The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

REPORT ON ISRAEL
MOLLY MALEKAR, TEL AVIV
THE HISTORY OF THE CONFLICT
The genesis of the conflict
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a political conflict directly connected to
and born alongside the rise of the national aspirations of the Jews for
an emancipation of the Jewish collective in the territory of the historic
biblical land of Israel.
The Balfour Declaration, issued by Britain in 1917, is a most significant
document, in which Britain manifests its support of the efforts of the
Zionist movement to create a Jewish national home in Palestine, with -
out violating the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish population.
The waves of immigration of Jews from Europe and the land settlement
project by these immigrants ran up against the native Palestinians who
had already been living in the same land for many generations. The
1920s and ‘30s were characterized by the growing conflict between the
Zionist national movement and the local population, and by the growing
national awareness of this conflict.
The Second World War and the tragedy of the Holocaust gave the international
community the final impetus to support a plan for the partition
of the land between the Jewish and the Arab-Palestinian community.
Palestinians perceived the idea of sharing the land with the newly-arrived
immigrants from Europe as unjust. The partition was intended to produce
two areas, with Jewish and Arab majorities respectively. Jerusalem
and its environs were to be internationalized. The Jewish leadership accepted
the partition plan, the Arabs refused.
On May 14, 1948, the Jews proclaimed the independent State of Israel,
and the British withdrew from Palestine. In the following days and
weeks, neighbouring Arab nations invaded Palestine and Israel. The
fighting was conducted in several brief periods, punctuated by ceasefire
agreements (truces were declared on June 11 to July 8 and July 19 to
October 15, 1948).
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