948 and 1967. Arafat himself repeatedly assured his American and Israeli interlocutors at Camp David that he primarily sought the principle of the right of return to be accepted, rather than the full right of return, in practice.<ref >{{cite book|author=Jerome Slater|title=Mythologies Without End|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=y1AAEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2020|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-045908-6|pages=|quote=The Palestinian Position. Since 1948 the official or public position of Arafat, the PLO, Arafat’s successor Mahmoud Abbas, and the Palestinian Authority has been—and, rhetorically at least, still is—that the Palestinian refugees as well as their descendants have the right to return to their lands, homes, and villages. Arafat reiterated that “demand” at Camp David, though he and other Palestinian leaders repeatedly assured the Americans and the Israelis that their real goal was Israeli acceptance only of the “principle” of refugee return, as distinct from implementing that “right” in practice.}}</ref>

Palestinian and international authors have justified the right of return of the Palestinian refugees on several grounds:<ref>{{Cite news |date=2003-02-18|title=Right of return: Palestinian dream?|language=en-GB |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2001/israel_and_the_palestinians/issues/1099279.stm|access-date=2022-03-05|archive-date=5 March 2022|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220305205554/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/2001/israel_and_the_palestinians/issues/1099279.stm |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last=Flapan |first=Simha |date=Summer 1987 |title=The Palestinian Exodus of 1948 |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=16 |number=4 |pages=3–26 |doi=10.2307/2536718 |jstor=2536718}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Khalidi |first1=Rashid I. |date=Winter 1992 |title=Observations on the Right of Return |journal=Journal of Palestine Studies |volume=21 |number=2 |pages=29–40 |doi=10.2307/2537217 |jstor=2537217}}</ref>

Line 258 ⟶ 256:

The Israeli [[Law of Return]] that grants citizenship to people of Jewish descent ~~has~~is ~~been~~viewed ~~described~~by critics as discriminatory against other ethnic groups, especially Palestinians that cannot apply for such citizenship under the law of return, to the territory which they were expelled from or fled during the course of the 1948 war.<ref name=TH-P>{{cite book |last=Honig-Parnass |first=Tikva |title=The False Prophets of Peace: Liberal Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine |year=2011 |publisher=Haymarket Books |isbn=978-1-60846-130-1 |page=5 |quote=Makdisi rightly argues that almost every law of South African Apartheid has its equivalent in Israel today.18 A significant example is the Law of Return (1950), which even Kretzmer claims is explicitly discriminatory against Palestinian citizens.... The Law of Return, which determines the second-class citizenship of Palestinians, is recognized as a fundamental principle in Israel and "is possibly even its very ''raison d'etre'' as a Jewish state."19}}</ref><ref name=YS>{{cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Yvonne |title=Foundations of Civil and Political Rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories |year=2008 |publisher=GRIN Verlag oHG |isbn=978-3-638-94450-2 |pages=245–246 |quote=In any case has the Law of Return, 1950 discriminatory effect for Palestinian Arab people since it allows any Jew to immigrate to Israel, while – at the same time – it deprives all native Palestinian Arab refugees residing outside the borders of the state of Israel of their fundamental right to return to their homes and villages from which they were expelled or took flight in the course of the 1948 war that broke out because of the establishment of Israel.}}</ref><ref name=AK>{{cite book |last=Kassim |first=Anis F. |title=The Palestine Yearbook of International Law 2001–2002: Vol. 11 |year=2002 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-3-638-94450-2 |page=150 |quote=Under the heading of "Discrimination", the Committee cited Israel's Law of Return as discriminatory against Palestinian refugees because of Israel's refusal to readmit them. The committee said: "The Committee notes with concern that the Law of Return which permits any Jew from anywhere in the world to immigrate and thereby virtually automatically enjoy residence and obtain citizenship in Israel, discriminates against Palestinians in the Diaspora upon whom the Government of Israel has imposed restrictive requirements that make it almost impossible to return to their land of birth."}}</ref>

