The Contribution of Women to Peace and Reconciliation

against British facilities. The rest is part of the sixty-year struggle be -
tween two nations for one country.
The basis for the current conflict is UN Resolution 181 of 1947, which
awarded the Jewish population 55% of the country, and only 45% to the
Arab population, with a special status for Jerusalem. With the foundation
of the State of Israel and the Palestinian War of 1948, Israel expanded its
territory even beyond that amount. With the Six-Day War of 1967 and the
occupation of Gaza, Sinai, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and East Jeru -
salem, with the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the wars in Lebanon in 1982 and
2006 as well as, finally, the war against Gaza in 2008, Israel has ex pan d -
ed its military power in the region and occupied all Palestinian territories.
After the Six-Day War, the nationalist religious Israeli settlement movement
in the occupied territories began, and was reinforced after 1977.
It did not stop even during the time of the peace process after the Oslo
Accords. Although Israel did dismantle twenty-one settlements in Gaza
and four in the West Bank in 2005, it did not generally stop the expansion
of settlement construction. With the construction of the wall
straight across the country, and other measures for the protection of the
settlements in the occupied territories, additional confiscation of land
and severe restrictions have been imposed on the Palestinian people.
The expulsion of a large part of the population of Palestine from the territory
of Israel began in 1948. This first expulsion is remembered by the
Palestinians as the Naqba (catastrophe). Even today, the descendents
of these refugees live in refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank, as
well as in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The question as to what status
the refugees are to receive and where they can settle is the most difficult
problem to solve in the peace negotiations.
The Palestinian PLO originally demanded all of Palestine as a state for
the Arab people. It fought Israel militarily, including with terrorist attacks.
Only in 1974 did the Palestine National Council change its demand and
call for a common state of the Jewish and Arab populations, which how -
ever would have an Arab majority. Starting in 1987, primarily young
people in the occupied territories launched the First Intifada, which Israel
countered with brutal violence.
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