According to the [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194|UN Resolution 194]], adopted in 1948, "the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/1A752D5C8191389E8525682D00701239 |title=A/RES/181(II) of 29 November 1947 |publisher=United Nations |access-date=19 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141025082136/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/1A752D5C8191389E8525682D00701239 |archive-date=25 October 2014 }}</ref> [[United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3236|UN Resolution 3236]] "reaffirms also the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to their homes and property from which they have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/025974039ACFB171852560DE00548BBE |title=A/RES/181(II) of 29 November 1947 |publisher=United Nations |access-date=19 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141020191042/http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/025974039ACFB171852560DE00548BBE |archive-date=20 October 2014 }}</ref> [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 242|Resolution 242 from the UN]] affirms the necessity for "achieving a just settlement of the refugee problem"; however, Resolution 242 does not specify that the "just settlement" must or should be in the form of a literal Palestinian right of return.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Radley |first=K. René |year=1978 |title=The Palestinian Refugees: The Right to Return in International Law |journal=[[American Journal of International Law]] |volume=72 |issue=3 |pages=586–614 |doi=10.2307/2200460|jstor=2200460 |s2cid=147111254 }}</ref>

The most common arguments for opposition are:

# On the 18 August 1948, at the [[United Nations Security Council]], Israel declared that it is not reasonable to contemplate a return of the refugees as the Arab League and the Arab High Committee have announced their intentions to continue their [[war of aggression]] and resume hostilities, noting that the state of war has not been lifted and that no peace treaty has been signed. However, Israel accepted the next year the return of some of the refugees, notably through the annexation of the Gaza Strip or by absorbing 100.000 of them in exchange of a peace treaty. The Arab countries refused the proposal, demanding a complete return.<ref>Israel and the Palestinian Refugee Issue: The Formulation of a Policy, 1948–1956 Front Cover Jacob Tovy Routledge, 5 Mar 2014</ref>

# The Palestinian refugee issue is handled by a separate authority from that handling other refugees, that is, by [[UNRWA]] and not the [[UNHCR]]. Most of the people recognizing themselves as Palestinian refugees would have otherwise been assimilated into their country of current residency, and would not maintain their refugee state if not for the separate entities.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Miller|first1=Elhanan|date=June 2012|title=Palestinian Refugees and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Negotiations|url=http://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/1346247918ICSRAtkinPaperSeries_ElhananMiller.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207232443/http://icsr.info/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/1346247918ICSRAtkinPaperSeries_ElhananMiller.pdf|archive-date=7 February 2016|publisher=International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence|quote=To use a trite image, while UNHCR strives to give its refugees fishing rods, UNRWA is busy distributing fish}}</ref>

# Concerning the origin of the Palestinian refugees, the Israeli government said that during the 1948 War the [[Arab Higher Committee]] and the Arab states encouraged Palestinians to flee in order to make it easier to rout the Jewish state or that they did so to escape the fights by fear.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} The Palestinian narrative is that refugees were largely expelled and dispossessed by Jewish militias and by the [[Israel Defense Forces|Israeli army]].

Historians still debate the [[causes of the 1948 Palestinian exodus]]. Notably, historian [[Benny Morris]] states that most of Palestine's 700,000 refugees fled because of the "flail of war" and expected to return home shortly after a successful Arab invasion. He documents instances in which Arab leaders advised the evacuation of entire communities as happened in Haifa. In his scholarly work, however, he does conclude that there were expulsions which were carried out.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Morris |first1=Benny |title=Righteous victims : a history of the Zionist-Arab conflict, 1881–2001 |date=2001 |publisher=[[Vintage Books]] |location=New York |isbn=978-0-679-74475-7 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/righteousvictims00morr_0/page/252 252–258] |edition=1st Vintage Books |url=https://archive.org/details/righteousvictims00morr_0/page/252}}</ref><ref name="Israel and the Palestinians">{{cite news |url=http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2008/0221/1203471491836.html |title=Israel and the Palestinians |newspaper=[[The Irish Times]] |date=2 February 2008 |access-date=5 August 2012 |archive-date=21 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121021003425/http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/letters/2008/0221/1203471491836.html |url-status=dead}}</ref> In his later work, Morris considers the displacement the result of a national conflict initiated by the Arabs themselves.<ref name="Israel and the Palestinians"/> In a 2004 interview with Haaretz, he described the exodus as largely resulting from an atmosphere of transfer that was promoted by Ben-Gurion and understood by the military leadership. He also claimed that there "are circumstances in history that justify ethnic cleansing".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shavit |first1=Ari |title=Survival of the Fittest |url=http://www.haaretz.com/survival-of-the-fittest-1.61345 |newspaper=[[Haaretz]] |access-date=7 January 2015 |date=2004-01-08 |archive-date=30 October 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171030132854/https://www.haaretz.com/survival-of-the-fittest-1.61345 |url-status=live}}</ref> He has been criticized by political scientist [[Norman Finkelstein]] for having seemingly changed his views for political, rather than historical, reasons.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Finkelstein |first1=Norman G. |author-link=Norman Finkelstein |title=Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel is Coming to an End |date=2012 |publisher=OR Books |location=New York |isbn=978-1-935928-77-5 |pages=Chapter 10}}</ref>

Since [[Jewish exodus from Arab and Muslim lands|Jewish people who fled or otherwise emigrated from the Arab world]] after the Israeli declaration of independence were never compensated or repatriated by their former countries of residence—to no objection on the part of Arab leaders—a precedent has been set whereby it is the responsibility of the nation which accepts the refugees to assimilate them.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wais.stanford.edu/Israel/israel_andthepalestinerightofreturn51603.html |title=Israel and the Palestine right of return. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070606084203/http://wais.stanford.edu/Israel/israel_andthepalestinerightofreturn51603.html |archive-date=6 June 2007 |website=World Association of International Studies |date=8 April 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Alwaya |first=Semha |date=2005-03-06 |title=The vanishing Jews of the Arab world / Baghdad native tells the story of being a Middle East refugee |url=https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/The-vanishing-Jews-of-the-Arab-world-Baghdad-2694221.php |access-date=2022-03-05 |website=SFGATE |language=en-US |archive-date=5 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305205554/https://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/The-vanishing-Jews-of-the-Arab-world-Baghdad-2694221.php |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-02-21 |title=The Case for Jewish Exiles |url=http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=50260 |access-date=2022-03-05 |website= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120221233238/http://www.jewishfederations.org/page.aspx?id=50260 |archive-date=21 February 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Shatila - street view (2).jpg|thumb|[[Shatila refugee camp]] on the outskirts of [[Beirut]] in May 2019]]

Although Israel accepts the right of the [[Palestinian refugees|Palestinian Diaspora]] to return into a new Palestinian state, Israel insists that the return of this population into the current state of Israel would ~~threaten~~be a great danger for the stability of the Jewish state; an influx of Palestinian refugees would lead to the ~~end~~destruction of the state of Israel as a Jewish state since a demographic majority of Jews would not be maintained.<ref>{{cite book|author=Shlomo Ben-Ami|title=Scars of War, Wounds of Peace|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=x72ZEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-532542-3|pages=|quote=A massive repatriation of Palestinian refugees would have clashed irreconcilably with the most vital and fundamental ethos of the new State of Israel, indeed with its very raison d’eˆtre, namely the consolidation of a Jewish state through the mass immigration of the survivors of the Nazi Holocaust in Europe and the uprooted and dispossessed Jews of North Africa and the Arab Middle East... No Israeli statesman, either in 1948 or in 2005, would conceive of peace based on the massive repatriation of Palestinian refugees as an offer the Jewish state could accept and yet survive. The ethos of Zionism was twofold; it was about demography – ingathering the exiles in a viable Jewish state with as small an Arab minority as possible – and land.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=John B. Quigley|title=The Case for Palestine|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=VaUvqHNd6m0C&pg=PA|year=2005|publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-3539-9|pages=|quote=Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said that returning Palestinians might be a fifth column and a demographic threat to Israel as a Jewish state.~~}}</ref>~~<ref>{{Cite news |last=Erlanger |first=Steven |date=2007-03-31 |title=Olmert Rejects Right of Return for Palestinians |language=en-US |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html |access-date=2022-03-05 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=22 March 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170322164546/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/31/world/middleeast/31mideast.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[Efraim Karsh]] believes Palestinians were themselves the aggressors in the 1948 war and attempted to "cleanse" a neighboring ethnic community. He argues the United Nations partition plan was forcefully subverted by the Arab world to create the refugee problem in the first place, citing large numbers of Palestinian refugees leaving even before the outbreak of the war due to disillusionment and economic privation. The British High Commissioner for Palestine spoke of the "collapsing Arab morale in Palestine" that he partially attributed to the "increasing tendency of those who should be leading them to leave the country". Huge numbers of Palestinians were also expelled by their leadership to prevent them from becoming Israeli citizens, and in Haifa and Tiberias tens of thousands were forcibly evacuated on the instructions of the Arab Higher Committee.<ref>{{cite news |last=Karsh |first=Efraim |date=1 May 2001 |title=The Palestinians and the 'Right of Return' |work=Commentary |volume=111 |issue=5 |page=25 |url=https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-palestinians-and-the-right-of-return/ |access-date=12 January 2017 |archive-date=13 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170113170617/https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-palestinians-and-the-right-of-return/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Israeli security concerns===

Line 271 ⟶ 278:

[[File:Terror Strikes Israeli Civilians in Southern Israel.jpg|left|thumb|Remains of an [[Egged (company)|Egged bus]] hit by suicide bomber in the aftermath of the [[2011 southern Israel cross-border attacks]]. Eight people were killed, about 40 were injured.]]

Throughout the conflict, Palestinian violence has been a concern for Israelis. Israel,<ref name=Kassam /> along with the United States<ref>[http://www.glin.gov/view.action?glinID=189741 "Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071128105216/http://www.glin.gov/view.action?glinID=189741 |date=28 November 2007 }} [[Global Legal Information Network]]. 26 December 2006. 30 May 2009.</ref>{{better source needed|date=May 2023}} and the European Union, refer ~~to any use of force by Palestinian groups as terroristic and criminal. This is in contrast~~ to the ~~consensus in international law which allows for Palestinians, as a people under illegal military occupation, to use lethal force~~violence against Israeli ~~military targets~~civilians and ~~installations.<ref~~military ~~name="Noura~~forces ~~Erakat">{{cite~~by ~~book|author=Noura~~Palestinian ~~Erakat|title=Justice~~militants ~~for~~as ~~Some|url=http://books~~terrorism.google.com/books?id=-zGUDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA|year=2019|publisher=Stanford University Press |isbn=978-1-5036-1357-7|pages=}}</ref><ref name="John B. Quigley">{{cite book|author=John B. Quigley|title=The Case for Palestine|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=VaUvqHNd6m0C&pg=PA|year=2005|publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-3539-9|pages=}}</ref> The motivations behind Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians are many, and not all violent Palestinian groups agree with each other on specifics. Nonetheless, a common motive is the desire to destroy Israel and replace it with a Palestinian Arab state.<ref>{{harvnb|Sela|2002|loc="Terrorism"|pp=822–36}}</ref> The most prominent [[Islamist]] groups, such as [[Hamas]] and [[Islamic Jihad Movement in Palestine|Palestinian Islamic Jihad]], view the Israeli–Palestinian conflict as a religious [[jihad]].<ref name="SelaHamas" />

Suicide bombings have been used as a tactic among Palestinian organizations like Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the [[Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade]] and certain suicide attacks have received support among Palestinians as high as 84%.<ref name=PSR27>[http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2008/p27e1.html#peace Palestinian Public Opinion Poll No (27)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130103130407/http://www.pcpsr.org/survey/polls/2008/p27e1.html |date=3 January 2013 }}, PSR – Survey Research Unit, 24 March 2008</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Asser|first=Martin|title=Palestinian support for suicide bombers|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2072851.stm|work=BBC News|access-date=28 June 2002|date=28 June 2002|archive-date=16 October 2002|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021016003851/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2072851.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> In Israel, Palestinian suicide bombers have targeted civilian buses, restaurants, shopping malls, hotels and marketplaces.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2007-01-29|title=Analysis: Palestinian suicide attacks|language=en-GB|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3256858.stm|access-date=2022-03-05|archive-date=15 January 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100115102834/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3256858.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> From 1993 to 2003, 303 [[Palestinian suicide attacks|Palestinian suicide bombers]] attacked Israel.

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In 1980, Israel annexed East Jerusalem.<ref name=BBC_annexation>{{Cite news |title=Israel and the Palestinians |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/israel_and_palestinians/key_maps/3.stm |access-date=2022-03-05 |work=[[BBC News]] |archive-date=7 April 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407132247/http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/israel_and_palestinians/key_maps/3.stm |url-status=live}}</ref> Israel has never annexed the West Bank, apart from East Jerusalem, or Gaza Strip, and the United Nations has demanded the "[t]ermination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force" and that Israeli forces withdraw "from territories occupied in the recent conflict" – the meaning and intent of the latter phrase is disputed. See [[United Nations Security Council Resolution 242#Interpretations|Interpretations]].

It has been the position of Israel that the most Arab-populated parts of West Bank (without major Jewish settlements), as well as the entire Gaza Strip, must eventually be part of an independent Palestinian State; however, the precise borders of this state are in question. At [[2000 Camp David Summit|Camp David]], for example, then-Israeli Prime Minister [[Ehud Barak]] offered Arafat an opportunity to establish a non-militarized Palestinian State. The proposed state would consist of 77% of the West Bank split into two or three areas, followed by: an increase of 86–91% of the West Bank after six to twenty-one years; autonomy, but not sovereignty for some of the Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem surrounded by Israeli territory; the entire Gaza Strip; and the dismantling of most settlements which Arafat rejected.{{sfn|Pressman |2003 |pp=7, 15–19}}

A subsequent settlement proposed by President Clinton offered Palestinian sovereignty over 94 to 96 percent of the West Bank but was similarly rejected with 52 objections.<ref name="nybooks.com"/><ref>{{Cite book |last=Shamir |first=Shimon |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vCXAxzvB8MAC&q=clinton%2520west%2520bank%2520camp%2520david&pg=PA105 |title=The Camp David Summit—what Went Wrong?: Americans, Israelis, and Palestinians Analyze the Failure of the Boldest Attempt Ever to Resolve the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict |date=2005 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |isbn=978-1-84519-099-6 |language=en |access-date=24 October 2022 |url-status=live |archive-date=21 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421202051/https://books.google.com/books?id=vCXAxzvB8MAC&q=clinton%20west%20bank%20camp%20david&pg=PA105}}</ref><ref>[http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-06-06/news/0106060132_1_palestinian-authority-security-forces-jewish-settlements-suicide-bombing "Arafat leads, misery follows."] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130513091817/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-06-06/news/0106060132_1_palestinian-authority-security-forces-jewish-settlements-suicide-bombing |date=13 May 2013 }} ''Chicago Tribune''. 6 June 2001. 2 June 2012.</ref> The Arab League has agreed to the principle of minor and mutually agreed land-swaps as part of a negotiated two state settlement based in June 1967 borders.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Somfalvi |first=Attila |date=2013-04-30 |title=Livni on Arab initiative: They realized border must change |language=en |work=[[Ynetnews]] |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4374318,00.html |access-date=2022-03-05 |archive-date=5 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305205554/https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4374318,00.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Official U.S. policy also reflects the ideal of using the 1967 borders as a basis for an eventual peace agreement.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Benhorin |first1=Yitzhak |date=2013-04-30 |title=Arabs soften stance on Israel's final borders |language=en |work=[[Ynetnews]] |url=https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4374024,00.html |access-date=2022-03-05 |archive-date=5 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305205556/https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4374024,00.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="AJ04/2013">{{cite news |title=Arab states back Israel–Palestine land swaps |work=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]] |date=30 April 2013 |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/04/20134306544952976.html|access-date=30 April 2013 |archive-date=9 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809042214/http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/04/20134306544952976.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

Some Palestinians say they are entitled to all of the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem. Israel says it is justified in not ceding all this land, because of security concerns, and also because the lack of any valid diplomatic agreement at the time means that ownership and boundaries of this land is open for discussion.<ref name="Eran">{{harvnb|Sela|2002|loc=Eran, Oded. "Arab-Israel Peacemaking" |pp=121–147}}</ref> Palestinians claim any reduction of this claim is a severe deprivation of their rights. In negotiations, they claim that any moves to reduce the boundaries of this land is a hostile move against their key interests. Israel considers this land to be in dispute and feels the purpose of negotiations is to define what the final borders will be. In 2017 Hamas announced that it was ready to support a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders "without recognising Israel or ceding any rights".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/01/hamas-new-charter-palestine-israel-1967-borders |title=Hamas presents new charter accepting a Palestine based on 1967 borders |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=May 2017 |access-date=4 January 2023 |archive-date=14 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190414092448/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/01/hamas-new-charter-palestine-israel-1967-borders |url-status=live}}</ref> Hamas has previously viewed the [[Israeli–Palestinian peace process|peace process]] "as religiously forbidden and politically inconceivable".<ref name="SelaHamas">{{harvnb|Sela|2002|loc="Hamas"|pp=335–342}}<blockquote>The PLO's agreement to support the participation of a Palestinian delegation from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the Madrid Peace Conferences in late October 1991 further fueled the tension between Fatah and Hamas, which embarked on an intensive campaign against the very idea of territorial compromise and peacemaking with the Jews, as religiously forbidden and politically inconceivable. (p. 339)</blockquote></ref>

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===Economic disputes and boycotts===

{{See also|Economy of the Palestinian territories|Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions}}

In Gaza, the agricultural market suffers from economic boycotts and border closures and restrictions placed by Israel.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://press.un.org/en/2022/gaef3574.doc.htm |title=From 1947 to 2023: Retracing the complex, tragic Israeli-Palestinian conflict |access-date=15 November 2023 |archive-date=15 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231115131429/https://press.un.org/en/2022/gaef3574.doc.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> The PA's Minister of Agriculture estimates that around US$1.2 billion were lost in September 2006 because of these security measures. There has also been an economic embargo initiated by the west on Hamas-led Palestine, which has decreased the amount of imports and exports from Palestine.{{citation needed|date=May 2014}} This embargo was brought on by Hamas' refusal to recognize Israel's right to statehood.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}} Ass a result, the PA's 160,000 employees have not received their salaries in over one year.<ref name="Embargo Q&A">{{cite news |last=Patience |first=Martin |title=Q&A: Palestinian Embargo |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6768931.stm |access-date=30 April 2014 |publisher=[[BBC Jerusalem]] |date=19 June 2007 |archive-date=12 May 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140512225652/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6768931.stm |url-status=live}}</ref>

==Actions toward stabilizing the conflict==

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==== Between Israel and the PLO ====

Beginning in 1993 with the [[Oslo peace process]], Israel recognizes "the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people", though Israel does not recognize the State of Palestine.<ref>''Facts About Israel''. Jerusalem: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 2010. p. 52.</ref> In return, it was agreed that Palestinians would promote peaceful co-existence, renounce violence and promote recognition of Israel among their own people. Despite Yasser Arafat's official renunciation of terrorism and recognition of Israel, some Palestinian groups continue to practice and advocate violence against civilians and do not recognize Israel as a legitimate political entity.<ref name="SelaConflict">{{harvnb|Sela|2002|loc="Arab-Israel Conflict"|pp=58–121}}</ref><ref name="CaseforIsrael">[[Alan Dershowitz|Dershowitz]]. ''[[The Case for Israel]]''. p. 3.</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=June 2012}} Palestinians state that their ability to spread acceptance of Israel was greatly hampered by Israeli restrictions on Palestinian political freedoms, economic freedoms, civil liberties, and quality of life.

==== Of Israel as a Jewish state ====

The Palestinian president [[Mahmoud Abbas]] has in recent years refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, citing concerns for Israeli Arabs and a possible future right to return for Palestinian refugees, though Palestine continues to recognize Israel as a state.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/abbas-says-there-is-no-way-he-ll-recognize-israel-as-jewish-state-1.1719389 |title=Abbas says there is 'no way' he'll recognize Israel as Jewish state |date=7 March 2014 |work=[[CTV News]] |access-date=5 May 2016 |archive-date=6 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160806135306/http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/abbas-says-there-is-no-way-he-ll-recognize-israel-as-jewish-state-1.1719389 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.haaretz.com/news/report-abbas-reiterates-refusal-to-recognize-israel-as-jewish-state-1.234351 |title=Report: Abbas reiterates refusal to recognize Israel as 'Jewish state' |newspaper=[[Haaretz]] |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=11 May 1949 |access-date=2 January 2012 |archive-date=26 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121026113116/http://www.haaretz.com/news/report-abbas-reiterates-refusal-to-recognize-israel-as-jewish-state-1.234351 |url-status=live}}</ref>

{{update section|date=January 2023}} The leader of [[al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades]], which is Fatah's official military wing, has stated that any peace agreement must include the right of return of Palestinian refugees into lands now part of Israel, which some Israeli commenters view as "destroying the Jewish state".<ref name="Aqsa">{{cite news |url=http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3311034,00.html |title=Fatah member: Abbas recognition of Israel political |publisher=[[YNet]] |date=4 October 2006 |access-date=24 September 2011 |author=Klein, Aaron |newspaper=Ynetnews |archive-date=25 October 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111025082052/http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3311034,00.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2006, Hamas won a majority in the [[Palestinian Legislative Council]], where it remains the majority party. Hamas' charter openly states they seek Israel's destruction, though Hamas leaders have spoken of long-term truces with Israel in exchange for an end to the occupation of Palestinian territory.<ref name="CaseforIsrael" /><ref>{{Cite news|date=2007-06-17|title=Palestinian rivals: Fatah & Hamas|language=en-GB|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5016012.stm|access-date=2022-03-05|archive-date=19 December 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219122656/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5016012.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Palestinian government===

[[File:West Bank Access Restrictions (United Nations OCHA oPt) May 2023.jpg|thumb|[[Palestinian enclaves]] in May 2023 ([[West Bank Areas in the Oslo II Accord|Area A and B]] under the [[Oslo II Accord]]). Area A (light yellow) is exclusively administered by the [[Fatah]]-controlled Palestinian Authority.]]

The [[Palestinian Authority]] is considered corrupt by a wide variety of sources, including some Palestinians.<ref>{{harvnb|Sela|2002|loc="Palestinian Authority"|pp=673–679}}</ref><ref>[[Mitchell G. Bard|Bard]]. ''Will Israel Survive?'' New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.</ref><ref>[[Joseph Massad|Massad, Joseph]]. [http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/799/op11.htm "The (Anti-) Palestinian Authority."] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725160039/http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/799/op11.htm |date=25 July 2008 }} ''[[Al Ahram Weekly]]''. 15–21 June 2006. 8 May 2008.</ref> Some Israelis argue that it provides tacit support for militants via its [[PLO and Hamas|relationship with Hamas]] and other Islamic militant movements, and that therefore it is unsuitable for governing any putative Palestinian state or (especially according to the right wing of Israeli politics), even negotiating about the character of such a state.<ref name="Eran" /> Because of that, a number of organizations, including the previously ruling [[Likud]] party, declared they would not accept a Palestinian state based on the current PA.

==== Palestinian security apparatus ====

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=== Bibliography ===

* {{cite book |last=Finkelstein |first=Norman G. |author-link=Norman Finkelstein |year=2007 |title=Beyond Chutzpah |url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=qc6Tn-C2B5UC&pg=PA |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-24989-9}}

* {{cite book |last=Slater |first=Jerome |author-link=Jerome Slater |year=2020 |title=Mythologies Without End |url=~~https~~http://books.google.com/books?id=y1AAEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-045908-6}}

* {{cite book |last=Watson |first=Geoffrey |year=2020 |title=The Oslo Accords: International Law and the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Agreements |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/36110/chapter/313593546 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=~~978-0198298915~~0198298919}}